Best Producer/Showrunner? This poll is closed. |
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Verity Lambert | 49 | 7.04% | |
John Wiles | 1 | 0.14% | |
Innes Lloyd | 1 | 0.14% | |
Peter Bryant | 3 | 0.43% | |
Derrick Sherwin | 3 | 0.43% | |
Barry Letts | 12 | 1.72% | |
Phillip Hinchcliffe | 62 | 8.91% | |
Graham Williams | 3 | 0.43% | |
John Nathan-Turner | 15 | 2.16% | |
Philip Segal | 3 | 0.43% | |
Russel T Davies | 106 | 15.23% | |
Steven Moffat | 114 | 16.38% | |
Son Goku | 324 | 46.55% | |
Total: | 696 votes |
And if we were only discussing the quality of stories, you'd have a point. But showrunner includes a lot of poo poo that never makes it to the screen and for that you've got to respect Verity for getting the whole thing rolling and RTD for bringing it back from the dead. My vote went to RTD simply because he somehow managed to take a dead and discredited show that existed only in books and audiobooks and turn it into phenomenon. That takes a ton of skill, luck, and devotion and RTD brought all three in spades. Because of him we talk about 75th and 100th anniversaries and aren't completely insane for doing so when, not even ten years ago, I'd have told you that Dr. Who was dead and gone.
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# ¿ Feb 19, 2014 09:10 |
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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 19:36 |
If it makes them happy, what's the harm? Besides, with luck a few of them will use that as a gateway drug into the real stuff and we'll pick up a few new voices around here. Can't see how it hurts anyone.
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# ¿ Feb 21, 2014 04:49 |
Gaz-L posted:Heh, post 50th and the Doctor's travelling with a pair of teachers from Coal Hill. Cute, Moffat, cute. Hmm. Now I'm wondering if they'll finally get back to doing something with Susan....
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# ¿ Feb 24, 2014 19:20 |
Umbra Dubium posted:Steven Moffat is an unrepentant misogynist, and the sooner he's removed from a position from which he can influence the young minds of a large and impressionable audience, the better. Well, you better quit watching, then. Seriously. That article asks "Why does this man still have a job?" The answer is that he gets results. The show, and Sherlock as well, are popular and get large audiences on not too large a budget. If you really want the Moff gone and yet still watch the show, you're part of the problem. Posts on SA mean nothing. Voting with your TV attention, presuming you can find enough other people to likewise not watch the show, is what counts. Therefore if you mean what you say, you should put your eyes where your mouth is and stop watching until he's replaced. Or, you know, keep griping on forum where no one with the slightest bit of influence will ever read or care what you think. Maybe that'll work. CobiWann posted:Paul Gatiss. Though as I've said before I'm holding out for Paul Cornell. Mark Gatiss, isn't it?
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# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 01:40 |
You know, BBC America's been rerunning The Matrix: Reloaded a lot lately, it took me a moment to recall there's the Time Lord Matrix too!
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# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 01:50 |
Umbra Dubium posted:I have, I just watch DVDs of the original series now. Fair enough. Good on you for sticking to your guns, then.
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# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 02:30 |
thexerox123 posted:(This has clearly only happened since Time of the Doctor, which Umbra Dubium posted about in the previous thread) Recently held convictions can still be true convictions. That said, if I see UD posting about Capaldi, I'll be very disappointed.
