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

To be brutal with ya, Spook: the writers couldn't be bothered to check. And I don't blame them, as roughly 0% of the audience for Deadly Assassin in 1976 had access to a script for Time Meddler.

Or (continuity cop program activated) the fact that the TARDIS had a nearly-new dematerialisation circuit fitted to an old chassis confused the guards' equipment. (I thought they only referred to the TARDIS as a type 40 in Deadly Assassin, anyway?)

Oh, and the Monk isn't exterminated in Masterplan, just exiled to some ice planet or other. He reappears in the book No Future (if you include that sort of thing).

I rather liked the lack of mythos in the Hartnell Era. I'm too young to have seen the original broadcasts but looking back, thanks to video and UK Gold, Hartnell got to play with who the Doctor might be and where he might be from. I think that was part of the mystique way back then...we were never really sure about The Doctor and what he might do.

That was something that Jon Pertwee recaptured nicely, his Doctor being ever so slightly self centred, and came back in force with the later part of Sylvester McCoy's Doctor.

It certainly did come back with Sylvester McCoy, especially when Ace says" Doctor, Who are you?"

spook

My favourite moment was in Silver Nemesis, where Lady Peinforte threatens to reveal all the Doctor's secrets and he casually agrees that she should.

The look on her face shows you how big those secrets should be. I often wondered what those secrets might be...
...plus, I never did read "Lungbarrow" so I have no idea what all those revelations were either.

It was hinted at for some time that the Doctor's past is wreathed in some pretty big mysteries. It always seemed , to me anyway, that his behaviour was tolerated to an extant by the Timelords because of who he was and what he knew. Actually revealing such things would be difficult and, I think, reasonably pointless.

Indeed, they'll never be as big and scary as what you think they could be. Of course, too much unanswered mystery and you get a bit X Files like, which I got bored with as it never seemed to answer anything.

P.S. It may have now, but I ain't watched so I don't know.

Dunno.
I gave up on the Files about a series back. It simply wasn't repaying the time I spent trying to watch it given that my other half despised it. Up until about half way through season five, it was the best SF show on TV, by a long, long chalk. Then it when down the pan so quickly it was hard to follow.

Waaaaay off topic...

The last season-and-a-half of X-files before Duchovny went part-time pretty much resolved what was going on with the syndicate, and what happened to his sister, and etc, etc. I know what you mean about it becoming impenetrable - I sat down to watch an 'arc' episode with my brother-in-law and at the end he said 'I didn't understand any of that - what did it all mean?' and I hadn't the foggiest idea either...

I used to post to the same board as a guy who was absolutely certain that the only way to launch a new DW series was with the Doctor's origin story - who he was, who the Master was, why he left Gallifrey... and I couldn't think of anything more certain to kill the series off once and for all. What, he said in a very contrived way, do others think?

I have been wondering how to revive the series for some time - not that I'm in a position to make a difference. All I can come up with is a return to the basics. We don't need to know who the Doctor is, or who the Master is. We don't even need to know about Gallifrey. In fact, the series best chance for a successful re-launch is to not pander AT ALL to fandom.

After all, this is what made ST:TNG so successful. It was the same setup but with a new cast and a new outlook on the established universe. If Who could do the same thing, it could be a winner.

On the technical side, we can learn a few lessons from the Movie.
1: Special Effects are no replacement for a good script and a good story.
2: Sod American sensibilities (Sorry guys, but the whole "The Doctor is half human" howler was because the US producers worried that American Who fans wouldn't be able to relate to a hero who wasn't Human. Please don't have a go at me, speak to the TV and Movie types who treat you like morons).
3: We don't need to explain how the technology works, so let's not.

So...here's the premise for the show:

We have this hero. He's a basically good person. He's intelligent, he's compassionate and he's humane. He has a device that can go anywhere and to any time. Our hero likes to travel and he is basically concerned with fighting evil and injustice.
He is an alien with a very long lifespan and the ability to assume a whole different body to stave off death. He has a marked fondness for Humans, who he travels with as often as possible.

Where can you not go with that concept?
All you have to do is make sure that the stories the show tries to tell are good ones, with a strong script. The best Who has excellent dialogue and helps the actors carry over their characterisations.

Doctor Who is, without doubt, the television series that has the greatest flexibility of any show or story ever. A man who can be 13 different people with a completely different character able to go anywhere in time and space, not only able to hop from place to place whenever he chose, but also able to stay in one place for a long time (such as early Jon Pertwee), and capable of doing so much.

I personally feel that the more the story is restricted, the less oppurtunities the series has, and therefore the more it suffers and loses. Although I enjoy episodes set on Gallifrey, they have sometimes tended to lessen the mystery and aura of the Doctor, and what is going on. I would do all I could to highten the mystery - perhaps create more "Who is he really?" intrigue, which Sylvester McCoy was able to do.

