Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennant's?

Discussion in 'Doctor Who' started by The Borgified Corpse, Sep 7, 2013.

  1. Konata Izumi

    Konata Izumi Commander Red Shirt

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    Read the rest of his post.
     
  2. Bob The Skutter

    Bob The Skutter Complete Arse Cleft In Memoriam

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    To me it's simly because we've had split runs with gaps between them. So although we've had as many episodes the shorter runs makes it feel like fewer.
     
  3. Captaindemotion

    Captaindemotion Admiral Admiral

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    There's the small matter also that we're all getting older. The older we get, the quicker time flies in. When I was younger, e.g. the seven years or so of Star Trek:TNG seemed to run forever; now that I'm an old fart, it's hard to believe that Doctor Who has been back on air for 8 years. The years Tennant was on air ran in more slowly than the last 4 or so because I was younger.
     
  4. The Borgified Corpse

    The Borgified Corpse Admiral Admiral

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    ^Yeah, there might be something to that. I guess when I think about how much older I am now than I was back then (30 vs. 23), it's a more signficant difference than it feels like when I don't look at the actual numbers.

    I don't follow the action figures that well myself. But I do peruse through the Doctor Who figures whenever I pop by Toy Anxiety or a local convention. Actually, I've found that it's nearly impossible to find a 10th Doctor figure, whereas there are a few 11th Doctor figures here & there. As for figures from each era, it's hard to judge because it feels like all I can ever find are endless copies of Branagan from "Gridlock" & River from "The Pandoria Opens"/"The Big Bang"!

    There's something to that. Many episodes from Moffat's era have been directly connected to his main story arcs. Whereas episodes during the RTD era tended to be all over the place and mostly stand-alone-ish until the big 2-part finale.

    True. Really, the only major difference between Season 1 & Season 2 is the Doctor himself. In some ways, Season 1 feels like a Tennant season that Tennant himself just happens not to be in. I wonder if, given some time and distance, the Smith & Capaldi eras will start to blend into each other in the same way that the Eccleston & Tennant years have.

    Three months is a little while but not nearly as much of a difference as it feels like.

    Yeah. I kind of suspect that the Doctor is just making up his age as he goes along.
     
  5. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    I was using this list as a reference which gives Smith a total of 32 novels with NSA, Quick Read, 2 in 1 and Decide Your Destiny all counted.

    I just remember there being more variety to the action figures in Tennant's run, like box sets featuring the Cult of Skaro Daleks with Genesis Ark, a Doomsday set including Dalek Sec, a Cyberman and the Doctor wearing 3-D glasses, and the lift car from The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. I don't think I've seen anything other than the standard action figures for Smith's run. Hell, the only box set I remember hearing about is a Victory of the Daleks set with a Dalek and Churchill that was a Comic Con exclusive, I think.

    Of course, another thing to remember is that back during Tennant's run he was the only Doctor getting any new merchandise. Aside from DVDs and audio dramas the classic Doctors got no real attention. Since Smith took over, the classic Doctors have begun getting new merchandise again.
     
  6. Andrew_Kearley

    Andrew_Kearley Captain Captain

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    Ah, I see what they've done there. They've counted the first two 2in1 books (the ones with the reversible covers) as two titles each, but they've counted the next four 2in1 books only once with their overall titles. Inconsistent! I tend to use this list which was compiled by an expert.;)
     
  7. .:: TSN ::.

    .:: TSN ::. Captain Captain

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    And Sarah Jane spinoff. Clearly more part of Tennant era than Smiths.
     
  8. P0sitr0nic

    P0sitr0nic Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    The on screen dialogue disagrees with you, therefor you are wrong.
     
  9. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    OT to: P0sitr0nic

    I like HurtDoctor's PimpDaddy Priest outfit in your Avatar so much, I'm going to be sorely disappointed with the Anniversary Special when he doesn't wear it :devil:

    Although I believe GreenLantern goes too far with it, I happen to agree, I don't believe The Doctor really knows how old he is. We saw in Power Of Three how rambunctious The Doctor is, and how he can't sit still for more than 30 seconds and in two minutes can accomplish hours worth of stuff. Being a Time Traveler (In 1963 at 8am on Earth one minute, and 5 minutes later being in the year 3535 on some planet halfway across the Universe at 10pm at night, in one month experiencing a lifetime of "Big Events"), he really doesn't have anything to judge how much time has passed at any given point, especially with even Gallifrey being gone. (which with Gallifrey being around, at least he had some "fixed Point" to judge by)
     
  10. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    The whole thing about the Doctor not knowing how old he really is is a fine enough way to explain the various age inconsistencies which have popped up over the series. But that really only applies to his TARDIS life. Presumably before him and Susan left Gallifrey, he spent his entire life there with the exceptions of the occasional Time Lord field trip, so he'd have an accurate way to keep track of how old he was. Then once he ran off in the TARDIS and it became impossible to track the progression of time from his perspective, he began pulling random numbers and giving them as his age. But I'm guessing he could have been a couple of hundred years old before, since the first Doctor's regeneration was the result of dying of natural causes.
     
  11. DWF

    DWF Admiral Admiral

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    I can't agree with that, the Doctors on the old series aged fairly naturally with the second Doctor saying he was 450 and the seventh saying he's 953, it was until RTD wrote him as being 902 that there was a problem with his age.
     
  12. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    I can't cite the instance(s), but, I'm pretty sure, there is at least once in Classic Who, where a later Doctor cites himself as younger than what an earlier Doctor cited.

    But, again, especially once Gallifrey was gone, how could the Doctor possibly keep track of how old he is, cramming a normal lifetime of Memories into only a single month. And who's years are they? Earth Years? Gallifreyan Years?
     
  13. RoJoHen

    RoJoHen Awesome Admiral

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    I also have a problem with Smith's Doctor having a 200-year lifespan in "The Impossible Astronaut." That's a LONG time, which means he could have easily gone decades without even seeing Amy and Rory. I have a hard time believing that he could have that much time pass and still act like he hangs out with them all the time.
     
  14. DWF

    DWF Admiral Admiral

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    the fourth Doctor claimed he was 749 but in The Ribos Operation Romana corrected him saying his real age was 759, that might be what you mean.
     
  15. DWF

    DWF Admiral Admiral

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    Blame that on Moffat, the Doctor in The Impossible Astronaut says he's 1102, so of course in order for that claim to be true he had to age the Doctor.
     
  16. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    The Third Doctor made a couple claims of being a thousand.
     
  17. The Borgified Corpse

    The Borgified Corpse Admiral Admiral

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    Re: Why does it feel like Smith's run has been way shorter than Tennan

    ^Yeah. I was just watching "The Mind of Evil," where the 3rd Doctor seems like he's going to say something about how he has thousands of years worth of experience, but he cuts himself off mid-sentence and we don't even know for sure if he was going to say "years" or something else.