What were your thoughts when it was announced that Doctor Who was returning?

How did you react to the news that Doctor Who would be revived and what did you think of what you saw before ''Rose'' premiered?

Actually, I didn't really give it much thought. I watched series 1, decided it was crap and quit watching it until series 5.

2005 was sort of in a non-Who-watching period of my life. I watched Dr. Who regularly from about 85-92. I would record it off of TV and watch my own tapes. Then I quit for many years. Then I started up again in 2008 when I watched all the classic series stories in order (including the recons) when I found them on dailymotion, which was actually the first time I saw any of the Hartnells and Troughtons. Then I really got into Doctor Who when I got the all the VHS tapes in 2014.

Over the moon, hoping McGann would return. Then a feeling of trepidation when I realised RTD would be at the helm. Then curiousity when it was announced Eccles had the lead role.

I was told about it on a train in conversation with a mother I was sat by. She seemed happy at the idea of the show coming back because she felt that kids' TV today was lacking the morality of the old show and it'd be good to get that back.

I wasn't sure I agreed with her (either that modern kids' TV was particularly amoral or that classic Who hadn't had its nasty, objectionable moments) but I think I just gave a very neutral agreement.

I wasn't very enthusiastic to the idea.

I think maybe I was a bit jaded after the failure of the TV Movie, and was surprised they were even trying again. Maybe I'd heard rumors of a comeback so often, I'd just stopped getting excited.

But I think more than anything I just had this cynicism that with maybe a few very select exceptions the show was never going to be as good as the Hinchcliffe era (or City of Death) again, and it had been superseded by too many other shows since (namely Buffy).

I was a fan who grew up during the Wilderness years, so I'd probably always taken it for granted the show had been and gone, even if it hadn't ended with quite everything resolved. So I was never quite as animated by prospects of a revival as most fans. To me Doctor Who was an ended thing and I was okay with that.

I thought "if they don't rehire McGann it will be shit and unconnected to the Classic Series" i.e. spin-off.

They didn't hire McGann, it WAS shit(mainly due to Eccleston playing a thicko northern twat) and it WAS and still IS an aberration to the Classic Series rather than a faithful & respectful continuation.

Sarah Jane Adventures was far better, I could ALMOST accept that as being connected to the Classic Series.

Had we known back then what we know now with unlimited regenerations,The Doctor being an dullard invulnerable god with moronic chav-speak, cyber-brig, shoehorned in John Hurt Doctors, sexual braggart First Doctors, regenderation & gender-flipping soothsaying Time Lords, and every other slap in the face Classic Series fans have had to endure, perhaps more fans might have listened to me at the time that this crap wasn't a continuation.

Absolute joy. Didn't know RTD from Adam but I knew Moffat and other names like Gatiss and it all sounded good to me. Was a bit nonplussed by Eccleston's costume but I knew he was a really good actor from Cracker so it all seemed very exciting and positive.

As Rob says, if we knew then what we know now...

I didn't have any. I was watching Balamory back then.

Rob Filth wrote:I thought "if they don't rehire McGann it will be shit and unconnected to the Classic Series" i.e. spin-off.

They didn't hire McGann, it WAS shit(mainly due to Eccleston playing a thicko northern twat)

Looking back, Eccleston’s working class stereotype interpretation of the character seems to be the central inspiration for the constant colloquialisms of Whittaker’s Doctor, alongside Tennant’s forced eccentricities and manic behaviour (as astutely acknowledged elsewhere by other members of the forum). The original character always possessed an aura of intellectualism and curiosity through his somewhat out of time demeanour, and eloquent manner of speech (as especially typified by Tom, Colin and McGann)- something completely lacking from RTD’s interpretation of the character and NuWho’s grasp of the Doctor as a whole.

Curious to ask: What was the fan response to the publicity reveals of Eccleston’s nondescript costume at the time?

Sigh...Wrote a pretty long post on this. Finished it, then lost it...Oh well; massively redacted gist:-

When I first heard the announcement my initial obvious thought was "They're bringing back Doctor Who? That's terrific!" However, that was immediately tempered by the second obvious thought "Ah...I hope they don't fuck it up..."

If only more people had experienced the second thought...

Bernard Marx wrote:The original character always possessed an aura of intellectualism and curiosity through his somewhat out of time demeanour, and eloquent manner of speech (as especially typified by Tom, Colin and McGann)

Oh well, that's right out , isn't it? As far as the current BBC are concerned (and, especially, the NuWho-ers) they couldn't possibly have a character like that as none of the slavering imbeciles in the audience would be able to identify with them. It would be ELITIST

I mean, god forbid anyone should actually learn anything. Its another one of the perverse contradictions inherent in the ethos of NuWho (if it can be said to have one) in that it purports to be "For everyone" or, indeed, "For all" yet the writing seems determined to keep everyone firmly in their place. Doctor Who can be used to convey real information and many's the time in the past that the original series or the Big Finish audios had me reaching for the dictionary, thus adding to my vocabulary and understanding (a good thing, in my opinion).

