Partners in Crime opinions

Continuing with my threads on random NuWho episodes, I thought I’d discuss Partners in Crime as I’ve recently re-watched it, mainly to see if it was as shite as I remembered. Fuck me, it’s even worse than I thought. It displays RTD’s most egregious and crass comedic excesses and materialistic caricatures (“I can do better than him now...” “She says she looks marvellous”) and a thoroughly unimaginative narrative that does little but patronise the viewer through its aspirations to mediocrity (something Doctor Who should never do- I struggle to understand why certain fans claim that NuWho features more depth than TruWho in spite of playing it so safe constantly). Not to mention how shite the Adipose look- to refer to a point previously raised by burrunjor on the “Shittiest RTD Script” thread, how can people seriously assert that NuWho took itself more seriously with shite like this? The only partially bearable things in this would be Tate and Cribbins, although they’re still too engulfed with mawkish rubbish in order to showcase their true potential. Fucking awful.

Does the Hive agree with me? What is their assessment of the series 4 opener?

Shit.

Absolute shite. Unwatchable.

There seems to be a pattern here.

It is truly fuck-awful. As trendy as it is to shit all over Moffat and Chinballs in the mainstream (and they rightfully deserve it too, the bloody cretins), RTD wrote and produced a very noticeable share of absolute rubbish too.

I thought it was watchable enough at the time, and that Catherine Tate had been a pleasant enough surprise.

But then I had been suffering from severely diminished expectations for a while by then.

Its awful and rather mean spirited against fat people. Not to sound like Claudia Boleyn, but I often wondered if RTD had something against fat people, what with the Abzorbaloff, the Slitheen and the Adipose. Not saying he actively hates fat people or anything LOL, but he seems to have a bit of an un characteristic cruel streak in mocking them.

burrunjor wrote:Its awful and rather mean spirited against fat people. Not to sound like Claudia Boleyn, but I often wondered if RTD had something against fat people, what with the Abzorbaloff, the Slitheen and the Adipose. Not saying he actively hates fat people or anything LOL, but he seems to have a bit of an un characteristic cruel streak in mocking them.

Honestly, after the recent revelations that Eccleston and Piper were anorexic during their time on the show, I actually genuinely think that RTD goes out of his way to insult people that have even the slightest bit of fat in them. Even the written episodes that you mentioned always had an anti-fat propaganda. Don't get me wrong, it's almost as bad when someone promotes obesity, but insulting people who may have eating disorders is equally as nasty. Insulting people because of their looks is one of the lowest forms of hate, and honestly fuck RTD for doing this, and putting Eccleston/Piper through the ringer.

SomeCallMeEnglishGiraffe wrote:

burrunjor wrote:Its awful and rather mean spirited against fat people. Not to sound like Claudia Boleyn, but I often wondered if RTD had something against fat people, what with the Abzorbaloff, the Slitheen and the Adipose. Not saying he actively hates fat people or anything LOL, but he seems to have a bit of an un characteristic cruel streak in mocking them.

Honestly, after the recent revelations that Eccleston and Piper were anorexic during their time on the show, I actually genuinely think that RTD goes out of his way to insult people that have even the slightest bit of fat in them. Even the written episodes that you mentioned always had an anti-fat propaganda. Don't get me wrong, it's almost as bad when someone promotes obesity, but insulting people who may have eating disorders is equally as nasty. Insulting people because of their looks is one of the lowest forms of hate, and honestly fuck RTD for doing this, and putting Eccleston/Piper through the ringer.

Precisely, and these same stereotypes can be found in Voyage of the Damned, where the fat married couple are portrayed as materialistic, spoilt and idiotic at every turn. It is rather mean-spirited, frankly, and I’m surprised people don’t refer to it more often.

I wouldn't have said Davies was exactly Mr Svelte, though, so it's a bit of an odd obsession for him to have...

SomeCallMeEnglishGiraffe wrote:

burrunjor wrote:Its awful and rather mean spirited against fat people. Not to sound like Claudia Boleyn, but I often wondered if RTD had something against fat people, what with the Abzorbaloff, the Slitheen and the Adipose. Not saying he actively hates fat people or anything LOL, but he seems to have a bit of an un characteristic cruel streak in mocking them.

Honestly, after the recent revelations that Eccleston and Piper were anorexic during their time on the show, I actually genuinely think that RTD goes out of his way to insult people that have even the slightest bit of fat in them. Even the written episodes that you mentioned always had an anti-fat propaganda. Don't get me wrong, it's almost as bad when someone promotes obesity, but insulting people who may have eating disorders is equally as nasty. Insulting people because of their looks is one of the lowest forms of hate, and honestly fuck RTD for doing this, and putting Eccleston/Piper through the ringer.

Well now that you mention it there were digs about Billie Piper being a bit fat in series 2.

Only thing is if he was bullying Billie Piper why did she stay on for series 2, and why did she not only come back, but invite him to her wedding?

I don't know I've always thought that Eccelston and RTD's falling out was more Eccelston than RTD, as ultimately RTD never had any other problems with anybody else during his era, whilst John Barrowman said Eccelston was a moody bastard.

I do agree though with you and Bernard that making fun of people's looks is nasty, and I think RTD has a very infantile sense of humour himself, hence the fart jokes. The fat thing is probably just another example of that.

