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The Official Doctor Who

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I'm seriously getting sick of this series... Sure, it was executed pretty well, but it was mindless entertainment. I just don't see this as Doctor Who any more.

42... I guess the ultimate question must be "What was the saddest attempt at a science fiction story in 2007?" I kind of hope I'm right, cuz that means we answered it, and we didn't get blown up by the Vogons 🙂
 
~Shard~ said:
Yes, a pity indeed! Regardless, thanks for the link - I'll be looking forward to this one... Although how can Captain Jack physically hold onto the TARDIS as it travels through the continuum? 😕
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for the same reason that they can open the door and look out at whatever view they feel like...

I get the impression that the TARDIS generates a field around itself that protects the occupants and the immediate vicinity. It may not always cover outside of the TARDIS but given the psychic nature of the vortex, I reckon it could protect someone outside of the TARDIS if it chooses to do so.
 
atszyman said:
for the same reason that they can open the door and look out at whatever view they feel like...

I get the impression that the TARDIS generates a field around itself that protects the occupants and the immediate vicinity. It may not always cover outside of the TARDIS but given the psychic nature of the vortex, I reckon it could protect someone outside of the TARDIS if it chooses to do so.
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Makes sense. 😉 🙂
 
Well, stuff attached to the Tardis has survived a trip through the vortex before – one thing that immediately springs to mind is the arrow that got embedded in the door in Silver Nemesis, so I suppose it's possible that someone clinging to the interior would still be there when it rematerialises. Of course, we don't know if a trip through the vortex would kill someone or not (although I'd guess it's not too good for your general health), but Jack does have that whole not dying thing going on...
 
Well, I thought tonight's episode was an absolute cracker, a vast improvement on last week's slightly disappointing instalment. I'll even go so far as to say that, on first viewing at least, I think it's my favourite episode so far. A few thoughts...

First of all, from a fanboy point of view I loved taking a look through Mr Smith's journal, especially the sketches of his previous incarnations. I suppose that puts to bed any speculation about McCann's Doctor not being canon. 😉

The Family of Blood's ship also seemed very interesting – it's clear that it's a time machine, what with them pursuing the Doctor across time, and that interior did look incredibly Tardis like. Add to that the Doctor's comment early in the episode that they were using 'stolen technology', and can we assume that our villains have somehow managed to get their hands on some Time Lord tech?

As for next week's preview (is there a way to include spoilers within spoilers? 😛 )... the Doctor and Daisy from Spaced marry?! And produce one or more kids?! Hmm... just a little bit of supposition here, could one of those kids grow up to be Mr Saxon, or perhaps his grandfather?

I'll just mention finally the nice little tip of the hat to the 'classic' series, with Smith saying his parents were called Sydney and Verity – a reference to Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert being two key figures in the creation of the series back in the 1960s. 😀
 
I thought that was a truly beautiful episode. Gotta admit I was a bit 😱 at seeing Daisy in there 😀 or Cheryl was it, from Royal Family?

A friend of mine seems to think that the boy is, or was the Doctor at some stage. But I really don't know about him. He's a little bit psychic, a little bullied, and little.
Was a bit un-"Doctor" of the Doctor to let the kid get beaten after the shooting range bit.
All through that episode (and really boosted from next weeks trailer) I kept thinking about the Doctors neice, was it? Or granddaughter from the film? My knowledge of old Who is lacking I'm afraid 😱 Just wondering if this is where she's supposed to come from.

Overall I liked it. Soon as it's exported to iTunes I'll watch it again!
 
raggedjimmi said:
~spoilery text~
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I've heard suggestions that...

Timothy (the boy in question) is actually captain Jack as a child. Mind, I've also heard suggestions that he's Saxon too, so either or neither might be right. No one appears to have suggested yet that he might be Davros, though. 😛

I doubt very much he'll turn out to be the Doctor, mind.

The girl the Doctor travelled with in his earlier years was his granddaughter Susan – I don't reckon she'll be connected with the kids we saw in the 'next time' trailer. Actually, thinking about that trailer the bits with the kids did seem a bit dream like, so maybe they are Timothy's visions of the Doctor's possible future if he decides to stay human once the Family of Blood thing is resolved? It would be the sort of emotional dilemma thing they love to put in the new series. 😉
 
Jaffa Cake said:
The girl the Doctor travelled with in his earlier years was his granddaughter Susan – I don't reckon she'll be connected with the kids we saw in the 'next time' trailer. Actually, thinking about that trailer the bits with the kids did seem a bit dream like, so maybe they are Timothy's visions of the Doctor's possible future if he decides to stay human once the Family of Blood thing is resolved? It would be the sort of emotional dilemma thing they love to put in the new series. 😉
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I've got my theories about this one.

If indeed the Doctor marries and has kids it would be possible for Susan to be his grandchild from a future incarnation. The woman (Joan) will almost definitely find out about the Doctor not being human and all, and it's entirely possible that Hartnell crosses her/her kids path at some point in their future. It's also not inconceivable that the current Doctor crosses paths with another re-generation either in offscreen adventures (book), or even possibly a future episode (if they could find someone who looks enough like Hartnell to satisfy the hardcore Whovians).

I will admit the next episode has me intrigued.
 
Great episode, and great white text comments form everyone! 😉

I really enjoyed this premise, especially how the whole show opened up, i.e. you have no clue what the hell is going on! It's cool to see the companion in control so to speak, with the Doctor being essentially useless in his "human form". The dramatic tension is great between the Doctor, his woman and Martha - again, a great premise, especially with the irony (bitter, for Martha) that the Doctor falls in love with a human, but it isn't Martha. 😱

Not much really to add to what has already been said, but a few comments...

