Doctor Who

[WebWarlock]

Wow. AA was my favorite Master.



Roger Delgado was the first and a very good one as well. He died while filming Dr. Who and it contributed to friend Jon Pertwee (the 3rd Doctor) to leaving the show.



There is a nice tribute on Outpost Gallifrey, www.gallifreyone.com/arti...leytribute



There were FIVE actors that played the Master.



Roger Delgado (during the Pertwee years)

Peter Pratt (The Deadly Assassin)

Geoffrey Beevers (The Keeper of Traken)

Anthony Ainley (The Keeper of Traken to Trial of a Time Lord)

AND Eric Roberts (The Doctor Who movie on Fox)!



And there is also speculation that the Meddling Monk (Peter Butterworth) from the early years was actually the Master.



Warlock

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Web Warlock

Coming Soon to The Other Side, The Netbook of Shadows: A Book of Spells for d20 Witches

"D&D doesn't teach children that monsters exist. Children already know that monsters are real.

D&D teaches them that monsters can be defeated."
- Unknown

[BBOvenGuy]

Jonathan Pryce also played the Master in the Comic Relief special, The Curse of the Fatal Death, and Sir Derek Jacobi played him in BBCi's Scream of the Shalka.



And yes, I'm going into major geek mode now...

"The stories we tell - that's us explaining how we think the world works. Once we speak it, once we say it aloud, that makes it real for us - and real for everyone else who hears it too. When we tell a story, we invite people to visit our reality. We invite them to move in. Our stories are the reality we live in." - David Gerrold, The Martian Child

[J uk]

Billie Piper confirmed as the Doctor's companion:

www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/billie/



It's a great choice. Billie is young, gorgeous, and has proven herself to be a good actor.

Edited by: J uk at: 5/24/04 9:04 am

[BBOvenGuy]

...and Outpost Gallifrey has a location shoot report from the first day in Cardiff. It looks a lot like some of the reports I used to write - it's nice to see that location shoots are the same all over.



Rumor has it that tomorrow there will be a press call for the first publicity photo shoot of Christopher Ecclestone and Billie Piper in costume. BBC Wales and Sky Digitial are carrying a live interview with Russell Davies at 6:30pm local time. I hope one of our UK Kittens can catch it!

"The stories we tell - that's us explaining how we think the world works. Once we speak it, once we say it aloud, that makes it real for us - and real for everyone else who hears it too. When we tell a story, we invite people to visit our reality. We invite them to move in. Our stories are the reality we live in." - David Gerrold, The Martian Child

[WebWarlock]

So damn cool.



Any indication on whether we will get to see this in the states?



Warlock

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Web Warlock

Coming Soon to The Other Side, The Netbook of Shadows: A Book of Spells for d20 Witches

Me: I think I'll have a mid-life crisis and bring home a little red convertible Vette.

My wife: Fine, as long as you don't bring home some little red-head.

[BBOvenGuy]

Outpost Gallifrey continues to be the best source for updates on the new series. The latest includes this page from the Swindon Evening Advertiser. I've been pretty underwhelmed by the Doctor's new wardrobe, which features a black leather jacket, but the TARDIS is back in all its Police Box-y glory, and that makes up for a lot.



In a recent interview, Russell Davies said he hopes that "the other versions of Doctor Who - print, audio or whatever" will take care of the regeneration scene from the Eighth Doctor to the Ninth Doctor. Sounds like a job for Big Finish Productions.

"The stories we tell - that's us explaining how we think the world works. Once we speak it, once we say it aloud, that makes it real for us - and real for everyone else who hears it too. When we tell a story, we invite people to visit our reality. We invite them to move in. Our stories are the reality we live in." - David Gerrold, The Martian Child

[WebWarlock]

Cool Bob. Thanks for the ongoing reports.

Any chance you'll relocate to give us shooting summaries for Doctor Who now?



I am quite thrilled to see this back. Might even have to break out my old 4th doctor scarf for this!



Warlock

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Web Warlock

Coming Soon to The Other Side, The Netbook of Shadows: A Book of Spells for d20 Witches

Me: I think I'll have a mid-life crisis and bring home a little red convertible Vette.

My wife: Fine, as long as you don't bring home some little red-head.

[BBOvenGuy]

Quote:

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Any chance you'll relocate to give us shooting summaries for Doctor Who now?

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Ha! Don't I wish. If some of the photos I've been seeing are any indication, the BBC is a lot less uptight about people hanging around watching and taking pictures.



Edited to add: The Daleks are back! The BBC has struck a deal with the Terry Nation estate to include the Daleks in the new series. Big Finish has done spectacular things with the Daleks on audio, so it will be really interesting to see what the new TV show can come up with.

