...or maybe Sunday morning, as I don't know how long it will take to get this by BitTorrent, the penultimate episode of series 4 of Doctor Who (if you're a Doctor Who fan and haven't seen the last couple of episodes before this Saturday's episode The Stolen Earth, beware the spoilers--don't start the videos if you want to remain pure):
This looks like a Who fanboy's dream. Of course, even though new Doctor Who episodes make it to the U.S. to air on the SciFi Channel only around three or four weeks after they air in the U.K., this fanboy can't wait that long, especially after seeing this trailer too:
There's not much else to say, is there?
And as someone who has to wait the four weeks to see the SciFi broadcast - posting that video and daring me to hit play is one of the meanest things you've ever done Orac.
It's OK. You have three episodes to get to this point, and the one scheduled on SciFi tonight (Forest of the Dead) is quite good. So are the next two. This season started out slow (don't they all?) but like last season is building to a very promising looking finale.
PlanetaryGear giggles like a school girl :D
Of course the twist in the story is, that's not Davros, it's Father Jack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OChmy2oAH7c&feature=related
Like, Paul at the ACS, I will wait for SciFi to broadcast the episode. I will go downstairs to a cool basement to watch the "Forest of the Dead" episode on HD (unfortunately, SciFi-HD still does Doctor Who with a box around it, not the full screen all in its HD-glory like Battlestar Gallactica, so we just DVR it in SD).
I will satisfy myself in the meantime by watching DVDs of Farscape (how did I miss that the first time?, oh... yeah... only having over-the-air programming).
Daughter watches it on YouTube, but she is very good at not giving me spoilers. Though she did tell me that the Doctor did utter "Are you my mummy?" during the The Poison Sky episode.
Actually, I sometimes watch them on SciFi too, even having seen them once. I'm mainly curious about how they do the edits and where they put the commercials. I'm also usually quite beat by the time Friday night rolls around and tend to want to plop myself down in front of the TV anyway.
I've also bought all the box sets of the first three series and will almost certainly buy the boxed set of the fourth when it comes out.
I have a hockey tournament away from home this weekend and deliberately selected my hotel for the free wireless so I can be SURE to get the ep in a timely manner. In fact, I should be able to start the download after my 4pm game and it'll be done by the time the 9pm ends.
Orac, you have far more integrity than me (...I suppose you're also no longer a starving student), I have the first three series, too. On my external hard drive, where all of Stargate (SG-1 and SGA), X-Files, Firefly, Torchwood, Heroes, BSG and Eureka also live.
>.>
<.<
Orac said "I've also bought all the box sets of the first three series and will almost certainly buy the boxed set of the fourth when it comes out."
You definitely are a bigger fan than I am! I usually check them out of the library, which allows me to keep them for two weeks.
Yes, I know I am cheap.
I am waiting as patiently as I can for this episode. I've been desolate without Torchwood, too, so even a little glimpse of Jack and Gwen and Ianto is making the anticipation tougher. Unfortunately, we won't be watching it until Sunday. . .
I was never a Doctor Who fan in its original incarnation, but the new series has been great. We have the box set(Torchwood, too)and watch the extras as well as re-watch the episodes during breaks.
And it's the breaks that make me not want to rush into seeing this episode, too. It seems like forever until we get our Doctor fix!
According to Wikipedia, Richard Dawkins will also make a guest appearance! WOOT!
I was somewhat underwhelmed with "Midnight" especially after the "Library" 2-parter, and the rest of this whole season. I was a little slow to warm up to Donna, but she is now my 3rd favorite companion (after Rose and Sarah Jane, in that order, with Romana I and Peri rounding out the top 5 (Peri just because of my 'infantile bias')).
It's gonna really suck having to wait until 2010 until we get our next Who Fix after next week (3 mid-year specials and the Christmas special notwithstanding).
I hear you, Blaidd Drwg. Especially since three of the specials are scheduled to air in the UK in the last week of 2009 (I'm not kidding! Dec 25, 26 and Jan 1!). I will miss my rude/not ginger fix.
You're kidding?
They're not airing the specials until the end of 2009? I thought they were going to be sprinkled throughout the year. Bummer.
Also, Orac, you don't need to wait until Sunday. If you Google "Doctor Who S04E12" about half an hour after the episode airs in the UK, you'll find torrents.
Oh, I know where to find torrent files. It's just that I have a family event that I have to go to tonight; so even if the download is complete by this evening it's unlikely I'll be able to watch it before tomorrow.
For any hardened fans of really old (60s) Doctor Who, this interesting story from the Guardian a couple of days back talks about fans using animation to "reconstruct" some of the 108 episodes from the 60s that the BBC inexplicably managed to erase.
Billie Piper and the Daleks! What more could a man wish for?
I have just watched it on UK TV and at the end of the episode the doctor is ..... Sorry, no time. I have to flip channels and watch Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind.
Can somebody give the Doctor a hand???
Just sayin'.......
