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Doctor Who |OT| Pre-Series 8 Discussion - He's A-Coming

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We'll see if with all the talk of "right length" that the episodes are just better written for them when it's back to 45. With the whole talk of longer scenes that may happen.

Oh oh one thing people may like to know, the next time trailer
was just for ep2 and not a series-long coming up. not saying they won't do one say, after the ep, but it's what we got before the credits.
 

Boem

Member
From the denofgeek review (spoilered just in case, but it's more about the tone of the Doctor/story than actual details):

Granted, off the back of one episode, it's hard to pin down just what his Doctor's going to be. Yet thus far, he doesn't run much, he rarely shouts, and he has amazing eyebrow dexterity. He carries himself more like the Doctors of old, and he's seemingly more interested in doing some proper detective work, rather than pegging it from place to place. Deep Breath does walk a tight line, as it deliberately holds back too much warmth until it needs it. But the slower (and that's slower, not slow) pace, and Capaldi's rich performance are both very big positives.


Yes, yes, yes. That's all I wanted.

....Aaand I've got to go to a wedding anniversary of people I don't even know when it airs :(. I'm making my girlfriend stay up late to watch this.

Rewatched the last christmas special yesterday. Still a very uneven episode, but I liked it a bit better this time around. Mostly happy that most of Smith's storylines are closed off in that episode so that Capaldi can start with a clean slate.

Getting slightly hyped now. Kidneys!
 
Yeah, there's a famous example of extreme rule breaking in the season 5 Christmas special "A Christmas Carol", where the Doctor alters a man's past while he's watching his own home videos--like in that one Criss Angel parody video.

Yep. The only "rule" is that we can't change the future, except when we can.

Additionally, there is the idea that the TARDIS purposely takes the Doctor to where (and when) he is needed. So when the Doctor arrives in an era he doesn't quite know if he could theoretically just leave or if he "has" to take an active part in the events.

Yeah, and there are the rare times like in "Fires of Pompeii" where the Doctor himself sets off the event that's seen as a historical tragedy. He didn't know he was the one who set off the volcano, he thought it was just a fixed point in time until he got there and realized what was really going on. I feel like a lot of times, the doctor is the reason that the Earth has survived to the point it has, he just doesn't even realize it until the events occur. A lot of them are hidden or not made aware of by the wider public, so they wouldn't be in the history books, so the doctor wouldn't know about them.

There've been lots of exceptions lately though, like (off the top of my head) the "Power of Three" episode where little black cubes invade the planet. Every person on earth is aware of them for over a year and they almost wipe out half the population. That woulde definitely make it into the history books and it's something the Doctor would have been aware of since he's visited earth post 2014... so when the cubes show up, he should be familiar at least with their historical significance, even if he doesn't know how exactly he'll be involved with the events...

Like, it's implied that 9 saved a family from boarding the Titanic (Season 1, Rose), and the invasion of the cubes would be a much bigger historical event than the Titanic, so why doesn't he know about that already? Oh well, it's inconsistent but it's fun.

Don't forget the original "fuck everything" episode from the 2005 series, "Father's Day". If they were consistent with that episode, much of the series would be dedicated to fending off Reapers. The Angels Take Manhattan would have been a vastly different episode.

Father's Day was a very special and unusual situation, there were multiple versions of the doctor and his companion in the same place at the same time and a man's death was prevented by his own daughter, who would never have had to go back and prevent his death now as he'd survived, so he would have died, so she'd have to go back and save him, so he'd live, so she wouldn't have to go back and save him.... it's a little crazy. I think the reapers haven't shown up any other time because a situation like that hasn't arisen since then.
 
From the denofgeek review (spoilered just in case, but it's more about the tone of the Doctor/story than actual details):




Yes, yes, yes. That's all I wanted.

....Aaand I've got to go to a wedding anniversary of people I don't even know when it airs :(. I'm making my girlfriend stay up late to watch this.
I think they underplay some stuff though.
The Doctor definitely has his active, actiony moments there. He'll try and jump in to action rather than just walk. More detective, planning and thinking yes, but oh he's anything but reserved. There's a great scene early on which is him choosing a more Doctory way to get somewhere.
 
Apparently in the Q&A Moffat said he'd be happy to write a Doctor Who and Sherlock crossover episode, he said before that would never happen.

