Pity you didn't like The End of the World, it's one of my favourite s1 episodes (which is, for example, why I never rewatched the pilot but have rewatched this one at least four times). I thought the mixture of drama and humour was great myself. It does introduce a major, major arc thing for New Who (the fact the Doctor is now the last of the Time Lords - in Old Who, there are plenty around, so this was a major change, and of course the question as to why, and what happened between Eight and Nine, will be touched upon again, it's one of the big season things), and the scene between Jabe and the Doctor where that happens is imo Ecclestone's finest moment. Jabe the Tree Woman is one of my favourite aliens. And I just love the absurdity of such things Tainted Love as the great Earth Classic. This was the episode where I KNEW I wanted to watch the show, whereas with the pilot I was just "well, nice, but I'm not hooked yet". I really love it a lot.
The greatness of Doctor Who, old and new alike, is that it can do so much within its format - mystery, comedy, action/adventure; sometimes it does so seperately, i.e. purely comedic episodes, purely tragic episodes, but more often it's all mixed. Next up is an encounter with Charles Dickens and a ghost story which is mostly played straight, but it's not without funny scenes. (Wouldn't be an homage to Dickens, otherwise.)
Regeneration: you'll find out more, but no, he doesn't get to choose a body. That's just him, btw. Other Time Lords have a bit more control and can aim for something they want. Popular fanon is that reach incarnation of the Doctor reflects and deals with something that happened in the earlier one, to balance it, so some traits are more prominent in one but not in the other, while a quintessential core essence remains.
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Date: 2009-08-05 04:46 am (UTC)The greatness of Doctor Who, old and new alike, is that it can do so much within its format - mystery, comedy, action/adventure; sometimes it does so seperately, i.e. purely comedic episodes, purely tragic episodes, but more often it's all mixed. Next up is an encounter with Charles Dickens and a ghost story which is mostly played straight, but it's not without funny scenes. (Wouldn't be an homage to Dickens, otherwise.)
Regeneration: you'll find out more, but no, he doesn't get to choose a body. That's just him, btw. Other Time Lords have a bit more control and can aim for something they want. Popular fanon is that reach incarnation of the Doctor reflects and deals with something that happened in the earlier one, to balance it, so some traits are more prominent in one but not in the other, while a quintessential core essence remains.