Doctor Who [6]

that's just wrong why is he in a previous episode..loooooool- Norc


Colin Baker was in an earlier story and he was the Doctor- Karen Gillan was in Fires of Pompeii too as a sooth sayer and came back as Amy.  Agnes Freeyman was killed by Cybermen at Canary Wharf before coming back as Martha. Lala Ward played the ruling Queen of a planet then reappeared as Romana II, companion of the 4th Doctor. There are plenty more examples.

Capaldi had a leading role to iin the Torchwood miniseries (and easily the best Torchwood series) Children of Earth- well worth tracking down between now and xmas for a watch-

 
to the Tucker/Who vid- I suspect there will be a lot of those.

i hope so

Seems the whole lets reveal the Doctor in a rubbish half hour format was the idea of the new Head of Programming at BBC 1- I am guessing it was not something Moffat was in favour of which might explain why the early BBC info said he was 'in the studio' and what we actually got was a recorded message.

this Capaldi bloke is going to be shit.

and I never heard so pointless justification and complete twaddle about the Doctor not being either Black or a Woman. If they want to change the story they just do, there are no rules. There should be only 12 regenerations then you say its all fluid, make your mind up either its ALL fluid or its not, and if they can invent more regenerations they sure as heck can choose a black guy.

I made my own view on the Doctors colour quite clear above- I couldnt care less. Its irrelevant. Making him a woman after being male for 50 years is not.
I was responding to Eldo asking if there were story reasons for it and given I cannot remember a single black Time Lord I offered the plausible theory that there might not be any.
I am justifying absolutely nothing.

"this Capaldi bloke is going to be shit."

What are you basing this on given he has a very impressive acting/directing/writing cv?
Surly your not sad to see Matt go- the worst Doctor you had ever seen at one point.  

i think capaldi is going to be great i think river will be glad he doesn't look like a 12 year old boy anymore.

 

I have nothing against Capaldi. I'm not familiar with his work but I do think it's cool that he's a longtime Who fan (wasn't Tenant one too?). I just think some of the arguments against having a black or female Doctor are kinda senseless.

Norc wrote:

bumping for new thread.


i too find the argument of colour/sex of the doctor a bit pointless. yes it would be cool to have a black doctor. yes it would be cool to have a female doctor. but it all comes down to writing and performance, and i think that is the two main things we should be worrying about. there is a time for everything. this time it was Capaldi's turn.

MOFFAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!

I reckon he must be one of Moffats 'mates' otherwise I dont get it, he is a bit stale and been knocking around for ages. I was hoping for someone more interesting. and he was crap as the Angel Islington in Neverwhere.

u should check out the radio play that benedict was in, he was great as the angel of islington

yeah I listened to the first part it was great.

I want  a woman. They could even have had a Gemini idea and have two. Some kind of telepathic Siamese thing could be interesting. I'm not sure about the 'black' actor bit. Not because I'm racist {{{well, not just because I'm racist  }}}, but it seems too politically correct to me for some reason --- where having a female (or two) seems somehow both a natural progression and an exciting new direction (with a female or two on the script writing side). With the 'black' actor thing, I see them as Westernized Man nowadays, so the colour thing would be a superficial, purely cosmetic thing, sheer tokenism, unless they're going to bring political modern 'Race' commentary in as an understory. Dr Who has always been about the 'Races' thing, 'Race' in it's Universalist (over arching) sense, and not 'Race' in any specific Modern mundane political sense. That would not be the Dr Who way! Anyway, give me my Telepathic Geminis and I'll be happy. Doctor(s?) Thirteen (+ Fourteen?)???

Mrs Figg wrote:yeah I listened to the first part it was great.

just wait till u get to Benedict

I was hoping for a black American woman.  

I reckon he must be one of Moffats 'mates' otherwise I dont get it, he is a bit stale and been knocking around for ages. - Mrs Figg


Moffat does not have the final say on casting- he can only suggest. He had to present an audition tape of Capaladi to the BBC head honchos and thats who gets to say yes or no- that they were impressed enough to take, what is for them a commercial risk in casting much older, is good enough for me. They are putting their money where the mouth is.

