Official Doctor Who discussion thread

[KevinG]

I'm up to The Vampires of Venice episode. I think this new guy is pretty witty.

 

Rory, he gets lame, before he gets awesome. And he gets really awesome.

[Analogman]

That was a nice flash of the original Doctor in the Vincent and The Doctor episode.

 

And some more in The Lodger.

 

When I was a teenager, the Cybermen were my favorite Doctor Who bad dudes.

[KevinG]

That was a nice flash of the original Doctor in the Vincent and The Doctor episode.

 

And some more in The Lodger.

 

When I was a teenager, the Cybermen were my favorite Doctor Who bad dudes.

 

I absolutly love Vincent and the Doctor. Very non Doctorish story, but a great story. The story actually makes me cry.

[Analogman]

I rather like it when they have some sort of historical figure centered episode.

[KevinG]

I rather like it when they have some sort of historical figure centered episode.

 

It can be good, as in the case of Vincent and the Doctor and The Girl in the Fireplace (Madame de Pompadour), or it can be bad as in the case of Unicorn and the Wasp (Agitha Christie) and Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon (Richard Nixon).

[Analogman]

The Shakespeare Code

[jenbobblehead]

I absolutly love Vincent and the Doctor. Very non Doctorish story, but a great story. The story actually makes me cry.

 

Yes, it is my favorite of the Matt Smith Doctor episodes. Absolutely makes me cry. EVERY TIME.

[KevinG]

The Shakespeare Code

 

I quite like the Shakespeare Code. Not reat by any means, but fun, with crazy references to Pop Culture (Harry Potter and stuff). For me the episode kinda sums up the RTD era.

[Analogman]

I'm finding A Christmas Carol (2010) a bit dull. Maybe I have watched too many episodes in a row.

 

I rather like The Next Doctor (2008) Christmas episode.

[KevinG]

I'm finding A Christmas Carol (2010) a bit dull. Maybe I have watched too many episodes in a row.

 

I rather like The Next Doctor (2008) Christmas episode.

 

I really liked the concept of A Christmas Carol. Where you spend one day with someone every year and you get older yet they don't age. But agreed it got dull.

 

The Next Doctor was good until the Giant Steam punk Cyberman came out.

 

I really can't wait until this Christmas episode, "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe"

 

Here is the prequel trailer for those who have not seen it:

 

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Wonder if those of us in America will get in on BBC America on Christmas or have towait a week.

[jenbobblehead]

last year we got it on Christmas, There is a 7 hour diff and all...

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

last year we got it on Christmas, There is a 7 hour diff and all...

 

 

Just wondering...

[Analogman]

I really liked the concept of A Christmas Carol. Where you spend one day with someone every year and you get older yet they don't age. But agreed it got dull.

 

The Next Doctor was good until the Giant Steam punk Cyberman came out.

 

I really can't wait until this Christmas episode, "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe"

 

That is true - it sort of got odd at that point.

 

I am finding these online - so I hope the Christmas special gets posted. I figure it will.

[KevinG]

That is true - it sort of got odd at that point.

 

I am finding these online - so I hope the Christmas special gets posted. I figure it will.

 

any decent t0rrent site will have it. If you are in to that sort of thing.

[Analogman]

I am finding them on Daily Motion. I'd rather stream, than actually mess with downloading them.

[Analogman]

I ran across this the other day - pretty cool:

 

Missing Doctor Who Episodes Discovered

 

Doctor Who fans are getting a fresh opportunity to travel back in time with the discovery of two missing episodes from the long-running BBC series.

The 1965 and 1967 episodes star William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, the first two actors to play The Doctor. They are among more than 100 instalments which were not retained by the BBC.

 

The announcement was made on Sunday at Missing Believed Wiped, an event held at the British Film Institute (BFI). The BFI, based in London, has been working with broadcasters and film collectors to recover missing recordings of many different television series. Television programmes only began to be routinely recorded in the late 1950s. Previously, they were broadcast live. Even when it became possible to make recordings, video tape was so expensive that most transmission tapes were wiped, so they could be re-used.

 

In the 1970s, the BBC commissioned a report by the historian Lord Briggs. His findings prompted efforts to improve the archiving of television programmes.

Although original transmission tapes did not survive, programmes were transferred on to film for broadcasters abroad and it is these prints that the BFI sometimes recover.

Doctor Who was sold all over the world in the 1960s.

 

The latest two episodes to be found were in the private collection of a retired broadcast engineer, Terry Burnett, who bought them at a school fete in Hampshire in the 1980s.

Mr Burnett had no idea the BBC did not have the recordings - it was only when he mentioned them casually in conversation to Ralph Montagu, head of heritage at Radio Times, that their significance was recognised.

