Doctor Who (1963 - present)

Agreed. I didn't mean my comment as a slight to Moffat, I enjoy a lot of what he has done. I have a lot of gripes abut RTD, too. However, I agree with you about the being self obsessed part.

I think they need to find that right balance between the dramatic and fun that they struck so well during parts of the Tom Baker era. This whole Doctor is a legend with the weight of the cosmos on his shoulders is getting old. I would like to see the Doctor be the doctor. Stumbling around places getting into trouble.

I also hope with Doctor 12 they start to move away from the time war mythology they started.
I hope they just let it fade and die. Maybe mention it once or twice if need be but I'm tired of all the dramatic/sad "I'm the last of my kind :(" moments and "I had to kill them all, blah blah blah" stuff.

I'm also hoping for a different kind of Doctor 12. An older one like Hartnell would be nice. However, I fear that with the shows growing fan base across the world, including here in the United States, they are going to stay in the 20-30 range to appeal to younger viewers. Maybe someone in their 40-50 age range is a slight possibility, but I doubt we will see another actor in the late 50s/early 60s age range, which I think it is a shame.

I love Matt Smith and Tennant, too, did a good job, but for back to back incarnations they are actually quite similar in tone and style. I would like a dramatic change personality wise. I'd like a more Hartnell-esque, grumpy and annoyed Doctor.

More news on those "discovered" Who episodes that were missing.

The new rumor suggests the number of 60 episodes was wrong...

Now, it is NINETY. That's right, the claim is that 90 of the 106 missing episodes have been recovered. If true, this is massive, massive news and would complete a majority of the stories from the 60's. Apparently the haul is not just Doctor Who but includes a massive amount of other missing BBC programs.

The rumor suggests that they have uncovered 3 full prints of Marco Polo, a serial that is not known to have any surviving footage at all. It also includes the 9 missing episodes of the 12 part epic  The Dalek Master Plan (plus the introductory episode Mission to the Unknown) as well as the missing episodes of The Invasion, The Ice Warriors and the Wheel in Space.

Quote :

Of the one hundred and six missing episodes, they comprise ninety of them. The only ones not included are nine episodes of The Dalek Master Plan, plus Mission To The Unknown, two episodes of The Invasion, two episodes of The Ice Warriors, and two episodes of The Wheel In Space.
So that’s not quite The Full Hartnell, but it’s pretty close. And that’s an awful lot more Troughton than I was expecting.

And that the BBC have been negotiating their safe return. That Steven Moffat, Russell T Davies, Mark Gatiss, Caroline Skinner, all the main players, the Cardiff production office, Doctor Who Magazine are aware of what’s happening.

But this is bigger than Doctor Who. This is eight thousand recovered films including the likes of missing Dad’s Army, Out Of The Unknown, Morecambe And Wise, The Sky At Night and more. Including ninety missing Doctor Who films and potentially better quality prints of already recovered shows. Such as three separate sets of Doctor Who: Marco Polo – one poor quality, two in excellent nick.

90 sounds ridiculous. Everything tells me to expect a hoax, but I want to believe... I'm going to be so disappointed in a few weeks when it turns out to be BS.

Moore wrote:

90 sounds ridiculous. Everything tells me to expect a hoax, but I want to believe... I'm going to be so disappointed in a few weeks when it turns out to be BS.

Sadly it gets less believable by the moment, I saw one article that suggested the Regenerations boxset would actually feature the final episode of 'Tenth Planet' restored but reviews of the product are clearly describing an animated reconstruction......now it might be more feasible that a massive animation effort has been made and there are stories to be released that we may never have expected could be....but even that seems unlikely to have been achieved so totally under the fan radar.

I fear as time goes on the real chance of future episode recoveries decreases ever more significantly, even two unconnected episodes found is big news, simply because it defies the odds and expectations. Thank heavens for off air soundtrack recordings and stills at least some of the magic can be gathered from those and perhaps technology might, one day, enable reconstructions that defy the term animation a restoration by proxy may just be more likely than a miraculous find.

On the age of whoever gets cast as the 12th Doctor ... since Jon Pertwee, I believe the 'eldest' Doctor when cast was McCoy (and he was only mid-40s). 12th will likely be another 20-to-40-something, I'd wager.

Well, these old episodes rumors are getting quite interesting.

Up until a few days again Ian Levine was adamant they did not exist, he was the biggest opponent of the rumor, but now has posted he saw "three tons of evidence" to prove that these 90 episodes have been found.

It has been uncovered there was a shipment sent to Philip Morris, a film archivist known for traveling to Africa and beyond looking for missing footage. Okay, so it could be just some random films or footage, perhaps? Well Morris made it known he was searching for old Who episode a few years back. It was sent in late 2011 and it is a shipment of 3 tons of old films from Nigeria to Liverpool.

