February 10

[Zeke]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]

I guarantee you weren't expecting today's fiver. Here's the pilot of [i:post_uid0]Doctor Who[/i:post_uid0], "An Unearthly Child (../scifivers/anunearthlychild.html)." It's by a new guest writer named Scooter, and he's got more coming, including one that's already in my inbox. What's more, SCMoll plans to do more Who fivers too. A big [i:post_uid0]Doctor Who[/i:post_uid0] content increase... Who'da thunk it? (Yeah, he probably would have.)[/color:post_uid0]

[NAHTMMM]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]My favorite parts :D:


[quote:post_uid0][first 8 paragraphs go here.][/quote:post_uid0]

[quote:post_uid0]Ian: And I was born in a crossfire hurricane.
Whoopi: Oo! Oo! I know this one. (ahem) B-flat.
Doctor: Get out of my franchise! Go bother Rick Berman.
Whoopi: Feh.

Doctor: Remind me again why I like humans so much.
Susan: You don't, yet. At this stage you're crotchety and malevolent.
Doctor: Ah, so I am, so I am. Time to electrify the control panel! Wheeee!

...
Doctor (muttering): I'm going to have to put down traps.[/quote:post_uid0][/color:post_uid0]

[Standback]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Wow! Scooter, you're really settling in nice and quickly here. :D

Haven't read the fiver, seeing as I know nada about Doctor Who... but I wish I did. ;)[/color:post_uid0]

[Derek]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Yeah, I'm with Standback. I've never seen Doctor Who, so I'm sure I missed a lot in the fiver.[/color:post_uid0]

[Scooter]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Ah, well, that's why I put in the Star Trek IV reference. :)[/color:post_uid0]

[SCMoll]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]I quite liked it, especially the bit where they listed the many shapes a TARDIS could take.

And now I see Zeke has put some pressure on me to finish my fivers by announcing them for all the world...[/color:post_uid0]

[Nic Corelli]

[color=#000000:post_uid0][quote:post_uid0]Barbara: Susan, can't you see that this is all a game you play with your grandfather?
Susan: I was born in another place, another time.
Barbara: Well, we all were, weren't we? I mean, I was born, er, 29 years ago in Little Pigswade, Goofyenglishnameshire. It's near Hogsmeade.
Ian: And I was born in a crossfire hurricane.
Whoopi: Oo! Oo! I know this one. (ahem) B-flat.
Doctor: Get out of my franchise! Go bother Rick Berman.
Whoopi: Feh.[/quote:post_uid0]

[quote:post_uid0]Barbara: Ooo, let's explore this dangerous and barren landscape. Look, Ian, a skull!
Ian: Now Barbara, I've walked all around it and it can't be a skull. [/quote:post_uid0]

[quote:post_uid0]Ian, Barbara, and Susan: Doctor, thank goodness we found you.
Doctor: Get out, fools! Don't you realize this is where we all get trapped together?
Entire Tribe: Make fire or die!
Doctor: Told you. Geez, next time I kidnap companions I'm going to make sure the ad says "experience required."
[/quote:post_uid0]

[quote:post_uid0]Ian: I'm going to teach the caveman how to make fire so we can split.
Doctor: That would be changing history.
Ian: Now Doctor, how do we know he dinna invent the stuff?
Doctor: Good point, Mr. Scott-- er, Chesterton. [/quote:post_uid0]

:D :D

Great fiver, Scooter! Keep up the good work!

I have never seen a single episode of Doctor Who in my life (unfortunately), but I still read the fiver and enjoyed it very much! It`s really not a problem for me to read the fivers of shows I know very little about, the fivers turn out funny almost every time.

