f13.net

All seven surviving Doctor Whos are to feature together in a one-off television special.
The actors are getting together for the BBC charity Children in Need in a programme to be broadcast on November 14.
An insider at the BBC said: "It's a pretty ambitious idea and it's still being finalised. Everything is being kept under wraps but Doctor Who fans are in for a big treat."

Was he that well paid that he can just say you know I've had enough time to find something else. Like it would be that easy for an actor?

Don't think it's ever going to be a woman.

Probably not.  But damn Tilda Swinton would be awesome.

She could play the androgynous Doctor!

I think Alex Kingston would be a good fit as a female Doctor. 

Don't think it's ever going to be a woman.

Steampunk battlemech!

Help me out here Island Dwellers. Who the fuck is Matt Smith and is that good or bad news?

You know, just looking at him, I think he might pull it off. He's a freaky-looking character, not at all your conventional 26-year old prettyboy. I wonder if there is some Time Lord tendency towards younger and younger regenerations as they get "older".

Not so much.  She's regenerated and is in the body of an 80 year old.

THE NEXT DOCTOR WHO: Matt Smith will succeed David Tennant in the role as the Time Lord in the BBC's sci-fi series Doctor Who. Photo: BBC

Matt Smith has been cast as the replacement for David Tennant as the Time Lord in the BBC's sci-fi series Doctor Who. Ahead of Smith's incarnation as the 11th Doctor, we profile the young actor who has just won the biggest role in British television.

So who exactly is Matt Smith? There's no doubt a good proportion of the viewers of the grand unveiling of the 11th Doctor Who in Saturday's BBC1 documentary Doctor Who Confidential hadn't the foggiest when Smith's name came on the screen. And after all the feverish speculation that the next Doctor might be played by a Hollywood film star or, better still, Bill Nighy, it felt like a comedown that David Tennant's successor is a 26-year-old stripling with only two semi-popular dramas under his belt – the flaccid BBC1 literary adaptation The Ruby in the Smoke and BBC2's underrated Party Animals. But that doesn't mean Smith's not the right man for the job. It's easy to forget that the only major TV David Tennant had done before he became the Doctor was BBC3's hit-and-miss Casanova. Besides, big stars won't want to be locked into a part for several years, even if Doctor Who is the biggest role in British TV.

Like Tennant, Smith has already made his name on the stage before becoming the Doctor, even if he hasn't done much screen work. He had several minor roles, one of which was in Alan Bennett's National Theatre hit The History Boys. Then in 2007 came his major breakthrough: the part of a disturbed, abused adolescent in the Royal Court's play That Face. Smith was "outstanding" according to The Daily Telegraph; "the star of the evening" said The Sunday Times; "virtuoso", "mesmerising", "heart-rending" said three other critics. I saw his performance in That Face and it was devastating.

But Smith has more than acting ability. He also looks the part. There's the tousled coiffeur – "The hair!" as Steven Moffat, the series' new executive producer said on Saturday, with awe. According to Moffat's fellow producer Piers Wenger, there's something about Smith which makes you believe that, despite his youth, he really could be 900 years old: "There's a quirkiness to him, an unevenness to his face, a lot of stuff going on behind the eyes. He hasn't got an entirely modern face."

Most importantly, Smith has the personality to be the Doctor. Unassuming and "normal", this boy from Northampton isn't a product of a starry acting school, even if his sister is a backing dancer for Take That. In fact, as a teenager, Smith wanted to be a footballer before an injury put paid to that ambition and he did a stint at the National Youth Theatre instead. He then studied drama and creative writing at the University of East Anglia – a place considerably more famous for its creative writing than its dramatics.

Perhaps these humble beginnings helped, but Smith is gregarious and completely unpretentious as a person. You could see this in Saturday's BBC interview, in which he bubbled away about getting the part: "You're watching Doctor Who and your flatmate's there and you're going, 'Ahhh I'd love to share that I'm the new Doctor but I can't!'" I met Smith a couple of years ago in a bar and he was sweetly friendly. His rare interviewers have found the same; "funny and charming" said The Evening Standard in 2008.

A 21st-century Doctor needs to be affable because the role now requires much more than acting. Smith will have to cope with huge media interest, and also with a clamouring fan base mainly consisting of children. This is why the shy Ben Whishaw, another young actor touted for the role, would have been the wrong choice. But it is also why youth is now an essential part of the Doctor's make-up. Along with that fan base comes a huge merchandising industry and children need a Doctor close enough to their own age to identify with.

