The Official Doctor Who Thread

[Mountain Man]

QuiGonJ said:
The BBC webiste says they are talking to someone named David Tennant, though at Outpost Gallifrey they are wondering why not let Paul McGann come back and do the role. Even the TVM detractors say his audio dramas as the Doctor have been quite good.

I suppose that could work, but they'd have to remove the telemovie from canon then make Eccelston the 8th and McGann the 9th. Probably won't happen, but it is food for thought.

[Joe Siegler]

McGann isn't going to be removed. He's #8. Eccleston is #9. Besides, there's nothing to stop the Doctor from backwards regenerating, so McGann could be #8 and #10.

It's established canon that a Time Lord can only have 12 regenerations. Once we get to Doctor #13, they'll have to deal with that issue.

There is precdent set, though. In the Five Doctors, the High Council offered the Master a complete new life cycle of 12 regenerations. So it can happen. I'm just annoyed how fast we're burning through Doctors now.

Anyway, it's been announced that there will be a Series 2. Also a standalone Christmas special. Billie Piper is supposed to stay, which will help with continuity.

But here is what I think they should do with the Xmas special. This will take care of several issues all at once, and bring a new, fresh variant to one of the core tenants of Doctor Who.

My Christmas Special Idea:

The decision to not regenerate the Doctor from Paul McGann to Chris Eccleston was probably a good one, since the thrust of the show should be getting new viewers going, not confusing them with a regeneration. As much as I would have liked to have seen it, we didn't get it, and I agree with the reasons why. Now having said that, this is what I think they should do with the Xmas special. The Xmas special is kind of "Standalone", so this is a perfect opportunity to do this kind of thing, I think. Plus we have a year of Eccelston by this point, and RTD (producer) will be less inclined to say no based off of "we have no emotional attachment to this Doctor". That was valid at the start of the new series, but not after a full series.

Have this be a multi doctor story. It can be however many you want, the only ones relevant to the idea are McGann & Eccleston (and obviously the new guy, too). Anyway, towards the end of the story, you could have something happens which causes Paul McGann to regenerate into Christopher Eccleston. Now the best part is that Christopher Ecceleston (not the newly regenerated one) would regenerate into the new guy.

This would take care of two things. One, it would give us a regeneration from McGann into Eccleston, which now won't happen otherwise as Eccelston has quit. Plus it would give us a regeneration for the new Doctor. It also brings a new twist to the concept of regeneration which hasn't been done in the 40+ years of the show. Have two simulteanous regenerations of the same Time Lord.

I think it'll be rather cool. However, I admit the idea is rather fanboyish, so I don't know if the production team will want to do it. But I still think it's a cool idea.

[Joe Siegler]

supermeerkat said:

His regeneration will be addressed at a later date, I believe, - we only saw Pertwee's (sp?) regeneration in flashback, so its not like this hasn't happened before. What I want to know is, did the Paul McGann film actually happen? Was it canon?

A few thigns. We never saw a Troughton to Pertwee regeneration. It happened off screen. If you watch the last seconds of The War Games Episode 10 (Troughton's last), you see him spinning in a circle until he disappeares. The next time we see the Doctor is Pertwee falling out of the Tardis onto the ground in Troughton's clothes. There was never an on screen regeneration for that. So no regen scene has happened, but I think after not seeing Doc 8 to 9, I don't think we can skip Doc 9 to 10 as well. I have some thoughts on this, see my post immediately above this one.

Yes, the McGann film happened. It's definitely canon. In fact, the audio dramas, and I believe some of the novels, are too.

Also, I would like to see Richard E Grant. He has a Who history already - he was one of the Doctors' in a quick regeneration sequence in the Parody story "The Curse of the Fatal Death" (with Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor). Grant was also the Doctor in the BBCi production of "Scream of the Shalka". Shalka is still online at the BBC website, check it out here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/webcasts/shalka/

It gives you a feel of what a REG doctor might be like, even if he wouldn't look like that on the TV.

