Doctor Who stupidity

[Lorien_the_First_One]

Well this is stupid...

He travels through time and space, saves the Earth, and has millions of fans all over the world. But as every "Whovian" knows, the Doctor cannot last for ever: Time Lords are able to regenerate only 12 times before they die.

Fans have always thought that the 13th doctor would be the last, thanks to a 1976 Doctor Who episode, The Deadly Assassin, featuring Tom Baker as the Doctor in his fourth incarnation, and revealing for the first time the regeneration limit. But a passing comment in a children's television programme later this month is set to rewrite history and cast the Doctor, iconic hero of the world's most successful and longest-running science fiction series, as immortal.

The moment comes in the CBBC spin-off show, The Sarah Jane Adventures, which stars former companion Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. Matt Smith, who plays the current Doctor Who, guest stars in a two-part episode called The Death of the Doctor, to be screened on October 25 and 26. While the Doctor and Clyde Langer, played by Daniel Anthony, are in the process of outwitting spooky vulture undertakers the Shansheeth, Clyde asks how many times he can regenerate. The Doctor indicates that there is no limit.

Full story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-rad...al-reveals-bbc

The story lines of The Master have already given them more than one way out to "reset the clock" on the doctor's regen limits without messing with established lore. Why they would they simply choose to ignore the limit? I have to say the longer the current production team is in charge of The Doctor the worse the franchise will probably get

[FlyingTurtle]

It's getting more and more like the Curse of Fatal Death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do-wDPoC6GM

The current doctor is totally easy-mode anyway, I just can't take him seriously. He spends more time talking about how awesome his previous incarnations were than actually doing doctory stuff in this incarnation.

[Woody00]

It's getting more and more like the Curse of Fatal Death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do-wDPoC6GM

The current doctor is totally easy-mode anyway, I just can't take him seriously. He spends more time talking about how awesome his previous incarnations were than actually doing doctory stuff in this incarnation.

I heard they kinda took a step back with the current doctor. I have not seen any of the Matt Smith stuff but have seen all the Chris Ecclston and David Tennet seasons( thank you Netflix). The news on the Doctors regeneration limit is prolly somewhat expected but I think that they could have prolly done better with announcing it then on the Sarah Jane Smith spinoff.


P.S. Wheres DWF at?

[dkyle]

I only started watching with the new series, so I'm not exactly dedicated to any "canon" from the old series, but its a shame to see what could have been an interesting storyline thrown away so casually. I'd be interested to see the actual clip, though. Perhaps there's some ambiguity, or some reason the Doctor would sugar coat his situation?

[Lorien_the_First_One]

It makes perfect sense they would want to lift the cap on lives... but they had room to do it within canon.

For example, we have seen The Master find a way to bring back his existing body post death, and we have seen him return as a spirt able of possessing another body, and most importantly we have seen The Timelords found a way to bring back The Master in a whole new body with an apparently fresh regen count.

We have also seen time itself used to make Jack near immortal.

It would have been great to see The Doctor on his last life, facing real mortality, real risk to life, for the first time. To see the "old man" on his last life, last of his kind, dealing with the coming end to his life, and with that, the end of The Time Lords. That's the point you pull the brilliantly written solution for resetting the life count out of the box. Even if they come up during the series with a reason, its premature.

[Lorien_the_First_One]

The current doctor is totally easy-mode anyway, I just can't take him seriously. He spends more time talking about how awesome his previous incarnations were than actually doing doctory stuff in this incarnation.

Very true. And he seems...stupid. He doesn't understand basic things about human nature even though he's been hanging with them for centuries. I keep trying to excuse it thinking that this model "just didn't bake right" for some reason...or maybe senility is setting in has he reaches his later reincarnations.

But really...its just bad writing.

[Woody00]

But really...its just bad writing.

Which is weird becasue isn't the Matt Smith series writting headed up by the same person that wrote some of the best seasons 2,3, and 4 episodes?

[Chai]

Its starting to look like a comic book superhero who has 500 issues out in the current series. Usually they die like a bunch of times and are brought back to life a bunch of times - where death is really only a cliff hanger until the next episode where you find out what lame excuse they are going to use to bring the hero back - again.