So what will Smith's Doctor, who will "regenerate" in this year's Christmas special, be like? Like Tennant, Smith is thin and gangly but handsome at second glance, so there is a danger of the 11th Doctor seeming like a clone of 10th.

However Smith comes to the role without Tennant's in-depth knowledge of the series and describes the next six months as a "time to build this Time Lord…to learn the history of the show", which should give his interpretation freshness. His Doctor may also be boyishly mischievous – he spoke with relish of "the sense of mischief" he got when he knew he'd be the Doctor.

He also spoke of the show's "magic". Smith is of the Harry Potter generation and so his Doctor Who may be full of the sense of myth and mystery found in the tales of the boy wizard – one quality that Tennant's Doctor maybe lacks.

It's probably just as well they didn't get Patrick Stewart.  I think that much concentrated awesome in one spot might have caused the universe to collapse.

It seemed like a normal episode.  Only thing that was real important was the prophecy from the end.

Otherwise it wasn't too bad.  Also Michelle Ryan was at least pretty hot. 

yeah I had no problems with her strutting about in that black cat burglers outfit.  I guess it was a fairly "normal" episode.  I am so starved for new Who though that anything they throw me makes me tingle inside.

No, it's Sylvester McCoy, the worst Dr Who ever, although to be fair he was the Dr during a period when the BBC were trying to destroy the franchise forever anyway.

Personally, I've always thought that Colin Baker was WORSE.

I sort of liked McCoy's Doctor at a few odd moments, where I could see a pretty interesting version of the character trying to peek out from underneath awful direction, terrible production and McCoy's own inconsistent talents. Basically, when they were playing him as a slightly colder character who is more powerful than he has previously let on--elements of which have found its way into the Eccleston and Tennant versions of the character.

We've went down the road of "pretty" redheads before.  Is this one pretty-pretty, or Welsh-pretty?

I prefer the non-romantic companions.  I wish he had traveled with his daughter for a while.  The Father/Daughter hijinx would have been :drill:.

Film Project to be announced at SD ComicCon? (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jul/09/doctor-who-comic-con)

Good idea methinks

It's only a good idea if it's Tennant.  If it's the new Doc.. Who cares.

You know, to be fair, I didn't have much hope for Tennant when Eccleston left.  I'm willing to at least see how it turns out given how absolutely right Tennant was for the role after all.

This.  And it took me a few episodes to warm up to Tennant, or for him to find the character, I'm not sure which.  I'll give the new guy the benefit of the doubt for at least that long.

Some new pics of the new Doctor out. He doesn't look nearly as bad as that first Twilighty picture suggested. Still not sure what it's going to be like though.

That was a really awesome episode. Thanks for reminding me it was on.

Edit:

We have to wait till next month in the States. >_<

Take your pick from:
Romana
Susan
Another female relative of the Doctor (wife, or mother, or sister, or whatever).

Take your pick from:
Romana
Susan
Another female relative of the Doctor (wife, or mother, or sister, or whatever).

As my gf was saying throughout the "reflection/revisitation" part of the finale... wtf?! I figure it was because Tennant was so well received and had such a long run, but seriously, when has a doctor got to die slowly and go back to see all his former companions?

He might remember you accusing me of hating the Welsh after I commented about that horrible gap toothed woman in Torchwood.  After that, I thought you had a thing about the Welsh so I went out of my way to mention them in a negative way once in a while. :grin:

Besides, they all have silly names like Rhys and Daffyd. We don't need any more of that.

Rose was pretty, Martha was definitely the hottest, but I'd totally fuck Gwen over all the rest because she seems like a freaky spanky hair puller. If you don't like Gwen you're clearly afraid of girls.

That was the werewolf from Being Human? Nice! I need to watch that show more.

Gentlemen... shortly no one will remember any of those "others." Let us focus on the future and not on the past.

(http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/karen-gillan-000.jpg)

Also maybe it is just that photo but that ginger looks like pedo bear material to me.  She looks about 16 to 17 to my eyes.  Again I was really hoping for a Sally Sparrow re-up

What do people mean by "RTD wankery?" Just wondering.

I liked Gwen but, on the whole, I didn't find too much to like about Torchwood.  I just thought maybe there was some sort of strange new Welshery going on that upset people.  I might have defended Gwen in comparison to other Dr Who/Torchwood actors but I'm pretty sure it couldn't have anything to do with her Welshiness.  I probably defended her teeth, mostly.  I like the gap. 

