[TheZookie007]

I rather like the pithy Doctor descriptions that number3fac and rtpoe proposed. Will definitely be sharing them with other Whovians to hear what they have to say about them.

Meanwhile:

Daily Mail: "Politics, bullying and principles: The real reason why Christopher Eccleston left Doctor Who after just one series"

[rtpoe]

Given that we never saw how Colin Baker or Paul McGann wound up regenerating, it ought to be easy to do "multi-Doctor" stories with them. Both have been quite active with the Big Finish audios, so it's not like they absolutely refuse to have anything to do with the series. And so what if they look older?

How about this: The "Face of Boe" shows up again, and advises the Doctor that one (or two) of his previous selves is in a spot of trouble and needs help. But since the current Doctor doesn't remember meeting himself, he's got to go back and fix things without letting his earlier self know that he's being helped. Could make for some nice light comedy... Maybe, if Big Finish can be persuaded to go along with it, they could have some of the "exclusively audio" companions show up, too.

[number3fac]

While Colin Baker didn't film his regeneration, there technically has been a Sixth-to-Seventh Doctor regeneration scene.  It's McCoy in Six's costume with some kind of prosthetics over his face I believe, and while the effects are kinda hinky it's still a scene that showed the Sixth Doctor regenerating into the Seventh.  But at any rate, there's lots of material they could work with for any of the remaining Doctors (and including any companions they'd like), as there wasn't a lot of continuity between episodes so the Eleventh could run into them at any point "between (televised) adventures."  For that matter, they've had Eleven on his own even while Amy and Rory are his companions (they're off on their honeymoon, or settling in to married life, or whatever while he's still traveling around), so they could just as easily make a remark to that effect for the returning Doctor if it's an issue.  And they sorta addressed the aging thing in "Time Crash", where the Tenth Doctor briefly bumped into the Fifth Doctor in the TARDIS (if you haven't seen it, it was a short scene done for one of those UK charity specials), so I don't see the actor's ages  being a problem either.

Anyway, I would definitely like to see the "unseen manipulations" idea of the Eleventh Doctor secretly intervening in the adventures of one of his earlier incarnations.  He's certainly not above messing with personal timelines and hiding things from Amy and Rory, so it would be the ultimate manipulation for him to try doing that with himself.  It would certainly be a good way to showcase the "time can be rewritten" stuff that would probably have to be addressed in averting Eleven's death from the start of the season, plus it does kinda fit with some of the stories we've been seeing like the Christmas Carol (changing the Scrooge guy) and Vincent Van Gogh (the beast is removed from the church painting, and a message to Amy appears in another).  I don't know about dragging the Face of Boe into it, I'm sure there are other ways for the Doctor to end up crossing paths with himself.

[Breasts]

Looking good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76vzfxJRByA
I love his line at the end. lol.

[rtpoe]

OK...

Well, "Let's Kill Hitler" turned out to be "Let's Shove Hitler in a Closet and Ignore Him While We Fill In More of River Song's Backstory".... What a confusing mess. So many interesting things and ideas introduced - and then dropped along the way without any fuss or comment. I can't sum it up any better than The Flick Philosopher, so I won't.

You know, I think I've finally had it with River Song. Nothing against Alex Kingston, but the character has gone from a bit of over-the-top silliness to being downright "What else is on?" annoying. Can't wait until she finally leaves.

One other bit of annoyance is that they pick and choose what stuff from the Original Series to call back, ignoring whatever doesn't fit their "idea" of The Doctor. There's a quick bit in "Hitler" where The Doctor cries out to the TARDIS as it is showing him his previous Companions, "Show me someone I haven't screwed up yet!" (or something to that effect).

Right, then!

* Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton: Returned to Earth via a Dalek time travel device, left happily. From the looks of it, they had fallen in love over the course of their travels.
* Steven Tyler: Left of his own free will to help a society rebuild after he and The Doctor stopped a long and bitter war.
* Ben and Polly: Happened to wind up back on Earth the same day they first met The Doctor, so they decided it would be the best time to bid him farewell. Left happily.
* Jo Grant: Thanks to The Doctor's influence, went from being a stereotypical blonde ditz to an aspiring scientist and adventurer.
* Romana: After her "graduate studies" with The Doctor, left to help the Tharils in E-Space. Eventually (in the books and audios) became the President of Gallifrey.
* Nyssa: Though The Doctor couldn't stop the "killing" of her parents by The Master, or the destruction of her home world (also by The Master), she eventually found herself and stayed on Terminus to help find a cure for Lazar's Disease.
* Turlough: Thanks to The Doctor, he matured from a snotty schoolboy into a young adult ready to take his proper place in his home planet's society.

There you have it. Proof that The Doctor *doesn't* screw up everyone he meets.

By the way, here's a very nice essay on "How Doctor Who Became My Religion".

[Palomine]

Since I don't get BBC America, I haven't seen an episode of Dr. Who since the SyFy channel stopped running them (right around the same time they changed to that awful name and eliminated the few pure-SF shows remaining). Though I know she's long since left Dr. Who for that awful callgirl thing on Showtime (no idea if it's still on... I don't get that channel either) I do miss seeing Billie Piper's funny face and well-filled jeans on Dr. Who reruns.

[rtpoe]

I watch it online, thanks to... well, you know....

