[quote author="peter kirsop"]Mr Simon
your knowledge of the Dr is impressive. thank you for reminding us all. Would you care to recomend some Dr Who websites?

The best (indeed the only) site I can recommend is the BBC’s own Doctor Who website. It has photos, wallpapers, all sorts of information on books, DVDs and CDs, plus a magnificent and comprehensive episode guide. Such a wonderful guide! Each episode has separate pages for Plot, Quotes, Continuity, Trivia, Analysis and Cast & Crew. The analysis represents how critics and fans respond to the stories, both at the time of broadcast and today (some even have the reports of showing Dr Who to modern children to see how they respond)

They even have a ‘Jog your memory’ section for people who might remember key moments, but aren’t certain which episodes they come from. Plus video clips, production paperwork, the list goes on! Well worth a visit.

Apart from that… well, that’s it. Although my geeky level of knowledge would make me a fan by anyone’s standards, I’ve never really gotten into the fandom scene. Too many hardcore fans want to argue that X is the best ever and that Y is utter garbage. Eg: There’s a long, vicious rivalry between fans of Dr Who and Star Trek, but I don’t want to get into that argument simply because I enjoy them both! I get very irritated by the kind of Sci-Fi snobbery which says “I don’t like that style of show, so it must therefore be terrible”.

Calling David C Simon. Are you there???

Did you catch Saturday’s Dr Who? The children and I smuggled up and enjoyed the encounter between the last remaining Dalek, Dr Who and Rose. It was a ripper!

What did you think of the plot and the idea(s) woven through the plot like identity, loneliness, nature verses nurture/change?

cheers
Angela

[quote author="Angela Crittle"]Did you catch Saturday’s Dr Who? The children and I smuggled up and enjoyed the encounter between the last remaining Dalek, Dr Who and Rose. It was a ripper!

What did you think of the plot and the idea(s) woven through the plot like identity, loneliness, nature verses nurture/change?

I’ve already posted about last Saturday’s episode (check the prevbious page), but I forgot to comment on the ID/lonliness etc. I loved the idea of an encounter between two individuals who are the sole survivors of a devestating war between their peoples, and even though they have their loss and solitude in common, they still can’t help but loathe each other. I felt sorry for the poor Dalek, waiting for fifty years to receive orders which would never arrive - you have to admire its persistence.

The idea of a Dalek struggling with unfamiliar emotions is not a new one. Way back in Evil of the Daleks (an old, B&W Patrick Troughton story of which only one episode survives) The Dalek Emperor forces the Doctor to imbue some Dalek soldiers with ‘the human factor’. The Doctor made a good show of letting the Daleks think that he was working under duress, but in the end we learn that the Doctor was deliberately paving the way for a Dalek civial war. There’s a lovely scene where a Black Dalek (the commanders) gives some orders to a squad of soldier Daleks. There is a long pause… and eventually one of the Daleks says:

Dalek:  Why?
[There is an even longer pause]
Black Dalek: Who spoke?!? WHO QUESTIONED A DALEK COMMAND?!?!?

In Ben Aaronavitch’s superb novelisation of Remembrance of the Daleks (Ben also wrote the original screenplay for the episodes) we learn that the Supreme Dalek of the renegade faction is becoming increasingly confused. The Renegade Daleks have kidnapped a little girl and plugged her into their battle computer so that her creativity and imagination can help in their battle plans, so that they’re not too predictable, but her emotions start to bleed into the Supreme Dalek. In the book, there’s a touching moment where the Dalek has a sudden, overwhelming desire to skip. In the end, the Doctor wipes out the Imperial and Renegade Daleks, leaving only the Supreme Dalek alive. The Doctor confronts him, informs him that he has failed, the Daleks are wiped out and he no longer serves any purpose. The Supreme Dalek ends up self-destructing. Sound familiar?

I should also mention that this is the first Dalek story to be completely devoid of Davros (their creator) since the Pertwee era. Davros appeared in the Tom Baker story Genesis of the Daleks, and was a brilliant character. However he then appeared in ever single Dalek story after then, with a different actor each time, and none of them captured the magic of the original portrayel.

David,

I just knew it! That you would give a fine and informative reply which was thoroughly enjoyable and enriching as well.

