Surface Duo crashes the party as Doctor Who celebrates 60th birthday The BBC is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its long-running science fiction series, Doctor Who, by popping a Surface Duo into the hands of actor David Tennant's latest take on the humanoid alien. Or maybe it's a Surface Duo 2, judging by the camera bulge in the publicity shots spied by the X (formerly Twitter) account @ …
I'm currently working my way through the old Hartnell episodes on iplayer. At one point (jn "The Chase", I think) there were three Daleks, which went, in turn:
Dalek 1: Exterminate!
Dalek 2: Obliterate!
Dalek 3: Annihilate!
... which I found rather amusing.
And then, after watching the latest modern outing, which I found as something of a mixed blessing, I could fortunately go back and continue with "Time Meddler" just to properly cleanse my Dr Who palate....
The Daleks, The Cybermen, The Sontarans and The Master/Missy couldn't destroy The Doctor. But Disney has (or will).
Too much unexplained techie-techie and an ending that was pulled out from the dark bodily crevices and had no other in-show explanation. Visually "ooooh wow" for the Disney crowd but a stinker of an episode. The Meep hiding in stuffed toys was directly lifted from E.T., so very lazy writing there.
Best scene: The mock trial. Both comedy and turning the episode. Worst scene: Everything inside The Meep spaceship.
I'll give it a bare pass, but want to see improvement.
(Hated Who as a kid because I never like Tom Baker which inevitably followed The Goodies, or perhaps Monkey, but then I saw a a Pertwee episode and loved it. I may have been just too young for The Doctor. Warmed to most of the Doctors, but now ... well, the favourites have to be Capaldi, Pertwee and then McCoy)
Possible spoiler alert ... I once read a review of "Knives Out" which said it was easy to work out who the killer was as all the characters but one had iPhones and allegedly Apple don't allow their products to be associated with "baddies" in films/TV so the one with the non-iPhone was clearly going to be the murderer. As the BBC seem normally to be wedded to Apple devices then maybe "the Doctor" having a Surface Duo may be a sign that he's not really the Doctor
Hmm. Not claiming to be a serious Whovian, and I'm sure those here that are will have their own opinions, but...
First thing to remember is that compared to 2005+ Who, the classic episodes are a) slow-paced, and b) often have really, really dodgy production values. The former is just a question of readjusting your mental pace; they take 6 episodes to tell a story that New Who would wrap up in a single episode.
The latter issue just requires you to remember that they're of their time, when "decent special effects" were a dastardly American thing that Auntie BBC disdained. What they do have - at least sometimes - is crackingly good stories. Honestly with some of the best, I get so wrapped up in them that I utterly forget the rubber-masked cardboard shonkiness of it.
My personal recommendations would be the Season 14 Tom Baker story "The Talons of Weng-Chiang", and the Season 17/19/19 Peter Davison stories "City of Death", "Black Orchid" and "Time-Flight".
With the first one you do have to ignore the slightly-dodgy-by-modern-mores Chinese characterizations of the first one and enjoy the really good writing and dialog :)
City of Death was written by Douglas Adams, and is rather inventive.
Time-Flight has a missing Concorde landing millions of years in the past; what more could you want?
"Season 14 Tom Baker story "The Talons of Weng-Chiang"
A bit ethnically stereotyped for the wokery if they ever dismounted from their high horses and stooped to watch anything that predates their sorry existence. If they were to be inflamed by this classic who then Sexton Blake or Fu Manchu would send them incandesant.
I was at the time tickled pink by the Peking (sic) homunculus fitted with a pigs brain. Little homocidal men with brains sourced from the abattoir - sounds a lot like the contemporary leadership of the planet.
If I recall correctly Leela actually wore a dress for Victorian London - a bit chilly otherwise- a disappointment for the engineering students who only started watching the series with the advent of Leela - they could appreciate her acting talents. :) Later Romana (both actresses) were a bit too "intellectual" for them.
Actually probably not great fare for the feminists either.
The Fu Manchu stories are on gutenberg (look up Sax Rohmer). What is interesting about them is that Fu Manchu (and the organisation of which he is part) is by far more intelligent and technically advanced than the British and Europeans; and the heroes are probably at best characterised as brave-but-bumbling, and indeed they even remark at times just how outclassed they are. The protagonists usually only succeed because they are regularly rescued and/or tipped off by a woman who has inexplicably fallen in love with one brave-but-bumbling idiot; and because - although in most respects a genius - Fu has a weakness for the same woman.
IMO, the stories are much more of a mixed bag than a simple stereotyping of them might suggest. The hero/protagonists might win the day, but not due to their own competence, let alone some "natural superiority". Fu loses despite all his advantages, and not because dodgy racial stereotyping was affecting the plot or how he was written.
I've been dipping into the classic stuff, and found I enjoyed Pertwee more than Baker, so I'd suggest Spearhead From Space. Has the bonus of a decent amount of UNIT and very good picture quality as it was mostly shot on film. Some of the shots may remind you a little of the early revival episodes.
