[Doctor Who] Banksy And Steve Jobs, Together Again

Bogart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU2BqLHft7M

Doctor Who is a TV show about an old man OR LADY who changes his appearance on a regular basis and entices young women and sometimes young men into his home with promises of adventure and jelly babies. Sometimes, the young people die or go mad or are abandoned. This is all fine. It's fine.

The show has been around for fifty-odd years, and is a national treasure, an institution and something for which successive generations have gooey nostalgic feelings. Except those poor souls who grew up in the wilderness years, when it got cancelled for a decade or so and had to live the zombie half-life that exists in tie-in fiction and conventions. It has international appeal, as nerds exist everywhere.

There was an American version as well. You've probably never heard of it. Only true Whovians have seen these. I liked the Kyle MacLachlan years best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCv5o7n_mtk

The Doctor was played by a shouty, angry Scotsman, accompanied by a fetching school teacher. They're very good indeed. Here's his first appearance, and one of my favourite moments in modern Doctor Who.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e71KWwE5Fk

Here's another, one which takes place at the end of a film about the making of the early years of the show. David Bradley is playing William Hartnell and he's coming to terms with the fact that he can't go on as the Doctor any more and will, reluctantly, leave the role he's come to love. What could console him in this hour? I guess the knowledge that the legacy you're leaving will gladden the hearts of tens of millions of people for decades would just about do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9wtQay5yu8

Excuse me I've got something in my eye.

The new Doctor is Jodie Whittaker, and she will start her adventures THIS SUNDAY. Here's a trailer.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCt6f1Ttmy4

A huge amount of classic Doctor Who was streamed nightly on Twitch Presents, introducing a new generation of fans to Ian Chesterton and UNIT's successful operations rate and it was lovely to see. All of New Who is also currently available on the BBC iPlayer, so huzzah for dear old Blighty and ya boo sucks to the rest of the world. It won't be there for too much longer, though, so if you want to binge watch every bit of New Who before the new series better get on that right now. You might need a time machine to fit it all in.

https://twitter.com/bbcdoctorwho/status/928608189586788352

Jacobkosh

@Bogart‌ this obviously invites the question of which rendition of the theme tune you like best.

and don't forget this dark horse contender!

Doctor Who - The Theme Tune (as Ron Grainer intended): http://youtu.be/t1SZs4xudf8

Bogart

It's a question that bores into the heart of a man.

The original Delia Derbyshire arrangement is a thing of strangeness and terrible beauty. Music made with electronic paraphernalia that instantly nails the atmosphere of otherworldly strangeness the show is aiming for right from the start. It's unlike anything else and so far ahead of its time it will be effectively mined for decades to come.

During the 1970s, the Radio Times, the BBC's own listings magazine, announced that a child's mother said the theme music terrified her son. The Radio Times was apologetic, but the theme music remained.

I bet the Beeb rubbed their hands with glee when they got that bit of free publicity.

And then Murray Gold's numerous rearrangements with the sliding strings and full orchestra blaze in and it's very good indeed but it's a fantastic piece of music, whereas Derbyshire's original is like something descended from another plane of reality.

So, the original arrangement, much as I like Gold's work.

Jacobkosh

I really like the 67-79 version of Derbyshire's theme, where those piano strings really thrum and reverberate like you're in some vast hollow space.

But I think I love the 80s synthy sci-fi version almost as much. It's not spooky, but those impossibly pure Moog notes make it feel otherworldly in a friendly, Close Encounters sort of way.

Bogart

I do like the way the theme increases in urgency as it develops over the years. The OOO-WEEEE-OOOOOOO underpinned by DUMDUMDUMDUM - DUM DUM DUM - DUM DUM DUM.

The one I don't like is the 1986 Sixth Doctor one, the one they only used for a single series. They were going for spooky but just neutered it and the music lies there, slowly bleeding out. So pretty appropriate for Colin Baker's tenure BOOM BOOM. The McCoy one is an improvement over that. And it even has the middle eight.

I actually don't mind the movie version, which opens with the middle eight, even though it ends with a plinky plonky piano bit that dies on its arse.

Cyvros

Dominic Glynn for the win!

Someone back me up here please.

Bogart

I also really dig Matt Smith's themes. Just the right mix of spooky wails and orchestral power.

Bogart

I cannot recommend the film about the making of the show, An Adventure In Time And Space, highly enough. The BBC made it for the 50th anniversary, and its a fitting tribute. David Bradley is heartbreaking as William Hartnell, cranky, vulnerable, oddly touched by his newfound popularity and then utterly bereft when he's told he's being pushed aside for Patrick Troughton.

EDIT: I also just watched a fan reaction video to the ending which is basically two young girls sobbing their hearts out. It's great.

Dark Raven X

Oh, new Who thread?

I don't like it. ;D

Also Series 5 has my favourite theme. Those new BWARMS go really well with the dark thundery time vortex.

poshniallo

There was a late period Tennant theme I liked. Very heavy. Maybe for a special?

Edit: it's that or the original. They're my faves.

