Best new Doctor Who story

http://bittergrace.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/madame_doctor2.jpg

Blink.

Human Nature/Family of Blood just beats Blink and Girl in the Fireplace. Dalek and The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances other strong contenders.

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I can't choose! Blink and Girl In The Fireplace and The Empty Child all in 3-way tie.

Moffat's stories are always rated as faves.

That's because Moffat is awesome.

Can we talk about the Xmas ep? I just watched it for the first time last night and thought it was brilliant.

Voyage of the Damned? I dug what they were trying to do (disaster movie in space!), but I don't think it really came off. Kylie's semi-ressurection was quite poignant.

Also there should be an embargo on angelic villains from now on, because they're just going to compare poorly to those in Blink.

Moffat has a golden touch, yes!

Would anyone seriously vote for "Aliens of London"? I hated those farting sytheen suckers.

Oh wait I'm talkin about the wrong one, sorry -- I saw the one with Catherine Tate and the Raknos

They were funny/creepy when they were inhabiting human bodies, but as soon as they revealed themselves they were a bit lame. But there are have been far worse stories.

xpost

haha was that TWO Christmases ago?? I am lame

Christmas Invasion remains the best xmas special IMHO. Great debut vehicle for Tennant.

it wasn't the best "story" by any means, but man I thought Tate and Tennant delivered KNOCKOUT performances. It was really affecting.

I love it when Lance pulls back from hatcheting the Raknos at the last minute, revealing himself to be evil, and was like "I had you going there! You should have seen your face!" -- and the Raknos is like "Ha! Ha! Lance makes Raknos laugh!"

Oh, and I voted for Human Nature/Family of Blood. Tennant's performance in it is moving and brilliant, and it's one of Moffat's finest episodes. Blink is just a shade behind it for me, mostly because it's more about Sally Sparrow (who was a great character and would make a great companion, I think) than the Doctor.

Aliens of London worked because it was the first time we'd seen nu-Who really go all out on the 'aliens go berserk around London' thing (Autons don't count). Its getting a bit old now.

Human Nature/Family of Blood wasn't Paul Cornell? It's directly from his book.

Oh, I think you're right. Dunno what I was thinking! Cornell wrote "Father's Day" too, I believe.

Yeah, it was Cornell adapting form his book. Blink was by Moffat.
No Cornell stories for series four though :/
xp

Both Father's Day and Family of Blood rule. Is there a Cornell story in S2 as well? He's really good at giving stories an emotional undertow that isn't cloying or just plain irritating.

The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit
Love & Monsters
Fear Her

I still haven't seen any of these, are they worth downloading and catching up on?

Cornell is so awesome when he's on. When he's not on, ugh. (Fortunately, he's been on in all of his nu-Who stuff, plus he's way better/more consistent with TV scripts than novels.)

"The Satan Pit" is okay. "Love & Monsters" is great. Haven't seen "Fear Her" but people claim it's worse than "The Idiot's Lantern", which I find nigh-impossible to believe.

Matt - Love & Monsters definately (though it's one of the most devisive of the new eps), Impossible Planet is good for a giggle, Don't bother with Fear Her.

I thought "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" were both good. Quite scary...and they aired on the week of 06/06/06 which I like since that was my birthday. :D

"Love and Monsters" was the episode that made me sort of love Jackie Tyler.

"Fear Her" was kind of crap.

(oh yeah, I never saw "The Impossible Planet" so I have no idea if the setup for "The Satan Pit" is decent or not, but the payoff was good)

I liked love and monsters apart from the monster which was rubbish but had cost the princely sum of one blue peter badge.

Impossible planet/satan pit was ok, another Brits in space episode but 42 was much better on that score.

Not seen Fear her but it was Doctor who puff the olympics I think.

"Fear Her" was Doctor Who puff the olympics and also "let's reunite Tennant with his co-star from Casanova!"

