Doctor Who thread II: "I should have a hat like that." [SPOILERS]

[Kato]

So I watched Blink again recently and the Doctor says some interesting stuff at the end (spoilers for latest series)

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In an episode by Moffat, he says how he keeps meeting people in the wrong order and that he's bad at weddings, especially his own.

Throwaway line or was Moffat really using foreshadowing like three series in advance?

It's Moffat. Think again.

[Sunken Valley]

So I watched Blink again recently and the Doctor says some interesting stuff at the end (spoilers for latest series)

Spoiler

Show

In an episode by Moffat, he says how he keeps meeting people in the wrong order and that he's bad at weddings, especially his own.

Throwaway line or was Moffat really using foreshadowing like three series in advance?

Meeting people in the wrong order is probably something he's wanted to do for a while. He wrote blink before he heard of the top job so the wedding line's a throwaway. None of these are spoilers because that's River's gimmick and End of Time and Big Bang both have weddings.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

So I watched Blink again recently and the Doctor says some interesting stuff at the end (spoilers for latest series)

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Show

In an episode by Moffat, he says how he keeps meeting people in the wrong order and that he's bad at weddings, especially his own.

Throwaway line or was Moffat really using foreshadowing like three series in advance?

I thought the same thing when I heard it. At that point, I hadn't seen Season 6, but I'd heard references to it by other people. And the answer? I think that it's more likely that Moffat springs on old stuff that he'd written, re-using it. Or maybe it was an idea he'd had bubbling around in his head, that he saved for later.

Anyhow, just finished Season 6, not bad, certainly entertaining. I do agree that there was a lot of glossing-over. Moffat has things that he wants to get into place, and he slips them into place very quickly. All the same, not bad, it was still a good finale, and I give Moffat points for

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totally dwarfing "Bad Wolf" and "Mister Saxon" via The Question, cleverly making the entire series one big arc reference. Now, retroactively, "Doctor Who" is an arc phrase that echoes all the way from the beginning. That's pretty cool.

[Jaros]

I give Moffat points for

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totally dwarfing "Bad Wolf" and "Mister Saxon" via The Question, cleverly making the entire series one big arc reference. Now, retroactively, "Doctor Who" is an arc phrase that echoes all the way from the beginning. That's pretty cool.

Actually that really annoyed me. It felt really cheap and not really significant

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'Bad Wolf' and 'Mister Saxon' were interesting because we want to know what they mean. Really though, what's the point in knowing the Doctor's name? Will it really change anything?

[Eldan]

Plus can they ever give him any name that does not feel either cheap or silly?

[Sunfall]

Actually that really annoyed me. It felt really cheap and not really significant

Yeah, me too. Making the question a plot point kind of trivializes it, takes away the charm... And I'm really frightened that Moff's sad new tradition of "glossing over" might do even more damage there.

BTW, I don't think Moffat will throw a tradition of almost fifty years out the window by straight out telling us the answer. Some characters

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(River!!)

might get to know it, but i sincerely hope to God we never will. It's a bit like the show will end when they reveal the answer...


On a slightly more enthusiastic note, this made me laugh today:

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That's definitely my kind of Dalek!

[Androgeus]

The question could always be "Doctor, who?". Although the way blue head guy says it doesn't lend itself to this interpretation.

[Helanna]

So, apparently this is a thing. It's a book of celebrity memories about Doctor Who, with 100% of the proceeds going towards Alzheimer's Research UK. I'm not entirely sure what it's actually about or if there's a theme to it, but Neil Gaiman is in it and it's for an excellent cause! The book is supposed to come out in September, but they have a limited number of pre-orders available. So it's definitely worth checking out.

[CurlyKitGirl]

Okay, so I was going through my archive of Who Reviews and I realised that my link to 'Genesis of the Daleks' part 2/6 actually links to 'The Fires of Pompeii'.
As I'm working on a review right now, could somebody please go and find the link for me? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

Danke.

[Androgeus]

Okay, so I was going through my archive of Who Reviews and I realised that my link to 'Genesis of the Daleks' part 2/6 actually links to 'The Fires of Pompeii'.
As I'm working on a review right now, could somebody please go and find the link for me? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

Danke.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showp...postcount=1397

Bitte.

