Finally have time to start watching nuWho!

[Klaus]

Hey there, I've been avoiding this forum to not get spoiled, but I'm beginning to watch the DW restart at long last. I saw many of the Hartnell-Troughton-Pertwee-T. Baker-Davison eps on US TV back in the late 80s, and really liked them, but didn't have time to watch the 2005 series and as I got behind didn't want to jump in the middle because of my respect for DW and how good I heard it was.

So far I've watched "Rose", "The End of the World", and "The Unquiet Dead"... I'd actually seen most of EotW before. I'd say it's been very impressive so far, living up to my high expectations. Eccleston is a great mix of serious and goofy at this point, and the chemistry w/Rose works for me.

Boy, I hope Eccleston does play Stannis in GoT next season... he'd be great.

And it's so cool to be watching the Doctor again.

 

[Sindatur]

Congratulations Klaus, welcome on board. If you get through them all by September, you can join us for the second half of S6 as it airs.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Godspeed!

 

[Klaus]

Just got done watching Aliens of London and WWIII, which were fun and I'm really digging Eccleston's Doctor and Rose's mom. Here's a question -- was this the first time that the effects on a companion's family have been discussed upfront like this? I don't recall it in my previous watchings but they're incomplete I know. I liked the idea, bringing a touch of reality to the situation.

 

[Sindatur]

Just got done watching Aliens of London and WWIII, which were fun and I'm really digging Eccleston's Doctor and Rose's mom. Here's a question -- was this the first time that the effects on a companion's family have been discussed upfront like this? I don't recall it in my previous watchings but they're incomplete I know. I liked the idea, bringing a touch of reality to the situation.

A definite characteristic of NuWho is indeed the expanded focus on the companions and their family dynamic

 

[Iamnotspock]

Just got done watching Aliens of London and WWIII, which were fun and I'm really digging Eccleston's Doctor and Rose's mom. Here's a question -- was this the first time that the effects on a companion's family have been discussed upfront like this? I don't recall it in my previous watchings but they're incomplete I know. I liked the idea, bringing a touch of reality to the situation.

Yeah, pretty much.

 

[MacLeod]

Some of the best episodes have yet to come then, with 'Dalek' and 'The Empty Child" nd the Docotr Dances"

 

[Cutter John]

Welcome aboard Klaus! Lookign forward to hearign your thoughts on the show as you watch.

And yes, you ain't seen nothing yet!

 

[Skywalker]

Good luck with "Boom Town."

But welcome to the fold! I'm glad you're enjoying the show so far.

 

[Whofan]

Companion's families were touched upon in the classic series, but usually they didn't turn out well and are not as developed. Some spoilers for the classic series here, of course, but most of them are well-known so no code (With one exception)


-The first companion family is of course, the Doctor's own. Sort of. Susan was his granddaughter. She turned out OK by the Time of the Five Doctors but might be dead in the new series. The fate of his other relatives is largely left mysterious, except in some books which go into detail but are largely now non-canon.

-Sara Kingdom was the sister of Bret Vyon in the Dalek's masterplan. Both didn't turn out well.

-Victoria Waterfield's father was killed by the Daleks, which sparks one of WHO's best scenes in Tomb of the Cybermen.

-The brigadier had a family, but his first marriage likely ended in divorce.

-Sarah of course has an adopted son but that's the new stuff, in the classic series she at least had an aunt.

-Leela's father was killed, I think.

-Adric's brother died facing off against the Marshmen.

-Nyssa's father and stepmother were both killed by the Master. Her stepmother presumabely got smushed by his TARDIS, while the Master took over Tremas's body.

-The Master shrunk and killed Tegan's aunt Vanessa. Tegan's cousin got captured by Omega, but he turned out OK in the end I think.

-Turlough's father died but he was reunited with his brother in Planet of fire.

-Peri had a stepfather, Howard. As for the rest of her family, one of the audio dramas has her and the Doctor meet the rest of her family..

Spoiler: the gathering

However, her mother is killed by Cybermen,

-Ace's family is brought up a few times, mainly that she has a bad relationship with her mother. In Curse of Fenric she meets her mother as an infant and grandmother, but is not aware of their relationship until pointed out by the villain. She saves the infant and creates a sort of grandfather paradox.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I gotta ask. What US station showed any Hartnell or Troughton episodes ever.

