Doctor Who Question Time

[Andrew Curnow]

To answer both the last questions in fact - I'd argue that the show's a lot more 'soap opera' under Moffat than RTD. I can't think of any other era where we have whole episodes which are solely about the regulars and their inter-relationships... until Moffat, when we get things like Let's Kill Hitler. It's only about four time-travellers faffing about, and I for one really don't want to see that show. (So that's the question before last...)

And from that, you can deduce that yes I'd like to see the show move into a more 'innocent' direction where they arrive at a random place and have an adventure. I yearn for the days where they would arrive on some planet that had never heard of Time lords or anything - for the seasons where the people of Ribos had no idea or interest in the existence of the world of Tara, and where the war between Zeos & Atrios happened in an entirely different universe to the machinations of the Pirate Captain & his Queen. Whether you could now realistically 'move' a show from a heavily arc-driven thing to a distinctly 'stand alone' style, I don't know. (...and that's the last one)


In your ideal/dream world, where you don't have to consider how probable things are, or what viewers would like, or the wishes of any other fan at all... Who would you like to see unveiled tomorrow as the new Doctor Who?

[Rob McCow]

Who would you like to see unveiled tomorrow as the new Doctor Who?

Who!

Who thought that abandoning Twitter for a whole day as a 'mass boycott' might be a good idea?

[SiHart]

I don't know Who.

What is your favourite Cyberman design and why?

[Si Hunt]

The Wheel In Space! I love their skull faces and hilarious shoes.

If only I had the novel of that story, my life would be complete.

Sixties, Seventies or Eighties Cybermen overall?

Si.

[Andrew Curnow]

It's got to be the 80s ones. Yes, I would have liked them to redesign them each time, so that they were different in The5Drs and Attack, to how they were in Earthshock - but that's not to detract from the quality of that initial 80s redesign. It looked 'ultra-modern' (obviously it doesn't so much now, but it was 30+ years ago), but also in the addition of the 'mouthpiece' it demonstrates that they'd put some thought into it - they weren't just bringing back the Cybermen, they were bringing back & reminding us of that original concept, of humanity being converted into these cybernetic 'monsters'.

And although I know some old fans bleat on and on about it, the 'addition' of an ability to converse properly was absolutely right. Again, it was never bettered in later stories, but the verbal confrontation between the Doctor and the Cyber Leader in Earthshock is gripping, but also rather unsettling - again, they aren't just blank-faced robot monsters, they are 'people'... and that's all the more scary.

Excellent!

Assuming that they could have miraculously cracked the technological limitations, do you think Kamelion could have been a good Who companion?

[Jon Masters]

I'm not convinced - the idea of having a companion of suspect loyalty was done to death with Turlough, though a nice little conspiracy arc leading to Planet of Fire might have been OK. The ability to impersoante anyone else would have been abused and overused very quickly though, so we'd have got to the NuHoo Sonic/ Psychic paper problems very quickly.

Which planet / society from Classic Who would you like them to revisit in the New Series ?

[Dirk Gently]

Would I be lynched if I said Peladon?

[Stuart Wallis]

Any excuse for more Ice Warriors!

Which monster from either classic or new series deserves to be brought back right now?

[Nyder]

Would I be lynched if I said Nimon?

[Wayne]

Would I be lynched if I said Nimon?

No you wouldn't.

Susan or Vicki? (No, not in that way, Tim)

[Stuart Wallis]

(No, not in that way, Tim)

Just as well...

Vicki - at least she does something occasionally.

Harry or Jamie?

[Wayne]

Jamie.
Harry's a bit too: "Tim, Nice but Dim"


Mel or Ace?

[SiHart]

Hmm, tricky- Mel for BF, Ace for TV.

Who is the best of the new series Doctors?

[Wayne]

Eccleston.

Who's the best of the new series companions?

[Dirk Gently]

Tricky, probably Donna but Clara is shaping up nicely.


Who's the worst of the new series companions?

[Philipnet]

Clara is shaping up nicely.

Tim,
seriously!

Clara is shaping up nicely.

I'm sure she's a nice shape



I'll let someone else answer the question

[Rob McCow]

Clara is the worst of the New Series Companions. She's just a feisty cypher with boobs.

