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Doctors Revisited -- Seventh Doctor special
I'm watching the Doctors Revisited special for the Seventh Doctor right now, and thoroughly enjoying it. They have Bonnie Langford back again -- the first time a companion has been interviewed in more than one special -- and Sophie Aldred, and Sylvester McCoy.
The best quotes so far have been from Sophie. First she said that Sylvester would take every opportunity to "bring out those spoons," and then she said that her biggest claim to fame as a companion is that she beat up a Dalek with a baseball bat, and it would probably be on her tombstone.
"Famous foes" showcased the Rani, which is a little weird I think because she was introduced in a Sixth Doctor episode, but I suppose the pickings were slim.
Steven Moffat said some great things, and especially praised Sylvester's ability to be very comic with this tremendous layer of sadness underneath.
And now we're into "Remembrance of the Daleks." Steven Moffat introduced it, and he began by confessing that he didn't like the Seventh Doctor's first episodes, but he nevertheless cut short a meeting for "Press Gang" to rush home and watch "Remembrance," and he was completely blown away by it.
And now, my off-the-cuff reactions to "Remembrance of the Daleks," which I have seen before, but don't remember very well:
-- The whole bit with the Totters Lane alley is subtle actually, and I probably didn't pick up on it the first time I saw this. Well, not hugely subtle, but if you don't bother to pay attention to the signs, their significance isn't spelled out to you. But yes, there they are: "I M Foreman," "Totters Lane" and "Coal Hill School." Also, when the captain asks the Doctor how he knows there's no exit to the alley, he says "I've been here before."
-- The Doctor calls the captain "Brigadier." LOL!
-- The science lab at Coal Hill School has a French Revolution book on one of the lab stations. Left there by Barbara, perhaps? (Is this supposed to take place right after they left?)
-- The scientific advisor of the proto-UNIT group reminds me of Liz Shaw.
-- The Dalek can climb stairs!
-- The Doctor says that 1963 is before Ace was born, but it's not before Sophie Aldred was born (and yes, I looked it up). Is that because Ace is supposed to be from the 1990s, not the era in which the show was broadcast? Or is it because Sophie was playing Ace younger than her (Sophie's) age?
-- And ha, it's the sly little "meta" moment when Ace just misses seeing the first episode of Doctor Who on the telly! I do remember picking up on that the first time I saw this.
-- I don't quite get what's going on -- and I don't remember the explanation -- but it's bothering me less now than it did when I first watched this episode. Instead of getting frustrated, I'm able to go with the flow and trust it will all be explained later.
-- And the scientific advisor just complained abut being drafted away from her old job at Cambridge. Definitely a Liz Shaw homage!
-- Okay the Doctor just kinda sorta explained things to Ace. At least, he told her what the Hand of Omega is, and told her that he wants the Daleks to have it. But he's had this since he was the First Doctor, from before he had even met the Daleks? And he left it on Earth and didn't bother going back for it for six incarnations? Why is he dealing with it now? I'm still confused.
-- This was an anniversary episode, right? There are of course lots of references to the First Doctor, and they also referenced "Yetis in the Underground" (Second Doctor) and "that gambit with the Zygons and the Loch Ness monster" (Fourth Doctor). All the proto-UNIT stuff and the proto-Liz Shaw scientific advisor is an homage to the Third Doctor, and the reference to Omega works for both the Third and Fifth Doctors. Now I'm just waiting to see if I can spot any references to the Sixth Doctor's era.
-- The Doctor introduces himself as "President-elect of the High Council of the Time Lords." Another Fifth Doctor reference! And actually, perhaps that counts as a Fourth Doctor reference, too?
-- . . .and, it's over. And um, I still don't quite get it. Why did the First Doctor have the Hand of Omega? What was his original plan for it? Why did the Doctor come back now, and how did the Daleks (two whole factions of them) know where to find the Hand?
In general, though, I did enjoy it, and it was fun to watch something that I didn't remember very well.
