i think perhaps this would be the sensible way to go at least in the early stages.. the editor presented himself really as a mercenary working for the highest bidder.. this is quite reminiscent of the way that the master always worked; very rarely on his own, usually in tandem with other nasties (daleks, the rani etc)..

as a character the editor does need more fleshing out, and i agree that simon pegg is the guy to do this

Indeed, in fact I seem to remember The Master made something of a point originally of using powerful "allies" that he believed he could control but who would take the fall if things went wrong...if The Editor was responsible for installing the Jaffafeast believing it would serve his purpose rather than simply it's puppet, that would satisfy my sense of continuity...and obviously satisfying my senses was high on RTD's list of things for this series to achieve

Hello all, I've been watching these series of posts since the new series of Dr Who started and it has added a lot to my enjoyment of the series. Thanks to all contributors.

The repeated mentions of 'Bad Wolf' in the series have been interesting, as have some of the theories put forward to explain these. My current favourites are:

1. "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf". A reference to someone the Doctor is afraid of (and will presumably meet in a later episode?) - the repeated mentions are often just a little in-joke, and not actually related to the plot of the episode in which they appear.

2. "Wolf in Sheeps Clothing". A reference to something more sinister about the Doctor and/or his Tardis in relation to the Time War.

Time will tell (hopefully) what it all means.

BTW, my top three episodes are: Dalek, Unquiet Dead and Father's Day, in that order.

I don't often post, but follow these Who threads with great interest. I love all of this speculation and I can't believe how cool this series has been so far. The Empty Child looks like it's going to be a corker too, and I reckon, as someone else has said, this is where we start getting the build up to the series finale.

Now, my main reason for posting, and apologies if this has already been raised.

Having just spent a rainy lunch hour sheltering in WHSmith I flipped through the new Dr Who "Monsters & Villains" book that's just come out. It gives a write-up of many of the main villains from both this and the classic series. I was intrigued by the write-up for the Face of Boe who, according to RTD, has possibly lived for all eternity and holds a great secret that, it is said, he will reveal one day to a lone, homeless traveller... or words to that effect.

The lone, homeless traveller certainly seems to point to the Doctor...clearly he is a traveller...a timetraveller...he is alone, being the last of the Time Lords and he is homeless, as we know Gallifrey (sp?) has been destroyed...

or of course it could refer to that guy i always see sleeping on the bench or on the river bank under a couple of crumpled financial times on my way to work of a morning....

See, I reckon the face of Boe has got to be the key to the whole thing really. My theory is he's the only one who actually knows what Bad Wolf is and is going to reveal all in the relevant episode

i think that you are right; the face of boe has cropped up in a few of the episodes without actually doing anything, or having any relevence to individual storylines (ie as the sponsor of the end of the world, and as a tabloid news story announcing that it is pregnant)... i like the speculation that BOE is an acronym for Bank of England or Bank of Earth, which of course would add to the threory that Boe is tha backer for whatever is going on... of course the most common face of a bank is its money, and as the editor said in the Long Game, money prefers a long term investment....

Unless of course the face of Boe is the Bad Wolf? after all if thats just its face what's the rest of it see it just strikes me as peculiar that Rose has apparently already seen the Bad Wolf by 'The Unquiet dead' Think of it like this Gwyneth describes everything in quite basic literal terms, Rose's journey has taken place from far away, there are 'flying metallic birds'(sic) By this point in the series the bad guys so far were the autons and those on platform one. The only character to be repeated from then is the face of Boe, unless there was something/one else on that platform that is still to have significance come later episodes?

The body of Boe? I vote we kidnap RTD over the weekend and subject him to constant CLI until he agrees to let at least one cat out of the space/time continuum...

well as i recall the face of boe announced its pregnancy on bad wolf tv, so i suspect there might be a link?

Type in BoeWatch to google, you should be led to a very interesting photo still. Watch Boe is all I'm going to say

OK, here's a few more ideas I've had about the Editor and the reality tv angle.

