Fair enough he can state what he feels.
but had to laugh when he says 'I will still watch it'

I didnt like the specials last year I knew then it was time for DT to leave because it was hurting the show.

Ive seen nothing wrong with the Series and the mere fact its holding Audience figures well says it all.

Just look at The Prisoner on ITV (clear the audience telling the channel its Crap)

Real cognitive dissonance going on in my mind! I love both Terry Pratchett and Doctor Who. To be fair, I think he's right on some counts, I just don't always consider it a problem. And he's occasionally guilty of deus ex machina too.

And I disagree with makeitupasyougoalongeum being used all the time. For example, the use of gravity as a solution was clearly signposted in Flesh and Stone, and worked brilliantly.

@sigsig

My favourite phrase cognative dissonance. sums up at lot of post on these forums

That will have been written before Pratchett even saw series 5, so his views on the RTD 'Who' are spot on.

I'd agree that the last few seasons were a bit guilty of what he's saying, but it's been great so far this year, the Doctors more of a mad professor this time around which is great, i wan't less epic doctor stuff, he's not the messiah, he's a very naughty timelord.

Argh more pointless social psychology students go away

So what if Doctor Who uses deus ex machina or "makeitupasyougoalongeum" ???

Surely all that matters is how entertaining the stories are? War of the Worlds uses arguably one of the biggest deus ex machinas of ALL TIME but it's still a brilliant story.

Judge each story/episode on its own merits I say.

That depends on the intention. To commission a new series you need ratings, not quality - see Graham Norton.
For characters to be believeable they have to be consistent. If their world is inconsistent then this is difficult. Over time if people are finding characters unbelieveable then they will lose identification and switch off. Of course, if you can pull in a less discerning audience then you may keep ratings, but there are only so many times you can use that device before it becomes predictable and no one watches any more.

The fact that he spent most of his time exiled to Earth may have had something to do with that.

Well that's pretty much what he's saying when he writes:


Most of the full article is explaining his love of the series despite its occasional shortcomings. The DS article emphasised the critical parts which is a shame.

Posted early in the thread but worth a repost:

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/05/03/gues...on-doctor-who/

They seem to make a point of posting misleading stories about the show when lifting stuff from magazines. At this stage it's fairly clear it is a quite deliberate tactic.

Well I like Pratchett and I like Dr Who - not sure I want to see a fight between them to sort it out. And once you get through the DS spin there isn't much of an issue between them anyway.

Both are mostly great fun but not always - Monstrous Regiment and Love & Monsters don't spoil the good stuff though.

I really enjoyed Monstrous Regiment!

You can critique a programme and still love it, and I must admit that DW's and especially TW's "giant reset button" moments annoyed me.

Basically felt that the writers backed themselves into a corner and then had to wave a magic wand to fix it. It leaves me feeling a bit short changed tbh.

Not all the time, just sometimes.

i agree with what terry pratchett has said, because its true!! but im assuming its all supposed to be changing this series? no more silly endings...

Because they employ sub-tabloid idiots whose idea of journalism is reading the red tops or trawling a few forums. They make Murdoch employees look over educated. It's the same writers who copy rent-a-quote MP's remarks to make out that that the <insert Lab/Libs/Con> Party hate the BBC. It's sub standard and pathetic. There is more professional writing here than on the DS site itself. As RTD would say - a bunch of Ming-Mongs !

Hes right, but Doctor Who is basically a kids show, not designed to make sense at all, very clunky plots, etc, just meant to be fun. Its a kids show, just one that loads of adults happen to watch too.

We had the virus and then Amy coming up with solution based on feelings in bothe the Beast Below, and Victory, and then in the two parter , lucky the crack took more prominance....so not just an RTD thing

As for the Doctor's vunerability....I have yet to see Moff make the Doctor as vunerable as he was in Midnight, and heck even when he took on the Time Lord victoriuos persona, he was still very vunerable....hence the result of his actions....in Moffs stories he is a hero, almost fairytale like, the ones that monsters have nightmares about, the ones that he tells to run away and they do, the ones he smugly tells that they shouldn't put in a trap....I don't see how any of that is any more vunerable than what RTD did with the Doctor....





I don't believe you can put RTD's so called DEM's in the same category as being stuck in a corner....manily because he already has the solution planned....whether that be to have the Doctor saved by Rose so he then can save her, or for Rose to be sent through the parallel world, or the Doctor to become dobby and then come back in a big fashion using physic link, or creating another Doctor using his spare hand, or making Donna save the world from the Daleks only for her to lose her memory just because of that....



How did you not liking the specials mean that DT was hurting the show? Considering that ratings wise the specials didn't do that badly....



So your saying that he would have thought about the way love saved them all from the Bracewell Bomb as being perfect Sci-fi??? Okay then.....



As pointed above, the so called solutions so far are questionable as much as any so called RTD DEM was...and the Doctor hasn't completely lost his so called messiah/epic ego if the way he got rid of the Atraxi is anything to go by....



Not sure what you mean by this....I mean what same device was used again and again in RTD stories that were a solution to the plots each time that then got tiring?



And I love Love and Monsters!!!


Yes no more silly endings.....no more defeating bombs by love...oh hang on.....

Leave him alone...Terry Pratchett has a good thing going...

Respect the thing....it's a thing in progress...

D

who cares what TP thinks anyway? its only one guys (not even fully quoted) opinion.

if you like the show, watch it. if you dont like it then dont watch it. its that simple!!

what amazes me is posts about loving the show then pointing out what they think are the weaker worst episodes!! why do we do that as a society? we focus on what we think are negatives rather than the positives.

i love watching Dr Who, for me its 45 minutes of escapism watching a FANTASY show. when i want to stretch my brain or find out about quantum locking i'd watch the discovery channel or go to uni to learn about it!

not everyone has the same opinions as everyone else so just worry about your own

Won't, so nyah! (says the Psychology student)

As to Pratchett's comments, I would have to agree on some bits (Last Of The Time Lords springs to mind).

hahaha! he's right in some ways!
i do enjoy Dr Who very much. but what ever peril he is in or will ever be in - it will be solved immediately by something made up there and then. and the sonic screw driver is now some kind of magic wand that solves and does everything.

I still enjoy it though.

going to pick up the first DVD of this series for a friend's kid in NZ. pity the Kiwis, they wont be able to see this series till next year!

dont worry they will when they have to join the unemployment line pmsl

anyway...isnt it revison time?????????????????

Mr Pratchety certainly has a point. One that instantly springs to mind is Journeys End when Donna defeats a Dalek army but rocking up and turning some dials.

However, eBay he describes is The Tenth Doc's persona. He was a Doctor that truly believed his own hype, right from his encounter with the Sycorax to the Waters of Mars. He only really humbled in End if Time when he realised his game was up. He was genuilely full of life when the Timelords were defeated - and then Wilf knocked four times.

Eleven is different and is being written differently. Rather than coming up with it all in his head, the clues if how to solve the episodes big problem are being seeded throughout the episode, to the new series' credit.

I reckon, if I really think about it, I could up with a list of solutions that I accepted at the time and thought which just seemed silly. Whatever the case, I too will be watching each week.

Having a quick read of the full article in the SFX blogs, it does appear that he's referring more to the Tennant doctor.

In the whole article I think the only reference he makes to the current series is that "I might shout at the screen again, but I will be watching on Saturday. Besides he now has a kissogram girl for his sidekick, so things can only get better", which leads to think his gripe is not with the current series, but with the events that went before...Dr Who being lifted by angels in the episode with the Titanic, everyone praying for Dr Who...the man has a point, Dr Who was being made god-like, and that was wrong. He's a time traveller, not a deity.