Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Doctor Who: Series 1

OK, do not read any further if you don't want spoilers, but even with spoilers I shall try not to be too specific so that people can still post to the thread even if they've not seen the new show...
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OK, so the only thing that really made me cross was the fact that in the opening titles the Doctor's face didn't come up. Oooh, that's very wrong.

Reworked music, but not drastically. More violins but the basic theme is still much as it was.

Penis-Nose makes a fine Doctor. Not too sure about his outfit, it's jarringly different from all the other Doctors, but personality-wise he's great. Very much the eager kid while being very intelligent, even wise, at the same time.

Rose (Billie Piper) is great. A bit of the squeely girl assistant but with a large part of her being the kick arse girl a la Ace. She knows how to fight and is clever in her own right as well. Some interesting sexual/romantic tension between her and the Doctor but nothing major.

Effects are good, but still a bit cheap which is *good*.

Knowing Cardiff quite well it was funny seeing how much they've used it as 'London'. Sitting there going 'that's not London' a lot was slightly distracting, but not majorly and only because I know Cardiff well.

idn't like the redesign of the inside of the Tardis much, but it's not a major thing. The outside still looks the same and it makes the same noise. Yay!

Wheelie bins! Hah! Fantastic, perfect Doctor Who moment.

Script was very good, very tight, and all very well acted. The general look is just right. They've fiddled with the formula, changed some things but left the basics as they were. They've only changed as much as they ever did with a new Doctor without messing around with the basic concept (which was the problem with the crappy made for TV movie from the mid nineties).

All in all, it's looking good and I'm eager for next week.

Reposting what I said on the Other thread (with a couple of additions):

• Eccleston's Doctor is batty, brilliant, absent-minded, egocentric and has a habit of saying impossibly long sentences in one breath Plus there's a hint of desperation at the end in his convincing Rose to join. Definately a keeper
• The episode only focuses obliquely on the Doctor for the most part though - kind of Dr Who-by-New Marvel. Rose is the central character here and she's.. adequate. Identikit post-Buffy heroine, with the note that she dropped out of school. Again, Billie plays her adequately, but not stand-outishly.
• Sequing in from the Nu-Marvel bit, Bryan Hitch's Tardis interior design is... eugh. Take Moya from Farscape's interior, miss the point completely, put it in the Tardis and light it mostly in greenish-brown. Plus, if there's more than one mostly-empty room in there, the camera angle hid it well. (Additional - there isn't: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/making/360/ There are no doors in there whatsoever, bar the external one)
• Smells something like a reboot - they insert a Doctor fanatic as part of the reintroduction. Funnily enough, all the pictures he hunts down are of Eccleston's Doctor. Funny that, eh?
• If it hadn't been for a "created by" note in the credits, I would never have realised the Autons were pre-existing characters (nor, indeed, that they had a name...)

Oh, and I never noticed the Cardiff bit

OK for a start let me go on record as saying I liked this........a lot. It had almost everything good from previous series but gave it a modern riff and, if they are aiming at a attracting a new audience as well as keeping the old fan boys happy, from what I have seen they are pretty successful.

Viewing figures gave the episode around 9.9 million which means they beat Ant and Decs Saturday night crap fest. So that’s good.

Picking up on some of Boot’s and Bevis comments.

As a much older and sadder person than you two (ps this is where you jump in to salve my troubled brow and assure me I am not old ) I can just about remember the original opening sequence and I am pretty sure Hartnell’s face did not appear. So maybe they have gone back to this?

Music is fine in fact I hardly noticed any difference from the classic theme. Which is good because the music, along with the Tardis is such a core of Doctor Who that to change it would make the resulting programme into something completely different.

Eccleston gives a wild exciting, slightly mad performance. There are hints of the other doctors in there. There is a sense of a huge history to this Doctor, this is a man who has been around for a long time and seen and done a lot of things other than help Earth out. (Loved the description he uses for humans by the way which just about sums up our position in the Galaxy)

Rose may become a bit more interesting as the show progresses. Certainly the two share an on screen chemistry that good to see. I hope she is allowed to be something more than a scream machine. A way to get the doctor to explain things is always at the core of what a good assistant should be. I agree with Reboot the hint of desperation at the end when the Doctor is trying to get Rose to go with him was wonderful.

The new inside of the Tardis is horrible although the central console may have potential. Not sure about the apparent lack of doors though, given the slightly organic look to it maybe they appear and disappear on request? Externally it looks the same and makes the same noise. I also like that fact that it takes time to dematerialise, it’s not fast at all. I feel they may use this later on to give a sense of danger.

And like Reboot I had a feeling this new series was going to be a total reboot with this incarnation being the first doctor. After all it’s established that he can only regenerate for a finite number and making him Doctor one again would get around this. This would account for all the fanatics’ pictures being Eccleston. However the ears comment seems to indicate that he has had at least one regeneration.

