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Canadians Miss Out On Doctor Who Season Finale
darthcamaro writes "Canadians were among the last people in the world to get the season 4 finale of Doctor Who which already aired in the UK and Australia. The Canadian public broadcaster — CBC — decided to cut out nearly 20 minutes from the episode, leaving fans wondering what was going on. Doctor Who isn't the easiest show to follow at the best of times — but Canadians are now up in arms (or at least hockey sticks) over their taxpayer-funded broadcaster's lack of respect for SciFi hosers."
The wife and I watched it months ago. The Internet is my TV station.
Doctor Who thwarts the Dalek invasion of Earth. Earth is not destroyed. None of the main characters die.
Do you also need to buy CliffsNotes for Teletubbies?
Martha Jones was The Doctor's companion in the third season, and the redhead is his fourth season companion, yes.
Learn something new.
You've got to love the idiots who run TV stations. Why? Because they're simply perfect idiots. Cutting 20 minutes from an episode? Such amazing idiocy.
Reminds me of a couple of years ago when I set my VCR to tape the weekly episode of 24. Yes I said VCR. Now get off my lawn.
There was a football game before 24. No problem right? Game will be over. I'll still be able to get all of 24 taped and watch it when I get home.
I get home. VCR is going. Great. I'll just let it finish taping 24 and then sit down and watch it from the beginning. No problem.
Problem. The football game was over before 24 was set to air. But someone decided that it was imperative to air commentary and discussion of the football game that was just played and this ran 15 minutes or so into 24. Was there really a need for this? I mean, come on, you just watched the fucking game so you know what happened.
Did they decide to delay 24 so people could see all of it? Nope. Just cut right on into 24 minus the first portions that they'd blotted out with football commentary.
For the truly lazy, this article describes how to use Miro, the open source media player and download app to find and download TV series from the Internet via BitTorrent.
Be aware, in the article one VITAL step in the set up process is left out, but IS covered in the comments.
Set it up and let it run in the background. No more compulsively checking trackers, Miro does it all for you.
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
Hmmm ... was this a 12+ hour "War and Peace," watch-until-you-drop mini-series episode? Or a normal 2 hour special, or what? 18 minutes sounds like an awfully lot of footage.
I know that one of the "C's" in CBC stands for Canadian, but it sounds like the other one stands for circumcision: "Hell, you can cut 18 minutes off the top of *anything*."
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Doctor Who really seems to make the most sense if you watch it in the UK in sequence with its spin-offs such as Torchwood or the Sarah Jane Adventures, because in the Season 4 finale there are tie-ins to the spin-offs as well as some earlier episodes in the season that refer to story lines happening on the spin-offs. In other words, watching Doctor Who in America on the 1 season delay sans spin-offs leads to confusion because you don't know what's going on.
I applaud the BBC folks for thinking so creatively about spin-offs playing off against Doctor Who, and vice-versa, but it falls apart against the reality of the region-segregation that they still like to practice.
It's a pity, because many BBC shows are more cutting-edge than Hollywood fare these days and they would play really well here as-is. Except, Hollywood likes to re-produce and re-package them as watered-down, lamer versions. A couple examples are "Coupling," a Friends-like show written by Steven Moffat that was hilarious, that Hollywood tried to Americanize and which was done so poorly that it was DOA; "Top Gear," which is an entertaining auto program and which would do just great here, but which Hollywood has again felt the need to destroy by Americanizing it. "The Office" and "What Not to Wear" are two other examples.
Accordingly, maybe Bit Torrent is the only real way to go in the end.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
If you watch the credits I believe it mentions the Canadian Film Board which has always made me believe that it is partially funded by Canadian tax payer dollars.
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
I watched the CBC broadcast version and didn't notice anything odd. It was fast-paced toward the end, but then a lot of them are like that. Am watching the full-length version on their site now to see what difference I can see.
