Of almost all the comments so far made in the thread I still think this encapsulates things best. S1 and S2 Doctors , looking back, are noticeably different then what we have now. More to the point, much of S1 and S2 seemed closer to old Who. Compared to what we have now, there were more alien worlds, more aliens, more outer space and much more "sci-fi" as it were. Compare that to what we have going on were virtually all of S4 and much of S3 was basically on Earth.DaveJB wrote:Yeah, Davies was in charge of Doctor Who until this year, when Steven Moffat took over. Notionally, he's been in charge of Torchwood since the beginning of that series, although Chris Chibnall did a lot of the head writer's job during that show's first two seasons.
I think part of the problem was that Davies himself changed his idea of what the Tenth Doctor was meant to be, halfway through his tenure. Initially, the Tenth Doctor's lighter and more manic personality was meant to hide the more ruthless streak that we saw in The Christmas Invasion and Human Nature/The Family of Blood. At some point between S2 and S3 however, Davies decided he had made a huge mistake with Ten's original personality and story arc (which he admitted in a Doctor Who Magazine interview, if memory serves), and instead went with the whole "Doctor as a messiah" thing that took root later in S3.
God I am SO sick of Earth...
As for the Doctor himself, What we saw in S1 and S2 was indeed a "manic wacky" doctor, but at the same time, it was clear he was doing that to hide internal grief about the TimeWar. One of the reasons why "Dalek" is considered on of the best NuWho episodes is that it really shows the Doctor's true feelings about the TimeWar, how it effected him. As many have said Eccellsons acting skills really sold it.
Instead after S2 we got the increasing decline of a more emotional sympathetic Doctor and instead got "Messiah" Doctor which is really more and more out of character . When you look at 'Classic' DrWho, the Doctor has always ALWAYS been wrote as someone who didn't want, nor need recognition for his good deeds. Often people offer him wealth, power, jobs, etc in gratitude for his help, which is usually followed by "Sure, let me just get something out of my Blue Box real quick"
The fact that much of Season 3 and 4 has people gushing about the Doctor as savior of Humanity just grates on my nerves.
The more I watch the new series, the more I am simply writing off everything past Season two. "The Doctor" as a character, has by and large stopped being "The Doctor" as he was and used to be. Change is not a bad thing, but the trick is to be consistent. And more and more the Writters of NuWho simply can't make of their minds about what they want or what the Doctor should be.
