Doctor Who

From the Daily Record:-

Matt Smith talks about playing the role of the Doctor: "I can never relax because I'm always pushing myself to the highest level but it's nice to enjoy the fact people have accepted me as the Doctor and enjoy the things I do. I think he's grown. I hope people see growth.
I think he should always be evolving. I don't think good actors get typecast. In 10 years' time I'll be playing very different parts than I am playing now. So there is plenty of time for me to evolve as an actor." Also: "It's so funny, I read other scripts and I just go, 'Not as good as Doctor Who!' For me, it's a privilege to play this man. These parts don't come along that often. There was never any hesitation on my part to stay for another year. Why would I quit? I've got Steven Moffat writing scripts, but not only that - Toby Whithouse, Richard Curtis... all these great writers. And then of course, the part. I just love playing the Doctor. I've grown terribly fond of him. It's something I really enjoy."

Long may he want to remain and the Moff too!

trailer for this weeks ep;

The mis-leading title caught my attention too. To say that the title was called 'Lets Kill Hitler', you didn't see him for more than ten seconds

Some say Hitler died in that cupboard...

Ah yes but the episode was still about the title, sort of. Remember Mels at school accusing the Doctor of not stopping the sinking of the Titanic, and then of not stoping WW2 by killing Hitler?- it plays first watch like she is just backing up Amy or from hearing her stories but in retrospect you can see this is her conditioning- we know the bad guys speak of the Doctor as a 'man of peace' with complete scorn. Part of Mels conditioning seems to be examples from history of terrible things hapening which the Doctor could have prevented but didn't. Bad events or people the Doctor never stopped. Or punished or killed. So when she gets the chance she tests him- 'lets go kill Hitler'. And contrast with the little Time Cops who are doing just that- using time travel to punish and kill people in the name of justice. But the Doctor, well he is the Doctor so he locks Hitler in a cupboard instead.
And of course killing Hitler would be against the rules as presumably WW2 is one of those unchangable 'fixed points in time'- as is the Doctors death according to the tiny Time Cops.
So if the Doctor did try to kill Hitler it would no different from River trying to kill the Doctor- its a paradox.
"But he can't die now"
"Well he is. Someone has screwed up."

And the Time Cops have Melody Pond down as a worse criminal than Hitler- which is fair enough in the Who universe as one mad dictator on one planet in the unfashionable western spiral arm of the galaxy probebly isnt a big deal on a universal scale- but in the Doctor's universe Melody is a bigger criminal than Hitler- so we do get in a sense to see how he deals with that sort of person- and he does it with self sacrifice, compassion and because he's the Doctor style and a lie.
So the theme of the title is played out in the themes of the episode.

Ally as far as I know Hitler never came out the closet.

Am in the doghouse after this weeks episode, Had a 'penny in the air' moment about where Rory and Amy where and blurted it out loud, much to Squach's annoyance! (Then blubbed as well which got me into more trouble!) This was pure Gatiss gold!

(made up for the messy Torchwood that tried to keep up the pace and suspense, but failed!)

I think if I was 10 I would not be getting a good nights sleep after that! Very typically Gaitliss much better than the Dalek story he penned last series.

Intrigued by next weeks episode, The Girl Who Waited, an Amy/Rory story . And any episode with 2 Amy's in it is alright in my book. (And a young Amy and a mature Amy- now that's just the best of both worlds!) Looks as visually intriguing as its content promises to be. Hopefully we will get more on the Pond's releationship as the main problem I had with the last episode was it being moved from the first half of the season to the second, maikng Amy and Rory seem a tad cold about recent events with their own baby.

Matt Smith won GQ's Style Award last night (turns out bowties are cool ).

[img][/img]

But even though I love him as the Doctor is it really fair he gets all these accolades and gets to date model Daisy Lowe

[img][/img]

And to go to work everyday with Karen Gillan?

[img][/img]

And he gets to be the Doctor! Surely too much of a good thing is bad for anyone (not just jealous, definteyl not!)

One could easily get jealous if one was the jealous type...

I had high hopes for this evenings episode but they were wrong. It was even better than I thought it would be. Gobsmacked. Moved. Just wow! I might manage to be more coherent later. I'm still reeling from that one. Beautiful. My new fav episode of this series knocking even the sublime Dcotor's Wife off the top spot.

Great stuff. Vintage Who. Excellent plot with a philosophical melancholy. Made me nearly cry a bit too ;(....... only thing was - did the make up department run out of money to give amy a few grey hairs?!

Ginger haired people don't tend to go grey as such, it just gets lighter until eventually it goes white. But its the sort of episode thats so bloody good that that sort of thing is about as close as a complaint as you could get- I'm still stunned by how brilliant that was and in particular Karen and Arthur who were just superb in this.
And nice to see that harder edge to the Doctor again.

blubbed again!

And I think I don't like the doctor very much after this weeks episode. Poor Poor Rory! sooooooo mean!

This was the Doctor who ended the Time War by wiping his own race from existence. This is the Doctor who is so feared by some they have built and army and created River just to kill him. I like seeing that side to the Doctor occasionaly, that reminder that underneath it all is someone who is not human and doesn't share all our sensibilities. In fact its compassion, empathy he most needs from humans which is why he has them around all the time. I think it was Donna said something to him along the lines of "You need someone to tell you when to stop."
It also was reminiscent of the first Doctor, who made a not entirely disimilar decision concerning his own granddaughter.



