― DV, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
not sure about the second bit, but not Sophie Aldred or the bloke from Blue Peter.
― chris, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Alan Trewartha, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― katie, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― RickyT, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― peri, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
K9 is pretty foxy. the way that thing comes out of his forehead - hubba hubba.
watching Robots of Death relatively recently convinces that Leela is the best ever assistant. you can't really imagine Ace saying something like "Touch me again and I'll cripple you".
― Emma, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
ROWR!
― Tom, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Jeff W, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Tom -- please delete this thread
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Pete, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Jez, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/doctors/comp_mel.shtml
― koogydelbbog, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Tim, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― N., Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
do any of Adric, the Brigadier, Turlough, or Harry etc. reverse the polarity of your neutron flow?
― mark s, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Black Orchid was an odd story in that it was almost as if it started life as an ordinary period costume drama and Dr. Who was just thrown in as an afterthought.
― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 12:41 (twenty-one years ago) link
around the same moment she sees some prisoner the cops have hauled in and says "Put him to the torture!".
what ethnicity is Tegan meant to be?
― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 13:11 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 13:22 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 13:24 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 13:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ricardo (RickyT), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 13:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 13:35 (twenty-one years ago) link
I don't she was as bad as Nyssa, although there's a good chance I'm mixing them up.Typical behaviour of the Doctors assistants during the Adric/Nyssa/Tegan era:1) Adric would help think up a possible solution to the problem.2) Nyssa would tactfully offer advice on what Adric got wrong, and offer an improved version of the solution.3) Tegan would neurotically pace back and forth and complain about how they were all doomed.4) The bag guys would capture Nyssa and Tegan.5) The bag guys would **KILL** Adric.6) Tegan would bitch and complain while Nyssa surrepticiously would find a way to free herself.7) The Doctor shows up just in time to see that Nyssa has solved the problem.8) The show ends with no theme music, just a shot of Adric's broken star badge.
― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 13:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 13:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 15:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 15:08 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 15:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
yeah, but her surname was Jovanka. Where do people with surnames like that originate from?
― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 17:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 17:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
There was a debate over whether the character was going to be named Tegan or Jovanka. Allegedly someone wrote down both names on a piece of paper and it was assumed that rather than being seperate choices for a first name, it was the character's full name. Hence a dumb-ass surname was born.
Imagine talking about The Doctor, Jovanka, and Turlough...
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 17:52 (twenty-one years ago) link
"Black Orchid"; bloody good little story: a refreshing change and one of the few most purely enjoyable Davisons. My problem with a lot of Season 18-24 DW is that it really isn't fun to watch, unlike vitually all the Graham Williams episodes... it had lost that sense of being able to appeal to an audience wider than the 'fanbase'. Too many of the JNT companions didn't really work or weren't given enough good material. Nyssa and Peri worked well at times, but could have been given so much more to do. Tegan... all my memories (however long ago) point towards her being a whingeing irritant in most stories. I would like to be proved wrong if I watched the episodes again. In something like 'Four to Doomsday' I distinctly remember her being awfully portrayed...
― Tom May (Tom May), Saturday, 6 December 2003 02:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 24 May 2004 17:44 (twenty years ago) link
― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 24 May 2004 17:48 (twenty years ago) link
― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 May 2004 17:50 (twenty years ago) link
"Much more intelligent and pro-active” than her predecessors, says Eccleston.
― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 24 May 2004 18:05 (twenty years ago) link
― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 May 2004 18:19 (twenty years ago) link
― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 24 May 2004 18:28 (twenty years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 24 May 2004 18:31 (twenty years ago) link
― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 May 2004 19:13 (twenty years ago) link
― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 24 May 2004 22:06 (twenty years ago) link
So is this Billie Piper any good then?
― Pack Yr Romantic Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 24 May 2004 22:17 (twenty years ago) link
I'm something of a DW fan and will frankly not denounce this decision; it seems to me potentially a very good choice indeed, from all I hear. Some will see it as a balancing act between the respected actor Eccleston and a more glamorous choice (reeling in certain other audiences), yet she must clearly have done a great audition and have something about her as actress to have got the role. Russell T. Davies and co. seem so far very astute judges. I have the impression they might just see Piper playing the role as something of the Buffy type... which would be interesting in DW's context.
Oh, and yes, it's definitely a bit absurd to say that none of the companions were intelligent before...! The stereotype is exaggerated. Some of them were underwritten at times, but yes, Romanas, Barbara, Zoe, Liz Shaw, Ace, Sarah Jane etc... these were all interesting characters and hardly stereotyped helpless 'lovelies'.
― Tom May (Tom May), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 00:25 (twenty years ago) link
They said as much about the Rose character months ago. They've written the part as an intelligent forthright independent assistant, not a piece of fluff that bounces around screaming.
All looking good so far. I just hope the whole relationship bent doesn't turn it into something horrible and sappy [news of the TARDIS interior being designed around relationship-building is a bit naff].
Yeah, most of the previous assistants were definitely intelligent, but some of them really were there as eye candy. Zoe didn't get that tight-fitting jumpsuit by magic. ;)
― Pack Yr Romantic Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 00:30 (twenty years ago) link
Yes, one sees little need ever for sappiness in DW, if it directly involves the Doctor, but I see no reason why Piper's character oughtn't get involved in such stuff; she is to play a modern day human being after all, and I see no reason why DW in 2005 should entirely shirk the odd emotional storyline...