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I agree that the model for how to revive a previously successful TV format for a new generation is Star Trek, and that the crucial factors in doing so are:

-respect the original without feeling the need to follow it slavishly
-use continuity and previous actors where appropriate (Sarek, Spock, Scotty) but don't be afraid to dump inappropriate conventions or completely reinvent them (yeomans in miniskirts, smooth-headed Klingons)
- feel free to ignore large parts of the built up mythos (Paramount disown ST:V and VI - they advise writers that those events never "happened" in the ST universe)
- cast carefully
- concentrate on stories
- hold your nerve and don't worry if it's not a hit right away - the fans WILL stick with it if it's not a complete stinker. TNG only got consistently good in year three.
- don't feel you have to pander to fan expectations. Examples for Who would be: don't feel you *have* to have a recognisable control room, don't feel you *have* to have the sonic screwdriver, Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Gallifrey etc.
- despite all the above, DON'T betray basic things about the character. He *isn't* half human, he *doesn't* get romantically involved EVER and despite any technical expertise he may have, he's NEVER going to fix that chameleon circuit.

So, things to change, and things to not:
CHANGE: casting - obviously. Get Richard E Grant, or Robert Carlyle, or Gerard Depardieu, or Danny Devito, or Samuel L. Jackson, or Calista Flockhart(!) (note, that thing in brackets was an exclamation mark, not a picture of Calista Flockhart). Someone *different* than what's expected. Picard was a BIG change from Kirk, and he worked like Gangbusters.
CHANGE: Tardis interior, and interior designs generally. Farscape is a good model for how alien something can look.
CHANGE: design of classic monsters. Daleks could use an all terrain design update. Cybermen are pretty timeless, but they must NOT look like low-tech Borg. Sontarans could look great with modern makeup techniques.
CHANGE: theme tune. HORRORS! But Trek did it. The new one must be a killer, and must make you think "Who" without reminding too much of the Grainer original.
CHANGE: episodic format. Stories must be complete in an hour or two at most. Audiences just won't wait that long these days. Arcs are fine, obviously, but each episode MUST be complete in itself. Cliff hangers no more than three times a year, but *always* at the end of a year. (maybe regeneration every year...?)

DON'T CHANGE: Tardis exterior and sound effect. That's what the Tardis looks and sounds like. NCC1701-D was smoother and bigger but still recognisably the Enterprise. The Tardis must remain recognisably the Tardis, and since there are no more police boxes, it must stay exactly the same. It says "relic", but it also says "continuity".
DON'T CHANGE: basic alien quality of the Doctor. You are NOT supposed to be able to identify with this guy - that's what the companions are for. You are supposed to be mystified, baffled, awed and a little bit frightened of him, while still wanting to be by his side because that's where the action is and you can (usually) trust him to keep you safe.
DON'T CHANGE: his fallibility. He loses, sometimes. People die, sometimes a lot, sometimes his companions. He is NOT some kind of god-like supergenius who is never wrong. He knows more than any normal person, but he can and is wrong.
DON'T CHANGE: his complete uninterest in matters sexual. If you must have romances, let the companions have them - they're most likely human, so it'll make sense. The Doctor NEVER, EVER, gets involved in that stuff. Explain why with a backstory if you must, but never break this convention.
DON'T CHANGE: the fact that six year olds will want to watch, and will want to hide behind the sofa. Tricky that, but they always managed it when I was six...

I'd like to see a series with a combination of the feel of the X-files, Stargate SG-1, the Twilight Zone, and classic Who. I see the main character as being fundamentally alien - basically good, but with an agenda beyond the immediate, a grasp of a big picture usually denied to his companions and the audience for all but the briefest of flashes. A perfect example of such a thing would be the moment near the end of "Genesis of the Daleks" where he hesitates to complete the circuit on the bomb. Any other series, and the hero, facing a moment where he could destroy once and for all the race that subjugated the galaxy before ever they do it, would push the button and stare into the explosion with steely eyes. Only on Who would he be struck by the realisation that if he does that, he'll be no better than what he's fighting.

H.

Gosh! Well, I'd say, keep the TARDIS exterior, and the Daleks, keep some version of the theme tune, retain the idea of the Doctor being something... other... (no need to go into any details whatsoever about where he comes from etc) ... and of course his basic intensely compassionate, moral, violence-as-a-last-resort character.

And dump the rest.

Yup, let's lose all the old continuity, and the other old monsters, and what have you, and start over from scratch. It's been done before with other long-running characters (Superman, Godzilla, the X men) and more often than not with striking success. It would make the series vital and exciting and restore to it the ability to surprise us. There'd be nothing to stop a new team from playing with old concepts and characters, but in a new and relevant way.

