Online Doctor Who Documentary

mikey writes "There's an online documentary called Planet of the Doctor about the influence of Doctor Who. It's put out by the CBC and it's got some decent interviews with original producers, writers, and cast as well as fans and others. So far, it's been very entertaining and informative. They've got four episodes out with another couple to come. If you're a Doctor Who fan (or even a generic Sci-Fi fan) it's worth checking out."

Comments

Doctor Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not familiar with this individual. More details, please.

Another Doctor Who documentary to check out

[Black Art]

Another documentary to check out is Doctor Who Confidential broadcast by BBC 3. It is a 13 part half-hour documentary series on the Doctor, past and present. It can be viewed on the BBC web site in Real Movie format or can be found on various file sharing networks in a larger and more viewable format.

So far I have seen nothing from the BBC on releasing the series on DVD. I hope they will. It has been quite good so far. (At this date, 11 of the 13 episodes have aired.)

Re:Another Doctor Who documentary to check out

[Anonymous Coward]

In the UK, they are all being released immediately. In fact, the first half of the season has already been released.

In the US, no luck so far besides BitTorrent.

I don't like violating the copyright on most TV series, but I feel that Doctor Who is special - the BBC deliberately destroyed most of the older episodes to make room in their archives, and most of that content only exists now because people violated their copyright or otherwise illegitimately acquired the film. The BBC actually had to go out and hunt illegitimate copies down in order to make the DVDs that they're now selling.

Kinda ironic, doncha think?

Re:Another Doctor Who documentary to check out

[stx23]

I do believe the original poster was talking about the Dr Who Confidential series, which isn't out on DVD so far, and doesn't seem scheduled for release at any time soon.

Re:Another Doctor Who documentary to check out

[Black Art]

The new season of Doctor Who is starting to come out on DVD in the UK. Doctor Who Confidential is not.

Amazon.co.uk will ship to the US. Due to the crashing value of the dollar, it is pretty expensive. (I have spend a lot of money buying region 2 dvds from them.)

You need to have a player that can disable region codes, as well as play PAL format. The Coby DVD-224 is my current favorite. It will play RCE discs on the region free setting without intervention. Some versions can also disable Macrovision. All available through a "secret" menu. Plays everything I have tried on it. Costs about $40 on sale. Lacks video passthru, but has pretty much everything else.

Re:Another Doctor Who documentary to check out

[nagora]

The dollar may be "crashing", but it hasn't shifted much that I've noticed against the pound in the last 12 months.

You've not been paying attention, then. I've spent (and saved) a lot of money on buying things from the US that I would not have been able to afford except the dollar was down to about 60p; even with postage, it's been worth it. The dollar has pulled back a bit now, but we were very close to £1=$2 for a while.

TWW

I've never seen Dr. Who

[kingofalaska]

I thought it might be something else, but when I got to the site all I got were Volkswagon ads.

Am I alone in being turned off by excessive commercialism? For example, the latest Star Wars offering may be entertaining, but with all the tie-ins, from Pepsi to fast foods to Saturday morning cereal advertisements aimed at children, to my formerly-favorite candy M&M's (for which I almost went to jail over once-don't ask), coupled with all the astroturfing...well the stench of desperation is turning my appetite off. And that's just one example.

I'm ready for a revolution. Tear it all down and start fresh, or at least, let the writing and acting stand on its own.

KOA

Re:I've never seen Dr. Who

[zakezuke]

Am I alone in being turned off by excessive commercialism?

Part of the reason I enjoyed Doctor Who in the first place was it was produced by the BBC, non-commercial television, and shown in America on PBS, non-commercial television. To answer your question you are not the only one turned off by seeing VW every time you see a CBC Who reference.

If you are trully interested in the subject see http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/
No commercials, no Volkswagons.

Re:I've never seen Dr. Who

[decipher_saint]

I'd rather have the CBC bend over for cash and bring me something (anything?) to do with a show I have loved for decades then have them have no budget and see nothing at all.