Funnily enough a post from 2011 on a Doctor Who forum...Sent from Nigeria to Liverpool. Same as the one to Philip Morris.

Quote :

I work at a regional branch of a large international logistics company. On Tuesday morning a customer called in to collect a box sent from Zambia via Nigeria containing BBC tapes and 16″ films, supposedly for returning to the archives. The guy apparently said (I didn’t serve him myself) that the box contained recovered 60s material including episodes of Doctor Who (the only programme he mentioned by name, it seems) and that we’d be hearing all about it before the end of the year.

Levine went from "106 episodes of Doctor Who will ALWAYS be missing" and "I've searched 35 years and haven't found then, they don't exist" to saying he has seen proof.

Another source says:

All missing episodes of Doctor Who have been found with the exception of:

9 episodes of The Dalek Masterplan and the prologue episode, Mission to the Unknown
2 episodes of the Invasion
2 episodes of the Ice Warriors
2 episodes of the Wheel in Space.

If it is true we still get a lot of ancient DW to see, which I personaly absolutely do not mind at all.

BBC issued that it had no knowledge of them, but never really denied it. Philip Morris however claims he has no involvement at all and that it is his opinion that the tapes are lost, destroyed, and never to be found again except for maybe one or two popping up once in a while.

With that said, the site that first broke the rumors of the news still seem confident that something has been found due to murmurs from top level BBC/Who people, but who knows what is true. Time shall tell!

I'd be content with uncovering even one episode! Especially of the Troughton era, so little survives in full...

I recently watched The Invasion with the 2 'replacement' animated episodes, really quite charming ... it's an imaginative solution for DVD releases of vintage Who stories with missing episodes.

The Invasion looked pretty good. Unfortunately, they couldn't afford it so they went with a different method for subsequent releases. It doesn't look bad, but animated episodes like The Reign of Terror just don't look quite as good as The Invasion did.  But I'm not complaining, it's just nice to see these stories completed.

There's a nice special feature on The Invasion DVD about how the sound was restored for the missing episodes from audio cassette recordings of them made by fans back in the day :) .

Rumour has it that Paul McGann has filmed 'regenerating into John Hurt' scenes for either the anniversary special or possibly some sort of mini-episode. Radio Times says that serious consideration is being given to announcing Twelve in a one-off Doctor Who Confidential next month.

http://doctorwhotv.co.uk/12th-doctor-revealed-on-sunday-52184.htm

OOOOH!!!

I'm excited to watch the special and see who the next Doctor is going to be. Thrilled. Hope it is someone good, should be interesting to see if they continue with a younger Doctor like Tennant/Smith. I wouldn't mind seeing someone older.

The current bookie's favourite is Peter Capaldi, which would be a bold move ... not sure the squeeing 'fangirls' drawn in by Tennant and Smith will be QUITE so keen on Malcolm Tucker.

Capaldi would be interesting. For some reason I find it hard to believe they would cast an man in his 50's though. After the success of Tennant and Smith, in their 20's-30s, the show has grown in popularity across the world. I think they might keep aiming for that age range to appease the younger demographic. I would love to see an older man in the role again like Hartnell, but I don't know...

...Well, the hour is near....we shall be finding out shortly who #12 is.

Doctor #12 is Peter Capaldi!




This is the second time that an actor to become the Doctor has appeared in the series previously. Capaldi appeared in the Fires of Pompeii during the Tennant era. Colin Baker was the other.

And Malcolm Tucker walks it by a mile.

Daleks prepare to be fucked.

Great to see an older actor get the role!

Capaldi is 55 years old, making him the same age Hartnell was when he made his first appearance as the Doctor. Great to see an older Doctor again!

Yeah, Capaldi is a great actor. Plus Santa tells me that younger men are overrated.

As much as I like Tennant and Smith, I felt they were too similar. They seemed cut from the same mold...that young and quirky approach to the character. They seemed too similar to be back to back incarnations. Nothing against them, I enjoyed both their tenures, but...

I like seeing a distinct difference between the new and previous incarnation (the quiet, mellow Davison followed by the brash, arrogant Colin Baker), so I'm glad. It will be nice going from the youngest Doctor ever (Matt Smith) to the oldest ever (Capaldi).


And I'm hoping we get away from the youthful, quirky craziness of Tennant and Smith. I would like to see Capaldi take on the air of a respected and wise figure .... something a bit more dark and serious and similar to Hartnell in some respects.

This man is my hero. Decent help is so hard to find.

Ian Hislop foiled again

Erica Ambler wrote:

Plus Santa tells me that younger men are overrated.

Er, I don't believe I did tell you that.

Santa wrote:

Erica Ambler wrote:

Plus Santa tells me that younger men are overrated.

Er, I don't believe I did tell you that.

We were bugged.

Capaldi as Dr Who fan aged 15:

http://tellyspotting.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Peter-Capaldi-15-writes-fan-letter-to-Doctor-Who.jpg