Dr. Who

regeneration

no idea what you were searching for, but:
http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/632679/Doctor_Who_Complete_Series_1_Box_Set/Product.html

that's the series 1 boxset (warning: the box itself is the worst DVD packaging I've ever seen; it's flimsy, falls apart easily and is a non-standard shape so it won't fit your shelving properly)

Stark

Not to mention rediculously expensive, especially when you consider it's only a 13 episode season.

Goodshape

You can buy them seperetly (three episodes a piece) too - in normal dvd cases. Don't think it works out any more expensive but you might be missing out on some special features.

foxybrowne

Daleks v Cybermen though! I'm putting my cash on the total destrucion of earth with all the Daleks and Cybermen on it and a wholesale move into the other dimension where the cybermen came from. (kinda like the way the 7th doctor destroyed the parallel earth with the Silurians on it in the New Adventures, which sent Ace off on a sulk binge extrodinaire, echoed somewhat by Roses pissed off demenour at the start of the last episode when she was telling us that she's gonnta die.)

J.R.HARTLEY

regeneration wrote:

no idea what you were searching for, but:
http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/632679/Doctor_Who_Complete_Series_1_Box_Set/Product.html

that's the series 1 boxset (warning: the box itself is the worst DVD packaging I've ever seen; it's flimsy, falls apart easily and is a non-standard shape so it won't fit your shelving properly)

thanks ordered it, i put in Dr. Who,instead of Doctor Who philistine that i am.:o

fun bus

anyone hear anything recent on who is going to be the doctors new assistant? i heard the bride at the end of this series is kind of a "temporary fill in". any truth in this i wonder?

Goodshape

the bride at the end of the last episode was played by Cathrine Tate (from 'The Catherine Tate Show') so fairly obviously not a new assistant, I thought. That scene was just a clifhanger for the christmas episode, called 'The Runaway Bride', or something like that.

As someone else mentioned a few posts back, this :

is aparently the new assistant.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/07_july/05/agyeman2.shtml

Mr E

So what was the verdict on the finale? It kind of wrapped everything else up nicely - the resolution of the cybermen/dalek story was well done, and the scene on the beach was great.

The 'cliffhanger' was pretty stupid though - the christmas special looks like being a stupid comedy episode.

monkeyfudge

Bleh... I can't stand Catherine Tate.... I really hope they stop giving crap comedians parts.

I was up at an anime convention in Derry when this episode was on... and about 20 of us where huddled around a TV set with a terrible snowy reception... but it was great stuff.

I really loved the Dalek and Cyberman trash talk.

Cyberman: Our species are similar though your design is inelegant.
Dalek Thay: Daleks have no concept of elegance.
Cyberman: This is obvious.

Goodshape

Thought the cliffhanger bit was grand.. it was a very short and unexpected bit..

Great couple of episodes overall. A fair bit more satisfying than the last seasons final.

I'm not sure the Doctor should have even nearly said the words that he seemed about to say to Rose at the end.. he's had countless assistants at this stage and I don't think that 'love' has ever entered into it for him. That seemed a bit out of character and thrown in just to get the tears rolling or something, but meh - it did suit the moment I suppose (in a "wow, that's good TV" sort of way).

I'm actually quite pleased that Rose has left. It was a great character but I felt she was hampering the 'new' Doctor's (i.e. Tennent's) development a bit by being the returning star of the show. Looking forward to the Doctor being back on top next year.


Anyone know when the Torchwood series starts? Looking forward to seeing what that's all about.. hopefully not just another ****ty x-file-a-like.

Mr E

monkeyfudge wrote:

I really loved the Dalek and Cyberman trash talk.

There was one better than that. Something like:

Dalek: Daleks are superior to cybermen in all but one thing.
Cyberman: What is that?
Dalek: Cybermen are better at dying.

ixoy

I mostly enjoyed the finale. What I liked? Jackie Tyler - thought her humour worked very well here and there's a certain fondness for her. Nice to see her get a happy ending after the loneliness we see in the likes of "Love & Monsters".

Also, found the Cyberman vs Daleks bitching-fest amusing. Didn't find it too out of character either as the races, particularly the Daleks, are always screeching about how they're the superior form of life. Wonderfully childish.

The transportation device? Liked that concept, although not quite sure why the Time Lords kept them so easily accessible or why they kept them at all... Still more Daleks potentially for S3!

As to that ending... Little bit disappointed. I wanted Rose to die. As soon as she said she was going to die, I figured she wouldn't which meant I hope they'd do a double bluff and actually do it. They didn't and I found her sobbing, when she was in the parallel universe, a bit selfish given that her mother, would-be-father, and Mickey were all there waiting to say how glad they were to see her.
I also didn't go for the same scene on the beach - for exactly the same reasons Goodshape has stated. He's had companions before he's been close to - Sarah Jane Smith and Jo Grant in particular - and never reacted in this manner. I don't see why Rose got this extreme treatement of love. Hopefully there won't be annoying emotional resonance next season, with him pining for her.

