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

Just watched the two exclusive clips on the who website.

I liked the 2nd one best. "I will NOT die!!" and the suggestion that we might get a bit of a reval about what happened during The Time War and The Doctor's role in it.

I think the spitting is meant to indicate that he's foaming at the mouth mad ...

Hi GB,

>Us oldies can remember Bernard Cribbins being in the Tardis before, way back in the 60s. It was a film though so probably the BBC will just hint about his past, and getting a memory wipe like Donna.

Nah, different continuity. The Doctor that Bernard accompanied in the 60s was a human inventor. The films are non-canonical, and likely to stay that way.

Bernard Cribbins from The Dalek Invasion of Earth and Bernard Cribbins from New Who are different people. Just like a certain Gallifreyan guard and the 6th Doctor... or Princess Astra (?) and Romana II...

Gif

PS: Although, that said - never underestimate the power of the retcon...

bernard cribbins in the film was a police man thats how he ended up in the tardis, he burst in to make an emergency call just as it started to dematerialize and at the end the dr. took him back to just before the emergency to aprehend the crooks

One was called Tom, the other Wilf - definately not the same character.

(I feel a certain link with Bernard Cribbins, who in "Carry On Spying" played a character called Bluebottle)

<BB<

OK, having rewatched it for the third time, I'll now offer my opinions (well, every one else seems to be).

So, the spitting thing. This is just something that we'll all have to get used to now that everything is filmed in HD.

The sound level I didn't find as intrusive as on some other episodes (and I'm usually the first to complain about it), Tennant always mutters his lines worse than Sylvester McCoy ever did.

The Queen Elizabeth tie up was nicely done and explains why she wanted his head in the Shakespeare episode.

RTD said on confidential he was trying for a light hearted feel for the Xmas episode, which probably explains the Harry Potter style ressurection. Either that, or he just couldn't think of a better way to bring the Master back again.

I hope that if the Master is going to be brought back in future they have a different actor playing him. Nothing particularly against Simm, but when an actor in a role overacts to that extent it always makes me think of the later Tom Baker eps, when he was letting his ego rule his acting, and it's a good indicator that it's time to write him out of the show before he starts thinking only 'he' can play the role.

The 'who is Wilf' thing. Obviously going to be revealed in the next episode, it's how RTD works. He'll probably tell everyone on confidential that he 'always had that planned' for Wilf all along. Yeah, right, we believe you Russell. My guess is he'll turn out to be professor wotsisname from Shada, the other surviving Timelord that everyone seems to have forgotten about.

The reason I watched it three times is because there was something that didn't quite sit right with me and I couldn't work out what. Now I know what it is.

According to the series canon the last Prime Minister was Harriet Jones right? So the series has been set in the near future. But this time around everyone is talking about President Barack Obama, so it must be set in the present, or else the whole election of Harriet Jones, Golden Age of Britain, fall of Ms Jones, subsequent recession that the President is going to recue everyone from etc., has to happen before Obama leaves office. So Donna, Wilf etc. must be from a time zone before the one Rose was in. Except that can't be, because Rose watched the first ever 'public' contact with an alien race on TV with the Doctor (Eccleston). Wilf and Donna have already battled the Daleks etc.

RTD's parting gift to Moffat is a completely screwed up timeline. Like the history of Doctor Who doesn't have enough plot holes already. Thanks Russ, you

Also, since when did everyone in Britain hang on every word of the US President anyway? Let alone discuss his forthcoming speeches at the burger van. Just my

Since the BBC started selling Dr Who to the US.

With the Harriet Jones thing, how come that had to happen in the future? If we take it that she was a future Prime Minister (was a future something? That's confusing grammar right there) then there are problems with Obama being there, but can't Harriet Jones' rule have happened in the 'present', i.e. about 2 years ago or so?

In the Slitheen episodes they blew up downing street, so presumably whatever Prime Minister they had before - be it the 'real' one or whoever it was in the Whoniverse previously - died and made way for Harriet Jones. I never thought of that as the future, just as the present unfolding as it does in tv shows. I do remember someone saying that Harriet Jones was elected for 4 terms though, and then there was Mr Saxon's rule, so to fit 4 terms in maybe there is some jigging about with time. Like maybe when Rose met the Doctor it was before we thought it was. But apart from the 4 terms, I see little to indicate that Harriet Jones' rule has to be in the future. Might just be me being thick though, that happens.

