Obligatory content-free header post.
K9 - Yes!!!
I really felt a tear in my eye after that scene in the kitchen, but the ending was sweet.
This was an excellent episode, full of sly humour - not very subtle though. And both Rose and the Doctor really grew as characters. That said, Rose as a character overshadowed the Doctor in this episode, and Billie Piper did steal the show.
It would be nice if, just once, they had an episode of Doctor Who in which the story made any sense at all. This time, the aliens were trying to break some kind of code which would give them control over the entire universe, and they decided that the best way to go about it was… to disguise themselves as teachers in a South Wales comprehensive for months on end and rope in all the pupils for their neural processing power, or something. That actually was the plot, wasn’t it? Surely if a few schoolkids were capable of breaking such a priceless code, aliens across the universe would have cracked it ages ago?
:sigh: I’m just going to give up trying to make sense of Doctor Who. I like the new improved production values and effects, and enjoy all the gothic horror stuff. But the actual plots are just baffling.
Yes. This week the plot was definitely secondary. However, I rather think it appealed to 10-14 year olds.
an interesting point, The Doctor last encountered Sarah Jane in The Five Doctors and has had “half a dozen” regenerations since then… that means he’s on his eleventh body. There must have been a missing regeneration in between Paul McGann and Christopher Ecclestone.
I think we don’t have to take “half a dozen” literally here, he was making the point that he has been through serveral regenerations. There is not that much difference between 5 and 6. Perhaps he was exaggerating a bit for the sake of the phrase.
Well, I hated Dr. Who even as a ten-year-old, because they would present some elaborate conundrum and then explain it away with a deus ex machina or throwaway SF technobabble which you knew they had just tacked on in order to finish the story off. There was never any satisfying or convincing resolution. And it’s the same now, except with better effects and no Radiophonics Workshop, thank god.
Are you counting the film with Peter Cushing?
No, why would I be?
Because that would make up the difference, wouldn’t it?
I quite liked the plot, even though it made no sense- cheifly because I could see the appeal to children (including having a fat unpopular kid saving the day- hah!). But there was one thing I wanted to know- why did the school blow up?
Oh, and the stuff between Sarah-Jane/Rose/Doctor was hilarious and brilliantly moving in equal measure.
There were seven “official doctors” portrayed in the old BBC series,
and two so far in the new BBC series.
Paul McGann played the doctor in the movie that bridged the two series.
There were several movies in which the doctor was portrayed, including the Cushing Doctor, but appearently these aren’t included in the official total.
Plus the made-for-TV 1999 movie Doctor (played by Paul McGann) who counts as the “8th” in BBC continuity- such as it is. Therefore Tennant is the Tenth Doctor (let’s not get into the Brain of Morbius pre-Hartnell Doctors issue, please).
I mentioned McGann.
I also agree that the other doctors “don’t count.”
That makes the current one #10, and Doctor #9 perhaps the least-long-lived Doctor, though the Davidson Doctor didn’t last very long either.
There is a similarity in the two’s demise: both bit the big one by saving their companions.
I read in an interview that the author of this episode describes himself as only having been a “casual” fan of the original series, so it may simply be that he never saw The Five Doctors and didn’t take it into account. In which case, 10th Doctor - 4th Doctor = 6 regenerations, or half a dozen.