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Quiver

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So, just read on Tor about the new Doctor Who trailer. It's a while away yet (28th August), so perhaps starting a topic is premature... but Doctor Who inspired so much feelings in it's fans, and there's always fifty years of stuff to discuss in the run up, so i figured I'd post this.

 

 

 

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I've never watched any of the new dr who series. I've watched pretty much everything of the pre 2000's dr who, though. I like that they seem to be getting back to their roots by selecting an older doctor, that was one thing I always found off putting about the new series.

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Mind if I ask a non-fan question?

 

In the story, how do they explain the zillion different Dr's? Is it all one storyline?

 

He's an alien, and his species, when near death, "regenerate" to a completely new body with it's own personality, and only vague memories of his previous lives. They're only supposed to have 12 regenerations, but I think they plot armored him with a new set or something in the new series.

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Mind if I ask a non-fan question?

 

In the story, how do they explain the zillion different Dr's? Is it all one storyline?

 

The Doctor is an alien, whose people have the ability to regenerate to avoid death. The process results in them getting a new appearance and a new personality; the latest seasons have also suggested it's possible for the process to make them change sex (which is why there was speculation about a female Doctor for a while).

 

EDIT CURSE YOU, EERONGAL!

 

Yeah, Time Lords are limited by having twelve lives; the latest season kind of flubbed the number of regenerations the Doctor has had so he got his number "reset", probably because it's the 50th anniversary year...

 

And because Moffat likes doing BIG THINGS.

Edited by Quiver
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Mind if I ask a non-fan question?

 

In the story, how do they explain the zillion different Dr's? Is it all one storyline?

 

* Starts humming DW theme music *

 

I'm glad you asked that. Within the narrative, the Doctor isn't human--he belongs to a very ancient species called the Time Lords.

 

Time Lords are capable of "regeneration", described as a way of cheating death. When dealt a mortal wound, the Doctor can change everything about himself in a burst of energy, shuttling his memories to his new body. So every now and then, something happens to the Doctor which forces him to use a regeneration, causing him to take on the appearance and mannerisms of a new actor.

 

Naturally, Time Lords are only capable of regenerating twelve times. The Doctor may or may not have gotten around this in a recent episode. :)

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That's so cool and simulatenously such a hack! So did they know when creating the show that it would be so popular they'd want multiple actors so they built it in or what?

So....the new season is the 13th Dr, then?

 

Does that mean each season = new doctor = completely new story? (If I were to ever have time and start watching Dr. Who, where do you start? This is the same reason I've never seen Star Trek. There's just so much of it it's kinda intimidating).

 

Edit: Ninja'd.

Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that three guys instantly jumped in to explain regeneration within 5 minutes of the question being asked?

 

(No, not THAT Question.)

I did find that quite amusing. Apparently Dr. Who is popular around here or something. :D

Edited by Delightful
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The original actor, William Hartnell, was very old when they cast him. He spent most of his last story unable to stand, I think... they needed to replace him, so they handwaved it. The hard "Timelord has twelve lives" thing came later.

 

Old Who seasons didn't really have much of a story arc; they experimented with it on occassion, but generally, they are just drop in, drop out stories... with the caveat that the cast might be different each time. Each Doctor has a pretty distinct way of treating problems and people. That means you may watch one episode where he's kind of mean, and another where he's very soft...

But, personally, that kind of variety is great. It means there's bound to be a Doctor you love somewhere.

 

(I'm kind of fond of Six, actually...)

 

The new seasons do go with story arcs, so if I was to suggest something, I'd say start with the first episode of New Who: "Rose". If you don't like it, or the tone of those episodes, you could always just jump ahead to "The Eleventh Hour" (Season 5, ep 1); new Doctor, new show runner, new storylines. No previous experience necessary! 

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I watched the first two episodes of the new series and didn't like it. I hear that I should skip ahead to season two, but I honestly don't feel the need to become a Whovian, so I think I'm going to leave the good doctor alone for a long time.

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No, "Rose" is the first episode of the new series, first aired in 2005. The teaser you see above is advertising "Deep Breath", the first episode of 2014's season. :)

So each season has a name, a number and a different Dr? Is that right?