The Dawkins cameo was great. Forcefully calm and rational in the face of something baffling and frightening - just like the man in real life :-).
I think that makes him the second person on Dr Who to appear as himself.
I'll happily wait. The library kicked butt. One of my all time faves, including the old series.
Donna has been a nice change, but nobody can top Ace.
Peri and Ace? Please. Aren't you forgetting Leela? Poison thorns and skimpy leathers... She was awesome! She'd kill for the Doctor!
I'd like to see Wilf get to travel with the Doctor. That would be a bit more interesting...
This was a great episode, but don't bother phoning 0 770 090 0461. :(
It looks like I'm the only one, but I found those trailers to be just awful. I've never seen an episode before, but those were some pretty terrible actors.
I saw the Richard Dawkins appearance on youtube, and while it was OKAY, he's a million times better at biology than acting. =)
The concept sounds interesting though; it would be absolutely insane if we just found ourselves, suddenly, in a different solar system. Gee, say goodbye to that 2020 mars mission. ='(
anon:
Don't blame the actors, blame the writers. Russel T. Davies' idea of a season finale is to abandon all pretence of a coherent story-line and just have the actors run about hysterically from one random plot point and deus ex machina to another. No actor alive can make a silk purse out of that kind of sow's ear.
@Iain Walker:
Not just any season finale, of course - his last season in charge...
@Robin
And the stars for that small mercy. Turn left/Stolen had all the earmarks of RTD scripts...
Rosey-Sue centre stage: check
Plot/continuity all over the place: check
Massive Deus-ex required to solve: check
Giant reset button waiting in the wings: check
Messiah complex: check
Ripping off other genres (DC comics in this case): check
As Silence/Forest showed (yet again), Moffat can write scripts (in the snow, with no hands, after downing 5 pints of whiskey) - vastly superior what RTD cranks out at his 'best'.
Okay, I'm back, and I have just watched the season finale.
I can safely conclude that "Doctor Who" is the worst show I have ever seen. Wow. Why the hell doesn't someone just push these damn robots over?
Goodness gracious. I want my time back.
I must admit, I'm a bit sick of the automatic Davies-trashing and Moffat-praising that seems to be going on now Davies is leaving the show. Davies, for all he's written some bad episodes, has an extraordinary instinct for grabbing the attention of casual viewers who would never think of themselves as science fiction fans - it wasn't a popular genre on UK TV at all until the new Doctor Who started. To take a show that was cancelled sixteen years ago and restart it as one of the most popular, award-winning and genuinely loved shows in the country is not an achievement to sniff at.
Besides, while I enjoyed Moffat's two-parter this series, it's done nothing to combat my impression that he's just too limited a writer to be a showrunner. His formula of "A mysterious sexy woman who gets more screentime than the Doctor and his companion lives in one particular era, which is then invaded by or linked to something from another point in history, then she dies, but it's OK because no-one really dies in the end" might get a bit tiresome five times per series.
On a happier note, the BBC have put out their 'Journey's End' trailer and it made me think - is Davros, in fact, the Hitler Zombie? The resemblance is uncanny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFAMW1sM_k8
@DBS
Oh its not new - I have disliked Davies writing since season one of the new series, and it went downhill from there till it passed to utter loathing with LotTL and what he did to the Master. And I would disagree with your popularity assessment - Dr Who was immensly popular until the Collin Baker years where it promptly drove off a cliff into the swamp of mediocity due to bad writing and bad acting until the Beeb put the final nail in the coffin.
Yes RTD deserves kudos for bringing it back, and am I not complaining about that - just that he can't seem to write good sci-fi without turning it into a crappy mix of wish fufillment, Queer eye, and constant trashing of established characters for some emo crap (for Daleks in Manhattan alone he should be shot and dont even get me started on Torchwood). And if you wish blatant plot recycling just compare Parting Ways, Doomsday and Last Timelords. FLashy CGI, fanwank and nostalga can revive a series but without it having the 'Dr Who' label I suspect it would rapidly disappear into the 'yet another crap drama' catagory.
Blakes 7 has lasted a long time and it only went for 4 seasons - and it had the same el-cheapo BBC sets, weird plots, and awful costimes - but the story covered a lot of sins, ditto with 'old' Doctor Who. Aiming for the ADD casual crowd with flashy effects and wishy-washy plots may get viewers in the short term, but a long lived series it doesnt make.
But all that aside - Davros has always had the Hitler/Mengele connotations - from the the bunker in Genesis of the Daleks (and his Nazi clone assistant Nyder), he belief that his Daleks are superior beings, experimenting on 'lesser beings', etc.
I too never liked the RTD scripts. So full of himself. Always trying to show how clever he is, then boastng abut it afterwards on DrWHO confidential.
Having Dawkins apear in no way makes up for the impossibility of having the visible sky filled wih 27 planets, all nicely orbiting each other in complete and utter disregard of gravity. Perhaps RTD should have had Newton do a cameo?