Dr Who

PBS used to play Dr. Who Episodes all the time on Friday/Saturday nights after Red Dwarf. Since I was a dedicated RD fan I would sometimes stay and watch the Dr. Who episodes. I never really got to interested in the Dr. Who scene...the first time I stayed to watch it was because there was this incredibly attractive brunette on the show. After that it was just a hit or miss of whether I had anything more interesting to do. It was quite interesting that several different actors played the good doctor throughout the course of time...
 
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I think Doctor Who should get credit for sometimes being scary *in spite* of how its aliens actually looked :)
 
Hope no-one minds a bit of thread necromancy. I've been a fan of this show for over 15 years and it's continued to be great in this new run.
 
A fan for 26 years now, and in my mind it's really in a golden era right now. I loved the 1989 series, but for the most part most of the good stuff was made before I was born... until Moffat took over the show, and I get to break the cliche and say "it's far better than I remember it!". I couldn't be happier about the hands the show is in for the 50th anniversary.
 
Well, they do keep making the seasons shorter, less episodes, two more saturday evening slots on BBC1 and then the show will return on Christmas, and then nothing until the easter weekend for a new season..

While the new settings and stories are superb, I've still not gotten used to Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor after 2 years. David Tennant(10th) was much more into the role, and Christopher Eccleston(9th) was fantastic, but aging out of the role to fast next to his companion, they could have done something like a "time war" movie with Paul McGann(8th doctor, US movie) passing the torch to Eccleston to clear out the time war issue and the ressurection of the Master who then fled to the far future.
 
Wow, this thread dates back to before modern Doctor Who became a minor phenomenon in the US! (My mind was blown watching kids begging for Doctor Who toys in a Toys R Us a few years back...)
I'm continuing to enjoy the Matt Smith episodes. I wish the writers would reign in their "fan service" dialog impulse a bit... it seems like every episode has some comedy runner that's intentionally crafted so the internet will repeat it.
I think they made the right call with the 'Time War'; the reason it's so interesting to us today is specifically because we didn't see it. Nothing could live up to our imaginations.
 
Mace said:
While the new settings and stories are superb, I've still not gotten used to Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor after 2 years. David Tennant(10th) was much more into the role, and Christopher Eccleston(9th) was fantastic
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It's interesting looking back at this thread from years ago, talking about my favourite Doctor who had been Tom Baker throughout my life but has since been replaced by Matt Smith. I definitely seem to click more with the eccentric Doctors - whereas the more violent Doctors (Eccleston and Petwee) never sat right with me. Like most people though I would agree with your positive appraisal of Tennant.

I don't think the shortening seasons are too much to worry about; the BBC has had it's budget slashed, and it's not allowed to channel too much money into a single show (no matter how much of a money spinner it's become for them), but they seem only too fond of it. The alternative would probably be even more cuts to the shows budget. I am curious to see if the 50th anniversary gets a full 14 episodes however; all we really know for certain is that it will be at least 11 (series 7 part 2, at least 2 specials for the 50th, and the 2013 Christmas special).
 
Well, in the new series (2005 onwards) I'm betting that it was Tennant who killed/destroyed the most enemies onscreen(Fried all the cyberman's brains making them die in agony on alternate earth, millions of Daleks and cyberman he had cast into the void, whilst eccleston hesitated to kill a single Dalek, sure he did "destroy them all in the war", but it was Rose who had gained omnipotent powers and erased them from (that current) existence.

Doctor who's resurrectionformula, that was a coincidence(the original actor who played the first doctor was in very poor health and died a few months later), and they had him "regenerate". The tardis also regenerates, so you can have a new modern setting and a new lead actor, who changes companions from time to time so the show never "ages". The limit of the regenerations is 13, according to the 1996 movie, but in the new series The Master claimed he was resurrected(after he was thrown in the time vortex and died) on Gallifrey and given a new set of regenerations(actually in the original series he had cheated "death" more then once. Since the access to Gallifrey was destroyed by the master and the doctor(the end of time). "The fall of the 11th", is announced, so likely they'll still have two more doctors after Smith departs, and then you could conclude the series if ratings were to decline, or find some way to let him live on such as a new regeneration cycle.

