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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

The New Doctor Who

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08:46 / 03.04.05

I'd say that the war is likely to be the arc that gives season one its back bone - it's been mentioned in the first two episodes and I think it will be mentioned agaon in the next one... This show is all about The War, even if you might not see it...

Our Lady Has Left the Building

08:51 / 03.04.05

kovacs I thought there was one Doctor who, through some scriptwriter's cackhandedness, "wasted" some of his incarnations by cycling through a few different bodies and faces before settling on the next scheduled actor. Am I imagining this? If true, is it treated as non-canon?

In The Brain of Morbius the Doctor has a mental battle with Morbius which is visualised by the face of the loosing Time-Lord and, as he slips backwards, his face changes into his previous regenerations, so we see Bake, Pertwee, Troughton, Hartnell... Then we see three or four more faces which at the time were supposed to be ealier Doctors but were later rationalised as Morbius' previous incarnations, which makes his gloating about beating the Doctor a bit silly.

hanabius okagesamadeus ... wasn't that Romana ( i.e. post-Mary Tamm pre-Lalla Ward ) at the start of the season post-Key of Time?

And I think that was rationalised as Romana having more control over her regenerative powers than the Doctor (and also not having to do it because of being at the point of death each time) so therefore being able to change to different shapes before making her 'final' choice.

Last nights episode really explains why Eccleston's Doctor is so offhand about things like Rose's boyfriend last week. And what about RTD chucking Meme's into an episode of Doctor Who and expecting people to know what the word meant? The sheer amount of exposition in the show meant the mystery part of it wasn't the most difficult to work out, oh for the days when you had four weeks of the cast getting bumped off one by one

Nah, it was fun really.

As for the Gallifrey War thing, the last Eighth Doctor New Adventure would seem to explain all that. I might even be tempted to chuck a fiver away to buy it. It's not like the planet can't be brought back into existence fairly easily I would have thought.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

09:39 / 03.04.05

TOXIC. More pop in space!

miss wonderstarr

11:36 / 03.04.05

Oh yeah I loved that use of Toxic. It seemed to segue into the dramatic incidental music when Rose was in danger of getting scorched. That (and of course Tainted Love) is what I mean by this programme having a sense of healthy camp -- not pantomime or nudge-nudge "this is all just a joke" knowing irony, but a kind of innocent, naive sense of taking the ridiculous seriously. I would be tempted to say a very British sense, somehow -- even very English. But that's just instinct that perhaps I would find hard to back up.

20:49 / 03.04.05

I agree but I do worry if it will translate well... or even at all.

Whisky Priestess

21:36 / 03.04.05

Damn it! I missed Saturday's end of the world ep - anyone know if/when there will be a repeat?

Whisky Priestess

21:39 / 03.04.05

Sunday, 7pm, BBC Three. Fuck! Missed it again! Twice in one weekend!

>

23:12 / 03.04.05

I'm sorry but I actually cried when Rose said that at the actual moment of the earth's death no-one was watching.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

00:31 / 04.04.05

Ah, but lula, don't you see?

Top episode...Absolutely spot on mix of vintage Who elements, with surprising emotional punch...when the theme tune screamed in at the end, chez $hot was a scene of merry cheering.

miss wonderstarr

07:24 / 04.04.05

I am really slow but when I wrote all that about "camp" above, I had forgotten that the writer is responsible for Queer as Folk. So I suppose the trait I was identifying makes even more sense.

Tryphena Absent

07:46 / 04.04.05

Whisky, I've totally got it on video!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:23 / 04.04.05

I'm taping 'em all as well, so if anyone in London can wait a few weeks until the first tape's full, they're welcome to a Borrowing.

08:58 / 04.04.05

The Toxic bit is what I like to call the 'Flyboy moment'.

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:10 / 04.04.05

I think this one really ticked all the boxes of what I want from Whoooo: Doctor takes Companion somewhere he doesn't realise an ordinary person might find a bit upsetting; Doctor and Companion argue about one of his many secrets; Companion gets menaced by something involving a computer and a locked door (classic!); Doctor is a bit of a merciless fucker actually and doesn't listen to Companion's request for quality of mercy to be shown to baddie...

Some of the new things worked (chemistry between Doc and the Entwoman), some didn't (he has to run between giant fan-blades = naff). However I will love RussTD for ever and a day for the pop in space of this episode - apart from anything else, it's great because it could be mistaken for a "haha, they think a jukebox is an IPod and they think this is classical music!" joke, but really you KNOW that what he's saying is: "this is the stuff that SHOULD survive: Soft Cell and Britney". And then on a more basic level it's just genius to have 'Toxic' soundtracking danger on a satellite that might get fried by an exploding sun. (Apparently elsewhere on ver net there are Who hardcore who think this counts as "gay activism" and are well upset - guffaw!)

