In fairness the part of it I hate is the 'Time Lord Victorious' thing, which I suppose is RTD's writing. The main Mars story is just average Doctor Who, and not greatly objectionable, although I did find the comic-book style characters to be irritating.



If you like, and I appreciate that you are playing Devil's Advocate and making a pithy remark but we both know Doctor Who is not a children's show; it's suitable for children, and that's not the same thing.

I've never really understood how adults could be bothered with shows like the Sarah Jane adventures to be honest. I don't mean that scornfully, I just genuinely don't get it. I watched a single episode of that show because it had the 11th Doctor in it and it was just... a kid's show. Nothing wrong with that but it was trite, and boring, and just unengaging to my adult mind. I don't know how anyone could sit through multiple episodes to be honest, let alone watch them all. But then, I know there are lots of adults who go to see all of these animated children's films at the cinema. I can't sit through those either.

Anyway, thread seriously derailed. Slap my wrist and continue as you were.

Other way, its a children's show that's suitable for adults.

I find some children's programming (Horrible Histories and SJA) are a welcome form of escapsim, sure they are less engaging, thought provoking, whatever. But what they are is bloody good fun

I asked on page 1 of this thread if the clockwork robot's rumour was meant to be the one's from the girl in the fireplace and if so, how the could possibly return. can no on answer this in any way? not trying to be pushy, just really curious

None of us could possibly have anymore of an idea than you do, unless we work for the show, in which case we probably wouldn't say anything anyway.

Ditto, great villians that they were, I thought that story-wise surely they were strongly linked to that episode and would need some form of heavy shoe horn to appear elsewhere?

Actually they didn't have evil intentions did they, they just followed orders or their central programming. Since they were robots they just did it without recourse to impact on human life?Similarities to 2001: Space Oddyssey, and I Robot et. al

this is what Im wondering about, they weren't evil, they were very specific to that ep, but yet rumours are that they are back, and I just dont see how

Interesting and somewhat grumpy wishlist article :

http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/7-wante...-era-57370.htm

I agree with the arcs bit.

I think the 'no more timey-wimey' plots is a bit silly considering its about a dude with a time machine!

Agree with the slightly slower pace.

The clockwork robots were ok as a one off but they were a bit naff really!

Less reliance on time travel in a show about time travel. The rest of the article had its merits but that but smacked of someone who only started watching in 2005 and thinks its all about modern day earth stories. Possibly the worst thing of RTDs era was that he almost totally ignored the time travel aspect and its implications. Moffat brought it back front and centre. Quite right to.

They've been hanging around Europe for 140 years displayed as curiosities (non working) until they are gathered together and repowered by some alien force which wants to use them in it's evil plan.

How can anyone answer your question when its just a rumour? Let alone pass judgement on the merits of their return? Who knows how it will turn out? If internet forums had been around decades ago no doubt some people would have complained when the Daleks came back with the usual 'they were good for those episodes but theyll spoil it!' and 'we don't need a story about how the Daleks were created! That will just spoil the mystery!'. How about we hold fire and wait until the episode actually airs before passing judgement?

and there you go! Corwin addresses all the questions in a few lines. Job done.

Time travel can be a great element of the show, and it was in a good number of RTD stories as well...perhaps just less front-and-centre. Pete's World ran ahead of our universe, the Medusa Cascade was put a second out of sync with the rest of the universe, the Series 3 finale undid an entire year of events, The Girl in the Fireplace and Blink were both heavily rooted in the concept of time travel (thanks Moffat), the Series 1 finale used time travel to give a sort-of timelapse of the Doctor's impact on Earth affairs (The Long Game - Bad Wolf), and though time was seldom rewritten the Doctor always made a point of respecting the laws of time throughout the era.

For me, I think time-travel has been used as a get-out-of-jail free card a few too many times in the Moffat era, and not just by Moffat. I think it works here and there...I more-or-less loved the Series 5 finale, and A Christmas Carol which also heavily focused on the concept of time travel. But I think a more coherent A-B plot isn't so bad some of the time, and we've now had three story arcs that have played out essentially back-to-front. There's nothing wrong with a more linear storyline some of the time, and I think Series 8 should adopt one. Just my personal opinion of course

Did he? I just thought he examined it on a smaller scale? Not everything has to be on a universal scale.

Why are you all so negative? Rather than talking what you want LESS, try to think what you want MORE. It would be much more constructive and more interesting.


Well, time travel should definitely be in focus and present-day-earth is certainly overused in RTD era, especially in season 1 and finals.

As for timey-wimey, I'd like to see more one-episode timey-wimey (like Big Bang or Blink). Whole-season timey-wimeys are also good, but writers need to be careful not to make it too complicated. For example, 7B arc about Clara was fantastic, but River story was a little bit too complicated for my taste.

So, in season 8, i'd like too see more one-episode timey-wimeys and a little easier arcs.

And the River story started in Series 4 with Tennant's Doctor too so it was a 3 series 2 Doctor arc!

RTD did a great job in series 1 showing the effects of time travel. I loved the idea that Rose had only been with the Doctor for a few episodes yet to her mum it had been a full year. Also, Father's Day has to be one of the most effective time travel episodes the show has ever done.

I'm not a fan of Moffat's messy stories. The only time he got time travel right was with River Song's first episode (Silence In The Library) and Blink.

If you had a 'real' time machine, and you lived your life skipping up and down the fourth dimension, your life could get really, REALLY complicated.

Moff has presented to us a little bit of what that might be like and I think he's one of the first people to do so in the series' history. Rock on!

I actually agree with this time travel is complicated and what makes it more complicated, is making sure to dont end up with bad paradoxes!
That second part is more difficult and Moffat has shown quite well how paradoxes can very easily happen!

just thought someone might speculate or have a theory, since there or are alot of people on here who are good at that sort of thing, after all that's the whole point of the forum, If no one's allowed to ask or speculate about the future then you may as well request all the thread's about capaldi's time to be closed down immediately

what the writer of that article was trying to say, in my opinion, is that moffats era seems to consist a lot of time wibbly wobbly time travel stuff as a mean's of explaining anything away or standing in for lack of a meaty, well written plot. Yes it's good to mess with time as part of the plot as episodes like blink show, but the whole show shouldn't rely on this constantly. That stuff should be balanced out with episodes where time travel just takes the doctor and his companion to their destination so that they can have a good, intriguing straight forward plot in an interesting time/location

see, that's a good intersting theory which if used would make sense. good answer, like it.

and we have had plenty of those in the Moffat era. Whether you think they are any good is up to personal taste but even taking S7...

Asylum of the Daleks
Dinosaurs on a SpaceShip
A Town Called Mercy
The Power of Three
Cold War
Hide
The Crimson Horror

None of these stories relied at all upon 'Timey Wimey' plots and were entirely straight forward Doctor Who episodes.

So there you go. Balance. Where the whole time travel aspect is largely irrelevant once they get to their location.

So your comment that 'the whole show shouldn't rely on this' is shown as untrue because it clearly doesn't.