Doctor Who Series Four Is A Go

netglen writes to mention that the fourth series of Doctor Who is a go. The BBC confirms that another season of the popular sci-fi series will be made, although the article is sketchy about the current doctor and his attachment to the next season. The third series starts at the end of this month in Britain with new companion Martha Jones, played by Freema Agyeman, replacing Billie Piper's Rose. "Tennant, who plays the time-travelling hero, would not talk to reporters about his role in future series. 'Do you know how many times I have been asked that question? Do you know how many times I have answered it?' said the actor. "

Woo Hoo.

The first episode airs on my birthday! Too bad I'll have to wait a year or more to see it, since I'm not in the UK... NOT! starts up torrent client and waits patiently...

Who?

"The Doctor"

"Doctor who?"

"Precisely."

Something tells me there's an Abbot and Costello joke there to be found....

Billie Piper

The most common rumor is that Billie Piper [waystupid.com] (--YUM See pic at link--) wants to play the doctor in the next season. The theory is that the doctor will regenerate as her because of his love for her and because he misses her. My opninion is that they could do this and make it an incredible season, or totally ruin it. we'll have to see.

Re:Billie Piper

Yeah, its an odd feature of the Time Lord molecular structure that every couple of years they regenerate into someone cheaper...

Re:Billie Piper

Er, no. The reason regeneration exists is because William Hartnell became ill, forcing the BBC to recast the lead in one of the most imaginative bits of writing seen at the time.

It has nothing to do with actor's demands, Who was created as a cheap, live, TV serial that was supposed to educate people about history.

Back in the early 60's BBC actors were paid pretty workman like rates of pay, and certainly didn't command huge fees for being stars.

Fantastic!

For those who haven't checked it out recently, the new Dr. Who has been a wonderfully creepy, charming and clever British fantasy/"sci-fi" show. It constantly transcends the borders between being powerfully authentic in a moment, breaking/mocking convention (many that it invented), and being surprisingly authentic in its morality and complications. Not complicated in the usual soap-opera way either - but in the real sense of exploring the unknown in wild new ways. Sure - it bullshits on its way to tell a story, but even its bullshit is more authentic than most "sci-fi".

Check it out, if you have time for a new minor curiosity in your life.

Ryan Fenton

Re:Fantastic!

Dr. Who switched to color before I did. It wasn't until I got to college that I found out that Tom Baker's episodes weren't black-and-white.

Torchwood is *excellent*! Though, completely different from Dr. Who. It's set in the same world, and stars Captain Jack, but the only other crossover element is that the Tardis sound makes a couple of guest appearances in the last episode. If Sci-Fi has any plans on picking up Torchwood, they're being very quiet about it. Even if they did, they'd edit it quite a bit. (You can say/show things on British TV that Americans are too uptight for.)

Re:Fantastic!

torchwood is awful. buffy the vampire-slayer wannabe that fails hopelessly. they have decided that the definition of a mature programme is just to add dollops of sex to the storylines.

Sounds great...

I love David Tennant, but I'm hoping he gets encased in carbonite and Rose takes the Tardis back to grab Chris Eccleston.

A fourth season

Well, I expect to see William Hartnell will reprise his role for the first couple of stories, but I expect they'll recast. I'd say the actor Patrick Troughton, who played Phineas in the recent Jason and the Argonauts movie would be a good choice.

Hold on. It is 1966 isn't it? My TARDIS often gets the date wrong.

Dr Hollywood Who?

Unlike the older series, which was "campy," this looks "cheesy." Too much CSI for the UK TV people?

Series 4 ?

Surely seies 4 of Dr Who was around 40 years ago with Patrick Troughton.

There have been quite a few different Doctors since then.

OK, you've got me.

'Do you know how many times I have been asked that question? Do you know how many times I have answered it?'

Actually, no, I don't. Googling just seems to bring up a bunch of rumors. What's he said before?

Brilliant!

Jettisoning Rose in another dimension was a step in the right direction. Now, if we could just find a way for Christopher Eccleston to come back, the show might have a chance to be less annoying.

Tenant has moments ("that's the sort of man I am" from 'The Christmas Invasion') but on the whole he just seems too goofy for a guy who's supposed to exploring the whole of time and space.