By the bye is that fanatic dead or alive after the Auton attack?

Oh, best line by far was 'a lot of planets have a North'. He he he.

I didn't think they'd dumped all the previous Doctors. The fanatic only having pics of Eccleston makes sense if he's the Doctor he's encountered before and so is just looking for him. If he doesn't know about the others, and for some reason hasn't picked up on them elsewhere, then he wouldn't have any reason to suspect there was more than one Doctor, if you see what i mean.

It was interesting that they didn't actually mention a regeneration but iirc there can only be thirteen Doctors in total and we're on... ooh, I forget. Hatrnell, the guy after him who I always forget, Pertwee, Baker, Davidson, Baker, McCoy, possibly McGann and I'm sure there are a couple of others (oooh, bad me forgetting Doctors). That's at least seven previous ones, maybe eight and I think it's more like ten. Anyway, point being Eccleston doesn't actually have to be the next Doctor after McCoy (or McGann, depending) since the stories don't work chronologically in our time. All we know is that he can't be a Doctor between Hartnell and McCoy (or McGann) since we've seen all the others become their sucessor.

One thing that did bug me though, and may be explained away, but isn't the navigation on the Tardis supposed to be knackered? I thought it was the same reason that it couldn't change it's external appearance. The Doctor couldn't pick exactly where in space and time he ended up because the navigation was broken. An I just imagining that or is it part of the Who story?

Oh, and Darden you're not that old. Surely not old enough to actually remember Hartnell are you? Isn't that, like, fifty years ago now or something? I remeber both the Bakers, Davidson, Pertwee (vaguely, but that might be from repeats) and McCoy (and try to forget McGann).

I believe that the faces started with Pertwee & colour.

That only makes sense if he's just regenerated however.

My initial reading of that scene was that the Doctor in the shop blow-up was meant to be McGann, and he was meant to die and regenerate in the Big Boom (how DID he get out of that anyway? There wasn't time to get out, and the Tardis wasn't in place for a quick getaway, since we saw Rose run by it). But then orders came down from Higher Up that Ecceleston was to be the only Doctor in the show, and they rewrote a couple of scenes, but left (forgot to change?) the ears & cards bit. Because, as it stands, that little sequence doesn't quite add up.

Still, the PR (official site included) has been saying "Ninth Doctor", so, age frell-up aside (Seventh was 950, Eccelston's claiming 900. Maybe he's being modest ), who knows. They've reset the series numbering back to Series One, Episode One with Rose tho.

Well, if he survived, his wife & kids were kind of callous leaving him like that...

If I'm not mistaken, it sounds like Dr. Who is off to a good start!

Can't wait for the debut episode. In Canada, we get it on April 5th on CBC. I'm not worried about spoilers so by all means please continue to spoil away!

Bevis, I'll help you out with a couple of your queries re: The Doctor...William Hartnell (1st), Patrick Troughton (2nd), Jon Pertwee (3rd), Tom Baker (4th), Peter Davison (5th), Colin Baker (6th), Sylvester McCoy (7th), Paul McGann (8th) and then there's Peter Cushing who was the Doctor in the 2 movies in the 60s (Dr. Who & The Daleks & Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 AD)

You are right about the Tardis navigation being knackered. The Chameleon Circuit used to work (presumably when The 1st Doctor travelled alone with Susan) and briefly worked during Attack Of The Cybermen. In Logopolis, the Master sabotaged the Doctor's attempts to finally fix the Chameleon Circuit.

Hey Darden, long time no chat! My buddies and I from my Doctor Who club are really excited about the new show!

Guess what? My video collection of Doctor Who is complete! Now I'm going to gradually get the DVDs and of course the new episodes when they come out.

Out of curiosity Bevis, why do you call Christopher Eccelston "penis nose"?

Patrick Troughton! I always forget his name, although I can picture him perfectly in my head. Funny how in each incarnation the Doctor seems to be getting ever so slightly younger each time (with Davidson and Colin Baker being about the same age and McCoy being a bit of a blip).

As for Eccleston being Penis-Nose... well, find a photo of him taken from face on and look at his nose. It's a penis I tells ya! I have to blame my elder brother for that though, since when we were watching Shallow Grave she pointed it out to me and I can't help but notice it every time I see him now. He as a knob for a nose. He he he. He's still quite good looking though.

IIRC, in the first episode, the reason give why they couldn't take Ian & Barbara right back was because they had left in a hurry and the Doctor hadn't plotted a course, so he didn't know the coordinates they were now starting from to plot a return course. Not because of a faulty navigation circuit.

Definitely in later episodes, the Doctor is shown able to plot exact courses. Although I would say there are probably stories which had the navigation be knackered as Bevis says.

