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4 hours later…
9:04 AM
Today's Doctor is not played by Martin Freeman.
 
9:53 AM
@BESW Elementary is a better show than Sherlock anyway.
 
I haven't seen it yet, but I plan to soon.
 
@BESW There are more great episodes of Elementary in one season than there are total episodes of Sherlock.
 
(The fascinating thing about Sherlock is that it's perfectly suited for Moffat's brand of "Explanations don't have to make sense" writing. Holmes is right simply because he's Holmes, and that's very true to the original material.)
 
The character development is better, the portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and his acquaintances is more interesting, the mysteries are more grounded. It's "modernised Sherlock Holmes" done right.
Whereas Sherlock is "modernised Sherlock Holmes" done for Tumblr.
And I say that as someone who doesn't dislike Sherlock. I like about half of the episodes so far.
 
Have you seen Jekyll?
 
10:03 AM
@BESW No.
 
I'd be interested to hear your opinion on that.
 
@BESW I'll have to watch it first. Do you like it?
 
I enjoyed the first half or two thirds; the last bit wasn't bad but really failed to stick the landing.
It's typical Moffat: lots of interesting ideas, lots of style, great acting, but tries to tie it all together into a neat bow and winds up with a lot of dangly bits.
 
I'll take a look when I can. Apparently it's on Netflix.
 
It's got a rather nifty take on what drives Hyde, but it's either underdeveloped or overdeveloped and I'm not sure which.
 
10:13 AM
@BESW Ah, the Moffat balancing act. Over-explaining the bits that really don't matter while failing to actually lay a foundation for the logic of the mechanic in question.
 
10:30 AM
I just ran across this:
> It’s just, ‘How can we make a version of Doctor Who which lots of people will watch, that doesn’t cost a lot of money?’ While I would love to be involved in such a project, I think you probably need people who are not fans. I think non-fans should make an awful lot of the artistic decisions about it, and dispose of the notion of ‘canon’ once and for all, I suspect, because every creative team which takes over should be left to do their own version...
- Steven Moffat, DWM 278, 1999
 
@BESW That seems really, really ironic. Moffat may or may not be a fan of Doctor Who (and I truthfully have no idea if he is or not), but he certainly writes for the fans.
 
I think we'd have to define "fan" more specifically than I'm comfortable with.
Most of the time I figure if someone says "I'm a fan," they're a fan.
 
@BESW In general, I'd agree with that sentiment. My point there was less about if he is a fan of the show or not, and more about the ways in which he writes for his audience.
 
Interestingly, Moffat has generally not actually described himself as a fan of Doctor Who --and in fact often actively shies away from that idea-- but his behaviours are very much the sort of thing we'd imagine from a fan: long before he became professionally involved in DW he had a nigh encyclopaedic knowledge of the show, extremely strong opinions about the various eras and writers, and his own notions about how the show should be done "right."
 
@BESW And since then, his episodes are often referential to the history of the show, and self-referential around that. I've often thought that some of Moffat's episode read like fan fiction, rather than actual material, especially since he became showrunner.
 
10:38 AM
I do agree with that.
Here, have some more irony:
> Don't you think it's fair to say Doctor Who was a great idea that happened to the wrong people? Most of the people working on it were on their way to do something else, they wanted to do something else?
- Steven Moffat, 1995 interview
 
@BESW To be fair, I wish Moffat was on the way to do something else. If next season is to be Capaldi's last, I really hope it is in the hands of a new showrunner.
 
And here's some story advice from writers of New Adventures novels:
> Don't use old enemies, especially the Valeyard.
Don't use old characters, or multiple Doctors.
Don't set it on Gallifrey, or a space station where strange deaths happen.
Don't under-use a companion - bravely define them in your own style.
 
@BESW Wow, Moffat does all of those things in the same episode at times.
 
That's from the end of the interview in which I quoted Moffat.
(It was two New Adventures authors, and Moffat as "a genuine fan of Doctor Who, but a strident critic of it.")
 
