Doctor Who to be Deleted after Series 4?? It's a Dalek Rumour!

OK, now I am not one for reacting wildly to newspaper stories which are, most likely, gossip, tittle-tattle, most-likely unfounded, bordering-on ridiculous and plain scandalous at best. But I feel that I have to write a piece about what English tabloid newspaper 'The Sun' has been saying about Doctor Who, about Freema Agyeman (Martha), about Russell T. Davies and about the whole institute of Dr Who as we know it today.

There was a story published in The Sun yesterday, 31st May. The title of this was, "Doctor Who to get axe in 2008" and the gist of this so-called 'story' is that Russell T. and the guys have had enough of their 16-hour Dr Who days and are all going to quit together in summer 2008. You can also see a forum thread here also on this topic

My first reaction, as was many of yours too, was absolute shock and UTTER HORROR that the BBC could consider doing such a thing.

But that's the way 'The Sun' newspaper works, you see. What they have gone on for this report, it seems, is one of those Anonymous Sources. And whizz-bang - you have a news story!

BUT it's also a news story that I can't ignore and can't totally dismiss. I don't mean the content of the story itself and what The Sun Says - NO! What I mean is that way back at the start of this blog's creation I actually speculated about this myself in Blog Entry Number One. If you don't recall that far back, I basically said that I was wondering how they would carry on past the middle of Series 4 next year. One Time Lord generation gone, one companion gone (Rose), cybermen seemingly all gone, Daleks reduced to just one again, the great Face Of Boe dead and soon to be revived Master making a comeback. Options for good storylines definitely ARE being dried up.

Of course, the thing about sci-fi is that The Universe Is A Big Place And All Things Can Happen. And Doctor Who is very much proof of THAT little number!

The question is this: with many good and strong storylines and baddies used up, where is the strength coming from for future series (beyond Series 4 anyway)? It's a GOOD question, isn't it? But why, you say, should we answer it since if we WERE able to answer it then it would make it all far too predictable and therefore not watchable and it might once again descend into the Pit Of Bad Writing. And no-ones wants THAT ugly monster to rear IT'S hideous head, do they?

As i said at the start, this blog entry was inspired by more than one of The Sun's little articles lately. The second nasty little rumour they're putting about is that Freema Agyeman is to be sacked from the show. BUT they don't give any idea as to WHEN this is supposed to happen. Yup, it's another of these Anonymous Sources spreading it about a bit, causing trouble, making chaos.

Well, Dr Who is to be congratulated if The Sun is taking so much interest in it. I mean, there are so many things, so many shows on TV and so many showbiz stars they could choose to attack and undermine. So it is definitely a great complement to all that Russell T. Davies and the crew have achieved in their brilliant revival of The World's Greatest Time Traveller that so much is being said - albeit from not the most reliable journalistic source on the planet!

News stories like these just make me angry that there are people calling themselves journalists who just try to create the news by extrapolating the "truth" from Anonymous Sources who might have 1001 reasons why they would want to damage the people or insitutions they give their little leaks on. This is what we get from a free press of course, but that is not any topic of THIS blog.

I was thinking and wondering about this all last evening after reading about it. Today I read this news story from ITV News which did put me at my ease a bit mainly because of the speed of the reaction from the BBC to The Sun's story. In it, a BBC spokesman has described the story as "idle speculation". Good! Err .... but hold on a moment. Do I believe an Anonymous Source or an Anonymous Spokesman? Hmmm .... well, I prefer the spokesman's view myself. I guess it shows that maybe we believe what we want to believe! Well, let's say that I believe what the BBC says over and above what The Sun newspaper says! NO CONTEST!! The spokesman also said that "the BBC has a long-term commitment to Doctor Who". Nuff said! Case closed (almost!).

Last of all, I want to comment on this report from Sky News that Russell T. Davies wants to have more time to concentrate on other projects. He might well, yes, and after all Doctor Who is not the only thing he has done as we well know. Certainly he has a lot of good shows on TV now and from the near-past. But the nature of writing for TV and for a programme like Doctor Who is, unfortunately, that you DO have to give it a lot of your time. But I see that even now RTD is delegating more of the writing to others - look at Helen Raynor's credit in the Daleks In Manhattan story when in actual fact it was Russell's ideas that were given her to put together (and I see now she doesn't do Script Editing any more!). In addition, as much as I am enjoying this two-parter Human Nature / Family Of Blood, we all know full well that the idea is from a book. I wonder how many other Dr Who stories started off life as books - not many I'll bet! So that is possible another indication that RTD is trying to make time for himself and his other work. I also read here in this news story from 23rd March this year on some kind of speculation from the Series 3 Launch Party about a possible "spin off" movie. Now that IS INTERESTING!!