The way you`ve put in "The Voyage Home" reference was especially hilarious! :D[/color:post_uid0]

[Zeke]

[quote:post_uid0="Guest"][color=#000000:post_uid0]And now I see Zeke has put some pressure on me to finish my fivers by announcing them for all the world...[/color:post_uid0][/quote:post_uid0]
[color=#000000:post_uid0]Considering all the pressure [i:post_uid0]I'm[/i:post_uid0] under, I thought it was only fair to share. :D[/color:post_uid0]

[Scooter]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]By the way, for non-Who fans out there (which seems to be just about everyone), the reference to the controls being written on in magic marker is for real. In the third episode of Doctor Who, the crucial plot point turns out to be that one of the controls is stuck. When we finally get a shot of the control, you can clearly see the label for it, "Fast Return Switch," is [i:post_uid0]scrawled on the console in black marker.[/i:post_uid0]

I mention this because you laugh about the low budget for Classic Trek (Matt Jeffries spray-painting styrofoam packing and sticking it to the wall, etc.)--well, early Doctor Who wishes it had a Classic Trek budget![/color:post_uid0]

[SCMoll]

[color=#000000:post_uid0][quote:post_uid0="Scooter"]In the second episode of Doctor Who, the crucial plot point turns out to be that one of the controls is stuck. When we finally get a shot of the control, you can clearly see the label for it, "Fast Return Switch," is [i:post_uid0]scrawled on the console in black marker.[/i:post_uid0][/quote:post_uid0]
Have you heard "Seasons of Fear"? Â Because that makes a hilarious reference to that fact.[/color:post_uid0]

[PointyHairedJedi]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Woo for Who fivers! This is why I wish I could afford to get DVD's.

Is it just TV Who we'll be seeing, or can we expect Big Finissh audios too?

EDIT: One thing, Zeke - "Who debuts"? I hope that's just a placeholder.[/color:post_uid0]

[Scooter]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Well, lets see, we have 27 seasons of TV serials, plus all the Big Finish audio, five lines of novels, and BBC anime to get through before the new series debuts next year, cause then we'll have to start on that. Up for it, SC? :)

On you mark, get set, [b:post_uid0][i:post_uid0]GO![/i:post_uid0][/b:post_uid0][/color:post_uid0]

[PointyHairedJedi]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]The books at least are something I can get - at the moment I'm reading [i:post_uid0]Reckless Engineering[/i:post_uid0], and darn good it is too.[/color:post_uid0]

[Zeke]

[quote:post_uid0="PointyHairedJedi"][color=#000000:post_uid0]EDIT: One thing, Zeke - "Who debuts"? I hope that's just a placeholder.[/color:post_uid0][/quote:post_uid0]
[color=#000000:post_uid0]I've had to do a lot of blurbs this week (rarely an easy task), and I had nothing to work with here -- I've never even come [i:post_uid0]close[/i:post_uid0] to seeing Doctor Who. Given those two factors, I settled for a cute rhyme instead of the usual whirlwind of puns and chicanery. If you really think it's that stupid, I'll try and come up with something else.

Hang on... the guy [i:post_uid0]is[/i:post_uid0] actually called Doctor Who, right? I know he's usually just The Doctor, but does anyone call him Doctor Who? Because I've been going on that assumption, and I know a lot of non-Whovians do so too. (Nobody raised an eyebrow when I used that name for him in "Oasis.")[/color:post_uid0]

[SCMoll]

[color=#000000:post_uid0][quote:post_uid0="Zeke"][quote:post_uid0="PointyHairedJedi"]EDIT: One thing, Zeke - "Who debuts"? I hope that's just a placeholder.[/quote:post_uid0]
Hang on... the guy [i:post_uid0]is[/i:post_uid0] actually called Doctor Who, right? Â I know he's usually just The Doctor, but does anyone call him Doctor Who? Â Because I've been going on that assumption, and I know a lot of non-Whovians do so too. Â (Nobody raised an eyebrow when I used that name for him in "Oasis.")[/quote:post_uid0]
[i:post_uid0]I[/i:post_uid0] raised an eyebrow. Â But I figured that if it just said "The Doctor," no one would get it at all.