@RichTheJourno · 40m
Moffat: "We're not planning a 10th anniversary celebration... unless I'm lying."

@RichTheJourno · 31m
Capaldi: "Malcolm Tucker would be envious that his alter ego, me, got this gig."

Gatiss is very against it. Thinks it will be better in your head than actually on screen according to moff.

Would be a huge mistake. A big part of Sherlock Holmes is that it always turns out in the end there is no such thing as a supernatural occurrence. Everything happens in our real world. If Sherlock met someone like the doctor he'd go insane and have to be locked up because his entire understanding of the universe is wrong. Just imagine the episode where he thinks he's seen the Hound times one million. That episode works because his rational side kicks in and says "it doesn't matter what you saw, you know it's not possible, so figure out how they faked it". If he ran into the Doctor, he'd try to convince himself it was all fake and go insane from the effort, and be wrong, because the Doctor is real.

So very real.
 

Quick

Banned
Aren't we right back to the old running time after the Deep Breath? It sounds great for this episode but I fear it's still going to be a problem.

Sorry, I meant for the episode. I'm glad that Deep Breath seems to have good pacing and has some room to stretch.

I just hope the trend continues when the other 11 episodes revert back to the 40-minute runtime.
 

Trike

Member
Yep. The only "rule" is that we can't change the future, except when we can.



Yeah, and there are the rare times like in "Fires of Pompeii" where the Doctor himself sets off the event that's seen as a historical tragedy. He didn't know he was the one who set off the volcano, he thought it was just a fixed point in time until he got there and realized what was really going on. I feel like a lot of times, the doctor is the reason that the Earth has survived to the point it has, he just doesn't even realize it until the events occur. A lot of them are hidden or not made aware of by the wider public, so they wouldn't be in the history books, so the doctor wouldn't know about them.

There've been lots of exceptions lately though, like (off the top of my head) the "Power of Three" episode where little black cubes invade the planet. Every person on earth is aware of them for over a year and they almost wipe out half the population. That woulde definitely make it into the history books and it's something the Doctor would have been aware of since he's visited earth post 2014... so when the cubes show up, he should be familiar at least with their historical significance, even if he doesn't know how exactly he'll be involved with the events...

Like, it's implied that 9 saved a family from boarding the Titanic (Season 1, Rose), and the invasion of the cubes would be a much bigger historical event than the Titanic, so why doesn't he know about that already? Oh well, it's inconsistent but it's fun.



Father's Day was a very special and unusual situation, there were multiple versions of the doctor and his companion in the same place at the same time and a man's death was prevented by his own daughter, who would never have had to go back and prevent his death now as he'd survived, so he would have died, so she'd have to go back and save him, so he'd live, so she wouldn't have to go back and save him.... it's a little crazy. I think the reapers haven't shown up any other time because a situation like that hasn't arisen since then.

Not really, there being multiple Doctors doesn't matter, he has obviously met up with himself before. If you mean literally the same incarnation of the Doctor, that has happened too in The Big Bang. The Reapers try and heal the wounds of time caused by paradoxes, so there isn't any canon explanation (so far) as to why they haven't shown up again. They probably just don't want to use them again, there are a lot of one-off monsters in Doctor Who.
 

Loke13

Member
Would be a huge mistake. A big part of Sherlock Holmes is that it always turns out in the end there is no such thing as a supernatural occurrence. Everything happens in our real world. If Sherlock met someone like the doctor he'd go insane and have to be locked up because his entire understanding of the universe is wrong. Just imagine the episode where he thinks he's seen the Hound times one million. That episode works because his rational side kicks in and says "it doesn't matter what you saw, you know it's not possible, so figure out how they faked it". If he ran into the Doctor, he'd try to convince himself it was all fake and go insane from the effort, and be wrong, because the Doctor is real.

So very real.
What you described sounds like an amazing episode. That is the very opposite of a mistake!
 
Peter Capaldi has signed for the Christmas special (obviously) and Season 9.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/08/08/doctor-who-news-perfect-peter-capaldi-to-play-time-lord-for-years-4825382/

data-yes-gif.gif
 

Boem

Member
Is he really a long life fan or are the BBC just creating that narrative about him?

He really is. He talked about it years before he got the part, and he even wrote letters and send in fan art to Doctor Who magazines back in the 60s. He also knows all the right nerdy stuff in interviews, stuff that you can't really fake.