No hint of whether they're going to do a retrospective for the Eighth Doctor. Hard though it would be to do one, I kind of hope they do!
The best quotes so far have been from Sophie. First she said that Sylvester would take every opportunity to "bring out those spoons," and then she said that her biggest claim to fame as a companion is that she beat up a Dalek with a baseball bat, and it would probably be on her tombstone.
"Famous foes" showcased the Rani, which is a little weird I think because she was introduced in a Sixth Doctor episode, but I suppose the pickings were slim.
Steven Moffat said some great things, and especially praised Sylvester's ability to be very comic with this tremendous layer of sadness underneath.
And now we're into "Remembrance of the Daleks." Steven Moffat introduced it, and he began by confessing that he didn't like the Seventh Doctor's first episodes, but he nevertheless cut short a meeting for "Press Gang" to rush home and watch "Remembrance," and he was completely blown away by it.
And now, my off-the-cuff reactions to "Remembrance of the Daleks," which I have seen before, but don't remember very well:
-- The whole bit with the Totters Lane alley is subtle actually, and I probably didn't pick up on it the first time I saw this. Well, not hugely subtle, but if you don't bother to pay attention to the signs, their significance isn't spelled out to you. But yes, there they are: "I M Foreman," "Totters Lane" and "Coal Hill School." Also, when the captain asks the Doctor how he knows there's no exit to the alley, he says "I've been here before."
-- The Doctor calls the captain "Brigadier." LOL!
-- The science lab at Coal Hill School has a French Revolution book on one of the lab stations. Left there by Barbara, perhaps? (Is this supposed to take place right after they left?)
-- The scientific advisor of the proto-UNIT group reminds me of Liz Shaw.
-- The Dalek can climb stairs!
-- The Doctor says that 1963 is before Ace was born, but it's not before Sophie Aldred was born (and yes, I looked it up). Is that because Ace is supposed to be from the 1990s, not the era in which the show was broadcast? Or is it because Sophie was playing Ace younger than her (Sophie's) age?
-- And ha, it's the sly little "meta" moment when Ace just misses seeing the first episode of Doctor Who on the telly! I do remember picking up on that the first time I saw this.
-- I don't quite get what's going on -- and I don't remember the explanation -- but it's bothering me less now than it did when I first watched this episode. Instead of getting frustrated, I'm able to go with the flow and trust it will all be explained later.
-- And the scientific advisor just complained abut being drafted away from her old job at Cambridge. Definitely a Liz Shaw homage!
-- Okay the Doctor just kinda sorta explained things to Ace. At least, he told her what the Hand of Omega is, and told her that he wants the Daleks to have it. But he's had this since he was the First Doctor, from before he had even met the Daleks? And he left it on Earth and didn't bother going back for it for six incarnations? Why is he dealing with it now? I'm still confused.
-- This was an anniversary episode, right? There are of course lots of references to the First Doctor, and they also referenced "Yetis in the Underground" (Second Doctor) and "that gambit with the Zygons and the Loch Ness monster" (Fourth Doctor). All the proto-UNIT stuff and the proto-Liz Shaw scientific advisor is an homage to the Third Doctor, and the reference to Omega works for both the Third and Fifth Doctors. Now I'm just waiting to see if I can spot any references to the Sixth Doctor's era.
-- The Doctor introduces himself as "President-elect of the High Council of the Time Lords." Another Fifth Doctor reference! And actually, perhaps that counts as a Fourth Doctor reference, too?
-- . . .and, it's over. And um, I still don't quite get it. Why did the First Doctor have the Hand of Omega? What was his original plan for it? Why did the Doctor come back now, and how did the Daleks (two whole factions of them) know where to find the Hand?
In general, though, I did enjoy it, and it was fun to watch something that I didn't remember very well.
No hint of whether they're going to do a retrospective for the Eighth Doctor. Hard though it would be to do one, I kind of hope they do!
no subject
Yes: Sophie is about 10 years older than Ace.
