Sent by the Guardian to Recover the Key to Time
January 6, 2012 1:04 PM   Subscribe

 
Nice one.
posted by Artw at 1:09 PM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


Yet again the time the doctor was played by Mr. Bean is omitted.
posted by Artw at 1:11 PM on January 6, 2012 [7 favorites]


The second one on your bullet list is so awesome.
posted by jbickers at 1:15 PM on January 6, 2012


Q: What's this post made of?

A: Doctor Who infographics. Doctor Who infographics are cool now.
posted by Panjandrum at 1:22 PM on January 6, 2012 [10 favorites]


Thanks for this--it helped to push me towards watching old Who, especially the ones my mom grew up watching. I'm only slightly disappointed that it isn't an events timeline. I still haven't wrapped my head around the last couple seasons...
posted by sundaydriver at 1:24 PM on January 6, 2012


I'm only slightly disappointed that it isn't an events timeline. I still haven't wrapped my head around the last couple seasons...

A timeline of the last few seasons would have to be printed on 17-dimensional paper.
posted by jbickers at 1:27 PM on January 6, 2012 [10 favorites]


The timeline graphic is already out-of-date. Still nice, though.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:28 PM on January 6, 2012


Is cabletv.com owned by Comcast or something? The home page seems to be a Comcast solicitation, which kinda turns this charming artwork in to bitter ashes, bitter excrement-flavored and arsenic-laced ashes, in my mouth.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 1:32 PM on January 6, 2012




Doctor Who infographics. Doctor Who infographics are cool now.

Doctor Who infographics were always cool.
posted by maqsarian at 2:22 PM on January 6, 2012 [4 favorites]


We've been watching old William Hartnell episodes of Doctor Who lately (what ones survive anyway), and I've really anjoyed them! It's nice that ol' Doc isn't so omnipotent in those days. Ian and Barbara are actually allowed to be right once in a while, and so the show feels a lot less like the grown-up leading a bunch of eight-year-olds through a construction site.

What's more, Susan brings a totally different dynamic to the show. It's a shame that she's the only family we see of the Doctor throughout the show's run, and that she only appears in the first two seasons, and in one special later on. Some of that is regained when Romana joins up much later, biut for her episodes there is no human sidekick for the Doctor, removing some much-needed perspective from the show.

I've been trying to make a FPP out of first-season Doctor Who, but the only place I know of to get them is bittorrent, sadly.
posted by JHarris at 2:24 PM on January 6, 2012 [2 favorites]


Last time I looked there was an entire YouTube channel of it. Um, probably not legal though.
posted by Artw at 2:35 PM on January 6, 2012


If you're watching Classic Who, I recommend this list as an easy way to track what you have and haven't seen. I'm currently just under 40% of the classic series, including the lost episodes.

And while it won't do for a FPP, there are a lot of First Doctor serials available on the DVD side of Netflix, which is where I'm getting them.
posted by immlass at 2:45 PM on January 6, 2012 [5 favorites]


I didn't find any such channel, just fragments. Certainly if I made a FPP it'd have to include all of the first episode, and the BBC seems to have been diligent in removing fragments of it, which is just as grossly short-sighted of them as when they destroyed old master episodes of the show.

The best I found in my YouTube searching was a fan-made cartoon recreation of the first episode.
posted by JHarris at 2:49 PM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


I've seen every episode from Pertwee through to about two or three serials into Sylvester McCoy, thanks to Georgia Public Television's long-time dedication to the show. I have yet to watch even the first episode of New Who, however. The altered premise kind of bugs me. Sure the old Gallifreyans were stodgy at best and assholes at worst, but at least it was something like a home for the Doctor.
posted by JHarris at 2:59 PM on January 6, 2012


"The altered premise kind of bugs me."

That's not really an altered premise, is it?

