Exterm-i-nate! Exterm-i-nate!

[F-ZeroOne]

"Who?"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/t...dio/3140786.stm

Its about time, if you'll pardon the pun...!

[JELEINEN]

Cool! First Blakes 7 and now this; looks like we might be finally seeing some decent SF television coming back.

[Doktor Gonzo]

Best part: Looks like both "Withnail" *AND* "I" are in the running for the role of the Doctor!

[Mechwarrior]

Cool! First Blakes 7 and now this; looks like we might be finally seeing some decent SF television coming back.

No kidding! I remember this show as one of the best original programs I watched growing up. Very imaginitive scripts and characters. I wish I could find even the reruns on.

[Noriko Takaya]

By the Great Sash of Rassilon! Holy Omega! It's about time those guys started to get my favorite Time Lord back into action. I guess it's time to dig up that manuscript I wrote a few years back, do a little updating, and see what happens...

[F-ZeroOne]

Just in case you're wondering, the writer Russell T. Davies is quite well respected in the UK. However, he does have a habit of picking controversial subjects; one of his dramas was about the Second Coming of Christ - in present day Manchester, England...!

( okay, for an anime crowd familiar with Evangelionthat might not sound out of the way, but for a "typical" UK television audience it was considered a bit of a stretch...! )

One things for sure, whatever - or whoever - the new Doctor turns out like, its probably not going to be anything like we expect...!

Edited September 27, 2003 by F-ZeroOne

[zeta]

Just in case you're wondering, the writer Russell T. Davies is quite well respected in the UK. However, he does have a habit of picking controversial subjects; one of his dramas was about the Second Coming of Christ - in present day Manchester, England...!

Toss some aliens in and make it a sitcom, that would be great!

Seriously though, as a member of a younger generation I never saw Dr Who, but I have heard good things!

[F-ZeroOne]

Seriously though, as a member of a younger generation I never saw Dr Who, but I have heard good things!

If you're seeing Dr. Who for the first time from the point of view of someone bought up on Farscape, Firefly, Babylon 5, etc, you might rather wonder what all the fuss is about.

From the point of view of a UK resident and SF fan who grew up during the tail-end of Dr. Whos mainstream popularity, however, its a bit easier to understand. See a Dalek in action today and you see a wobbly pepperpot armed with a sink plunger. See it when I saw it first, and you'll grow up believing nothing, absolutely nothing, could possibly be more terrifying...

Dr. Who might not have the best special effects, or the best plots ( there was an awful lot of running down corridors or around quarries ), but it had character in spades. There hasn't been a new series in years, but even today, a magazine in the UK can refer to a car as having a "TARDIS like interior", or someone "speaking like a Dalek", in the sure knowledge that everyone will instantly know what it means.

And - for all the wobbly sets, and chroma-hue SFX, and tin-foil clad monsters - it could also explore some pretty fine SF ideas and stories. The TARDIS itself was an icon from the moment it appeared, but then throw in the Cybermen, and the Doctors re-generations, and UNIT, and the Daleks... B)

[JELEINEN]

Promotional postcard showing the new Doctor: http://www.tenthplanet.co.uk/postcard.htm

I'm kinda feeling meh about the new look for this incarnation. He looks way too normal and every day. The companion is nice though.

[Otaku-Smeghead]

Yeah the Costumes are what I remember most about Dr Who

[Knight26]

Interesting choice for the doctor, I just hope he is more like the Tom Baker version of the doctor.

[JELEINEN]

Interesting choice for the doctor, I just hope he is more like the Tom Baker version of the doctor.

Personally, I always like Pertwee the best.

[valk1j]

I'm a certifiable Dr. Who geek, so I've known about this since it was announced. I'm waiting to find out which cable network is going to pick it up or if it will be syndicated in the U.S.. By the way I have every Dr. Who episode from the 4th Dr. to the end of the series on VHS, thats how geeky I am.

Oh, for a mainstream film that the new Doctor was in, check The Others, he was Nicole Kidman's husband.

[Opus]

I don't know what rock I was hiding under but I don't remember Dr. Who at all. I do remember Mr. Do! though.

[Kin]

I don't know what rock I was hiding under but I don't remember Dr. Who at all. I do remember Mr. Do! though.

Dr. who? Come again?

