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Doctor Who on Sci-Fi - ongoing thread (merged) (1 Viewer)

CaptDS9E

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I was new to Doctor Who , but gave the new series a chance . Really have enjoyed it, and bought the season from Amazon in Canada a few weeks back. Really liked it even more then 2nd time around. The first episode is the weakest of the season IMO, but it gets better every week
 

Garrett Adams

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I'm hooked. The plot of the second episode was very intriguing. I don't recall the death of our Sun and Earth ever being dealt with in any SciFi show. PBS type science programs yes, but not as fiction. Well done.
 

Qui-Gon John

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Well when you convert from one British hour into American time, you get about 42 minutes. :D
 

BrianB

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As John said, the episodes aren't cut - their running time is around 42/44 minutes, which is the usual length of a US TV show.
 

Joseph Bolus

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Yah ... I was a little disappointed by that as well .. Hopefully he shows up in The Nine Doctors ep!!

Seriously, as a long time Who fan, this new series had me with the opening titles! I can't wait for the DVDs!!
 

Mikel_Cooperman

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I think there are consequences to time travel in this version where as I don't remember them in the old version.
 

Jeffery_H

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There are a few things I picked up on that either has happened or not original with the past shows. The biggest being when he mentioned there was a great battle back on his home world and they were in a war. It did not go in their favor and he was the ONLY time lord left alive. This could take an entire season itself to tell if they did it right. As we all know from the past shows Gallifrey(?) was VERY much alive and well, along with many time lords. Yes, he was a renegade back then, but now the dynamics may be dire if he truly is the last one. Also, that would mean someone more powerful than masters of time and space defeated them since the time lord race as a whole were not evil, but neutral in most things (which is why the Doctor left, he wanted to interfere in other cultures and help when he could). This could be a big deal.

Why did they not show an opening regeneration sequence since his comments in "Rose" appearing to be a new body? Maybe he had just barely escaped the same fate as the rest of his home world?

Don't care much for the new effects of the inside TARDIS though. All the spin wheels, knobs, etc. I liked the TV show in '96 better or at least something different. It just felt off to me. Maybe they will change control rooms like in the 4th Doctor (Baker) era and show different ones?

All in all not too bad. I would like to see it be more of a serial like the past TV shows were which were a good 1 1/2 - 3 hours long per episode. Don't care much for the 45 minute average self contained shows. Who was the type of show where writing and story telling fell perfect into a multi-part series per episode. I would like to see that return.
 

David_Blackwell

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Rick, as for K-9

K-9 appears in a second season episode that also has Sarah Jane Smith. The same episode guest starring Anthony Stewart Head
 

Chuck Anstey

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Did I miss something in the series or did the "war" happen in the last ten years since the FOX Dr. Who movie?
 

andrew markworthy

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Oh this is sooooooooo obvious - when the Doctor regenerates, so do all the artistic portrayals of him. Do try to keep up. ;) ;) ;)

With regard to the statement about the Time Lords not interfering - this is not a consistent policy in the old episodes. There are definitely times when the Doctor is on a mission for the Time Lords. And in any case, in most cases the Doctor doesn't as much interfere with the course of history as stop others interfering with it.

With regard to the 42 minute episodes, this length of programme generally means something geared to the export market (i.e. the US TV 'hour'). BBC programmes have traditionally been 30 or 60 minutes long (so programmes end on the hour or half past which makes it easier for Joe Public to remember when a programme is on).

And although the BBC doesn't have adverts during programmes (and for that matter, most Brit TV commercial TV has way fewer adverts than US TV) there are still 'adverts' between programmes for BBC programmes and products.
 

seanOhara

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De gustibus. Apart from a few clunkers, I enjoy the old ones as much today as wehn I was five. The only real problem I have with them is sometimes it seems like they had three and a half episodes worth of material, and instead of cutting it down to three episodes they'd have a man in a rubber suit chase Sarah Jane for fifteen minutes.
 

Eric_Connelly

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I just finished watching the first 2 eps.

Honestly British TV...is lacking at times...the whole running with music thing.

2nd ep was alot better than the first.

I assume from what is being said on here that SciFi is a repeat of what is already been shown in the UK or Canada?
 

Andrew Beacom

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As a childhood fan I was interested in this from the start and then frustrated at how long it took to get stateside. I enjoyed the 2nd episode more than the first and didn't care for the inside of the TARDIS or the hand pump.

I also preferred the longer stories where you get a richer story with more depth and not the fomulaic 5/10 minute wrap up like ST.
 

Mikel_Cooperman

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I just watched Pyramids of Mars and a Ressurection of the Daleks. Both were multiple episodes and they pace was so slow the people that were watching them with me (that loved the new show) left the room. I think one of them said, get to the point already. These were long episodes and things really didnt start getting going until the third episode so sure, if they were well paced and they had a story today that warranted more than two parts, great but the old episodes I saw could have been cut down to half they time they were.
 

Aaron Silverman

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Well, the old episodes were intended to be shown in smaller chunks, not as single 2- or 3-hour films. They weren't paced for that.

I thought the new episodes were decent, but they didn't blow me away. They were promising enough that I'll watch it again, though. The one thing that kind of put me off was

that every mannequin in London has a loaded firearm up its "sleeve." WTF?!?!?! Is there something I don't know about the British retail industry?
 

Mikel_Cooperman

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I was affraid people would judge just the first two episodes and tune out. You will be rewarded if you hang in there (kinda like Farscape and B5). The writing improves, the characters are explored more and the episodes (most of them) become darker. I really like Unquiet Dead but wasn't too crazy about the next two episodes. After that I think the show hits it's stride.
 

Tony J Case

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Nope - there HAVE been trims. I didnt watch, but related to me by other fans - Cassandra's line about "Let us watch the death of earth by listening to one of the great songs" right before "Toxic" plays, which really scuttles the joke. There were some reaction shots to the sun filters breaking down as the Doctor was about to step through the fans - so yes, these are edited down from what the BBC showed.

Guess 1/3rd of a hour wasnt enough for them. Sheesh.
 

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