Doctor Who

[captainbasil]

I like the new look of the TARDIS. Actually it's kind of Retro. It reminds me of what it looked like during the Tom Baker and Peter Davison years. I always liked the shiny crisp look. I always thought the later versions of the TARDIS were too dark and almost Jules Verne-like. Either way, it's nice to change things up now and again.

[StarFuryG7]

If you haven't seen this latest episode yet, then don't read this message until you do, otherwise you're on your own.

Okay, so what do you guys make of what's going on with Clara?

Also, and this is a bit unusual for the Doctor, even though we saw it with Rose Tyler, but he's clearly enamored with Clara --he's physically attracted to her, and I would even go so far as to say that apparently he loves her. This is also particularly strange to see in the aftermath of his relationship with Amy Pond, who literally threw herself at him, wanting to have sex (honestly, there's no way I would have been able to turn her down).

Thoughts?

[CRAMBAM]

I don't think his turning down Amy had anything to do with the physical.

I like that they created a mystery now. The two have a very good chemistry on screen, so that's going to work.

One thing this show can do is replace cast members with other, likeable characters.

[StarFuryG7]

Over at Blastr:

New BBC Promo shows the Doctor and Clara acting very intimate

We may have until April to wait for the second half of Doctor Who's 7th series, but that just means the BBC (and Steven Moffat, likely) will have months worth of opportunities to sneak glimpses of new Who footage wherever we look. The latest BBC promo, for example...

MORE: blastr.com/2012/12/new-bbc-promo-shows-the-d.php

[captainbasil]

I loved the Christmas Special. I love the chemistry between The Doctor and his new companion. Because I have been watching Doctor Who for so long, maybe I feel weird about a possible sexual relationship between the Doctor and a Companion, it's my hang up. Matt Smith is one of my favorite Doctors and I think the writing has actually improved since the Tennant years. Doctor Who is about change and I'm a very Happy Camper.

[captainbasil]

From Blastr:

blastr.com/2013/01/all-living-classic-doctor.php

While this may sound lame to the uninitiated, I think it may be even better than what the BBC is planning. Big Finish has been creating new and exciting Doctor Who stories for years using all the former Doctors. I was hoping the 3 newer Doctors would appear, but I believe they are contractually forbidden to do so by the BBC.

I usually download these from the Big Finish Web Site but I may spring for an old school CD set.

[CRAMBAM]

That could be a means to get the McGann regeneration.

[gavin1701]

It's possible Moffat has plans to do a story with Doctors 9, 10 and 11. To be fair you can't cram too many actors in 90 minutes and offer the actors a decent enough role. To lure Eccleston and Tennant back you'd have to give them something significant. This is probably an effort to include all the actors in the 50th anniversary. I very much doubt we'll see Doctors 4 thru 8 on screen and all indications are its a 90 minute special.

[CRAMBAM]

That's a shame. 90 minutes just isn't enough to do justice to such a big anniversary.

[gavin1701]

I'm sure there will be other anniversary events than just a one off special. I doubt we will hear any official announcements until season 7 has finished airing. After all they would want to properly promote the upcoming filmed episodes before we hit the anniversary (which will be Winter this year). Still 8 episodes left this season beginning in April. I wonder if the finale leads on to the anniversary! There could be a huge story planned for the 50th season (there's still rumours that Matt Smith is going to regenerate, and all his denial is lip service and misdirection).

[gavin1701]

The BBC will also be well aware that Matt Smith is hugely popular, and any exit would have to be a worthy spectacle.

[StarFuryG7]

Jan 10, 2013 16:28:05 GMT -5 gavin1701 said:

I wonder if the finale leads on to the anniversary! There could be a huge story planned for the 50th season

This will be their 50th year, but not their 50th season.

[gavin1701]

I know, but they are counting "next" season as the 50th anniversary season, not this current season which is the end of the 7th season. This current season will finish airing in May/June. The 50th anniversary season will begin during the winter, best guess November like last year.

[CRAMBAM]

Matt Smith would be a fool to leave the show now.

I would argue that David Tennant was the more popular Doctor, and given some of the comments I have read in the past from female fans, he's probably the better looking of the two.

Assuming equal talent, it should be noted that Tennant hasn't done squat since he left Doctor Who.

[StarFuryG7]

Over at Blastr:

Strike another companion from Who's 50th-anniversary celebration

It seems like lately we've been hearing less about who will be taking part in Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary and far more about who won't be. Case in point, we've just heard about yet another major cast member from the new series who claims they won't be back. But who?

MORE: blastr.com/2013/01/another-major-who-compani.php

[captainbasil]

blogtorwho.blogspot.com/2013/01/bbc-america-50th-celebrations.html

This from Blogtor Who. BBC America is going to give us some Anniversary goodness. It's probably true. This site is pretty accurate on it's Who News.

[CRAMBAM]

Now THAT is a great idea. A one hour special on each Doctor, highlighting his adventures,and maybe showing his regeneration. I guess for McGann they would squeeze it in 30 minutes.

[TrekBeatTK]

I think this is a great idea as well. I've seen VERY little Doctor Who. It's one of those shows I want to get through beginning to end. So I left off somewhere early in the First Doctor era. I like knowing I have so much to look forward to.

I hate that I can't afford cable right now. I hope these specials end up online or put on DVD so I can check them out!

-TK

[captainbasil]

I was psyched to learn this today. I have only seen a handful of the William Hartnell episodes (Doctor # 1) and very few of # 2 , Patrick Troughton. Netflix has quite a few that are streaming. This is great for fans new and old. Part of the charm of this show is the rich history and the varied characterizations of the Doctor.