Hmm, assuming this is a purely hypothetical question?
To be honest i don't know. I actually think a relative unknown is the secret to succesful casting as far as Who is concerned. No big names-or even little names like McGann and Roberts. I don't see a fundamental problem that means the idea needs to be changed that radically, and even then, it can be done with a sense of humour-I'm no great fan of ST:TNG but their off hand way off dealing with that pressing change-in-Klingon-physiognimy question was a masterful lesson in how to deal with such difficulties. And funny.
Hard to think of Who without Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Ice Warriors and the like, but certainly we could do without Davros the prune and a great many other "improvements" that have been made over the years.
And lets throw some money at it-this was, after all, the Beeb's most successful export, so why shouldn't it reap the reward. Money doesn't always mean dumbing down. Get someone sensible to edit the scripts. Someone who knows the series, but who isn't tied to it. There are any number of intelligent and underemployed SF writers out there who grew up with the series.

I personally see no reason why Daleks etc. shouldn't carry on in a new Doctor Who series, but yes, improvements can be made. The last Dalek story, Remembrance, introduced a Special Weapons Dalek. Therefore, why not introduce more daleks, such as a multi-armed Worker Dalek (how can a dalek create a spaceship with a plunger that can't reach the floor?) Having a more mechanical Dalek with different types of appendages, an R2D2 Dalek, if you will, would greatly increase its credibility. As well as all Daleks able to hover, or even fly. Would a Doctor running through a field chased by Daleks 15ft off the ground be scary? I think so! Afterall, the Cybermen have undergone a change in design without losing their appeal, so why not the Daleks?
It worked for the Klingons...

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Realistically, I think the BBC can bring it back (in fact I think they want to, it's the bureaucrats in the Beeb that are stopping them). Best way to do it is:

GET SOME FOREIGN MONEY IN: NOT American money, that was disasterous. Try mainland Europe. Look at Lexx - made with Canadian and German money. Dr Who is an easy export to many countries, so this shouldn't be too hard.

DO NOT TRY TO MAKE AN AMERICAN SCI-FI SERIES: This applies not only to plotting but to budget. It should be mid-budget, with the emphasis on story and character, but with some impressive stuff thrown in. The important thing is good, imaginative writing.

IF NECESSARY DO IT AS AN ANNUAL THING: Like Channel 4's Big Budget Easter mini-series or Only Fools and Horses. This is better than nothing and keeps the budget down.

BRING PAUL MCGANN BACK: He showed real promise in the TV Movie and he's done some Audio stuff as the 8th Doctor, so give him a chance to shine more.

From what I gather of the BBC's wish-list, I think foreign money is inevitable. Sadly, so is an attempt to create a money-spinning American-style show. Lord knows how often the BBC's ideal show would air (I'd settle for 26 dirt cheap 25-minute episodes per year). McGann would be too associated with the failed 1996 revival - I strongly doubt he'll ever play the Doctor on screen again.

I don't want dirt cheap! I want the Beeb to realize that if they spent the same time and money on this sort of stuff as they did on another re-make of whichever Dickens book we wil be treated to this year, then people would watch it.
SF continues to be a big money spinner and a big audience puller-you think Sky shows as much as it does because no-one watches the stuff? The Beeb have always had a snobs attitude towards the subject, proved by the very deliberate "starving" of Who towards the end.

I don't think the budget really makes that much difference - afterall, Red Dwarf VIII's budget was less than a series of Dinner Ladies,. and which looks the more impressive? What really makes the difference is script, somthing which the Americanised pilot lacked. Paul McGann was a good actor, but a lot of what he had to say ("I've a secret - I'm half human on my mother's side") was complete .
But yes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has proved that rubber-suited monsters can be popular if done properly, so there is no, and never has been a, reason to not make Who.

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The idea of Red Dwarf being impressive in any way is so confusing to me I don't think I understand the question...
Seriously, if they wanted it to they'd have to throw some money at it. People won't watch that sort of jerry rigged sfx anymore.

Since this conversation begun with who was the best Doctor, I felt this message was of particular relevance. In the latest edition of Greebo's Big One, Doctor Who won the Sci-fi Vote. Because of this, the vote for this week is 'Who was the best Doctor'. It would be good if every Doctor Who fan here could go and vote so that we will truly know, who is the most liked Doctor of all time. You can find the link just to the poll on The H2G2 Doctor Who Group home page but you can also go to this issue of Greebo's Big One by going to http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A663987 . I will add a link to the Greebo's Big One with the results on to the H2G2 Doctor Who Group home page when it comes out.

spook