All New Who

{{Well, assuming she is from the 1980's then they will just do the reverse and have her be amazed at the internet and mobile phones.
If she is from the 80's I suspect one reason is that Who's writers by and large are all about my age- so most of them were somewhere between 12 and 25 in the 80's- its a time they will know well (cuts down on research) and have nostalgia for.}}}

halfwise wrote:Wouldn't it have been more fun to get a companion from the future?  He/she could keep making comments like, when examining a potato - "where's the button to push that cooks it?"

The problem with getting a companion from the future is that they would less wowed by the sci-fci stuff, and would arguably be more removed from the target audience as a relatable figure, Capaldi's Doctor is quite reserved and mysterious, so you need a quirky younger companion for him to bounce off and act as an audience's point of view, judging from the brief clip we've seen and her clothing Bill seems to working class and from the 80's or 90's (or a hipster), and is quite gobby and ignorant, reminds me of Ace/Donna.

' reminds me of Ace/Donna. '- Malick

{{That generally seems to be the consensus- for those who have no idea who Ace is-}}}

I think we should have had somebody unique, and not like old companions in any way.

{{{We don't know if she is anything like Ace, all people are going on is that she looks like she is from the same time period and they both had badges on their jackets and that's about it- folk are saying who she reminds them of in comparison to previous not who she is, there is a very big difference between the two}}}

why do you still have? (((()))))

{{{{{{ I have explained this before- there is a Reason!!! {{{OK encrypting this bit inside an encryption bracket for extra security- I will pm you the Reason- but you cant tell anyone!! }}}}}}}}}}}}

((((((((( )))))))

{{{{{I know!!! }}}}}

I strongly dislike all this talk about reason. It's not natural! This is a place beyond reason and outside the realm of sanity! How dare they!?

{{Interesting question to ponder- is Ohila, the leader of the Sisterhood of Karn the Doctor's mother- its a question the actress herself raises in Doctor Who magazine apparently.

It prompted me to have a look at the transcript for the episode Hell Bent and consider it and her actions in series 9 in that light to see if they would fight the proposition- see what you think.

At the start the Doctor confesses his plan to save Clara to her by altering time, she warns him it can only lead to his destruction. He entrusts her with his confession dial, and tells her who to give it to which sets everything in motion. Despite thinking its doomed to failure she does this anyway.
We don't see her again until the final episode when she turns up on Gallifrey- giving as her reasons the following-

RASSILON: So, where is he? Where has the Doctor gone?
(The leader of the Sisterhood of Karn enters with two bodyguards.)
OHILA: Back to the beginning, I should think.
RASSILON: The Sisterhood of Karn has no business in this chamber, or on this planet.
OHILA: I heard the Doctor had come home. One so loves fireworks.

How does she know the beginning for the Doctor is the barn from is childhood in the Wastelands?

RASSILON: What is he doing? What does he want? Revenge?
OHILA: The Doctor does not blame Gallifrey for the horrors of the Time War.
RASSILON: I should hope not.
OHILA: He just blames you.

Again, how does she know this with such certainty? We the viewer don't know this- the Doctor has kept his hatred of Rassilon for the war under-wraps till now not having the option to do anything about it before. So how does she know?

And then there is this interesting exchange in the Cloisters between her and the Doctor-

OHILA: I thought I'd find you down here. Old times.
DOCTOR: You're a long way from Karn.
OHILA: At the end of everything, one must expect the company of immortals.
DOCTOR: Do you know what they did to me? A confession dial is a ritual act of purification. It allows a dying Time Lord to face his demons and make his peace, before his mind is uploaded to the Matrix. It was never intended as a torture chamber for the living.
OHILA: Rassilon grew concerned about the coming of the Hybrid.
DOCTOR: Afraid!
OHILA: You were entrapped and imprisoned at his command.
DOCTOR: And look at him now.
OHILA: Why did you banish him? Was it punishment, or for your own protection? Or are you just being cruel? Or just being cowardly?
DOCTOR: Let's see, shall we?


Once more, how did she know about the Doctor's childhood experience in the Cloisters? Why does she call herself and the Doctor immortals- neither are immortal- Time Lords regenerate, the Sisterhood preserve themselves, but neither source is infinite.

Why does the Doctor pour out his heart to her about something so personal and painful as what happened in the confession dial?

And is it a mothers voice that is chastising and questioning his actions at the end?

