My guest this week is geek blogger Tamara Brooks. While taking on “The Three Doctors” we discuss Tamara’s love for over-the-top vaudvillian villains and I make a shocking declaration about the Superman films?!?
Enjoy!
Follow Tamara on Twitter @MisfiitsTamara
Read her blog at MisfitsofSciFi.com
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I rllaey appreciate you posting these. I’m trying to download them as quickly and steadily as I can. However it is clear that a season of classic Dr Who contained many more episodes than the current seasons do.
Yes well classic Who stories are usually split into 4-6 half hour episodes (parts). Some seasons only have a couple of stories though they are longer.
Thanks for listening. Glad you’re trying the old stuff!
Obviously it was never intended this way, but the swianppg out of actors and the necessary traumatic/ apocolyptic events that lead up to a swap over, are great for adding depth to the character, rather than detracting from it. James Bond swaps out actors, and has the same length of time beign in the public conscious, but there are only so many aspects to play upon. Really, many films have kept him shallow, thus allowing depth to only be slowly revealed. And they’ve even now rebooted to get some extra character in there. In contrast, Doctor Who has kept up a valid continuity through all the change overs, and you can very easily retcon why it makes sense that the Doctor changes personality while still being the same. The First Doctor is a one with a grand-daughter, and I don’t think it’s spoilery to say that so far he has never made references wife or children. He only hints at being married many centruies in the future, and never directly speaks about his children. This is certainly a Doctor who has been connected to life and then disconnected, especially when his grand daughter leaves (that’s during the first doctor’s run, isn’t it?). THerefore, the older, disconnected, angry old man.Although it’s just a factor of a younger actor and a changing tone of the show, it’s great that the way this production necessity is embraced means you can retcon logic too it without it seeming forces. This new incarnation of the doctor, psychologically, now has a physical disconnect from his old life. He still has all the old memories, but he has enough physiological changes to make everything old as new again, and a new lease on life. And hence, perhaps the weariness that meant he showed no fear, or the collected rage, gives way when his life is now a little brighter and freer once more.This continuing of the same character, who if through no other method has a long running character arc than through his shifting production staff and actor, is and hopefully will be faciniating. Especially when you get to the last doctors around now, when these are fans of the original show used to this sort of retconning, I believe- who seem to subconsciously ensure that emotional beats from one actor have played out and echo in the next. The 9th doctor had an implicit cloud over him due to offshreen events at the start of the new show’. While Christopher Eccelstone can bring the fun, he also brigns the gravitas of that,. When it shifts to David Tennant, who can brood when brooding is called for, but is a far bouncier doctor, there is a narrative justification already in place for the shift in the doctor’s tone. And that aspect is not completely forgotten, the 10th doctor cna experience thigns where it’s through the filter of distance, but you still see the echo of the 9th’s doctors fresh feeligns in the 10th doctor’s reactions. Matt Smith as the new doctor is very good as playing echos of old doctors too. Surprising for someone who did not really watch the new series until he got the part. Again, the traumatic 10th doctor’s end (they’re all traumatic, no spoilers) makes it logical for the 11th doctor’s shift in personality. And yet Matt smith and the stories still keep you feelign this is the same doctor just able to psychologically distance himself from events, not that this is a new production staff and actor ignoring all that comes before. This is still your Doctor, magically despite eleven actors playing him, still evolving and reacting to a longer and longer life. Anyway, it will be interesting to see if that rose-tinted recollertion of the transitions holds up to your analysis of the differences between doctors!