Christmas Special 2008 - Children In Need excerpt (spoilers!!)

[PTeppic]

Well, that was certainly brief, much shorter than last year's special.

And what did it tell us - not a lot really. The Doctor arrives in a snowy town and wanders around a market, delighted by all he sees. He asks an urchin for the date: Christmas Eve 1851. Then a woman screams for "Doctor". Equally delighted he runs to find a woman facing a door. She again yells for the Doctor. When he introduces himself she denounces him, and another man runs up (David Morrissey) who introduces HIMSELF as "the Doctor, the one and only". She is "Rosita". The door opens to reveal a cyberman head/mask on something: both Doctors aim their sonic screwdrivers at whatever it is, and in unison yell "Alonsez!"

On a five second sample I wasn't impressed by David Morrissey. He seemed to be playing it as if he was an imposter (maybe he is) albeit with a sonic. Rosita seemed awfully like a Martha-esque clone. And we already knew about the cybermen.

 

[Ice fyre]

Bugger PT you beat me to it, now this is cheeky!

Two doctors? Cybermen? Dost I smell disinformation!

 

[Lenny]

It was so nice to turn around from the bar, pint in hand, to see Tennant smiling at me from the screen. I'm going to miss him.

For those who missed it, or couldn't hear it over the noise and music in the bar, here it is:

Interesting. Nicely done, warms ve 'eart, but please, please, please don't tell me that David Morrissey is the next Doctah. He's too... similar. Don't get me wrong, Tennant's Doctah is fantastic! His boundless enthusiasm, his boundless bounding, and his boundless cheekiness/grins/warm fuzziness have cemented him as my favourite Doctah (hey, I'm a newb, don't be hatin'), but I couldn't watch a brand new Doctah come in and do the same, at least not straight away. It'll be like watching an animate waxwork trying to rip off its mould-sake.

Hopefully it will just be a storyline plot, maybe a Doctah from the very far future, and seeing as Davies is supposed to be leaving Moffat with a clean slate it's quite a plausible possibility, but still, I've got that niggling feeling that the Christmas episode might just portend something.

Either way, I look forward to it - I've missed the Doctah.

 

[sloweye]

David Morrissey!!!

No No No! its Peter Davison all over again

 

[Pyan]

No, no, no (again)!

Since when did the Doctor annouce he was a Time-Lord to a perfect stranger?...

 

[sloweye]

And whats with the 'winking'

this just won't do Mr. Russel.T.

yours truely Angry Fan!

(i was hopeing the new Doc was gona be Richard Hammond)

 

[SpaceShip]

How did I miss it!!!!! HOW DID I MISS IT!!! When was it on and, more importantly, will it be on BBC3 or 4 or what? Who can tell me?

O thanks Lens - just watched your utube bit! It becomes clearer. But no - not a good choice for doctor - I'm a bit upset now - no, a lot upset now.

I was thinking along the lines of someone like Toby Stevens - now he'd make a great Who.

 

[HoopyFrood]

This isn't to definitely say that he's going to be the new Doctor -- nothing in this programme has ever been straightforward, after all.

For a start, if it is the Doctor, albeit a future one...there'd have to be something seriously wrong with him if he didn't recognise his former self! Unless he likes being awkward (facetious does seem to be in the Doctor's nature, admittedly).

Maybe they're (he and the woman) both just Doctor loons who like to pretend they're the real thing.

 

[PTeppic]

Taking advantage of the above Tube of You, it's almost like the Doc.Morrissey is saying everything needed to "prove" that he is the Doctor, whilst perhaps not necessarily being so: the singular and unadorned name, the companion, the sonic, the TARDIS, the Time Lord species. Everything yells "over-egging the pudding", even the typical Doctor-ish clothing. Escaped mental patient?

Although you can't see it very well, the sonic doesn't look "real" to me...

 

[Ursa major]

From what I've seen, I can only hope that this is simply some sort of sleight of hand, a trick that forms part of the plot.

I know that it's a bit unfair of me, given how short the clip was, but I didn't like the character of the hopefully-fake other doctor: not just a bit self-satisfied - which can be a bit grating in itself - but also pompous. (If David Morrissey turns out to be the new doctor, I won't blame him for this appearance: he didn't write the lines or direct the scene.)

 

[HoopyFrood]

Well after a bit of pausing and watching (yeah, I know...) I have to say that the 'Doctor's' screwdriver looks like...a screwdriver. You know, whereas the sonic screwdriver is all bumpy, especially at the end.

With all the hamming it up, especially the "this is a job for a Time Lord" I think the idea of his being someone who thinks he's the Doctor might be possible...

 

[Pyan]

Perhaps he's just a Time-Locum...

 

[HoopyFrood]

Was just browsing through the Wikipedia page about the tenth doctor and read this towards the end about his favourite catchphrases that he says a lot:

...and the French expression "Allons-y" ("Let's go")...

Then that would mean that this 'New' Doctor is using phrases specific to the current Doctor...

 

[PTeppic]

It's almost like he's encountered the Doctor, or even been told he is the Doctor and is doing things deliberately to be like him (as per my previous list... which forgot to include the "Allons-y"). It's too deliberate to be listing so many Doctor-ish things... hopefully.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Hmm. I think this might be a bit of a cunning plan (well, intended to be one. It'll probably be an annoying plan).

Could be wrong, but wasn't RTD aiming to give Moffet a clean slate? Can hardly do that if he foists a new Doctor and a new companion on him at the last minute, can he?

Plus, they've dicked about with this sort of thing before, with the Doctor-Donna rubbish, and the Doctor being human nonsense.

Morrissey should be an imposter. Why? If he were a future Doctor he'd recognise himself. If he were a past Doctor Tennant would recognise him.

 

[PTeppic]

Quite so. And can't The Doctor always recognise another Timelord? (He's certainly said so more than once.)

 

[thaddeus6th]

So, Morrissey's either a fake, or RTD has decided to save perhaps his very worst plot for the end.

 

[PTeppic]

Well - two minutes and we've sussed half of the plot of the Christmas Special... not bad going people! I've heard "War and Peace" is pretty complex... shall we give that a go next?

 

[steve12553]

Wonderful teaser, but we'll have to wait a while to find out for sure. Some of us longer than other. I still haven't heard who'll be carrying the specials on this side of the pond.

 

[Dr.Jackson]

I'm with the majority on this, Morrissey as a cocky, arrogant, showy Doctor jarred a bit for me. Hopefully it is a ruse, but we shall have to wait another 5 weeks to find out more.

Russell T Davies did say that - "We were aware that the pre-titles sequence would make a great excusive for Children In Need ...rest assured that the pre-titles sequence doesn't give too much away."

As to the Doctor announcing himself as a Time Lord to complete strangers, he did that in 'Voyage of the Damned' to the group of survivors he was leading when he went and did his big speech, but this was, admittedly, a bit different.