I’ll share some of your post with my children before the next episode.

Thank you
Angela

That had to be my favourite Dalek story since I saw Tom Baker’s Genesis of the Daleks in the 80s. I loved the characterisation of the Doctor and the Dalek in it.

And the Cyberman head at the start of the story? *squeeeeels*

I want them to release the season DVD boxset neooww!

[quote author="Mark Duval"]And the Cyberman head at the start of the story? *squeeeeels*

That was a great moment, and I loved the Doctor’s comment (The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibition piece… I’m getting old).

But if I may a pedantic fanboy (wee!) that particular model of cyberman never actually visited Earth, certainly not before the year 2012. That model only ever appeared in the Tom Baker story Revenge of the Cybermen - a Cyber-nomad, one of many roaming bands of Cybermen who survived the great war against the human empire.

The cybermen who did appear on Earth were the original cloth/plastic ones (The Tenth Planet), the sewer-dwelling silver ones who look similar to the Cyber-nomads but have distinctly different ear-pieces (The Invasion), and the later Neo-Cybermen who look like they’re made of alfoil (Attack of the Cybermen and Silver Nemesis)

The cybermen used to scare the bejeebers out of me. Now I just see folks in cheap fancy dress wearing a radiator on their chest and are wired for sound- with really old ear phones!

Now I just see folks in cheap fancy dress wearing a radiator on their chest and are wired for sound- with really old ear phones!

I can’t understand why that wouldn’t scare you anymore?! ;-)

-bw

Their facial expression amuses me now. It’s is somewehre between mild surprise and constipation

Well *I* still think they’re cool :P

[quote author="David C Simon"]But if I may a pedantic fanboy (wee!) that particular model of cyberman never actually visited Earth, certainly not before the year 2012. That model only ever appeared in the Tom Baker story Revenge of the Cybermen - a Cyber-nomad, one of many roaming bands of Cybermen who survived the great war against the human empire.

Maybe it’s from a story we haven’t seen yet? :D

Wow, OK, well I missed last Sat’s episode and one of the kids had told me at church last Sunday that it was scary.  I caught this weeks one… I found it ummmm slightly disturbing prob best categorises it!

What did others think?

-bw

2 part face mask episode

I found the past 2 weeks’ of Dr Who gripping. I thought the story was intriguing and well thought-out.

I liked the way that Nancy was able to effect a change by admitting to the little boy that he was her son. She acted her part superbly, I thought.

You hear occasionally of this situation, where a child thinks that a woman is his sister and her mother his mother, whereas the girl is his mother and the woman is his grandmother. This happened a couple of times in my 18 year period of crowd control.

Good to see Richard [I don’t believe it!] Wilson as the doctor.

Haven’t replied sooner as I didn’t get a chance to watch last week’s episode until today.

I think the this two-part story (’The Empty Child’ and ‘The Doctor Dances’) was quite well done. A good story with some genuinely creepy images, and a satisfying explanation and resolution. I’m starting to like Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, but I still hate Rose.

My only frustration was some historical problems with part one - particularly having a bunch of RAF officers standing outdoors with the door wide open and light streaming out during a night-raid. Ridiculous! I was also frustrated by the sound-bytes they used for the blitz itself. Heinkel bombers are meant to have a deep, ominous drone - instead the show used a Stuke dive-siren which is insane because Stukas didn’t fly any night-raids during the blitz. Can you imagine dive-bombing at night? In fact the whole series so far has been somewhat disaapointing as far as the sound-design is concerned. Way too many stock sounds, and not much care taken in creating an artful soundscape.

But, back to my original point. this has been a great two-parter and it reminds me of some of the better stories from the original series. Here’s hoping Captain Jack doesn’t get killed/dumped in the next episode, I like him.

[Please forgive any typos/errors in my post - my video card is dying and text is currently very hard to read]

[quote author="David C Simon"]Haven’t replied sooner as I didn’t get a chance to watch last week’s episode until today.

I think the this two-part story (’The Empty Child’ and ‘The Doctor Dances’) was quite well done. A good story with some genuinely creepy images, and a satisfying explanation and resolution. I’m starting to like Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, but I still hate Rose.

what’s wrong with our Rose?