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Doctor Who 50th Anniversary |OT| Splendid Chap, All Of Them

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8bit

Knows the Score
I'm guessing we'll also be dealing with that in the Christmas special.

Also, who thinks they'll give the Valeyard a shot? I wouldn't mind an evil Capaldi running around haha

The Valeyard is supposed to be somehow between Smith & Capaldi though, no? I can't see it happening but you never know.

Interesting vocal take on the theme here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOCAqO4vj0g&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I've never watched a single episode of Old Who, but that scene with
Tom Baker as the curator is incredible. His performance is amazingly emotional and mysterious. Love it. Was he always like that as the 4th Doctor?

Yeah, pretty much. He's good in the Randall & Hopkirk remake with Vic & Bob too.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
I've never watched a single episode of Old Who, but that scene with
Tom Baker as the curator is incredible. His performance is amazingly emotional and mysterious. Love it. Was he always like that as the 4th Doctor?

Best part about 4 is how he acts very differently than he looks. Even his voice doesn't really fit the first impression you have base don his appearance.
 

Ithil

Member
I think a lot of people seem to have forgotten that the Time War is time-locked. So even if he's perserved a "snapshot" of Gallifrey somewhere in time, all the other crazy shit (Nightmare Child and its ilk) is still sealed away behind the time-lock.

So basically the only things to make it out of there now, are the Doctor, the Master (who hid far off in the future, and eventually wound up back in the Time War in EoT), Davros and Dalek Caan, the Dalek Emperor's ship, and now Gallifrey itself.

That said, while most of the Universe destroying shit from the Time War remains sealed away, Gallifrey still has the likes of Rassilon and genocidal Time Lords on it, so I hope they don't just sweep that under the rug.
 

odiin

My Apartment, or the 120 Screenings of Salo
I've never watched a single episode of Old Who, but that scene with
Tom Baker as the curator is incredible. His performance is amazingly emotional and mysterious. Love it. Was he always like that as the 4th Doctor?

Yes, which is incredible. I'm amazed how easily McGann and Baker were able to slip back into their roles as if they never left.
 

mclem

Member
Yes, which is incredible. I'm amazed how easily McGann and Baker were able to slip back into their roles as if they never left.

McGann *has* never left. He just hasn't been doing it on TV. He's had twelve years of Big Finish content to work on and refine his characterisation. Tom Baker's been back at it recently, too, although there's been a much longer gap.
 

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
I think a lot of people seem to have forgotten that the Time War is time-locked. So even if he's perserved a "snapshot" of Gallifrey somewhere in time, all the other crazy shit (Nightmare Child and its ilk) is still sealed away behind the time-lock.

So basically the only things to make it out of there now, are the Doctor, the Master (who hid far off in the future, and eventually wound up back in the Time War in EoT), Davros and Dalek Caan, the Dalek Emperor's ship, and now Gallifrey itself.

That said, while most of the Universe destroying shit from the Time War remains sealed away, Gallifrey still has the likes of Rassilon and genocidal Time Lords on it, so I hope they don't just sweep that under the rug.

Are we assuming Rassilon survived the Master's attack or was killed by it?
 

Savitar

Member
Nine was guilt ridden and suffering from PTSD, it carried over to ten who was simply guilt ridden and wanted to forget. Eleven managed to move past it. In a lot of ways nine got screwed over since he carried the baggage from happened.

One nice thing about the Five(ish) Doctors was how they had the real families involved of the Doctors too, if you wanted to see Jenny again, well there she is or the actress who played her that is married to Tennant. Plus I laughed at the nod to Baker originally shying away from a previous Doctors gathering special with the time vortex swallowing him up.
 

Blader

Member
And that scene with the Doctors running and making that big entrance with the bombastic music was just awful. I hate how Moffat has turned that into what the Doctor is. The Doctor should never be cool or badass. Moffat has just made him into another action hero.

yes, this was completely Moffat's characterization and not something that ever appeared under RTD's pen at all, nope!
 
