Happy 50th Doctor Who

2nd Dr by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-23 07:55 · Score: 3, Informative

Troughton FTW.
Pity so much of his stuff has been lost as he was such a great character; the development past grumpy educational granddad to the different forms we know today.

Re:2nd Dr by mikael · 2013-11-23 11:39 · Score: 2

They announced that there are 7 new episodes that have been recovered. Some guy had recorded the shows broadcast live using a cine-camera but he lost the sound. Fortunately, the BBC had keep the sound reels, but had lost the video. They were able to combine both together.
I just hope they would be able to do something crazy like find out that the magnetic heads of the recording machines were strong enough to leave some kind of signal on the audio tapes.

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Re:2nd Dr by hairyfeet · 2013-11-23 18:26 · Score: 4, Informative

Actually that rumor was proved to be false and they only recovered IIRC 9 episodes which leaves around 100 still lost.
While it would have been nice if the rumor had been true it looks like a good chunk of the episodes missing were never sold overseas (for example the creator of the Daleks was trying to get a Dalek show made in the USA so they never sold any of the Dalek episodes) which makes their recovery very VERY unlikely as its overseas where all missing episodes so far have been found.
As for fav Doctor? Frankly all of them but Colin Baker had their moments (his hammy acting style combined with that outfit just made him a turn off for me) but for me it would be a toss up between Troughton's chessmaster and Tom Baker's eccentric for the classic series and while I would have liked to have seen Eccleston stay on a little longer Tennant was damned good in the role, even episodes like "blink" where he is barely in it his performance sticks with you.

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Re:What do you mean, "did you think"? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-23 08:05 · Score: 5, Funny

I see you're not a Timelord.

Traditions... by Dartz-IRL · 2013-11-23 08:06 · Score: 5, Funny

The couch has been moved a metre forward from the wall, and I have adopted the traditional viewing position.

And here come the Daleks.

EXTERMINATE!

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So there I was, scribbling down some notes off the PC screen by hand, when I reached for the keyboard and Ctrl-S'd.

Re:Traditions... by Dartz-IRL · 2013-11-23 08:33 · Score: 2

I think the presence of the Daleks is a given on an event of this magnitude.

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So there I was, scribbling down some notes off the PC screen by hand, when I reached for the keyboard and Ctrl-S'd.

conspiracy! by Dthief · 2013-11-23 08:11 · Score: 3, Funny

It all makes sense now....Dr. Who was on the grassy knoll the whole time

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Re:conspiracy! by murdocj · 2013-11-23 10:29 · Score: 2

no... but he will be.
Re: conspiracy! by jd2112 · 2013-11-23 11:22 · Score: 2

Wrong British sci fi series. It was Lister, Rimmer and Kriten

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Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.

Re:Thought this site was supposed to be news... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-23 08:14 · Score: 5, Funny

Gossip about Dexter?

The serial killer or the one with a laboratory?

Took me 21:45 to beat the Google game by HatofPig · 2013-11-23 08:35 · Score: 5, Funny

That was pretty fun! I wasted 10 regenerations trying to get past the Crying Angel in the graveyard.

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Silicon & Charybdis McLuhan Kildall Papert Kay

trolls by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-23 09:02 · Score: 5, Insightful

To all the crybabies:
Complaining about Doctor Who for not being scientifically accurate is as stupid as complaining about The Lord of The Rings for not being historically accurate. Now, go f**k yourself.

Favorite moments by murdocj · 2013-11-23 09:02 · Score: 4, Informative

My favorite doctor is Tom Baker... all the energy, the scarf, the huge grin, the way he could challenge just about any evil, despite the odds.

I loved how the Doctor got pulled into locating the keys to time:

White Guardian asks the Doctor to locate the keys.
Doctor: What happens if I say no?
White Guardian: Nothing
Doctor: Nothing?
White Guardian: Nothing
Doctor: Nothing???
White Guardian: Nothing... ever

I must admit, though, one of the best moments is when BBC revived Dr. Who and had an episode (maybe the first episode) where the Doctor takes Rose billions of years into the future, with the sun about to engulf the earth. To the Doctor, it's just all part of the normal cycle of things... just on a larger scale. But Rose is overcome watching the extinction of her planet. It makes you realize that the Doctor is NOT just a guy with a time machine... he's an alien, with a completely alien view of the universe.

Re:Favorite moments by SuricouRaven · 2013-11-23 09:20 · Score: 2

The new series had a similar line, but it might be just coincidence.
Doctor: "Nothing happens. And it keeps on happening."
Something like that, anyway. The consequence of trying to change a fixed moment in time.
Re:Favorite moments by AmiMoJo · 2013-11-24 00:00 · Score: 3, Interesting

Interestingly Baker's Doctor could have averted the while Time War and having to murder his entire race. He travelled back to when the Daleks were first created and has the opportunity to put a stop to them then and there, but decided not to on the grounds that he would be wiping out an entire race.

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Re:Thought this site was supposed to be news... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2013-11-23 09:05 · Score: 2

The serial killer had a laboratory, too. ;-)

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Ezekiel 23:20

What number system by rossdee · 2013-11-23 09:08 · Score: 2

What number system do Time Lords use?

