The Dr Who thread

Elk · Post by **Elk** » Mon May 08, 2006 9:19 am 0

I loved this episode. Yer woman was lovely and story was both magical and tragic... Brilliant stuff... Yer man Moffat is a top writer and no mistake!

Elk

Zoot · Post by **Zoot** » Mon May 08, 2006 11:12 am 0

I loved it to bits and all.

Favourite moments were two:

1. The look the Doctor gave Mme as he rode in on the horse like what Snakey said;

2. The final scene with the name of the spaceship being revealed, and thus the whole daft reason for the robots doing what they were doing.

Aces, innit?

F-ZeroOne · Post by **F-ZeroOne** » Mon May 08, 2006 4:35 pm 0

Stuart B wrote:
Darkflame wrote: Also, the tardis can be programed/timed surely?
Dammit, now for some bizarre reason I realy want a TARDIS egg timer... I smell a licensing deal!

Go and buy the latest issue of "Doctor Who Adventures". No egg-timer, but it does have a TARDIS alarm clock on the cover.

merman · Post by **merman** » Mon May 08, 2006 4:46 pm 0

Well, watched this on video at lunchtime and I really enjoyed it. I think my favourite line was "Talk about seven years' bad luck", closely followed by "I let you keep Mickey"

Ironically, this is another take on what last week's managed - a look at what happens to people the Doctor leaves behind. The scene with the letter was superbly done, particularly the way Mickey took Rose away to give the Doctor privacy.

KlaxonCow · Post by **KlaxonCow** » Mon May 08, 2006 5:24 pm 0

Fil wrote:I liked the episode and couldn't give the slightest toss about all the little tiny details

To be absolutely clear: Me too.

I was jsut trying to reply to people earlier but then got my fucking head bitten off:

offyoutoddle wrote:One thing though, I am guessing he didn't go back for her in the Tardis because of the laws of time or something?

This was the question.

I attempted to answer this question.

In the episode, Rose specifically asks "can't we use the TARDIS?"

And the Doctor replies "no, we're now a part of events".

This was actually in the episode itself.

I didn't make it up.

Moffat made it up and all I was doing was REPORTING the reason that was given in the episode.

I repeat, I was REPORTING the reason given in the episode.

Don't shoot the messenger because you don't like the message.

Logically, the only way being "a part of events" could prevent the use of the TARDIS was because of the usual "time paradox" stuff.

The Doctor didn't say that the TARDIS couldn't go there: He said that they couldn't use the TARDIS because being "a part of the events" prevented using the TARDIS.

It was not explicitly stated beyond that - the Doctor didn't go into it beyond that one line - but I think it's pretty clear that, logically, what he was talking about was not accidentally creating any "time paradoxes".

I regret mentioning the old Who. I only mentioned it because this was thoroughly explained in "the Five Doctors" that there were "laws of time" and that the Timelords always (try to) adhere to the "laws of time" to prevent fucking up time and double-backing on their own timeline and all the nasty shit that happens with "time paradoxes".

But, to be clear, fuck old Who. I shouldn't have mentioned it, as it only seems to have made certain people angry and uncivil for no apparent reason whatsoever to dare to mention "old Who".

I'm sorry. I didn't realise that old Who was now a taboo and there is a prohibition on ever mentioning it.

It doesn't matter, though.

It was in THIS EPISODE that the Doctor said the the TARDIS couldn't be used because they were "a part of the events".

And it was in the episode with Rose's Father that the problems of fucking things up when you're "part of events" was covered.

There. 100% new series.

To recap:

1. Someone asked a question about the TARDIS.

2. I tried answering the question based on what the Doctor said IN THAT EPISODE.

3. Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned old Who. But I only mentioned it because this also had an example of "time paradoxes" and explanation of "the laws of time", ao I thought it might be useful in answering the question.

4. I also mentioned the episode with Rose's father and, in hindsight, maybe that's the only example I should have given. Seeing as any mention of old Who makes some people foam at the mouth and go crazy.

I'm not an old Who fanboy. I hardly remember it. I was a kid at the time. I stopped watching it the second Bonnie Langford showed up. I've heard that Sylvester McCoy actually got better by the end, but that's second-hand, I wasn't watching.

Someone asked a question and I tried answering it with what I knew from the show itself. Old Who was only mentioned to try to explain the explanation.

Tetra Elemental wrote:Dr Who is more than just a kid's tv series.

To this comment, I stated my PERSONAL OPINION that Doctor Who is a family show, not a kids' show.

That's an opinion. Disagree at your discretion.

Finally, the reference to longer episodes is another PERSONAL OPINION.

Fuck old Who.

I think that from a DRAMATIC point of view, it would be better to have longer episodes.

Opinion. If you don't agree then don't agree.

What I was really thinking was - though BBC budget wouldn't afford it - is to do like the Americans and have 24 episodes a series. Then you could have the same amount of stories but more two and three parters.

For dramatic / story pacing purposes only.

Obviously, though, if you've only got 12 / 13 episodes a series then the single episodes thing makes sense for that. But that's normal in the UK and what you'd expect for a BBC budget.

It'd just be nice to have American length of series but with a British show like this.

Opinion. If you don't disagree then ignore me.

Therefore, as I was saying:

Fil wrote:I liked the episode and couldn't give the slightest toss about all the little tiny details

To be absolutely clear: Me too.

GeeZa · Post by **GeeZa** » Mon May 08, 2006 5:36 pm 0

This was the first episode I've watched of the new season since my UKNova account lapsed. My opinion is that it was thoroughly excellent. Having pathetic, non-frightening alien robots was a clever little device. Tennant seems to be settling in (I too loved the goofy smile as he crashed through the mirror) with a healthy balance of emotional involvement and complete recklessness.