[Noriko Takaya]

I'm a certifiable Dr. Who geek, so I've known about this since it was announced. I'm waiting to find out which cable network is going to pick it up or if it will be syndicated in the U.S.. By the way I have every Dr. Who episode from the 4th Dr. to the end of the series on VHS, thats how geeky I am.

Oh, for a mainstream film that the new Doctor was in, check The Others, he was Nicole Kidman's husband.

Hey, don't feel bad. I have almost every paperback novel put out save for the newer ones, and have recorded almost every episode from Hartnell's era on up to McCoy's incarnation. And I am probably the only MW'er who has written a novel (as stated above) about the Doctor which has been summarily shot down by the publishing company who holds the license because I could not get copyright permission to use a certain character.

I've even got a model of a Dalek somewhere around my basement. I will have to dig it up and take a picture of it.

Edited October 29, 2004 by Noriko Takaya

[valk1j]

I'm a certifiable Dr. Who geek, so I've known about this since it was announced. I'm waiting to find out which cable network is going to pick it up or if it will be syndicated in the U.S.. By the way I have every Dr. Who episode from the 4th Dr. to the end of the series on VHS, thats how geeky I am.

Oh, for a mainstream film that the new Doctor was in, check The Others, he was Nicole Kidman's husband.

Hey, don't feel bad. I have almost every paperback novel put out save for the newer ones, and have recorded almost every episode from Hartnell's era on up to McCoy's incarnation. And I am probably the only MW'er who has written a novel (as stated above) about the Doctor which has been summarily shot down by the publishing company who holds the license because I could not get copyright permission to use a certain character.

I've even got a model of a Dalek somewhere around my basement. I will have to dig it up and take a picture of it.

Yeah, I've got a bunch of the novels too. I even have the old FASA RPG. What character are you talking about?

I would love to see that dalek model.

[Noriko Takaya]

Tom Baker was the first Doctor I ever saw when NBC tried airing the show on television in the late 70's, so I kind of have a soft spot for him. The first complete story I ever saw was The Hand of Fear, where they found the Kastrian Eldrad's hand in that rock quarry. I also am a big fan of Jon Pertwee's work and liked some of the stories Colin Baker was in. Attack of the Cybermen is one of his best stories. I found it kind of strange they used Colin Baker for the Doctor's 6th incarnation when he played a Citadel guard on Gallifrey during the 5th Doctor's reign.

The character I was to use was none other than the Daleks. I actually spoke to Terry Nation (who created them) on the telephone back around 1993, when he was working for the studio which put out the show McGuyver. I did a lot of research on them, and had them down to a science. But when crunch time came, Mr Nation dropped the "No!" bomb on me. Well, Terry Nation has since died some time ago and one of his friends, John Peel (one of the novelists for some of Nation's Dalek stories), says that the rights to the Daleks belong to his family. The letter I got from Mr Peel was dated some time ago, so maybe the BBC owns the rights to them. Funny thing is, since Ben Aaronovitch penned Rememberance of the Daleks, there have been no new stories about them to the best of my knowledge. I haven't read any of the newer adventures past the TimeWyrm and Cat's Cradle series to see if someone has. And I am not including the Abslom Daak comics. Not canon as far as I am concerned. I have been thinking of writing the Beeb to see if they ever got the rights handed over to them. I originally typed the novel on a typewriter way before I ever got interested in computers. I'm gonna have to transfer it over to disc sooner or later. All 600 some odd pages.

I do; however, have a few ideas floating around in my mind concerning a possible Cybermen story, or perhaps one featuring the Sontarans. The Sontarans have always been a favorite of mine. Tough bastards those Sontarans.

I found the Dalek model. It is in some sorry shape, as there is some mold growing on it and pieces of the gun-stick are missing. I will have to try and clean and repair it before I post it. It was originally a movie Dalek, used in theatrical releases staring Peter Cushing. I totally modified it and painted it to look like one of the Daleks used in Genesis of the Daleks. It was also one of the toughest models I ever built. I don't know what it is with British model companies, but they love to give you a challenge.

[valk1j]

I thought it was probably the Daleks you were talking about. I believe an agreement has been made between BBC and Terry Nation's family. The new series is going to have a dalek episode at somepoint.

Tom Baker is my favorite as well, he was the first I saw. I love the Key to Time stories. If I remember correctly those NBC shows were just each episode, took forever to finish a story. At the same time tho local public television station was playing the complete stories without the beginning/ending wraps.