― Tom May (Tom May), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 00:41 (twenty years ago) link
If Rose gets a porking in the control room, great. Awesome. Having her boyfriend as a second companion would create some good tension too [there's been talk of a second companion for ages]. What worries me is the prospect of this new Doctor being all sappy. Eccleston seems to want to drag the Doctor in that direction. If it works, cool, but right now I don't see how.
― Pack Yr Romantic Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 00:50 (twenty years ago) link
― Pack Yr Romantic Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 00:51 (twenty years ago) link
― Salvador Dalek, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:25 (twenty years ago) link
Those Davison years saw a complete failure to grasp how the show works, c.f. companions. You can have more than one companion, but you have to do it very well for it to work; Jamie and Zoe, the original Series 1 team etc.
Frankly, Tegan, Nyssa and Adric were very thin characters, impoverished by some very misguided writing. Strange how I can actually stand Nicola Bryant's Peri and not these; maybe the sole companion format just sits more naturally and easy, even with a companion who was written similarly. She managed a bit more rapport with Davison and Baker at times than those 3 ever did (well at times I admit Tegan and Nyssa worked well, but only very fleetingly).
Anyway, one awaits with great interest to see how Ms. Piper fares within the pantheon of companions; my feeling is that she could surprise many and be one of the very best - and it seems likely her relation to the nature of the series itself will be larger than any companions since Ian and Barbara, right back at the start. But then such is my confidence in the production; a fantastic team of writers, so much time and thought going in, etc.
― Tom May (Tom May), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 16:54 (twenty years ago) link
I think I read somewhere she would be quite feisty. I just wonder if Dr Who will get terrible ratings because some prat will put it on a weekday between 7-8pm up against ITV soap operas and noone will watch it and the BBC will just let it die due to poor ratings(like happened before)It has to be on around 6pm at the weekend IMO.
― Rotten, Friday, 27 August 2004 12:46 (twenty years ago) link
I'd love it if she was completely drugged out and criminal but that's not going to happen.
― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 27 August 2004 13:13 (twenty years ago) link
Billie Piper is obv an arse-ette. I mean - Chris Evans! How can anyone bear to be in the same room as that tool, never mind live with him.
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 27 August 2004 13:32 (twenty years ago) link
― Rotten, Friday, 27 August 2004 17:21 (twenty years ago) link
― Adamdrome Crankypants (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 9 January 2005 03:14 (nineteen years ago) link
1/ She is the hottest with her PANDA EYES.
2/ She is a secretary who goes into the Tardis by accident. Does the experience turn her into a fighting space trooper - NO! In almost every story she ends up literally making coffee, particularly in bases under siege.
3/ Except when she realises that the way to kill cybermen is by using her nail varnish on them!
4/ She is an even better screamer than Troughton's other assistants.
5/ She is the only companion who never gets an official surname, according to something I read somewhere.
6/ There is a great will-they won't-they thing going on with co-companion Ben. Except will-they won't-they hadn't been invented as a mechanism of characterisation so you have to squint to see it. But there is a definite dynamic and quite an interesting one - bit of rough Ben is clearly interested in posh girl Polly, and only really ever gets motivated when she gets kidnapped or captured (which is often), the rest of the time he's all "can't we go back to the Tardis?". Polly on the other hand never really pays much attention to poor old Ben, she seems more interested in Jamie though mostly to mother him and enjoy his quaint anachronistic ways.
― Tom (Groke), Sunday, 9 January 2005 11:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Sunday, 9 January 2005 13:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Adamdrome Crankypants (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 10 January 2005 00:13 (nineteen years ago) link
(I am a sad, sad man)
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 10 January 2005 03:35 (nineteen years ago) link
Has Eccleston always been a cock?
He's one now, for sure.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/09/middle-aged-white-men-pariah-industry-says-christopher-eccleston/
― Doodles Diamond (Tom D.), Friday, 17 June 2022 09:11 (two years ago) link
Times ran the same story a few days ago, & were getting shit for a near-identical headline. It seems like Ecclestone's actually saying "and that's how it should be" but I haven't checked the actual interview.
It is really interesting how paywalls and twitter allow newspapers to lie. It becomes necessarily difficult to verify what was actually said so people respond to the headline, the headline has ideological effects... (what Eccleston actually said in the next tweet of Jolyon’s) https://t.co/T0zD2KLwkP— Tom Gann (@Tom_Gann) June 10, 2022
― woof, Friday, 17 June 2022 09:27 (two years ago) link
i wrote a thing
https://www.alanauch.org/wtob/2022/06/19/no-more-allegories/
― Kate (rushomancy), Sunday, 19 June 2022 15:42 (two years ago) link
Reading that notes and the unexpected shade is painful:
When it comes to Doctor Who, I’m always hopeful. I’m hopeful that this won’t be a “Picard”-style second act.
― Antifa Lockhart (Leee), Sunday, 19 June 2022 20:05 (two years ago) link
jesus, this thread
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 19 June 2022 21:40 (two years ago) link
Sorry about the shade! I try to be kind and compassionate, and I certainly don't judge anybody who really likes the show. That sort of nostalgia is simply not my cup of tea these days.
― Kate (rushomancy), Monday, 20 June 2022 15:01 (two years ago) link
No offense taken, I actually consider that show to be generally terrible! I've watched a trans youtuber talk about LGBT representation in Trek and how she had found and valued analogues to the trans experience in the '90s, but how much more affirming it was to see actual trans characters and actors on the show (as unwatchable as I find Discovery, I will applaud its inclusiveness, just as I do with Chibnall's tenure), so I'm excited for RTD II, and I really like your reading on "Turn Left"!
― Antifa Lockhart (Leee), Monday, 20 June 2022 17:20 (two years ago) link