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

You probably all know this but Iheard on the local radio yesterday that the Daleks now have the ability to fly...

They always did.

That joke that went around for years was based on people's assumptions that they couldn't. We saw them flying briefly in Revelation of the Daleks (1985) and more memorably in Remembrance of the Daleks (1988). But there were plenty of scenes where a dalek was seen on a higher level - such as in Evil of the Daleks (1967), which kind of implies they couyld climb stairs somehow...

(And besides, I suspect that was a comment inserted by a journalist rather than a statement of intent from the production team. As they haven't even confirmed if the Daleks are returning - although they hope they will - they'd be unlikely to make such an announcement so early on).

*shrug* I'm just letting the fans know!

Float rather than fly, surely, and - going all out for pedant points! - wasn't it a flying Davros rather than flying Daleks in Revelation?

Anyway, even if the rights thingy has been settled and the Daleks *are* going to be in the new show (along with the Autons, etc - has Rusty simply bought the rights to the original unmade season 22 scripts?!?), I seem to recall Nation and his people hated the floating. So maybe a non-float clause may be inserted into the Daleks' contract. Prima donnas (with 'tiny, weak, strange, frightened' creatures inside, of course...).

Do you want to them lift from the ground?

They levitated in Planet Of The Daleks and More Than 40 Years In The Tardis if that counts

<BB<

>> wasn't it a flying Davros rather than flying Daleks in Revelation?<<

It's difficult to make it out, but the final shot of the glass dalek solidifying, then disappearing and then shooting the bodysnatchers is *supposed* to be shot from the ceiling where the Dalek is hovering, but it's not at all clear. That's what the intention was though. The floating Davros was much more obvious

...as indeed was Orcini's miraculous incorporeal leg.

You have to watch that Revelation sequence with the dalek several times to work it out- it looks very flashy, but it's very confusingly shot, imo.

I thought it was the hover discs from the Century 21 strips Nation disliked? Which is understandable, there are clumsy-looking.

The bodysnatcher death scene is confusing on pretty much every level. I thought it was a Dalek that grew to giant size and then exploded, for what it's worth. Eric Saward, what a great creative artist.

I do recall some piece where the writer rang up Nation's people and mentioned the floaty-up-the-stairs bit from Remembrance. There was apparently an awkward silence down the phone and then Nation's representative said 'Let's just pretend that never happened, shall we?' Then again he always had a rather odd attitude towards his great cash cow...

*runs away and regrets mentioning it*

hands up everyone who's looking forward to Christmas this year and the first new Doctor Who Story involving the Autons?

anyone know what frmat the story will be in, how many eps/length of eps etc?

also, anyone got any ideas what the autons will be like? they gotta make them a lot better then they were in the Pertwee era, but it'll be good to see them back in Who.

spook

Xmas thing yet to be confirmed, isn't it?

Anyway, Spook, it's going to be a 13-episode season of 45 minute episodes, three two-parters, the rest self-contained stories.

The Auton thing hasn't been confirmed either - the media are obviously more interested in the return of the Daleks later in the year (probably). I thought the SfS Autons looked fine, certainly a great improvement on the original design (as seen in The Avengers where the Autons appeared as the Cybernauts)...

We don't actually have 'no spoilers' in our House Rules, but I do think as a matter of decency that we should at least flag them properly so they can be avoided - does this seem fair?

Although *some* places have reported returning monsters they haven't been confirmed by the production team yet.

Right - spoilers ahoy coming up:







Warned you, pop onto the next post if you don't want to read story titles...






Okay, we know that the episodes are being written by Russell T Davies in conjunction with Steven Moffat (Press Gang, Coupling), Paul Cornell (Virgin New Adventures, Casualty, Wavelength), Rob Shearman (award-winning playwrite, Big Finish writer, Born & Bred) and Mark Gatis (The League of Gentlemen). According to Russell Davies' columnn in Doctor Who Magazine, the first episode has the working title of 'Rose', which introduces the new companion Rose Tyler. The second episode is provisionally called 'The End of the World' and one of the two-parters is called 'Aliens of London'. The final episode is apparently being written under the name of 'Parting of the Ways'.

Russell has also revealled that in addition to Rose there'll be another character called Jackie. Whether that's a companion or a recurring character we don't know.


He's also mentioned an alien race called the Moxx of Balhoon, though it's not clear whether that's a joke or not

well, i don't know much about spoiler information, just news stories. in fact, it's probably a good idea to open up a spoiler thread for news on episodes.

i'm sure that Doctor Who is definately returning at christmas as it's a news story at http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30500-13079635,00.html , and sky news is pretty reliable news and i don't think they just post rumours.

spook

Spoilers? What spoilers? I wish I knew some. All of this stuff is being openly reported in most media outlets anyway.

My impression was that Parting of the Ways was the name of episodes 12 and 13 just as Aliens of London is the name of the first two-parter.

Still dubious about the actual Xmas day launch date (New Year sounds much more likely) - it'll be hard to promote the launch, it'll get swamped by Xmas publicity. Anyway most news outlets would say they don't just post rumours and yet the Daily Mail (to name just one) reported some spectacularly inaccurate rumours as fact.

This pretty reliable news source is the one saying the Doctor's arch enemies are 'the automatons', is it...?

You'll notice that Sky news aren't reporting that the BBC has announced this, merely that the Daily Express is reporting it.

While it's of course *possible*, it's highly unlikely that they'd start a new series on Christmas Day. Where would it fit in the schedule, with two episodes of EastEnders, a Christmas Special or three and an unseasonal screening of Babe?

No they don't show new stuff on at Christmas (except specials).

Need to wonder what to face The Great Escape with.... usually Chicken Run.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3743753.stm

I take it we can trust this one?
*Interesting* choice...

See my journal entry on the suspect, entitled 'Auuuuuuggggghhhhh' (closely beating out the alternate title 'Kill me now').