Peter Davison usually gets a bad rap, but I like a lot of his stories, and felt his performances with the Master hearken back to the Pertwee days.

Colin Baker never got around to showing what his Doctor could be. Trial of a Timelord started showing something.

They say that the new show is going to be like the Hinchcliffe seasons and have a gothic feel to it. I love those episodes.

[JsARCLIGHT]

I must admit to watching the good Doctor on weeknights in Chicago in college and liking it...

I do have one question though for the people who know who... what was the deal with that one-off American movie they made and aired on Fox in the mid Nineties? You know, the one that supposedly had Spielburg attached to it somehow (like as the producer or something)? If I'm not mistaken they killed off the last British Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and replaced him with some new dolt (Paul McGann) in that movie... does that mean the new series will pick up from where that one left off or will the Britsh just ignore the lame ham-fisted American attempt to bring back the show and start anew?

[JB0]

I must admit to watching the good Doctor on weeknights in Chicago in college and liking it...

I do have one question though for the people who know who... what was the deal with that one-off American movie they made and aired on Fox in the mid Nineties? You know, the one that supposedly had Spielburg attached to it somehow (like as the producer or something)? If I'm not mistaken they killed off the last British Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and replaced him with some new dolt (Paul McGann) in that movie...

Well, the BBC was trying to resurrect the series for another run. Hence the pilot movie, with the new doctor.

And they wanted to have it running in the US at the same time. Hence the Fox airing(if I recall, Fox was going to be co-developing it).

But as I recall, the ratings weren't high enough for Fox to follow through with their part of the deal.

does that mean the new series will pick up from where that one left off or will the Britsh just ignore the lame ham-fisted American attempt to bring back the show and start anew?

THAT I don't know.

[Otaku-Smeghead]

I really dont know and Im a big time Dr Who Fan I'll have to research this.

My Favorites have been in no order.

5th 7th 4th 3rd

Aprently this will be the 9th Doctor.

Who on DVD Is great Im luck to have a region 2 DVD player so I can order Who DVD's from UK

Edited October 29, 2004 by Otaku-Smeghead

[valk1j]

From what I am hearing this new Dr. will be the 9th. Thus the Paul McGann Doctor will be official, they haven't said if he will be around for a regen. sequence. BBC is saying that this Doctor has the history of all the incarnations, so I'm led to believe that the movie is part of the continuity.

[Otaku-Smeghead]

From what I am hearing this new Dr. will be the 9th. Thus the Paul McGann Doctor will be official, they haven't said if he will be around for a regen. sequence. BBC is saying that this Doctor has the history of all the incarnations, so I'm led to believe that the movie is part of the continuity.

Well Mcgan WAS offcial since Mcoy regen'd in the movie right?

[Noriko Takaya]

McGann only got to film the Fox movie, and continued out his run in the series of original novels, so he has got something of a timeline, so to speak. It will be really frustrating for the casual fan who watches Doctor Who to see a 9th Doctor come out when they are not familiar with the 8th because they did not read the novels. I personally did not, so the only exposure I have is the movie, which I did not like. And if they are making McGann's character canon, what about the supposed reference to his being half human? According to some of the books that were published where some of the original writers set up a basis on Time Lord society, they weren't able to procreate outside of their own species. Yes, I am aware that Leela married a Citadel guard, but it's been proposed that there are two groups of people living on Gallifrey, the Time Lords and your basic everyday Gallifreyan citizen. This is explained to some great extent in John Peel's book The Gallifreyan Chronicals.

Okay, let's play a game. Guess which episode this image was taken from. Should be easy if you are a moderately faithful fan.

[JsARCLIGHT]

Well Mcgan WAS offcial since Mcoy regen'd in the movie right?

I am by far not the one to ask about Dr. Who officialness or not I just remember what I saw in the mid nineties Fox movie and yes Sylvester McCoy (who I must admit beside the statue that is Tom Baker) was my favorite doctor mainly because in Chicago at the time they mainly showed the "newest" epps which were him and (I think her name was) Ace. From what I remember of that movie McCoy died early on and was replaced by the McGann guy who from the best of my memory was a total Fruit. I have a vivid memory of him riding a motorcycle with the current female companion laughing like a psycho gerbil... the whole movie was just... wrong... to me. It did not have a single "vibe" of the original show, it was totally "americanized".