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# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 05:38 |
Bicyclops posted:Awhile back, but this is truly a lovely opinion and borders on the "If you care so much, why are you talking about it on the internet instead of doing something?" fallacy. Not watching the show has absolutely no more effect than griping about it in whatever your social sphere is. There is no such thing as "voting with your TV" unless you're a damned Nielson family. Abstaining from your favorite shows does not remove the misogynist rear end in a top hat who's got his hands on the reins from power. As others have said, Moffat's writing isn't nearly as bad (in a nuts and bolts way) as some people make it out to be. It has some fanwank issues but he is frequently good at crafting a story. People can be good at their art and also really lovely human beings. It does become harder to take any sexism in the show with a grain of salt when the man in charge of it can't stop word vomiting his cave troll opinions about gender, but that doesn't mean you suddenly stop liking the television show, especially if you've committed yourself to watching about 700 episodes of it. But Umbra Dubium wasn't criticizing the media, per say, he was criticizing the showrunner. like so: Umbra Dubium posted:Steven Moffat is an unrepentant misogynist, and the sooner he's removed from a position from which he can influence the young minds of a large and impressionable audience, the better. So, if that's where he (I presume) stands, where is there to go? If Moffat is so terrible, how can UD support his work? He isn't saying that Who is bad and could be improved. He's saying that Moffat is and should be fired. Where is there room to "be critical" when the demand is for Moffat to be removed? Particularly since the criticism stems from an article that focuses on the things Moffat has said and not on things actually in the show! So where is there room for compromise? Even the article that bashes Moffat can only point to "a lack of diversity" in the show as a reason for complaint. Instead it's almost all about the dumb things he's said in various interviews. How then can being critical about the show be at all useful for UD if the show itself isn't the problem but the man is? Oh and don't give me the Nielsen Defense. Nielsen is more important for broadcast than it is for cable, and if you're watching in the USA legally, you're watching it on BBC America and your cable box will tell them exactly how many people are watching. They'll even tell them which commercial made you change the channel! They know how many people DVRed it and how many actually watched the saved episode. It very much matters what you watch and matters more and more with every passing year. In short, you're well within your rights to think that my opinion is "lovely." However, I'm equally within my rights to reply that your doing so without actually reading the original debate nor understanding what we're talking about is, in fact, even shittier. Context matters.
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# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 19:14 |
You say that, yet I know lots of gamers who hide their hobby from disapproving spouses. Sneaking books or minis around when going on "fishing trips" or "to the bar" with friends when they're actually slinging dice. The thing of it is, not everyone ends up married to someone who shares all their interests. Love can be a bitch sometimes.
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# ¿ Apr 2, 2014 00:16 |
ashez2ashes posted:This is a weird and wildly unrealistic idea, but in theory could a satellite sent out in space pick up the original BBC broadcasts of the lost Doctor Who episodes? Obviously, this satellite would exist for some other legitimate scientific purpose first. Not really. First of all, the signals diffuse to the point of incomprehensibility very quickly. So you'd have had to have done it pretty quickly to get anything usable. Secondly, even if you could get some kind of super-tech to re-integrate them, the signals are travelling at the speed of light, meaning that the missing episodes are like 45-50 light years away. We haven't got anything that could possibly catch up with that.
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# ¿ Apr 11, 2014 07:19 |
Cleretic posted:So this year's Hugo Award nominations are out. I think Doctor Who might have a chance in its home category, guys. Yeah, that's actually terrible news for Who fans....there's a strong chance that the pro-Who vote will get split three ways. Well two ways, I can't see too many people choosing Name over either Day or Adventure. I'd say it's a good year for Game of Thrones, since that's an episode that got so much press my mother called me the day after and had me explain it to her so she could understand the conversations people were having about it at work. Could go to Orphan Black, since everyone loves Tatiana Maslany's work on that show so much. If anything's going to pull it out, it could be "Day of the Doctor", but my money's on "Rains of Castamere" walking away with it instead.
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# ¿ Apr 20, 2014 08:53 |
Okay, so I'm dipping my toes into the BF pool. I've picked up Stormfront and The Chimes of Midnight...indeed they're 32 and 48 minutes respectively from downloading. My question, then, is restricting myself to the $3 audios...because I'm poor....which of the first 50 Big Finish Audios should I be looking at?
