Doctor Who?

[jonesy]

Start of the series I really didn't like the new guy,as it's gone on I've warmed to him a little but the stories are definately worse than previous years IMO,still it's only meant to be a bit of fun ain't it?

Only a bit of fun???

But yes, I agree. And I don't know why they should have been worse. I agree with dondare that Moffat wrote some of the best stories in previous series, so it is a bit disappointing that there haven't been any that really stand out this time (though the Beast Below wasn't bad). And there were some other good writers too, for example whoever wrote the Family of Blood, so there should have been a good pool of experienced writers to work with Moffat.

 

[marinyork]

The Star Trek transporter is allegedly also the result of a budget issue.

Unable to afford multiple shots of spaceships landing on planets, th transporter was the cheap option.


Beam me up!

They used icing sugar to do the CGI for voyager when that crash landed, what more high tech do you want!

 

[Night Train]

The reason they fly around in a police box is because there was supposed to be a gadget that made the TARDIS resemble something normal in the world/time they landed, but it wasn't working in the first episode (early BBC budget excuse) and the shape stood.

You'd think that after all this time he would have got it fixed by now.

Or perhaps it is a time travel paradox and it is already fixed but series 2,371,593 hasn't been aired yet.

Anyway, what does his initials stand for in the new titles? 'Dr DW Who'.

 

[marinyork]

You'd think that after all this time he would have got it fixed by now.

He did have a go but it led to Tom Baker's doctors death so understandably he didn't get round to it again for a while. When the sixth doctor tries to fix it it doesn't work and the TARDIS changes into a stove, organ and gateway.

 

[marinyork]

I think the series has regressed. It'll sell more stuff overseas/US as the rest of the world base populace may see the UK as being some eccentric 50s Proff thing with a sloane girlfriend.

In terms of overseas sales, in the long run the BBC are going to be kicking themselves that they didn't shoot any proper Tennant other than the specials in high definition, it's really going to come back to bite them in the bottom.

 

[Ghost Donkey]

and after a few years he regenerates into someone younger because the original actor gets a bit too old to read his cue cards.

It's absolutely barmy.

Or costs too much to hire as his value increases every season.

 

[summerdays]

I'm still enjoying them ... I prefer David Tennant - but I'm getting used to the replacements. I don't think TV makes that many shows that appeal to a wide audience, certainly in my family there are only a few shows that are whole family things. If someone is out ... we record it and watch it later together, no one can watch it before hand.

 

[Dan B]

The individual episodes this season do stand up fairly well, but the "crack in the wall" recurring theme just seems like it's been wedged in at the end.

 

[JtB]

Well are you all on the edges of your seats waiting to find out if he gets out of the Pandorica or not?

 

[potsy]

Well are you all on the edges of your seats waiting to find out if he gets out of the Pandorica or not?

I actually thought it was the finale last week ended up saying 'is that it'.
Oh well Dr Who saturday,bike ride and England game sunday,can't be bad

 

[PBancroft]

Actually, I must admit the series has kinda picked up. Am looking forward to it.

 

[PBancroft]

If Chris Eccleston had carried on it would have been worth watching. As it is, he left because it was such a crap working environment, and it fell off a cliff.

Nah. It didn't really work for him, and he didn't really work for it. He may have ended up making a good "adult" doctor, but it's a kids show, not a serious serial.

 

[potsy]

The adult version of Dr Who is Torchwood,much better programme all round

 

[Ravenbait]

I remember the time when the Chamaelon circuit was working, briefly. Didn't it turn into an armchair in Venice while Romana was around?

Sam

 

[661-Pete]

Regarding the OP, the series title "Doctor Who" (never "Dr." btw) was dreamt up by Sydney Newman, the influential Head of Drama at the BBC in the 1960s. I wonder if he ever dreamt it would still be a byword nearly half a century later. Or if he ever revealed the thought process that led to his hitting upon the name. I suppose he just thought it conjured up the right level of mystery - maybe we'll never know. (Newman died in 1997).

One thing: the Doctor is never addressed as "Doctor Who" in any of the scripts, not even the very early William Hartnell episodes AFAIR (and I watched the lot, back then). He was often referred to as "the Doctor", as now, or "the Old Man" (a reference to his cantankerous personality in his first incarnation).

The nearest he ever got to being 'named', was when Ian (one of his original 'passengers') mistakenly addresses him as "Dr Foreman" in an early episode, a name which he doesn't acknowledge. This is an allusion to the fact that in the very first-ever episode, his 'granddaughter' Susan attended an Earthling school under the assumed name Susan Foreman. Since then the Doctor has never been named (correct me if I'm wrong here).