Just discovered Dr. Who and loving it

My son has recently introduced me to Dr. Who and I'm loving it.

At the beginning of every episode, there is the thrill of wondering just what they're going to see when they leave the Tardis.

There is no limitation of where they can go or what they can see.

And I find the enthusiasm of the Doctor infectious. He approaches each new adventure with the glee of a little boy about to open a big Christmas present.

I have complained in the past about Star Trek TNG, which is a very boring show, and extremely uninteresting.

After seeing Dr. Who, it seems to me that the makers of Star Trek are deliberating making bad television.

I mean, how do you make a show about people visiting a new planet each week boring?

And yet they manage.

 

Well, you are wrong as usual about Star Trek. But one interesting tidbit is that the maker of Doctor Who is also the writer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

 

No, I am not wrong. I never realized how truly bad Star Trek TNG was until I saw Dr. Who. Star Trek TNG has no joy, no fun, no life, its all just dry and boring and uninteresting and there's never any attempt to make it fun or new or exciting.

The only character in Star Trek TNG I like is the android Data, who is the only character in the show who acts like a human.

In the original show, there was Captain Kirk, and the show was interesting because you never knew what crazy scheme he would come up with. In one show, he dressed like a gangster, grabbed a machine gun, and jumped on a table to intimidate a bunch of gangsters. In another show, he dressed like a Nazi and overthrew a Nazi government. In every show he could, he had sex with the space alien girlfriend of the bad guy. But the only woman he really loved was Edith Keiller, and we all know what happened to her.

And then there was Spock and McCoy, who were constantly arguing over what it meant to be a human.

In Star Trek TNG, where are the crazy schemes? Where are the insults between crew members? Where's the hot alien sex?

 

I like Dr Who as well and am currently up to season 5. I don't know what I will do when Amy leaves the show since she is probably the only ginger on the planet that I would risk losing my soul over to sleep with.

TNG was a very slow show I do agree. It also suffered from Roddenberryitis. I do appreciate that Roddenberry gave us Star Trek but it is basically the most unrealistic portrayal of humanity.......ever. Apparently everyone decides to work for the betterment of themselves and society and forgo being paid. Humanity willingly gives up cloaking which is arguably the most critical military development in history and so on to the point that I was much happier with DS9 which showed people, including the main heroes, as flawed individuals who made mistakes, bad decisions and sometimes did evil things to get the job done. Picard, not taking out the Borg by using Huey Lewis and the News as a carrier for a virus immediately went to the top of the list as stupidest decision by a fictional character in history and probably till the end of time.

 

Doctor Who is probably one of the most morally and intellectually stimulating shows I have ever seen, especially that last two doctors have been excellent. When I first discovered the show a few years ago I watched the entire new series in the span of about 2 weeks. I'm a bit to young to have really gotten into Star Trek though the few episodes of TNG that I did see seemed to be extremely interesting; a bit dry to be sure, but still stimulating the way I think a TV show with real moral dilemmas should be.

 

I can't argue that Picard was as good a captain as Kirk (although the actor that played him is vastly superior to Shatner), but TNG wasn't supposed to be exactly like the first series. That seems to be what you want. A carbon copy. Whereas, in the first series, there was more of a wild West atmosphere, in TNG, the next century was supposed to be more civilized. Hence more emphasis on the rule of law, diplomacy, and less on "crazy schemes". TNG, while the main characters could be a bit stale, had better recurring characters than the first series. There was nothing like the Borg or Q in Kirk's day (unless you count Trelane, but he was a pretty lame Q, and only showed up once). Also, first gen had super lame things like the Gorn, who looked like he had stolen the original Godzilla rubber suit.
[video=youtube;VnKcopoNjzM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnKcopoNjzM[/video]

 

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Sorry but the writer of Hitchhikers has never ever had anything to do with Dr Who. Douglas Adams died years before the series reboot

 

The thing is, when Dr. Who goes to an alien planet, it looks like an alien planet.

When Picard and crew go to an alien planet, it looks like the California desert.

When Dr. Who meets aliens, they look like aliens,

When Picard and crew meet aliens, they look like humans with some rubber stuck on their face or their ears.

