Who? Doctor Who, that's who...
POSTED BY: XeroGravity
UPDATED: Friday, March 31, 2006 21:50
VIEWED: 12100
PAGE 4 of 6
Quote:
Originally posted by XeroGravity:
RMMC:
Why did Eccleston quit the series? This is news to me.
Hi XG,
Well, as Rabbit2 was kind enough to go into, Eccleston was only contracted to play the show for 1 series(season) only. At the time, they weren't even sure if it would do well enough to continue. remember, the show has been off the air since (heck when was Survival run?...*rummage* Oh, yeah...) 1990 not including the rather awful Fux movie. The show is first and foremost, considered a children's programme, but that had a large and strong adult following through the strength of the scripts and also to fond memories of watching when they were children. it was pretty much an institution in the UK on Saturday nights for the whole family to sit down and watch Doctor Who, much as it was in the 70's in the US for families to watch The Muppet Show. Now, with this new lease, there was an an entire generation who had never seen the original programme, and whose demographic was needed to a.) either let, or encourage their children to watch it and to b.) find it interesting enough to watch it themselves.
So, when Russell T. Davies managed to get the Beeb interested in reviving the Doctor, it was only for a single series. (Once the numbers came in from that first series for the UK markets --which is including Australlia and canada--the green light was given for the next twoseries. But that wasn't until after all but The Christmas Invasion had been run.
Rumours abounded about Eccleston leaving as he didn't want to be typecast...but then these stories were coming from Beeb sources--the same ones who tried for months to deny Ecclestion was leaving--when it was the understanding from the start. So...*shrug*
Quote:I haven't made the monetary plunge for the UK set...yet. I want it as the US and canadian versions actually have less stuff (for you UK viewers, Doctor Who Confidential isn't included in the North American release.)
I shelled out $100 for the DVD set of season 1 of the new Doc Who. In the space of 3 eps I grew impressed with Eccleston ~ this guy would have made a great Doc. Was hoping to see him reprise the role for the next few years. Eh. Oh well. I'm trying desperately to avoid reading anything about the season 1 eps online ~ don't want to bumble into spoilers.
I'll try not to spoil you, as I usually try to remain spoiler-free myself.
I'll just say...Don't go to the official Beeb site or Outpost Gallifrey. Major spoiler territory.Quote:
Is Billie Piper (Rose) sticking around for season 2? Also, has season 2 started airing yet? I could easily find out all of this but the DVDs are en route via Next Day mail (should arrive today hopefully) and I don't want to spoilerize the fun by googling anything.
Yes, Billie Piper is in series 2, which will begin being broadcast in the UK soon. The current rumours are that she's gone after series 2, but nobody's confirming that.
There is also news on people who will be guest-starring in series 2 episodes, if you're interested. I'll just list it in the spoiler space below, in case you (or any other spoiler-free people) don't want to know.
Select to view spoiler:
We get the return of Sarah Jane Smith (Liz Sladen) accompanied by K9 (voice of John Leeson). And for the Buffy fans, Anthony Stewart head will guest-star in one episode.
And more spoiler space for other returns:
Select to view spoiler:
The Cybermen will also be returning.
Quote:
Anyhow...
John Pertwee is my 2nd most fav Doc. Him and Baker totally owned the role. If they put a pretty-boy in to replace Eccleston I guarantee you the show is going to take a nasty turn for the worst. I'd have put Jeffrey Lyons in right from the get-go. He'd have been perfect (better than Eccleston). I'd have dressed him up in some super-tacky plaid blazer and the show would have rocked like the old days.
Well, as one of Tennant's previous gigs was Cassanova, I'll leave it
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Quote:
Originally posted by Aramina:
Finally I get to feel smug and knowledgeable over people in America. I spend 99.9% of my fandom avoiding spoilers, missing out on information and generally playing catch-up and now Dr Who is out over there, and I saw it all last summer, I can let out a little yipee!
*giggle* Actually, I've seen it all on CBC which was running about a week and a half behind England. I just love living near the border.
I haven't been ahead of the game since, well, never.
I was behind severely watching Buffy because it was constantly being pre-empted by sports in my local viewing area. (Instead of watching on Tuesday, like the rest of the country, I was seeing it on the following Saturday or Sunday.
) Unfortunately, it's looking like CBC won't show series 2 until fall as hockey has returned and the playoffs start next month (which, for those of you who live elsewhere, means NHL hockey will be on every night through June.)
