TLIAFD: The Doctor Is Who?

[von Mises]

Great stuff Heavy.

John Le Mesurier was an inspired choice, even if it does mean Dad's Army would be missing something, and it does flow well from there. Well, the slightly extended Hartnell run. I'd have liked to see something about speculation that Joanna Lumley was to be the Doctor, though.

 

[NCW8]

Bravo ! Very well done indeed.

It is the small details that make it, such as casting Cumberbatch in Elementary.

 

[Tzaero]

Any chance of lists of who was in the top job in the UK and US?

 

[KingCrawa]

The Thirteenth Doctor on page thirteen. Well done. Frankly if the Doctor is ever played by a women I would be more than happy with Ms Dormer.

I also like how this started out as a Doctor Who story and has ended up as one that looks at wider pop culture too. Cumberbatch in Elementary? A more successful Agent Carter? Brilliant.

Two questions

1: Whose the second female PM?

2: You appear to have run up to thirteen doctors quite casually. Is there no regeneration limit in this universe?

Top work. More please.

 

[Heavy]

Any chance of lists of who was in the top job in the UK and US?

1: Whose the second female PM?

It's Arlene Foster, you misogynist.

But seriously, though I haven't the foggiest. I didn't really think too much about who's in charge here and there: there's an implication that a much more right-wing Tory is in power instead of Heath after 1970; and Du Cann and Tebbit together account for the Thatcher government then Labour and the Lib Dems form a coalition in 1992, but that's the only change that I thought much about because it was the only one that seemed relevant to the story.

Otherwise, you may use your imagination. Personally, I don't think it's very interesting.

2: You appear to have run up to thirteen doctors quite casually. Is there no regeneration limit in this universe?

I admit I took it as a given; the regeneration limit is, to the best of my knowledge, only mentioned three times in the classic run of the series: in "The Deadly Assassin", "Mawdryn Undead" and the TV movie. Perhaps it just isn't established here? Perhaps something happened in the story to resolve it and I didn't think to mention it?

Keep in mind that IOTL, the Doctor's "Eleventh" incarnation was technically the final one due to the War Doctor slotting in between Eight and Nine and then Ten pulling off a non-regeneration and he only received a new cycle for the purposes of resolving this matter.

Top work. More please.

Maybe later. I have some other stuff on at the moment that will keep me busy.

 

[KingCrawa]

It's Arlene Foster, you misogynist.

But seriously, though I haven't the foggiest. I didn't really think too much about who's in charge here and there: there's an implication that a much more right-wing Tory is in power instead of Heath after 1970; and Du Cann and Tebbit together account for the Thatcher government then Labour and the Lib Dems form a coalition in 1992, but that's the only change that I thought much about because it was the only one that seemed relevant to the story.

Otherwise, you may use your imagination. Personally, I don't think it's very interesting.



I admit I took it as a given; the regeneration limit is, to the best of my knowledge, only mentioned three times in the classic run of the series: in "The Deadly Assassin", "Mawdryn Undead" and the TV movie. Perhaps it just isn't established here? Perhaps something happened in the story to resolve it and I didn't think to mention it?

Keep in mind that IOTL, the Doctor's "Eleventh" incarnation was technically the final one due to the War Doctor slotting in between Eight and Nine and then Ten pulling off a non-regeneration and he only received a new cycle for the purposes of resolving this matter.



Maybe later. I have some other stuff on at the moment that will keep me busy.

Oh indeed. And when Smith left they had to grant him more regenerations.

I'm happy to assume either there is no limit or that that will be tackled at the end of Dormers run.

 

[NCW8]

I admit I took it as a given; the regeneration limit is, to the best of my knowledge, only mentioned three times in the classic run of the series: in "The Deadly Assassin", "Mawdryn Undead" and the TV movie. Perhaps it just isn't established here? Perhaps something happened in the story to resolve it and I didn't think to mention it?

Quite possible. Before "The Deadly Assassin", the episode "The Brain of Morbius" showed pictures of several incarnations of the Doctor before the Bill Hartnell one (that part of the story has been quietly ignored since). Also the casual way the Timelords triggered the Second Doctor's regeneration implies that they didn't think it a serious thing - far less a punishment than exile to Earth.

 

[Heavy]

Quite possible. Before "The Deadly Assassin", the episode "The Brain of Morbius" showed pictures of several incarnations of the Doctor before the Bill Hartnell one (that part of the story has been quietly ignored since). Also the casual way the Timelords triggered the Second Doctor's regeneration implies that they didn't think it a serious thing - far less a punishment than exile to Earth.

That the Tenth Doctor can go "My work here is done" and voluntarily trigger his regeneration (admittedly a bit of a joke about OTL's Tenth Doctor deliberately using a regeneration to avoid actually regenerating) seems to suggest that one may suppose there's no such limit.

 

[AndyC]

Quite possible. Before "The Deadly Assassin", the episode "The Brain of Morbius" showed pictures of several incarnations of the Doctor before the Bill Hartnell one (that part of the story has been quietly ignored since). Also the casual way the Timelords triggered the Second Doctor's regeneration implies that they didn't think it a serious thing - far less a punishment than exile to Earth.

