Doctor Who Club of Australia

[Greg]

Every month we are aiming create a new Poll and publish the results in our club newsletter Data Extract.

We also encourage you to make comment. A selection of the best comments will also be published in Data Extract, including the 'comment of the month'.

Try to keep your comments concise and spoiler free as possible. (Up to five lines is ideal for editing responses for the magazine.)

POLL OF THE MONTH: SEPTEMBER

Who was your favourite writer in series 3 - and why?

Don't forget: There are three more episodes to be shown in September, so you may want to watch them before voting!

[charlie]

I must vote for Blink. My three favourite stories have been Blink, The Family of Blood and 42.

Although Blood and 42 were very good, they contained too many similarities to other stories we have seen these past three years.

I like Blink because it is not too Doctor oriented, which provides a plesant change from a character we know very well, and details interesting new characters which will not come back. It was also another ep with some mystery to it.
Also, it was scary how much Sally Sparrow looked like the drawing in the annual. I wouldn't be surprised if they had drawn the picture from the actor, instead of the other way round.
And of course I can't neglect to mention that they pull off an actually scary monster with low special effects. You know, like when they put 3po on chewy's back and ran along with some fishing line for his arm. Their the best, look the realest and animation just can't complete. Animation should be a last resort.

[kangamac]

I voted for Steven Moffat and "Blink".

The "Doctor-lite" story was a welcome relief from the normal state of play we are presented with these days. More please.

[dave]

Although it grates not to vote for Steven Moffat, who is my favourite TV writer, this season I had to go for Cornell, as I enjoyed the Human Nature two parter so much, except for the very end. But only just over Blink. It was very close.

[SharazJek]

I've got to go with Steven Moffatt once again. 'Blink' is without a doubt the most ingenious script the new series has had since it began 3 years ago. He has an amazing mind!

BTW 'Utopia' is my 'favourite' episode of the season, but I am voting for Moffatt as the no. 1 master of the craft in the writing team.

[ADAMK]

My preference is Paul Cornell for his touching and beautifully written two-parter. So good, I shall have to chase down the original New Adventure novel someday!

Honourable mentions also though for Moffatt for the ingenious 'Blink' & RTD for his excellent 'Gridlock', diverting 'Smith & Jones' and fantastic 'Utopia'!

[uhumanite]

I vote Steven Moffat for his unique and child disturbing BLINK…

This episode incorporates the underlining theme of time itself better than any other episode in this series yet oddly enough does not contain much the Time Lord himself.

With The Doctor and Martha trapped in the 60’s our heroes only hope falls to Sally Sparrow. Over the 45 minutes watching you feel as connected to her and her world as much as you usually do to The Doctor and his. More elements of our world also surface with the use of DVDs to be Sally’s link with The Doctor. As well as finally doing what many audience members have exclaimed aloud in the past when distressing events occur…”GO TO THE POLICE!”

The episode also gives us the impression of the silent but deadly. With the sinister Weeping Angels, (who topped the polls this year as favourite monster) you could prove that you can find more threat in a foe who does not exclaim their evil schemes but one that is simply motionless and one that’s actions could more easily keep children and more timid adults behind the sofa. With emotions and dialogue of our foes deliberately absent by Moffat The Weeping Angel’s unpredictability may be a key to their success.

The episode proclaims the shaping of ones destiny and how The Doctor himself could simply be apart of time’s events and not as in control as some of us may believe.

“Don’t turn your back…don’t look away and don’t Blink! Good luck!”

[Sulp Niar]

This series saw the old guns firing away with relish and with as much excellence as before... the two main examples being Steven Moffat and Paul Cornell. However...

Strangely, I've come to the realisation that my favourite writer this series has been Russell T Davies. I find this odd, because although I value a lot of the decisions he's made (not all of them, but no producer got everything "right" anyway), I've never found his episodes, understandably (he's got more of 'em to write!), as good. In Series Two, in particular, he handed in 'New Earth' and 'Doomsday', both stories with an unfortunate lack of, er, anything. Whilst he had 'Love & Monsters', that was mainly hampered by simply not being "serious" enough to appeal to a lot of people watching it (barring me and others).

But this series, things have changed. Steven Moffat may have scripted the exceptional 'Blink', but the high that comes from watching that must also be linked, I reckon, to it coming after 'The Family of Blood' (besides which, Russell had done the idea a year earlier). Paul Cornell was simply adapting one of his books, and whilst I'm not saying that's a bad thing, I'm saying that it would have caused a lot less effort.

This year, Russell blessed us with 'Gridlock', which, every time I watch it, becomes increasingly well written and plotted. It's one of the few New Series stories that feels like we actually spend some time in the locale of the episode; instead of that zippy-"Let's go off another adventure!" feel, in 'Gridlock', it somehow feels like we're breathing in this (polluted) world. Doubly incredible, considering, you know, it's mostly set on a motorway. The Face of Boe stuff is almost completely irrelevant in comparison. Then, there was 'Utopia'. Not a perfect episode, but I must admit I started to actually feel excited halfway through even though I knew the reveal... not something I can honestly say I've felt before. 'Last of the Time Lords', meanwhile, had more flaws, but still managed to throw a lot of interesting stuff at us. The flaws, actually, were minor, rather than things that ran through the entire episode as flaws like in 'The Parting of the Ways' and 'Doomsday' (some may say the Paradox Machine does this, but I disagree).

Then there's 'Smith and Jones'... easily the least important of them, of course, but it's notable for a) defeating certain expectations (Martha does get a kiss, but, almost as if to shove two fingers at the annoyed fandom and the shipping fandom, the Doctor never actually falls for her) and b) being set on a hospital, like last year's opening episode, and actually being rather good.

Hmm. It doesn't seem like a convincing argument, what I'm offering here. Ah well, I just can't explain it... for me, this year, Russell became my favourite writer in his output compared to the others'.

'Course, I'm certain that'll completely change next year...

[Sulp Niar]

Er... and excuse my anal pedantry, but the voting poll says 'The Lazarus Code'.

Although, somehow that sounds like a cooler name and theme than what we actually got.

[Ickabod]

Steven Moffat got my vote