The Next Doctor

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  • #29520
    Craig @craig
    Emperor

    A Christmas special. The Doctor arrives in Victorian London at Christmas but the snow isn’t the only thing descending. Familiar silver enemies from an alternate reality are amassing in numbers. The Cybermen are on the move, and the only one who can stop them is the Doctor… and, erm, the other Doctor?

    #29530
    The Krynoid Man @thekrynoidman

    Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    #29540
    PhaseShift @phaseshift
    Time Lord

    My least favourite Chrimble special so far. I’m probably pre-empting things by saying that the close of the Tennant era (as presented by the specials) struggled as far as I’m concerned. He hadn’t announced his departure yet, but after the “show to end all shows” of the finale in the fourth series, joking with a fake regeneration, and then announcing a special called The Next Doctor, I’m sure many were guessing.

    Rewatching this, I can see why Russell himself thinks he botched the ending. He was going for spectacle and eye-candy, revisiting the idea of a giant stompy robot demolishing London with a woman trapped, ensnared in it (from his New Adventure Novel). Personally, I can’t help but think there was a little “that’ll do” about the production that came from the basic script.

    Unlike @thekrynoidman, I don’t think It’s not entirely without merit though. I think David Morrissey and Velile Tshabalala as Jackson & Rosita are good value. The clips of previous Doctors was actually the first time that had been done so – huzzah for that (and enshrining the Eighth Doctor – you cannot imagine, after the joy of Night of the Doctor, the amount of comment whinges went on about that one at the time).

    Dervla Kirwan is always good value, and makes the most of her early scenes, but the final possession is lost in amongst the dreadfulness. I like how her story has hints at a dark past, but those are secrets that really can’t be explored, so they can’t go anywhere with it.

    The child actors look and sound like they’ve stepped out a school production of Oliver. It’s all a bit rosy cheeked to really do justice to that idea of the darker side to “good old” Victorian values.

    The Cybershades – what the hell were they all about? I haven’t a clue, to be frank. It’s all a bit aimless. I don’t think that the episode being bookended by the Doctor on a downer helps. While I’m sure the Doctor’s “they break my hearts” line was a standout for some, it made me want to shake him.

    The standout scene for me is the funeral, with Miss Hartigan vivid in red, and the Ghostly Cybermen striding about in the snow. It looks beautiful and even at conventional DVD levels looks HD (when it isn’t). Really eyecatching and a foretelling to the “Dark fairytale” approach to production in the Eleven years.

    #29542
    wolfweed @wolfweed

    Imagine the fun antics to be had if you got a Cyber-Shade for a pet!!! I would enter mine in artistic grooming contests…
    z
    It’s interesting to listen to Ten-nant explain that Morrissey  is either the next one, the one after, the one after that, or just one that’s somewhere after… It hints at the possibility of  a fresh regeneration cycle.

    The graveyard scene is the highlight of the show – Mass Murder – Cyber style!

    The War Doctor doesn’t show up on the info stamp. He’s kept that well hidden…

    The plot with the fugue state is brilliant. It’s with the intro of the ultra-cute son where it starts to collapse for me.

    And the moral of the story is ‘Don’t be a man-hater’… (Otherwise the Doctor will nudge you into suicide)

    I presume that Rosita is going to give up her profession (to nanny Frederick, probably)?

    Some people died, but apart from that, they all lived happily ever after.

     

    #29554
    Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip

    I remember this being fun at the time, but it doesn’t stand up very well to a rewatch. I’d agree with @phaseshift that David Morrissey and Velile Tshabalala give very good performances, and Dervla Kirwin makes the most of the early scenes, before the script goes a bit pear shaped. The Cyberpunk Cyberman was quite good value, though. I like cyberpunk. 🙂

    @wolfweed – I think the Tennant Doctor actually only goes ‘the next one or the one after that’, which at the time RTD was writing this was correct. Even with the extra regeneration, there were at least two Doctors left – and if they hadn’t decided to count the extra in, maybe three.

    Re: the Info Stamp – yeah, and it’s a Dalek data base, as well. Oops. 🙂

    There are, of course, several ways round this. Possibly the Daleks also regarded the War Doctor as Top Secret. Or, this was a identification database and The War Doctor was known to be time locked; so not included. Or, every Dalek had the War Doctor burned into their memory as ‘The’ Doctor; the database was to aid in identifying other incarnations of The War Doctor.

    The most likely explanation is that The Moment had got at the database. 😉

    The child actors look and sound like they’ve stepped out a school production of Oliver.