And the serial Underworld (Season 15, and post-dating The Deadly Assassin") strongly implies infinite regenerations - the Minyans received Time Lord technology (their cellular rejuvenation system is implied to be related to Time Lord regeneration; possibly an earlier and more technologically focused version), and that has infinite rejuvenation capability in the story (the Minyans in their chase ship are sick of rejuvenating at the end of their natural lives but have to keep chasing).

[The Five Doctors also implies limits on regeneration, though - Borusa was aiming for eternal life]

 

[AndyC]

Bravo, Heavy - for a great TL

 

[Artaxerxes]

I look forward to reading Doctor Who ISOT to Margery Tyrell fan fiction.




Great stuff Heavy, a real love and knowledge of TV and Sci-fi culture shines through this TL.

 

[Heavy]

Great stuff Heavy, a real love and knowledge of TV and Sci-fi culture shines through this TL.

It's my one talent.

But seriously, I appreciate I put a lot of in-jokes in that folks may not appreciate without knowing a little about Doctor Who and other things.

 

[Artaxerxes]

It's my one talent.

Don't sell yourself short mate.

 

[nezza]

Brilliant TL mate. I was going to do one myself but TBH it wouldn't be anywhere near as good.

 

[Heavy]

Don't sell yourself short mate.

Well, yes, I'm joking a bit, but I realise that a lot of people appreciated the sideways stuff in the footnotes perhaps more so than the main body of the story. It doesn't bother me; I enjoyed writing those bits.

I'm curious to know, with the TL finished, what was everybody's:

1) Favourite Doctor; and

2) Favourite reference to other stuff happening in the TL?

 

[Youngmarshall]

Well, yes, I'm joking a bit, but I realise that a lot of people appreciated the sideways stuff in the footnotes perhaps more so than the main body of the story. It doesn't bother me; I enjoyed writing those bits.

I'm curious to know, with the TL finished, what was everybody's:

1) Favourite Doctor; and

2) Favourite reference to other stuff happening in the TL?

1) John Le Mesurier with Arthur Lowe as the Brig was inspired. I like all your choices but that one's hard to top.

2) Patrick Stewart as Arvin Sloane and Michelle Gomez as Lynda Day.

I'd also like to mention again how much I loved the idea of John Inman playing a space mercenary in doctor who. That's very much an episode I regret I can't watch.

 

[Heavy]

I'd also like to mention again how much I loved the idea of John Inman playing a space mercenary in doctor who. That's very much an episode I regret I can't watch.

Ohohoho, the whole Colin Baker Fifth Doctor bit descended into a bit of a parody at John Nathan-Turner's expense. He didn't actually get Doctor Who filming all over Europe (the programme was shot overseas three times in its classic run: in Paris for "City of Death", in Amsterdam for "Arc of Infinity" and in Seville for "The Two Doctors") but that's one of the notorious stereotypes that's cropped up around him, that he wanted to shoot outside Britain because he liked continental holidays, so I couldn't resist having a bit of fun with it.

Odd casting choices were a bit of a feature of his time on the show. "John Inman as a hardened mercenary captain" was a deliberate exaggeration of Beryl Reid being cast as an unconvincing tough-as-nails Ellen Ripley type in "Earthshock".

One thing I've noticed throughout this TL is that a lot of people like the Peter Wyngarde update; I imagine it's just the most dramatic instalment in the story. I remember @The Red said to me that Wyngarde was his favourite (this was in between Malik and Head, I think) because while it's a shame to see a bunch of nasty old homophobes hounding a guy out of a job, it was nice to see the fans and the production team in general supporting him and the campaign against him backfiring in the long run.

 

[NCW8]

Favourite Doctor ? That's a tough one. I always like to see a successful Colin Baker, but I think I'd have to vote for Art Malik.

There's far to many little references to list them all, but I did like the casting of Liz Sladen and Tom Baker in The Omega Factor and the reference to the character of Adrik being eaten, blown up and then consumed by a black hole. I'd say that overall I enjoyed seeing a successful American/BBC co-production, because it's an idea that is surprisingly unexplored.

 

[Heavy]

I'd say that overall I enjoyed seeing a successful American/BBC co-production, because it's an idea that is surprisingly unexplored.

I think that was consistently one of the most difficult parts of it, because while I like to pretend I'm reasonably well-up on American television, the fact is that it's so much bigger and more complex than what we have in Britain that I ended up blagging a good bit of it. I point you to how I could name individual writers for the classic Doctors but ended up defaulting to "the writers" when I got to this TL's version of New Who.

The whole concept of Gallifrey Pictures as a kind of joint venture between British and American production companies was entirely so I could justify RTD and Moffat coming in eventually, because they're writers I'm familiar with. Same deal with Dan Slott, really. I put him in because I know he's a big Doctor Who fan (I wanted to include Peter David but couldn't really fit him in; you may assume that he has written episodes for the reboot) and because I wanted to do that "Master schemes to become the Superior Doctor" joke.

 

[Heavy]

Something else that I've just remembered: I had a strange dream when I was semi-asleep very early this morning (one of those dreams where you dream you've already gotten up) in which I was getting all kinds of nasty comments in this thread for putting Peter Capaldi in Once Upon a Time. How about that?