Canadians Miss Out On Doctor Who Season Finale

darthcamaro writes "Canadians were among the last people in the world to get the season 4 finale of Doctor Who which already aired in the UK and Australia. The Canadian public broadcaster — CBC — decided to cut out nearly 20 minutes from the episode, leaving fans wondering what was going on. Doctor Who isn't the easiest show to follow at the best of times — but Canadians are now up in arms (or at least hockey sticks) over their taxpayer-funded broadcaster's lack of respect for SciFi hosers."

Re:A new companion?

[mog007]

Martha Jones was The Doctor's companion in the third season, and the redhead is his fourth season companion, yes.

You've got to love the idiots who run TV stations.

[Anonymous Coward]

You've got to love the idiots who run TV stations. Why? Because they're simply perfect idiots. Cutting 20 minutes from an episode? Such amazing idiocy.

Reminds me of a couple of years ago when I set my VCR to tape the weekly episode of 24. Yes I said VCR. Now get off my lawn.

There was a football game before 24. No problem right? Game will be over. I'll still be able to get all of 24 taped and watch it when I get home.

I get home. VCR is going. Great. I'll just let it finish taping 24 and then sit down and watch it from the beginning. No problem.

Problem. The football game was over before 24 was set to air. But someone decided that it was imperative to air commentary and discussion of the football game that was just played and this ran 15 minutes or so into 24. Was there really a need for this? I mean, come on, you just watched the fucking game so you know what happened.

Did they decide to delay 24 so people could see all of it? Nope. Just cut right on into 24 minus the first portions that they'd blotted out with football commentary.

The Internet is my DVR.

[Chris Tucker]

For the truly lazy, this article [cnet.com] describes how to use Miro, the open source media player and download app [getmiro.com] to find and download TV series from the Internet via BitTorrent.

Be aware, in the article one VITAL step in the set up process is left out, but IS covered in the comments.

Set it up and let it run in the background. No more compulsively checking trackers, Miro does it all for you.

Re:BitTorrent

[negRo_slim]

I don't even have cable...

--another Canadian

Hulu [hulu.com] + Bittorrent [thepiratebay.org] + TVersity [tversity.com] + XBox 360 MCE [microsoft.com] = Call me when a la carte cable service hits the streets.

Re:BitTorrent

[Yvan256]

Hulu.com = USA-only.

Re:18 minutes out of . . . ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm ... was this a 12+ hour "War and Peace," watch-until-you-drop mini-series episode? Or a normal 2 hour special, or what? 18 minutes sounds like an awfully lot of footage.

Uncut, it was 65 minutes (excluding any commercials, which obviously don't feature in the original BBC broadcasts), which is ten minutes longer than a regular episode.

Even worse

[smartin]

If you watch the credits I believe it mentions the Canadian Film Board which has always made me believe that it is partially funded by Canadian tax payer dollars.

Re:A new companion?

[uglyduckling]

Actually Catherine Tate is a rather talented character actress who has her own comedy show. I don't think she is especially like her character in Doctor Who, at least not in the interviews that I've seen.

Re:Even worse

[Kalriath]

It is indeed (partially) Canadian taxpayer funded.

Re:You've got to love the idiots who run TV statio

[Opportunist]

Here's why. [wikipedia.org]

Be honest, what would you want to face as your adversary as a program planner? An angry mob of beer filled football fans or a bunch of geeks? I mean, let's be reasonable. One group will show up at your doorstep and crush a beer can on your head, the other one might write you an angry email. IN RED.

Re:lolwat?

[SimonTheSoundMan]

It's a program for children too, how hard is it to follow?

Re:Umm...

[Seumas]

[quote]is canada important in entertainment[/qoute]

Wow. How naive. You do know that most of our most popular entertainers come from Canada, right? I know I'm leaving off an insanely huge number of people, too.

Fay Wray, Dan Aykroyd, James Doohan (Scotty), David Foley, Biff Naked, Kevin McDonald, Howie Mandel, Pam Anderson, John Candy, Jim Carrey, Tommy Chong, Hayden Christenson, Hume Cronyn, Celine Dion (blech), Michael J. Fox, Ryan Gosling, Lorne Greene, Phil Hartman, Avril Lavigne (blech), Evangeline Lilly, Art Linkletter, Dean McDermott, Joni Mitchell, Lee Montgomery, Alanis Morissette, Mike Myers, Leslie Nielsen, Ryan Reynolds, Caroline Rhea, Seth Rogen, Paul Shaffer, Martin Short, Donald Sutherland, Alan Thicke, Alex Trebek, Neil Young, Rick Moranis, Jason Priestley, Christopher Plummer, Mathew Perry, Dave Thompas, Scott Thompson, Robert Goulet, The Tragically Hip, Kim Cattrall, Margot Kidder, Catherine O'Hara, Shannon Teen, Jennifer Tilly, Rush, Shania Twain, Meg Tilly, Kurt Browning, Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Our Lady Peace, Rage Against The Machine, Ben Johnson, James Naismith (INVENTOR OF BASKETBALL), Paul Anka, Artificial Joy Club, Cowboy Junkies, Crash Test Dummies (once... there was this girl... whoooo... blah blah), KD Lang, Sarah McLachlan, Alanis Morissette, Anne Murray, Barenaked Ladies

In addition to basketball, they also invented some stuff. Like the Alkaline battery, the dump truck, cream soda, Trivial Pursuit, the "walkie-talkie", the lithium battery, IMAX, the hydrofoil, the rechargeable battery...

Re:A new companion?

[NoodleSlayer]

The US's SciFi channel was no more then 2.5 weeks behind the UK airings of the fourth season. It aired quite a while back though in TV terms, April 5th - July 5th in the UK and not too far behind in the US. So the fact that the fourth season finale is only airing just now in Canada means that they're somewhat behind.

Re:lolwat?

[genner]

"Most people assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey....stuff"

That's why your not making sense of it.