Coming at you with spoilers and everything…
DOCTOR WHO: I’ve actually seen this one months ago, but now feel free to talk about it. As powerful and compelling as some episodes are the rest of this season (particularly “Girl in the Fireplace” and, most especially, the nail-biting season ender), this one remains my favorite. How could it not be? The return of Sarah Jane who, despite her protests that she’s gotten old, looks terrific. And Tony Head as a jaw-jutting alien who despises the shooty dog thing. Sarah Jane’s reaction to seeing the Doctor once more (“I thought you died!”) underscored how false Lois Lane’s snippy “Why we don’t need Superman” article was in “Superman Returns” after Superman vanished for five years. And you simply have to love Sarah and Rose’s one-upmanship duel of the bizarre things they’ve seen with Sarah’s “big Loch Ness monster” trumping anything Rose has to offer, followed by their subsequent bonding. (Fun trivia fact: In order to get Sarah Jane and Rose to burst out in genuine laughter when the Doctor walked in, David Tennant stepped in off camera sporting a comedic painted mustache.) What a terrific episode about closure, moving on with one’s life, and the dangers of eating too many chips.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: The pieces get moved into place for the Galactica to rescue the beleagured residents of New Caprica. A lot of necessary set-up, but I felt as if it could have been accomplished in half the time. Also, as compelling as this episode was, two things torqued me…one minorly and one majorly. The first was the resolution of the cliffhanger, as we learn that our heroes were saved due to events that were transpiring one hour earlier that we weren’t privvy to. It’s kind of like the old days of the movie serials, where the cliffhanger would end with the hero’s car plummeting off a cliff…only to discover, when you come back next week, that he actually leaped out of the car seconds before the car went over. It’s a bit of a cheat. If that were the only cheat in the episode, I’d let it go…but in the very same episode, Cylon D’anna (Lucy Lawless) learns that Sharon’s baby is still alive courtesy of prophetic dreams that we’ve never seen before, interpreted by a seer whom we’ve never seen before. It smacks of contrivance and lazy writing, which is all the more jarring in BSG since the series has set the bar so high for quality scripts. I’ll grant you, Sharon’s firm declaration that the baby couldn’t be dead because “Adama wouldn’t lie to me” sets the stage for a MAJOR blow-up that will be fantastic when it happens. I just wish they hadn’t needed to cut corners in order to reach that point.
PAD
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The look on Tigh’s face when he learned that Ellen was a traitor was priceless IMHO.
I beg your pardon, but I’m going to have to geek out for a bit here.
All the Time Lords (and Ladies) are dead? ALL of them? The Master? The Rani? Even *Susan* for that matter? Wasn’t Leela living on Gallifrey (with the original K-9, to boot!)at one point? I may be missing a lot here, but I’ll have to admit “Doctor Who” lost me once the Colin Baker episodes went to 50 minutes. I heard of the whole “Trial of a Time Lord” season and it sounded perfectly dreadful. I tried to come back with Sylvester McCoy, but Bonnie Langford (I think I’m remembering her name right)delivering her lines as if she were still in a children’s program…me (“You can’t talk to him that way! *He’s* The *Doctor*!”) put the kibosh on that pretty quick.
But I’m loving the two ‘new’ Doctors, and my wife is along for the ride, with ‘Barty Crouch(Jr.)’ helming the TARDIS!
K-9!
Allow me to reiterate…
K-9!
I had to record Battlestar Galactica and wait a half hour, the last few minutes of Doctor Who just had me to worked up to watch anything else for awhile.
Good dog!
Re: BSG- I found the whole seer scene to be strange. Why would a human seer give away such valuable information to an enemy? “Your God has a message for you” ?! I do agree that the wrath of Boomer will be awesome to behold, when she learns of Adama’s part in the conspiracy.
Hooper,
In the first season of the new run they established that all the Time Lords were wiped out in the Time War between Gallifrey and the Daleks. They didn’t mention renegades like the Master and the Rani, but the Doctor has referred to himself as the last Time Lord.
Thanks, Jason. Yeah, I remember that being established last season, but I was wondering if there wasn’t more backstory I was missing that may’ve been covered in, say, “Trial…”.
`Be fun to see if or when The Master returns!
I do agree that the wrath of Boomer will be awesome to behold, when she learns of Adama’s part in the conspiracy.
