Doctor Who

A third Co-star who is free to be high concept sounds good to me.

Saying that, our contemporary companions have all managed to be high concept; Bad Wolf, The Woman Who Walked The Earth, The Most Important Woman In All Creation, The Girl Who Waited and The Impossible Girl.

I strongly suspect season 11 will introduce a third, high concept Co star. Peter seems almost locked in for a fourth series at this point, and only giving Pearl one season would seem to go against this diversity commitment the BBC has been talking about.

And, to keep chib's premier an event, you'd expect a new staring character. You might as well go high concept to make them marketable. Bill can carry on being the audience surrogate, meanwhile "New Victorian companion" would get bums in seats.

edited 31st Aug '16 3:37:46 PM by Whowho

How do we know Capaldi is staying for a fourth year? Season 12 won't premiere until 2018 at the earliest. That seems like plenty of time to find a new Doctor.

Well for one thing nobody mentioned series 12 which would be his fifth year not his fourth, they mentioned series 11. For another, haven't most of the modern Doctors left because they wanted to rather than because they were told to? I could see Capaldi staying on for another three series (10-12) if he stayed healthy enough for the job and the writers/producers let him.

edited 31st Aug '16 6:10:38 PM by Chariot

That's actually largely been the case, historically. William Hartnell was forced out because of his health, Colin Baker was forced out because of...a ton of factors, and Mc Coy had the series cancelled on him.

Meanwhile, Troughton was pressured by his agent to leave, but the decision was ultimately his. Pertwee left due to depression from Delgado dying and Manning leaving. Tom Baker left almost by accident, threatening to quit unless he got a raise he fully expected to get. And Davison left on Troughton's advice to call it quits after three seasons.

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.

And Mc Gann left because the movie never got picked up as a TV series.

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?

I recently discussed with a friend the possibility of the Peter Crushing movies fitting into the mythology by use of the secret season 6b clause.

My idea being that the original intent of the Time Lords in WAR GAMES was to banish the Doctor to earth as human but the Time Lords were aghast to discover he started meddling with time and Daleks again ANYWAY. So the timelords wiped that clean and made him Jon Pertwee.

This hiccup in his timeline is sufficient for timelord tech to recognize him as half human, something he'd use to his advantage in the TV movie and to give him pause during the hybrid myth arc.

The Doctor having secret memories of a human life time which got discarded enriches the character I feel?

Anyway my friend punched me in the arm.

edited 1st Sep '16 7:18:15 AM by Whowho

Get a better friend because that sounds amazing.

It's such a large amount of continuity it's almost redundant. It's too unwildly to ever be introduced, but makes for a fun theory.

Class Novels Coming In October

That ellipsis makes me extremely curious as to the details.

"We're home, Chewie."

Basically, after Colin Baker's first series, the show went on hiatus. Ratings were still alright, but the show had done better, and the BBC was too hard up for cash to get momentum going on the next season. Additionally, certain executives were pushing for a retool of the series to help it compete with other popular action and sci-fi programs at the time.

Who uberfan and wealthy record executive Ian Levine, worried that his current bosses (John Nathan-Turner and Eric Saward) would be ousted and he'd lose his standing with the program, managed to convince a large contingent of passionate Who fans that this was paving the way for a cancellation notice, made a very high-profile fuss about this (including releasing a fucking charity single), and basically tanked Who's reputation. In the time between the hiatus starting and ending, the program went from a national treasure to something loved only by Trek-style nerds.

So when Colin Baker came back the next season, ratings were lower than ever before, tensions were high, the script editor quit...and the BBC, wanting to brush all of this aside and get back to the business of mass audiences enjoying Doctor Who, fired Colin Baker to create a fresh slate for the audiences, a sort of promise that it would go back to being mass entertainment.

Of course, for years Colin Baker maintained that this was because Michael Grade, who didn't like the program and who had been pushing hardest for a retool, was having sex with Colin Baker's wife and simply wanted the man to suffer. No one's ever dignified these accusations with a response.

edited 5th Sep '16 1:32:23 PM by Wackd

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.