Anyway, the character was credited as "Doctor Who" from 1963 to 1981, but at that point the producer changed the credit to "The Doctor" because "that was his real name." Â

Whether or not "Who" is his real name is a matter of continual debate. Â Early novelizations had titles such as "Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks"; there was even one episode called "Doctor Who and the Silurians" (1970). Â Throught the show there are a number of gags where someone says "Doctor who?", the best being in "An Unearthly Child." Â However, he is only named "Doctor Who" on screen once, in the episode "The War Machines" (1966), when the evil WOTAN says "Doctor Who is required."

Publicity almost always calls him "Doctor Who," and some insist that it was his name up until the switch in 1982. Â On the other hand, the writers of the 1973 episode "The Three Doctors" wanted to call a villain "OHM" as 180-rotation of "WHO" but did not when reminded the character's name was not "Who."

You'll find Doctor Who fans on both sides of the fence; personally I'm part of the camp that insists his name is not "Who," primarily because it just sounds silly, but you'll find those that vehemently insist it is.

You really ought to see some Doctor Who, Zeke; up in Canada it airs on BBC Kids at 1 and 3:30 AM Eastern Time.

And I'm up for the challenge, Scooter. Â Just need to get working on my E-Space fivers again...

EDITED to add an "n" to Easter, because Doctor Who airs at other times of the year.[/color:post_uid0]

[Sa'ar Chasm]

[color=#000000:post_uid0][quote:post_uid0]You really ought to see some Doctor Who, Zeke; up in Canada it airs on BBC Kids at 1 and 3:30 AM Eastern Time.[/quote:post_uid0]

It may as well not be on, then.

"I'm the Doctor."
"Who?"
"Exactly."[/color:post_uid0]

[Derek]

[quote:post_uid0="Sa'ar Chasm"][color=#000000:post_uid0]"I'm the Doctor."
"Who?"[/color:post_uid0][/quote:post_uid0]
[color=#000000:post_uid0]"First Base"[/color:post_uid0]

[Scooter]

[color=#000000:post_uid0][quote:post_uid0="Zeke"]Hang on... the guy [i:post_uid0]is[/i:post_uid0] actually called Doctor Who, right? Â I know he's usually just The Doctor, but does anyone call him Doctor Who? Â [/quote:post_uid0]
What SCMoll said about the credits and so on is true; there's ambiguity there. But if you go by what is said on screen, it is clear that he is called The Doctor, and that Doctor Who describes rather the enigmatic nature of his character.

The Doctor, however, is itself clearly a nickname (he refers to himself being "called" The Doctor and talks about the honorary nature of his "doctorate", etc.). We do not know The Doctor's real name (enigma again). Even on his home planet of Gallifrey they call him The Doctor. Similarly, the Doctor's nemesis only "likes to be known as The Master"; his realy name, too, is unknown, and the Time Lords call him The Master like everyone else.

The dialog that fixes all of this is in the very first episode, where Ian, meeting Susan Foreman's professorial grandfather, addresses him as "Doctor Foreman." The Doctor replies, "Doctor who? Who?" Some even say that he was not known as The Doctor at all until Ian first addressed him that way!

There are a handful of near-exceptions, including the "Doctor Who?" "Exactly" exchange alluded to above; the Second Doctor once refers to himself as "Doctor von Wer" when in disguise as a German; and most notoriously, a villian says "Doctor Who must be destroyed" in one late First Doctor episode. These are aberrations from the dogma that his name is The Doctor, not Doctor Who. (It's the same kind of discrepancy as Kirk's tombstone reading "James R. Kirk" in "Where No Man Has Gone Before.")

Personally I think this is only relevant, however, if you find yourself actually standing in the TARDIS and physically addressing the Doctor, or talking to K-9 about him. It is quite acceptable for us, in the real world, to refer to the fictional character as "Doctor Who"--at least outside the presence of the most truly rabid fan. After all, it's clearer, as SCMoll noted, and that's why BBC publicity uses it (for outsiders; if you go to the cult site at BBCi (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/) a lot of material refers to The Doctor).

There. Much more discourse than you needed to know. :) I am available at reasonable rates for lectures, parties, and bar mitzvahs.