So...anyone else here found themselves teary-eyed numerous times during the Christmas episode? Or was it just me?
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:57 PM on January 6, 2012


You know, I like these, but I can't help think "wrong!" at a bundle of them. K9 was the Doctor's only non-humanoid companion is wooly enough to cover Chameleon, but "Adric being the only major ompanion to die" forgets aterina and Sara Kingdom previously. I stoppped reading then.
posted by ewan at 4:14 PM on January 6, 2012


My boyfriend just headdesked hard enough to be heard across the street. We've been starting to work our way through the new Doctor serieses, starting with Eccleston, on up (he's mad for the Doctor, seen every episode, knows every character...I have only a 2010s-geek level of general familiarity), and today he literally covered my eyes to prevent me from seeing the title of "Daleks of Manhattan"...and minutes later, I announced "OH HEY LOOK AT THIS TIMELINE THAT COVERS EVERYTHING".

Metafilter, my boyfriend is displeased with you. Me, on the other than, I'm pleased as punch at a neat timeline!
posted by badgermushroomSNAKE at 4:25 PM on January 6, 2012 [3 favorites]


That's not a Doctor Who timeline! This is a Doctor Who timeline.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 4:35 PM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


That's also part 4 of 7, by the way. While you are waiting for it to finishing loading, think about that.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 4:38 PM on January 6, 2012


Ian and Barbara are actually allowed to be right once in a whiled to be right once in a while

I maintain that Barbara Wright is the original Doctor. The Hartnell Doctor learned how to be the Doctor from Barbara.

When we first see the Hartnell Doctor, he's a recluse who's content to live long term in a junkyard. When pressed, he becomes a kidnapper. When he does begin traveling, he insists that it's dangerous to change the timeline. He shows startlingly little empathy for anyone other than his granddaughter. Barbara is the one who has the characteristics we associate with the Doctor; she's bold, principled, intelligent, decisive and most of all curious. Can't change the timeline? Those Aztecs are committing human sacrifice! "Behold, I am the great goddess Yotaxa, and I am displeased!" Like the Doctor we know, she wants to intervene in the timeline to help whenever she sees people in trouble. Her career as a companion ends when she steals a Dalek time machine to send herself and Ian back to 1965.

Other than having two hearts, Barbara is the Doctor. If I really wanted to beanplate it, I'd tell a yarn about how traveling back to 1965 somehow caused her to regenerate into the form of white haired old codger...
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 4:44 PM on January 6, 2012 [11 favorites]


badgermushroomSNAKE: if he loves you he'll cover your eyes during the episode "Daleks in Manhattan" as well.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:55 PM on January 6, 2012 [7 favorites]


if he loves you he'll cover your eyes during the episode "Daleks in Manhattan" as well.

Oh good lord it's like Cthulhu meets Davy Jones meets cyclops meets a plate of de-breaded chicken fingers. With a terrible American accent. Why do you hate me, Russell Davies Why?!
posted by badgermushroomSNAKE at 5:02 PM on January 6, 2012 [3 favorites]


Did no one else spot the major error with K-9? He is listed as one person, when in fact there is K-9 who leaves with Leela when she stays to marry Andred on Gallifrey. Then there is K-9 Mk II who stays in e-space with Romana II. You can't consider the two Romanas as separate characters and list the two K-9s as one character.
They would not be pleased with this at all.
posted by MrBobaFett at 6:11 PM on January 6, 2012


There is also the obvious glaring error of including the FOX TV movie. Paul McGann never was and never will be a Doctor.
posted by MrBobaFett at 6:12 PM on January 6, 2012 [2 favorites]


For those who want a timeline of events for this past season, I've been working on one of them, namely River's (I'd try to put together Rory and Amy's, but thinking in two directions is already hard enough). Latest update, including box set bonus shorts, here (spoilers, obvs). However, I suspect we haven't seen the last of River because of certain gaps and so it will likely have to be corrected before the end of Moffat's run.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 6:39 PM on January 6, 2012 [2 favorites]


There is also the obvious glaring error of including the FOX TV movie. Paul McGann never was and never will be a Doctor.

