[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 02 October 2013 - 01:17 AM, said:

Atlantis is coming Nov 23.

Did you ever watch BBC's MERLIN BK?

If so, it's cut from an almost identical cloth.

I watched the ATLANTIS opener, and it was good fun. It's basically a family adventure show for Saturday night. Think Xena.

[QuickTidal]

So BIG news yesterday!

Long have over 100 eps of CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO been missing from the BBC (lost when they tried to save money by taping over existing eps of DW) mostly from the 1st Doctor (William Hartnell) and 2nd Doctor (Patrick Troughton) era's.

Well rumours have been buzzing for a while that a selection of those long lost eps had been found.

Yesterday the BBC reported that this was not only true, but that the NINE eps, two almost complete serials from Troughton's era (WEB OF FEAR and ENEMY OF THE WORLD) had been found and remastered...and they were up on iTunes within minutes of the announcement! DVD's to come later in the year.

For a fan who started watching as a kid during Tom Baker's (4th Doctor) era, it's going to be a HUGE treat to be able to watch some great Troughton era stuff (considering a lot of folk feel that Matt Smith based his Eleven off Troughton's Two....just like David Tennant based his off Davison's Five).

Anyways, here's the two trailers.

Oh, and it's the first appearance of Lethbridge-Stewart (when he was still only a Colonel and not a Brigadier), and WEB Of FEAR is the referenced The Great Intelligence/Yeti/London Underground stuff that was mentioned in S7 Xmas Special THE SNOWMEN....methinks Moffat KNEW what eps they'd found when he wrote that one.

Oh and ENEMY OF THE WORLD has the 2nd Doctor fighting a villain who looks just like him...which sounds great!

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 11 October 2013 - 03:18 PM

[Gnaw]

QuickTidal, on 11 October 2013 - 03:11 PM, said:

So BIG news yesterday!

Long have over 100 eps of CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO been missing from the BBC (lost when they tried to save money by taping over existing eps of DW) mostly from the 1st Doctor (William Hartnell) and 2nd Doctor (Patrick Troughton) era's.

Well rumours have been buzzing for a while that a selection of those long lost eps had been found.

Yesterday the BBC reported that this was not only true, but that the NINE eps, two almost complete serials from Troughton's era (WEB OF FEAR and ENEMY OF THE WORLD) had been found and remastered...and they were up on iTunes within minutes of the announcement! DVD's to come later in the year.

Shamelessly stolen from a post on the macrumors site:

"What a coincidence! Just a few days ago, I received an email from some guy who said that he had $40 million and two sets of lost "Doctor Who" episodes that he was trying to smuggle out of Nigeria, and asked me for my help."

I suspect that there's going to be a somewhat interesting story behind the finding of these.

[stone monkey]

Well this is interesting... I have seen a couple of Wheatley's films. Kill List is pretty extraordinary; one of the most unsettling films I've seen for a while. Not for the fainthearted... at all. A Field In England is rather weird... to say the least, but also is suffused by an undoubtable feeling of menace. I get the feeling that he'll be a good fit for The Doctor.

[QuickTidal]

stone monkey, on 15 October 2013 - 09:50 PM, said:

Well this is interesting... I have seen a couple of Wheatley's films. Kill List is pretty extraordinary; one of the most unsettling films I've seen for a while. Not for the fainthearted... at all. A Field In England is rather weird... to say the least, but also is suffused by an undoubtable feeling of menace. I get the feeling that he'll be a good fit for The Doctor.

Indeed, and any new blood on the direction front is a great thing for a show like DW with standalone stories like it does. Gives a different vibe to the proceedings from week to week.

the other notable thing...they say he's directing the first two...signifying perhaps a two-part Series 8 story opener for Capaldi's Twelve.

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 16 October 2013 - 02:41 AM, said:

So since this is his 12 life it's his last right? Have they stated at all if this series will be closing with this Dr after a season or 2?

Nope.

The 12 Regeneration limit was not a physical natural limit, but was imposed by the Time Lord High Council of Gallifrey as an enforced rule/law so that Time lords don't live as long. It is easily circumvented, and has been in past. The Master stole another 12 lives at one point in the 25th Anniversary special THE FIVE DOCTORS.

I'm guessing that whatever Tennant, Smith and Hurt get up to in the 50th will bring back the Time Lords, and as a result of his heroics Smith will be gifted another twelve lives.

There is no way in hell they'll end the show at 12th Doctor. Showrunner Moffat has already said he's trying to get the Doctor to the 100th anniversary.

