Doctor Who - Time Crash

[iainjclark]

Given the astonishing constraints of time and budget that a little vignette like this must face, I have to give Steven Moffat kudos for pulling off as much characterisation and even perfunctory plot as he did.

I'd have rated this as a bit too flippant and self-referential, except that the final conversation in which Tennant paid tribute to Davison adds a dollop of weight to something that is, by design, complete fluff. Also, self-referential is really the point when you have two Doctors from 20 years apart meeting. This is basically a non-stop series of fannish references and gags. Doctor Who: The Vaudeville Routine, perhaps.

Peter Davison doesn't entirely seem to remember how he used to play the part, but there's enough of the old spark there to make things worthwhile, and it's not entirely stretching the point to argue that the two incarnations have a certain affinity. Janet's very partial to the "When I was young I was old and crotchety, then I got older" bit too. (She's suggesting now it could be a Merlin reference. Hmmm. Possibly.)

EDIT: Also I wonder if the "You were my Doctor" is Tennant or Moffat speaking through the character? In many ways Davison was as much 'my' Doctor as Tom Baker, and I have very fond memories of his era, probably the last in which I truly enjoyed the old series.

EDIT 2: From the Doctor Who Confidential online it seems clear that RTD and Phil Collinson, and even David Tennant, are all huge Peter Davison fans. The sight of them all geeking out behind the scenes probably made me feel fuzzier than the actual mini-episode.

Comments

[fba.livejournal.com]

You didn't enjoy, Revelation of the Daleks, Curse of Fenric or Rememberance of the Daleks?

I pity you as you obviously have no joy in your soul :p

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed several stories after Davison, but my point is that his era was the last time I was genuinely a fan of the show as a whole. This is not to say all of his stuff was gold either. :-) Possibly it's more true to say it was the last time I was actually a fan of the Doctor. Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy didn't really do it for me.

[fba.livejournal.com]

This is not to say all of his stuff was gold either. :-)

Well - there's a fair bit of dross across the whole run. I think its inevitable when a show runs for 26 years pretty much non-stop... I think the important thing is that when the show is good it is amongst the best TV out there...

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of Doctor Who that is witty, inventive, imaginative and entertaining. On that level I'd hold a lot of it up as excellent TV.

On the other hand there's very little Doctor Who that isn't dated, slow-paced, occasionally awkward, and severely hamstrung by production constraints. On that level I'd feel the need to offer a few pre-emptive excuses to anyone I was holding it up to!

You take the rough with the smooth, but on its best days it was smooth enough not to chafe *too* badly. Not enough to distract from the good bits, anyway. :-)

[fba.livejournal.com]

On the other hand there's very little Doctor Who that isn't dated, slow-paced, occasionally awkward, and severely hamstrung by production constraints. On that level I'd feel the need to offer a few pre-emptive excuses to anyone I was holding it up to!

I think that holds for most TV - not just Who. The problem genre TV has is the dependence on effects - which will always date stuff (take TNG for example - it looks terribly dated now - slick admittedly, but it screams late-80s/early-90s in the same way that a lot of Who and Blake's 7 scream 70s).

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

Just watched it; it was lovely :-) Gotta love the line about whether the Master still has that rubbish beard, "No, no beard this time. Well... a wife" :-)