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

RIP Nicholas Courtney

Gif

Have there been any announcements on when the new season is due? I know they were splitting it in half, between Spring and Autumn.

'Tis a sad day. The Brig has left the planet , and the show has lost one its most iconic figures and greatest ambassadors.



Geggs

I always hoped he'd be in New Who. The Sarah Jane Adventure, though good, wasn't the same.

<BB<

F.F.S not what I wanted to hear http://goo.gl/a1W1m I mean TBH he was nowhere near as bad as I had imagined. All the same i'd really rather he wasn't in DW

FB

I'm also amazed that you cannot even use acronyms of which one of the letters is an expletive. Surely the letter "F" on its own isn't a swearword?

Profanity filter #fail

FB

Actually, I'm not entirely surprised that he's coming back - for several reasons.

1) The purpose of that evil Tardis was never explained - there is a plot hole that needs filing there.
2) We saw said evil Tardis in the promo for the new season, so said plot hole might end up being filled, and he may be involved in filling it.
3) The Doctor interfered with the company he worked for. It smelt like a set up for an element in a future story at the time, though didn't lead anywhere during the course of season fnarg. It could lead into something in season six.


Geggs

All good points! And I pretty well trust SM completely.

But my distaste for Corden is quite visceral and just the idea of him being in Dr Who offends, even if actually he was ok last time if I am honest.

FB

Corden, when acting, is alright. It's when he's being himself that I want to hurl stuff through the TV.

The thing that concerns me is that his episode was dreadful, easily the worst of last series.

agree with HI on Corden - quite liked his character in The Lodger, don't find him funny at all as TV Personality.

Re: The Lodger:
I'm rather confused by the comments over the time machine in that.
Firstly, it was only referred to as 'someone trying to build a TARDIS', as I recall, early on before The Doctor knew what exactly was up there.
Then the whole explanation of the story was that it was a crashed ship that had lost its crew and was running on auto trying to find a pilot to, well, 'un-crash' it. When it was confuzzled by the Doctor plus drippy humans it self destructed.

So it seems:
1) It wasn't a TARDIS - evil or not, it was a space ship (albeit a time travel one with tardis like dimensional properties) on auto simply carrying out its instructions.
2) It wasn't being built, it was crashed and trying to repair.
3) It recognised a timelord - but not that the timelord was not compatible.
4) If there's one of them there's probably more so we shouldn't be surprised if they turn up again. Although currently we're not sure which species builds/operates them. But certainly a quite advanced one.

Which is itself interesting cos that sort of sophisticated time travel ship has only really been seen with the TimeLords and the Daleks (don't read the books, so dunno if they add any in). And since the Doctor didn't seem to know about it - no immediate recognition of the technology, and indeed his initial comments about it being someone trying to make a TARDIS - this indicates it must be something new.

So from that POV I can see it playing a part - a non-Timelord (or non-standard version of TimeLord) time travel device. Could be anything though.

Or did I miss something everyone else saw?

""Which is itself interesting cos that sort of sophisticated time travel ship has only really been seen with the TimeLords and the Daleks ""

unlike capt. jacks snazzy but unsofisiticated wrist band

indeed.
And the Doctor has been quite disparaging about Dalek time travel tech in the past (future?) as well.

I'd like it to be a War Games-esque SIDRAT, but I doubt it somehow...

<BB<

Rewatching The Beast Below on BBC3 and it's a much stronger episode than I'd remembered. I think when I first saw it I was still adjusting to the new - well everything - and was focusing on that more than the episode.

Pretty much everything works: the dilemma is powerful, the mystery is satisfying, all the performances are brilliant (even Sophie Okonedo's Liz 10 who grated the first time) and it looks stunning.

I think the beauty of this series is that it has made me re-evaluate all previous episodes. That said, I'm still turning over because I really can't stomach watching the Dalek episode again.

I've found that a lot of the episodes of "new Who" I disliked on first viewing have been much better the second time around (though 'Victory of the Daleks' has been rubbish every time I've watched it!)

Series 6 starts on 23rd April in the UK and the US

Would you like a cup of tea?

Okay, it may be bad in many ways, but we did get that gloriously mad line out of it.


Geggs

And spitfires. In space! with LASERS!!

I mean come on...

Have to say I don't get the whole that being a bad episode. Didn't mind it myself. Wasn't great, I grant you. And the whole robot blowing up thing was a bit duff. But I dunno, guess I'm pretty immune to duff Doctor Who episodes after all this time. They all have something to commend them, even if it is just a few phrases and scenes

Did the series ending answer the question of why Amy didn't remember the Daleks? I'm not sure it did.

I'm not quite sure myself. It could have been a reference to Earth being alone in the universe, as it was in the last episode, and so the Daleks never existed, and so all memory of them is lost.

A thought has just stuck me - was that a reference to Krikkit? With the sky being all dark and wotnot.


Geggs

Any thoughts yet on what this 'game-changing cliff-hanger' will be?

I'm kinda hoping it will be 'River is evil' - something that's been strongly hinted at. My 'option 2' would be the death of Rory - or even Amy.

Gif