Just a quick question.....

Any word from Peter Davison?

The reason I ask is because I've read another thread where some previous Doctors speak about not being invited back, but Davison....he's Moffat's favourite Doctor isn't he?
He was actually brought back for a brief Children in Need mini-episode with David Tenannat that worked pretty well if I recall correctly.
He didn't look like a rotting corpse on a zimmer-frame. He looked fine and very Doctorly.

In an interview Steven Moffat said that Peter Davison was his Doctor.

So Imagine on this very forum we had the future showrunner for Doctor Who in twenty five years time whose favourite Doctor is Matt Smith.
Wouldn't that person do everything in their power they could to get their Doctor, Matt Smith, back for some special one-off 75th anniversary special?
Why wouldn't they?

I'm sure there will be some kind of tribute or whatever to the rest of them and whereas I didn't particularly want a multi-Doctor story we're getting one anyway but what a waste of an opportunity if it's only Tennant, who's barely left. But it would be nice to acknowledge Ian and Susan seeing as they are the only ones who were there 50 years ago and the actors still available. If we don't get to see them again now in some way I don't think we ever will. That's if they aren't going to be snuck in in some way.

I'm really not sure of Moffat's 'must look forward' comment. If there was ever a time we could look back it's this one isn't it?

It's worse, definitely worse. I won't repeat the rumours I've been reading (in case they are true - but I hope they aren't) but I'm going to be very disappointed in this 'anniversary' if true.

It's not just about the 50th, this is really the last chance to celebrate all the era's of the show. William Russell is 88, Carole Ann Ford is in her 70s, we only have Katy Manning, John Levene and Richard Franklin left in the Pertwee era and Tom Baker is in his late 70s now with only a few companions remaining. This is the last chance for many of the Classic Era stars to contribute to the show and I'm so disappointed at what I'm hearing.

I don't want a 5 Doctors-style episode, I just want each era of the show represented in the anniversary. A short scene with Ian Chesterton perhaps, a short scene with Jamie and Jo Grant etc etc. How perfect would it be to have an older Ian talking to a young 11th Doctor, roles reversed from the first episode (Ian being the old man, the Doctor being young)?

I don't care about 'looking forward', they have 50 more years to do that. I care about celebrating the past of the show on it's birthday.

Can't say I'm surprised given Moffat's comments and the announcement already of Tennant it was always leaning this way. Slightly disappointed but still excited. Could have been worse. RTD and Moffat said they weren't big fans of multi-Doctor episodes but at least we are getting two Doctors which is better than one. And granted, with the exception of two of them they've all been back before anyway!

Not for their 50th, they didn't.

the root of all this in money
we've had cut down versions of seasons 7 and 8 pretending its one season
and now we have less screen time given to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary than to 1 particular actor leaving
given a proper anniverary season with scattered cameos and nods leading toi a climax the moffatt or whoever ( or who ever was in charge) could have had a chance of telling a story and paying tribute
given an less time than either major multi doctor special less time than stolen earth /journeys end and less time than the last of the time lords its impossible to adequately reflect 50 years of history with distinct eras beloved by different generations
i'm sure i'll enjioy what we get
but I'm saddened that a modern 10 year old probably won't get the same opportunity for joyous opening of new possibilities that i had watching the 3 doctors all those years ago
and angry that given the obvious money prob;lems so much of the budget is being squandered on 3-d

He really could've worked McGann into the episode, you know being the brilliant writer that he is. What is the hesistance in using him I wonder? It's so strange. At this point for the 50th he is good to go as the 8th Doctor in every way. Missed opportunity indeed. I've no doubt the episode will be amazing but hey ho.

It's a shame, although not that surprising I guess. my ideal scenario would've been a 4 doctors special with 8,9,10 & 11, plus cameos from the older actors perhaps in non-doctory role, (something along the lines of Zagreus, perhaps) though even that would've been a push, if we're being honest here.


I'm as big a mark for Tennant as anyone else, but I'm REALLY hoping that he isn't coming back as the 10th doctor now, since it would be a bit of an insult to fans of the classic show (I'm speaking a non-fan of pre 2005 who here) if the only Doctor that's returning as the actual Doctor..........is the one that's only been gone three years.

Meh, I'd rather see meta-ten with rose back anyway, there's more dramatic possibility in that, more freedom of dialouge for The Moff to play with in the scenes between Matt and David & and surely that was the *real* reason he was introduced at the end of season 4. (apart from giving Rose her 'happy ending' of course)

Maybe the older Doctors will be somehow trapped in these paintings we keep hearing about. Animate them and you can use their voices, with a load of inter-Doctor bickering, without them being old, fat, saggy, or - with good impersonations - dead.

yeah i can see them in a room arguing like something out of the muppets..