"The stories we tell - that's us explaining how we think the world works. Once we speak it, once we say it aloud, that makes it real for us - and real for everyone else who hears it too. When we tell a story, we invite people to visit our reality. We invite them to move in. Our stories are the reality we live in." - David Gerrold, The Martian Child

Edited by: BBOvenGuy  at: 8/4/04 1:03 pm

[WebWarlock]

Ah crap.



You beat me to it Bob. I was going to rave about the Daleks.

Here is the SciFi Wire link.

www.scifi.com/scifiwire/a...5/10.15.tv



Now while I am a big enough fan boy to be all giddy at the prospect of seeing a Dalek again, I have to ask.

Have the Daleks ever been believeble?



I mean really. These things have a plunger for one arm and a blaster for the other. They roll around shouting "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" and they are the deadliest, most evil things in the universe.



Wanna defeat a Dalek? Run up a flight of stairs! Stand behind it and then push it down another flight of stairs. Did they conquer planets that had nothing but ramps? and ones with gentle slopes at that?



Crack them open and there is a little mutated squid inside. Deadliest calamari in the five galaxies!



The Cybermen? They rocked.

Sontarans? Cool.

Ice Warriors? A little dumb, but I can live with that.

Rutans? Way freaking cool and scary. (The Horror of Fang Rock or the Talons of Weng Chiang are still the scariest things EVER to be produced for TV. Period.)



But the Daleks I just never got.

Still. Glad to see them. It's not quite Who till they appear. After every regeneration I knew it would only be a matter of time till the new Doctor faced his old foes again. I think this will be the benchmark episode to judge the new Who by.



Warlock

-----

Web Warlock

Coming Soon to The Other Side, The Netbook of Shadows: A Book of Spells for d20 Witches

Me: I think I'll have a mid-life crisis and bring home a little red convertible Vette.

My wife: Fine, as long as you don't bring home some little red-head.

[BBOvenGuy]

Ah yes, the Daleks. As Bernice Summerfield once said:

Quote:

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Oh, it's always something mad, isn't it? You've got the firepower to just wade in and have a go at the rest of the universe, but no! You make duplicates of people, you come up with plans to pit one galactic empire against another, you get into centuries-long wars with races whose idea of camouflage would only be successful were the universe a single gigantic disco! How did the Movellans outthink you? They haven't figured out that it might not be an idea to build warrior robots which die when you yank their power pack off their belt! Oh dear, have I let a strategic secret slip? Have I just altered the course of centuries of war? No! Because I'm talking to the bloody Daleks, who couldn't exterminate their way out of a tomato!

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Tim (and anyone else), I highly recommend the Big Finish audio adventure Jubilee. It pokes tremendous fun at the Daleks - and Dalekmania in general, actually - while at the same time making them absolutely terrifying. And all without pictures.



Plus, two other good reasons - First, it's a Colin Baker story, one of the best examples of how the Big Finish audios have redeemed the Sixth Doctor. And second, it was written by Rob Shearman, who is reportedly writing the new TV Dalek story as well.

"The stories we tell - that's us explaining how we think the world works. Once we speak it, once we say it aloud, that makes it real for us - and real for everyone else who hears it too. When we tell a story, we invite people to visit our reality. We invite them to move in. Our stories are the reality we live in." - David Gerrold, The Martian Child

Edited by: BBOvenGuy  at: 8/5/04 9:49 pm

[justin]

Quote:

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Wanna defeat a Dalek? Run up a flight of stairs! Stand behind it and then push it down another flight of stairs. Did they conquer planets that had nothing but ramps? and ones with gentle slopes at that?

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No! no! no! Daleks can go up stairs. The Dalek survival guide says so (Also you see a Dalek going up stairs in (I think) The Remembrance of the Daleks)



Daleks move around on an anti-gravity plate, so they can go up stairs.

"VOOM"?!? Mate, this bird wouldn't "voom" if you put four million volts through it! 'E's bleedin' demised! - The Parrot Sketch

[J uk]

When I was young, we were on holiday in Blackpool and my parents took us to a wax museum. Outside was a couple of the models, including a full size Dalek. I was nearly scared to death when the person inside it 'hilariously' waited until I got near before he started moving and rolling towards me. Ever since then, those damn things have freaked me out.

[aceivan]

This isn't really Doctor Who, but according to Big Finish Magazine 5 they're working on a Sapphire and Steel series.



Unfortunately no Joanna Lumley or David McCallum, but I'm looking forward to it!



Len

[Sheridan]

Well what I've heard is that in the first Dalek story you only get to see glimpses, and of course they've been revamped. The reason Daleks couldn't go upstairs had as much to do with the limitations of effects as anything else. With CGI they should finally be able to conquer that pesky second floor!