At any rate web adverts have become so ubiquitous I kinda just tune them out.

Incedentally, I'd rather see movie tie-ins on tv commercials I can ignore rather than have product placement shots in the film itself.

Re:I've never seen Dr. Who

[kingofalaska]

Ok, fine, since you asked...

I had this 'job' and we were told we were not permitted anything from outside. I mean NOTHING. I even signed some paperwork to that effect. If they didn't issue it, you are not to have it. Soap, socks, underwear, stationery, stamps, etc. etc. After a couple of months, I was dying for some chocolate. I had an opportunity for a package of plain M&M's, and I took it. When I got back to the compound, the Charge of Quarters decided to have an inspection. He went straight to my locker, asked me "Are you ready for inspection?" to which I replied "Yes." He reached into my pocket and pulled out the unopened package of M&M's. He said "Tomorrow will be a very bad day for you. What comes after that will be even worse."

Either someone had snitched on me, or it was a setup. Either way, I figured balls were the order of the day. So I waited until everyone went to sleep, then broke into their office and recovered my candy.

Nothing was ever said. This worked for me later when they pinched my codebook while I was showering. Then, too, no mention was ever made.

I have to remember to put the full story in my book. That was probably the best damn ounce of chocolate I ever had.

KOA

Re:I've never seen Dr. Who

[meringuoid]

to my formerly-favorite candy M&M's (for which I almost went to jail over once-don't ask)

M&Ms get you into trouble. Jelly Babies, on the other hand, will always get you out of trouble.

Keeping a recorder, a totally ridiculous scarf and/or a sonic screwdriver handy is also a good idea.

Re:I've never seen Dr. Who

[Frogbert]

Given that the UK tax payer funds the program I'm reasonably sure it isn't as commercialised as whatever you have in America.

Re:I've never seen Dr. Who

[zakezuke]

Given that the UK tax payer funds the program I'm reasonably sure it isn't as commercialised as whatever you have in America.

Sigh...

Doctor Who as well as other material from the BBC is typicaly carried on PBS (public broadcast system). A "private, non-profit media enterprise owned noncommercial television network". It is publicly and privatly funded, and is reasonably commercial free. In the past a corporate sponcership might result in a brief little blip noting their contribution. "This program is brought to you in part by The Acme Corporation makers of widgets. And by viewers like you." These days watching the Yankee Workshop you get a slightly longer commercial spot preceeding the show followed by the commercial free program. I can forgive them for showing an advert for power tools before a wood working program, but they couldn't forgive Bob Vila for promoting Sears Craftsmen tools. It's mostly educational, but a good deal of time is dedicated to arts and entertainment including drama and foreign programing.

PBS operates via donations rather than a mandatory tax. Further you can pledge genericaly, money for specific shows any time, or wait for pledge drive and get a spiffy gift which might be a copy of the program on VHS/DVD/CD.

In other words, for material on PBS, we not only pay for the program just like you, we choose to pay for the program. And we see the program from beginning to end without breaks.

http://www.pbs.org/aboutpbs/

Currently Doctor Who in N. America is carried only by CBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. CBC is commercial television and isn't seen by most of America. It is common for those living near the border to be able to receive it, and some American cable networks carry it. But for the most part, America is currently Wholess commercial or otherwise.

Re:Anyone got a torrent?

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out Demonoid, it has several metric tonnes of Doctor Who, old and new.

Check out the TV Tome Episode Guide for the First 26 seasons and the movie and the 27th season to know what you're getting... recent episodes will probably be easier to stomach, older ones (back to 1963!) are very poor duplications of black and white episodes.

Starting with the newest season, the 27th, is a good idea since the show has been on hiatus for about 15 years and the new ones don't assume any background knowledge.

Re:This documentary brought to you by Volkswagen

[zakezuke]

It has shown us that special effects ought to be well done instead of looking like a 2nd grade art contest.

Keep in mind it was slated to be a kid's show and was part of the kids department till 1989. In fact, I know I watched a documentary where in the 60s they had a contest who could create the most scarry monster. Strangely enough the results of turning over the design department to a bunch of 2nd grade students worked rather well and I, a Doctor Who fan, wouldn't have noticed the difference.