Maybe the CBC could get the same editor to cut the Pirates of the Caribbean movies down to a reasonable length. That would be sweet.
Actually Catherine Tate is a rather talented character actress who has her own comedy show. I don't think she is especially like her character in Doctor Who, at least not in the interviews that I've seen.
Who actually watches Doctor Who on CBC? It's been available on isohunt.com for a year now...
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Here's why.
Be honest, what would you want to face as your adversary as a program planner? An angry mob of beer filled football fans or a bunch of geeks? I mean, let's be reasonable. One group will show up at your doorstep and crush a beer can on your head, the other one might write you an angry email. IN RED.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
...and nobody noticed.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I watched the final episode on the "Ceeb" and thought it was disjointed and incoherent. Now I know why.
Changing the topic a bit, I find the new Dr. Who series to be overly sentimental, even maudlin. I prefer good ol' space opera without all the tears. Give me "Annihilate them!" over "I'll miss you, Doctor." any day.
I'll admit that I wasn't very pleased with the decision to have 'the bride' return as a regular companion for the Doctor, precisely because she was portrayed by Catherine Tate. The only thing I found remotely humorous on the Catherine Tate Show was Lauren ("am I bovvered"); the rest was just unfunny (IMHO).
I stuck with it though. As the series progressed I got over the things that annoyed me (I think they toned her down a little as time went on too, which helped) and ultimately I think I'll miss her a little now that she had to have her memory wiped and leave the Doctor's side.
I'm with the other posters who mentioned this too: I think the rate at which Doctor Who is going through companions lately is too rapid and they're not really fully coming into their own.
I'm also going to miss Bernard "Diggin' a 'ole'" Cribbins, for entirely different reasons :)
As for TFA, that's quite appalling. Cutting 20 minutes nigh on halves the length of the episode. Tsk, tsk, CBC, and tsk again. It's little wonder people are downloading shows, it's possibly now the only way they can be sure it hasn't been ridiculously cut down to size.
"Three eyes are better than one" -- Lieutenant Columbo
The American "The Office" is terrible? Do you know what fans of "Pushing Daisies" would give to have their show last five seasons? "Three's Company" a "poor copy"; granted, Three's Company was never about being sophisticated but is a guilty favorite and almost always seems to a pillar of the Nick-at-Nite lineup. What's next, deriding "Sandford and Son"?
My sister had broken her arm. It was so bad, they put some sort of metal bar through her arm to hold her arm in a single position. Because of the pain, she was on some powerful medication. To put it mildly, she was not her normal self. Many hippies have spent decades attempting the mental state those drugs put my sister in.
She was watching TV late one night and called me up and told me about this great science fiction show. It was witty, the writing was wonderful. She laughed, She cried. She was on the edge of her seat. But she couldn't remember the name. She remembered that there was a doctor or surgeon on it and they were in a phone booth...
Dr. Who?, I suggested.
That's it!
Dr. Who? I replied again. Are you sure it was Dr. Who?
Yes, she told me, it was wonderful.
The next week, she saw the show again. This time, not enwrapped in her druggy little fog. She called me up the next day and told me she changed her mind about the show.
I've watched the show many times since then, and as far as I am concerned, being sober doesn't help improve the coherence of the plot. Frankly, I would find it hard to tell if our local station cut out vital scenes which hurt the clarity of the overall plot.
The turnover is only "much faster" because A.) you're older; and B.) the seasons are shorter and the stories aren't episodic serials anymore.
David Tennant has already played the Doctor for three seasons. That's as long as William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, or Peter Davidson, and longer than Colin Baker or Sylvester McCoy. Historically most of the Doctor's companions have only lasted one season, and the current show has actually made them all into recurring characters, so you can't exactly call it "turnover."
Breakfast served all day!
The only thing I found remotely humorous on the Catherine Tate Show was Lauren ("am I bovvered"); the rest was just unfunny (IMHO).
Have you seen this bit from one of the Comic Relief specials?