Iirc, Rose started us in 2005. Then she went away for a year and missed the election of the PM who died in Aliens of London. By Boomtown we were 6 months later so late 2006/early 2007.

The Christmas Invasion likely took place Christmas 2007: Jackie made it seem like Rose had been away for some time, and Christmas 2006 would have been too early for that.

The events of the Runaway Bride definitely took place the Christmas after Christmas Invasion, so 2008 and Voyage of the Damned the Christmas after that so we're up to 2009.

The events of The Sound Of Drums and Last of the Time Lords took place in 2009 where the Brits gained Saxon as a replacement for Harriet Jones' successor. The American's also got a new President(-elect, though that was a major error on RTD's part, he clearly doesn't understand what the president-elect does) which means the Whoniverse presidential timeline matches our own. Saxon was replaced by the PM who was deposed in Torchwood: Children of Earth and President-elect Winters would have been replaced by his Vice President(-elect) which could/must have been Obama.

Donna meeting up with the Doctor for the second time (and Torchwood's second series) seems to have happened in mid-2010 - Wilf saw the Doctor "last Christmas" - and all of Donna's adventures seem to have happened in a relatively short space of 'our' time putting The Stolen Earth and Journey's End in late 2010 (something which is contradicted in The Waters Of Mars, which stated those things happened in 2009) and it seems several months have passed between Journey's End and the End of Time, putting the End of Time in mid-late 2011.

Or it's just wibbley-wobbley, timey-wimey stuff. Saying that first would have given me less of a headache.

That's a pretty good account though, well done. It is pretty confusing, I suppose that RTD didn't really think about that and just wanted Obama in it (who, btw, doesn't look much like Obama to me, but that's by the by, especially since we didn't see his face). Without Obama would this confusion over time be there? I mean, it could still be later on in his 4 years and the recession is still on, so it's not necessarily wrong.

What are we to make of the return of the Time Lords? Is there a big pile of knackered pocket watches on Gallifrey?

Just realised there's a problem with my summation: when Martha first meets the Doctor Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows hadn't come out, so that places that meeting in early/mid 2007.

So either wibbley-wobbley, timey-wimey or RTD didn't have a clue when his own show was set.

>professor wotsisname from Shada, the other surviving Timelord that everyone seems to have forgotten about.


Where did that come from? Isn't that from the first Time War (the one in the 8th Doctor books) rather than the TV Time War?

Gif

I have to say I always watch in blissful ignorance of any time line so it all works out fine in my eyes.

I'm a complete non-

Deb

What was the Queen Elizabeth tie-up?

I predict the Doctor will die in the arms of the Master ...

From the end of The Shakespeare Code when Queen Elizabeth I arrives and, much to the Doctor's surprise, orders her guards to catch the Doctor and Martha.

Are trailers considered spoilers, because the one that was on before Day of the Triffids yesterday should have George Lucas phoning his lawyer

I don't think trailers are spoilers unless one mentions specifics. Having seen the trailer, I think I know exactly what you mean, Reefgirl The bad news I've been trying not to break to people is that the TARDIS doesn't get buried in snow and dragged out by reindeer

This is interesting:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00pj1f2/Doctor_Who_The_Commentaries_The_End_of_Time/

and, through the wonders of 20th century technology, I can watch my vhs recording of the End of Time pt1 whilst, through the wonders of 21st century technology, listen to the commentary on iplayer

Van

Speaking of The Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff.

The Time Lords scenes we seen so far are...taking place... temporally... in the past: On the last day of The Time War, in fact. A war which the Doctor ran away from or did something awful that involved Daleks and lots of death of almost everybody and everywhere he ever knew andd after which everything that's ever happened to him, happened.

Clear?

As mud no doubt, but pressing on.....


So if there is some running back and forth along his own timeline (the thing he said never do ever under any circumstances, ever.)

Then why is Matt Smith stood behind Timothy Dalton's left shoulder, crying?

http://images51.fotki.com/v423/fileA8Xk/045ef/2/489822/7537268/Picture11.png

The rear view might give a clearer shot of physical build.

http://images18.fotki.com/v438/file3p5G/045ef/2/489822/7537268/Picture10.png

Now, I'm not saying it is, I'm just saying it might be..

Ooh, does a bit doesn't it!