As for Paul McGann, he's done a boatload of audio dramas with Big Finish. Plus the one thing he did which was f'in awesome was the Shada story. Don't know what you know about the show's history, but back in Season 17 (Tom Baker's penultimate), the final story was to be Shada. They started working on it, but there was a BBC strike, and production got halted. It never finished, and there's been a Tom Baker narrated video on sale for a few years now with the raw footage cleaned up.

However, McGann did a BBCi webcast of Shada. They properly "finished" the story, and there's some absolutely BRILLIANT writing in the beginning of it to tie together the jettisoned footage from 1979 and the newer McGann version. As a fan of the show's past, I cannot speak highly enough of the Shada production. Check it out:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/webcasts/shada/

I always felt McGann got shafted by not getting more TV stories. There were some moments of absolute brilliance in his TV series. For me, the moment where he absolutely nails the Character of the Doctor was when he was in Grace's house, and she's examining him, and he's rambling on about all this other stuff, yet still saying enough to Grace to prove he's still paying attention. That bit was awesome.

[Duoae]

Joe3DR* said:
Have this be a multi doctor story. It can be however many you want, the only ones relevant to the idea are McGann & Eccleston (and obviously the new guy, too). Anyway, towards the end of the story, you could have something happens which causes Paul McGann to regenerate into Christopher Eccleston. Now the best part is that Christopher Ecceleston (not the newly regenerated one) would regenerate into the new guy.

This would take care of two things. One, it would give us a regeneration from McGann into Eccleston, which now won't happen otherwise as Eccelston has quit. Plus it would give us a regeneration for the new Doctor. It also brings a new twist to the concept of regeneration which hasn't been done in the 40+ years of the show. Have two simulteanous regenerations of the same Time Lord.

I think it'll be rather cool. However, I admit the idea is rather fanboyish, so I don't know if the production team will want to do it. But I still think it's a cool idea.

I like that idea! It is pretty cool.... of course it would also be cool to have a "reverse" regeneration. Maybe the doctor (Eccleston) gets hit by some weapon or energy beam (etc) and is unregenerated back to McGann. This would solve the next doctor problem as well as you could have McGann being the 8th as normal and have him (when he dies after running his own tv series) regenerating into a a different doctor as the "alternate" 9th...

[EDIT]

Or, if you read any of the "official" books there was one with an alternate dimension (involving the silurians) where the Doctor had been killed instead of stopping the invasion. Unfortunately i can't find the book or remember the title... but it was something like Bloodhunt or somesuch thing...

[Nacho]

Does anyone know when there airing/repeating episode 1 in Canada? I'm assuming it's the same as America.

Joe, you should be a guest writer for the show.

[Duoae]

Another absolutely GREAT episode and spoiler:

<font color="#1F1F22"> I can't believe the timelords are dead and that gallifrey is gone..... btw does anyone know who they were fighting against? </font>

[addfaz]

Duoae said:
Another absolutely GREAT episode

agreed

[WestSeven]

Agreed. I can't believe how well they're doing this. What a shame, shame, shame he's not doing another series.

[Mountain Man]

Nacho said:
Does anyone know when there airing/repeating episode 1 in Canada? I'm assuming it's the same as America.

If it's the same as America then you're never going to see it! Us Yanks have to depend on filesharing for our Doctor Who fix.

((( goes back to waiting for episode 2 to start making the rounds )))

[Mountain Man]

I just finished watching The End of the World, and holy crap that rocked! Possibly one of the best episodes of Doctor Who ever! It had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end, and the revelations about the Doctor had me scooping my jaw off the floor. Another terrific performance from Eccelston and Piper!

Oh, and I love how the sonic screwdriver is able to do everything.