If you want, when I get home, we can actually discuss this rationally and talk about how 'stuff works' in Dr Who.

But you have to be aware that it'll merely present you with a view that totally contradicts that two parter pile of keech.

Oh, no doubt. Compared to Billie Piper, I'd hit that like the fist of an angry timelord.

Oh, no doubt. Compared to Billie Piper, I'd hit that like the fist of an angry timelord.

Soulja Boy Rassilon that ho?

Would seem that all the pics are coming out of the woodwork now...



Low quality, of course, but it does give one....ideas.

Have to have a new "modern retro" TARDIS that the kids can get behind  :why_so_serious:

But seriously... Dr Who v11.0?

Was that glove of his the matching pair of the Ressurection Gauntlet from Torchwood?

There was a whole Tom Baker era series spent in the Tardis, going down like 20 floors or something.   

I think another series he had to jettison a whole block of it.

I need to look up and buy those episodes on DVD.

I'm looking forward to his companion (who I imagine he'll pick up 1st or 2nd episode) since she's a total biscuit.  It'll be nice to have a total biscuit again.

We saw some amazing actresses for this part. But when Karen came through the door, the game was up - she was funny, clever, gorgeous and sexy. Or Scottish, which is the quick way of saying it."

That's the second time you've said something daft.

The new control room is probably twice the size of any of the previous seasons.  You realise you're just seeing the control room, right ?  Some of the episodes took you to the other rooms.

And didn't watsisname, you know, Tristan- rummage through other rooms to find something nice to wear?  Or was that the other one?  Paul Merroney? 

The Master was such a great character last time he was in the show. Hopefully he'll have regenerated again before we see him again, as although John Simm is great, his version of the character has been spoiled for me.

Who was that woman then?

Of course it was the Doctor's mother. I don't see how you could think it was anyone else based on the doe-eyed look the Doctor gave when she was mentioned. Are you pissed that he had a mother or that Davies teased us with it and then didn't rub it in our gobs? Yes, it's shite - it was in the End of Time. There was maybe 3 minutes of good writing in End of Time, the rest was as Ironwood said, utter shite.

Watching the final 'Confidential' has made me hate RTD even more. Fuck.

And another sweeping story arc, telegraphed blatantly from the first episode. oh joy.

I just finished watching and enjoyed it. The new guy is an acceptable Doctor.

What's the problem with sweeping story arcs? Is this something you guys generally dislike or is it an old-school Doctor Who thing?

The thing with the arcs is that they often involve characters in the early episodes who seem mysteriously to know what's going to happen later and drop cryptic hints, to which the Doctor looks worried, and then whatever they've been talking about eventually happens. It just seems clumsy sometimes.

Playing along with the foreshadowing (I agree it was clumsy), what was he doing at the end with that equipment in the Tardis? It looked to me like he was maybe taking her voiceprint, as he waited for her to say something close to it before fiddling with it.


I like Amy as a character. She's a lot like Rose in that she has a useless boyfriend and seems to fancy the Doctor (although Mickey became a great character over time), but I'm guessing Amy is going to be more than Rose mk. 2.

Are you talking about the first episode of the latest series reboot from 2005 or the first episode in the current season?

You know what bugs me about Moffat stories ?  The way they seem fine until you think about them and then you realise they actually made no fucking sense whatsoever.

They were chilling and scary. Just like the statues in that episode that every one liked so much. Hopefully the new producer doesn't think things like that are going to be necessary in every single new show.

No shit, Sherlock. Did you figure out these obvious things for yourself? How then could you miss that the DIDN'T get rid of the children though, because they were just running around in the lower decks. Clearly visible to the "command staff" not subjected to memory wipes.

I didn't have a huge problem with it, I enjoyed the episode it just didn't seem to make any sense afterwards. I can understand why they had things like the smilers and what it was meant to be it just made as much sense as having monitoring devices that looked like ice cream vans. It looks sort of creepy but why would any sane person ever think it made sense as a monitoring device?

The show's formula is beyond tiresome when the Doctor doesn't have a strong, unique trait. File this guy in the already forgotten generic Doctor bin. The next incarnation of the doctor needs to be a smoking hot half asian, half indian/arab girl. Instead of wearing dumbass bowties or sweaters that make the doctor look like an even more spastic Tucker Carlson, she could wear a hot teacher outfit. Or even better, a hot schoolgirl outfit. Either way, glasses and spikey punk bunches/angel wings are a must. And instead of fixing stuff with a sonic screwdriver she could just tie something together with her panties - like in Operation Petticoat with the bra.

