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

just been trawling t'web to see how other countries are treating the new series and came across an interesting comment I hadn't seen before:

http://www.newsarama.com/tv/Doctor-Who-Paley-Center-100415.html

"A very important aspect of the Doctor’s own past will finally be dealt with this season as Newsarama learned exclusively – The Doctor’s regeneration limit. “It’s been addressed in a very, very cheeky way by an old friend of mine and I’m not going to tell you any more about that,” said Moffat, telling us to “wait and see.”"

hmmmmm

And on Confidential the other week, didn't Moffat say Davies had been in to 'fact-check' something big that was coming up later in the series?



Double-hmmmm.

I have a horrible feeling that it's a re-boot (despite the on-screen shots of previous generations of The Doctor)

The first time we heard about a limit was in 'The Deadly Assassin', back when I suspect writer Robert Holmes thought 12 times (ie, 13 bodies) was a high enough number to be dramatic and not too restrictive. All they need do is say that the limit was something the Time Lords imposed and, without them around, there's no-one about to limit a new reboot cycle.

After all, when the Doctor thought he'd escaped the Time Lords, he said he could 'live forever, barring accidents', so why not?

Of course once we get to the 13th Doctor they ought to make a big thing about it before they resolve the conundrum.

If they play the 13th Doc as though he is having to cope with his genuine mortality and expects that now death really will mean death it will make for some great Who, IMHO.

FB

13th Doctor? Don't forget he used an extra one up in Tennant's era ...

I don't see how the hand/Doctordonna "used up" a regeneration any more than 'The Watcher' did

More prescient is that this thread is now being written under a misnomer; we can still provide spoilers for *this* season with Matt Smith but whatfor next season?

In many ways F79498?thread=5293700&show=20&skip=3240#pi3242 has caught up with this thread and we must cosider the future, cracks in the universe notwithstanding

Just taken a look at the IMDB listings for the final episodes of this season ... there's a Time Lady listed but also Phillip Madoc has a role. I got a little overexcited initially thinking he was Morbius in the "Brain of" story but actually he played the Frankenstein role of Solon. Even so, could Morbius be back in some way? Or will he just be undertaking his 5th role in Who ...

could well be. No character listed is there?

Although I'm rather more interested in what Karen Westwood is going to be up...

And on the baddies list, it looks like we'll get a little bit of everyone. Or at least the main characters. So whilst I think you are right now about Daleks turning up, I think from what I've seen only 1 or 2 and they won't be the big baddie.

Well ... further looking at the IMDB cast list shows River Song returning for the last two episodes ... and Nicholas Briggs being credited (without a specific part) in the final. Now he's a versatile kind of guy so it could be daleks, it could be judoon, it could be anything else he voices ... my money would probably be on the first of that list ...

Hmm, if there's going to be a Time Lady in the finale, my money is on it being River.

She speaks Old High Gallifreyan, she can fly the Tardis, she seems almost a match for the Doctor with technology and history. In Flesh and Stone there's the following exchange:

I'll see you soon, when the Pandorica opens.
The Pandorica - that's a fairy tale.
Aren't we all?

It's the 'we' that's got me thinking.

Remember, people add bogus information into IMDB listings all the time.

If it is River, she must be on her last regeneration, since she dies in the library.

I think I heard some rumours about Rani turning up?

Thinking about it, River Song does sound like a deliberately made up name, like it's not her real name.

And who did she kill? Will we find out at the end of the season?


Geggs

>>If it is River, she must be on her last regeneration, since she dies in the library.<<

Not necessarily: she says to the Doctor "you'll burn up both your hearts and don't you think you'll regenerate!"

Actually, now I think about it, it must have been by definition her last regeneration.

Although I recall reading somewhere that they were going to explain how the Doctor will get around his last regeneration ... and given the Master used up all his and still survives ... you've got to wonder whether it's actually that relevant ...

There are a lot more reliable sources than IMDB!
The embargoed 'enemies' photos have started coming out (these are official BBC releases) from the finale eps and they confirm a lot of the rumoured baddies. Although quite what role the baddies are playing is open. And there seems to be something behind it all, bringing them together.

There's a bit of Pond/Song dialogue doing the rounds that explains a bit more about what the Pandorica is which makes interesting reading. And there was a short paragraph synopsis floating around the web (that I can't find right now) that seems an obvious pointer but could be taken in a very different way.

Indeed it looks like being quite a convoluted finale and we'll see the whole series in a new light I think.

Well, the name suggests Pandora's Box, which contained all the evil of the world, and so all the baddies coming back would fit with that.


Geggs

Ah but what is evil?
If one moves from objective moral standards then it depends on the point of view.

And don't forget that before the box was opened to let stuff out, it was also opened to put stuff in.

Final eps spoilers...









ah yes, found it. The Radio Times spoiler:
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Pandorica_Opens

"There was a goblin. Or a trickster, or a warrior. A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. Nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it -- one day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world."

Of course, if you are a baddy, the above could well describe The Doctor.
I doubt it does, but an interesting bit of confuddling.

And we still haven't seen the cybermen from the 'coming up' trailer at the end of episode one. I believe the last two eps of this season are called the Pandorica Opens and the Big Bang or somesuch.

Pandora's box... I'm not sure I can cope with Amy's box and Amy's crack