Dr. Who

[shadowgate]

Well, I knew they where bring back Dr. Who and that it would air sometime soon but I guess I missed the first episode March 26th.... or did I? I am not sure if it is playing here at all from what I can find. Not even on BBC America. Then I hear the new Doctor has quit just after they announce they are reupping the series for a second year after the great first episode numbers! :( Anyone else heard anything on any of this?

[Zyzzyx]

I heard they were bringing it back and had been doing filming. I had not heard that episodes were complete and released.

LENG!!! We need some good info here from your side of the pond. ;)

[Asharad]

Its playing in jolly old england, but not here yet.

[shadowgate]

Doh! I was afraid of that! I would have thought they would play it on BBC America at least as Dr. Who always did well here in the states.

[Charinida]

My favorite Doc is still Tom Baker... :)

[Zyzzyx]

For most folks, their favorite is the first one they saw. Tom Baker had the longest run as the Dr, something like 7 seasons I think. Thus, most folks saw him first.

I like Baker's outfit the best, K-9 was very cool, and we can't forget Leela. <whistle> But I think my favorite was Jon Pertwee, third Dr., stuck on Earth adventuring with the Brigadier.

[Charinida]

Pertwee, wasn't he the grey curly haired fellow? I remember him... I liked him as well...

Yeah, I remember Leela... Didn't she end up getting married during one of their trips, thus the doc got another travelling companion?

K-9 was nifty for sure... Had a odd speaking pattern for a dog... er... MSE type bot. :)

[leng]

The first episode aired over easter. It got good reviews but I can't say that I was overly impressed. It was an adventure-in-an-episode, hopefully just a teaser to get people back into the fold as you don't really have time to develop anything in 45 mins or whatever it was.

I won't do any plot spoilers - not that there was that much of a plot to spoil (see remark above). The new doctor is OK - certainly significantly better than the last two clowns to appear on TV (I never saw the film). I'll reserve judgement on his assistant - I feel she has the capability to become very irritating but we'll see.

The Tardis is still the same on the outside (which makes it a complete anachronism - I suspect most of the younger audience have never seen a blue police telephone box) but has changed significantly on the inside. Oddly, from what was obviously intended to be hi-tech and futuristic when it came out the interior has moved back to a sort of medaeval techno-punk feel.

The theme music has changed a bit. This I personally find unforgivable. If they had had a completely new theme I would not have complained but they have attempted to spruce up the wonderful old BBC radiophonic workshop effects and it just jars to anyone brought up on the original. I have no idea what effect it would have on a new viewer (does such a thing exist, or has the whole audience seen repeats?).

Overall I'm not too sure about this. The original started out intended for children and gained a wider audience as the plots were clever despite the poor production quality (we are talking 60's here). The thing then moved to a slightly self mocking mode as the audience range expanded. Most of the repeats appear to date from the Tom Baker era or later. This is partly, I suspect, because many of the earlier episodes have been lost and there is not much of a perceived audience for grainy 405-line black&white 60's TV - ie the surviving William Hartnell episodes. I think the early Pertwee ones were b&w also, although I would not swear to it.

I'm probably not the best person to comment on this series. I remember with much affection the early doctors (I watched the thing from the beginning, not as repeats) but I was driven away from the series by the deteriorating quality of the plots and the poor quality of the last couple of doctors finished me off (not that I was a regular viewer by that stage). It is difficult for a new incarnation to carry that much baggage.

As for Ecclestone, he will not be the doctor for the next season. There are rumours of an Xmas special (which may feature the changeover) or he may appear briefly in season 2. Either way, I think that makes him the shortest serving Doctor ever (at least on TV - the film doesn't count).

[Xaxor]

My first and most exposure was re-runs during the mid-70s and Tom Baker was the doctor. He came off as cool, intelligent, clever, even playful but especially unflappable, no matter the odds. Having seen some of the subsequent doctors, however likable, can't replace good old Tom. It will be interesting to see the changes, but the old flavor is probably long gone. One of my favorite quotes:

"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views, which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering."
The Doctor, in "The Face of Evil"

[DirkDarkBlade]

I liked Dr. Who a lot. I hope they get the series going well, and written well.

