There was the most blatant Bad Wolf reference yet in tonight's episode. The Doctor translates it from the Welsh which I won't attempt to type here.

"All this Millennium stuff is so last century"

I think a parallel can be drawn between David Tennant and Patrick Troughton - both going where someone had already made the part very much their own.

As much as I love watching Hartnell's Doctor, I also equally love seeing the old Troughton stuff as well. Personally speaking, I think DT will make an excellent Doctor - and as La'G says, DT is very easy on the eye

I think slugs comment was ever so slightly tongue in cheek

The episode clearly has evidence of Russell T. Davies past experiences in it a lot of soap like long continuous dialogue scenes, While I am not saying Dr who should be completely action, as in many ways that would have been worse it would have ended up like some crappy mindless action TV series. However the long dialogue between The Doctor and the slitheen and Rose and Mickey seemed long and often pointless to the central narrative an odd line here and there and Body language would have been fat more effective than protracted Shot reverse shot scenes between the protagonists.

This episode also has the clear style of a episode focussed towards a child like audience depending on your opinion this is either a good or bad thing depending on your personal opinion , personally I think it is a good thing and I will explain why later. This story also had a lot of double entendres or threads of narrative that would not be picked up by the younger audience making it appeal to the adults as well

Dr who was always going to have a problem trying to maintain the broad appeal between kids and an adults. I can accept there is going to need to be episodes that appeals to the child section of the audience, As I can imagine some of the strands of narrative in Dalek, End of the world and the double Unearthly child and Doctor dances episodes would have went over the head of most kids and would have even been boring for them so there needs to be these lighter episodes, maybe even more of them as Doctor who is mainly for the kids- Not for us saddo’s .

I could not have thought though of a better episode than this for the children though.It has the traditional Comic Book baddies (The Slitheen) However it presented it in a new light. Traditonally the “comic book baddie” there is a clear line between good and bad however this had the concept of manipulation and, In my opinion pitched this idea of manipulation at a appropriate level for a child audience and this is what makes Doctor Who British, different from any American sci-fi or childrens TV series there is an idea that certainly prevails in American programmes, in particular Children’s programmes that there is a clear line between good and evil. This story played with that idea,At times the audience is encouraged to feel sympathy with the Slitheen and hate the doctor and at other times we are encouraged to feel sympathy with the doctor and hate the slitheen while the doctor is traditionally meant to be a good guy he isn’t spotless he has a bad past and this bad past appears to effect his decisions now so sometimes he does not make good decisions This is an incredibly advanced concept to introduce to children at a young age with narrative structures in other children’s text not going on beyond a basic betrayal. This series was also perfectly placed to be a “children’s” episode because it allows an easier tying up of the narrative before the big episodes of bad Wolf and Parting of the ways.

This episode was perfect Saturday night entertainment, Was family friendly, Engaging yet did not require you to have your brain in gear, However has infinite more creativity than Celebrity Love island or whatever reality show that all the main public service broadcasters appear to be able churn out on tap and hence I could never give an episode of doctor who a “bad” rating because it is infinitely better than that celebrity crap.

This new series of Doctor who is going to be one of those things that goes down in television history. I bet if I came back to the digital spy forums in ten years time there would be a group of people reminiscing in the Television programmes forums about how ten years ago they made such great programmes such as Doctor who and asking why does the BBC produce such rubbish in 2015 such as their new reality show Bad Wolf

One problem with this series of Doctor who is that it has inspired me to begin writing scripts and storylines .However I don’t think the world is quite ready yet for a nuclear winter on Albert Square

I have given this episode Good, If it was any other TV show I would have given it excellent for a television episode however this series of doctor who is not any other TV show and as such the standard for the average episode is higher although to be honest this is my least favourite episode but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good

Thanks Matt for such a well thought out analysis. But do you really think this was child friendly? I thought the previous Slithereen episode was far more geared towards "family viewing", and a lot of this episode was tying up knots for the casual viewer that us saddos (LOL ) had already surmised or noticed.

Sorry about that then. Mind still not in gear and I'm not wading through all the earlier posts if this has already been discussed.

P.S. Stupid to start this week's thread so early!

Interesting point. I think it is wrong to assume that BB and TWL will be forgotten. Almost all TV gets kept and recycled these days. BB in particular wil be remembered long after its time as a shorthand way of describing the state of the nation in at the turn of the 21st century. It may not be remembered fondly but it will be remembered.


I think each of the past Dr Who series contained elements which were very much of their time. What they tended not to be was quite so postmodern in their references to other media.

What is important for the BB and TWL references is that they make a serious point and are not just played for laughs.

Just read pages 1 and 2. All you need!

Are we going to get a poll tonight do you think?

Well Beth is away so we have to rely on the other mods - several of us have asked them so hopefully someone will do something about it soon

This appears to be a new addition to the badwolf page.

We know that the TARDIS can alter Rose and the Doctor's perceptions of the world so that they can understand alien languages... perhaps it's responsible for placing the clues about Bad Wolf all around them?

If so, why? What is the TARDIS trying to warn them about?

Maybe this is the key? The Tardis has been responsible for the clues for some reason.

That was on there before (I think ) but it is probably more relevant after tonights episode

Pretty sure the site hasn't been updated yet as the clue about the power station name that we know is in the html code for the clue page waiting to be activated hasn't shown up yet

So do you think in some way all the references for bad wolf that we've seen have been in some way "markers" left by the makers of the TV (or by the Daleks) which the Tardis has translated into Bad Wolf every single time in the hope the Dr will notice? Interesting.

It's been changed now in the last couple of minutes

There are two ways it could have done this. It could have put the idea of "bad wolf" into people's minds, which is unlikely as most of the writers of "bad wolf" never stepped on the Tardis. It could be affecting the translation of other languages into Galefreyan (for The Doctor) and English (for Rose). However some of those references have been in modern English and would not have required translation. Perhaps the Tardis is affecting their perception anyway to get the clues in but that seems a bit tenious. If it could do that then why not explain the whole thing to The Doctor quietly while he pretends to read a book or something.

What is interesting is that The Doctor realised something was going on, started talking and then realised something else and shut up very sharpish instead of going off on one of his "look how clever I am for working it all out" talks. We can assume he has some idea what is going on.

Did it always say "You don't know everything" - I don't recall? They're having a dig at "us saddos", aren't they

That theory seems to indicate that bad wolf is not something to do with the reality "game station", but the action of the Tardis trying to send a warning because it knows something the Doctor doesn't.

We've been given a big hint in this episode that the Tardis is alive and it might be the character whose actions we haven't taken into account.

Triffic first link on the Bad Wolf search page:


"What is the mystery that's haunted the Doctor and Rose? Find absolutely nothing out on this website dedicated to Bad Wolf"

Cracked me up!

K

Saddo here - yes it did, and yes I think they probably are

"Originally Posted by Chris42
Is there any precedent to this kind of thing in previous series?"

The only obvious one I can remember is a Jon Pertwee episode with the Master in prison watching an episode of the Clangers.

Quite a good episode this evening, if a little slow in places.

Even though the Doctor and the Slitheen woman's dinner "date" was a bit of a drag, there was some good dialogue, especially the suggestions that she and the Doctor were not really very different in terms of being killers.

Like others have said, it felt more like a filler, a prelude to next week's episode and a tantalising glimpse of the Bad Wolf references.

Can I have a link to this site please?

http://www.badwolf.org.uk/index.html

Did anyone else think "whoisdoctorwho"this week was a bit dull. I get the feeling that they had to have him posting before the episode (and linked it into the episode rather nicely ) because otherwise a cat will be let out of a bag?