Dr. Who

Discussion in 'SciFi & Fantasy' started by krash661, Nov 7, 2014.

  1. krash661 [MK6] transitioning scifi to reality Valued Senior Member

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    can some one tell me why there's 12 dr. whos and multi companions ?
    is it from story lines or just cast changes ?
     
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  3. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Just cast changes but new script writers come onboard every so often as well.
     
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  5. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    Both. One of the selling points for the BBC was that they could change the actor if they didn't like him by 'regenerating' the Doctor. However, it's also a plot point in several places.
     
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  7. krash661 [MK6] transitioning scifi to reality Valued Senior Member

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    ok thanks.
    is it the same reason for companions ?
    i'm new to this show.
     
  8. krash661 [MK6] transitioning scifi to reality Valued Senior Member

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    i started to watch it just a week or so ago.
    it's in the middle of what ever and i'm so clueless as to what's going on.
    what i have been seeing has amy or amillia pond as the companion.
    all in all, yzarc.
     
  9. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Almost every episode that the program does is made for just that one time but at times the do have a continuation. This will be the final episode for now and another new series will start again. The new series could have the same actors or they might change, you just have to wait and see. I don't find it very difficult to follow although I don't care much for this new DR. or scripts that much. There OK but nothing that I would recommend anyone to view.
     
  10. zgmc Registered Senior Member

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    I suggest starting with season 1 of the new series. Capt. Jack is one of the best charecters of the series. I belive he starts part way through the 1st season. The 10th dr. David Tennant is great. He is the second of the new series.
     
  11. C C Consular Corps - "the backbone of diplomacy" Valued Senior Member

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    Fortunately, the original show introduced the character without any solid consensus among its creators about the Doctor's origins. This resulted in an open-ended "make it up as we go along" approach [stretched over years] for the crafting of his background.

    So by the time William Hartnell (who played the first Doctor) started suffering health problems, the mystery surrounding his identity (just "Who" is he, really? What is he?) turned-out to be the programme's salvation. Rather than having to cancel a still-popular show, all the creative staff had to do was concoct a sci-fi explanation for Hartnell being replaced by a different actor (Patrick Troughton). And they kept using that Time-Lord regeneration gimmick from then on to continue the series for decades longer than anyone would have initially anticipated.

    The Doctor's first companion was his granddaughter, with a couple of her schoolteachers joining them in the journeys of the TARDIS. That established a strong tendency afterwards to replace the prototype granddaughter with other young women (regardless of additional, varied types of companions). During the latter half of the '70s, Tom Baker played the Doctor for more years than anyone. As a result, a string of four different actresses played his companions -- though two of them occupied the same character: Ramona. The most unconventional, extra / addon companion during Baker's tenure was K9 (a robotic dog), who joined when Leela (a warrior-huntress) was his fellow-traveler. Circa 1980 or the early '80s, he sent a copy of K9 to former companion Sara Jane Smith (arguably the top favorite of the fans, if not the Doctor himself) in a pilot for her own show that failed to be picked-up by the BBC.
     
  12. Janus58 Valued Senior Member

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    The regeneration bit wasn't really needed to keep the show going. After all, they just could've have played the "Darrin Gambit" and just hire a new actor to play the same character and pretend nothing happened. The beauty behind regeneration was that not only did they have a way of keeping the show going, but since each ensuing Doctor had his own unique personality, it was a way of keeping the show fresh also. It was a gamble (after all the audience might not have accepted a "New" Doctor) that paid off.
     
  13. C C Consular Corps - "the backbone of diplomacy" Valued Senior Member

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    The missed opportunity for a magical show like Bewitched was that they didn't have to resort to a "replacement without explanation" anymore than sci-fi DW did. While OTOH, there wasn't much choice for Petticoat Junction (although the character of Billie Joe wasn't really that central to the PJ, which is why they got away with it twice). But a TV-viewing audience would be crying "Foul!" or "Nutzo!" well before any show could get to even a sixth replacement of a lead or co-lead role without in-story explanations, much less a twelfth.

    Movies [like James Bond, etc] are so far apart in months / years that even outright reboots after only three installments doesn't seem to raise eyebrows.
     
  14. Landau Roof Registered Senior Member

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    I always thought the best and most straightforward way to replace a character is the way I have seen it done in soap operas. The first time the new actor appears, a voice-over says, for instance, 'The character of Chuck Green will now be played by Thomas Smith." In a few episodes you learned to adjust. If you wanted to know the former players history of drug abuse, tardiness for work and hid dismissal, you could pick up a copy of People magazine at the supermarket checkout.

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  15. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    I don't know why they couldn't change DR's every episode for they could bring back another Gallifrey where more time lords exist. That would be interesting for everyone that disliked the new Who would come back to see Who replaced the last Who.
     
  16. Landau Roof Registered Senior Member

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    Hunh?

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  17. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Just an idea, not meant to be taken very seriously. I would enjoy seeing a new Who every episode for a change that's all. It would be very different.
     
  18. zgmc Registered Senior Member

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    Isn't the destruction of Gallifrey a fixed event in time? Meaning that it cannot be changed?
     
  19. rpenner Fully Wired Valued Senior Member

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    Spoilers...


    Hmm, I guess if you haven't seen recent Doctor Who's maybe even quoting "Spoilers" is Spoilers.
     
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  20. C C Consular Corps - "the backbone of diplomacy" Valued Senior Member

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    A bit like the Maverick approach, perhaps, although in the course of one season they never rotated between all 4 siblings / cousins that eventually appeared in the series (Garner, Kelly, Moore, Colbert).

    As just a single offbeat season, there would retrospectively be lots of territory to explore with the 8th Doctor (Paul McGann), who only got a single film/episode back in 1996. Other media like comic books and radio programs have dealt with him, but their stories are arguably outside the canon of the TV-show. McGann would be a couple of decades older, but since only that lone pilot was available as a former reference, the significance might be easy to wave off. Plus, it could be offered that the aging came about from him spending lengthy time in other eras / places besides 1996-2005 Earth before finally returning to hang around the latter more consistently.
     
  21. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    They find another time lord planet hidden away in some unknown, uncharted part of the universe.
     
  22. Janus58 Valued Senior Member

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    McGann also appear in the mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor" which acted as a set-up to the 50th anniversary special last year. It covered his regeneration into the "War Doctor". (interestingly, The Time War had already been going one long enough to wrack enough havoc that both Time Lords and Daleks had apparently become equally despised.) So he has already been shown "older", and you could place the events prior to this episode.
     
  23. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    It's pretty much the same for companions. Some have to go do new gigs so they leave. Others get written out. I think they wrote out Adric, ages ago.
     

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