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Sci-Fi

Happy 50th Doctor Who 211

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the is-that-like-a-vorlon-or-something dept.
beaverdownunder writes "To commemorate 50 years of the Tardis, today the BBC is airing a 75 minute special finally revealing the secrets of the Time War. What did you think of the special? And what's your fondest memory of Who? And what about that Capaldi guy?" Okian Warrior pointed out today's Google doodle too.
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Happy 50th Doctor Who More

Happy 50th Doctor Who

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  • 2nd Dr (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 23, 2013 @02:55PM (#45502597)

    Troughton FTW.
    Pity so much of his stuff has been lost as he was such a great character; the development past grumpy educational granddad to the different forms we know today.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by mikael ( 484 )

      They announced that there are 7 new episodes that have been recovered. Some guy had recorded the shows broadcast live using a cine-camera but he lost the sound. Fortunately, the BBC had keep the sound reels, but had lost the video. They were able to combine both together.

      I just hope they would be able to do something crazy like find out that the magnetic heads of the recording machines were strong enough to leave some kind of signal on the audio tapes.

  • Although the Tardis has its many fans worldwide, it's most popular in the UK. Which proves once again that it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

    (Disclaimer: I don't know if that's really true, but it was necessary to construct the above "joke".)

  • Traditions... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dartz-IRL ( 1640117 ) on Saturday November 23, 2013 @03:06PM (#45502661)

    The couch has been moved a metre forward from the wall, and I have adopted the traditional viewing position.

    And here come the Daleks.

    EXTERMINATE!

  • conspiracy! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Dthief ( 1700318 ) on Saturday November 23, 2013 @03:11PM (#45502691)
    It all makes sense now....Dr. Who was on the grassy knoll the whole time

  • Took me 21:45 to beat the Google game (Score:5, Funny)

    by HatofPig ( 904660 ) <clintonthegeek&gmail,com> on Saturday November 23, 2013 @03:35PM (#45502851) Homepage
    That was pretty fun! I wasted 10 regenerations trying to get past the Crying Angel in the graveyard.

  • What Google doodle? Was it yesterday?

  • trolls (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 23, 2013 @04:02PM (#45503043)

    To all the crybabies:
    Complaining about Doctor Who for not being scientifically accurate is as stupid as complaining about The Lord of The Rings for not being historically accurate. Now, go f**k yourself.

  • Favorite moments (Score:5, Informative)

    by murdocj ( 543661 ) on Saturday November 23, 2013 @04:02PM (#45503045)

    My favorite doctor is Tom Baker... all the energy, the scarf, the huge grin, the way he could challenge just about any evil, despite the odds.

    I loved how the Doctor got pulled into locating the keys to time:

    White Guardian asks the Doctor to locate the keys.
    Doctor: What happens if I say no?
    White Guardian: Nothing
    Doctor: Nothing?
    White Guardian: Nothing
    Doctor: Nothing???
    White Guardian: Nothing... ever

    I must admit, though, one of the best moments is when BBC revived Dr. Who and had an episode (maybe the first episode) where the Doctor takes Rose billions of years into the future, with the sun about to engulf the earth. To the Doctor, it's just all part of the normal cycle of things... just on a larger scale. But Rose is overcome watching the extinction of her planet. It makes you realize that the Doctor is NOT just a guy with a time machine... he's an alien, with a completely alien view of the universe.

    • The new series had a similar line, but it might be just coincidence.

      Doctor: "Nothing happens. And it keeps on happening."

      Something like that, anyway. The consequence of trying to change a fixed moment in time.

    • Re:Favorite moments (Score:4, Interesting)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) * on Sunday November 24, 2013 @07:00AM (#45506389) Homepage Journal

      Interestingly Baker's Doctor could have averted the while Time War and having to murder his entire race. He travelled back to when the Daleks were first created and has the opportunity to put a stop to them then and there, but decided not to on the grounds that he would be wiping out an entire race.

  • What number system (Score:3)

    by rossdee ( 243626 ) on Saturday November 23, 2013 @04:08PM (#45503089)

    What number system do Time Lords use?

    If its Hexadecimal then 12 regenerations iis not a problem for a while at least.

  • The zygon framing story seemed a bit forced - it just distracted from the more important events. The main story went very, very nicely. Canon consistancy achieved quite well (Packed full of references to the classic series), though I think I saw them acknowledge the existance of the movie in there - and that alone is a serious, serious problem.

    Fans *deny* that movie.

    And the temporal hypercomputer trick? That was just very cool.