Oh and the end? I liked it. Nice distraction and I like to think that as soon as the Doctor utters his puzzled "What?!" he's completely forgotten his grief for Tyler and moved on to being, finally, the clear leader of the show "Doctor Who".

Sleepy

I dunno, was never a fan of the original series but (or maybe because of that) I quite liked the whole Doctor/Rose 'love' thing. Particularly enjoyed the scene a few episodea back where he explained to her why nothing could ever happen between them. Think it kind of fits the poiniency of him being the last of his race (unless they get a Dalek-like repreisal) and think about it, if you were in his position you'd only take pretty incredible people you really liked along with you too

You'd never guess I loved Rose's too, would you?

monkeyfudge

I really wish they would go back to the more serial format the series used to have.

I hate the way what should be epic events are wrapped up so quickly.

It would have been much better if those last 2 episodes had have been told over 5 or 6 episodes. Having an army of Daleks and Cybermen show up, only to be gotten rid of 40 minutes later is a bit silly really and seems like a waste of what could have been a great storyline.

fun bus

i was a big rose fan! true enough she was almost star of the show, but that didnt bother me. heard rachel stevens had been interested in the role next series! tough luck to her!

ixoy

monkeyfudge wrote:

I really wish they would go back to the more serial format the series used to have.

I hate the way what should be epic events are wrapped up so quickly.

It would have been much better if those last 2 episodes had have been told over 5 or 6 episodes. Having an army of Daleks and Cybermen show up, only to be gotten rid of 40 minutes later is a bit silly really and seems like a waste of what could have been a great storyline.

I see your point. One 2-parter now is equivalent to just less than an old 4-parter, which was generally the shortest a story was (sure, you got 2-parters like "Mission to the Unknown" but they're the exception).

A story like this really would have been better breathed over a 4-5 episode arc. That way we could have seen a longer, more pitched battle between the Cyberman and Daleks rather than the half-glimpse (albeit cheaper) one that we did see. I mean if the original's Dalek Masterplan can last for 12 25-minute episodes, can't we have something a bit meatier for the Mondas vs Skaro confrontation than an episode as long as the Slitheen?

I understand that they were trying to make the series format more accessible to the Americans, hence adopting the 45-minute format over the 25-minute format (they tried the 45 minute format briefly before with little success) and to allow people to dip and out and generally it works as often the original serials would be padded with unnessecary dialogue. But for certain episodes, longer would have lent more impact. Just my 2 Ecus worth (for those of you who have seen "Battlefield").

Mr E

Anyone notice when the daleks and cybermen got sucked into the void that one of the daleks teleported himself out of harms way? Looks like they have a way of bringing them back next season.

The Brigadier

ixoy wrote:

I see your point. One 2-parter now is equivalent to just less than an old 4-parter, which was generally the shortest a story was (sure, you got 2-parters like "Mission to the Unknown" but they're the exception).

Mission to the Unknown was a one parter. There were a few 2 parters including The Kings Daemons, Black Orchid and The Awakening. I thought they all worked well.

The longer 6 and 7 part stories tended to drag out too much. Watch "Dr. Who and The Silurians" as an example. A seven part story where nothing really happens during the middle section.

When I watched Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel I actually thought it was too long. I thought the first part was perfectly paced but the second part was dragged out.

K_user

I agree whole heartedly that such an “epic” battle could/should have been told over a series of shows, rather than squeezed into a brief glimpse of what could have been. It would have been fantastic to see what damage Dalek’s could inflict on-mass…oh well…

I thought that a lot of the end-of-Rose story was drawn out. Now I was a big Rose fan, that is to say that I enjoyed the character that Billy played, so I was sorry to see her go. But I think it would have been better to leave it with them touching the walls and walking away. For me their faces said it all. There was grief, there was respect, there was a moments silence. Adding in that extra piece at the end, them meeting at the beach, was just a little over kill. Hammering home what was obvious.

As for what the Doctor was going to say. Who knows? Maybe he loves each of his helpers in a different way. Having never watched the originals I couldn’t say for sure. But I’d like to think that, maybe, this effected him more than usual because he wasn’t given a choice. That he didn’t decide to leave her behind, but that she risked herself and was taken to a place that he can’t reach. Unfinished Business?

ixoy

The Brigadier wrote:

Mission to the Unknown was a one parter. There were a few 2 parters including The Kings Daemons, Black Orchid and The Awakening. I thought they all worked well.

