I was just reading a report that a petition is circulating to get David Tennant named one of the bearers of the Olympic Torch during the pre-Games relay next year in honor of the Doctor carrying the torch in Fear Her.
And it just hit me, that back when the revival started in 2005, how 2012 really did seem like "the future". So when the first "Dalek" episode (the other story set in Utah) was set in 2012 during Series 1 and Fear Her was set in 2012 when it aired in 2006, I wonder if RTD or the BBC actually had an expectation the revival would still be on the air in 2012?
Fortunately neither episode had flying cars or anything like that to create anachronisms (unlike Star Trek's Space Seed which had things like the SS Botany Bay being launched in '96, never mind a certain Eugenics War), though according to Fear Her the "Battle of Canary Wharf" is supposed to be known as the "Battle of Torchwood" by the time the Olympics roll around (I can just see Rex Matheson and Jack falling off their chairs when they hear that on the telly). The idea of one man owning the Internet in 2012 (per "Dalek") is probably a more accurate prediction than we think!
Of course, catching up with history happened before in the original series - when The Tenth Planet was set in 1986 when it was produced in 1966 I'm sure no one involved expected the series to actually be still in production in 1986 (and not only that, but set a Cyberman story in 1985, technically before they arrived on earth). I'm not counting Battlefield here as even though a year is not established for it, it is known that it takes place after 1989, so the series wasn't on the air to catch up to whatever year that was. And I'm of the "UNIT was in the 70s" school so I'll leave the dating debate for elsewhere and assume Sarah Jane had a brain fart when she said she was from 1980!
Alex
And it just hit me, that back when the revival started in 2005, how 2012 really did seem like "the future". So when the first "Dalek" episode (the other story set in Utah) was set in 2012 during Series 1 and Fear Her was set in 2012 when it aired in 2006, I wonder if RTD or the BBC actually had an expectation the revival would still be on the air in 2012?
Fortunately neither episode had flying cars or anything like that to create anachronisms (unlike Star Trek's Space Seed which had things like the SS Botany Bay being launched in '96, never mind a certain Eugenics War), though according to Fear Her the "Battle of Canary Wharf" is supposed to be known as the "Battle of Torchwood" by the time the Olympics roll around (I can just see Rex Matheson and Jack falling off their chairs when they hear that on the telly). The idea of one man owning the Internet in 2012 (per "Dalek") is probably a more accurate prediction than we think!
Of course, catching up with history happened before in the original series - when The Tenth Planet was set in 1986 when it was produced in 1966 I'm sure no one involved expected the series to actually be still in production in 1986 (and not only that, but set a Cyberman story in 1985, technically before they arrived on earth). I'm not counting Battlefield here as even though a year is not established for it, it is known that it takes place after 1989, so the series wasn't on the air to catch up to whatever year that was. And I'm of the "UNIT was in the 70s" school so I'll leave the dating debate for elsewhere and assume Sarah Jane had a brain fart when she said she was from 1980!
Alex
