How badly have the early years of New Who aged?

Back in 2004, numerous media outlets were referring to RTD’s revived version of Doctor Who as entirely superior in its visual effects, with Classic Who being slated as a “hokey TV series” (Mark Kermode, 2007, when discussing how good Last of the Time Lords was), or one where the sets and acting were “shaky” (a news report on Jon Pertwee’s passing). Eccleston himself referred to being “put off by the low production values” on that BBC interview from 2005, where he also criticised the Classic series for being “sexist” and due to featuring RP accents. This is a rhetoric that still persists to this day.

However, with all this in mind, how badly has RTD’s era aged in merely 14 years? As far as I’m concerned, such labels of shakiness apply to the early years of New Who more than many examples of Classic Who, where dated and cheaply constructed CGI can be found in many shots (and with none of the charm that occasionally came with some of TruWho’s failings) and popcultural references can be found in practically every episode as to ground that era in the 2000s zeitgeist alone, with no narrative timelessness to really speak of as with TruWho (with the odd exception, such as a brief insertion of the Beatles in The Chase, though even this is comparitively reserved and at least served a subtle character purpose for Ian, Barbara and Vicki).

Would you agree that RTD’s era (and even Moffat’s era already in particular cases) has aged badly, and do the media platitudes appear laughable as a result? And what examples spring especially to mind?

I will never understand how Kermode can trash the Transformers movies for being brainless, plotless action spectacle, and yet praise Last of the Time Lords for being in many ways far worse.

Then again that cuck also liked the new Disney Star Wars films.

Anyway, I've not revisited the Eccleston season recently but I remember some of it being shockingly amateurish (the cartoon Jagrafess, the appalling editing in that stupid "right next to an elevator" bit in World War III).

Other bits were impressive, like The Unquiet Dead and Dalek.

But still, the season had quite a schizophrenic effect on me, and a strong part of me feels like Series 1 was still a promising beginning in places, and a might've been, and that the show could've easily gone either way from it as a starting point. Unfortunately it went the way it did.

So I suppose I'd look back on Series 1 with a lot of cringes, some unpleasant, sour tastes in my mouth, and yet occasionally a wishful longing for what possibilities might've been, and how the show still could've gone instead.

The Davies era has aged terribly already. It does look very dated, very "trying not to be cheap but looking it anyway" UK 2000s and without, as noted, the charmingly dated qualities of the original.

Plus it's shit.

Series 1, in particular, looks very cheap and dated now and not in a good, cool nostalgia way.  
Rose Tyler's fashion sense (baggy jeans, chavvy ear-rings, Union Jack T-shirt, etc) the woefully inadequate CGI effects (the poorly rendered, computer-gamey Nestene Consciousness or the half-arsed destruction of the Auton base in 'Rose').
Quite a few episodes were centred around council estates and grubby urban/inner-city areas and this adds to the generally cheap and shabby sub-Eastenders look and feel of those early years and it's also pretty easy to see that on many occasions, Cardiff is standing in for London.  

I could go on...

They have aged appallingly.

In terms of effects and production values they don't hold up. In fact I'd say that the production values for season 1, look far worse than those for the later McCoy stories.

Compare the Dalek flying up the stairs in Remembrance to the Metaltron flying up in Dalek. Compare the planet in Survival to the drab space stations in series 1? Compare the Haemovores to the burping wheely bin?

The pop culture references have dated it badly too. Who the fuck even remembers Trinny and Suzannah now? Imagine what it will look like in another 20 years.

Also in terms of content it doesn't really stand out. It comes over as more of a cash in on Buffy and Angel and Xena. Classic Who obviously pandered to what was popular, like Pertwee and spy espionage stories. The difference is however that the Pertwee era, didn't pander to the point where it didn't feel like DW anymore.

Pertwee is still the old, asexual, alien scientist. He doesn't suddenly start shagging every woman he comes into contact with like James Bond. Eccelston however does actually end up getting off with a blonde teenager he is so closely modelled on Xena and Angel. Added to that it doesn't bring anything new to the Buffy, Angel formula and doesn't do it anywhere near as well, so no to modern viewers it doesn't have as much appeal.

Merk Kermode meanwhile is an absolute tosser. He is a total conformist in everything he thinks, yet because he is a bit grumpy, idiots think he is smart.

Series 1 does look particularly poor nowadays. The transitions from Practical Slitheen to CGI Slitheen is really bad because of how clunky the Practical Slitheen look only for them to suddenly move in a quick succession. Some of Series 2 does look poor as well, such as the Cybermen conversion CGI and Krillitane.
However, with the exceptions of that, I do think Series 2 is a substantial improvement in terms of set design and CG. Another thing that I will compliment for both Series 1 and 2 is actually the lighting. The soft orange bloom effect actually works really well for Doctor Who, especially looking atmospheric in the Tardis. Likewise, I also think that the Werewolf CG looks great for 2006, and looks good now. And, to this day, I will say that the design, cinematography and production for The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit is still the best to come out of NewWho, and shows that NewWho can try with set locations and effects if the higher ups gave enough of a shit about the show more.

Whilst it is still enjoyable in some areas such as Dalek & The Empty Child two parter (despite their dodgy endings). A lot of of early NuWho doesn't hold up well today.

i don't think its aged.

It was just always shit, thats all. Albeit with occasional standout episodes.

SomeCallMeEnglishGiraffe wrote:Another thing that I will compliment for both Series 1 and 2 is actually the lighting. The soft orange bloom effect actually works really well for Doctor Who, especially looking atmospheric in the Tardis.

Sorry, but that Tardis set was an eyesore to me.

I didn't even realize how much I hated it until the relief that washed over me when Series 5 replaced it with something much more aesthetically soothing.

I thought the lighting was often very bad in the first two seasons. There were exceptions but it was often massively overlit. People talk about the flood lighting in some early 80s stories but it was just as bad, if not worse, in the likes of Doomsday.