[jtown0620]

Tonight @ 8pm EST the Sci Fi network begins its Doctor Who Series 3 premiere! It will be running The Runaway Bride followed by Smith & Jones. I know a lot of you already watched the new series from other sources but just wanted to get the word out their for those of us who still haven't seen it. Also the Series 3 DVD set gets released on November 27th. :up: :up: :up:

 

[JimSpence]

Pretty good start. SciFi quality is quite good for WS SD.

I really don't know why I'm watching again.

 

[Anubys]

argh...8:35 PM...went downstairs and my HD-Tivo crapped-out (had to reboot) and my HR20, as usual, decided not to record...

so now I have to record the second show and wait for the first show to re-run later tonight to watch both...ruined my Friday night

 

[trainman]

Weirdest episode of "Scrubs" ever.

 

[skaeight]

I didn't quite finish the 1st season of Doctor Who. Is this a reboot, or did they just replace the Dr?

 

[Anubys]

I didn't quite finish the 1st season of Doctor Who. Is this a reboot, or did they just replace the Dr?

replaced the Doctor...

 

[gastrof]

I didn't quite finish the 1st season of Doctor Who. Is this a reboot, or did they just replace the Dr?

The first season wasn't really the first...more like the 89th.

The show started back in the early 1960s, then went on hiatus for about ten years until what you know as the "first" season.

Back in the 60's, the actor who first played the Doctor was getting along in years and his health was failing, so they decided to play up the fact he was an alien, and introduce the concept of the Doctor "regenerating" when near death.

All Time Lords regenerate when they're dying, either due to injury, accident, old age, etc.

The Doctor has done it a good many times, with seven actors playing him over the years.

After the show went in its big hiatus, the seventh actor appeared briefly in a TV movie that attempted to restart the series, regenerating into the eighth version of the Doctor.

Nothing came of the movie, and when the series got going again with the "new first season", we saw a 9th Doctor, with only hints at what'd happened to his previous self.

At the end of the "first" season, that Doctor sacrifices himself to save Rose, and regnerates into the guy you've noticed is the Doctor in the third season. (Been around since the last few moments of the first season.) He's the 10th to play the role.

Problem?

It was established back during the original run that a Time Lord can normally only regenerate 12 times.

We've nearly used'm all up.

There was a hint long ago that additional regenerations can be managed, but we don't know by what means...and the rest of the Time Lords are now gone.

 

[LoadStar]

Sorry to hijack, but since it's come up... I never actually got to see the TV movie. How does it compare to the latest series (writing wise, acting wise, effects wise, whatever)? Is it worth going back and trying to find it?

I haven't gone back and watched any of the original run, mostly because I've been led to believe it's considerably lower in production values than the current series, and the writing isn't nearly as developed as the current series... both of which are things I like about the latest series.

 

[edc]

Sorry to hijack, but since it's come up... I never actually got to see the TV movie. How does it compare to the latest series (writing wise, acting wise, effects wise, whatever)? Is it worth going back and trying to find it?

I haven't gone back and watched any of the original run, mostly because I've been led to believe it's considerably lower in production values than the current series, and the writing isn't nearly as developed as the current series... both of which are things I like about the latest series.

(1) Yes, the TV movie is worth finding. It sits comfortably between the original run and the current run FX-wise. The story is a little cockeyed, and (surprisingly) a bit overreliant on the old continuity, but there is no question it is part of the canon, and probably more immediately accessible, especially given the events of the just-passed finale. Unfortunately, Fox owns US distribution rights, so a DVD has never been released in North America.

(2) Yes, the original run is lower in production value, in much the same way Star Trek: TOS is lower in production value than Star Trek: DS9. The acting and writing of the original run varied in quality quite a bit more than in the new run, but - at their best - they are every bit as good.

 

[ObiWanJenkins]

Is it true that the series is ending at the end of this season?

 

[LoadStar]

Is it true that the series is ending at the end of this season?

Unlikely. They haven't talked about a fifth series yet, but given how popular Doctor Who is right now, it'd be highly unlikely that the series would end. Now, it's possible that Russell T. Davies might opt not to be a part of the fifth series - producing Who is hard work - but that doesn't mean anything about the future of the series.

 

[trainman]

Unlikely. They haven't talked about a fifth series yet, but given how popular Doctor Who is right now, it'd be highly unlikely that the series would end. Now, it's possible that Russell T. Davies might opt not to be a part of the fifth series - producing Who is hard work - but that doesn't mean anything about the future of the series.

So, in conclusion -- no, it's not ending after this, the third season, because they're already producing a fourth. (I'm sorry that those of us who prefer to get our TV shows through the television are so far behind all of you BitTorrent users. )

 

[srs5694]

Sorry to hijack, but since it's come up... I never actually got to see the TV movie. How does it compare to the latest series (writing wise, acting wise, effects wise, whatever)? Is it worth going back and trying to find it?

My opinion of the TV movie is variable. Sometimes I think it's pretty cringe-worthy, other times I think it's so-so. Part of the problem is that it's got a couple of big deviations from typical Doctor Who conventions, which tend to rankle fans. Overall, my opinion is that Paul McGann (who played the Doctor through most of the movie) was a decent Doctor, but the overall production just didn't quite come together.

I haven't gone back and watched any of the original run, mostly because I've been led to believe it's considerably lower in production values than the current series, and the writing isn't nearly as developed as the current series... both of which are things I like about the latest series.

The writing in the original series was variable, but some of it was quite good. Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) wrote a couple of scripts and was script editor for a while, for instance -- although he wasn't associated with the show for nearly long enough to say that he dominated it. I'm just tossing the name out as an example.

The original series' production values were certainly pathetic compared to today's production values, but of course this was made for TV in Britain in the 1960s to 1990s. It was originally conceived as a children's show, although it became slowly more mature over its original run and the new series was created as a "family" show. The original is definitely worth watching if you're in the right mood and enjoy campy stuff. If you're watching for excellent special effects or the overdone drama that's typical of today's TV, don't bother.

 

[srs5694]

It was established back during the original run that a Time Lord can normally only regenerate 12 times.

We've nearly used'm all up.

Have they ever mentioned the 12 regenerations rule in the new series? I don't recall it ever coming up. They might just retcon that limitation away. Even if they don't, it'd be easy enough for the writers to give the Doctor a new set of regenerations, if that became necessary. They'd just come across some alien technobabble device that would give him another set of regenerations, probably in some dramatic way as he climactically saves the universe at the end of his 13th incarnation.

 

[Magister]

Have they ever mentioned the 12 regenerations rule in the new series? I don't recall it ever coming up. They might just retcon that limitation away. Even if they don't, it'd be easy enough for the writers to give the Doctor a new set of regenerations, if that became necessary. They'd just come across some alien technobabble device that would give him another set of regenerations, probably in some dramatic way as he climactically saves the universe at the end of his 13th incarnation.

Actually, the time lords gave him more for defeating the Master one time. I forget all the details, but he definatly isn't limited anymore.

Love the new companion... Hottie..

 

[cheesesteak]

The Doctor Who movie stank. Of course, your mileage may vary.

 

[Church AV Guy]

The Doctor Who movie stank. Of course, your mileage may vary.

:up: I agree completely.

For example, in the movie the Eye Of Harmony was in the Tardis, but we know it's on Gallifry (sp). It played into the Y2k thing as if it were significant, even though it was just another sequence of digits. The acting wasn't too bad, but the story was awful. The Master was still evil though.