Doctor Who Missing episodes

The Beebs has put rest to the rumors that have been circulating all summer.  Lost episodes have been recovered.  How many and which ones have yet to be revealed.  All the BBC has officially announced is that a "Number" of episodes were recovered and that they will be made available digitally.  Now, since these rumors have been circulating for, oh so long, one wonders if these episodes were held deliberately, either to coincide with the anniversary or to be cleaned up digitally.  Also one wonders if the lost episodes will hold up to the memories of the fans.  I, for one, never saw anything earlier then the "new" Doctor in it's original broadcast so I have no old memories to interfere with.  I started with Tennant and went both forward and backwards from there.  I find the old episodes make me appreciate the new and the new, the old.  No matter how many episodes or what the condition, I will be grateful because it is more than I started with.  Waiting till Thursday's announcement or till I hear the T.A.R.D.I.S. calling....

50th Anniversary Day of The Doctor WHERE ARE THE ZYGONS AND QUEEN ELIZABETH?

Wow that's a long title.  Well, let's start with what we know, supposedly. 75 minutes long, offered simulcast on TV and selected theaters world wide.  There will be the bio-pic about Verity Lambert, the first producer of Doctor Who, and what it took to get it running.  There is supposed to be an "unannounced" surprise coming yet.  Rumors are also running that several of the Classic Doctors were seen hanging around the BBC, carring signs that said "No Classic Doctor, No Who", but of course this could be a red herring,

So you’re looking at them handsome gentlemen not quite smiling up there, and saying, what is wrong with this poster.  Well, most people were soo busy having heart palpitations over the pretty boys, I was busy examining the rest of the poster.  One of the first things I notice was under MATT SMITH’S armpit is a brick wall with BAD WOLF on it.  Well know we know which version of Ten and ROSE we will be receiving. Also notice what is MISSING, the Zygons!  I never saw the 70's epsiode in which they were features but after all the fuss they made they should be on the poster.  Neither is Queen Elizabeth or the actress that is supposed to play her Joanne Page.  Hmm...   Then I noticed the shadow for John Hurt has a longer scarf then he is wearing.  I think it is a way to honor Tom Baker with out him being in the program.  Then, who could miss the giant mechanical hand, the stairwell, and the burning DALEKS.  Although they were announced previously.  If you look Careful behind John Hurt you can see the TARDIS, maybe exploding,There also appear to be Cybermen and a Time Lord Seal.  Also the cloud formation behind Matt is more squared off and the clouds behind Tennant are more round.  This appears to match the time tunnel for the credits.  I hope stuff comes out soon.  REAL SOOOOONNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

50th Sneak peeks Doctor Who

I told you so
So this came up on my Twitter.  I dutifully watched through all the video.  In the last, and I mean last minute or two of video, there is a clip on set with David Tennant and Matt Smith.  There is no action just them standing there.  But the clip is in a forest.  Not on a plain in Edinburgh.  Not in the Castle.  Not in any of the photos that we were allowed to see.  I told you that they were filming in secret.  Now all bets are off.

Regenerations #1-11 and What’s in Store for #12: Part 5- Trials and Tribulations

Regenerations #1-11 and What’s in Store for #12 A twelve part series on the episodes, serials, and one Movie that surround the most iconic piece of Doctor Who Cannon, The Regeneration and what will be coming for Peter Capaldi

 Part 5- Trials and Tribulations 

An epic production of length, Trial of a Time Lord, finds the Doctor having to defend his life, his lifestyle and personal choices.  The punishment for being found guilty would be permanent death.  Several things are mentioned often about this episode that do not seem to fit in to traditional Doctor Who lore.  Many people objected to the death of Peri so they made it not happen.  There is a lot of jumping about, mental, in this episode and it doesn't seem to flow properly.  The internal issues at BBC had plagued Colin Baker’s tenure as the Doctor and would flavor even his death.  He didn't even get a proper regeneration.