[Asharad]

The interior of Tardis was designed by comic book artist/superstar bryan Hitch.

Oddly, I know that but only have a passing idea of what Tardis is.

[shadowgate]

I have seen every episode that has appeared in America at least twice and do like Tom Baker the best as he was the first I saw, but I also liked his wit and clothing! I did like Pertwee (Who I saw later) and his episodes where great as they where different that most of Tom Baker's as his being stuck on earth meant different kinds of episodes.

[Raveneye]

I started watching Dr. Who as a child (9 or 10 years old) around 1980 when it began appearing weekly on PBS stations where I lived. I continued to view it off and on over the next 8 or 9 years, at one point catching up on a ton of episodes when my dad began taping them during Dr. Who marathons the local PBS station would run monthly. I've probably seem all the Tom Baker episodes and most of the Jon Pertwee episodes as well (likely missed some of the black and whites). I also remember seeing a lot of color episodes featuring a blonde Doctor Who, but can't remember the actor's name. I liked those as well.

I'd likely watch a new version of the series again if it was done with good production values as a serious show and not a send-up of the original. Messing with the theme song though is simply inexcuseable, that is on TV theme that will forever hold a special place in my heart.

[Greebo]

Peter Davidson.

Yes - yes - I watched it too...

[GravenStone]

Feeling decidedly oddball here. I think I've seen perhaps a half dozen Dr. Who episodes. I viewed it as cheese, decent cheese, but cheese nonetheless. I guess I preferred the Gerry Andersen based stuff we got where I lived in the late 70's (UFO and Space 1999).

Sadly, the Dr. Who stuff seems to have held up better with age than the higher production value stuff Andersen put out when viewed in the here and now.

[leng]

Just as a matter of interest, has anyone else ever seen William Hartnell as Dr. Who? He was the original doctor and to me is still the standard by which the later doctors are judged (and found wanting).

[shadowgate]

Yes, I have seen him in one fo those special Dr. Who episodes. I think called either "The Four Doctors" or "The Five Doctors".

[Zyzzyx]

Yes, I've seen most all of the Hartnell episodes that remain. I agree that he had the best flair and overall style befitting of the character. All the other doctors did bring a unique bit to the part, and that was nice; but Hartnell did it quite proper.

Back in the early '90s I went to a convention in Los Angeles called 'Gallifrey One' (later ones called Two, Three, etc.). It was a Dr Who based sci-fi convention. The other main attractions were other British sci-fi such as Blake's Adder, Red Dwarf, and others.I think it was the second or third year that JMS (creator of Babylon 5) showed up for some panels and showed off some pre-production footage of the upcoming show (before the original pilot had aired). He remained an attendee for the next few years. But through it all, Dr. Who was the primary draw. Somewhere I've still got the 27' long scarf that I knitted as part of a Tom Baker costume, along with the heavy wool tweed overcoat and hat. Damn, it was hot wearing that in the hotel convention rooms. Fun though. Attended that con for five consecutive years. With my parents even, and not even embarassed about it. How could you be with that crowd? I still have stacks of VHS tapes somewhere with about 95% of the episodes from Hartnell through to the 7th doctor.

[Trewfelagh]

For Asharad, stolen from http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/tardiscam/intro.shtml

A Beginner's Guide to the TARDIS

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/images/173/tardis_wood.jpg
What is a TARDIS?

The TARDIS is the Doctor's method of travel through both time and space - all Gallifreyan Time Lords use TARDISes for getting from A to B - and from then to now.

And TARDIS means?

TARDIS, of course, stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. Or Time and Relative Dimension in Space, if you're a purist.

What's a police box?

