"Doctor Who," He's Back and it's About Time!

[Eyemo]

Made In Wales!!lol

 

[LordBest]

The "at least I'm not ginger" "joke" was a bit tedious (I'm neither ginger nor offended..... it just wasn't funny), but that's the fault of the writer.

I thought the Eleventh Doctor said "Still not ginger" in a rather exasperated fashion?
I have to admit I hoped the rumours that Stephen Fry would be the next Doctor would be true, but I'm still willing to give Matt Smith a go. There are persistent rumours that Tennant will return for a Tenth Doctor film. I hope they are true but there were rumours Ecclestone would return for ninth doctor episodes too so I'm not getting my hopes up.
My big hope for Moffat is that he will stop pressing the big-red-reset-button at the end of Dalek episodes. It would be so much better to have the threat of Daleks hanging over the Doctor instead of having them all annihilated at the end of each appearance.

 

[Mahagonny Bill]

I thought the Eleventh Doctor said "Still not ginger" in a rather exasperated fashion?
I have to admit I hoped the rumours that Stephen Fry would be the next Doctor would be true, but I'm still willing to give Matt Smith a go. There are persistent rumours that Tennant will return for a Tenth Doctor film. I hope they are true but there were rumours Ecclestone would return for ninth doctor episodes too so I'm not getting my hopes up.

I thought that he said "Still not ginger" as well, referring to "The Christmas Invasion" where Tenant bemoans the fact that he always wanted to be ginger. As a ginger, I was not offended

I have the same reservations about Matt Smith that everyone else does, but I can't think of a single Doctor who was cast as type.
William Hartnell was known for "crusty Sargent" roles and not children's television.
Patrick Troughton was a slightly sinister character actor.
Jon Pertwee was known for "Carry-On" films and doing funny radio voices.
Tom Baker was a complete unknown who's main claim to fame was playing the heavy in a Sinbad movie.
Peter Davison was way too young and well known.
Colin Baker was a soap opera actor.
Sylvester McCoy was known for pantomime.
Paul McGann was known for one cult movie and a handful of supporting television roles.
Christopher Eccleston was considered too serious of an actor.
David Tennant was another unknown who had just done a naughty miniseries about Casanova.

Steven Moffat knows Doctor Who. He wrote the funnest and greatest love letter to the show in "Curse of the Fatal Death", so you know he gets it. I have read interviews where Moffat himself says that Matt Smith is much younger than what they were looking for, but once his audition was done they could not cast anyone else. He had what they wanted for their Doctor.

I for one will give the new show a chance. I think RTD was brilliant and I will always thank him for resurrecting the show, but I'm also looking forward to the next series and will reserve judgment on the new production, at least until it airs.

**FULL DISCLOSURE**
I just ordered "The Twin Dilemma", THE WORST Doctor Who episode of all time, on DVD so you might consider me a bit of a fanatic. I will obviously watch ANYTHING Doctor Who related. You may want to take my comments with a large grain of salt. lol lol lol

 

[Edward]

I thought that he said "Still not ginger" as well, referring to "The Christmas Invasion" where Tenant bemoans the fact that he always wanted to be ginger. As a ginger, I was not offended

To be fair, then, I may have missed the intended gag.... clever self-reference (if still not funny. ).

**FULL DISCLOSURE**
I just ordered "The Twin Dilemma", THE WORST Doctor Who episode of all time, on DVD so you might consider me a bit of a fanatic. I will obviously watch ANYTHING Doctor Who related. You may want to take my comments with a large grain of salt. lol lol lol

"Pass the Sodium Chloride, then!"

"Blink" is one of my favorites as well. Amazing writing; the Doctor is hardly in it at all, yet it's still riveting and genuinely scary. Just goes to show you don't need a lot of special effects/CGI to create a good story. Just a good property department and writer.lol

Brad

Absolutely... which is the jo of the new Who: at its best, they make the most of modern effects without letting it overtake the narrative.

Made In Wales!!lol

And they said the BBC's Charter obligations for regional production would never produce anything worth watching.... lol

Did I hear correctly that they're now moving to Glasgow, and the next series will be a BBC Scotland production?

I have to admit I hoped the rumours that Stephen Fry would be the next Doctor would be true, but I'm still willing to give Matt Smith a go.

Fry... heh. He'd be fun, at least, though I'm not sure whether he isn't too well known in the UK by now for being himself (as opposed to his rather fine acting capability) for them to seriously consider him... More to the point, he'd probably be too expensive....

There are persistent rumours that Tennant will return for a Tenth Doctor film. I hope they are true but there were rumours Ecclestone would return for ninth doctor episodes too so I'm not getting my hopes up.

