50th Episode - Here there be Spoilers

bradyle

Apparently all 11 doctors are going to be in the 50th anniversary!! They'll use old recordings of the deceased ones to make them fit into the story...

http://www.cnet.com.au/eleven-doctors-coming-together-for-50th-anniversary-339343059.htm

In theory this is amazing. I'm just hoping the episode has a decent storyline and isnt all bam look at this person bam theres another person from the past kind of thing!

Doctor DooM

I haven't gotten to say this in ages

I'll believe it when the BBC confirm it!

Das Kitty

Technically all eleven were in The Eleventh Hour using old footage. :P

bradyle

Is it even going to be still in season 7 the 50th anniversary episode or is it gonna be some special? Like the show originally started in November so unless they’re planning on being ridiculously cruel with delaying the start of the second half of this season there’s no way it’ll still be going on in November.

So i'm assuming its a special...either that or its just going to be roughly the 50th anniversary

Das Kitty

bradyle wrote: »

Is it even going to be still in season 7 the 50th anniversary episode or is it gonna be some special? Like the show originally started in November so unless they’re planning on being ridiculously cruel with delaying the start of the second half of this season there’s no way it’ll still be going on in November.

So i'm assuming its a special...either that or its just going to be roughly the 50th anniversary

Yeah. It's at least one special.

The Master

It's only a Matt Smith lookalike but still a cool Image

McLoughlin

Well Big Finish have a 8 Doctors special in november Doctors 4 -8 with the actors and Doctors 1-3 using audio extracts like the Jon Pertwee/Zagreus segments.

Be nice to see McGann on screen though if it were to happen.

Doctor DooM

Regardless of the truth of this rumour or not, I would like to see McGann too.

He and Colin Baker are the most "shafted" of the Doctors, and I'd like for both of them to have another moment to shine (perhaps McCoy too).

ixoy

What about Rowan Atkinson?

allanb49

Richard E Grant :P

Doctor DooM

Ok then, the most shafted of the televised, live action, canonical doctors.

First person to mention Richard Hurndall gets a tardis to the head.

The Mad Hatter

Doctor DooM wrote: »

Ok then, the most shafted of the televised, live action, canonical doctors.

First person to mention Richard Hurndall gets a tardis to the head.

What about Peter Cushing? :P

Doctor DooM

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

What about Peter Cushing? :P

Non canonical, I had him covered

pixelburp

Of course the elephant in the room is Eccelestone; he has been consistently against the idea of returning to Who (a stubbornness I have never quite understood), and I imagine the only thing that might persuade him otherwise would be a truck-load of cash; cash which the BBC wouldn't really have at this point, especially Who; its budget has shrunk since Eccles' day.

Besides, only Docs #8, 9 & 10 are in any state to pass themselves off as their incarnations; the rest are simply too old, fat or both to play the role. Maybe you could use audio roles to include them, but I'd say archive footage will be as good as it gets.

Though the other option might be to recast the roles of the deceased Docs completely; with the right actors & script it's not the craziest idea in the world. Look at Star Trek: the reboot's cast have generally met with high praise - both the script & actors really captured the spirit of the original roles (Karl Urban as McCoy in particular was positively spooky).

McLoughlin

pixelburp wrote: »

Of course the elephant in the room is Eccelestone; he has been consistently against the idea of returning to Who (a stubbornness I have never quite understood), and I imagine the only thing that might persuade him otherwise would be a truck-load of cash; cash which the BBC wouldn't really have at this point, especially Who; its budget has shrunk since Eccles' day.

Besides, only Docs #8, 9 & 10 are in any state to pass themselves off as their incarnations; the rest are simply too old, fat or both to play the role. Maybe you could use audio roles to include them, but I'd say archive footage will be as good as it gets.

Though the other option might be to recast the roles of the deceased Docs completely; with the right actors & script it's not the craziest idea in the world. Look at Star Trek: the reboot's cast have generally met with high praise - both the script & actors really captured the spirit of the original roles (Karl Urban as McCoy in particular was positively spooky).

Tom Baker was the "elephant in the room" for many years with Big Finish before finally reprising his role as The 4th Doctor though sadly many of the actors that worked with him have passed on and we never got the 4th Doc/Sarah Jane or 4th Doc/Brig reunions. So if Baker can return anything is possible regarding Ecceleston

Time Crash shows that Davison is stil in fine form to play the 5th Doctor again, McCoy is in good shape and could play the 7th again. Colin Baker didn't look to well on Im a Celeb but Time Crash did introduced the rule that earlier incarnation or incarnations would appear of a greater physical age than they should have at that point in their timeline. This otherwise harmless effect would disappear once the incarnations parted ways and the time differential was no longer shorted out so that can be used again.

