473 replies to this topic

[Jacob]

A couple of things.

1) On The Fact That I Know Nothing.

The most exciting thing about this assignment, beyond getting to write about, and moderate discussions of, such a good show, is learning about all the rich history and legacy of the show. I wanna know it all. All I know is that Peter Davison (?) is on At Home With The Braithwaites, which rocks. (The first season -- er, series -- anyway, and I love the second due to it being on crack.)

The other side of it, though, is that I'm seeing an intersection of geek culture and ex-US culture happening already, which gives me pause. Geeks the world over are very, very excited about knowing the things that they know, and we can't wait to share that with the less informed. Sometimes we're harsh, or dismissive, or manage to answer the question while implying the asker is a moron. Or, we debate the hell out of it and completely lose track of the point.

As a moderator, I can't afford for that to happen. There is always the option of opening another thread, if you want. Email me if you're not sure. But turning the "Rose" thread into an "everything I ever hated about Peri" thread is not the answer, and if one person answers, it spirals out of control fairly quickly.

So I ask that you think twice before posting about whether or not you're simply responding, or going off-topic altogether to prove that you know more than the other guy. What that will do, if abused, is drive me nuts, and I'll probably freak out and start warning and banning indiscriminately like some kind of suicide bomber Cylon.

...Er, Dalek.

I am sure that there will be gray areas, and that's what I'm here for. I don't want you to be afraid of expressing your opinion. All opinions are equally valid. But you've got to keep in mind where you're posting. If somebody in the "End Of The World" thread says something that contradicts a minor point in an episode that aired in 1976, priving that they're a moron, I just ask that you please think twice about the tone in your reply, and make sure that it at least includes topical content.

2) On The Fact That I'm American, And So Is This Website.

I'm so very American. Lots of posters here are, too. I was raised Anglophile, which means I saw Charles and Di get married, I know who the princesses are, and I know nothing else beyond what I've picked up from Iris Murdoch, Grant Morrison, EF Benson, Martin Amis, Garth Ennis, and fucking Neil Gaiman.

Meaning, of course, that I know nothing.

I'm counting on you guys, in the episode threads and wherever, to help me out. I could write the recaps right now, because I have the episodes available, but I'm going to hold off because I don't want to miss anything, obvious or not.

I'm also counting on the British posters to hold off on the dry sardonic stuff with each other. I have to moderate from an American standpoint, and I know from experience that there are differences. I'm not talking linguistics, I'm talking about things you'd say to a friend in a pub being things you don't say to Americans on message boards. What comes across as gentle ribbing to you may well come across to your fellow posters as incredibly withering rudeness.

Not because it's bad, or wrong -- my friends and I are probably a lot harder with each other -- but because if you offend an American, they're going to speak up about it, and it quickly spins out of control and starts being about self-justification and "How dare you" and all that stuff. And vice versa, this isn't an indictment of anybody. The entire global community got to see this shit before the US. Easier for everybody if we're just nice. We're all here for the same reason, after all.

3) On My Humps.

So here's my cred, at the time of writing. I know as much about Dr. Who as a person who's seen zero episodes ... but is a total dork. It's true: read the Serenity recap. It doesn't get more queer than that. Which is to say, I know a lot about the show, but I also don't know much. I know the premise, I know the actors who played 6/10 of the Doctor on sight, Daleks and Cyphermen and "Enlightenment" (Peter again), I know many of the Companions and what their issues are. That's the history of the show that I know.

I have a ten-foot scarf.

The first episode -- you're going to laugh -- the first episode I ever saw was "The Christmas Invasion." So when I went back and watched the "Empty Child" two-parter, I was the opposite of everybody else in the world!

"I don't know about this Chris Eccleston. Is he going to do it right?" I was calmed within five seconds, of course. His Doctor is as heartbreakingly sweet and wise as Tennant's is invigorating and "Why are you doing this when I love you and you're breaking my heart" rageful.

I think it might have been the perfect initiation.

I think that Billie Piper is way too posh to play Rose, but she's a great actor nonetheless.

I like what I've seen of "Rose," and I like the changes brought to the Companion/Doctor relationship.

I'm not sold on Captain Jack, but I think I might love him.

I've seen the two-parter and special episode referenced above, part of the "Weakest Link" episode (watch me dance around the spoilers), and the rest? I'm not watching them until they come on, because I want to be there with you. You who have seen them before, and you who have not. They're sitting on the shelf, waiting for the world (the world is not America, I know) to catch up.

I hope that those among us who have experience with the new series -- and especially those who have taken part in the history, the audios, the books, the comics -- will come with us, the last stragglers, and enjoy the show as though they were seeing it the first time. And I thank you for any help you can offer.

Ask questions in this thread about the forums, if you're new to the site or just paranoid, and email me questions about the show so I can post them on the sister thread. And thanks.

[Mr. Excitement]

That was a wonderfully self-effacing post, Jacob.

