Doctor Who: The Movie

[RobbyB1982]

No reason they couldn't have included a cleaned-up version of the Vong on the big screen, fix all the errors, except other than to sell nostalgia like with TFA. And again, that was only temporary. The EU is gone. Luke, Leia, and Han are gone. It's just... bleh.

I don't think, except by changing *everything* except the name, there is anything at *all* you could salvage from the vong; even at the most basic level they were a tired cliché that even Warhammer 40K (and I do not like 40K) did better. They are among the very worst antagonists (let alone created civilisations/species period) I have ever had the misfortune of encountering.

At the very core of the idea, an out there alien race that's resistant to the Force and is a new threat that isn't just retread old Empire remnants was a good idea, especially after they'd been doing EU stuff for like 25 years.

The actual execution was really bad though, and went way, way too long and too many books. If you were going to use them, you'd have to approach them basically the way the Marvel movies approach some of their more out there characters... compare Baron Zemo in the comics to his movie version, they're not even remotely the same except for the grain of the idea. Or any of their movies that have taken the name from a comic story but then had no similarity to the actual comic. That's the way to go with it.

And yes, considering the EU ran for nearly 35 years, the fact that there was basically only one novel trilogy series anyone really cared about, Thrawn's, and a small handful of characters and plot arcs overall? Even though there'd been hundreds of books, and thousands of comics? There wasn't much lost to just wipe the slate clean and grab the handful of elements that did work. The only big loss for the main characters is the Mara Jade/Luke romance, most of the stuff with the kids and the training and Han's kid going bad made it to the movies.

The other much beloved bit, KOTOR, is set so far back in history it doesn't matter, it could still be canon if they ever decided to declare it as such, nothing in the new films is going to mess with it... thats why they set it so long ago in the first place after all.

[clearspira]

Well, back to the Doctor Who movie. I knew from the beginning there was a problem when for some reason the Daleks would give a crap what The Master's last request was, or even bother with anything so formal as an execution. Then they let The Doctor come, pick up the remains, and leave.

Sure they've been willing to play possum on occasion, but actually letting The Doctor come and go without any good reason was just a complete misunderstanding of them.

Seventh Doctor era... as I recall there were actually two sets of Daleks at this time. The Imperial Daleks that were basically the original Daleks, and a brand new faction loyal to Davros. I can VERY much see Davros letting the Doctor go if it fitted whatever his plan of the week was.

[CmdrKing]

And yes, considering the EU ran for nearly 35 years, the fact that there was basically only one novel trilogy series anyone really cared about, Thrawn's, and a small handful of characters and plot arcs overall? Even though there'd been hundreds of books, and thousands of comics? There wasn't much lost to just wipe the slate clean and grab the handful of elements that did work. The only big loss for the main characters is the Mara Jade/Luke romance, most of the stuff with the kids and the training and Han's kid going bad made it to the movies.

The other much beloved bit, KOTOR, is set so far back in history it doesn't matter, it could still be canon if they ever decided to declare it as such, nothing in the new films is going to mess with it... thats why they set it so long ago in the first place after all.

I rarely see a bad word against the X-wing series (or the X-wing and TIE-fighter games that inspired them). But that's pretty much the only addition to the list of "near-universally liked aspects of the old EU". There's a tier of stuff that's definitely got fans, but has a pretty visible base of people that can't stand it too and after that it's a harsh downhill slide to the realms of stuff like The Crystal Star. And that's before you get to the Vong or Fate of the Jedi which... I gave up before that but y i k e s based on summaries.

Larger point being there's a reason most franchises don't try to be Doctor Who and incorporate mostly everything.
Then again, Who gets away with that because timey wimey.

[FaxModem1]

I read the X-wing novels, they were at best, okay. Characterization was lacking, and it rather reinforced the Rebels win by the Imperials being idiots plot device that happened so often in Star Wars.

[SabreMau]

With the X-Wing series, we also have to separate them into the Stackpole books (1, 2, 3, 4, 8) and the Allston books (5, 6, 7, 9, 10). I felt that the latter were generally more fun.

[Insurgent]

I liked this movie. Sure, it's not the greatest thing in the world, but Doctor who never has been. Classic Who was plenty campy, I see this as a good transitional point between classic and new who. And Eight is a good Doctor. Wish we saw more of him on screen. This is my favourite of all the TARDIS interiors, and yeah, I chuckle when that motorcycle cop rides into the TARDIS and a few seconds later comes out and drives off without looking back. I can just imagine him going in, driving round the control console having a mini freakout and shooting off straight back out the door.