Billie Quits Who

[trancejeremy]

I think this is what happens when you get A-list actors (or pop stars as actors).


While I like most of the doctors, most of them were really B-movie stars, and pretty much just happen to have a paycheck. So they didn't see anything wrong with staying a while.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Are we going to have to throw out any longevity for companions, as well as the idea that the Doctor can only regenerate 13 times, if they keep having to recast so often? (Although I can see a good plot reason for the Doctor to have more regens - he's the last Time Lord, after all. He just has to get round that going to rot bit that the Master ran into - but if you take the Fox movie into account, the Master got round that too)

Not to forget the Vanguard: The Doctor's insane 12th incarnation. With Tennent, it's only two regenerations away.

 

[sniffles]

Not to forget the Vanguard: The Doctor's insane 12th incarnation. With Tennent, it's only two regenerations away.

Yes, indeed! (although his name was the Valeyard ) And I was reminded yesterday that Anthony Ainley's version of the Master was actually post-13th regen - he stole someone's body to effect his continued existence. So I guess we don't have to worry about that being the reason for an end to the Doctor - not that internal consistency has ever stopped tv execs from keeping a series alive if they thought it would still get ratings.

At least Eccleston has had a better go than Paul McGann. I still regret that he didn't get to do it but once (on film, anyway).

And I can see that since they've developed the relationship between Rose and the Doctor so well, Rose might not want to go gadding about the space-time continuum with a different guy.

 

[KaosDevice]

Aw......shucks, I liked Billie. :\

 

[Rackhir]

I got a rather strong feeling, that the new series wasn't keeping any continuity from the old Dr. Who. So I don't think regenerations are an issue.

 

[Viking Bastard]

It's not a reboot. It's just a relaunch. It's not retconning the old canon, as much as
just not referencing it directly. Hench the whole Time War thing. Wiping the slate clean.

Anyway, it's not something to worry about. If anything, it would just make for good
future storylines. Think about it, after the 11th death, the Doctor comes back, but his
companions slowly realise something's amiss in his behaviour...

There's a series's worth of storylines.

Then after the 12th death the new Doctor starts to get a bit more worried about his
skin. Time to find a way around that nasty 13 regeneration mark.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I got a rather strong feeling, that the new series wasn't keeping any continuity from the old Dr. Who. So I don't think regenerations are an issue.

Like Viking Bastard says, they are definitely not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. This season is still definitely a continuation of the original series- they've had all sorts of minor references to previous continuity- the Daleks, the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor's references to his experiences with U.N.I.T., a cyberman head in a museum. They've simply kept from bogging themselves down too much with past continuity while appealing to new viewers, and have found creative ways of either catching those new viewers up with the past (without lengthy flashbacks and/or excessive dialogue), or else have just had little "easter eggs" that old viewers would appreciate, while not hampering the story for newbies.

It's been very well done, actually. I would like to see some more references to past seasons (and suspect we may get some by the end of the season), but overall I think it's been handled very well.

 

[Kesh]

Now if they'd just show it here in the US.

 

[Rackhir]

It is possible that they are including the old continuity, nothing so far has precluded it AFAIK. But there's nothing that explicity states it either and this series has a very different feel to me than the old series did. I don't see an easy way to include wiping out the time lords and the daleks in the old continuity. I suspect that they aren't really going to tell us which it is for a while if ever. There is a third possibility that given the war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, history isn't what it once was. So that while the old continuity may have been the past at one point, that past/future universe no longer exists.

 

[mojo1701]

Now if they'd just show it here in the US.

Ha, ha. The CBC up here shows it.