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    #26
    Who?

    Back in the 80s there was a brief mode in the Dr Who fanzines to make "write your own Eric Saward story" and "write your own Terrance Dicks novelisation" dice games using the particularly overused elements of each writer's output.

    I think that must have been the result of a high spirited evening of "write your own Russell T Davies story" japes in the Doctor Who production office.

    Lazy, phoned-in rubbish.

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      #27
      Who?

      I thought it was better than a lot of RTD episodes. It almost all made sense, for a start.

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        #28
        Who?

        Oh dear.

        Dr Who query: why, given that he's immortal and can travel throughout eternity, does the Doctor always choose his companions from roughly contemporary Earth?

        Oh, and clearly Rose is the final Cylon.

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          #29
          Who?

          Good fun, I thought. Tate seemed to be nicely toned-down.

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            #30
            Who?

            Dr Who query: why, given that he's immortal and can travel throughout eternity, does the Doctor always choose his companions from roughly contemporary Earth?
            No. But the alien ones have invariably been shit. It's mainly to do with the companion being a relatable voice for the viewer, I guess.

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              #31
              Who?

              Lalla is in the "exception that proves the rule" position here.

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                #32
                Who?

                "It's mainly to do with the companion being a relatable voice for the viewer, I guess."

                Well of course, but I was wondering if there's any narrative justification for it. It's not like the Doctor cares about that.

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                  #33
                  Who?

                  "Maybe it's silly of me, but humans are quite my favourite species" to quote TomDoc.

                  There was a time when his companions were more of a mixed bag - Pat Troughton's three main companions were all human but one was a Jacobite rebel, another a Victorian asucepot and the third an online paedo's dream from the 24th century.

                  One of Hartnell's companions was a Trojan handmaiden and another was a space orphan from space year 6 million or something.

                  edit - Peter Purves also spent as year playing a space pilot from space year 8000 at the same time. Terry Nation had a lot to do with scripts back then. - end edit

                  Since then where earthling companions are concerned it has predominantly been kids from the here and now (or in the case of Ace some hopeless middle-aged, middle class twat's idea of what "the here and now" meant to 1988 yoof). The reason for that is that the vast majority of stories took place in "the here and now". For instance, between 1970 and 1977 the companions could pretty much only have come from the there and then because of the policy decision made in 1970 to set everything on contemporary earth. Once that straitjacket was loosened 6 of the next 7 companions were not from Earth. Since then, of course, every companion has been a contemporary earthling. Can't see that changing, though, given RTD's assertion that the series has to always be about humans in peril. I can kind of see his point where that's concerned. Nobody ever gave a shit about the struggle between Moroks and the Xerons in The Space Museum, after all.

                  Chantho might have made a reasonable companion but it would have been (a) a bit dull after a while, probably, and (b) the logistics of having a regular actor needing that amount of prosthetic work before every single day's shooting would have made it impossible.

                  Mind you, if they want a change from the here and now humans they could always have gone for Scooti Manista from The Impossible Planet. As I said at the time, that girl had incredible dramatic potential.

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                    #34
                    Who?

                    I'm fairly sure there's never been a justification for it on screen. It would be a bit like the Doctor explaining why every baddie he met in the 70s came over like some bloke who'd been chucked out of the RSC for being too pissed.

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                      #35
                      Who?

                      Well, except for the stuff (quote included) I gave right before you, obv.

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                        #36
                        Who?

                        I suppose with BBC3 and iPlayers thingies, we can't comment about this without lots of spoilers; but pretty silly/harmless(ish) stuff. Yes, it could have been a Sarah Jane episode; but the first one of a series is usually like that.

                        I just hope we don't see too much more of Donna's family in this - they make the Tyler and Jones clans look really interesting.

                        See viewing figures hit 8,4 million for the Beeb so they're happy.

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                          #37
                          Who?

                          Puves - apologies for my bleary-eyed gormlessness.

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                            #38
                            Who?

                            They can still have here and now storylines, without a companion from the here and now though. If Martha wanted to see Shakespearean London, then obviously a companion from the 25th century would be quite interested to see London in the 21st century, before it was consumed by rising sea levels.