[WestSeven]

Mountain Man said:
I just finished watching The End of the World, and holy crap that rocked! Possibly one of the best episodes of Doctor Who ever! It had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end, and the revelations about the Doctor had me scooping my jaw off the floor. Another terrific performance from Eccelston and Piper!

Oh, and I love how the sonic screwdriver is able to do everything.

Totally agree. I'm amazed. I really thought it would kind of suck - but it's amazingly good. Perfect blend of humour, surealness and action - again! Respect!

Appeals to kids, adults, new viewers and fans of the old series alike. I don't know how they did it!

[supermeerkat]

Mountain Man said:
Oh, and I love how the sonic screwdriver is able to do everything.

That was the one of the things I didn't like about ep2 - it just seemed like a lazy plot contrivance. The other thing was seeing bits of the tardis control console up close - it just looked like dirty, rusty bits of metal, and as for that stupid bike pump thing......

[Chimera]

and as for that stupid bike pump thing......

Yeah, that was a bit crap

But how cool was Jabe? I want to be a tree

[WestSeven]

Chimera said:

Yeah, that was a bit crap

I thought the bike pump thing was really funny.

[Mountain Man]

supermeerkat said:

That was the one of the things I didn't like about ep2 - it just seemed like a lazy plot contrivance.

Well, I liked it because it's clearly a throw back to the classic series when the writers used to flat out admit that it was plot device. They could have had the Doctor spend 5 minutes contriving some elaborate escape plan, or have him whip out the sonic screwdriver and get the job done in 5 seconds. Unless, of course, they wanted an elaborate 5 minute escape sequence, in which case the sonic screwdriver would be inexplicibly ineffective. Saw an interview once where someone said something like, "The sonic screwdriver can open any lock in the universe. Except when it can't."

The other thing was seeing bits of the tardis control console up close - it just looked like dirty, rusty bits of metal, and as for that stupid bike pump thing......

One running theory I've read is that <table><tr><th><font size="-1">Spoiler below:</font></th></tr><tr><td class="spoiler">during the war, the Doctor's original TARDIS--the one from the classic series--was destroyed, so the one he has now was literally put together with whatever bits of junk he could find.</td></tr></table> That would explain its roughshod appearance. As for why it's still a Police Box, I don't suppose the Doctor's sentimentality is out of the question. As for the bicycle pump, eh--sorry, I got nothin'!

[Fat John]

I reckon it's just a case of the alien UI being physical, as opposed to icons onscreen.

[Mountain Man]

It turns out the reasons for Eccelston's departure are not what we were led to believe:

<font color="gold">BBC ADMITS DOCTOR WHO ACTOR BLUNDER
The BBC admits it broke an agreement with Eccleston

The BBC failed to speak to actor Christopher Eccleston before revealing he was going to quit Dr Who after the first series, it has admitted.

It was originally claimed the actor feared being typecast if he stayed on.

In a statement, the BBC quoted Eccleston as saying "he hoped viewers continued to enjoy the series".

But the BBC has admitted it did not consult him about that statement and also broke its agreement not to reveal he planned to film just one series.

Head of drama and commissioning Jane Tranter said: "The BBC regrets not speaking to Christopher before it responded to the press questions on Wednesday 30 March.

"The BBC further regrets that it falsely attributed a statement to Christopher and apologises to him."

A BBC spokesman said a mutual agreement was made between the corporation and Eccleston in January that the fact he was not making a second series would not be made public.

But after journalists questioned the press office, the news was confirmed.

A further series of the show has now been commissioned.

The BBC confirmed it was in talks with actor David Tennant, the star of BBC3 drama Casanova, as a possible replacement for Eccleston.

BBC News (Link)</font>

[Fat John]

Well it's on tonight...

[addfaz]

was better than i thought it would be

not usually into that type of era. next weeks looks verrrry good.

[supermeerkat]

Not as good as episodes 1 and 2, but still worth watching.

[Duoae]

Yeah, this episode was much slower-paced than the others, but was still good. Next week's episode looks like it's going to rock! I hope that was UNIT we saw.....

