So, the Brain Rot thread is filled with like 80% Doctor Who posts. Now it can be filled with 0%!

Alright. Since most of our talk's at the UK pace, I think I'll say that this thread is uh...

Spoilers up to the latest episode aired in the UK. Spoilerize anything past that.

So, right now, for May 4, talk up to "The Poison Sky" is acceptable.

Oookay. I can skip this thread then. The latest one I saw the Pompeii.

Well, how many people are watching via SciFi? If there are more people that way, we could do it this way:

Spoilerize stuff about future episodes, with a label that they're for future episodes. "Future spoilers".

Spoilerize stuff about episodes that have aired in the UK, and not in the US (Drekal will have to watch this, as he tends to discuss the episodes right away, even with the regular TV spoiler rule of one week). Label it "UK Pace".

And then no spoilers for episodes that have aired in the US. They're only three weeks behind, so it's not as bad as, say, last season.

Well, I just finished watching season one, but as soon as I catch up I'll be at the SciFi pace.

This said, I regularly wander TVTropes, and the damn previews are spoilers all by themselves, so spoilers in this thread won't bug me too much.

Well, I'm on Sci-Fi pace.

Okay, sorry MFD. I'll try to curb my enthusiasm when new episodes show. But I do tend to spoilerise plot details... Don't I?

Eh, whatever. Can't wait until next saturday, in any case...

Oh yeah, there's also one other thing.

This is a great site.

Provides summaries to adventures from the tv, novels, short stories... etc.

Alrighty, so. I think it would be more beneficial to have this thread at the US pace, for now. That way nobody is left out.

This Friday the US will be seeing "Planet of the Ood." Which I thought was lots of fun. This Saturday, the UK will be seeing the episode "The Doctor's Daughter." I don't know how I'll feel about that until it's ready.

Remember to label spoilers either [UK Pace] or [Future episodes].

Anyways, I just acquired the Doctor Who movie. For those of you not in the know, the show was canceled in the late 80s because the sixth Doctor was pretty much universally unloved, and the showrunner ran the show into the ground. A seventh Doctor, reportedly interesting, if I trust my friend, couldn't save the show.

In 1996, the Beeb tried to revive the show with a TV movie, simultaneously broadcast in the US by Fox. This would have brought Doctor Who starring the eighth Doctor, Paul McGann, to both countries.

It flopped. I haven't seen it yet, but I have heard that it flopped in the US because it relied on alot of the show's history, the Master, the Daleks, Gallifrey... it also flopped in the UK because it got everything wrong, possibly at Fox's insistence.

I think that the new series "Rose" would have done well broadcast on both shores, but I doubt Fox wanted to collaborate again.

Anyways, I should be watching this movie sometime this week.

...my introduction to the Whoniverse was the 8th Doctor TV Movie.

Of of course at the time it just came off as mediocre sci-fi with an "exotic" Brittish flare.

Of course now I realize how lame it was, although in retrospect it never really thought it was bad. But man if the new series doesn't make it look that way.

Yeah. The 8th Doctor had a series of novels, and the first of them set after the movie more or less began with him commenting on how strange what just happened was, and how unlike his life it happened to be.

Then he went off and regained his memories by meeting his past incarnations during various adventures.

What's interesting, is that the 8th Doctor seems to have gone down in The Last Great Time War, which was an interesting idea, that I don't think they really got to explore with the 9th Doctor.

I think the popular speculation is that the Doctor did one of two things:

1. The Delta-Wave Converter thing.

2. Looked into the heart of the TARDIS, destroyed the Dalek fleet, then accidentally destroyed Gallifrey when it got too much.

And then regenerated from Eight to Nine.

The last in that series of books did involve the Doctor doing... something. I forget. It was ages ago I read the summary. There was a Time War, and that was the last arc in the books with the 8th Doctor...

I'll look into it later and tell you guys what it said.

The books aren't necessarily canon.

Yes. But they coincide oh so nicely.

Shame they're gonna be ignored. Because some of them, particularly those with temporal screwiness, have amazing plotlines. And the 8th Doctor had a few temporal screwiness plotlines in his series.

