I am not really sure where I expect this thread to go. I just wanted to put down a few thoughts and see if anyone agrees or whether it is just me.... I've put it in the spoiler thread because I'm discussing spoilery aspects but I don't think I'm giving anything away...
The main thrust of my argument is that, far from being a triumphant start to season 6 I think the last couple of weeks have actually been quite a difficult time in Fandom. The week before TIA we started chocked full of excitement for possibly the greatest season of Doctor Who ever..
Then poor Lis Sladen died and the whole of Fandom came together and mourned our lost her0ine. It was an amazing and moving outpouring of grief, but it cast a long shadow over the start of the new season. There were times when I felt a little guilty for getting excited and certainly times when I felt guilty posting about it. So (in my own way) I overcompensated with silly posts.
Then came Saturday 23rd. The first day of season 6. I had been looking forward to this quite literally for months. However, the first thing I woke up to was a bit of a storm that the BBC had posted spoiler pictures on its website. Then we got a message from Steven Moffat on Twitter, not exalting us about the new series but telling us how he wanted it to rain to 'up' the viewing figures.
The show itself was mesmeric, beautiful and everything I'd ever wanted in Doctor Who. Here at last was the British X-Files but with so much more depth and back-story and subtlety. It combined just about all of the great elements of science fiction that I loved.
But then we woke up on Sunday to low overnights and a very mixed critical reaction. It had been too complicated for people to follow said one critic (dear God do we have to go to the lowest common denominator every time) another dismissed it as too wordy and wondered whether the show had run out of steam! This was like being back in 1986 again - the popular press turning on Doctor Who (admittedly it is part of an anti-BBC agenda so probably nothing to get too worked up about).
And then there has been the spoilers. Not little hints or teasers that make a forum like this tick over with speculation and excitement but a big info-dump about what's going to happen and how. I should add that I'm not pointing the finger at anyone in here for reporting these spoilers - the fact that they are out in the public domain means that we need to have them on here. My disappointment is two fold, firstly that I will not 'explode' with excitement at 6.44 tonight but more importantly I am already pre-judging the ramifications. Was the big preview screening really necessary for
both episodes? Why not just pre-screen one episode and then have the media begging for more. It just seemed like another own-goal from the production team.
This has been quite a downbeat post but actually I want to finish on a positive note. This forum has absolutely stood out head and shoulders above the rest of fandom. Where we have debated things and discussed the spoilers it has been in a balanced and proportionate way. Our tributes to Lis were heartfelt and sincere without ever being mawkish or hysterical. The discussion after TIA on here was genuinely one of my high points as a fan of the show (and we're talking 32 years that this bloody show has had its claws in me).
Thank you for being my therapy
Does anyone else feel the same - or is it just me being a grumpy old fella