Clever Dick Films' Doctor Who Review The Eccelston Year

Zarius wrote:

Oh boy I don't know if I'm going to enjoy this. This will be his self loathing fanboy "Doctor Who is all about change" side coming out, wont it.

burrunjor wrote:

Zarius wrote:

Oh boy I don't know if I'm going to enjoy this. This will be his self loathing fanboy "Doctor Who is all about change" side coming out, wont it.

I watched it, while it touches on reinvention being a necessity, there's no swipes at fans or commentary on the show's current ills. It is simply a video that sticks to the production of the specific era, touching on things like the BBC's move towards appealing to cult crowds in the 90s and early 2000s, Scream of the Shalka, the influence of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Eccelston's upbringing and portfolio of work, BBC Wales, and two overviews of Dalek and The Empty Child/Doctor Dances.

Zarius wrote:

burrunjor wrote:

Zarius wrote:

Oh boy I don't know if I'm going to enjoy this. This will be his self loathing fanboy "Doctor Who is all about change" side coming out, wont it.

I watched it, while it touches on reinvention being a necessity, there's no swipes at fans or commentary on the show's current ills. It is simply a video that sticks to the production of the specific era, touching on things like the BBC's move towards appealing to cult crowds in the 90s and early 2000s, Scream of the Shalka, the influence of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Eccelston's upbringing and portfolio of work, BBC Wales, and two overviews of Dalek and The Empty Child/Doctor Dances.

Fair enough. I never thought Clever would be like Mr TARDIS to be fair. He's a nice guy, but I do get really depressed at the all change is good mantra these days. More than I have in the past. I honestly hoped everyone would see what a disaster that mantra was after The Timeless Children. If they don't I fear we will never get anything resembling True Who.

It can be done as seen with Batman going back to a darker interpretation after decades of campy stories, but the fans have to want it.

I'll check it out later, but I don't have much of an interest in the Eccelston era obviously. I hope he mentions Xena. It was an influence on New WHo too. It's a shame the way it's always left out.

I've just been watching it and I'm rather mixed on those one.

While he dose a good job, he talks a lot about the positive of the first season but barley touches on the bad or what was lost.

Again I make my case that Rose is not an evolution of Ace. Ace was perfect. She was amore well rounded and deep companion, who didn't need to the Doctor's love intreast or more importantly be more of a focus then the main character. There was a nice health balance and the two characters never stepped on eachother's toes.

He touches on some of the childish and silly stuff in early episodes but seems to think that just because Dalek was a good episode that all can be forgiven. He the praises the Empty Child and never mentions what burrunjor pointed out the other day, which is that the childish stuff is still there.

I read a blog post the other day that really opened my eye's to a lot of the modern fan mentality as well at that of Fathead, Mofftwat and Chinballs. This utter deluded idea that classic who was inferior or always bad. All because, thanks to the BBC, Doctor Who was an easy target for ridicule in the 90s and 00's. Revisionisam if I ever saw it.

The truth is that Doctor Who was an amazing show that lasted 26 seasons on prime time tv and had always been popular. Even to this day the Classic Show out sells new crap in terms of DVD sales. Clever Dicks talks about Buffy but seems to be totally ignorant of the fact that Buffy, as much as I do love it, was only successful because it was not airing on the main stream tv channels in America to begin with. The series own creator has said that if they had run the show on prime time tv, like Doctor Who did, it would have flopped. Even after it became a success it only lasted 7 seasons.

Even at it's so called worst, the series was doing well. Colin's first season was in reality well received by fans and the public, while the McCoy era only suffered due to the BBC's campaign to destroy the show.

All the changes Fathead made to make the show more palatable to main stream audiences didn't save the show. They took away it's soul. This talk of change is a load of bullshit everyone tells themselves to justify their crap writing or liking said crap writing. Yes the classic show changed, but at it's core it was still that series that started airing in 1963. Clever Dick's tries throughout his video to say that NuWho was a regeneration not a resurrection, but for me thats self-deluded nonsense. It's not even a resurrection. The BBC dug up the corpse of the great show they killed years ago, emptied it out and gave it to lesser minds so that their ratings chasing fanfiction crap would have more then a welk's chance ins a supernova at making money. Modern Who is just the corpse puppet of the company that killed it.

Is it little wonder that it's only been around roughly half the time of the original and has degenerated into the utter shit Jodie's era has been. The show was on it's last legs years ago but the BBC just can't let it die. I cannot understand how NuShite is seen as a successful continuation when it's been around for 15 years, has only done 12 seasons (which have sometimes had to be broken up over years), has gone on brakes, has less stories then the Classic Show and has been on an endless downward spiral in quality from it's first season. Which wasn't even that great in hind sight.

I will be fair and say there is some good stuff here and there but it's so few and far between that baring a miracle, or more likely insanity or dementia, I will never watch NuShite again as long as I live.

The First Doctor wrote:I've just been watching it and I'm rather mixed on those one.

While he dose a good job, he talks a lot about the positive of the first season but barley touches on the bad or what was lost.

Again I make my case that Rose is not an evolution of Ace. Ace was perfect. She was amore well rounded and deep companion, who didn't need to the Doctor's love intreast or more importantly be more of a focus then the main character. There was a nice health balance and the two characters never stepped on eachother's toes.

