Okay, Conz. We see things entirely differently when it comes to WHO. I thought the first season was pretty dire, the second season offering fewer cringe worthy moments, the third finally approaching epic feel I thought the series should have, etc.
Yes, I'll grant you that the Tennant's Doctor wins way more often than he loses. Maybe I'm misremembering things but it tended to feel more like he won through luck more often than by being vastly more intelligent and cunning than his adversaries.
A good example of what I mean is to be found in the recent THE WATERS OF MARS special. The Doctor knows a disaster is about to happen but says that this is "one of those moments in time that can't be changed" or somesuch, and so spends the majority of the episode saying that he really wishes he could help; but sorry thems the breaks.
Until he decides that you know what, who makes the rules anyway? and he
can help. Even then it's a bit late, and when all's said and done the leader of the Mars project is so worried that her granddaughter won't grow up to the first human astronaut to develop and use FTL travel or what have you if her gran is still breathing... that she chastises the Doctor for acting like a god and commits suicide.
That to me is idiotic. Who's to say the granddaughter wouldn't grow up to achieve even greater things if her grandmother weren't there to encourage her on the journey? What's worse is that after this occurs the Doctor curses himself for meddling and wonders about his own morality, if he's getting too powerful, etc. instead of thinking that Lindsey Duncan's character was a sad case like any sensible person would.
To me, I think it's out of character for the Doctor to do this. He's by nature a rebel. Faced with a dilemma that some authority says can't be altered or gotten around, the Doctor is the one who uses logic and creativity and finds a solution where others find an insurmountable wall.
The Doctor is basically Sherlock Holmes and Richard Feynman combined. He's always the smartest man in the room, with a mind like a spiral staircase in twelve dimensions. If he isn't then the audience (and he) should be suitably impressed. He's faced down aliens who thought they were gods and defeated intergalactic warlords with nothing so much as a piece of fruit.
I also hated the two confrontations with the Master. While I like John Simm's performance immensely, again we see the Doctor offering this mass murderer and villain mercy or voicing a desire to help him and travel the galaxy together. Please! He's been an out and out bastard! Outwit and humiliate him horribly.
While I'm on it, I hope we've seen the end of the whole "Doctor as Messiah" thing.
By the way, does anyone know how many episodes Moffat is writing for season 5 or who the other writers are? Maybe the titles of the episodes?
Edited by Jackanaples, 05 January 2010 - 10:37 PM.
