The Doctor Who Thread

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

In all honesty, I'm not a big fan of the entire 'Key To Time' series. I find it slow, and the stories drag

Saying that, there are some other sparkling pieces of dialogue during 'The Ribos Operation' such as The Doctor and Romana in the first episode:

The Ribos Operation is by far the best of The Key to Time series.

I rate the first two episodes of The Stones of Blood and quite enjoy The Androids of Tara for what it is but the rest i'm not too keen.

Never rated The Pirate Planet, the Captain is much too shouty for me, way too OTT, The Armageddon Factor is just really poor and very dull whilst The Power of Kroll would have worked better as a forty five minute new series episode or a two parter back then.

[Susan Foreman]

Doctor Who over the years: Episode quotes

The Pirate Planet – Part 1

K9: Sentient life form approaching.
Romana: What?
The Doctor: It's all right. It just means someone's coming.
Romana: I know what it means. Excuse me.
The Doctor: No, no, excuse me. I'll do it. (Two citizens enter the plaza.) Excuse me. Would you take me to your leader? What we'd like to know, you see, is what planet? (And walk out, totally ignoring him. Romana tucks the tracer up the sleeve of her pink blouse. More people enter the plaza.) Halt! What we (And walk straight past as if he is invisible.) You're not doing very well, K9.
K9: Master?
The Doctor: No.
K9: Suggestion, master.
The Doctor: What?
K9: Suggest you allow mistress to make contact.
The Doctor: Nonsense! Making contact with an alien race is an immensely skilled and delicate operation. It calls for tact and experience. What would she know about it?
(A young man enters the plaza.)
Romana: Hello. Excuse me.
Man: Yes?
K9: She is prettier than you, master.
The Doctor: Is she? What's that got to do with it.

The Pirate Planet – Part 2

Kimus: The interior of the mines are fully automated. There is an ancient lift shaft, but nobody's used it in living memory.
Romana: Why not?
Kimus: The penalty is death.
The Doctor: Huh. I can see there wouldn't be much incentive.

The Pirate Planet – Part 3

The Doctor: What are you doing it for, Captain? It doesn't make sense and you know it. I can understand the life of a full-blooded pirate, the thrill, the danger and the derring-do, but this? Hidden away in your mountain retreat eating other people's perfectly good planets, where's the derring-do in that?
Captain: Silence!
The Doctor: You're just trying to shut me up. You can't kill me while I'm helpless.
Captain: Oh, can't I?
The Doctor: No, you can't, because you're a warrior, and it's against the warrior's code. You should have thought of that before you tied me up.
Captain: By the hounds of hell
The Doctor: Hard to listen, isn't it, Captain, when someone's got a finger on a nerve. What is it you're really up to? What do you want? You don't want to take over the universe, do you? No. You wouldn't know what to do with it, beyond shout at it.
Captain: Mister Fibuli!
Fibuli: Yes, sir.
Captain: No. Release him.
Fibuli: But Captain.
The Doctor: He said release me

The Pirate Planet – Part 4

The Doctor: All right, all right, all right, I give up.
Captain: So, Doctor, you have survived.
The Doctor: Yes, I'm afraid I seem unable to break the habit.
Captain: And your colleagues?
The Doctor: My colleagues (thumb down)
Captain: Excellent. And my Polyphase Avitron?
(The Doctor holds it out, upside down. The Captain takes it, and looks about to cry.)
The Doctor: I'm sorry about that, but it was becoming an infernal nuisance.
Captain: Destroyed? By the great parrot of Hades, you shall pay with the last drop of your blood. Every corpuscle, do you hear?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

For the shows fiftieth anniversary the Royal Mail issued a set of stamps showcasing each Doctor. Here's the stamp of Peter Davison's fifth Doctor. I'll post all of them over the next few weeks.

