When I saw the first episode of the first season of the reboot, I was hooked. I couldn't believe that there was really a show that went all in with that zany, campy, sci-fi vibe. There's something about the britishness that makes it work.
A time traveling alien with a Northern accent investigates killer mall mannequins, one of which possesses a trash bin that then eats the costar's boyfriend and transforms him into a plastic golem. They get to the heart of the infestation, and the Doctor readies his weapon -- "anti-plastic," of course -- but desires not to use it as he struggles to talk intergalactic law with the malignant plastic blob. Then he runs off with the girl for adventures in future episodes.
Many of the flavor-of-the-week sci-fi concepts were quite good, and some were not. But anthropomorphic cat nuns! A giant head! Evil buckets with eye stalks! Killer statues that can only move when you're not looking!
Maybe it was some inner child aging out of me, but I feel like the show's writing took a nose dive about halfway through Peter Capaldi's Doctor.
Eccleston had the best dynamic range of any of the actors that played the Doctor. He could do funny, sad, angry, dorky, brooding, mean, lovable... everything. I wish we could have gotten another season or two out of him.
I watched some of it at the time and thought it was cool, but never paid much attention. When I checked in again around the Matt Smith era it seemed to have become, um, unwatchably twee[0]. Was that on purpose or are the people who work on it just permanently like that?
[0] if you need an American English translation, maybe "theater kid energy".
> if you need an American English translation, maybe "theater kid energy".
It wouldn't have occurred to me to call twee a foreign word. However, my feeling of its meaning was... very close to the gloss given on wiktionary (and marked "UK"):
>> Overly quaint, dainty, cute or nice.
The unambiguously American Merriam-Webster agrees:
>> affectedly or excessively dainty, delicate, cute, or quaint
"Characteristic of theater kids" conveys something different to me. Do you disagree with the dictionary gloss, or do you think it's a good description of how people might describe a performance by theater kids?
I think that definition is missing something, yes. Modern(?) British twee is less "dainty" and more "manic and campy". Which is not to disparage Monty Python, who were good at it, but everyone descended from them can't really pull it off.
IIRC the show runner changed at the same time that Matt Smith became the new doctor. The tone change is pretty noticeable pretty much right at the start of Season 5 in my opinion, even as someone who enjoyed pretty much all of it before and after (although I haven't kept up with it the past few years mostly due to my TV watching habits having changed due to different life circumstances).
New face, new showrunner and better budged worked pretty well and maybe even better than during Tennant's time. They hit a good spot with 11th and Amy - social media were thriving and I've seen characters all around in fan works, memes and discussions.
