Doctor Who: Slumming His Way Through The 10th Generation
The Daily P.O.P. has written a thought-provoking and fantastic essay on the evolution (or regeneration) of Doctor Who to meet the expectations of the current generation of viewers. And it starts off with a bang of a quote which perfectly summarizes the disconnect many old-time fans of the Doctor feel with the current series:
Tom Baker quoted Tennyson and Patrick Troughton claims to have studied medicine in Scotland under Dr. Lister in 1885… nowadays the Doctor uses the TARDIS to attend Ian Drury and The Blockheads concerts and reads Harry Potter while the Master takes control of London only to share his iTunes playlist with his ’subject’ every morning.
In short, the Doctor's gone lowbrow. I've been accused in the past of being an elitist snob for complaining that the Doctor is now spending the vast majority of his time hanging out with East London's version of trailer trash. But it's not just elitism: it's the shift between the debonair, intellectual, sophisticated time traveller I grew up with and the current reincarnation of the character, who'd rather hang out at the chipper than go meet Charles Darwin. I don't want my Doctor to be a snob, but I don't want him to be as blind to the sublime side of life as the rabble audience of BBC's Saturday night.
Doctor Who Resistance is Useless [Daily Pop]
Hey, thanks for the glowing praise.
In my reviews of Season Three I tried desperately to keep my head above water but in the end I just barely made it through.
I love the show and am not above admitting that the best of stories can also have large glaring problems. "Wow, Terror of the Zygons is fantastic, an all-time classic and - NO!!!! A goofy puppy dog monster rears its head! Argh... so close."
But it's frustrating to see so many great opportunities tossed aside in the New Series for no clear reason other than a desire to be 'current' or 'cool'... which always ends up looking like my over 60 Dad wearing a Jesus And Mary Chain Concert Tee to look young and 'with it.'
Please feel free to write responses to my posts and let me know what you think of the new series.
It's important to not cope alone.
Yea, the classic Dr. Who was so much better. You have your choice of old farts or complete idiots.
At least the new ones have cat babes.
When did Shakespeare and Dickens become low-brow? Quite frankly, I bet Tom Baker's Doctor upon reading your post when respond with a long and loud raspberry at that nonsense.
Introducing Dickens just to shake his hand and exclaim what a big fan the Doctor is... is low brow fannish nonsense... as is introducing Shakespeare just to say he's bi-sexual. The previous series referred to classical works, the new series loves to 'gossip' about the private lives of famous writers.
I enjoyed both of those episodes, but they both wasted a lot of great opportunities.
I have no doubt that Tom would find my post to be silly, he's possibly the most light-hearted actor on the planet. He also wanted to have a naked child or talking fruit as a companion rather than Leela... so there are other factors to take into consideration regarding his opinion.
I love inverted-snobbery.... it's just so human