It IS one season!! :yawn:

Davison still doesn't look that old, he would still be ok to return as the fifth Doctor. Pity it won't happen,

Not fussed at all. Outside of some predictable banter ridiculing one another, what do classic Doctors really contribute?

Nice enough for Time Crash...but 90 minutes of it? No thanks, this isnt the 80s and there's more of a flippancy and quick-fire pace to things nowadays where everyone wants something happening every two minutes. Matt and David can keep up the pace, the others would just slow the plot down.

Forget Doctor Who for a moment; it frustrates me that the public has been stupid enough to fall for 3D again. How many times since the 80s now have the public been gullible enough to sit there in those stupid glasses? And they still sit there expecting the whole film to play out like some sort of hyper-real hologram.

Don't you think it would be nice to have each of them bringing what made them different to bear on whatever threat they'll be facing? There's more than one way to skin a cat (apparently). And a bit of humorous banter wouldn't take up the whole episode, and even if it was "predictable as ever, Doctor", I think written correctly it would work.

"While people may not have wanted The Classic Doctors to come back (I'm astonished as to why that's the case)"

I'll take a crack at explaining this. Multi-Doctor stories ultimately suck. And yes, even The Three Doctors. Why?

1) If ever you've complained of paradox in Who, you can't do worse for paradox than someone who is going through an adventure with his future self, who should be remembering the adventure as he experiences it along the way (hello Time Crash!). We're actually dealing with a plot situation that should be a paradox.

2) Dead incarnations of the Doctor inevitably have to appear onscreen older than they were when they died (true, wouldn't be a problem for 8, and not much of a problem for 9 and 10, but still). I don't want to see 4 looking Tom Baker's present age. I didn't like seeing 5 Peter Davison's age. And I'd pay good money never to have to see Colin Baker's costume ever again. Oh wait--separate point. But same for C. Baker and McCoy. This breaks the show's illusion for me. It takes me out of the drama and into the real world. And no, "the two of us together have shorted out the time differential" doesn't help me.

3) For a show whose fans pride themselves so on its ability to re-invent itself, they sure do long to dwell in the show's past often enough. Let Who be about the present Doctor.

And here's hoping DT is playing the Meta-Crisis Doctor in the 50th. There's a thread now in which someone is actually hoping that DT will be the 12th Doctor. That would be a disaster, but I know I'd watch a spinoff about MC 10 and Rose in Pete's universe. There was supposed to be that deleted scene with a TARDIS "coral" being handed discreetly to MC 10 by 10...

But I do have to admit, in spite of everything I've said, I did enjoy Three Doctors and Time Crash, and I consider them guilty pleasures. Five Doctors I've only read the transcript of, and it read like an unholy mess.

If S.M. had tried to squeeze a short cameo for every Doctor and a sprinkling of companions into a single story it would have been a disaster. I am aware that older fans love the classic series, myself included, but I would guess that not many of the younger fans of the new series actually have a clue who previous Doctors are, nor would they care if the they did not appear. I know you can argue that the previous Doctors have been referred to in past stories and thats been a good thing, but S.M. HAS to cater mainly for the current audience and I suspect that die hard, classic Who fans, are a relatively small proportion of this audence. That will be why he has gone for David Tennant's Doctor to return because he is still familiar to that audience. I too would have liked to see P.M. make a return, but his one appearence as the Doctor was some time ago and again I suspect that the majority of the current audience have never seen his TV Movie.
Before anyone starts asking where I get these facts from let me just say that this post is just my own opinion and not based on any audence research etc.

All of that would be more true if we were still living in a world with 4 TV channels and no Internet. But we aren't and I can assure you that pretty much anyone who watches Doctor Who regularly is aware that the current Doctor is the eleventh one and I would suspect that most children who watch (children usually being more passionate and interested viewers) would be able to have a good stab at at least naming the others. When I watched as a child in the 80s, I certainly knew all of the Doctors and had seen them through VHS, comics, annuals etc. And that was without the Internet, where it is ultra-easy to not only find information but to actually watch all the old stuff. I bet the average child viewer knows more about the lore of the show than the average adult viewer.

im not bothered about the other doctors still upset about captain jack not making an appearance though

This. It's not like it's difficult to find out about the previous Doctors or the history of the show these days! If anyone really wants to know, they'll have found out by now. If they're not bothered they'll miss all the little nods to the past Moffat puts in, not to mention the whole background of the central character, but that's their choice.