[Mountain Man]

Not bad. A bit predictable, and the Doctor seemed a little too easily duped. This one could have made a great two parter.

[supermeerkat]

I suppose it was a character development episode: Rose is developing into quite an interesting character.

[Joe Siegler]

Duoae said:
Another absolutely GREAT episode and spoiler:

<font color="#1F1F22"> I can't believe the timelords are dead and that gallifrey is gone..... btw does anyone know who they were fighting against? </font>

I suspect that's likely to be resolved before the end of the series. This is what I've heard..

The final two episodes ARE a two parter. Episode 12's name has not been revealed yet, and Episode 13's name is "The Parting of the Ways". Here's what I think (spoiler bits)

<table><tr><th><font size="-1">Spoiler below:</font></th></tr><tr><td class="spoiler">Episode 12 & 13 will be a two parter about the Daleks and the Time War and Gallifrey. Apparently the bit about Eccleston only doing one series was known from the start, and the end of Episode 13 has already accounted for that. From what I've heard there will be no regeneration, but the end of Ep 13 will be ambigious enough to allow for a change in Doctor - we'll see.</td></tr></table>

[Joe Siegler]

Mountain Man said:
I just finished watching The End of the World, and holy crap that rocked! Possibly one of the best episodes of Doctor Who ever! It had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end, and the revelations about the Doctor had me scooping my jaw off the floor. Another terrific performance from Eccelston and Piper!

Oh, and I love how the sonic screwdriver is able to do everything.

Yes, I rather liked this episode, too. Much goodness abounds.

I also liked the Unquiet Dead - at first I didn't think I was going to like it, I was never a fan of Dr Who's period pieces, but this one ended up being quite good. The bit about the Doctor and Charles Dickens in Dickens' "car" was awesome.

Although someone here at 3DR who is a big Who fan had an interesting observation. Minor Spoilers..

<table><tr><th><font size="-1">Spoiler below:</font></th></tr><tr><td class="spoiler">
In Episodes 1 & 3 the Doctor got himself into situations where he had to be saved by someone else. Ep 1 by Rose, Ep 3 by Dickens. </td></tr></table>

[Joe Siegler]

Duoae said:
Yeah, this episode was much slower-paced than the others, but was still good. Next week's episode looks like it's going to rock! I hope that was UNIT we saw.....

Using UNIT would be awesome. Would be intersting to see Lethbridge Stewart, but I somehow doubt they'll use him - he was already looking long in the teeth in his appearance with McCoy, and that was 16 years ago.

Would be nice for someone to just say the name Lethbridge-Stewart at least.

[supermeerkat]

Joe3DR said:

Using UNIT would be awesome. Would be intersting to see Lethbridge Stewart, but I somehow doubt they'll use him - he was already looking long in the teeth in his appearance with McCoy, and that was 16 years ago.

Would be nice for someone to just say the name Lethbridge-Stewart at least.

I wonder if Lt. Bambera(sp?) will show up, I vaguely recall her from the last McCoy series, she played a fairly major role in of the stories with UNIT in it. As a side note, she was played by the same actor who played the female Lister in the episode of Red Dwarf where the crew go into a parallel universe.

[Duoae]

Yep... would be cool to see her or "son-of" lethbridge stewart....

[Joe Siegler]

I wonder if Lt. Bambera(sp?) will show up, I vaguely recall her from the last McCoy series, she played a fairly major role in of the stories with UNIT in it. As a side note, she was played by the same actor who played the female Lister in the episode of Red Dwarf where the crew go into a parallel universe.

She was indeed the "current" Brigadier in UNIT in McCoy's story "Battefield". I doubt they'll use her, since she's not listed in the cast list. We're also assuming they'll even use the term Brigadier anyway.

