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HH
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Subject: Gaiman gets Doctor Who
Posted Sat May 14, 2011 at 04:02:24 pm EDT (Viewed 8 times) |
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Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 4.0; on Windows XP
I’ve just watched Neil Gaiman’s love letter to Doctor Who and its fans: the latest episode, “The Doctor’s Wifeâ€Â. He’d previously said of it, “There are some Doctor Who stories you only get to do once. This is one of them.†He was right.
Highly recommended. If you’re a long-time follower of the series then both the main plotline and many of the throwaway extra bits are likely to make your head explode. In a good way.
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Al B. Harper
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Subject: I'm glad to hear that. [Re: HH]
Posted Sat May 14, 2011 at 07:34:34 pm EDT (Viewed 1 times) |
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Posted with Mozilla Firefox 4.0.1 on Windows XP
I just watched the prior episode "The Cuse of the Black Spot" and was less than enthused. In fact, I thought to post a question about what people think of the new series so far as I logged in here. Timely!
You'd expect Gaiman to get it right. His name on the 'next episode written by' blurb was the highlight of last night's episode for me. 
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Sorcy
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Subject: I'm still working through last season but I will definitely get to it. Right after I go break a few angel statues in our cemetery here. [Re: HH]
Posted Mon May 16, 2011 at 01:10:36 am EDT |
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Posted with Mozilla Firefox 3.6.17 on Windows 7
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Scott
Location: Southwest US
Member Since: Sun Sep 02, 2007
Posts: 326
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Subject: It was great! Spoilers sweetie... [Re: HH]
Posted Mon May 16, 2011 at 11:59:51 am EDT (Viewed 590 times) |
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Posted with Apple Safari 4.0 on Linux
Ok, I think it was fun for the Tartus to be a lady. It was wonderful to finally see what the Tartus thoughtt of everything. I loved it when she used terms like thief and strays.
It was amazing to see the old set again.
What are some of the extra stuff someone like myself, who's not familair with classic Who wouldn't get?
Scott
NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG.
Come see!
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WGMY 104.1
Member Since: Thu Nov 18, 2010
Posts: 281
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Subject: Haven't seen the Gaiman episode yet, but loving the series so far. Mostly loving that it's scary again. [Re: HH]
Posted Mon May 16, 2011 at 12:31:33 pm EDT (Viewed 540 times) |
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Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 4.0; on Windows XP
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HH
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Subject: Notes inside [Re: Scott]
Posted Wed May 18, 2011 at 07:52:48 pm EDT (Viewed 3 times) |
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Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 4.0; on Windows XP
A few of the nice touches were: [spoilers below]
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1. The "message cube" was first and last seen in the 1968 story The War Games, wherein Troughton's Doctor uses one to summon the assistance of the Time Lords (who were named for the first time in that story).
2. This tale is the first time on screen that there's been confirmation of the hotly-contested fan speculation about whether Time Lords can change sex when regenerating.
3. The technique of "jettisoning" rooms to add extra power to the TARDIS was first mentioned in Davison's first story, Castrovalva, and only once since.
4. The TARDIS' own description of the Doctor - "my thief!" - echoes the charges laid against the Doctor just before his exile as Pertwee's Doctor. Indeed, an inscription plate on the TARDIS console which identifies it as a Type 40 also warns of dire penalty for using the vessel without authority, including the possibility of exile.
5. The internal corridors of the TARDIS include some design features from earlier versions of the TARDIS, as does the cobbled-together junkyard TARDIS that the Doctor creates.
6. Davison's Doctor spent many episodes coaxing the TARDIS to finally get him to the scenic Eye of Orion. He finally got there in The Five Doctors, only to collapse as someone pulled his four previous incarnations out of time.
7. Some of the TARDIS' dialogue - especially "MY Doctor" - is reminiscent of what Rose said in The Parting of the Ways when she was "part me, part of the TARDIS"
8. We've seen the TARDIS console travel without the police box shell before, first in Inferno, 1970.
9. The now-sadly-jettisoned swimming pool first appeared (complete with satisfyingly wet swimming Leela) in the Tom Baker story The Invasion of Time. A pool scene Gaiman planned for this episode was cut because Karen Gillan can't swim.