Breakfast served all day!
Given the episode in question, this is more of a blessing than a curse. The Season 4 finale is almost worse than the Season 3 finale.
I'm looking forward to Stephen Moffat taking over from Russel T Davies in 2010. Hopefully he'll be able to bring some intelligence (or just plots that make sense) back to the show.
I wholeheartedly agree, if only to see more of the delectable Georgia Moffett lighting up the screen :)
In my opinion having Jenny in the main Doctor Who series as opposed to a spin-off would work well; there would be that whole father-daughter dynamic that I thought worked really well. I guess the scriptwriters don't want to explore that and are perhaps wary of having the Doctor lose any of his mystique as a result. Hopefully later she will return for a longer, if not 'permanent', spell.
Reinette however wasn't really setup to become a companion as far as I could see. If you hadn't mentioned her I wouldn't have considered her at all, but I can see how that could work, and work well.
BTW I never noticed the 'contemporary Earth' thing before. I'd hazard a guess that it is the scriptwriters' aim of making them seem more familiar to the general audience. If that is the case, I would think that an extraterrestrial/'other-time' companion would open up the possibilities story-wise.
As it happens, Jenny would be the perfect compromise here in my view.
"Three eyes are better than one" -- Lieutenant Columbo
But now every episode is just going to be some ironic staggering zombie with a mask on their face repeating a creepy phrase. Let's see what I can come up with... a...milkman with a...welding mask saying..."Give us a kiss!" a...zoologist with a...riot helmet saying..."Spare some change?" Bang, money in the bank.
Interesting factoid I just discovered, Georgia Moffett is the real life daughter of the fifth doctor Peter Davison! I guess it's kind of an in joke to have her portrayed as the doctor's daughter =)
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
[quote]is canada important in entertainment[/qoute]
Wow. How naive. You do know that most of our most popular entertainers come from Canada, right? I know I'm leaving off an insanely huge number of people, too.
Fay Wray, Dan Aykroyd, James Doohan (Scotty), David Foley, Biff Naked, Kevin McDonald, Howie Mandel, Pam Anderson, John Candy, Jim Carrey, Tommy Chong, Hayden Christenson, Hume Cronyn, Celine Dion (blech), Michael J. Fox, Ryan Gosling, Lorne Greene, Phil Hartman, Avril Lavigne (blech), Evangeline Lilly, Art Linkletter, Dean McDermott, Joni Mitchell, Lee Montgomery, Alanis Morissette, Mike Myers, Leslie Nielsen, Ryan Reynolds, Caroline Rhea, Seth Rogen, Paul Shaffer, Martin Short, Donald Sutherland, Alan Thicke, Alex Trebek, Neil Young, Rick Moranis, Jason Priestley, Christopher Plummer, Mathew Perry, Dave Thompas, Scott Thompson, Robert Goulet, The Tragically Hip, Kim Cattrall, Margot Kidder, Catherine O'Hara, Shannon Teen, Jennifer Tilly, Rush, Shania Twain, Meg Tilly, Kurt Browning, Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Our Lady Peace, Rage Against The Machine, Ben Johnson, James Naismith (INVENTOR OF BASKETBALL), Paul Anka, Artificial Joy Club, Cowboy Junkies, Crash Test Dummies (once... there was this girl... whoooo... blah blah), KD Lang, Sarah McLachlan, Alanis Morissette, Anne Murray, Barenaked Ladies
In addition to basketball, they also invented some stuff. Like the Alkaline battery, the dump truck, cream soda, Trivial Pursuit, the "walkie-talkie", the lithium battery, IMAX, the hydrofoil, the rechargeable battery...
The US's SciFi channel was no more then 2.5 weeks behind the UK airings of the fourth season. It aired quite a while back though in TV terms, April 5th - July 5th in the UK and not too far behind in the US. So the fact that the fourth season finale is only airing just now in Canada means that they're somewhat behind.
