Jeff's Marathon Diary

[Tara Ariano]

To get ready for the new Doctor, Jeff Alexander is marathoning the Matt Smith era and writing a Marathon Diary about it. Here's his first installment! Join him, won't you?

[BizBuzz]

I am in!  I knew I wanted to do a rewatch of Nu-Who before Twelve came on the scene, but I can join in starting with Matt, no issues here.  Add me to the rewatch club!  Looking forward to following your diary!

[HauntedBathroom]

I'm in! I always love revisiting Eleven's time in the top slot.

[Kalliste]

I don't know how you can watch the new episodes for the first time and not start with 10, at the least. Just, no.

[mledawn]

Kalliste, I'd go one further and say just start at Nine and catch up with all New Who.

 

But perhaps starting with Eleven will ignite a passion to go back to Nine.

[Kalliste]

Kalliste, I'd go one further and say just start at Nine and catch up with all New Who.

 

But perhaps starting with Eleven will ignite a passion to go back to Nine.

Definitely, ideally watch it all :) But I think if you want to skip Eccleston you should definitely watch Tennant.

[mathewt]

Personally, I feel like Smith is the weakest of the 3 modern Doctors.  Not bad at all, I just think Tennant and Eccelston were much better :)

[Amelia]

I actually started with 11 and went back to watch 9 and 10. People far and wide on the internet were faceclaiming Karen Gillan as Lily Potter and talking about "the Ponds" so I was intrigued. I have to say though, starting with 11 meant by the time I got to 9, I was already obsessed. I know a lot of people who had a hard time getting into NuWho because of how the first series started out, so I was glad to avoid that, even if it meant I started later in the series. Looking forward to the marathon diary!

Edited June 20, 2014 by Amelia

[alias1]

Personally, I feel like Smith is the weakest of the 3 modern Doctors.  Not bad at all, I just think Tennant and Eccelston were much better :)

Totally agree with this.  I'm so glad I started with 9.  And 10 is my favorite!  Maybe Moffat will be better with 12.  Hopefully he'll stop with the resets and making everything bigger and better than it's ever been done before.

[mledawn]

Jeff's latest post is up, and I like how he's just going with the flow. It does help not to have the same attachment to the previous Doctors and/or storylines as one who started with 9 might have.

I only became a fan a year or two ago, when I caught Matt Smith on Craig Ferguson one night and he seemed like such a nice guy, I started watching the latest episode of Matt's. I used to see old Who episodes here and there as a kid but I was scared of the show thanks to the music. Even seeing Tristan from "All Creatures Great and Small" couldn't draw me in to watch with that scary music. Anyway! I went back and binged watched from 9 while keeping up with current 11 until I was caught up. 10 is my favourite but by the thinnest of margins.

Edited June 24, 2014 by mledawn

[Tara Ariano]

Here's Jeff's latest post!

[Chaos Theory]

I loved Smith. Tenant got way too angsty there at the end for me. Plus I loved the whole Pond storyline I thought It was the greatest.

Edited June 24, 2014 by Chaos Theory

[BizBuzz]

Well shoot, he is already watched 5 episodes and I only watched the first one, I gotta get into some binge watching to catch up!  ::giggle::

[Brian]

I'm probably not the first person to say this, Jeff, but you might at some point want to go back and watch Tennant's last season, with Catherine Tate as the companion. That season has some great moments of a companion with more to do than say, "What is it, Doctor?"

[Tara Ariano]

Here's the latest entry!

[paramitch]

I just don't get the logic of doing a Marathon Diary entry for NewWho while starting in the middle. The actual middle. I mean, you guys MD'd "Buffy" right from the start, as well as plenty of other shows with 20+ episode seasons. 'Who' is only what, 12 episodes per season through 4? And it's definitely worth a bingewatch. Darn it.

 

So Jeff's comment that basically, he caught an Eccleston ep and it didn't grab him, really bugged me as, evidently, the primary reason he started with NewWho Season FIVE, skipping several years and two acclaimed Doctors entirely.

 

To me it defeats the purpose of a MD. It's not a marathon. He's starting in the middle, and (worst of all) with the entrance of a showrunner who has at the very least proven pretty divisive and mercurial. It would have been that much cooler to have seen a newcomer dive into the show from Eccleston and make that progression straight through Tennant and Matt Smith, judging episodes and seasons from a fresh perspective and sharing highs and lows.

 

For me, the heart of New Who is precisely the storyline of seasons 1-4.5, from Nine to the entrance of Eleven. So I would have loved to have seen Jeff's take on those once he got into Nine's arc (and I'm convinced it would've grabbed him). I'm definitely disappointed at the decision to start with season 5 like it's some big new beginning. (It's not.) And it's a disservice to Eccleston, Tennant and the gorgeous writing and stories in the previous five years of the show. All of which is a foundation the Marathon watch will disregard.

 

Such a bummer.

Edited September 27, 2014 by paramitch