Doctor Who!

[tony ingram]

It's 48 years to the day since Doctor Who first materialized on BBC TV on 23rd November 1963. President Kennedy had just been assassinated, man was still six years away from reaching the Moon, and there were only two TV channels in Britain, "BBC" and "The Other Side". Now, 48 years later, we've seen 11 Doctors feature in 223 stories made up of 783 episodes (not including Children in Need Etc) plus four spin-off shows (K9 & Company, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures and K9), several theatre productios, more than 200 audio/radio stories, five separate ranges of original novels, two cinema adaptations starring Peter Cushing, three webcast adventures and forty seven years worth of comic strips. Not bad for a series originally intended to run for 13 weeks!

Happy Anniversary, Doctor!

[sf1378]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

I'll say it here, I bet Matt Smith has already 'secretly' agreed his leaving when the 50th anniversary comes in 2013...its my opinion thats the real reason behind the new 'split' seasons i.e. half shown in summer and the other half of new series in autumn...it stretches out his tenure. He's ok, but too young for the role. The writing at present is awful and confusing and predictable on the whole...Tennant for me was brilliant, and his outfit was way cooler....Its a shame about Matt, he can be great if the writing and plot arcs were better.

I also think, they'll have to come up with a clever way of the Doc getting another 12 regenerations in 2013 - if I wrote the show, somehow I'd write in the character of the 'Woman' from The End of Time...it was obvious it was The Doctor's Mother, even Russell T Davies said that was the initial outline for Claire Bloom's character. I think it'd be poigniant and sad that the same person who gave The Doctor life, gives him life once more, or lives I'm sure it would seem logical for such a sedentiary race as the Timelords that many had aged without ever regenerating.

Anyhow, they'll probably do something really naff and predictable so who am I to waffle like this...

[tony ingram]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

I'll say it here, I bet Matt Smith has already 'secretly' agreed his leaving when the 50th anniversary comes in 2013...its my opinion thats the real reason behind the new 'split' seasons i.e. half shown in summer and the other half of new series in autumn...it stretches out his tenure. He's ok, but too young for the role. The writing at present is awful and confusing and predictable on the whole...Tennant for me was brilliant, and his outfit was way cooler....Its a shame about Matt, he can be great if the writing and plot arcs were better.

Afraid I can't agree with this. I was never a big fan of Tennant's Doctor (far too 'humanized') or Russell T Davies' writing (far too soapy and melodramatic) but as far as I'm concerned, Matt Smith nailed the part straight away; I can really believe this is the same character played by Patrick Troughton and Sylvester McCoy, in particular. I also think the writing is fantastic; it's complex, clever and really rewards the committed viewer (how can it be confusing and predictable?) and is basically what I think Doctor Who should always have aimed to become-proper sci-fi! I'd say the last two years are the best the show has been since about 1981.

I also think, they'll have to come up with a clever way of the Doc getting another 12 regenerations in 2013 - if I wrote the show, somehow I'd write in the character of the 'Woman' from The End of Time...it was obvious it was The Doctor's Mother, even Russell T Davies said that was the initial outline for Claire Bloom's character. I think it'd be poigniant and sad that the same person who gave The Doctor life, gives him life once more, or lives I'm sure it would seem logical for such a sedentiary race as the Timelords that many had aged without ever regenerating.

Hated the whole 'mother' idea, too; bringing in the Doctor's mother would totally destroy the central mystery of the character, in my opinion. His family should be long dead.

[Marine Boy]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

Oh! A Doctor Who thread!! lol

I agree with much that has been said. Didn't much like the 'mother' idea either.

Tony's original post is so true. Amazing variety! Anyone who's not checked out the Big Finish Audios needs to do so now!

[darren]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

I'll say it here, I bet Matt Smith has already 'secretly' agreed his leaving when the 50th anniversary comes in 2013...its my opinion thats the real reason behind the new 'split' seasons i.e. half shown in summer and the other half of new series in autumn...it stretches out his tenure. He's ok, but too young for the role. The writing at present is awful and confusing and predictable on the whole...Tennant for me was brilliant, and his outfit was way cooler....Its a shame about Matt, he can be great if the writing and plot arcs were better.

I also think, they'll have to come up with a clever way of the Doc getting another 12 regenerations in 2013 - if I wrote the show, somehow I'd write in the character of the 'Woman' from The End of Time...it was obvious it was The Doctor's Mother, even Russell T Davies said that was the initial outline for Claire Bloom's character. I think it'd be poigniant and sad that the same person who gave The Doctor life, gives him life once more, or lives I'm sure it would seem logical for such a sedentiary race as the Timelords that many had aged without ever regenerating.

