New Doctor Who assistant announced

[The Monarch]

sorry for the double post but I forgot to add this

Images from my recent trip to the kelvingrove doctor who exhilbition

//http://panelsonpages2009.forumotion.com/the-abyss-f2/dave-and-the-doctor-aka-dave-and-family-at-the-doctor-who-exhibition-t561.htm

[Peter Wolf]

It took me a while to remember who Sally Sparrow was but, once I did, I agreed with faplad.

One of the points I was trying to make with my original post was that, if you look back over the history of Doctor Who, there's been a pretty wide range of companions - male and female, younger and older - and some who really didn't want to be there at all. They might not all have worked, but they weren't just hero-worshipping dollybirds. Given RTD's mouth about making Who inclusive and representative - especially his rather snide comments about Primeval being "too white" - I think it's pretty shoddy that NuWho hasn't given much space to older characters (other than cute old grandads) or characters like Romana and River Song, older women who are very much the Doctor's intellectual equals.

I also have very real problems with what I refer to as the "hero-worship" of the Doctor. IMO, it completely cuts against the original conception of the character. Sure, he's a savant, he stands up for the underdog and saves the day, but my memory was always that the Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker Doctors always rejected any kind of hero-worship and always reminded the people they helped that it was their fight and their sacrifice. Given what I perceive to be the anarchic, anti-authoritarian, humanist slant of the older shows, I find the transformation of the Doctor into some kind of Messiah figure really hard to swallow. Almost offensive, on occasions.

And I think the Doctor has to be played by an older actor, simply to give the right feeling of weight and experience to the character. (I realise it doesn't really make much logical sense to regenerate to "middle age", but I think it's a vital dramatic device.)

Having said that, Steven Moffat has written some excellent stuff, so I will give the next series a chance.

Here endeth the lesson. Selah! Sorry the posting's a bit long, but I really wanted to make myself clear.

Yep i think that is about it !

Who would want an old fuddy duddy as the DR ?

Put that idea out of your minds right now and just think how much an older DR would alienate its young audience who would have problems relating to an older DR.

This seems to be the thinking behind it but its odd because i dont understand that kind of thinking at all because when i watched DrWho in ye olde days when it was Jon Pertwee etc their age was of no consequence at all to beyond visual identification of someone who was much older than i was but it never made a scrap of difference otherwise.Irrelevant .

Why the need to relate to a character all the time ?

I dont see why needing to relate to a character is essential to enjoying a characters book or tv or film exploits.

Age seems to be rather a shallow thing to want to relate to with a character.

Theres a big difference to a TV show having very high ratings because its good for whatever reason and something that is formulaised and designed cynically to target an audience because it fulfills certain criteria.

Dr Who is all about marketing.Its a product.It always was to a certain extent with books etc but never more so than now.

As far as diversity and representation goes i find these things are rarely balanced and representative but are rather subject to an individuals interpretation of what represents diversity to them and with RTD being the case its perfectly clear what his agenda was because it was always present in the script.The comment about "hero worshipping dollybirds" as the Drs assistants is very accurate.How about an intellectual DrWho assistant ? who is also a strong character rather than a fawning helpless sycophant  ?

Its not like a "Cute old grandad" Clive Dunn style pottering around on his allotment or in the shed is a stereotype is it ?

Where is the diversity ?

Hypocrites who lack any real intellect.

Stick an old person in there and stick a black person in there or an Asian just to keep up appearances just amounts to Tokenism and yes i am pointing the finger at the BBC.

[Sefton Disney]

Thanks for the moral support - Proudhuff, peterwolf and Uncle Umpty are right, just like me and Gabby Johnson!  

Serously, though, I don't consider myself a fanatical Whovian by any means and it's nice to see that I'm not the only person who feels like this about NuWho. I especially appreciate peterwolf's comments about "tokenism" - I nearly said the same thing myself, but I figured I'd gone on quite long enough. At the risk of being seen as deliberately provocative, has there ever been a more tokenistic character than Captain Jack Harkness?

I don't know where this poisonous idea of "audience sympathy" has come from. When I was a kid, it didn't bother me at all if John Wayne or Jon Pertwee had grey hair. I just thought they were cool. If anything, they were cooler because they were older guys and still kicking ass. And I don't believe kids today feel any different - it's just that there aren't any older heroes on telly. But, if older guys and independent women are so hard for people to identify with, how come Ashes To Ashes is such a huge hit? The audience can't be entirely made up of old gits like us, surely?

I agree with peterwolf that Doctor Who was always about marketing to an extent. The difference is, as far as I can tell, back in the 1970s the marketing was built on a flawed but intelligent and enjoyable TV show. Now it's not even that the TV show is built on marketing - the marketing is all there is.

On a cheerier note, to close, I read an interview with Killing Joke in Metal Hammer the other day and, quite casually, the interviewer mentioned that Jaz Coleman looked like "a badass Dr. Who". I'd never thought of it until then but, that would have been an inspired piece of casting!

[The Legendary Shark]

Brian Blessed for Dr Who!

[Sefton Disney]

Attack, my glorious hawkmen! Hahahahahahahahah!

[DavidXBrunt]

Oooh close. It's Prince Barin not Prince Vultan who's appearing in Who.

[SmallBlueThing]

Since we're wobbling on about Dr Who in general, and pics have been linked, here's a few I took earlier today:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9 ... f8784fed6b

Steev

[Eric Plumrose]

Yikes. That looks like a dead Frobisher in the first four pics.

[SmallBlueThing]

Yikes. That looks like a dead Frobisher in the first four pics.

Heh! That, sir, is a pair of the lady's tights, cut down, stuffed with bog roll, and with a hastily-drawn pair of jaws elastic-banded to the end... which is, I understand, exactly how the original giant maggots were made!  

Steev

[Eric Plumrose]

Heh! That, sir, is a pair of the lady's tights, cut down, stuffed with bog roll, and with a hastily-drawn pair of jaws elastic-banded to the end... which is, I understand, exactly how the original giant maggots were made!  

Steev

Tights? Heh. That's surely only slightly less embarrassing than buying the condoms I thought they used . . .

[Adrian Bamforth]

I met this fanatical Who fan once, he was an absolute deranged  <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_eek.gif" alt=":shock:" title="Shocked" /> nutter! He stalked the actress Sophie Aldridge(Ace)and she had to put a restraining order out on him apparently.

How awful. Mind you though, she is very stalk-worthy.

[Richmond Clements]

Playing hard to get was she?

[Peter Wolf]

Since we're wobbling on about Dr Who in general, and pics have been linked, here's a few I took earlier today:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9 ... f8784fed6b

Steev

If those Daleks could be lured towards the edge of the Westhill where there is a steep slope that would be the end of them.

[dweezil2]

Playing hard to get was she?

That was probably his defence to the rozzers. Well that and diminished responsibility!

[Colin YNWA]

Playing hard to get was she?

...rozzers.

...Rozzers now there's a term I'm not heard in ages!