[CurlyKitGirl]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showp...postcount=1397

Bitte.

Merci beaucoup.

You know, I bet a million dollarpounds nobody knows what episode I'm writing up right now.
Seriously, if someone guesses (three guesses each) I'll let them pick the next episode I do.

[Mercenary Pen]

Merci beaucoup.

You know, I bet a million dollarpounds nobody knows what episode I'm writing up right now.
Seriously, if someone guesses (three guesses each) I'll let them pick the next episode I do.

Does it count as cheating if I guess- having been at the Oxford mini-meet (and possibly given you the episode in question)?

[CurlyKitGirl]

Does it count as cheating if I guess- having been at the Oxford mini-meet (and possibly given you the episode in question)?

Not necessarily. There's still about a dozen episodes to pick from.

[Thufir]

If the people who were there pooled our guesses, we could possibly guarantee that one of us would get it right...

[CurlyKitGirl]

Like I said.

Guess.

I dare you.

[Mercenary Pen]

Not necessarily. There's still about a dozen episodes to pick from.

Yes, but I think you said something about doing a particular one as I was leaving (could be wrong though)...

Anyway, I'll start the guessing:
Remembrance of the daleks
The invasion
The Unicorn and the wasp (which IIRC was your next new-who review)

Also, just saying, but anyone who isn't in the UK should steer clear of Curly's list of classic who episodes in the UKitP thread.

(Nope, we're not gonna let you win this Curly)

[Androgeus]

Using a totally non-random method I guess Earthshock

[Mercenary Pen]

Using a totally non-random method I guess Earthshock

Me too!

For your viewing pleasure I personally have:

The First Doctor
An Unearthly Child
The Daleks (HELL YEAH!)
The Edge of Destruction

The Second Doctor
The Two Doctors (COLIN BAKER! Oh . . . )

The Third Doctor
The Time Warrior (LIZ SLADEN! smallfrown:)

The Fourth Doctor
The Sontaran Experiment
The Invasion of Time
The Genesis of the Daleks (Or at least I should. Why do people keep stealing this serial)

The Sixth Doctor
The Two Doctors (PATRICK TROUGHTON! JAMIE!)

I think we can be pretty sure that Earthshock is wrong- you have two more guesses.

(Yes, my classic who guesses don't appear on this list, but I know she has acquired those stories since)

[Androgeus]

I think we can be pretty sure that Earthshock is wrong- you have two more guesses.

(Yes, my classic who guesses don't appear on this list, but I know she has acquired those stories since)

My totally non-random method was a random number generator

My next guess is Snakedance (now there was a weird episode)
And quite amusingly my next next guess is Genesis of the Daleks.

[twinkletoes]

Plus can they ever give him any name that does not feel either cheap or silly?

Ooo! Ooo! I know one! How about 'Bob'!?!

[Kato]

Uhm... Wedding of River Song...
Genesis of the Daleks... (3/6 is the new, I think?)
Unearthly Child.

Random guesses are random.

[SKarious]

Hey, Curly's back!
Ooh, ohh, lemme try: you're going to review "The Unicorn and the Wasp". Are you?

[Dr. Simon]

If it were me, Id' go for An Unearthly Child, start at the beginning.

[Dr. Simon]

Continuing my plan to post what I think to be the highlights of every season of Doctor Who, old and new.

For each series I choose 2 or 3 of what I consider to be the best stories, and a selection of also-rans. "Stories" may comprise any number of actual episodes (somewhere between 1-14, typically 4 or 6). Older Who is nearly always episodic, with NuWho most episodes are self-contained. Feel free to expand on my brief comments, agree, disagree etc. This is, after all, purely subjective.

