Most Awful New Series Moments

[Rob McCow]

And, to round off from the other thread....

What have been the moments in Doctor Who that have made you gnash your teeth, rent your garments and wail in agony? (in a bad way).

For me the single worst moment in the new series is something that seemed quite innocuous at the time. It's from the episode 'The Doctor's Daughter' and it's the bit where Grinning Jenny encounters a laser trap. The Doctor and Donna sensibly turn the trap off and walk through calmly, but that's not good enough for Jenny. No, she has to do a series of exciting gymnastic backflips to get through the lasers!

Talk about asking the viewers to suspend their disbelief. Backflips are cool, lasers are cool, they did it in a Britney Spears video. So why not have it in Doctor Who?

Well, blatantly because if you did do a series of backflips through the lasers, not only would you have very little control over where your body was going, you'd also be guaranteed to hit every single bloody laser beam. The only thing that should have made it to the end of the tunnel should have been a spray of guts and blood.

I suppose Jenny was a super alien soldier, but it's an awful thing to include just for the sake of it. Grrr!

[shada pavlova]

For me the single worst moment in the new series is something that seemed quite innocuous at the time. It's from the episode 'The Doctor's Daughter' and it's the bit where Grinning Jenny encounters a laser trap.

But that was my favourite bit!

[Si Hunt]

My pet-hate bits would be:

- The fan-baiting bits of the early Moffatt scripts: the silly attempts to suggest the Doctor is a sexual being (the truth? It takes more maturity to accept a hero that DOESN'T need to have sex. Those people exist in life too), the odd banana obbsession, the cloying "dancing" metaphor
- The overly sentimental Eccleston moments, when the Doctor started saying "sorry" to corpses. Aaaaaaah. etc.
- "Oooooh you're so gaaaaay!". Cringeworthy!
- "Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!" ("Army of Ghosts")
- "I'm really glad I met you." (just odd as the Doctor has actually been quite aloof up to now)
- Roger Lloyd Pack completely getting it wrong for "Rise of the Cybermen". It's not often the new production team stuff up, and you'd THINK it would be possible with so many producers and script editors. But SOMEHOW IT HAPPENED. Completely the wrong performance. Were they all big "Only Fools and Horses" fans and no-one felt they could say anything?
- All that crap science at the end of "New Earth". I'm no Jason Thompson but even I can't suspend my disbelief enough to think that if you mix every medine together it will cure every disease! Just moronic and a severe underestimation of the audience's intelligence.

Si.

[Kaybee Bailey]

Funnily enough, I know full well that there have been moments in the new series that I've cringed so much I felt like scratching my eyes out. But I can't actually think of many them off the top of my head. Maybe I just block out all the bits I don't like to be left with the perfect show! But a couple from series one:

-Mickey, dustbin, fake auton Mickey. I know Noel Clarke isn't really proud of his performance in the first few episodes, but even if he'd known the character inside out by the time he shot this section I don't think I'd have been impressed. It's just ill-concieved and looks crap. I can see what they were trying to do, but it's wrong!

-With the exception of Annette Badland who just about pulls it off somehow, the terrible attempts of the actors playing Slitheen hosts to show their characters explaining away their constant farting. It's so over the top it gets painful.

[Si Hunt]

Mickey, dustbin, fake auton Mickey. I know Noel Clarke isn't really proud of his performance in the first few episodes, but even if he'd known the character inside out by the time he shot this section I don't think I'd have been impressed. It's just ill-concieved and looks crap. I can see what they were trying to do, but it's wrong!

We watched that the other day and as always I really liked it! I just can't for the life of me see what people have got against it. It's one of the few moments in the New Series when there is noticably bad CSO, but to me that just gives it more of a 'comic book' feel. I just love the colour in that scene - quiet surburben street, cars quietly parked... dustbin slowly attacking someone! It's just so Doctor Who!

Si.

[Dirk Gently]

What gets me with that 'dustbin bit' is that Mickey touches the bin face on, so that his left hand is on his left but when he tries to pull away from the bin & turns his back on it his hands have swapped sides.

[Stuart Wallis]

Ones that come to mind include

- Rose's original leaving scene in Doomsday; does it ever stop?
- The Trinny/Susannah-bot segments of Bad Wolf/POTW, partly because I didn't know them at the time and didn't understand the joke; mostly because I do know them now, and wish I didn't still.
- Rose being jealous of Sarah Jane. Not neccessary.
- The Doctor's disposal of the Family of Blood. I like fantasy books, but this was a little too fantasy an ending for Who.

