Okay so although we had quite a discussion on the podcast, we obviously only touched the tip of the iceberg and there’s just soo much to talk about, so I thought it could deserve it’s own thread.

If anyone has any questions or comments about the podcast, please feel free to post them here!

The thing I’d like to start with is a minor nit pick in something I don’t like much about the new show.

Costume..

The old series was pretty much a major costume drama and when they’d go off to alien planets, or the future, the costume would reflect ‘the period’ (okay, mostly it reflected seventies glam)
But now, we have a guy in a suit..
Case in point, I was just watching ‘The Horns of Nimon’
This is a space based story, and the characters the doctor meets are dressed.. differently (to say the least)
The lead villain Soreed looks like a mage from Dungeons and Dragons, and has guards dressed as kind of fururistic space knights.
The new series would have a guy in a suit, with a couple of bouncers backing him up.
Considering how gay the new series is, where’s the flair? Where’s the camp?
I know a lot of people would say it’s become more mainstream successful because of dumping these aspects, but I miss it..
The only time we’ve really seen anything like the costume drama of the old series were the Eccleston episode ‘The end of the world’ and the glimpse of the Time Lords in a flashback from the Master.

There’s no doubt the new series is superior in many ways, but this is just a little gripe I have about villains in suits. It’s boring.

Now the new series is definately better for its budget.. Using the Horns of Nimon again.. Nimon has to be one of the worst characters ever as far as appearance goes.
If you were to describe the monster, being basically a hulking space Minotaur, without seeing it you’d think ‘Oh that sounds cool!’
Well.. we got guy in black lycra, with a ridiculously oversized mutant bull mask/head.
If he was to be revisited in the new series, I can only imagine how cool, and how very, very different he’d look..
This is one of those cases they should be like George Lucas and go back and fix up an otherwise good story with some decent CGI.. Just don’t put Soreed in a suit!

Anyone have any opions about the new series vs the old?

It’s certainly true that classic Who sometimes took the camp to pantomine levels (sixth Doctor being a very good example) but you can’t deny there seems very little imagination in costume..
I mean, you see some outlandish stuff on cat walks, but see nothing like that in the new show.
Its a minor gripe, but Id just like to see a bit more imagination sometimes.
I dunno.. I just hate the ‘suits’
Its not appropriate for Sci fi ALL the time.

Take ‘The Editor’.. they were way into the future there, and he’s wearing a 20th century Earth suit..
I just think when you have a character like that, there should be a little imagination shown by the costume department. It doesn’t have to be something wildly camp and extravagant, especially considering were not in the seventies anymore, but a suit??
Why not something like the outfits Rimmer wore in Red Dwarf during series 3 and 6?
Just something a little adventurous.. its becoming like a drinking game.. Take a drink every time we get a new villain in a business suit..

And yes, I agree about other sci fi too. Battlestar Galactica is NO fun visually compared to the old (except the scene where Apollo dropped his towel, admittedly)

With only a tiny handful of Tom Baker era episodes under my belt, it’s too early for me to say much of anything.  That will be changing soon though. 

You will fall on the floor laughing at some of the costumes, but sometimes its necessary

Good point! The clockwork people were good examples of old fashioned costumed villains. It can be done..

There used to be a joke that the classic series just used to raid the BBC’s stock period drama wardrobes for costumes

So last night I was watching ‘The Ark in Space’, and it brought a big smile to my face when I saw the technology; those control panels/displays in the [roughly] 30th century satellite.   From afar, the ‘decor’ reminded me of those cardboard printouts or stickers that you would see in something like a Mego playset, only giant-sized!    Sooo retro.  I liked it.

Anyhow, I got a question.  Why couldn’t The Doctor use his ‘sonic screwdriver’ to open that panel/door?  Does it have some different uses than the one in the new show?

Id say it all depends on the writers. Such thought wasn’t always put into these things.
Someone else may have a better answer

In the older shows, is there any point (s) where romantic relationships are explored or maybe hinted at? (with the various Doctors, companions, etc.) 

One of the biggest differences I’ve noticed between the old and new, is that the older episodes seem to avoid the subject almost entirely, outside of brief ‘technical’ comments like Vira saying that her and Noah were supposed to be pair bonded.