First Doctor

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Season One (1963-1964)
Season Two (1964-1965)
Season Three (1965-1966)
Season Four (1966-1967)

Second Doctor

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Season Four (1966-1967)
Season Five (1967-1968)
Season Six (1968-1969)

Third Doctor

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Season Seven (1970)
Season Eight (1971)
Season Nine (1972)
Season Ten (1972-1973)
Season Eleven (1973-1974)

Fourth Doctor

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Season Twelve (1974-1975)
Season Thirteen (1975-1976)
Season Fourteen (1976-1977)
Season Fifteen (1977-1978)
Season Sixteen (1978-1979)
Season Seventeen (1979-1980)
Season Eighteen (1980-1981)

Fifth Doctor

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Season Nineteen (1981-1982)
Season Twenty (1983)
Season Twenty One (1984)

And so onto the controversial Sixth Doctor. I rather like Colin Baker's portrayal, picking up on the generally negative aspects of the Doctor's personality - take away the elements of compassion and (deliberate) humour from any Doctor and you're left with a pompous oaf, but there are enough moments poking fun at this particular pompous oaf to soften him.

There are several problems with his tenure, though. First, the costume. As with all of Nathan-Turner's Doctors it is obviously A COSTUME and not simply someone with a slightly eccentric dress sense. This one is the worst example, though. I can see the idea - meant to reflect a fractured personality - but it ends up too garish and cartoonish. Surely a mish-mash of non-matching styles would have worked better?
Second, the writing is more often than not, poor. Who is always a mix of good and not so good, but one of the things that raises it above the general cheapness of production is the quality of writing - at its best it has notes of humour, pathos, serious message and intelligent speculative fiction. At it's worst it's B-movie crud with lots of running around quarries or cheap sets with silly costumes, and there's more of that kind of thing with this Doctor.
Thirdly, Bonnie Langford. But luckily, she's not in this season.

What's also unusual about this season is that individual episodes are 45 minutes long as opposed to the 25 minutes of previous seasons, the only time this is done until Nu-Who.

Season Twenty Two (1985)
Sixth Doctor/Peri

Vengeance On Varos – Athough it got a lot of people up in arms at the time over violence, it seems ridiculously tame nowadays. Martin Jarvis gives a good turn as the weary governer, and the two “Greek Chorus” characters are amusing (reminiscent of the vid-watching family who cropped up in old Judge Dredd comics). The show, however, is stolen by Nabil Shaban giving a brilliantly alien performance as the loathsome Sil.

Honourable Mentions
Mark Of The Rani – Some of the episode cliffhangers are silly, but the location footage is good, the historical idea is interesting and The Rani makes for a refreshing alternative to The Master. We almost don’t need him to turn up as well. A hefty dose of belief-suspending is needed to swallow the “tree mines”, though.

Revelation Of The Daleks – I like the catacomb setting; shame the “Soylent Green” aspect wasn’t played up more. William Gaunt gives a good turn as a cynical yet honourable mercenary knight but it’s a pity he’s pretty much a retread of the character Lytton from Resurrection of…. Really, for a dalek story, it needed more daleks and less Alexei Sayle.

[Sunken Valley]

My guess!

End of Time
11th hour
Next Doctor

[Androgeus]

So new compaion has been announced, Jenna-Louise Coleman.

Also apparently we're getting 6 episode this year (including Christmas) and then 8 next year.

[Axolotl]

Also apparently we're getting 6 episode this year (including Christmas) and then 8 next year.

Really? That's how they're going to celibrate Dr Who's 50th anniversary? By cutting the season in half?

[Androgeus]

Really? That's how they're going to celebrate Dr Who's 50th anniversary? By cutting the season in half?

We'll probably still get 13 episodes next year, but instead of them just being from series 8, they'll be from series 7B and series 8A. The only time we get less episodes is this year.

[Xondoure]

Really? That's how they're going to celebrate Dr Who's 50th anniversary? By cutting the season in half?

Hopefully they'll use the time to make a Tennant and Smith crossover special (Eccleston refusing to come back…)

Or something else removed from the series timeline.

[Sunfall]

The Doctor will meet his new friend in a dramatic turn of events as the show builds towards its enormous, climactic 50th anniversary year - full of thrills, adventures and big surprises.

(from Androgeus' first link)

That doesn't sound so bad...

And yeah, a crossover would be great! They have a tradition of celebrating anniversaries by having the doctor meet himself, haven't they? And it wouldn't even be hard to explain. There's still another Ten running around out there, albeit in parallel dimension. Or, you know, they could just use time travel

I'm sad that the chances of having Eccleston back are so slim, the reason for the falling out being such a stupid misunderstanding...