Foreshadowing?

Ok so I originally intended this blog to only be about my thoughts as I went through the original Doctor Who episodes. But now that we've come to the end of series 7 and have seen what can probably be assumed to be the end of the story of Amy Pond, Rory Williams, and their daughter River Song (nee Melody Pond) and their travels with the 11th Doctor, I keep having some thoughts I just can't keep to myself.

We currently wait on bated breath for the 50th anniversary episode, the 2013 Christmas episode, and series 8.

Part of filling the time in the next 180 or so days I figured would be best spent re-watching the entirety of the current WHO series, right back to that first episode from 2005, "Rose".

Now we all know that the current show runner Steven Moffat has been involved with the production of the show since it's inception in '05. We've also come to know that current WHO, in general, likes to use little clues, sometimes ones that aren't even noticeable till very much later, throughout it's episodes to do a bit of foreshadowing. Davies and Moffat have both done this trick. One small example -  in "Partners In Crime" - we see a little logo sticker on a taxi and on other cars that says ATMOS. This will eventually be part of the plot in a future episode that same season.

While we all know Rule #1 - The Doctor Lies, and we all know that Moffat LOVES to follow Rule #1, we all agree he can be believed when he said that he has been planting clues to future story lines and details about the Doctor and his companions for a LONG time. (Though this could be because we WANT to believe him because...reasons, but I'm gonna go with TRUTH on this one...)

Right now I've hit the beginning of series 5 in my re-watch, the beginning of Moffat's tenure as showrunner and not just part of the creative team. And already I have going through my head ideas of clues he may have planted since his first day!

Someone has even said that he planted a clue way back before he was in charge of the show - the title for the first episode he wrote that included River Song, the episode where we meet her, was called "Silence In The Library." SILENCE! If you've seen the show since  then, you know that word and River will be connected again...
(Thanks Anthony!)

So I'm gonna keep a tally of things that could pan out to be clues - or could be just be utter nonsense. PLEASE if you have any others that I miss as I watch each episode, let me know! I'm pretty sure I've missed things since my first watch was a fast-paced binge fest...

(I'm going with serious things and silly bits too here)

0.) Our first episode with a member of the Pond family, River Song, nee Melody Pond, is titled "Silence In The Library." "Silence" will later come to be the name of some baddies that the Doctor and the Ponds fight who have their own agenda for our Doctor.

Eleventh Hour -
1.) Amy handcuffs the Doctor to the radiator when after she knocks him out with the cricket bat. Handcuffs? Like mother like daughter? LOL

2.) We've been hearing the phrase "Silence Will Fall" since 11's first episode! And now, even after battling them, and hearing more prophesy about them, we still don't know if they've "fallen" or quite where they are...

The Beast Below
3.) When talking about what happened to his people, the Time Lords, he says "I'd love to forget, every last bit of it. But I don't. Not ever."  - Ok this one HAS got to do with our now revealed John Hurt as "The Doctor" We all know the Doctor has been running away from things, quite likely the so far unseen Time War and having to time lock his entire race away from reality and has been at times emotional and depressed about what happened and what he had to do. (I personally think this is where we will see Hurt's character come in - and 8.5 or 9th or whichever incarnation or part of himself that he's buried as far deep as he can because the whole thing is more painful than he can handle. Please don't flame me here for this thought or start quoting about the Valeyard. I've heard the theories. This is what I like to think best fits. 'K?) This leads into the next point...

4.) When thinking he will have to essentially kill the star whale with a lobotomy to be able to allow Starship UK and all the people living on it to continue, he makes the comment about how he should "find a different name for myself" because hurting the poor creature is not something that a Doctor should do, even if it's the right thing. Hello John "Not-in-the-name-of-the-Doctor" Hurt? Good grief. Was the Moff going there from the beginning? Holy fish sticks.

The Daleks

Series 1
Title - The Daleks
Production Code - B
Story # - 002

Episodes -
"The Dead Planet"
"The Survivors"
"The Escape"
"The Ambush"
"The Expedition"
"The Ordeal"
"The Rescue"

Doctor - 1st - William Hartnell

So...
now we are getting somewhere. Time AND Space. A different planet.
Seems we've landed on a planet in a forest that is petrified - more than that, everything from the trees and plants are made of stone. The carefullest touch is required to handle a flower, lest it crumble. Our first look at alien beauty.

*cue weird noise and Susan screaming*
*grabs ear plugs*

Love the food machine. A very real (and a really never discussed) necessity! 

While the Doctor is rather pompous and a bit of a bully, I like that he wanted to stay and investigate the empty city. Isnt that part of the whole point of time/space travel? To see stuff?

At the end of "The Dead Planet" we see Barbara being attacked by...something.

Say hello to the Daleks. 

They believe they are the race that should be living on the planet and that the others, the Thals, should be destroyed. But the Thals are pacifistic. They do not fight, but try to survive on the surface.

This is the classic struggle between races, one that doesn't fail to touch every genre of fiction. We know that the idea of aliens, the idea of other creatures that have the same types of values like we do - love, hope, family, peace - exist somewhere out there beyond our little star. All of these stories are metaphors for the class and race struggles that our world constantly faces.

