when does the new series start ?

That's not random at all, it's currently the most important question in the universe!, although the chances of getting it answered accurately any time soon are about the same as a dalek signing up to be a member of a racial equality group

I doubt even Moffat knows the actual date at this point, and it may still be subject to change anyway

Then [approximately] when is production of the new series expected to conclude?

August

I know Troughton turned out very different from Hartnell's doctor, but was Just wondering, to anyone who is well versed in Troughton's early stories or things behind the scenes at the time I'd just like to ask - Was Troughton made to/supposed to act exactly the same personality wise at the start which later changed because his acting style made them come up with the whole 'different incarnation, altered personality' idea or did they have the idea to give him an altered personality from the very start?

He was told to play it differently right from the start. At one point Sydney Newman was brought back in to write a character brief for the new doctor, in which he coins the term 'cosmic hobo' which we still use today.

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My random question is: at the end of 'Voyage Of The Damned', how can the Doctor possibly claim to be the 'highest authority' over the hosts, when he's clearly established that he's neither registered as a passenger or crew-member. If we assume that who we see are the only people left alive, we know that Midshipman Frame outranks him at least?

Well, I don't remember the specific moment but the Time Lords were the highest authority when it came to issues related to time travel. They policed the use of the time stream and the other time travelling races.

So I reckon, as the last Time Lord, the Doctor is probably the highest authority over pretty much anyone in the Universe really

Over sentient beings maybe, but the Host are robots. They can make pretty advanced decisions but they still need Data to do so. After Max Capricorn dies, nothing has changed regarding the Doctor. He's still a nameless stowaway with no information on the database. The power should revert to the highest-ranking crewmember which is Midshipman Frame.

Most of the universe is totally oblivious to the existence of Timelords. They are the stuff of legend. What chance do they have of being in the host's databanks? In fact, if they were, the Doctor would have had control over the host from the moment he landed on the ship! (And he wouldn't have any trouble!)

And yes, this post does make it sound like I take it more seriously than I need to.

Maybe they are intelligently programmed enough, that in the absence of a clear authority with which to take orders from, they are able to process external events to recognise who has now been established as the highest authority, and when everyone, including midshipman frame was taking orders from the doctor, recognised him as the current ultimate authority on the ship. Just a theory.

In the alternate 'doctor is dead' timeline in turn left how/why would Sarah Jane possibly have been in the hospital on the moon? nothing in that scenario was different to how it would have been except for the doctor not being there, so Sarah Jane would have had to have heard about it and got to the hospital before it was transported in both the real reality and the alternate one, or in neither as far as I can tell.

There's also an issue of dating the stories. In the main universe, 'Smith and Jones' happens on June 2nd 2008, whilst Luke and Maria don't meet Clyde until the new school term begins in September, so they can't have died together at the hospital. Mr Chowdry tells Donna it has only been a few months since the events of the Runaway Bride, which would make it March - several months earlier than June.

One explanation given in 'Timelink' by Jon Preddle, is that since the outcomes of the episodes in the parallel world are different, maybe the dating is too. Maybe the Bane arrived a year earlier than in the main universe, or more likely the closing of the Thames delayed the opening of the hospital, which in turn delayed the Plasmavore taking up residence there and the Judoon couldn't track them down until September, coinciding with Sarah Jane, Luke, Maria and Clyde meeting up at school and deciding to investigate the hospital in the absence of the Doctor.

Something kind of like this may possibly be the case, but the one problem with that particular explanation as given is that as far as I can tell, the Plasmavore needed to hide at that particular time, it was the time that was important for it, not the location so it always would have arrived looking for a hiding place at the same time and if the hospital wasn't there or available in the alternate universe it would have hidden somewhere else and the events of the episode wouldn't have happened at all in the that universe. Maybe I'm over thinking it.

I suppose you could argue that the butterfly effect of the dating occurs on a universe wide scale because everything in the universe is connected in someway (I think something like this is covered in Quantum Theory but I have more sense than to argue real science on the internet) and so events that occur on Earth could also have a knock on effect on events across the universe causing the Plasmavore's arrival and hiding on Earth to still coincide with the hospital opening.