Can the Doctor save the Church of England?

Nothing mentioned beyond US Pace.

That's classic, that is.

Of course, there are all sorts of parallels that could be found within the series... The most obvious ones being Daleks = Nazis, Cybermen = Communists.

Just gotta know where to look, really. It would not be hard, at all, to find plenty of examples of the sort of stuff they're looking for.

Especially in the new series, where the people of Earth prayed to the Doctor to restore him to health, break the Master's hypnotic spell, and then he gets all glowy and levitating and forgives poor Master.

Yes. If they can't find something in that, they're really not trying.

On second thought, if they can't find something in that... it's because they're actively trying not to.

NEW UK EPISODE WARNING!

Well, that was a great big pile of "meh". There was a lot more that they could have done with it. Jenny, incidentally, was just a semi-clone. Not actually his daughter. Although, it was kinda neat... she was "born" due to a paradox. The TARDIS detected her, then appeared a little too early... then a genetic sample was taken from the Doctor and the "clone" rapidly grown.

Also, Jenny showed a delayed regeneration effect... which didn't change her apperance. So, in other words... she'll be showing up again, probably in the finale.

[ Well, female Time Lords have been shown to be able to control their regeneration, specifically their physical appearance. She could have regenerated into herself! Couple this with the Doctor's own history with rather... well... bad regenerations, excluding only first to second, I think.]

I'm more interested in what he said near the end... ["She's too much like me"... Now, would this be referring to the bad times he has with regenerations, or... could it be that he's not the Tenth Doctor at all, but is actually the Thirteenth?]

[Yes, that is a good point. In the various Doctor Who RPGs, it's usually suggested that he has a low control over his regeneration ability. And I think he was referring to her selflessness more than anything else.]

[ In retrospect, my theory of him actually being the Thirteenth would be totally incorrect seeing how the Valeyard hadn't appeared at all (the pure evil version of the Doctor from between his Twelfth and Final lifetimes that the Time Lords called back to bother the Sixth for some stupid reason). Unless he's the final villain of this arc/season which is rather unlikely.

Also, on the topic of Jenny's regeneration... perhaps instead of an actual regeneration where appearance would have changes, she's kept this appearance and lifetime due to the affects that Time Lords have within the first fifteen hours of a regeneration as shown when the Doctor's hand got lopped off and is not a true regeneration after all? She is, after all, less than fifteen hours old, perhaps it counts with stuff like this as well? ]

Edit: Damn my UK spelling when it comes to adding "u" to colour in the BBCode!

Just saw The Enemy Within. I actually rather liked it, but I may not have any taste.

Sure, the Master was terrible, but other than that, I thought it was alright. Eight isn't the worst Doctor by far.

Yeah, the Master kinda ruined it for everybody I think.

And judging from the books... the 8th Doctor was actually kinda cool.

I mean, OK. I can see that the TV movie counts because the Time Lords pulled him back out of the Eye of Harmony...

But the snake thing? And trial by Dalek? I didn't think they even had a judicial system.

I don't think the wrong things would even register with me if it weren't for the things they did right. I don't mind Seven's death. Yeah, it's confusing, especially since they were trying to attract new viewers. But it was OK.

The Doc was pitch perfect. The Companion was fine. There were Jelly Babies, and a long scarf, and a couple good silly moments. The revelation that the Doc is half-human was interesting, though on further inspection, why would a TARDIS have something a human needed to open as standard?

All in all, I enjoyed it, but the wrong things just bugged.

Yeah, it was all the little things that added up, and then... it didn't happen.

Incidentally, you may want to look into Shada at some point.

Assuming you've not already.

It's fun, and was originally going to have the Fourth Doctor in it. Instead, it has the Eighth.

Oh, and Douglas Adams wrote the ep.

Enjoy!

Dear lord, they have online books there.

Well, there goes any spare time I had coming.

NEW UK EPISODE!
[
Very self aware episode. It actually managed to hinge on how ridiculous the situation was as a major theme in it. Quite fun, but you'll have to see it to really get it. Had a few good lines to it, too.

