Doctor Who

[Tooker]

Indeed.

I'm kind of sad that it confirms that

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John Hurt is a regeneration between McGann and Eccleston, because people will now argue over whether Eccleston is 9 or not, and those who still think the "timelords only get 13 regenerations" rule applies will complain when Smith regenerates because "Oh no, he's on his last regeneration!  When Capaldi leaves, they have to stop Doctor Who!"  I like the name The War Doctor that they give for him in the credits, although I think it would have been cool if he was named The Warrior.

[Lard]

I think

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the name somehow refers to the War Chief from The War Games, which introduces the Time Lords
Moffat does seem to like using elements from Troughton's era.

That said I squeed like a little girl when I saw it.

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McGann! Sisterhood of Karn! Big Finish audio companions mentioned!
There were tons of theories that the Hurt Doctor was going to somehow be tied into the Brain of Morbius.

Using

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The Sisterhood of Karn certainly was an interesting aspect. Hmmmmm

[Prime Mover]

Cool that the Sisterhood of Karn were mentioned. Too bad Brain of Morbius was such HORRIBLE episode. Grade F monster flick.

But the Sisterhood of Karn are one of those elements that has become so central to Doctor Who lore and yet never used or heard of again, possibly for good reason. Their connection to the Timelords is huge, and the possibilities are endless, maybe too much so.

BTW: for anyone who worries about the 12-regeneration limit, there are a million ways around that, some of which are very obvious canon from long ago. The Master himself is testament to that, as he supposedly was on his last regeneration back during the 4th Doctor. We know the Timelords can offer a whole new regeneration cycle, as they promised The Master for his aid, which he still managed to not give even with that incentive! The Sisterhood of Karn seem capable of doing crazy things with Timelord regeneration. The Master was able to body snatch his way into another regeneration, with all his abilities intact (though we'd assume he only has one heart). But The Timelords giving The Doctor a new regeneration cycle for saving their butts? They'd be stupid not to.

In fact, I half expect that Moffat will do that soon. If Capaldi is the final regeneration, that brings up another problem: Final Regenerations are weak. The master looked like a rotting corpse during his, though one other Timelord was referred to being in his final regeneration and looked just fine, so I'm not sure what that's about. I fully expect that the 50th anniversary will end the Time War, the Doctor(s) being the savior. If so, then the Timelords owe him that much. Hell, they go on and on about Rasilon, but The Doctor has saved and elevated their kind more than the old geezer.

The fact is, the whole "12 regenerations" was made canon during the 4th Doctor (I don't believe it was during Pertwee), when the creators had NO IDEA that the show was going to go on for that long. They probably made it 12 regenerations as a way of making the number so high that they figured we'd never have to worry. It was never a number to hang over our heads, so I have no problem with the creators making some easy way out of it, in order to stick with the original intentions of the show.

[GrimReality]

Is it ok to like Doctor Who and not have a clue what you guys are talking about? I've never seen a single episode prior to the reboot. I have no clue who the Sisterhood of Karn is, and don't really care. I just like the show because it's goofy fun, and has hot companions. I'm simple like that.

[Tooker]

I've seen all of the First Doctor that's been released, and I'm one DVD set away from finishing off the Second... and I have no idea who the Sisterhood is either.

I honestly think that's why they put this into a prequel thing that only fans will bother to watch - if you don't get it, it's not going to seriously impact your enjoyment of the 50th anniversary show.

Do you know who the Doctor in that prequel is?  Not trying to be condescending - it just would probably be nicer to know than to not know.

[Lard]

I've seen all of the First Doctor that's been released, and I'm one DVD set away from finishing off the Second... and I have no idea who the Sisterhood is either.

I honestly think that's why they put this into a prequel thing that only fans will bother to watch - if you don't get it, it's not going to seriously impact your enjoyment of the 50th anniversary show.

Do you know who the Doctor in that prequel is?  Not trying to be condescending - it just would probably be nicer to know than to not know.