So, in summary, any thought of killing off Doctor Who after Series 4 or at any time before that is completely out of the question and the BBC would be stark-staring bonkers to quit on such a bankable number as The Doc! ZAP!!!!!! CASE CLOSED (in a Judoon kind of way)!!!

A Doctor Who episode postponed one week for WHAT??

Oh my dear Auntie Beeb! How could you be so callous? I mean, delaying your Number One show of the whole week for what I have to say is the Number One in the Dire Charts in the entire continent - maybe even in the world.

I wonder what the Americans think of this nonsense institution we have every year over here in Europe that is Eurovision (and I am OH SO hating myself for dirtying my precious blog with THAT word - don't you DARE tag it!!). I bet the Aussies think we got a "bad case of the trots" for daring to delay the might Doctor Who for THIS kind of triviality.

Anyway, enough free blog-vertising for the bloody Eurovision Song Contest. I'm fighting back here, and I decided to dig around for any previous times in Doctor Who history when an episode was delayed or postponed for some, well TRIVIAL and NONSENSICAL reason.

Ah hah! It will not be the first time, my blog-friends! According to the mighty Wikipedia, the first time such a scandalous event occurred was way, WAY back to the era of none other than William Hartnell, the first Doctor. It was the third episode of 'The Sensorites' which had to be delayed by one week because of an overrun of former BBC Sports programme "Grandstand". Not sure of the exact date of this, but it was something like the first Saturday of August in the year 1964. And NO, yer cheeky buggers, I myself was sadly NOT EVEN BORN in that year. Don't even THINK about it!

Was this the only time this has happened. No no, not at all. There was another occurrence of Doc-Delay a couple of years later from this opne I just told you about. Oh YES, another crash into poor Willy Hartnell at his finest! This time, the Dr Who story was 'The Dalek's Master Plan' and the postponement occurred because of the showing of the BBC's Christmas Special of that year. So we can suppose it was the Xmas weekend, and the year was 1966. Well .... getting a little closer to my entering this world but yer still got almost another year to go until I was a fully paid Earth Member. Oh, by the way, this valuable nugget of information comes to you via something called 'Pat's Doctor Who Quiz' which I highly recommend you check out some time to test your knowledge. In fact, I highly advise you to Vote With Your Remote, refuse to switch on the TV and do this quiz instead. Eurovision, Schmurovision indeed!!

Of course, there was the near thing a few weeks back when there was the, erm, possibility of the Man Utd. v. Watford FA Cup game going into extra time. But the Mighty Reds gave the Wats a darn good thumping to save the Doctor Who Bacon. Maybe the good Doc himself had something to do with that ....

That's all I could find in my efforts at digging the web I'm afraid. Hey, you never know! Use this as a Pub Quiz Question or indeed if you're really on the ball, a Pub Quiz Answer. ASTOUND your friends and drinking buddies with your knowledge of all things Doctor Who. And don't forget to tell them where They Too Can Be Like You and send them here.

I'm off to read my very first copy of the Doctor Who Magazine. I mean, first one I ever BOUGHT - not Issue 1 Year 1. I may be WHO but I'm no Whovian you know. See yer next time!

How did I get back into watching Doctor Who after 16 years?

Hey guys! While I'm well and truly in this Forum Spirit of things I thought of something. Actually I was reminded of something while watching the "Parting Of The Ways" with Christopher Ecclestone doing his regenaration thing while Rose fries the Emperor Dalek's brain (wasn't that just a GREAT and yet TOTALL BIZARRE episode??!!).

And it was this. How did I get back into Doctor Who after all these years and what started me again? Well, it was Series 1 of course and the first two episodes. My dad sent these to me on video around the time they had come out. I really didn't want to watch, and the video remained unseen in the cabinet for around a year - maybe more. My dad had watched and his comments had not been that complementary. And another reason I had resisted for ages was that BILLIE PIPER was in it!! EUUWWWWW! That one-off pop star! Couldn't imagine HOW she could POSSIBLY fit in and thought how naff it must all be. No way!! Then one day the server which gave me my internet was down a LONG TIME. Hmmm, I thought, what shall I do now - ah, I know! Let's watch that Doctor Who! And so it was done.

