It’s about to start!!
No one had started a thread yet, and I want to share observations as I watch.
Yay!! The theme!.. Doo doo doooooooooo…
We’re watching - ElzaHub is a much bigger fan than I am (I only watch because he made me), but I’m already enjoying this one. I figure after making him watch every episode of Stargate:SG1 and Battlestar Galactica for the past ten weeks, the least I can do is enjoy Doctor Who.
E.
Am I missing something? The new series (Christoper Eccleston) has already been broadcast and released on DVD (I’m about mid-way through the season). Is this a re-run?
Oy! Ferriner! Out!
Just kidding! You canucks got lucky this is the forst we Yanks have seen of it. (Most of us, anyway.)
So far, pretty good. Not brilliant, but I am intreagued. Best line, “Go home and eat your beans and toast.”
Harrumph!
[slinks back to the Great White North to watch his DVDs]
BTW, I agree w/ your assessment: Good (sometimes very good) but not great. I do think that Eccleston’s the best Dr. since Tom Baker and Billie Piper is a real cutie.
I really like Eccleston. He’s charming and engaging. I really like Billie Piper, too.
Plastic Man!
E.
I thought we were going to see a rougue’s gallery of past Doctors, there.
If he’s really looked for “Doctor, the; no first name; no last name” he’ll either be convinced that it’s such a common appelation for mysterious men who appear and disapear that it’s hardly noteworthy, or that’s it’s a HUGE conspiracy! How many photos of Doctor 3 alone must there be?
Ok, so far I LOVE Eccleston. His "This is who I am speach was great, and he does the whole “brilliant but clueless” thing perfectly. Great energy, enthusiasm and goofiness with just a hint of darkness lurking beneath the surface.
Well, “Rose” gets 2 1/2 stars, because the plot was just too hokey and predictable. Great dialogue, though. And classic BBC quality SFX. (At least the sets are better!)
I have high hopes for “The End of the World” (which is on right away) and the rest of the series. Very promising! The ending, after she saves him, set the perfect tone.
Ok, I give up, what and the repeating memes?
I’m not sure, but this episode is definitely more interesting than the first one. I like the fact that rose and the Doctor have moral values and concerns that are just “off” from one another enough to be interesting. Her concern about the TARDIS effecting her mind, coupled with his unconcern was especially good. He’s not just aloof; he’s genuinely different (alien, even). I don’t remember the Doctors I watched as a child ever seeming quite so much alien as eccentric.
And unlike the last ep, I have no idea how this one will end.
Oh…and “slightly psychic paper”…
I like.
For those that care, I’ve watched the whole season. My initial reaction was “meh”. But it certainly does get better as the season progresses. I feel it was worth sticking with.
I like it very much, so far. So, if it gets even better from here I know I’ll be sticking around.
Well…it did get rather predictible at the end–Call it…2 3/4 stars. Still, not bad.
I was hoping for something adult and sophisticated, but it’s definitely still a kid’s show. I’d read as much in the earlier threads, so I wasn’t too surprised. The good news is that it does capture the Doctor Who of my childhood. Even better is that my baby sis is about the age I was when I was a Tom Baker fan. (We’re twenty-one years apart!) Maybe I can get her to watch it with me and covertly turn her into a proto-geek girl right under our mom’s nose!
A couple of questions:
Was Gallifrey’s destruction part of the old series or something new? If from the old show, can anyone catch me up on it without spoiling the new series?
How many Doctors are we up to now? How many do we get? (Before we need some explanation for aditional lives, anyway.) I really like this one, and I’m disapointed to see we get another one next season. (Is that next season for Brits? Does that make two seasons with Eccleston?
What about that abortive American series that was supposed to run on Fox a few years ago? It made the Doctor out to be half-human, without any explanation. Are we pretending that never happened?
First I’ve heard of it, and I’m a whovian from way back. I think it was added to give more characterization to him.
Officially:
William Hartnell (1st)
Patrick Troughton (2nd)
Jon Pertwee (3rd)
Tom Baker (4th)
Peter Davison (5th)
Colin Baker (6th)
Sylvester McCoy (7th)
Paul McGann (8th – in the Fox TV movie, but part of the continuty)
Christopher Eccleston (9th)
(They’ve also announced someone for the tenth.)