I can't complain too much about how Moffat is running the show. After all, I still say it's one of the best things on TV. But with all the complex threads running all over this season, I get the feeling that Moffat is gearing the show towards the people who are going to buy the boxed DVD set when it first comes out. Reading about the episodes online, I'm being told about a lot of things that make sense only when you have seen every single one. That's all well and good, but he's got to remember that not everyone sees every episode as it first airs. And, more importantly, there's always going to be someone who is seeing the show for the very first time. You should not be piling so much stuff into an episode that you need a commentary track to figure it out!

And I just thought of one huge problem with "Let's Kill Hitler!"...

A big blue box comes flying out of nowhere and crashes through a window in to the Fuhrer's office. Not exactly a subtle **103**.... So where are the guards? Is everyone on their lunch break? Sure, security around Hitler tended to be quite lax, but there's no one else around? And what about the guys in the driveway outside the window? Okay, TARDIS magic might render it invisible in flight, but didn't any of them notice the demolished window and think, "Gee, that's not supposed to be like that. I should go and see what's up"? And Hitler just sat quietly in the closet for well over half an hour?

[number3fac]

Caught up with the back half of the season, and I've become rather disappointed with Moffat.  He has some really great ideas, but it seems like he'll change around the rules governing that concept, or just ignore it and/or discard it at will, which just makes his "stories" a jumbled mess of garbage that (at best) is difficult to make sense of.  The midseason finale and the midseason premiere (Good Man Goes to War and Let's Kill Hitler) definitely suffer for it, though the most blatant evidence of this is in the last two main finales (Big Bang and Wedding of River Song), as plot elements are dropped shortly after they've been introduced.

On a more positive note, I did like the three episodes prior to the finale; even though the antagonist/problem wasn't particularly large-scale, it allowed the writers to fill out the scenes with some strong character moments that had been lacking for the main cast.  And even with Moffat's continued direction, I'll certainly still be tuning in...but I probably won't be rewatching his episodes as much as some others.

[CarlTL]

Here's some Doctor Who info on where/when he's going next....

[rtpoe]

Hmph.

If that is reasonably accurate as a preview, I'm feeling a tad disappointed. Amy and Rory had been given a really great sendoff; there's no need to bring them back as Companions.

I've been thinking about it lately. As I mentioned before, quite a few Companions depart under pleasant circumstances. And one of the things that I noted is that they tend to leave when they have, for all intents and purposes, grown up or matured in some way. (see Jo Grant, Romana, Nyssa, Turlough).

And this past season has seen a good deal of that as key plot elements. In "Night Terrors", a young boy faces down his fears. In "Closing Time", a bloke comes to terms with what it means to be a father. Key moments in the process of growing up...

Though The Doctor said (or at least implied) that he let Amy and Rory go because he didn't want them to get hurt by traveling with him, he could have just as easily (and probably more appropriately) said that it was time for them to get on with their lives. The honeymoon was over, in more ways than one. And as we saw in "Closing Time", they were indeed getting on well enough by all appearances. It was time for them to be the adults that they supposedly are. There's absolutely no call for dragging them out of that life to go gallivanting about the Cosmos.

[number3fac]

Did you see the Christmas Special?  Between that and casting info for the new season...well, they're not out of the picture by any means.

Though to be perfectly honest, I feel that Moffat's botched a fair bit of the Companion portrayal during his time as showrunner.  The Doctor drops them off for their honeymoon between season 5 and 6 (in last year's Christmas special, and at least one other time if you're counting his story from Sarah Jane Adventures), then leaves them at home afterwards while he goes gallivanting around (seen at the beginning of season 6), and then he sets off without them at midseason for his quest as though they couldn't or wouldn't be useful in finding their own daughter (not that *he* does).  Overall, season 6 makes it seem like the Ponds are just a relatively ordinary British couple with a wacky nameless neighbor-friend who occasionally takes them on outlandish road trips.  It doesn't reflect well on either the Ponds or the Doctor, which is kind of a shame because I actually like them--I just don't get how we're supposed to see how they belong together as an adventuring team.

[pedonbio]

 

[number3fac]

I believe!

Er...The Truth Is Out There?

[Breasts]

So sad http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18995370 

[number3fac]

New season!

Episode 1 was a neat twist on the Daleks...they have an asylum full of their castoffs, they've become alarmed at the crazy stuff that's happening, so they grab the Doctor to do what he does best: defeat Daleks.  And thanks to some weird telepathic/computer glitch, every Dalek ends up forgetting the Doctor.  Wiping out the species' longstanding history with the Doctor (from their point of view) could be interesting, though I wonder if it's just a huge stunt to set up the "Doctor WHO?" question looming over the season.

Episode 2 was overstuffed with characters to accommodate the cast of actors.  Mr. Weasley from Harry Potter (aka Peterson from Red Dwarf), Filch from Harry Potter, Mitchell & Webb (a British comedy duo with their own show) as funny killbots, an actor guy I recognize (but whose name I don't know) as a big-game hunter, and some unknown hottie as Nefertiti.  On the plus side, even though it was borderline ridiculous it was loads of fun.  And a piece of tech with the identity and value of everything, everywhere, everywhen, in its database fails to identify the Doctor.

I'm still kinda dreading the resolution to the "Doctor WHO?" plot, but hopefully there'll still be lots of fun in the meantime...I enjoyed these two more than most of last season!