He touches on some of the childish and silly stuff in early episodes but seems to think that just because Dalek was a good episode that all can be forgiven. He the praises the Empty Child and never mentions what burrunjor pointed out the other day, which is that the childish stuff is still there.

I read a blog post the other day that really opened my eye's to a lot of the modern fan mentality as well at that of Fathead, Mofftwat and Chinballs. This utter deluded idea that classic who was inferior or always bad. All because, thanks to the BBC, Doctor Who was an easy target for ridicule in the 90s and 00's. Revisionisam if I ever saw it.

The truth is that Doctor Who was an amazing show that lasted 26 seasons on prime time tv and had always been popular. Even to this day the Classic Show out sells new crap in terms of DVD sales. Clever Dicks talks about Buffy but seems to be totally ignorant of the fact that Buffy, as much as I do love it, was only successful because it was not airing on the main stream tv channels in America to begin with. The series own creator has said that if they had run the show on prime time tv, like Doctor Who did, it would have flopped. Even after it became a success it only lasted 7 seasons.

Even at it's so called worst, the series was doing well. Colin's first season was in reality well received by fans and the public, while the McCoy era only suffered due to the BBC's campaign to destroy the show.

All the changes Fathead made to make the show more palatable to main stream audiences didn't save the show. They took away it's soul. This talk of change is a load of bullshit everyone tells themselves to justify their crap writing or liking said crap writing. Yes the classic show changed, but at it's core it was still that series that started airing in 1963. Clever Dick's tries throughout his video to say that NuWho was a regeneration not a resurrection, but for me thats self-deluded nonsense. It's not even a resurrection. The BBC dug up the corpse of the great show they killed years ago, emptied it out and gave it to lesser minds so that their ratings chasing fanfiction crap would have more then a welk's chance ins a supernova at making money. Modern Who is just the corpse puppet of the company that killed it.

Is it little wonder that it's only been around roughly half the time of the original and has degenerated into the utter shit Jodie's era has been. The show was on it's last legs years ago but the BBC just can't let it die. I cannot understand how NuShite is seen as a successful continuation when it's been around for 15 years, has only done 12 seasons (which have sometimes had to be broken up over years), has gone on brakes, has less stories then the Classic Show and has been on an endless downward spiral in quality from it's first season. Which wasn't even that great in hind sight.

I will be fair and say there is some good stuff here and there but it's so few and far between that baring a miracle, or more likely insanity or dementia, I will never watch NuShite again as long as I live.

Fantastic post. I may repost this to Clever Dick's channel if you don't mind. (I'll obviously say who wrote it.)

DW has the worst self loathing fanboy problem. It stems from the horrendous way it was bullied by the media which was greater than other series. Sure Star Trek get's made fun of, but it's often in an affectionate way by Futurama and South Park.

With DW it was relentless bullying.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, modern comedians barring a few exceptions are absolute cowardly scumbags.

They only ever go after a target if the media hates it. Decades ago comedians used to have guts, like Monty Python and Lenny Bruce, even the Goodies who did an anti South Africa episode when the BBC begged them not to.

Modern comedians however would never have the guts to go after the establishment in a proper way or unacceptable targets. Compare Lenny Bruce attacking the Catholic Church in Bible Belt America when it was a really taboo subject to modern comedians pathetic cowardice in ripping on Islam to see.

So they'll just dogpile on easy targets, but be so ridiculously over the top nasty to them that they will appear edgy to morons.

DW sadly fell into this category in the 90s simply because it was sci fi and an old show. It was EXACTLY like what we'd see with Amy Winehouse in the next few years. The same smug, talentless shits trying to turn something into a laughing stock, and kicking someone when they are down.

Sadly however we let them win. We let their bullying get to us because we were so desperate to avoid it, collectively fandom's attitude became. "The most important thing for me is that DW is the most popular show on air, so smug, talentless cunts on panel shows like Paul Merton, Jimmy Carr etc don't take the mickey out of it for being a nerdy show. I'm happy for it to pander to ANY fad just to keep it on."

As a result New Who is like When the Whistle Blows to the original's Office.

It's lowest common demoninator, catchphrases, "Fantastic", "Are you having a laugh?", "Allonsy", pointless cleebrity cameos that make no sense, like Chris Martin showing up in a factory in Wigan, or an Anne Robinson robot, coarse sexual innuendo to make it edgy, and copying all the tropes of what the makers think will make it popular.

It's fine to like New Who as a show in it's own right. As it is I enjoyed series 3-7 a lot, but to say it was a proper continuation to the original, you're just lying to yourself, and to adopt Clever Dick's attitude of "it had to go this way or else it would have flopped." Is nothing more than self loathing fanboyism, a lack of confidence in DW, and being an Andy Millman and selling out the thing you liked to be popular.



"Oh but they had to do this to get it made. If they had done a more realistic, mockumentary type sitcom, it would have flopped. The plebs would have been too stupid to follow it like us. This got in more viewers so that automatically makes it better"

burrunjor wrote:

Fantastic post. I may repost this to Clever Dick's channel if you don't mind. (I'll obviously say who wrote it.)

By all means please do so.