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Doctor Who: Season 32 thread


Werthead

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As well as the news that the Season 32/6/2 has been split in two, some more info has come to light. Namely that following on from the 'negative' reaction to the 'new paradigm' Daleks from last season, they've been given the boot and the old Daleks will return.

EDIT: Clarification. The old Daleks will return as a 'soldier class'. The iDaleks will continue to appear as an 'officer class' to lead them.

In addition, a pretty big spoiler has been revealed about Neil Gaiman's episode:

It sounds like the War Chief from Patrick Troughton's final story, The War Games, is returning, now regenerated into a female incarnation!

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Midseason cliffhanger: River is gonna shoot an Unidentified Someone. Then close-ups on the horrified faces of The Doctor, Amy, Rory and everybody else: "RIVER, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

River drops the gun, a tear starts to fall, and she retreats and falls to her knees. Doctor Who returns this fall on the BBC.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Million Pound Drop (British quiz show) asked what appears to be a relatively straightforward question last week:

"Who played Dr. Who for the longest period?"

They then gave four possible answers: Sylvester McCoy (the 7th Doctor), Paul McGann (8th), Christopher Ecclestone (9th) and David Tennant (10th).

The contestants divided their money between the answers McCoy and McGann, only to lose all of it when they were told that the right answer was Tennant.

Except of course it wasn't. Hordes of Who fans rang/emailed/Facebooked/Twittered the show to angrily point out that the question was hopelessly vague, failing to specify whether they meant just on screen or including the audio books (in which both McCoy and McGann have continued to play the Doctor since the mid-1990s). The producers, slightly embarrassed, looked further in the question, debated with the BBC, and then agreed that the best answer, given the vague wording, would be Sylvester McCoy. They have reinstated the contestants, who will return to the show on Friday with £325,000 so the game can continue.

This has sparked off a pedantic argument about what the right answer would be. The answer of McCoy appears to be correct based on several things:

1) He first played the role in the Season 24 serial Time and the Rani, airing in 1987. At the start of the serial he regenerates from his sixth incarnation into the seventh. In the 1996 TV movie McCoy is still playing the role of the Doctor. About ten minutes into it he is shot and regenerates into the eighth Doctor, played by Paul McGann. By this count he was the 'incumbent' Doctor for nine years, although the show was on hiatus for seven of them (from December 1989 until the TV movie aired in the summer of 1996). However, McCoy's face and image was still used on all Doctor Who merchanise produced in that time (including the semi-canon novels where many of the new TV series writers first produced work for the franchise) and he also reprised the role in two brief cameos on other shows (a science programme and a truly horrific charity special thing).

2) Some have argued that McGann was the incumbent Doctor for around exactly the same amount of time and could also be regarded as the correct answer: he first appeared in the 1996 TV movie and his face and image were used as the 'incumbent' Doctor until Christopher Ecclestone appeared in the role in March 2005. He also played the role of the 'current' Doctor in four seasons of audio plays and radio dramas produced by the Big Finish company. However, McCoy's superior number of TV episodes (42 as compared to 1) and the fact that McCoy also appeared in 'Past Doctor' audio dramas in the same period would appear to trounce McGann. In addition, McCoy got a regeneration scene, putting a definitive full stop to his tenure. McGann had no such conclusion to his reign, making it arguable that he was the 'current' Doctor right up until Ecclestone's first appearance, especially since the BBC had been reducing the appearance of merchandise related to the previous version of the show in the months leading up to the new series launch.

Whilst the wording of the question was vague, I'd have to go with McCoy as the best compromise answer. If they'd said "Who'd had the most screentime as Dr. Who?", then Tennant would have been unquestionably the right answer.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Less filler, tighter plotlines, and more opportunities for significant story arcs.

If this actually happens, I'd be impressed.

However, the decision to split the season was made some way into filming and after writing was completed, so I'm not too sure if that will appear.

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  • 1 month later...

Christmas Special was quite good. Got a bit overly cheesy at the end but the start was ace, and was a lot of fun overall. The dialogue was great (and it's mind-boggling how much and how fast Matt Smith can talk. Which considering he's the successor to the not notably laconic David Tennant is quite something).

The timeline made even less sense than is normal for Doctor Who, mind you.

The teaser for season 32/6 is... intriguing, to say the least. Can't wait. ^_^

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Haha, that episode made me have dark thoughts for some weird reason. When the Doctor leaves Marilyn Monroe I couldn't help but think 'This is why she committed suicide', and when Gambon's character was riding in the shark-sleigh at the end I was wondering 'Is his reckless driving part of some kind of suicide pact?'

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I liked this, guess I'm receptive to sappy stories around Christmas (okay, actually it's most of the year...). I was also struck by how bloody fast Smith talks. I had to rewind a couple of times because I had missed something. That's not a negative thing though, I think it's hilarious and always reminds me of a line by Eccleston's Doctor: "I am the Doctor and if there is one thing I can do it's talk!"

Does a shark live for as long as a man?

They live for several decades, whale sharks can live to be more than 100 years. Of course, most sharks can't actually fly.

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Does a shark live for as long as a man?

The lifespan of the made-up extraterrestrial flying fog-shark is a matter of some debate, it's true. But maybe not the key plot point. ;)

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The lifespan of the made-up extraterrestrial flying fog-shark is a matter of some debate, it's true. But maybe not the key plot point. ;)

A shocking suggestion!

I liked it too, though I would have enjoyed more Amy and Rory. I have to admit, I really found myself missing Tennant a few times though. I like Matt Smith, but there was too much whiplash between the caring, powerful doctor and the boyish, nutty doctor. 

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when i raised the shark issue with my girlfriend she did say "That's the only problem you've got with that episode!"

The plotting wasn't exactly razor-sharp but that's par for the course with Doctor who these days anyways. Overall, I thought it was all right but nothing very exciting. The whole christmas thing seemed to be shoehorned in. They mentioned christmas twice for absolutely no reason during the pre- title sequence. The best bit was the new series trailer.

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when i raised the shark issue with my girlfriend she did say "That's the only problem you've got with that episode!"

The plotting wasn't exactly razor-sharp but that's par for the course with Doctor who these days anyways. Overall, I thought it was all right but nothing very exciting. The whole christmas thing seemed to be shoehorned in. They mentioned christmas twice for absolutely no reason during the pre- title sequence. The best bit was the new series trailer.

Interestingly they did the same thing they did last year - emphasised Christmas as basically being a pagan festival/excuse for a winter-blues jolly-up rather than the whole Christianity thing. Albeit the two characters doing so were 'bad guys'.

It was ok. On the plus side they didnt have the excruciating music banging away like they usually do. And there was less manic running.

But they only seemed to have a Christmas episode because it's now part of BBC TV 'tradition'. The first Christmas special at least existed to introduce Tennant as the new Doctor. The last one served as Tennant's exit. The reference to Santa was annoying but after reading an article in the Radio Times, I was dreading them actually showing Santa.

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