Dr Who Rolls On

derek_farn writes "It looks like us lucky Brits will be getting a Dr Who christmas special, plus a third series has been commissioned. Those of you who get their news from the BBC web site will know that the current Dr Who, Christopher Eccleston, left after the first series and was replaced by the actor who recently played Casanova in a mini-series (not quite the same as the women wearing lycra in Star Trek, but we Brits are a bit more reserved)."

Rose

[EnderWigginsXenocide]

Rose (played by Billie Piper) will also stay on for the entire second season, despite rumors that said otherwise.

Third series?

[Anonymous Coward]

How is this the third series? It's more like the twelfth.

Re:Third series?

[Anonymous Coward]

or 29th...

I just want to say...

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

...the series so far has been truly awesome. I'm watching AVIs in the US that I download from a Tivo in the UK each week. I feel like I ought to be paying the BBC money to encourage them to keep up the good work - but I guess I'll just buy the boxed set when it's released.

The whole Bad Wolf thing has been particularly entertaining. They're even making comparisons [telegraph.co.uk] to Pynchon in the UK.

Beg, buy, borrow or steal it. Whatever, just make sure you watch it!

Re:Badwolf

[spookymonster]

Badwolf will be The Master I reckon. But I'm probably wrong.

Yup, you're wrong. The IMDB [imdb.com] entry for this last episode originally had a casting for Davros (it has since been changed). The Master has never appeared on the casting list. Most likely, we're going to see Davros, or the Emperor Dalek, as the big baddy for the final episode.

However, there are other theories out there, some of which are bolstered by the casting Laura Frazer as the Tardis's Voice. Is the Tardis itself the Bad Wolf? Or maybe there's something/someone else inside the Tardis, manipulating it and/or the Doctor? When you consider the US made-for-TV Dr. Who movie from 1996 and how it ended, your original suggestion may not be too far from the mark.

Another theory has it that the Controller (the girl that Transmatted the Doctor onto Space Station 5 in the first place) may have been using time travelling technology to send subliminal S.O.S.es to the Doctor, in the hopes that she would draw his attention without revealing herself to her silent masters.

Who knows? Indeed! We'll see tomorrow (or Sunday even, thanks to my friend B.T.).

Re:Will this Dr. Who tackle harsh political issues

[NickFortune]

Well, some interesting subtext regarding manipulative media and corrupt politicians, just off the top of my head. There's not been much that I saw as a reference to a specific topic, but it satisfied my adult self as well as the inner child.

I've enjoyed nothing on TV this much since the demise of Bab5. Watch it. It's good.

Re:Will this Dr. Who tackle harsh political issues

[fartymenams]

Not only have they gone after the non-existent WMD's in Iraq, but also capital punishment and the population being controlled by cable news channels...

Re:Rose

[SquadBoy]

I know that he will be at least a recurring character. Not sure how often he'll be around. If you can, get the last Confidential where they talk about why they have Jack around. Very interesting stuff.

Christmas special

[jangobongo]

Originally, I was going to ask if it is possible to make a Christmas special that doesn't suck (a la The Star Wars Holiday Special, but then I came across this [scotsman.com], where it says:

"Russell is giving nothing away about what will happen in the Christmas special, although he does reveal that there will be a regeneration sequence in which ninth Doctor Chris becomes tenth Doctor David."

That actually sounds like it could be interesting. The article also gives away some other small spoilers.

Re:Rose

[Trigun]

Wikipedia states twelve:

It was established in The Deadly Assassin that a Time Lord can regenerate twelve times before permanently dying, though as with most such "rules" there were occasionally exceptions. For more on this see: Time Lord.

Yeah But

[Greyfox]

The Daleks couldn't even chase you if the building you ran into wasn't handcap-accessable! Yeah there was that rocket thing in a later episode but that was just plain awkward and I bet a lot of Daleks gave their lives testing the prototypes! If they're as smart as they think they are (And they HAVE somehow managed to oppress a LARGE chunk of the universe at various times) then you'd think they could design a body that could GO UP STAIRS.

Of course, the robotic spider body should still have the toilet plunger laser gun...

3rd Series?

[Anonymous Coward]

this is 29th series not 3rd

Re:Badwolf

[Tony Hoyle]

IMDB us useless as a resource.. anyone can edit it, and they frequently do. I wouldn't read anything into stuff written there, any more than I do slashdot.

Davros would be too fanwanky to appear really.. RTD so far hasn't used any characters from the previous series (except the Daleks). The hot favourites at the moment are the Metaltron or the other bloke he chucked out of the tardis with the entire Satellite 5 database in his head.

David Tennent is in this weeks episode according to Radio Times (which *is* accurate). If the regeneration isn't happening until christmas then it could well be another watcher.

Re:Rose

[rikkards]

But it isn't something new. During the Tom Baker years there were several times when there were 3 of them. Genesis of the daleks and Ark in Space come to mind. I think you can see the whole ark of time if you include k9 as a third entity.

Could anyone PLEASE air Dr Who in Germany!

[Dr. Hok]

I mean, seriously, what have we done that we never get to see him?

BTW: Wanna play a fine game of Dalek on J2ME? http://home.arcor.de/heiko.selber/Dalek/Dalek.html [arcor.de]

The stand out - absolute stand out...

[mwooller]

...from all of this, has to be Piper. Talentless teen pop sensation turned geek posterchild. She made this series - she actually WAS this series (her character is and is responsible for BAD WOLF) and she has defied every criticism I could ever think of. When she was announced I cringed - now I am whooping with joy - far more than CE, she MADE this (UK meaning of) series. Very happy Who fan...

Re:Rose

[belroth]

That was Sarah and Harry - later on there were three companions for a while - Nyssa, Tegan and Adric, in fact for the Hartnell/Troughton years there were always 2 or more companions iirc, starting with Susan, Ian and Barbara...

Not that I'm a Who geek, of course - now can I be bothered to go through all the episodes for the first seven incarnations and calculate the average number of companions - and is that per episode or per story? Er, probably not.