The Night of the Doctor - new mini Doctor Who episode.

[Herschel]

I was so, so happy to see Paul McGann again. I've been listening to his Big Finish audios, and it brings something more to see him physically acting it.

Yeah, I have the first episode, the three Lucy Miller series and the Mary Shelly series on CD but it's incredibly great to have the "live action" version again. I still get that stupid, inexplicable, giddy, child-like excitement watching the minisode. Moffat, you lying bastard, never change!

He must have been so happy to be doing it without the wig.

Plus, with two "bad" puns did they really need to find a way to wedge in one about the wig in so short a time?

 

[Nellisir]

Never having seen McGann before, I really liked him in this. More than I like Smith, I think.

 

[sabrinathecat]

I'm listening to "A Light At The End" right now. Doctors 4-8 together in a story celebrating the 50th anniversary. Much better than "Zagreus" was for the 40th.

In "Time and the Rani", the 7th Doctor gave his age as 953. How is he 9th Doctor only 900 years old? Only reason I've heard is that the Time War somehow made him younger. That doesn't hold for me, for some reason.

 

[Umbran]

In "Time and the Rani", the 7th Doctor gave his age as 953. How is he 9th Doctor only 900 years old?

Do you always give your age down to the month? No? Then why should a person nearly a millennium old always give it down to the year?

Given the loops he's been in and out of, over time, it seems to me that the 5% difference is probably within the margin of error for how long he's been around.

 

[jonesy]

Were the previous doctors, the actors I mean, announced before their appearance on screen in the older series? Let's say before Paul McGann. Or was their first appearance on the show a surprise to viewers? Was there a whole 'who will be the next doctor' hullabaloo back then?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

This is a doctor I might not mind seeing a few (mini) episodes from.

 

[Morrus]

Were the previous doctors, the actors I mean, announced before their appearance on screen in the older series? Let's say before Paul McGann. Or was their first appearance on the show a surprise to viewers? Was there a whole 'who will be the next doctor' hullabaloo back then?

Heh. I really can't remember. I don't recall any of this for the Doctors I was alive for, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. It was a different time, though, not just in terms of no internet.

 

[MarkB]

Yes, they were reported in advance, to much speculation and media attention. I seem to recall Peter Davison putting in an appearance on Blue Peter, and seeing clips of Colin Baker's appearances in Tom Baker-era Doctor Who and Blake's Seven episodes in advance of his first episode.

Sylvester McCoy's casting was particularly controversial, as he'd previously been mostly a comedic actor in childrens' TV shows.

 

[sabrinathecat]

But if 7th was 953, and 9th was 900 and something, 8th was only around for a couple dozen years...

Paul McGann was another bit of the bizarre beast that was the Fox TV movie. BBC wanted Sylvester McCoy. US wanted Tom Baker. Compromise: a new doctor who looked sorta like Tom Baker. The TV movie was originally intended to be a reboot of the whole show, but this compromise made it a continuation. There were so many odd choices like this that the TV movie ended up an atrocious mess of compromising between three different committees, each with its own agenda. The original artistic plans and the overall integrity of the vision were sacrificed just to have a final product of any kind.

 

[Remus Lupin]

I think it's entirely reasonable to assume that the Doctor has absolutely no idea how old he is. He just guesses.