Doctor Who

[Robert]

Ben, I think if you do Jack And The Beans Talk you'll get a few lines.

[Ally]

Quite so.

P.S. It should have been ME!

Nah you don't really want all that fame and adulation and money. Those kinds of things cheapen a person tremendously. Besides, I have a feeling your boy is going to end up wishing he'd never taken the role.

If you don't fit a role, you shouldn't take it, no matter how bloody brilliant of an actor you are. Here's what I see happening now: either they change the Doctor character completely to make it suit him or he's going to end up not suiting the Doctor. Either way, he'll be slaughtered by fans.

[KatBradshaw]

Wasn't Christopher Ecclestone quite tall?

[Ben]

I guess I'll have to stick to that obvious made-for-me role in Jack and the Beanstalk again, then, Gareth.

Just a pity the beanstalk is a non-speaking role!

[Sam Flynn]

P.S. It should have been ME!

Too tall, Ben... even for a Tardis

[Ben]

He's your age and you knew him and think he's swell. None of those reasons are any that I or anyone but you should give a damn about.

Quite so.

In all honesty, I do share some of your concerns about his suitability for the role, and my toungue was firmly in my cheek when I wrote that last sentence.

Cheers,
Ben

P.S. It should have been ME!

[Robert]

Steve, would you agree that Who started to lose its way in the Tom Baker era? Nothing wrong with Baker - he was great. But there began an increasing tendency to substitute pop science gobbledegook for mystery and wonder. The first episodes had the teachers amazed that something could be bigger on the inside than on the outside. Now it's "No problem, I'll just fix the time and space dimensional transducer, attach it to the corridor of infinity, rejig the interstellar quantum atomiser and we'll be home in time for tea." It's all rather glib.

[Ally]

I like the guy.

He's one year my senior, and we were at the National Youth Theatre together a few years ago when the late and great Ed Wilson was at the helm of operations. I fondly recall the lavish praise Matt heaped upon my end-of-course performance at St. Aloysius College in Islington. I was, of course, equally impressed by his portrayal of the ill-starred Archbishop in Murder in the Cathedral a few months later, and told him so.

So I'd ask you, please, to give this undeserving jammy phuckwit a chance before casting aspersions in the direction of his latest work-related engagement.

Cheers,

Ben

No. I mean really why should we? He's your age and you knew him and think he's swell. None of those reasons are any that I or anyone but you should give a damn about.

We are talking about the fact that he's supposed to be playing an ancient, powerful being and he looks like he'd get carded to buy cigarettes. Combined with the writers preachy tendencies there's very little chance I am going to find his incarnation to be anything other than insufferable.

[Steve Thoroughgood]

I seldom watch TV these days, either. My teenage son makes sure of that by plugging in his games console at the most inopportune of moments, and usually when I'm around the most!

Nevertheless, I have a short attention span when it comes to films or television programmes. If they fail to grab my attention within twenty minutes or so, I succumb to the X Box and seek other activities instead.

Steve

[The Good Michael]

I have to admit that I don't watch TV anymore. I did try to watch Dr. Who, but I didn't enjoy it. That was perhaps 20 years ago. The same can be said for any series except for The Prisoner and Faulty Towers. Faulty Towers was hilarious the first episode, and The Prisoner grabbed me because I had to think about it. The others I've mentioned seem to be the sort that one would have to watch a few episodes to get to like the characters and consequently, forgive the cheesiness. Is that how others feel, that one has to watch several episodes to enjoy it?

Cheers,

Mike

[Steve Thoroughgood]

Pleased to see the good doctor represented on this forum. I've been a 'Who' fan since the series commenced in 1963, and am proud to say that I've watched every episode - even those that were junked by the BBC during the 'seventies. It is absolutely criminal that only bits and pieces of "The Dalek Masterplan" survive as this was, unashamedly, my favourite story from the William Hartnell era; an epic twelve - parter, preceded by a 'teaser' which featured none of the regular cast.

Perhaps the doctor will get to solve the JtR murders at some stage. The mystery needs addressing, and only he can do it!

Steve

[Phil Carter]

Hello Ben,

I agree. Taking on any role after anyone else is never easy. Argument and opinion is always "he was better than...." Just look at the James Bond films.
I can still recall the reaction at George Lazenby taking over from Sean Connery... and then Roger Moore....etc etc.

Dr Who is so established. It has peaked, troughed, re-emerged and is as popular now as it ever was. Anybody taking on that role has problems. Especially a relative unknown. "Hard act to follow" was never more appropriate... especially when looking back at the names before him.

Somehow, change frightens people's sense of safety. In some things, they feel threatened.

"Break a leg", say I

best wishes

Phil

[Ben]

The writers better get over themselves and their preaching tendency now that they've made an infant the doctor because who wants to hear a baby crying all the time?

I like the guy.

He's one year my senior, and we were at the National Youth Theatre together a few years ago when the late and great Ed Wilson was at the helm of operations. I fondly recall the lavish praise Matt heaped upon my end-of-course performance at St. Aloysius College in Islington. I was, of course, equally impressed by his portrayal of the ill-starred Archbishop in Murder in the Cathedral a few months later, and told him so.

So I'd ask you, please, to give this undeserving jammy phuckwit a chance before casting aspersions in the direction of his latest work-related engagement.

Cheers,

Ben

[DirectorDave]

I am a huge Doctor Who fan and I am Glad Russell T Davis (or is it Davies?) is leaving the series. Some of his stories are hugely disappointing that have a great build up then out of nowhere a deux ex machina is produced to save the day leaving me wondering what the big build up was for.

I am still convinced Donna is Romana as the Doctor looked over at Donna when Wilf asked the doctor who the mysterious timelady was. I am sure Donna is only a TEMPoary human and has a locket or something (like the doctor and masters fob-watch) that will return her to her timelady self.

Stephen Moffat who was the writer of the fantastic Dr Who episodes Blink (The one with the Statues) and the Lonely Child/The Doctor dances (Are you my mummy?) is going to be the head honcho and I for one can't wait for the new series.

Will miss the old doctor as always but looking forward to the new one.

[Jon Guy]

And the problem I am going to have with the next doctor is he looks like a little kid. Listening to such pompous, blowhard preaching was bad enough coming from someone who at least vaguely resembled a full grown man, but from this puppy, it's just going to look obnoxious brat-like. The writers better get over themselves and their preaching tendency now that they've made an infant the doctor because who wants to hear a baby crying all the time?

I agree.