Sleepy

I think I'd rather they didn't tbh.

Doctor DooM

pixelburp wrote: »

Of course the elephant in the room is Eccelestone; he has been consistently against the idea of returning to Who (a stubbornness I have never quite understood), and I imagine the only thing that might persuade him otherwise would be a truck-load of cash; cash which the BBC wouldn't really have at this point, especially Who; its budget has shrunk since Eccles' day.

Didn't someone post an interview recently here where Eccelestone spoke out about his time in Who and said in fact that it wasn't snobbishness on his part but that he didn't get on with some people behind the cameras, and that he now says he wouldn't mind more Who, but distancing himself from them was right at the time?

pixelburp

McLoughlin wrote: »

Tom Baker was the "elephant in the room" for many years with Big Finish before finally reprising his role as The 4th Doctor though sadly many of the actors that worked with him have passed on and we never got the 4th Doc/Sarah Jane or 4th Doc/Brig reunions. So if Baker can return anything is possible regarding Ecceleston

I don't think it's utterly impossible, just highly unlikely. The money doesn't appear to be there, and beyond a change of heart I couldn't see him returning. As for Baker, to be fair his only solid objection was taking part in "The 5 Doctors" back in 1983, when he had only just left the role - since then he has seemed happy to come back; be it as part of a Children in Need story, a few TV special-nights etc. so Big Finish didn't seem like a massive coup.
Besides, with all due respect to Big Finish, audioplays are pretty easy work compared with the complexities of a shoot; Baker playing the 4th doctor must seem like money for old rope. Not to mention the fact it's easier to hide the fact Tom Baker is a 79-year old man now :eek:

McLoughlin wrote: »

Time Crash shows that Davison is stil in fine form to play the 5th Doctor again, McCoy is in good shape and could play the 7th again. Colin Baker didn't look to well on Im a Celeb but Time Crash did introduced the rule that earlier incarnation or incarnations would appear of a greater physical age than they should have at that point in their timeline. This otherwise harmless effect would disappear once the incarnations parted ways and the time differential was no longer shorted out so that can be used again.

Davison I'd be happy to see yes, being the youngest naturally his differences were easier to hide (crazy to think he was 29 when he played the role first); but tbh no amount of wibbly-wobbly could hide the two Bakers & McCoys obvious aged appearance. Fine with the aforementioned audio-roles, but just think it'd be a bad idea to bring them all back.

Doctor DooM wrote: »

Didn't someone post an interview recently here where Eccelestone spoke out about his time in Who and said in fact that it wasn't snobbishness on his part but that he didn't get on with some people behind the cameras, and that he now says he wouldn't mind more Who, but distancing himself from them was right at the time?

Perhaps, he did have bust-ups with Kevin Boak, one of the directors who made an utter hash of his stories, though I also saw an interview where he talked about never "bathing in the same river twice" or something along those lines. I guess given how ... unimpressive his CV has been since leaving Who, it can't be just artistic considerations that determined his feelings.

Edit: found Ecclestons more recent comments on returning to the show - he gives a pretty vague, non-answer really:
http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/christopher-eccleston/23641/doctor-who-christopher-eccleston-on-the-50th-anniversary

ixoy

Not sure how they'd explain away the ageing of the remaining doctors. The only one that there was room for in this was Patrick Troughton's Doctor for the Season 6b theorists.
Then again - "wibbly wobbly timey wimey" reasoning may be invoked.

allanb49

could they not use that aging software they used in X3 or Tron?

The Master

There's a docu-drama being produced for the 50th anniversary that will tell the story of how the show first came to be aired.
So someone will have to be cast as William Hartnell in it.

Fans(notably the gallifrey base psychos) don't see why all the doctors who are no longer alive could not be recast for the 50th anniversary episode.
not something I'd want to see myself

Or as Allan has said above, body doubles and CGI. The technology is there to make it work

allanb49

Or they could do a Ed Wood, Bella Lugosi job on it which in keeping with the Dr Who budget would seem more plausible

pixelburp

allanb49 wrote: »

could they not use that aging software they used in X3 or Tron?

