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"It feels different this time..." - The new Doctor Who Thread

Phantoon

I cuss you bad
I promise I'm not going to liveblog the entire season set but I just got to the featurette about Sylvester McCoy most likely having saved Sophie Aldred's life when the water tank stunt in Battlefield went wrong. I'd heard this story before but never actually seen footage of the incident itself, and holy shit. There's about four different simultaneous ways she could have been killed (or at least very badly hurt) had he not reacted in time. Yeah, you can tell me all day about how Tom Baker's a genius and had the best stories, but did he ever save someone for real? I don't think so. This is why McCoy's the best classic Doctor, fuck the haters, peace✌️
No argument here, he'd be the best without it
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
The more I think about this, the more I think that it can't be a coincidence that it also took over a decade for the allegations about John Barrowman and Noel Clarke's gross behavior to come out. Maybe Eccleston became aware of it and was told to keep quiet, or knew that someone else was told the same, or... something. There's gotta be a connection there.

Having heard Eccleston talk at DragonCon, where this of course came up and he only spoke on it briefly since he’s not the type to drag out old arguments in public this seems... pretty likely, honestly. But in the end the thing that really burned his bridges is that the BBC straight up lied about the circumstances of his departure afterward, which is why he’ll never work with them again without an official apology.
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
Having heard Eccleston talk at DragonCon, where this of course came up and he only spoke on it briefly since he’s not the type to drag out old arguments in public this seems... pretty likely, honestly. But in the end the thing that really burned his bridges is that the BBC straight up lied about the circumstances of his departure afterward, which is why he’ll never work with them again without an official apology.

Did anyone record those comments? I don't need to see video, but I'd be very curious indeed to hear what he had to say about those two, even in transcript form...
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
This was from a few years back and I have no idea if a recording exists (some DC panels get live-broadcast and might have tapes available but this wasn't one of the biggest ones). But to my memory, I don't think he mentioned anything about Barrowman or Clarke by name, just some general references to a bad workplace environment that fit reasonably well with the stories that came out later, before moving on to his more concrete complaints with how the Beeb handled the fallout. It clearly wasn't something he wanted to elaborate on so the panel moved on pretty quickly.
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
Doctor Who season 9 (from 1972) bluray collection trailer, featuring a baby Sea Devil:

 

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
And baby lesbians!

I really love these trailers. It's so great to see classic stars like Katy Manning getting to run around in character again, even if it's just for a few minutes at a time. The mentions of Sarah Jane and Cliff Jones were lovely as well. I know Pete McTighe doesn't have a perfect track record but he's had more hits than misses with me.
 

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
Still making my way through my Season 26 box, and last night I finished up the extras on The Curse of Fenric with footage of a convention panel from 1990 featuring Sophie Aldred and some of the crew, like writer Ian Briggs and composer Marc Ayres. Most of the conversation was guided by their host but for the last few minutes they turned it over to Q&A from the audience, which went fine until we got to the last guy:

"DID YOU LIKE SHOWING EVERYONE YOUR LEGS IN PART THREE?" he asks Aldred, referring to a scene where her skirt briefly flips up during a fight and flashes a bit of thigh. "I WORE OUT MY TAPE FROM REWINDING IT TOO MANY TIMES."

Ughghghghhghghgghh die screaming you fucking creep. Why bother asking the question at all? Why not just unzip and start jerking off in front of everyone? (To Aldred's immense credit she weathered the harassment very gracefully, but I would have been a thousand percent behind her if she'd called this fuckhead out.) This was the last thing I watched before I went to bed and it really left a bad taste in my mouth. Fanboys were a mistake.
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
It's because of crap like that I can't stand fan Q&As (not limited to Doctor Who, either). Haven't watched any of those yet for fear of... well, dying of embarrassment next to my wife because of creeps like that. It's not different these days, either - I remember a few years back, people were criticizing Jenna Coleman on Twitter because she took some fan pictures where she was not looking very happy, and that's because (trigger warning: assault) she was sexually harassed (assaulted? it was never made public what happened) by a "fan" earlier in the day, it turns out. She should be fucking applauded she even continued doing that shit after that, ffs!
 

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)

Cute unboxing video that goes through all of the UK "The Collection" boxes released up to that point with interesting commentary from the graphic designer Lee Binding. Makes me sad that the US releases are so stripped down in comparison. The artwork! The booklets! I want it all!!

Two takeaways: The Collection will continue to use the Thirteenth Doctor era logo for the remainder of its run, to maintain consistency. And this isn't exactly a confirmation, but Lee suggests the possibility of a Wilderness Years box, which I don't imagine he'd say unless it was in the works.
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
...what the heck would they fill the Wilderness Years box with? McGann movie and Shalka? Guess I'll need to watch the video lol. Glad to see Christel Dee back though!
 

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
Obviously it'll be a compendium of all the sketchy independent/fan films that came out during the 90s. Wartime! Downtime! P.R.O.B.E.! The Stranger! I'm joking of course but that would actually rule if it happened, I really want to see them
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
I've seen Downtime. It's charmingly amateurish, but I'm not in any rush to see the others lol
 

Phantoon

I cuss you bad
...what the heck would they fill the Wilderness Years box with? McGann movie and Shalka? Guess I'll need to watch the video lol. Glad to see Christel Dee back though!
Fill it with Doctor Who fans' dashed hope and sadness from those years.