The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit : first part very good; creates a good suspenseful atmosphere + it introduces the Ood. Second part a bit overblown.
Love & Monsters : divisive, but I say excellent.
Fear Her : possibly the weakest nu-Who adventure.

I wasn't that bothered by Fear Her or Love and Monsters, but thought Satan Pit/Impossible Planet was great. Stupid bloody Olympics.

Wasn't Fear Her a last minute addition due to them unable to afford to make Stephen Fry's episode? Something like that, or so I read.

It certainly felt like late-series filler, at any rate.

Ahh, the ood came in in impossible planet. I forgot about that goes up in my estimation. Best new aliens in nuwho I think, glad they are back in the latest series.

we did this just before the finale last year and Blink won iirc

or TGITF wonnit...but yeah Moffat reigns obv

a complete bitch to find (people gotta stop tying 'dr' not 'doctor' in threads) but here it is:

Why Dr Who Continues To Please Us: Nu Who Poll

Best new aliens in nuwho I think, glad they are back in the latest series.

I love them, so glad they are coming back. DW should have replaced Rose with an Ood companion.

the Ood's ball thing as weapon is so naff it's good

DW should have replaced Rose with an Ood companion.

but the sexual chemistry would've been even better/worse (not sure which)

works in a Ben Hur/Spartacus chocking his enemy with his chains of slavery kind of way.

xpost

Oops, I was taking a rest from ILX at the time of that other poll and I thought 'd be the only one nerdy enough to start one. Should've known better.

The Ood are great, yeah. Their intro was stellar - "We must feed... We must feed... We must feed..." - titles roll - Chief Ood taps malfunctioning orb thing: "We must feed you."

Voted for "Blink"

Voted for Blink here too, though it was a toss between that and Last of the Time Lords. I really like the "alternative" stories that don't focus on the Doctor and more on the residual effects - "Love and Monsters" was pretty great for that, too. And weird use of ELO, it was hilarious. (Torchwood tried this gimmick in "Random Shoes" but it was okay, not spectacular.)

Impossible Planet... Ood was great, it started off intriguing, but then you realize The Doctor vs. Satan is a terrible, terrible idea.

End of the World
The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
Idiot's Lantern
Blink

The Empty Child is so fucking creepy!

Blink, but The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances comes very very close.

Empty Child is kinda my best-of-the-best Who, because it is

a) legitimately scary
b) crazy alien technology
c) interesting companion (intro of Jack)
d) weird british historical bias

Still catching up, only halfway thru last year's season, but Girl in the Fireplace does it for me. Music was great, too.

I have come to the conclusion that any story that is resolved by the Doctor fiddling around rapidly with electronics until all the aliens blow up/turn into something else/fuck off back to their own dimension is basically rub. Get one sense of tension.

This is also why Blink is the best, because it doesn't do this.

the worst part of Family Of Blood is when he's sabotaging their ship by pretending to be a clumsy imbecile, so yeah OTM

No, I liked that bit! Especially when he catches the watch and instantly switches from John Smith to the Doctor. I mean, I guessed what was going on, but it was still damn cool and well acted, and I don't know if the kiddies would've guessed.

Dr Who fan makes his own shows

GRANT BATTERSBY

^ this has to become a meme somehow

A 14-year-old Dr Who fan has spoken of why he produces his own versions of the TV show for the internet.

"lol I'm a nerd, duh"

Dan wishes he was as cool as that kid when he was 14

So Whens the Best Story In Tom Bakers 1st Season poll gonna be so we can have more arguing?

^^ this

could do season of Baker, season of Pertwee, season of Baker, season of Pertwee...

sounds good

I kinda meant one after the other to space them out, rather than shitting up the site with more concurrent polls on the same topic ;_;

'shitting up the site'

Great name for an edgy new Channel 4 comedy.

That is the best single MOMENT in all of nu-Who, especially when followed up with 1x massive CGI montage of the Dalek fleet in space. I got ridiculously excited watching that for the first time.

That Ecclestone speech almost makes me cry.

