To be fair
it was pandering to the avid fans in the 80's that killed the show in a lot of people's minds. RTD knew that, and, in my view, successfully relaunched a show that had become a national joke by the end of its original run. 10 million viwers in a multi-channel age? That's pretty impressive stuff, the original series rarely got those figures in the old 3-channels days, apart from odd periods.

Not everything RTD did with the programme has been good, but then, can you honestly look at the original run and say everything about it was brilliant? There was some utter crap produced throughout its 26 years. I know, I have a lot of it on video, because I'm a sad fan who would buy something for completeness sake, even if the episodes in question were total shit. Granted, I'd usually wait until they were in a sale or something, but still...

As for Tennant not caring about the part - utter bollocks. He became an actor because he was a massive fan of the show and wanted to play the Doctor.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Mon 8 Feb 2010, 15:48, 3 replies)

Agreed, the McCoy years saw some of the worst writing and the most abject mistreatment of the canon built up over the years. In fact, the series would have been better served without the McCoy years altogether. This wasn't a problem wholly intrinsic to Dr Who in those days, it was more symptomatic of the dire state of late 80's BBC output.

Watching McCoy stories these days makes me cringe in remembrance of how bad TV from that time really was.
(caescarna Hell's Roomba, Mon 8 Feb 2010, 15:55, closed)

I actually didn't mind McCoy
Well, his last 2 series anyway. It wasn't brilliant, but trying something a bit different. Some of it misfired, some of it didn't.

His first series was perhaps one of the worst TV series ever, and I nearly gave up at that point.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Mon 8 Feb 2010, 16:00, closed)

McCoy
killed it for me.

It's all become a bit nu-age for my liking.

I used to be fucking terrified of daleks, but now, well, I can take them with a pinch of salt!

Of course, this could be something to do with being 8 years old when Tom Baker was the Dr, and that I am now 37 years old and realise that they are of course, fictional.
(dchurch bah, Mon 8 Feb 2010, 16:25, closed)

Daleks my arse.
Daleks weren't scary, they were just loud. Robots of Death were fucking terrifying though.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Mon 8 Feb 2010, 17:46, closed)

^This^

(lolwhites, Mon 8 Feb 2010, 19:44, closed)

I hold out in hope that they're going to get better
now that Steven Moffatt is head of the writing team. RTD's writing has got better as the series have progressed - I thought Eccleston played the part really well, on the whole, but was let down by a series of puerile stories, and the last series, despite having to put up with Catherine Tate and a couple of howlers, was the most consistent of the new ones so far.

Similarly I'd agree that McCoy was a pretty good doctor, but was let down by some bloody awful stories. (Dragonfire is just embarrassing) But, having coincidentally re-watched Remembrance of the Daleks last night, there seemed to be something about that era which just seemed perpetually badly executed, even though the story in question was pretty good. Though that could just be the presence of Ace.
(LongJohnBaldry, Mon 8 Feb 2010, 16:46, closed)