I'd love to get into the Big Finish audio dramas, but I get confused on where to start. There's so many of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_audio_plays_by_Big_Finish

This list is just massive. I can't even.

Big Finish have a bunch of different ranges. Their main range, which is basically Docs 5-8 (sometimes out of that range for 8), the Companion Chronicles (narrated stories mostly involving the first 4 Doctors), the Fourth Doctor Adventures, and a lot of other spinoffs.

You could jump in at a lot of random places. A lot of the earlier stories were intended mostly just to fit within existing gaps in the show, so you could easily just listen to them straight off. As they've gone on, Big Finish has certainly built up more of their own continuity, though. I would say an effective place to start would be in the early years of their stuff.

Storm Warning, for example, was the start of their 8th Doctor stories, and is a pretty solid starting point. There are also some other good early audios worth listening to and getting a feel for things. Big Finish have recently permanently discounted all of the first 50 main range stories to $5 a download (and CDs at slightly more than that, although with no future reprints planned for them now).

Of the first 50 which I've listened to, I would highly recommend Whispers of Terror, The Fearmonger, The Holy Terror, The Fires of Vulcan and Loups-Garoux. You could also check out Colditz for David Tennant (prior to being the Doctor) playing a particularly loathsome Nazi. You can also grab 6-12 consecutive stories for even cheaper by getting a subscription, so if you really want to 'check it all out', that's a very convenient option.

yes, this was completely Moffat's characterization and not something that ever appeared under RTD's pen at all, nope!

It started under RTD during the 10th Doctor's era, but it's really gotten particularly awful under Moffat. Series 3 and 4 had some moments like this, particularly that awful "a man who never would" bit from The Doctor's Daughter, and almost all of Voyage of the Damned (plus the deification of the Doctor by UNIT in Planet of the Dead), but Moffat has made it ten times worse, and has really made it a constant presence. Especially that awful song that constantly plays when we're meant to be thinking how badass the Doctor is.
 

odiin

My Apartment, or the 120 Screenings of Salo
I'd love to get into the Big Finish audio dramas, but I get confused on where to start. There's so many of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_audio_plays_by_Big_Finish

This list is just massive. I can't even.

The 5-7th Doctor's stuff is weaved through different parts of their continuities so the order doesn't matter. The 8th Doctor stuff pretty much a straight line and it's split into 3 different eras: classic series style stories (4 half hour parts) with Charlie, modern style 1 hour stories with Lucie and then mini series events with Molly.

Try to find some well reviewed stories for each Doctor and start there. I'd recommend looking at thetimescales.com
 

gabbo

Member
A lot of missed opportunity and little plot holes ("Did you say 'Bad Wolf?") that I really wanted the special to explore. Hurt was also much less dour and angry than I'd have imaged the Doctor who had come to point of needing to destroy two civilizations would be. Also, let me join the chorus, Eccleston was really missed here. Ten basically had to play two roles, and he never did wounded as well as Eccleston.

That said, I was entertained, and I like the idea of Capaldi going out and finding Gallifrey (assuming Smith doesn't do it for Christmas) and the huge implications that could have. Also, while I wasn't a huge fan of the ambiguity that "The Moment" had with it's consciousness form (was it
Bad Wolf Rose
or not?), she did rather well for her little screen time.
I'd peg it around 65-70 "Good to great", 30-35 the usual "Moffat doesn't have a clue how to steer this ship"

Also, was Baker's curator suppose to be, well, you know? If yes, how does that even work from a timeline/canon perspective?
 

Blader

Member
Also, while I wasn't a huge fan of the ambiguity that "The Moment" had with it's consciousness form (was it
Bad Wolf Rose
or not?), she did rather well for her little screen time.

It's The Moment in the guise of Bad Wolf Rose.

Also, was Baker's curator suppose to be, well, you know? If yes, how does that even work from a timeline/canon perspective?