Why did the First Doctor have the Hand of Omega? What was his original plan for it?
In the book Lungbarrow, the explanation is that it adopted him rather than the other way round. Though that version of the Doctor's departure from Gallifrey has since been Jossed by The Name of the Doctor. Curiously, in The Name of the Doctor we see the Doctor escaping Gallifrey, and there's a distinct lack of Gallifreyan superweapons in evidence :-)
no subject
Wow, she plays a very believable teenager!
in The Name of the Doctor we see the Doctor escaping Gallifrey, and there's a distinct lack of Gallifreyan superweapons in evidence :-)
Maybe he has it in his dimensionally transcendetal pocket? ; )
I just wish we'd had more of the background explained. I think this is what bothers me about Seventh Doctor episodes in general -- there's this sense that all this stuff is going on, and most of it isn't ever really explained. Instead of just throwing out the Hand of Omega as a Gallifreyan superweapon, I want to know why the Doctor had it / still has it, and how the Daleks found out about it. Instead, it's basically a convenient plot device. In fact, having two Dalek factions is also a convenient plot device that allows for more battle scenes, but isn't explained at all (I remember being really confused by the two Dalek factions when I first watched the episode). Also, you'd think that if you're going to go to all the trouble to have two warring Dalek factions, that the plot would hinge on that somehow, but it really doesn't. The entire story would have worked exactly the same way if there had been only one faction, except for some battle scenes.
Mostly though I just want to know more about the Hand of Omega and what the Doctor was doing with it.
no subject
A lot of it was deliberate, I think; the thought being that the Doctor had lost too much of his mystery, so they'd add some back by hinting there was more to his backstory than just running away from Gallifrey out of boredom. Some of the lines hinting in that direction got cut, but the exchange regarding the Hand of Omega remains:
Doctor: And didn't we have trouble with the prototype...
Ace: "We?"
Doctor: They.
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no subject
I think that's supposed to be the book Susan borrows at the beginning of An Unearthly Child and that this episode is (chronologically) set right after. Which raises the question of what would have happened if Ian and Barbara hadn't stormed the TARDIS that night? Would the first Doctor have had a fatal encounter with the Daleks before he even knew what they were? Or would the Daleks have even thought to come knocking if they hadn't met the Doctor due to him kidnapping some high school teachers to Skaro. But then again, wouldn't someone have come looking for the Hand of Omega eventually...?
Okay the Doctor just kinda sorta explained things to Ace. At least, he told her what the Hand of Omega is, and told her that he wants the Daleks to have it. But he's had this since he was the First Doctor, from before he had even met the Daleks? And he left it on Earth and didn't bother going back for it for six incarnations? Why is he dealing with it now? I'm still confused.
Yeah. Seventh Doctor episodes are fascinating, but they're worse for the dangling plot threads than Moffat is (no wonder he likes them). Is it ever specifically specified that the First Doctor buried the hand? It would be just like Seven to come back and do something like that on the sly...
This was an anniversary episode, right?
I think that Silver Nemesis was the "Official" 25th anniversary special, but this one aired in the same year (does a way better job of it than Nemesis IMHO)
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I love Remembrance to itty-bitty pieces. My favourite part is the conversation about sugar in tea and the significance of small decisions.
Did you pick up on the Dalek girl's theme song and how it got reused in Human Nature?
no subject
That would be a very interesting AU! Although personally, I think the Doctor did have a huge influence on how the Daleks turned out. Would they still have come after the Hand of Omega, though? Perhaps.
Yes, these dangling plot threads are very dangling!
By the way, the First Doctor didn't bury the Hand. It was still in the casket at the funeral parlor, with a promise that he would return for it. I want to know what he was up to! As I said above, I love the idea that he was up to something, and not just hanging around while Susan went to school.
And no, I didn't pick up on Dalek girl's theme song and its relationship to Human Nature. Care to enlighten me?
no subject