PS All of this ignores the two [i:post_uid0]movies[/i:post_uid0] made in the 60s with Peter Cushing. In those films Cushing played an Earthling scientist [i:post_uid0]named[/i:post_uid0] "Doctor Who." How's that for adding confusion to the mix> :)[/color:post_uid0]

[Scooter]

[quote:post_uid0="SCMoll"][color=#000000:post_uid0]You really ought to see some Doctor Who, Zeke; up in Canada it airs on BBC Kids at 1 and 3:30 AM Eastern Time.

And I'm up for the challenge, Scooter. Â Just need to get working on my E-Space fivers again...
year.[/color:post_uid0][/quote:post_uid0]
[color=#000000:post_uid0]Many libraries that have videos have Doctor Who tapes; some of the larger video shops are carrying the DVDs, which BBC is churning out now on a regular schedule. Everybody should see at least one episode of Doctor Who. But if you ask 10 fans what would be the best one to choose you'd get 100 different answers. Personally I'd get started with a jolly Fourth Doctor episode like "Masque of Mandragora" or "The Ribos Operation"; that's how lots of people get sucked in. Then go back and check out "An Unearthly Child" (premiere) and an episode from each of the other Doctors to get a sense of the history and richness of texture. The late Doctor Whos are as different from, and as similar to, the early ones as TNG and Voyager are from Classic Trek.

Yay! E-Space! I just did "Earthshock" so if you're doing E-Space we'll have the Alpha and the Omega of Adric. :)[/color:post_uid0]

[mudshark]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Another one here with limited exposure to [i:post_uid0]Doctor Who[/i:post_uid0] -- nearly all the eps I've seen have been with Tom Baker (the 4th Doctor, I think) -- but I enjoyed it anyway. Lots of funnies, including:
[quote:post_uid0]Ian: And I was born in a crossfire hurricane.
Whoopi: Oo! Oo! I know this one. (ahem) B-flat.
Doctor: Get out of my franchise! Go bother Rick Berman.
Whoopi: Feh.
[/quote:post_uid0] :D[/color:post_uid0]

[catalina_marina]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]What's with all those [insert number here]th (/st/nd/rd... Geez, what's with this language? :D ) doctors, anyway?[/color:post_uid0]

[Scooter]

[color=#000000:post_uid0][quote:post_uid0="catalina_marina"]What's with all those [insert number here]th (/st/nd/rd... Geez, what's with this language? :D ) doctors, anyway?[/quote:post_uid0]
The part of the Doctor has changed hands several times. Three special episodes have featured multiple Doctors (the current occupant of the role plus some or all predecessors) interacting with each other.

I thought it was fun in SCMoll's fiver of "The Five Doctors" that not only did he use the five Doctors who were in that special (actually, three Doctors, an impostor recast Doctor, and stock footage of another), extra Doctors were thrown into the mix. I thought that was great and stole it for my fiver of "An Unearthly Child", which is the pilot episode of Doctor Who. It also gave me a chance to point out that late in the series, when the Doctor could steer the TARDIS, an explanation was provided for why the Doctor had visited where he was in the beginning of the pilot--even though at the beginning of the show he couldn't steer the TARDIS and could never visit a particular place on purpose.

"So you're my replacements, eh? A dandy and a clown!" is a line from "The Three Doctors", when the First Doctor scoffs at his two successors. It occurred to me that these comparisons also fit the Seventh and Sixth Doctors, who had just come in to ridicule the whole steering-the-TARDIS thing. So the First Doctor still has the upper hand.

And since I brought in extra Doctors there I thought I might as well do it for the shape-of-the-TARDIS scene, especially since it's the Sixth Doctor who actually fixes the "chamelion circuit" (temporarily).

Sorry this is so lengthy. I was just watching "The Five Doctors" with Peter Davison's commentary track on DVD. Now I'm giving a commentary track on my own fiver. :) Hope that answers your question...


