<![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> @Bazza2556: *points* *laughs*

JennaW

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> @Jamesema:
The destruction of Gallifrey happened in one of the BBC
paperbacks, "Ancestor Cell" I believe, with the 8th/Fox
movie Doctor (Paul McGann). There were a few books
building up to the wipe-out, but I can't recall their
titles right now.

Rincewind

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> @Bazza2556: It's great to know that even Doctor Who fans can be paranoid conspiracy theorists. Not to mention anti-McCoy trolls.

Justin K. Rivers

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> @Justin K. Rivers:
Tell me you aren't writing a dissertation on Dr. Who.
Because that would be simultaneously cool and infinitely sad.
-Kle.

Klebert L. Hall

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> I'm afraid that some of you so called Doctor Who fans need re-educating. Sylvester McCoy's tenure as the Doctor was the worst in the seasons history. He was only cast in the role in order to bring viewing figures DOWN so that the bosses at the BBC could at least cancel the series. The Anti-McCoy website is what you need to bring yourselves out of the dark ages...

[www.bazza2556.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk]

Baz

Bazza2556

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> @Discrete-Daniel: That's categorically untrue. Just read Cartmel's books or any of the interviews and DVD extras he participated in. The Masterplan as realized by the New Adventures was never meant to be explicitly revealed on the air. Those are backstory conceptual pieces designed specifically to 1) return the Doctor to an aura of mystery and 2) make the Doctor more powerful and layered, rather than a thin characterization enacted upon by outside forces. Which is EXACTLY what the new series has quite deliberately done, through slightly different means. RTD has incorporated most of Cartmel's reforms into the show.

Most of what Cartmel was doing wasn't really even about the Doctor's backstory. It was more practical than that. The idea is to use the design of the writing to solve structural production problems, by utilizing the BBC's strengths, playing down it's weaknesses, and integrating more complex and meaningful thematic content with drama that was more beliveable and emotionally true. Ace is a perfect example of the program becoming more modern and complex, with her growth and development and the multidimensional nuances expressed.

While it's certainly understandable to not like the Cartmel Era as a matter of taste (such complexity, with an affinity for social commentary and the bizarre and grotesque is less accessible and less appealing to a broader audience) it is certainly NOT substantive to say that Cartmel's reforms were not included, when in fact, they serve the basis for the modernization and reconception of the franchise. And it's worth distinguishing between subject matter (which is subjective) and structural changes (based on a collectively defined standard of drama).

Justin K. Rivers

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> I missed this era of Dr Who. Can somebody tell me what happened to Gallifrey. I know from the current version it has been destroyed. But when I stopped watching the original series (Tom Baker was the last Dr I remember liking) it was still around.
Any body know what happened to the planet of the time lords??????

Jamesema

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> @CHARLIE JANE ANDERS: I agree completely.

Cartmel was the worst thing since John Nathan-Turner to hit the show. If you've ever read any of the New Adventures novels (where the so-called Cartmel Masterplan was eventually realized) you'll see why the new series deliberately ignores his "reforms".

Discrete-Daniel

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> @rhorsman: Sadly, you have to divide the McCoy/Cartmel era into one unwatchable season, one mostly awful season with a few interesting bits, and one season that showed tons and tons of potential but was often somewhat nonsensical amidst moments of brilliance.

Charlie Jane Anders

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> When it got all mystifying

So there was some deeper significance to the bucket of incoherence that was Delta and the Bannermen?

rhorsman

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> Sadly I can't make it to the convention. But I refer readers to "About Time" Volume 6, which covers this era and is chock-full of keen insights, brilliant digressions, and sweet, sweet snark.

SeeingI

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> @drmaybe: He also did the effects on B5 and worked on the animated version of starship troopers (which was much better that the movie, especially the second one.)

drkkgt

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> @JennaW: One of the things I want to ask Cartmel this weekend is how he feels about the new series.

On one hand, they've done a good job of building off of his reforms - making the doctor more powerful, keeping hold of the mystery, giving the companion a larger role/arc, etc.

On the other hand, the new series uses some problematic cliches that Cartmel was keen on trying to avoid - the Doctor/Companion separation routine, a sonic screwdriver that can do/solve anything, deux ex machinas, reset buttons, etc.

Justin K. Rivers

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> @drkkgt: I was in college, I think, and was watching that Dalek episode. I screamed like a six-year-old when that first Dalek began its hovery way up the stairs after Ace.

So awesome.

JennaW

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> @aspiringexpatriate: Mojo is the nickname of a longtime Lightwave guru who was (and may still be) working for Zoic.

drmaybe

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> Can't wait!! Paul Cornell, who wrote quite a few books with the seventh doc is going to be there as well (he also wrote the screenplay version of The Family of Blood from the third season.) My personal favorite DW author.

drkkgt

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> I missed this whole era, and one of these days I'm going to go back an visit it.

Glad to hear it will be a lovely visit!

92BuickLeSabre

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> Ah, yes. Gallifrey One. The website incapable of answering any emails about anything. Even if you want to give them money.

Plague

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> But Zoic did BSG effects. At least the first season. But it's no longer on their recent work page. Weird. I didn't notice a significant change in the CG work.

Also: Martha Jones on Torchwood rocks! It's the Martha who shoulda been on Who last season(this season for yanks).

aspiringexpatriate

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> @Justin K. Rivers: Yes the bones for the new series are clearly Seven's tenure.

JennaW

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> Sophie Aldred (Ace) will also be there. She's probably the most developed of the original series companions, and a very clear template for Rose in the new series.

Cartmel really figured out how to work the limitations of the show into viable drama taking Doctor Who into more mature and challenging territory.

Justin K. Rivers

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Confusing Doctor Who Era, Explained]]> Seven is my FAVORITE pre-new Who Doctor. I just loved that whole crazy, wonderful time. And Ace! Rock on.

The Seventh Doctor Years: When Daleks Learned to Fly.

JennaW

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