I don’t think Adama knows. Remember, Roslin went directly to Cottle, and we never saw Adama knew word one about the final decision. Its entirely possible he though that Hera died naturally and the problem just solved itself with no outside intervention, much like the death of Admiral Cain.
Well, it seems that the Doctor Who folks just can’t stop making spin offs:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0862620/
Sara Jane gets her own show. If this has K-9 in it, then *please* let an American Network pick it up! I desperately wanted more K-9 after last night’s episode. Even though I knew the Doctor probably wouldn’t take K-9 him with him, I still spent most of the episode hoping he would. Sci-Fi, BBC America, I really hope somebody carries this over here.
And Torchwood.
There’s one thing that bugs me about Galactica. Baltar has been seeing Number Six in his head for a long time now, and that Number Six has even told him that she was the one he knew, planted in his head. Now that he’s met the *actual* Number Six that he knew on Caprica, he should mention that.
Even if he doesn’t mention it to her, he should mention it to the head version. The head version can’t be exactly what she claimed, and Baltar must know that by now. I’d like to see something to address that, even if it doesn’t completely resolve it.
A lot of necessary set-up, but I felt as if it could have been accomplished in half the time.
Ironically, that was the original plan; “Exodus” was written as one episode, but because of how long it was when they shot it (it was about 70 minutes long, when a single episode is 42), and the fact that they’d majorly blown their budget in the early part of the season, they split it into a two-parter.
If that were the only cheat in the episode, I’d let it go…but in the very same episode, Cylon D’anna (Lucy Lawless) learns that Sharon’s baby is still alive courtesy of prophetic dreams that we’ve never seen before, interpreted by a seer whom we’ve never seen before.
For what it’s worth, that was originally going to be in the premiere; however, it was one subplot too many, so it got shifted back into “Exodus”.
These fun facts courtesy of Ronald D. Moore’s commentary. 🙂
PAD, that was dead on. It’s one thing for Troi to say “Captain, he’s lying” as way of propelling or resolving a plot element–everyone on Star Trek has psychic powers or something. But have we seen any kind of fantasy or occult element on BG before? I don’t think so, and it’s jarring. It’s like if House M.D. started healing patients using the Eye of Agamatto.
Nit Pick: Mr. David, I think you meant to right, “the baby couldn’t be ALIVE.”
Saul, she told 3 about the baby because she’d “been sent a vision by 3’s god”. She’s an oracle. Her entire purpose in life is to give people the messages that the gods send to them. Besides, after she holds baby and knows true love, she’ll lose everything that she’s worked for. She may not be helping the Cylons by relaying that message.
As to the source of these visions, it was established in Season 1 that kamalla (that the seer was eating) can give at least some people visions. Whether these visions are the powder stimulating some psychic power in people or if there’s some supernatural force sending those visions hasn’t been confirmed or denied. I think we’re meant to make up our own minds. I’m much more interested in 3’s dream that led her there. Mr. David said that it looked like really sloppy storytelling, but it’s also an interesting clue into the Cylon God/religion. Number 3 believes that these dreams are sent to her from God and I expect that’s a common belief, at least in her model.
This correlates with the strange ethereal visitors that Baltar and Caprica Six are visited by. When I realized that Caprica Six was advised by an “imaginary” Baltar began to think that there is some other force that is manipulating the entire affair and both the Colonials and the Cylons are just pieces on the board. If just Baltar or Six had these imaginary friends, it could be written off to insanity, but for each of them to be in the exact same delusional state…there’s another player in game.
Arrrgh!
In my own nitpick, I use “right” instead of “write.” I no longer have moral authority to make snarky little comments corrections.
Jason,
Regarding the Number Six in Baltar’s head, he’s had his brain scanned and no implants were found, but she’s given him information about upcoming events that he couldn’t have predicted without precognitive powers, so he rationally assumed that she’s not a psychosis. After presenting Six-in-his-head with this, she told him she was an angel of God sent to guide him. I was wary of this, until we see that Caprica Six has a similar Baltar-in-her-head. There’s definitely more going on here than we know. In regards to your question about why they don’t tell each other, Baltar probably believes that Head-Six in an angel and doesn’t want to be thought insane or straped to a table and disected like a frog. Caprica Six likely never thought Head-Baltar was the real Baltar, but I’m sure that she doesn’t want to tell anyone because she expects that she’ll be “boxed” if she does. Also, both of the ethereal visitors generally encourage their “charges” to keep their presence a secret.