The implication is that he's a future, post-Capaldi incarnation of the Doctor that chose to regenerate into Baker again (i.e. xxth Doctor using the Fourth Doctor's face) and has retired to become the museum's curator.
 

RedShift

Member
I really want to watch the first series finale of the reboot now. 9 deciding whether to destroy the Earth to defeat the Daleks, and deciding in the end not to will be a lot more meaningful now we have this image of him waking up in the TARDIS newly regenerated, not being able to remember anything since he was about to use the Moment, assuming he just committed double genocide.
 
It started under RTD during the 10th Doctor's era, but it's really gotten particularly awful under Moffat. Series 3 and 4 had some moments like this, particularly that awful "a man who never would" bit from The Doctor's Daughter, and almost all of Voyage of the Damned (plus the deification of the Doctor by UNIT in Planet of the Dead), but Moffat has made it ten times worse, and has really made it a constant presence. Especially that awful song that constantly plays when we're meant to be thinking how badass the Doctor is.

Until Moffat writes anything that comes close to 10 having a fucking sword fight on top of a floating island, diving out of a spaceship through a glass ceiling onto the floor and somehow not either dying straight up or regenerating, or becoming Fairy Jesus Christ, then no it's not worse.


Shit, Eleven's barely doing some of the shit the THIRD Doctor did - fights, judo chops, flips, throws, fencing with the Master? Fencing with anyone?
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Until Moffat writes anything that comes close to 10 having a fucking sword fight on top of a floating island, diving out of a spaceship through a glass ceiling onto the floor and somehow not either dying straight up or regenerating, or becoming Fairy Jesus Christ, then no it's not worse.

Shit, Eleven's barely doing some of the shit the THIRD Doctor did - fights, judo chops, flips, throws, fencing with the Master? Fencing with anyone?
No the eleventh Doctor gets to fight people by just giving them speeches about how awesome he is
 
Thanks Kuwabara and odiin! That helps. At least I know I can pick and choose a range without feeling like I've fallen into the middle of something I won't have any back story for.
 
Until Moffat writes anything that comes close to 10 having a fucking sword fight on top of a floating island, diving out of a spaceship through a glass ceiling onto the floor and somehow not either dying straight up or regenerating, or becoming Fairy Jesus Christ, then no it's not worse.


Shit, Eleven's barely doing some of the shit the THIRD Doctor did - fights, judo chops, flips, throws, fencing with the Master? Fencing with anyone?

Moffat has everyone in the universe giving speeches about how awesome the Doctor is, entire religions being founded around him, and constant scenes of the Doctor looking amazing and badass while 'cool, imposing music' plays. That's far further than RTD in a few moments of poorly thought out excess took it.

As far as Pertwee? His Doctor had some action hero tendencies, but he was never really portrayed as cool. He was as likely to sing venusian lullabies to someone as to get into a fist fight, he wore a goofy looking outfit, and was goofy and anti-authoritarian. The show may have shown him getting into fights, but they never portrayed him as being cool. Because the Doctor shouldn't be cool.
 

odiin

My Apartment, or the 120 Screenings of Salo
Thanks Kuwabara and odiin! That helps. At least I know I can pick and choose a range without feeling like I've fallen into the middle of something I won't have any back story for.

The cool thing about the site I recommended is that it actually does tell you if you'll need to listen to other stories to understand something or not. Although in most cases the answer is 'no'.
 

Chinner

Banned
john hurt was great. the episode started a little silly, but it was turned out pretty good. my only problem is the resolution at the end, a little bit too saturday morning cartoon.
 
I was lurking and reading around over there and there was a post on Gallifrey Base that did touch on something I definitely feel. A good post! On Gallifrey Base! Miracles do happen. I actually want to steal it and post it here, as I wonder if anybody else sees this.

"Day of the Doctor": just utterly *charmed*! Did a few things which, in the big picture, I really wish they hadn't, but it did them so _satisfyingly_ that today, on this one perfect day, I can forgive them.