If its Hexadecimal then 12 regenerations iis not a problem for a while at least.

Re:What number system by SuricouRaven · 2013-11-23 09:22 · Score: 2

I think the TARDIS translation system handles that in the same way it handles language, given that it's never come up before.

Re:Tom Baker by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · 2013-11-23 09:17 · Score: 2

SPOILERS...

Pretty ironic, him showing up for the 50th anniversary episode and related "about" shows, after he was such a prick about NOT doing the 25th. At least we know Eccleston wasn't asked.

Best Doctor Who coverage = The Register by xxxJonBoyxxx · 2013-11-23 09:19 · Score: 5, Informative

The best 50th anniversary coverage I've seen by far is over the The Register. (Yes, the same publication you read to find out what will be on SlashDot tomorrow.)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/23/doctor_who_is_50/

Re:Who's popular where? by JustOK · 2013-11-23 09:22 · Score: 2

Hmmm. Looks like you edited the joke right out of your comment.

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rewriting history since 2109

This is cool, and I'm not even a fan of the show! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-23 09:24 · Score: 2, Interesting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUBxHd3bMhg

Re:I am the only one? by JustOK · 2013-11-23 09:25 · Score: 2

And that's what it's all about then, isn't it? The hokey. Or close to it. It's all abit hokey wokey ...ish

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rewriting history since 2109

Re:Too retro by Spad · 2013-11-23 09:28 · Score: 4, Insightful

Yes, the "original" Hunger Games which is nothing at all like Battle Royale...

Re:Watched by Spad · 2013-11-23 09:29 · Score: 4, Informative

The "Night of the Doctor" prelude already established the McGann Doctor (including radio plays) as canon.

Re:It's here by BarryHaworth · 2013-11-23 09:39 · Score: 2

It should be on Google's home page, starting Saturday.

Perhaps it's not Saturday yet where you are? Or maybe it's locked by country-code or something?

Here in Australia we got it on Friday. And we got the special on local TV at the same time as the UK.

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I am a Statistician. One false move and you are a Statistic

Dumbing it down by Gothmolly · 2013-11-23 09:48 · Score: 2

The mystery of the Time War is part of the mythos - don't explain it, then it's just a thing. When Tennant told the Master about "the could-have-been-King" that was awesome - left you just enough to wonder and imagine what happened. BBC is killing Dr Who by commoditizing it.

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I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.

Didn't like it by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-23 10:03 · Score: 2, Interesting

I seem to be massively in the minority here, but I wasn't impressed with the 50th anniversary Dr Who episode.

Aside from the randomness of running around with Queen Elizabeth I, I don't understand why writers feel it is necessary for them to retcon an established story's past. We've always known that the Doctor did something awful that resulted in the destruction of Gallifrey and the Daleks, and although it ended the Time War and saved the galaxy, it is something the Doctor has always felt very guilty about.

However, the writers of the show decided that they could fix this problem by "freezing" Gallifrey in a fixed point in time, rather than burning it. This, they reasoned, would result in the planet and the Time Lords being saved, but the Daleks being destroyed. How? Simple - they would destroy one another in the crossfire.

No. No, they wouldn't. There are millions and millions of Dalek ships surrounding the planet. They wouldn't just keep firing once the planet popped out of existence, wiping all their forces out. They would stop as soon as Gallifrey vanished, leaving the galaxy to attempt to face (and lose to) a huge army of rampaging Daleks. And even if they did something kill each other in the crossfire, the Daleks on the surface of the planet are just as frozen in time as the citizens of the world.

Why change what the Doctor did? Why remove that flaw, in an attempt to make him whiter-than-white?! The destruction of his homeworld was the Doctor's burden to shoulder. Taking that away makes him less human (I'm aware of the irony there, as he's actually an alien).

Re:Didn't like it by Wootery · 2013-11-24 00:53 · Score: 2

I share your view on the unnecessary retconning (god forbid we actually have a dark history to a protagonist...), but:

No. No, they wouldn't. There are millions and millions of Dalek ships surrounding the planet. They wouldn't just keep firing once the planet popped out of existence, wiping all their forces out.
I figured this actually made a bit of sense. The Daleks seem to be aiming to destroy everything on the planet's surface - we can see the explosions from space. The weapons used for that level of bombardment would be more than enough to take out other Daleks, even if they're only exposed to their own firepower for a couple of seconds. Kevlar won't save you from even a moment's artillery bombardment, after all.
Overall though I was disappointed by the depiction of the war. It was just a generic sci-fi battle. I always imaged the 'Time War' would take some totally different form.

I only wish by drewsup · 2013-11-23 10:36 · Score: 2

The curator, when done talking to Matt Smith, had pulled that little rumpled bag from his coat pocket and said the magic words...
"Jelly Baby?"

Too bad the Daleks won by Livius · 2013-11-23 11:05 · Score: 2

...the Time War since the only Daleks defeated were the ones in close orbit around Gallifrey, which certainly was not all of them.

