The Doctor Who Thread.....

[John Crichton 4]

Hmmm. That fits with the rumor that pretty much everybody was going to make an appearance at the end of Series 4 (the Tylers, Mickey, Sarah Jane, K-9). John Barrowman's already confirmed that Jack will be popping in again.

It's risky, Rose and everyone around her got such great closure at the end of Series 2. But they were so great, and her and the Doctor were so perfect, that it hard to resist bringing them back.

[pixie_twinkle 48]

Sad news about Ben Kingsley. If it's the case that Kingsley is jus too busy to make an appearance I really hope they don't bring Davros back in the hiatus year. They should wait until Kingsley can do it.

[John Crichton 4]

I thought Davros was going to be the end of Series 4 rather than the "between" year. Or maybe the plan was both?

And there's still....Terry Molloy.

[pixie_twinkle 48]

I know. If they do go with Terry Molloy I really hope they go back to the original Michael Wisher design for the mask. The Molloy one always seemed way too chunky.

[John Crichton 4]

And just like that, it's official:

Rose Tyler returns for Series Four.

Following a series of unconfirmed reports across the media this morning, we're delighted to officially confirm that Billie Piper will return as Rose Tyler in Series Four of Doctor Who.

Anything you may read elsewhere about when, how or for how long Rose returns to Doctor Who should be treated as pure speculation at this point.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/n.../27/51031.shtml

The last line refers to the current rumors that she'll be in 3 episodes. The Outpost Gallifrey news page has a ton of links to stories from across Her Majesty's Media.

[pixie_twinkle 48]

Good news methinks.

[John Crichton 4]

Me too, both the characters and her and Tennant had very special things going. I just hope it works creatively, but as I've said before they've always gotten it right so far.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Just caught "The Impossible Planet Part 1" on UK-TV last night. That was awesome! Reminded me of Event Horizon.

[pixie_twinkle 48]

Ooooh! The Impossible Planet was one of the creepiest episodes of the new incarnation of Dr Who. I loved it! Part 2 doesn't disappoint either.

Wait until you see Blink from season 3!

[John Crichton 4]

Impossible Planet/Satan's Pit is some of the best stuff the new Who has done. It could have been a movie, easily. They need to get away from Earth more often. And I want more of Capt. Zachary Cross-Flame!

"He is awake."

[Greg1138 3]

RTD interestingly states that in all the surveys done so far, the off-world ones are the least popular.....not to mention the fact tht he hates trying to dress a forst up to look alien.....

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

RTD interestingly states that in all the surveys done so far, the off-world ones are the least popular.....not to mention the fact tht he hates trying to dress a forst up to look alien.....

They get away with every planet looking like Canada in Stargate SG-1.

[pixie_twinkle 48]

Planet of Evil looked pretty damn amazing back in 1975 and still holds up well today. Imagine that set with a little digital tweaking and I reckon you'd have a believable environment within the show's current budget.

[John Crichton 4]

Absolutely. I watched The Face of Evil (Tom Baker, Leela's first story) not to long ago and the location work was excellent.

Plus there's always the quarries. I'm just saying.

[John Crichton 4]

The countdown to the Christmas special is on, lots of goodies appearing every day on the official website. Since filming is about to wrap for the holiday, I've been trolling a couple of sites for info and here's what's known about the makeup of the series so far:

1- Present day, possibly titled "Blues". Obviously Donna returns, but I haven't seen anything real specific plot wise.

2,3,6- One will be Pompeii, one Agatha Christie, and one the Ood planet.

4 & 5- First two-parter, the Sontarans along with Martha's return (temporary, obviously, as she's not going to be in that many eps).

Stevan Moffat's two-parter will probably be 9 & 10, no plot info yet. 11 will be the "Doctor-light" ep again, written by RTD. No word if it'll tie in to the finale, but

the scuttlebut is this was the ep filming when Billie Piper was spotted

. So far nothing that I could find on 7, 8, or the finale. I'm glad there's not more out there, this is the maximum level of spoilers I want, just episode order and very, very basic details on what they're about.

While I was looking at all this I followed a couple of links to some clips of Billie Piper's Diary of a Call Girl series on ITV. Oh my...I need an ice cold shower right about now...

[pixie_twinkle 48]

While I was looking at all this I followed a couple of links to some clips of Billie Piper's Diary of a Call Girl series on ITV. Oh my...I need an ice cold shower right about now...

Me too, and I haven't even seen the clips. You just put the images in my head.