Greg,
There have been indicators of some psyhic/occult elements in BSG with Roslyn visions and the whatever-the-hëll-they-are in Baltar’s and Six’s heads. There’s been nothing concrete yet, and I think that we’re meant to form our own opinions as to their ultimate meaning.
No prophetic events in Battlestar? Has everyone forgotten the heavy religious / prophecy overtones of Laura Roslin being the leader prophesized to guide the refugees to Earth?
I just loved the look of shock on Sarah Jane’s face when she came face-to-face with the TARDIS. That and “We are in a car”.
So, are we just pretending that “The Five Doctors” either didn’t happen, or Sarah Jane has no recollection of that, or what?
They only just started showing Season 1 of Doctor Who over here in Japan, but I was visiting the states a few weeks ago, and managed to see this one. Haven’t seen any signs of Battlestar Galactica coming over, though.
About the in-the-head version of Six (and Baltar, for that matter), remember that as soon as Caprica was shot in the premiere, that head-Six appeared to Baltar, urging him to sign the death warrant. I took that as a sign that as long as the physical versions were around, the in-head (incoporeal? There must be a better description than ‘in-head’…) versions were quiet. IF so, that’s a possible clue as to what the visions are.
Of course, it could always be revealed later that I am completely wrong, but for now, that’s what we’ve seen. And yes, I know in-head Six appeared to Baltar while Pegasus Six was around, but remember that Pegasus Six is a different model than Caprica. Wow. Ok, does anyone else have a headache now?
(Then again, I had one before, and a fever to boot, so that may be why this all makes sense to me… 🙂 )
Yeah, the oracle bothered me, but not quite as much as it did you, Peter. It smacks a bit of “deux ex machina” but as other posters have noted, kamalla root (dunno if I’m spelling that right!) caused Roslin to have visions that led them to the Tomb of Athena. So there is precedent for it.
Also, the resolution to the cliffhanger wasn’t completely out of left field. In the season premiere, when Gaeta learned from Baltar about the list of people to be executed he tore off like a bat out of hëll. It was already established he was acting as a “deep throat” by giving information to Tyrol, so the rest of it isn’t a very big leap. I thought they actually did a good job of planting the seeds for the resolution.
Doctor Who: I’ve only seen two episodes of Who before, of all of the series, only two whole episodes and one of them was this new series. But even I greatly enjoyed this episode of Who, which I tuned in to only because BSG was next and I since I had nothing better to do on a Friday night (sigh) I figured I’d give Who a chance and support Sci-Fi channel a little. This episode will have me tuning in again next week, and maybe looking up some Who DVDs on netflix to see what I’ve been missing out on.
BSG: Yeah, the whole soothsayer coming out of nowhere was annoying, but what bugged me worse was that last time we saw Cally running for her life she was down hill and running through some trees, then in this episode they showed her running level with the Cylons (who had just come over a hill) and in a barren patch of land. I can handle the visions only because we’ve seen Roslin’s visions… although they had an explanation. Of course so does D’Anna’s really, as she was the one who discovered the baby was still alive.
On Baltar and Caprica’s visions: Has anyone else thought that maybe these visions are not the work of God, but of God’s opposite number? I’ve been wondering if the visions are Iblis (or whatever name the devil will be using in this incarnation of the show) trying to manipulate events, especially in light of the knowledge that Caprica was having visions of Baltar. Anyway, just a thought.
The question for me is “when” did the Galifrey episodes happen. Even in the “present” the Time Lords are all dead.
As for Sarah Jane, one thing that makes her different than most of the other companions was that she was asked to leave instead of choosing to do so.
David
Oh, and here’s a though about the whole Starbuck situation. I’m not a parent and can’t judge these thing very well, but Casey looked to be way to old to have been conceived after Starbuck broke out of that hospital. Look at the kid that Sharon had. That kid looked smaller to me and would have been conceived/born earlier. So I’m guessing that she’s just a kid that the Cylon just snatched off the streets locally, although I suppose that she could be an unseen model of Cylon.
