ericf@uwvax.ARPA (03/12/84)
Well, WHA just had a Dr. Who marathon consisting of The Five Doctors,
The Three Doctors, The Planet of the Spiders, Logopolis, and whatever
the first episode with Davison is called. Oh, I almost forgot, they
also showed the movie "The Daleks' Invasion of Earth", with Peter
Cushing (it's actually worth forgetting, but after 10 1/2 hours
of Dr. Who, it's hard to get up out of the chair).
I don't like to play critic, but in response to a recent net article
I would like to say I enjoyed The Five Doctors very much (though I
wish Tom Baker hadn't gotten "stuck" in a time vortex. I know that
the reason for this has already shown up on the net). I never take
any doctors very seriously, which is what makes them so enjoyable.
I particularly liked seeing all the doctors, since I've seen primary
Tom Baker, with a bit of Jon Pertwee (sp?) way back (about 6 years ago).
Enough of playing critic (which I said I don't like to do, but did
anyway, since after 12 hours of The Doctor I'm seeing Daleks or
The Master around every corner). I have a question. In "Logopolis"
(I think... it becomes a blur after a while), where Tom Baker is
regenerating, this odd white mummy-like creature sort of helps him
along. This "Watcher", as he comes to be called, has been hanging around
during the entire episode. When The Doctor actually does regenerate,
someone exclaims "Why, he's been the Doctor all along". My question
is who or what was that white thing? What does he have to do with
the Doctor's regeneration?
Thanks in advance (sorry to be so long)...
"Egg-salad" (which is what the
Cybermen sound like when
they say "excellent")
--
-Eric Feigenson
Usenet: ...harpo!seismo!uwvax!ericf
{allegra, ihnp4}!uwvax!ericf
Arpanet: ericf@uwvaxargo@hou2a.UUCP (W.GARRETT) (03/13/84)
I just came up with a question about the five doctors. If I remember, Kamelion joined in the episode just previous to the Five Doctors. What happened to him? I just checked, it was the episode just before Five Doctors, called The King's Demons. Why wasn't he there? Contact Has Been Made, Andrew Garrett
shz@hlexa.UUCP (Sally Handy-Zarnstorff) (03/15/84)
Several people commented that Peter Davison seemed personality-less in the Five Doctors. He is much better in the regular episodes. I thought all the doctors were pretty blah in Five Doctors due to the skimpy plot and dialog, but I did like the idea of having them all in one show. Is there anyone whose favorite doctor is different than the one they knew first? That seems to be the pattern... I also found Logopolis confusing, and would like to hear others' analyses. I have not seen other regenerations, but offer my interpretation despite ignorance: Imagine that it is possible to separate the regeneration process into two processes: physical and non-physical. Somebody (like the Time Lords) realized how dangerous the situation could be for the Doctor, so they made a partial re- generation (the physical part), and sent this ghostly creature (the Watcher) to the Doctor. The Doctor met with the Watcher near the beginning of "Logopolis", and gave him a backup copy of his essence (soul? knowledge?), which would be needed to complete the regeneration. At the end of the show, when the current doctor passed out of worldly existence, the Watcher passed into existence. Excuse me, but you're standing on my scarf... --Sally Handy-Zarnstorff AT&T Bell Laboratories, Short Hills, NJ ..!ihnp4!hlexa!shz