PBS Chicago had some Pertwee and I'm not sure they even showed his first or second season, but it has been a long time.

I know they never showed the first 2 docs here (in Chicago), outside of The Three Doctors or The Five Doctors or The Two Doctors.

 

[Klaus]

I was watching in CT, from the PBS station in Boston... they were showing Tom Baker when I started watching but eventually rolled over and started with Hartnell, much to my delight... this was mid to late 80s. They got all the way to a few Colin Bakers and then stopped. I never saw any McCoy except for him getting machine-gunned to open the McGann movie.

 

[Sindatur]

San Jose California Channel 6, 9, and 54 all carried Dr. Who (Though ch 6 and 9 only a single episode a week in the Tom Baker era) , through the 80s and 90s. Tom Baker was #1, but they went forward on Ch 54 as much as they did backward. I believe it went 4, 5, 3, 6, 1, 7, 2. (or maybe the last two were 2,7)?

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

You guys are seriously lucky then.

Ch.11 went through 4 a number of times, then finally showed some 3, then more 4, then finally went forward into 5,6,& 7.

Probably why I never had any problem with Hurndall as #1 in The Five Doctors, no point of reference.

 

[Cutter John]

The PBS station in Atlanta went through 4 and 5 a couple times in the mid eighties before they picked up 3. Then eventually 6 and 7 all the way through the end. Thankfully it was a big money-maker for the station at the time.

I seem to recall they wanted 1 and 2, but at the time the BBC was charging way too much for the rights.

I beleive they showed all the Doctors here in Seattle in proper serialized form.

 

[Klaus]

You guys are seriously lucky then.

Depends in where you were... Boston is one of the PBS flagship stations, so they could afford it -- at least then. Our local PBS station in Hartford ran them for a while too but couldn't afford them in the end.

 

[Klaus]

Dalek was great, and CE was pretty scary at times... "You would make a good Dalek" was a great line. I'm looking forward to seeing the Daleks in the later episodes and learning more about the Last Time War. I'm sure others have commented on the similarities between Henry van Statten and Henry Starling from VOY, sort of crossed with TNG's Kivas Fajo. Seeing him getting brainwiped and dumped was awesome.

The Long Game was more standard, the main interest for me was seeing a companion blow it so spectacularly.

And that summary of companions' families was great, but I was actually thinking just narrowly in terms of the effects of people just vanishing from their regular lives for a while given the TARDIS' legendary finickiness about precision hops. Many of the old Who companions were fleeing unpleasant or totally wrecked lives from what I remember... as a pure experience junkie [hence her attractiveness to the Doctor] who just goes off from a regular life for the hell of it Rose is pretty uncommon IIRC.

 

[Sindatur]

Dalek was great, and CE was pretty scary at times... "You would make a good Dalek" was a great line. I'm looking forward to seeing the Daleks in the later episodes and learning more about the Last Time War. I'm sure others have commented on the similarities between Henry van Statten and Henry Starling from VOY, sort of crossed with TNG's Kivas Fajo. Seeing him getting brainwiped and dumped was awesome.

The Long Game was more standard, the main interest for me was seeing a companion blow it so spectacularly.

And that summary of companions' families was great, but I was actually thinking just narrowly in terms of the effects of people just vanishing from their regular lives for a while given the TARDIS' legendary finickiness about precision hops. Many of the old Who companions were fleeing unpleasant or totally wrecked lives from what I remember... as a pure experience junkie [hence her attractiveness to the Doctor] who just goes off from a regular life for the hell of it Rose is pretty uncommon IIRC.

I think Rose embodies several of Ace's humble roots traits.

 

[Klaus]

I never saw any of McCoy's episodes, so I only know Ace by name, unfortunately... but thanks. From reading up on her she sounds cool.

 

[Sindatur]

I never saw any of McCoy's episodes, so I only know Ace by name, unfortunately... but thanks.

Oh, and Ace was fleeing a rougher life than Rose, just they had similar personality traits.