10. The various parts of the junk-constructed TARDIS have all been previously referenced.
11. The Doctor fails to open the TARDIS doors with a snap of his fingers - the "impossible" trick he learns in The Forest of the Dead and has used a few times since - presumably because the TARDIS matrix is no longer running the ship at that point.
12. The TARDIS' complaint that the Doctor always opens her door the wrong way is an in-joke to an old fan criticism about the "unrealistic" version of the police box used in the series. A previous episode's comment that "The windows are all wrong" addresses the same whinge. In actual fact the writing on the door may refer to the little phone cupboard behind the notice which was how members of the public got a direct line to the police station in the days before phone boxes; the general public couldn't get inside the actual police box without a key. We only get confirmation that there's actually a telephone in the TARDIS cupboard as late as Ecclestone's The Empty Child.
13. Rory and Amy's marital bunk beds remind us that the original TARDIS crew likewise had bunks in their rooms; at least Barbara and Susan's shared accomodation did. On the other hand Tegan and Nyssa both had double beds.
14. Rory's question about whether the Doctor has a bedroom echoes an oft-raised fan discussion.
15. The story's title, The Doctor's Wife, harks back to an in-joke from the tenure of producer John Nathan Turner. When the Doctor Who Appreciation Society came to interview Turner they cleverly noted and published the spoiler planned series titles written on a production board behind him. Anticipating their spying, the staff had changed a key story title from Destiny of the Daleks to The Doctor's Wife, thus provoking massive fan speculation and avoiding giving away the return of the sadists from Skaro.
16. The dialogue where the Doctor accuses the TARDIS of naver taking him where he wants to go and she responds that she always took him where he needed to be echoes and makes canon a long-cherished fan belief. Indeed, Gaiman's actual script for the episode ends with the stage direction about the TARDIS operating the console to send herself to her next destination, noting that "The TARDIS spins away through time and space to where her Doctor is needed - almost certainly not the Eye of Orion."
IW
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Scott
Location: Southwest US
Member Since: Sun Sep 02, 2007
Posts: 326
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Subject: Questions inside [Re: HH]
Posted Sat May 21, 2011 at 11:22:38 am EDT (Viewed 602 times) |
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Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 4.0; on Windows 7
Thank you. I'm going to share this with Willard (Wiblk from long ago, whom is a big Doctor Who fan).
He hates that they made the trans-sexual regen issue cannon. What are your thoughts on the subject?
Scott
NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG.
Come see!
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HH
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Subject: Re: Questions inside [Re: Scott]
Posted Sat May 28, 2011 at 10:35:25 am EDT (Viewed 2 times) |
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Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 4.0; on Windows XP
Quote:
Thank you. I'm going to share this with Willard (Wiblk from long ago, whom is a big Doctor Who fan).
Quote: He hates that they made the trans-sexual regen issue cannon. What are your thoughts on the subject?
1. This is the only time in 47 years of the show that this has been mentioned. It hasn't been referenced before, and if it was fact it realisitically should have been.
2. The Doctor has made weird one-off remarks before which proved not to be true, and which one must attribute to either his confusion or weird sense of humour. He once told Clyde Langer that "a time lord has 507 regenerations". He told Ian Chesterton that "he build the TARDIS". He told Grace Holloway that he was "half-human, on his mother's side".
3. Although the natural implication of the Doctor's remark is that Time Lords can sex-change when they regenerate there are other ways of interpreting it. After all, 21st century humans undergo medical procedures for gender change if they want it; advanced Gallifreyan medicine can presumably do a much more comprehensive job. Regeneration is not neccessary.
But mostly I don't much care unless it is taken so seriously as to affect future casting of the Doctor. The relationships of the Doctor, and how he works in the series, would be seriously compromised with a female lead. I can't see how the format would shift without losing some key essence. I'd approach it with an open mind but I'd not be optomistic.
That said, you might want to search You-tube for an old Comic Relief (charity telethon) event using the keywords Doctor Who, Rowan Atkinson, Comic Relief. It's quite a long two-part comedy sketch from the years when the show was off the air. it features the Doctor, the Master, and the Daleks. It's quite funny, and it includes a brief appearance of a female incarnation of the Doctor. Oh, and it's written by a little-known-at-the-time writer called Stephen Moffat.
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