    Phaseshift – We’re not allowed to starve child actors, okay? Adult actors can and do go on crash diets to look appropriately poverty-stricken, but you can’t do that to the kids – there are Rules. You just have to do the best you can with artistically placed ‘dirt’ make-up and costume. Which probably were recycled from a stage production of Oliver!; no costume hire company worth its salt would throw away perfectly re-usable ‘Victorian Urchin’ costumes. 😀

    The Cybershades come under the heading of ‘special effects disaster’ as far as I’m concerned; they simply don’t work. They just look like actors inside some kind of extra-furry rug. With a cyberman mask. Still, we’ve never seen them since (for which we can all feel profoundly grateful – the cybermat Mark III and the cybermites are much better).

    I agree that the cemetery scene is the highlight of the show – beautifully shot, with contrasting white, scarlet, and Cybermen looming out of snow.

    Wolfweed – she’s being offered a job as Jackson’s Companion. 😉 The only respectable way of doing that in Victorian England is for her to be Frederick’s nursemaid.

    #29565
    PhaseShift @phaseshift
    Time Lord

    @bluesqueakpip

    Phaseshift – We’re not allowed to starve child actors, okay? Adult actors can and do go on crash diets to look appropriately poverty-stricken, but you can’t do that to the kids – there are Rules. You just have to do the best you can with artistically placed ‘dirt’ make-up and costume. Which probably were recycled from a stage production of Oliver!; no costume hire company worth its salt would throw away perfectly re-usable ‘Victorian Urchin’ costumes.

    It’s ‘elf and safety gorn MAAAAAAD. Surely we wouldn’t miss a couple of them? 😀 They really do have that carefully applied look of poverty and grime though don’t they? A layer of foundation would have made them look pale and ill.

    On the giant stompy Cyberking, It doesn’t work for me. I’m not sure why because normally I love steampunk, but somehow it just seems a bit…. well, cack in the absence of a better expression.

    @wolfweed

    Actually that picture you posted of the Cybershades is the best thing about them. Well done!

    #29568
    Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip

    They really do have that carefully applied look of poverty and grime though don’t they?

    @phaseshift – agreed. I don’t know whether they just had too many kids and not enough make up artists, or the kids were getting the less experienced make-up artists, but there was an awful lot of the ‘artistically applied dirt’ look.

    Plus the poor little lad playing Frederick looked like his mascara had run. 😉

    #29570
    janetteB @janetteb

    I have not had time to catch up on any Who this week so tomorrow it is a choice of The Next Doctor or C.B. I know I should watch the later and the memory of the giant stompy robot makes that considerably easier. However after five minutes of C.B. even giant stompy robots might become appealing.

    As I don’t think I will fit in both I will comment on this from memory. It was not the worst of the Christmas specials, after all it did not have Kylie in it, but it gave the Titanic story some stiff competition for that claim. Christmas specials are meant to be watched in a kind of winey, puddingy haze. The problem was that by the time we got to see them in Oz the Christmas day haze had worn off so the workhouse kids looked like badly made up extras, the sets like the christmas cards already beginning to gather dust, and the overall feel felt like it was going stale.

    It started promisingly. The rapport between Tennant and Morrissey was good. Jackson Lake was an interesting and sympathetic character and his Tardis and sonic were lovely. The graveyard scene was beautifully acted and shot. After that scene things really began to fall apart and the silliness set in.

    Nearly always in Who is is possible to imagine that the events depicted could really have taken place, or at least until AG Who. Even the dinosaurs in London were kind of explained by the evacuation of the city. There were “emergencies” but the outside world was kept in the dark as to the cause and of couse most of those stories which did impact on human history were set in either present, future or in an alternative present or future. Donna might have missed the alien attack on London and various other such incursions but surely she learnt in history about the gaint stompy robot destroying half  of London. Everyone would have known about it. There would have been Hollywood films made about it, numerous books, comics and stories written about it. The Giant Stompy Robot stomps all over history and the credibility of Dr Who. S.M. attempts to paper over that in one of the recent series, (I don’t recall when now), for which I was very grateful.

    Bit of a rant there. Sorry but G.S.R. was for me a massive let down and The Next Doctor is not a story I enjoy re-watching. So now off to watch a little C.B.

    Cheers

    Janette

    #29572
    Nick @nick

    I actually rewatched this a couple of months ago as BBC World Entertainment (or whatever they call it) showed it a few months ago (for the first time locally in Dubai). Definitely a tale of two halves – first half is great. The second half is amongst the worst Who ever (I’m probably only slightly exaggerating my opinion). It was also the first time AG Who put off my Brother’s kids (who are both slap in the middle of the target age group). In many ways, this story combines both the best and worst of the RTD era for me.

