I've been wondering of late - is anyone RECEIVING these reports? And why is Strax even making them anyway - has he been playing dumb and plotting the invasion of Earth in the late 19th century all this time? And if not, what do his fellow Sontarans think of him? Mark
Sontarans in Doctor Who have morphed into comic relief in almost the same way the Ferengi have in Star Trek.
A Dalek Clara as a companion would have been cool. The Doctor going at arbitrary places with a Dalek by his side, scaring the hell out of everyone there. I already see Capaldi recovering Dalek Clara and encountering the Eight Doctor, oblivious of who either of them are, in a short.
Of course Strax has been planning invasion -- that's what Sontarans do. And he's hardly playing dumb; he's openly told people that he has plans to conquer or destroy them. Perhaps that's not what he sincerely wants, but it's the only way he knows how to communicate and behave. It's how he's engineered to think. He can nuance his warrior-clone programming enough to cooperate with people like Vastra and the Doctor in their oddly non-conquest-related endeavours, but he still assumes that sooner or later they will fall to the glory of the Sontaran Empire, because that's just the way things are. Remember, Strax is carrying out this servile role as penance for his failures in war, seeing it as a duty to be fulfilled, and he's committed to that duty. It doesn't mean he's developed an aversion to war or killing or renounced Sontaran priorities. As for whether anyone is receiving the reports, considering that they're being sent from inside the TARDIS, I doubt it. The Doctor is probably just humoring him. Although I'm not sure these can be considered canonical. How would Strax have such detailed knowledge about all the Doctor's incarnations and how they met their fate?
Assuming it's canon, but acknowledging it's probably not, it's most likely all done whenever the Doctor comes to hang out chez Vastra. A little weird that he dresses up in full battle gear whenever he does, though. Though it's probably just because it's easier for Starkey to get into that (sans Sontaran pants, most likely) whenever he films these segments. That is to say if Dan Starkey isn't just hanging around the set every day anyways and is just filming these things himself when no one's looking. In-universe, I wouldn't be surprised if Strax is making these things with the Doctor's permission as a form of non-invasive therapy (sic). He's a soldier, soldiers report things. Maybe they don't go anywhere, maybe Strax gets dressed up to feel a smidge like he used to, so he can bear not killing everyone another month (unless he heads to Scotchland). And since he's there, he may have access to the 1200 year diary in the locker downstairs, for some light toilet reading. Who knows, eh? Mark
^Yeah, the Doctor letting him do it as therapy sounds good. Lets him get the soldiery stuff out of his system for a little while so he can go back to the butlery stuff without snapping and going on a rampage through Victorian London.
I'm constantly surprised by how funny I continue to find Strax to be, considering he's a character who has exactly one joke. But it still works thanks to both the writers and Starkey just milking it hard for all its worth. For some reason he feels less one dimensional than Clara as well...
Why are we so certain Strax is making them in the same point in the timeline he's featured in the episodes? I've only watched a three or four, but is there any indication it can't be before joining Vastra on Earth and being indebted to the Doctor, or (more likely) after they went their separate ways? When he summoned Strax before his death, I seem to recall he did so separately from Vastra, so... He's in full battle gear, on a ship, without any specific indication of when or where, except that we know he's following the Doctor. Whatever, it's obvious he does it for the lulz, even if he's unaware of it.
He's not on a ship, he's on the Tardis set (or at least green-screened onto it), so not only is it after he and the Doctor became on reasonably good terms it has to be after the new console room was introduced. At some point during the Doctor moping about on Earth prior to The Snowman would probably be the best bet (though of course, "Placement" is just a bit of fun as it's clearly a gag thing rather than something to take seriously as "Real" Who).
Plus of course in this one Strax says the Doctor is "about to" face his final battle on Trenzalore, so relative to the Doctor's timeline, it must be recorded sometime between "The Day of..." and "The Time of...".
Isn't it odd that they included the War Doctor but still kept the old numbering for 9 through 11? It's almost like they don't know how to count. (Or did Strax mean 11h regeneration, which is his 12th body? Which is how Davison described himself in the 5 doctors as the fourth regeneration.)
Reading that part put an image in my head of the camera pulling back and we see Strax standing there in boxing shorts. Doesn't The Five-ish Doctors show Dan Starkey in Sontaran make-up in studio wearing a bathrobe? Moffat has made it clear all the Doctors from Eccleston onwards are keeping their original numerical designation and indeed the trading cards included with the Day of the Doctor Blu-ray keep the original numbering despite including the War Doctor.
The idea is that the warrior incarnation didn't call himself the Doctor, so there have been twelve different personalities/bodies but only eleven Doctors. "The Doctor" is not his name, but the title he adopts, symbolizing his promise and his purpose. The warrior renounced that promise, so he wasn't the Doctor. Calling him "the War Doctor" is an out-of-universe convenience; he was never actually referred to by that name in any of the productions involving him, including this one.
That might have worked better if we were told what his name was in the Time War. We're told he didn't call himself the Doctor, and indeed he even tells the Moment he's not the Doctor anymore, yet all the other Time Lords and the Daleks still call him the Doctor.
Really, I think the current Doctor (until next week) is the only one who's ever made much of an issue about what "number" he was -- or had it made about him, with all the "fall of the Eleventh" stuff. In-universe, people haven't really been counting all that much. It's mainly a real-world designation.
The way Strax looks down on Rutans, he probably thinks it no big deal unless a Sonataran does it, of course. Funny stuff as always. 'Preoccupation with footwear'
But as the Doctor is a name he gives himself, it only really matters if he thinks of himself as the Doctor which, a few moments aside, the War Doctor never does.