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the person you l-love

Willow: I am

[Munchkin]

Speaking as a (mostly) casual viewer whose first real exposure to Doctor Who comes from the BBC Kids' channel's nightly airing of the Tom Baker series in its entirety, followed by their limited run of Peter Davison's era (which was IMO glossy, lame, and downright boring apart from Davison himself), and finally renting selected DVD's/videos of the first three Doctors (the last two weren't available), I would rather see the Cybermen brought back and actually made credible villians to reclaim the raison d'etre that the overexposed-to-death "Borg" of Star Trek:TNG blatantly stole from them: people dehumanized by their dependence on machinery meant to enhance their lifespan.



Of the only three "Cybermen" shows I watched, I went away thinking that they were incomprehensible-sounding automatons in "Tomb" (and this was the BEST that I've seen of them), laughable booming-voiced idiots in "Revenge" ("a pathetic bunch of tin soldiers skulking about the galaxy in an ancient spaceship" indeed ), and rampaging robots sneering "Excellent!" in "Earthshock" (who might as well have been the heroes just for causing the death of Adric the teenage whiny-jerk ). Because more than the Daleks need to remerge without their "mad-scientist" creator Davros (after being shoehorned in all of the Dalek TV stories after debuting in "Genesis"), the Cybermen need to make their comeback in style. At least with the apparent deal worked out to air the new series here in Canada on CBC, I just might actually see it for myself.

_________



Dave C.

Edited by: Munchkin at: 10/8/04 12:01 pm

[aceivan]

There's a short animated epilogue on the Region 2 Earthshock DVD. Adric, played by "a lump of clay", survives the crash but not for long .



Len

[BBOvenGuy]

Yes, I saw it posted on the USEnet last night. I didn't download it, though. I'm waiting for the pirated official first episode to be posted. Hey, I've got to have some ethics about this...



Edited to add: Writer Warren Ellis had these comments on the first episode, including a theory of why the SciFi Channel turned it down:

Quote:

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Well, it’s better than that brainless monstrosity of a TV movie that poor old Paul McGann battled through.



And, for the comics readers in the audience, that is indisputably a Bryan Hitch-designed TARDIS interior.



Christopher Eccleston, as the Doctor, is a delight. I imagine he’ll settle down as the series progresses, but right now he’s a walking mood-swing – Tom Baker’s mad grin and sudden command, Jon Pertwee’s physicality, Patrick Troughton’s impish side. And he’s got a great old leather jacket. He keeps his Northern accent, and when his new assistant asks him why he sounds Northern when he’s an alien, writer Russell Davies gives him the fine line: “LOTS of planets have a North!”



Word is that Sci-Fi Channel declined to acquire this new DOCTOR WHO series. And I can see why. It’s too damned English. As Rich Johnston said to me tonight, it’s your actual English family sci-fi show. There’s no way it’d fit on Sci-Fi. I imagine, to be honest, it’s going to bypass much of the American audience, and possibly even the gap between my generation and my daughter’s generation.



It is, in fact, DOCTOR WHO, as it was, complete with fake jeopardy for the kids and laughs for the adults. It will probably disappoint old fans – and anyone looking for a BATTLESTAR GALACTICA-style treatment – because it resolutely refuses to take itself too seriously. It’s not afraid of doing gags like having a kid eaten by a marauding plastic rubbish bin because that’s all part of the ride, all part of the style. In Michael Moorcock’s phrase, it obeys and enjoys the genre.



And so you get that nice little counterpoint between strange comedy bits and straight dramatic moments that is the hallmark of a certain strain of British fiction. Showroom dummies (yes) coming to life and shooting people might look funny, and it is – but the bodies are just as dead. And that – the placing of an alien element into a naturalistic contemporary British context – is the signature of the old British sf style, from WAR OF THE WORLDS to DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, from QUATERMASS AND THE PIT to, especially, DOCTOR WHO.



(For the old WHO watchers, this first story is a riff on the Autons, from back in the 70s.)



Billie Piper, best known over here for being a teenaged pap-pop singer and the (ex-)wife of ginger mini-media-mogul Chris Evans, is something of a revelation as the Doctor’s new assistant, Rose Tyler. She’s much better than anyone would expect. Eccleston’s a big actor. She does better than hold her own.



It’s shot on digital video, by the looks of it. The production values are, despite everything, a little ropey in places. Not the old cardboard walls and blokes in latex monster suits, though. The credit sequence is just horrible, the incidental music ranges from passable to fucking awful, and some of the gags don’t land at all. Davies works best in the naturalistic stuff, and in the interplay between the Doctor and Rose. That said, DOCTOR WHO hasn’t been this good since the early days of Peter Davison in the role. It’s nice to have it back, and I’m looking forward to watching it with my daughter when it airs on the BBC in a few weeks.

