Poll: So... Anyone else think that the Doctor is just taking the proverbial now?

[Netrigan]

They haven't hit the silliness of the later Tom Baker years, such as the story where the monster really was a man in a ill-fitting rubber suit (as chastises his Companion for not realizing it was so) or offers a Jelly Baby to skull. Then there was the giant penis monster that menaced them in The Creature From The Pit.

 

[JasonKaotic]

Silly or not, Doctor Who with Matt Smith is pretty terrible. Along with the baad, bad episodes, the new Doctor's an idiot compared to David Tennant.
Look at the last episode. From last saturday. "WE CARNT TEL U Y WE GOTA GO HER LOL JSUT GO WTH IT", "OH K DUNO HOO TOLD U 2 TAK ME THER BTU IL GO CUZ U SAY 2 xD". The OLD Doctor could EASILY figure out who told them to take him there.
And with the new things. "SCOWT AHED LOL I BIZZY" "OK LOL I GO DOWN DER N C IF NY1'S THER"
If you see an alien, you will most likely stay looking at him to make sure he's not advancing, while calling to the Doctor that there's something there. But nope. The new guys are too derpy. They feel the need to turn around! "LOL WTF R U I SIN U B4 I GON TURN ROUND N GO UP DIS LADDER" "NY1 UP THER?" "NO LOLS xD WTF FEL SIK" "LOL K I GO OVR HEER" "OMG WTF SPACEMAN WIV KID INSIDE LOLS xDxD"
Idiocy. Pure idiocy.

 

[Trolldor]

Doctor Who. You can't really hate it, but I am just wondering whether anyone else thinks that they've started taking the piss.
Seriously, I've stopped watching it but the last few times I've switched onto it I've seen:
1. A flying shark, a cliched 'christmas carol' plot, paper-thin characters and genuine creepiness from the Doctor himself (want to persuade someone? manipulate their childhood!)
2. Ridiculously bad prosthetic vulture aliens with two minor characters strapped to things which make a key from their memories. Said machine is subsequently destroyed by playing archived BBC Doctor who clips.
3. Old people with weird worm eye things in their mouths that would be creepy if they didn't look like things from Big Trouble in Little China, and which kill people with an aerosol green spray that looks awful and about as lethal as a light shower of sewage.
4. Any excuse to reuse classic aliens (the Daleks suffered most, but most of the rest of the Doctor's enemies have been shamelessly HD-recycled)
5. Episodes with original and interesting ideas being spread fewer and further between (Space ship falling into the sun, Silent library, angel statues) (Yes, I'm out of date)
Every episode being solved with a magic 'million-to-one-chance-anti-alien-device/event that nobody thought of until the Doctor did'.

Whew. It's good to vent, even about something that's not really part of your life. Maybe I'm missing something, but I just get the impression it's getting a bit tacky now.
SIDE NOTE: I'm English, so what. Can our budget let us set episodes somewhere other than England now? Doctor Who in Thailand. Get some mature content! Or maybe not.

...Doctor Who has always been taking the piss. Constantly. Since it began. The few 'serious' episodes are the anomalies.

 

[HalfChance]

Although Doctor Who has always been considered a childrens T.V show The current and previous series with Matt Smith as the Doctor seem to have taken a rather large step to making the shows as "child friendly" as possible.

 

[Kukakkau]

Well it is a kid's show so you can't exactly put more mature content in it... what you've described otherwise is pretty much true, except from what I remember it's always been like this, at-least since it came back in 2005, it's what the show is about.

What really? Episodes I saw involved sucking all of someone's blood out with a straw, crushing + melting someones face with a plunger arm and cutting out peoples brains to make robot people. This is a childrens show??

I never saw the original series but the few episodes I've seen of the new ones are just... bad

 

[ConnorCool]

Although Doctor Who has always been considered a childrens T.V show The current and previous series with Matt Smith as the Doctor seem to have taken a rather large step to making the shows as "child friendly" as possible.

Totally agree.
The fact they now have a "space adventuring crew" setup annoys me too. Although I have always thought that the Dr Who universe is sort of squandered with crap story lines and locations. Doesn't stop me watching it however.

 

[Srrrh]

Every episode being solved with a magic 'million-to-one-chance-anti-alien-device/event that nobody thought of until the Doctor did'.

This point x10,000! Given 1 hour episodes we're told for 45 minutes straight how much of a problem this has been for a millenia only for the Doctor to hit upon the answer in the last 10 minutes or so!

And why do our Doctors have to be so bloody young! They used to have white hair, for crying out loud! I want Bill Nighy [//www.imdb.com/name/nm0631490/] as the next Doctor, a grumpy, bitter, sarcastic man who cannot be arsed with all these young people and their running around.

I would start watching it again if Bill Nighy was the Doctor. That would be AWESOME.

Not that I stopped watching because it got rubbish, mind, I just fell behind when I went to Uni and it would be too much effort to catch up. Maybe I will one day.

But yes, OP, go watch some Tom Baker episodes and tell us they're not completely silly. As everyone else has said, that's kind of the point. I do agree that it would be nice to go somewhere else for a change. Or even somewhere that isn't London for the really big episodes. Can't they threaten Bristol or something?

