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Worst episode titles?
Firegazer
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I'm sure there are many episode titles that have have had no meaning at all to the episode like "Let's Kill Hitler", "The Bells of St John".
If you could rename any episode title of your choice, what would it be and what would you rename it to?
Also, what episodes do you wish went differently and how?
If only rewriting time was possible :rolleyes:
If you could rename any episode title of your choice, what would it be and what would you rename it to?
Also, what episodes do you wish went differently and how?
If only rewriting time was possible :rolleyes:
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TBoSJ was about the episode. The whole point of the title was the intro...
I've explained it in the other thread.
And Let's Kill Hitler... That's what Mels actually said at the end of the intro. It was there, on screen... Of course it had something to do with the episode.
How can you have missed both of those?
But on the other side of that coin, I also dislike ones that are too melodramatic and just end up sounding too self-aware, like "The Ultimate Foe", "Journey's End", and "Doomsday" - as much as I love the last episode there.
However, there's nothing I hate more than a title that is just blatant lies, such as "The Doctor's Daughter", or "The Next Doctor".
Is it true that one of the reasons that dreadful title was dropped was due to innuendo reasons?
The Other Doctor would have been more honest.
I don't have so much problem with The Doctor's Daughter, it was really no more misleading than The Doctor's Wife was.
Story titles are "hooks" designed to intrigue people, and as such they generally work well, even when you eventually find that they have no real literal connection to the story at all!
As for worst titles how about Dinosaurs on a Spaceship?
The worst one ever had to be The Next Doctor! Even when Comic Relief/Children in Need showed a clip when 10 met a new doctor.
Then we got to the episode and it was a massive con. Id rather they had changed it so this was a doctor from a alternative dimension.
Nah, I'm prepared to let that one slide - the whole ethos of the episode is that it's very high-concept and hugely tongue in cheek, so it fits the story well. Plus it's a direct reference to Snakes on a Plane, which is a funny touch.
Need I say more?? :eek:
I've looked that up loads of times and I still don't quite understand the reason for it. It's not like he's ever referred to as "Doctor Who" in the story, so it wasn't intentional - and surely that would have been noticed before broadcast if it was accidental?
Whether the thinking behind it was ever properly explained I can't remember, but I would imagine it's mentioned on the DVD commentary for that story, or in the extras somewhere.
Well you've been looking in the wrong places. All scripts used to be titled 'Doctor Who and the' and an error lead to the titles including this. Following this incident, scripts adopted the title protocol 'Doctor Who-Story Title'so it didn't happen again. It was just an accident that wasn't corrected.
So the story goes...
I worked at TV Centre in that era, and the way the titles were done then in studio sessions (couldn't be done in post production in those days) meant it would have been out of the question that the title wouldn't have been queried at the time it was recorded if it had been wrong.
Even the graphic designer who made the slide (it would have been on a 35mm slide in those days) would surely have said "hang on, we don't normally put Doctor Who and...")!
It must have been given the OK by the director and producer at the time, no way was it accidental.
As it was only Pertwee's second story, it is possible that they intended to call all his stories Doctor Who and... where the rest of the title made it appropriate to do so.
Doctor Who and the Spearhead from Space was probably deemed too unwieldy, and after they had done the titles for the Silurians they changed their minds anyway (thank goodness!) but didn't have the time or the budget to re-do the Silurians titles.
Just a theory, but it is possible.
As I said, I can't remember whether it was ever explained.
Alternatively, it was an error, as everyone says, and they changed the way scripts were named to ensure it didn't happen again.
Unless it's been asked of those involved at the time and answered by them, I guess we'll never know for sure.
Although λογος does mean "words", it has evolved into the suffix "-logy" (eg. Geology, Theology, Pharmacology) which means "study of". If you think of it as "City of Study" it makes a bit more sense.
The Snows of Terror.
I mean really?. Collectively, specifically an avalanche perhaps and I'd concede the point. Perhaps a raging blizzard combined with temperatures sub minus 20. Which again may require alternative terminology to simply snow.
Otherwise it's generally white, fluffy and rather inconvenient.
World's End.
My personal favourite - it's a bad pun and you can't get much worse than those. At least Small Prophet, Quick Return was a comedy based episode. But this...
This is the Daleks, on Earth, subjugating all mankind forgoes sake. So what does El Tel do?. Parks their saucer in the vicinity of Sloane Square and name the episode after the opposite end of the Kings Road. A rapidly emerging trendy and Bohemian district in late 1964.
I'm imagining Daleks trundling back to their ship with shopping bags dangling from their suckers.
Then you need to read up a bit more. Do you think that the rabid fandom of Doctor Who would not ask why this happened before now? The production team was not settled at the time, Coombe was a new director and thought that 'and the' was proper protocol so it mistakenly went ahead, is the generally accepted account based on what Coombe has stated when asked.
The way things were done in 1970's BBC...an interesting topic.
Should we can the new look series after only four episodes.