Anyhow, they'll probably do something really naff and predictable so who am I to waffle like this...

always felt smith was to young to get the role.i think there is to much humor in it now.

id rather it be like it was in the eighties far scarier and darker.
when i watch the older episodes they still scar me a bit.

since dr who started back with ecclestone there is dar to much laughing and joking around.


apparently the dr can only have 13 regenerations what happens after that.

david tennant had been the best dr since it came back.

[tony ingram]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

always felt smith was to young to get the role.i think there is to much humor in it now.

id rather it be like it was in the eighties far scarier and darker.
when i watch the older episodes they still scar me a bit.

since dr who started back with ecclestone there is dar to much laughing and joking around.

Humour has almost always been an important part of Doctor Who, right back to the sixties (in particular Patrick Troughton's tenure). It was certainly a huge part of the Tom Baker era, especially once Douglas Adams became script editor. In the early eighties the humour element was almost totally lost because John Nathan-Turner wanted the show to be taken more seriously, but that approach didn't really work in my opinion.

[tony ingram]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

Anyone who's not checked out the Big Finish Audios needs to do so now!

I'll second that. They've put out some outstanding stories over the years (I love the Paul McGann ones in particular).

[sf1378]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

always felt smith was to young to get the role.i think there is to much humor in it now.

id rather it be like it was in the eighties far scarier and darker.
when i watch the older episodes they still scar me a bit.

since dr who started back with ecclestone there is dar to much laughing and joking around.


apparently the dr can only have 13 regenerations what happens after that.

david tennant had been the best dr since it came back.

No Daz, Timelords only have 12 regenerations, they live 13 lives as the 12 regenerations begin once their original body i.e. the one they were born with grows old, too ill etc, then its regeneration number 1 etc.

Tony: when I said 'predictable' I meant it was very obvious who River Song was...i.e. Amy's kid: 'Melody Pond, 'River Song' = melody and song, river and pond'....I also thought it was obvious it was her in the astronaut suit, her as a kid regenerating etc. Seeing as she gave up all her regenerations to resurrect the 11 Doc its obvious now that she dies as seen in Silence in the Library part 2 with Tennant. I'm also bored of all the Amy/Rory/River naffness sadly.

When I said, bring back the Doc's Mum, I didn't mean bring her back and have him say 'thats my Mum', just imply it, they didn't vocally state it was his Mum but it was implied or hinted at which worked...thats why I liked it her character - the Doc never said anything about her to Bernard Cribbins and only looked at her face on just the once...so it did work in a sense.

One thing thats missing for me in the new series is the 'god like fury' of the Doctor that Tennants characterisation had, I'd like to see that, and definitely a more darker side to the Doctor, he's so old and powerful and they seem to have nixed that out of late. I like it - when any of the previous actors in the role - showed rage, especially at the human race and their greed or darker sides, we need more of that too. Thats what I mean by what I said previously. Matt is good, but imho the writing lets him down a lot. I really only liked the Gangers two parter - he had a lot of the elements I've mentioned here in that and if Matt was allowed to play he part more like that he'd surpass Tennant...although, I'd also like to see more of his solace and actual loneliness, even if he never vocalised it, a look or something, again that would show how old he actually is...

[tony ingram]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

I actually disliked Tennant's Doctor. He seemed on the one hand too human (why would an ancient alien get obsessessed with a 19 year old Earth girl?) and at the same time too much the mythic, powerful figure, when all the Doctor should really be is a wanderer who gets into trouble; he's not meant to be a legend, and I'm glad Moffat now seems to have gotten him out of that trap. Tennant's Doctor was also far too clearly a 'romantic lead'. Cool, well dressed, good with the ladies-that just isn't the Doctor. He should be the eccentric that all geeks relate to, look up to and aspire to be, not a 900 year old James Bond.

[Marine Boy]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

I'll second that. They've put out some outstanding stories over the years (I love the Paul McGann ones in particular).

They are good, but I prefer the Colin Baker audios. He has been allowed to do stuff he never got to do on-screen. Some of his audios are completely amazing. And Colin is a consumate audio actor!

