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Doctor Who: Prequel to The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

83 replies

Idontknowhowtohelpher · 17/12/2011 22:40

Looking good!
www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/videos/p00m7qjb
I can hardly wait for Christmas Day, just because of Doctor Who! Xmas Grin

OP posts:
AitchTwoOHoHoHo · 26/12/2011 20:48

i watched the rtd 'the next doctor' today btw, now THAT was cack.

roundcornsilkvirgin · 26/12/2011 20:58

I liked it. Was disappointed not to see River...she's his wife FFS.

Raahh · 26/12/2011 20:59

I really enjoyed it- but then I love it as a bit of fantasy/comedy/drama and have never got too involved in the theories surrounding the whole Doctor Who thing. I LOVE Claire Skinner, was very glad to see less of Amy (and the whole tedious -imo- baby/melody/river saga). It was very much influenced by Narnia ( the title was a giveawayGrin), but it made for a great Christmas special.

I found the whole thing very 'childlike' the fabulous rooms, the lemonade taps, all ott Christmassy fantasy, showing the Doctor as the biggest kid of allGrin
Best of all, it had Alexander ArmstrongGrin

And THE SHERLOCK TRAILER !!!! Grin

AitchTwoOHoHoHo · 26/12/2011 21:02

yes i can only imagine that river wasn't there because alex k wasn't available or something, it seemed rather bonkers that she wouldn't have been with her parents at christmas only two years after finding them.

roundcornsilkvirgin · 26/12/2011 21:04

I don't like Claire Skinner that much in Outnumbered but I thought she was perfect in Dr Who.

roundcornsilkvirgin · 26/12/2011 21:06

The scene near the end with the mum in the robot thing reminded me of Aliens.

confuddledDOTcom · 26/12/2011 23:12

I enjoyed it. Kept expecting Alexander to complain about his ASBO Xmas Grin Lots of LOLing here.

WhereYouLeftIt · 27/12/2011 00:26

There were lots of "isn't it!" and "bummer" comments in clipped accepts coming from our couch when Armstrong was onscreen in RAF uniform. We did wonder if the casting was an extra joke. But the favourite joke was the lemonade tap, definitely.

rosy71 · 27/12/2011 09:25

I really enjoyed it! It was a nice Christmassy type story really. I liked the Narnia references and was glad Amy, Rory and River weren't involved.

mummytime · 27/12/2011 09:54

Does anyone else think Claire Skinner's character would make a fab new companion?

BalloonSlayer · 27/12/2011 12:45

I liked it but never mind moaning about Radar - how the feck was the Doctor able to talk/breathe/shout "aaargh" in space. THERE IS NO AIR!!!

< calms self >

I like the Doctor being quirky and I love the music to Dr Who. But the "quirky music" when he is being quirky makes me feel violent. It's like Last of the Summer Ballsing Wine.: "This must be funny because we've added funny music!!! So: laugh, you imbeciles!!"

RustyBear · 27/12/2011 13:39

The Doctor has a respiratory bypass system, he can definitely survive for long periods without air; we dont know exactly how it works, so there's no reason to believe he couldn't yell in space.

MinnieBar · 27/12/2011 14:04

geek alert
Did the Doctor say that they were Androzani trees or have I misremembered?? As in Caves of Androzani, Peter Davidson classic.

Anyone? Where's BetaDad when you need him??

RustyBear · 27/12/2011 14:16

The trees were on Androzani Major, which was where the Sirius Conglomerate was based. The Caves which produced the Spectrox chemical which the Sirius Conglomerate were exploiting were on Androzani Minor. It's not necessarily the same time, though.

LineRunner · 27/12/2011 16:25

I just watched the repeat.

Odd, with a soppy ending.

MinnieBar · 27/12/2011 17:06

Ah thank you Rusty - I didn't think it would be the same time, but I like it when they do little nods to ye olden times like that. Glad I wasn't imagining it!

RustyBear · 27/12/2011 17:53

Yes, I liked the similar 'nod' to a previous story in the Ood stories, where the OodSphere was a planet in the same system the SenseSphere, the planet of the Sensorites, which the First Doctor visited
The Ood and the Sensorites looked very similar

ObviouslyLovesTinsel · 27/12/2011 23:13

I had a real issue with the Doctor being able to catch someone up whilst falling through space (!) and that Claire Skinner used the term 'Spaceman' in the 1940s....

AitchTwoOHoHoHo · 27/12/2011 23:17

it was a suit, and he swam. and spaceman from around that time, perhaps it was she who coined it, having actually just seen a spaceman?

tbh i find all the 'this isn't accurate' stuff a bit tedious. is IS a fantasy programme.

Pixel · 28/12/2011 00:13

I saw an episode once with Tom Baker, haven't a clue what it was called. He and Sarah Jane were in a room and running out of air, so he hypnotised her to slow down her heart rate and breathing so that she would survive until he found a way for them to get out. He was fine, so he probably would survive in space for a while though I'm still not sure about the shouting in space!
I don't want to be too nit-picky either as it was a lovely fantasy episode, but I do wonder how he was in space in the first place when he seems to have left the TARDIS on Earth. Perhaps I missed a bit at the beginning?

mummytime · 28/12/2011 10:09

You need to see the preview bit to get some idea of why he was in space.

The only accuracy that annoyed me was the lack of blackout - the BBC should have really sorted that one.
There were lots of Sci Fi stories in the 30s and earlier, and the idea of going into space wan't new.
I loved the way Madge didn't seem shocked or surprised by anything.

Pixel · 29/12/2011 01:33

Checked out iplayer but still none the wiser! Oh well...

RustyBear · 29/12/2011 12:17

Pixel - I don't think you have to know exactly how the Doctor came to be on the spaceship whilst the TARDIS was on Earth, as long as it's something that could have happened. For example, the Doctor might have been taken prisoner by an alien who was there to guide the ship to Earth and transported back to the ship, where presumably he would have done his usual 'give them a chance to go away peacefully' stuff before destroying the ship.

In fact, someone, somewhere is probably writing a fanfic story filling in the details right now....

Davros · 30/12/2011 10:05

So why did the Doctor have to wear a spacesuit in the Waters of Mars?
I still thought it was rubbish, not in the league of other DW Xmas specials including the Katherine Jenkins one with MS. It seemed very linear to me. Start in one place, run through another (convenient) other place and end up saving everyone and all home for Xmas dinner. I also thought the music was dreadful, telegraphing the wished-for audience reaction. I know Bill Bailey and co weren't supposed to be scary monsters, its just that old device of encountering someone and not knowing at first if they're humanoids in suits doing a job or actual scary monsters, I thought they were tedious anyway.

RustyBear · 30/12/2011 11:29

Well, I assume that the respiratory bypass system doesn't work forever, it's just a convenient plot device bodily function to get him out of trouble.
Anyway, it has definitely been established over the last 48 years that the Doctor can survive without air much longer than a human.