Any Doctor Who Fans? **UK AIR-DATE SPOILERS ABOUND** — Page 5

BTW, since there are some David Tennant fans here, as you may know, he recently played the title role in the RSC production of Hamlet both in Stratford and in London (although his time in the latter was short due to a prolapsed disc that required surgery). The production was a sell-out in both cities, and Davi's perfomance was well received. A petition was started by an RSC patron in Australia to ask that a dvd be made so that the performances would be preserved, and those who missed it would be able to see it. Right now there are over 7400 signatures on the petition, and the buzz is that the RSC is just looking for funding. Rumor has it that it will be filmed in June. A link to the petition is below for anyone who might want to add their name -- the more the merrier!
Hamlet DVD petition

I've decided to keep my sonic screwdriver in my stage management kit. It might come in handy. Or just amuse me when I feel like murdering somebody.

You can find it online, I watched like like 4 hours after it aired in England on Christmas Day.

Very True, Plum... he won an Olivier for that role.

Daydreamer, I've sent you a pm. The Next Doctor hasn't yet aired in the U.S., and there has been no indication as to when that might happen.

BTW, David Tennant co-hosted the first hour of Comic Relief last night. Some photos and links to video of his appearance can be found at his website:
David-Tennant.com

Was this "Dalek"?

I figured out why I don't like the 9th Doctor that much. He has NO compassion. An alien just said, "You are leading me to my death." His response...."Not my concern."

And you fell for it? Tsk. :P Take a look at his face during that whole restaurant scene - really watch him, when he and "Maragaret" get deep into it. He's beyond compassionate - he's empathetic. He pretty much thinks he's no better than her - a killer who can't be redeemed in this lifetime. That's why he's so moved when the TARDIS gives her a second chance (look at him smiling), and that's why it's moving when two episodes later, the same thing pretty much happens to him. As long as he's Nine, he can't forgive himself for the Time War's endgame. He has to die to be redeemed.

If you want lack of compassion, try any of a million instances of Ten talking tough and bringing down punishment - look at Harriet Jones, or at the totally unnecessary eternal torment of the Family of Blood. At the way he purposely tried to avoid Jack, who'd spent over a century waiting for him. Ten himself acknowledged he was too far up his own ass in "Planet of the Ood" - if he was so compassionate he'd have noticed their plight more the first time he met them. He didn't feel kind to me until Donna's season. He talked a big game about loving ordinary humans, but it was Nine who told the marrying couple in "Father's Day" how important they were and proceeded to die for them.

Updated On: 3/18/09 at 12:14 AM

It was a won battle fair and square, but she took it in her own hands to kill them.

Which Ten never does, oh no.

You pay for the consequences for your actions.

Again, unless you're Ten. I thought the Harriet Jones thing and the billions of other times he literally played God were example of old school Greek-style hubris that would lead to his downfall, but the cosmic smackdown never seemed to properly come, even when he was turned into Gollum!Doctor. He'd easily say he was sorry when bad things happened, but he never really seemed sorry he made them happen. He was too sure of himself and his own righteousness for that. He was the guy who would always press that shiny red button.

To continue on the theme of "I can't agree with Spidey on anything" (hee), I saw Nine's season as being all about consequences and accepting responsibility.

Rose learned to grow up and take responsibility for her actions in "Father's Day" - she screwed up, but in the end she sincerely said she was sorry and seemed to mean it. She was at the end of childhood, a border marked by her dad acting as a father to her and protecting her from the consequences of her actions for the first and last time - he could only do it once, and it would be up to Rose from that point forward. The lesson was also brought home in "Aliens of London", when she realized her impulsive decision to run into the TARDIS led to her being missing on Earth for a year and Mickey becoming a murder suspect. It came again in "Boom Town", when she realized her neglect of Mickey led to the disintegration of their relationship, and she deserved to be dumped. And it came to a head in "The Parting of the Ways", when she refused to be protected any longer and took control of her own adventure, coming back to the Doctor and Jack to save them.

(Which, as a side note, made it all the more freaking annoying when later she got her father back, Mickey got his grandma back, Martha's parents seemed to get back together, and then Rose got clone!Doc. Death, divorce, and separation became mere temporary obstacles instead of permanent things the characters had to live with. But that's another story.)

There were smaller stories of responsibility - Cathica standing up and realizing she couldn't just stay in denial about her role in keeping humanity stupid in "The Long Game". (While Adam refused to take any responsibility for what he did at all, and was taken home for it.) Nancy accepting her responsibility as Jamie's mother in "The Empty Child". Jack accepting responsibility for what the nanites did in the same story.

As for Nine - he spent that whole season wrestling with his responsibility for double genocide. It's why he tried to help the Gelth in "The Unquiet Dead", and why he repeatedly hesitated to pull any Lever of Death throughout the season. (He let Harriet make the call in "Aliens of London", was really relieved to get out of it in "Boom Town", and finally refused in "The Parting of the Ways". He couldn't bring himself to kill Rose twice in "Dalek", or to kill Rose's father for the sake of the time-space continuum in "Father's Day".) He was quick to take responsibility for the existence of the Game Station when he realized it was at least partly the result of his quick exit after "The Long Game". And he spent his whole season with a death wish, because he saw it as the only rightful consequence for what he did at the end of the Time War - it was regeneration as penance. The fact that he saw himself as nothing but a killer is what made it mean something when "everybody lived".

We have hilariously mirror-image views of those two Doctors, and that's clearly not going to change. :P Where you see Ten's "I'm so sorry" trademark as conveying actual compassion, after about the 15th repetition I started to find it trite and shallow, because it wasn't backed up by his actions. He was too busy being Super Lonely Godkins Emocakes while blatantly ignoring and/or mistreating the many, many amazing people who loved and followed him. He wouldn't be so lonely if he didn't keep driving his friends away, the ass. (Again, the big caveat being that I think Donna got him to get over himself until "The Stolen Earth". He was wonderful with her, a Doctor I really could have loved if it hadn't been for the previous two seasons.)


ETA- Spidey, I hope you post what you think of Damaged Goods when you read it. It's, uh...significantly more adult than anything that would be allowed on the actual show, from what I hear. A lot of the old novels hit that Torchwood territory, which is kind of interesting.

Updated On: 3/18/09 at 02:24 AM

Oh yeah ... thanks kec. I am all caught up now.

I think it's funny that I thought I was so consumed in this show, and now realize that I know nothing ...

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It looks like BBCA is re-airing Series 4 at 7 p.m. on Saturday evenings. After they aired a butchered version of Journey's End in February, an announcement was made that the "UK Version" of the episode would air in June. I have a feeling this repeat broadcast of series 4 is leading up to that.

I meant butchered in that BBCA left critical scenes out when they aired it. Basically they took an episode that ran for 65 minutes in the UK and squeezed into a one hour time slot with commercials.

He probably saw it on Sci-Fi (or is it now Sy-Fy now?) back in the spring. For whatever reason, that network had first rights to air the Dr. Who episodes. So, while it was new to BBCA, it was not new to the majority of their viewers, who had already seen series four on the other network.

That is one of my FAVORITE plays.

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Christopher Eccleston will also be in the GI JOE movie

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