    The only thing the that slightly puts me off the first half is the lack of social realism. I am minded to think that we really ought to show the past warts and all, complete with smoking, alcoholism, racism, starvation, extreme poverty and disease rather than the Walt Disney version. Of course a U rated Christmas show might not be the best place to do this, but I think Victorian London could have been portrayed better than it was.

    Janette

    I have to agree with you here. The GSR, as you call it, stomping all over London type story – and AG Who has had several different versions (especially in RTD’s era) – are almost always my least favourite to watch. I am pre-disposed to view the spectacle of an open Alien Invasion as likely to have such a significant impact on global society, that it becomes impossible for me to suspend the critical part of my brain (what’s left of it anyway). Its best left to Independence Day type films. Generally Who stories have been at their best when suspense/horror are the more important story elements than pure spectacle.

    I actually think that TV as a whole is too safe now, but that’s a different story.

    #29578
    CraigNixon @craignixon

     

    Worst Christmas special of AG Who?  Naahh – for me thats the Matt Smith Narnia tree people thing (forget the name)

    Definately the third quarter where it fell down for me, ending was meh but I like the idea of giant stompy robots dagnabbit.

    (Watched waaaay to much Transformers, Robotech and Zoids when I was younger. Then there’s all the anime!)

    But yes, it felt like a different script writer in the second half. A lot more stilted – if it was real life, a lot more “uh, erm,ahh” would have been said.

    Cybershade – I feel sorry for the cybermen, a Dalek is a Dalek- Iconic. Cybermen are like the Gobots. Pale imitations.

    #29581
    Arbutus @arbutus

    I actually think that most of this is pretty fun. The pre-credit scenes are lovely: the Doctor’s total pleasure at finding himself a proper Christmas, his glee at hearing his name being called, his complete shock at meeting another Doctor. The idea that the Doctor might be meeting his future self was great, and I thought it played out well. I loved the Doctor’s initial uncertainty, because the “Next Doctor” behaved exactly as the Tenth Doctor would have expected himself to behave! Fearlessness and a bit of bombast; a gutsy companion; the mutual laughter shared with Ten after their brief adventure.

    And then the odd little moments where Ten realizes that this isn’t quite right. “The Doctor” doesn’t recognize his predecessor. There are missing memories. The sonic screwdriver isn’t sonic. The Doctor begins to learn that some things are a mystery even to “the Doctor”. Finally, after the discovery of the Cyberman in the closet (which I thought was really well done in terms of pacing), the Doctor thinks to check his successor’s heart beats. And certain things become more clear.

    The villainess of the piece is properly wicked, and as others have said, the funeral scene was really well done. I loved the emotional impact of this very strong woman all in vivid red, facing down a bunch of dark-suited men, and there was this sense that they were helpless before her, that their power over women was really dependent upon the women playing by the rules! This is an example of how good a villain can be with a little extra characterization, I wish that we could have had a little more of Miss Hartigan’s backstory.

    David Morrissey is great. He plays it exactly right, seriously but with a touch of swashbuckle, and his moments of tragedy are never overdone. I enjoyed the relationship between the Doctor and Jackson Lake. The Doctor is very gentle and kind with him, right from the start, even before he is sure what is going on. He continually watches him with the greatest look of sympathy and understanding. And Jackson actually turns out to be very brave, very Doctor-like. He repays the Doctor’s sympathy later on with his own, which I thought was nicely done. I actually found the Doctor’s explanation for his lack of companions rather poignant, and certainly right in step with where Ten found himself at this point in his incarnation.

    However, they lost me with the climax. I found the giant cyber-monster ludicrous, and the congratulatory hero-worship tone is tough to take. And as others have said, history would not have forgotten a thirty-foot Cyberman in Victorian London.

    Highlights for me:
    “You ask a lot of questions.” “I’m a companion!”
    The TARDIS!!!! An absolutely great moment to see that balloon where we are expecting to see something more… TARDIS-like. The Doctor’s reaction was great.
    This, after Rosita pops Miss Hartigan one in the face: “Can I say I completely disapprove!”
    Did the Doctor say “Avanti” instead of “Allons-y”?
    “That was designated… a lie.” And the Cyber response to Miss Hartigan’s passionate talk of a new Cyber race?  “Diagnosis… system failure.”
    “Come on, Jackson. You know me!” before swinging around on a rope to rescue the little boy. (I have a weakness for rope-swinging!)
    When the Doctor reminds Jackson that he now has a reason to live, Jackson replies, “And you haven’t?” Their eyes hold for a moment, and Jackson’s expression is suddenly one of understanding. Very understated. Morrissey is very good.
    While Jackson’s “yay, doctor” speech is pretty OTT, I must admit that Morrissey delivers it really well.
    Jackson’s reaction to the TARDIS is really, really delightful.