[Mountain Man]

Joe3DR said:
<table><tr><th><font size="-1">Spoiler below:</font></th></tr><tr><td class="spoiler">
In Episodes 1 & 3 the Doctor got himself into situations where he had to be saved by someone else. Ep 1 by Rose, Ep 3 by Dickens. </td></tr></table>

<table><tr><th><font size="-1">Spoiler below:</font></th></tr><tr><td class="spoiler">At least in Rose it was plausible because he was being physically restrained by a presumably stronger being. However, in The Unquiet Dead, he locked himself in a cage and started blubbering like a little girl. I was surprised to see the Doctor get himself in a jam and simply give up. It seemed out of character (if you look at the previous 26 seasons).</td></tr></table>
It was a fantastic episode otherwise ("I'm your biggest fan!"), but that did bother me a bit.

Favorite line: "And don't think I didn't notice your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man!"

[Joe Siegler]

"And don't think I didn't notice your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man!"

Where was that? I don't remember that one.

[Duoae]

Joe3DR said:

Where was that? I don't remember that one.

LOL! It was right after <font color="#1F1F22"> she woke up after being chloroformed and was rescued by the doctor. They were all in the reception/living room and Rose was standin in front of the fireplace having a rant about being kidnapped. </font>

I thought it was a pretty funny comment.

[Tetsuro]

I've never seen a single episode of Dr.Who, but I am interested. Out of the DVDs currently available, which one would you guys recommend most for me to start off with?

[Tedski]

Takeshi said:
I've never seen a single episode of Dr.Who, but I am interested. Out of the DVDs currently available, which one would you guys recommend most for me to start off with?

This is not going to be easy. Dr. Who is a TV series made by the BBC in the UK that has been going for in the region of 40 years. There's quite a bit to choose from. What I would recommend is NOT to watch any of the movies that have been made, until you've watched some of the series. The movies, while interesting, (and I've actually enjoyed athe odd one) do not really give you a proper idea of what Dr. Who is all about. Realistically, you need probably to start off somewhere in the 70's where the shows were broadcast in colour - there's a lot of stuff that wasn't. Earliest series that will be in colour will have Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, which is probably as good a place to start as any - unless you like black and white stuff, in which case it would be at the beginning. You really have to bear in mind when these things were broadcast though - there is stuff that will look extremely dated - mainly because it is.
No doubt there may well be other suggestions coming, which may be more helpful than mine, but as I pointed out at the start, it's not an easy task. Good luck.

[Tetsuro]

One: I am not the kind of guy who disses a movie/TV show because it's in black and white.

Second: The SFX in Star Trek TOS are dated too but I love it.

I read some of the reviews and it seems that The Talons Of Weng-Chiang is the best story, but what I really am looking for is a story that really captures the essence of the whole show itself while not requiring too much background information (which naturally leads into the need of starting from some of the older episodes).

[Joe Siegler]

Mountain Man said:

I suppose that could work, but they'd have to remove the telemovie from canon then make Eccelston the 8th and McGann the 9th. Probably won't happen, but it is food for thought.

Says who? Who's to say he can't regenerate into one of his previous forms?

[Mountain Man]

Joe3DR said:
Who's to say he can't regenerate into one of his previous forms?

I don't think anybody has said that, at least not officially, but it would most certainly be unprecedented.

[Joe Siegler]

Mountain Man said:

I don't think anybody has said that, at least not officially, but it would most certainly be unprecedented.

Of course it would, but your previous statement was a bit more "out there" - removing McGann from canon so they could go back to him? Just make him #10.

Either way it's not gonna happen. I'd love for McGann to come back, but I doubt it will happen. I don't think either side is interested in that.

[supermeerkat]

David Tenant has been confirmed as the new Doctor Who

I haven't seen any of his work, and my g/f really doesn't like him. However, everyone at where I work say that he has been really good in a BBC series about Casanova. I would have preferred Ecclestone, though

[Fat John]

It's still pretty cheesy. I hope the BBC does some marketing.