 

 

I watched the first two episodes of the new series and didn't like it. I hear that I should skip ahead to season two, but I honestly don't feel the need to become a Whovian, so I think I'm going to leave the good doctor alone for a long time.

How do you skip ahead from the new series to season 2? Shouldn't the newer season have a higher number?  :wacko:

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Old!Who and Nu!Who occur in the same timeline, and have the same history and characters... but because there was some twenty years between the last "season" and the show starting again, most people refer to the new series by their own numbers.

 

Each season doesn't necessarily have a new Doctor though; in fact, most doctors tend to last a couple of seasons. David Tenant, for instance, lasted three.

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So each season has a name, a number and a different Dr? Is that right?

 

 

How do you skip ahead from the new series to season 2? Shouldn't the newer season have a higher number?  :wacko:

 

Seasons do not have names. Each consists of around 13 episodes, and is numbered chronologically. Not every season changes the Doctor--Christopher Eccleston played the Ninth Doctor for just one season, while David Tennant and Matt Smith played the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors for several years each.

 

It's basically like any other show, except the main cast changes every now and then. There really aren't many complicated meta-aspects, and you can usually jump straight into the show at any point.

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Doctor Who for beginners:

 

In 1963s, a television show was aired. It carried the mysterious title of "Doctor Who", and concerned the adventures of an eccentric old man who traveled the universe in a policebox/spaceship.

 

Eventually, the first actor to play the Doctor decided to leave the show, so the writers came up with the idea of regeneration. The First Doctor got a bit stressed and collapsed, and when he got back up, there was a Second Doctor.

 

The show went on. Actors came and left. The head writers came and went, and with them came and went new ideas and themes. Finally, in 1989, the show was cancelled due to falling ratings.

 

Apart from an attempt to restart the show in 1996, the show lay dormant for years until 2005, when the show returned with a new look, a new Doctor, and a new head writer. When fans refer to Old!Who, they are referring to the classic show which aired before 1989. When they speak of New!Who, they speak of the revived series which was relaunched in 2005. It's simple enough, and logical: the show underwent many changes when it was relaunched, so it's only natural that the two incarnations of the program be referred to separately.

 

Now the show has gone back to normal. Doctors come and go, and head writers come and go. There exists rifts in the fan base between fans of different versions of the show, usually centered around head writers and Doctors. For instance, I'm a die-hard fan of Steven Moffat, the current head writer, while others think he should be sacked as soon as possible. Meanwhile fans like Eerongal shun the new series as a whole, preferring the classic show which aired before 1989.

 

I tried to be precise with this, but let me know if I misrepresented things or only confused people more. :P

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You know, I keep trying to jump on that bandwagon, and it doesn't really work for me. I watched everything since the 2005 (?) reboot, I fought some heathens who insisted that their favorite Doctor was somebody other than David Tennant, and I still don't feel the show. It's just... I don't know, too cheesy? The villains don't feel interesting (I will not talk about plungers, I will not talk about plungers, I will not ta-- oh, for the love of all that is holy, who came with the brilliant idea that the scariest race in the universe will have a bloody plunger sticking out of its armor?!), the Doctor has deus ex-ed far too many episodes for my taste, and the plots are usually too discontinuous for my taste. I keep watching it, I guess because I hope I'll get another arc similar in quality to my favorites', but it's not a show I hold my breath for.

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You know, I keep trying to jump on that bandwagon, and it doesn't really work for me. I watched everything since the 2005 (?) reboot, I fought some heathens who insisted that their favorite Doctor was somebody other than David Tennant, and I still don't feel the show. It's just... I don't know, too cheesy? The villains don't feel interesting (I will not talk about plungers, I will not talk about plungers, I will not ta-- oh, for the love of all that is holy, who came with the brilliant idea that the scariest race in the universe will have a bloody plunger sticking out of its armor?!), the Doctor has deus ex-ed far too many episodes for my taste, and the plots are usually too discontinuous for my taste. I keep watching it, I guess because I hope I'll get another arc similar in quality to my favorites', but it's not a show I hold my breath for.

 

I definitely sympathize with the cheesiness and deus ex machina complaints. And while I love the show regardless, we all have different tastes.