    Overall, not bad in my view. I’m inclined to agree with the comments regarding Victorian authenticity, but it didn’t bother me as much as the giant robot. Perhaps if they had avoided that expense, they could have afforded a little more accuracy in their application of dirt?   🙂

    #29802
    Anthony68 @anthony68

    The Doctor

     

    lands his TARDIS in London on Christmas Eve, 1851. Overhearing cries for help, he encounters a man calling himself “The Doctor” and his companion Rosita, attempting to capture a Cybershade.

     

    The Cybershade escapes the trio. The Doctor, in talking to the man, comes to believe he may be a future incarnation of himself, who is suffering from amnesia. The man, dubbed the Next Doctor, takes the Doctor to a nearby house of a recently deceased reverend, believing him tied to a series of disappearances around London and the Cybershade. Inside, they discover a pair of Cybermen data-storage infostamps, which the Next Doctor recalls holding the night that he lost his memories. The two are attacked by Cybermen and the Doctor attempts to fight them off with a cutlass, but the Next Doctor kills them using electrical discharge from the infostamps.

    The two Doctors regroup with Rosita at the Next Doctor’s base, where the Next Doctor claims his “TARDIS” is located. The Doctor is surprised to find that “TARDIS” is a gas balloon – “Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style”, and comes to realise that the Next Doctor is really a human, Jackson Lake, the supposed first missing person. The Doctor suspects that Jackson had encountered the Cybermen and used the infostamps, containing knowledge of the Doctor, to ward them off after they killed his wife, with the side effect of infusing his mind with knowledge of the Doctor. As Jackson contemplates this revelation, the Doctor and Rosita set off to try to find the source of the Cybermen, while the Doctor theorises that they have somehow managed to escape the Void using a Dimension Vault stolen from the Daleks (episode: “Doomsday”).http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/301/f/0/dwe___cybermen_dimension_vault_by_mclatchyt-d4e876r.jpg

    The Doctor and Rosita enter an underground complex to find numerous children, pulled from workhouses around the city, at work under Cybermen guard. They encounter the bitter Miss Mercy Hartigan, the Cybermen’s human ally that has brought the children to them for labour. The Doctor attempts to use a modified infostamp to overload the Cybermen’s systems, but they instead repair it and identify the Doctor as their long-time foe, and prepare to “delete” him and Rosita. Jackson suddenly arrives, armed with several more infostamps which he uses to distract the Cybermen long enough for the three to escape. The Cybermen turn on Miss Hartigan, converting her into the controller for the “Cyberking”, a giant mechanical Cyberman powered by the energy generated by the children. She originally tries to protest, saying that the Cybermen promised her she would never be converted, but the Cyberleader claims “That was designated a lie.”

    Jackson explains to the Doctor how he has started recovering his memories, and remembers encountering the Cybermen on moving into his new home. The Doctor considers that Jackson’s home may be close to the Cybermens’ base, and discovers a second entrance there. Within the complex, as the Cyberking starts to rise to the city, the three rescue the children, including Jackson’s son, who was abducted in the initial attack and caused Jackson’s fugue state. As the Cyberking starts to lay waste to the city, the Doctor uses Jackson’s balloon to rise near the level of the Cyberking’s control room in the machine’s head, and tries to reason with Miss Hartigan, offering to take her and the Cybermen to a new planet. When she refuses, the Doctor uses the infostamps to sever her connection to the Cyberking, exposing her to the raw emotion of what she has done. Enraged by the actions the Cybermen forced her to undertake, the emotional feedback destroys both the Cybermen and Miss Hartigan. As the Cyberking starts to topple, the Doctor uses the Dimensional Vault to draw both it and the remnants of the Cybermen into the Time Vortex, saving London. The crowds of people below, rallied by a speech by Jackson, cheer and applaud the Doctor.

    In the aftermath, Jackson thanks the Doctor for what he has done and is allowed to see the interior of the true TARDIS, much to his pleasure. He then offers the Doctor a place at Christmas dinner. However, the Doctor initially refuses, but is convinced to stay as Jackson now says it is a demand. Before they depart, Jackson enquires after the Doctor’s many companions, and the Doctor replies that in the end, “…they break my heart,” they move on, and he is left alone. The pair then head off for a Christmas dinner in honour of those they have lost.