I meant "Inside the Spaceship" which I saw recently - opps! And, as I've said, the 2-parter=1 new one format works fine generally. "The Girl in the Fireplace" would have been horribly distorted if it was more than one episode, as would most of the one-off stories. I think some of the 2-parters could have done with more time.

The longer 6 and 7 part stories tended to drag out too much. Watch "Dr. Who and The Silurians" as an example. A seven part story where nothing really happens during the middle section.

I've seen it. Hell, I've seen all the Season 7+ stories and completely agree with you - as above, there's often too much padding, particularly with dialogue or the characters wandering off to no real purposeful end. Sometimes it can work (what I've seen of "Marco Polo" suggests it might have ) but often the pace is too unworkable for what we expect today (look at the whole post-"Unearthly Child" 100,000 BC as a pointlessly long dragged out story... and that was at the very very beginning!).

And yet, sometimes there's a lot to be said for it - I love "Gensis of the Daleks" and, as a seminal work of the show, it uses its six parts well. I wouldn't have liked to have seen it chopped up. Similarly, I think an important point like this in the show's mythology could have had longer.

We could really have had more of the conflict between Daleks and Cybermen, more of how the alternate Earth got to where it was, and more of the Doctor having to struggle for the final plan than basically flick two levers. Would have added more drama and gravitas.

When I watched Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel I actually thought it was too long. I thought the first part was perfectly paced but the second part was dragged out.

Yes, it did a little but perhaps a more tight script could have been put into play.

I thought that a lot of the end-of-Rose story was drawn out. Now I was a big Rose fan, that is to say that I enjoyed the character that Billy played, so I was sorry to see her go. But I think it would have been better to leave it with them touching the walls and walking away. For me their faces said it all. There was grief, there was respect, there was a moments silence. Adding in that extra piece at the end, them meeting at the beach, was just a little over kill. Hammering home what was obvious.

Definetely agree. Did not like the beach scene - way too much soap-opera cheese for me. Found the two on either side of the breach far more effective in communicating their loss than the hologram approach. I can assume it wasn't used because, as good as he can be, RTD is not one for the subtle I've found.

Stark

ixoy wrote:

I also didn't go for the same scene on the beach - for exactly the same reasons Goodshape has stated. He's had companions before he's been close to - Sarah Jane Smith and Jo Grant in particular - and never reacted in this manner. I don't see why Rose got this extreme treatement of love. Hopefully there won't be annoying emotional resonance next season, with him pining for her.

I think it's a testament to Billie's acting ability that the writers have written her as the classic "everyone loves her because she's perfect" female character yet the fans can still tolerate her Can you imagine if it was Kristen Kreuk (Smallville's Lana) in her place?

secret_squirrel

Ixoy wrote:

He's had companions before he's been close to - Sarah Jane Smith and Jo Grant in particular - and never reacted in this manner. I don't see why Rose got this extreme treatement of love.

I seem to remember he was extremely attached to Romana back in the day. There was a definately Man and Wife subtext going on with their relationshipship.

Plus its concievable that a new Regeneration = different emotions.

Its arguably also a part and parcel of having a Dr Who for the noughties.

ixoy

secret_squirrel wrote:

I seem to remember he was extremely attached to Romana back in the day. There was a definately Man and Wife subtext going on with their relationshipship.

Well there's a truth there as Romanadvoratrelundar (had to!) was the first companion who was his intellectual equal, so I sort of see your point. I guess I never warmed to her (found her a bit icy) so didn't include her.

Plus its concievable that a new Regeneration = different emotions.

Ah true that. I'm currently trawling through the Hartnell era and the difference between that cantankerous old geezer and Tennent's incarnation is huge, more than enough to fit in the concept of affection.

Its arguably also a part and parcel of having a Dr Who for the noughties.

Most probably this - people expect romantic tension between male/female leads. I think it's a bit clichéd and unnessecary myself however and I always felt that the Doctor was this person who always had to keep people at a distance - for many of the reasons SJ stated in "School Renunion". It's not that he's necessarily incapable of love - but that he can't bring himself to do it, to risk the harm, much like other tortured souls in history. Felt it occurred too easily here..

And, as much as I liked Rose when held up against the sexist nightmares like Screaming Susan and Vapid Vicki, I think she got far too much coverage and saved the day too many times, detracting from the role that is really the Doctor's. So I guess there's a large begrudging element - I want the Doctor to be the hero, to have the plan. I don't want a Deus-Ex Rose (as we had in the S1 finale) doing the noble deed, but the maverick Gallifreyan. The guy who has saved the universe, been a president, and spoken to the greats throghout history but still has that mysterious charm. We'll see how the compaion/Doctor balance works out in S3 but it's one I'd like to see redressed just a little.

foxybrowne

yeah, the programme's called Dr. Who, not Companion Nobody.