With what money exactly? Tron cost a bazillion dollars to make, and still resulted in a fairly unconvincing Jeff Bridges; the Beeb is in cutback city atm, and thanks to various scandals is unlikely to get any financial favours anytime soon.

The Master wrote: »

There's a docu-drama being produced for the 50th anniversary that will tell the story of how the show first came to be aired.
So someone will have to be cast as William Hartnell in it.

Fans(notably the gallifrey base psychos) don't see why all the doctors who are no longer alive could not be recast for the 50th anniversary episode.
not something I'd want to see myself

I don't think all 11 doctors should return simply on the basis that it would make for a total clusterf*ck of a script (11 principal characters in a 60-minute show? Dear god); but what's wrong with the general principal of recasting one of the incarnations? It was done before, even if Richard Hurndalls take on Doc #1 was a little ropey - but that was mostly the scripts fault.

allanb49

pixelburp wrote: »

With what money exactly? Tron cost a bazillion dollars to make, and still resulted in a fairly unconvincing Jeff Bridges; the Beeb is in cutback city atm, and thanks to various scandals is unlikely to get any financial favours anytime soon.

See my next post to counter that

Killer_banana

Wasn't there meant to be a ten Doctor's Children in Need Special using archive footage for the deceased actors a few years back that never materialised? For a CIN special I could get behind this but an hour long episode sounds like a mess to me. Also as others have pointed out several actors are far too old at this stage.

As for Eccleston back in November when asked would he like to appear in the 50th Anniversary episode his response was 'I've not even thought about it.' Make of that what you will...

pixelburp

On the subject of getting other actors to play previous incarnations, its kinda happening, albeit not for the Special but for the docudrama:

http://m.io9.com/5980211/the-first-doctor-returns-to-doctor-who-courtesy-of-harry-potter

jenno99

Killer_banana wrote: »

Wasn't there meant to be a ten Doctor's Children in Need Special using archive footage for the deceased actors a few years back that never materialised? For a CIN special I could get behind this but an hour long episode sounds like a mess to me. Also as others have pointed out several actors are far too old at this stage.

As for Eccleston back in November when asked would he like to appear in the 50th Anniversary episode his response was 'I've not even thought about it.' Make of that what you will...

I'd rather they used computers and old footage than the ageing actors. Even Sylvester McCoy and Peter Davidson are looking far too old really.

Cyndaquil

McCann could pass I suspect, he doesn't look 'old' per se, and in case as we haven't seen his regeneration for all we know he could have looked as old as Hartnell did by the time he regenerated.

I'd be happy to give CGI a chance if the budget allowed, in any case whatever about the Bakers looking too old there aren't much other options for the first three (bar random clips fitted in).

Killer_banana

I was going to say it would be interesting to see old companions but then I suppose they did that with Sarah Jane. Personally I'd love to see Susan again but it's been implied more than once she's dead so doubt that'll happen. I think a scene of 72 year old Susan reacting to Matt Smith being her grandfather would be gold but maybe that's just me.

flazio

I don't know about television, but recently I've started listening to the co production of the two Doctor Who audio providers Big Finish and AudioGo, the series is called 'Destiny of The Doctor' they are released one a month and feature a consecutive Doctor, last month we had 'Hunters of Earth' which featured the First Doctor and Susan prior to the events of An UnEarthly Child, this month we got 'Shadow of Death' set in the time of the Second Doctor, Jaime and Zoe. So far both of these stories have had what you might call 'a future influence' among them.

The first story goes some way to explain why there is 'Magpie electrical' equipment in the TARDIS and there is a radio request from the Doctor that doesn't sound like the sort of thing Susan's grandfather would request and indeed he denies it, the second story features a communication device favoured by River Song and a bit of Bow tie appreciation

Also released are a few ebooks written by well known authors, very short but very action packed, the first is called 'A Big Hand For The Doctor' and was written by Irish Young Fantasy author Eoin Colfer, the second book in this series is called 'The Nameless City' and is by Michael Scott and will be released later this month.

Raphael

flazio wrote: »

Also released are a few ebooks written by well known authors, very short but very action packed, the first is called 'A Big Hand For The Doctor' and was written by Irish Young Fantasy author Eoin Colfer, the second book in this series is called 'The Nameless City' and is by Michael Scott and will be released later this month.

That's 2 for 2 on the "famous british childrens fictions authors" being Irish.