    • Re:Watched (Score:5, Informative)

      by Spad ( 470073 ) <[slashdot] [at] [spad.co.uk]> on Saturday November 23, 2013 @04:29PM (#45503247) Homepage

      The "Night of the Doctor" prelude already established the McGann Doctor (including radio plays) as canon.

      • Which creates a problem. Dr Who is infamous for the loose canon, but the movie is bad even by Dr Who standards. Daleks being *polite*? The doctor being somehow half human, a characteristic never acknowledged anywhere else?

        • If you go around calling it "Dr Who" and not capitalising "Doctor," you may find your ideas getting short shrift ;)

    • And the temporal hypercomputer trick? That was just very cool.

      Yes ... but what sort of techno geek uses the same device for 400 years and doesn't even update the OS?

      • He's replaced the screwdriver several times, including upgrading the hardware - apparently he just copies over the software each time, probably because it'd take years to get it working the way he likes otherwise.

      • I imagine he applied live updates to the flash storage via Ksplice, or similar. As we saw in 'The Bells of Saint John', he's quite the hacker and could write kernel modules to augment the hardware.

      • what sort of techno geek uses the same device for 400 years and doesn't even update the OS?

        Anyone using GNU HURD?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Bogtha ( 906264 )

      The Zygon framing story set up the solution to the Time War - the Warrior Doctor said as much when he remarked that the Ghost of Christmas Future didn't just take him to any future, it took him to the future he needed to see - i.e. it led him to the solution by specifically showing him the Zygon event. The Zygon framing story showed the audience how a stasis cube is used to freeze something in time (via the paintings), and it showed how the Doctor can take advantage of his multiple incarnations to perform

      • Re:Watched (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Sunday November 24, 2013 @08:56AM (#45506697) Homepage

        The only thing I hate about this episode is that Doctor Who is turning into a miracle worker that can fix anything, anywhere, any time. Where's all that anguish between doing something bad and letting something horrible happen going to go? No more the burden of having killed billions of children to save the universe on your conscience. Time paradoxes, crossing your own time stream, going to your own grave, time locked has ceased to mean anything. Now it was just "the time streams are out of sync, we just won't remember". At the end of every episode, he could essentially go back to the beginning and make it null and void, no more you made a decision and you're stuck with it. Hell, they more than hinted in this episode that they're going to rewrite Trenselor, no more of this future:

        Dr. Simeon: It was a minor skirmish by the Doctor's blood-soaked standards. Not exactly the Time War, but enough to finish him. In the end it was too much for the old man.
        Jenny: Blood soaked?
        Vastra: The Doctor has been many things, but never blood-soaked.
        Dr. Simeon: Tell that to the leader of the Sycorax. Or Solomon the Trader. Or the Cybermen, or the Daleks. The Doctor lives his life in darker hues, day upon day. And he will have other names before the end. Storm. The Beast. The Valeyard.

        The doctor needs a setback, some kind of limitations, something he can't fix. But I think you have pretty much thrown that out the window by fixing the Time War.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbIII ( 701233 )

      Them acknowledge the existance of the movie in there

      The terrible Peter Cushing thing or do you mean the Paul McGann telemovie? If you mean the latter then it's tied in so deeply that one of the net "minisodes" that came out just before the anniversary special stars Paul McGann as the Doctor.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Phrogman ( 80473 )

        During the period after the old show was canceled (when the movie with Paul McGann came out), and the new revived series, they have set a whackload of Dr Who adventures starring Paul McGann's iteration of the doctor. They are radio-plays effectively, available here: http://www.bigfinish.com/ [bigfinish.com]

        There are also recorded episodes for a pile of other popular but now defunct TV shows. My wife has listened to a ton of these and says they are very well recorded, full cast stories.

        If you count these, Paul McGann has l

  • Best Doctor Who coverage = The Register (Score:5, Informative)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Saturday November 23, 2013 @04:19PM (#45503163)

    The best 50th anniversary coverage I've seen by far is over the The Register. (Yes, the same publication you read to find out what will be on SlashDot tomorrow.)

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/23/doctor_who_is_50/ [theregister.co.uk]

  • I am just wondering who will empty the cup of tea and find Gallifrey. It will make it more interesting if a few Time Lords can be brought into future plots.

  • This is cool, and I'm not even a fan of the show! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUBxHd3bMhg

  • Dumbing it down (Score:3)

    by Gothmolly ( 148874 ) on Saturday November 23, 2013 @04:48PM (#45503359)

    The mystery of the Time War is part of the mythos - don't explain it, then it's just a thing. When Tennant told the Master about "the could-have-been-King" that was awesome - left you just enough to wonder and imagine what happened. BBC is killing Dr Who by commoditizing it.

  • Didn't like it (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I seem to be massively in the minority here, but I wasn't impressed with the 50th anniversary Dr Who episode.