[Gnaw]

QuickTidal, on 16 October 2013 - 03:15 AM, said:

The 12 Regeneration limit was not a physical natural limit, but was imposed by the Time Lord High Council of Gallifrey as an enforced rule/law so that Time lords don't live as long. It is easily circumvented, and has been in past.

Nice to know that. I've been wondering how they were going to retcon themselves out of that particular piece of lore.

[QuickTidal]

50th Trailer...not one with footage from the special, but really quite cool and well assembled.

http://youtu.be/loGm3vT8EAQ

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 19 October 2013 - 09:49 PM

[Coco with marshmallows]

So been thinking.....

Anyone reckon Hurt could be an old McCann?

[QuickTidal]

Cocoreturns, on 19 October 2013 - 10:09 PM, said:

So been thinking.....

Anyone reckon Hurt could be an old McCann?

That was actually my very first thought upon seeing him in NAME OF THE DOCTOR...it makes the most sense since we've never seen Eight Regenerate...he could very well have grown into an old, war weary Time Lord General before regenerating.

[Vengeance]

Could you clue me in on wgat you mean by an old McCann?

[Coco with marshmallows]

McGann.... spelling error.

Paul McGann, played doctor number 8.

[Werthead]

Briar King, on 16 October 2013 - 02:41 AM, said:

So since this is his 12 life it's his last right? Have they stated at all if this series will be closing with this Dr after a season or 2?

Time Lords have 12 regenerations, but being born is not a regeneration so they have 13 lives. Assuming no trickey (and it looks like there will be), there should still be one after Capaldi.

Assuming Hurt is a different Doctor altogether (not just an aged version of #8), however, that does raise Capaldi to being the 13th (though still the 12th 'Doctor', as the Hurt incarnation does not count as a 'Doctor', if only semantically). And some fans have pointed out that there's several other incidences (such as the creation of the metacrisis Tenth Doctor, where he diverts his regeneration energy into his severed hand) which could count as using up a life without formally changing appearance, so it's even possible that Smith himself is the last incarnation and this will drive the storyline of either the 50th or the Christmas special (or both).

QuickTidal, on 16 October 2013 - 03:15 AM, said:

The 12 Regeneration limit was not a physical natural limit, but was imposed by the Time Lord High Council of Gallifrey as an enforced rule/law so that Time lords don't live as long. It is easily circumvented, and has been in past. The Master stole another 12 lives at one point in the 25th Anniversary special THE FIVE DOCTORS.

None of that is correct as far as the original series was concerned. The 12 regeneration/13 life limit was a hardcoded, unavoidable biological restriction. Fan speculation has it that it was deliberately added by Rassilon so that Time Lords would not become corrupt and live forever and ever and become decadent. Rassilon himself did not have the limitation, but instead placed himself in stasis in the Death Zone in Gallifrey to stop others discovering it. Given what happened to him later during the Time War, it would appear that his prediciton was accurate.

As for how we know it is hardcoded: in The Five Doctors (the 20th anniversary special ) Borusa, the President of the High Council, is on his last life and desperately trying to find out Rassilon's immortality secret. He is able to offer the Master (who is a special case as I will outline below) a new set of regenerations, but cannot do the same for himself, despite his rank and being in charge of handing out sets of regenerations. It's possible he could have 1) stolen a set or 2) enacted some kind of law to give himself another set due to extenuating circumstances (fan speculation is that Borusa had some kind of disease to explain why he regenerated four times in the time it took the Doctor to regenerate once, despite the fact that Borusa was living peacefully as a politician on Gallifrey and wasn't in any physical danger). The only viable conclusion is that any Gallifreyan - or human/humanoid alien - can be given a set of regenerations, but once they have a set and burn through it, that's it. They're screwed. That's the only explanation for why Borusa goes nuts and enacts his crazy plan in The Five Doctors, and the only explanation for why the Master ran out of regenerations (if it was optional, he'd have just ignored it).

As for how the Master got round it, simple: he didn't. The Roger Delgado Master (the one that appeared in the Jon Pertwee years) was the 13th and final incarnation. He tried to regenerate again and failed, leaving him as a dying, withered husk (in what form he appeared in The Deadly Assassin and The Keeper of Traken). After failing to seize more regenerations on Gallifrey (again, if it was an optional thing, he would have simply opted out) he instead possessed the body of Counsellor Tremas of Traken, played by Anthony Ainley. It was in this, non-Gallifreyan body that he appeared in the remainder of the classic series run.