I haven't sat down and watched my copy yet (but I did bring it to work in case I get time) but does the new Doctor really look like this ?

Bevis is right. He does have a penis nose.

Not as bad as the Fake one David Spade had, but well go here Doctor Who and you will see

I was told that he couldn't actually, reliably, steer the Tardis until after the Third Doctor's exile ended in The Three Doctors

Where'd you get the idea Davidson & Colin B were the same age? It's CBaker and McCoy that are the same age! (indeed, McCoy's a couple of months younger)

One look @ IMDB later, here's the (approximate) ages they were when they took on the role:

Hartnell: 55 (Doctor 1963-1966, born 8 January 1908, died 23 April 1975)
Troughton: 46 (Doctor 1966-1969, born 25 March 1920, died 28 March 1987)
Pertwee: 50-51 (Doctor 1970-1974, born 7 July 1919, died 20 May 1996)
Tom Baker: 40 (Doctor 1974-1981, born 20 January 1934)
Davison: 29 (Doctor 1981-1984, born 13 April 1951)
Colin Baker: ~41 (Doctor 1984-1986, born 8 June 1943)
McCoy: ~44 (Doctor 1987-1989, born 20 August 1943)
McGann: 37 (Doctor 1996, born November 14, 1959)
Eccleston: 40 (Doctor 2005-, born 16 February 1964)

Yep, just like a penis with a couple of balls nestling behind it.

Course, the thing is now I've pointed it out none of you will be able to watch anything with Christopher Eccleston in it without at least once thinking 'gosh, his nose looks just like a penis'.

I think it depends on the writer and/or story whether the TARDIS could be steered reliably or not and what was the cause of that problem. I also think you are right that the pre-Pertwee Doctors had less control over destination. Altohough my understanding of one Hartnell story was that the Doctor at the end of the Hugonauts (sp?) story steers the TARIDS to mordern day London to show Stephen that a character did survive to have a descendant and that's how Dodo became a companion.

Again, I think it depends upon the writer whether the TARDIS was at fault or not. I think in a Tom Baker episode it was hinted that the TARDIS was semi-sentient and may have been making the random landings itself.

I am so excited about this new series. It looks like its going to be great.

*Is there anyone out there that can hook me up with copies of the show??? Either DVD or tape?? I'm in America with still no hope of seeing the show. Can someone please help me out??

Bevis at 45 I am old enough to remember (just) the last Hartnell stories, but Troughton was really my first doctor. Ah happy memories of me and a friend hiding from those little black and white daleks.

RAY
I think you are going to like this one. Its a good re imagining of the whole Who mythos, to borrow a phrase from a certain Legion comic

Now as for the Tardis being controllable or not I seem to remember that at some point it was explained that the Tardis itself could somehow sense trouble that needed the doctors intervention and over riding its pre set course who often divert and materialise in un expected places.

Incidentally, the BBC3 documentary from Saturday is on the web: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/confidential/

And, after the ages thing from earlier on, when you see him on this, Colin Baker has aged really badly. Still think he's the same age as Peter Davidson Bev?

well Faraway Lad as a "Yank" and i'm pretty sure a lot of American Dr.Who fans will say their first exposue to Dr.Who was Tom Baker. i can remember back in the late 70's the local PBS station would air his doctor and i watched them religiously.

I'll second this.

In fact, the PBS station where I grew up never aired anything earlier than the Baker stuff. It wasn't until I moved to where I am now that I saw any of those.

My first Doctor was Peter Davison (not Davidson...)

The first Doctor to have his face in the titles was the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton).

Haven't seen "Rose" yet, but my contact in the UK mailed my copy off yesterday, so...

This just broke on the Sci-Fi Wire.

[Jeremy Paxman voice] Annnd heee's gone [/Paxman]

I would say it was some sort of record, but McGann only lasted one "episode", so I can't quite. Then again, McGann didn't quit, they just didn't do a followup.

You know, David Tennant, the talked about replacement, has done Dr. Who before. He just hasn't played the Doctor. He was the voice of the Caretaker in the animated Dr. Who that the BBC webcasted a couple of years ago.

[edit] Actually the BBC's website still has this version availablt to watch at their site, in Flash. You can find it here .

Gotta say I'm not surprised. I was surprised though that they got Eccleston in the first place. I do think the idea that he is quitting because he did not want to get type cast is a bit stupid because he is going to "the Doctor" to a lot of people for ever now, whether he does one series or seven.

It seems pretty unsporting to take the role just to bail out on it. I don't know the guy from Adam honestly but why take such an iconic role if you aren't willing to commit to a reasonably lenghty run?

wow does this mean that the Doctor will go through another regeneration?
also do they show the current Doctor go through his regeneration from the last Doctor to this one or is it explained in passing?