Thoughts on the 7th Doctor

[robotech_master]

I've just been watching some of the Sylvester McCoy episodes of Doctor Who, which I had never seen back when my local PBS affiliate was airing the show. (They stopped during the Colin Baker years.) And I have to say, I can see why the show was cancelled.

McCoy played the Doctor reasonably well, and I quite liked Ace; they did the best they could with what they had to work with. But what they had to work with was by and large crap—the writing had gone way downhill from what I remember during the Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, and Peter Davison series. Those at least made some kind of sense.

It gives me new appreciation for just how good the new series really is, and how fortunate we are to have it. Sure, you can complain about RTD's excesses and foibles—but even leaving aside the differences in production values, compare RTD's Doctor at his worst to, say, "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" and tell me which one makes more sense.

Comments

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Actually, there are a couple of 7th Doctor adventures, particularly Remembrance of the Daleks, that stand above nearly everything (not written by Moffat or Cornell) in the new series. And I infinitely prefer McCoy to Tennant (and Tom and Colin Baker, come to that.)

[robotech-master.livejournal.com]

I'll grant you Remembrance, but practically every other McCoy episode I've watched has been the pits. One good story out of three whole years? That's a lot worse than the new show has done, at least for me.