 

[octafish]

The Talons of Weng Chiang anybody? The sillier the better.

 

[Plinglebob]

Well it is a kid's show so you can't exactly put more mature content in it... what you've described otherwise is pretty much true, except from what I remember it's always been like this, at-least since it came back in 2005, it's what the show is about.

What really? Episodes I saw involved sucking all of someone's blood out with a straw, crushing + melting someones face with a plunger arm and cutting out peoples brains to make robot people. This is a childrens show??

Yup. Don't you just love UK TV The trick is Kids just see it as "General Peril" so don't find it too scary where as the adults see how it would happen and so are also scared/un-nerved. Also, kids TV was more on the creepy side for years. We had stuff like The Demon Headmaster, The Tomorrow People and Childrens Hospital (Casualty with Kids!).

OT: Doctor Who has always had tongue firmly in its cheek since its start (or at least its revival) and this, along with the fact its one of the few programs that can consistently shift the mood without warning, if why its so successful. The primary aim of everyone making it always seems to be "Make it Fun".

 

[Kukakkau]

Well it is a kid's show so you can't exactly put more mature content in it... what you've described otherwise is pretty much true, except from what I remember it's always been like this, at-least since it came back in 2005, it's what the show is about.

What really? Episodes I saw involved sucking all of someone's blood out with a straw, crushing + melting someones face with a plunger arm and cutting out peoples brains to make robot people. This is a childrens show??

Yup. Don't you just love UK TV The trick is Kids just see it as "General Peril" so don't find it too scary where as the adults see how it would happen and so are also scared/un-nerved. Also, kids TV was more on the creepy side for years. We had stuff like The Demon Headmaster, The Tomorrow People and Childrens Hospital (Casualty with Kids!).

OT: Doctor Who has always had tongue firmly in its cheek since its start (or at least its revival) and this, along with the fact its one of the few programs that can consistently shift the mood without warning, if why its so successful. The primary aim of everyone making it always seems to be "Make it Fun".

Too true. This from my childhood still haunts me
Still it always seemed a bit violent for kids, but if they like it who cares I guess

 

[Zantos]

One of the Doctors defeated enemies with a recorder. If anything it's getting more serious.

Still, despite the fact he did get beaten up by a cheap plastic wind instrument, I want Omega to come back!

Also, is marmalade a reference to the Ctrl+Alt+Del Mass Effect british option? If so, I want to marry you.

 

[Vault101]

Well it is a kid's show so you can't exactly put more mature content in it... what you've described otherwise is pretty much true, except from what I remember it's always been like this, at-least since it came back in 2005, it's what the show is about.

And what's wrong with the odd flying shark?

kids show? back then but since 2005....not really (I mean kids could watch it by they arnt the target audience)

anyway I was never really into david tennant, I mean he wasnt bad but I just felt liek Id seen this all before, plus I could never take him seriously when a "drama" moment came along (I half expected him to do the bartie crouch tounge flick half the time)

 

[the jellyman]

Ooops, sorry. Guess I checked everything except which category I put it into .

 

[the jellyman]

I like fun. Just not such a big fan of tacky, repetetive or daft.
For the first couple of seasons I loved Doctor Who. It's just getting a bit repetetive. I wish they'd mix it up a little.

 

[LordFisheh]

I'm generally cool with it, but the damn season finales get me.

The end of the world.
The end of the galaxy.
The end of the universe.
The end of the multiverse.
The end of time.
The end of all the timelines.
The end of the multiverse-timeline-all-of-creation-ever-until-next-series-when-it'll-be-even-bigger...

They're trying to hard to make things epic.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Oh please...

When wasn't it silly?

 

[crudus]

I was actually excited for the Doctor Who Christmas Carol. I was wondering why it hadn't been done previously. It was a very good episode; I saw it about 14 times.

it's cheese

Actually I think that is why it has survived for so long. It is an interesting take on all those cliches

 

[BreakfastMan]

I have to wonder... When was Doctor Who ever serious? The show was always on the silly side when compared to other sci-fi shows. I mean, K-9? Really?

EDIT: Whoops, ninja'd.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

1. Yeah, it's silly. It's always been silly. That's part of it's charm.

2. I will admit that it can be repetitive. Monsters you have to stare at in order to survive, anyone?

3. I just want to say that I dislike any episode when "love" ends up saving the day. There's cheese, then there's CHEESE.

4. Matt Smith is fine as the Doctor, almost as good as Tennant in my book, but he can be a DICK sometimes, and it kind of bugs me.

5. I don't understand all the hate for River Song. I mean, I don't think she's the best character ever or anything, but she's not horrible. And the whole "meeting in the wrong order" thing IS pretty clever.

6. I didn't like the season 5 finale because there was no tangible villain, and I don't quite buy that (spoilers, obviously) and exploding TARDIS would destroy the universe. Especially when we don't even know WHY it exploded.

7. It's still one of my favorite shows ever.


There. That's all my thoughts on Dr. Who.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

As has been said, clearly someone is unfamiliar with the history of The Doctor. It's always silly to some degree or another. I just watched an episode of David Tennant's run that was jammed with Harry Potter and Hamlet references, which Tennant has starred in outside of Dr. Who.