Doctor Who

[gordonblu]

With an older Doctor we can now rescue the series from the teenie boppers who watch because the Doctor is "cute". Bring on Capaldi!

[BatmAngelus]

I like this list:
http://mashable.com/2013/08/07/doctor-who-peter-capaldi/

#3 makes a good point.

3. He's Not in a Hurry to Leave
Matt Smith, David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston all seemed to rush out of the TARDIS to pursue bigger and better roles. Capaldi has been there and done that. Hollywood holds no glamour. He's closer to the end of his career than the beginning. For his predecessors, the role of the Doctor was a cage that could trap them in typecasting; for him, Doctor Who is almost like coming home.

Again, sad to see Smith go, but I can't wait to see this guy's performance.

[gordonblu]

Love that list! I liked Matt Smith( Actually I've liked them all, although it's hard for me to get into Davison), but I'm really looking forward to the new Doctor!

[BatmAngelus]

I've been watching more of the original William Hartnell serials during the current hiatus and gaining even more of an appreciation for the original Doctor.  It's easy to just see him as a grumpy old man if you just watch An Unearthly Child and The Daleks, but he is absolutely hilarious in scenes where The Doctor is trying to trick someone or pretend to be someone else, like in The Reign of Terror and, even moreso, The Romans.

[gordonblu]

The more I see of Hartnell, the more I love his Doctor, specifically those first and second series episodes where he starts out so caustic (I love the original pilot more than the aired one because of this) and then slowly began to soften as a character. I find the historic episodes slightly faster paced and more enjoyable than the Sci-Fi episodes, but I have to admit there is something extra special about that first Dalek episode, it's easy to see why they became so popular. Like many people Tom Baker is my favorite of them all, but I have to say that Hartnell is a strong contender for second favorite now.

[BatmAngelus]

The latest news is that the 50th Anniversary Special is titled Day of the Doctor and will be 75 minutes.

You can check out the poster here:
http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/the-day-of-the-doctor-poster-53053.htm

It seems likely that John Hurt is The Doctor from the Time War, though again, as stated previously in the thread, he has to have done more than just that since The Doctor destroying Gallifrey is hardly a secret.

Other things of note from the poster:
- Hurt has something glowing red in his hand.  Possibly his own sonic screwdriver (his first glowing one, if we're not counting the WETA workshop one that Paul McGann got for Big Finish recently)?  Or something else.
EDIT: I just remembered that the "red settings" for the screwdriver in the Cold War episode were revealed to be potentially deadly, so perhaps they were planting the red setting there so that Hurt could use it later.

- You can clearly see BAD WOLF written on the left behind Hurt, which makes me a little more curious about Rose's role in this.

- There's also an exploding TARDIS in the background, which has led to some speculation that Moffat may reveal more about how the Silence tried to blow up the TARDIS back in Season 5.  This also reminded me of the voice in The Pandorica Opens that stated "Silence will fall."  That voice was never explained- it didn't sound at all like The Silence when they were revealed in Season 6- and I can't help but feel that it sounded like John Hurt.  I know it's a stretch.  I doubt they got him to do it that far in advance and it's more likely that the voice won't be explained, but I'd love to see The Day of the Doctor connect to The Pandorica Opens in some form, especially with Moffat promising that the remaining Smith adventures will wrap everything up.

[BatmAngelus]

The 8.5/Time War Doctor theory looks more and more likely.  This also should put to rest any speculation that Tennant is playing the Metacrisis/10.5 Doctor, since he has a TARDIS and sonic screwdriver.  I could be wrong, but judging from the handle, the sonic looks to be the Series 1/2 one that shorted out in Series 3's Smith and Jones.

In preparation, I'll be watching The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors, as well as listening to Big Finish's The Light At the End.

[The Dark Knight]

This is going to be fun. I booked my 3D cinema tickets weeks back. 

All I effectively wanted with this special was to see 10 and 11 team-up, and it's here. Looks like Tennant and Smith got on like a house on fire. I like the dynamic they went for. Sure, this is the Series 2 10th Doctor and he has a way to go, but people assumed 10 would hate 11 due to "not wanting to go", but this does not seem to be the case.

Others are saying as such, but it does seem this Rose is the 'Bad Wolf' Rose, immediately after absorbing the time vortex at the end of Parting of the Ways, sending her messages everywhere.

I have been re-watching the new series, series one onwards, leading up to the special. And I'm pleasantly surprised how well they hold up. I am really re-discovering Tennant's Doctor. I became a little jaded with where the writing went late into his tenure, but he really was "brilliant!"

[Cobblepot4Mayor]

I still think it's a tremendous loss the classic Doctor's won't be anywhere in this. However I'm calmer at seeing these trailers. I think they are the best I've seen since The Stolen Earth's in 2008.

I've seen some pics on various sites that I won't go into in case you guys haven't seen them. But I guess that red crystal device John Hurt has may already ring a few bells. I think it's "the moment" the Time Lords spoke about back in The End of Time. Some sort of weapon, a bomb perhaps? I think it's the job of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor's to escort John Hurt to his destiny of ending the Time War conflict. So there may be lots of juicy paradoxes on offer in this.

I'm so annoyed at Christopher Eccleston turning it down but I do think his incarnation might still play a significant part in relation to John Hurt. In one particular photo Hurt is seen without wearing his Ninth Doctor-esque leather coat. It looks to be a climatic scene too so perhaps we will finally get that gap between the Paul Mcgann movie and Eccleston's season filled in at last.

I'm pleased there might be some sort of continuation of Bad Wolf inside Rose. This has been a major plot hole for years that never really got resolved. It's bold of Moffatt to even address that again after eight long years. Remember Tennant saying if a Time Lord absorbed it he'd become a vengeful god back in Utopia? Rose also stated she had the power taken out of her way back in The Christmas Invasion. But has she?

I have however already noticed some bloopers. Tennant saying "Allons y" in the trailer for example. He didn't start saying it until Army of Ghosts, right before Rose left! He even tells her he should say it more often. Hopefully all these paradoxes won't unleash too many continuity mistakes. I believe the Tenth Doctor and Rose may have their memories wiped in some way by the end. Just a nice clean way of rounding everything off and giving us an adventure we (or they) never knew they even had.

[BatmAngelus]

I'm starting to wonder, actually, if Tennant's Doctor is from much later in his career.

While the Series 2 Tenth Doctor would make sense in having Rose along (as well as my observation about the sonic, though I admit that I might be wrong about it), there's no guarantee that Rose is actually traveling with Ten during this story.

Tennant seems to be alone in the "Allons-y" shot in the trailer, not to mention I haven't seen Rose at all in any of the TARDIS footage or photos.

In addition to the "Allons-y" bit that Cobblepot4Mayor mentioned, there's the storyline between Ten and Elizabeth I to consider:

The Tenth Doctor didn't know why Queen Elizabeth hated him when she saw him in Series 3's Shakespeare Code and, presumably, found out later when he made the mistake of marrying her in the time between The Waters of Mars and The End of Time. 

If Moffat follows this timeline, then The Day of The Doctor (at least the parts with Queen Elizabeth) needs to take place well after Series 3's The Shakespeare Code, more specifically in between The Waters of Mars and The End of Time in Ten's lifetime.  In this context, the "Allons-y," the Queen Elizabeth story, and Ten traveling alone all fit better, with the Bad Wolf powers being the explanation for how Rose is brought back into the fold.  After all, who's to say Ten couldn't have seen her one last time (before technically meeting her in The End of Time) after Journey's End?