The Doctor Who thread

[griffin]

Damn... 4 times in two days. The ABC are certainly milking the new DrWho episode. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Monday primetime and Monday late night (playing right now in NSW & VIC).
And they are repeating the Ultimate guide that was on Saturday night, tomorrow night.

[VERT]

Every time I turn on the TV its on. hahahahah Watched it in 3D today too.

[griffin]

I forgot all about it being at selected cinemas in 3D... I might have to try to catch a session. It's only on for another two days near me too.

It is indeed captivating... I've now managed to catch all four screenings on TV (just bits of the last three), and I'm still keen to see it in 3D.

[UltraMarginal]

I've been watching this fairly steadily since eccelestons series started, I generally really enjoy it, I watched the special on Sunday night with a few friends over. I really enjoyed it and felt that I had picked up most of the episode but all this talk about the valeyard and numbers of doctors has my head spinning.

and I have to go back and see "the name of the doctor" again becuase it looks like I missed something.

[griffin]

I saw it tonight at the nearby Theatre in 3D.
The 3D was an interesting visual touch to it, but not exactly mind-blowing, as the content of the episode wasn't making extensive or constant use of the gimmick.

The pre-show bits were good though. We had a Sontaran (Strax) telling the audience what would happen if they use their phones (showing a couple of torture victims), and then recommending the purchase of popcorn (because he likes the squeeky sound it makes when you chew it, as it sounds like they are crying out in pain).

Then we had an introduction to the 3D version by the Tennant and Smith Doctors.... before the show started.

I was really hoping they'd play the "Night of the Doctor" beforehand, especially since they were charging a full movie ticket price for a 70 minute "episode".... but nope. Nothing significant to make it worth the $25! price tag.
Yes, it was expensive... plus $1 if you didn't have your own 3D glasses. But I think the gimmick of 3D was what most were wanting to pay for, plus the chance of watching history on a huge screen.

There were quite a few people in there though, considering it was the third day of screening a TV episode you could watch for free at home.


The one flaw that keeps bugging me in this episode, is that they use their 1200-ish years of calculations to save Gallifrey, but they point out that they won't remember their interactions with each other (possibly a "fanboy-ish" explanation by Moffat (writer) as to why Doctors don't recognise their future selves in other multi-doctor stories).
As such, it ends up preventing the main plot device of this story.... a plot device that was forced into the DrWho universe a couple years ago when Moffat suddenly aged the Smith Doctor by 200-400 years, just to set the foundation for this episode's plot device. (he said he'd been planning for it since he took over as writer/producer)


That end shot of the 12 doctors - I think should have been 13 (with the new one obscured to keep the mystery of the next episode), and should have used better wax-work copies... as the facial expressions on most were pretty bad.


They have another session tomorrow night and two more on the weekend, so other theatres around the country may also have more sessions if anyone else is keen to see it in 3D, with the pre-show extras.

[UltraMarginal]

The Sontaran was a nice touch.

I'm happy with my home viewing though.

[Paulbot]

I loved the episode, definitely my favourite 11th story, and probably in part because it featured the 10th. (Yeah I'm a David Tennant fanboy...)

I've had to correct two people who watch the show (since the Davies era like me) but don't bother to read up on the old show (like me) and got a bit confused by it. Both thought the Time War and the Doctor ending it and being left as the only Time Lord were element of the show from the very beginning.

Makes sense since those elements were in the show from the very beginning of the reboot and there's been nothing in particular (that I can recall) in the episodes themselves (not including minisodes etc) that explained that John Hurt Doctor came after the eight other versions we've seen glimpses of.

To Griffin's point, how old was the Doctor supposed to be when the 1963 show started? I was under the impression that the Doctor was 700-800 years old by that point and that not more than a few hundred years had taken place since An Unearthly Child and the 10th's regeneration? In that case the Eleventh Doctor being several centuries older during his run would make sense to give he calculations a little more time to run.

The thing that bothered me when the future Doctors came to help the War Doctor use the Moment was that they knew it wasn't going to stop the Daleks. The Time War's only losers were the Time Lords, since the Daleks keep finding other ways back over and over again. I know the Doctors thought they had to do it to keep time in order, but I just wanted some acknowledgement that all they were doing was ending their own people.

The twist though was a really nice one for the 50th special too, redeeming the most violent act of the Doctor, and giving the new series a mission: Instead of running from Gallifrey, the Doctor will now be going home.

[GoktimusPrime]

The thing that bothered me when the future Doctors came to help the War Doctor use the Moment was that they knew it wasn't going to stop the Daleks. The Time War's only losers were the Time Lords, since the Daleks keep finding other ways back over and over again. I know the Doctors thought they had to do it to keep time in order, but I just wanted some acknowledgement that all they were doing was ending their own people.

The Doctor wasn't only trying to thwart the Daleks, but the Time Lords too. At the end of the Time War, Lord President Rassilon wanted to invoke the Ultimate Sanction which would destroy all of creation, but the Time Lords themselves would survive as beings of pure consciousness. In principle the Time Lords were trying to do the same thing that the Daleks were doing -- to eradicate the universe of anything that wasn't their own race. The Doctor could not allow this, thus he was willing to use the Moment to destroy his own people rather than allow them to commit super-genocide across all creation (that would arguably make the Daleks' attempt at genocide pale by comparison). (re: The End of Time)

By shunting Gallifrey into a pocket universe, he not only protected Gallifrey from being destroyed by the Daleks, but also protected the universe from the Time Lords (principally Rassilon and his cohorts).

[Golden Phoenix]

The Doctor wasn't only trying to thwart the Daleks, but the Time Lords too. At the end of the Time War, Lord President Rassilon wanted to invoke the Ultimate Sanction which would destroy all of creation, but the Time Lords themselves would survive as beings of pure consciousness. In principle the Time Lords were trying to do the same thing that the Daleks were doing -- to eradicate the universe of anything that wasn't their own race. The Doctor could not allow this, thus he was willing to use the Moment to destroy his own people rather than allow them to commit super-genocide across all creation (that would arguably make the Daleks' attempt at genocide pale by comparison). (re: The End of Time)

By shunting Gallifrey into a pocket universe, he not only protected Gallifrey from being destroyed by the Daleks, but also protected the universe from the Time Lords (principally Rassilon and his cohorts).

The interesting thing about this episode though is that it establishes that not all the Time Lords share Rassilon's view.

The War Council seems to dismiss the High Council's plan too. How much of the Time Lord population agree with the High Council would be an interesting question.

[UltraMarginal]

The last few posts are making a lot of sense.