Something went wrong there. Amy seems to be the Doctor while the Doctor is just a companion. I'm all for empowered women, the Doctor gets more and more useless through the episodes. Maybe thats a reason he appears so unremarkable, he is neither witty not a quick thinker anymore.

The I-Mac Daleks were a fucking TRAVESTY of design.

The Dalek episode was pretty weak IMO.  The Eccleston episode "Dalek" was awesome, but ever since then the Daleks have been getting increasingly lame.

Right, I want to dispel this myth RIGHT AWAY.  I thought I already had, but hey ho.

Matt Smith is FINE.  He's doing FINE.  He's OKAY.  I don't mind him as I thought I would.

But these episodes thus far have been DREADFUL.  The I-Mac Daleks were a fucking TRAVESTY of design.

That is all.

The show's formula is beyond tiresome when the Doctor doesn't have a strong, unique trait. File this guy in the already forgotten generic Doctor bin. The next incarnation of the doctor needs to be a smoking hot half asian, half indian/arab girl. Instead of wearing dumbass bowties or sweaters that make the doctor look like an even more spastic Tucker Carlson, she could wear a hot teacher outfit. Or even better, a hot schoolgirl outfit. Either way, glasses and spikey punk bunches/angel wings are a must. And instead of fixing stuff with a sonic screwdriver she could just tie something together with her panties - like in Operation Petticoat with the bra.

It's not the colour.  It's the DESIGN.

They now have a humped back.  They are ribbed, for you pleasure, the gun/sucker raised outward area is stupid.  They're less sleek and more blocky.

They look STUPID.

It's not the colour.  It's the DESIGN.

They now have a humped back.  They are ribbed, for you pleasure, the gun/sucker raised outward area is stupid.  They're less sleek and more blocky.

They look STUPID.

Fortunately neither the writer nor the director of this Dalek episode is involved in any further Doctor Who episode.

Matt, that's absolute bollocks.  Really.  You wasted your time and finger energy typing it.

Churchill the jovial jowly Doctor-aware pickpocket (he was a serious, conservative politician)

I find many younger people have a fantasy view of WWII

You'll have to catch the Confidential, I guess. Sorry, old chap.

Yeah, what I really want to do is a catchup of the people who wrote, directed and designed this horseshit to take my through what they were thinking and feeling as they kicked me in the crotch.

No wonder your post made no sense and was bordering on stupidly offensive.  You'll be chanelling Moffat.  Heh.

There have been Dalek episodes right at the damn start before any genetic tampering.  They still looked cooler and not at all hunchbacked.  Defend it all you like;  the episode was ultra retarded.

1. In one episode, the Doctor says he can't go back in time in his own timeline, but I've heard of shows where all the previous incarnations of the Doctor show up.
    I'm guessing it means same incarnation can't go back in time and meet himself or somesuch, but that sounds stupid.

2.  If there were a whole race of Time Lords, why is it that the Doctor only runs into more than one of them? (ok I think Patrick Stewart played one as well, but I didn't see that ep).

1. In one episode, the Doctor says he can't go back in time in his own timeline, but I've heard of shows where all the previous incarnations of the Doctor show up.
    I'm guessing it means same incarnation can't go back in time and meet himself or somesuch, but that sounds stupid.

1. The Doctor breaks his own rules. Sometimes it turns out all right, but sometimes there are terrible consequences, usually in the form of big screaming monsters or...cracks in the wall HMMMMM!

2. The Doctor killed all his own people to kill the Daleks. That's why when he plays the "I'm The Doctor" card, other alien races run. Or he killed most of them. Or let them die/made them never exist in the first place. Or just time locked them all. They're pretty nebulous about the details, but he wiped them out of existence at any rate.

(http://www.doctorwhoisdire.com/wp-content/gallery/aliens/old_daleks.jpg)

On that topic, here's a video I like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4knUJKUNbqI

That doesn't count! Grr! That's not the real Doctor!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Who_%28Dalek_films%29

First part is going to be an Aliens ripoff.

I fucking guarantee it.

The best way to explain the difference between Blink and these two episodes would be to say that I think the best conceived movie sequel ever was Aliens following Alien. It took the same monster into an entirely different type of film.

That is very roughly the model for this. Blink was a small, low-key one and this is the highly coloured, loud, action-movie one. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tv/2010/04/doctor-who-the-return-of-the-w.shtml)

That doesn't count! Grr! That's not the real Doctor!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Who_%28Dalek_films%29

It reminded me of some of the scenes in The Ring and Grudge.