I might actually have liked the subtlety of the political aspect of this episode best of all - ie, not subtle at all really (not fucking aliens is for idiots) but not preachy either.

Interested to know who wasted Gallifrey (love that nobody's set that word yet!) if it wasn't the Doc as in the books. Daleks? Humans? Hmmm...

Next week: Simon Callow is Dickens AGAIN. Woot!

09:41 / 04.04.05

Looks like this is going to be another one of those things that everyone loves apart from me, even my mate who is possibly the biggest Who fan ever (and hated the first episode) loved it....

Problem is I can't really find what it was that annoyed me so much, possibly the awful grinning of the Doctor or possibly the fact I got no sense of drama from it, overall it just seemed very BBC there was no shine no dazzle and they all looked like actors playing parts. Or mMaybe it was the Big Issue seller at the end of the episode.

Tryphena Absent

10:15 / 04.04.05

See you've got to love the lack of dazzle if you're going to love Dr. Who.

miss wonderstarr

11:03 / 04.04.05

He didn't really run through the giant fan-blades, though, which I appreciated. It looked like it was going to be an Attack of the Clones PS2-style scene, but in fact he didn't sprint and dodge, but progressed, quite "realistically", slowly and tediously.

With the last obstacle moving so fast, my impression was that he was drawing on some form of ability with or understanding of time, meditating on and synching in with the fan's movement until he could lunge forward blindly but know he'd get through.

A bit Obi-Wan I suppose but it seemed an interesting hint at the Doctor's potential, given that the tree had just said something along the lines of "go on then, Time Lord."

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

11:09 / 04.04.05

The only thing with the Toxic moment was that it looked like they played a 7" Vinyl copy on an old gramophone player...when of course, blah blah blather anal nitpick detail.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

12:48 / 04.04.05

How is a spaceship in danger of being frazzled by the sun a paean to bum-bandits?

13:54 / 04.04.05

It looked like it was going to be an Attack of the Clones PS2-style scene, but in fact he didn't sprint and dodge, but progressed, quite "realistically", slowly and tediously.

But you still knew exactly what was coming the moment those fans appeared on the screen - dodging between sharp spinning thingummies? Check. The only surprise was that it didn't happen the very first time we were shown them.

The other very nice Who thing that I don't think's been mentioned yet was the basic setup. Bunch of rich people on a spaceship, slowly getting bumped off by robots controlled by one of those rich people. Although, of course, the constraints of the current format meant that they weren't bumped off slowly at all. That speed and pace worked this time out, though, because there was a whole lot more meat on the bones.

Just want to say, in case there was any confusion about it, that the bit of music that I think was completely misplaced was one of the incidental pieces, not either of the jukebox songs. Can't remember exactly where it is, but I think it pops up twice - it's all plinky-plonk humourous, and in both cases is used in scenes which aren't supposed to be plinky-plonk humourous.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:09 / 04.04.05

In retrospect, one thing I really didn't like about 'Rose' was the music that played while she and the Doc ran around hand in hand...

16:37 / 04.04.05

And then on a more basic level it's just genius to have 'Toxic' soundtracking danger on a satellite that might get fried by an exploding sun. (Apparently elsewhere on ver net there are Who hardcore who think this counts as "gay activism" and are well upset - guffaw!)

They'll spontaneously combust at John Barrowman's character later in the series then. He plays a "I'll fuck anything" type dandy who gets strung up naked (actually nekked!) by Daleks.
Shhh... don't tell anyone though, that's highly secret.

Re: Incidental music... I don't think I've even noticed it to be honest, except that it's better than the deafening silence and/or silly sound effects of vintage Who.
I'm all for an orchestral score to highlight a dramatic moment.
Yay violins.

16:40 / 04.04.05

Oh and it should be noted that I don't think RTD has written the John Barrowman episodes... So gay-mafia conspiracy is balls.

