Doctor Who Season Finale Discussion (SPOILERS!!!)

[Heradel]

Fucking hell, I liked Tennant. Tennant was good, Tennant was great.

Arg.

Still, good episode.

[stePH]

I don't see any spoilers here yet.


How many episodes come after the "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" two-parter?  The second of those ran on Skiffy in the USA last night, and the next one isn't for another two weeks.

[Alasdair5000]

I have to write a review of that for another podcast.

I may be mildly in shock.

I think I have to watch that again, first.

[Liminal]

I don't see any spoilers here yet.


How many episodes come after the "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" two-parter?  The second of those ran on Skiffy in the USA last night, and the next one isn't for another two weeks.

There are two episodes: Midnight and Turn Left, then the start of the season finale. If you are watching on Sci-Fi instead of on BBC or through, ahem, other means, you might want to avoid this thread.

[Liminal]

Fucking hell, I liked Tennant. Tennant was good, Tennant was great.

Arg.

Still, good episode.

Do you really think they are replacing him . . . I mean . . . wow, that was totally unexpected and there was no hint or gossip about this. Do you think the producers would be able to totally firewall this off from any and all speculations?

[stePH]

If you are watching on Sci-Fi instead of on BBC or through, ahem, other means, you might want to avoid this thread.

I'll take my chances.

Do you really think they are replacing [Tennant] . . . I mean . . . wow, that was totally unexpected and there was no hint or gossip about this. Do you think the producers would be able to totally firewall this off from any and all speculations?

I'm gathering that something happened to indicate that he's not going to be on the show any more.  I find this puzzling as it was my understanding that he's confirmed to be in the Christmas special and the four specials to follow next year, even if not for the fifth (or 31st, depending on your POV) series in 2010.

(And if these specials are going to be dealing with the Time War, Tennant's Doctor wasn't involved -- I'd think they would need Eccleston and/or McGann for that.)

[Heradel]

Fucking hell, I liked Tennant. Tennant was good, Tennant was great.

Arg.

Still, good episode.

Do you really think they are replacing him . . . I mean . . . wow, that was totally unexpected and there was no hint or gossip about this. Do you think the producers would be able to totally firewall this off from any and all speculations?

The spoiler was the past tense, and yes. Yes I do. RTD runs a tight ship and they hadn't really talked about Tennant's contract being re-upped. And since everything they were shooting is probably in a soundstage for the finale, they could probably keep the eleventh Doctor secret.

[Heradel]

Thinking on it further, there are two problems with the regeneration, one story, one production — 1. Tennant's contracted for the four specials (solved by flashbacks or just them lying about it) and 2. Professor River Song recognizes the Tennant Doctor, and usually characters don't recognize regenerations (Solved by using the Omnimagical reset button, since he's already regenerating in the last few frames).

[stePH]

Thinking on it further,... Professor River Song recognizes the Tennant Doctor, and usually characters don't recognize regenerations ...

Two encounters I remember from the Seventh Doctor period: Sabalom Glitz in "Dragonfire" didn't recognize him (he had met the sixth doctor), but one of the characters in "Battlefield" recognized him as "Merlin" even though his face was different ("Merlin" apparently to be one of his future roles).

And as I typed that, I remembered Drax in "The Armageddon Factor" recognizing his fellow Time Lord "Theet", the Fourth Doctor.

[ChiliFan]

Fucking hell, I liked Tennant. Tennant was good, Tennant was great.

Arg.

Still, good episode.

Do you really think they are replacing him . . . I mean . . . wow, that was totally unexpected and there was no hint or gossip about this. Do you think the producers would be able to totally firewall this off from any and all speculations?

I think what's happened may be as follows. The Doctor Who production team as well as various fans are sick and tired of spoilers being released for Doctor Who, as well as for other Sci Fi series and they wanted to surprise the fans, the way things should be. I'm certainly sick and tired of this, and even more so of walking into newsagents where I see the future storylines of soaps on the front page of magazines, without my consent, so I think this kind of thing should be made illegal. I only want to hear about future storylines if I actually click a link or look inside a magazine. Because of all these spoilers and scoops the BBC may have decided to spread disinformation by lying to journalists and the general public about what was going to happen. It seems to me that the 11th Doctor will be on TV next week, because I don't see how a regeneration could be frozen or reversed. Perhaps Professor Riversong was talking about a future incarnation of the Doctor who looks older than the 10th Doctor.