Mixed feelings about that. I'm not sure how well it would work, breaking away from the continuity of the ongoing series (ironically enough for a show about time travel).... that said, I remember liking the Five Doctors episode, maybe they could do something like that.... though tbh, I would prefer them to let Smith become very established in the role first. The latest BBC radio series did, of course, feature a reprisal of, if memory serves, Colin Baker's Doctor (alongside Sheridan Smith as his sidekick.... I'd love to see her in a regular role in the revamped TV show). Connery came back as Bond, too, and did it more credibly than any of his replacements had (though I could have been a more credible Bond than any of them, broad Ulster brogue an' all!) Maybe they could do something parallel like that.... if, of course, they could seduce Tennant back into it. I have the feeling he left at the right time, really - before he had the chance to become typecast, and before he started to feel stale. Also allows the Moffat era to begin with a Doctor that is wholly his own, which is no bad thing. It could be a dangerous move for Tennant to go back, though at the same time the right project could really propel him into Hollywood - breaking america is his net big challenge, I should think.

My big hope for Moffat is that he will stop pressing the big-red-reset-button at the end of Dalek episodes. It would be so much better to have the threat of Daleks hanging over the Doctor instead of having them all annihilated at the end of each appearance.

Absolutely - not to mention that, unlike when Tom Baker's Doctor freaked out at the enormity of having to decide whether to wipe out an entire race or not, there's no horror in total annihilation when we know they'll be brought back again net year via some flimsy fairy dust plot device. Same with the Master.....

Oh, now there's a capacity I'd like to see past Whos return in: the Master. I think that could be done credibly, and imagine the trauma for the Doctor to be pursued by, or even face killing, his own (former) face? Occasioning some facing up to his own darkside, something buried in there we've not yet seen?

 

[Lady Day]

Matt Smith is known to me (and many others) having been a fan of 'Party Animals'. You may be right, of course, he may be a bad Doctor, but we won't know until we actually see him perform for more than 30 seconds. The fact is this debate does parallel the one about Tennant, right down to people criticising Tennants age, lack of gravitas ("he's too comical") etc.

I do think there is justification, though. Tennant was in his mid 30s when he took the role, so despite being younger than previous Doctors, he still had some 'age' to him. I mean the character is 900+ years old.

This guy is in his late 20s and, I think will bring a bevy of 'This kid is too young to trust' storylines/situations/mishaps, most of which Im sure will be comical.

I mean to have the Doctor be aged to where you generally have some of the first experiences in your life could work. [huh]

As far as writing goes, I still think season 3 was the best overall. I rarely judge a show episode by episode. There were some great story arcs in 3 but Martha, or rather what they did with her was right annoying. I thought the Doctor was rather mean to her form the start and writers tried to beef up her character at the end of the season, but it felt labored, and I just didnt care. I also thought it was interesting that Martha was the only one of the 3 to actually be learned, as in she was studying to be a doctor, where as the other two were just girls girls, and they didnt even use that. Shame really.

Donna was my favorite. I couldnt *stand* Rose.

LD

 

[cooncatbob]

I lived in the SF bay area during the 80s when the San Jose PBS station used to air Dr Who and I have all the 1st 5 Doctor Who episodes on VHS tape (don't know if they're still playable)
I lost interest with the 6th and 7th Doctors which I didn't like, especially Colin Baker and his clown suit.
The last 2 Doctors have been great, it's always a bit of a ordeal getting used to a new Doctor but I understand why actors don't want to play the character too long.

 

[Troglodyte]

Cymraeg

Even notice how the Tardis' translation function, which makes all spoken and written communication across the Universe understandable, is helpless when faced with Cymraeg (Welsh)?

Trog

 

[Eyemo]

One of the locations recently used....

http://www.gardenofwales.org.uk/en/72.html

 

[Mahagonny Bill]

Ginger Clairification

Ok, I'm really not beating a dead horse, I just thought this was funny enough to share.

From The Doctor Who News Page:
The new Doctor might have just uttered a few words so far, but his remark about still not being ginger has proved controversial with many grasping the wrong end of the stick. Perhaps egged on by comments in several newspapers, the BBC has received 143 complaints about the line, forcing the corporation to put out a statement clarifying that the Doctor was disappointed not to be ginger.

BBC Complaints:
We would like to reassure viewers that Doctor Who doesn't have an anti ginger agenda whatsoever. This was a reprise of the line in the Christmas Invasion episode in 2005, when David Tennant discovers that he's not ginger, and here he is, missing out again - disappointed he's still not ginger.

In addition, the Doctor's previous companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) and his new one Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) are both redheads.

 

[Edward]

Ok, I'm really not beating a dead horse, I just thought this was funny enough to share.

From The Doctor Who News Page:
The new Doctor might have just uttered a few words so far, but his remark about still not being ginger has proved controversial with many grasping the wrong end of the stick. Perhaps egged on by comments in several newspapers, the BBC has received 143 complaints about the line, forcing the corporation to put out a statement clarifying that the Doctor was disappointed not to be ginger.

lol

I think sensitivities were already up due to the timing of this... a big news story of the previous week was Tesco (large UK supermarket chain) being forced by public pressure to withdraw this Christmas card from sale:

Colin Baker and his clown suit.