And then we have this final exchange between them near the end-

CLARA: You were quick.
DOCTOR: Time machine. I backed up a bit.
OHILA [OC]: Doctor! Doctor, face me!
[Cloisters]
OHILA: Doctor, can you hear me?
[Tardis]
OHILA [on scanner]: Get out of that Tardis and face me, boy!
CLARA: Boy?
(The Doctor opens the doors and pokes his head out.)
[Cloisters]
OHILA: You have gone too far. You have broken every code you ever lived by.
DOCTOR: After all this time, after everything I've done, don't you think the universe owes me this?
OHILA: Owes you what? All you're doing is giving her hope.
DOCTOR: Since when is hope a bad thing?
OHILA: Hope is a terrible thing on the scaffold.
(The Doctor pulls his head back in, closes the door and the Tardis dematerialises. Ohila shakes her head.)
GENERAL: Where can he run?
OHILA: Where he always runs. Away. Just away.

I'll leave you to decide of that last exchange is the words of a mother to her son or not, but I have to say I think there is a case to consider here.}}}}

{{{Bugger you lot are hard to engage in interesting speculation

Ah well here is another new vid from Garostudios this time celebrating all of Who}}

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{{Bugger you lot are hard to engage in interesting speculation
}}}

{{{Well I suppose I could, but it's just not as much fun to speculate when I haven't got a clue what you're talking about . How far behind am I now? I've just finished Capaldi's first season.}}}

{{You are only one series and 1 xmas special away- I did give you the previous years xmas ep- Last Christmas didn't I? And you've time to catch up- there is no series this year, just a xmas day episode- then a full series in 2017, then Chibnall takes over as Head Writer for 2018 onwards.}}}

{{{{Here's something to muse, as I have been- I just watched Sleep No More for the third time since it aired. An episode I was not very keen on when I first watched it. Which grew on me on a second watch and which on a third watch has me appreciating the nuances of what it is actually doing.
Thing is it took me three watches to get to this point. I still don't think its anything like the best episode of series 9, but, its not bad either and much better and more thoughtful than many might lead you to believe.
But it does require watching it at least twice because of the nature of the narrative- the final reveal changes the meaning of everything that has gone before it.
When you watch a second time knowing this you begin to appreciate more the cunning of a 'lost footage' story with a completely unreliable narrator.
But it was only on the third watch I really began to appreciate the level Gatiss has taken this to. Every 'camera' shot we see is chosen by the villian, every cut, every bit of dialogue chosen- and its been done with as much manipulation as a reality tv show does to create its characters and story lines. Its real footage presented by deception, but what really happened?
So, you have to watch it twice, at least in my case.

Then there is Heaven sent, this works brilliantly on a first watch but there are certain key scenes which have an entirely different meaning - especially the Doctor's moment of realisation and understanding of what he is doing and what's going on, which can only be understood fully second time through.
And it takes a third viewing in-light of revelations in Hell Bent to uncover the final layer in Heaven Sent regarding Clara.

And then there is Under the Lake/Before the Flood which rather encourages you to rewatch it and see if you can spot where, in a seemingly logical cause and effect series of events where the pardox begins and ends and who did compose Beethoven's Fifth.

And then there is the series reason for why you need to watch it all twice.
Because its only then you can appreciate that the Doctor has been reacting to finding out what happens to Clara, and planning how to save her since the series began. And many scenes throughout change in light of that, or are moving the pieces into play for it.

Now I have always advocated watching Moffat Who episodes twice because he packs a lot in there, and I don't mean just on the surface where all the wise cracks and explosions are.
But normally I mean it simply because there can be more than one theme- as Moffat likes to explore deeper emotional reactions through more abstract means- such as Amy's loss of River and why the Doctor cant just go back and get her being explored in the themes of the Girl Who Waited, on the surface an episode which has nothing to do with River, and usually is going on and it all goes by under the guise of breakneck entertainment and fast talk that its easy to lose the more subtle themes in the rush and excitement.

But in the case of series 9 (the one Moffat thought would be his last) there is a clear deliberate attempt to write a series where not only individual stories change on a second watch in their meanings and context, but the entire series does.

This is very ambitious, befitting maybe of Moffats style and tenure for his final series, and I think long term with the trend for boxsets ect that it will cement this series already very good reputation.
But short term it is a big risk of alienating casual viewers who still only watch it as broadcast on a Saturday night and never see that episode again (those people do still exist apparently!)

Any thoughts on the notion you have to watch series 9 twice by design? Or on if that's a good or a bad thing? (edit add- and say why you think so -that caveat is so Figg cant just pop on say 'bad' and bugger off again }}}}

I certainly don't have any desire to watch season 9 again either by accident or design.