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# ¿ Apr 26, 2014 00:30 |
So I just finished listening to Storm Warning. I guess it was alright. Not great, mind you, but alright. Outside of the '96 movie and Night of the Doctor I really haven't dealt with the Eighth Doctor much. Or at all. So listening to him work was a new experience. The voice work, especially McGann's, was acceptable. Some of the writing and delivery worked, and I laughed out loud a couple of times. So that's good. On the other hand, some of the writing was painfully clumsy. So....ancient alien race that once terrified the galaxy gets scared off because a bunch of Brits roared at them? And then the old guy boxes the Uncreator Prime into submission? Oh and in the end The Humans were the Monsters All Along? So, yeah, a lot of the plot points didn't work for me even while many of the character bits did. Speaking of the characters, The Doctor doesn't really do much in this one, does he? I mean, he contributes, but arguably Lord Tamworth is the more important character in the play. And new companion Charlie, while cute sounding, does even less. What's of greater concern is that the whole format feels...clumsy. Having the characters describe to each other what they're doing and seeing gets a little tiresome after awhile. Maybe its because I'm more used to audiobooks. Indeed, the only audioplays I'd ever listened to prior to this were when BBC Radio put A Thousand Tiny Wings up for free on their website that one time. Oh, and snippets of audioplays here and there on public radio. So it could be that I just need to adapt. Maybe. On the other hand, it could be that this format just isn't for me. I've got one more queued up and ready to go, and its considered one of the best. The Chimes of Midnight are next up. Let's see how that goes.
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# ¿ Apr 29, 2014 00:51 |
What difference a year makes! Storm Warning was released in January of 2001, The Chimes of Midnight in February of 2002. Chimes manages improve on everything that I disliked about Storm, like the clumsy expository writing, while keeping the elements about Storm that I liked, such as The Doctor's and Charley's character beats. But more importantly, The Chimes of Midnight kept me on my toes. Unlike Storm Warning which was not only clumsy but also predictable, Chimes kept wrong-footing me. Every time I thought I knew what was going on, nope, there's something even stranger. Setting it up as an Edwardian mystery without a solution was a clever stroke, as I instinctively went into "who's the murderer?" mode before realizing that the murders weren't the point at all! What's more the play had some genuinely creepy moments, such as the first time Mary gets re-written from lady's maid to scullery maid. That was well done. I understand now why listening to Storm Warning was recommended before listening to Chimes. The two stories are linked, but not in the way that I expected. I thought it was going to be the Triskele again, but no, it was Charley's uncertain status in time as well as a delve into her personal history. Nice job! All in all, I can see why this story is so beloved by Big Finish fans. For less than the price of a burger and fries one can get Storm Warning and The Chimes of Midnight, and while I'm not a fan of the former it's redeemed somewhat by the way it leads into the latter. And The Chimes of Midnight is not only a really good Big Finish production but really good Doctor Who! Having sorted through the various recommendations, I think I'm going to go for Jubilee next. Are there any stories I need to listen to before Jubilee or can I go into that one blind?
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# ¿ Apr 29, 2014 18:56 |
So...one day sale, $6.50 an audio. I'm still making my way through The Marian Conspiracy, but I'd like to get one or two of these guys on sale. So, what are the one or two very best of #51-100?
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# ¿ May 1, 2014 17:31 |
Fil5000 posted:The Lidster Misery Porn episode you mean? Wait, what?
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# ¿ May 1, 2014 18:47 |
Any other recommendations for good audios from the one day sale (#51-100)? So far, all I've heard is 75% of 100...
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# ¿ May 1, 2014 20:34 |
Okay then. So now my collection of Big Finish Audios includes: 6. The Marian Conspiracy (In Progress) 9. The Spectre of Lanyon Moor 16. Storm Warning (Complete - It was okay) 29. The Chimes of Midnight (Complete - Loved It) 40. Jubilee 57. Arrangements for War 81. The Kingmaker That's two Eight & Charleys, four Six & Evelyns, and one Five & Peri & Erimem (who?). That should suffice for now. I'll report back as I listen to them with my thoughts on them. Thanks for the recommendations!
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# ¿ May 1, 2014 21:31 |
Potsticker posted:The Kingmaker is my most-listened to audio. It's not the best one, but it is so fun and there are things to catch on a By the time I get to Arrangements it'll be my fourth Six and Evelyn. I may miss some context, but it should be fine I imagine. MrL_JaKiri posted:No Spare Parts? Shameful It'll keep until the next time I get paid, certainly.
