Doctor Who - it's official

[hypatia]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

I wish you could download a show like this the way you can (legally) download music on the internet. But I suppose there are reasons that companies want something like Dr. Who to come out in one area first, and then slowly (if ever) distribute it to the rest of the world.

It just seems that in this day and age everyone would switch to global releasing thing, doesn't it?

 

[AntonyF]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

Well, you'd think.

Often US TV is six months behind on satelite TV here, gaining gradually to be about a week or two behind at the end of the season.

UK TV has been ordered to stop showing things before because they got too close to the US.

 

[Elenopa]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

If you want to celebrate the return of Dr. Who in style this Christmas, then buy a hand knitted scarf.

Dr. Who scarf on Ebay

I have been knitting these over the past year to raise money for my church organ fund. Please take a look, and I will be knitting more, plus the season 18 pattern in the future if anyone is interested.

 

[colonyearth]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

I'm personally glad to hear the Doctor is finally getting the money and respect it deserves. And I'm also glad it's not going to try to appeal to an American audience. Dr. Who was always best with the British spin.

Personally, I just want to know what the plan is for airing in the US. Has anyone heard for sure? Is the plan to show it on BBC America? If so, that's the best plan IMHO and I'm lucky since I get BBC-A. It would be a great marketing deal to start airing the originals as a build up to the premiere of the new one.

What people are not able to grasp is that Dr. Who has a huge international audience and will most certainly make money for the BBC...there's no doubt.

We Americans preferred the British Dr.'s but I would like to see McGann get the chance to do the Dr. again and do him right. I still think he had potential.

And has anyone heard whether Grant will appear in the premiere to regenerate him into Eccleston? I would think that that's the plan.

I personally loved them all up through Baker #1...once JNT took over it kinda did a Berman turn and lost it's whatsy. I have faith that Davies will bring back the magic and the outright fun.

My fave two Doctors were Troughton and Tom Baker...nothing like that sarcastic wit and rarely showing any fear.

Anyway...long live the Doctor! And no delays bringing him to the US!

 

[A_M_Swallow]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

If I can't get a package with BBC America that is cheap and that I like, how does one steal it off of the internet?

Do not bother, get it legally.

If you have broadband then the BBC radio channels can be down loaded live from www.bbc.co.uk/radio

Selected BBC radio shows can be downloaded on demand up to 1 week after transmission.

BBC America tv can be viewed via the REAL player. The Gold service carries it live. It is a bit jerky.

Andrew, firstly the BBC isn't ratings obsessed, you should know this. And it may get some good resale money from around the world.

When showing low budget programs the BBC does not care about ratings. An extra big budget is very different. Every producer in the building will be saying give me half of that money for my show and I will give you a TV program in the top 10.

 

[hypatia]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

I do have cable internet. Thanks for the info, AMS!

 

[ElScorcho]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

And has anyone heard whether Grant will appear in the premiere to regenerate him into Eccleston? I would think that that's the plan.

They have decided to downplay Richard E Grant's participation in the series as Eccelston has been deemed the *ninth* Doctor. I guess the BBC figures that they can dismiss "Scream of the Shalka" as a one-off ("Unbound" in fandom vernacular) adventure made for BBCi, whose plans for a new net-based animated series were dashed in light of the new TV run.

As for the regeneration, word has it that it will not happen on screen. The first episode will supposedly begin with the ninth Doctor and his companion Rose in the TARDIS. There are rumours, however, that McGann could return in a flashback sequence somewhere in the middle of the season. All of this is speculation, though.

 

[colonyearth]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

And has anyone heard whether Grant will appear in the premiere to regenerate him into Eccleston? I would think that that's the plan.

They have decided to downplay Richard E Grant's participation in the series as Eccelston has been deemed the *ninth* Doctor. I guess the BBC figures that they can dismiss "Scream of the Shalka" as a one-off ("Unbound" in fandom vernacular) adventure made for BBCi, whose plans for a new net-based animated series were dashed in light of the new TV run.

As for the regeneration, word has it that it will not happen on screen. The first episode will supposedly begin with the ninth Doctor and his companion Rose in the TARDIS. There are rumours, however, that McGann could return in a flashback sequence somewhere in the middle of the season. All of this is speculation, though.

I'm glad to hear that Eccleston will in fact be the ninth Doctor...I was worried that they were running through the regenerations way too fast, especially wasting one, IMHO, on a BBCi, poorly animated Doctor.

I still have my qualms with not seeing McGann's regeneration...we've always seen them...it would be a shame not to this one time. The best example though of seeing it but not seeing it was the terrible regeneration into McCoy. We still have no idea what happened. Though I did't like the Americanization of the Doctor in "Enemy Within" I will at least give it to them that they brought McCoy back and we saw his regeneration.