With the new series, that hasn't happened once.

Rob Filth wrote:Had we known back then what we know now with unlimited regenerations,The Doctor being an dullard invulnerable god with moronic chav-speak, cyber-brig, shoehorned in John Hurt Doctors, sexual braggart First Doctors, regenderation & gender-flipping soothsaying Time Lords, and every other slap in the face Classic Series fans have had to endure, perhaps more fans might have listened to me at the time that this crap wasn't a continuation.

Indeed. If I could go back in time and touch those two wires together, I would and I wouldn't give a damn whether I had the right...

It didn't quite register with me at the time because Doctor Who coming back had been one of those "boy who cried wolf" stories told in the press throughout my childhood. I figured it wouldn't get past RTD's production notes before something stopped it in it's tracks again. It was only when I saw behind-the-scenes photos on a wrestling forum that I realised it was on it's way back.

I remember when the early draft of Rose leaked and resisted the urge to watch it in favour of the television experience, and I got banned from He-Man.org for arguing with people who'd seen it and written it off.

Bernard Marx wrote:

Curious to ask: What was the fan response to the publicity reveals of Eccleston’s nondescript costume at the time?

I can't really remember, but I do recall my response when I first saw photos in some TV/celebrity magazine of Eccers and his leather jacket - I was completely aghast - mortified, even. Yet my wife reassuringly said something like: "Don't get upset about it - that's just him on set before filming, before he's changed into his Doctor Who costume."

The thing is, in itself the leather jacket didn't bother me much. Maybe it wasn't entirely out of character for a modern Doctor to wear something like it.

What DID bother me was when I realized just how much the more sycophantic fans (particularly on Planet Skaro) were nervously proclaiming how genius it was to dress him this utterly safe way and eliminate anything too alienating for the casual audience.

That's when I realized there was something very wrong with fandom.

Tbh I didn't think all that much - I hadn't seen any Classic Who for many years. I watched it in a fairly ambivalent manner, finding Ecclestone miscast for the Little Britain-style comedy in it, which he's never felt comfy with, as much for the role I once loved. I found the story lightweight and very short, but fine as a harmless Saturday evening program.

Because the old show was so distant to me Nu Who felt to me like a completely new show or a tribute, not a remake. However my natural suspicion of unqualified hype & positive reaction meant I then started to critically assess the new show more severely, feeling it should be more than just a 'bit of fun'. Then I came across The Hive, rediscovered classics from the old show and weighed other series' output against the new show's post-modernist rubbish - take a bow, Love & Monsters, which is the sort of thing Buffy could do better with its eyes closed. My dislike of Nu Who was growing but it didn't reach its peak until season 3.

I thought the short buzzed hair and leather jacket was a drastic change from the long hair/vintage edwardian aesthetic of the original 8 but just as long as he gave a good performance and had great scripts under his belt, I could look past the flawed look....

Mott1 wrote:Because the old show was so distant to me Nu Who felt to me like a completely new show or a tribute, not a remake.

To be honest at times, the humor (As with a large chunk of RTD's Who) struck me as less a tribute and more of one of those comedy spoofs where they frequently rip the piss out of the original series and portray it in the stereotype that it was a cheap shitty kids show with a fandom that were a bunch of anoraks and how the new show was hip and cool.(The scene where Bruno Langley gets booted out of the TARDIS sticks out in mind in particular and leaves a nasty aftertaste personally.)

UncleDeadly wrote:

Bernard Marx wrote:The original character always possessed an aura of intellectualism and curiosity through his somewhat out of time demeanour, and eloquent manner of speech (as especially typified by Tom, Colin and McGann)

Oh well, that's right out , isn't it? As far as the current BBC are concerned (and, especially, the NuWho-ers) they couldn't possibly have a character like that as none of the slavering imbeciles in the audience would be able to identify with them. It would be ELITIST

I mean, god forbid anyone should actually learn anything. Its another one of the perverse contradictions inherent in the ethos of NuWho (if it can be said to have one) in that it purports to be "For everyone" or, indeed, "For all" yet the writing seems determined to keep everyone firmly in their place. Doctor Who can be used to convey real information and many's the time in the past that the original series or the Big Finish audios had me reaching for the dictionary, thus adding to my vocabulary and understanding (a good thing, in my opinion).

With the new series, that hasn't happened once.

Bingo. New Who is openly and shamelessly anti-intellectual, from its overall style to its complete dumbed-down remodeling of the central character.