doctor who

Chris Knight's avatar

Awright, ‘fess up: How many others out there have their TV’s tuned to nothing but BBC America all this past week?

This has become the single greatest week of television broadcasting in the history of anything.  Apart from an hour of BBC News early in the morning, it has been wall-to-wall Doctor Who.  And I have not got nearly enough of it.  The network even ran “Pyramids of Mars” from the Tom Baker era on Monday afternoon, followed soon after by the 1996 Doctor Who television movie.

My workload has been packed with freelance projects.  If I’m not watching it directly I’ve still had BBC America on the tube as I write and research.  It makes for excellent (or should that be Cyberman style and pronounced “EKS-selent”?) background noise, even inspiring.  Although the past few nights I must confess that my dreams keep getting invaded by Daleks screaming “Exterminate!  ...

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In May of 1996, Paul McGann portrayed the Eighth Doctor in the Doctor Who television movie that aired on Fox.  It was meant to be a pilot for a possible revival of the series.  Unfortunately it didn’t pan out, which was almost tragic because in the brief time we saw him, McGann’s Doctor really endeared himself to fans.  It was the first and last time we got to see him play the part.

Until this morning.

BBC just unloaded “The Night of the Doctor” upon us: a nearly seven minutes-long mini-episode of Doctor Who meant to be a lead-up to next week’s fiftieth anniversary special “The Day of the Doctor”.

Here.  Just watch.  Be sure to mop up the drool afterward…




To all involved: bravo!! Now, Steven Moffat, how about you give us some more episodes with Paul McGann as The Doctor! Please?!?!?

(Thanks to good friend of this blog ...

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“Great men are forged in fire. It is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame.”
— The Doctor (“the one who broke the promise”)




I don’t know what stokes me most about “The Day of the Doctor”: seeing the Time War at last in all its horrific glory, the return of the Tenth Doctor and Rose, the interaction between Matt Smith and David Tennant’s Doctors, Daleks attacking and getting ‘sploded, the return of the Zygons…

Okay, no doubt about it: John Hurt as The Doctor that we didn’t know about.  The one that whatever it is that he did, The Doctor was so ashamed that he has never acknowledged his existence… until now.  Because I really believe that this Doctor is the reason that The Doctor, in his ensuing generations, has been such a haunted and wounded man beneath the jovial, childlike surface.

(Thanks again to good friend ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Two weeks to go until “The Day of the Doctor”…




Now, something to go back into your Doctor Who archives and check out:

In the two-part “The End of Time” special that saw David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor regenerate into the Eleventh (played by Matt Smith), we see Gallifrey on the last day of the Time War.  And in the council, one of the Time Lords tells Rassilon (played by Timothy Dalton) that The Doctor has “the Moment”.

Watch that trailer again.  Listen to the words.  And look at what John Hurt’s “missing Doctor” is poised to use.

Could it be that Steven Moffat was planting the seeds for the fiftieth anniversary special four years ago, right in front of our very eyes?  Could it be that John Hurt’s Doctor is the one always intended to be the one that so terrified the Time Lords?

“The Day of the Doctor” ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

A short while ago the BBC finally revealed the title of the Doctor Who Fiftieth Anniversary Special.

November 23rd will be “The Day of the Doctor”.

And here is the official poster for the episode…

Ho-leeee smokes, that is an insanely great piece of work!  I have literally watched the final moments of “The Name of the Doctor” at least once on my iPad ever since it aired in May, all because of John Hurt being an incarnation of The Doctor that we never knew even existed.  Seeing him strolling away so casually from those dead and burning Daleks – like a man walking straight out of Hell itself – just gives me the shivers.

And look!  There’s a “Bad Wolf” sign!  What could it mean?!

The BBC also announced that “The Day of the Doctor” will have a running time of seventy-five glorious minutes.

Now, if only ...

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On December 25th, we will bear witness to the fall of the Eleventh and the rise of the Twelfth.

And it will be Peter Capaldi who will be the next actor to portray The Doctor on Doctor Who, the BBC announced moments ago:

The always-emotional regeneration will take place during this year’s Christmas special, as Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor will pass the torch – and the responsibilities that come with such an iconic role – to Capaldi.

I am hearing nothing but insanely good things about Capaldi. He was mostly recently seen as a W.H.O. doctor in World War Z (no really, he was) but he’s most familiar to British audiences for his work on the comedy series The Thick of It.

Interestingly, Capaldi is also the same age – 55 – that William Hartnell was when he first played The Doctor in 1963. I know lots of ...

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On December 25th, time is up for the Eleventh Doctor…

Matt Smith, who the BBC announced four and a half years ago would be the one to play The Doctor after David Tennant left the role, is leaving Doctor Who at the end of this current season.  It will be during this year’s Christmas special that the Eleventh Doctor will regenerate, and Smith will hand off to a new actor.

It was really bittersweet to hear that news tonight.  I do think that Matt Smith is taking his bow at the top of his game.  In no small part because of his portrayal of The Doctor, the show has never before been so wildly popular.  The past several years have seen Doctor Who truly become a global sensation, and in this blogger’s opinion Smith has become one of the very, very few deserving to be recognized as a ...

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Doctor Who, The Name of the Doctor, Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, John Hurt, Eleventh Doctor, Clara Oswald

In hindsight it was for the best that I waited nearly two days to watch “The Name of the Doctor”.  I didn’t dare let this episode begin without my girlfriend/fellow geek Kristen.  And in the aftermath of those final three minutes she literally had to calm me down and keep me from staggering as I walked up the stairs.  If I had attempted to watch it while she was still out of town, Lord only knows what kind of injury would have ensued.  Heck, I went into a fit of spastic fanboygasm simply when Simeon mentioned The Valeyard.

“The Name of the Doctor” was season finale caliber, definitely.  But with 2013 being the fiftieth anniversary celebration of Doctor Who it’s safe to say there was already an expectation for showrunner Steven Moffat to up the ante for the occasion.  The thing is: the stuff many if not most (or ...

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Why?

Because I wasn’t able to watch the season finale of Doctor Who until just now. I had to wait for my girlfriend Kristen to arrive back home from a wedding out of state. We weren’t going to see this one without each other.

So a few minutes ago we finally finished “The Name of the Doctor”.

My immediate reaction? Unprintable. I can’t even come up with words right now.

Gonna see Star Trek Into Darkness with her. Maybe by then I’ll have calmed down enough.

The most senses-shattering ending of a Doctor Who story ever.

More coherent reaction later....

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It’s been three days since “Nightmare in Silver” – this season’s much-anticipated episode of Doctor Who penned by Neil Gaiman – aired and the thing I still can’t get out of my head is how fast that Cyberman was.

Look, it takes an awful lot for a TV show or a movie to scare the ever-living crap out of me.  But when the girlfriend and I saw that one Cyberman arrive at the barracks and then do that…

Think back to the first time you watched “Remembrance of the Daleks”, the big story that marked Doctor Who‘s 25th anniversary in 1988.  And that numb-struck look of terror on The Doctor’s face as that Dalek did something no Dalek had ever done before: it climbed the stairs during its hellbent pursuit.

Well, that high-speed Cyberman scared me worse than that!  I was literally screaming “HOLY SH-T!!” (and other stuff) ...

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