[FlyingTurtle]

Which is weird becasue isn't the Matt Smith series writting headed up by the same person that wrote some of the best seasons 2,3, and 4 episodes?

Steven Moffat's actually not bad at writing I think. The problem is, he's not really a good producer and it shows.

Matt Smith was terribly miscast is a weird attempt to get the young viewership. I dunno, if DW is targetting teenagers, I guess SJA is targetting toddlers.

Uneven writing quality from the rest of his crew. There were some horrendous stinkers in this season the likes of which I have never seen in any of Russell T's crew. e.g. the end of the Silurians episode... a super lame version of "rocks fall, everyone dies" for the Silurians (poison gas, everyone snooze). Like ***.

[Grosbeak07]

Steven Moffat's actually not bad at writing I think. The problem is, he's not really a good producer and it shows.

Matt Smith was terribly miscast is a weird attempt to get the young viewership. I dunno, if DW is targetting teenagers, I guess SJA is targetting toddlers.

Uneven writing quality from the rest of his crew. There were some horrendous stinkers in this season the likes of which I have never seen in any of Russell T's crew. e.g. the end of the Silurians episode... a super lame version of "rocks fall, everyone dies" for the Silurians (poison gas, everyone snooze). Like ***.

Seems pretty par for the course. For every good Doctor Who episode there are 10 stinkers. Tom Baker was one of my heroes as a kid, but as I re-watch those episodes now, a lot of them are utter garbage.

I tend not to get too worked up over the particulars. I enjoy the series, provides a nice distratction from DDO and that thing called real life.

[MartinusWyllt]

..Matt Smith was terribly miscast is a weird attempt to get the young viewership. I dunno, if DW is targetting teenagers, I guess SJA is targetting toddlers.

Uneven writing quality from the rest of his crew. There were some horrendous stinkers in this season the likes of which I have never seen in any of Russell T's crew. e.g. the end of the Silurians episode... a super lame version of "rocks fall, everyone dies" for the Silurians (poison gas, everyone snooze). Like ***.

Is that why they cast him? Yeah, I tried to like him as the Doctor, but I kinda just can't. The Amy Pond character comes close to being incredibly annoying much of the time, at least to me. We don't go out of our way to catch it anymore. I did like the overall story arc itself, the cracks in reality to which the Doctor was blind.

[Tamerlane]

I keep trying to excuse it thinking that this model "just didn't bake right" for some reason....

The regeneration process is very complicated and the Tardis came equipped with something called a "zero room", that is supposed to be completely free of all outside influences, where a Time Lord is supposed to regenerate.

The Doctor, around the time of Tom Baker, had to jettison 1/2 the rooms in the Tardis in order to escape the gravitational well of a black hole. the zero room was one of the rooms burned. because of the lack of a "clean" environment for regenerating, each subsequent regeneration becomes less and less stable. There is an entire story arc when Peter Davidson takes over where he is trying to find a better location for his regeneration process titled "Castrovelva"

this is why the new doctor seems half baked.

[Lorien_the_First_One]

The regeneration process is very complicated and the Tardis came equipped with something called a "zero room", that is supposed to be completely free of all outside influences, where a Time Lord is supposed to regenerate.

The Doctor, around the time of Tom Baker, had to jettison 1/2 the rooms in the Tardis in order to escape the gravitational well of a black hole. the zero room was one of the rooms burned. because of the lack of a "clean" environment for regenerating, each subsequent regeneration becomes less and less stable. There is an entire story arc when Peter Davidson takes over where he is trying to find a better location for his regeneration process titled "Castrovelva"

this is why the new doctor seems half baked.

Ah...I didn't know that. I skipped right over the 5th Doctor, and it looks like he was the one that did the jettisoning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castrovalva_(Doctor_Who)

[Grosbeak07]

Well this is stupid...



The story lines of The Master have already given them more than one way out to "reset the clock" on the doctor's regen limits without messing with established lore. Why they would they simply choose to ignore the limit? I have to say the longer the current production team is in charge of The Doctor the worse the franchise will probably get

There are a lot of issues with Lore depending on which Doctor you watched, you can pick a lot holes in plot... but its TV, so lets not take it too seriously.

And I disagree that the franchise has gotten worse, the Colin Baker years were far worse than anything recently.