This is true. I think it's something like...He can't go back in time and stop Gallifrey from being destroyed, because if he does then he won't have any need to go back in time to stop Gallifrey from being destroyed, and if he doesn't have any need to go back in time and stop Gallifrey from being destroyed...well, you get the drift.

"They far more superior and much better written". With Irony in your own sentence like that, you are a literary genius!

In response to what you are saying, some old episodes were well written. However, lots were not and could at times be quite difficult to watch - even for fans.


Seems the humour may have escaped you. Cassandra plays some music she believes is from Earths 'Classical era'. Of course - we know better. She is certainly not listening to it as a fan.


Maybe, Maybe not. The joys of science fiction! Who knows what we maybe able to do in the next 100 years, let alone 5 billion years. In reality it was a bit of fun, and done really well imho.


Hmm - i liked it because largely he spoke the truth. I Loved it when rose said 'So now you going to save the day etc' and he said 'no - everything has its time etc....'. The end of the universe is even more depressing. Lighten up - Live for now!


Does he? I think its great that he fits in with the crowd a bit more. I though there was nothing more naff than some guy wandering around the UK wearing ridiculous bright outfits with question marks all over them, or a huge scarf in the summer. If you were really a guy who likes a bit of action and saving the world, you would dress appropriately.


There were some great stories there. There was also some complete pap and some awful acting. Why can't you enjoy the new series as well as the old ones? What i think the new series brings is a format which casual users can enjoy. The old 4-6 part stories would bore the pants of me and my wife by episode 3, but the 1st two episodes of this series have felt fresh and left us wanting more.

James

At the end of Doctor Who Confidensial they showed a clip of next weeks show, looks quite a scary one IMO.

Yep - It's a temporal paradox. It's also the same reason the Davison Doctor could go back and rescue Adric at the end of Earthshock.

I understand. But doesn't this kind of limit the Doctor from going back and doing anything knowingly? Or is it just that he turns up in the right place at the right time by accident?

The best excuse I can think of, is that his home world was wiped out of existence in both space and time

Her brain appeared to be in the container below her "face".
Five billion years is a very long time in the future, nobody can predict what will or won't happen - we can't even reliabily predict what will happen 50 years into the future, let alone 5 billion!

I must admit, I do miss the cliff-hanger endings but there are two or three two-parters in this series and I think I heard on one interview that RTD will be watching the response to those very closely to see if they keep the audience from the 1st episode to its conclusion (presumably if they're sucessful, there may be more two-parters in the 2nd series).

Personally I am quite impressed with the new series.
Sure it has a few rough edges the production team's main intention is to capture a completly new audience. Of course, they hope that most fans of the old series will like it too but their main target audiance are people who haven't seen much (if anything) of the old series.

I liked many episodes from the old series - some of them were really good, some were complete rubbish, and most were just average (IMHO).

Having seen more of the "original" Dr Who than I care to remember , and now the new series, what most disappoints me is the length of the stories. Each episode is 45 minutes; once you've had "this happened last week", "this happens next week" and the titles, there just isn't long enough to get the characters or plot properly developed. You've no sooner met a character than they're dead! Since the setting and characters are so "novel" each time, you need longer to take it in.

The "original" series was typically 4x25 minutes = 80 minutes excluding titles etc, and that seems better. I'm hoping the 2-parters in this series will be a lot better.

Agree with you there, a couple of two-parters to look forward to, both sound pretty good too. Best episodes could well be the last two........EXTERMINATE

Ever heard of a thing called FICTION ?
Who's to say what could happen in 5 billion years. I certainly won't be around to validate whether this is true or not.

You could go the whole picky thing and wonder how they were able to plug in a jukebox to the electricity supply, because surely they wouldn't have UK mains sockets (!)

Revel in the fictional humour


Well, Futurama on Channel 4 yesterday had a storyline about 20th Century waste threatening Earth in the 30th Century after having been blasted into space due to our excess littering! The "political" comment there was basically that we dispose of our rubbish, and don't give any thought as to how it might affect future generations - the NIMBY attitude - so it may well be the case that mankind wipes itself out in a much shorter time than 5 billion years.

There's a great deal of truth in many of the storylines, as well as being great entertainment - or "Fantastic!" as the Doctor might say......

During the conversation with Rose, Cassandra displays some very fascist opinions on the hybrid races spawned by humanity & alien interbreeding.

No surprise then that (s)he would play Tainted Love and Toxic to the assembled guests!

The whole story operated on different levels for different viewers - lots of SFX & action for the younger set - a deeper, more thoughtful story for the older ones (although I did like the FX!).

Cassandra - the last human - did not have a trace of humanity left in her (him?). Instead of welcoming Rose as a "cousin" (s)he only sought to destroy her.