The Doctor's rather unreliable type 40 TARDIS appears as a Police Box - but only because the chameleon circuit that allows the TARDIS to appear in any form got jammed on earth in 1963. Police boxes used to be everywhere - they contained emergency telephones for 'Bobbies' to use before the Police got walkie-talkies.

Dimensionally transcendental

Of course, the external dimensions don't bear very much resemblance to what's inside. The interior of the TARDIS occupies a separate set of dimensions to the exterior - so it's a lot bigger on the inside than the outside.

How does it travel?

How the TARDIS actually travels through space time is a mystery. It does appear as though the whole ship (both external and internal dimensions) move through the time vortex, allowing the TARDIS to cross time and space. Hence the TARDIS interior shaking when the exterior is attacked.

Can you break it?

The TARDIS is almost indestructible. If it was completely indestructible then life wouldn't be very interesting, but it does appear to be resilient to extermination, being plunged into black holes and falling off cliffs.

What's inside it?

Inside the TARDIS there are an awful lot of rooms - libraries, gardens, swimming pools, and even a cricket pavilion. Plus two control rooms, a boot cupboard, a very large costume wardrobe and a pink Zero Room.

Who came up with the idea?

The idea of the TARDIS was originally mooted by Verity Lambert - the Police Box exterior was invented by Anthony Coburn, writer of 'An Unearthly Child'. The console room was originally designed by Peter Brachacki , who worked on the show's pilot episodes.

Ask a Time Lord, though, and they'll tell you that Rassilon and Omega together worked on making time-travel and TARDISes possible through a mighty feat of temporal engineering. No-one give the BBC credit for anything, these days.

Do we love it?

Over the years, the TARDIS has entered the national consciousness. Although the word isn't in the dictionary yet, it often gets used to describe something deceptively big on the inside - or automatic public toilets! Most recent proof of its enduring legacy is an artwork by respected contemporary artist Mark Wallinger, featuring two TARDIS replicas at the Museum of Natural History in Oxford.

[leng]

Well, I started watching episode 2 yesterday evening. It appears that the adventure-per-45min-episode format is how it is going to continue, which is a shame because it cuts out the cliffhanger endings and plot development possible in multi-episode adventures.

As for episode 2 ... I watched for 10 mins and went back to watching a repeat of Sapphire and Steel, which I think shows what I thought of it. I turned back for the last 5 mins and I don't think I missed anything of significance in the plot.

I won't be watching episode 3

[Asharad]

Hey Trew, nice to see you. You guys need to post here more often! Please!

And thanks for the info.

[leng]

From SciFi Wire:

BBC Apologizes To Who Star

The BBC, which earlier reported that Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston was leaving the show after the first season, issued an unusual apology to the actor for mischaracterizing his reasons for departing. The BBC said that it failed to consult Eccleston before confirming the actor's departure and that it erroneously attributed statements to the actor that he was leaving because he feared being typecast and found the show's schedule grueling.

In fact, the BBC reported, the network broke an agreement with Eccleston not to reveal that he had planned to film just one season of the hit show all along. "The BBC regrets not speaking to Christopher before it responded to the press questions on Wednesday 30 March," the BBC's head of drama and commissioning, Jane Tranter, said in a statement. "The BBC further regrets that it falsely attributed a statement to Christopher and apologizes to him."

The BBC has already ordered up a second season of the new Doctor Who, which is airing in the United Kingdom to record ratings. The BBC confirmed that it is in talks with actor David Tennant as a possible replacement for Eccleston.

For those who, like me, do not know David Tennant from a Zarbi - he is currently playing Cassanova in the well-received series of that name. If you want to know more about him try IMDB. If you do not know what a Zarbi is you should not be reading posts in a Dr. Who thread.

[Aananla]

Zarbi? Dang. Ok, leaving now.

[Raveneye]

The Zarbi, possibly one of the worst costume jobs ever...gotta love the BBC budget.

On a related note, I saw over the weekend that more Brits tuned into Dr. Who than to the Royal Wedding of Charles and Camilla. That made me grin! :smile: