h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"Well, on the one hand the Gallifrey thing does sound somewhat like what I understand happened in the sequence of books leading up to Ancestor Cell (none of which I've read) and as I say I won't be impressed if the new series' background is going to be built around continuity only a tiny fraction of the audience will be familiar with."

I've been reliably informed, that the war in question that destroyed Gallifrey is not what happened in the books. So no its not a continuuity reference. I know what happened in the eighties, but why is everyone obssessed with continuity references at the moment. Surely Russell T Davies is no fool. He's not done anything wrong yet, lets give him the benefit of the doubt until then.

Well, I agree with you, Terran, but having lived through season 22 I think a little concern over uber-obscure continuity torpedoing the show is a little understandable...

Still pretty underwhelmed by all this... but "What the Shakespeare?" did make me smile. That's Sam Kisgart for you.

Don't know why I re-read this, but I'm sure you two may have some prophetic powers....

"Eccleston is good and all but I've been watching the other Russell T Davies programme: Casanova which I really enjoyed and found myself watching the Who pilot and thinking David Tennant (Young Casanova) would be good in this as the Doctor."

"Given that i is apparently a massive fan of the show and has appeared in the CD version, I have him pegged to be the tenth or eleventh Doctor…"

Was there ever a follow up to this to review the series?

I don't recall one.

No there wasn't - but I understand that last year Doctor Who did receive some attention from the mainstream media so you may be able to find such a review elsewhere...

As for me, I didn't like the farts 'n' satire two-parter, have reservations about the daddy paradox episode, and thought the finale didn't quite hang together. The rest of it I loved.

"As for me, I didn't like the farts 'n' satire two-parter,"

Thought you were talking about this SSS for a minute.

---------

You can have the follow up SSS Verc, if you find someone who can give the non-fanboy side.

And thatlast SSS was this month last year. Oh dear.

I'm not a fanboy of any description!

You weren't involved with this SSS.

No, I suppose I wasn't...

Back yet again to this very old conversation...

"But more importantly - and this is what I hope future episodes fix - I wasn’t impressed by the slightly ropy plot, which had a lot of holes in it and relied on the Doctor having a special magic potion in his pocket to resolve everything."

So after three years, has there been an episode where he doesn't have 'a special magic [sonic screwdriver] in his pocket to resolve everything'?

Well depends what you mean by special magic potion. If you just mean the sonic screwdriver the episode that first springs to mind is 42, on the space station, but I'm sure there are others.

You see the problem is that any TV show which is in any way science fiction, but also has to deal with a mainstream audience, is going to have the problem of trying to explain complex technical terms to a group of people who are unlikely to know something that even the greatest theorists on Time Travel are going to struggle to understand. So to a large extent the complicated details behind it are going to be concealed, which leaves you with an event which may have a great explination but appears to be "magic" because people don't understand it.

I mean you look at things like Star Trek, especially in Kirk's era, but even in the next generation and onwards, a lot of stuff fools you in to thinking that you've just had a scientific explanation, when in reality they may have just told you a lot of magical incantations.

Anyway, that was a little long winded, but I think its very easy to pick holes in what the series is doing. Personally if I were in charge I'd probably go in to the more obscure realms that Douglas Adams touched on, and perhaps more along the lines of the Cartmel Master plan (although I didn't especially like Lungbarrow's resolution of the master plan) - but then maybe I'd be wrong, as I think especially in the last season we saw some of the best stories we've ever seen in the history of the show.

"on the space station" should read "on the space ship"

"So after three years, has there been an episode where he doesn't have 'a special magic [sonic screwdriver] in his pocket to resolve everything'?"

That's impossible! (That's Torchwood )

I believe Mr. PsycH is refering to magic to suggest that the screwdriver is used for numerous perils as a get out clause and laziness in writing to specifically avoid having to explain [Element X] at all.

ie the exact opposite of this: "The sonic screwdriver was written out of the series in 1982 when it was destroyed by a Terileptil in the Fifth Doctor serial The Visitation in order to prevent the Doctor from escaping captivity."

And to quote J. Michael Straczynski: "There's this notion that magic fixes everything. It doesn't. "It's magic, we don't have to explain it." Well, actually, yes, you do. Magic has to have rules."

The ice begins to creak when the man who resurrected the Green Goblin and gave Gwen Stacey magic twins starts laying down the law on cheesy plot devices...

Anyway, I agree with Jar Jar (make a note in your diaries, folks, it doesn't happen very often). The thing that annoyed me about the first episode was that the Doctor basically switched off the plot using something miraculous that he happened to have in his pocket. That hasn't quite happened yet in the rest of the series as far as I can recall, plot resolutions have been a bit more organic.

The sonic screwdriver's transformation from tool-and-lockpick to Universal Problem Solver has been a bit annoying though. The 'reconnects barbed wire' line three years ago was very funny then, but the joke's a bit ingrowing now. You could write a thesis on the sudden prevalence throughout time and space of the similarly quasi-mystical 'Deadlock Seal' as a sign of the production team realising the sonic has got a bit out of hand recently.

It's a nice character point for the Doctor to improv his way out of trouble with the contents of his pockets, too, though I'm not quite in favour of going back to situations like the one where the doctor is hanging off a cliff-face and pulls out of his coat copies of 'Everest in Easy Stages' and 'Teach Yourself Tibetan'. Good gag, but really... (Twenty bonus points to the first person to source that example! )

"So after three years, has there been an episode where he doesn't have 'a special magic [sonic screwdriver] in his pocket to resolve everything'?"

Yyyyy- no.

Okay what problems did he completely solve with the sonic screw driver in the last two stories? hmm?

Actually on another note, this series really looks like it could be the best yet. I was never the biggest fan of Catherine Tate, but so far I've been proved wrong, and hope to continue to be so...

"Okay what problems did he completely solve with the sonic screw driver in the last two stories? hmm?"

First one: "Oh, wow, a giant radio mast. I'll point my screwdriver (which can also deafen people, burn through rope, stop rope burning, make pens explode...) at it. Hurrah! Day is saved!"

Not seen last night's yet.