Tag: gareth roberts

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Classic Series General TV stuff New Series

Famous Doctor Who fans

I remember reading an interview a few years – mid-90s at a guess – in which someone, possibly Mark Gatiss, said he was sure that Doctor Who would return one day because there’d soon come a point where people in strategic positions all over the higher echelons of the BBC (or media generally) would be Doctor Who fans.

It struck me as a thrilling prospect – and one that made a lot of sense. You only have to look at the people who worked on the New Adventures and follow a few of their career paths to see how true that prediction turned out to be.

I thought I’d see how true it was and found that Doctor Who creeps into various different areas of UK media – almost as if someone had interfered with their personal time lines 40-odd years ago and ensured they were in the right places at the right time…

Writing and production staff with direct involvement in new series

Russell T Davies
Steven Moffat
Mark Gatiss
Gareth Roberts
Neil Gaiman
Chris Chibnall
Rob Shearman
Gary Russell
Paul Cornell
Matthew Jones
Simon Nye
Richard Curtis

Actors with direct involvement in new series

David Tennant
Peter Capaldi
John Barrowman
David Walliams
Peter Kay
Simon Pegg

Miscellaneous authors

All have been published or commissioned for TV/audio scripts outisde of Doctor Who, as far as I can tell

Marc Platt
Ben Aaronovitch
Andy Lane
Lance Parkin
Justin Richards
Martin Day
Simon Winstone
Mark Morris
Paul Magrs
Robert Perry

Miscellaneous actors and writers with some (possibly tangential) involvement in new series or spin-off media

Reece Shearsmith
Stephen Fry
Kim Newman
Michael Moorcock
Jon Culshaw
Nev Fountain
Mitch Benn
Matt Lucas

Categories
New Series

Caves and Twins – The Lodger

Gareth Roberts’ latest attempt to write a decent Doctor Who episode after several disappointments was a genuinely off-beat effort. So was this budget-saver a Midnight or a Fear her?

Caves

 

Matt Smith – Pulls off another great performance, despite characterisation that seemed a little off.

Corden Bleu – James Corden was fairly understated and sympathetic – a well-judged performance from a frequently-annoying character.

Silent Not Golden – Murray Gold seemed either on holiday or extremely understated. I never noticed any intrusive sub-Harry Potter tripe this week, which was nice.

Day-to-day Doctor – The Doctor struggling to come to terms with everyday living was amusing, if a little overstated

Twins

 

Diminished Doctor- Subverting the Doctor’s character in an everyday setting was generally well done, but a little overdone and tiresome in places.

The Power of RTD – The plot was secondary, so it seems churlish to complain about it, but fixing the spaceship via the power of love was rather twee. Reeked of bad Tennant-era Who.

Empty Pond – Amy got rather lost in the mix, both insofar as the plot left her alone in the TARDIS, but poor old Pond seemed returned to a generic companion-in-distress cipher.

Overall it was an enjoyable little episode, and it was good to see Gareth Roberts finally locating his mojo, after previous episodes that ranged from underwhelming to bloody awful.

• Caves and Twins? What are you dribbling on about?

Go here: Caves and Twins