[Heradel]

I think what's happened may be as follows. The Doctor Who production team as well as various fans are sick and tired of spoilers being released for Doctor Who, as well as for other Sci Fi series and they wanted to surprise the fans, the way things should be. I'm certainly sick and tired of this, and even more so of walking into newsagents where I see the future storylines of soaps on the front page of magazines, without my consent, so I think this kind of thing should be made illegal. I only want to hear about future storylines if I actually click a link or look inside a magazine. Because of all these spoilers and scoops the BBC may have decided to spread disinformation by lying to journalists and the general public about what was going to happen. It seems to me that the 11th Doctor will be on TV next week, because I don't see how a regeneration could be frozen or reversed. Perhaps Professor Riversong was talking about a future incarnation of the Doctor who looks older than the 10th Doctor.

There shouldn't be a law against spoilers on front pages, it's a pretty big violation of First Amendment rights over here, and just basic freedom of speech over there, though Britain has a lot more restrictive laws that we do.

Omnimagical reset probably can't undo the regeneration, unless we get Rose re-doing the Heart of the TARDIS bit and that somehow reverses it. Or Donna does it, because Donna's role in the finale is hinted at again and again and yet has not been explained. It almost seems like she'll become something else, which seems like it'll mean she'll lose her humanity or family or something. Could just mean her Doctor though.

I'm kinda wondering what Rose is now, since teleporting the way she's teleporting doesn't seem quite human, though it could just be explained away as what we see is a protrusion of her mind into our reality. But it could also be that her experience with the Heart of the TARDIS really has changed her, as it's changed Jack/The Face of Bo.

Edit: One bit of evidence for the Omnimagical reset would be that it would be hard for Torchwood to continue with everybody but Jack gone, though we didn't actually see the two of them die.

[ChiliFan]

I think that people should be warned about spoilers in the same way as on here and on other forums and not forced to read them if they don't want to. After the latest episode of Doctor Who I have no idea what's going to happen next, which I think is a good thing!

[Liminal]

Seems to me that having his old hand in a jar might provide a way to provide a template upon which his new regeneration will be based, thereby keeping Tennant around. The hand has definitely been brought to our attention throughout the series.

Dalek Caan speaks of him as the "three-fold man" . . . could RTD have decided to do a multiple doctor story before his tenure is up?

And who was Dalek Caan referring to when he said the "dark lord" is coming?

[Sandikal]

I haven't seen the finale yet, but I was cracking up in the library episode when the Doctor, Donna and the woman kept saying "SPOILERS!"  It reminded me of every message board I've ever belonged to.

[ChiliFan]

BIG SPOILER!!!!







The Doctor didn't fully regenerate, just "patched himself up" (RTD). He remained as David Tennant. This means there's no new Doctor at the moment, so there won't be a new series in 2009, just the few TV specials. There were a couple of twists, though.

[Heradel]

I wonder if this means he's actually used up a regeneration or not. I feel sorry for Donna, but at least she's not Algernon.

[Alasdair5000]

Apparently, Tennant was interviewed on Doctor Who Confidential immediately following and said the sort-of-regeneration WILL have conseqeunces.  Hmmm...

[Liminal]

Spoilers.

I have to say, I found the episode to be lacking, as if RTD was trying to force way to many characters and plot points into way to short a time and ended up giving all of the elements short-shrift. None of the "children of time" got to do anything or show us anything new about who they were.

Some nice moments between Tate & Tennant, but even that ending felt rushed, not given the due it was worth. I mean, how much cooler if she had wanted to die instead of lose her memories and the Doctor refused to allow it, overriding her agency in order to salve his own conscience?

And I really really really hope that SM will avoid using the tin monsters (daleks & cybermen) to the extent that RTD has used them. "Dalek" from the first series is still the best episode dealing with Daleks, all the rest have just used them as props rather than as villains.