[sf1378]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

I actually disliked Tennant's Doctor. He seemed on the one hand too human (why would an ancient alien get obsessessed with a 19 year old Earth girl?) and at the same time too much the mythic, powerful figure, when all the Doctor should really be is a wanderer who gets into trouble; he's not meant to be a legend, and I'm glad Moffat now seems to have gotten him out of that trap. Tennant's Doctor was also far too clearly a 'romantic lead'. Cool, well dressed, good with the ladies-that just isn't the Doctor. He should be the eccentric that all geeks relate to, look up to and aspire to be, not a 900 year old James Bond.

Thats a good point. As someone of Asian descent I've often felt the programme is far too sub - conscieously racist as well. Its interesting how the Doc never fell for Martha, she was infinitely more intelligent that a 19 year old council estate blonde but lo and behold he 'fell in love with her' which was rather stupidly unbelivable given his age compared to hers...The papers at the time of Freema Agemans casting kept harping on and on about the colour of her skin as 'first Black companion' as opposed to 'NEW COMPANION'...The programme won't ever dare to have a coloured Doctor, period. On the one hand, even I think, why should it as genetically, its pretty established the Doctors a White Timelord, and I expect they had ethnicity on Gallifrey, they finally showed some on the flashback to the Master as a kid in the background after some near 50 years...Its interesting that the programme, whilst featuring ethnic characters now and again doesn't put forward too many ethnic characters in main roles...look at the current Tardis, even Idris was White, his companions are safely White, the actual production team by and large is White. Even if they realise it or not the writers etc project their own subconcious prejudices onto the show...However, I could be saying all that having experienced life in a different way to White people, colour does preceed me on the whole as opposed to say a gay person who is White, unless they are very overt, you wouldn't know they were gay whereas you'd know I'm Asian by simply looking at me. I guess what I'm saying is that Dr Who's team simply write what they identify with, whether they realise it or not.

Anyhow, good points raised again Tony, Davies did turn the Doctor into a romantic hero that everyone should fancy whereas the Doc shouldn't be about that really...However, given all the Last Time War guff he has inadvertently become a legendary/mythic figure. Also, if his peoples were so powerful, then they should be considered as legends and whispers of old really instead of the boring farts they were in the classic series. One thing of the classic series portrayal of Gallifrey was that it was so boring that you could see [I]why[I][I] The Doctor left in the first place! However, given the first Doc was so stuffy and grumpy one wonders why he left! He was just like his people! If say, the programme started in the 1970s and it was either Trouton, Pertwee or most definitely Baker (who still is in my book the benchmark of all Doctors) that had the staring role as the original Doctor who grew tired and bored of Gallifey then I could understand why he left - they seemed far more quirkier and curious compared to Hartnells first Doctor - but as fans all know, the programme wasn't meant to last nearly 50 years and have 11 actors playing the main role did it...ho hum. Anyhow, its still twoddle really, I just watch it to divert my mind off real world naffness.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

I’m no DW fan, but I don’t think it did any harm to have a ‘sexy’ doctor. David Tennant piqued my interest for a few episodes but then I still couldn’t get away with the show so I abandoned it again, but it did get me tuning in at least and probably got the show some new viewers. Overall though, I reckon the doctor needs to be older and more eccentric, and why not female for a change? Is that allowed? Christopher Walken would be good. Old, eccentric and still sexy in a weird sort of way.

[darren]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

I'll second that. They've put out some outstanding stories over the years (I love the Paul McGann ones in particular).

some of fave stories are.

caves of androzani.
planet of fire
black orchid.
the kings demons.
earthshock
kinda
four to doomsday.
------------------------------------
logopolis
city of death.
masque of mandragora.
the sun makers
seeds of doom.
----------------------------
the monster of peladon
the curse of peladon
the time warrior
claws of axos
invasion of the dinosaurs.
planet of the spiders.
the sea devils.
the green death.
-------------------------------
silver nemesis
--------------------------
vengeance on varos.
attack of the cybermen.
---------------------------------

one thing im sad about is u never the master in dr who anymore.

[darren]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

this is my fave into music for dr who.

what where other members favr intro music from which dr.
both opening and closing music.

peter davison opening
http://youtu.be/ECpe4rrUXX0
peter davison closing.
http://youtu.be/p3EKUeIlkn8

[tony ingram]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

They are good, but I prefer the Colin Baker audios. He has been allowed to do stuff he never got to do on-screen. Some of his audios are completely amazing. And Colin is a consumate audio actor!

He is indeed (though it helps that you can't see that costume on audio). 'The Pirates' is my favourite of Colin's audio stories-it's hilarious!