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"...what we leave behind us is, in fact, not our opinions but our examples." - Christopher Isherwood

Edited by: BBOvenGuy  at: 3/8/05 2:38 pm

[Still Waters Run Deep]

A big kerfuffle over here tonight as it appears the first eppy of the new Dr Who has been nicked and put on the internet........ but it's not the final cut.



As an aside, the series was made in Cardiff Wales and most of the outdoor scenes come from various bits of south Wales. Yay,



tud ymlaen Cymru!



.

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love and kisses

Still Waters



"collecting dead rainbows from puddles and mires"



lostcoast.blogspot.com

[aceivan]

There seems to be all-out war between the downloaders and non-downloaders at the Outpost Gallifrey message board.



The first trailer was shown on the BBC last night. I can't believe how much I'm looking forward to the new series.



Len

"Normal is nothing more than a cycle on a washing machine." Whoopi Goldberg

[Sheridan]

Form the soudns of the review the bits he thought were 'ropey' are probably exactly the ones that would be tidied up before the final cut. I must admit while I will cheerily download a show that's been broadcast I would be very wary about downloading one that hasn't, and the person responsible at the BBC has apparently been removed. Have to say my first suspicion was Michael Grade making one last attempt to wreck the show...

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the person you l-love

Willow: I am

[Still Waters Run Deep]

article on the new production in the Independent:



news.independent.co.uk/me...ory=619630

-----------------------------------

love and kisses

Still Waters



"collecting dead rainbows from puddles and mires"



lostcoast.blogspot.com

[CaptMurdock]

I have seen the new Who, and my reaction is...Hmmm.



Not to say it's bad. It's not bad at all. It's just not quite what I was expecting (not to say that that is necessarily a bad thing either.)



I may have to rewatch the first story, or see subsequent stories to really figure out how I feel about this.

_________________



"She has illusion, and you have reality. May you find your way as pleasant." -- The Cage

[Still Waters Run Deep]

My thoughts too Capt Murdock.



I was'nt blown away by it. Neither was I pleasantly surprised, indifferent, bored or annoyed by it.



I suppose 'somewhat bemused' would be an appropriate response.... probably because I grew out of Dr Who somewhere around Tom Baker's stint and I was never a fan of Jon Pertwee.



The best Doctor IMO was Patrick Troughton, so that really dates me!



I suspect it will slowly grow on me, if the incessant hype on the BBc does'nt turn me off first. I hate hype, no matter how good the product is, it will turn me against it.



.

-----------------------------------

love and kisses

Still Waters



"collecting dead rainbows from puddles and mires"



lostcoast.blogspot.com

[TaraLivesOn]

There is now a little documentary video available

which has some clips from future episodes:

"doctor who a new dimension"

Edited by: TaraLivesOn at: 3/27/05 1:13 am

[Sheridan]

I have to say I enjoyed it, and in terms of the tone I felt it had something of the Tom Baker era about it, without the scarf of course.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the person you l-love

Willow: I am

[aceivan]

I liked it but I'm hoping it was more an introductory episode for anyone unfamiliar with Doctor Who rather than a typical episode. Although I wasn't exactly overjoyed when I heard that Billie Piper would be the new companion she turned out to be the best thing about it.



My favourite moments : The Doctor telling Rose he can feel the Earth rushing through space and Rose running into the TARDIS.



Len

"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no-one's definition of your life; define yourself" Harvey Fierstein

[Sheridan]

Quote:

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I liked it but I'm hoping it was more an introductory episode for anyone unfamiliar with Doctor Who rather than a typical episode.

---

I think that is definitely the case, and not primarily for a UK audience, the 45 minute length makes it clear the BBC have one eye on a foriegn sale, the words 'sci-fi' and 'channel' spring to mind.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the person you l-love

Willow: I am

[BBOvenGuy]

Outpost Gallifrey reports that the BBC has greenlit a 2006 season of Doctor Who, as well as a Christmas special. The quick renewal comes on the heels of the premiere's surprisingly high ratings (10 million viewers).



Now the not-so-good news: Neither Christopher Eccleston nor Billie Piper has been confirmed yet for next year. They both have options in their contracts, but I guess they can back out, and Christopher Eccleston has supposedly been waffling lately. We'll have to see how persuasive Russell T. Davies can be when it comes to bringing them back.

"...what we leave behind us is, in fact, not our opinions but our examples." - Christopher Isherwood

[Still Waters Run Deep]

BBC news this morning said that Billie Piper had confirmed that she was staying.



CE is going stating he 'wanted to avoid being typecast'.......Oh Well

-----------------------------------

love and kisses

Still Waters



"collecting dead rainbows from puddles and mires"



lostcoast.blogspot.com

[walker]

Also from the BBC, well their gossip pages anyway, is a rumour that they're trying to sign the guy from Cassanova as the new Doctor.

If you've lost your faith in love and music the end won't be long - The Libertines