TLIAFD: The Doctor Is Who?

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)

I hate those. I had one on the train to Lund my very first day at uni, I ended up waking up a station beyond where I was going and running out of the train in a blind panic, leaving my bag on the rack.
 
Once again, great timeline, and once again, while I wouldn't trade the Sylv era for anything in the world (even the first season, I only really dislike Time & the Rani), I would love to see the Malik era. Wyngarde is now also on my "Best Doctors That Never Were" list alongside Alan Rickman and Gene Wilder.

Glad to see Gwendoline Christie was a candidate in the last update. She was my choice if they went female for 13, sort of a repeat of my "process" for lack of a better word with 12 - in that case I wanted a Hugh Laurie type (knowing he wouldn't commit to a show again so soon after House), and got that with Capaldi. For this case I wanted a Tilda Swinton type. But that's out the window thanks to Capaldi leaving this year (meaning she'll be tied up with Thrones and Star Wars), and it's sounding like Chibnall isn't keen on gender-flipping anyway.
 
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.

I'd say that was probably the best way to get a successful American Doctor Who. It is not easy to define exactly what makes Doctor Who, but the style of the writing is a large part of it and bringing British writers into the Production is a good way to capture that. The OTL TV Movie didn't feel like a Doctor Who story, although it's hard to pinpoint exactly why it felt wrong. It's possible to point at little details, such as the Doctor being referred to as half human, that look like a Star Trek influence on the story, but that doesn't explain why the story felt off. Not all classic Who stories really felt like Doctor Who either, of course (I'm looking at you, "Revelation of the Daleks"), and it's possible that if the movie had led to a TV series things might have improved.
 

Heavy

Banned
@NCW8 Well, I would have thought the main problem with "Revelation of the Daleks" is fairly obvious: the Doctor is barely in it and when he is he has almost no meaningful impact on the plot. Do we care about the one nurse who's inexplicably in love with Clive Swift's asshole mortician character? Do we care about the intrigues between the head of Tranquil Repose and Davros? Do we care about Alexei fucking Sayle playing a DJ doing a terrible Elvis impression? I don't believe we do, but you know who does? Eric Saward.

Certainly, Colin Baker and Terry Molloy have some fun interactions, but the Doctor spends most of the first episode wandering in the snow while the actual events of the story happen in the building he's trudging towards. When he gets there, he doesn't really do anything to derail or otherwise change any of the various plots, and in the end the Daleks flat-out ignore him - keep in mind, the sworn enemy of their entire species - while they're busy arresting Davros.

It's probably the clearest example of some of Eric Saward's worst impulses as a writer, particularly his almost obsessive fascination with his "badass mercenary gunsligner" characters (Orcini in "Revelation", but also Lytton in "Resurrection" and "Attack of the Cybermen" and to a certain extent Scott in "Earthshock") at the expense of the Doctor himself.

"Revelation of the Daleks" is not a Doctor Who story - it is a story that the Doctor happens to be in.
 
@NCW8 Well, I would have thought the main problem with "Revelation of the Daleks" is fairly obvious: the Doctor is barely in it and when he is he has almost no meaningful impact on the plot.

Quite. It is possible to have Doctor Who stories that barely have the Doctor in them (e.g. "Mission to the Unknown", "The Celestial Toymaker", "Blink" and "Turn Left") but they have to involve the companions or have some involvement with the Doctor. I'd level the same complaint at the Big Finish story "Flip, Flop" - the Doctor might be there but he doesn't have any real impact on the plot.
 

Heavy

Banned
I'd level the same complaint at the Big Finish story "Flip, Flop" - the Doctor might be there but he doesn't have any real impact on the plot.

"Flip Flop" is a really novel concept that I think only really works in the Big Finish format. I think its larger problem is the way it, erm, muddled into being sort of racist.
 

RyanF

Banned
"Flip Flop" is a really novel concept that I think only really works in the Big Finish format. I think its larger problem is the way it, erm, muddled into being sort of racist.

Sort of? We are talking about the one with the slug immigrants aren't we?
 

Heavy

Banned
Sort of? We are talking about the one with the slug immigrants aren't we?

The poor blind Slithergees, yes. I say "sort of" because I'm not entirely sure if it was deliberate or if the writer just, as I say, muddled into it. It is a pity, because it is a novel concept.

Anyway, to save this from devolving into Doctor Who audio play chat, does anyone have any further questions or comments about the TL?
 