Not suprised you blubbed at this one Kafria. I watched this with a friend and at the end was manfully trying not to shed a tear only to realise my friend was doing likewise. We Scots have no social ettique for this sort of thing, grown men are not supposed to cry at a tv show, maybe in the middle of a battle up to your armpits in gore with your friend dying, and even then only maybe.

Maybe so {{{you're may even be right }}} but I don't have to like him when he's like that

Not sure I would say I like him like that either. You can see why in the Impossible Astronaut River says "That is cold. Even for you." But it does make him a lot more interesting than a standard hero.

Eldo did you ever get round to watching s5? Really I swear this is the best Who has been in a very long time (and possibly ever). A golden age of characters and story- do indulge yourself.

I only watched the first episode (which was really good; I liked it a lot ) but not any more of it. Like I said, I'll see about buying it from Amazon Instant Video some time, though I can't promise when.

Doctor Who, Doctor Who,
Your eyes are bright blue,
But once they were brown,
And once they were hazel,
And once you were Tom Baker
Kissing Mister Pertwee,
But that's how it goes....

"Desperation: Too Many Threads." An abstract by John Lennon - never written down.

Wisey Banks

"Like I said, I'll see about buying it from Amazon Instant Video some time, though I can't promise when."- Eldo

I am only thinking of you Eldo! The longer you wait the more catching up you will have to do to get to all this amazing stuff thats going out now. (And new TV is best enoyed in the tonal of the times it is broadast) And why do Americans insist on buying things they could just watch for free?! (Not like you should even have any guilt over this the BBC have already been paid for it by us long suffering UK TV licence payers!)

Current poll results from Gallifrey Base the biggest UK Who forum. And a generally very negative crabbit sort of a place. But even the moaners have been struggling to find fault with the latest episode. Not seen result like this on there since 'The Doctor's Wife'.


10 Fantastic! The absolute pinnacle (excellent/10) 9 They don't get much better than this! (excellent/9) 8 It's certainly worthy of very high praise! (great/8 ) 7 Well above average, but no masterpiece (very good/7) 6 Just a cut above average (good/6) 5 Can't find a better example of average Doctor Who (average/5) 4 It's below average, but only just! (fair/4) 3 This one's bad but it's got some good in it, just there. (poor/3) 2 It's not THE worst, that's something else. But... (awful/2) 1 I'd rather listen to a tape loop of leaf blower noise (worst/1) Voters: 2925.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:"Like I said, I'll see about buying it from Amazon Instant Video some time, though I can't promise when."- Eldo

I am only thinking of you Eldo! The longer you wait the more catching up you will have to do to get to all this amazing stuff thats going out now. (And new TV is best enoyed in the tonal of the times it is broadast) And why do Americans insist on buying things they could just watch for free?! (Not like you should even have any guilt over this the BBC have already been paid for it by us long suffering UK TV licence payers!)

Current poll results from Gallifrey Base the biggest UK Who forum. And a generally very negative crabbit sort of a place. But even the moaners have been struggling to find fault with the latest episode. Not seen result like this on there since 'The Doctor's Wife'.


10 Fantastic! The absolute pinnacle (excellent/10)

859 29.37%

9 They don't get much better than this! (excellent/9)

890 30.43%

8 It's certainly worthy of very high praise! (great/8 )

673 23.01%

7 Well above average, but no masterpiece (very good/7)

225 7.69%

6 Just a cut above average (good/6)

92 3.15%

5 Can't find a better example of average Doctor Who (average/5)

48 1.64%

4 It's below average, but only just! (fair/4)

46 1.57%

3 This one's bad but it's got some good in it, just there. (poor/3)

41 1.40%

2 It's not THE worst, that's something else. But... (awful/2)

24 0.82%

1 I'd rather listen to a tape loop of leaf blower noise (worst/1)

27 0.92%

Voters: 2925.

One of the guys at my work is a Who fan, but in the ten or so years I've known him, I have rarely heard him say something was good, and never great (once I think I overheard "It's not too bad"- high praise indeed ); but mostly, he says Who episodes are ordinary to atrocious. Yes, he's an absolute Who fan! (Maybe he's Scottish! )

It is an odd feature of Who fandom. Exceptionally high standards are expected of what is essentailly a family show. And there is no one faster to condemn the show for not reaching impossible standards all the time than its fan base. The UK tabloids have a feild day regularly predicitng the imminent doom of Doctor Who and most of it is based on stuff from Gallifrey Base (lazy journalism to just trawl a forum- but they are tabloids). As always however the majority are silent. Theres nearly 3000 people voted in the above poll, larger than most sample group for official polls, but the episode was watched by 6 million (overnights- by the time the time-shift numbers are taken into account its about 8-9 million). If the poll is any sort of guide then presumably most of those were very entertained on Saturday night, if it pleased the majority on Gallifrey Base it will certainly have entertained the average viewer.

I have a theory and it is that most people will generally vote for the negative in those kinds of polls. Positive people just sit back and enjoy.

Tick-tock goes the clock
And what then shall we see?
Tick-tock until the day
That thou shalt marry me?
Tick-tock goes the clock
And all the years they fly
Tick-tock and all too soon
You and I must die
Tick-tock goes the clock
He cradled her and he rocked her
Tick-tock goes the clock
Even for the Doctor


Mmmm?