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                              #39
                              Who?

                              Lucy Waterman wrote:
                              Lalla is in the "exception that proves the rule" position here.
                              As is Nyssa. And Leela. And well, all of the alien companions apart from the badly acted Adric and the badly written Turlough.

                              That said, the companions have always been humanoid, and they have to be, because we have to identify with them, because they are there to ask the questions that we ourselves would ask. And also, as Purves said, an actor/actress having to need shitloads of makeup story in/story out isn't going to stick around.

                              As for Saturday, it was fun, RTD by numbers lite, and that's pretty much how it should start. But why does every RTD baddie in this era have to start big, by affecting hundreds of thousands or even millions of people? Even with the reset switch endings, there can't be that many people on earth now, it's lazy writing at it's absolute worst. As Steven Moffat and Paul Cornell have proved, the best episodes since the return have been 'local' threats with grander plans down the line, just like in the old days.

                              Still, at least he's toned down Tate. Apart from the bit where they first see each other (which actually worked), and when she was being preumptious about travelling with him, she was a lot more toned down. Which she needed to be. I just think the casting is lazy - as it was with Sarah Lancashire. A well known actress, whose always had safe parts, didn't remotely convince as a baddie. Would it have affected the ratings had Miss Foster been played by a better but lesser-known actess? Of course not.

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                                #40
                                Who?

                                And aren't Londoners getting sick of having random spaceships overhead yet? Why are they still surprised in the slightest?

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                                  #42
                                  Who?

                                  A cool efficient capitalist killer, Lancashire delivered a far better performance that John Simm as the Master last year.
                                  About the only bit I agreed with, but the phrase "damning with faint praise" springs to mind.

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                                    #43
                                    Who?

                                    As is Nyssa

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                                      #44
                                      Who?

                                      Still no mention of the fact that Richard Dawkins will be making a cameo appearance as himself later this series?

                                      I so hope they include Lalla in the background.

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                                        #45
                                        Who?

                                        It'll be like all the other cameos. It'll be in the last two episodes, and he'll be on the news talking about whatever invasion it is this time, and then again after the Doctor presses the reset button that saves the world.

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                                          #46
                                          Who?

                                          I'm not so sure, this time. I reckon he might be more integral to the plot.

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                                            #47
                                            Who?

                                            Well, I thought that was very very good. Classic stylw Doctor Who, done very well. There was probably scope fo rthat to have been fleshed out and turned into a two parter, but for what it was it was a definite success. And on the strength of that performance and characterisation I may have to eat my words about Catherine/Donna.

                                            I thought the jokes were funny, too.

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                                              #48
                                              Who?

                                              Rolled together I think these two episodes have been excellent. Already, so far, we've had two denouements that (oh, okay, SPOILER ALERT) show the Doctor not to be completely homicidal ("Aren't you going to blow it up?" "Why? They haven't done anything wrong, they're only children." "Hah, not like last time, then") and tonight ("They all have to die, it's history. I can't change that. There's nothing I can do!" "You HAVE to save at least some of them. You CAN! You HAVE TO!").

                                              The 'ghost' of Rose in episode one worries me, though. Poignant as it is, it runs the risk of becoming too complicated a sub-plot for me to be able to explain to my 5 and 6 year old daughters. They just like Doctor meets baddy-baddy kills people-Doctor saves the day at the last moment. In a neatly wrapped 50-minute episode. Like, I have to say (and I think this is where Russell T Davies is getting much of his inspiration from) the original series of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

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                                                #49
                                                Who?

                                                Hmm, it didn't do a lot for me, though it was a hell of a lot better than last week. But what was that stuff about Romans not knowing about volcanoes prior to the big Vesuvius eruption? Surely Etna had already been fairly active?

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                                                  #50
                                                  Who?

                                                  I guess it's pretty fair to say they couldn't have known that much about volcanoes, or they wouldn't have built Pompeii right underneath Vesuvius.

                                                  Or indeed rebuilt the place as Neapolita afterwards, thinking "well that won't happen again ..."

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