[Susan Foreman]

Doctor Who over the years: Episode quotes

The Stones Of Blood – Part 1

The Doctor: Earth.
Romana: Earth?
The Doctor: I thought you'd be pleased.
Romana: I might have guessed. Your favourite planet.
The Doctor: How do you know that?
Romana: Oh, everybody knows that.
The Doctor: I didn't tell everybody that.
Romana: I can't think why, for the life of me.
The Doctor: You'll like it. It's pretty civilised, on the whole.
Romana: Hmm, oxygen level good. Slight aqueous precipitation.
The Doctor: Do you mean it's raining?
Romana: So it would appear.
The Doctor: Ah well, that's what the locals call a soft day.
(Romana tucks the tracer into the back of her belt, and the Doctor picks up a large multicoloured umbrella.)
Romana: Oh, really?
The Doctor: Any one for tennis?
Romana: Tennis?
The Doctor: Yes, it's an English expression. It means, is anyone coming outdoors to get soaked?
Romana: Oh.
K9: Master?
The Doctor [OC]: Guard duty for you, K9. We don't know if the natives are friendly yet.
K9: Master.
Romana: K9, what is tennis?
K9: Real, lawn or table, mistress?
Romana: Never mind. Forget it.
K9: Forget. Erase memory banks concerning tennis. Memory erased.

The Stones Of Blood – Part 2

The Doctor: Hello. I hope that knife's been properly sterilised.
De Vries: Blasphemer.
The Doctor: No, no, no, no. You can catch all sorts of things off a dirty knife, you know. Lockjaw, tetanus, not to mentions staphylococcal infections
Martha: I'm not going to be a party to this.
The Doctor: Good for you.
De Vries: Then don't be.
The Doctor: Hold it. Does your Cailleach ride a bicycle?
De Vries: Bicycle?
The Doctor: Yes.
De Vries: You'll die with blasphemy on your lips.
The Doctor: It's just that I can see a bicycle approaching, unless I'm very much mistaken

The Stones Of Blood – Part 3

Emilia: I never thought we'd get out of there alive.
The Doctor: Come on, we're not clear yet. On you go. (He shuts the door and they run down the drive. Another Stone is at the gates.) Fascinating, isn't it?
Emilia: Doctor, did I understand you correctly? That thing is made of stone?
The Doctor: Yes, and it's closing on us fast.
Emilia: But it's impossible!
The Doctor: No, it isn't. We're standing still.
Emilia: I meant a silicon based lifeform is unknown, unheard of, impossible.
The Doctor: Maybe it doesn't realise that.
(The Stone crashes through the gates.)
Emilia: Doctor?
The Doctor: What is it, what is it?
Emilia: In the cause of science, I think it our duty to capture that creature.
The Doctor: How? Have you any plans?
(She takes out her truncheon.)
Emilia: We could track it to its lair.
The Doctor: Come on!

The Stones Of Blood – Part 4

Vivien: Did you break the seals?
The Doctor: Well, yes, I'm afraid I did.
Megara: Silence. He is ours. He is ours. Afterwards, you may have him.
The Doctor: Oh, no, no, please, don't rush on my account. I'm so sorry to disappoint you.
Megara 2: The prisoner has been tried and sentenced in his absence. The sentence will now be carried out.
The Doctor: What sentence?
Megara 2: The sentence is death. You are to be executed immediately.

[Gothmogxx]

Key to Time.

Ribos Operation was amazing. A fantastic Story with great characters. You can tell the Doctor Romana partnership wasn't just going to be business as usual.

Pirate Planet with a bit boring. I liked some parts of it but overall quite dull.

Stones of Blood, like Dem, I think that the 1st half is way better. The 2nd half is nowhere near as good.

Androids of Tara, not perfect but beautiful location filming and a good Story idea (and the K9 chess subplot was hilarious).

Power of Kroll is a mixed bag. Philip Madoc, as ever, dominates any scene he;s in. Kroll himself, despit an obvious split screen effect, looks good for 1978. The Swampies also look good, too good perhaps (the dye wouldn't come off and they had to go to an RAF base to use their chemical showers). A good Story.

Poor Armageddon Factor. It starts out so well but by the halfway point has devolved into one of the most boring Stories ever: only Underworld and the The Tsuranga Conundrum can surpass it A horrible end to a built up Story arc.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Cult of Skaro from the 2006 finale Army of Ghosts / Doomsday.