Where to start - impossible to say because everyone is different and the show changed over the years. Even with a comprehensive psychological profile and a breakdown of the contents of your bookshelf and your DVD collection, it could be difficult to predict what you would enjoy.
You could do worse than pick a few to dip into from one of the ranking lists of Doctor Who episodes. At the very least, the ones near the top will be 'better' than the ones near the middle and you should avoid the ones at the bottom of the list until you've found if you even like the higher ranked ones.
Speaking as someone borm in the mid 70's, I first remember Tom Baker as the Doctor, but was surprised to realise that I'd already watched some of the Pertwee episodes when they appeared on iplayer (Carnival of Monsters... Not sure how I could previously have seen that series!)
Anyway, to get back to the point, I've enjoyed all the reincarnations of the Doctor I've watched (Colin Baker ot so much the first time I saw it). I actually thought Jodie Whittaker made a really good Doctor, but was let down by the subject choice of some of her scripts, the worst of which was the "earth" populated by carbon dioxide breathing creatures caused to evolve by our poluting the planet. Thinly veiled Margaret thatcher criticisms are one thing, (I think she was wrong about some things and right about others) but being told off about polluting the planet really annoyed me when I'm already cycling to work, to the shops and recycling and re-using what I can, and I can't see anyone who doesn't care about pollution and/or global warming* sitting through the whole episode.
*Please make your own mind up about what you do / don't do about pollution / global warming.
Similar, I watched some classic Who and realised I had already seen quite a bit of it, I suspect while cowering behind the sofa at my grandparent's place (Granddad was a SciFi fan and total geek, he'd have *loved* the home computer boom).
I had such high hopes for Whittaker as The Dr, she had moments of brilliance and I could see her and the role becoming a perfect fit, but I too think she was badly let down by the writing and stories and not just the climate change one.
The way they dealt with 'ishoos' was jarringly bad, the scripts were really clumsily written and beaten into shape around them as though the story/lore was a secondary consideration, pretty much guaranteed to make the veins throb in the temples of the sort of person who likes to rage on about whatever issue the Daily Mail or Express has labeled 'woke' today.
"I actually thought Jodie Whittaker made a really good Doctor, but was let down by the subject choice of some of her scripts"
ACK. A lady Doctor did not play out as being "forced" but TOO MUCH of the plots in certain episodes DID. Sci Fi should be thought provoking, NOT preachy.
I recall facepalming and leaving the room on a few of those episodes, and the entire 'doctor clone' arc at the end just confused me. Was not helping that BBC America played the episodes on Sunday evenings and I missed a few, and have not yet seen the box set at the local stores.
One person online thought the 'Rosa Parks' episode was "forced" and preachy . I thought they simply did a good historically accurate portrayal. Eh, go fig.
"I'd already watched some of the Pertwee episodes when they appeared on iplayer (Carnival of Monsters... Not sure how I could previously have seen that series!)"
As I recall, Carnival of Monsters and The Three Doctors were rerun on BBC 2 as part of The Five Faces of Doctor Who. That would have been in the early 80s, but I'm not sure when, exactly, and I'm to lazy to look it up.
Dr Who is many things not all good *But* 'Woke' is not one of them !!!
Watched the latest episode on Saturday evening ...as all good whovians should .... part of the setting of 'correct' context for Dr Who !!! :)
Thought it was good for the whovians getting into the 'celebration mood' ... lots of in-jokes re: Unit, BEM's and cuddly toy that was not so cuddly etc
Liked the Doctor/Donna revival & the tying up of the 'remember me and you die' issue.
All good fun !!!
With Dr Who you need to set your mindset to be of the time of the series you are watching.
Don't expect fast paced stories with lots of special effects and action, it is not how Dr Who was seen at the time.
Can be entertaining to see how the 'Baddies' have evolved as budgets and Special effects got better .... wobbly sets are the old running joke but it got better until the BBC lost interest before the new revival.
I am not a major Dr Who fan but with age I can appreciate the effort and longevity of a generally interesting idea.
I would like to know 'Who' had the regeneration idea as it is unique and actually works as a way to allow the show to continue as long as the BBC wants to keep going !!!
Well done the Beeb !!!
(The colourised early Dr Who was fun as well ... I am slightly too young to be able to remember the first few series, if I ever saw them ... not sure if my Mum/Dad would have allowed me to watch it !!!)
:)
I actually thought it was rather amusing how they made a joke about "the doctor" and "the meep".
Some day they should do an episode where The Doctor goes back and meets his granddaughter or niece or whoever the person was supposed to be from the very first episodes. If they want to give it a more modern spin, instead of living happily ever after, maybe the relationship she stayed behind for fell apart a little while after The Doctor and companions left, and she was marooned there until The Doctor shows up again.