I especially want to say how satisfied I was with the storytelling throughout: lots of clever Moffaty trademarks in the plotting, but they supported the emotional, character-led throughline rather than overshadowing it. A joy!

Most basically, though, I do miss the Who universe being a place where a cute kid actually could end up as a severed head inside a Toclafane or roasted alive at Pompeii, rather than being guaranteed some kind of immunity because the universe was a fundamentally nice place; a universe where everything had its time and everything died, and sometimes you just had to do the best you could in the world you're in, knowing that you couldn't go home again.

But watching while it back in the DC area for the first time in a year, with old friends and an old lover and some astonishingly old kids of old friends... some days, going home again is the right thing to do.​

The middle bit is literally precisely how I feel.
 
As far as Pertwee? His Doctor had some action hero tendencies, but he was never really portrayed as cool. He was as likely to sing venusian lullabies to someone as to get into a fist fight, he wore a goofy looking outfit, and was goofy and anti-authoritarian. The show may have shown him getting into fights, but they never portrayed him as being cool. Because the Doctor shouldn't be cool.
Give me a single good reason why the vast majority of that does not apply to Matt's Doctor.

Also... The Third Doctor? Anti-authoritarian? The man who worked for the establishment and dined with Mao? Bollocks.
 

Ithil

Member
I do love the gag that three incarnations of the smartest guy in the galaxy are in one cell, and none of them think to check if the door is actually locked. Too smart for his (their?) own good.
 

Broken Joystick

At least you can talk. Who are you?
Regarding regenerations, Capaldi etc.

Little theory, could Capaldi possibly go off on adventures, doing whatever and then eventually get to the plot by finding Gallifrey? Then save it (does it need saving?) or whatever, who is then in return granted a new set of regenerations, therefore dancing around the limit? I think that's a possibility.
 

gabbo

Member
It's The Moment in the guise of Bad Wolf Rose.

The implication is that he's a future, post-Capaldi incarnation of the Doctor that chose to regenerate into Baker again (i.e. xxth Doctor using the Fourth Doctor's face) and has retired to become the museum's curator.

Thank you for clearing both of those up. Not sure I like that idea, but if it was meant more as fan service than plot service, it's forgivable.
 
The cool thing about the site I recommended is that it actually does tell you if you'll need to listen to other stories to understand something or not. Although in most cases the answer is 'no'.

The obsessive compulsive in me wants to make sure that if there was a continuity, that I followed it. Thanks!
 
Regarding regenerations, Capaldi etc.

Little theory, could Capaldi possibly go off on adventures, doing whatever and then eventually get to the plot by finding Gallifrey? Then save it (does it need saving?) or whatever, who is then in return granted a new set of regenerations, therefore dancing around the limit? I think that's a possibility.

This could happen.

However.

I wonder if the lost Gallifrey is just meant to set up a very long Homeward Journey?
 

Symphonia

Banned
Thank you for clearing both of those up. Not sure I like that idea, but if it was meant more as fan service than plot service, it's forgivable.
When you take into account the powers that Rose/Bad Wolf and 'The Moment' shared, it's quite obvious why The Moment chose Rose as the interface. Bad Wolf had the ability to wipe out a universe, and The Moment had similar powers.
 

ibrahima

Banned
I heard the after-party thing on BBC Three was trash. Can someone confirm or deny this?

At one point they had two of the drones from One Direction on a video-link to ask Smith, Coleman, Moffat and Hurt a few questions. You see One Direction have dubbed 23rd November to forever be known as 1D-Day, which sounds a little too close to D-Day for my liking, but there you go.

Unfortunately no-one had checked beforehand that the delay from the BBC studio to wherever One Direction where wasn't going to cause a massive feedback loop because of the delay.

So Zoe Ball introduced them and suddenly that was all you could hear, Zoe Ball, repeatedly introducing them, the two guys from One Direction looked a bit confused until I think someone in the Production Control Room must've twigged what was going on and turned down one of the audio feeds to allow them a chance to respond.