    I like the part where Miss Hartigan has een “open” mind and sees what she done…:)

    #52582
    winston @winston

    I dusted this one off for a rewatch today and I still like most of it. I remember the first time I watched thinking that David Morrissey would make a wonderful Doctor. Loved his “sonic ” screwdriver and his “TARDIS”.  The scene in the real TARDIS when Jackson has his mind blown is pretty cute.” Nonsense” he says, “wonderful nonsense”. That is how I feel about the TARDIS. I am not crazy about the giant cyber robot but I have seen crazier things in my time with the Doctor  so I guess I’ll let it go…. since it was Christmas. It was a hot and humid day here in Ontario so a snowy Victorian London was like a splash of cool water.  If it is this hot tommorow maybe I’ll watch the one about the cold and snowy Ood planet (can’t remember the name) with the Doctor Donna.

    #73557
    Rewvian @rewvian

    I recall the first time I watched this one, I didn’t know if Ten had run into a new iteration of the Doctor or not.  But I thought David Morrisey could have made a great Doctor.  I read once, the writers intended for Jackson Lake to be a version of the Doctor that could never exist.  Within the first few minutes of the episode he’s trying to lasso villains and open doors with an actual screwdriver.

    The Cyber Shades are meant to be the new “monster” in this episode, I guess a cheaper cyber thing that can be ordered around.  I honestly don’t know what the hell they are supposed to be lol.  But they fit with the aesthetics of the episode and the era.

    Jackson Lake’s improper use of the info pod things to fry Cybermens’ brains was cool, and saves everyone on a few occasions.  I am guessing they were property of the Cybermen, and apparently not very safe devices for them to be owning.

    Someone up above pointed to the funeral scene as one of the best in this episode, and I might have to agree.  (Despite liking the rest of the episode, too.)  It was creepy and well done, with simple cyber marching and frantic guys trying to escape only to be cyber-zapped.

    The Cyber King was some awful CGI but was entertaining at least.  Essentially a Cyberman mecha ship, it made the threat of the Cybermen more crazy than it already was in this episode.  It was equally funny watching the Doctor do battle with the Cyber King from a hot air balloon.  I thought the Cyber King was gonna fall and crush a whole lot of people, but it was a nice touch having the Doctor warp it all away with that device from Lake’s cellar.

    One of the underrated scenes in this episode was Jackson Lake getting everyone to cheer and thank the Doctor for saving the day.  I think the Doctor is getting lonely at this point with his companions all gone, and that gave him the boost of appreciation he needed to continue on with a smile.

    The Tenth Doctor really does say sorry a lot.  But I thought his exchange with Lake was good, and it was nice to see the Doctor give in and decide to enjoy a Christmas dinner with someone for a change.

    #73558
    Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent

    @rewvian    I took the title literally, I thought we were actually going to see the next Doctor.   Jackson Lake would have been an okay Doctor, I think.   But I would have absolutely loved to see Rosita as the next Companion, she was great!

    As always, it seems, I have a minor nitpick, the Doctor going into action on a balloon.   How do you control where it goes?   (The answer of course is, you don’t).

    By the way, are you catching the ‘extras’?   For example, Time Crash which came just before Voyage of the Damned.    From my recollection, there are quite a lot of assorted extra mini-episodes around the 5th to 7th seasons.    Tardis.fandom.com  has them listed in its ‘List of Doctor Who Episodes’, though not strictly in order, but it has the original airing dates which allows them to be put in order.   I think you can probably find some of them on Youtube or Vimeo or Dailymotion if you search.

    #73559
    Rewvian @rewvian

    @dentarthurdent I caught Time Crash and, since you reminded me, I just watched the Music of the Spheres.

    I guess no matter what some shorts and related content is going to slip by me.  At least I will catch all of the episodes.

    I thought Jackson and Rosita made a good team, and you could buy into the idea early on that they were the Doctor and companion.  Rosita’s best moment was using the axe to cut the rope so they didn’t come flying out the window.

    #73560
    Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent

    @rewvian Well, I guess the most significant ‘extra’ mini-episode has to be ‘The Night of the Doctor’ which came just before Day of the Doctor. (It’s on Youtube). Not just for the Doctor’s overall storyline, but for a sight of Paul McGann as number 8. I’m sad he never got to play a regular Doctor in the TV series, I think he was perfectly cast as the Doctor.

    But some of the others in Seasons 5 to 9 are well worth catching too.

    #73561
    janetteB @janetteb

    @rewvian. I really enjoy the first half of this episode but the giant stompy cyber-king destroying half of London loses me. Why isn’t that mentioned in the history books. Why does nobody remember it? Jackson and Rosita are good though her costume is jarringly wrong too from a historical perspective.

    Cheers

    Janette

    Just read my previous post on this and realise I am summarising that rant though on one point I disagree with myself having changed my view of Voyage of the Damned since then.

     

    #73562
    Rewvian @rewvian

    @dentarthurdent I’ve seen brief clips of McGann’s scene where he becomes the War Doctor, but not this entire short apparently.  If any of it was shown in the Day of the Doctor then I really don’t remember.  It will be a while until I get to rewatch that one.  I guess the 8th Doctor still got more exploration than the War Doctor.

