[TrillianWho @replies]

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Doctor’s backstory and what we know so far regarding Gallifrey. There are many gaps of course, many things to speculate on rather than infer, but these are some the things i’ve gathered (please correct me if i’m wrong, if something in the BG series contradicts this):

We don’t know if every Gallifreyan is a Time Lord, do we? We have the Senate and the High Council and the military, but we also have “normal” people, like the guys at the repair shop and the old lady in the barn and all those people in Hell Bent. Do they also have 12 regenerations?  Is that something they have at birth or something that comes later, to a selected few? From what I’ve seen, i believe this is the case. I think that the regeneration rules as they have been shown has to be something more applicable than genetics – otherwise, how could you bestow a new cycle to someone? In my mind it has to do with something like tailored genes and nanotechnology, applied to the more evolved DNA of Gallifreyans. I think that anyone on Gallifrey can be a Time Lord, but the ruling class keeps that a privilege. Perhaps only for those that have passed through the Academy?

I also have a still-in-progress idea about the Matrix and the Schism and the Eye of Harmony – what if that’s the force behind regenerations? If we were to apply science (or hard s.f. tropes to be exact) to that, regeneration would be more like reconstruction, like having your personality traits stored in a database, and building them anew in a new body, and that database could be the Matrix, powered by the Schism. It would explain the different approach to each Doctor, the fact that it is like dying every time, the fact that it can go wrong, even the fact that regenerations seem to be more smooth on Gallifrey than some of the Doctor’s.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on that 🙂

[TrillianWho @replies]

God yes, Vastra, Jenny, Strax and Captain Jack – all wonderful characters and I’d love to see more episodes with the gang and see Captain Jack back (it would be really interesting to see his relationship with Capaldi, would Jack be flirtatious with him too?)

I’ve also been thinking about the wisdom of having the same companion with two different Doctors… It worked with Rose i think, not so much with Clara in my opinion, but i’m wondering about what is generally best: The same companion as before adds a continuity to things, makes you relate with the Doctor more easily… but then again a completely new companion can do that too, bring out new sides of our beloved Doctor from the start. Perhaps that’s why Eleventh Hour was more successful to me than Deep Breath. Of course, in the end, i suppose it all comes down to the Doctor in question, perhaps what worked for one incarnation won’t work for the other.

In any case, I’m really excited about the new companion, looking forward to see Capaldi in a different dynamic.

[TrillianWho @replies]

Well, I’ve yet to rewatch any Baker episode (or any other Doctor from that era), so I can’t really judge the differences and tell which i prefer. But yes, like @whofangirl-73 says, the character of the Doctor gets you through even episodes that you don’t much like. And when it hits your (personal) nail, it’s just awesome!

[TrillianWho @replies]

@ichabod @missy @thedentistofdavros @whisht @janetteb (I hope I’m not forgetting someone)

Thank you all so much for your welcome! It’s a long wait for the new episodes, I kind of wish I hadn’t been hooked with the series until later in the year, but I think time will pass swiftly with you guys!

@janetteb
I absolutely adore Douglas Adams – although i agree that the movie wasn’t the best it could be, the respect it showed and the homage to Adams left me with tears in my eyes in the end. Plus, coming to thing of it, i believe Trillian would make an excellent companion!

 

[TrillianWho @replies]

Memories… well… memory is a funny thing.

I remember watching Dr Who as a child, i think i was around 7 years old. I don’t remember the stories exactly, i don’t remember any companion in particular, i don’t clearly remember not one episode. And yet… i remember what it felt like. I remember the sense of wonder, mixed with fear – I think someone has commented that it was somewhat forbidden to watch, and that was so true for me, I had to fight with my parents every time so they would let me watch it, that I remember all too well. I don’t even remember if it was black and white or in color back then.
That haunting music theme, so 80’s in retrospect, along with the scarf and Tom Baker’s face hovering in the air, those are so connected in my mind with this sense of wonder, this sense that this show was showing me amazing things, things that could be true and so, in some way, they already were. (I don’t remember any other Doctor from those days, but I think that Tom Baker’s run was the only one that got broadcast in my country at the time anyway). The music theme is almost like a Pavlov’s stimulant – just hearing it, it opens a window to that age, i get transported back to my old house’s living room, alone in front of the tv, while the rest of my family was having lunch, and they were yelling at me to just get off the telly already, why was I so glued to it, and I couldn’t ever explain in a satisfactory way that I just couldn’t let the story finish without me.
I’ve been a fan of science fiction and fantasy all my life, and this has shaped me into the person I am today, even in my choice of work. I don’t think I ever realised it before getting reacquainted with the show, but Dr Who was probably the first thing that made me feel like this. It wasn’t the last, it wasn’t the only, it wasn’t the only factor by any means… but it was probably the first. And where would I be today without it? Who “nose”…
Coming back to the series as an adult (and a professional s.f. editor at that), I have at times fought to maintain suspension of disbelief. There are times where the timey wimeys are just too much, or even when simple gravitational physics are spoiling the story for me. There are many times where simply the limitations of an open ended story just jump out from the screen, when the story just doesn’t add up to a whole. That’s not surprising. That’s just my adult self doing her thing. What has been surprising to me is that after so many years, so many books, so many shows and movies, I found out that this show could still win my heart. It has been a different sense of wonder, to be sure… but it seems i can still remember my 7 years old self. That is good to know.