Zoe introduced One Direction again, apologised for the delay and in comes their first question - 'How Epic does it feel to have such a big Episode'. Matt gives a non-answer, Jenna stares at the floor, Moffat has his head in his hands, Hurt is used to this kind of thing, the four of them are on a settee built for three, it's awkward.

Then it happened again.

You could see their mouths moving, something about 'Favorite Doctor Who Moment' but I don't think anyone cared, or could concentrate on what they were saying because of the feedback loop. A shapeless noise of every voice you ever heard repeating over itself, Zoe apologising profusely about not being able to get rid of the delay, again and again.

So this went on for about thirty seconds. Of course if this was someone else on a video-link they'd have probably ditched the feed after a while, but no, this is One Direction we're talking about, the BBC can't lose this one.

Suddenly applause. Someone up high must've thought 'Let's not bother, here's Rick Edwards talking to a guy dressed like the 4th Doctor'.

It's about twenty minutes in incase you were wondering.
 

RetroMG

Member
Regarding regenerations, Capaldi etc.

Little theory, could Capaldi possibly go off on adventures, doing whatever and then eventually get to the plot by finding Gallifrey? Then save it (does it need saving?) or whatever, who is then in return granted a new set of regenerations, therefore dancing around the limit? I think that's a possibility.

Well, Rassilon is still in charge of Gallifrey and still crazy, so yeah, I would say it still needs saving. Course, that will mean bringing Timothy Dalton back in.
 

odiin

My Apartment, or the 120 Screenings of Salo
Give me a single good reason why the vast majority of that does not apply to Matt's Doctor.

Also... The Third Doctor? Anti-authoritarian? The man who worked for the establishment and dined with Mao? Bollocks.

Guys, guys. Calm down. You're both right in your own way. All this talk of the third Doctor has me really itching to revisit some of his stories because Doctor? You were MY Doctor.
 
The implication is that he's a future, post-Capaldi incarnation of the Doctor that chose to regenerate into Baker again (i.e. xxth Doctor using the Fourth Doctor's face) and has retired to become the museum's curator.

What do you think the "old favorites" would be? Four and Five would definitely be two, who else?
 
john hurt was great. the episode started a little silly, but it was turned out pretty good. my only problem is the resolution at the end, a little bit too Saturday morning cartoon.

this sum up well my thoughts.

but overall it felt great and the whole series is actually like that : sometimes a bit silly and you can count in the doctor being the deus ex machina who saves the situation.
 

NekoFever

Member
The Day of the Doctor got awarded a Guinness World Record for largest simulcast of a drama.
I did wonder about that. I was talking with some friends about whether any non-live broadcast had ever been simultaneously aired that widely. It actually is quite an achievement, particularly when it was distributed that widely without being leaked.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
What do you think the "old favorites" would be? Four and Five would definitely be two, who else?

I'm sure its open to interpretation. For all we know The Curator was dozens and dozens of regenerations later.


I got a very big Quantum Leap finale vibe from that scene. Much like Sam learns to control his time travel and go wherever he wants, The Doctor learns to control his regenerations. And just as the Doctor may have met a future him, Sam likely met a future him in the Quantum Leap finale.
 
Until Moffat writes anything that comes close to 10 having a fucking sword fight on top of a floating island, diving out of a spaceship through a glass ceiling onto the floor and somehow not either dying straight up or regenerating, or becoming Fairy Jesus Christ, then no it's not worse.


Shit, Eleven's barely doing some of the shit the THIRD Doctor did - fights, judo chops, flips, throws, fencing with the Master? Fencing with anyone?

Davies was garbage and while Moffat isn't the most consistent writer in the world his lows are much better than even the best that Davies pooped out. I just wish Moffat would think harder about the implications of what he writes.