Edited to add additional coherence[/color:post_uid0]

[Sa'ar Chasm]

[color=#000000:post_uid0][quote:post_uid0]The part of the Doctor has changed hands several times. Three special episodes have featured multiple Doctors (the current occupant of the role plus some or all predecessors) interacting with each other.[/quote:post_uid0]

Wasn't the whole multiple-doctor thing caused by the fact that actors kept getting old and dying? I thought that when a Galifreyan dies, he (or she, I suppose) regenerates into a new form, and can do this 12 times.

The Doctor is dead, long live the Doctor.[/color:post_uid0]

[catalina_marina]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]See, [i:post_uid0]now[/i:post_uid0] I'm confused. :O

So, they aren't the same character, and yet they are, but they're played by different actors... Or something? :eyeroll:

Sort of a Dax thing, maybe?[/color:post_uid0]

[Scooter]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Regeneration started because William Hartnell, who played the First Doctor, became ill and had to be replaced. (His irascibility also let to friction with new producers, who asked that he be replaced both because he was unwell and because he was increasingly difficult to work with.)

The producers decided it was important to give the Second Doctor a somewhat different personality, so that the new actor wouldn't just by aping Hartnell's performance. So the precedent was established that the Doctor remained the same person, the same entity, but when he regenerated both his physical and mental aspects shifted and renewed.

So it's not too far afield from Dax, although there's no sense of a separate continuing core like the Dax symbiont; it's more like the two Darrins on Betwitched--same character, different actors, slightly different personalities.

But they didn't all just grow old and die out of the part like Hartnell.

The Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, wisely left the show after three seasons to avoid typecasting. The Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison, followed Troughton's example, leaving after three seasons.

The Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, and the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, retired from the show after five and seven seasons respectively. Broadly speaking there was a consensus between actor and producers that their Doctor was growing stale and it was time for change.

The Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, was fired by the BBC (and famously refused to return for a regeneration sequence the following season).

The tenure of the Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, ended when the series was canceled, but continuity was retained when he regenerated into the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann, who later appeared in the "Hornblower" series) in the TV movie years later.

Starting next year there will be a new Doctor. And yes, theoretically, like all Time Lords he is permitted to regenerate 12 times, in other words to have 13 lives. If need by they can write around that. The Master, after all, has had two incarnations already [i:post_uid0]after[/i:post_uid0] his 13th life![/color:post_uid0]

[catalina_marina]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]So their are...

*counts*
*looses count*
*looks it up*

[i:post_uid0]26 seasons?[/i:post_uid0]

Short ones though. Damn short ones. :eyeroll:[/color:post_uid0]

[PointyHairedJedi]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Well, consider that each story consisted of multiple episodes. For the most part there were anywhere between two and ten 25 minute episodes (though most stories were about four to six episodes long). Some of the sixth Doctor stories were in a two-episode, 45 minute format, and that is being considered as the format for the new show. I can't recall the exact figure, but in those twenty-six seasons there were nealy 700 episodes made (of which approximately 130 are missing).[/color:post_uid0]

[Sa'ar Chasm]

[color=#000000:post_uid0][quote:post_uid0]I can't recall the exact figure, but in those twenty-six seasons there were nealy 700 episodes made[/quote:post_uid0]

That's a lot of fiving. Added altogether, they add to almost one full episode of Trek (more, if you count commercial breaks).[/color:post_uid0]

[PointyHairedJedi]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]I can't decide whether to thwap you now or later...[/color:post_uid0]

[Scooter]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]According to the episode guide at Outpost Gallifrey, there were 712 25-minute episodes (or equivalent) over 159 serials between Nov 63 and Dec 89. Yeah, that's a lot of fiving.

What's interesting is that the early Doctors worked a lot harder. Season One had 42 episodes over 8 serials. They actually had to write the Doctor out of individual episodes ("Look! The Doctor's collapsed!" or "Where'd the Doctor go?") just so he could have a measly week's holiday. Imagine a whole episode without Kirk. (Mmmmm, pleasant.)

Season 26, by contrast, had 14 episodes over 12 serials. Sylvester McCoy barely had to work at all.[/color:post_uid0]