[StarFuryG7]

Over at io9:

No New Doctor Who Episodes Between This Spring and the Anniversary Special!

Doctor Who used to have a pretty aggressive schedule, showing 13 episodes a year plus a Christmas special during the Eccleston and Tennant seasons. But ever since Steven Moffat took over running the show, the pace of new episodes has been slowing.

More » io9.com/5978389/no-new-doctor-who-episodes-between-this-spring-and-the-anniversary-special

[captainbasil]

It looks to me that New Who is taking a back seat to celebrating the history of the show for the 50th Anniversary. As much as I love the current season, I can live with that. I have also read that it looks like we are getting an all 11 Doctor special after all. I'm psyched for that and the aforementioned Big Finish Audio tribute which my wife has insisted I pre-order. In Massachusetts Speak "She's Wicked Smart ". ;D

[captainbasil]

BBC America 1/27: Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited The First Doctor This is 3 hours of Dr. Who Goodness. Crank up your DVR. It starts at 9:00 EST.

[CRAMBAM]

Good work!

[captainbasil]

Thanks, I just want to share the fun. Half of the coolness of this show is its history. I am very psyched that they are doing this. Everyone has their favorite Doctor but, in their own way, all of them are cool.

[StarFuryG7]

So who watched the four-part "The Aztecs" shown as one long episode last night? I endured it, although frankly I was annoyed because the guide had it listed as airing between nine and eleven o'clock. So I watched the first hour of the SAG Awards and figured i would watch the second hour from eleven to twelve, only to see on Cablevision's on-air guide, which is always more accurate, that this "Doctor Who" special was actually scheduled to run from nine to twelve, so once I started watching it I couldn't turn it off at 11:00, so I didn't get to see the second hour of the SAG Awards as it turned out. I would have been less bothered by that had Bryan Cranston not finally won one in the second hour, and I would have liked to have seen his acceptance speech. I got annoyed at about 8:45 when Julianne Moore won yet another award for when she played Sarah Palin in "Game Change" (she won one for that same role at the Golden Globes), which just amounted to the Hollywood left awarding the trashing of a conservative politician who also happens to be a woman and their doing their part in their ongoing, unceasing war against the political right. I was tempted to change the channel right then and there.

At any rate, clearly the Doctor wasn't necessarily the most important character in the early "Doctor Who" episodes. I also learned while I had it on that William Hartnell was only 55 when these episodes aired, and yet clearly he looked considerably older. He could have passed for his early to mid-seventies, and there were numerous references to his advanced years here in these episodes. He died in 1975, twelve years after they aired, and was only 67 at that point. By the way, why did he decide to leave the role after three years?

I found it a little tough to sit through episodes that were this old and primitive frankly, and clearly they had a very limited budget to work with, none of which I would hold against them had the story not been as slow as it was; it dragged on longer than I would have liked. It would have been a little easier to tolerate had it been given a ninety-minute run-time with commercials instead of two-hours, but that couldn't have been done obviously given the run-times of these four episodes.

Anyway, of all the earlier "Doctor Who" episodes that I've considered checking out since this newer series started back in 2005, my curiosity has gravitated to only one place really: the 1980s. I recall seeing parts of a series of episodes that were online some years back that took place on a desert planet, with obvious influences from "Star Wars", but I never went back to it to check it out. If I'm lucky, maybe those are the ones BBCAmerica will also air when they get to that Doctor's era.

[CRAMBAM]

I couldn't watch it either. I was interested in the stories, but not the episodes.

[TrekBeatTK]

It's killing me right now to not have BBCAmerica, because I really wanted to watch the special.

I started watching the Hartnell episodes a couple years ago. So I saw "The Aztecs" recently. It's okay, but not the best example. "The Daleks" is better in so many ways but they probably didn't choose it because it was like 11 parts, which makes it very long for one sitting.

-TK

[captainbasil]

I have not seen many Hartnell episodes and I thought The Aztecs was a poor choice. I have not finished watching it but even Moffat admitted it was a low science fiction story. I would have loved to have seen the first Dalek story. Many of the early episodes were lost so maybe they had a narrow selection of episodes. As far as the production values go , we have to remember that this was 50 years ago and it was government run TV (think early PBS). There wasn't much of a budget. All in all I found Hartnell interesting. Plus the guy had no idea he was making history.

[StarFuryG7]

Jan 29, 2013 8:02:54 GMT -5 captainbasil said:

I have not seen many Hartnell episodes and I thought The Aztecs was a poor choice. I have not finished watching it but even Moffat admitted it was a low science fiction story. I would have loved to have seen the first Dalek story. Many of the early episodes were lost so maybe they had a narrow selection of episodes. As far as the production values go , we have to remember that this was 50 years ago and it was government run TV (think early PBS). There wasn't much of a budget.

Of course, and as I said, I would have been willing to overlook all that for the most part had the story just moved along quicker than it did. They could have accomplished much the same in half the time.

Jan 29, 2013 8:02:54 GMT -5 captainbasil said:

All in all I found Hartnell interesting. Plus the guy had no idea he was making history.

Why did he decide to leave after three years though? Did he find the schedule to be too grueling after a while?

I guess I could find out the answer to that elsewhere, but I'm still struck by the fact that he was only 55 when those episodes originally aired. And as I pointed out previously in relation to that, he was referred to as being elderly three or four times by the other characters in that episode, obviously because he looked more advanced in years than in actuality. We don't consider 55 as being 'old' nowadays, although one has crossed the threshold as to getting there once they've reached that age. Hell, my father didn't even make it quite that far because he died in a car accident st 54.

[StarFuryG7]

Geez, I thought I just lost that last post. I got a phone call and forgot to submit it, then started browsing just now.