The doctor has 12 regenerations, so he has four more. However, it’s also been established his final regeneration he becomes evil. At the same time, the 12 regeneration rule seems to be arbitrary, as a way to keep from being immortal. In any case, at least one Time Lord (The Master) had a 13th regeneration, so nothing really stops the Doctor from having more than 12.
Hard to say. It was part of series continuity, and it would explain a lot (why the Doctor has such a fondness for Earth). So we’ll see what they do with it.
I liked both episodes. Not great Dr. Who, but solid and certainly capturing the adventure and charm of the series. It’s not a kid’s show (Dr. Who never really was), but rather a space adventure like Farscape (when it was good). This did appear to have a bit more adult subjects (e.g., the tree woman assuming a sexual relationship between the Doctor and Rose).
BTW, they changed “Gift of the Time Lords” (the ability to understand alien speech) to “Gift of the TARDIS.”
Oops! I thought someone in this thread had already spilled the beans about the tenth Doctor, but I must have read it in one of the other threads. My bad!
Does this series of Dr Who develop any continuing plot arcs that would require spoiler rules like the BSG threads? Just to be safe, let’s have the same rules:
Additionally, since I imagine a lot of people (including me) will be using this series as a jumping off point for exploring other versions of the Doctor, spoilers from older Dr Who series that would potentially ruin an episode for someone who hasn’t seen it, or that contain elements of the mythos that are best discovered by watching (use your own judgement), should be boxed. Please identify the episode and the season (or at least Doctor) for any old episodes that are cited in boxed spoilers, both so people can tell if they’ve seen them, and so they know what to watch if they want to know, say, how Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor was killed, without reading the spoilers. It may be overkill, but let’s air on the side of consideration for new fans.
(In the Dr. Who TV movie starring Paul McGann that aired on Fox, the 7th Doctor, played by McCoy, was shot by gang members as he stepped out of the TARDIS into New York on New Year’s Eve, 1999.)
Now that that’s taken care of, thanks for the info, Reality Chuck. Where and how was it established that the last Doctor is evil? And how did the Master get a 13th regeneration? I recall that was mentioned in the McGann movie. Was the Master killed in that show? I’d hate if he didn’t show up in the new series!
Is it possible to catch up on the mythos by watching the old Dr Who episodes on DVD, or have too few been released?
Well, I really enjoyed tonight’s episodes. I like Eccleston. Billie Piper is great. I’m looking forward to next week’s episodes.
By now, almost all of the episodes have been released on VHS and/or DVD (except for a number of the first two Doctors’ episodes, which were destroyed by the BBC years ago). If you’ve got the time and money, you can certainly catch up.
As for the evil last regeneration, that comes from the “Trial of a Timelord” series of episodes, which took up an entire season of the 6th Doctor (Colin Baker). I don’t recall offhand exactly how The Master got past the “12 regeneration” rule, but it was definitely sneaky and underhanded. As I recall, he was “defeated” in the Fox movie, but I’d be willing to bet he’ll be back as soon as the BBC can find an actor that resembled Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley.
In the Tom Baker episode “Keeper of Traaken” (in which we first see Sarah Sutton as Nyssa) the Master takes over the body of Nyssa’s father. That would be one way he “cheats” death. That would be when Anthony Ainley took over the role as The Master.
Interesting to see the effect that American advert breaks had on it (i saw the first couple of episodes back in the UK before i moved over here) - nothing major cut, but it seemed slightly more hectic. As others have already said, stick with it - it starts good and gets better. I’m looking forward to catching up with the episodes i missed back in the UK.
The destruction of Gallifrey is a new thing - certainly not old school series stuff.
Still seems wierd seeing Billie Piper as an actress (she was originally an Ashlee Simpson type teen pop star back in the UK) but she’s certainly proven in both this and other roles that there’s far more depth to her than most of us ever thought (she’s done some pretty good Shakespeare as well).