In any case, it's nice to know it will be around for a while.

Re:Brilliant!

Tenant has moments ("that's the sort of man I am" from 'The Christmas Invasion') but on the whole he just seems too goofy for a guy who's supposed to exploring the whole of time and space.

Really? [wikipedia.org]

Translations for U.S. Fans

In the U.S., the new Dr. Who is on both SciFi and BBC America.

In America, what the british call a 'series' we call a 'season'. So, to our ears, this is an announcement that yes, there will be a 4th season.

The first season is curently being played on BBC America (last time I checked).
The second season, with Tennant, is airing on the Sci Fi Channel.
The third season should be airing in England - almost immediately, if it isn't already.

Regenerations

Has it occurred to you that this is Regeneration number 10 for the doctor if you count Paul McGann? He has two more, then what will they do?

Re:Regenerations

In "The Five Doctors", the High Council offered the Master a full cycle of new regenerations in return for his help. Thus the canon has established the technology exists in the Whoverse to continue on beyond twelve regenerations (not that the Master was having that much trouble stretching out his regenerations anyway).

Can I get my geek card stamped please?

Re:Regenerations

"Can I get my geek card stamped please?"

Sure thing...hey, that's 10! Here's your free Davros keychain.

Turned Off by (the new) Season 1

Season 1 of this new run really turned me off and I haven't come back.

When I first saw the original series as reruns on over-the-air public television back in the late-80s to early-90s I thought the terrible special effects and camp were charming. The underlying plots were usually OK and kept me watching since they were so different from what Star Trek or Star Wars offered.

But now that I'm older I find the new series dependance on terrible, cheap special effects, mediocre acting and dialog, and camp just offputting. Also I'm much more busy with a wife and kid and don't (won't) devote as much time to television as I used to. My sci-fi budget is filled with Battlestar Galactica.

It's somewhat ironic that I prefer the new Galactica and old Who and very much dislike the original Galactica and new Who.

Do I lose my geek card for posting this?

Re:Turned Off by (the new) Season 1

actually a lot of the early Doctor Who was written by some very talented people (eg Terry_Nation) who often worked to incredibly short deadlines, and had crap all in the way of money to back of the special effects they wanted in.

Bizarrely that produced some wonderful SF and social commentary that is still of interest to SF buffs old and new.

I don't like to say that I disapprove of special effects, I don't, and sometimes I even like the very latest thing. Let me say right off that my primary interest in SF is on the cheaper end of the scale. I'm a H2G2/pulp SF fan, I don't much go in for the extravagant approach currently being taken in SF drama (I don't want to talk about the H2G2 film, no really, I don't..).

'Star wars that was' rocked, but the new stuff is crap I feel. Not because of the special effects, but because they weren't the kind of thing you'd stick on after a night out to watch for the n'th time and quote your way through, they had no depth, you couldn't relate to the characters. That was what Star wars was about to me, pure, unadulterated escapism, masterfully done, You wanted to *be* Han Solo or Obiwan (or Luke, if you're some kinda pooftaah :). The most I got out of Phantom Menace was an urge to make JarJar real so I could kill it oh so many times.

Blade Runner was full of special effects, and that is an awesome film, so it can't be that all SFX are bad.

I think the problem isn't something you can lay at the feet of Electric Light and Magic and their ilk. Nope, the problem is that Film and television SF makers seem to have forgotten that SF is as much about social commentary as it is about lasers. My problem with adaption of old Pulp SF stories to multi million doller SFX orgies is not that they've changed the story as a rule, that can't be helped. It's that they have often removed the entire point of the story and extracted just the SF bits.

And yet I like Blade runner. Why is that? Because while they almost entirely changed the story, they left the underlying point, the way in which man might treat a self aware creation that does not do as it is told, intact, and expressed it using the same general idea but with some innovative alteration to the core story.

I'm not against all new SF. I liked Stargate, and I do enjoy a bit of star trek on the side from time to time. That said, my favorite Stargate Episode is 'Window of Opportunity', not some of the later SFX crazy episodes.

