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Doctor Who Series Seven |OT| The Question You've Been Running From All Your Life

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Z

Zeppu

Member
So I've been pestering all my friends to start watching Who. Most of who started it were turned off by the low budget feel of the first few episodes and gave up immediately.

Now, as my induction process I just wait for them to come visit me and just throw Blink on the TV. Sure enough, they always get absorbed by the story and get interested in the whole thing. Anyway, as a result I've watched that episode tons of times (and I still love it). Today I thought of looking something up, and sure enough, it exists:
e78d_angels_phone.jpg

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/e78d/
Click to expand...
 
E

EleventhDoctor

Banned
Zeppu said:
So I've been pestering all my friends to start watching Who. Most of who started it were turned off by the low budget feel of the first few episodes and gave up immediately.

Now, as my induction process I just wait for them to come visit me and just throw Blink on the TV. Sure enough, they always get absorbed by the story and get interested in the whole thing. Anyway, as a result I've watched that episode tons of times (and I still love it). Today I thought of looking something up, and sure enough, it exists:
Click to expand...


I always introduce people to it through Blink, Silence in the Library/Forrest of the Dead
 
Z

Zeppu

Member
I usually follow up with standalone episodes.
Gridlock
The girl in the fireplace

And if I'm feeling especially assholeish, Human Nature, but not Family of Blood.
 
J

JonathanEx

Member
Zeppu said:
So I've been pestering all my friends to start watching Who. Most of who started it were turned off by the low budget feel of the first few episodes and gave up immediately.

Now, as my induction process I just wait for them to come visit me and just throw Blink on the TV. Sure enough, they always get absorbed by the story and get interested in the whole thing. Anyway, as a result I've watched that episode tons of times (and I still love it). Today I thought of looking something up, and sure enough, it exists:
Click to expand...


I think I saw someone wearing a similar one on Come Dine With Me the other week.
 
A

APZonerunner

Member
Exterminieren said:
There were (iffy) rumours that Willis was essentially forced from her post due to fiddling the money.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there was this. Piers was supposedly a complete and total knob who didn't care about the show but more his own personal career trajectory, too. Much better off with Caroline Skinner, who actually seems to give a damn.

It was in Private Eye, which is generally rock fucking solid. Also, unlike most of the British media they don't have a hard on for hurting the BBC as their editor is one of the key talent on one of the BBC's most successful panel shows. Here's what's said to have happened:

  • Terrible budgeting/scheduling forced the Series 6 split
  • Willis employed her boyfriend during the overseas shoots of 'Vampires of Venice' and 'Vincent & The Doctor' and then booked a few weeks off after the filming was finished, staying in Croatia with her bloke at the BBC's expense after filming had wrapped.
  • Moffat had to change the episode order & do significant rewrites to put 'Good Man' at the break point
  • Tracie Simpson (RTD Specials, Series 5) and Peter Bennett (a stalwart of the show, from 'Bad Wolf' through to 'The Big Bang') were both asked to return but refused due to the way they'd been treated by Wenger/Willis

In the same issue they reported that the series 6 fuck ups were having a knock-on effect, and as a result we wouldn't get a full series in 2012, but a series of specials ala 2009... which actually didn't end up being too far from the truth. This was in June 2011. By this point Wenger had already gone, and less than a month later Willis followed. They're also the only higher-up people from Who to not get promoted massively after leaving the show - Wenger was shuffled sideways within the BBC, and Willis went back to her old job at Kudos (where she'd previously Produced Ashes to Ashes). All very telling. Still, if it's all true, good riddance. Quality difference in this year's episodes has been substantial.
 
Q

Quick

Banned
I didn't know all that. I'm not one to dig around for scandal related to Doctor Who, so thank you for that.

My Jenna-Louise Coleman avatar is on break in honour of the NHL season starting. Prepare yourselves for Phil Kessel's face. :D
 
E

EleventhDoctor

Banned
Could any of this be behind the bad blood hinted at with Christopher Eccelston? Maybe with her ouster he could be convinced to come back for the anniversary?
 