Merlin for example started in 2008, and is a real success, both shows also share the best family timeslot, early saturdayevening just after dinner.
 
I've never thought the limit on number regenerations was very serious; given the scope of the show it's very, very easy to get rid of it with a tiny amount of hand-waving.
 
On Dr. Who they have the tendency to reference everything and everything and canonize it too.. from the audio plays through the computer games. since the show uses timetravel, if the doctor appears and reappears, years sometimes have passed for him, as he mentions in the dialogue lots of things he "was doing". The series bible is probably a library in itself bynow, but I did notice that they wrap up storylines within the season. In this season River Song also scrificed her remaining regenerations, so there is a definite limit.

And also the Master has been violating this limit since the 70's, became a rotting corpse stealing hostbodies, the being russerected by the timelords with a new generation cycle, stealing hostbodies again, being resurrected by the timelords again after being thrown out of time, reverted to human form to flee from the war against the Daleks, reached old age and regenerated again, got himself shot and then decided to die, only to be resurrected using occult methods, turning him into flesheating super-powered zombie who closed the portal to gallifrey and disappeared again.

So yes, there would be numerous ways to get out of the regeneration limit.
 
Yep - the show is not one for rigidly sticking to continuity.

I didn't know the WC connection at the time - but the late Mary Tamm (Privateer 2) was one of the Doctor's companions in the 1970s.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
I've never thought the limit on number regenerations was very serious; given the scope of the show it's very, very easy to get rid of it with a tiny amount of hand-waving.
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River Song apparently gave him her remaining regenerations to save him from a poison that prevented his own regeneration in the episode "Let's Kill Hitler". She was on her third incarnation at the time, so she would have given him ten regenerations, but one of those was probably used up in restoring him to life. Anyway, with these extra regenerations, the Doctor should be able to regenerate until at least his Twentieth incarnation.
 
Twelve regenerations, thirteen lives means you have lived one before you start your first regeneration. And she used all the regenerations and the risidual energy she had left to save him. In "the end of time", the master showed off how much power "was left", from his faulty second regeneration. Also, the 10th doctor, abandoned his regeneration, cloning himself using his severed hand and Donna Noble, as his true parting gift to Rose Tyler, somewhere that should have cost him.

And the show is quite true to it's continuity, save a few unlicenced 70's movie spinoffs and a freakish UK number 1 hit song. It's just the way that they can write around hard facts if needed that gives you that idea. In the recent series, Both Jack Harkness and Rory Williams are older then the doctor in the years they have lived(Rory is around 2000 years old, and Harkness around 8000, and Harkness in current continuity will live to be the face of Beau.
 
In the Sarah Jane adventures RTD retconned the regeneration limit from 13 to 507:

There are some that claim that the above was just a joke to stop the kid asking questions the Doctor didn't want to answer. But the current showrunner Steven Moffat, when interviewed said that in his mind the regeneration limit has probably been lifted as a result of the time war.

The regeneration limit may or may not get a story to explain it's absence, but both Moffat and RTD have been quite emphatic when asked that the limit won't stop the Doctor regenerating.
 
Well in the original series during two adventures it was said the Time Lords could offer more regenerations and both adventures were in Peter Davidson's time as the Doctor. In The Five Doctors to get the Master to go to the Death Zone the President offers him a new batch of regenerations, or at the very least one, and in Mawdryn Undead, a group of people had stolen a Time Lord machine that allowed them to regenerate, so maybe the TARDIS contains one of those machines
 
Pedro said:
In the Sarah Jane adventures RTD retconned the regeneration limit from 13 to 507:

There are some that claim that the above was just a joke to stop the kid asking questions the Doctor didn't want to answer.
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Rule number one: the doctor lies. :cool:
 
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