Doctor Who

[Drinnik]

I know people who didn't think she was any good as Donna because she does sketch comedy.

[WBAGNR]

I sort of fell into that category. I didn't think she was bad per se, but I always expected her to turn around to the Daleks and say "Am I bovered?!", which stopped me being absorbed into her character.

Likewise, the guy who plays Cal Lightman in Lie to Me will always be Cal Lightman, so when I saw him in the Incredible Hulk, I expected him to point at other characters displayed emotions weren't actually their really feelings.

[empath]

I know people who didn't think she was any good as Donna because she does sketch comedy.

Now not having seen Tate's work in that field, I can't say if that has any effect on my opinion of her work on DW (in either direction).

I will say this: Joss Whedon likes to grab competent comedy actors for supporting roles/cameos in his work, because "comedy is the hard one." Of course, this all depends on Tate being a competent comedic actress, and as stated, I can't say either way about that.

[AmazingPjotrMan]

Likewise, the guy who plays Cal Lightman in Lie to Me will always be Cal Lightman, so when I saw him in the Incredible Hulk, I expected him to point at other characters displayed emotions weren't actually their really feelings.

Who? OOOH you mean Mr.Orange!

[tbug]

Many people said while I didn't need to see any of the early stuff (prior to the 2005 reboot) a lot of people did want to me check out Tom Baker. Which seems fair as for many people who grew up with this series he is THE Doctor.

I'm one of these people.

The episodes made in the seventies on low budgets really look the part. They're cheesy and silly, and they're well-loved for what they are. Some episodes are must-sees (eg The Genesis of the Daleks) and others are more see-once (eg Terror of the Zygons), but they all provide background (TotZ saw the departure of Harry as a companion and was referenced in School Reunion, for example).

Tom Baker played the doctor for longer than any other actor, and certainly had an enormous impact on how the public sees the character. It's worth at least checking out a few of his stories even if you don't want to work your way through all of them.

Maybe we should be recommending arcs based on companions rather than on Doctors? Sarah Jane Smith was awesome!

[Drinnik]

Ace is probably the best companion ever.

She beat up a dalek with a baseball bat, gor Christ's sake!

[tbug]

Ace is also the only companion whose fate was never revealed. I keep hoping she'll show up in the new show.

[EnglishMQ]

They were planning to have Ace leave the Doctor to enter a Time Lord academy to train to become a Time Lord herself. This plan was sort of ruined by the whole "series getting cancelled" thing. YMMV as to whether it would have worked or not.

Though I do like to imagine Ace in the midst of the Time War taking down the Daleks with her trusty baseball bat!

[Gordon Fearman]

And dying. Never forget the dying.

[EnglishMQ]

Hay, if the last 5 years have told me anything it's that a lot of people survived that war.

[Keab42]

I know people who didn't think she was any good as Donna because she does sketch comedy.

No it was because she can't act. Not even in her sketch comedy.

Brilliant character, let down by a poor actress.

[Drinnik]

Fires of Pompeii after the volcano goes off and Journey's End's last 7 minutes prove you wrong, sir.

Also, suis je bovvered?

[empath]

This whole Tate love/hate thing boils down to this: OPINIONS.

These are subjective things that depend on perspective and circumstance; they cannot be 'proven wrong'.

Catherine is a good actress to Drinnik, and simultaneously a bad actress to Keab42. YOU'RE BOTH RIGHT. That's how this works. It might be easier to lump it under 'quantum uncertainty behaviour' or similar.


On the other hand, The fact is there IS a lot of cool and awesome stuff in the 'pre-reboot' stories. Admittedly there's a ton of camp and cheese, and even a lot of overlap of that with the 'cool & awesome'.

...but even that isn't always a bad thing.

[Gordon Fearman]

Exactly. Just because you think Matt Smith is brilliant and I think he's a terrible actor who's only able to convey two emotional states which most of the time don't fit the situation doesn't mean you're WRONG. It just means I'm right.


Before you get your panties in a bunch, that was joke. You might've heard of them.

[Timelady]

Maybe we should be recommending arcs based on companions rather than on Doctors? Sarah Jane Smith was awesome!