Heavy

Banned
Darkman <3

It's basically perfect already so there's nothing a TL could change about it other than to make it worse, and who would want to do that? I've made a few references to superhero movies ITTL but I think if I make another TL on the topic, I may not set them in the same "universe" as this story.
 

Dom

Moderator
I love it!

I think Art Malik was my favourite Doctor, but can't pinpoint why. Probably his anti-establishment bent.
 

Heavy

Banned
I had a lot of fun writing the Malik chapter (and the first Wilderness Years chapter immediately after it) because I really do love the Seventh Doctor era and a lot of the stuff that emerged during the Wilderness Years; not so much the Virgin New Adventures (simply because I haven't read all that many of them) but definitely early Big Finish, the BBC Books line, even the TV movie. I also enjoyed writing the Christopher Neame chapter a lot, purely because it was very enjoyable to write a comparative unknown into the history of the show in a big way. The Natalie Dormer update, as short as it is, has actually grown on me a lot, mainly because I like the idea of her as the Thirteenth Doctor in real life (even though it will no doubt not happen).

Fun fact: I came very, very, very close to going with Rachel Nichols as the Thirteenth Doctor. I actually had the Word document open with her name and picture on it before I changed my mind.
 
I had a lot of fun writing the Malik chapter (and the first Wilderness Years chapter immediately after it) because I really do love the Seventh Doctor era and a lot of the stuff that emerged during the Wilderness Years; not so much the Virgin New Adventures (simply because I haven't read all that many of them) but definitely early Big Finish, the BBC Books line, even the TV movie. I also enjoyed writing the Christopher Neame chapter a lot, purely because it was very enjoyable to write a comparative unknown into the history of the show in a big way. The Natalie Dormer update, as short as it is, has actually grown on me a lot, mainly because I like the idea of her as the Thirteenth Doctor in real life (even though it will no doubt not happen).

Fun fact: I came very, very, very close to going with Rachel Nichols as the Thirteenth Doctor. I actually had the Word document open with her name and picture on it before I changed my mind.

Some dickhead on the net#s reaction to Missy debut was 'well, that completely takes all the suspence out of who will be the next doctor, doesn't it'.

Because obviously all women actors are the same. As soon as you know 13 will have tits, what more can you possibly find out about them.
 
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. :biggrin:

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.

And Peter Wyngarde's very own Planet of Fire in Lanzarote, of course.

Brilliant TL. Loved Colin Baker as this universe's Peter Davison, loved everything about the Art Malik era, and Natalie Dormer is an inspired choice.
 

Heavy

Banned
And Peter Wyngarde's very own Planet of Fire in Lanzarote, of course.

Haha, of course. :biggrin:

Brilliant TL. Loved Colin Baker as this universe's Peter Davison, loved everything about the Art Malik era, and Natalie Dormer is an inspired choice.

I confess that I was nicking that a wee bit from @NCW8's story "Shuffling the Doc" (which I have mentioned before and think everyone should read) because I like Colin Baker a whole lot and think he deserved a far fairer shake.

In retrospect, I feel like I may have been too harsh on James Hazeldine. It's absolutely not out of any dislike for the actor, of course - I loved The Omega Factor after all - it's more that I thought the show should have a downturn roughly when it did in real life and he ended up being the unlucky actor who presided over it, in more or less a direct parallel to Baker IRL. I feel like I may have gone a bit over the top about it (granted, most of JNT's tendencies IRL are pretty exaggerated ITTL).

It's ironic enough because, believe it or not, me watching The Omega Factor and thinking, "James Hazeldine could have been the Doctor," was the genesis of this entire TL.
 
I confess that I was nicking that a wee bit from @NCW8's story "Shuffling the Doc" (which I have mentioned before and think everyone should read) because I like Colin Baker a whole lot and think he deserved a far fairer shake.

Of course, that's part of the "Shuffling" idea - that the people being shuffled should end up having different reputations due to having performed their role at a different time. In Colin Baker's case, I thought he would have done a lot better than OTL if he'd been the Doctor during the darker Hinchcliffe era.
 

Heavy

Banned
Of course, that's part of the "Shuffling" idea - that the people being shuffled should end up having different reputations due to having performed their role at a different time. In Colin Baker's case, I thought he would have done a lot better than OTL if he'd been the Doctor during the darker Hinchcliffe era.

Sure, absolutely - of course, I think Baker would've been able to turn out a perfectly good performance with the late JNT / Eric Saward era material if more of it had been any good.
 
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