The humanitarian roles went to the Doctor & Jabe - two non-humans (or at least mixed race if we are to stick to the TV movie).

One "message" that I picked up on was that you cannot cling to the past (recreating a "classic" Earth = recreating a "classic" Doctor Who). Time moves on for us all; no matter how painful it feels we must accept it.

Perhaps I am getting too cerebral about it all, but it's that aspect of Doctor Who that is particularly appealing to me in this incarnation of the show - so, if nothing else, I am quite happy!

Not too sure about the Heath Robinson Tardis console, though...

Or perhaps he has already gone back and tried to save Gallifrey, along with all the other Time Lords, but couldn't. He was the only Time Loard that got out alive (just)? Perhaps the result was his latest regeneration?
I think obviously this is all to be explained as an ongoing story arc.

Yes, very good point.

How can he be a "Doctor" and fix the problems of other planets if this paradox thingy prevents him from doing so?

The Doctor had the choice of destroying the Daleks in the "Genesis of the Daleks" story if he connected two wires together.
He decided not to because of the changes and effects that would or wouldn't happen to many millions of people in the future.

So bearing that in mind, why does the temporal paradox reason prevent him from changing the past in order to change the future of that past, in some instances,...but not in others???

I think that maybe a story has been created that the Doctor has been put into a clever no-win situation.

He probably can go back in time to change the situation with Gallifrey, but that in turn changes the outcome that turns out to be equally as terrible.

Maybe the situation is that he does nothing and accepts the present situation...Doctor Lives, Gallifrey dies.

Or sure, he can go back to Gallifrey and save it, but the future is,....The Doctor dies along with many, many other planets of people, Gallifrey survives for a while, but ends up being destroyed in a different way, in different circumstances, or by a different enemy.

So he maybe can go back and tinker with time, but he has two possible outcomes that are as bad as each other. But as he himself manages to survive in one of those outcomes, he may as well decide it's a no-brainer and think that doing nothing is the better option out of two terrible outcomes.

It might simply be that the storyline is set up in such a way to put the Doctor in a catch 22 situation. Where he can go back in time and make changes if he wants, so he has choices, but it's a no win situation whatever he does.

Was it just me or was the expression on the Steward's face when he was just about to be burnt up by the sun pure classic Who?

If it was the old series, that bit would have been a cliff-hanger ending I'm sure

Was the steward really Simon Day, as someone asked waaaay back?
The credits definitely gave his name, but apart from the height, I saw no resemblance (and yes, I did look very hard at Simon Day in the 50 greatest sketches last night)

Apparently the Simon Day seen in Dr Who is registered with Equity under that name, whilst the "Fast Show" Simon Day is registered with Equity as "Simon Daye", but chooses to drop the "e" in practice (or is not registered with them at all, depending on who you believe). Apparently this leads to much confusion - allegedly the blue guy often gets called into auditions by people thinking he's the Fast Show guy.

(Having seen your hounding of alrightmate earlier on the thread, I'll just say that I have no proof of any of this information, it's just stuff I read on a Dr Who forum. Hence the word "apparently" a lot. )

The Doctor (the seventh one) does actually get round to destroying the Daleks - well their planet (Scaro) at least - by programming the Hand of Omega to explode in Scaro's sun. I don't beleive I know that - god I need to get out more!

Ah! Thank you! Apparently.

I also need to learn how to spell "beleive" properly

Yes, your post wasn't up when I started to reply to klunk's - nice timing on your part.

Not to mention "Skaro". Sorry mate.

I know - it's been a long day. :yawn:

And throughout the series Rose (and us viewers) will find out more and more about the situation...and in the end it will take Rose to take all the Doctor says and actually realise there is a way for it all to work out good and the Doctor can save Gallifrey etc

I watched my video recording of episode 2 today and it was much better 2nd time round. I had my mates round the 1st time and wasnt paying full attention to it. I think it is very much in the spirit of old Dr Who and I am growing to like Eccleston as the Dr and his acting.

I loved a lot of the dialogue and the time chip on the mobile phone was genius. Put me in mind of the film "Frequency" - Anyone who's seen it should understand.

Also I think a lot of people need to remember that new Doctors have always taken a while to get used to. Whats the betting loads of people trashed Tom Baker when he started, complaining he wasn't enough like the previous ones.

Another regular criticism is things going against Dr Who folklore, ie the doctor acting out of character, Tardis interior changing, etc. These are all perfectly acceptable, especially when you consider how each new Doctor has added something new to the folklore, theres plenty they should be able to get away with him doing.

Lets not forget we had Colin Baker trying to murder his assistant Peri in his first story, which they managed to justify, and I've grown more philosophical about the possiblity of the Doctor getting it on with his assistant. Many think this would be out of character but whos to say that wasnt in his character before, and even if it wasn't, you could say losing his asexuality was a side effect of his re-generation.