What is Clara's personality?

[Wayne]

Clara is the worst of the New Series Companions. She's just a feisty cypher with boobs.

What is Clara's personality?

You mean she has one?

Sorry... As you were.

[Andrew Curnow]

To be charitable, Clara's personality is 'chirpy'.

On the one hand, I'd say that all the best old-school companions were those where the actor had given it something over & above what the script gave them - so really, the reason we love Jo Grant & Sarah Jane is more due to Katy & Liz than the writing of the two characters. And really, although we hear about how much more key the companion is as a character nowadays, certainly in the Moffat era I'd say Amy's quirky charm is mainly due to Karen, and any 'connection' we feel with Clara is likewise down to Jenna C. Both of the Moffat female companions have been (IMHO) saddled with being a plot device rather than 'just' an average person off the street - at the moment, that seems particularly true of Clara because we've only had this first run with her. But when you see an interview snippet saying that next season will give them chance to explore her humanity a bit more you do wonder what on Earth Cardiff are thinking. It's almost as if they can't write an interesting, 'important', engaging, multi-layered female character UNLESS she has some story function, like the whole 'girl who waited/crack in the wall' or 'impossible girl' shtick.

Should Harry Sullivan have stayed on for another year - and if so, do you think we would view the Doctor/Sarah dynamic of season 13 differently?

[SiHart]

I think Harry should have stayed on for a bit longer. I think it was a wasted opportunity. That said, looking at the stories as they are, I'm not sure how they'd have integrated him into them all, but if he was there at the writing stage, it could have worked. Of course we'd see the Tom/ Lis dynamic differently, but it might have stopped the Silly Sarah moments, and the character regressing to that of a 5 year old.

Which companion would you have most like to have stayed on a bit longer than they did?

[Jon Masters]

Micky in Series 2 - might have stopped the 'Doctor-Rose' love story from becomming quite so nauseating

Do you watch the Production Notes subtitles on the DVDs A) on every story B) On some stories C) Never ?

[Dino]

B)

Although I do love the notes, I sometimes forget they are on the disc. I like it for the "what could have been" and "we dodged a bullet!" for some of them, but I can't remember what parts made me think that.

Same question.

[Andrew Curnow]

Like many people, I'm sure, I started viewing them only after the fascinating article about them in DWM. At the risk of sounding a bit 'precious' there are some stories that I don't want to watch the notes on - in that, I don't necessarily want to know where to spot the boom mikes, or that Hartnell had missed his cue at this moment, or whatever. But there are some stories where I'm either so familiar with them because I've seen them so many times, and would therefore enjoy something 'new', or which are not necessarily great favourites anyway so I'm not worried about 'ruining' them. So far I've done the notes on:

The Mind Robber - probably the best of the ones I've read, I hadn't really twigged until reading them, that the mystery of where they are is still 'intact' into episode 3, ie we don't know it's the Land of Fiction during episode 2.

The Keys of Marinus - again, very interesting

Remembrance of the Daleks - bit dull I'm afraid.

Planet of the Daleks - fascinating, particularly for the ongoing 'correspondance' between Dicks & Nation.

What is your favourite DVD extra?

[SiHart]

My all time favourite is probably the one on the Graham Williams years on The Robos Operation, or maybe New Beginnings on The Leisure Hive or even A New Body At Last on Logopolis.

What is your all time favourite Doctor Who publicity shot?

[Andrew Curnow]

Maybe bizarrely, it's the one of Nick Courtney, Peter Purves, Adrienne Hill with Hartnell holding the Tarranium core. It's nothing special, yet everytime I see it I think that maybe a minute later, after the picture had been taken, they went back to having their tea prior to the evening recording... I can't really explain it, except it always for some reason triggers that sense of the fiction & the fact overlapping. Is it a picture of Bret, Steven, Katarina and the Doctor, or is it four actors taking a fairly unforgettable photo as part of their working day, and yet by chance it's a photo that people are still looking at nearly 50 years later with only one of the people in it still alive? I hope that makes some sort of sense at least.

Same question again, in hope of a rational answer!