    @janetteb My guess would be the Cyber King vanished entirely a few minutes after rising to the skies and initiating its attack, so all that was left was whatever carnage it left behind.  There might have been stories, but after a little while most people probably chalked it up to some sort of mass hysteria.  It wasn’t there very long so it was hard for anyone to prove.  The info pod things the Cybermen left behind, if any still work, could reveal a lot of things to the people if they were found.

    #73563
    Rewvian @rewvian

    @dentarthurdent I didn’t see Night of the Doctor, but if there was anything shown in the Day of the Doctor then I probably forgot it over the years.  I have seen brief clips of McGann from that scene, in other things.  I would say at least the 8th Doctor got more exposure than the War Doctor.

    @janetteb Since the Doctor made the whole Cyber King vanish, there probably wasn’t much proof left behind of it other than whatever carnage it got to cause for a few minutes.  Those info pods, if any still work, probably would have brought a lot of new knowledge to the people though.

    #73566
    Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent

    @janetteb   I agree about the giant stompy robot, surely it would be remembered.   Doctor Who does tend to have a recurring  continuity problem with all the apocalyptic events that have happened to London and/or the world and seem to have been forgotten in later episodes.

    I also tend to regard Christmas episodes as lightweight digressions, often not part of the regular Who timeline.   So my expectations of them tend to be not too high.   That said, some of them are pleasantly diverting – Last Christmas  (sarcastic elves, what’s not to love?), Doctor Mysterio was kinda fun, The Husbands of River Song…

    I was just searching Youtube in a bid to find some of the ‘extras’ I’ve been recommending to Rewvian here when I tripped over a compilation of ‘best moments of Amy and the Doctor’ and it reminded me just how well-written and polished the Moff’s episodes were.   So where I’m going next is – back to Eleventh Hour and start watching through again, I think.   At some point Rewvian will overtake me, that’s okay, it’s not a race   🙂

    @rewvian   When you get to The Day of the Doctor,   I strongly recommend you search out The Night of the Doctor  on Youtube first.   It sets the scene for DotD.

    #73568
    janetteB @janetteb

    @rewvian I echo what @dentarthurdent says. Definitely watch Night of the Doctor and the follow up mini-sode, The Last Day which is designed to lead into Day of the Doctor. They are both well worth watching.

    cheers

    Janette

    #73582
    Rewvian @rewvian

    @dentarthurdent

    @janetteb

    I will try to remember to check out Night of the Doctor and The Last Day when I get to Day of the Doctor.  I may need some reminding closer to that time, heh.  o_o

    And Dentarthurdent don’t be so sure, I am not sure I’ll be able to keep up the pace I’ve been going at with the first 4 seasons and the specials.  I have The End of Time to watch through, and then I may even take a little break in-between before starting the Smith/Moffat years.  I am actually not sure how quickly things will go from series 5 onward, but I’ll be especially focused on comparing my memories of those episodes to how I view them at present.

    #73590
    Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent

    @rewvian I’ll try to remember to remind you about Night of the Doctor.

    You’re not far behind me. I just re-watched The Eleventh Hour last night. So even if you ease off the go-faster pedal a little, I think you’ll probably overtake me quite soon. But it absolutely doesn’t matter of course.

    I’m happy to report that Eleventh Hour still retained its interest, even on my third viewing. I’d forgotten that the very first time the Doctor met (adult) Amy she hit him with a cricket bat.