Re:This documentary brought to you by Volkswagen

[Goth Biker Babe]

How has Dr. Who changed the face of television?

Apart from being the longest running TV science fiction series I wouldn't know.

It shows us that British actors can only employ ironic humor.

I'm surprised that, from that side of the pond, you know what irony is. I always thought you lot thought it was like silvery but harder.

Everyone likes things and dislikes things. So you dislike Dr Who. That's your prerogative. But good public television has to suit all tastes. I am currently off of work due to a bad chest infection and I am spending most of my time in bed. Yesterday I watched a program on how Bernard Herman, the film composer, changed the face of classical composing; poets talking about other poets work; Drake's defeat of the Spanish Armada; Turner Landscapes at the National Gallery; and The Professionals which is enjoyable seventies secret agent bunkum all courtesy of free broadcasting (none of which were on the BBC).

Put on the shows to draw in the public and then the advertising sold can pay for the 'culture'.

Download links

[wormeyman]

http://www.cbc.ca/planetofthedoctor/videos/planeto fthedoctor_partone.mov http://www.cbc.ca/planetofthedoctor/videos/planeto fthedoctor_parttwo.mov http://www.cbc.ca/planetofthedoctor/videos/planeto fthedoctor_9doctors.mov http://www.cbc.ca/planetofthedoctor/videos/planeto fthedoctor_partthree.mov http://www.cbc.ca/planetofthedoctor/videos/planeto fthedoctor_partfour.mov Enjoy i'm sure a torrent would be a good idea.

IGNORE PARENT

[Anonymous Coward]

Doctor Who Confidential cannot be released on DVD: too much unclearable music in the montages. THIS IS IN THEIR FAQ.

The BBC never deliberately trashed the archives in 1974: they thought there were copies at another site.

None of the DVDs in release (old or classic series) are from off-air broadcasts (except some easter eggs).

Re:IGNORE PARENT

[koogydelbbog]

> The BBC never deliberately trashed the archives in 1974: they thought there were copies at another site.

i think he's talking about the fact that they used to re-use the (expensive at the time) tapes for other, "more important" things like football matches and horse races. the first series of Quatermass went the same way.

ah, would appear that you're both right:
http://www.answers.com/topic/dr-who#wp-Missing_epi sodes

it's a shame either way.

Re:IGNORE PARENT

[jd]

The person who did the trashing (forget her name - she wasn't a memorable person anyway) didn't have permission to do the trashing, trashed episodes without checking to see what was being trashed (only B/W stories were on the list, but color stories were destroyed by "mistake" as well), and there is no evidence that they believed the stories kept elsewhere. The evidence to date suggests that they were clearing space because their main site had been declared a fire hazard, and B/W stories were deemed of no value.

(Which is why "select" stories were kept. If they had truly believed they were only eliminating redundancy, they would have eliminated it all. The evidence is that they kept stories of "special significance", indicating damn well that they knew no such archives existed elsewhere.)

Re:IGNORE PARENT

[jd]

Oh, and a few other points. Pirate copies were also made by TV studios, which is why we have copies of some of the rarer stories. And any copy kept by a TV station after broadcast was considered illicit, which means that the recovered Tomb of the Cybermen was an illegal copy at that time.

Secondly, yes we DO have off-air recordings on DVD. Some of the grainier recordings used in recovered stories (I think Invasion may have been one of these) were fan recordings, which is why they are of such low quality. Good quality recordings are used where they exist, but they don't always exist.

And, to answer another troll, yes the BBC should damn well have been saved from its mistakes. First, the BBC is owned by the British Public, and the British Public wanted (and wants) those stories. Those who pay the piper call the tune.

We aren't talking about some namby-pamby private corp that can do what it likes in its own private dungeon. The BBC is public property, and answers to it.

Re:IGNORE PARENT

[guidemaker]

the first series of Quatermass went the same way.

