Ye Olde Doctor Who Thread.

[inflatable dalek]

Yeah, that was really the only time they could have gotten away with it (for the Doctor anway, despite it being heavily rumoured I think the Jacobi regeneration was still a surprise for most people).

The Tennant half of the regeneration was actually filmed after the series had started airing, which shows how last minute it was. You can tell the script that was supposed to be paying off Rose's story wasn't very heavily rewritten to make it a regeneration. I think (discounting the shoved in McCoy) it's probably the least Doctor centric story of any regeneration since the first where they were having to work round Hartnell's illness. He spends most of it messing with wires whilst the focus is very much on Rose.

[Brendocon 2.0]

There was that moment at the end of The Stolen Earth where we thought maybe they'd swerved us all and pulled it off, but I think we all secretly knew it wasn't really happening.

[Tetsuro]

...and I'm not wasting my time reading all that. Jesus, its just a TV show FFS. Don't like it, don't watch it. You like the old stuff better? Great, go watch that. It still exists. Silly person, wasting all that time spaffing that out when they could have been doing something more productive, like ironing or something.

But that'd be boring.

[Brendocon 2.0]

Daleks and Cybermen standing off doing bullshit macho posturing and toughguy quips should be massively out of character for both sides, but it's just so awesome I can totally look past it.

Also, in hindsight it probably would have been better for everyone to ditch the whole Torchwood idea and just use UNIT.

[inflatable dalek]

Which is basically what they've done since of course. Odd public tiff between the Moff and John Barrowman this week over who's stopping Torchwood from coming back (Barrowman: Steven won't let us! The Moff: I have no control of that. Even though I currently still run the Doctor Who office and presumably would have a say in any spinoffs DO NOT LOOK BEHIND THE CURTAIN).

Considering they tried they're hardest to give it away beforehand (putting a Dalek extermination from the following episode in the Doomsday trailer; having the new Black Dalek do the season launch publicity tour...) it still felt like it was something that would never happen and I get that fission every single time I rewatch when the Cyberleader goes "That sphere's nothing to do with us mate" and I realised they're really, really going to do it...

Of course, we weren't resigned to them clearly having to shove at least one Dalek in every year at that point helped.

And it still works. My favourite RTD (all of New Who maybe) finale by a long, long way.

[Brendocon 2.0]

Though it is convenient that all the Cybermen and Daleks who got sucked through the portal went to... er, presumably somewhere bad(?) while Rose just automatically landed safely on Pete's World.

Blah blah quantity of voidstuff blah blah.

The Specials Year and Series 6 are the only times we've been completely sans Daleks, aren't they?

[Skyquake87]

The Daleks and Cybermen are just hanging around in the void (with Unicron, maybe...). Rose was rescued by Pete, so I think that's playing fair and not a convenient get out.

I'd agree with Dalek that this is easily the best finale RTD did and the fairwell between Rose and The Doctor is still bloody ace. I like how important Rose had become that this felt particularly wrenching.


There was a Dalek, briefly, in the finale to Series 6 - The Doctor is seen destroying one and walking into a bar with its eye stalk.

[inflatable dalek]

Yeah, Pete grabbed Rose before she got sucked off with the Daleks (the real question is: How did he know where to stand so he'd switch to our Universe at exactly the right place and moment?).

There's a lone Dalek in Watets of Mars (and the original plan for The End of Time would have Rassilon working with the Dalek Prime Minister to escape the Time Lock before RTD heard of the Moff planning to do an early Dalek episode and decided not to over egg it) and in the one before The Wedding of River Song.

Which led to rumours they were contractually obliged to use the Daleks at least once a year (the Matt Smith one is especially contrived: "I know who'll tell me about the Silence! A Dalek!"). Which I believe has now been firmly denied, but it's a theory that fits the facts a bit too well. I suppose if Matt Lucas hugs on in the Christmas Special we'll know for sure.



Ohhh, actually, the companion intro trailer had Daleks didn't kt? And was broadcast on TV. That might cover their 2016 requirement.

[Brendocon 2.0]

Yeah, Pete grabbed Rose before she got sucked off with the Daleks

This is what I get for bagging comics while pretending to watch tv...

[Brendocon 2.0]

I'd forgotten just how unbearably smug the Shakespeare Code was.

The sonic screwdriver as an all-purpose magic wand is arguably the worst sin the show's committed in its entire history.

[Brendocon 2.0]

So, I'm on The Lazarus Experiment and a couple of things occur to me:

1) Never previously twigged that the namedrop about Mr Saxon helping to fund the experiment is a clue as to his identity, given he's essentially helping a human to regenerate.

2) Is it too late to go back, scrap this episode and just get Mark Gatiss to play the Master instead of Simm? He's got far more of Delgado and Ainley in him than Panto John.

[Skyquake87]

Yes. Although I do like Panto John.

Agree about the Sonic being just nonsense at this point.

[Tetsuro]

The sonic screwdriver as an all-purpose magic wand is arguably the worst sin the show's committed in its entire history.

And to think, JNT blew it up way back and it wasn't even half as bad then as it is now.

Seems to me like he had the right idea.

[Brendocon 2.0]

It's a shame that Blink's been rendered completely unbearable by all the smug Moffattry that followed in later years.

It really is the twattery template. Vague handwavey doesn't really make sense plotting wrapped up in Tumblrfriendly catchphrases and "ooh look how clever we are" bootstrapping to distract from it all.

The Doctor's side of his conversation with Sally is basically expositional monologuing by the end, so even without her side of the first two thirds you can still basically work out what he's on about by the end.

As a one-off it's fine, but it just makes my skin crawl knowing that the show devolves into pretty much exclusively this in about 22 episodes.

That sledgehammer closing montage is shit too.

[inflatable dalek]

Oh Gatiss would have been a great Master, as indeed he was in that audio where he played it opposite David Warner, Nick Courtney and some scots bloke called David Tennant.

I still like Blink, though the Angels really were diminishing returns. It's also amusing the episode that is seen as the high water mark of the revived series barely has the regulars in it...

[Brendocon 2.0]

Well at least Utopia's still ****ing ace, though.

[inflatable dalek]

Oh **** yeah.

[Brendocon 2.0]

The Master watching the Teletubbies. Nice callback to the Sea Devils.

It was the Sea Devils, wasn't it?

[EDIT] That is the extent of the positive things that I have to say about Sound of Drums.

[EDIT 2] And Last of the Time Lords, tbf. ****ing spacetime Jesus.

[Tetsuro]

The one thing I remember about The Last of the Timelords is thinking that they couldn't possibly make an episode worse than this.

And then The End of Time came along.

[inflatable dalek]

There was an episode between Utopia and Time Crash?

I'm actually surprised how down people are on Kylie in the next episode, I think she's perfectly fine (albeit in a hardly stretching role) and would rather have had her ghost stick around than Tate come back.