    #75278
    VickyMallard @vickymallard

    Now this feels weird… I guess there was a bit of time between the episodes, but for me the Doctor has just lost Donna, but steps quite cheerfully out of the Tardis as if nothing ever happened. Well that all right then! Anyway, it looks like he’s landed right in the middle of a Charles Dickens story. And then there is… another Doctor?! Okay, to be expected given the title of the episode, but still weird as neither seems to remember the other. Which would make the other Doctor a different timelord? That can’t really be either, can it? Especially since they both say Allons-y at the same time. (I hope this is not some very beloved old incarnation of the Doctor that I simply don’t recognise…?!) And what is it that comes out of that barn? A cyber-bull?! Okay, not quite. But if they slide across the floor like that, they shouldn’t have any bottoms of their trousers left.
    So the other Doctor isn’t actually the Doctor at all but the result of some backfired Cybermen assimilation? I didn’t really get this timestamp thing at all, but apparently, he ended up with everything the Cybermen know about the Doctor in his mind. And a sonic screwdriver, which is sonic because it makes sounds. And a Tardis that is a hot air balloon. I loved that.
    Cybermen are not really my favourite monsters so far, although they seem to appear relatively frequently. But what on Earth does that Dalek-style thingy there? I possibly missed it the Doctor’s explanation to it, or it’s just background of Dalek technology basics that I’m missing but to me it felt a bit like “oh, we’ll just throw in a pinch of our other main villains to make it sound more threatening”). Although I did like the “Cybermen in the closet” bit. Why do the Cybermen need all the children as a workforce? Adults don’t do? Hm. And this lady with her super-strong mind becomes Cyberking, which is not what she had expected but she adjusts quickly. Maybe it’s because times have changed since this was filmed but I somewhat expected her to claim the title Cyberqueen, and wanting to create an army of cyberwomen. But okay. So then this meta-cyber-robot comes out of the Thames and the Doctor gets the balloon Tardis to fly. I kind of liked that – I actually loved that it got to fly – but I felt that plan had a few flaws… I mean if any of the Cybermen, aboard this thingy or otherwise, would have taken a shot at the balloon before he was in position, the Doctor would have been an easy prey for them. I also couldn’t help but smile when that giant robot emerged from the river and started to descend on the city of London like Godzilla or so. I was very much reminded of Voyage of the Damned, when everyone except Wilf had left town over Christmas because it had become quite a dangerous place to be at that time of year. There seems to be a history to that! 😉
    I liked the ending, though, when Jackson convinces him to come to the Christmas dinner in honour of “those we lost”, and the Doctor realises it’s not just the cybermen victims that were lost. “Sometimes… they forget me. And…. they break my heart.” I wonder if that’s one of the reasons a Timelord has two hearts? So he can cope with all the loss around him better? I mean, traumatic events such as in the case of Donna set aside, he IS nine hundred-odd years old and had his heart broken more often than he bothered to count, I guess.
    But anyway… nice episode. Not my favourite one (too many Cybermen and no Donna) but still okay.

    #75283
    ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u

    @vickymallard

    The Next Doctor… I enjoyed it. Cyberpunk! Nice. Teased the end of 10. Ooh you card Russ. Nice turn from Dervla Kirwan… even though, like David Haywood in The End of Time, her casting made me a bit uncomfortable.

    Interesting point… should you be wary about exactly who you cast as villains? Not sure that’s RTD’s style. Perhaps Russel might say it’s the powerful outsiders who step beyond the pale (so you wouldn’t get that from the establishment? Is the it Russ?) but I was more comfortable with the sub incel nerd villain in the Sontaran Strategy say, cos everyone was getting to hate the techno dorks even then. So is Russell asking if we still have an issue with chippy women and rich black men?

    The thing is, compared to Moffat, RTD never really went to the next level on his Xmas specials, apart from the glorious Voyage of the Damned. The Next Doctor is not meh exactly, just a slightly longer story with a seasonal flavour. And that’s it.

    Donna does divide opinion. Series 4 was very strong and Catherine Tate was one reason for that. If you want eye candy and unquestioning worship of The Oncoming Storm, that’s a problem.

    Should 10 mourn Donna? Perhaps he’s running away; blotting it out… actually he don’t half get through companions. Can’t get dewy eyed about all of them. In fact the ‘beyond series 4’ specials were about the people who were NOT chosen as companions IMHO. ‘The Waters of Mars’ is the stand out, but I enjoyed all of them.

    #75285
    VickyMallard @vickymallard

    @ps1l0v3y0u  I am not sure what you mean with the unquestioning worship of The Oncoming Storm (is that a specific event?), and as far as eye candy is concerned I have been perfectly satisfied with Ten/Fourteen 😉

    And just to avoid any misunderstanding – what I wrote was simply my personal opinion about the episode, not a statement of fact. Regarding mourning Donna: I didn’t expect him to do that for the entire episode, but considering how long it seemed to take Ten to mentally let go of Rose, and that the whole DoctorDonnaMetacrisisMindwipe seemed to have haunted him so much that he came back to her some 15 years later, I simply didn’t expect such a cheerful start.

    Regarding Christmas specials, I  can’t compare much of anything here, as I haven’t seen anything from another era, but I didn’t even know this was a Christmas special so I certainly did not have any expectations for a “bombastic special”. Until Christmas was mentioned I thought it was a normal episode.

    So I’ll see what the next one brings!

    #75286
    Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent

    @vickymallard @ps1l0v3y0u Well I was – slightly disappointed by The Next Doctor (which turned out not to be the next Doctor after all). Cybermen child labour in Victorian London just seemed a bit like the old Dickens/Christmas theme, Oliver Twist and all that. I thought Christmas Carol (okay that was openly Dickens-derived) was a better ‘take’ on that theme.