If you haven't listened to the audio dramas because you feel this way, you're missing out. I love Smith, but McGann might even be a stronger "current" Doctor than 11.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 6:45 PM on January 6, 2012 [2 favorites]


Yeah, McGann is a weird one for me, because while the movie sucked (and everyone agrees on this) it really wasn't his fault, and he did all the radio dramas when no one else was making any new Who at all, and this was clearly a role he adored and he just got shafted by Murdoch, and...

Well, I like seeing McGann in these compilations. He's been canonized as the 8th Doctor, nothing you can do about that, so let's let him in, right?
posted by Navelgazer at 7:06 PM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I'm not going to lose any sleep over any Paul McGann material. I'll happily throw out anything that involves him since that means accepting the premise that the Fox movie is Doctor Who.

As far as I'm concerned "canon" ends with McCoy, everything else is optional.

For really good audio dramas check out Gallifrey and Dalek Empire. U.N.I.T. looks promising as well as Sarah Jane.
Helicon Prime is the only one I've listened to that featured a version of the Doctor and it was brilliant with Frazer Hines doing both the Second Doctor and Jamie.
posted by MrBobaFett at 7:44 PM on January 6, 2012


Canon or not, the New Eighth Doctor Adventures are good. The last two seasons had some phenomenal writing. "Hope is jam tomorrow! It's the starlight in the storm. The candle 'round the corner!" and all of that.

In other words, your loss. But a pretty sizable one.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:08 PM on January 6, 2012


As far as Doctor Who is concerned - as long as it has an official BBC label on it somewhere, it's canon.
posted by cerulgalactus at 8:12 PM on January 6, 2012


As far as I'm concerned, as long as long as it's Doctor Who, I don't care that much if it's canon.
posted by katillathehun at 8:17 PM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


As far as I know Lungbarrow has a BBC logo on it, and that is rubbish. Time Lords don't come from Looms.
posted by MrBobaFett at 8:22 PM on January 6, 2012


Oh, and every Old Who fan should listen to "An Earthly Child" if they haven't already. Susan's reunion with her grandfather actually made me cry (dangerous, when you listen to the audio dramas while driving).
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:27 PM on January 6, 2012


All I know is that David Tennant better be lighting the cauldron at this year's Olympics.

YOU PROMISED ME THAT, "FEAR HER"...
posted by Lucinda at 8:41 PM on January 6, 2012


Artw, as I've said, as far as I'm concerned, The Curse of Fatal Death is canon.

And the only Doctor I'm certain I would rather discard is Baker. Er, Colin Baker. Well, eventually I plan to rewatch all Old Who in rough order, so maybe when I get to him I'll be more forgiving. We'll see.

if he loves you he'll cover your eyes during the episode "Daleks in Manhattan" as well.

I guess I just don't understand the hate here. Cheesy mutant Daleks aside, it's got the Empire State Building under construction, the Central Park Hooverville (which was real!), and Andrew Garfield!
posted by dhartung at 12:24 AM on January 7, 2012 [3 favorites]


"As far as I know Lungbarrow has a BBC logo on it, and that is rubbish. Time Lords don't come from Looms."

Yes they do. In that version of the story. Everything is canon so long as it's called Doctor Who and has the BBC logo it counts. Even the Cushing films and Dimensions in Time. Just assume that time can be rewritten, even the fundamentals of the Whoniverse and go with. Otherwise you end up losing sleep over when Planet of the Dead is set.