The writers (who were most likely experimenting with LSD given the content) re-imagined the Doctor as an eccentric human inventor who travels through time with his young granddaughter, so it should not be considered canon.

And it's STILL pantomime. Another "it's BEHIND you!" episode. I'm not enjoying it.

I thought it was dreadful. It feels more like Doctor Who fanfic.

My advice would be to skip ep. 3 entirely then.

My advice would be to skip ep. 3 entirely then.

Don't talk to me about Blake's 7.

Finally got around to watching the Smilers episode. Yeah, there were some "Why would you do that?" moments in the episode, but overall, I liked it. The Smilers really did make no sense, but I kind of wrote them off as a "Quirky British way to inject some creepy menace" into the story. His use of "GERONMINO!" was quite appropriate. I do like this Doctor, though I agree the writers haven't quite found his consistent voice yet.

My advice would be to skip ep. 3 entirely then. I actually enjoyed 4 more than I thought I would. I went in expecting 45 minutes of "Oh shit, don't blink!"

I get the criticism on the Doctor's ego trips, but I don't find they bother me that much. I also don't mind that they are throwing back to previous episodes, because hey, they were the good epsodes.

I thought the conversation with Bob really made this episode.

Work harder? Compared to the crap that made up a good third-to-half of Ten's episodes, they are working harder.

but feel obligated to actually include Daleks.

He just wrote himself right into a corner.


Anyway.  Vampires Up Next.  Cool.  Curse of Fenric all over again.

I was thinking maybe that the pessimists were being overly critical of the Dalek episode.

No, no they weren't. Terrible. The color Daleks would have been fine if the episode had been even marginally coherent. Just bad in every way.

was that Timothy Dalton character last season supposed to be Rassilon, the first Timelord?  :uhrr:

I also wasn't hot on this episode. I think they're straying into Voyager Borg territory, where the tail is wagging the dog.

I guess they want to go back to the more old school Daleks that had different colours to designate rank and roles, I'm not sure why that seemed like anything more than stupid camp for modern audiences but apparently they're more 'pure' than Davros' remnants. Which seems odd considering Davros created the first Daleks and with them being about racial purity and their original lot being the eventual evolution of the Kaleds you'd imagine the ones Davros made would be pure as any others. I'm guessing that trying to make it make sense beyond, "This sounds like a cool idea," is doomed to failure, much like the Smilers. And somehow unlike the Weeping Angels which were a cool idea that didn't need explaining because they were something new and alien.

I guess they want to go back to the more old school Daleks that had different colours to designate rank and roles, I'm not sure why that seemed like anything more than stupid camp for modern audiences but apparently they're more 'pure' than Davros' remnants.

The Daleks that were rejected for being impure in the recent episode are what remains of the Dalek army created directly from Davros' DNA in the Stolen Earth (I think), so they should be as pure as can be.

Yeah, but there was that fucking horrid 'Two Doctors' with Colin Baker that just ruined them.  It's sometimes hard to get Sontarans right and that two parter with David was just THE BEST.  The whole thing worked well.

huh, I really dug that episode, of the multi doctor specials (two, three, and five doctors) I think the two doctors is by far the best.  Each to their own.

Don't watch the second part.

 :heartbreak:

I liked it even though, as you say, it's been done countless times before.

I'd much rather have a flatline than a peak and then 8 troughs.

Don't watch the second part.

 :heartbreak:

In that case you should also be wondering when the Angels managed to start looking at each without freezing. I'm pretty sure that not only were there a few clearly seeing other Angels in that scene but just having that number of angels around pretty much guarantees a load of them catch sight of the others and are frozen forever. The second part was horrible.

Wow. Part 2 of the weeping angels was one of the most awesome brilliant things I've seen on TV in a long time, and those who don't like it are clearly the retarded children of Sarah Palin's retarded children's incestuous pairing. No, worse than that. Whatever's worse than that. Every square inch of that episode was distilled goodness.

Point by point: If the Doctor just caught the Angels looking at each other again, THAT would have been lazy. That would have been copying and pasting something and saying "Oh, that was awesome when we did it that one time, wasn't it? Yeah we'll do it again!"

Angels falling into the crack at the last second. Yeah. That was good because the Doctor didn't have a secret plan all along, and was honestly worried and a little bit scared and frustrated, then at the last second figured something out. He doesn't always have things figured out years in advance. Because that's lazy too. "Oh I know we're caught in a tight spot but unbeknownst to you all, for the past few hours I've been slowly building a device that when I press the button, we win."

