Dr Who

[Patrick]

I know there are some Dr Who fans on this forum as he has been mentioned a few times.
So what did you think about tonights episode, did anyone hear David Tennent was giving up doing the doctor? I certainly hadn't heard he might be, but then I perhaps don't read the papers.
It will be a shame, originally I was disappointed when he was given the part, but I think he has proved to be possibly the best Dr of all.

They have certainly got everyone involved for the last two episodes.


Patrick

[peter]

Re: Dr Who

Not sure what is going on there. The way I have heard it is that we have one more show next week and then a Christmas special but the show will not be back next year.The show will then come back in 2010. I like the way they did not preview next weeks show at the end just to keep us all guessing.

Off topic I know but I have just relived the 80s and it was great, how did I do that I hear you ask ??. Well I have just watched a great film that just took me back there. The film is not an old or a remake but part four in the series.

It just needs one word and that word is Rambo.

[Patrick]

Re: Dr Who

Not sure what is going on there. The way I have heard it is that we have one more show next week and then a Christmas special but the show will not be back next year.The show will then come back in 2010. I like the way they did not preview next weeks show at the end just to keep us all guessing.

Off topic I know but I have just relived the 80s and it was great, how did I do that I hear you ask ??. Well I have just watched a great film that just took me back there. The film is not an old or a remake but part four in the series.

It just needs one word and that word is Rambo.

Sorry I have ever seen any Rambo films just bits, which didnt encouraqge me to want to watch more.

Patrick

[peter]

Re: Dr Who

Sorry I have ever seen any Rambo films just bits, which didn't encourage me to want to watch more.

Patrick

No need to be sorry Patrick each to their own. In 1980 I was only 12 so the 80s where my decade and I grew up with the Rambo movies and such like.

[santaya]

Re: Dr Who

I am a die hard Who fan. Haven't seen this episode...will have to wait a couple of weeks here in the states. But, I have read that DT is leaving the series after the Christmas Special and that they have been negotiating with Robert Carlyle for the role. Time will tell I guess, but I will really miss DT!!

[Patrick]

Re: Dr Who

I am a die hard Who fan. Haven't seen this episode...will have to wait a couple of weeks here in the states. But, I have read that DT is leaving the series after the Christmas Special and that they have been negotiating with Robert Carlyle for the role. Time will tell I guess, but I will really miss DT!!

If you want to see the episode you can, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/ep...0the%20shadows...

What I find strange about the rumour you refer to is the Doctor is regenerating now with one more episode of this series to go to mention nothing of the Xmas special. Better not say any more we may have spoiled it for you already.
Yes DT has been excellent in the part, as I said in my first post didn't originally think him a good choice but how wrong I was.

How far back do you go with Dr Who, I remember the very first Doctor way back in the 1960's with William Hartnell who sadly died in real life and was replaced by Patrick Troughton. Then the first of the colour episodes with John Pertwee.
I doubt the old B/W 60's episodes found their way to the States.

Patrick

[peter]

Re: Dr Who

I started off with Tom Baker and went on from there. Peter Davison was ok but I found it sort of went down hill from there on. The worst of the lot being Sylvester McCoy. Oh and lets not talk about the tv movie from the 90s. Then we jump up to the newer stuff which has been great. Tourchwood I find is a good spin off and I even found myself watching the Sarah Jane Adventures. Yes I know the last one is a kids show but we must all still have a bit of a kid still inside us to still be watching Dr who.

[Patrick]

Re: Dr Who

I started off with Tom Baker and went on from there. Peter Davison was ok but I found it sort of went down hill from there on. The worst of the lot being Sylvester McCoy. Oh and lets not talk about the tv movie from the 90s. Then we jump up to the newer stuff which has been great. Tourchwood I find is a good spin off and I even found myself watching the Sarah Jane Adventures. Yes I know the last one is a kids show but we must all still have a bit of a kid still inside us to still be watching Dr who.

So you wont remember the two old movies when Peter Cushing played the doctor and if memory serves me correctly Bernard Cribbins was an assistant in one.

I agree after Tom Baker things didn't work well, as you say particularly Sylvester McCoy. Surly you have seen some of John Pertwee as the doctor before Tom Baker, they have been re-run on UK Gold.

I thought Paul Mcgann was OK it was the production that let the 90's movie down.
Never settled with Torchwood watched some episodes but lost patience with it.

Patrick

[peter]

Re: Dr Who

So you wont remember the two old movies when Peter Cushing played the doctor and if memory serves me correctly Bernard Cribbins was an assistant in one.

I agree after Tom Baker things didn't work well, as you say particularly Sylvester McCoy. Surly you have seen some of John Pertwee as the doctor before Tom Baker, they have been re-run on UK Gold.

I thought Paul Mcgann was OK it was the production that let the 90's movie down.
Never settled with Torchwood watched some episodes but lost patience with it.

Patrick

[santaya]

Re: Dr Who

I have seen a couple of Hartnell episodes, a few Troughton, probably all of Pertwee, all Tom Baker, all Peter Davison, some of Collin Baker and most of Sylvestor McCoy. I'm a Torchwood fan too.

Unfortunately I can't watch the episode from the BBC site. It tells me I can't watch it since I'm not in the UK...just have to wait.