What's your ruling on posting threads for individual stories in the Legacy forum? As many episodes as there are, I imagine it would have the potential to become a bit of a space/traffic problem, plus the thread naming conventions would be stretched to an unseemly degree (14-21-26: "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" 1977.02.26-1977.04.02).

[cutecouple]

I like how IMDB did it -

Season 14, Episode 6: The Talons of Weng-Chiang
26 February 1977

- which translates nicely as 14-6: "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" 1977.02.26. That is, treat each serial/story as a single episode, rather than specify the separate parts.

Edited by cutecouple, Mar 10, 2006 @ 1:49 PM.

[Jacob]

I agree. Wouldn't most people with much to say have seen them altogether like that anyway? At least recently enough to remember?

[EllycatinOz]

Umm stupid question how do we email a Network Executive?!!!

Second question I really want to talk about Bad Wolf and generally when people spotted it and that kind of stuff. Should I post a separate thread - but what title?????

[areacode212]

Umm stupid question how do we email a Network Executive?!!!

Click on his name, then when you're looking at his profile, click "Send an Email".

[Jacob]

Ellycat -- Ongoing mentions of that particular thing (which I have noticed but don't know what it means) can go in the Spoilers thread.

[cutecouple]

Nuallain:

We possibly need to come up with some accepted numbering convention for these 'side episodes' like Pudsey Cutaway, The Christmas Invasion and Attack of the Graske.

For instance, at the moment TCI is down as "2.0" and Cutaway is down as "2.X" but the official BBC-used production code for TCI is "2.X" (as in 2.Xmas, geddit!?) and AFAIK Cutaway doesn't have an official one at all!

Maybe Cutaway is a better 2.0, with 2.X for TCI and 2.i for AotG (since it's the BBCi special).

I'm OK with the above, but where does one get the official BBC production codes? And should anything that doesn't fit in or affect the continuity, like AotG (an interactive adventure broadcast on digital cable), be placed in general gabbery or in DIY Daleks?

Edited by cutecouple, Mar 10, 2006 @ 12:29 PM.

[StickyKeys]

I have a ten-foot scarf.

Amateur.

Judging only from that post, at the very least this will be lots of fun.

[GrahamF]

He also thinks Billie Piper is posh :)

That aside - there's a "Britspeak" topic for non-Brit Doctor Who newcomers to seek help with the Brit slang etc. I didn't notice that much, but then I'm a North American-ised Brit.

[Nuallain]

I'm OK with the above, but where does one get the official BBC production codes?

It was mentioned in Doctor Who Magazine in passing that, although TCI was the first episode from the second series to be shown it would be known as "Episode X" (for Xmas), while from New Earth on would be "Episode One", "Episode Two" and so on.

The Children in Need special had no name onscreen but, again, RTD helpfully dropped into DWM to say that it was called Pudsey Cutaway. Attack of the Graske doesn't have any code that I know of since it's not officially an episode at all. I think 2.i makes the most sense though, since it's a special BBCi episode.

[Libby5645]

He also thinks Billie Piper is posh :)

Compared to Posh Spice she's well classy. ;)

[Jacob]

The Billie Piper thing. I realize that posh is not the right word. But something I've noticed in the later episodes that I've seen, which I watched first, was that her lines are very, very cockney on the page, but she seems to be reaching for the intonation, so it comes off like someone doing a bad impression. Once I saw her mom, I realized she was being written that way on purpose [EFC: as an estate kid], but I still think the accent is a little off. Am I completely wrong?

And on the recaplets: they were written as one long recaplet, with an average grade. So it was like, "'Rose' is great and I'm really excited about this show, but on the other hand the second episode (compared to the ones I've seen, which number four total) really bugged me."

Wing split them for me when I submitted them, and it was the second one only on the homepage because of the way that scroll works, so I'm sure it freaked out a bunch of people looking to see how my first recaplet would go.

Sorry about that. Allow me to reiterate that I do like the show, and I'm very excited about recapping it, but I have a very low tolerance for Douglas Adams/Terry Pratchett kinds of humor, which I understand is a glitch completely personal to me, and that's the entire reason I hated the second episode. Which I found to be full of it, but which -- the recap will bear out -- also had a lot of things to love in it. Including a distinct lack of farting aliens.

We cool?

Edited by Jacob, Mar 20, 2006 @ 12:25 PM.

[michaellorg]

but I have a very low tolerance for Douglas Adams/Terry Pratchett kinds of humor, which I understand is a glitch completely personal to me

I hope that does is pointed out in the recaps -- that sort of humor is certainly a part of the Doctor Who format, and while that part isn't for everyone, it's also something that is part of the appeal of the series to other viewers.

(I think one of the strengths of the series is that different episodes will appeal to different people -- some people enjoy Rose more than The End of the World, and other people that like the reverse..)

[La Guardianista]

The Billie Piper thing.

Perhaps the word you're looking for is 'drama-schooled'? In that I think she can do Sarf Landen pretty well, but those years of learning clear diction just won't leave her. The character and her mum are meant to be from an estate in Kennington, so I don't think they're written to be posh, but they're doing "Sarf Landen clear enough for Beeb family viewing/international sales".