And before anyone says it, NO THAT'S NOT WHAT HAPPENED HERE. What happened here was they brilliantly set up the gravity thing early on, then the Doctor got flustered (WHICH IF HE DIDN'T THEN HE WOULD BE A BORING CHARACTER EVERYBODY GETS FRUSTRATED SOMETIMES AND NO HE CAN'T BE ALL COOL AND CALM ALL THE TIME), then caught up when the situation presented itself in the natural course of events. The angels sealed their own fate, but only because the Doctor was smart enough to notice it when it mattered.

I thought the Dream Lord one was actually good.  I enjoyed it.

next week's preview made me think of Frontios.

Vampires in Venice - meh. Don't mind Rory tagging along, but the stories really aren't written very well at all. Shame really, because I like Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, I just think they're being saddled with really mediocre writing.

For instance, why the fuck would the "vampires" chicks attacking the house IN THE DAYTIME back away from the ultraviolet light stick? THEY'RE ALREADY SUBJECT TO STRONGER UV LIGHT BY THE FUCKING SUN! Then later, Rory is pinned by the son, and Amy pulls out, what was that, a COMPACT MIRROR and laser beams the thing to dust with a reflection? This despite the fact we've already determined these aren't mystical vampires but big space fish and so should take what hours, days to dust up from exposure to the sun's rays? Is there no one over there actually thinking about these stories?

Starting this season I thought Moffats writing would rock and I was wary about the New Doctor.

Imagine my suprise tha I now love the new Doctor and realized the writing sucks this season.

Then stop watching the bloody show and bugger off to the 'Steven Moffat pissed in my Wheaties' clubhouse with Ironwood, then!

So much misguided ire over the writing of a mid-afternoon/early evening weekend family show aimed at scaring 7 year olds into hiding behind the sofa.

The writing so far this season has been fine, certainly better episode-for-episode than any similar length stretch during RTD's preside. It's focussed on character building the relationship between a new Doctor and a new Companion and while I don't believe the overall narative has been as successful as Matt Smith's portrayal, it's still but a few episodes into Moffat's tenure and he's still responsible for every greatest moment in Dr Who since 2005.
There's been some off decisions so far, space whales, big gay Daleks and Silurians with human faces, but people post in this thread like they've personally had the writers come round to their house and slam their dicks in the toilet seat. What.


Incidentally, next weekend (June 5th) is an episode written by Richard Curtis (Blackadder), which I have some hopes for.

Hmmm... Well.... Now. I didn't hate the writing on this one but I am slightly sad. Touché writers.

I'm betting

Best episode of the season.  The Van Gogh actor was fantastic. 

We're only up to the drilling episode in the States, so...do they ever get rid of Roy??? Ugh. I see no need for him to be there and he's actually making Amy Pond look unattractive.

Hahaha.
Ahahahahahaha.
Ha.

Just keep watching.

Yeah, I've come around on Matt Smith.  At this point I can't say one doctor (out of the three new ones) is "better"- they all show very different aspects of his personality.  I still have a soft spot for Eccleston, though- its a shame the other two always overshadow him.  

The last episode was good, non-monster, filler. I enjoyed it even if it didn't really go anywhere.

So what are the odds on the Pandoracle containing ?

He didn't want to get pigeonholed and I guess he has had an ok career post Who, but man I wish he had stuck around.

"I didn't enjoy the environment and the culture that we, the cast and crew, had to work in.

"I thought if I stay in this job, I'm going to have to blind myself to certain things that I thought were wrong."

Where are people watching this in the states

other than torrents?

BBC-America, it's about 2 or 3 weeks behind Britain.

We're only up to the drilling episode in the States, so...do they ever get rid of Roy??? Ugh. I see no need for him to be there and he's actually making Amy Pond look unattractive.

Ugh, it's about 20 minutes into the Dinopeople Part 2...

There you go, your Rory dilemma is solved.  :awesome_for_real:

Because of shit writing.

Haters still gonna hate, but that's because they want Doctor Who to be something it isn't. Sucks to be them.

Fantastic finale, probably the best since the reboot. Lots of lovely wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff to get stuck into. Christmas feels like a very long time away.

Woeful.  An entire season of ego wank.  This guy makes RTD look humble.

Dr Who isn't about Fairy tales.  Moffat thinks it is.  This is why I don't like his season.

Utter rubbish.