I always wondered what the deal was with that movie in the first place as Chicago PBS removed Dr. Who from their lineup with no excuse in like 95 or so (which from what I hear caused a stir on my old campus as a group of people had a fan club based on the show) then all of a sudden this crappy movie showed up on Fox in like 96. I thought it meant that Fox had a new series and someone bought all the american rights to Dr. Who so they could air it on Fox and not compete with the original show... any truth to that? And is Dr. Who showing in any shape or form anywhere? on cable perhaps? I just remember how mind-numbingly slow and soothing the show was... I remember watching it in a state of near coma and loving every minute of it. Then again that was college and I was drunk a lot.

[JsARCLIGHT]

Does this man look like he can practice medicine?... or at least kick some Cyberman ass? At bare minimum shove K-9 down a set of stairs? Well it's Christopher Eccleston and according to the BBC he is the new Doctor. I have not seen if BBC America is going to pick up the show or not... it would be kickass if they did as I have BBC America on my cable box.

[Opus]

And is Dr. Who showing in any shape or form anywhere? on cable perhaps?

It's kinda funny that you asked this. I was flipping through the channels as I read this and the 1996 movie is playing on the Starz Mystery channel .

[valk1j]

I'll take a stab and say the pic comes from Ressurection of the Daleks.

Maybe Genesis.

Edited October 30, 2004 by valk1j

[F-ZeroOne]

One joke doing the rounds at the moment is that Christopher Eccleston looks like a Doctor who has the words "Time" & "Lord" tattooed on his butt!

As for that epsidoe picture - can't remember the name, but I seem to recall the Daleks having some terrible nerve gas that really mucked people up...

Edited October 30, 2004 by F-ZeroOne

[JsARCLIGHT]

It's kinda funny that you asked this. I was flipping through the channels as I read this and the 1996 movie is playing on the Starz Mystery channel .

It must be kismit because I was channel hopping last night trying to get to bed and I saw that same thing, Doctor Who the 1996 movie on Starz Mystery.

It also answered some of my questions in that Spielburg had nothing to do with it as his name was nowhere on the credits, it appeared to be a 100% British made piece even though 99% of the cast was American and it took place in America and yes Sylvester McCoy was replaced by McGann.

Another interesting tidbit that I totally forgot was that they brought back and then killed off (for the umpteeth time) the Master.

[valk1j]

It's kinda funny that you asked this. I was flipping through the channels as I read this and the 1996 movie is playing on the Starz Mystery channel .

It must be kismit because I was channel hopping last night trying to get to bed and I saw that same thing, Doctor Who the 1996 movie on Starz Mystery.

It also answered some of my questions in that Spielburg had nothing to do with it as his name was nowhere on the credits, it appeared to be a 100% British made piece even though 99% of the cast was American and it took place in America and yes Sylvester McCoy was replaced by McGann.

Another interesting tidbit that I totally forgot was that they brought back and then killed off (for the umpteeth time) the Master.

Eric Roberts as the Master = horrible. The movie hopefully is dropped from the continuity. The half human thing was beyond lame.

[Shade]

The Fox movie is canon, and the 8th Doctor's adventures are recorded in the BBC's Doctor Who novel and audio line.

Christopher Eccleston is probably the 9th Doctor, as I believe he's offically replacing Richard E. Grant's Doctor from the BBC Flash movie, Scream of the Shalka. Pity, too. Grant's Doctor had a lot of potential. And he had a better outfit.

[Noriko Takaya]

valk1j is correct. The image is taken from the first episode of Ressurection of the Daleks. The Daleks are there to try and liberate their creator Davros. They are hoping that Davros can come up with a cure to a virus created by their enemies, the Movellans.

As for that new guy playing the Doctor, meh.

Edited October 31, 2004 by Noriko Takaya

[valk1j]

valk1j is correct. The image is taken from the first episode of Ressurection of the Daleks. The Daleks are there to try and liberate their creator Davros. They are hoping that Davros can come up with a cure to a virus created by their enemies, the Movellans.

As for that new guy playing the Doctor, meh.

It was kind of an educated guess, thats why I put the edit in that it might have been Genesis of the Daleks. I couldn't place the uniforms. You almost had me rewatching the tapes. Give me another try and maybe I'll do better than putting down 2 possible stories.

I'm hearing March for the new show, but rumors persist of Christmas day this year.