A

APZonerunner

Member
Yeah. It's pretty well documented. Eccleston never worked with Willis. I seem to remember them being a week in on filming and somehow being 5 weeks behind, because the schedule had them set to film the amount per day they would on a normal British drama -- and it's just impossible to make Who on that kind of snappy schedule, so it caused disaster. They recovered remarkably well in the end.

Also: Eccleston didn't like Phil Collinson, but it seems that was just two very strong personalities clashing. Collinson seems to ruffle feathers wherever he goes, but he's also bloody good at his job, it seems. He also really, really didn't get on with the director of the first block (Rose, Aliens of London/World War Three). Full-blown screaming matches have been spoken of. Boak was never invited back, but I think that soured Eccleston very early on. He'd handed in his notice (so to speak) by the end of the second block.
 
A

APZonerunner

Member
mclem said:
I've a nagging feeling it was more 'couldn't fit it in' rather than 'turned it down'
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Well... turned it down for time, turned it down because she didn't want to... it's still turning it down. It sounded like she never even entertained the idea or said "I'd love to, but..." and simply said no straight up. She's still pretty busy, casual vacancy et al. JK doesn't seem the type of person to agree to do a super-short-form digital-only book for a franchise that isn't Potter. She may be a huge Who fan from her childhood, though, or her kids may be fans. Fingers crossed. Who publishes her? Is it the same company that's doing this? That makes it more likely, I imagine.

Y'know whose script I'd kill to see? Stephen Fry. He actually finished his episode, but then for budget reasons it slipped from Series 2 to 3. He didn't have the time to make the necessary Rose-to-Martha rewrites, so the script never saw the light of day. Wonder what it was...
 
Q

Quick

Banned
APZonerunner said:
Y'know whose script I'd kill to see? Stephen Fry. He actually finished his episode, but then for budget reasons it slipped from Series 2 to 3. He didn't have the time to make the necessary Rose-to-Martha rewrites, so the script never saw the light of day. Wonder what it was...
Click to expand...

I wouldn't mind an episode, where Stephen Fry narrates the whole thing.
 
A

APZonerunner

Member
Future Foundation said:
This is interesting. Was it ever stated what ended up getting rewritten? Where was Good Man supposed to go?
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Well, all this stuff was in a series of unconfirmed reports/leaks, so no. Private Eye came out first, and then a ton more hit everywhere, from regular spoiler/insider folks on Who message boards down to the tabloids and such. Based on how the BBC seemed to not be entirely happy with the split, the Series 6 DVD being sparsely featured because it 'had to be' out for Christmas and things were tight on the second half of the series and the fact that those two left very shortly after this whole debacle, I think we can assume the reports were true. If I had to guess I reckon Good Man would've been about where it is but Let's Kill Hitler would've fallen closer to the end. Who knows, though?
 
8

8bit

Knows the Score
APZonerunner said:
Y'know whose script I'd kill to see? Stephen Fry. He actually finished his episode, but then for budget reasons it slipped from Series 2 to 3. He didn't have the time to make the necessary Rose-to-Martha rewrites, so the script never saw the light of day. Wonder what it was...
Click to expand...

I seem to remember reading it was a historical, perhaps Arthurian. I can't seem to find anything that corroborates that though, so I may have just made it up.
 
phisheep

phisheep

NeoGAF's Chief Barrister
Off to Cardiff today to see the Doctor Who Experience (Christmas present to me and the boy from awesome daughter/sister).
 
Q

Quick

Banned
A

acheron_xl

Member
Quick said:
I'm not sure what I want to see for a 50th anniversary special. There's so much potential and many different directions they could go for.

I'd like to think that former stars will be doing something in some capacity — not necessarily being in a special or episode.
Click to expand...

There''s one thing I know I don't want to see out of the 50th, and that's Billie Piper.
 
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