Not true. The first series of Quatermass was broadcast live (as was most TV at the time) and the first two episodes were 'telerecorded' as an experiment. Telerecording involved pointing a synchronised 16mm film camera at a TV screen and at the time it wasn't done very much. On reviewing the results of the first recordings it was deemed not of sufficient quality and subsequent episodes were never recorded.

New series lacks charm

[hfis]

Maybe I'm just looking at the old series through rose coloured glasses, but I much preffered it to the new one.

The new one is far too emotional for my liking (though bear in mind I've only seen 4 episodes of it). Far too much emphasis is placed on the girl, and I really wish BBC at least attempted to hide the mutual infatuation between the two.

Also, I find much of the impact that the original series had is lost though having 45min start-to-finish episodes. One of the best things about the old series was the great cliffhangers.

Anyone else share this opinion, or am I seeing something that isn't there?

Re:New series lacks charm

[Adelbert]

As someone who had never seen the old "Who", I must say I do quite enjoy this series. I like how it has managed to satirise the Iraq war, considered the implications of torture and the death penalty, and focussed on the need to be surrounded by friends/family.

My one complaint is that every episode thus far has been set on/in orbit around Earth, and most of them in the 20th and 21st centuries. The beauty of SciFi is you can do anything, see anything. Its the ultimate escapism. So why go to early 21st century London so often?

Re:New series lacks charm

[zakezuke]

Maybe I'm just looking at the old series through rose coloured glasses, but I much preffered it to the new one.

The writing of Doctor Who really started to decline tward the end of the Sylvester McCoy era. I liked Sylvester McCoy but the writing was a touch lackluster. Others may argue that this started post Tom Baker. I must admit Peter Davison made a very lethargic Doctor. Colin Baker I liked dispite the fact he came across as an arrogant bastard. The whole Trial of a Time Lord, while looking very much like they picked up the scraps of two incomplete stories and copy and pasted them into three, did a good job of making us look at him and say he's not all bad. I would have loved to see a complete series of Paul Mcgann, but the one TV movie was all flash and no substance.

In way way you are wearing Rose colored glasses. But part of Doctor Who's charm was the fact that they didn't resort to crude bodily fuction humor and treated sexuality in a very respectful tasteful way. The current series has already made reference to breast implants, homosexuality, getting a room, and other aspects of humanity never touched on before. I have yet to decide whether this is a good or bad thing.

Also, I find much of the impact that the original series had is lost though having 45min start-to-finish episodes. One of the best things about the old series was the great cliffhangers.

Expect cliff hangers here and there. This current season has 3 out of 13 episodes. I agree I like the old style, but I can live with the current one.

Re:New series lacks charm

[Fross]

So why go to early 21st century London so often?

because this is where the series is grounded - it's where rose comes from, and it's where the viewer comes from. this isn't about pure escapism, it's about relating these outlandish situations to things people can understand.

having said that, it does sound like it's dumbed-down - it isn't. and the later episodes do go off galavanting around other times for a lot longer - in fact, around the double-episode in the middle of the series, it's quite a shock to go back to the 21st century.

the return to our time is also about continuity - without it, it would simply be "rose and the doctor and different things every week" - i for one feel the series gains from these extra characters, it helps flesh out the protagonists. some recurring other characters (no spoilers!) also help.

while i was one of the other many kids terrified by daleks and cybermen in the late 70s, looking back on them there is no denying the original series are crap. the laughable special effects aside, the plots are tenuous and the dialogue at times abysmal. these are all areas i think the new series has pulled away from and improved. it HAS kept the quirkiness of the doctor particularly well, it's going to be sad to see christopher ecclestone leave after just one series. it does, however, maintain the slightly patronising plot-explaination within almost every episode, where perhaps it could have been a little more subtle. but maybe they thought they'd alienate the american audience by doing that ;)

if you guys are only a few episodes in... KEEP WITH IT. the first few set the scene and illustrate the changes, and are a bit samey. they do improve, though, and start getting awesome around episode 6.