Quote:I found out about the pop star stuff after seeing the first four episodes, so I wasn't quite as horrified.
I'm glad you're all enjoying it. I for one was not looking forward to watching Billie Piper acting (did y'all know she was a pop star? Google it) but I was pleasantly surprised. I never really liked Christopher Eccleston, don't know why, but I loved David Tennant in the Christmas Invasion.
Quote:Dunno what they're up to as I had the cable pulled a few years back. (Comcast--ya gotta just loathe and despise 'em.) I think that they may be at either Aliens of London or World War III about now.
What episode is it up to in America then? Have you seen Dalek yet?
*****
RMMC
“Nine hundred years of time and space and I’ve never been slapped by someone’s mother." -- The Doctor, Aliens of London
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1st off, thanks one and all for all the info.
RMMC:
Don't mind my outrage at Eccleston bailing out. I've absorbed the shock and am adjusting (and given how many times I've seen the Doc regen in the old series, this is becoming old hat to me). I've gone through this in varying stages each time (but I always get used to the new stooge after a 3 or 4 eps).
It's just an odd blow to find out yet another incarnation of the Doctor is part of the pantheon of ex-Doctors when I was just getting into the new character. You must have been reading my mind because the minute I heard he quit I immediately figured he was afraid of being typecast. What a fool. Look at Patrick Stewart. He threw himself, whole heart and soul, into Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in Trek's Next Gen and turned the series into a gold mine. Sure as hell didn't hurt his career as he's now a movie star. Eccleston is a great actor (as is Stewart), and really could have gone over the top with this role. Could've would've should've... *shrugs* c'est la vie.
Eccleston should have thrown caution to the wind and taken a gamble. This show was sooooo ripe for a remake by today's standards. I think he was more afraid it would succeed than he was it would get cancelled.
What is "Doctor Who Confidential"? I know there is supposed to be 5 hours of behind-the-scenes that comes with the DVD set I bought.
Rabbit2:
I actually am somewhat aware that BBC shows usually only have a dozen or dozen and a 1/2 shows per season, but I didn't really know very much about how actors think and operate in the UK. I've seen my fair share of BBC shows and in each instance, they tend to be far superior to our programming over here. Less shows per season, but quality over quantity. It's easier to spot a unicorn in the woods than it is to find BBC programming on the American boob-tube. PBS is the only outlet that runs it (and none of the cable companies where I live carry BBC-America, and I live in a densely populated metropolis).
It's not easy to find real UK programming over here. Hell... "Coupling" is one of the funniest damned shows I've ever seen in my life and rather than air the Brit version, the ego-maniacal whores in hollywood decided to re-make it (and it stunk to high heaven). It suffered a well-deserved premature death.
NEEDY: Am glad to hear Rose will be sticking around. She's robo-babe eye candy. Hubba hubba. Bait for me to tune in. Didn't know she was a pop star but then I'm kinda not much into "pop" music. Rock n Roll.
XG
ps ~ Home from work and no DVDs yet. Keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow, and I'm absolutely chomping at the bit with anticipation over the "Dalek" ep. I'm dying to see what the new Daleks look like.
No such thing as gravity. The "Earth-that-was" just sucks.
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Christopher Ecclestone "no clue" "whore" ?
That's not very nice.
He has more clue about acting than any 10 "dyed in the wool" sci-fi types. (I'm excluding the BDHs from that category. I call them actors.)
What's the problem with him choosing to do one series? I thought everyone had got over themselves by now. When the news broke here it was just like a big line of thick peasants with torches marching up to the big castle to burn him out. Be a fan, by all means, but draw a line, eh?
What he did was completely rescue Dr Who. No reverence for the character or fans' expectations weighing heavily here. More kicking the door in, and completely owning the role in a way that hasn't been seen in a long while.
All the more audacious because this bit of acting was the absolute opposite of anything you'd ever seen from him before. (Conversely, it was no big deal, what with it being acting, which he's pretty handy at...)
If anyone else had been the Doctor, it could have just been another actor in a Bond-style long line.
Maybe he didn't fancy being another Patrick Stewart? He used to be a terrific dramatic actor. Sure he gets Hollywood roles, but I can't think of any good ones lately / ever.
You will dig the Dalek, though. The pepperpot on wheels look might puzzle folk about exactly how menacing they can be (especially in this day and age, having seen Aliens and Predators.)
Trust me, they do not come up short. Very very psycho nutter showboat bastard menacing. Then it gets even better.
And we're getting Cybermen soon as well.