Actually Catherine Tate is a rather talented character actress who has her own comedy show. I don't think she is especially like her character in Doctor Who, at least not in the interviews that I've seen.
TV is a horrible method of judging someones character. If I want to know what someone is really like I talk to their Black Jack dealer.
So, you know her in real life then?
I thought not. Look at her other work (I somehow doubt you've seen any of it) and you'll see just how wide her range is. "Donna Noble" is not Catherine Tate.
For some reason she is now slated to be a more permanent companion for the fourth year of the New Series.
Obviously you're not much of a fan if this is news to you. She's not eyecandy like Billie Piper(Rose) or Freema Agyeman (Martha), but she certainly can act.
I downloaded the rest of the season after a time glitch cut out the end of "Doctor's Daughter".
Luckily for my mom, she was over last Friday to babysit, so she got to watch the whole episode. (The power was out at her place, too, so it was doubly lucky.)
I can download the shows and then watch them on my regular TV, which is very nice. I've got a $20,000 DVR - at least according to Bill C-61.
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
I have to say, the most notable example of this appears to be David Caruso on CSI Miami. He is the only person I have ever seen that ALWAYS stands in profile, no matter what is going on. Lying down after being shot, sitting in court, bending over collecting evidence, and especially standing and talking with anybody, he is ALWAYS in profile (body at an angle to the camera, head turned to face camera).
Ignoring the fantastic, yet completely inappropriate technology they display on the show (hello, picking out fine details of a photograph, while it is displayed on a transparent screen with people talking behind it? And the picture itself displayed with some transparency as well), it's the most bizarre part of the whole show. He never stands up and faces anyone. Both discussing something with a co-worker and when getting in some baddies face, he's always at a stupid angle with his head turned to one side. This is what happens when an actor gets too big for his position (from the NYPD show, he got too big for TV, but couldn't make it on the big screen, so he went back to TV and they signed him to a contract that gave him way too much influence on the show).
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
As usual, it was a Russell T Davies campy almost-but-not-quite musical cheesefest. Just about any fact about Doctor Who that you thought was canonical was blatantly ignored. The greatest sin of all was throwing away a regeneration. For god's sake. Regenerations are probably the most precious thing in the Doctor Who universe and Davies thought he'd end his Who career (after all, he doesn't have to fix the plot holes he made) by simply throwing one away for a completely dumb plot twist. Of course it doesn't matter now that no rules are followed any more. And could anything have been more sickly that seeing all of the Doctor's wannabe lovers (and their pathetic families) fawning after him? The whole finally was nothing but laughable. The scene of the Tardis towing the Earth was beyond laughable. The faster Stephen Moffat takes over, the better.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
You do know who makes Dr Who don't you? Its the BBC which is pretty much quasi-government (its independent in terms of editorial control but its budget gets set by the government).
So your argument that a government controlled entity can't possibly show decent quality TV produced by another government controlled entity really doesn't make sense. The BBC is probably the finest global broadcaster in terms of overall content, originality and political coverage. HBO will have a shot from a quality perspective but politics?
Government control can indeed be a very bad thing (look at Italy or Venezuela) but one thing you can't do is complain about it in a thread talking about Dr Who.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
And they wonder why TV shows are so popular on Torrent sites..
You put people in the backseat not give them what they want and then wonder why they circumvent your revenue stream..
Who needs WiFi when we can have Packet Over Sheep! http://datacomm.org/PoS-InternetDraft.txt
I only mentioned Tennant's term coming to an end because he's so terrific; even only seeing most of his first season, he's one of my favorites, and - in that limited sense - his departure is too soon.
I agree. I wouldn't mind seeing Tennant rival Tom Baker's seven seasons.
Eccleston's one + Tennant's four(ish) seasons are still below average.
4 seasons is perfectly average for a Doctor. Ecclestone's one season was a disgrace, though. (In longevity, that it. He was a perfectly good Doctor.)