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# ¿ May 1, 2014 21:50 |
Fungah! posted:It's literally three dollars! I've already spent $25 on Big Finish this week. That's enough. Yeah, it's only $3....but then the next one is also $3 and the next, and look there's this one on sale for only $6.50! It has to end somewhere, and I've drawn my line. Spare Parts can wait. Anyway, I finished The Marian Conspiracy tonight. Its pretty good. Not flawless by any means, but enjoyable. I think that this one, like The Chimes of Midnight, benefits from an easily pictured historical location. I've seen enough BBC costume dramas to be able to picture both an Edwardian manse as well as the England of Queen Mary. That makes it easier to visualize than Storm Warning which had some more unusual settings. The writing was generally decent. Certainly the Six/Evelyn relationship was well handled, and even better was Six's slightly wistful interactions with Queen Mary. There's a sadness to Colin Baker's performance that you didn't see much or at all during his two years on TV. I can hear why people have raved about Colin's performances for Big Finish. He really is very good, and it was no trouble picturing the Doctor's actions in this story. That said, the story wasn't flawless. The characterization of much of the supporting cast was pretty one dimensional, especially the two commoners who were played more as buffoons than real characters. The plot was pretty basic as well, being pretty predictable overall. But like Storm Warning, The Marian Conspiracy was also introducing a new companion and focused a lot of its attention on her. Evelyn is interesting. She's got a different angle than most companions, seeing the Doctor more as a partner than a mentor like most of the younger companions we normally see. That's quite curious, and I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out. Which is good, because I've got three more Six & Evelyn stories on tap... Anyway, The Marian Conspiracy worked pretty well. It didn't blow me away like The Chimes of Midnight did, but I enjoyed it. If the rest of the stories maintain at least this level of competence, I'll be quite pleased.
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# ¿ May 2, 2014 03:43 |
Well, I'll try not to freak out about it.
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# ¿ May 2, 2014 03:49 |
You know, Colin signed my copy of the 25th Anniversary book back, God, 25 years ago or so. I should dig that outta storage.
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# ¿ May 2, 2014 04:23 |
The_Doctor posted:There are some very dated recipes in that thing. Cuisine has definitely come on in leaps and bounds since then. I don't remember that at all! Now I really want to find that book. Anyway, I listened to The Spectre of Lanyon Moor tonight. Pretty good. I got this one mostly because it had the Brigadier in it, and it was great hearing him again. The plot was a little thin, especially with the way that secondary and tertiary characters show up mostly to get killed. Pretty much just the Doctor, the Brig, and the Evelyn survive the play! The random hiker girl who shows up just long enough to get eaten was especially egregious. On the other hand, there were a few story beats that I liked. I'd forgotten the housekeeper and when she showed up in Greece, I was actually surprised. And of course, the Brig is the one who ends up saving the world which is a lovely touch. The acting is reasonable. Colin didn't really stretch himself much in this one, though he did get along well with the Brigadier. It was nice to envision their meeting for the first/nth time. That was pretty well done. Evelyn spends most of the play seperated from the Doctor in favor of letting the Doctor spend time with the Brig instead. And that's just fine, really. The main reason I picked this episode was to reacquaint myself with Brigadier Alistair Gordon Leftwich Stuart. This was accomplished, and I don't regret this purchase at all. On to Jubilee!
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# ¿ May 3, 2014 06:56 |
MrL_JaKiri posted:Is this a joke or just a typo of Lethbridge-Stewart? Typo. I wrote that at midnight local and then went right to bed without an editing pass. poo poo happens. Anyway, I listened to Jubilee. Strong story. Of course, knowing as I did that that it was the story that the Eccleston episode Dalek was based on I had some idea of what was involved. But not everything. The degree to which humanity had devolved into cut-rate Daleks themselves, as well as the prisoner Dalek's recognition that even total victory would lead to an empty universe with only one Dalek left alive in it was pretty powerful. When the 1903 Daleks appeared, it was surprising to be able to tell the Daleks apart by voice alone which was quite an achievement! Baker was impressive as well, being able to run the gamut from confused, angry, terrified, and even resigned to death as the 1903 Doctor. Maggie Stables gets the Rose role of sympathizing with the Dalek and does it well. The guest cast does their job well, and unlike some of the other stories I've listened to, even the really good ones like The Chimes at Midnight, Jubilee really feels like a big and wide open adventure with a cast of thousands. Which isn't to say that everything is prefect. I quibble with some of the writing, and especially wonder what the point of the 1903 Doctor was is if the Dalek was just going to blast him before the 2003 Doctor ever even finds out about him. I was execpting Colin vs Colin, dammit! Yes, it has an effect on Evelyn, and Colin does a great job with it, but even so it didn't have the impact it might have. Quibbles aside, though, this story affected me more than I thought it would. It could be childhood trauma, but the sound of a Dalek blaster made me flinch the first time I heard it in the drama. They do a good job making the Daleks terrifying again, and that's quite a feat after (at the time of the recording) forty years of The Doctor vs Daleks. It also made me uncomfortable in many places, and I paused a few times to catch my breath. I don't do that for many stories, audio or televised, and that's the mark of a powerful story indeed. Next up, the last Big Finish I've got until I get paid next, The Kingmaker!
