I notice there is no Dr Who stuff in this conference.  Is he on the air at
all?  I never did see them all.

61 responses total.

I remember PBS was carrying it late night a few years ago. But they've
apparently dropped it. I havn't seen it on for several years now.

I haven't seen Dr Who in ages...sigh. Scuttlebutt has it Fox is doing a
made-for-tv movie. I am scared, VERY scared....

And even that may not happen, it keeps getting pushed back...

Dr. Who used to be serious fundraiser material... PBS would say how much it
cost, and the Whovians would (supposedly) fork over lots of dough.  If you
can imagine Trekkers for a PBS show.  :)

Pretty fun show, but nobody has had it on for a while, and I don't really miss
the recent episodes they were showing.  Too pretentious.

It;s no longer in production over in England. People started got upset when
the Doctor regenerated into a woman.

You mean they made that mythical 26th (or 27th, I lcan't remember) season,
where they were going to have to replace Sylvester McCoy?

It's most the early episodes, notably the black & white ones, that I haven't
seen.

What's the deal with the SciFi network?  They don't show Trek and they don't
show Dr Who.  Is there something that requires them to show only crappy Sci
Fi?

Probably something to do with syndication prices.

Would be cool if they started show some of the old Hartnell episodes, or
perhaps the Troughton ones that I have almost never seen...

I thought the SciFi channel used to run DrWho.  Three years ago, more or 
less.  Not the best place to watch because it buggs me that they leave that
logo on the screen almost all the time while the program is going.  Also
Dr Who is designed to run 25 minutes between ads. 

The PBS runs used to concatenate 3-6 episodes together, to make a complete
story (DrWho being a serialized show...).  I think that when I first moved
back to Ann Arbor and got the SciFi channel for the first time ever, they were
showing some Tom Baker episodes at odd time slots.

And now scott is going to test his Whovian Quotient (WQ):
1st Doc:        William Hartnell (the really old guy)
2nd:            Patrick Troughton (the one in the huge coat)
3rd:            John Pertwee  (the best of the bunch! stylin'!)
4th:            Tom Baker (the guy with the scarf)
5th:            ??? (the guy in the cricket outfit)
6th:            Colin Baker (the arrogant, unpopular one with the big hair)
7th:            Sylvester McCoy (the one from all the "lets make it seem really
serious and tie in a bunch of old plots episodes)

I'm sure I'll remember the 5th doctor about 5 minutes after logging out!  :)

Doctor #5 was Peter Davidson, Scott...

Who was the later one that seemed like an English version of Columbo?

That was sylvester McCoy... always solving massive plots involving dozens of
ancient enemies.   The Hartnell episodes usually just had the Doctor & Co.
blundering into strange situations by accident.

I have a bunch of Doctor Who episodes on tape that I got from PBS. I also have
all the Sylvester McCoy episodes. And I also have copies of the Marvel
Premiere comic book <from waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy back> with the Tom Baker
Doctor in them.

It wasn't the "solving massive plots" part that made him seem like Columbo,
I always thought he *looked* like Columbo.

I have seen tapes of a few of the older B&W Hartnell and Troughton episodes
and was very impressed by their quality, for the time.  It's easy to see how
it won it's enormous early popularity.

Yeah, he *did* look like Columbo (probably still does ;) ).  But his legacy
is that he was the last actor to play the Doctor.  And there was some big
ongoing plot over the last season, with lots of twists and suprises.

I still like the Pertwee episodes a lot.  And the Davidson ones as well.  I
wasn't that huge a fan of the Tom Baker ones, even those were the most
popular.

How much of the Troughton episodes were set on Earth, in England?  I gathered
that the Doctor "joined" U.N.I.T. during that period, and pretty much all the
Pertwee episodes had that setting, leading finally into the Tom Baker
episodes.  The England setting helped the budget a great deal, no doubt!

Right, the second doc helped out UNIT.  At the end of the second doc's
time, he was punished by his people.  The punishment included denying him
use of the TARDIS for travel in space and time.  He was exiled to earth and
helped out UNIT while he was there for about 4 years, I think.

So who has a big stockpile of episodes on tape?  Sounds like a viewing party,
or perhaps a tape exchange  (I only have a huge mass of Simpsons episodes,
myself :)  ) would be in order...

I've got a bunch of DrWho tapes which I could lend.  If you want to go to
a party at which Dr Who episodes are likely to be shown, check out the
Motor City TARDIS.  It's been a while since I've gone to a meeting, but
I think they tend to be the third Saturday of the month.  Send mail to
Mike Gardiner asking about MCT.  mwg@mich.com

I have a few of the commericially sold tapes.  One Hartnell (The Web Planet),
three Troughtons (The Krotons, The Seeds of Death, The Dominators), two
Pertwees (The Daemons, Death to the Daleks) and one Baker (Talons of Weng-
Chiang).

The Krutons, The Seeds of Seseme, and the Dicemator? Sounds like a salad.

Yes, those were the salad days of Dr Who.

I have The Five Doctors on tape.  Jan, Maybe we could work a trade sometime?

Oohh... good episode!

Over in Houston, TX, there's a place called Suncoast Motion Picture Company. It
has most if not all of the Dr. Who episodes on tape.

We have one in our local mall.

I racked up stacks of Dr. Who tapes during the last few years that 
Detroit PBS was showing it; it's hardly a complete pile.  I agree that 
the Hartnell shows were fascinating to watch. 
 
I didn't think many Troughton shows had survived: I think I only have one.
 
Eventually I decided that I liked all the Doctors except for Colin 
Baker.  My favorite story of all is probably Sylvester McCoy's 
BATTLEFIELD from the last BBC season: it ropes in the King Arthur 
legend, two Brigadiers, an interesting twist on the timeline of a 
Time Lord, and it has Ace.

Hmmm, I thought the McCoy episodes were a bit too ambitious, or pretentious.
I liked episodes that didn't tie in too many plot elements.  My favorites are
still the Pertwee "stuck on Earth" ones.  The Troughton episodes are pretty
creative, especially given how old they are.  

Saw an advertisement on the TV yesterday for the New Dr. Who.

What channel, Bruce?

Fox.  They've had it in the works for over a year.

The ad was very short near the begining of the latest X-Files episode.  I
looked at it on tape with a few Dr. Who fans and we came up with a few
observations.

A portrait was flashed on the screen.  Literally one frame.  He was wearing
shades and looked like a bad guy.  He must have been the Master.  We hope they
explain why the master no longer has a beard.

The clip of the TARDIS was from the begining of Trial Of A Timelord.  That
white light was pulling the TARDIS into the space station where the trial took
place, remember?

The Doctor's look reminded us of Tom Baker's Doctor.

The ad said it's in May.  I think I heard it was going to be the second or
third Tuesday in May.

Cool.  THanks for the frame-by-frame analysis, Jeff!

Check the article about Dr Who in the current issue of TV Guide.  And don't
forget to watch the movie a week from tonight!

*#$@%@%!  I'll be gone.  I'd better leave a big note to myself to tape it.

Don't worry, Scott.  Lots of people will be taping this one if you miss it.

Well, I don't know.  It was *awfully* American.  Is this the first Dr. Who to
have a car chase?  The third Doctor had a car, I know, but...

The Third Doctor engaged in several car chases, as I recall.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss