Doctor Who

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Norbert Wilkins
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Doctor Who

Post by Norbert Wilkins »

This weekend I had the pleasure of watching a...ahem...preview of the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who courtesy of a friend who has broadband. I thought I'd let anyone who might be interested know that in my humble opinion it's a lot of fun. Christopher Ecclestone is highly entertaining & suitably hyperactive, they (kind of) cover why the Doctor has a Northern accent, and Billie Piper acquits herself admirably. All good. I do think the BBC is entirely responsible for leaking this episode, for several reasons:

1. There's been a high amount of anticipation about this series, but they've put a lot of effort into it, so a little sneak preview is a good way to make sure the Gallifrey brigade (fans with scarves) are on their side.

2. The picture and audio quality is fine, but the streaming is dreadful. It jerks all over the place. Not that I know about these things, but the majority of DivX/XviD "previews" are made by people who care about picture quality. The BBC, however, have been advising against watching the download version on the grounds that it the quality isn't good enough. Sounds like a put-up job to me. If it had really been made by a sneaky Canadian bootlegger from preview beta tapes it would be perfect.

Anyway, whatever the source, I shall definately be tuning in to see the show return to UK TV screens in a little under two weeks time.
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nosaj
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Post by nosaj »

This Christopher guy is good? Nice to hear. I'll give it a try. But, there is only one true genius actor in the role of Dr. Who, whose shoes never were filled after he left...fetching scarf!
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Post by Big Kelv »

I've seen the new episode 'Rose' and can't wait for the official transmission.

Christopher Ecclestone IMHO is a cross between Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker (my favourite doctors).

Enjoy :lol:
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Post by simpledumbpilot »

Big BIG Dr. Who fan here! I got the episode the day after it leaked and then uhmmed and ahhed about whether to watch for a day because I was really looking forward to the return to TV but caved. I thought it was alright but a bit too noisy for my tastes, obviously it was very different to the Dr. Who I know and love but then again it has to be if its to stand a chance today.

Good to see a Pertwee fan on the board Big Kelv! The Pertwee UNIT stuff is my fave era of Who, I love the Doctor / Brigadier combination and Katy Manning did the companion bit brilliantly, tho I do prefer Liz Sladen.

I lost interest in Who when Colin Baker stepped into the role and didnt see a single episode after Attack Of The Cybermen until Rememberence Of The Daleks aired which roped me back into the series, since then Ive managed to pick up all the videos and a lot of the reconstructions of missing episodes, have to recommend Loose Canon for these lost gems. For anyone that doesnt know, Loose Canon is a bunch of Dr. Who fans that reconstruct the lost episodes using as much visual material as possible and their work is excellent, and the bonus is the reconstructions are free! all you have to do is contact a dubber via their site and send them tapes with the appropriate postage and jiffy bag, the website address is http://www.recons.com which is well worth a look!

Useless fact: The first thing I ever recorded when we got our first video recorder was The Five Doctors, its got The Tube's late night premier of Michael Jackson's Thriller on afterwards, the tape is in pretty bad shape now tho.
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Post by nosaj »

I still want to be a time lord when I grow up :smt032
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Post by simpledumbpilot »

nosaj wrote:I still want to be a time lord when I grow up :smt032
Ive a feeling that may be a long way off!
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Post by oldhippy »

I could only stand about 30 minutes of the first episode, what a load of shit, crap, shit, crap, crap, crap, shit, shit.
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dorothy
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Post by dorothy »

i didnt really like it either.... :? it was boring to be honest.
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Post by Stephen »

The actors seemed to have fun in performing it and thats how it came across to me, I enjoyed it and I'll be watching the rest of the sreies. The locations in Cardiff, South Wales looked pretty good too.
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Gem
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Post by Gem »

Stephen wrote:The locations in Cardiff, South Wales looked pretty good too.
All bar 2 shots (an aerial shot of central London, and the London Eye) are locations in Cardiff, that fine city where I live. :D
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Post by IainS »

Where abouts Gem?
I was born in Grangetown.....
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Post by simpledumbpilot »

Did anyone see last nights episode? Any thoughts? Wasnt overly keen myself but the first one took a little getting used to and I think I'll adapt to the new style eventually, I had the same problem with the remake of Battlestar Galactice but ended up loving it, cant beat the original for good cheesy sci-fi fun tho :D
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Post by Norbert Wilkins »

I have to admit I was very disappointed with the second episode. To say that the plot was linear would be a major understatement. There was no tension anywhere in the episode (Sun shields coming down...sun shields rising? Come on!) which was an entirely charmless rip-off of the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe episodes from the original Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy radio series anyway. That business of the safety button being at the end of a long walkway with loads of whirling propellers ready to cut up anyone who walked along it? Lazy, lazy scriptwriting. And killing off characters you're just getting interested in is poor form too. I think whoever wrote this should have their wrists slapped and their pencils taken away.

However, Zoe Wanamaker was good as the stretched face/plastic surgery disaster. Shame they had the Doctor deliberately kill her (new territory for the Doctor, I think.) It might have been fun to feature her in some new stories as a scary, machievellian stretched face wreaking havoc with other people's lives on the merest whim.
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Post by simpledumbpilot »

Norbert Wilkins wrote:...which was an entirely charmless rip-off of the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe...
Absolutely! I dont know just how intentional that was, Adams did write a lot of the H2G2 stuff whilst he was working on Dr Who in the late 70s so I dont know if it was a dodgy homage or coincidence, I really dont think it could be the latter tho, Russell T Davies (who wrote the episode) apparently knows loads about Who's history and is a big fan and by default you end up finding allsorts out about H2G2.

I believe the Dr letting Cassandra die is a first for Who, he could have teleported her back but decided to become judge and jury, Id like to have seen him / her come back, thats probably another first for Who, a transexual villain! Interestingly (or not as the case may be), this is the second time Zoe Wanamaker has played a character called Casandra in a BBC Sci-Fi series, anyone remember the disasterous Red Dwarf 7? She played a character of the same name in one of the good episodes in that series.
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Post by oldhippy »

It was either on Ceefax or Teletext that someone wrote in saying that one of the new episodes was a rip- off from an early one way back in the 60?s. Using the same names for the monsters (laugh) and the plot. As I?m not a big fan I don?t know if this is true. I?m sure someone will put me right on this.