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# ¿ May 5, 2014 21:41 |
CobiWann posted:Made even better when you realize the Doctor is half-human! Rule Number One: The Doctor lies. So I finished my first batch of Big Finish audios with The Kingmaker. I, uhhh, I wasn't expecting a comedy. After horror, mystery, and drama I should have realized there was the possibility, but it was still a surprise. I found The Kingmaker to be pretty amusing, though. Richard was amusingly droll, Peri and Erimem were cute, and the Doctor was appropriately frantic. I don't remember Peri being quite so sarcastic back in the day. Erimem wasn't really what I'd expected given the whole "Egyptian Queen" thing. That aspect of her personality didn't come up very much, albeit with one significant exception near the end, and the fact that the actress plays her with a British accent makes it easy to forget the Queen thing. Still, she was interesting nevertheless. The story kept me on my toes which is something I value. In particular, I assumed that with Peri and Erimem impersonating the Princes that the Princes were boys impersonating girls at the tavern. Which wasn't quite right. Likewise, I was with Peri and presumed we had another Master and no, that wasn't it either. So yeah, that was fun. Overall, The Kingmaker didn't have the impact of Big Finish at its best, but it was a lot of fun. I'd listen to another Five, Peri, and Erimem tale sometime. So well done, BF!
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# ¿ May 8, 2014 23:44 |
PriorMarcus posted:At least RTD could actually do the job he was hired for. It's going to have been over a year since the last full series aired by the time Capaldi begins and all because Moffat surrounded himself with loving idiots and is one himself. I bet if RTD had still been running the show the 50th would've felt considerably more like a celebration befitting the scale of the achievement rather than the wet fart it ended up being. I saw "Day of the Doctor" in 3D in a theater. The "Gallifrey Falls No More" painting was especially effective. It was awesome, in fact. I'd been under the impression that the limited number of episodes in 2013 was because of the BBC, not because that's what Moffat wanted. Unless you think that RTD would have been able to fight for more episodes better than Moffat could or something?
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# ¿ May 11, 2014 23:09 |
Barry Foster posted:The Kingmaker is genuinely really funny, though. Especially if you go into it, as I did, not realizing it was a comedy. The extra layer of surprise really helps the story.
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# ¿ May 16, 2014 17:28 |
No. No, she does not.
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# ¿ May 22, 2014 02:32 |
Dammit, now I want to watch some Five.
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# ¿ May 23, 2014 23:25 |
"Green Death" ep 6.
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# ¿ Jun 3, 2014 02:42 |
We should recall, however, that Eleven's regeneration was by no means a natural affair. The Time Lords, who clearly had some awareness of what was going on on the other side of the Crack, were deliberately feeding the Doctor energy. What must of happened is that the Time Lords supercharged the Doctor precisely so he blast his way clear, then sealed the Crack so the Doctor could try and find them again in some other time and place. e:sp jng2058 fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Jun 8, 2014 |
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# ¿ Jun 8, 2014 17:07 |
Or that. The key point is, though, that we shouldn't expect future regenerations to be nearly so dramatic or weaponized. This was (or should be) a one time deal.
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# ¿ Jun 8, 2014 19:44 |
Potsticker posted:Are there any studios that produce audio dramas that aren't Big Finish? Sure. Black Library does some audio dramas for Warhammer 40k, for instance. I'm sure there are others. Apply some Google-fu and see what you can find!