This seems to have been a sticking point for a lot of folks. I was about, I think, eight or so when the Fifth Doctor, of whom I was quite a fan, regenerated, and the big thing that really put me off then was, as you say the stupid clownsuit. By far the worst of any Doctor costume; the others here and there would have looked eccentric (excepting Eccleston's very toned down look, and Tennant's clobber, which was only really let down by the "look at me, I'm dreadfully whacky and not at all stuffy, even if I am wearing a suit! With a tie" nature of his footwear in juxtaposition with the suits), but never ridiculous. Colin Baker was also, I remember hearing, stiffed a bit on the story front, too - he was supposed to go from a quite unlikeable, unapproachable Doctor through a complete arc to something much nicer, warmer, but the Beeb drastically cut the number of series they wanted with him after they'd already gone some way towards this, so they had to squish things in.... I did later look back into some of the later stuff with him, and he was quite good, really, pretty good storylines.... but the clothes really were awful. Huge mistake.

For the future series, I'd like to see the Doctor drop in with King Arthur - I do remember the Battlefield storyline, the first from the final series with Sylvester McCoy (number seven, I believe), in which it became apparent that the Doctor was actually Merlin to those characters, although clearly some in regenerated form still then in the Doctor's future. They've not come back to that one yet....

 

[Eyemo]

Just heard that it looks like production of DW is staying in Cardiff..along with Torchwood....and Casuality (Hospital Drama) is moving from Bristol to Cardiff too..

 

[Edward]

They'll have to work damn hard to make a fourth season of Torchwood work, IMO - the third was so good, and such a wonderfully bleak ending, that it'd be very easy to jump the shark with another series. Best wya would be for Jack to build an entire new team, which I think it was point towards. By all that is good and Holy, though, PLEASE don't let it feature either Martha "two facial expressions" Jones, or that ghastly one-dimensional Mickey character.... how I loathed them both!

 

[Mahagonny Bill]

They'll have to work damn hard to make a fourth season of Torchwood work, IMO - the third was so good, and such a wonderfully bleak ending, that it'd be very easy to jump the shark with another series. Best wya would be for Jack to build an entire new team, which I think it was point towards. By all that is good and Holy, though, PLEASE don't let it feature either Martha "two facial expressions" Jones, or that ghastly one-dimensional Mickey character.... how I loathed them both!

I actually want to see Capt. Jack return to Earth and deal with a new Torchwood team that Gwen and Rhys have built in his absence. I personally wouldn't mind seeing Martha and Mickey in a new Torchwwod, but you are welcome to your opinion (no matter how wrong it is ).

 

[Edward]

I actually want to see Capt. Jack return to Earth and deal with a new Torchwood team that Gwen and Rhys have built in his absence. I personally wouldn't mind seeing Martha and Mickey in a new Torchwwod, but you are welcome to your opinion (no matter how wrong it is ).

lol

My impression with the last series was that Gwen was leaving to have her kid, that the pregnancy was really a sign that she was returning to the 'normal' world, itself heralded by her implicitly choosing Rhys over Jack... Rhys could have potential to be further developed, of course. I was initially rather annoyed that they kept him on for so long (I tended to view him as a plot device simply to show Gwen's increasing alienation from 'normality' as she became more and more involved in the TW team, but as tey made him a more regular character he did have something to offer.

Although it appears those rumours have now been proven unfounded, when the buzz as that Torchwood and Who were to move to Glasgow, I did wonder whether this series was going to focus on the reemergence of Torchwood 2, which we know was the Glasgow operation, but nothing else about it.

I'd like to see them do a series of Torchwoods of the past, based in previous eras of which we have so far seen glimpses, suh as the Victorian and Edwardian eras. I think that has a lot of potential.

 

[deadpandiva]

I am going to wach season five if what I read on IMDB is true. I love River Song and it looks like she'll be back for an episode.

I am watching season 1-4 out of order. I had to start with season 4 for Donna Noble.

 

[bobalooba]

It's been a while (since I've been on the good ol' FL, or since there's been a doctor who post, so here I am to remedy both). So I would just like to throw in a little link I found to a blog about Dr. Who costumes. It goes over the various incarnations and the actual eccentricity of them. It's been a while since I read it but I found it interesting a few months ago, hope it's held up well.

That said I really couldn't stand Colin Baker's costume, which seems to be a general consensus, I know I'm relatively alone in this but I wasn't a big fan of Pertwee's costumes either. Falling between Troughton and Tom Baker he always just looked like he was afraid to get his hands dirty. (I know this wasn't the case, it always just seemed that way)

http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2004/11/back-to-tardis.html

 

[Warden]

Doctor Who props and costumes up for auction

A selection of props and costumes from BBC One's Doctor Who are to go under the hammer in London later this month.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8499745.stm

and

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8500262.stm

 

[HosManHatter]

I`ve been watching some episodes of the new Dr. Who and I`ve enjoyed them.The older series was a bit up there on the nerd scale for me.

Of course the cute blonde he travels with is nice too.

Hos

 

[jharrell]

Doctor Who props and costumes up for auction

A selection of props and costumes from BBC One's Doctor Who are to go under the hammer in London later this month.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8499745.stm

and

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8500262.stm

It's to bad they didn't do what Battlestar Galactica did and auction it on ebay. They would have had a much larger bidding pool.

 

[Sincerely-Dee]

I wasn't aware that Doctor Who was so big in the US.

Refreshing find really...