Wait a minute; I thought Micheal Grade didn't like the program and had been pushing hardest to get it outright cancelled, not just to give it a retool. Heck, from what I can tell, he didn't just not like it; he despised it, and considered it an embarrassment to the BBC based on what he'd seen of it. (Though after Warriors of the Deep and the big horsey-monster that nearly caused the two people operating it to die from toxic paint fumes, I almost don't blame him.) He didn't just want to touch it up a bit; he wanted to obliterate any trace of it from the face of the Earth. That's how much he hated the show, or at least from what I can gather.

Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around

Yes, he hated the show, but you have to remember it was loved by the general public, so the best he could do for a while was try and make it less embarrassing.

There's also the fact to consider that he only admitted to hating the show after literal decades of being painted as worse than Hitler by the fanbase, plus at the time he was being called out in the press by Ian Levine and being accused of cheating with the lead actor's wife. Hell, his reputation for hating the show cost him a knighthood. If I had to endure that kind of shit for thirty years, I'd hate Doctor Who too.

edited 5th Sep '16 7:21:31 PM by Wackd

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.

I think that might be the second most sympathetic take on Grade I've ever seen, and the only one I could plausibly buy.

We! Are the Crystal Gems!

Recently, I was watching the press conference given for the MST 3 K Reunion Show RiffTrax put on recently. Mike's take on the longstanding "Joe Don Baker threatened to kick the writers' asses" myth was that one of the writers had joked about JDB holding a grudge at a press event, and that after receiving ten phone calls from reporters asking about it, JDB decided that yes, he would like to kick the writers' asses.

So that, to me, seems like a plausible explanation, especially given what we know was actually going on in BBC offices at the time. We know that there was a retool being pushed for and we know that Grade was in charge and could presumably pull the plug if he felt that strongly. Perceived hate turned to real hate because at a certain point you just want folks to shut the fuck up about it.

I'm curious now what the first most sympathetic take was.

edited 5th Sep '16 8:20:22 PM by Wackd

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.

Christmas Special will have a lot of "brain and heart"

The obvious answer is... Ood?

Great. Now all we need now is the nerve, and that's the "Wizard of Oz" trifecta.

... Moff, you are not doing that are you? Making the Doctor the Wizard, or even worse, Dorothy?

I wouldn't mind Toto.

What's a Christmas plot with brains?

"Last Christmas" comes to mind.

Edit: I'm really missing Doctor Who. Someone talk at me about cybermen.

edited 6th Sep '16 1:04:47 PM by Whowho

Multiple Brainy Specs Doctors?

Or at least multiple Gallifreyans?

edited 6th Sep '16 3:28:47 PM by TParadox

Fresh-eyed movie blog

The animated recreation of The Power Of The Daleks to be released on November 5th, the 50th anniversary of the serial's first broadcast.

"Yup. That tasted purple."

You know what I miss?

Russell T. Davis. He was a much better writer then Steven "MY FAN THEORIES ARE NOW CANON!" Moffat, who has done stuff that could be considered......blasphemous. I mean, I am okay with Missy, she is a nice character, and is pretty much another way for the Master to get at the Doctor. But sonic glasses? God, that was annoying to watch. Also, Clara took way too long to die, and this new companion.....ugh.

I just want a return to the stuff the revival started with.

Please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste. Nice to meet you, hope you can guess my name.

As opposed to RTD using the companions to write glorified self-insert fanfiction?

"Yup. That tasted purple."

RTD's era is over-glorified. I liked it too, but to suggest it was any better is ludicrous. If anything, the show was way campier. Burping Wheelie Bins, Daleks defeated by a time lord/human hybrid temp throwing leavers, wisened aged old fairy Dobby Doctors restored to full height, clothing, and youth by the power of belief. Say what you will about Moffat's resolutions to problems, none of them are as naff as that

What's wrong with Bill? We've barely seen anything with her - it strikes me as a little early to be making judgements.

I'm curious about what's so "blasphemous" about Moffat's run, particularly since he's hardly the first showrunner to introduce new ideas.

edited 7th Sep '16 4:15:36 AM by KarkatTheDalek

Oh God! Natural light!