Although to be fair, I always (OK, mostly) like the abandoned space station episodes.
 
10:45 AM
I'm a sucker for good Base Under Siege stories, of which abandoned space stations tend to be a subgenre.
 
@BESW Waters of Mars is one of the best episodes of the Tennant era, in my opinion.
 
I should probably watch it again... I strongly disliked it and never gave it a re-watch.
I think the idea of the Time Lord Triumphant story was one of the best multi-episode arcs in RTD's era, but the individual pieces never sold me on the progression of the character.
 
@BESW It was a bit spooky and a bit cool and it played into the whole "10 is going a bit off the rails" thing well.
 
One of my own favourite Tennant episodes was Midnight.
 
@BESW Another great episode, and again one of my favourites.
I'm also a big fan of the Silence in The Library double bill.
 
10:51 AM
Midnight deconstructed all the times Ten waltzed in and declared "It's okay, I'm the Doctor!" and nobody made a peep of protest. I took sadistic glee in seeing him stripped of his Bavarian Fire Drill tactics, just because it's really the only time they never worked.
 
I also think that the "Human Nature"/"Family of Blood" double bill was really under-rated.
 
Alas, I can't forgive Silence in the Library for saddling us with River Song.
 
@BESW But it was one of the few episodes where she wasn't unbearable.
Well, not totally unbearable anyway.
 
True.
Human Nature/Family of Blood was based on a New Adventure novel featuring the Seventh Doctor.
 
@BESW I just read that on Wikipedia :P
 
10:54 AM
As a TV story, I think it needed a lot more "show, don't tell." But otherwise was pretty good.
 
Wow, series 3 was a really strong series overall.
I'm looking at the episode list and I'm impressed.
 
Yeah, but it also had Daleks in Manhattan and The Lazarus Experiment.
 
@BESW They are the only ones I would consider "not good".
 
I'm not too fond of Shakespeare Code or Gridlock either.
Shakespeare Code was too... twee... and I'm not even sure what Gridlock was.
 
@BESW I kind of like "Gridlock", but I know what you mean. I can barely remember "Shakespeare Code" thought.
Another under-rated double bill is "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit". It's a little ridiculous towards the end, but still hugely effective.
 
10:59 AM
Yeah, Impossible Planet had some great visuals that Satan Pit's ridiculous reveal couldn't quite undermine.
...also I have very little love for the Simm Master, which makes it hard to be objective about the finale.
 
@BESW I really like John Simm, so I'm in a similar but opposite situation.
Other than "Amys Choice" and "The Girl Who Waited", I can't think of any Smith-era episodes I'd actually want to rewatch.
 
Hmm. [looks at list]
 
In fact, I think I only made it through Matt Smith's time on the show because both his companions were very pretty.
 
I re-watched Vampires of Venice several times for notes on various RPG campaigns with similar conceits.
I like Matt Smith when he's being very old, so stories like The Big Bang hook me.
The Doctor's Wife was fun, I watched that a few times.
...and Death of the Doctor was pretty great.
Rory did save a lot of episodes for me.
 
@BESW I never watched The Sarah Jane Adventures or Torchwood.
 
11:11 AM
I was never able to take Torchwood seriously, because it so desperately wanted to be "Doctor Who for adults" without recognising that Doctor Who already deals with serious ideas and grown-up scares... leaving Torchwood with sex and swearing to set itself apart.
 
@BESW I'm more interested in Torchwood than I am The Sarah Jane Adventures, but I admit that's mostly because John Barrowman is awesome.
 
The Sarah Jane Adventures never really captured my attention, but it has my respect. The few episodes I watched for various reasons were fun and didn't talk down to kids, but were consciously less viscerally scary than Doctor Who proper.
And Elisabeth Sladen has always been a class act.
 
@BESW Aw, I just found out that the actress who played Sarah Jane died a while back.
 
