Straight Outta Gallifrey: Series 2, Part 1

Siskoid, Ashford and Diane discuss the first half of David Tennant's first season as the Tenth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith's return to the Whoniverse, and more besides!

That's all at Straight Outta Gallifrey, under Episode 149: Series 2 Part 1 of New Who

Thanks for listening!

Comments

daft said…
Amen to Whithouse as showrunner, give me emotional intelligence over nebulous 'cool sci-fi' anyway. :P

A bit surprised by the antipathy shown towards Tennant during the podcast, it puts me in mind of the idea that the Doctor as an anti-establishment hero, duly embraced by its eager young audience as 'the cleverest nerd in school'. S/he uses wit and guile to best the schoolyard bully without resorting to violence. As the diversity in fandom has shown over the years s/he is quite literally an open signifier of the other. So, it quite naturally follows that if s/he has matinee idol looks, or acts too self confident or self satisfied, s/he is sending out the wrong (dominant) signifiers.

Of course, as recent ructions in fandom have also shown, some look towards the Doctor as the last great colonialist, venturing off to distant savage planets dispensing white man justice and/or common sense before teatime. A not so open church, then. :|
September 28, 2020 at 8:03 AM
Siskoid said…
I think Tennant is the iconic Doctor for the modern era, just as Tom Baker was for the Classic. It's not the performance that bugs me personally, it's the writing - the Messiah stuff, the self-indulgence, the will they won't they - that I find very hard to get back into at this point.

I was as surprised as you are that my opinion wasn't a minority one.
September 28, 2020 at 8:27 AM
daft said…
I take your point about the later Messianic stuff; meta-doctors, multi-verses and extended victory laps, I think RTD did rather get carried away with the era's self congratulatory final bow - it's not only stars that can go OTT, apparently. ;D

Having been prompted by podcast discussions to watch a couple of S1/S2 episodes again, I'm slightly agog at how much the drama has dated. It very much feels like it's a product of the Buffy/X-Files era.
October 3, 2020 at 4:21 AM
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