    Aside from the randomness of running around with Queen Elizabeth I, I don't understand why writers feel it is necessary for them to retcon an established story's past. We've always known that the Doctor did something awful that resulted in the destruction of Gallifrey and the Daleks, and although it ended the Time War and saved the galaxy, it is something the Doctor has always felt very guilty about.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bogtha ( 906264 )

      I don't understand why writers feel it is necessary for them to retcon an established story's past.

      I don't understand why people complain about retconning things in a show about time travel. Changing the past is an intrinsic part of the show.

    • Worse-- there were "a billion billion Daleks".

      Even if 99% of them destroyed each other by accident... even if 99.9% of them destroyed each other...

    • I share your view on the unnecessary retconning (god forbid we actually have a dark history to a protagonist...), but:

      No. No, they wouldn't. There are millions and millions of Dalek ships surrounding the planet. They wouldn't just keep firing once the planet popped out of existence, wiping all their forces out.

      I figured this actually made a bit of sense. The Daleks seem to be aiming to destroy everything on the planet's surface - we can see the explosions from space. The weapons used for that level of bombardment would be more than enough to take out other Daleks, even if they're only exposed to their own firepower for a couple of seconds. Kevlar won't save you from even a moment's artillery bomba

  • I just got back from watching the simulcast, and it was so fantastic, I can hardly see straight!

    "Inhaler!"

    My favorites: The "War Doctor", the Brigadier's daughter, Dr Who - King of England(!), Gallifrey Stands!, and my VERY favorite, the "Curator". Holy crap, I wasn't expecting the Curator!

  • The curator, when done talking to Matt Smith, had pulled that little rumpled bag from his coat pocket and said the magic words...
    "Jelly Baby?"

  • Too bad the Daleks won (Score:3)

    by Livius ( 318358 ) on Saturday November 23, 2013 @06:05PM (#45503835)

    ...the Time War since the only Daleks defeated were the ones in close orbit around Gallifrey, which certainly was not all of them.

    I don't expect perfection from Doctor Who script-writing but I expected better.

  • Currently airing on BBC's Red Button and soon to be on demand on iPlayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03lv3mj/The_Five(ish)_Doctors_Reboot/ [bbc.co.uk] is The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot a self parody by the former Doctors.

  • I am missing out otherwise..

    I looked through the site and I am missing it completely...

  • Don't miss the Peter Davison special... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot [bbc.co.uk], a 30-minute "behind the scenes" written and directed by 5th Doctor Peter Davison [wikipedia.org]...

    It's got everyone. Including cameo appearances by Peter Jackson and Ian McKellen (~13:00)...

    • A reply in lieu of mod points. Peter Davison has proved himself to be a comedy genius.

      • Including cameo appearances by Peter Jackson and Ian McKellen (~13:00)...

        Seems to be quite a family affair too - Sean Pertwee in the opening scene, Michael Troughton as one of the Dalek operators, Peter Davison's daughter (and son-in-law) and Colin Baker's family.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Joe U ( 443617 )

      Ok, that was absolutely brilliant.

  • Happy 50th Doctor Who

    50th what? When you're discussing a show where one of the main features is the regular re-casting of the lead actor, and said actors are referred to by their ordinal numbers... just sayin'.

    • I know, this title is completely baffling. Happy 50th Doctor Who... what? Doctor Who Performed A Heart Surgery? Doctor Who Won A Pie Eating Contest? It's as if the title is about something intentionally ambiguous, leaving one forever asking "Doctor Who...?" without clear resolution.

  • So, Rose was, notionally, not really Rose here, but the interface to the machine consciousness. Still, it's worth pointing out that we have no way to verify that-- it could be indeed be Rose in her Bad Wolf phase, when she had great power over time, and could plausibly have appeared back at the Time War, and just pretend to be the avitar of the machine.

  • The appearance of the Curator had my head scratching for a bit. I mean, how. We saw that regeneration, nothing weird about that. Seems like a bit of a problem. I don't care about canon, but what would the nerds think.

    I forgot about the Watcher. Loophole; problem solved.

  • ROT-13 [forret.com]: Tnyyvserl Oheaf. [forret.com]

    Quit REWRITING "History" [tvtropes.org] .... damnit!

    Last EP of Newhart [wikipedia.org]: ... ended with a scene in which Newhart wakes up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette, who had played Emily, his wife from The Bob Newhart Show. He realizes (in a satire of a famous plot element in the television series Dallas a few years earlier) that the entire eight-year Newhart series had been a single nightmare of Dr. Bob Hartley's, provoked by "eating too much Japanese food before going to bed."

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