Sarah Jane WAS awesome. Ace was too. Also Harry, Leela, Jamie, and Romana (both of them, although the first one's a little hazier in my memory). And of course it's impossible to forget K9.

[falconknight06]

I really liked Rose as a companion. No particular reason I can think of. I just did

[Drinnik]

This whole Tate love/hate thing boils down to this: OPINIONS.

These are subjective things that depend on perspective and circumstance; they cannot be 'proven wrong'.

Catherine is a good actress to Drinnik, and simultaneously a bad actress to Keab42. YOU'RE BOTH RIGHT. That's how this works. It might be easier to lump it under 'quantum uncertainty behaviour' or similar.


On the other hand, The fact is there IS a lot of cool and awesome stuff in the 'pre-reboot' stories. Admittedly there's a ton of camp and cheese, and even a lot of overlap of that with the 'cool & awesome'.

...but even that isn't always a bad thing.

Catherine Tate = Schrodinger's Actress.

[RobertMc123]

When people get uptight about the actors who play the doctor or his companions, it always amuses me. The main reason being I just take the show for what it is and forget who is playing who and get into the show. So far I have loved every single second of Dr Who since the reboot started, I didn't mind the actors who were in the show, none of it bothered me, but I have heard people get uptight about it and say "oh this person ruined that episode", really? You let one person ruin an episode? That's rather pathetic.

[iamafish]

well when that character is in over half the scenes and typically has an awful lot of lines, whether or not the actor playing that character is any good does have something of an impact on whether that episode is enjoyable.

Don't get me wrong, it's not as if i disliked all the 4th series of the reboot because of tate, but she is a blemish on some otherwise fantastic episodes.

[RobertMc123]

I thought she was the best companion out of the whole series so far, apart from Amy Pond, she brought a levity to the companions that hadn't been there for a while. She was funny and actually a good character to put with the doctor. (It helps that I didn't watch her sketch show)

[iamafish]

the character was good, it was just a shame about the actress and the way she portrayed the character.

By contrast Pond as a character is pretty hit and miss - she seems ill-defined, so she just slotted into whatever role the story required, but the actress is really good and portrays the character really well.

[Lyinginbedmon]

I personally despised Catherine Tate in Doctor Who. Even The Doctor spent most of his time being annoyed by her.

[Keab42]

Fires of Pompeii after the volcano goes off and Journey's End's last 7 minutes prove you wrong, sir.

Also, suis je bovvered?

I'll grant you she did do a good job in those scenes, and yeah we all have our opinions.

For instance I agree with Gordon on Smith in the first few episodes, but feel he was improving and was up to at least 3 maybe 4 emotional states by the last few episodes. But I put this down to the fact that he's a relatively new actor being asked to handle a very old and very complex character and before that had the unfortunate handicap of being a professional footballer.

But yeah I felt that Donna was good character/poor actress whereas Pond is poor character/reasonable actress.

But yeah I shan't bang on about it, I mean we all have our likes and dislike and we all have our favourites, I mean just ask somebody who their favourite Doctor or Bond is and then watch the sparks fly.

[empath]

Pulling one of my patented Tangents©, I'd have to say that I absolutely despised #5's companion Adric; he was abrasive, arrogant and an almost completely insufferable person. It's understandable that, having an intellect that surpasses most adults, combined with his youth and not-yet-attained-maturity that he would behave like this, but that doesn't mean I liked him any more.

Even the character's end was unpleasant, he dies because he refuses to flee a crashing ship whose controls have been locked out by logic codes. His superiority complex insists that he can and must crack the codes, and ignores everyone else. His compulsion to show his mental supremacy is such a drive that he disregards personal safety or even any notion of self-preservation.

Even his last words (after a dying Cyberman blasts the control, preventing him from finishing his decoding) are "Now I'll never know if I was right." - imminent death is nothing compared to denial of satisfying his ego and (yet again) demonstrating his mental prowess.



Now, with all this said, and all my hate for Adric, I also have to say that I LOVED Matthew Waterhouse's portrayal; he did an amazingly GOOD job in evoking such loathing from me to a fictional character.

[Drinnik]

It's because he wasn't acting. Waterhouse was a dick on set and often gave acting "tips" to the more experienced actors.

There's a reason I cheer when I watch the last 5 minutes of Earthshock.