Doctor Who Season 29 - What do you want to see?

[sniffles]

bump

I was rewatching 'The Christmas Invasion' last night, and got me thinking about a couple of other things I'd like to see in the next season, or at some future point in the new series.

I'd like to see more of the TARDIS interior. We caught a glimpse in 'Christmas Invasion' during the scene of the Doctor selecting his new wardrobe. It would be fun to see more such glimpses, as they occasionally did in the original series. We need some reminders that the TARDIS is dimensionally transcendental and there's more to her than just the console room.

I'd be particularly pleased to have a scene in which the Doctor is shown looking into Rose's room for a moment and then turning away, or perhaps the new companion accidentally stumbling on Rose's room. The TARDIS must be self-cleaning, though, or Rose would have seen some signs of the Doctor's previous traveling companions. Perhaps the TARDIS shunts such rooms away into the far recesses of her interior, and Rose never happened upon them. I can imagine the Doctor sneaking off to peer forlornly into a whole suite of rooms formerly occupied by his many traveling companions.

I always felt that some of Rose's dialog in 'The Parting of the Ways' after she absorbed the energy of the Eye of Harmony was actually the TARDIS talking, especially when she referred to "my Doctor" and said she wouldn't let him be hurt, in a way that seemed somehow maternal to me. It would also be interesting if the TARDIS had a reaction to Rose's absence, perhaps becoming more unpredictable and intractable as she used to be with the Second Doctor.

I'd also really like to see a solo Doctor episode. Ideally he'd spend some time alone before picking up a new companion. I will be really pleased if he doesn't meet the new companion during the Christmas episode. I think he ought to have some time to grieve over losing Rose. To the best of my recollection the only story in which the Doctor doesn't have a companion at all is 'The Deadly Assassin'. I know it would be difficult to do a solo episode now, as 'Deadly Assassin' worked primarily because he was back on his home planet with people he already knew. But I'd still like to see RTD and company give that sort of episode a try.

 

[ddvmor]

One more vote for the Master. I'm not too worried about how he escaped from the Tardis after the movie - it could just be an event that accoured in the past. It would be interesting to set up a meeting, perhaps at the season climax, by suggesting that the Doctor and the Master fought side by side in the Time War, so any new shenanigans that he gets up to is a whole new bretayal for the Doctor.

I've also always wondered what the Doctor would do with a menace on the scale of, say, Unicron. Especially if they could do it without some deux ex machina to save the day.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

bump

I was rewatching 'The Christmas Invasion' last night, and got me thinking about a couple of other things I'd like to see in the next season, or at some future point in the new series.

I'd like to see more of the TARDIS interior. We caught a glimpse in 'Christmas Invasion' during the scene of the Doctor selecting his new wardrobe. It would be fun to see more such glimpses, as they occasionally did in the original series. We need some reminders that the TARDIS is dimensionally transcendental and there's more to her than just the console room.

I'd be particularly pleased to have a scene in which the Doctor is shown looking into Rose's room for a moment and then turning away, or perhaps the new companion accidentally stumbling on Rose's room. The TARDIS must be self-cleaning, though, or Rose would have seen some signs of the Doctor's previous traveling companions. Perhaps the TARDIS shunts such rooms away into the far recesses of her interior, and Rose never happened upon them. I can imagine the Doctor sneaking off to peer forlornly into a whole suite of rooms formerly occupied by his many traveling companions.

I always felt that some of Rose's dialog in 'The Parting of the Ways' after she absorbed the energy of the Eye of Harmony was actually the TARDIS talking, especially when she referred to "my Doctor" and said she wouldn't let him be hurt, in a way that seemed somehow maternal to me. It would also be interesting if the TARDIS had a reaction to Rose's absence, perhaps becoming more unpredictable and intractable as she used to be with the Second Doctor.

I'd also really like to see a solo Doctor episode. Ideally he'd spend some time alone before picking up a new companion. I will be really pleased if he doesn't meet the new companion during the Christmas episode. I think he ought to have some time to grieve over losing Rose. To the best of my recollection the only story in which the Doctor doesn't have a companion at all is 'The Deadly Assassin'. I know it would be difficult to do a solo episode now, as 'Deadly Assassin' worked primarily because he was back on his home planet with people he already knew. But I'd still like to see RTD and company give that sort of episode a try.

With Romana, whom he was really close too, he just ejected her room from the Tardis. I don't get the impression that he spends much time thinking about the past.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I don't want to see the Master unless they can come up with a very good reason for him to be alive, and a very good actor to play him. Otherwise, let him remain dead.