Re:New series lacks charm

[TiggsPanther]

I think I agree with a lot or what you say. I will admit to missing the old three-or-more-part stories, and I do really miss spending more screen-time away from Earth (both Platform One and Satellite 5 were near Earth, efen if not planetside), but the current series does work. It's just different.

Plus it does deal with some of the issues that would be relevant today that weren't as relevant in previous seasons. missing persons (especially young human females) is an even bigger deal now than it ever was. Just having the new companion up-sticks and never look back would leave too many questions unanswered. The first return to London dealt with that pretty well, I thought. And I am enjoying the fact that there is a bit of Earth continuity - familiar people and situations that we keep glimpsing in at. If anything I think the drawback is that it's a relatively short season. If it was double the length but had the same amount of "back home" episodes it wouldn't seem to dominate the series as much.

I also think it's a new look at Doctor Who. It's a new generation of viewers, many of which won't have seen every last bit of the original series. I also get the feeling that, at least early on, we were getting a look at things from Rose's point of view. And that is bound to be very different from "Classic" Who.

The only real changes I'd like to see next season is a return to the multiparters being the rule rather than the exception, and a few more alien visits between popping back to contemporary Earth. Apart form that, though, I'm very much enjoying the feel of the new series.

Re:New series lacks charm

[Sentry21]

I think what is unfortunately happening here is that you are missing the subtleties. The first few episodes were geared towards showing who The Doctor is and what he does, but there was more to it than that.

Lots of references are made through the first few episodes - the tree-being in the second episode who consoles the Doctor on his loss when she finds out what race he is, for example. That eventually builds up into him telling Rose that his race, and his planet, were both destroyed in a terrible war.

Later, in Dalek, we learn that they died to destroy the Daleks, that they were the antagonists in the war, and that the Time Lords and Daleks destroyed each other, with no-one-knows how many other planets destroyed in the meantime. This is leading somewhere, not just backstory.

All through the series, there are references that viewers have managed to catch. The Nestene Consciousness from the first episode screams 'Bad Wolf' when it sees the TARDIS. A child spraypaints the same on the side of the TARDIS. The space station exploding is a 'typical bad wolf scenario'. 'Bad Wolf' is written in graffiti on a poster for a rave in the 1980s. A telepath sees the big bad wolf in Rose's mind.

Hit up google and see what you find. The episodes may seem... well, episodic... but they're not. There's another subtext that keeps running through all the episodes, and it's going to come to light who - or what - the 'bad wolf' is in this Saturday's episode - titled 'Bad Wolf'.

Perhaps it's not as obvious as the first series, with its constant cliffhangers between one episode and the next, but the problem with that is that you can't miss an episode or you don't know what's happened. With this, however, there's a subtext, there's a vein that travels through the episodes, and you're not missing anything overt if you miss an episode - it's all meant to be missed, meant to be pieced together after it suddenly clicks one day. If you miss an episode, you miss that story, which stands on its own, and you miss that subtext, but nothing in the next episode is going to rely on your knowledge of the previous (and if it does, they'll show clips at the start to refresh your memory).

Personally, I would rather have it this way. I get the resolution of one story, but I get to look forward to the continuation of the story arc in the next episode. Personally, I can't wait for Saturday to arrive, and I'm sure there are a lot of people who feel the same way.

direct download links

[bani]

direct download links for convenience.

windows media:
part one
part two
part three
part four

apple quicktime:
part one
part two
part three
part four

and a pig pile of doggie poo on /.'s lameness filters.

Spoiler for 'Dalek' from new series

[meringuoid]

Why is the current Doctor *needy* and petty with an apparent infatuation with a 19 year old?

Possibly because the Time Lords have been exterminated. It seems that there was a Time War in which both the Time Lords and the Daleks were wiped out; the Doctor claims that this was his doing.

For eight whole lives the Doctor was the superior being, a Time Lord from Gallifrey, impressing the hell out of the lesser humans - but he never needed them. Now, though, there's no home to go to, no Gallifrey, no Time Lords, just him and the TARDIS. No wonder he's clingy with Rose: he's got nobody else now.