UP NEXT Part 6

Regenerations #1-11 and What’s in Store for #12:Part 4- Strifes, Strikes and a Trial

Regenerations #1-11 and What’s in Store for #12 A twelve part series on the episodes, serials, and one Movie that surround the most iconic piece of Doctor Who Cannon, The Regeneration and what will be coming for Peter Capaldi

Part 4- Strifes, Strikes and a Trial

Caves of Androzoni was not an overwhelming episode.  It played off the ideas of Phantom of the Opera with the ultimate goal of eternal life.  Why do evil masterminds never get creative?  They are always searching for ultimate power or eternal life.  For a regeneration story, this lacks pizzazz.  The Doctor sacrifices himself to save Tegan.  The budget restraints of the BBC again show their ugly head.  The regeneration sequences seem unfinished.  In later interviews the Director and producers et all, indicated that there HAD been more planned with the SFX and filming more dialogue to be shot.  There was a strike or two to work around.  Not a good beginning for Colin Baker’s Doctor.  His first story was Twin Dilemma.  A sub par plot of a would be tyrant trying to take over the universe.  This Who episode has some of the worst Doctor Who cliches, including rubber masks, running down endless corridors over and over again, and 1980’s SFX.  There is a second Time Lord present and we don’t get much information about him of the Time Lords.  Also he dies without regenerating!  Colin Baker went on to have the worst time in the TARDIS.  The threat of cancellation was constantly over head, and several strikes ending up closing down BBC for significant periods of time.  This causes The Doctor to be put on Trial.  In the show it was the Time Lord high counsel but in reality it was BBC.

Coming Next Part 5

Regenerations #1-11 and What’s in Store for #12 Part 3-For whom the Bell Tolls

Regenerations #1-11 and What’s in Store for #12 A twelve part series on the episodes, serials, and one Movie that surround the most iconic piece of Doctor Who Cannon, The Regeneration and what will be coming for Peter Capaldi

Part three- For whom the Bell Tolls

When Tom Baker decided to leave I’m sure the BBC was in a lurch.  Would the show survive?  But this is what regenerations are made for!  In a three part series, The Keeper of Trakken/ Logopolis/ Castrovalia, Tom Baker left the show and Peter Davison took over the role of The Doctor.  Logopolis is a kind of messy episode, jumping all over the place.  This is the first time the Cloister Bell is heard, sounding alarm.  The Doctor decides to fix the chameleon circuit after who knows how many years it’s been broken.  Then the Master shows up.  Then we are on an alien planet to fix the TARDIS and the Master follows.  It seems like a script writer was given certain elements and told to make it work.  But it doesn't.  Then we have the Doctor crossing his own time stream.  Don’t cross the streams.  Then the Doctor has trouble with his regeneration.  What do his companions decide to do?  They play “Which Way” with the TARDIS, immediately falling into a trap set by the Master.  It is not till the end of Castrovalia that we get a idea of what the new Doctor is about.  This may have been done on purpose to place more time between Tom Baker and Peter Davidson.  When we do get the Doctor new clothes, it is an outfit of cricket clothes(that aren't really cricket clothes) and celery.  I’m sure at the time no one knew what to think.  Later producer said that this costuming was because of a newly growing American audience.  We also have a superfluity of companions.  No Doctor until David Tennant has ever had more “companion” in the TARDIS at once.  This overload of characters caused issues with plot development.  They were eventually written out to help concentrate on character development.

Regenerations #1-11 Part Two Leftbridge-Stewart and More

Regenerations #1-11 and What’s in Store for #12 A twelve part series on the episodes, serials, and one Movie that surround the most iconic piece of Doctor Who Cannon, The Regeneration and what will be coming for Peter Capaldi