I don't expect perfection from Doctor Who script-writing but I expected better.

Re:Google doodle? by Blue+Stone · 2013-11-23 11:16 · Score: 2

The archive link:

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Google Doodle.

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The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot by Memetic · 2013-11-23 11:20 · Score: 2

Currently airing on BBC's Red Button and soon to be on demand on iPlayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03lv3mj/The_Five(ish)_Doctors_Reboot/ is The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot a self parody by the former Doctors.

Don't miss the Peter Davison special... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-23 11:47 · Score: 2, Informative

The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, a 30-minute "behind the scenes" written and directed by 5th Doctor Peter Davison...

It's got everyone. Including cameo appearances by Peter Jackson and Ian McKellen (~13:00)...

Re:Too retro by wonkey_monkey · 2013-11-23 12:02 · Score: 5, Insightful

Dr. Who, Star [Wars|Gate|Dreck]. Too retro. I'm old enough to remember when they all started. They had their day. They need to disappear into history.

You know, you can just stop watching something if you don't like it.

Are we going to have to put up with that whole series as movies?

Unless you're going to be dragged into the cinema against your will and clamped into the chair with your eyelids propped up a la Clockwork Orange, no, you're not going to have to put up with it.

They had their day. They need to disappear into history.

Your opinion doesn't trump everyone else's. Sorry.

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systemd is Roko's Basilisk.

Re:Watched by Bogtha · 2013-11-23 12:07 · Score: 2

The Zygon framing story set up the solution to the Time War - the Warrior Doctor said as much when he remarked that the Ghost of Christmas Future didn't just take him to any future, it took him to the future he needed to see - i.e. it led him to the solution by specifically showing him the Zygon event. The Zygon framing story showed the audience how a stasis cube is used to freeze something in time (via the paintings), and it showed how the Doctor can take advantage of his multiple incarnations to perform a task that would normally take centuries (via the door unlocking), which were used to a) end the Time War in a different way and b) to provide an excuse for involving all of the Doctor's incarnations.

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Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha

Re:Another poorly-thought out Slashdot story title by femtobyte · 2013-11-23 13:51 · Score: 2

I know, this title is completely baffling. Happy 50th Doctor Who... what? Doctor Who Performed A Heart Surgery? Doctor Who Won A Pie Eating Contest? It's as if the title is about something intentionally ambiguous, leaving one forever asking "Doctor Who...?" without clear resolution.

ST3: Keep Spock Dead. SW4: Han Shot First. by grep+-v+'.*'+* · 2013-11-23 21:44 · Score: 2

ROT-13: Tnyyvserl Oheaf.

Quit REWRITING "History" .... damnit!

Last EP of Newhart: ... ended with a scene in which Newhart wakes up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette, who had played Emily, his wife from The Bob Newhart Show. He realizes (in a satire of a famous plot element in the television series Dallas a few years earlier) that the entire eight-year Newhart series had been a single nightmare of Dr. Bob Hartley's, provoked by "eating too much Japanese food before going to bed."

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If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?

Re:Tom Baker by daveime · 2013-11-24 01:18 · Score: 3, Informative

Eccleston *was* asked, the prick just decided to do a Tom Baker 25 years on ... maybe we'll see him in the 75th ...

Re:Watched by daveime · 2013-11-24 01:28 · Score: 2

what sort of techno geek uses the same device for 400 years and doesn't even update the OS?

Anyone using GNU HURD?

Re:Watched by Kjella · 2013-11-24 01:56 · Score: 3, Interesting

The only thing I hate about this episode is that Doctor Who is turning into a miracle worker that can fix anything, anywhere, any time. Where's all that anguish between doing something bad and letting something horrible happen going to go? No more the burden of having killed billions of children to save the universe on your conscience. Time paradoxes, crossing your own time stream, going to your own grave, time locked has ceased to mean anything. Now it was just "the time streams are out of sync, we just won't remember". At the end of every episode, he could essentially go back to the beginning and make it null and void, no more you made a decision and you're stuck with it. Hell, they more than hinted in this episode that they're going to rewrite Trenselor, no more of this future:

Dr. Simeon: It was a minor skirmish by the Doctor's blood-soaked standards. Not exactly the Time War, but enough to finish him. In the end it was too much for the old man.
Jenny: Blood soaked?
Vastra: The Doctor has been many things, but never blood-soaked.
Dr. Simeon: Tell that to the leader of the Sycorax. Or Solomon the Trader. Or the Cybermen, or the Daleks. The Doctor lives his life in darker hues, day upon day. And he will have other names before the end. Storm. The Beast. The Valeyard.

The doctor needs a setback, some kind of limitations, something he can't fix. But I think you have pretty much thrown that out the window by fixing the Time War.

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Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings

Re:Download here for those that missed it by Macgrrl · 2013-11-24 14:41 · Score: 2

According to Wikipedia it was 94 countries, still not half the countries in the world, but damn close and a Guinness World Record for the largest simulcast in history, including any Olympics and the moon landing.

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Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World

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