Or in other words, what Paul Cornell said:

http://www.paulcornell.com/2007/02/canonicity-in-doctor-who.html
posted by feelinglistless at 1:16 AM on January 7, 2012 [1 favorite]


Everything is canon so long as it's called Doctor Who and has the BBC logo

I read the Paul Cornell article you linked. That's not the conclusion he drew. His conclusion was that "in Doctor Who there is no such thing as ‘canon’" due to the fact that the Doctor keeps rewriting his own history. That seems right to me. It might explain why so many of the early episodes are missing altogether.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 1:55 AM on January 7, 2012


Those Aztecs are committing human sacrifice! "Behold, I am the great goddess Yotaxa, and I am displeased!" Like the Doctor we know, she wants to intervene in the timeline to help whenever she sees people in trouble.

Yes, Barbara is particularly awesome in that episode! Later companions don't get to be that awesome. Ian's also particularly great there.

I wish Marco Polo, the first real historical, survived. I'm convinced that abandoning historicals was a mistake for classic Who -- why is it important that your hero can travel in time if he can't actually travel to a recognizable time? It also gives human companions a chance to shine, even if it is rather unlikely that the supposedly-random destinations the TARDIS chooses would end up being a relatively short period of Earth's history over and over again.
posted by JHarris at 2:06 AM on January 7, 2012 [1 favorite]


I think the Christmas episode was more than a bit sub-par (as they often have been) and it's only acceptable as I was watching through a haze of turkey, tinsel and booze.

Sherlock was much better and is becoming increasingly Whoish
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:01 AM on January 7, 2012


justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow:

Yes, of course, you're right of course, sorry, habit. Apart from discounting anything from Reeltime Pictures or BBV, it excludes the likes of The Stranger (illustrative self link to an old review that may be NSFW), Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium and Happy Endings, none of which were made by the BBC but clearly set in the Doctor Who universe for one reason or another.
posted by feelinglistless at 4:16 AM on January 7, 2012


Sherlock was very good. I'm looking forward to more episodes. Some ACD fans aren't happy, though, with this version of Irene Adler.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 5:10 AM on January 7, 2012


I've seen that Paul Cornell article before, it's not bad but it does have some silly things to say. First of all there absolutely are caonocity debates in other fandom. Oz, Star Wars, Star Trek. And saying "there is no canon" is fine as an official decree, but it's also a cop out. It's impossible to discuss the larger fictional universe without defining what is in or not in it.

In Star Wars Boba Fett can not both be a journeyman protected from Concord Dawn who was born as Jaster Mereel, exiled for the killing of another protector, and also be the clone "son" of some jack ass name Jango Fett.

In Doctor Who the Doctor can not both be half human and not half human. He can not both be a cousin born of the Loom and have a grand-daughter.

Marvel deals with this via a multi-verse. Which is fine, different stories can happen in similar but discrete universes that don't overlap with each other. So you just define what verse you are using as your frame of reference, Earth 616 defiantly experienced some events and not others.

Daleks in Manhattan wasn't a terrible story, right up until the whole silly Dalek Human hybrid thing. Beside that it's a pretty good Dalek story.
posted by MrBobaFett at 6:18 AM on January 7, 2012 [1 favorite]


MrBobaFett: Not forgetting that the Whoniverse is classed at Earth-5556 in the Marvel Universe. The Seventh Doctor is the reason Death's Head was shrunk from Transformer's height. He later deposited him at the Baxter Building furing Head's own series of comics. More here.
posted by feelinglistless at 8:40 AM on January 7, 2012 [2 favorites]


Yeah, if you get upset worrying that things might not be canon or in continuity then Doctor Who is probably not for you. Unless you ENJOY getting upset about that sort of thing, in which case its ideal.
posted by Artw at 8:54 AM on January 7, 2012 [2 favorites]


Alternatively, it's great if you enjoy inventing elaborate or convoluted fanon justifications for things. I like to think that a regenerated Donna is the Doctor's mother, in which case he's both half human and mostly Time Lord.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:20 AM on January 7, 2012


Wow... That's a level of fanwankery that puts RTD to shame.
posted by Artw at 10:53 AM on January 7, 2012 [1 favorite]




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