And where the hëll are the other Cylon models, anyway. There are supposed to be twelve model but I can only come up with seven that we’ve seen. Why aren’t the other models all over New Caprica? Did they stay on the Cylon homeworld because they didn’t support the war? Are they the ones that run the fleet and just stay on the Base Ships all the time? Did the other models wipe them out? Where are the other models? If they were present in any numbers, they’d never be able to hide.
Even if he doesn’t mention it to her, he should mention it to the head version.
He can’t – physical Caprica Six and Mental Caprica Six don’t exist at the same time. Mental is only around when Physical is off at Download City.
D’Anna is being set up for something…but I don’t want to release spoilers to the general public at large. Knowing that, though, the episode didn’t bother me at all… it’s all about questioning faith. God doesn’t speak in visions… the Gods do. Even the seer said as much – and yes, BSG has a strong, strong history of visions and mysticism. Anyone thinking otherwise is choosing to have selective memory!
Adama doesn’t know Hera/Isis is still alive. Dr. Cottle, Tory and President Roslin did that, and are the only three who know. He’s going to be just as pìššëd øff about it as Sharon when he finds out.
That wasn’t the only cheat in the BSG cliffhanger — the first two times we saw Callie running, the shots started while she was running. The third time, Tyrol (who inexplicably found time to get a shave and a haircut while his wife was being taken prisoner) knocked her down and then the shots started. So the first two times (the end of last week and the beginning of this week) we were out-and-out lied to as to the sequence of events to create suspense.
So, are we just pretending that “The Five Doctors” either didn’t happen, or Sarah Jane has no recollection of that, or what?
No, I don’t think it’s that.
“School Reunion” does present a bit of a conundrum when it comes to “The Five Doctors”and Sarah Jane Smith.
She meets the 5th Doctor at the very end of the episode, and when she’s confused at the comment by the 3rd Doctor, he tells her “I’ll explain later”.
So, did the 3rd Doctor tell her that that was the 5th Doctor? He could have, but by then, he was already gone and she couldn’t talk to him. So, her feelings remained. Which still works rather nicely.
I’ve read though that there was an 8th Doctor book where the Doctor met SJS, and had a bit of a similar scene as “School Reunion”, so unfortunately the books suffer more from this episode than “The Five Doctors” does, imo.
KRAD “Tyrol (who inexplicably found time to get a shave and a haircut while his wife was being taken prisoner)”
There is no bad time for personal grooming 🙂
“we were out-and-out lied to as to the sequence of events to create suspense.”
To be honest, since they’ve shown a marked reluctance to kill anyone of note, they’ve rather lost the ability to create it normally. I don’t know about anyone else, but even putting a pistol to Baltar’s head did not make me the least expectant of his demise.
Bill Myers “[T]he oracle […] smacks a bit of ‘deux ex machina'”
Which has happened before in BSG – Roslin’s cure for example.
I found BSG anything but stretched out. The Exodus starts next episode. There are shows on that would take the entire season to reach that point in their story. How much has happened on Jericho, the Nine, and we can’t forget Prison Break.
Dr Who…Sarah Jane, I almost wept.
The element on BSG I found interesting was how traumatized the Dean Stockwell Cylon was after his latest death.They touched on it before in “Scar” and even Boomer spoke of it.What would it do to a Cylon if they died a particularly horrific death,would they have to “boxed”??
Doctor Who…I miss Christopher Eccleston ,Tennant isnt bad but this episode with K9,Sara Jane and Good old Giles playing a baddie made up for it.Actually last week wasnt bad with the werewolf either of course I am a bit of a lycanophile(is that a word?)
“physical Caprica Six and Mental Caprica Six don’t exist at the same time. Mental is only around when Physical is off at Download City. “
I don’t think so. I don’t think that Physical Caprica “died” at any point between the attack on Caprica and being shot in Baltar’s office. But there’s been a long association between the Balar and Mental-Caprica. His assoications with her on Galactica were too many and often for her to have been in the Download process. Also, the idea that Baltar only sees her when she’s “dead” doesn’t help to explain the Mental-Baltar that Caprica sees. Those two things have got to be related.
Craig, I don’t think I can agree with you. If you go back and look at The Five Doctors, in the scene where Sarah Jane meets up with the third Doctor, she’s stunned to see him as he used to be, which means it takes place after she’d left the Baker Doctor, hence that line about ‘all teeth and curls, a line incidentally which Sarah Jane was supposed to say, but on the shooting day, Pertwee believed he should say it instead, which makes less sense.
