Sea Devils And Die: GeroniMoffat's Doctor Who In The 2010s

blimey.

Viewers with interests which could be described as WIGGY may want to seek out the Night Of The Doctor minisode straight away.

I know of at least one person who won't be happy now that's canon...

Ah Christ, that minisode and the new trailer have just ratcheted up my excitement another few notches.

There's been an interesting debate online about just how much the idea that it's the 50th anniversary has made it outside of fandom. Have things like the savetheday hashtag, and even the Capaldi reveal, obscured the anniversary so that your average mug punter just thinks this is the Smith/Capaldi regeneration and the start of a new series?

I dunno, I think it's been promoted pretty well for the most part, it's been covered heavily all year so far as I can make out. Hadn't considered that the Capaldi reveal might have obscured the anniversary, if anything it seemed to draw more attention to it. I expect the Beeb'll go beserk for it in the final week

Still can't read Capaldi's name without thinking "OH MAH GAWD HE'S OOGLY" and giggling

That mini episode was UTTERLY UTTERLY UTTERLY GREAT.

Was it a list of big finish companions who also just got brought into canon?

It's been promoted as *something*, but has ot really been promoted as an anniversary to the general public? Rather than #savetheday, wouldn't #dw50 or something have made more sense?

There's been the tv special too I suppose, that ought to add clarity. Idk though, is Joe Public really that bothered that this is a particularly significant year for Doctor Who? I mean by the look of it this episode isn't exactly going to be accessible to people just looking in for the occasion.

The anniversary episode is never super accessible to non-fans

Also, the Big Finish companions get to be canon but Sam, Fitz, Anji, Compassion and Trix don't?

"The anniversary episode is never super accessible to non-fans"

Well yeah, and as a fan I have to say that I'm delighted by that.

But in terms of a discussion about how well the event itself has been promoted I think you should probably factor in that this looks set to be a particularly esoteric, exclusive episode of a fairly esoteric, exclusive programme, and therefore not of tremendous appeal to the wider public even if you do promote the shit out of it.

There's a certain level of "this has been an institution for 50 years" that mitigates some of that IMO. Also, in the US Doctor Who has never been more popular or embraced than it is now; Matt Smith was voted onto the cover of TV Guide this year as part of reader's choice poll, which would have been unthinkable during the show's initial run.

Haha McGann is still so shit at this.

Have things like the savetheday hashtag, and even the Capaldi reveal, obscured the anniversary so that your average mug punter just thinks this is the Smith/Capaldi regeneration and the start of a new series?

Importantly, who gives a shit?

mini-lol at wigmeister's audio companions getting brought in but his BF costume being denied (AMAZING job of making the old one look non-rubbish though!)

especially odd since I figured from end of Name Of The Doctor that Hurt was either an aged Eight or next regen specifically because his costume looked like the current one!

and even the Capaldi reveal, obscured the anniversary so that your average mug punter just thinks this is the Smith/Capaldi regeneration and the start of a new series?

Yeah my housemate asked where Capaldi was when the trailer came on TV, and was quite surprised to learn the regeneration isn't due for a while.

Wish McGann was the Doctor, he is effortlessly superior to Eccleston, Tennant, and Smith put together after just three minutes. Well maybe not Eccleston.

I agree with "different", disagree with "superior"

He does look more like my platonic ideal of The Doctor template than Tennant or Smith though, and I like that they managed to import some of the extreme pathos from the book line into a three minute appearance.

Meantime:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEwikIhEZrE

It maybe that six minutes is about as long as a Doctor Who episode needs to be.

But seriously, McGann kicks so much ass in the Big Finish audios. As does Colin Baker.

Colin is the best BF Doctor by miles and miles

omg I just watched Night of the Doctor weee that was v exciting

<3 <3 Paul McGann <3 <3

I like to imagine legions of merchandisers clutching their heads as they realize everything they make now has the wrong Dr number associated with it

whoops, forgot: Moff sez “The Doctor numbering stays exactly the same”

Much love for McGann over here, love the TV pilot and the audio stuff

tho I gotta say, if I drank a magic potion with ‘be a warrior’ on it John Hurt is not exactly who I would be expecting to become

did they actually use hurt at the end? it looked like they threw some makeup on someone else. it's clearly a much younger version of Hurt.