[John Crichton 4]

I don't think even the best imagination could do it justice. It's New Earth times 1000.

[pixie_twinkle 48]

Links man, I needs links!

[John Crichton 4]

On the way.

[Greg1138 3]

Billie Piper in Diary of a.....is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous......

Okee dokee.....rumours are starting to circulate about the longer term stuff in the Whoniverse.....in particular growing speculation that Tennant is to leave at the end of the 3 2009 specials.......

....now the interesting thing is that there is already a rumour (and I do stress RUMOUR) that in talks to replace him is none other than

The man in my current avatar....no idea how this would be tied in, but Mr Simm is ALLEGEDLY in the running....how cool is that?????

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Piper is certainly a cutie.

"The Satan Pit" isn't on this week. Damn. Just flipped through the TV guide and UK-TV won't be putting any more Doctor Who on the rest of the month. Grrrr.

[John Crichton 4]

....now the interesting thing is that there is already a rumour (and I do stress RUMOUR) that in talks to replace him is none other than

The man in my current avatar....no idea how this would be tied in, but Mr Simm is ALLEGEDLY in the running....how cool is that?????

Yes I saw a little bit of that while I was pulling together the Series 4 info above, more than I wanted honestly so I skimmed but what I caught was something about

a regeneration into two Doctors, one good one evil, which seems kind of pointless when you can just pull the Master back in. I'd file that one in the "a bit too outragous to be real" department, the same as the return of the Doctor/Master as brothers rumors that started flying again last year, thankfully RTD's too smart for that. But if they just did a straight up regeneration and Simm took over with no twist other than he's got the Master's last body, yeah, he'd be great.

Of course that should also be the time that RTD steps down and, if there's any justice in the world, Steven F'n Moffat takes over.

[GoldsmithFanatic2000+ 0]

The best episodes from the new Doctor Who so far =

Two-parter:

Human Nature &

The Family of Blood

From Season Three.

Murray Gold's "All The Strange Strange Creatures" cue from that Season is my favourite of his work so far.

[John Crichton 4]

A small Series 4 update (more 'cause I'm bored than anything else ):

Newly confirmed episode titles:

4.01: Partners in Crime

4.02: Planet of the Ood (long the working title but now final)

4.04: The Sontaran Stratagem

I love the Sontaran title, very classic series (The Sontaran Experiment). And the grist on the rumor mill is that this year we'll be seeing much, much more of our old friends at...UNIT.

Well, not our old friends specifically. I mean, I love the Brig, but I think Nicholas Courtney is a bit past the point of playing him convincingly.

[pixie_twinkle 48]

Aaah, but it would be wonderful for him to appear in a cameo, wouldn't it? With a tight script and a good director it could be a lovely scene. The scriptwriters did Liz Sladen proud in School Reunion, so maybe the Brig could be just as convincingly written.

I finally got a copy of Time Crash in the mail. What a lovely story! David Tennent really gets choked up when he says "You were my Doctor!" to Peter Davison. So did I!

[John Crichton 4]

Very true, School Reunion is a beautiful tribute to Sarah Jane. It would probably just have to be a scene in two for the Brig though, not a whole ep. Personally I think he got a great send off in Battlefield, he got all the best bits in that story (I'm sure you won't agree though, I know how you feel about the McCoy era ).

Speaking of Tennant in Time Crash, have you seen the Confidental for it yet? Tennant looks just bewildered beyond words that he's working with Peter Davison. That's what I love about him, he's just as much a Who fanboy as the rest of us (which comes through very well on his superb video diares on the DVDs).

[pixie_twinkle 48]

Actually I haven't been sent the Confidential for Time Crash .

Your right about my dislike for the McCoy stories. I find him to be almost as annoying as his two companions were! (Mel was just pure panto, and Ace was just wrong in so many ways. She was supposed to be a tough kid from the streets, and yet Sophie Aldred is clearly a bit of a well-educated toff playing the part with late-80s BBC hamminess.) Having said that I do quite like a couple of the McCoy stories. Battlefield I enjoy (perhaps because of the UNIT connection), and also The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, which I think is my favourite McCoy. Curse of Fenric had its moments too. The rest were butchered by bad scripts (season 24!), pretentious scripts (season 26), and really bad "background" music that was often so loud it drowned out the dialogue (seasons 25/26).

The quality of Dr Who over the years seemed to be strong through the 60s, stronger through the 70s, and then quickly tapered down to nothing throughout the 80s. I'm so glad the new series has brought the quality back up to that of its heyday!