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# ¿ Jun 11, 2014 23:23 |
Davros1 posted:Produced by Big Finish (at least they used to be). I'm not sure now since Black Library refused to let BF promote, sell, or talk about them on BF's own website. "...by Heavy Entertainment for Black Library." So not so much anymore.
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# ¿ Jun 11, 2014 23:37 |
Jerusalem posted:Now if it was Ian Levine trying to run things, then yes that would absolutely be a bad thing, as we already saw during his time as creative consultant in the JNT years. Well considering it made $14k out of a desired $1.25m, I don't think we need worry about Levine doing much more Who. Although, frankly, his timing is like ten years too late. If this had been proposed in 2004 instead of 2014 back when we were starving for new Doctor Who? It might have had a chance. If, you know, Kickstarter had even existed yet and the rumors of the reboot hadn't been filling the air back in '04, that is. But now? With Who back on TV and running strong and Big Finish out there giving me things to listen to while I take a walk or drive to work? I can get my Who fix at need. I'm nowhere near desperate enough to fund something by Levine, and, the BBC willing, hopefully I never will be.
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# ¿ Jun 19, 2014 17:33 |
Thing is, if I have my timeline correct, didn't things go like: 1) Eccleston signs a one year contract and says he has no plans to stay longer. 2) Knowing this, the producers pre-hire David Tennant to take over starting with series 2. 3) The show airs and is a huge hit. People demand more Eccleston. 4) RTD and company are boned because they've already got a deal in place with Tennant. They give it a go and put out feelers towards Eccleston to see if he'll change his mind and stay another year. 5) Eccleston says no. 6) They announce David Tennant and hope for the best. 7) It works out for them. So like the only way you could have done it would be for Eccleston to say yes at #5 above, and if so it probably would have cost you David Tennant, because the guy couldn't just sit on the sidelines for another year or more. He's going to take other work and there's no guarantee you'll be able to get him back after Eccleston finally does leave, nor any guarantee that he'd even want to since you had a deal with him and broke it in favor of keeping Chris instead. Which means, in turn, that you'd pretty much have to pick between Eccleston and Tennant, and I for one don't make that trade. I quite like David Tennant's run, and think he's got some of my favorite episodes of Who during his tenure.
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# ¿ Jun 20, 2014 20:41 |
If it was just Vashtra and Jenny, that spin-off I could see. It's a Victorian adventuress and her servant/lover having steampunky or Holmesian adventures. And she happens to be a lizard with a sword. No problem, and when we first met them I actually hoped for that very thing. The problem is Strax. Strax is fine in tiny doses, but even what we've seen of him to date has stretched my patience. I get the joke, he's an off-kilter Sontaran. Give him something new or let him go. And while I suppose a spin-off show probably would try to layer in more depth, I wouldn't want to have to sit through it week after week.
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# ¿ Jul 7, 2014 14:34 |
Astroman posted:I made it to 1:12. Everyone, post your Keff Challenge Times ITT! 1:04. Great Gallifrey that sucks!
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# ¿ Jul 11, 2014 04:54 |
One thing to note about Excelis is that only half of the stories are available for download. The other two are CD only. I'm not sure why that is. Printing a limited number of CDs and selling them all, that makes sense to me. But if you have CDs why can't you just make a digital copy of it and then sell that instead of making me have to rip them myself to make the drat thing useful to me? Or, as it is actually occurring, have me decide it's too much trouble and opt not to buy the set at all!
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# ¿ Jul 29, 2014 00:09 |
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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 19:36 |
Gosh, I do so love how the line for what's "acceptable" fandom always happens to stop at just what you do and no farther. "It's okay to own a Fourth Doctor scarf, but wear it? What am I, some kind of dirty fan?" It's oh so important to divide our tiny little community into the "cool kids" (what you do) and the "nerds" (what someone else does), despite the fact that just the act of posting in this thread makes you more of a Who nerd than 99.999999% of the world population. I'll tell you what, I've got a hell of a lot more respect for someone like DoctorWhat who isn't ashamed of how much he likes something and is happy to share his joy in it with the rest of us than I do people who claim to love a thing but go out of their way to say how much they hate other people who love that same thing. Particularly if they use "fandom" as a swear word in the same post as showing a pic of their Doctor Who scarf.
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# ¿ Aug 12, 2014 22:20 |