"Neil Gaiman's second Doctor Who episode has been confirmed"He's doing it again? I thought that other episode was just a one-off. Seriously, can he just leave Doctor Who alone?
• First, actual news -- Neil Gaiman's second Doctor Who episode has been confirmed to star the Cybermen and Warwick Davis. The latter excites me, the former doesn't. Not that I mind the Cybermen, I'm just baffled why people are getting excited that he's "bringing them back!" They're the Cybermen. They're almost as common as the Daleks. They might not have been featured for a while, but they also weren't really gone anywhere for him to bring back, right? (Via Vulture)
• In more tangential Doctor Who news, David Tennant will be a voice in an upcoming episode of Clone Wars; he'll play Huyong, an ancient droid who helps oversee lightsaber construction. There's a clip above, and while I was initially as skeptical as the Lil' Rodian, the character is pretty awesome. Note: If Lucas had still been running the show, there's no way his character's name wouldn't have been D'Vid Tinnaaaahnnn'nnnnto. (Via IGN)
• A group of very industrious Who-ligans have taken it upon themselves to make a film about the Time War, using nothing but actual Who footage. That's pretty hardcore, although given the fact that I'm only a minor who fan and even I'm dying to know what happened between the 8th and 9th Doctors, I suppose it was inevitable. (Via The Mary Sue)
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26 comments
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Can we start calling Doctor Who fans Wholigans? Or just anything else besides Whovians? Because I'm getting really sick of that word. And this is coming from a *gulp* Whovian.
@jebwhitlock it's a Wookie youngling and Wookie Jedi are part of canon although Lucas realized that they were too overpowered and now basically you need his personal permission to introduce a force sensitive Wookie
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I've got to ask, am I the only one who enjoys the Paul McGann Doctor and the movie he was in? I gotta be honest, I actually really love that thing as far as made for tv movies go.
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@Lithroe Before that movie I had only seen bits of the show - mainly because morons who ran television in FL played them in random order - probably because television in the US didn't run through multiple episode arcs and the concept was alien to them and they just didn't give a crap. I was delighted by the film but yeah I can see fans thinking that it was far too Americanized and had it gone on to series I can only see it getting worse.
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@Gallen_Dugall @Lithroe The problem wasn't that the film was set in America. The problem was that the script gave the new Doctor no personality, involved very little actually happening, and randomly made the Doctor half-human (which from now on appears to be only true of that incarnation). Also the opening of the episode involved the Doctor bringing the Master to Skaro to be judged by the Daleks. A more stupid plot line I cannot conceive...
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@fatpie42 @Lithroe Yeah, can't argue, I said it was Americanized. Still, as a pilot (in which very little ever happens) it presented a lot of interesting concepts to anyone new to them. A breath of fresh air to me at the time - USAlund hates real sci-fi so...
Yes, it was the most promising thing on air at the time.
Yes, I hoped that it would be picked up for a series at the time.
Yes, I now realize it's a poor dumbed down version of the original.
Yes, I'm glad it didn't get picked up for a series.
Yes, I know that if Hollywood ever got it's hands on the franchise they'd make it look genius by comparison.
Plus I was on ship board roving patrol when I watched it and was way more entertaining than what I was supposed to be doing to ensure the safety and well-being of my shipmates.
I think it's Gaiman writing the Cybermen that's exciting people and what he may be able to do with them. Personally I hope they finally redesign them. One of the things I like about the Cybermen on the old show is they were always changing their appearance, sometimes subtly sometimes not. But usually they tended to look different in every story, unlike the Daleks. On the new show they've barely changed, which is annoying because I think there's an opportunity to do really cool visual things with the Cybermen that you can't do with the Daleks. That said, I hope we don't get multi-coloured Cybermen with humpbacks...
