Doctor Who Makes Guinness Book of World Records 227
shadowlight1 writes "According to a BBC press release, cult favorite Doctor Who has entered the Guiness Book of World Records as the world's longest running science fiction show! There we go, it's official. Also, the second season of Who premieres on the SciFi channel tonight." From the release: "The series began on 23 November, 1963, and was revived in 2005 after 16 years off the screen. William Hartnell played the original Doctor Who, with Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker and Peter Davison among those following in his footsteps. Christopher Eccleston took up the mantle of the ninth Timelord last year - following the show's relaunch. He was replaced after just one series by David Tennant after Eccleston dropped out. "
Here Here (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Guinness Book of Trivia (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Christopher Eccleston played the Eighth Doctor (Score:3, Informative)
Nitpick: it's "Hear, hear" (Score:3, Informative)
It is an abbreviation for "hear, all ye good people, hear what this brilliant and eloquent speaker has to say!" [straightdope.com].
I don't normally nitpick, but "here here" doesn't even make sense. "Hear, hear" does.
Re:They've skipped the Christmas Episode (Score:3, Informative)
8:00 PM EST Doctor Who -- Christmas Invasion
9:30 PM EST Doctor Who -- New Earth
10:30 PM EST Doctor Who -- Christmas Invasion
What are they skipping? (Children in need 6 minute thing maybe)
Re:Here's what I don't understand (spoiler)... (Score:2, Informative)
Gallifrey, the home planet of the Time Lords, is in its own time stream, so to speak. In other words, there is no time travel on that planet. If you go there, its always 'Gallifrey time'.
As far as the Time Lords regenerating after the time war, they were obviously killed in a way that their bodies could not support regeneration. Time Lords have two hearts. If one fails, the other heart keeps going and rearranges all the cells in their body. If they are hit with a bomb, for example, and the majority of cells are destroyed, and both hearts stop working, they can't regenerate.
Re:I'm a confused about this title... (Score:2, Informative)
Unless you count a BBC strike between season 22 and 23. And of course, during 'Shada'...
Re:Christopher Eccleston played the Eighth Doctor (Score:2, Informative)
They're mainly the Big Finish versions (http://www.bigfinish.com/drwho/index.shtml/ [bigfinish.com]), though the early BBC radio stories get an airing as well.
Rather than give a lot of links to my site, try the D index (http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/Index-
Re:Here Here (Score:3, Informative)
And if you look at the entire Star Trek Franchise as a whole, it is "younger" than Doctor Who (40 years) but has almost 4 times as many episodes.
Stargate doesn't even come close to making that cut, with only 10 years for SG1 and 3 I believe for Atlantis. I don't even understand how they get the longest running consecutive Sci-Fi show.... Doctor Who (the original) should probably win that one, too.
Re:Christopher Eccleston, best Dr., Evah (Score:3, Informative)
Tennant also has been excellent at introducing the Colin Baker-ish (and to a lesser extent the Patrick Troughton-ish) "Stupid Apes" vibe.
Re:Not true, it is science fiction... (Score:4, Informative)
Stranger in a Strange Land
blurb: "The best-selling underground novel by the dean of American science fiction writers"
features: Martian psychokinetic abilities which include teleportation and mentally causing matter to cease to exist/
Starship Troopers
blurb: "the classic novel by the greatest science fiction writers of all time"
features a "brain bug" which controls a colony psychically, as well as good old-fashioned human psychics.
Glory Road
blurb: "the irrepressible science fiction classic!"
features: Magicians and transdimentional portals
I Will Fear No Evil
blurb: "Magnificent - a science fiction masterpiece"
features: A body which, after a complete brain transplant, interjects the donor body's personality into the consciousness of the new composite as a self-aware, sentient split personality.
Not much of Heinlein's work qualifies as science fiction under your definition.
Like it or not, but "science fiction" has become a genre based primarily upon finding necessary in the reader a willing suspension of disbelief in order to experience the story within the parameters given. The disbelief is generated because the story usually violates current scientific understanding. What we classify as 'hard sci-fi' as advancing only technology, rather than fundamentally changing what we know of science - and in its true form it's a rather small genre.
Re:Christopher Eccleston, best Dr., Evah (Score:3, Informative)
The subtext going on is that the 9th Doctor was suffering PTSD from the Time War, in which he apparently destroyed all the other Timelords, to take the Daleks with them. (Of course, the Daleks did survive after all.) The 10th Doctor is getting over that, he's able to connect emotionally with humans more easily, and he's not so gunshy -- recall the Xmas Invasion when he shoved the alien over the edge. Russell T Davies does pay attention to character development, if you've seen his other stuff like the original Queer as Folk.