Part Two- UNIT, Leftbridge-Stewart and More

So now we know the Doctor can regenerate, although it was not called that yet.  The term renewal is used.  The Doctor has resumed his traveling ways.  He has new companions and new adventures.  Most of these adventures are missing due to a cleaning at the BBC.  Those who were alive should count themselves lucky to have seen such Classic Doctor Who.  But all good things must end. (Where have I heard that before?)  For Pat Troughton’s last episode we find the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie literally in the middle of a war zone.  It turns out that the Time Lords are having war games with each other.  They are using humans from different historical periods to fight their battles for them. (Could this be a foreshadowing of the Time War to come perhaps?)  When The Doctor finally figures out what is going on he has no choice, he must contact the Time Lords.  The Doctor has been a fugitive from his own people and they intend to punish him for it.  They force him to regenerate.  This is the first time we are shown that Time Lords have powers other than just having the ability to travel through time.  It is also shown that Time Lords can control regeneration.  There is a glimpse of the mental powers that Time Lords have but it is never quiet fulfilled either to the audience’s satisfaction.  End scene, fade to black, Hello new doctor.  A rock fall from space and according to the Time Lords, an Angel has fallen from grace.  The Doctor is now to be confined to Earth under the sentence of the Time Lords.  The TARDIS is barely functional.  How will the new Doctor handle this?  With aplomb, wit, and cool rides apparently.  The Doctor is now an advisor to UNIT(which at this point stands for United Nations Task Force) He’s the superspy granddad kids wish they had.  He also has a new enemy, The Master, a ying to his yang.  He does rather rant occasionally about not be able to leave Earth.  He also spends much time trying to fix his TARDIS.  The third doctor’s first episode establishes this more proactive character, a more theatrical incarnation.  He is also very physical, due to the fact that Jon Pertwee had been in the Navy.  He was the only incarnation of The Doctor to have a tattoo.  It was never mentioned, mostly covered and occasionally seen.  The Doctor is paired up with his old Friend Leftbridge-Stewart.  He has the distinction of having met the most incarnations of the Doctor. The restriction of remaining on Earth was due to the BBC, not the Time Lords.  These budget cuts affected the show if you look, although the series did begin to shoot in color. 

Coming next-

Regenerations #1-11 and What’s in Store for #12 Part 3-For whom the Bell Tolls

Regenerations #1-11 and What’s in Store for #12 A twelve part series on the episodes, serials, and one Movie that surround the most iconic piece of Doctor Who Cannon, The Regeneration and what will be coming for Peter Capaldi

Part One- DOCtrine, cannon whatever you choose to call it, Numbero Uno, The First

William Hartnell was the first.  When he decided to leave the show for health reason the BBC had to make a decision cancel the show or continue on.  They didn’t want to cancel the show and they didn’t want to cover it up like the American stations did on Bewitched(look it up)  Footage is rare except that of the actual regeneration, although at the time it was called a renewal.  Unfortunately most of the episode Tenth planet is missing.  I can’t say how Harntnell acted out his last lines, or how Pat Troughton went about establishing his person and quirks.  This regeneration also sets up the tone for how all future regenerations are experienced.  If it had failed, we would not be talking about a man in a blue box today.  This is the only pre/post regeneration sequence I have not PERSONALLY seen, excluding the clips that remain.  The transcripts I believe are available due to zealous fans who recorded the audio for TV shows so they could “watch them again and again.( Go, right now, kiss your DVR! Then kiss wherever  magic device you use to surf the web.  It is thanks to them, and people who imagine bright futures watching shows like Star Trek and Doctor Who, no other TV show will ever have this problem again.)  There have been rumors floating around for years that these tapes actually exist.  If they were mine I would make sure the world could have them.  That being said maybe they are holding them for the 50^th. 

UP NEXT- Two goes into Three how manytimes? War Games and Spearhead from Space

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Trailer

So we kinda got a fiftieth trailer… Well the 2000 people that were at comic con got a trailer.  The rest of us got the promise of a trailer sometime in the future.  We also got threatened if anything leaked to YouTube that there would be no more goodies at comic con for us(them).  Well the trailer for “An Adventure in Time and Space” leaked already.  Guys, if you were gonna leak a trailer and get us in trouble you leaked the WRONG ONE!!!! Fortunately several media outlets had coverage and described the trailer in detail for us.

Here’s a link to the beebs review of comic con http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2013/07/doctor-who-panel-recap-matt-smith-says-thank-you-to-the-fans/

It doesn’t seem to reveal anything that wasn’t in the “press kit”, excuse me, media coverage from April when the “filming” went on.  There were no real “gotcha” moments.  We knew the Daleks would show up.  We knew there would be a wand weighing, sorry, sonic screwdriver comparison.  The catchphrases MUST be used.  Everyone had pretty much guessed that the Time War would be involved.  I wanted some new details.  I want to know who else is in it.  We know like 10 cast members.  How can you do a 1 to 2 hour movie with 10 cast members?  How long is it?  I’ve heard anywhere from 1 to 2 hours.  John Barrowman said he wasn’t involved.  When Moffat said Jack might be back, was he just being mean?  Is River going to show up?  Will the other Doctors be involved either live or digitally?  Moffat is just plain mean!  Oh well, we get to stew for another 4 months.  Or until they put up a REAL trailer!

P.S. BBC has already pulled the one leaked trailer so if you missed it you weren't fast enough!

P.P.S. Check out my Regenerations twelve part review and other blogs.