I wait hopefully for a new SF film that can be truly considered a classic, and has all the very latest SFX bells and whistles. I'm sure it will happen eventually.

Other sci-fi news: BSG season 4 extended

From 13 to 22 episodes... http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11755 [tvweek.com]

Oh, no!

My boys will make me video each episode and watch them endlessly. Hooray for geek kids. Unfortunately we are off on holiday that week, so I'm hoping somebody will post a torrent when it airs, if not sooner.

Cool.....now if they could just.......

.....bring back the Daleks....

Fourth series?

What happened to season 30 or whatever the current ones are up to? I'm pretty sure season 4 was wrapped up pretty well back in the '60s or whenever.

I can't wait, PVR set!

As I do live in the UK I will be there on the 31st of March - Woo hoo! BiTorrent pah the quality won't be nearly as good. Tivo and Sky+ being types of PVRs.

Worried...

I'm liking the new episodes but.... The doctor and his assistant should never kiss! There should be no romance there..lets hope this new series doesn't go the way of 'Torchwood'. I mean sex monster aliens? bah

Blame Canada!

Or thank us, actually. You should notice at the end of each episode that "Doctor Who" was produced in co-operation with the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). In spite of this the CBC aired the second season months later than the BBC or Sci Fi, and took a six week break over Christmas. And they still haven't aired the Christmas special "The Runaway Bride" (even though I gather we haven't missed much.)

No word of "The Sarah Jane Adventures", either, with is a pity, because I think Elizabeth Sladen is still really hot!

Oh, and "Torchwood"? The CBC co-produced that, too. Check then end credits. But no word if it will ever air in Canada. I've googled the CBC website; the word 'Torchwoood' does not appear anywhere on the site.

So, Canadians, your tax dollars have been financing shows you can't see. Americans who can watch it on Sci Fi, you're welcome.

Huh?

There is a FOURTH Dr. Who series? There was the old one, then the new one with Billie Piper et all, and now two others. Does this mean there are three Dr. Who shows running at once? Is this some sort of multiple timeline thing? Or do this mean this is the fourth SEASON of the new Dr. Who series?

Re:POLL

What's better...

Don't you mean "Who's better?"

Although, I guess that's a bit of a presumptive question :)

Re:POLL

I'll probably download the series some time in the future (new and old) but House is still better.

I still can't buy Hugh Laurie's American accent, but apparently all the real Americans thought it sounded convincing, so I guess it probably has more to do with his typecasting in my mind...

Re:Gun carrying Doctor

Apart from Leela the knife wielding savage, and K9, who the Doctor equipped with a laser pistol you mean?

Re:Doctor Who sucks

OK, have it your way: baseballs.

Re:Gun carrying Doctor

When did the new Doctor use a gun?

I do remember Tom Baker using a gun at one point. Well, sort of. (The episode involved a carnivorous alien plant, on earth, and a bunch of mind-controlled humans. Does that narrow it down much?)

"Doctor! You can't take them all on yourself!"
"Of course I can! I have a pistol!"

I don't think he actually *fired* it at any point, though...

No accounting for taste. Or finding any, either.

Dr. Who continues to run.

Firefly couldn't get past... what, 14 episodes?

Sigh.

A wee consideration....

That we call BUDGET.

Is there a Doctor Who in the House?

Speaking of "House", Hugh Laurie would probably make the best Doctor Who since Tom Baker.

Re:My hopes for the next season...

The Ninth Doctor went to Utah, though we never actually got to see much of it, besides the underground, and several of the episodes (three, I think) were on a space station, which is technically not England.

Otherwise, one of the plots revolved around a rift in time that had opened up in, where else, England, so they couldn't very well leave and expect the rift to follow, now could they?

I suppose they could also make the argument that tearing people from the past out of their ages is a typical time travel faux pas.

Re:Gun carrying Doctor

I think that Tom Baker once capped a cyberman, inside the TARDIS with his own gun, which shouldn't have been possible as the TARDIS is supposed to be in a state of harmony which means weapons cannot fire.

Re:POLL

House hands down. Most people never even heard of Doctor Who. I'll probably download the series some time in the future (new and old) but House is still better.

So you're ignorant, yet you have an opinion?

How novel.