They managed to give her a very good send-off on SJA, happily.
 
@BESW It says on Wikipedia that she died before completing filming of the final series.
That sucjs.
 
11:15 AM
Yeah, they cut the final season down to just the stories she'd finished.
 
@BESW That's respectable.
 
One very awesome thing, though: Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney were reunited for one episode of SJA.
 
@BESW I had no idea who that was until I googled him.
 
(And they both passed away within about a month of each other, which is a rather sweet coincidence.)
Death of the Doctor brought in another Third Doctor companion to meet the Eleventh Doctor along with Sarah Jane (who wouldn't have been on screen with Matt Smith otherwise), and has some really great moments.
 
@BESW At this stage, I feel like the show would be relying on knowledge that I simply don't have.
 
11:22 AM
I don't think so; SJA was very aware that its audience was kids who were probably not watching Doctor Who much, let alone conversant with ancient franchise mythology.
 
@BESW oddly enough, Midnight is probably my all time least favorite episode of Doctor Who, because it's pretty much the only episode where absolutely bugger all happened for over half the running time
 
It uses its three youngster protagonists to ask all the necessary questions.
 
@Ixrec I disagree entirely, but that made me laugh.
@BESW Not one, not two, but three audience inserts!
 
@DrRDizzle Indeed.
 
the five minutes where stuff actually happened were good, partially because of that deconstruction thing you mentioned
 
11:25 AM
@DrRDizzle The premise of SJA is that Sarah Jane, armed with sonic lipstick and a sapient alien computer, continues to confront and assist aliens as appropriate when the Doctor isn't around. The kids next door figure out about her adventures and become the sidekicks of the super-smart clone teenager she rescues and adopts in the first episode.
 
@Ixrec I love the way it uses The Doctor's greatest weapon against him, confines everything to one room, plays with the idea of mob mentality and the lengths people will go to when they don't understand what is happening, and then refuses to actually explain what happened. It properly shakes The Doctor up, and I love that.
2
 
@BESW sonic lipstick? wow, I missed a lot
 
@DrRDizzle Also Donna Noble never once reminded us that she's a TEMP from CHISWICK.
 
@BESW "armed with sonic lipstick" is the stupidest, most vaguely sexist thing I've ever heard. That's awful.
 
@DrRDizzle It's supposed to be rather silly, but I don't think it's sexist. She made it herself (I think? Don't think it's ever made explicit), it has all the functions of a sonic screwdriver, but blends into her accoutrement.
 
11:29 AM
@BESW "Our main character is a woman, her weapon is lipstick" is a bit sexist no matter which way you frame it. "Men get screwdrivers to do practical things, women get lipstick to look pretty" is certainly a subtext there, even if it isn't intended.
 
"and old men get sunglasses." <-- ageist?
 
The fact of its being lipstick can't be inherently sexist, the context in which it's portrayed must be taken into account. Sarah Jane was always the "You're going to underestimate me and then I'm going to kick your butt" companion, and she uses the lipstick exactly that way.
I'm not going to say it's entirely unproblematic, but in execution I don't have a problem with it.
 
@BESW Someone in a writers room still had to decide that Sarah Jane's weapon would be lipstick though. Obviously, not having seen it I can't speak for how it was executed, but as a concept it is a little... dated.
 
this is like debating whether Bayonetta's character design is sexist or empowering; I feel like I'd need a degree in sociology or a sex change in order to have a defensible opinion on the issue
 
@Ixrec I struggle with things like that too, but a lot of it comes down to how individual people feel about it, rather than a right or wrong answer. I haven't played a Bayonetta game ever, so I can't speak for myself, but I imagine the context in which the character is presented will mean different things to different people.
 
11:33 AM
Frankly at the end of the day I think Elisabeth Sladen was okay with it, and so I am too.
 
@BESW That's fair.
 