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You will dig the Dalek, though. The pepperpot on wheels look might puzzle folk about exactly how menacing they can be (especially in this day and age, having seen Aliens and Predators.)
Trust me, they do not come up short. Very very psycho nutter showboat bastard menacing. Then it gets even better.
And we're getting Cybermen soon as well.>>>> daleks and cybermen! my cup runneth over! i looove cybermen! dare i ask - there were a few remarks made by the dr as to how his planet had been wiped out (or gone, anyway) do the daleks have anything to do with the disappearance of gallifrey?
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Quote:
Originally posted by XeroGravity:
Don't mind my outrage at Eccleston bailing out. I've absorbed the shock and am adjusting (and given how many times I've seen the Doc regen in the old series, this is becoming old hat to me).
Hi XG! I didn't mind. I figure anything that someone says w/in the first day or so of bad news, is pretty much off the record. If I didn't, I'd be toast myself as I tend to mouth off before my brain can edit it for content.
Quote:
It's just an odd blow to find out yet another incarnation of the Doctor is part of the pantheon of ex-Doctors when I was just getting into the new character.
As I remember feeling much the same when I found out (mid-season.) It's kinda like finding out that your nice comfy shoes have sprung a leak and now you needs to break in new ones. The new ones may be nice & spiffy, but darned if you didn't like the old ones just a tad better.
Quote:
You must have been reading my mind because the minute I heard he quit I immediately figured he was afraid of being typecast.
Swamii knows all and see all and is full of...fluff!.
(Yeah, I'm a smartass.) Actually, this was the overwhelming thought that occurred to 90%of the people I know (and I've kept in touch with a number of the Dr. Who fans in my area.) Whether or not this is the truth is unknown. Eccleston has certainly never said it. (What we have heard was that he was expressedly forbidden by the Beeb to tell anyone he was leaving at the end of the season until the BBC announced it themselves...several months later.) This is why a lot of people think that Piper will be going after season 2--lots of rumours and absolute silence from her on it, with the BBC either ignoring it or denying it.Quote:
What a fool. Look at Patrick Stewart. He threw himself, whole heart and soul, into Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in Trek's Next Gen and turned the series into a gold mine. Sure as hell didn't hurt his career as he's now a movie star. Eccleston is a great actor (as is Stewart), and really could have gone over the top with this role. Could've would've should've... *shrugs* c'est la vie.
Yeah, I'm wishing he'd have stayed with it as well, but as I understand it's also not like he was hurting for work either before or after. It probably helps that he was an established actor before the series, but with stuff like this you just never know.
He did do a really good, angsty Doctor, while still having some of that not-quite-human reactions and thought processes that I'd have sorely missed if they'd have 86'd it. 'Course, I may have gotten really annoyed with the angst after a season or two. I think I OD'd on it watching Buffy.
However it goes, I think it'll take me longer to get used to the Doctor in a pin-striped suit than to the new doctor himself.
Quote:
What is "Doctor Who Confidential"? I know there is supposed to be 5 hours of behind-the-scenes that comes with the DVD set I bought.
That would be it. They showed bits of it after some of the episodes on CBC, but I'd like to see the whole thing, and for some silly reason, TPTB decided this side of the Pond didn't need it, even though we'll be paying the same price.
Twits.
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Quote:
Originally posted by livlass:
dare i ask - there were a few remarks made by the dr as to how his planet had been wiped out (or gone, anyway) do the daleks have anything to do with the disappearance of gallifrey?
Hi! Ah, another happy fan.
I'll answer your question the the spoiler box, so as not to stop anyone who wants to be surprised as its aired.Select to view spoiler:
The Daleks and the Timelords pretty much obliterate each other in a Timewar. All that's left is other races' memories of both, and the knowledge that they're gone. As I understand it, it's covered in the last book or two of the Eighth Doctor series that's been being published by BBC Books. Below is a link to more info about Doctor#8 from Outpost Gallifrey: http://www.gallifreyone.com/epguide-dw8.php
Anyone who wants more Doctor Who info, here's a couple of sites to check out...but beware of spoilers!
http://www.gallifreyone.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/
Oh, and here's a site for after watching Aliens of London and World War Three:
http://www.unit.org.uk/
Select to view spoiler:
So ya tried to get into the secured site and couldn't? Ya gotta wait until after seeing the episodes!
Have fun & happy Whoing!
******
RMMC
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thanks, rmmc! figured it was something like that! then again, they are time lords! lol!
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Cool, eh?
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