It seems that the announcement of Eccelston's departure was known to the production crew all along - he only wanted to do one year from the beginning, a decision that I still question. It was only accidentally leaked before the series end... Anyway, it looks like David will be taking over starting with a new "Christmas Special" that will be filmed soon - and before the next season of thirteen episodes, slated to air sometime in mid-2006. This suggests that the Doctor's oldest enemies may finally get to kill the guy...
Tennant's pretty young, too. I'm pretty certain we've seen the end of the "old man" Doctors in this age of leading men. Here's hoping at least that Tennant, who is more accustomed to regular television production, will be willing to stick around for at least two or three seasons!
Mark
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
I wonder if this "Christmas special" will feature a typical regeneration (i.e. it will be all-Eccleston until the very end when he gets killed, turns into Tennant, and... oo-wee-ooo...), or if it will be more of a Baker->McCoy affair (albeit, without having to dress the new guy up like the old guy and hide his face). Maybe such a situation would be more comparable to McCoy->McGann. Or maybe the regeneration will happen somewhere halfway through the thing.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Mabye he was just showing off how Timelord can keep his eyes and mouth closed while sneezing and squeezing his nose....
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
OK, I could probably find this by Googling, but imagine someone here will know already - at which point in any story has the Regeneration taken place each time? The only ones I can remember are Baker -> Davison, and Davison -> Baker, both of which occurred right at the end of that particular story. And of course McCoy -> McGann, which happened at the start. If that counts. But is it generally the case that it usually happens at the end?
Because in this pseudo-reimagined Doctor Who, I'm not sure what Russell T. Davies would do. He might go all traditional - Eccleston all the way, until the end when he dies and Tennant takes over. . . But that might confuse the new generation of fans. Or he could do it right at the beginning, but that might have them all switching off right at the start. I'm thinking halfway through.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Having the regeneration at the beginning of the TVM was generally accepted as a mistake - the fans understood what was going on, but it confused most new viewers.
The new series had apparently filmed two ending for the season finale, just in case. It seems now that they'll use a cliffhanger ending and then start the Christmas Special with Tennant (or the last moments of Eccles), using the special as Tennant's adjustment period. The second seaon then begins afresh.
Mark
Posted by Identity Crisis (Member # 67) on :
To answer Lee's question.
Hartnell -> Troughton - end of story, but part way through season.
Troughton -> Pertwee - actual regeneration was off screen and between seasons but brought about by events at the end of previous story/season.
Pertwee -> Baker - end of story/season cliffhanger with the Brigadier saying "I wonder who he'll be this time" as the regeneration effect starts. Baker hadn't been cast yet.
Baker -> Davison - end of story/season.
Davison -> Baker - end of story, one story with new Doctor followed then end of season.
Baker -> McCoy - start of story/season. (Baker had been sacked and refused to take part so McCoy wore a blond wig...)
McCoy -> McGann - start of TVM
McGann -> Ecclestone - off screen.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Thanks Steve!
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Um...what is this "Christmas Special"?
I'm thinking of things like The Simpsons' christmas epsisodes, but I imagine that's not a Dr. Who tradition.
I'm not saying Jesus was not a rogue Timelord though. 'Cause he was...think about it.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Many (most?) British TV shows seem to put out a Christmas special.
Like, examples: The Office, Father Ted ("Get me loads of matador stuff!"), uh. . . Blackadder has one, though I think that was produced several years after the last series of the show, wasn't it?
So I guess I should modify that to many British comedies.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"Um...what is this 'Christmas Special'?"
Well, it sounds like it's a one-off episode to be aired at Christmastime to explain why the Doctor is Chris Eccleston at the end of season 1/27 and David Tennant at the start of season 2/28. Presumably, it won't be actually Christmas-themed. Or, then, who knows? It might.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
quote:Originally posted by Identity Crisis: To answer Lee's question.
Pertwee -> Baker - end of story/season cliffhanger with the Brigadier saying "I wonder who he'll be this time" as the regeneration effect starts. Baker hadn't been cast yet.
How many Doctor's has the Brigadier met? Was Pertwee the first? Didn't he meet the second Doctor in "The Two Doctors" or even "The Five Doctors"?
And I thought I read in that link that Davies was looking forward to providing the fans and new viewers the complete Dr. Who experience and showing a Regeneration!?! So why are we seeing it off screen.