So Borusa was able to offer the Ainley Master a new set of regenerations, but only because he was in another body which had not previously had another set of regenerations in it. This appears to be key. Also note that Borusa offered the Master another set but didn't follow through on it: Borusa was killed by Rassilon and the Master escaped.

Later on, in the 1996 TV movie, the Daleks exterminate the Ainley Master but the Master survived by transferring his consciousness into a green energy snake thing. This thing transferred the Master's consciousness into a human ambulance driver on Earth, played by Eric Roberts. The Roberts Master was defeated by the Doctor and thrown into the Eye of Harmony via its link within the TARDIS.

During the Time War, the Time Lords recover the Master from the Eye of Harmony and give him a new set of regenerations in return for him fighting the Daleks for them. So the Master never escaped the limitation: Delgado was the final incarnation of his original body, Ainley was an in-between carrier body and Roberts, Jacobi and Simm are the first three incarnation of the Master's newest body, with ten more still to go. No problems there at all.

(There is an alternative theory that the Roberts body was destroyed in the Eye but the Master's conciousness survived and was later extracted and put in a new body, in which case Jacobi and Simm are the first two incarnations of the Master's fourth body, but it doesn't make much odds.)

Of course, what was the case during the original series isn't necessarily a problem in the new: during the Time War, the Time Lords woke up Rassilon and convinced him to lead them again. Rassilon regenerated into Timothy Dalton, so his immortality scheme seems to be just removing the regeneration limit and nothing more. During the Time War, the Time Lords became more corrupt, colder, more ruthless and so on, so it seems highly probable that Rassilon removed the regeneration limitation from all the Time Lords (maybe including the Master, depending on when the Master fled to the end of time) so they could keep fighting. The fact that thousands of Time Lords probably died hundreds of times each probably helped drive them collectively insane during the war.

There is a question mark over whether the Doctor would accept such a thing. If he did, or was forced to, there is zero problem: the Doctor is now effectively immortal. In fact, he might have regenerated twenty times during the Time War If he didn't, that's a more interesting story choice.

There's also the 'River Song giving the Doctor regeneration energy' idea. I don't buy that (though it would provide a good opportunity to cast a female Doctor), but that's the cheapest and easiest way out of the situation.

Quote

There is no way in hell they'll end the show at 12th Doctor. Showrunner Moffat has already said he's trying to get the Doctor to the 100th anniversary.

Absolutely no doubt about this at all. Doctor Who will keep going after the 13th Doctor (whether that's Smith, Capaldi or whatever). However, the circumstances are what is interesting. Moffat can ignore the previous canon and fans can come up with their own explanations. Or he can mine it by having the Doctor say that he's on his final life and will die after the end of this one, then he regenerates and has to discover why and how he's survived.

This post has been edited by Werthead: 20 October 2013 - 07:58 PM

[QuickTidal]

For anyone who listens to the Big Finish DOCTOR WHO Audio's...they have decided to release their 50th Anniversary special THE LIGHT AT THE END (a two-hour Audio featuring ALL 8 Classic Doctor's...the first 3 are done by impressions that are fairly spot on) early (a month on the button early in fact). And it was so popular it crashed their servers there were so many customers trying to get it.

I got it. I listened. I loved it!

Spoiler

So, I think that Six and Seven actually shine brightest here (if I had to choose), with Colin especially causing me to smile frequently. I'd never actually heard McCoy in Audio form before, so he was a big treat. All the Doctor's are pretty spot on throughout, with (I feel) only Tom Baker's age peppering his voice (though not enough to be a big bother)...with Davison and Colin especially I can't tell they are that much older. The sound mix (with the Doctor's all phasing in and out around one another in ghostlike apparitions) was brilliant...with snippets playing in playback and real-time...really solid. As was the score (including the excellent new theme rendition!). The companions each get a chance to shine, but I think Ace wins for not only commenting that Six looks like Joseph in his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to Seven....but actually calling him Joseph when she meets him properly! LMAO.