She wasn't the sort of person to put up with that kind of thing.
(In or out of character. Sarah Jane's first introduction was telling the Doctor to make his own coffee, thank you very much, and Sladen quit Doctor Who three Doctors later because she was being written as the damsel in distress too much.)
 
still, "three Doctors later" is damn long time
 
@BESW She sounds like something of a legend. I'll fully admit that I really enjoyed her in the post-2005 Doctor Who episodes that she did show up in.
 
...Maybe it was only two Doctors? I'd have to check.
 
11:36 AM
wasn't she the longest running companion of all time, and the only one with her own spinoff show?
 
Well, Torchwood.
 
oh right, Jack is a companion
 
But yes, if Tom Baker is the Doctor, then Sarah Jane is the companion.
 
New Who gives me blinkers on male companions
 
I assumed that Clara was the longest running companion at this stage to be honest. She's been in the show for ages.
 
11:37 AM
...also K9 got a spinoff show, but that's... fuzzy...
 
rofl
pretty sure Clara hasn't been around as long as Sarah Jane yet
 
An Australian production company got the rights to the idea of K-9 but not the design or anything else related to the franchise.
 
...what is "the idea of K-9"?
 
He's a robot dog from the future called K-9.
The show was, by all reports, abysmal in every respect.
 
@BESW The only thing I know about K-9 is the exact noise Tennant makes when he first sees him in that school-based episode. He's so excited.
 
11:40 AM
(Some say it's even worse than "K-9 and Company," which was a 1981 pilot for a Sarah Jane/K-9 spinoff.)
 
@BESW from what I saw of Nash's riff, that is a very low bar
 
@Ixrec I've seen "K-9 and Company" and the first episode or two of "K-9." "K-9" is worse.
 
@DrRDizzle he shows up every so often in the 4th Doctor era, though I haven't seen him do anything useful yet (I think I just happened to see episodes where they had to leave him behind because he had laryngitis at the time)
(no I don't know how a robot dog from the future gets laryngitis)
I'm just assuming the TARDIS wiki is not lying to me about this
 
@DrRDizzle The Fourth Doctor was gifted K-9 by an inventor from the future. Tom Baker hated sharing screen time with a mechanical puppet, and the prop had a very bad time going over any but the smoothest surfaces.
They eventually had him retired with Romana in an alternate universe.
 
@BESW Ah, the old "We don't want to kill you, say hello to an alternate universe" trick.
 
11:43 AM
K-9 was very popular with the fans, though, and a big merchandising lever.
 
and then get back and rule Gallifrey for some reason
 
@Ixrec Because Romana is that awesome, that's the reason.
 
I thought Romana left to help people on some war-torn planet in said universe? haven't seen the episode with it
 
Yeah, and she kept K-9 because something happened to him so he only worked proper in E-Space.
 
ah
 
11:45 AM
But in the novels she later returned to Gallifrey and became Lady President.
 
did being in E-space cure his laryngitis at least?
 
Yes.
 
lol
 
(IE, the previous actor returned to do the voice.)
(And if you want to look for sexist stuff in Sarah Jane stories, look no further than K-9 and Company's pilot title, "A Girl's Best Friend.")
 
which ironically didn't even have K-9 show up until a third of the way in
 
11:48 AM
The version of K-9 sent to Sarah Jane in the spinoff was of unexplained provenance, but is the same model as the K-9 that blew itself up in the Tenth Doctor episode School Reunion.
 
hm, the wikia claimed they were different models
 
(It's also the same model we see in The Five Doctors.)
I could be wrong.
 
it's Doctor Who, we're all wrong
 
@BESW I just read a plot synopsis, and I can't see anything to complain about. Is it in the execution?
 
@DrRDizzle Well, the title for starters.
 
11:50 AM
we should probably just link him Nash's mockery of the episode, it's probably much more enjoyable than the episode itself
 
@BESW Isn't that just a play on the phrase "A dog is a man's best friend"?
 