Mind you, Derek Jacobi starting to twig the significance of his fob watch while Martha looks all edgy is right up there for top moment. That entire 15 mins is awesome.

'shitting up the site'

at least Geir hasn't discovered Dr Who yet, we'd have three of every single poll by now

Davros lacks melodics

talking to Davros is like talking to a computer

so email him instead

I wonder how season 4 would change this poll... I think right now "Turn Left" is my favorite episode of all four seasons.

I think Season 4 was quite strong as a whole (maybe even better than S2 and S3) but the peaks weren't as high as previous seasons. Turn Left was excellent, and Midnight and the Library 2-parter were great, though, and the final story was fun. My vote for Blink would have probably remained, though.

Now that I think about it, so much was going on during this season they didn't have room for an odd "Non-Doctor POV" story (like Blink and Love and Monsters)... shame.

Turn Left was the Doctorless one - he was hardly in it

That's true - I guess what I really meant was a story from the POV of a character outside of Doctor and his companions (also see "Random Shoes" in Season 1 of Torchwood).

Oh yeah, "Midnight" was wholly outstanding, too! The way they all turned on The Doctor was pretty terrifying; possibly some of the best ensemble acting of the new series.

Midnight is the best script RTD has written for the show, as I've just derailed an ILC thread to say. Turn Left comes second.

"Turn Left" is the epitome of well-executed fanwank. The story holds up well in its own right but the layers that are added if you've been watching from the end of the second season, plus Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, are just amazing. (I kind of wish Sarah Jane had ended up in the hospital for "Smith and Jones" now.)

otoh the cockroachy alien is so lame

waht, no

The giant cockroach was pretty fucking creepy (and fake looking). The fortune-teller was also really awesome. I also liked the horrified people freaking out at the alien they couldn't really see.

Is there a thread devoted solely to season 3, as there is for the others? can't find it.

i'm currently watching this run for the first time (martha's crap int she fnar).

dr who 3 - the ice warriors cometh

Turn Left was the Doctorless one - he was hardly in it

He wasn't in Blink that much either.

(although more than Turn Left)

Blink was the year before.

The first season didn't have a Doctorless one, did it...?

The fact that the cockroach was totally fake-looking was KEY to its total heebie-jeebiness.

It's like in C.H.U.D., when you can tell that the heads getting decapitated are totally fake, it makes it even more ewwwww.

I agree, actually! Somehow it not looking real made it seem even creepier.

can't say i agree - everything around it was pretty unnerving tho (inc the general 'something on your back' concept). tho if it had been a spider (as many theorised in spoilers early on, believing it to be connected to the Racnoss in The Runaway Bride) i doubtless would've found that creepier.

My one certainty is that if were CGI it would have felt completely harmless.

Similarly, the Dalek on the throne - the one who's just this brain-thing - looks pretty fake too, with his dangly twitchy arms, but it just makes him seem even more insane and alien.

Come on, the cockroach looked rubbish. It wasn't even a crap in a good way. Whereas the Dalek brain was proper spooky.

"Turn Left" was decent -- yay for mushroom clouds on Saturday kids shows! -- but after ten minutes I felt a bit like, "I can see where this is going, can we have the real story now please?"

Although I suppose that's a typical problem with "imaginary" stories.

I like all the episodes with little Doctor. Perhaps I don't actually like the character of the Doctor. I'd like to watch Love & Monsters again.

(I also liked the thing on Donna's back. I thought it was more of a beetle than a cockroach)

i tend to think of them as the same /insect racist

Speaking of racist, that fortune teller could've come out of a Fu Manchu movie. I'm not saying that killed the episode for me, but it was pretty embarassing.

It was out-and-out panto, and I thought the actress who played the fortune teller was fantastic at doing it.

In that exotic vein, perhaps the insect was a.. scarab?

she was much better as Chan-Tho

lol I was going to make scarab jokes

The fortune teller didn't bother me at all but I don't see that caricature very often in my entertainment.

How could you not love the Master after the way he wastes Chan-Tho? Srsly.