18:17 / 04.04.05

That semi humerous "incidental" music at the introduction of the aliens along with the gurning of the eccleston nearly had me turning off.
Only rose ringing her mum via the power of a bit 'o black plastic in her nokia and the Eccleston acting like the Doctor and not Jim Carrey near the end made me stay on and I'm glad I did as the pros are erasing the cons from my meory as I type.
There is a worrying propensity for showing Rose grinning girlishly at the Doctor as they run around hand in hand that's freaking me out slightly. It seems to come from another show entirely.
Jabe's expression of regret was another moment that I loved, and I guess because it was drama, plain and simple.Plus eccles getting all hard as nails (expresssion wise)
Oh the one thing I REALLY HATED was all that unneccessary pumping in the tardis (settle!). Yuo can fiddlw switches, spin dials and push buttons all you want but "pumping" the tardis is just plain wrong...right?
Maybe my meeory isn't what it once was, I don't remember doctor who being like this but I'm still going to watch every episode.
Oh and did the tardis used to shake when Travelling?

19:06 / 04.04.05

Oh and did the tardis used to shake when Travelling?
No, the camera shook uncovincingly and people fell over in hilarious slow motion. Please keep in mind that original Who was never as good as you remember it except when Douglas Adams was working on the scripts. The pumping was a bit shite, but no worse than the Zero Room and Cloister Bell.

20:04 / 04.04.05

Oh, but just having watched the first part of Casanova I am overjoyed that David Tennant is up for the role. Is RTD this generation's Dennis Potter? (Without the hangups and misery, natch.)

00:00 / 05.04.05

I thought pumping the TARDIS into action was inspired. If you're going to make it look as sparkly and alien as they have here, it's absolutely necessary that you have the main console look like it was thrown together from scrap. The console needing a good twatting before behaving itself is another of those fundamental things.

Regrettable Juvenilia

07:18 / 05.04.05

Yeah - at the moment unlike many previous Doctors, 10 seems to have the thing working more or less as he wants it, so it takes him where he tells it too - so you need something to offset that.

Forget to say, on the whole 'Meme' thing - I don't think RTD was assuming people would know what it means, that's explained pretty quickly - it's just that if you do know, it's a nice little joke/clue - ie, because anyone who still says 'meme' and thinks 'memes' are really cool in 2005 is 80% likely to be an evil wanker, therefore by the end of the world that must be 100%!

12:40 / 05.04.05

Cool - the Beeb made yet another Who-related fuck-up.

"The BBC further regrets that it falsely attributed a statement to Christopher and apologises to him."

12:45 / 05.04.05

A BBC spokesman said a mutual agreement was made between the corporation and Eccleston in January that the fact he was not making a second series would not be made public.

But surely it would become public when, for example, they started making the second series and he wasn't involved. What were they planning to do, kidnap someone and give them plastic surgery and brainwashing treatments until they were totally Ecclestoned?

13:07 / 05.04.05

Well, that’s bad, but it’s also good. While it’s certainly embarrassing that they were caught on the hop by The Sun, the news that this wasn’t ever quite the massive, out-of-the-blue surprise that it was initially presented as means that RTD knows what he’s doing by now. Has for ages. The ‘live life to the fullest because one day it’ll end’ theme is gonna be there throughout, and the changeover is gonna be a big heroic sacrifice at the end of it. Big teary christmas day special - hurrah! And doesnt it feel so wonderful to actually Give A Fuck?

And anyway, all this ‘is it Doctor 9 or Doctor 10 and how many does he have left anyway?’ bollocks is sooooo misplaced. It’s doctor 1 and 2 for all intents and purpose, and the change is part of his story, and David Tennant will be, ah, fantastic.

Besides, so far it’s Billie who completely owns this show. Now, if *she* was leaving I’d be worried. While Eccleston’s teary moment this episode was dramatic, and his ‘oooh, I’m *bristling* with ideas’ hardnut line at the end was thrilling 'n that, all the best bits are where Billie freaks over nobody watching the end of the earth/phones her mum/wants some chips/is about to be frazzled and says ‘stop fucking around’ on teatime tv. Eccles is good, but Billie is providing all the JOY, two episodes in a row.

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:27 / 05.04.05

I love that he says "you lot" (Second Coming reference) and "fantastic" every episode.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

06:28 / 06.04.05

Has anyone on here pointed out that the Beeb aren't releasing the name of the penultimate episode and that the final one is called 'The Parting of the Ways'? Still, at least we now know that it was always the plan to have Doctor Eccleston for just one series which is still a bit annoying but at least means that RTD will be able to plan it properly, I always thought the regenerations were better when they were worked into the story... "It is the end, but the moment has been prepared for" and that.

06:45 / 06.04.05

You know, a "friend" just ruined the Eccles for me (just like I'm going to do for you. Right Now.) by pointing out that he's a cross between Tom Baker and Paul Whitehouse's "Aren't aliens fantastiiiic" character from the Fast Show.

08:31 / 06.04.05

I thought it was vaguely amusing that he got a 'talk to the face' in there...

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