I remember reading the first draft of ‘School Reunion’ while my wife was breaking down the makeup for ‘Tooth and Claw,’ and I made the mistake of expressing my annoyance (with a lower case A) about the fact that the script makes no mention of any of Sarah Jane’s post-Hand of Fear appearances. Not surprisingly, Sheelagh’s response was unprintable here, but I know the word ‘fanboy’ was used at some point.
Although Sladen’s character remains my favorite companion, I’m quite disappointed that even though I’ve interviewed her a couple of times (including most recently for the next issue of Starlog, which comes out in a couple of weeks) I’ve never got to meet her in person, even though she lives just a mile or two up the road. Although if memory serves, Lis should be heading back to Cardiff right about now to shoot the first episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Still, Mickey’s line about the metal dog remains my favorite line from season two, bar none.
Re: Sarah Jane’s memory: I’ve been working for a while now under the theory that temporal interference removed her memory of ‘The Five Doctors’ (as well as her appearances in the books, all of which were affected by similar temporal jiggery-pokery.) It’s not a perfect theory, but it’s better than hearing people argue about what “half a dozen” means. 🙂
Re: Other Renegade Time Lords: At the end of ‘Dalek’, Rose asks the Doctor if he’s certain that he’s the last Time Lord, and he points to his head and says, “I’d know. In here.” Which suggests that there’s some sort of shared mental link (a la the Matrix), and that the Doctor does know he’s the last. But there’s always the possibility that some sinister Time Lord survived and is hiding himself from that mental link–not that we know any Time Lords who would want to do that, nosir. (At the time this episode aired in the UK, there was a lot of speculation that ASH was the Master, posing as a Krillitane.)
And as a final note, the scenes of Tennant as a school-teacher at the beginning are comedy gold. “Correct-a-mundo! …a word I have never used before, and hopefully never will again.”
John, I remember some of those rumors about Head, but I’m pretty sure it was because he was playing the headmaster of the school, and that sort of became Head-Master. and then Head…Master. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time. I remember seeing a Doctor Who news piece of mine that was somehow mis-repeated and eventually became something else entirely, because it was the wrong version that was then repeated. ‘What?’ I hear you say, ‘SF fans getting it wrong?’ Yeah, hard to believe, isn’t it?
Dr. Who: Missed the episode. Wanted to see it to. Had K-9, Sarah, and Anthony Head. Ah well.
BSG: Last week the moment they got off the transport to stretch their legs, I knew what was going to happen. I suddenly had flashbacks of the Great Escape where the same thing happened. The Oracle was hokey. Sharon did the right thing. If she wants to find out anything about her baby, she has a better chance with Adama than against him. I honestly don’t recall if he knew or not what happened. I imagine he did. Honestly, I just want them off this planet. Didn’t care for the direction it took having them planetside. Enjoyed the episodes..just didn’t like the direction.
Hmmm. The Sarah Jane Smith episode was one hëll of show. She was never one of my favorite companions, but the emotion was so high in seeing her return along with all the great humor, that it was my favorite episode of the season.
Sigh! I heard a rumor that Katy Manning might show up next season as Iris Wildthyme. God, I hope so. That would be great.
DOCTOR WHO: I believe there’s a line in The Five Doctors that states the previous characters will retain no memories of the events once they return to their proper era.
Joe Nazzaro –
If you go back and look at The Five Doctors, in the scene where Sarah Jane meets up with the third Doctor, she’s stunned to see him as he used to be, which means it takes place after she’d left the Baker Doctor
Yes, I know. However, there was nothing to indicate, to SJS, WHICH Doctor Davison’s Doctor was. For her, he could have been post-4th incarnation or a pre-3rd.
She knew the 3rd and 4th. The 1st and 2nd Doctors were also present with the 3rd and 5th, but unless SJS knew his history, she might not have known which was which.
Indeed, she might not have even been aware that Pertwee was only the 3rd. Although, now that I think about it, it’s interesting that she didn’t notice that Baker’s Doctor wasn’t present. Story time limitations? 🙂
Anyways, it’s pretty much left up to the imagination. 🙂
Michael D. –
DOCTOR WHO: I believe there’s a line in The Five Doctors that states the previous characters will retain no memories of the events once they return to their proper era.