Airlock is the third episode of a four-part story called Galaxy Four, transmitted in the autumn of 1965.

 

Hartnell is accompanied by Peter Purves, later a presenter on the children's series Blue Peter, and Maureen O'Brien, now better known as a novelist.

The plot involves the desperate attempts by the Drahvins, a race of cloned females, to escape a planet which is about to explode. The story also marks the only appearance in the series of tiny robots known as the Chumblies.

The other re-discovered episode is the second part of The Underwater Menace, from early 1967.

 

It sees a mad scientist attempting to restore Atlantis by draining the ocean into the Earth's core. Patrick Troughton, in only his third appearance as The Doctor, was apparently unimpressed with the production.

In a recent biography, his son Michael says he argued with the director Julia Smith - who went on to become the original producer of EastEnders - complaining bitterly about the "ridiculous costumes and make-up of the fish people".

Innes Lloyd, who produced The Underwater Menace later admitted, "it did look like something from a '50s American 'B' movie".The find makes only a modest dent in the number of missing episodes, with 106 instalments broadcast between 1964 and 1969 still being sought.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

A-man...what did you think of "The Marriage of River Song?"

[Analogman]

I have not got that far yet. I am at Let's Kill Hitler. Some fartknocker took down the channel where I was watching the episodes. But - I found another channel.

[KevinG]

A-man...what did you think of "The Marriage Wedding of River Song?"

 

Had to correct it for you.

 

Won't spoil it for A-man, liked it, but not my favorite of the series.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Had to correct it for you.

 

Won't spoil it for A-man, liked it, but not my favorite of the series.

 

I know...doing it with the muddle of 9 hours of sleep for the week.

There were a couple of plot holes that I wanted to get A-man's take on.

 

I have not got that far yet. I am at Let's Kill Hitler. Some fartknocker took down the channel where I was watching the episodes. But - I found another channel.

 

I have 65 episodes on my handy dandy dvr. BBC America doesn't broadcast in HD, so the space taken in relatively small.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

I wonder what our Wilco Whovians think of the merits of the reboot Doctors.

 

It seems that David Tennant has the largest number of fans among the fanbase at large with Matt Smith being a love him or hate him proposition. Tennant's stand as the Doctor was hampered by some really ugly scripts.

I wish Christopher Eccelston had a longer run. He had a nice mix of darkness, damaged persona and goofiness that brought the Doctor back with a nice flourish. You could feel his regret, desperation and self loathing for being the destroyer of his race.

 

My Daughter really likes Smith and barely tolerates the Tennant Episodes. She has Eccelston as a distant third.

 

I have Smith and Eccelston as virtual tie (Smith wins for the larger body of work and the better companions).

[Analogman]

That reminds me - I may be getting my hands on a Doctor Who - Tom Baker era book soon.

[KevinG]

I wonder what our Wilco Whovians think of the merits of the reboot Doctors.

 

It seems that David Tennant has the largest number of fans among the fanbase at large with Matt Smith being a love him or hate him proposition. Tennant's stand as the Doctor was hampered by some really ugly scripts.

I wish Christopher Eccelston had a longer run. He had a nice mix of darkness, damaged persona and goofiness that brought the Doctor back with a nice flourish. You could feel his regret, desperation and self loathing for being the destroyer of his race.

 

My Daughter really likes Smith and barely tolerates the Tennant Episodes. She has Eccelston as a distant third.

 

I have Smith and Eccelston as virtual tie (Smith wins for the larger body of work and the better companions).

 

Often times with Doctor Who you fall in love with the first Doctor you see. Back in 2006 or something I first learning about torrents and found Tooth and Claw (one of Tennent's early eps), thinking that this was a long lost Patrick Troughton episode or something I downloaded it. And wow, was I surprised. I immediately found all the rest and watched. Now, I liked CE, but I couldn't get the picture of the fun loving Doc that was Tennent (Peter Davidson was my fav old Doctor). CE was just too much of a sad sack grump for me.

 

Then Matt Smith came along, I at first I thought no one could replace Tennent. He is way too young, if anyone remembers his promo photos when he was announced, he looked like he walked off the set of the Twilight movies. But Moffat's writing was so far superior to that of Russel T Davis, Smith became my fav new Doctor. It also helps that his companions are also excellent.

 

So to rank

1. Smith

2. Tennent

3. Eccelson

[KevinG]

Christmas Episode thoughts?

 

First 15 minutes excellent, middle dragged, ending touching. I think it is setting up something.

 

I also thought the Bill Bailey part was tacked on and unnecessary.