 

But for your viewing pleasure, here's a Dalek without a plunger.

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Meanwhile fans like Eerongal shun the new series as a whole, preferring the classic show which aired before 1989.

 

 

well, I don't "shun" it per se. Just never watched it. I don't have any decision one way or the other if it's good or bad, the only thing i found off-putting about it was the decision to cast "younger", "hipper" doctors. The doctors may actually be pretty good for all i know. And Matt Smith is actually a pretty cool guy, i got to meet him at a signing earlier this year at St Louis comic con. For whatever reason, the line for his signing was super short, and my fiancee wanted a signature, but was in some panel and couldn't make it. So I went and got a signature, and talked with him for a few moments. Seems like a really cool guy.

 

Yeah, Time Lords are limited by having twelve lives; the latest season kind of flubbed the number of regenerations the Doctor has had so he got his number "reset", probably because it's the 50th anniversary year...

 

And because Moffat likes doing BIG THINGS.

 

To be fair, reset regenerations isn't exactly "new ground" with this doctor. The Master also got a reset number of regenerations back in Tom Baker's (i think) reign as the Doctor.

 

 

Edit:

 

 

The original actor, William Hartnell, was very old when they cast him. He spent most of his last story unable to stand, I think... they needed to replace him, so they handwaved it. The hard "Timelord has twelve lives" thing came later.

 

Old Who seasons didn't really have much of a story arc; they experimented with it on occassion, but generally, they are just drop in, drop out stories... with the caveat that the cast might be different each time. Each Doctor has a pretty distinct way of treating problems and people. That means you may watch one episode where he's kind of mean, and another where he's very soft...

But, personally, that kind of variety is great. It means there's bound to be a Doctor you love somewhere.

 

(I'm kind of fond of Six, actually...)

 

The new seasons do go with story arcs, so if I was to suggest something, I'd say start with the first episode of New Who: "Rose". If you don't like it, or the tone of those episodes, you could always just jump ahead to "The Eleventh Hour" (Season 5, ep 1); new Doctor, new show runner, new storylines. No previous experience necessary! 

 

Also, to be fair, pretty much all of the old series had story arcs (serials, as they called them). Most were just in the range of 3-6 episodes, and there was like 4 or 5 serials per season. And while they would occasionally refer to an older serial, they mostly had little connection to each other (other than things that changed stuff significantly, like the doctor changing, or like when was exiled to earth and such)

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I definitely sympathize with the cheesiness and deus ex machina complaints. And while I love the show regardless, we all have different tastes.

 

But for your viewing pleasure, here's a Dalek without a plunger.

 

Only one - apparently the daleks are on a pretty tight budget... It is only mildly less ridiculous.

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I love DW (oh wait, what gives me away? My avatar? My oath as KR :P?) because it's so much fun and entertaining. It worked for me, because I didn't expect anything ^^. The Doctor persona is so incredible oO. I really like is different incarnation (as Tenant, as Eccelston or most of all as Smith). Every Doctor is different and stay the same. The story are sometimes cheesy and some DEM is used, but damnation, it so great to see the Doctor resolved a situation with some tech-babble and some help of his companions xD.

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Many of the antagonists are super cheesy, because the show first aired in the 60's. Sci-fi as a genre is all about nostalgia - they have no choice but to bring back the horrible designs from early low budget TV again and again, and they do their best to update them.

 

While cheese is an issue from time to time, and plot can be as well, I think what's best about Doctor Who is the tone. Doctor Who is a very rare series in that it display the world in tones of grey, but is optimistic about it. Other series will tell you 'The world is black and white, there is good and there is evil', or instead 'The world is full of grey, and it's a dirty, gritty, confusing and downright awful place because of it.'

 

Doctor Who doesn't do that. It says "The world is full of grey, people die, and it can be horrible. Good people can do terrible things. Yet, if you keep your chin up and put a smile on your face, you'll find that life is still worth living, and more than that, life is fun!" And it is so very rare to find works of merit in any media that acknowledge this. Moral greys don't have to mean the world is dull and grey, lifeless and joyless.

 

I personally think that is the greatest strength of the series.

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