    They teased us with a string of ‘not future companions’ in those post-Season 4 specials. I thought Rosita from Next Doctor would have made a fine Companion. And Lady Christina de Souza (Planet of the Dead), though she might have been almost too good, a veritable Emma Peel. She would have put the Doctor in the shade. That said, I would have absolutely loved to see her reappear from time to time, the way Captain Jack did.

    Back to The Next Doctor. Rosita seemed to be devoted to Jackson Lake, though he seemed to be oblivious / take it for granted. Was that due to ongoing grief over missing his wife? There’s a very strong parallel situation to Martha and Ten, there!

    The CyberKing – how could that not be recorded in the history books? Same way all the other alien incursions manage to get missed/forgotten, I guess. I do have strong reservations about the ‘Tardis’ balloon. Not so much the chances of getting shot by a Cyberman, except at really close quarters, flying objects are notoriously difficult to hit (unless the Cybermen have super-good aim) and a bullet hit on a balloon just tends to go straight through with minimal immediate results. But balloons are totally unsuited to attacking anything, they go where the wind blows and a miss by a hundred yards is as bad as a miss by a mile. They’re fine for escaping, possibly okay for infiltrating a country so long as there’s no requirement for a precise landing site, but for a precision attack? – forget it. Quite impractical.

    #75295
    Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent

    @rewvian Somehow your comments (which have just appeared in my email) are dated 22 October 2022 in this thread. So about 6 or 8 posts up. Not sure what’s going on.
    The Night of the Doctor (the complete 6-minute special) is on Youtube, see if this link works:

    I think it was probably also on the Day of the Doctor DVD set (checks spreadsheet) – yes.

    #75300
    ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u

    @dentarthurdent

    I thought John Hurt was great as the War Doctor, and I suppose Moffat may have come up with the idea some time before: 10 regenerating his hand and the Trenzalore shenanigans rescuing a decrepit old doc who’d run out of regenerations (even though it turned out he/she/they had a free pass anyway… I think I got that right). BUT… I do feel cheated of McGann’s turn versus Billie Piper as The Moment.

    I think Moff could have told McGann to channel ‘I’ from Withnail & I: “We are entering the realm of the unwell”, “An expert on bulls you are not!”, “A stopped clock is right twice a day”, “My thumbs have gone weird!”, “I’ve just been called a ponce…”

    ”Get in the back of the van!!!” IS Nicholas Briggs with a ring modulator.

    Actually my daughter once asked if Withnail & I was a Harry Potter film… point proven when Richard E Grant appeared. “See, that’s Voldemort!”

    #75302
    ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u

    @dentarthurdent @vickymallard

    Re my comment about RTD’s choice of villains, I meant of course David HAREWOOD (not Haywood) in The End of Time. Doh

    #75304
    Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent

    @ps1l0v3y0u Yes, I would have loved to see more of McGann. I thought John Hurt did a great job as the War Doctor, but if things like (presumably) availability had worked out differently, I think McGann could have taken that part with the most minimal of adjustments and he would have been equally good. And yes I would have loved to see McGann and The Moment (Billie Piper) acting together.

    Billie Piper is one of those actors that the camera loves. Even just leaning against a wall in the background, you can’t miss her. And as always, Moffat has some written delightful dialogue between them. “The Interface is hot!” “Well, I do my best.”

    Withnail & I – I’ve never seen. But I think I’ll get it on DVD, it looks promising. McGann and Richard E Grant. I know I’ve seen Richard E Grant in something, probably Who? He was never the Master, was he? No, the Great Intelligence. See, I haven’t got Alzheimers, yet. 🙂

    #75305
    ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u

    @dentarthurdent

    The McGann conundrum deserves a bit more research… the one quote that keeps coming up is that Moffat couldn’t ‘envisage 8 as the Doctor that ended the time war.’ On Reddit someone quotes ‘DW & the end of the Time War’ where RTD seemed to show he definitely thought 8 burned Gallifrey. I suppose it was a complex creative decision with both the Pandorica and Trenzalore being developed.

    Or did Mofffat take the character development of the novels and audio dramas into account? I don’t know them. Just rather liked both McGann and Hurt.

    Grant was also an incarnation of the doctor in the Curse of Fatal Death.

    Withnail and I is both cult 90’s student fare AND hilarious. Don’t do the drinking game.

    ’What’s your name? McF**k?’ I can also imagine Nicholas Briggs doing that line with ring modulator.

    The Moment might be Moff’s greatest achievement if you can ignore the fact that Doctor seems perfectly willing to ignore/accept Billie’s sudden appearance. Perhaps it’s a kind of ‘psychic paper’ power. The War Doctor needs to concentrate on the fractals.

     

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