[Susan Foreman]

Doctor Who over the years: Episode quotes

The Androids Of Tara – Part 1

(The Doctor is wakened by the smell of burning from his hat brim. A young knight has touched one of those electric rapiers to it.)
The Doctor: Do you mind not standing on my chest? My hat's on fire. I don't think we've met before.
(A second older man speaks.)
Zadek: Who are you?
The Doctor: Hmm?
Zadek: Who are you?
The Doctor: Call me Doctor.
Zadek: What are you doing here?
The Doctor: Oh, fishing.
Zadek: This is Prince Reynart's hunting estate.
(The Doctor leaps to his feet.)
The Doctor: What? Prince Reynart?
Zadek: Yes.
The Doctor: I've never heard of him. Decent sort of chap, is he?
Farrah: Shall I kill him, Swordmaster?
The Doctor: No, no, that won't be necessary (The Doctor accidentally touches the tip of the rapier and gets a shock. He takes the weapon from the young man.) Good heavens, electrically charged. The control's in the hilt, I see.
(He hands the rapier back.)
Zadek: You know about such things?
The Doctor: Well, I've travelled.
Farrah: He said he was a doctor.
Zadek: You know about machines, electronics?
The Doctor: A little.
Zadek: You don't look like a peasant.
The Doctor: Well, of course not. I've travelled.
Zadek: But you have certain skills. Can you mend an android?
The Doctor: What? What did you just say?
Zadek: An android.
The Doctor: I thought you said an android. What's wrong with it?
Zadek: It won't go.
The Doctor: Why don't you just try your local android dealer?
Farrah: Shall I kill him now, Swordmaster?
The Doctor: Look, that isn't necessary. You see, I'd really love to help you out but I'm frightfully busy and where is this android?

The Androids Of Tara – Part 2

(The Doctor blows K9's dog whistle, and the mobile computer wakes up in the Tardis.)
Farrah: What are you doing?
The Doctor: Calling my dog.
Farrah: I don't see any dog.
The Doctor: Well, of course not. He hasn't arrived yet.

The Androids Of Tara – Part 3

The Doctor: Go on, ask him a question. Go on.
Zadek: The question of monastic lands. That's bound to come up at the convocation. What is His Majesty's position on that?
George: Monastic lands are held by the religious orders under the protection of the Crown. Those lands and that protection may be withdrawn at my discretion at any time.
Zadek: Good.
George: I propose to be discreet for the time being.
Zadek: Yes. Doctor, the Prince
George: King.
Zadek: Oh, quite so, your Majesty.
The Doctor: Zadek.
Zadek: Oh, drat. I keep forgetting he's only an android. Doctor, the King seems to be, how shall I say, a trifle more
The Doctor: Intelligent than the real one? Well, of course he is. I programmed him.
Zadek: We don't want him too intelligent, Doctor. You can't trust androids, you know.
The Doctor: It's funny, you know. That's what some androids say about people.
Zadek: What?
The Doctor: Anyway, how can you possibly be frightened of something that goes pfft if it short-circuits?

The Androids Of Tara – Part 4

The Doctor: Hear that, K9? Wedding bells or a funeral knell? Do hurry up. A hamster with a blunt penknife would do it quicker.
K9: You ordered me to make no noise, master.
The Doctor: Just get on with it. (K9 finishes) About time, too. (The Doctor knocks the cut panel out of the door.) Good. (He clambers out of the boat.) You all right? Now listen, there's bound to be lots of stairs in there. You stay here and keep an eye on the boat. I might have to bring the others out this way if anything goes wrong.
K9: Affirmative, master.
The Doctor: And don't fall in the water.
K9: I am familiar with boats, master.
The Doctor: You old sea dog, you. Now don't forget, stand guard and be careful. Be careful! (The Doctor disappears from sight, and trips over something with a crash and yell.)
K9: Master?
The Doctor: Shush!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

A post from the 50th for the 50th post.

Executive producer Steven Moffat with John Hurt (War Doctor), David Tennant (10th Doctor), Matt Smith (11th Doctor) and Jenna Coleman (Clara) on the TARDIS set from The Day of the Doctor.

[Gothmogxx]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

The Cult of Skaro from the 2006 finale Army of Ghosts / Doomsday.

I can't emphasise how effective that cliff hanger was to nine year old me back in 2006. I had no idea the daleks were back. The "next time" trailer ruined it but I didn't notice it for some reason. I was at my Uncles watching it, expecting cybermen all throughout. When the Cyberleader announced the sphere wasn't theirs, I got chills, and when the daleks appeared, I ran outside going nuts at the family barbeque. It was all I thought about for the following week, literally. Nothing has ever quite matched it. But to be completely fair...

They did have a chance of surpassing it. World Enough and Time. Had they not announced the old cybermen and the master were coming back, it would have easily trumped it. As it is, the BBC spoiling everything neutered the impact it would have had.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Gothmogxx

I can't emphasise how effective that cliff hanger was to nine year old me back in 2006

It was very effective to a 40 year old me back in 2006 as well

It truly was a jaw dropping moment