The Doctor Who Thread

[Roughale]

Originally Posted by Criterion7

Looks like a slight Sarah Jane Adventures style feel to the next episode.

I had the same impression and I bet, many old school DW fans will protest about it - thinking about it, I might too, I may be more tollerable to the new stuff, but taking guests on an adventure is pushing the limits a bit, let's wait and see...

The Crimson Horror was really good!

[Hawkmonger]

I must say, I think we all initialy coocooed the Vastra, Jenny and Strax act. Howw wrong.I was! Im loving there little adventures.

[Criterion7]

Originally Posted by Roughale

I had the same impression and I bet, many old school DW fans will protest about it - thinking about it, I might too, I may be more tollerable to the new stuff, but taking guests on an adventure is pushing the limits a bit, let's wait and see...

The Crimson Horror was really good!

I meant it as a compliment. Sarah Jane Adventures was much closer than the original Doctor Who series

[gag]

I put some dr who trivia in my facts but think it would have been better put here so I'm going to do that and put it here as well for all dr who fans,


DOCTOR WHO


Sylvester McCoy played both the Sixth and Seventh Doctors in his first scene

Due to Colin Baker’s frustration at the way he was treated (having been blamed for low ratings and fired from the show as a result, among other things), he refused to return to the show for his regeneration scene. McCoy, who took over as the Seventh Doctor, was left to stand in for Baker instead. The scene is often lambasted by fans, and io9 named it one of the 12 worst deaths in science fiction history.


The Doctor’s regeneration was introduced to overcome the First Doctor’s ailing health

William Hartnell played the First Doctor until 1966 when Patrick Troughton took over. When it became apparent that Hartnell’s health was failing, story editor Gerry Davis and producer Innes Lloyd came up with the idea of regeneration to enable them to replace Hartnell with a new actor and continue the series.
According to internal memos published by the BBC, the process of regeneration was modeled on a bad LSD trip, making it a ‘horrifying experience.’


Stephen Fry wrote a script for Doctor Who that was never filmed

Well-known actor and author Stephen Fry was invited to write an episode for season twenty-eight. When it became apparent that the 1920′s-based episode would be too complicated to fit into the season, it was pushed back and replaced by “Fear Her.” While it was intended to be included in the following season, the necessary rewrites, including replacing Rose Tyler with Martha Jones, were too time-heavy for Fry to complete, and the script was eventually abandoned.


Ridley Scott almost designed the Daleks

When it came time for the famous Daleks to be designed, Ridley Scott was working as a designer at the BBC, and was originally slated for the job. Due to a scheduling conflict, Scott was unavailable and the job went to Raymond Cusick instead.


Deep Roy is the only Doctor Who actor to also appear in both Star Trek and Star Wars

After playing Keenser in 2009′s Star Trek, Deep Roy became the only actor to have appeared in all three of these sci-fi franchises. In 1983 Roy played Droopy McCool in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, and in 1977 he appeared in the Doctor Who episode “The Talons of Weng Chiang” as Mr Sin.

And as if that’s not impressive enough, Roy also played all 165 Oompa Loompas in Tim Burton’s 2005 remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.


The Fourth Doctor’s iconic scarf was created by accident

When costume designer James Acheson provided more than enough wool for the bohemian-style scarf required for Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor, the knitter, Begonia Pope, misunderstood his instructions and knitted all the wool she was given. Baker liked the overly-long scarf, and went on to wear it for the show anyway.


Although he later ridiculed the ‘wonderful cunning of Catholicism,’ Tom Baker, who played the Fourth Doctor, was ‘intensely Catholic’ but said he joined a monastery when he was 15 as a way of getting out of Liverpool. Although he says it was ‘annihilatingly boring,’ Baker stuck it out in the monastery for five years before moving on to the Royal Army Medical Corps, where he became interested in acting.


