Doctor Who: 2007

I need to catch up ;_;

I am through all the Eccleston stuff, and I just saw Christmas Invasion on Sci-Fi. How many seasons between that and where they are currently?

Just one, and another Christmas episode.

Tempting to torrent them. I wish BBCA or SciFi were up to date on them. Weirdly enough, BBCA is further behind.

Are you talking about…

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…the reference to a brother? That crossed my mind, but that’s never been addressed in the canon, has it? The Master was a school chum of some sort, right?

I thought the episode was a nice kick off to season three (29). I agree that Martha was written as a better educated Rose, but I’ll bet that she comes into her own voice soon. The chemistry seems good between Tennant and Agyeman, which is half the battle. And it was nice to have a full-blown “introduce the companion to the TARDIS” scene, especially with the winking “bigger on the inside” bit.

And to top it all off, I didn’t think RTD did half bad on the plot this time. I thought the RhinoCops were pretty interesting; I’m hoping they make a reappearance this season.

If you don’t want to be a filthy, stinking pirate, there is another option.

I’ve seen that series, except according to the BBC the last one about a wedding.

On-screen, the Master has never been directly referenced as being related to the Doctor, other than having been in school together.

However, there are a number of canon near-misses, such as the originally scripted last line spoken by the Master in the 5th Doctor story “Planet of Fire” in which he was to say “Doctor, could you do this to your own…” The line, which Peter Grimwade had put in to imply that he was the Doctor’s brother, however, was removed in post-production.

The Master was also to be portrayed as the Doctor’s brother in the american series of Doctor Who that was planned during the production on the Fox movie back in 1996.

Introducing him as a sibling would be a pretty crazy retcon, in my opinion. I thought the 5 doctor story was interesting because the 1st doctor didn’t even know who the hell the Master was - the Master said “actually, we were in school together”, which implies they were at best aquaintances until the period of the 3rd doctor. Sibling? that’s a big stretch.

How the hell are you getting the episode so quickly, by the way? I went to the usual torrent sites right away, and at best am only 60% downloaded.

Then torrent that sucker, as it isn’t available for sale yet. Ditto for the new season.

Good episode! I like the cops too. I’m glad they aren’t just yet another group of mustache twirling villains…They kill people without a second thought, but they did clean up the mess they made. Here’s hoping they return.

Put me in the “please don’t do this” camp, too. Besides being hokey, it would make their very formal relationship in past seasons very weird (especially during the Pertwee era). Not that they necessarily should have been slapping each other on the back and saying “Hey, Bro!” But I would think there would have been a different kind of undercurrent to it. (I had always thought it would turn out that they had been close friends in school before it turned sour, but I had forgotten about that line in the The Five Doctors.)

Besides, if we go down that road, can Sister Rani, Cousin War Chief, and Uncle Monk be far behind?

Oh, and I forgot to mention how I liked the sonic screwdriver fake-out. Hopefully, the non-road tested model won’t prove to be as versatile.

I like the concept of the Master being “Professor Moriarty” to the Doctor’s “Sherlock Holmes”, ie. being opposite sides of the same coin in a yin-yang kinda way. I feel they’ve never really taken this aspect as far as they could in the tv series. Although there were some neat episodes with Degaldo’s Master there were also quite a few silly ones so he never became as cool and uber a supervillian as he could.

I reckon they could make an interesting backstory in that they were both friends back at Gallifrey and there was a parting of the ways when they argued about involving themselves with other species, (not just sitting back and protecting time) with the Doctor eventually going renegade and meddling with time for good (or at least what he perceived to be good) while “The Master” argued the Time Lords should be running the universe and eventually since they were too weak to take the job on he was seduced by the notion of seeking power for himself. Although this I always though was in some ways the argument that Omega had - at least in one of the choose your own doctor adventure books I read (of course that book could hardly be considered canon).

Anyway, I hope any new incarnation of the Master still has his hynoptism and body shrinking abilities.

I find discussions of Doctor Who “canon” to be amusing. There is no formal canon, the show has contradicted itself countless times over the years. About the only things set in stone are the Tardis, and the Doctor as being a perpetual traveler in space. :P

Finally got a chance to watch it, and I already like this season more than the previous one. Can’t quite put my finger on why though.

All possibility and no disappointment?

That’s two season openers in a row that take place in hospitals.

“Ah, look down there. You got a little shop! I like a little shop.”

Personally, I don’t have much problem with the idea of the Master as being the Doctor’s brother, though we really have no confirmation that’s really who he was talking about.

I could even accept the overly formal relationship between the two considering just how cold and sterile Time Lord society is. Take every stereotype of unfeeling royalty, apply it to a society with a population few in numbers but long in lifespan and give them the power over time itself.

The portrayal of Gallifrey has become lighter and more human as the series progressed, however. Compare the Time Lords in the 2nd Doctor series “The War Games” with those of Pip and Jane’s “Trial of a Time Lord”.

Could be. I think that with Rose gone (as much as I liked her) it leaves The Doctor free to be more … The Doctor? Rose reminded me too much of Eccleston or something, I guess.

Martha is very un-like Rose, and fits well with Tennant’s Doctor I think.

One thing’s for sure, if the series keeps going (looks likely) and Russell T. Davies departs at the end of this season (also likely) I’m thinking we’ll see Gallifrey back in action at some point in the future.

Ha, very true, and the only thing even fixed about the TARDIS is that it travels in time/space and is bigger inside. The show has definitely contradicted itself a zillion times, which probably would have happened even if they cared (which they often didn’t seem to) because of its zillion year history with different creators at the helm.

But the current series has done a better job, and put more of an effort into, maintaining continuity (having people not just forget about aliens, etc.), and it’d be nice to see that continue.

Last year’s season opener was easily the worst episode of the season (the crazy “healing wash??”) - this one was enjoyable, and SO MUCH better than Torchwood already.