And in the world of Dr. Who, the villains are EVIL, and want to do very, very EVIL things.

In Star Trek TNG, the concept of evil doesn't seem to even exist. Even the Borg aren't evil, because they're machines and can't help being what they are.

 

No it looks like the same disused quarry in Cornwall they have been using since 1961

 

I meant the original. I still haven't seen the reboot. Just looked it up again, and I mis-remembered. Adams didn't create the whole series, just some of it.

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy

 

Definitely do yourself a favor and watch some of the new series, though personally I would avoid the Matt Smith stuff. But still some seriously good episodes.

Including this which I think is the single best scene in 50 years, and a wonderful nod to us old schoolers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNrF9Lae2RY

 

Funny, I would have thought you (Blackrook) would be really bothered by the occasional gay content. You do know that the series was revived by a gay man, right? The same guy who did the Torchwood spinoff?

(Oh, and Queer as Folk, too).

Russell T. Davies

 

He's grown on me, to the point where I think I like him better than David Tennant now. But my favorite will probably always be Tom Baker. My partner prefers Christopher Eccleston - the first doctor of the rebooted series (the 9th Doctor overall).

 

I've watched every Doctor Who since they started making them back in the 1960's. Used to play him on PBS. I even saw the first American made Doctor Who which was a flop. They're filmography sucks, and I hate pacifists, but some reason I love the Doctor.

 

Yes Christopher Eccleston...a personal favorite Dr...Dr Who....shaken not stirred lol I rate Sly McCoy just ahead of Tom Baker in the all time stakes.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh come on Capt Jack is not gay!!!!

He's bisexual

 

More like omnisexual. And it's not all as overt as that. There are snippets that probably fly right by the ears/eyes of a lot of people.

 

The hot alien sex was all taking place in the holodeck.

Once you have that, you're done exploring.

 

Is it online or are you watching a DVD?

 

The chow is both corny and emotionally intense.

 

thumbs up, great series

 

I discovered Dr Who over the Christmas Season 2012. A friend of mine doesn't have cable and they really wanted to see the Christmas Episode so I invited them over. I fell in love with Matt Smith as the Doctor. He is just so adorably cute. He's not suave, handsome or debonaire just adorably cute in a boyish sort of way. And I love the girl who plays Clara.

So bummed that Matt Smith is leaving the role. I hate change and I just discovered his Dr Who! Waaaaah! I probably won't even bother to watch when the new Dr takes over. But I will be collecting all the DVD's for the years Matt Smith was the Doctor.

 

I love ST: TNG! I love Patrick Stewart and Gates McFadden because they are both stage trained actors and it shows in their work. I love John DeLancie as Q and Majel Barrett as Loxwana Troi. I thought Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi was sooo beautiful and though her acting was a bit stiff and OTT in the first episode...she soon settled down and came into her own. I could have done nicely without Worf or at least a whole lot less of him and his Klingon troubles. I hated the idea that Ryker was definitely supposed to be in the Captain Kirk/Lothario role who never met a woman he didn't sleep with. I liked Data and Geordie. I hated Wesley Crusher because they made such a big thing about that character and made him into a wunderkind which grated. I liked Diana Muldaur(sp) as Catherine Polanski and always thought she should have played a Dr Polanski on DS9 as the space station's doctor! I loved the Duras Sisters and I loved Suzy Plaxton as K'hlar(sp) Worf's "wife and mother of Alexander. But I think the two characters I absolutely hated was Tasha Yar and Ro Laren! I never liked Denise Crosby in anything and way too much to do was made over Tasha. Ro was always just too superior and right. I loved Whoopi as Guinan but wished they would have explained a bit more about the secret between her and Picard.
All that said: if they were both on at the same time (ST:TNG or Dr Who with Matt Smith) and I could only watch one...I don't know which one I could/would choose!

 

You don't have a taste for it then.

 

Or in Kent and any cave scenes you can bet were filmed in Chislehurst in Kent (I reckon the third or fourth episode of the Bill Hartnell era).

 

I think it's now a cultural phenomenon more than a television show.