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Stepping into the TARDIS: Series 1

Glad to hear you're enjoying it. 0

Series two in my opinion suffers a dip in quality as a whole(though it does also have one or two of the best stories in the show), but I personally think series three and four are perhaps the best series of the show.

As for series one's peaks I'd say Dalek, The Doctor Dances, Fathers Day and the Finale.
 
The End Of The World [...] has two Harry Potter references in it...
Hm, could you refresh my memory? I definitely caught the ones in "The Shakespeare Code," but I'm drawing a blank with any references in this episode.

And Bad Moon Rising, I hope you enjoy the new series. I've enjoyed reading your comments on the episodes you've seen so far and look forward to future posts! :)

Well Zoe Wanamaker who plays Cassandra is one and the a copy of the first book on one the glass shelves behind her in one of the scenes.
 
So there's finally going to be a SF&F sub-forum where all three mods watch the show. :eek:
Well we used to watch "The Adventures of Spaceman Spiff, Neroon and Timby the Wonder Mod" but the series was canceled when it was sold to Fox.
 
Tell me about this plot element of the Doctor stealing the TARDIS

It's something the First Doctor did sometime before the series began. He was already in the stolen Tardis at that point. It's referenced now and again, but that's about it. We never actually see him do it.
 
Tell me about this plot element of the Doctor stealing the TARDIS

Well we don't know the whole story but we do know that he took three things with him, his granddaughter Susan, the Hand Of Omega and the living metal Validium that was used to defend Gallifrey and he leftin a bit of a hurry so he stole a faulty TARDIS it's chamelion circuit was broken and he couldn't steer it properly.

He did try to fix the chamelion circuit twice once in Logopolis and it was working briefly in Attack Of The Cybermen.

KRAD has another theory about why he left but that's best left until after you see the end of the third season.
 
I'll be watching more tomorrow evening, although the way Texas is beating up on Missouri right now, I may tune out of that game earlier than I thought. :lol:
 
Tell me about this plot element of the Doctor stealing the TARDIS

Sometime before the show began the Doctor stole the TARDIS from a repair bay on Galifrey with his granddaighter Susan (the only relation we've seen of the Doctor). This led to the Doctor being declared a renegade by the Time Lord's.

The reasons for the theft aren't ever really given, but apparently it happened in rather a rush and it didn't leave him with much choice.
 
Well we don't know the whole story but we do know that he took three things with him, his granddaughter Susan, the Hand Of Omega and the living metal Validium that was used to defend Gallifrey and he leftin a bit of a hurry so he stole a faulty TARDIS it's chamelion circuit was broken and he couldn't steer it properly.

When you put all the details together there has to have been an interesting story behind why he left. Wish there were a way to work an origin story into the new series.

All I can assume is that things were seriously messed up on Gallifrey at the time.
 
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...so he stole a faulty TARDIS it's chamelion circuit was broken...
The chameleon circuit wasn't broken when he stole it, though. :) That happened either when he was on earth with Susan, or when he made the first trip with Ian and Barbara.
 
The TARDIS is kind of like the Millenium Falcon or Serenity-it's sort of a beat-up, old and outdated ship that doesn't always work. The reason it's a police box is because of this; the "Chameleon circuit" (Which allows the TARDIS's shape to adapt to it's surroundigns) broke.

The Doctor has attempted to fix it twice in the classic series, but by the time of the new series he's really come to accept the shape.

Running through the info on the TARDIs's condition:
It was in for repair when the Doctor 'borrowed her' (according to Logopolis), and that was somewhere between 700 and 900 years ago (depending on whether you believe the Doctor when he claims to be 900 years old, or to have been time-travelling for 900 years). There's a slight implication that the Doctor had been using the TARDIS before this, but on official business for the Time Lords, so it was a bit like not handing in the company car.
All 304 other Type 40 TARDISes were scrapped as obsolete long before The Deadly Assassin, which was only 500 years after the Doctor walked off with her (so, 200 or 400 years ago).
Despite all his claims, the Doctor isn't nearly as qualified a Time Lord as he claims (he scraped through with 51% on the second or third attempt), so his ability to fix the TARDIS himself isn't that good.
And finally.. any access to proper spares has been gone since the desruction of Gallifrey, and he has to just make-do-and-mend.