The preview for next week definitely intrigued me. Is the Doctor getting married and having kids a reality or a dream sequence? If it is real, then how does the cliffhanger situation get "peacefully" resolved?

As for the young boy, I'm not sure what the deal is with him either - lots of possibilities... one of which could simply be that he is just a little different, that's all - he is no one special (e.g. Captain Jack, Saxon, etc.) But, I guess we'll see next week!

All in all, it looks like we're rolling into the last half of the season with full steam ahead! This episode was great, part 2 should be even better, we'll be seeing Captain Jack again soon and then we're pretty much at the finale which promises to be another goodie as well! 😀 😎
 
The latest episode seems to be based on an eBook from here I downloaded it a month or 2 ago but the BBC has taken it off the site for now. eBook was was based on the Sylvester McCoy character and "John Smith" is supposed to be from Aberdeen. Have only got one more of these books to read. Anyone know anywhere else to get Dr Who eBooks.
 
afd said:
The latest episode seems to be based on an eBook from here I downloaded it a month or 2 ago but the BBC has taken it off the site for now. eBook was was based on the Sylvester McCoy character and "John Smith" is supposed to be from Aberdeen. Have only got one more of these books to read. Anyone know anywhere else to get Dr Who eBooks.
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I'm not sure about the eBook, but I distinctly remember this being a McCoy book itself back in the day. If I recall correctly it even had a shot of the Doctor in his school outfit with a boy firing a machine gun, just as we just saw in this last episode. Although I bought many of those books back in the day, I never bought nor read that one specifically, but I am curious then, is this an exact duplicate of that story? Is this simply a book-to-screen adaptation and not a truly original story? Regardless, it's a great story and I couldn't care less... 😉 😎
 
pretty similar, same title- Human nature. A few differnces, they aren't being chased, the Dr seems to want to be human for fun, almost. It isn't a nurse to Dr falls in love with, but another teacher. Definitely the same story though.
 
The book in question is Human Nature, by Paul Cornell.

200px-Human_Nature_(Doctor_Who).JPG.jpg

Cornell also wrote the episode we've all just enjoyed, so essentially he's adapted the book for the small screen – although key plot points have been changed, no doubt to tie it in with the current series and the story arc.
 
the BBC's website says "Human Nature will return, in more ways than one, in a few weeks... " I did wonder what that meant earlier on this week.
Different cover for eBook--
cover_sm.jpg
 
Cool, thanks guys - and thanks for the book cover Jaffa, glad to know I wasn't hallucinating! 😉 😀 And I didn't realize Paul Cornell wrote this past week's epsiode either - it all makes sense.

Looking forward to The Family of Blood next week!
 
Well, I finally saw Human Nature today, and I thought it was excellent! I hope we get a little more story on why the Family is interested in the Doctor, but all in all I was quite impressed. It was fun, interesting, different, and I thought Martha was fantastic.

Good show all around. Looking forward to Tomorrow's installment!
 
Yeah, looking forward to tomorrow's resolution as well. In the meantime I watched the Doctor Who Confidential episode and everything makes much more sense now wrt the above referenced book and so forth! 🙂
 
Well, I liked that. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I really liked that. A lot.

Thoughts... I was a little unsure about the start, I was a little concerned that it might turn into a stock 'under siege' runaround type story. I needn't have worried though, as it soon found its stride and ended up as an absolute corker of an episode.

One interesting thing was how dark the Doctor was at the close of the episode, with the punishments he doled out on the Family. He showed a cold ruthlessness we don't tend to associate with him – nice punishments though, almost mythic, and I can imagine kids up and down the country being a little wary of mirrors today. 😀 I think when he thought up the punishments for the family he was still smarting from Joan's rejection of him, and took out his hurt and frustration on the villains. There was also the guilt from hearing Joan point out that – were it not for the Doctor hiding at the school – no one there would have died. Not a nice way to get turned down.

The moral of the story – don't mess with the Doctor.

By the way, the eBook version of the original novel that afd mentioned a little earlier in the thread is back up on the BBC website, should anyone care to download it for their reading pleasure. Apparently it now includes an article from the author about his TV adaptation, so it might be worth taking a look at.
 
I enjoyed it
but the whole filmed in Cardiff thing is becoming a bit of a distraction for me. During the emotional final scene i just kept thinking "oh look that's just up the road from my house"
 
ahem...

The punishment scene did play a little different to what I was expecting! I thought they were just going to starve to death and melt away, all courtesy of The Mill.
I thought they were to die in a month or so? I don't get that now. The punishments made it sound like they would live forever.
That schoolboy/monster character (name has escaped me) really reminded me of Alex from Clockwork Orange from time to time.
Next episode looks like a Saw film 😱
 
Some SpolierText™ of my own...They were indeed going to die in a short time, but the Doctor devised punishments that would essentially freeze them in time, giving them the immortality they craved but at the total cost of their freedom. He punished them by giving them exactly what they wanted.

I think Baines, in his little monologue on the punishments, said that the Family later realised that by trying to hide from them and letting them die a natural death the Doctor was actually being kind. Immortality being a curse is a theme that's cropped up a few times over the past few series, and the Doctor demonstrated to the Family that rather than being a blessing it can be a bleak, lonely existence.
 
Great finale for the 2-parter! Excellent episode and some great character parts for "John Smith" - it must have been fun for Tennant to play a different character.

As for the punishments at the end, I didn't think they were too harsh - I kind of welcomed them in a way. As Jaffa said, the Doctor tried to do them a favor by hiding and letting them die naturally. In the end, he gave them exactly what they wanted - be careful what you wish for... 😉 Plus, I'm sure the Doctor wasn't in a very good mood after going through all of that, so I didn't find it too surprising at all.
 
Does anyone else experience REALLY freaky dreams after watching dr who? I do, I'd watch it more often if I didn't...
 
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