The BBC isn't really interested in creating a persona like that for their actors, because it's really hard to keep up if it's not real. For instance, both Eccleston and Matt Smith never really watched to show when they were kids (Smith didn't even really watch the modern version before he got the part), and it's the same for Amy and Clara. The BBC never really attempted to hide that.

Edit: Right, stuff like that picture posted above. There's a lot of that.

Watched the intro. Looks good, glad to see
the face
is still there.
 
I don't have the links, but apparently Capaldi attempted to gain control of the official fan club early in life. He's not just a fan, he's a mega-fan.
 
Eh, fuck it, I've been more forgiving of that in recent years. So long as the show and promotional materials never called him "Dr Who", I'm cool.

"The Doctor" is kind of a vague-arse name to throw around assuming anyone knows what you're talking about
 
Makes sense. I believe Hartnell and/or Troughton were credited as Dr Who.

I mean shit, that even carried on well into the Tom Baker era from what I remembered. It's what he grew up with, I'm not blaming him for calling the character what he's used to. In fact, I think its one of the stupidest things that you can get mad about.
 
Eh, fuck it, I've been more forgiving of that in recent years. So long as the show and promotional materials never called him "Dr Who", I'm cool.

"The Doctor" is kind of a vague-arse name to throw around assuming anyone knows what you're talking about

I think it just annoys me because it sounds similar to when people refer to Samus as Metroid. That same sort of lack of knowledge for the source material.

When I finally got around to watching the Cushing movies it was like my worst nightmare to learn he was literally called 'Dr. Who' in world.
 

Boem

Member
I think it just annoys me because it sounds similar to when people refer to Samus as Metroid. That same sort of lack of knowledge for the source material.

When I finally got around to watching the Cushing movies it was like my worst nightmare to learn he was literally called 'Dr. Who' in world.

The Doctor is called 'Doctor Who' in-universe a couple of times a well. In the War Machines, WOTAN calls him that, the Third Doctor's license plate said "Who" and the second doctor once signed a note as 'Doktor Wer', when he was impersonating a german doctor. There are a couple of other examples. He was called Dr Who in the credits for years as well (which is where Capaldi got it from), even in the titles of some episodes ("Doctor Who and the Silurians"). It's mostly just The Doctor, but they slipped up a couple of times, mostly in the early years. Most of the time it's tongue-in-cheek.

In my mind, Capaldi calling him 'Doctor Who' outside of the show is rather charming. Calls back to the old days a bit, and a lot of people that aren't into the show as much as we are call him that anyway. It's no big deal, it's just a show. It's mostly people that haven't really watched the show a lot, or older people who watched the show when they were kids who call him that. As long as they don't do it in the episodes it's not a problem for me, and I won't believe for a second that Capaldi doesn't know that he's just called 'The Doctor'.
 

Boem

Member
Let's not forget that he was even called 'Doctor Who' in the credits of the first modern season with Christopher Eccleston. It was that way until David Tennant came in and asked Russel T Davies to change it to 'The Doctor'.

cwhn9aQ.png
 

8bit

Knows the Score
BBC are doing a companion series on iPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/articles/BBC-iPlayer-launches-exclusive-Doctor-Who-Extra-series

The BBC has today announced Doctor Who Extra - a brand new series, exclusively on BBC iPlayer. Doctor Who Extra is much more than a ‘making of’ show as we follow Peter Capaldi every step of the way throughout the creation of his first season as the Doctor. Over the course of 12 programmes we trace the highs and lows of Doctor Who’s most ambitious run of episodes yet, getting the inside take on series 8 from the people who made it.

The Doctor Who Extra team had unparalleled access to stars including Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman and Samuel Anderson (series regular Danny Pink) plus guests Frank Skinner, Keeley Hawes, Michelle Gomez, Ben Miller, Foxes and many more. Writers, such as Lead Writer and Executive Producer Steven Moffat, and directors also contribute as they spill the beans on the on and off-screen drama.

Only 10 minute episodes, but hey, it's something.
 
So I listened to by first Big Finish story over the weekend. "Prisoner of the Sun." (8th Doctor.)

It was a) great b) short and c) expensive.

I especially liked the high-concept and sci-fi aspects and the fact that the solution revolved around mind games rather than action-- sort of all the best parts of Who for me, in one package.

Where do I go from here? Any subscription or streaming way to get these, rather than buying them?
 
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