Yeah, but that's further down from him saying they kept McGann's presence a secret by not talking about it at all. If they're going to do the other end of Hurt's life in a similar way (and hey, this special shows they could easily do it without Eccles) he'd be similarly circumspect. Or, in other words, if you'd have asked him a week ago how many regenerations we were going to see this year he'd have just said "One". I really liked this, beyond the McGann squeeeisms it was fast, fun and had a nice balance between light and dark moments. It's got me well pumped for the special. What I especially like was the Big Finish name checking wasn't just fan service, it was doing for 8 the (cheap and without visual references of course) equivalent of 4 and 5's companion flashbacks and 10's tour of his old friends, an acknowledgement of those who have impacted on his life as it ends. [I assume it only mentions BF companions as they're the names McGann would have recognised rather than any one-upmanship over the books and comics] What is interesting is Big Finish have the licence for the first 8 Doctors, and the 8th Doctor's life now formally crosses over the start of the Time War (which is what we all suspected of course, but this is the surprisingly late in the day confirmation) whilst at the same time establishing he wasn't directly involved in the war before this, meaning Big Finish could theoretically do post war stories without crossing over into any new series licence issues that having him in the war full on might create... In terms of authors across all the media with the most Doctors, would I be right in remembering that Christopher Bulis wrote for the first 8 in the novels? Over at Big Finish, Jonathan Morris must have written for the first 8 by now as well (across all the ranges he's had at least one release out every month this year, and that's just this year and not counting his novels), has he done any new series stuff as well?
Kind of interesting that the incarnation the Doctor tries so hard to forget apparently lived nearly the longest life of ANY of them. I wonder, did the Time War really last that long? Or was the Hurt Doctor aged greatly by the experience somehow? Or did he fight the war and then spend 50 or so years living alone in the desert like Obi-Wan?
Glad yous mentioned me. I'm happy for me too! My joint favourite doctor finally got his regeneration story, and for a 7 minute episode it was damn good. Better than quite a few other regenerations in fact! I discovered this completely by accident, glad I discovered it though! I think I'll make a McGann microhero as he appears in NOTD to celebrate!
There were three names I mentioned some pages back -- Izzy, Fitz, and Benny -- and McGann would be at least aware of the names as in Big Finish's The Company of Friends, the eighth Doctor has adventures with Benny (the seventh Doctor novels and her own spin-off audios), Fitz (eighth Doctor novels), and Izzy (eighth Doctor DWM comics). He'd certainly be aware of Benny just through working with Lisa Bowerman at Big Finish. So, McGann would have been aware of all three of those non-audio companions.
To be honest, I suspect his memory wouldn't be all that hot on companions he'd only worked with the once or only mentioned, all the BF Doctors admit the recording process means things tend to blur together in the booth and he's not a mad fan like us. The ones he'd done a few years with would be much more fresh.
That's it? That's all we get? I'm disappointed in you. I expected we'd need to be peeling you off the Forum Walls from your excitement The Time War is a Funny thing Time-wise. We saw The Master as a child being given the "Tap-Tap-Tap", We've been told Genesis of The Daleks was the first Strike (Or would have been, had Four gone through with the Mission he was given). Moffat has said his intention was to show HurtDoctor was around for quite awhile, nad, I think, even after he made the decision to do something about it, he likely didn't start off with the Big Guns, so, I'm thinking, yea, he probably did spend a lot of time, before he finally dragged out the Big Guns and went for broke.
It's also entirely possible that the "War Doctor" being thrown into the mix dragged the Time War out even longer, making the Daleks and Time Lords even more intractable, hence the drastic measures he takes to end it.
This helps retcon the ever-changing age of the Doctor in the new series, too. The War certainly screwed a lot of continuity right up, and now he's left counting or not counting the years he spent IN it. Mark
I thought that if this would happen, I'd too need peeling off the forum walls from excitement. But I was just left speechless. Plus I was running low on time before dinner. . Okay, here's it done properly: MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN, MCGANN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This has definitely made my day, fantastic! I think McGann's costume is a great mix of the 96 version and more modern versions. He has a more Troughton trampish style to his costume now; he seems to have retained his wonder and adventure in the universe! A series possibly of mini episodes would have been great, but I'm more than satisfied with this! Moffat has actually exceeded my expectations for a change, I had a nasty feeling it could have just been a boring episode with John Hurt talking about the time war in minimal detail or something, but giving McGann a regeneration and and actual explanation behind the cause of regeneration and a clue to why there's this new doctor we never knew about was just fantastic! I'm definitely a happy bunny! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! More to come soon.
^Now that's more like it Oh, and I just realized, I still haven't said Happy 54th Birthday Paul, so, glad you (and we) were given this present
After downloading & watching at home, with proper speakers, it does seem like a real regeneration, rather than some temporary option. Why would he be dead from a crash anyway? How would that defeat his regeneration ability? I'm as much in awe that they kept this under their collective hats for however long they did. I'm a spoiler whore, but this takes me back to the 70's & 80's when we had to wait to find things out.
Yea, I'm really glad it came as a surprise that it was actually true. I don't like too many Spoilers, but, damn it, you put it down in front of me, I'll almost certainly lap it up
I don't think a crash necessarily would defeat his regeneration ability, but it's clear that you aren't guaranteed to regenerate. Getting shot mid-regeneration, apparently, could stop it, for example. Being dead from a crash is pretty straight forward, though. The Doctor died from a relatively mediocre fall before, so he almost certainly would die from a crash from space.
I would think that the trauma of the really violent crash could have killed him too fast for him to regenerate...Turn Left sets a precedent for the Doctor being killed too quickly for the process to start.
Hmm I just popped in Brain of Morbius, McGann narrates a 30 minute documentary about the story. Synchronicity.