I have no idea what you want really Figg- they cast someone older you call them stale and accuse him of having been 'knocking about for ages'- where exactly are they going to get an older actor with the talent, skills and experience to be lead on a show like Who, but has never been in anything else before?

Given Capaldi is probably in demand more now than he ever has been (Smith is trying to break Hollywood, Tennant tried and failed, Capaldi has two Hollywood films out in the next year to add to his already impressive resume of film work) and is also a prolific writer, director and art historian I dont really see how the description 'stale' is at all suitable or accurate.

It does however rather seem to me that unless Moffat reappoints RTD, Tennant and Piper you will always hate anything he does, regardless of the quality of the actual work or the actors/directors involved in it.

I think we should be grateful that a show ostensibly targeted largely at kids can attract an actor of this calibre and experience to the role.

(And I dont remember RTD getting all this shit because he cast a white man, twice, in the role)

give me my Telepathic Geminis and I'll be happy.- Orwell

You are onto something there Orwell, sort of.
If say it gets to the next regen and its supposedly the Doctors last and they come up with a means for him to get a new cycle, but he turns out to be a woman a a result of what he does- thats a story reason- something within the Who universe that would explain events- that would be the right time for it to be a woman- just making the character female for no good reason and just to appease the shrill is not a good reason to do it.

This is interesting I thought. Eccelston on why he left the show-

In an acting master class at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Christopher Eccleston was asked why he left a such a high paid job as Doctor Who. He responded:

“I left Doctor Who because I could not get along with the senior people. I left because of politics. I did not see eye-to-eye with them. I didn’t agree with the way things were being run. I didn’t like the culture that had grown up, around the series. So I left, I felt, over a principle.

“I thought to remain, which would have made me a lot of money and given me huge visibility, the price I would have had to pay was to eat a lot of shit. I’m not being funny about that. I didn’t want to do that and it comes to the art of it, in a way. I feel that if you run your career and– we are vulnerable as actors and we are constantly humiliating ourselves auditioning. But if you allow that to go on, on a grand scale you will lose whatever it is about you and it will be present in your work.

“If you allow your desire to be successful and visible and financially secure – if you allow that to make you throw shades on your parents, on your upbringing, then you’re knackered. You’ve got to keep something back, for yourself, because it’ll be present in your work. A purity or an idealism is essential or you’ll become– you’ve got to have standards, no matter how hard work that is. So it makes it a hard road, really.

“You know, it’s easy to find a job when you’ve got no morals, you’ve got nothing to be compromised, you can go, ‘Yeah, yeah. That doesn’t matter. That director can bully that prop man and I won’t say anything about it’. But then when that director comes to you and says ‘I think you should play it like this’ you’ve surely got to go ‘How can I respect you, when you behave like that?’

“So, that’s why I left. My face didn’t fit and I’m sure they were glad to see the back of me. The important thing is that I succeeded. It was a great part. I loved playing him. I loved connecting with that audience. Because I’ve always acted for adults and then suddenly you’re acting for children, who are far more tasteful; they will not be bullshitted. It’s either good, or it’s bad. They don’t schmooze at after-show parties, with cocktails.”

woah... shit.

Yeah - I remember watching a Confidential during the early part of Tennants run and he was being way over directed- told exactly what to do at every point, and you could see the frustration on his face.
I have to say I prefer Moffats approach, which is to go down to the studios and watch Matt filming because he enjoys seeing how Matt delivers and interprets lines in a way he never envisioned when he wrote them- I think you need that collaborative trust in each others ability- the actor in the writers word, the writer in the actors interpretation, and both having trust in the director to see how best to capture it.

From what has been gleaned since it seems during the early years at least the artists didnt get much freedom to express or interpret the parts for themselves.

It does explain some of the horrible stand-and-look-mysterious-while-things-blow-up-behind-you stuff. I seriously doubt Tennant ever said: "Hey, I know what we'll do! Get the pyro techs ready,I have a brilliant idea!"

I wonder though if Karen might have benefited from a firmer hand. Perhaps I'd believe Amy more. Hard to say really.

I am looking forward to the new doctor. Skilled actor with a love of the old show and free hands to develop his character does sound promising. I'm not sure I am a Moffateer just yet though.