But then it's also got some pretty awful "virgin/whore dichotomy" stuff going on.
 
I have no problem with the title btw
 
"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" is a song introduced by Carol Channing in the original Broadway production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), which was written by Jule Styne and Leo Robin. It was based on a novel by Anita Loos. == Marilyn Monroe versionEdit == The song is perhaps most famously performed by Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Monroe's character, Lorelei Lee, has been followed on a Transatlantic ocean liner by a detective hired by her fiance's father, who wants assurance that she is not marrying purely for money. He is informed of compromising pictures...
 
@BESW Oh. Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
@BESW But being as this is about the (re?)introduciton of K9, I assume that it was more about that than this.
 
11:52 AM
@DrRDizzle Yes, but.
 
I reiterate that my belief the episode is bad has nothing to do with the title
 
Oh, sure. The episode would still be awful if it was called "Sarah Jane Can Do No Wrong."
It's a dubious title nonetheless.
But here, have something worse:
 
 
2 hours later…
1:50 PM
0
Q: Is there a full recording of the Doctor's message to Martha before he turns human?

rand al'thorIn series 3 episode 8, Human Nature, the Doctor undergoes a painful biological transformation, making himself human and hiding away in early 20th-century England in order to escape the attention of the Family of Blood. Before doing so, he records a message and leaves it for Martha on the TARDIS. ...

 
 
2 hours later…
4:10 PM
0
Q: Doctor Who / Red Dwarf Crossovers?

Terence EdenAre there any Doctor Who & Red Dwarf crossover media? Or any mention of one in the other? I know there's been a Who/Star Trek comic. The Doctor has also namedropped meeting other sci-fi characters like Arthur Dent. The crew of Red Dwarf are familiar with some 20th Century Media (Flintstones, ...

 
 
6 hours later…
9:56 PM
I just realised The Face of Evil is available on iPlayer. @BESW @Ixrec Thoughts? Would that be a good introduction to Old Who?
 
sadly I have not seen that one yet
 
Well, now's your chance!
Or are you in America and away from iPlayer? I've noticed you coming into chat very late recently ...
 
more like I have too much else going on
and my Classic Who binge only just hit Doctor #2
 
All I know about The Face of Evil is this:
Dec 24 at 12:25, by BESW
There's a Fourth Doctor story where he shows up in the future of a world that he's totally ruined from a previous visit, and can't even remember being there before.
 
same
that's the only reason it's on my list
 
10:09 PM
Who's Leela?
 
some companion
 
Yeah, I know, but any more than that?
 
protip for old who: always TARDIS wiki the episode before watching it so you can read the first few sentences about the companion(s) you've never heard of before
usually that's the the only background knowledge the show expects you to have
e.g., City of Death is a bit odd if you aren't aware Romana is a Time Lady
 
In Face of Evil he shows up alone and meets Leela during the episode.
 
then you can even skip that step!
 
10:12 PM
So all you really need to know is that the Doctor is that guy with the scarf
 
yep
 
and if you don't know that, get out of this chatroom :-P
I guess tFoE must be quite good, simply from the fact that it's the one the BBC chose to make available again forty years later.
 
the only other "background knowledge" I can think of is stuff like Old Who was organized in "serials", there are very few season-spanning arcs or companion-centric arcs to worry about unlike New Who, obviously the special effects are going to be less special, and be prepared for continuity fails all over the place; stuff you probably already got by osmosis
 
Face of Evil ain't bad. I haven't seen it in a long time, but the biggest complaint I remember having is that when Tom Baker is on screen without a companion things get self-indulgent fast.
Leela is awesome.
I don't think we have a more violent companion on screen before or since, with the possible exception of Lady Vastra--and most of her violence is off-screen.
 
A violent companion is good?
Wasn't Ace quite violent too?
 