SERIES ONE (Christopher Ecclestone, Billie Piper)

1. ROSE - The Doc, Rose, Autons, Nestene Consciousness, new Tardis, first sight of Mickey and Jackie Tyler

• I suppose they needed a way to get Rose into it all as a shop girl and the Autons were the obvious target for Villain Number 1. But they were good though not great. It gave us a good first look at our New Doctor Who that we'd waited 16 years for. Was kind of strange with me remembering old Tom Baker with his scarf and long coat and manic smile. "Doctor Who in a leather jacket of all things!!". Loved the run across the Bridge, the scene at Rose's home with the Auton arm was silly and the acting of Billie Piper on that was pretty poor. Also good though only necessary for people who'd never ever seen Doctor Who before in their life, was how Rose met and talked with Clive about the "historic sightings" of Doctor Who throughout the ages.

• We also saw the first hint of humour - there was the Doc getting throttled by this arm, falling down and Rose with no idea what was going on. Pretty silly. Also daft was the scene with Rose's mum in her dressing gown seeing the Doc for the first time and coming on to him. It was totally out of character as we saw in the character of Jackie for the rest of the two series as she never did anything like that again (except maybe in 'Love And Monsters' with the Abzorbaloff).

• OVERALL RATING FOR EPISODE --> 7 / 10

2. THE END OF THE WORLD (The Doc, Rose, Cassandra, Face Of Boe, Moxx Of Balhoon, Appearance Of The Repeated Meme, spiders, Jabe from the Forest Of Cheem)

• THIS WAS THE ONE THAT DID FOR ME and proved to me that Doctor Who really WAS BACK.
  

• This was such a brilliant episode! Not only a great Doctor Who episode but a really GREAT science-fiction story in its own right. The monsters were brilliant, the action was great and the argument between the Doc and Rose was a high point too. The only naff and unexplained bit is of course HOW the hell DID Doctor Who walk through those rotating blades and not get chopped to bits? OK, he concentrated, and maybe that was it. Ah hell! It's sci-fi!! Who says you have to explain it all!

• And it was the final few monents which really did it for me. The final few seconds when The Doc saved them all, the sight of the sun exploding and the Earth shattering to pieces. And to cap it all, it was the final revelation that Gallifrey had gone in a Time War. "They nuked the Time Lords!!", I thought. What could be next? This was definitely IT now!
  

• OVERALL RATING FOR EPISODE --> 9.5 / 10

So there you are! And, as I began this blog, even though I was one year and a half out-of-date, I was definitely BACK!!

OK, I'll do more with that 'blooper reel' another time. But I think I got out of a tight spot there. And you didn't really notice, did you?

I'm Two Years Late with this BUT ....

OK, why I am doing this? Well, Those Who Know About These Things say that blogging is a Good Thing so that about seals it for me. I mean, I am a computer graduate so I know about these things but this Blogworld is a strange and crazy one if you ask me.

A bit like the strange and crazy world of our very great favourite Man Of Questioning Title.

So here we are. We just had episode 6 here in the UK featuring The Lazarus Experiment. A pretty good one I'd say - 3.5 out of 5. Not the best story ever - you knew where it was going from the start really that something weird was going to come out of the Lazarus body. Actually we all knew that from the trailers. Why watch, you might say when just about all of that episode was shown in the days up to it.

Ah, because the intriguing thing is this continuing Mr Saxon Character who keeps popping up - the Recurring Theme Of Series 3. Every series had one - Chris Ecclestone was dogged by the Bad Wolf (Still not convinced that was IT for that idea and I think Rose will be back somewhere anyhow). Series 2 had the Daleks pretty much haunting us through the last half (and a few Cybermen). Now we have the mysterious Mr Saxon.

Except he's not a mystery either if you read the wikipedia and other Dr Who blogs and sites. They are all convinced that it's gonna be The Master coming back.

I can't help thinking this: bleeaagghh! What a tired storyline THAT is. I mean, OK, the Master's a Bad Guy and all that but just not very exciting. OK, some of you will be yelling that every Good Guy must have his equal and opposite Bad Guy who never gives up and let's face it they all have them. Sherlock Holmes had Moriarty, Spiderman has Venom, Batman and Robin had ..... Liberace (I suppose).

But it does not fill ME personally with excitement at the prospect of seeing The Master come back. Now, I am not of the Roger Delgado generation but I do remember the guy who played him in the era of Tom The Great Baker. And sorry but he just isn't Bad Enough. Too HUMAN I say!

Nuff said there. Now what do you all think of Martha? I would say that up until yesterday's Lazarus thing she had been pretty lame and extremely unconvincing. WHY the hell have they given her the same idea as with Rose? And WHY is she in love with him? OK, the big Snog/Genetic Transfer in the Judoon episode, but soreeeeeee!!!! THAT is not enough to make a woman as sensible as Martha Jones fall for the Doc so quickly as all that! Well not in MY book anyway.