Woeful.  An entire season of ego wank.  This guy makes RTD look humble.

Dr Who isn't about Fairy tales.  Moffat thinks it is.  This is why I don't like his season.

Utter rubbish.

PS - Has anyone read Black Company ?

 I'm an adult who grew up watching what I could of Doctor Who as it all but ended early on in my childhood and I therefore had to piece things together from occassional BBC2 saturday morning repeats and videotapes.

tl;dr

He is a bitter, bitter old man.

His paragraph about Venom was right on the money though.

 :awesome_for_real:

PS - Has anyone read Black Company ?

Lawrence Miles Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Miles) is gold.

(Impressionism starts and stops with Monet as far as I'm concerned).

This series has been great when they haven't been trying to show amazing the Doctor is and screaming about how awesome and powerful he is, the whole 'show don't tell' rule. It requires some suspension of disbelief that the Doctor isn't regarded with fear/loathing/awe by pretty much every advanced species in the universe considering the crap he does but frankly I prefer that to him just shouting he's the Doctor and everyone needs to get out of the way.

It's ok to be wrong, you know. The first step is admitting it.

Just saw the Vincent episode. I liked it a lot. Actually got me to shed a few tears when the Doctor showed Vincent just how much of an impression he'd made on the art world. Touching little tale.

Other than that, not bad. Really do like Matt Smith's portryal, and sad to find out he'll be gone after the end of the next series. Can he take Moffat with him?

I actually think Smith is a really good actor. There's a lot he's brought to the character that other actors might struggle over. He's just been saddled with really bad, sloppy scripts and stories that don't make fucking sense. It sometimes makes me long for the Davies days.  :oh_i_see:

:argh:

Seriously? You guys think this was *bad*? What's your gold standard set to? I thought the season ender was quite good. Sure, yes, problems in the plotting, and the nerdery in me wanted the Doctor to at least say, "Well, normally I can't do this, but with the universe compacted down to so little and River Song's contraband garbage time travel thingie, I'll take the risk of crossing the streams", but ok, it's cool. Fuck, you want a time travel show that *doesn't* play games with paradox? You're barking up the wrong genre tree, then. Time machines are the gun on the mantlepiece of the whole genre, and there isn't a time travel story that I can think of that doesn't pull some narrative rabbits out of its hat at some point.

There was certainly some total ass storytelling during this season, with the Dalek episode taking its place alongside the series' worst, but there were at least six episodes that I thoroughly enjoyed. And I'm actively interested in the two ongoing stories that Moffat's now got juggling in the air:

1. Who blew up the Tardis? Who are the Silence?
2. Who is River Song? How did she know to give the diary to Amy if Amy was the only one who could remember the Doctor back into existence?

Seriously? You guys think this was *bad*? What's your gold standard set to?

I also want to know who River Song is. Moffat has set up an interesting mystery there.

I'm guessing she won't be the Doctor's future wife because that was hinted at so heavily two seasons ago that it would be an anti-climax now.

I guess she could be the Doctor's daughter we saw in an earlier season, as it's easy to imagine her being "half a time lord" and a family member in some way. But after all the flirting she's done, that would be icky.

She hinted that she'd killed the Doctor. She could be a future incarnation of the Doctor himself, "killing" him by replacing him. The teasing relationship she has with him is a bit like the way different incarnations have interacted in the past (except with more flirting).The BBC have dropped hints in the distant past that the Doctor could be reincarnated as a woman which seem to have been invented by the PR department simply to drum up some publicity, but perhaps they gave the current writers ideas.

For starters, the Bad Wolf season and 2nd season ender with Rose trapped in the alternate dimension. Those were fucking fantastic. Both were built up slowly over the entire season but with a lot more subtlety than big honking crack in timey-wimey appears to remind everyone there is a meta plot. They also didn't make me stop right in the middle of the show and go "Didn't he just say that couldn't happen like 5 seconds ago?" I'd have bought the time-stream crossing fuckup if they'd actually bothered to say "it's because of the unique nature of the world at this second" but they didn't. Meaning my brain stopped and said "Wait, he just said you couldn't do that and he demonstrated what would happen if you did!'

It was certainly better than other episodes of the season like the Dalek one you mention, but it didn't compare to Bad Wolf.

One thing I really appreciated about this ender, in fact, was that it wasn't stuffed to the gills with RTD's insanely baroque plotting--there was a lot happening but it wasn't like a five-year old had just found the fireworks shed and decided to fire it all off at once.

