Doctor Who 2008: Sontarans cometh, RTD Ood 'ave 'im etc.

NO WAI

RTD is bit grumpy this year, isn't he? What changed?

6.20 is a stupid time. Fucking reality tv must go out at 7.

Lance Parkin wrote two of my favorite Who books (Just War, Cold Fusion) and then followed them up with a bunch of mediocre-to-bad ones.

Does this mean they're bringing back Susan?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8d/Whitney_Houston-_My_Name_Is_Not_Susan.jpg

How great would it be if Whitney was Susan?

yeah and have the doctor's granddaughter be a massive druggie.

That would be kinda woah.

TS William Hartnell vs Bobby Brown

悪狼

Why the hassle over the broadcast time, doesn't everyone have a video or sky+ or tivo or something these days? Also, it's not like it doesn't get repeated on BBC3 or anything.

Ratings innit

BBC innit, ratings shouldn't matter that much.

Also it's DOCTOR FUCKING WHO you'd think the thing would be popular enough that enough people will switch on whatever happens regardless of half and hour here or there. Especially with some decent promotion.

why not make it 6.23pm

BBC innit, ratings shouldn't matter that much.

^lol

Probably want people to miss it and watch on iPlayer then the bbc can point to what a roarinf sucess iPlayer is.

damn thing stalls every time i try and watch Torchwood on it (not so bad with other shows)

The Sontaran Stratagem

that would be sontarans then. hello ILX

Probably want people to miss it and watch on iPlayer then the bbc can point to what a roarinf sucess iPlayer is.

-- Ed, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 21:45 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Doctor Who most-viewed iPlayer show
12 April 2008

This weekend's Doctor Who's fourth season premiere is the most popular programme in the iPlayer's history, a BBC spokeswoman said today.

The episode, featuring Catherine Tate's debut as a regular in the series, was requested by 2,830,000 computers in the UK. Director-General Mark Thompson is a git.

Maybe the Sontaran's strategem is ... erm ... not to appear in the episode!

A friend has just asked me to participate in his fan fiction. PARTICIPATE. As of this moment I have nfi wtf he's talking about.

Is that like cosplay, life modelling or just being written in, whichever it is I fear you may be finding out if the doctor's little TARDIS is bigger in or out.

man i have no way of watching this, and it is bothersome

yes you do. Get your bt client up & runnin'.

SOME DO NOT LIKE TO STEAL THE BREAD RIGHT FROM THE WRITER'S MOUTHS, KINGFISH.

EVEN IF IT IS A HAMMY, JOWLY MOUTH.

and some of us like in the u.s., where broadcasts aren't as easily seen...

and some us live in something called REGION 4 which basically means YOU WILL DRINK WATER FROM THE COLD TAP.

Also it's DOCTOR FUCKING WHO you'd think the thing would be popular enough that enough people will switch on whatever happens regardless of half and hour here or there.

You'd think the thing would be popular enough that it would stay in a prime time slot. Prime time is prime time for a reason. It's when most people get most time to watch TV.

Maybe it's on early because it's a children's programme?

^

Where's the thread for the christmas special? I watched it last night for the first time and thought it was GREAT. I almost cried!??

When the ABC waits six months to broadcast the series, yeah BT is warranted.

I think they call it family viewing. xxp

When the ABC waits six months to broadcast the series, yeah BT is warranted.

You're not fucking wrong.

I couldn't wait for the S3 finale, so I downloaded it before it aired on Sci-Fi here. Then I caught parts of it when it did air, and I was horrified - you wouldn't think a couple minutes cut here and there would ruin an episode, but they did more than that, cutting literally seconds out of the middle of scenes, reaction shots, etc. It ruined the pacing and feeling of the show far more than I expected. I shudder to think about what I've missed in pieces from the show over those seasons by watching these hacked versions on Sci-Fi.

So this year I'm not bothering to wait, BT it is. RSS torrenting = godsend.

That's why I can't watch it on sci-fi -- the editing is just so awful and random.

Why is that? I'd always assumed the whole reasoning behind the 45 min episode length was so they could sell it to the international market without need for additional editing - 45 minutes of content plus 15 minutes of ads snugly fills a one hour slot.