The only thing I didn't like was that the plumby BBC accents destroyed my suspension of disbelief that this was actually 18th Century France. Given all the other similar inconsistencies in sci-fi I dunno why this bothered me, but it didn't spoil the episode one bit.

PeeknPoke Lee · Post by **PeeknPoke Lee** » Mon May 08, 2006 6:06 pm 0

A few questions Ive been meaning to ask....(being a new Who fan rather than the old stuff)

1 - did the TARDIS always translate voices into english? is this what it always did or was this added in the new Who stories?

2 - Did Mary-Jane visit all those monsters she said to Rose and were they Dr.who stories? Did he indeed leave her in Scotland last time we saw her in the old who?

Lee

sponge · Post by **sponge** » Mon May 08, 2006 6:08 pm 0

Two fisted Doctor Who debates on the internet. I love 'em.

c64audio · Post by **c64audio** » Mon May 08, 2006 6:19 pm 0

PeeknPoke Lee wrote:A few questions Ive been meaning to ask....(being a new Who fan rather than the old stuff)

1 - did the TARDIS always translate voices into english? is this what it always did or was this added in the new Who stories?

2 - Did Mary-Jane visit all those monsters she said to Rose and were they Dr.who stories? Did he indeed leave her in Scotland last time we saw her in the old who?

Lee

1 - well, the aliens always spoke English, so it must 'a been the Tardis wot dunnit!

2 - Sarah Jane did see all those things. It was never specified in her final scene where she was, but she didn't think it was Croydon where he was supposed to drop her off.

Chris

arron · Post by **arron** » Mon May 08, 2006 6:24 pm 0

PeeknPoke Lee wrote:A few questions Ive been meaning to ask....(being a new Who fan rather than the old stuff)

1 - did the TARDIS always translate voices into english? is this what it always did or was this added in the new Who stories?

2 - Did Mary-Jane visit all those monsters she said to Rose and were they Dr.who stories? Did he indeed leave her in Scotland last time we saw her in the old who?

Lee

1. It was something that was mentioned before in the Masque of Mandragora to Sarah Jane Smith, when SJS asked how the people they meet were speaking english in Italy, and the doctor said that he was allowing her to "share a gift he has". It was also interesting that whilst the doctor was incapacitated in the Christmas Invasion, the translation didn't work, where it did when he revived for all the people in the locale. The TARDIS has a telepathic link with the doctor, and that the controls only work when the doctor wishes them to - so it seems that it might be the reason why the translation system works. The doctor needs the TARDIS and vice versa.

2. She did, and when the Doctor drops her off in the "Hand of Fear" when she leaves the Tardis, she notices that she's not in her road, and wanders off to find her bearings. It's not explicitly mentioned about being left in Aberdeen, but the Doctor's control over the TARDIS did seem to be rather lacking in precision during those times..

Col · Post by **Col** » Tue May 09, 2006 2:25 pm 0

Anyone see the black Dalek on the BAFTA's last night? Causing quite a stir on the OG forums

HGFB · Post by **HGFB** » Tue May 09, 2006 2:30 pm 0

Ratings update

Early news of overnight viewing figures for Saturday's new Doctor Who episode The Girl in the Fireplace on BBC1 are in: an average of 7.4 million viewers watched the episode, with an average 36.6% audience share, down only 0.2 million from the previous week's "School Reunion". According to the ViewingFigures report on 15-minute intervals the episode peaked in the final segment (7.30-7.45) to 7.8 million viewers, while the five-minute statistics show a peak up to 8.10 million viewers between 7.35 and 7.40pm right before the end of the episode. The huge climb of viewership between the start of the episode in the five-minute intervals (6.26 million at 7.00pm, to 7.39 million at 7.15pm, over a million extra viewers) suggest that UK audiences were unprepared for the move of the series to the 7.00pm time slot this week, as it had begun at 7.15pm the previous three weeks.

"Doctor Who" was again the #1 rated show on UK television on Saturday both by viewers as well as by audience share.

Meanwhile, the broadcast of the fourth episode of Doctor Who Confidential on BBC3 immediately afterward attracted 724,400 viewers, with a 4.7% audience share. Doctor Who Confidential was #1 for Saturday broadcast on the non-terrestrial channels.

Stable timeslot? What the fuck is one of those?

Program information for Week 21 released this afternoon by the BBC Press Office shows that this year's Eurovision Song Contest has had a similar effect to last year, with The Age of Steel moving from Doctor Who's re-established 7pm slot to a 6.40pm start on Saturday 20 May. (There is no word yet of a start time for Doctor Who Confidential on BBC Three that evening.) Last year, "The Doctor Dances" was moved back due to the contest (with a notable drop in viewing figures observed because of the time shift).

Col · Post by **Col** » Tue May 09, 2006 2:32 pm 0

Fucking hell! How many more times! And i thought that DW was one of the BBC's top shows. They wouldn't do this with friggin Eastenders!

HGFB · Post by **HGFB** » Tue May 09, 2006 2:34 pm 0

To be fair with Eurovision they don't have any choice or with the football but they made the choice to start late this year

IronGiant · Post by **IronGiant** » Tue May 09, 2006 2:57 pm 0

HGFB wrote:To be fair with Eurovision they don't have any choice or with the football but they made the choice to start late this year

And of course the Beeb deem the non award winning Euro-political Song Contest to be far more important than some award winning sci-fi series ......... arseholes.

I'd sooner they just put the first 20 mins of Euro-politico on BBC2 then switch over - if they can change channels with Tennis and Snooker then why not with Euro-politico?