Yeah I get what you mean, I can certainly rationalise it, thinking in this way,, and emby2's example did mention other races changing their actions, and that Could have knock on effects to other races which effect life on the plasmavore planet and make it not have to flee so early, then as emby2's explanation said Sarah Jane did find out at this time.

so I think between you and emby2 , you've helped me see how it's possible. Thanks, because I really like turn left but that small point has been bugging me for ages, but now that I can rationalise it, I can enjoy the episode even more

The Doctor admitted himself because he noticed plasma coils and strange lightning. Apparently it had been building up for a couple of days. Without the Doctor, one can assume the other teams are more alert for issues and oddities, so it's not too hard to think that Sarh's Mr Smith computer would have warned her about the same readings the Doctor got - and the Doctor had been admitted well before the actual incident (the day before in fact), so all in all, it is highly likely they would have been there.

Can villains like the daleks , cybermen etc. time travel ? I mean do have time machines ?

how common/rare are time machines in the DW universe ?

Daleks and Cybermen can.

I don't think it's massively common but the most advanced races like Time Lords, Daleks, Cybermen and later Humans can travel in time quite easily.

I don't know if this is actually the case but it seems to me that the Doctors enemies seem to start developing Time Travel because of encounters with the Doctor and the Daleks had Time Travel capabilities that rivalled the Time Lords.

Lesser races like Sontaran either didn't develop Time Travel or weren't allowed access to the technology, but now the Time Lords are gone I think Time Travel has become increasingly common because of the lack of 'protection/guidance' offered by them.

In last of the time lords the doctor ending up looking like a small disheveled gnome was a result of the master making all 900 years of his life show. This being the case then why, in time of the doctor when he'd lived roughly that same amount on trenzalore in one body, did he not look anything like that?.

I think the idea was that in The Last of the Time Lords that's what he would have looked like if he were a 900 year old human, whereas in The Time of the Doctor, he was obviously ageing as a Time Lord. Also Steven Moffat said as it was his last life, he aged slower than he would usually.

Also this is obviously another plot hole, I've just used my own rational to explain it- both are fantastic episodes so I can overlook this personally.

I can overlook it, it certainly dosen't ruin my enjoyment of either episode, just curious really. All the master said was 'all 900 years of it on your face' so I took that it was just that, if he, personally had lived that long without regenerating that is how he would look.

Where/when did moffat say he aged slower in time of the doctor? do you know of a link to a quote or anything, because if that was said then I guess it does sort of explain it, I've just never heard that before.

Sontarans definitely had time travel. The first ever Sontaran story was called the Time Warrior in which the Sontaran Linx had crash landed in the middle ages and was stealing scientists and equipment from 800 years in the future in order to make repairs on his ship!

ok I've been watching the repeats on bbc3 , Day of the Moon - so why did the Silents want an astronaut's space suit ? the Doc says something like - they've been interfering in our evolution for ages because they need us to develop a spacesuit ... ?

They need it so River Song can use it to kill the Doctor, I don't think it's anything more than that.

In the Doctor's Daughter, why doesn't Jenny regenerate? I know the Doctor said she was "too much like me" but what does that mean?

A few possibilities:

1) Maybe her creation leaves her in a similar stated to a newly regenerated time lord, still swimming with regeneration energy (like when the tenth Doctor regrew his hand after it was severed because he had only recently regenerated).

2) She was shot in the chest but, if she has two hearts, maybe she was just in a death-like coma and not really dead. Maybe it just needed the other heart to heal itself using a little bit of regeneration energy, not a full regeneration, for her to wake up.

3) Romana seemed to have full control over what she changed into when she regenerated so maybe female time lords can just decide to keep the same face!

They know the Doctor is killed by Lake Silencio in the 60s. They need something that has internal atmospheric control so they can place the killer in the lake to be there for a long time before killing the Doctor. Any space suit is what they needed, the iconic one that we know is what they/we got.