The Daleks were inspired by the Nazis

After growing up during WWII, the Daleks’ creator, Terry Nation, originally based the aliens on the Nazis, citing them as “the unhearing, unthinking, blanked-out face of authority that will destroy you because it wants to destroy you.” In fact, they were so similar that Donald Wilson, Head of BBC Serial Dramas, said the first Dalek-based script was “absolutely terrible”.
The episodes written by Nation carry more salient Nazi undertones, most notably in “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” and “Genesis of the Daleks,” which include allusions to the Nazis in the straight-armed, heel-clicking salute of the Daleks, mentions of taking over the world and destruction of the human race as ‘the Final Solution,’ the explanation that the Daleks were bred for racial purity, and the clear Nazi references in the uniforms worn by the Daleks’ ancestors, the Kaleds.



After sending the script for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy pilot radio programme to the Doctor Who producers, Douglas Adams was hired to write the episode “The Pirate Planet.” He went on to become script editor and write two more episodes, “City of Death” and “Shada”.
Unfortunately, “Shada” was being filmed when the BBC production team went on strike, ultimately leaving it unfinished and unusable. Earlier this year, a novelized version of the script was published by author Gareth Roberts. Parts of the episode have also been used in the 20th anniversary episode of the series, “The Five Doctors” and Adams’ own novel, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.


The creator of Doctor Who wanted a female Doctor

When the original series was struggling with ratings in the 1980s, the show’s creator, Sydney Newman, wrote a letter to BBC One Controller Michael Grade, admonishing the state of the show. He called for a temporary return of Patrick Troughton, who played the Second Doctor, before metamorphosing The Doctor into a female incarnation – a Time Lady.
Newman also suggested adding ‘a trumpet playing schoolgirl in “John Lennon-type spectacles” and her graffiti-spraying “yobbo” elder brother’ to the cast lineup.
His advice was ignored, with Sylvester McCoy continuing the all-male tradition
when he took over the role from Colin Baker in 1987. The show continued its
decline until it was cancelled in 1989.


The Tenth Doctor is married to the actress who played his on-screen daughter

Tenth Doctor David Tennant married Georgia Moffett this year, who played his daughter Jenny in the episode “The Doctor’s Daughter.” Moffett also happens to be the real-life daughter of Peter Davison, who played the Fifth Doctor.

Bill Nighy and Benedict Cumberbatch both turned down the role of The Doctor

Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Sherlock Holmes in the series Sherlock co-created by Doctor Who head writer Steven Moffat, was offered the role of The Doctor following David Tennant’s tenure. He turned it down due to the high-profile that comes with being part of such an enormous franchise, saying, “I didn’t really like the whole package – being on school lunch boxes.”
Similarly, Bill Nighy turned down the coveted role, citing the amount of baggage that came with it as reason for declining the offer. He refused to say when he was approached, however, because doing so would be “disrespectful to whoever did it.”


When the first series of Doctor Who was being filmed, BBC execs were apparently so concerned about piracy that they code-named the tapes ‘Torchwood’ to protect them from being stolen in transit. The name was then an obvious choice for the later spin-off series.


Doctor Who began as a children’s educational show

When the series was first created by Head of Drama at the BBC, Sydney Newman, it was developed to engage the entire family on Saturday nights after the football. The show’s aim was to inform and educate children about science and history, using time travel and historical figures like Marco Polo.
Newman originally stated that there would be no use of ‘bug-eyed monsters,’ although it was the introduction of the Daleks that hooked UK audiences and made the show a hit.


103 episodes of the series are lost

The BBC destroyed or wiped many episodes of Doctor Who in the 1960s and 70s for various reasons including saving space, leaving a huge gap in the series’ archives. In an attempt to recover the missing episodes, which mostly consist of First Doctor and Second Doctor appearances, the BBC and fans of the series continue requesting copies to be returned.

Various private collectors and overseas broadcasters have helped to re-build the collection with surprise findings of missing episodes, even as late as 2011.
Although the search continues, an audio recording in some form exists of every episode, many of which are recordings made by home viewers during original broadcasts.


In Christopher Eccleston’s first outing as the Doctor, he can be seen in a picture of the Kennedy assassination, an event that overshadowed the airing of the first episode forty-nine years ago last week.