Just a few of my 2 cents.

Oh, and really sad about losing Donna as a companion, I thought that her relationship to the Doctor was the best so far and broke the 3 seasons worth of young-companion-mooning-over-the-Doctor rut.

Oh, and also gorgeous graphics on the last two episodes and I hope they start to do more episodes that play with alien peoples and planets . . . although this past series did do a bit more of that.

[Sandikal]

Was it on SciFi channel on Friday???  If so, I missed it.    Is it going to be repeated?

[Liminal]

Was it on SciFi channel on Friday???  If so, I missed it.    Is it going to be repeated?

We're talking about the finale which aired on BBC this past weekend. Scifi Network is 4 episodes behind.

[Sandikal]

Good.  I thought I was going nuts.  I didn't even try Sci-Fi at 9 because they'd been running the 4th of July Twilight Zone Marathon.

[stePH]

Good.  I thought I was going nuts.  I didn't even try Sci-Fi at 9 because they'd been running the 4th of July Twilight Zone Marathon.

Naw, there was no Doctor Who on Skiffy last Friday.  Next week they run "Midnight".

But I got tired of waiting so I've downloaded the rest.  Last night my wife and I watched "Midnight" and "Turn Left", and tonight I'll be encoding the last two for DVD-RW.

My wife thought "Midnight" was a waste of time since the alien was left a mystery.  But I invoked the "Cloverfield Defense" ...

"It's not about the monster!  It's about the people!"  (props to P.K. of Radio Playhouse)

[ChiliFan]

I thought that the episode "Midnight" was basically planned as a low budget episode to save money, so that more money could be spent on certain other episodes. The format was that nearly all of the action was set inside a vehicle, similar to Star Trek: Enterprise "Shuttlepod One". I saw on Doctor Who Confidential the actors explaining how difficult it was to keep on copying what another person was saying, but they also said how annoying it was and to me most of this episode was fairly annoying. I think this is my least favourite episode of new Doctor Who.

As I've said earlier, I think that Doctor Who is now finished. I don't want to "wish my life away" until 2010. I can't believe the gap year is being allowed to happen! I'm sure there would've been mass outrage if this had been announced in 2006, but the way it's been done, there has been very little resistance. 

 

[Heradel]

I thought that the episode "Midnight" was basically planned as a low budget episode to save money, so that more money could be spent on certain other episodes. The format was that nearly all of the action was set inside a vehicle, similar to Star Trek: Enterprise "Shuttlepod One". I saw on Doctor Who Confidential the actors explaining how difficult it was to keep on copying what another person was saying, but they also said how annoying it was and to me most of this episode was fairly annoying. I think this is my least favourite episode of new Doctor Who.

As I've said earlier, I think that Doctor Who is now finished. I don't want to "wish my life away" until 2010. I can't believe the gap year is being allowed to happen! I'm sure there would've been mass outrage if this had been announced in 2006, but the way it's been done, there has been very little resistance. 

I don't know, I liked Midnight. The Dr. Who podcast had the sound editors on for that episode, and the process of lining it all up apparently drove them a bit mad.

I'm disappointed there is a gap year, but I'd be more disappointed if it was canceled, which it is not.

[stePH]

As I've said earlier, I think that Doctor Who is now finished. I don't want to "wish my life away" until 2010. I can't believe the gap year is being allowed to happen! I'm sure there would've been mass outrage if this had been announced in 2006, but the way it's been done, there has been very little resistance. 

I still think you're overreacting.  Calm down, Chicken Little, the sky is not falling.

[edit]

I don't want to "wish my life away" until 2010. I can't believe the gap year is being allowed to happen!

This is absolutely ludicrous.  You make it sound like we're all going to put our lives on hold for a year while we wait for the next season in 2010.  Some of us have books to read, films to see, games to play, pools to swim, bikes to ride, hills to climb, partners to sex, and a whole slew of other activities besides watching one television program.

Each new post of yours makes it harder and harder to take your position seriously.  Seriously, just stop.