[John Crichton 4]

Yeah, McCoy's first season was, as Greg would probably say, pants. I've always found quite a bit of good in the last two, though. The Dalek story is strong, as are the ones you mentioned as well as Ghost Light. Survival was total crap though, what a waste of the Master. Plus I read a decent amount of Virgin's New Adventure line afterward, where they took up the "Cartmel Plan" and made him the dark Doctor, and I thought it worked at the time, but that was almost 10 years ago now so I might think different if I read them again now.

I've got a soft spot for 80s Who overall though, it's the years that I grew up on. Tom Baker's last year was rock solid (better than the previous 2 or 3 years IMO), I love Davison, and even have a soft spot for Colin Baker, who's a great actor who did the best he could under the circumstances, and then was turned into a scapegoat (Trial of a Time Lord in particular is one of my favorites).

Oh, and: Confidental- Time Crash

[pixie_twinkle 48]

Thank you for the link! Brilliant!!!

[Greg1138 3]

Well - after the disappointment of The Runaway Bride, I was not expecting much this year from the chrimbo special....so t'was a pleasant surprise to be enthralled and entertained by 70 minutes of very, very cool telly......

That was more like it!!!!! Bring on season 4.......talking of which......those eyes in the "Coming Soon" bit.......I do believe I recognise that face..........

[Hitch 57]

Yes, I enjoyed the Doctor Who XMAS "Titanic" special as well...great to see my old stalwarts Clive Swift and Bernard Cribbins (both in FRENZY) chewing up the scenery. Geoffrey Palmer was underused as the Captain but it was great to see him anyhow. I've contacted Kylie Minogue's agent....looks like I've found my new blonde. Great 70 mins of pure escapist fare. Murray Gold's music seems to get better and better with each new episode.

[John Crichton 4]

I just got done with it as well, a viewing spread over two nights since not all of it was...available, shall we say, late last night US time. I'd put it above The Runaway Bride and below The Christmas Invasion, which will probably never be topped as far as the Christmas specials are concerned.

Overall it was a great Doctor Who disaster movie. The exterior shots of the Titanic were absolutely beautiful, even on the low quality version I was watching, it really gets you excited about what The Mill will be bringing for Series 4. And I too thought Murray Gold nailed this one, he was very off and on in Series 3 so maybe he's getting back on form. I was pleasantly surprised that most of the rumors that I saw concerning Astrid turned out to be either completely not true or just wildly distorted, so hopefully a lot of the rumors for the coming year will follow the same course. I wouldn't mind seeing her revisited, whatever form she's in.

Oh, and get used to Bernard Cribbins if you're going to watch all year, Hitch. One rumor that's definately true: he'll be back. Several times. And Greg, I remember me and you commenting on how there looked to be Sontarans in the Series 3 trailer (turned out to be Judoon). This year they are Sontarans. Including those eyes...

Oh, but the new theme: I don't like it. Not at all.

[aj_vader 533]

Well - after the disappointment of The Runaway Bride, I was not expecting much this year from the chrimbo special....so t'was a pleasant surprise to be enthralled and entertained by 70 minutes of very, very cool telly......

That was more like it!!!!! Bring on season 4.......talking of which......those eyes in the "Coming Soon" bit.......I do believe I recognise that face..........

why what face is it?

[Greg1138 3]

Including those eyes...

Oh, but the new theme: I don't like it. Not at all.

I don't think those eyes belonged to a Sontaaran....why would they be mysterious about the presence of a Sontaaran when it is well-known and heavily publicised that they will reappear in the coming season?

I kinda liked the new theme......it needed a bit of a spring clean and it could be a whole lot worse.....The drumming is perhaps a little OTT but - ya know - it's ok......it's still Doctor Who.....

[pixie_twinkle 48]

Ok, I'm probably not going to comment on VOTD for a few weeks as I'm waiting for a nice DVD copy to come through the letterbox from my mate in Sheffield rather than give in and watch it on You Tube. However I DID beak down and watch the S4 trailer (thanks John!).

It looks great! I'd love to know what Greg's theory about those eyes is. As the sontarans didn't appear anywhere else in the trailer I really think that's exactly what they are. The only other classic Who creature that those eyes remind me of is Stygron from The Android Invasion. I'm pretty sure it isn't D***** (or "Ben Kingsley" ) as the nose looks too squashed, and more thuggish.

[John Crichton 4]

Yes, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the eyes too, Greg. I automatically assumed it was a Sontaran.