In the Lazarus ep, yes, she did a bit more to justify herself and justify being able to continue with the Grand Old Doc. But I tell you what. If she hadn't got in the Tardis at the end and had stayed at home then I would not have minded at all. Her character's going not very far. Unless Russell "The Wizard" T has some Spice for her at the end.

This blog, even though it is the first, is putting together too many storyline chats into one. Could have split it up I guess. But no matter - I've Started So I'll Finish!

Yeah, I said about Wikipedia. On there they already have the list of episodes and about what's goiung to happen until the end of Series 3. OK, I read them and maybe I shouldn't have but They Were There and it was late and I was bored and so there! But what is ALSO on Wikipedia which hacks me off a bit is just about the full story of the whole of the rest of Series 3. yes, nice, Captain Jack returns next time, yes the last two episodes of Series 3 are, wow wow, a 2-part story (original or WHAT!) and yes the thing with Martha's family will kind of go on.

Actually talking about Martha's family, I wanted to see more of them before now. Hey, let's have more Annalise!! OOOOHH YEAH! Legs like that should be compulsory. Actually all of her should be ALL the time! A bimbo in Doctor Who! Now for all you Doc fans when was the last Doc Who bimbo? And this is not one of those questions I know the answer to. I just thought of it right here on the Blog Spot. Who would count as a bimbo? I reckon Jo Grant of the Jon Pertwee might do. Maybe Peri (but too clever by far). Perhaps Leela given that she was a kind of tribal girl of a rather basic race of people. Ah, now what about Tegan, the Aussie flight attendant. Now THAT was a dumb way to get into the TARDIS - getting lost like that and - oh, let's go in here cos it looks like a good place to keep out the rain. As dumb entries into the Doctor Who world go, THAT was near the TOP!

Yeah yeah anyway, back to present day. I'm getting a bit worried actually. Why? Well, two series in and we've lost both The Doctor and Rose who after all brought the whole thing back into our living rooms in the first place. Mind you, I just can't see Christopher Ecclestone doing it in the same way as Tennant does. It just would not work. Do we really know the TRUTH why Chris E. bowed out after just one series? To me it looks like they couldn't get David Tennant for the start (I read someplace that he was supposed to start from the beginning), and so they had to get the other guy to fill in. Now don't get me wrong. I think Christopher Ecclestone was really GREAT and I was really sorry to see him go so soon. Wish he was still here actually. But as I said, to lose him PLUS Rose after two series is ..... well, it's getting a bit careless.

I don't see how things are going to continue more than halfway into Series 4. Yeah OK lots of new monsters and that but they are running out fast of recurring themes. Face Of Boe dead, wisdom imparted, by end of Series 3 we'll know what THAT'S all about. Dalek Emperor gone in a shot, back we go to One Dalek In Existance (Dalek Caan), Cybermen not going to be back for ages and ages I reckon. And let's face it they were pretty stupid in the end. Take over the world, make us all into Cybers, oops their factory goes meltdown, off they go through The Void and back they get sucked into it. Back where they started in John Lukic's lab. So they weren't much cop. No way we're seeing any more Autons - what kind of storyline could they have other than .... err, .... shop window dummies and yes once again they come alive and zap us all and in comes the good old Doc to switch them all off. But the Recurring Themes To Keep Us Hooked slate is rapidly being wiped VERY clean. No mystery left = a VERY BIG JOB to create the whole thing again right from scratch. In other words, back we go two years.

What about the rumours of Tennant going out mid- series 4? Nah that's never happened before so they might or might not. I reckon that if they bounced out a second Doctor in three series, they would lose a whole lot of viewers.

Riding a bit of a tightrope then I think with storylines for the series we're on and the proposed Series 4. I cannot see a Series 5 happening at all UNLESS there is something still bound up and waiting to be unleashed. The one I hope is that ..... perish the thought BIG TIME ..... Russell T Davies does not quit. THAT would be the END! But what I see now this series is les episoides written by him and more by what I think are lesser known writers. I mean, the writer of the Lazarus ep - Stephen Greenhorn. Wikipedia says he has written for The Bill, a Scottish soap opera, Where The Heart Is and is working now on a Proclaimers musical. Uh huh!! LOTS of good Doctor Who talent there, ma boy!! And I see we only have one Stephen Moffatt episode due this series. I think his stuff varies but he did what I think is one of the best Doctor Who's ever - 'The Empty Child (are you my mummy?)'. So that's good enough for me.

Anything I could say in this first blog line? Nah, I reckon that'll do you for starters. I reckon I'll write this at least once a week and in between too. Lots of stuff in my mind about Tom "the Great" Baker. Will there ever be another like HIM?

Peace and Love to all!