Sisterhood of Karn is from the Fourth Doctor. You can't blame them for including something that you haven't watched.

The Doctor in the prequel is number 8. I would've thought most people at least knew that much.

Also, Brain of Morbius is a great story.

Related - there are wild rumours flying around that

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Tom Baker is indeed in the 50th story. And possibly Doctors 5-7. Based on a few things I've seen, I'm inclined to believe the Tom part

[Tooker]

You took that the opposite of how I meant it.

I was saying "Hey, Grim, don't feel bad that you don't know who the Sisterhood is.  I've watched several seasons' worth of the old stuff, and I don't know who they are yet, either."

[Lard]

My bad.

Go watch the Brain of Morbius. And ignore Prime - it's a really fun story.

[GrimReality]

 

I've seen all of the First Doctor that's been released, and I'm one DVD set away from finishing off the Second... and I have no idea who the Sisterhood is either.

I honestly think that's why they put this into a prequel thing that only fans will bother to watch - if you don't get it, it's not going to seriously impact your enjoyment of the 50th anniversary show.

Do you know who the Doctor in that prequel is?  Not trying to be condescending - it just would probably be nicer to know than to not know.

No, I didn't know who that was. Doctor Who geek co-worker told me, though. Lard, why would I know that if I hadn't seen anything prior to #9? I don't latch on to mythology well. I've always preferred the more stand alone type stories.
Anyway, I AM looking forward to Saturday. Should be fun.

[Lard]

I sort of figured it had been covered in news stories, Doctor Who Confidential, and in fandom enough that people would at least know who the eighth doctor was all.

[Ranadiel]

I am sad because I will be on an airplane when this initially airs. If I'm lucky I might be able to see one of the later showings. Worst case scenario, I will watch it in theaters on Monday.

The fact is, the whole "12 regenerations" was made canon during the 4th Doctor (I don't believe it was during Pertwee), when the creators had NO IDEA that the show was going to go on for that long. They probably made it 12 regenerations as a way of making the number so high that they figured we'd never have to worry. It was never a number to hang over our heads, so I have no problem with the creators making some easy way out of it, in order to stick with the original intentions of the show.

Well they made it 12 because that is the number of hours on a clock and clock=time and time=time lords. Science! But yeah I agree with you. Hell during one of the episodes, the crew at the time tried to imply that the first Doctor was not actually the first Doctor. I imagine that crew was basically thinking, "Eh hitting the limit will never matter so let's just throw some extras in there." Although I think the easiest way to punt the ball would be to just say, "The Sisterhood of Karn's elixir effectively gave him a new life resulting in him having 12 new regenerations when he was reborn." Easy out to punt the ball for a couple of decades.

Related - there are wild rumours flying around that

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Tom Baker is indeed in the 50th story. And possibly Doctors 5-7. Based on a few things I've seen, I'm inclined to believe the Tom part

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Yeah I had heard a rumor that Peter Davison is in it as well.

[Daggerstrike]

Cool that the Sisterhood of Karn were mentioned. Too bad Brain of Morbius was such HORRIBLE episode. Grade F monster flick.

But the Sisterhood of Karn are one of those elements that has become so central to Doctor Who lore and yet never used or heard of again, possibly for good reason. Their connection to the Timelords is huge, and the possibilities are endless, maybe too much so.

BTW: for anyone who worries about the 12-regeneration limit, there are a million ways around that, some of which are very obvious canon from long ago. The Master himself is testament to that, as he supposedly was on his last regeneration back during the 4th Doctor. We know the Timelords can offer a whole new regeneration cycle, as they promised The Master for his aid, which he still managed to not give even with that incentive! The Sisterhood of Karn seem capable of doing crazy things with Timelord regeneration. The Master was able to body snatch his way into another regeneration, with all his abilities intact (though we'd assume he only has one heart). But The Timelords giving The Doctor a new regeneration cycle for saving their butts? They'd be stupid not to.