Add all that together, and it's a miracle the TARDIS works at all!
 
I am planning to get back to the next two episodes tonight. It depends somewhat on the normal family activities - not to mention prepping for Halloween - but I should be able to watch/copmment on "Aliens of London" and "World War Three". That's presuming the list of episodes I found on Wiki matches what's on Season 1/ Disc 2 of the DVD set.


Two unrelated side questions:

1.) This one owes to my ignorance of British television watching terminology. When the term "series" is used, it often appears to be synonomous with what in America is referred to as a season. Is that accurate?

2.) What is the story behind why Christopher Eccleston only did one season of the new Doctor Who show?
 
1.) This one owes to my ignorance of British television watching terminology. When the term "series" is used, it often appears to be synonomous with what in America is referred to as a season. Is that accurate?
Correct, although to make it even more confusing, the classic series referred them to "seasons" but the new series refers to them as "series." :lol:

2.) What is the story behind why Christopher Eccleston only did one season of the new Doctor Who show?
That isn't entirely clear. There have been a number of theories (it was always planned that he would do one season because he's a big movie actor, he was tired of fandom, didn't get along with the production, wanted to spend more time with his family, etc.). I don't know if we'll ever get a full and accurate account behind that.
 
1.) This one owes to my ignorance of British television watching terminology. When the term "series" is used, it often appears to be synonomous with what in America is referred to as a season. Is that accurate?
Correct, although to make it even more confusing, the classic series referred them to "seasons" but the new series refers to them as "series." :lol:
Well, there is something to be said for consistency's sake. :lol:

2.) What is the story behind why Christopher Eccleston only did one season of the new Doctor Who show?
That isn't entirely clear. There have been a number of theories (it was always planned that he would do one season because he's a big movie actor, he was tired of fandom, didn't get along with the production, wanted to spend more time with his family, etc.). I don't know if we'll ever get a full and accurate account behind that.[/QUOTE]Agreed, that we will probably never know the full story, but at least at this stage I don't really need to know it myself. I've enjoyed Eccleston's performance so far. It cracked me up when awhile back I realized he was Norfolk in "Elizabeth", with Cate Blanchett.

That said, I can understand if he had concerns about type-casting. We sci-fi fans can be an obsessive lot.
 
From what's been written in a few behind the scenes accounts, it was always planned for Christopher Ecclseston to be in 1 series, then regenerate, kind of as an introduction to the new fans of the concept. But the story leaked, and the BBC being a public broadcaster weren't allowed to lie when directly asked if he was leaving. So it was confirmed, and because of the rush to get the story out before the tabloids the article was badly worded and implied Chris couldn't hack the work load, which he (his people) took execption to, the BBC later apologized for it.

That's the official story, but people don't seem to want to accept that, and there are other versions out there, I personally do believe that he was only ever supposed to be there for one series, but there probably was other behind the scenes goings on that we don't know about.
 
This plot device of "regeneration" is to me a rather clever one. It seems to allow for the inclusion of different actors, with having a built-in explanation for that change. How did that come about?
 
This plot device of "regeneration" is to me a rather clever one. It seems to allow for the inclusion of different actors, with having a built-in explanation for that change. How did that come about?
Basically, The first Doctor, William Hartnell was getting on a bit, and was apparently falling ill a lot and more and more taking a back seat to the companions having the adventure. So the regeneration was invented as a way to keep the show on the air, while replacing the actor, but not really replacing the character.
 
William Hartnell, The First Doctor, was becoming increasingly ill and forgetful on set (there were points where his lines were written all over the set, off camera) and wanted to leave. The producers didn't want a good thing to end so soon, thus they came up with the idea that The Doctor could regenerate (although that term wasn't used until much later).
 
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