The Daleks are also a metaphor for how each race sees itself. They believe they are the better race, that the Thals are the race that are mutated abominations. Yet to the Doctor and companions, and to the viewer, it is obvious that the still human-like Thals are not the mutations, but the creatures living in metal housings, the Daleks, are.  

The Thals want to try to work out a peace. But the Daleks are set on destruction. They plot an ambush for the Thals.

It takes convincing to make the Thals change their minds about needing to fight the Daleks. Ian has to threaten the Thals history records and then the people themselves before the agree to action. (The leader slugs Ian for the threat LOL)

"What is more important? To not fight and die or to fight and live?"

"My conclusions is this - there is no indignity in being afraid to die but there is a terrible shame in being afraid to live."

The Daleks want the anti radiation drugs for themselves but quickly discover once they have them that they need the radiation  to survive, and need more of it soon. But how to do that? Another neutron bomb...which will kill everyone on the surface. They eventually decide that will take too long...so lets just overload our nuclear reactors. 

It's interesting to note that according to the Thals histories they show the Doctor, they were once the warriors and have indeed gone through mutations and evolution but that evolution has come full circle and they are human-like again. (I laugh that Ian uses the word human when talking to the Thals about themselves. Must be that TARDIS jingo in them already, being able to speak the alien language ;) )

Side Note: At one point, while first being held by the Daleks, Susan, Barbara, Ian and the Doctor devise a plan to get escape. Part of which involves capturing a dalek, opening it up, removing the creature inside it, and then Ian GETTING INSIDE the hull/shell. My reaction - 

[[[[Really? You want to get in that thing Ian? After you saw what had been in it? YUCK!!]]]]

Because like in any story, the whole reason they all originally left the TARDIS was of course a ruse on the Doctor's part so of course the little part they had to "fix" gets taken from them so that when they escape they have to go back to get it or the TARDIS really won't work.

The Doctor, the companions, and the Thal decide to attack the city from two sides - head on attacking their ways of detection (and being a diversion) and the others going through a swamp and caves to attack from behind, which is undefended. Action ensues.

When at last the Doctor and Susan are captured by the Daleks while trying to mess up their lines of communication, he learns of their want to annihilate the Thal. Here we see the beginning of the Doctor's hate of the Daleks because of how hell bent they are on destruction and the beginnings of one of his greatest enemies.

They are of course able to stop the Daleks from causing their reactors to overload and leak the radiation. We have our first defeat of the Daleks. It wont be the last.

So ok I guess I really am a current tv viewer. The whole thing felt a bit long to me. Seven, 25 minute episodes could've and these days would have probably been a tighter story, if they even did the schedule that way. Though it is nice to have this format of one episode leading to another, so unlike most shows of today. 

The Daleks - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daleks

The Unearthly Child

Series 1

Title - The Unearthly Child
Production Code - A
Story # - 001

Episodes:

"The Unearthly Child"

"The Cave Of Skulls"

"The Forest Of Fear"

"The Firemaker"

Doctor - 1st - William Hartnell

Someone posted a link so I followed it. Through a TON of crappy sites wanting to download mal ware or get my email address for spam. Not fun.

Did eventually find dailymotion.com and discovered the 4 episodes of The Unearthly Child were available. 

Now I've already seen a few episodes from other stories and other Doctors (not including all the revived series stuff) but I've been looking into either getting discs from Netflix or finding the episodes that are available online somewhere and doing this all properly - watching from the very beginning, in order, as many episodes as I can find. It makes me incredibly sad to know that the BBC just tossed things back in the day. Hindsight is 20/20 though, right?

So...the story.

We get a fairly good idea, and pretty quickly too I'd say, about three of our four characters who it seems will be on the show. The pair caring teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, worried about their teen student, Susan Foreman, who seems to be very smart in some things but not others, like knowing a lot of history and being able to read a book on the French Revolution in one night but not knowing how to correctly make change for a British pound. 

We get to met The Doctor, whom Susan refers to as "Grandfather", who comes across as a bit of a crafty old gent, though a rather private person, who initially doesn't want to get involved with the teachers. He also has a rather...aristocratic air about him, from thinking that anything of the TARDIS's workings would be above these people or later, initially not wanting to help with an injured man but instead would rather be about collecting his samples of the planet/era where they are. 

But Susan seems to be lacking a bit. Sure she is apparently rather clever and smart about loads of things and she can scream very well but...that's it. I don't know, it might just be me, but for the whole arc that's all she seems to be. Like the only reason she is there is as the excuse to put the teachers with the Doctor and get them into the TARDIS so we can see that its smaller on the outside. (See what I did there? LOL)

Now aside from the whole Time And Relative Dimension In Space - TARDIS (thanks Susan) time travel thing, this is more historical fiction than science fiction. But then from what I'm told a main goal of the show as a whole was about education. So ok I guess. 

Since I'm coming at this as a fan of the current series, my reaction to older episodes will be clouded and not true, never-seen-this-before type reactions. Overall it wasn't bad (if a bit dated though that can't be helped - and how many current shows will that be said about in 40 years?)