When Russell T Davies relocated to sunny Los Angeles after handing on the Doctor Who  torch to Steven Moffat, we kinda expected his next project to be something outside our genre – perhaps something in the vein of Queer As Folk? Wrong! Turns out he’s been beavering away on yet another new permutation of Torchwood. When the series returns to our screens in 2011 for a new adventure (one long story, consisting of 10 episodes), it will have a very American flavour. Most of it will be shot and set in the States (or other foreign countries), and round about now, a writers’ room of American TV scribes are starting work. It’s all happening thanks to a co-production deal struck between US network Starz, BBC Wales and BBC Worldwide (the BBC’s commercial arm).

Is Smith already supposedly on the way out? They're going to run into the Doctor's allegedly last incarnation pretty fast this way.

I'm thinking it would be interesting if River Song were the Rani--another renegade Time Lord. It would be a nice reboot of her personality--less the dour bitch experimenter and more a devil-may-care plunderer and adventurer, somewhat indifferent to the consequences of her actions. But I'm ok with just about anything besides her being his daughter (the aforementioned squickiness of the flirting). Don't think the "future incarnation" works out at all well either.

Know who else decided to take Doctor Who in a slightly darker, more fantasy-horror direction?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Hinchcliffe

So as the complaints are basically "Oh no, it's becoming more like when it was at its strongest", I shall bear that with great equanimity.  :awesome_for_real:

 His stories SUCK A BIG FAT COCK and his making the daleks for the Ipod generation makes my scrotum shrivel.

I am still at a loss what the flying shark was all about.

As always, Matt Smith hit it out of the park with his acting. I really, really hope they give him better stories this season, because I really want to see him in good stories before they pick the next Doctor and Moffat fucks off somewhere else.

Just wanted to chime in on the current Doctor. When they revived the series, it just didn't pull me in. Caught the marathon (this past season?) of the current Doctor and was first a bit dismissive (why is crispin glover in the tardis) but the acting and snappy dialogue pulled me in. First one was with the Dream Lord, some good interaction amongst the three principles, then the one about the lizard people where I thought the bit actors were actually pretty good, the (indian?) female geologist iis one of the best throw-away characters I've seen.

Ardal was saying that he found acting really, really hard.

Strange.

Good comedians make good actors. To be a good comedian you have to learn the importance of Dialogue, timing, the flow of a narritive building up to a punchline. the importance of a look or the way you stand to the delivery of the joke. If you are off by a 10th of a second in your delivery, the Joke dies and you are there looking like an idiot. Comedians call it dying on stage.

People forget that Tom hanks was a comedian. Whoopie Goldberg was a comedian. Will Smith was a comedian and singer. Hell Billy Connely has had some fantastic dramatic film roles.

He was good in My Hero.

I'm also really suprised at how much I'm enjoying the two companion dynamic.

Spoilers for the newb, hah. Actually, he just disappeared in the last ep I watched. I think their interaction (him and Amy) was pretty good "Don't ever call me Chubbo"

Yeah, Davidson's Doc was always one of my favorites as well.

Be fair, Adric was only in a couple of Bakers run.

And then Davidson killed him.

Davison didn't kill him, he got all noble and went down with the ship.

And there was much rejoicing. Easily one of the most annoying, loathsome Who companions ever.

You know which companion people hate that I think could have worked well, though--almost did work--was Turlough. Spiky, brittle, sarcastic character wrestling with whether to betray the Doctor, that's potentially interesting. I wouldn't mind seeing the contemporary Doctor pick up a more damaged, flawed person in whom the Doctor sees some potential. Burnt-out ex-soldier, alcoholic scientist who thinks he's a failure but who has always actually been on the verge of some major discovery, that sort of thing.

Aaaaaand here's why they were multi-colored.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tLBDkpM870

Not really why. I just swore I read a post earlier about "What, are they trying to make them collectible toys now?!" But nobody actually said it, so I'm inferring it!

I want one!  :grin:

I would gladly buy that if it was a hover craft.

My hovercraft is full of eels.

My nipples explode with delight!

But her ending was   :drill:

Space has it but I think they run a season behind the BBC.

So, I decided to watch "Children of the Earth" for the first time and since it was way past midnight over here I only noticed at the very end that I had started with "Day 5" and not "Day 1".
I assumed I was watching a very long cold opening. Then the credits rolled.


Still, very, very, VERY good TV and according to Wikipedia I missed a few  of the tearjerker scenes. Having half of the team killed of at the end of season 2 was bad enough, I think.

So, yay me ?