{{{That wasn't the question!!! }}}}

well you certainly DONT have to watch it twice by design, unless you are a masochist, in which case you do.

{{{The question is- as the series, and individual episodes in it are deigned to be seen twice before the full picture emerges- think Fight Club- the second time you see it its got an entirely different meaning than the first time, its deliberately written that way- and is doing this a good idea or a bad one? Ambitious or overreach? And in the modern consumer market of binge watching, repeat viewing, boxset owing, is this the market it should be thinking of, moving with the times and trying to reflect that as story telling devise, or should it consider more the traditional watch it an episode once and never again Saturday night viewer?}}}

Series 9 is tied with series 4 are my favourite, I'd like to watch it again, but the DVD's are too damned expensive, maybe if they release a series 1-10 boxset I'll be tempted...

A few weeks ago Big Finish a sale on 'The Lost Stories'-audioplay adaptations of scripted/drafted  but unfilmed Classic Who stories (e.g. The 'lost' Series 22 which was almost completely written, but dropped when the show was put on 18 month hiatus, later replaced by Trial Of A Timelord), and I bought a fair few of them, only heard a couple so far, but the storylines are mostly very good, and the scripts very good at capturing the feel of 60's-80's Who. Colin Baker's Doctor, who is considerably more mellowed and laid back in most of his Big Finish stories than he was on TV (the majority of 6's audio stories are set after Trial Of A Timelord I think) is written as much closer to his argumentiaive, arrogant TV persona than he normally is in the audios...and in some ways I actually prefer it, the 6th Doctor comes across as a bit of a brash, arrogant dick at times...but it's very entertaining!.

So far the stand out story I've heard is:



Very atmospheric, well paced (considering the 3 hour length) and extremely ambitious, it's certainly one of the best 2nd Dr stories I've experienced so far, but it's easy to see why it wasn't filmed (frankly I think the absence of the crappy 60's Special effects enhances the experience...)...Frazer Hines sounds exactly the same as he did back in the 60's, and does a spookily convincing impersonation of Patrick Troughton's Doctor (most of the time), there's moments when he as Jamie is talking to the Doctor in the same scene, and switches between the two characters, sounding exactly the same as Troughton, you almost forget he's been dead for nearly 30 years...

(Moffat really should consider getting John Dorney to pitch or write a storyline for the Tv series, he's probably the most talented writer working with BF at the moment)

{{{I have listened to all the 6th Doctor Lost Stories, and generally enjoyed them a lot though as I had not long before binge listened a bunch of 6th Doctor BF it took me a bit to adjust back to the as yet undeveloped 6th of the tv run. Fraser Hines does a remarkable job- he and Carol Anne Ford are my main two hopes for  returning to the show as classic cameos, it would be a shame to lose the opportunity before the inevitable happens.}}

{{Ps you can get series 9 on dailymotion}}

{{First two parter to get you going}}

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{{I have listened to all the 6th Doctor Lost Stories, and generally enjoyed them a lot though as I had not long before binge listened a bunch of 6th Doctor BF it took me a bit to adjust back to the as yet undeveloped 6th of the tv run. Fraser Hines does a remarkable job- he and Carol Anne Ford are my main two hopes for  returning to the show as classic cameos, it would be a shame to lose the opportunity before the inevitable happens.}}

I've heard maybe a dozen other 6th Doctor releases (mostly with Evelyn-she was his perfect companion) and Colin generally seems to get the best scripts, and always turns in a great performance, I haven't seen much of his TV run but I think people wrote him off just based on the strangling (I'm one of those weirdos who actually likes 6's costume) he's a great actor, a great ambassador for the show, and a very entertaining doctor, if I were to critise BF i.m.o they went too far in the other direction with Colin's Doctor, he comes across as a little too nice and understanding, almost as if they rebooted the character, one of the reasons I like Hartnell and Capaldi's Doctors so much if because they retained a sense of danger and arrogance even after they had mellowed...

I hope Carol comes back if they ever bring back Susan (if only for a Regeneration scene), as much as I liked Jamie, I'm not sure I'd want him to return as an older Jamie, it would arguably undermine the ending to The War Games (and yes I am aware of the Season '6B' theory)...

{{With Jamie you would have to bring him back as an old Highlander, have the TARDIS turn up in Scotland after the events of 1745 and the Jacobite Uprising (Jamie would have been on the losing side making it more interesting) and he would retain his memory of his first adventure with the Doctor (as per the ending of War Games)}}