We travel back to the time of early humanoids (we don't actually ever know if we've left Earth, but I guess the assumption is that we haven't) still living in caves and the whole hunter/gatherer routine. A time where making fire is power. Our travelers, two of whom were hijacked into coming along,  are captured by the natives who see them as strange and dangerous. Fights ensue about who is or should be in charge and claims of the Doctor making fire "in his hands" - lighting his pipe with a match - and what to do with the strangers. 

And of course all done in monosyllables and grunts and all very caveman. 

After fights and grunts and making of fire and finally getting away, we are all safe and basically sound and back in the TARDIS and off to someplace/time new - this time a world that doesn't seem to still be Earth, so I guess that means we get official aliens next time! But oh the cliffe! 

(This is the neat bit of the whole serials thing - every episode leads to the next with some little cliffhanger and the next episode usually features a 3 or 4 second redo of the end of the last episode)

Suffice it to say I think had this been the pilot that aired in this time, I could see it going well or totally tanking, and that's if it ever got produced. I'm fairly sure they'd want to jazz it up with more science-y tech-y stuff today. I also don't think it would've survived with its serials format - which is why in the new series' they've ditched that idea. It would be an interesting premise for this time period though. Something that hasn't been done in such a long time. But then it might mean it would get cancelled all the faster.

Not bad. Not great. A little meh. 

Can someone give me earplugs to drown out the piercing screams from Susan and Barbara? Cause those are gonna get old. 

The Unearthly Child
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Unearthly_Child

William Hartnell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hartnell

Doctor Who?

Hi.

My name is Becky. 

And I'm a Whovian. 

My first real taste was sometime on or about April 15, 2013 though I was aware of my taste for British sci-fi a long, long time ago - I've been a Hitchhikker since I was 13 and had my drink of Douglas Adams. 

It's really not surprising that I'd find myself in this state, though surprising that its taken this long for it to happen. I've grown up knowing The Doctor existed but I never found him, even after a close encounter last May/June with his many clones...and the clones of his friends and enemies...even a copy of his ship! 

But I guess I was bored these weeks ago and needed something to do...having about a month before watched the first 5 episodes of the current series 7 on a whim when there was nothing else to do. I saw that there were episodes available for streaming on Netflix so I decided why not, what could it hurt. Worst I could do was not like it. No big deal.

Eight days later I had caught up to the most recent current episode and had even begun to watch the short-lived Torchwood spin-off with Captain Jack Harkness, cause...I just had too. Plus John Barrowman is hot. Just wish he were straight! And omg that ass...

I've liked Facebook pages for David Tennant and Matt Smith (though I can't decide who's hotter...) and I've liked pages for the show and I've even joined an FB group to gibber on about it. Because I'm not doing that enough to drive my mother nuts. (Poor woman thought she was done with the fandom thing once Twilight was "over."  HA!) I've friended a guy I met last year at WWCC who is a Ten cosplayer. And liked the page of some chick that designs tees and cosplays Rose. I've had a million crazy theories about whoever the hell this Clara chick is. 

I've contemplated cosplaying Rose or Donna at the con this year. 

I've gone and bought loose tea done in flavors reminiscent of the current Doctors and companions. LOOSE. TEA. I DON'T DRINK THAT MUCH TEA. EVAR. The first thing in the fandom I own is TEA. Kinda...ironic. Even thinking about buying a bit of one of the Captain Jack blends to give to Barrowman in June. Reminds me I need to see about affording that pic...

Already read 2 books based on the characters and have purchased the first 4 new-for-the-50th anniversary books. 

And I think there's a t-shirt coming soon... 

So now I find myself deciding to give the original episodes a proper go and in the proper order and am searching out as many as I can find online, though already 2 weeks ago I sat and figured out what discs Netflix has and the order to get them in through Series 10...

Oh and in my short 3 weeks as a Whovian, I've already gotten one other person hooked...and possibly a second!

I figured since I'm writing the blog for the Oscar Best Pictures, which is slow going having to wait  for the discs and then needed to use those for the regular movie nights, I may as well write this one too, documenting thoughts or reactions to all of this Who I'm about to watch. Will be interesting to see if my feelings for Ten/Tennant and Eleven/Smith change...though given Smith looks like someone I know and whom I'm HOH for...don't think that's gonna happen ;)

But you never know.

This is The Doctor after all.

Feel free to comment on these musings as we Journey Thru Time And Relative Dimension In Space with The Doctor. Doctor Who?

 

The Name Of This Blog

I went thru more names and urls than I want to think about for this blog but kept coming back to thoughts of always being with the Doctor. So that's what I stuck with, hence the background, found here  - http://wallpoper.com/wallpaper/text-tardis-345895

I had to tweak it a little to fit Blogger's size limits but other than that it's as I found it.

While the Doctor may have times when he is physically alone, without his companions or the woman he loves, he is never truly alone. All we as Whovians go on every adventure with him and will do so until he can no longer regenerate.

We will be his companions whenever he asks

We love our Madman

Our Raggedy Man

Our Last Time Lord

Our Doctor

(no matter what face he's currently wearing, though we admit we like some better than others...LOL)