《I would like to know 'Who' had the regeneration idea as it is unique and actually works as a way to allow the show to continue as long as the BBC wants to keep going !!!》
I believe the Gallifreyans (probably Rassilon) in the very earliest times pinched the tech from Great Vampires. Given the pretty ghastly forms of those dark times - the Racnoss, Carrionites - one has to wonder what the form was of those original Gallifeyans - the dual brainstem and hearts suggest something not hominiform or even bipedal. ;)
I would guess that Rassilon looking into the distant future decided a human appearance would allow his lot to blend into the background and deflect the blame for some of their more atrocious acts onto humanity.
As for the actual question :) who in the BBC dreamt it up is, sadly lacking regeneration, very likely no longer with us.
The idea of the mind of a dying individual be transferred or imprinted onto another individual isn't new - at least as old as the idea of transmigration of the soul or reincarnation... so ancient. Plenty of stories use some version of this plot device - HP Lovecraft used in a couple of stories. (Lovecraft - another favourite of the wokery.:)
Given the obvious lack of total fidelity in regeneration (actually seems altogether rather dodgy) it seems to be a process of using the control of time to instantly grow a clone of dying individual and transferring most of the memories of the dying to the clone's otherwise blank brain but very little of the deceased's personality. This would seem to me to be a moral and ethical minefield (which only Melody Pond appears to have escaped.:)
Bebu,
"The idea of the mind of a dying individual be transferred or imprinted onto another individual isn't new - at least as old as the idea of transmigration of the soul or reincarnation... so ancient. Plenty of stories use some version of this plot device - HP Lovecraft used in a couple of stories. (Lovecraft - another favourite of the wokery.:)"
This I know *but* the Dr Who regeneration is not quite this ..... as intimated by your later comment re: ' lack of total fidelity in regeneration'.
The Doctors regeneration is 'imperfect' on multiple levels:
1) Physical .... the 'doctor' needs a body to 'inhabit' but its form is subject to 'random' change .... phenotypic variation including gender.
2) Mental .... although the 'doctor' regenerates, the sum of his personality does not transfer. The core knowledge of being a Time lord is there but 'recent' 'personality' appears to be transient.
3) Emotional/reacting to the current environment .... This varies according to the 'current form of the doctor' therefore he can be happy, sad, vengeful etc as a driving personality trait.
So, it is a bit more complicated than the 'horror classic' or 'Ghostbusters style' taking over a body to continue your existence, like putting on a different 'suit & tie'. !!!
:)
I'm not a fanatical Dr Who fan (TBH, there are few programmes on TV that really interest me) but I've watched almost every episode. This weekend's one is recorded to watch later, and there were a couple from the Whittaker era I'd recorded but then couldn't be bothered to watch.
BUT, I remember watching the very first episode - twice, in fact, as it was repeated the following week.
Of the original run, Peter Davidson was probably my favourite Dr at the time (probably because I could probably relate to him best - a bit like Batman being one of the favourite super-heroes because he *didn't* have super powers); David Tennant has been my favourite of the reboot (still good storylines; Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi were OK, too).
A soap masquerading as a SciFi series. People have fond memories of watching the earlier series and it's painful watching them ruin it on the alter of political correctness.
I just want to watch people having interesting adventures on alien planets, not be preached at with THE MESSAGE.
Elsewhere, the actor Julian Bleach reprised his role of Davros for a charity event. But they took him out of the wheel-chair as it may promote harmful representation /s
See an interesting video review here: Doctor Who 60th Anniversary REACTION | Dead AF
@aerogems: “I really just don't know how you do it. I barely pay attention to whatever culture war bullshit some talking head or disembodied voice says is everything that's wrong with the world today, and I find it utterly exhausting. How you have energy to do anything else is beyond me.”
So, you want to live in your little white nationalist world where everyone who doesn't look like you is somehow lesser. FFS, it was like a 10-second scene out of a 40-something minute episode. If people like you hadn't been bitching and moaning about it so much, I probably would have completely missed it. Besides, I thought you'd be overjoyed that The Meep turns out to be the bad guy in the end. You going to complain about the Unit commander being in a wheelchair next?
So, we have the notion that a powerful alien being with the capacity to travel through space and time should assume the form of a creature from a minor and undistinguished planet and have a craft that could only appear inconspicuous in a small number of locations on that specific planet in a specific epoch - and it's the lesbians that are the deal-breaker?
Dunno about lesbians, for me this iteration was just too much Thespians - shtick'd up to the eyeballs and all the usual suspects. Half expected Kenneth Branagh to turn up leading a chorus of "My Old Man's a Dustman"...
Maybe it would have been better as a Goodies reboot - Pantomime Giant Kitten!
Don't need the heavy artillery of ChatGPT to answer that one I don't want to go.
Surely Davros sans the dubious benefits of regeneration might claim the "BBC's longest lived space alien" title. :)
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