And though they do recognize McGann as the eightth Doctor, I do hope they don't continue with the "the Doctor is half human" crap. That was far and above the worst idea ever in Dr. Who history. But if they do decide to go with it...I hope they make something worth while out of it.

I'm also hearing that the Dr. Who feature is still being planned. Hopefully, they'll let McGann do that. Though, I didn't like what changes FOX made to Dr. Who in total, I did like McGann and thought he had potential. It would be nice to let him play the Doctor again somewhere besides radio style eps.

And I still wanna know when and where it's going to play in the US!



CE

 

[Elenopa]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

I've got another scarf on ebay. Check it out. Hand knitted to an accurate pattern. Season 14 (I think). Nine and a half feet including tassels.

Dr Who scarf

All proceeds are going to the organ fund at my church.

Thanks for looking

 

[ElScorcho]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

And though they do recognize McGann as the eightth Doctor, I do hope they don't continue with the "the Doctor is half human" crap. That was far and above the worst idea ever in Dr. Who history. But if they do decide to go with it...I hope they make something worth while out of it.

Yes, that is a quite trivial point that was added to make the show more accessible to an American audience. It could have been said tongue-in-cheek and dismissed easily if they had not made a point to mention it more than once.

It all stems from an implication that Leela is in fact the Doctor's mother (remember, she stayed on Gallifrey when she left in "Invasion of Time"), who had a child with the Time Lord Andred. It is stated vaguely in the book "Lungbarrow", which was part of the range of original novels that continued where the show left off. But even there, it doesn't really make much sense. The thought has been revisited in a few other novels featuring the eighth Doctor, but never successfully debunked.

They've opened up a can of worms for sure, but I think they might just go ahead and ignore it.

 

[hypatia]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

Considering the mess of continuity that "Enterprise" has become, I'm stunned and amazed that "Dr. Who' could have any chance at all of even pseudo-continuity. It ran for about 100 years, didn't it?

I don't mean that as an insult, but as high praise. Not only did it have a long run, but only in one made for tv movie did they really fundamentally mess with something that could screw up their continuity. It was the movie that allowed him to reverse time to save his lady, right?

I'd just as soon pretend that whole incarnation never existed, quite frankly. No fault of the actor.

In any event, I'm looking forward to this very much. I hope I can see it soonish.

 

[A_M_Swallow]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

Doctor Who started in 1963, so it is just over 40 years old. In Britain it used to share a timeslot with Star Trek: The Original Series.

Most shows have a boy-girl romance at the heart of them. Doctor Who does not. It has a father-daughter relationship. This was explicit in the original episode "An Unearthly Child", the title refers to his daughter Susan.

I hope the makers of the new version realise that Britain was not the innocent time they seem to think it was. In 1963 the Cold War was at its height. We had just survived the Cuban Missile Crisis, half of the audience expected to be killed within a year.

 

[Elenopa]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

Grandaughter Susan.

Sorry for nitpicking.

 

[ElScorcho]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

I was holding my tongue.

 

[hypatia]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

Yea, I remember some of the Hartnell episodes. Yes, she was the granddaughter, or supposedly so. The impression they gave at first was that Dr. Who and Susan were human, right? He was just a strange old man with a time machine.

Wasn't it the ill health of Hartnell that caused them to think up the whole regeneration thing?

 

[A_M_Swallow]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

Yea, I remember some of the Hartnell episodes. Yes, she was the granddaughter, or supposedly so. The impression they gave at first was that Dr. Who and Susan were human, right? He was just a strange old man with a time machine.

That was the film they made. On the TV show the Doctor and (possibly) Susan were always meant to be aliens.

Wasn't it the ill health of Hartnell that caused them to think up the whole regeneration thing?

True. Having a stroke in the middle of filming caused an emergency rewrite.

 

[hypatia]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

No, actually, I wasn't basing my statement on that horrible movie at all. It just seems from what I remember there was never any indication of his being an alien, other than having the Tardis. It has been many, many years since I've seen those episodes, however. And IIRC Gallifrey wasn't mentioned until the end of the second doctor's "incarnation".

 

[A_M_Swallow]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

I have just watched the first episode of Doctor Who again. The Doctor described them as exiles from a different civilisation. Susan said that she was born on a different planet in a different time. The planet was not named.

 

[Jade Jaguar]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

Long, long ago, on a planet far, far away? I knew Lucas must have stolen that somewhere...

 

[hypatia]

Re: Doctor Who - it\'s official

For some reason I thought the possibility was that she was from the future. But then the name of the episode is "An Unearthly Child" so a different planet is obviously intended, I suppose.

They have the actor who will play the doctor chosen. Have they chosen who will play his companion yet? (Hyp needs to read the thread again. )