The best ting about this whole story? It's a VERY similar trope to what Moffat attempted in THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR...but this one makes so much more sense, and basically succeeds where that Ep failed. We've got a villain trying to erase the Doctor's good deeds from existence. In TNOTD the G.I. is silly enough to actively go through his Time Stream Death Light and stop all the good stuff from happening one by one (and then stands in the room and tells that plan to Clara and Eleven)...he does it, and Clara undoes it a few moments later. It's a stupid plan, enacted by a stupid villain who doesn't have any real reason beyond "Oh, we fought a long time ago and I'm stuck in another dimension"....meanwhile in THE LIGHT AT THE END it's not some insignificant villain from Two's time....it's the goddamned Master! A man who has every reason to want to erase the Doctor's good deeds from existence. And what does he do? Does he actively go through the Doctor's timeline to erase good deeds? Nah, he's like "Fuck that...that shit is for amateurs" I've got a Time Lord CIA agent willing to give me access to a weapons cache....let me take this weapon that transmute's a thought into solid reality, plant it in a dopey human way back at the beginning of the Doctor's adventures on earth, and watch as he deems the TARDIS "impossible"...thus preventing the Doctor's TARDIS from existing, and he never leaves Gallifrey at all.

That's fucking brilliant!

Seriously, where Moffat's TNOTD script kept having me shake my head, TLATE made me want to hug Nick Briggs for the simplicity of it.

Oh, and Straxus! Woot woot! I don't know why I love Straxus, but out of all the inventions of Big Finish, Straxus is my fave.

Anyways, this is how you do a 50th Anniversary. He fit all the Doctor's (and their companions) into it, gave them all equal time.

Moffat's got big shoes to fill for his 50th if he's going to top this.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 24 October 2013 - 01:38 PM

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 25 October 2013 - 04:34 PM, said:

Holy shit there Wert good job. I had no clue for most of the people you were listing though. I need to watch Dr's 1-7 at some point.

That's like 30 seasons. You've got a LOT of TV ahead of you. LOL

[Coco with marshmallows]

So.

I, like so many other fans in the UK, am facing a grave, grave decision.

Do I watch the 50th anniversary special at home,

Or go watch it in 3D at the cinema?

Decisions, decisions......

[QuickTidal]

Cocoreturns, on 03 November 2013 - 11:36 PM, said:

So.

I, like so many other fans in the UK, am facing a grave, grave decision.

Do I watch the 50th anniversary special at home,

Or go watch it in 3D at the cinema?

Decisions, decisions......

I am watching at home on the 23rd (because I would not be able to tolerate theatre talkers 'pon my first viewing)...BUT....they are ALSO running the 3D theatre screening on the Monday the 25th (I believe at most of the theatres) for an additional time....so the Mrs. and I will attend that screening (tix already purchased) for out SECOND viewing...because fuck...it's DOCTOR WHO in the cinema...in 3D!

But yeah, had there not been that second screening on a latter day, we'd have not gone. My first viewing of the 50th must be at home, with only the Mrs. and utter, silence.

[Kanubis]

Watching it on TV isn't even an option here.

BBC iPlayer and IP router is it...

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 04 November 2013 - 03:45 AM, said:

That's not even an option down here.

You sure BK?

http://www.doctorwho...-doctor/#cinema

Check the listings and see if a cinema close to you is showing it. There seems to be a lot in the States.

[QuickTidal]

So, the following conversation occurred between myself and Mrs. QT last night as we watched THE DOCTOR: REVISITED (Sixie ep, VENGEANCE ON VAROS).

Mrs. QT: Which Doctor is this?

Me: The Sixth Doctor. Colin Baker. (explained about his season, the 18-mo hiatus, and all the other nonsense during the Trial Of a Timelord).

Mrs. QT: Well, he's a pretty good actor.

Me: Yes, yes he is. One of my fave Doctor's actually.

Mrs. QT: Is HE in the 50th Anniversary special?

Me: (pause) No.

Mrs. QT: Why not?

Me: The showrunner, Steven Moffat (point at the talking head interview on screen) that guy with the curly dark hair...he decided that the show should look forward, not back. And the general consensus from him was that attempting to put Classic Doctor's in would be too much.

Mrs. QT: But why? That's stupid. They are what came before. He should be honouring them for being a part of the 50 years.

Me: Yep.

Mrs. QT: So none of the old Doctor's are going to be in the 50th special? Even though a few are still alive?

Me: Apparently not.

Mrs. QT: That's fucking stupid. That guy is an asshole for not including them. What's his name?

Me: Steven Moffat.

Mrs. QT: Is it possible he's lying?

Me: Maaaaybe.

Mrs. QT: If he's not lying, then he's a dickhead. He should be including all the living ones. It could have just been a long special, or more episodes.

Me: (pause) Have I told you how much I love you?

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

I can't make this up folks. Unprompted, this is what my NuWhoWatching/David Tennant-loving future wife said that out of the blue, upon seeing how awesome Colin Baker is at the role.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 04 November 2013 - 04:50 PM