Still when people like Claudia Boleyn go on about how RTD preached love and understanding in his stories, it is annoying the way they NEVER commented on that, whilst accusing Moffat of promoting rape!

I guess though RTD was gay so he gets a free pass.

burrunjor wrote:Still when people like Claudia Boleyn go on about how RTD preached love and understanding in his stories, it is annoying the way they NEVER commented on that, whilst accusing Moffat of promoting rape!

When did he ever preach love and understanding? I can’t think of much in the way of emotionally mature content in his era whatsoever- if anything, his stories preach the notion that the working classes are materialistic and superficial on every level.

What did RTD once say? “I write such great female characters...” Does he, though? All three of his written female companions are variation of the same crap caricature:

Rose: A working class London woman with a traditional Eastenders family dynamic who’s life is transformed by the Doctor, albeit to revert back to her usual quotidian state at the end lacking in any aspiration to see the universe, instead merely infatuated with her sex toy metacrisis Doctor. Wholesome indeed.

Martha: A working class London woman with a traditional Eastenders family dynamic who’s life is transformed by the Doctor (the only difference being that she at least sticks by with UNIT).

Donna: A working class London woman with a traditional Eastenders family dynamic who’s life is transformed by the Doctors, albeit to quite literally revert back to her usual quotidian state at the end lacking in any aspiration whatsoever.

How is this in any way progressive? It implies that working class women are incapable of gaining any individual agency or identity themselves, and have to rely on a lothario and self-absorbed alien to do so (and usually purely to be with him romantically as opposed to having any complex motivations or interesting backgrounds, or a desire to see the universe and aspire to something greater), only to then revert back to their usual prosaic selves after he leaves them.

If anything, I find that absurdly patronising, and a celebration of vacuity within people. That isn’t to even mention the fat working class caricatures in the likes of Voyage or Partners, none of whom are portrayed as sympathetic or remotely understanding at all (“I dumped him... I can do better than him now!”).

Yes- he does write “great female characters”, doesn’t he?

I actually switched this one off at the time! I have nothing nice to say about Series 4 in general.

Coyote falls. Need I say more. RTD thought that would be funny. It shows how absolutely out of touch he is, or that he was already pandering to Americans, as that humour is like the lame shit they usually enjoy.

Pepsi Maxil wrote:I actually switched this one off at the time! I have nothing nice to say about Series 4 in general.

I think I missed it on transmission, actually. This might amuse you somewhat, but at that age, my first experience with Who was Last of the Time Turds. You can see why I didn’t get into the programme properly whilst the RTD era was on TV.

Bernard you are a masochist.
Nobody watches this shit more than once.

Ludders wrote:Bernard you are a masochist.
Nobody watches this shit more than once.

I can’t swallow too much NuWho at once these days, but yeah. I probably am. Such masochistic experiences are ones I usually undergo as to reinforce how much better TruWho is.

I can't think of many I would rewatch from S4. Maybe the Sontaran 2 parter, and Turn Left. Although unfortunately I'll have to suffer Journey's End when I eventually start my Dalek marathon.

Ludders wrote:
I can't of many I would rewatch from S4. Maybe the Sontaran 2 parter, and Turn Left. Although unfortunately I'll have to suffer Journey's End when I eventually start my Dalek marathon.

It is a largely shite season, and I’ve noticed looking back that Tennant’s performance is even more caricatured and smug than it was previously, which says a lot!

Journey’s End is one of the most incomprehensibly awful scripts ever written for the programme. There is so much wrong with it from a narrative perspective- I can’t think of anything in it that works or makes any logical sense at all.

For me, S3 ended on such a new low with Time Turds, that Partners in Crime seemed like a double blow, as it seemed inconceivable that things could get any worse. I don't know how I got through S4, looking back.
Although The End of Time surpassed even anything from S4. I don't think I could've gone on had I not known there was a new Doctor and RTD stepping down.

Ludders wrote:For me, S3 ended on such a new low with Time Turds, that Partners in Crime seemed like a double blow, as it seemed inconceivable that things could get any worse. I don't know how I got through S4, looking back.
Although The End of Time surpassed even anything from S4. I don't think I could've gone on had I not known there was a new Doctor and RTD stepping down.

Agreed on all accounts. Although I’d call it a triple blow, given that I find Voyage of the Damned to be equally as shite as Time Turds and Partners in Grime. Thank Christ I wasn’t a fan back then.

The End of Time is essentially 2 hours and 17 minutes of RTD narratively wanking himself off in the most self-congratulatory and pretentious possible way, and within one of the most ineptly realised stories in Who history (again, as with Journey’s End, and as I go over in my review from months back, nothing about it makes any fucking sense). The shocking thing is that these stories would come to be surpassed numerous times during both the Moffat and Chibnall eras.

Yes, that's the shocking thing about it for me. The fact that Moffat eventually succeeded where even RTD failed, and caused me to actually stop watching altogether.
Although I still have ideas about catching up to where things currently are, it takes a huge effort for me to get through any NuWho episode.

I've never seen it and I never will. At this point, Voyage Of The Damned has put me off it and I didn't see a large chunk of the series with the exception of the Sontaran tale which I enjoyed at the time.