[Andrew Curnow]

-The "I really love this" bit at the start of New Earth, just too much!

[Si Hunt]

What gets me with that 'dustbin bit' is that Mickey touches the bin face on, so that his left hand is on his left but when he tries to pull away from the bin & turns his back on it his hands have swapped sides.

Fan! FAN!

Si.

[SiHart]

"I've just snogged Madama De Pompedour!" is one of the worst moments in new Doctor Who.
(far worse than the so-called farting!)

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

It is, I agree. It's embarassing and it opens up a huge raft of questions. No matter how much Steven Moffat wants the Doctor to shag around to annoy supporters of the series he's making his living from (why does he want to do that again?) the fact is, he hasn't before. So the sudden development of a libido begs the question: has he before? If so, why have we never seen it? Where does he stand with this? Unfortunately because this scene is at odds with the previous 26 years of Doctor Who, the uncomfortable answer as characterised on screen by David Tennant is unfortunately "akin to a teenage boy that's just managed to wank off to Razzle for the very first time".

Si.

[duncan]

I agree with the dustbin scene in Rose, but I will also add "Tastes like chicken" from Love and Monsters.

The whole of Love and Monsters

"Do you mind not farting while I'm saving the world"

[Milky Tears]

The gurning.

[NorthernStar]

Unfortunately because this scene is at odds with the previous 26 years of Doctor Who, the uncomfortable answer as characterised on screen by David Tennant is unfortunately "akin to a teenage boy that's just managed to wank off to Razzle for the very first time".

Must. Stop. Mental. Images.

[Andrew Curnow]

The angry bit in The Idiot's Lantern is pretty bad.

Also, I'm not sure it comes under the heading of 'awful' but I really cringe at the "Hello Dad!" bit in The Doctor's Daughter.

[Larry]

IThe whole of Love and Monsters

"

I'd agree with that - I've always said it was a good idea to try some thing different but it's an episode that brings back memories of when Doctor Who reached it's lowest point during seasons 24 and 25 I have only ever watched it once at that was enough.

Bruno Langley - It takes some thing to be be an even a worse actor then Matthew Waterhouse but Langley was awful and his character annoying to the point of wanting to punch his lights out.

All the companions flying the TARDIS, and then all the back slapping and hugging each other just makes you want to throw up..

[SiHart]

his character annoying to the point of wanting to punch his lights out.

Wasn't that the idea?

Si xx

[Mike Saville]

The single worst moment for me, off the top of my head, is the mindswap bit in new earth... that wasn't remotely clever farce. In fact, the whole flawed science in the water bourne v air bourne contagion in that episode is perhaps the worst example of lazy writing in the episodes I've watched.

[Si Hunt]

it's an episode that brings back memories of when Doctor Who reached it's lowest point during seasons 24 and 25

Why? What have they got in common?

Si.

[WhiteCrow]

Paving slab girl.

[WhiteCrow]

The whole thing about "Well we've got an episode called the Doctor's Daughter, and she's going to be played by ... the Doctor's Daughter". Cheesy. RTD throws out that they have "high concept" for their story ideas.

The episode was kind of severely cheesy in parts. Felt like a set up for a spin off series ...

[Larry]

Why? What have they got in common?

Si.

just panto like entertainment..

[Larry]

The whole thing about "Well we've got an episode called the Doctor's Daughter, and she's going to be played by ... the Doctor's Daughter". Cheesy. RTD throws out that they have "high concept" for their story ideas.

The episode was kind of severely cheesy in parts. Felt like a set up for a spin off series ...

rthing is they had the potential for a very good story but jut blew the whole thing by revealing the clone thing before we'd even had the opening credits.

[Si Hunt]

just panto like entertainment..

"Love and Monsters" is a tightly shot, 50 minute TV drama about a group of people searching for the Doctor. It's quite serious in tone, if actually ABOUT a group of people who don't take life seriously. It has quite a sad ending.... sorry, I really don't see the similarity with a celebrity-starring Christmas stage performance Larry.

Si.

[shada pavlova]

I don't understand you people. I really like all the bits you've mentioned!