Re:BBC Dr Who

[jd]

A very rough guide to the different generations of Doctor Who, and the sorts of people who might find them appealing:

• William Hartnell - The "Original" Doctor!
  • His era was primarily intended to be educational. Someone else on Slashdot noted the lack of humor - well, this is humorless and intended to be that way. It'd deadly serious stuff, and usually on deadly serious subjects. Stories include:
  • Massacres in Revolutionary France
  • Stone-age tribes on the edge of starvation
  • An Aztec coup
  • The destruction of Rome at the hands of Nero
  • Dalek attempt to nuke the Thaals
  • Dalek attempt to hollow out Earth as a spaceship
  • Dalek attempt to use time disruptor to conquer galaxy
  • Dalek attempt to conquer time as well as space
  • Cybermen attempt to conquer Earth
  • Human colonists nearly get wiped out by disease they'd lost immunity to
  • Murderer wipes out alien civilization to cover tracks
  • Major civil war on planet controlled by insects
  • The destruction of Troy and the massacre of nearly everyone inside
• In general, this is great for fans who like "historical fantasy" (what would have happened, if...) and was actually used to teach history and scientific methods to younger students.

Patrick Troughton - the First Regeneration

• After William Hartnell became too ill to continue, they needed to either replace him or scrap the series. It was too popular to scrap, but he was too dominant and too unique to simply replace. So began the most creative plot device of all history... He injected humor into the series, was generally much lighter than Hartnell, and that had an appeal that made a big difference. It still had a lot of history and science, but was much more edutainment than either education OR entertainment, in the classic sense.
  • The Highlanders - Classic historical story, sadly lost (apart from the script and the soundtrack) but included gems such as Troughton pretending to be a medical doctor, bashing one guy's head on a table repeatedly and "diagnosing" the headache as a serious illness, the cure to which was to be locked in a closet.
  • Evil of The Daleks (at least one episode still exists, along with the soundtrack) - almost half was set in Victorian England and was extremely well-done period drama. With the addition of psychotic pepperpots. Mostly a story of greed, on the part of a Victorian alchemist who wanted the secret of transmutation, and on the part of the Daleks, who wanted the secret of how to eliminate fallibility. Ends up with a civil war on Skaro, between super-evil Daleks and "humanized" Daleks.
  • A race of super-pacifists is enslaved by mass-murdering Dominators...
  • Krutons - oops, Krotons - subjugate another planet by means of Weapons of Mass Destruction, periodic butchering of the more intelligent residents, and the prohibition of science. Now we know what President Bush has been watching...
  • One group decides to create a super-army, by creating a gigantic battlefield of easily brainwashed primitives from Earth...
  • The Mind Robber - Probably the very best of the lighter stories. A superb blend of folk stories, psychology and futuristic virtual reality, long before Star Trek's "Holodeck"...
  • The Invasion - Brilliant, but only partially complete and some of the recordings are in poor shape. A tale of high treason, an International spy ring, Cybermen and a female mathematician faster than Britain's (real-life) Carol Vordeman.
  • The Ice Warrior stories are darkly political, but have their light moments and plenty of unexpected twists.
  • Dystopia meets humor can also be found in The Macra Terror (only audio and a little video exists, sadly)
• Great for those who like humor, but also want some fairly meaty

Re:Current Doctor

[Bazzalisk]

Traditionaly timelords reproduce in labs.

I think there's a much simpler explanation of why he's so attached to Rose ...

... She's his Mother.

hides

Dr Qui ?

[CmdrGravy]

Avec Le Dalek.

Re:BBC Dr Who

[fartymenams]

Actually, if you want to hear what a good Doctor Colin Baker could have been (given better scripts and none of the "Trial of a Time Lord" BS), listen to pretty much any of the audio plays that Big Finish has done. His performances are really good.

I've only listened to a couple of the Peter Davison ones, but "Spare Parts" is amazing.