In fact, I half expect that Moffat will do that soon. If Capaldi is the final regeneration, that brings up another problem: Final Regenerations are weak. The master looked like a rotting corpse during his, though one other Timelord was referred to being in his final regeneration and looked just fine, so I'm not sure what that's about. I fully expect that the 50th anniversary will end the Time War, the Doctor(s) being the savior. If so, then the Timelords owe him that much. Hell, they go on and on about Rasilon, but The Doctor has saved and elevated their kind more than the old geezer.

The fact is, the whole "12 regenerations" was made canon during the 4th Doctor (I don't believe it was during Pertwee), when the creators had NO IDEA that the show was going to go on for that long. They probably made it 12 regenerations as a way of making the number so high that they figured we'd never have to worry. It was never a number to hang over our heads, so I have no problem with the creators making some easy way out of it, in order to stick with the original intentions of the show.

I have a theory of how they could "reboot" his regenerations. Slightly spoilerish for people that have just started watching the series----

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When the doctor absorbed all the time energy from the TARDIS via Rose some of it could have suffused his cells and reboot the regernation cycle, making him stronger or more able to regenerate than a regular time lord. Boom.

[Lard]

There's a theory going round that

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the Doctor has absorbed all the regenerations of other Tlme Lords, making him basically immortal
New mini up - http://vimeo.com/79883993

Not nearly as interesting as the last one.

[Prime Mover]

Eh, I think fans would pretty pissed if they blew it off using a prior event. Just thinking about it, suddenly the doctor regenerates, and someone's like "Wait a minute, how can you do that again?" "Oh that? Yeah, I got a whole new generation cycle years ago!" I don't think the creators would ever live that one down, especially since fans have been "worried" about it for the last few regenerations. No, mostly, I think problems are best dealt with by something at the time, not by kind of half-ass retconning it using some mumbo jumbo from years back. Whatever his new regeneration cycle will be, I think it needs to be dealt with at the end of Capaldi's run.

[Prime Mover]

My bad.

Go watch the Brain of Morbius. And ignore Prime - it's a really fun story.

Meh, I dunno what it is, but the Sarah Jane period of Tom Baker just really never got me going. There are some killer episodes like Arc in Space and Genesis of the Daleks, but I feel as if maybe they had a lower budget at the time, or were aiming too high with effects they couldn't pull off. IMO, the Pertwee era feels more polished. I'm going to go against the grain here and say that the Tom Baker period didn't really start rocking until Leela came along. I was never crazy about Sarah Jane to begin with, but it feels like she got whinier the longer she went. In fact, I believe it's part of the reason why she left... she didn't like the way she was being written. Not sure why she's everyone's favorite companion, there are a lot worse, but there are a lot of far more interesting ones. And of course, the era went out with an absolute bang with Romana II. Fuck... if they bring ANYONE from the past back with the 50th, Lala Ward. Hell, she and Capaldi are about the same age, and doesn't look all that old. I'd love to see the two of them ham it up. Greatest companion ever. Of course, you have to suffer through about 6 episodes of the tart Romana I, who I think we can all agree was an absolute bitch (even if she was smokin'). Though we get The Pirate Planet during that season, which is one of my all time favorites, Douglas Adams wrote it, and it has a lot of the same zany humor as the hitchhiker's guide.

Sorry for going off like that, I'm a huge DW nerd and I've seen all of it, except the movie (which I intend to watch this week). Back to the point, Brain of Morbius is worth seeing, if not because its huge plot implications. The first half is really quite good. I just don't like the fact that it devolves into a ridiculously corny, low budget monster flick: big plastic and rubber brain monster flailing around grunting and chasing the heroes through the castle. I just feel like it's one of the surprisingly few episodes that don't translate well to a modern audience.

But it looks like Brain of Morbius and Terror of the Zygons are the ones to see here for the upcoming episodes. Neither one is anywhere near a standout, IMO.