Networks are cocks. They whine when people torrent yet they pull devious shit like this.

It needs to be about 38-40 minutes long to fit an hour in the US.

Hang on, it became a problem because *MARTHA* was in love with him? Um, hello? Rose?

Not a bad start otherwise, tbh.

As I put in the wrong thread

The only thing missing from that was the two goons with the guns walking into the blue oyster bar.

-- Herman G. Neuname, Saturday, 5 April 2008 19:10 (29 minutes ago)

Nice start.

Well that was better than it had any right to be.

Let's not get carried away.

Pretty goofy.

Goofy, yes, but RTD's been responsible for plenty, plenty worse.

Catherine Tate was definitely more likeable in this one. Bodes well, fun ep. The through-the-window screaming bit was pretty funny. I was a bit surprised they gave up the Rose reveal so early, but I guess realistically everybody knew about that by now.

(Rose wasn't a problem because their feelings were first platonic then reciprocal... while Martha kind of always had that puppy dog attraction from the start.)

It's pretty early to call but I have this feeling that this year might be it for Tennant, and this season perhaps wraps up the last three (it looks like everybody is back at some point) and there will be a mini-reboot whenever the show comes back.

Yeah, mini-reboot sounds on the cards. I reckon Tennant and Davies are off after this year.

Pretty goofy.

-- Gukbe, Sunday, 6 April 2008 16:37 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Goofy, yes, but RTD's been responsible for plenty, plenty worse.

-- Mikey Bidness, Sunday, 6 April 2008 16:49 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

It's a character introduction episode. No character introduction episode is ever going to be spectacular. It did its job and it did it well.

Can someone explain to this dense viewer why Catherine Tate was snooping around at the beginning, saying she was from health and safety, asking for a list of customers, pinching the pendant, basically acting like a detective?

RTD seems inordinately obsessed with pregnancy and children.

It's because, having turned down the Doctor on the first go, she changes her mind because her life is shit and goes looking for him in places where Weird Shit is happening in case he turns up there.

whoas
xposts

tho also
lols
awesome

i don't know how i feel. sorta annoyed by 'plot'/'rationality' but also, shrug. i miss tennant's doctor already, sigh.

Thought the end of Genesis of the Daleks was pretty ropey in its own right TBH.

Hush you.

don't like that the master dresses down. hoody and jeans? shape up man.

As far as I can tell from Britishes new outlets a hoodie is the most SINISTER thing a person can wear in public.

So it works as a super-bad-guy top.

It doesn't really connote Machiavellian genius tho but.

Yeah neither does being like 'AWR MEAT GOTTA EAT MEAT FLESH MEAT NOM WHERE'R MY IHOP" for five straight minutes.

but scruffy master is soooo cute

Looking forward to a Telegraph think-piece on declining standards in Super-Villainy next week.

"In 1965 a world-threatening megalomaniac was required at the very least to have a solid PhD in Nuclear Physics. Today's enemies of mankind get by on dumbed-down GCSE grades and an insatiable lust for so-called Big Macs."

The MASTER? More like the ASSOCIATE'S DEGREE.

Scruffy Master is wickedly bringing out my inner caps lock.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9b/Delgado.jpg

1972

http://somelikeitnotcrushes.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/dappy.jpg

2009

The MASTER? More like the ASSOCIATE'S DEGREE.

I think he's still working on a certificate from DeVry.

City & Guilds in Villainy and Basic Plumbing

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2009/363/0/5/The_Master__s_Facebook_Page_by_The_Hellish_Gnome.jpg

i love john simm but i thought he really whiffed this one. he never found anything to do with the master beyond leering.

it would have been neat if the doctor's farewell tour included a stop somewhere we hadn't seen before, with a character we'd never met, and she blushes, and he winks

^^ that's what i'm talking about!

it would have been neat if the doctor's farewell tour included a stop somewhere we hadn't seen before, with a character we'd never met, and she blushes, and he winks

That would have been great.

So the RSC production of the Tennant/Stewart Hamlet is online from the usual sources now...