[TrillianWho @replies]

@puroandson

Thank you so much for your welcome! I’ve only been reading this forum for two weeks give or take, but even in that little time, i know two things: you have an amazing mum, and she has an amazing son. Just reading you two (i don’t remember what posts exactly, but they happened to be some of the first ones i read) made me think that this forum has some special people in it. I know what it feels like to have loved ones in the hospital… whatever it is that you’re going through, happy birthday to your mum and you have my best wishes from half a world away. 🙂

[TrillianWho @replies]

Hello!

Favorite companion… that takes some thought, but i think i would have to say Donna, followed closely second by Amy (speaking about the AG series, since i am not so familiar with the old ones). Least favorite so far it’s Clara for me, although i still don’t know exactly why.

I have been trying to figure out what makes a companion successful to me…
First of all, they have to be fully fleshed out, with complete background and distinct personality, that is a given, but for me they also have to have… lets call it an emotional counter balance to the Doctor. Something in their lives or their character that allows them not to become obsessed with the Doctor, so they can form an emotional bond with him as equals (note that this doesn’t exclude a romantic one, ie Rose). And then, of course, the Doctor has to be in a position to form such a bond – that’s why Martha Jones is not so “successful”, although she remains for me very likable.

So why none of the above has clicked for me regarding Clara? I’ve been trying to figure out if it’s the script or just the way the actress delivers the lines. Is she just plot driven, or I just don’t like her character? She seems to be independent, she seems to be a complete character, but… I don’t know. To me, she gets really possessive, really fast, without having earned it.  Her whole arc never even convinced me that she really loved Danny, I saw him like a surrogate loving interest since she couldn’t have… well 11, to be honest. Anyway, i still don’t know exactly why i don’t like her, but i’ve only been able to explain her importance to the Doctor by any other factor (his sense of duty and protection, the mystery of her echoes, his sense of debt to be repaid, his emotional state when he met her – as another “rebound” in other words, just different than Martha Jones).
I’ve been also thinking about the future companions. I suppose we can have very few companions like Martha – people with whom the Doctor does not connect. But on the other hand, how many can we have that he does connect with? Already there are questions like was Rose more important than River, or Clara more important than Amy and so on. Is there perhaps a limit (for the viewers I mean) to the different characters that any Doctor can have a real connection with? And is that limit perhaps less than the different incarnations of the Doctor?
For example, in my mind, the Ponds weren’t just companions. Mostly because of River, they were the closest the Doctor had to a family in… i suppose at least 500 years? So when i didn’t like the next companion as much, i became less invested in the series as a whole. To make a long story short, what i mean is that the viewers are expected (and they expect in return) to connect with the companions, and that this can be a double edged knife in the long run. It could collapse under its own weight so to speak.

Just some thoughts 🙂 Time will tell! For the time being, i’m waiting to see what season 10 has to offer.

[TrillianWho @replies]

Hello everyone,

New to the forum, and this is my first post – hope this is the right topic for it!

Can’t say I’m new to Dr Who, I’m a Tom Baker child like many here from what I’ve read, and I did keep up with the first seasons of the reboot, but for whatever reason I never followed it systematically until recently, when, having some time in my hands, I went through seasons 1-9 in a few weeks – rewatching the first ones and catching up with Matt Smith and Capaldi, who I had missed entirely.  I suppose back then I thought that David Tennant was the best the Doctor could be, and after he left I never gave Matt Smith a chance – and boy was I wrong! As much as I enjoyed Tennant, Smith became my Doctor from the first episode I think, and his run remains the most re-watched for me, for many reasons.

Now, having seen all the AG seasons in one go, there are many things that just stand out as inconsistencies to me, or dangling plot threads, and I’m trying to come up with theories to accommodate them. I don’t know how bonkers these theories are, but that’s what made me sing up!

My theories mostly come from character development. I have been able to hand wave many timey wimey stuff, since this isn’t a hard SF show, but looking back, I can’t do the same with character inconsistencies. Mainly this has to do with the Doctor’s name, and my reasoning goes as follows:

The Doctor tells Clara that his given name is not important, and what matters is the name he chose for himself. Fair enough, that makes sense in every way and I think it is true and not another lie. But it’s more than that, not only he keeps it hidden, he refuses to utter it in the Name of the Doctor, not even to save his friends’ lives. He went to Trenzalore to try and save them, he was prepared to die himself perhaps, he was already risking another time fracture just by going there, and still he didn’t give it, he was left with just imploring GI to spare his friends. And then I remembered the lines from the Forest of the Dead (“there is only one reason I would tell you my name, only one time I could”). What if that “could” is quite literal? What if he physically can’t pronounce his own name and it’s not just a matter of trust or for avoiding something worse?

So that was my starting point and I have many thoughts on that. Has such an idea been discussed already? And if not, is this the right topic for it?

[Author]

Posts