[Greg1138 3]

Well - have a look at the eyes then look at the existing photo we have of the new Sontaran......to me they just don't look alike, unless of course far more work was put into the Sontaran make-up between the photo and filming the episodes......this is, of course, a distinct possibility!

My first thought was that it was indeed Davros, and a certain TV mag did state the other week that the Big D was to return in season 4.......but.....well.....dunno now, to be honest!!!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

What's a Darvos?

[John Crichton 4]

My first thought was that it was indeed Davros, and a certain TV mag did state the other week that the Big D was to return in season 4.......but.....well.....dunno now, to be honest!!!

I think it's pretty likely he will pop up at the end, but they haven't even started filming those eps yet, those will be early next year. I'm pretty sure it's a Sontaran, maybe just a different one than was in the publicity photo.

[pixie_twinkle 48]

In the past whenever they showed a preview for upcoming seasons they've usually finished with a classic baddie at the end. The season 2 preview ended with the Cybermen, and I think the season 3 preview ended with the Master (though we didn't know who he was yet) am I right? That would indicate that those eyes at the end are supposed to be Sontarans.

I really hope the BBC gives David Tennent his wish and brings the Zygons back before the Doctor regenerates again. I think seasons 12 to 14 of classic Who contain all the classic monsters one might want to see return. My ultimate wish is that they make a 2-parter featuring the Krynoids. The Seeds of Doom is absolutely my favourite Dr Who story, and I'd love to see what the BBC could do using CGI effects to create the various stages of the Krynoid monster.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Why not create interesting new creatures and enemies instead of rethreading old ground?

[John Crichton 4]

Why not create interesting new creatures and enemies instead of rethreading old ground?

There's been plenty of great new ones. But Who's history is so rich why not take advantage of it, at least the good ones? It's not like anyone's calling for the return of The Creature From the Pit.

I really hope the BBC gives David Tennent his wish and brings the Zygons back before the Doctor regenerates again. I think seasons 12 to 14 of classic Who contain all the classic monsters one might want to see return. My ultimate wish is that they make a 2-parter featuring the Krynoids. The Seeds of Doom is absolutely my favourite Dr Who story, and I'd love to see what the BBC could do using CGI effects to create the various stages of the Krynoid monster.

An era I really need to get more of. The first half of Tom Baker's run is probably my least watched, for reasons I honestly can't fathom. I've seen them all, most of them just not in a long while.

A couple that I would like to see return are the Eternals from Enlightenment (and they've already been referenced a couple of times) and the Draconians. Frontier in Space is my favorite Pertwee story, and I'd love to see the new series do a similar space opera type story.

[Greg1138 3]

If I were to pick a classic baddie to bring back, it would have to be the giant vampire bat race from State of Decay: I have expounded on the merits of that particular story elsewhere, but remember the lines about the great war between the giant bats and the Time Lords? There was a much longer story in there and some great things were hinted at - I'd like to see a continuation.....

Greg

EDIT: Incidentally, not sure if the cracking show "Extras" has made it to other shores yet, but David Tennant cameo'd in the Christmas special broadcast the other night - managed to keep a surprisingly straight face!!!!!!!! View the clip HERE, but it might not be up for long - catch it while you can!

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

I saw that Extras special. It was pretty good.

Tennant was also on Top Gear last weekend, discussing with Jeremy Clarkson among other things, Billie Piper's fluttering eyelashes and her see-through top...

[pixie_twinkle 48]

The Extras finale was excellent, though not quite as classic as the Office finale. The Dr Who parody was hilarious, especially as it resembled a scene from a 1984 classic Who story called The Twin Dilemma, in which a slug creature melts. If anything the make up in Extras was more convincing.

[John Crichton 4]

Ha, I didn't even make that connection with The Twin Dilemma! Blocked it from my memory, perhaps.

Thanks for the clip Greg, good stuff, and very nice of Tennant to do it. And I totally agree with you about the Great Vampire. That was a great story on its own, but there was much, much more hinted at.

Tennant was also on Top Gear last weekend, discussing with Jeremy Clarkson among other things, Billie Piper's fluttering eyelashes and her see-through top...

Obviously someone's been watching Diary of a Call Girl.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

Who has?

[John Crichton 4]

Tennant. Or Clarkson. Or both. Not you, Marc.

Or have you? Fess up now, I certainly have. What little bit I could get a hold of, at least.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

Actually, it was about Billie Piper's appearance on Top Gear earlier this season...

[John Crichton 4]

Oh, I didn't know she was on there. Start talking about Billie Piper's, er, qualities and that's the first thing I think of. That or New Earth.