Given the reflection/distortion I figure some sort of basic CGI job.

That was fun but I couldn't really follow it. What makes him decide to become The Bad Doctor all of a sudden? Regen a bit cop-outty.

that his gentle Doctory ways aren't what's needed in the War

re face: he's obv meant to spend hundreds of years fighting as Hurt getting older and more grizzled

imagine if they had a Thunderdome-looking Mel Gibson as Warrior Doctor

loool

it did seem like a bit of an abrupt about face, "oh ok I guess I'll choose to be bad", but they only had five minutes so whatever. this is better than nothing. Holding out hopes that we at least get some glimpse of hurt-into-eccleston in the special, closing the whole loop.

tbh I think 8's choice makes more sense if you've read the BBC books, where he blows up Gallifrey in order to save the universe

tho I gotta say, if I drank a magic potion with ‘be a warrior’ on it John Hurt is not exactly who I would be expecting to become

― Brakhage

Personally I'd be rooting for STATHAM.

tbh I think 8's choice makes more sense if you've read the BBC books, where he blows up Gallifrey in order to save the universe

― smoking, drinking, cracking and showing the MIDDLE FINGER (DJP)

So there have been (canonical?) novels about the Time War?

There are two separate Time Wars if the BBC books are canonical:

Time Lords vs Daleks, which is the current one being promoted in continuity
Time Lords vs Faction Paradox, who were an opposing faction in the books essentially created because they were a good counterpoint to the Time Lords' insistence on the rigidity of timelines and because they wanted a conflict with someone besides the Daleks; this is the one where 8 blows up his home planet and kills almost all of the Time Lords, essentially giving himself amnesia for a century as a side-effect of the trauma and having him come out the other side a darker, more bitter Doctor

The two could be reconciled into the same thing by a crafty writer; the important part is the evolution of 8 into someone who you could plausibly see as someone who would transform himself into whatever was needed to shut down the Time War because he'd already done it once before without regenerating.

Faction Paradox are rebel Timlords? If so the Doctor should be their poster boy.

Actually no. Faction Paradox are a group of non-Time Lords who have used/subverted Gallifreyan technology to generate paradoxes throughout the time stream; there may be some Gallifreyans tied up with them and it's actually hinted that their leader is a parasox-generated version of the Doctor IIRC, but strictly speaking they aren't Time Lords.

which books are those in?

the first half of the 8th doctor bbc books (up until 'the burning' iirc).

The two could be reconciled into the same thing by a crafty writer

i wholly support this, just to see how lawrence miles will react.

It starts with Alien Bodies, flares up with Interference and then continues on through The Ancestor Cell with the fallout and the Doctor's recuperation being chronicled through Escape Velocity

did they actually use hurt at the end? it looked like they threw some makeup on someone else. it's clearly a much younger version of Hurt.

Yeah I thought that was a great move, they borrowed some footage of a younger Hurt (Bleeding Cool thinking it was from Crime and Punishment), implying that this war doctoring stuff goes on for quite some time

Of course, Rusty already made elements of the books/audio pseudo-canon when he declared in an interview that President Romana was the one that started/controlled the Time War.

I don't think the show ever mentioned that the Doctor destroyed Gallifrey, has it - what's their explanation?

TBH, even though McGann was a bit wooden, I like the idea of this Doctor who basically buggers everything up then (sort of) kills himself as a short TV spin-off idea.

I think listening to the Big Finish audios is a geek line I can't cross, but that's probably daft. Are any of them actually good good?

Most of them are competent-to-terrible, several of them are way better than 98% of televised Who ever.

McGann is wooden as fuck but to be fair he's the least wooden thing about that clip. You don't really get the sense that they spent too much time on it.

Yeah, I've had trouble with the audios--I've only listened to maybe 10, and have mostly been pretty disappointed, but I keep going back because it's new (to me) Who! With the real Doctor actors!

Cass is a very 90s companion name.

Kess iirs.