For the show’s twentieth anniversary, a feature length special called The Five Doctors was created, featuring the first five doctors. However, William Hartnell had died several years earlier and so the original Doctor was played by Richard Hurndall, Hartnell appeared in the special through a clip of one of his last performances. Hurndall is not traditionally counted as one of the Doctors. Hartnell did appear in the tenth anniversary special, but his role was limited due to ailing health.


In the original series it was hinted that the Doctor only had one heart, it was a spin off novel that suggested Time Lords only grow their second hearts during their first incarnation.


In the 1996 feature film, the Doctor, played by Paul McGann, comments that he is half human, this is often disregarded by purists. Suggestions offered by this are that his mother was on earth during his birth, that his past has been manipulated and that only the eight doctor was half human, or that he uses Time Lord technology to manipulate his DNA, much as the Master did in “Utopia.”


There have been thirty six official companions.


In “The Mind of Evil” (1971), it is stated that a tablet of aspirin could kill him.


How many more Doctors do we have to look forward to? In the 1976 serial “The Deadly Assassin” it is said that Time Lords can regenerate twelve times and therefore have thirteen forms. In the 1969 serial “The War Games” it was said that Time Lords can live forever, “barring accidents.” In “Last of the Time Lords” the Master refuses to regenerate, incidentally he is at one point in the canon accused of “stealing” another Time Lords regenerations to extend his own life. In an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, Matt Smith’s Doctor flippantly says he can regenerate 507 times. So how many more do we have to look forward to, really, who knows?


Here a site for the dr who fans with doctor who trivia

http://www.drwhofacts.co.uk/index.html

Not the same site I got my trivia facts etc off.

http://www.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/fe...d-information/

[Roughale]

Originally Posted by Criterion7

I meant it as a compliment. Sarah Jane Adventures was much closer than the original Doctor Who series

OK, Seems I still have a lot to learn, not that I did not like Sarah Jane Adventures, I just saw it more as Kid TV than Doctor Who...

But I just got a lil help for catching up...

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

After the first couple of regular episodes i never bothered with TSJA except for the two stories where the Doctor appeared.

I gave up with Torchwood mid way through the first series as well. The only other i watched was the excellent Children of Earth.

[Roughale]

The help I was talking about, sorry for the shaky picture

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Roughale

The help I was talking about, sorry for the shaky picture

Very nice, does it look a decent book Roughale?

[Roughale]

Originally Posted by Demdike

Very nice, does it look a decent book Roughale?

Well that raises the question, what makes a decent book, it's got a nice blue and solid cover (no dust jacket) and it has got pages with print on them - 374 of them...

I do not have enough time here in the office to check the contents, and then, I may lack the knowledge myyself, so I give you a chance to ask one or a few direct questions and I see if I can answer them with this book, ok?

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by gag

Bill Nighy and Benedict Cumberbatch both turned down the role of The Doctor

The following were all considered for OR turned down the role of the Doctor

First Doctor:
Geoffrey Bayldon, Hugh David, Alan Webb, Cyril Cusack and Leslie French

Second Doctor:
Rupert Davies, Valentine Dyall and Michael Hordern

Third Doctor:
Ron Moody

Fourth Doctor:
Graham Crowden, Michael Bentine, Bernard Cribbins, Fulton Mackay, Richard Hearne and Jim Dale

Fifth Doctor:
Richard Griffiths

Seventh Doctor:
Ken Campbell, Chris Jury and Dermot Crowley

Eighth Doctor (if the show had continued after McCoy):

Richard Griffiths (again), Rowan Atkinson, Liam Cunningham, Robert Lindsay, Eric Idle, Tim McInnerny, Nathaniel Parker, Peter Woodward, John Sessions, Anthony Head, Rik Mayall, Tony Slattery and Billy Connolly

Ninth Doctor:
Hugh Grant and Eddie Izzard

Eleventh Doctor:
Robert Carlyle, Andrew Hayes, Harry Lloyd, Russell Tovey, Paterson Joseph, David Knijnenburg, and David Walliams