The next one is a two parter by a certain Mr Moffet. So... We can expect much awesome. They get caught in the biggest library in the universe, which is... empty. Because something in the shadows killed everybody. So... stay out of the shadows, or die.

Scary stuff.
]

Oh, and one other thing. Two weeks before the next episode, which looks to be a good one.

So, I guess Steven Moffat is going to be the show-runner for the 2010 season.

That's going to be good. I can tell.

Also, no episode this week, but scrunched somewhere during Eurovision will be a trailer for the last six episodes.

I'm sure we can find it online.

Midseries Trailer

An apology for Eurovision this week disrupting the show.

Guess who's coming for dinner? Hint: [Davros!]

I'm guessing it's probably just [Dalek Caan] again, being set up to look more sinister than he actually is.

Hmm... just watched the first part of the "Sontarian Strategem"


... fantastic...


"You worked for them?"

"Oh, while back, in the 70's and '80s"


:D

No, no...

"In the 70s... or was it the 80s?"

In reference to the confusion over what time frame the UNIT stories apparently took place in.

Also, that trailer was awesome. Rose seems more battle hardened than before, which is interesting. Can't wait to see how this turns out. Might get another old school Dalek adventure, with them just running around killing everybody.

... He can come too. I guess.

[I'm pretty sure it is Davros. The blue light is way too high to be a normal eyestalk, but if there's a person sitting in the Dalek Bottom, then that would be about right for Davros's cybernetic third eye. Plus, as the Last of the Daleks, of course the imaginative Caan would seek out the creator to restart the Dalek race.

Plus, they've been restoring old baddies in order (except for the Autons and possibly the Macra): Daleks, Cybermen, the Master... next is Davros. Then (this is just me hoping, though) the Guardians (sans bird helmets. I said this was me hoping!), then the Rani. Then the gang's all here!]

And Drekal? If I'm right about who the thing in the shadows was, [my friend tells me that whenever Davros shows up, a Dalek Civil War erupts.]

And Mike, the episode was cool. I'll refrain from discussing it until part 2 airs, 'cause I always forget which is in what part, but I enjoyed it.

You're right. Every time after his second appearance, he causes that to happen.

Good lord, I can't wait to see what happens with him. He had one of the greatest lines throughout the original series.

The Doctor: Davros, if you had created a virus in your laboratory, something contagious and infectious that killed on contact, a virus that would destroy all other forms of life; would you allow its use?
Davros: It is an interesting conjecture.
The Doctor: Would you do it?
Davros: The only living thing... The microscopic organism... reigning supreme... A fascinating idea.
The Doctor: But would you do it?
Davros: Yes; yes. To hold in my hand, a capsule that contained such power. To know that life and death on such a scale was my choice. To know that the tiny pressure on my thumb, enough to break the glass, would end everything. Yes! I would do it! That power would set me up above the gods! And through the Daleks I shall have that power!


You don't get much more insane evil than that.

Was the grandfather in Poison Sky a former companion or something?

Well, no. But he kinda should have been.

He first appeared in the first ep of this season.

Didn't he first appear in the Christmas special with the Titanic where he was the only one who didn't evacuate London? I'm sure he made a comment about this when he met the Doctor.

Oh yeah. Right. Now I remember.

Whoops!


Oh yeah, one other thing.

In one of the 8th Doctor novels, the Doctor teams up with the Daleks to take on a much more serious threat to the universe.

I'll just let that sink in a second. The day was ultimately saved when the Dalek in charge trusted the Doctor was right about something.

UK SPOILER WARNING!



Freaking yes! Stephen Moffat you've done it again.

Not only is the concept itself creepy, it's used in the absolutely most perfect way, especially at the end. A situation where any shadow could rend the flesh from your bones? FUCK! A spacesuit occupied by a victim of the shadows, being animated by one of them and forcing it to chase down the survivors? SHIT!

There's other cool stuff as well, but... those are the highlights, frankly. Can't wait for next week.