10:23 PM
Ace was pretty good in a fight, but violence wasn't her first resort.
Leela's violence is good partly because it subverts the existing "woman scream, man fight" companion paradigm that led Sladen to leave the show.
It's also fun because she's quite clever, just not well-learnt, and has an interesting character arc. She quickly becomes the companion who explains Doctor-babble to other people.
 
What species is she?
 
Leela was supposed to be a one-off companion for Face of Evil, but the producer liked her enough to have her written onto the TARDIS at the end of the story.
Leela is a human, or near-human. To say more would spoil part of the Face of Evil story.
She's from a barbaric tribe on a distant planet in the far future.
But it's one of those tribes that doesn't wear any makeup or costume to be non-human.
 
OK, I won't ask any more in case I spoil Face of Evil for myself :-)
 
come to think of it, the reasons companions end up on the TARDIS are a lot more varied in Old Who
in New Who it's almost always the thrill of exploration (not to mention almost always a female Briton)
the "accidentally kidnapped" reason obviously doesn't work anymore (except for one-offs like Donna's first appearance) since the TARDIS is fully functional now, but still
 
I wonder who it'll be in Series 10.
Let's break the female-Briton trend!
 
10:31 PM
Someone from Not-London and Not-19th-to-21st centuries, please.
 
but without risking any loss of fanbase...which clearly means we need another female Australian
(she was also "accidentally kidnapped" by the way)
 
Old Who also had "Hi! I'm a companion now." "Wot, no you're not, get off my TARDIS." "Nope!"
 
rofl
 
which one was that?
 
Both Leela and Adric come to mind.
Old Who also did "Hi! I'm your officially appointed companion. I'm here to keep you from haring off and doing stupid things." "Hah! Good luck with that. I'll bring you around to my point of view soon enough." "Challenge accepted."
 
10:37 PM
was that Romana I?
 
Yes. And to a lesser extent Sarah Jane Smith.
 
I think Clara might've partially retroactively invoked that once or twice
 
Although Sarah Jane was more like "Hi! I've sneakily replaced your officially appointed companion and will win you over so that when I'm found out by the authorities you'll want to keep me anyway."
 
Clara was more like "Hi! I'm you."
 
@BESW clearly these are episodes I need to add to my list
 
10:40 PM
And then there was "Hi! I'm an ordinary contemporary British schoolboy. You will ignore my obvious age, military training, and lack of familiarity with contemporary British culture. There is nothing to see here. I wish to go on adventures as far from my place of origin as possible."
And several instances of "Oh no! You've kidnapped me, you horrible monster! Wait, you're turning around to take me back? Why would you that? Onward! I've been 'kidnapped' and nothing's going to stop me now!"
 
@BESW That was Donna, wasn't it?
"Well, you're not mating with me, sunshine!"
 
@randal'thor And Tegan, among others.
Tegan complained constantly, but was obviously having the absolute time of her life.
 
despite her aunt being killed by the Master moments after her kidnapping
(spoilers!)
 
Yes, there was a distressing tendency for companions to lose loved ones violently in early episodes and then be totally fine about it.
 
perhaps the adventuring is part of their coping mechanism
 
10:47 PM
(One reason I like Tomb of the Cybermen is a quiet moment where the Doctor talks to a companion who joined him in the previous story after her family died, and he talks about losing his family too.)
 
 
1 hour later…
11:54 PM
@randal'thor Here, have a thing.
0
A: Is there a full recording of the Doctor's message to Martha before he turns human?

BESWAlthough the filmed list has improvised gibberish in the middle, it's based directly on the list the Seventh Doctor gives Benny in the New Adventure novel "Human Nature" (page 47) on which that TV story is based. Benny fumbled in her bag and pulled out the list, which she took a quick peep at...

 
@BESW Oh wow!
 
Also, in the book version he doesn't explain what's going on to his companion at all and doesn't give her an "in case of emergency, open watch" safety valve.
 
How many of the New Who stories are based on already-written stuff like this?
 
More than you'd think.
 

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