In the Long Game, the words spoken by the Editor are, "Something is wrong... something fictional. Off went the proverbial alarm bells…

This immediately made me think of The Mind Robber story, where the Doctor arrives in the Land of Fiction, populated by characters from literature past and present. (I love little nods to the past stories, btw.)

Now, I know we all thought the Editor was referring to the undercover terrorist, but what if he was taking about more than just that? He didn’t know who the Doctor was at this point, or that he shouldn’t exist, but the Editor was quoted as being “incredibly in touch with the universe” and maybe he could just feel that something or someone was out of place.

The Doctor arrives and says that society is all wrong, the technology is all backwards etc. Again, on first glance, we think he is referring to the Jaffafeast’s intervention with the development of the human race, but what if the situation onboard Satellite 5 was also a fiction, i.e. a mock-up of reality.

I think the title ‘The Long Game’ refers to more than just the title of a particular episode, but rather, a long term strategy. The Editor says “money prefers a long-term investment…” – long-term is a bit of a recurring theme in this episode.

“Are people really slaves if they don’t know they’re enslaved” – again, another throwaway comment but I think it points to the more sinister side of tv and how some people will ‘slavishly’ watch certain programmes, particularly things like Big Brother.

What if this particular episode dealt with the Doctor visiting an early version of the reality tv show that the Doctor and Rose may now be a part of? The Jagrafess discovered the flaws of their original design (incidentally, pointed out by the Doctor) and built it bigger and better than ever before for their next attempt? This new attempt could be the reality tv show that the Doctor and Rose have become part of, and will feature to some extent in the finalé.

Someone has already pointed out that the story is partly set on Earth, and partly on a space station. Satellite 5? With as the host, Boe as the financial backer and the return of the Editor.

[tardis forcefield ON]

I think Celebrity Wrestling would be far more effective

But then again, RTD loves reality tv...
Last edited by DenWatts : 19-05-2005 at 16:06

I wonder if its a scheduling coincidence that the tail end of this series will be running alongside the first few weeks of this years Big Brother?

just read a facinating bit on the net speculating about the nature of bad wolf... particularly like the idea (and the explanation) that the tardis itself is bad wolf

http://ned.ucam.org/~sdh31/tv/badwolf.html

agreed andyK the whole racial memory thing is quite good. It would explain a lot of the references throughout time. And I think the blokes right in saying the doctor isn't the bad wolf as Gwyneth would have spotted this. Backs up my Face of Boe theory. What if he is the immortal they are guarding in later eps?

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before because I tend to avoid spoilers, but in Episode 2 the Face of Boe was described something like 'the sponsor of the main event, on behalf of our friends from the Silver Devastation'

Silver Devastation can only refer to the destruction of the Dalek race, can't it?

just a thought, but is there a chance that the face of boe could be a composite of what remains of the time lord race? either that or it could be some obscure reference to omega (havent worked it out yet but if i do i will let you know!)

not sure on the silver devastation but its a nice idea!

The Sun Online has revealed both the actress they had to schedule around and the character that the Doctor thought was dead... with photos.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005230096,00.html

do not click the link if you don't want to know!

Personally, I like the actress, and quite liked the character in the past, so I'm not especially disappointed.

That's going to disappoint a few people but I quite liked them

Perhaps this ties in with Alrightmate's theory about 'The Sun'. They give the programme favourable reviews and in return they get exclusives and subliminal advertising throughout the show

Oh ye of little faith!

Well that has b******d my theory! Lol! So we have more farting gags to look foward to...can't wait!

Lets hope he finished them off once and for all this time.

Still all to play for in episodes 12 & 13....

I like the actor, but not the character. Let's hope said character doesn't take up too much of the focus of the episode.

And if the episode is set in present day Cardiff, he can't kill the character off either or it won't be able to appear in AOL/WW3. But maybe we get some more background as to the real reason they tried to broker the Earth and who was behind it to start with?

Think the actor is marvellous so it is by no means a slur on her work as she was great in Cutting It. I just wasn't all that keen on the Slitheen and the endless farting jokes, juvenile script and rather poor direction of the two episodes they featured in.

One can only hope that he finishes them off for good this time.