I don’t remember such a line. Maybe I’ll watch it again sometime to double check.
I read somewhere that the rights to K-9 are owned by someone specific (whose name I’m not recalling) and while they granted permission for its use in this ep, it was a one-shot and K-9 won’t be showing up in The Sarah Jane Adventures.
My personal favorite K-9 bit(s) were the two-fold;
Doctor: You’re a good dog.
K-9: Affirmative (with ear rotation).
Headmaster: You’re a bad dog.
K-9: Affirmative!
According to Wikipedia, K-9 will be in the premier episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, but after that he will be in his own show, being produced by his original creator. The BBC opted out of being involved in the K-9 show to concentrate their efforts on Torchwood.
The novelization of The Five Doctors has a bit of a scene between Tegan and Sarah, where they compare notes, assign the Doctors present numbers, and lament the fact that #4 was absent, if I recall correctly.
One other minor detail that made me happy: in the second series, they’ve re-done the end theme to include that bit in the middle, the one in a major key…
This should be a link to an article on the series Rob in Japan describes:
http://www.animationmagazine.net/article.php?article_id=5326
Dr Who: in the large gap between the Paul Mcgan movie and the new series, the BBC published a series of 8th Doctor novels. At the time they were supposed to be considered ‘canon’. I’m not sure of their status now, but part of the overall backgorund storyline of the novels talked about a war being thought by the Time Lords, against a mysterious unnamed enemy. Eventually long complicated events which i won’t go into here resulted in the 8th Doctor being forced not just to destory Galifrey, but effectively wipe it from ever having existed.
The end result was that there were no more Time Lords, excepting those few renegades (i.e the Doctor and a few other) who were in TARDISes at the time and therefore protected from the changes to history. This all took place in a book called the Ancestor Cell if anyone wants to look it up.
Like a say not sure of the status canon wise of the novels now but the entire storyline sounds like what RTD is using as background for the new series.
BSG: not watched it yet. Going to catch up tonight
I hate to argue with that bastion of historical accuracy that is Wikipedia, but the BBC didn’t ‘opt out’ of using K-9; in fact, they weren’t given permission because writer Bob Baker was already involved in the animated K-9 series of his own. If you want to a first-person confirmation, take a look at the story I posted on Sci Fi Wire a few weeks ago:
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=38387
And if you don’t want to go through the trouble of using the link, here’s what producer Russell T. Davies told me when I asked him about that very topic:
““One character that won’t be appearing in the series is Smith’s loyal robot dog, K-9, who last appeared in “School Reunion” and will also play a role in the special. “Sadly, we don’t own the rights to K-9,” Davies said. “[Writer] Bob Baker granted us the rights for ‘School Reunion,’ but he’s been planning his own spinoff series for K-9 for the past 10-15 years. That series is in development right now with Jetix, so I hope it happens, and good luck to him.”
What didn’t appear in that piece from my conversation with Russell talking about The Sarah Jane Adventures: “we never had the rights for K-9 full-time because it was always his property, because it was created by him and Dave Martin as well. So I won’t give it away, but we have cameos and references to K-9 where we explain his absence very neatly.”
Of all the episodes of the second season, “School Reunion” is the one I’m waiting for the most. And the clips I saw online make me want to see it even more. Of course, we don’t know where it will air in France, but it will probably before april 2007 (the release date for the DVD set). And nobody can do creepy like Anthony Head, nobody!
I hate to argue with that bastion of historical accuracy that is Wikipedia, but the BBC didn’t ‘opt out’ of using K-9; in fact, they weren’t given permission because writer Bob Baker was already involved in the animated K-9 series of his own.
Fair enough. I forgot to add the standard “it’s Wikipedia, so y’know…” disclaimer.
Hooper posted “Be fun to see if or when The Master returns!”
I can’t find the reference, as it may have been said in the episode commentaries, but RTD has said on several occasions that he doesn’t like the character of The Master one bit, and has no plans to use him in any upcoming episodes…
“Dr Who: in the large gap between the Paul Mcgan movie and the new series, the BBC published a series of 8th Doctor novels. At the time they were supposed to be considered ‘canon’. I’m not sure of their status now, but part of the overall backgorund storyline of the novels talked about a war being thought by the Time Lords, against a mysterious unnamed enemy. Eventually long complicated events which i won’t go into here resulted in the 8th Doctor being forced not just to destory Galifrey, but effectively wipe it from ever having existed.”
