The Rise and Decline of Classic and New Who: Is History Repeating Itself?

In this video, we trace the peculiar similarities between Classic and New who.

[simplegarak]

After the timeless child... this now makes you look like a time traveler.

[tsopmocful]

A year after this vid was made, and its dire predictions have been realised.

[NebadonAdams]

Eccleston singlehandedly convinced MANY of us that the new series was worthwhile!
He had such a great alien manner about himself that was reminiscent of Tom Baker (to me).
Love David Tennant too, but Eccleston was Fantastic!

[adrianpreston]

I feel so bad for Peter he's been a fan all of his life and his dream was to play the doctor yet it was let down so much, I'm almost certain he would have stayed for another season maybe two.

[noahsark]

Poor Colin baker, and Peter feel so sorry for them

[tonyv]

I liked Matt Smith's Doctor but I thought they just got too caught up with all the story arcs focusing on Amy and Rory. It became some sort of weird soap opera and was very tiring to watch.

[pardwayne]

They learned nothing from "Sony Corporation's Ghostbusters."

[sinjun]

Capadi was perfect the writers let him down. I liked his guitar and sonic sunglasses and all his little eccentrics. Prefect amount of grumpiness. It felt like in the 1st run he didn't know who he was and noe he did. Then he had to deal with Clara and Bill. He was brilliant! The people around him generally failed him, exception of Missy. I will miss him.
I don't understand the necessity to switch sexes when there afe Timelords and Timeladies. It just seems idiotic. I love Missy but she could just as easily ben the Rani.

[qnebra]

This is strange to hear Bowlestrek speaking calmly about DW.

[GagsAnimation]

Also both Eccleston and Pertiwee were the only eras to not have cybermen stories.

[GamerWho]

Battlefield was the least watched Doctor Who? that's one of my favourites. "A child looks up into the sky, his eyes turn to cinders. No more tears, only ashes. Is this honor? Is this war? Are these the weapons you would use?" Silvester's performance is that of a man who has witnessed these things. Chilling.

[Lefur]

Ehhh....rating slipped during the Matt Smith era definitely. But the reasons were primarily Moffat. While he was a good writer of individual episodes )though I'd say the Girl in the Fireplace is definitely not one of them), as a showrunner he was overwhelmingly poor. His stories had gaping plot holes, along with some just plain silly ideas, his characterisation was atrocious and the darker stories you mentioned somewhat ceased to exist. Under his direction the Doctor behaved in ways he never would have done before, ignoring the basic continuity of the character. He, even under the Davies era, started doing this "The Doctor is universally known" thing, which he totally backed himself into a corner with, having to try to wriggle away from and reverse. He continually had to do the universal reboot also. Under his direction death became something that was reversed with a nice little push of the good old reset button, or was simply undone (how many times did Rory die?), meaning it was empty and carried zero emotional weight or meaning. A lot of people referred to his stories as complicated, but no, they were simply convoluted and when actually looked at were basically often just senseless. That's not to say in any way that Davies was perfect, but where as Davies would have a generally subtle story arc, Moffat would beat you over the head with it and then the finale was usually, the good old reset button. Poor writing and characterisation are the reasons the ratings started to slip badly as has been shown by ongoing and continual complaints about really poor stories, characters, motivations and resolutions. Decent enough writer when under the watch of someone else, lousy when in charge.

[TheRealStevenBritton]

I think Matt Smith’s second series (The Impossible Astronaut) was his strongest. While you may not have enjoyed the series-long arc approach, personally, I absolutely loved it.

[FDAbc]

Hello from the future.

Yes, the new Dr. has been an unmitigated disaster. Worse than anyone could have predicted. Not only PC but BORING PC shoved down everyone's throats.

The ratings are in the tank -- so bad it may spell the end of the series.

Your predictions were amazingly dead on.

[kirksART]

David Tennant Nailed it. I struggled with Matt. In fact I don't rate a single episode of his. Peter is a great actor (maybe he should of followed Tennant ? ) But I feel the party is over for me as a fan of "New Who" I loved the RTD era, He captured and summed up what dr who was at it's best and recreated it for a new generation. Then along came Moffat. I can't be arsed with it now. 2005 -2009 (great days) we had "Fun"

[tonyv]

Capaldi's Doctor could have been awesome but he was afflicted by the millstone around his neck who was

[johnwheeler]

You must be a timelord, own a tardis and have gone into the future from when you published this, because you were absolutely right on all counts.

[carealoo]

Favorite stories of each: 'Doctor.'
#1: The Celestial Toymaker.
#2: The Mind Robber.
#3: Inferno.
#4: The Hand Of Fear (So Far.).
#5: The Five Doctors (So Far.).
#6: (Haven't seen enough, to decide.)
#7: (Haven't seen enough, to decide.)
#8: The Night Of The Doctor.
War: The Day Of The Doctor.
#9: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.
#10.1: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End.
#10.2: The End Of Time.
#11: The Curse Of The Black Spot.
#12: Heaven Sent.
#13: XD!

[johnplus]

Matt Smith's introduction was very good. He is my favorite Doctor, although David Tennant is a close second.

[raydeenk]

Although my opinion might change, not only would I compare Capaldi's final season to Collin's final, but also Sylvester's. I wanted to really like Capaldi's Doctor (and I did), but the stories with a few exceptions were horrid. Up until Hell Bent/Heaven Sent. Then Pete, in Spinal Tap terms, went to Eleven. Peter's final season was so fecking awesome and then it was over. I didn't want him to go.