I hadn't watched THAT much Dr. Who (well religiously) before the TV Movie - I understood what was happening full well - it was actually quite well done. I'll say it again too - I loved the Doctor's get up in the TVM. I'm glad we saw the last moments of the 7th Doctor too. It's frustrating not knowing what happened to McGann's Doctor but I reckon it'd be cool if they had a flash back showing what actually happened.
Posted by Identity Crisis (Member # 67) on :
"How many Doctor's has the Brigadier met?"
He's met 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 in the regular sequence of events and 1 in The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors. He only met 6 in the dreadful Dimensions in Time charity thing plus some of the books. And he's met 8 in the books.
"So why are we seeing it off screen"
We don't know if we will or won't see it. This series ends with a cliffhanger (which I won't give spoilers for) and how much we see of the regeneration will depend on much Ecclestone participates in the Christmas special. As the BBC dropped the ball by wrongly attributing quotes to Ecclestone there may be some very delicate negotiations going on right now.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Are they still using the same actor as the Brigadier?
He's gotta be pushing fossilization by now. Mabye he's still a brigadier for bending the rules for the Doctor so many times.
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
Well, I don't know if he'll be in the new series. He must be well past retirement age by now, though.
They have reintroduced UNIT though, in last night's episode so whether there will be a new brigadier remains to be seen. I guess it depends how many stories are set on contemporary Earth.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
This season? Quite a few. The producers have been adamant that EVERY STORY have something to do with Earth.
The Brig was seen in "Battlefield" coming out of retirement in the early 90s, to help the new (female) Brigadier in some Arthurian thing. That was the last season of the original show... The actor's still around, but the character is long since retired.
The re-introduction of UNIT last night seems to show that this time they're even more international (in "Battlefield" there were a lot of Czechs; before that it was almost purely the British detachment under Lethbridge-Stewart). Who knows how many of them survive the cliffhanger though, but I'm guessing UNIT is going to be the military backup in its old role.
Mark
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Christmas specials have long been a staple of the seasonal TV schedules, especially on the BBC and especially comedies. There are the occasional one-off TV films for drama series, but not usually Christmas ones (and they often suck) - Cracker and Spender are two that come to mind.
A comedy show doesn't seem to be classed as a proper success until it's been worthy of a Christmas special! The Blackadder Christmas Carol was shown in December 1988 (on the same night as the Lockerbie bombing, I always remember that night), while Blackadder Goes Forth was on TV the next year.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Really? The back of my video box says 1991. It lies! (Although I guess that explains why there is no Goes Forth stuff on it.)
In the early days of Doctor Who they threw in a Christmas episode in the midst of an Exciting Adventure With The Daleks (TM), called "The Feast Of Stephen". Most famous for extreme amounts of sillyness culminating in Hartnell turning to the camera at the end and wishing all of us at home a very merry christmas. The drunk fool.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Yeah, definitely 1988. Where my memory falls down is on the Blackadder-executes-Charles-I sketch fom the first Comic Relief Night. I always thought that was in 1989 - yet I clearly remember the Cavalier Years sketch coming before Christmas Carol. Guess there was a Comic Relief Night in early 1988 which I don't remember. . .
Posted by The Ginger Beacon (Member # 1585) on :
I think that in 'battlefield' they were going to kill of Lethbridge-Stewart. He was gonna go out in the final explosion, but instead, he gets up, wipes off the dust and goes home to his garden, wife and a nice cup of tea.
I got the oppinion all the UNIT members were killed off in aliens of london, but then again, they may not have been the whole of unit. But given the new formant, I don't think that there is roon for UNIT in one 45min episode.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
It was certainly a fair chunk of UNIT's higher ups, but not ALL the branches (don't remember a Czech uniform there, etc.).
Mark
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Even if the higher-ups were killed, there was still an entire UNIT army out there. Promotions for everyone!
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
No- they were all rolled up into the UN's SHIELD organization.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Or S.H.A.D.O perhaps.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
This is as good as any a place to put this, I suppose, so I toss it out like one of those plates affixed to the side of Pioneer 10, in the hopes of communicating with a culture wholly alien (and not a little freaky) to me.
Uh, which is to say I have never watched this show in any incarnation, but if I wanted to read a bunch of novelizations I could for free, thanks to nu-media savvy BBC employees. Doctor Who books for the taking. Posted by The Ginger Beacon (Member # 1585) on :
quote:Originally posted by PsyLiam: Really? The back of my video box says 1991. It lies!
The date is probably the copyright date of the video production, not of the actual show.