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@mechfan yeah the arc started by ripping from Hunger Games so a Harry Potter inspired episode at some point is a good bet
Gaiman showed a lot of nods to the past in The Doctor's Wife, so i assume the idea here is he's bringing back the original Cybermen and not the one's that first cropped up on Pete's World.but, to be honest, i'd be more excited about the Pete's World Cyberman returning than Gaiman. His episode was good for a Neil Gaiman story or whatever, but it wasn't for a Doctor Who story. People need to calm the fuck down about The Doctor's Wife.
I think the notion is that Gaiman might bring back the "proper" Mondas Cybermen.. that's getting all the Old School Whovians in a lather
@trepannedbuddha The interesting bit to me is the "behind you without you even knowing" mention. As the current Cybermen are too noisy for that to be possible.....
(Mind, the production reason for the clanking is to mask the noise made by the costume as it moves, but still.)
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Clone Wars
The Gathering (where the younglings got their crystals) has been the best episode this season
The Darth Maul one was okay but the overly long Onderon arc was bland
The Gathering ran like a classic Twilight Zone episode - obvious morality tale with weird twists courtesy the force. For as two dimensional as the youngling characters were they were infinitely more memorable and likable than whoever the hell was in the Onderon arc
Doctor Who
Cybermen have made supporting appearances fairly regularly - I think this has been for the best
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Onderon arc went on at least one episode too long (4 episodes of a 22 episode season). It didn't make sense that the Seperatists knew the location of the rebel base and stopped attacking with gunships because the rebels got hand-held launcher missiles. Okay, why wouldn't they just do higher altitude bombing?
Are we supposed to be happy that a Seperatist backed monarchy was replaced with the old monarchy? Is that freedom? What exactly oppression was going on even?
And Jedi have a code against invading Seperatist worlds now or what? Why even fight the war? Why not let the Confederacy of Independant Systems go?
I'm tired of Ahoska. I don't dislike her. But really, 2 arcs in a row with her? It looks like everyone else will be mostly sitting out this youngling arc, too.
Yeah, who cleans up the bodies of the "chose poorly" younglings?
@StarBores all excellent points which I'll address with my opinion in order
A) I made the same point about Avatar - if you have space ships you should just be able to drop rocks on people from orbit.
B + C) Way too many plot threads that led nowhere
D) Fan favorite characters should not be made to carry the show (unless they have important character arc stuff to do)
E) I think Yoda eats them. Pretty sure that's how he lived so long - consuming the purity of the innocent
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@Gallen_Dugall Funny - wasn't a fan of The Gathering but enjoyed the Onderon arc. To each their own I guess.
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@GeneralTekno @Gallen_Dugall Although I thought the Onderon arc had a, "this is theoretically how modern war goes when it works" feel to it, I did enjoy it.
I like a simple story like in, "The Gathering." Sometimes the simple ones can build up characters. (if done right)
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@Someguy @GeneralTekno Yeah the "soft war" concept annoys me no end. as counterpoint may I present General Lee - "It is well that war is so terrible - otherwise we should grow too fond of it." and General Sherman - "War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over." as well as the ST:OS episode "A Taste of Armageddon"
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@GeneralTekno yep - I find the action scenes don't hold my attention like they used to (old age I guess) but I enjoyed the simplicity of the youngling story, plus Yoda trapping children in an ice prison so they starve to death was totally in character for that jerk
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@GeneralTekno It was a well done story now that I think about it seriously, I think it might be that they kept starting and dropping minor plot threads - like the love triangle and how Rash got to be king so I guess my ADD self got tired of it. I don't know. Because it was well done so I don't really have a good excuse for not liking it.
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@Gallen_Dugall What struck me about the Onderon arc was that they ended it with killing off the main supporting character in it. Given how adverse cartoons can be to non-generic trooper death, it impressed me they'd do that to hammer home the "no victory without sacrifice" idea.
I think the cybermen lost all credibility in the Torchwood episode where Ianto's girlfriend was half Cyberman. As for the Time War movie, i'm sure Timothy Dalton is around not doing much and wouldn't mind filming movies again.