I believe RTD stated somewhere that the war depicted in the books was not the same as the “Last Great Time War” mentioned in the new series; rather, it was more like the “Second-To-Last Great Time War”. I further believe that the “unnamed enemy” in the books were the Daleks, who could not be named since the Terry Nation estate owns them and would not grant permission for their use. I further further believe that RTD & Co. have “leased” the Daleks for three seasons only, so unless things change, the Daleks will surely show up in Series Three and then may not again for a while…
I further further further believe that RTD will never come out and say the books or audio adventures are all canon, but will rather cherry-pick the bits he likes for his purposes and needs…
I don’t fault RTD for that, but I still think the Master will come back eventually. Doctor Who has the potential to be around for decades again. Even if RTD doesn’t eventually give in to the fans’ love of the Master, he might retire from the show several years from now and have a successor who likes the character better.
“The element on BSG I found interesting was how traumatized the Dean Stockwell Cylon was after his latest death.”
I remember that scene. The amusing/horrifying part of it is that they’re talking about this in front of Baltar like he isn’t even there. Number Five/Cavil/Dean Stockwell is talking about the horrors of being shot but his tone is that of someone talking about a really bad day at the office, maybe with a hangover. I can imagine Baltar hearing him describe events where a human would be struggling to survive, but Cavil was just trying to find a way to kill himself, because then, it’s all better. Plus the Cylons seem to always meet in Baltar’s office to discuss policy but it’s obvious that he has absolutely no say in matters. They don’t even seem to listen to input from him in any manner. His sole role is to be a rubber stamp. God, he must hate them. I can even see how he’s going to turn this to his advantage. He’s been privy to vast numbers of Cylon planning sessions and Cavil’s little rant shows that they’re willing to discuss the mechanics of there resurrection process and goodness knows what else around him. He’s far too valuable an information asset to leave behind.
The final Eighth Doctor book, The Gallifrey Chronicles, seems to have re-established Gallifrey (so that some later event could wipe it out for the Ninth Doctor).
WRT the ASH character being rumored to be the Master: It is traditional for that character to take on names that are essentially the word “Master” in a foreign (not English, in other words) language; therefore, it wasn’t such an unreasonable concept.
WRT to Sarah Jane being one of the few companions of the Doctor not to leave voluntarily, but to be asked to leave: Details will be much more distinct when I get to see THE HAND OF FEAR again in another month or so, but as I recall, the Doctor was being ordered to come to Gallifrey, and was presumably asking Sarah Jane to leave to protect her (as far as the canon of what’s on the show goes, the last companions to encounter the Time lords had their memories wiped and were dumped back in their own times; this way, at least she got to remember everything. After all, given that there are plenty of people in UNIT who would *expect* her to remember certain things, her life could have been pretty messed up if she had a sudden case of amnesia). Also, she’s the only companion we know of who the Doctor went back to check up on, and even gave a present (namely, K-9). So, for those who wouldn’t have known, this wasn’t a matter of a falling out between her and the Doctor.
Finally: I thought I read something about the Rani showing up in the third series; anyone know if there’s any truth to that rumor?
BSG: It’s possible that there are Cylon models that have been shelved, so that at the moment on seven of them are operational. I’ve heard distant rumors of one of the current models getting shelved, which I figure they’ll do as various Cylon models join the humans (I’m half expecting a 6 and a 3 to join up before too long)… it’s sort of how you knew Sharon had to die when the other Sharon showed up, they don’t want to create *that* much confusion.
So, when is the White Ship going to show up? They’ve definitely been setting up the gods as real, so I figure there’s going to be some variation of this… please let it be Shatner as god… please let it be Shatner 🙂
As for not seeing the other models: I justify that as the Cylons restricting the occupation to just models that the humans have already seen. No point in giving up a tactical advantage, just in case something goes wrong and they escape. In fact, that Doctor Cylon was only seen by Starbuck, so he had the least exposure and was seen the least during the occupation.
One other thing I noticed in the episode and I’m wondering if it is significant. The Dean Stockwell Cylon seemed to be saying that every time he downloaded it became more painful than the last. I wonder if they all have a limited number of downloads before things start going wrong.