The USA, or most of us here anyways, is one year behind the UK in viewing the new adventures of the reborn sci-fi/fant series Doctor Who
Much discussion occurs in threads about the eps concerning things the UK has already seen vs what the USA fans have yet to see. Some USAers want to know everything now, damn the spoilers, some want to view each ep they finally get to see without any spoilage.
So, the purpose of this thread is for USA Whovians to ask UK Whovians questions about anything at all coming up in the series.
Also, any previous episode may be discussed in detail. All the way back to Grandfather and Susan.
Fair Warning: This entire thread is going to be full of spoilers, spoiler boxes are not needed. Read thread at your own risk.
I have a question that’s related to a spoiler I just reading in another thread. Is Rose the first female Companion to be killed in a Doctor Who series? I remember Adric died but for heaven’s sake I thought the pretty girls were never harmed. That’s depressing and I wish I hadn’t heard.
Please quote me or my name so I can avoid reading other spoilers when I look for replies.
Hmm, Romana regenerated, so I suppose she technically “died”, but it was off-camera. I think she’s the only one (the death of Adric was a big event). There have, of course, been lots of pretty girls to die during the series, but never, I think, a companion.
Hell yes. He’s much less grim, seems to have got over the death of the Time Lords to a much greater extent, and exhibits a constant upbeat zaniness. He’s very fun loving, willingly participating in jokes, but has also exhibited a much darker core than even Eccleston. Whereas the Ninth Doctor preferred to be “coward rather than killer”, the Tenth Doctor has proved himself willing to be ruthlessly brutal in eliminating threats. In particular, when Rose is threatened he becomes almost pyschopathic in his determination not only to save her, but also to eliminate the threat entirely.
He also has an ongoing trope about his love of humanity, in partiuclar our inventiveness, ability to adapt and wild variety. He has had at least three big speeches on the inestimable potential and brilliant abilities of ordinary humans (once before the big bad aliens revealed in The Christmas Invasion, once before the Cyber Controller, and once before- well, I don’t think I’ll spoil that last one, but it is certainly the most terrible threat the Doctor has ever faced, bar none, and IMO the best episode of Doctor Who). Contrast this to Eccleston being frequently scornful of “stupid apes” and you add up to quite a different Doctor. He also does a mean Scots accent.
He does indeed return, in School Reunion, the 4th episode of the 2nd series (if you count The Christmas Invasion). Turns out he was left on earth as a gift for Sarah Jane. He is very important in that episode.
Well, not yet (either) but in “New Earth”, an otherwise forgettable episode, a dying Face of Boe reveals he has a great secret to reveal to the Doctor. Smart money on this has it being the survival of at least one Time Lord, hopefully the Master!
Yes on both accounts. This series is one of the most popular shows on the BBC, constantly dragging in by far the largest audience share for its timeslot, so I would predict new series for some time to come.
It suffered a noticeable reduction in quality, and ceased pulling in the massive audiences it had in the early days- a highly unfair comparison, considering it was still getting consistently high ratings for its timeslot, and that sort of thing. Word has it these were simply excuses used by the Director of Programming for the BBC at the time to pull the program- he apparently hated it, for reasons best known to himself (in fairness, the last couple of series are not that great). I’m sure you can find a more complete story on the internets, probably Wikipedia (where I believe I originally got most of this information);
Sounds like what happened here with Star Trek. The bigass powers that be hate all things Trek. But, the last two series weren’t all that great. Makes one wonder what can happen with sci-fi TV if it could ever be led by true Sci-Fi fans.
It would last 2 episodes before they exhausted the budget and ran the series into the ground with fanwankery and ridiculously anal attention to detail (“We can’t have any sound during this space battle!” “Of course not!” “That would be ridiculous”).
-Happy Clam, who has a poor opinion of SF fans, even though he is one.
They killed Peri during the “Trial of a Timelord” season, then chickened out and announced she’d actually survived. Reportedly Nicola Bryant, who had been pleased with her dramatic exit, was very annoyed.
And it’s not yet confirmed that Rose will die; the Powers that Be are refusing to discuss those rumors, and Piper herself says her character’s journey ends “for now at least”, which leaves a door open. BBC report here.
Douglas Adams had a lot to answer for (He was script editor for a while and also responsible for some of the sillier stories). Whether he was actually told to kill it will never be known, but he seemed at the time to be having a damned good try.
They were, but I feel that the decline started then. Maybe I’m just prejudiced and my dislike of ‘Hitch-Hiker’s’ is showing - But anyone with the series best interests at heart would, I feel, not have even attempted something like **‘Doctor Who and the Krikketmen’. **
The original run suffered from terminal schizophrenia: it couldn’t decide whether it was a straight SF serial, or an edgy childrens TV show with cheapass monsters. It tried to do both, in an era of rapidly evolving special effects capabilities, which the powers that be would not budget.
. Yes, he’s back.
Great news!