Except you'd need a much bigger box.
 

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME TRAVEL

tumblr_pur7yd44cD1swxsyto1_640.jpg


Some are instantly recognizable, others you have to kind of squint at. I want to take Capaldi's lunch money.
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
You know what's great for grinding ABP in the basement of Bal Castle in Final Fantasy V? Doctor Who!

I randomly decided to put The Ark in Space on, and I'm pretty confident in saying it's one of the best productions of the classic series. Everything is firing on all cylinders - the actors, costumes (even with the Wirrn rash... stuff being spray painted bubble wrap - it works!), writing, set design, all fantastic. It's one of the best Tom Bakers, and I get to enjoy it guilt free because we know this is before he started treating his coworkers and production staff like shit! I think The Ark in Space is my favorite season 12 serial, even over Genesis of the Daleks, which itself is an all timer.
 

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)

Season 9 of The Collection got a second trailer for some reason. It's not another skit, but still pretty delightful in its own way.
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
Holy crap, a good fan film! Josh Snares directed this, and I thought Nick Briggs did the Dalek voices (he didn't, whoever did is just really good at them). This acts as a prequel to The Dalek Masterplan, and is done in a 60s style, and is only 12 minutes or so long so it doesn't overstay it's welcome:

 

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
Cool! I like Josh Snares a lot. I'll definitely check this out. (How much context will I be missing if I haven't seen The Daleks' Master Plan?)
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
Honestly not much. This prequel just tells a quick story about where the Daleks get the macguffin for Dalek Masterplan, it doesn't spoil anything from the TV story at all other than that they have this weapon.

If you can stomach a whole bunch of missing episodes, the Dalek Masterplan is really quite good - the quality dips quite badly in the middle, but the first four episodes and the last two are some of the best 60s Who ever made. Shame about the middle six episodes! They're... okay, and quite weird in places, but grate pretty badly, especially considering five of them are missing.
 

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
I've honestly been avoiding it because The War Games (while quite good in parts) felt ridiculously overpadded at ten episodes, and this is two episodes even longer than that. The Vaeran Master Plan is to catch up with The Collection releases and just watch all of classic DW that way, so I guess I'll get to it when/if they put out season 3.

Cute anecdote from Jean Marsh about her time playing Sara Kingdom that you may already know: So Sara has that big boxy holster on her hip that's supposed to contain a space raygun, right? But apparently the props department was slow in actually getting it to her, so she's running around with an empty holster for a lot of the serial, and said she'd usually just keep her lunch sandwich in there instead. One day she was directed to draw her gun and was like "sorry, I haven't been issued a BBC raygun yet lol" so the director just told her to put her hand in the holster like she's going to pull it out, and they'll cut away. Okay. He calls action, she reaches into her holster and puts her fingers right into her tomato sandwich, and went helpless with laughter.
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
I've honestly been avoiding it because The War Games (while quite good in parts) felt ridiculously overpadded at ten episodes, and this is two episodes even longer than that. The Vaeran Master Plan is to catch up with The Collection releases and just watch all of classic DW that way, so I guess I'll get to it when/if they put out season 3.

If you felt the War Games was padded, I'd say avoid Dalek Masterplan then lol. It's padded in a different way - while War Games very slowly increases its stakes throughout but generally stays focused on the main plot, Dalek Masterplan goes off and does weird shit for its middle episodes, sometimes interestingly, but more often in ways as dull as the show ever produced (episode 8, "Volcano," is one of the most plodding episodes of Doctor Who I've ever "seen"). It also gives William Hartnell a racist line in episode 7 ("It's a madhouse - it's full of Arabs!" ffs).

Cute anecdote from Jean Marsh about her time playing Sara Kingdom that you may already know: So Sara has that big boxy holster on her hip that's supposed to contain a space raygun, right? But apparently the props department was slow in actually getting it to her, so she's running around with an empty holster for a lot of the serial, and said she'd usually just keep her lunch sandwich in there instead. One day she was directed to draw her gun and was like "sorry, I haven't been issued a BBC raygun yet lol" so the director just told her to put her hand in the holster like she's going to pull it out, and they'll cut away. Okay. He calls action, she reaches into her holster and puts her fingers right into her tomato sandwich, and went helpless with laughter.

I was unaware of that! It almost sounds like a plot point from Doctor Who (like when Matt Smith switches out River Song's gun for a banana lol).
 

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
Award-winning composer Murray Gold returns to Doctor Who

I think we all saw this one coming. I'm of two minds about it but I think I lean towards the positive. Yeah, Gold's stuff isn't as good as it used to be, and he can be a little overly bombastic. But at the same time he's got a style that I really associate with DW, and with a gun to my head I couldn't hum a bar of anything from Thirteen's era. It all just faded into the background. While I think Gold's best composing days are probably behind him, maybe the time off has refreshed him a little.
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
I liked Segun Akinola's work, even if I do ultimately prefer Murray Gold's. I do wish they'd try something different again, but then Gold is basically RTDs pet composer so yeah, it wasn't going to be anybody else, really.
 
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