[Mowgli]

Re: Dr Who

I havent logged in for a day then I see this thread getting larger and larger, I was a bit gobsmacked last night when I saw what was happening to the doc. Wont say anymore because of those who havent watched it yet. I remember William Hartnell and the first Daleks (in black and white) and hiding behind the setee, they seemed more menacing then (probably cos I was only eight or nine). I remember the Peter Cushing Dr at the pictures, (then we saw Daleks in colour for the first time). My favourite Dr was Jon Pertwee, he was the gadgets and gismo`s guy (the flying car?) Tom baker was the start of a downward spiral and I lost interest after that.... till resurected by Christopher Eccleston. It has gone from strength to strength now the show has a decent budget. Torchwood, great.... shame about the last episode... Looking forward to the finale of Dr Who next week....
Mowgli

[Patrick]

Re: Dr Who

I have seen a couple of Hartnell episodes, a few Troughton, probably all of Pertwee, all Tom Baker, all Peter Davison, some of Collin Baker and most of Sylvestor McCoy. I'm a Torchwood fan too.

Unfortunately I can't watch the episode from the BBC site. It tells me I can't watch it since I'm not in the UK...just have to wait.

You are a fan, how did you get hold of the B/W episodes in the States or have they been shown there or released on DVD?

As you can't see these new episodes because they are blocked probably until they are transmitted in the US, we had better say no more and spoil things for you.
We can say the Torchwood team is in, so too is Davros for the first time in I think 30 years.

I have for years thought the Dr Who franchise was never truly exploited unlike say Star Treck.
British reserve I suppose.

As a matter of interest which channel shows it in the States.

Patrick

[santaya]

Re: Dr Who

Dr Who used to show on select PBS stations (Public Broadcasting) that's where I saw most of them. Now it airs regularly on SciFi and I think it crops up sometimes on BBCA. I also bought some of the Hartnell episodes on DVD. Can't get enough!

[Patrick]

Re: Dr Who

Dr Who used to show on select PBS stations (Public Broadcasting) that's where I saw most of them. Now it airs regularly on SciFi and I think it crops up sometimes on BBCA. I also bought some of the Hartnell episodes on DVD. Can't get enough!

Interesting.

Have you had the opportunity to see "Blake 7" another of Terry Nations ideas from the 70-80's. It has become something of a cult.
Any hot blooded male would have fantasies about Servalan the vileness.

It is rumoured here in the UK that a remake is in the pipe line for Sky TV.

Patrick

[JSR]

Re: Dr Who

Re: this weeks episode. Don't take anything at face value. It's the typical end-of-season "throw everything in but the kitchen sink" to make us all go "wow". Every season since the series returned has ended with episodes in which "key character dies but doesn't die". This year is no different.

*** SOME OF WHAT FOLLOWS ISN'T KNOWN FACT, JUST GENERALLY SUSPECTED ***

The last word was that the producer (Davies) and Tennant, and most of the production team, planned to leave at the end of the 4th year - so they were planning for a proper send-off at the end to finish off the series.

Word is that it was then not budgeted for the 5th series in 2009. The BBC (or whoever is higher than BBC Wales) didn't want their flagship show to end just because the team were leaving but it was then too late. Not only had no budget been set aside for a series in 2009 but Tennant had sought other work (doing Hamlet) - so, even if they could find the money, Tennant would be unavailable for the months of filming.

The best compromise they could come up with was to do a number of "specials" in 2009 (best guess is one at Easter, one at Christmas, and one somewhere else in the year). This compromise was intended to keep Davies on as head writer/exec producer (because they're afraid that the series won't survive without him) and also to keep Tennant as the Doctor without the need to regenerate him into someone else because he'd be busy doing other work.

The BBC then "announced" the specials in 2009 and "announced" a new series in 2010. It then transpired that Davies wouldn't be doing the 2010 series (he's been replaced by Stephen Moffat), the other production team members who were leaving still left, and Tennant probably wouldn't stick around beyond the specials anyway. So the compromise to keep key people on, didn't serve to keep those people on after all.

It all turned into a bit of a farce because the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing.

It is extremely unlikely that we'll see Tennant leave at the end of this series (despite what we saw in this week's cliffhanger) because that would leave a new bod in the title role for the audience to come to terms with through sporadic "specials" rather than a full series. It's unlikely the series would survive that.

Anyone who remembers the knee-jerk reaction by viewers in the old days when the new guy came along knows what folly it would be to not allow any new guy a full season with which to warm himself to the audience. We all went off Colin Baker due to the atrocious Twin Dilemma despite him having one of the strongest seasons when he came back the next year; we all tend to dislike Sylvester McCoy because of the pantomime nature of his first season and the way the BBC treated Colin, despite the fact that McCoy was improving - even when placed against the competition of Coronation Street (the Beeb dare not even put today's WHO against Coronation Street because they know viewers would desert the series much quicker than they did in the 80s).

It would be even worse today. Where the classic series sold itself on its stories and coherence of plot, today's series owes its consistently large audience due to the fact that many of the younger audience believe "Tennant is hot". Take him out of the equation, and they'd desert in droves - stories and plot are largely irrelevant to this contingent of the audience.

What happened with the Doctor in the recent cliffhanger was merely part of the "wow" factor to get everyone talking about Tennant leaving, when he isn't. It's a shame that Davies feels the need for these "tricks" to get us talking when, surely, there's enough in the story and plot to get us discussing what's going to happen next without such tricks. Isn't there?

No one knows *for sure* what's happening, of course, but my prediction (based on the most coherent rumours) would be that Tennant is staying around beyond this series and through the specials. We'll probably see him regenerate at the end of the last special (New Year's Day 2010, if rumours are true) with the new guy (whoever they decide to get in) then starting in series 5 in 2010.

There are whispers that, since Tennant heard that Moffat is replacing Davies, he might be interested in staying on a bit longer. That's 2 years away, so we'll have to wait and see.