(quoting from Gallifrey Base)

Most basically, though, I do miss the Who universe being a place where a cute kid actually could end up as a severed head inside a Toclafane or roasted alive at Pompeii, rather than being guaranteed some kind of immunity because the universe was a fundamentally nice place; a universe where everything had its time and everything died, and sometimes you just had to do the best you could in the world you're in, knowing that you couldn't go home again.

I have never experienced a Doctor Who television show where this was the feeling I got. Shit got stupidly dark in Davies' run (goddammit his season finales are so stupid and pointlessly full of misery for no reason), but it was still subject to the magic of the universe and the goodness of things or whatever.
 
Give me a single good reason why the vast majority of that does not apply to Matt's Doctor.

Also... The Third Doctor? Anti-authoritarian? The man who worked for the establishment and dined with Mao? Bollocks.

Because Pertwee never get grandiose speeches while having 'cool music' playing in the background. Every element of the production tells us we're supposed to view the Doctor as being badass in this scenes, which is a complete misread of what Doctor Who is about.

And yes, Pertwee was anti-establishment. As far as the Mao line goes (and that line is problematic in some ways), at the time that episode was written, claiming friendship was Mao was a way of showing the Doctor as being opposed to the British establishment (that's not to say I'm defending Mao or anything, but the context behind that line is important. It was meant to show the Doctor opposing the mainstream). The Doctor was reluctantly forced to work for the military at the time, but he constantly undermined them and mocked the military at every turn. The Claws of Axos also showed his Doctor as being very strongly opposed to the British government and the people involved in it.

I have never experienced a Doctor Who television show where this was the feeling I got. Shit got stupidly dark in Davies' run (goddammit his season finales are so stupid and pointlessly full of misery for no reason), but it was still subject to the magic of the universe and the goodness of things or whatever.

Some examples that I think fall into that: The Caves of Androzani, The Massacre (probably one of the darkest moments in the show), Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks, Attack of the Cybermen, Inferno, The Parting of the Ways

Pre-Moffat, there were plenty of moments in the show that conveyed that sort of feeling. There was a danger to the universe, and it wasn't always a pretty or magical place.
 

Jedi2016

Member
What do you think the "old favorites" would be? Four and Five would definitely be two, who else?
I would say the Tenth. The Doctor himself seemed pretty fond of that one.

The Capaldi reveal at the end of this one was epic.. I don't think they've done that before, have they? Shown the actual next Doctor on-screen before the regeneration?

It just occurred to me that all three Doctors in this one were (are) very near the end of their lives. We see the War Doctor start to regenerate into the Ninth, the Tenth appears to be on his "walkabout" shortly before his own death (that rant he gave to Ood Sigma mentions his marriage to the Queen), and we know that the Eleventh is very near the end.
 
I know the other Baker (Colin Baker) refused to film his regeneration scene, because he took the job intending to surpass Tom Baker's seven year record, but ended up being replaced after the (now pretty standard) three seasons.

Well, that is the hell of TV production for you. Colin Baker got saddled with horrible scripts, a hideous costume, and an 18-month hiatus, and was unceremoniously fired after two seasons. I would have been pissed off too. He was pretty much screwed over, but production of the final seasons of Who was pretty painful.

As far as Pertwee? His Doctor had some action hero tendencies, but he was never really portrayed as cool. He was as likely to sing venusian lullabies to someone as to get into a fist fight, he wore a goofy looking outfit, and was goofy and anti-authoritarian. The show may have shown him getting into fights, but they never portrayed him as being cool. Because the Doctor shouldn't be cool.

But the thing is, he WAS considered cool at the time. A little odd sure, but still a kind of suave badass. In a Doctor-y way. Different times and all that. Baker had similar moments as well.

I understand that the current set of Doctors are "badass" more often than the classics, but they are still the weird outsiders too. A lot of it I think also comes down to the format of the show. Hell, the Day of the Doctor, had it been done in the classic era would have been a 7-episode serial with problematic pacing, (hell even my favorite Classics have major pacing issues.) just due to the realities of how the show was made.

I understand preferring the Classics, but this is still Doctor Who.
 
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