The Daleks have been trying to get an agent onto Gallifrey for a very, very long time in order to assassinate the High Council. The Daleks make duplicates of people. The Daleks have tried to make duplicates of the Doctor. They have done this for the specific purpose of getting said duplicate to Gallifrey to assassinate the High Council.

We are told that the Daleks tried and executed the Master, then agreed to allow the Doctor to carry his remains to Gallifrey. We don't actually know how the Doctor knows this. What we do know is that holding a trial is very much out of character for the Daleks, and so is caring one whit about one of their victim's last wishes. Or, for that matter, blithely handing anyone or anything over to the Doctor.

I theorize that the "Master" in the Fox/BBC movie was actually a Dalek construct of the Master, which they desired to have go to Gallifrey to assassinate the High Council. The more advanced Dalek constructs are created using the mind imprints of their victims, so that the Master-construct would have (to a large extent) the personality, knowledge, and will of the Master. Since we know that Dalek dupicates of mere humans can overcome thier programming, it shouldn't surprise us that a Dalek dupicate of the Master could do the same, and make a go at independent existence.

In other words, the Fox/BBC movie, in my theory, was part of the Time War -- an early salvo on the part of the Daleks. The first salvo would have been by the Time Lords in Genesis of the Daleks (4th Doctor), with the Daleks making several attempts to infiltrate Gallifrey thereafter.

So, by this reasoning, the Master is still alive because he escaped from the Daleks prior to the duplicate being given to the Doctor. Presumably, the Master, the Rani, the Meddling Monk, etc. simply didn't fight in the Time War because they were disinterested/ran. The question then becomes, why does the Doctor think he is alone? Why is there no telepathic resonance of the other Time Lords?

My argument would be that when Gallifrey was destroyed, the link between all TARDISes and the Eye of Harmony was severed, and thus the link between the various TARDIS telepathic fields and whatever assisted telepathic fields existed on Gallifrey (the Matrix and the APC Net are certainly destroyed). That the TARDIS telepathic fields were linked through the Matrix was made fairly clear in Trial of a Time Lord. Without this linkage, it would certainly seem as though there were no other TARDISes or Time Lords. The Master should be as surprised that the Doctor survived as vice versa, if they meet.

Really, this is no different than the Dalek in Dalek thinking there was no one to contact when a huge armada was massed beyond Pluto. There were other Daleks; they were just out of contact. When you are used to constant information flow (via a telepathic field or Dalek transmissions), "out of contact" sure seems like "I'm the last one of my kind", especially if you have good reason to believe that your species was otherwise wiped out.

Anyway, that's my $.02, and I hope the BBC uses it.


RC


P.S.: I wrote an article published in Enlightenment about that "Half human, on my mother's side" comment the 8th Doctor made. The gist is that, because of the medication, the Doctor had to pattern his regeneration on Grace (similar to how Eldrad bases his regeneration on Sarah Jane Smith in Hand of Fear).

 

[sniffles]

With Romana, whom he was really close too, he just ejected her room from the Tardis. I don't get the impression that he spends much time thinking about the past.

He didn't previously, but he could now. Especially with the destruction of Gallifrey - being (presumably) the last of his kind could bring some changes to his personality. I just think it would be a nice touch if they acknowledged how close he and Rose were in some way. Not too much, though - I don't want it to be a soap opera.

 

[Felon]

They've never shown a case of a time lord switching genders in a regeneration, that I'm aware of. But it's been hinted more than once that it's possible. And with the crazy regenerations the master has been through if it would make sense for anyone, it would be him. I'd like to them them do this.

Enter...The Mistress! (insert whip-cracking sound effect here)

 

[Nightfall]

Uhm I guess I'm in the minority...cause I want more Daleks. But whatever. It could be worse.

 

[Felon]

Not to get too obvious, but how about an episode in the tradition of "The Three Doctors" or "The Five Doctors"? Have Tennant meet up with Eccleston, or even McGann.

Guess I wouldn't mind seeing another regeneration either, this time into someone who isn't manicly overcaffenated.

 

[Nightfall]

I think it would have to be Three since I don't think there's more than 3 surviving Doctors left...

 

[Felon]

I'm pretty sure we have more than three living doctors. AFAIK, only the first three--William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and John Pertwee--are deceased.

Now, I ain't saying we should ever see most of them on-screen again. I've seen modern footage of Colin Baker and Peter Davison, and it ain't pretty.