[Jacob]

Exactly what I was thinking, La G -- that her "finks" and "fings" clashed with her vowels.

Also, I'm doing the notes for the full recaps, just finished the second episode, and don't get mad? But I think I actually like it better than the first one, on second run-through.

It's not even really a Douglas Adams problem, I think I was just confused by how irritating Cassandra was, and that colored everybody else. It's actually such a bummer of an episode that I feel completely idiotic for not paying attention on Friday.

michaellorg: Of course, but ... shouldn't that go without saying?

I don't think there's a person alive who actually considers me an authority on anything in particular, and there's not really a way to write a recap based on someone else's opinions, so I don't know that I necessarily ought to qualify every opinion I have as my opinion, if you see what I'm saying. My inbox is always open, if someone needs to express disagreement, in any case.

Edited by Jacob, Mar 20, 2006 @ 12:26 PM.

[Libby5645]

Jacob, yeah the farting aliens aren't the best introduction to Doctor Who - I liked much of that ep, but the farting bit was a bit lame. We cool :)

La Guardianista I was just about to say that about Billie, but you put it best :) She still has the sheen of Sylvia Young (her drama school) on her. I was originally very worried about her being cast in Doctor Who but IMO she is doing a bang up job.*

*See 'Every Planet has an Atlantic: The Brit-Speak Thread'

Edited by Libby5645, Mar 22, 2006 @ 6:45 AM.

[Nuallain]

I was wondering if content from the BBC's supplementary books, like Monsters and Villains and Doctor Who Annual 2006 would count as spoilers. It occured to me because Monsters and Villains contains biographies of Cassandra and the Face of Boe which, theoretically, could contain information from episodes not yet broadcast in the UK (I don't know) but which has certainly been put 'out there' by the Production team on purpose. If not, I thought I'd mention RTD's notes on how Cassandra became the person she is in the EotW thread.

[Jacob]

Supplementary materials aren't spoilers, it's fine.

[cutecouple]

Can threads for recurring baddies in Doctor Who history go in General Gabbery, or do they go in Legacy? There's quite a few of them from the original series, plus the possibility of recurring baddies, which doesn't quite seem right for Legacy. Maybe a Rogues Gallery or Black Hats?

Edited by cutecouple, Mar 25, 2006 @ 12:09 PM.

[Jacob]

There's already a general thread for that in Legacy, but I take your meaning.

Start them in Legacy -- having them in General would/could be spoily. (And please keep the site spoiler rules in mind, even in those threads.)

Whoever moves forward on this: please make sure that you actually have something to say about the characters in question, and aren't just starting threads to start them.

Nothing the mods hate more than a thread consisting of six words and a flourishing "...discuss." Interest and discussion should influence the creation of threads, not the other way around.

Edited by Jacob, Mar 25, 2006 @ 2:22 PM.

[Mr. Excitement]

With the second-season premiere fast approaching, will threads for the new episodes be permitted once they've aired in the UK?

[Jacob]

Oh Gods.

...Yes. Same rules to apply. I won't be reading them, so I expect -- as with the Spoilers thread -- to be emailed directly if any trouble crops up.

[KiaraSayre]

I noticed there's no episode thread for either The Empty Child or The Doctor Dances (the two-parter you've seen). I was thinking of starting one for both of them, together, since they're more of a single continued plotline than Aliens of London/WWIII. If I did this, would the threads be split since they're technically two episodes? If they would, I would just go ahead and make it two seperate threads.

Thank you. :)

[Jacob]

Two threads, please.

[Nuallain]

On the series two threads, should we leave the dates blank? I was thinking we should, since the runs overlap and you'd have dates for the same weekend - which might confuse some people.

And the BBC are creating "TARDISodes" this year - 60 second scenes that work a bit like the 24 mobisodes, but which act as prequels to each new episode (so a TARDISode might feature a murder, and then the episode itself has the Doctor discover the body). Does a new TARDISode justify starting the episode thread, or should there be a separate thread for discussing all the TARDISodes?

The TARDISode for 2-1: New Earth is up, which was what made me wonder.

[Jacob]

American dates for the new threads, so blank for now.

No need to spoiler or segregate the TARDISodes.

Please only open a new episode thread if you actually have something to say.

[La Guardianista]

Last year the BBC set up lots of websites to accompany the series. Much enjoyable www sleuthing and speculation ensued. It's starting up again for series 2. Could we have a website thread?

Nuallain, I'm just concerned that last year it got pretty spoilery, even at UK pace. Perhaps it should just stay in the Spoilers thread?

Started one, if anyone can think of a less lame name, please suggest!

Edited by La Guardianista, Apr 3, 2006 @ 11:37 AM.

[Nuallain]

Most of the viral websites are either dedicated to specific episodes, or else have different pages for each episode. The appropriate page could probably just be linked in the main episode thread.