Dark Raven X

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O34Por_fqQU

This one! WITH THE DRUMS! YEAH

RMS Oceanic

Only logical response

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD_aLhoxc64

poshniallo

This one, used for Voyage of the Damned:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=gzwS3JY1oE4

RMS Oceanic

Of course there's one other possibility:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnKNupdSH8g

Dark Raven X

Really surprised it's not on youtube in some form, but my favourite Doctor Who moment in recent memory is Day of the Moon, where he beats the Silence with their own power. Smiff just kills it in that scene.

RMS Oceanic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWn_1yOFpfU

jclast

I'd never seen that 50 years of American Doctor Who video before, and now all I want is to see real one-off episodes where the Doctor is played by Vincent Price and Gene Wilder.

Seidkona

This new thread is stilted and doesn't have the emotional heart of the old thread.

Bogart

This is the new thread. And there's nothing you can do about it.

RMS Oceanic

Bogart wrote: »

This is the new thread. Whether you like it or not.[/Colin Baker]

Bogart

I misquoted. I will have to watch Timelash as penance.

Polaris

A new thread my dears, and it seems not a moment too soon.

Madpoet

Too proud of my fiancee to let her kill a thread. Sorry (not sorry) for repost.
Just wanted to show off how awesome my girl is. She's been cooped up at home for a bit, so she decided to do a little project:

Love that girl.

Dark Raven X

Something I didn't realize til just now - the official Day and Time of the Doctor soundtrack came out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhXdjUNq-Qs

This one's a winner, the music for the awesome scene towards the end of Day of the Doctor.

Seidkona

Oh wow. That build up at 5:40. . . So so good.

Dark Raven X

I love the tone change at 2:20. "Gentlemen... I have had 400 years to think about this. I changed my mind!"

Makes me smile just hearing it.

Radiation

Holy crap guys! LEGO Doctor Who sets! *swoon*
https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/1-blog/post/26

azith28

Humm. Karen Gillian is coming to my town's comic con in a few weeks.

Karen I love ya but charging 60 bucks for an autograph is a bit much. Even Shatner is only charging 80.

Radiation

Holy shit what?
That happens? Is that industry norm?

azith28

If you go to one of the bigger con sites you usally can get a list of how much people charge for autographs. heres the one for my con:
http://www.wizardworld.com/clevelandautographs.html

• All autograph sales on-site are CASH ONLY

AUTOGRAPH PRICES
Billy Boyd Autograph — $50.00
Bruce Campbell Autograph — $40.00
Chris 51 Autograph — $10.00
Corey Feldman Autograph — $40.00 (Corey personalizes all autographs)
Dolph Ziggler Autograph — $35.00
Doug Jones Autograph — $25.00
Drea de Matteo Autograph — $30.00
Graham McTavish Autograph — $30.00
Gregg Henry Autograph — $30.00
Heather Maranda Autograph — $10.00
Ian Somerhalder Autograph — $70.00
James Marsters Autograph — $40.00
Jason David Frank Autograph — $40.00
Jeffrey Wortham Autograph — $10.00
Joey Lauren Adams Autograph — $30.00
Josh Bodwell Autograph — $10.00
Karen Gillan Autograph — $60.00
Lou Ferrigno Autograph — $40.00
Michael Rowe Autograph — $30.00
Paige Autograph — $30.00
Sasha Roiz Autograph — $40.00
Scott Wilson Autograph — $40.00
Sean Gunn Autograph — $30.00
Taryn Manning Autograph — $30.00
William Shatner Autograph — $80.00

Seidkona

Someone really needs to sit Karen down and talk to her about not bilking the fans. If I can get Bruce Campbell for $20 less I really can't think of a reason I'd not go with Bruce.

Edit: a quick google seach shows Matt Smith is charging around $100. . . That's insane.

Xeddicus

On the one hand, fuck paying anything for a little ink and 30 seconds of their time.

On the other hand I'd charge as much as I thought suckers would pay.

It is a conundrum.

poshniallo

I haven't been to a con in 20 years. I didn't know people charged for autographs now. In the, apparently good, old days they just did it to promote themselves.

I am saddened anyone would pay for that.

Dark Raven X

Huh, not used to that notion. Like, I got MC Frontalot to sign one of his albums for me, but I'd like... payed him via buying the album. And I got Matt Smiff's sig on a poster for the American Psycho show he did in London, no charge. I guess it's different in a con where you're not like, directly giving the artist money for their presence, opposed to ambushing em after a show like I did :P

Jragghen

Only signings I've ever gone to are book signings, and since the idea is "they sign the book you just bought" I've never been charged for those.

Delmain

Charging for signatures at a convention is basically how out-of-work actors make a living. I don't know why Karen Gillan is charging so much.

Then again, looking at it, the three highest are Doctor Who companion (crazy popular), Vampire Diaries guy (crazy popular among womenfolk of all ages afaik), and William Shatner who's just a complete dick and no one argues that fact.

Delmain

I think an "average" price (more like a median or mode than mean) is in the $25-35 range, with a lot of them going like, "if you buy a headshot or poster for $40 I'll sign it for free.

Ravenhpltc24

Most signatures I've seen at cons are much higher than that Delmain, usually around $50-$80. Shatner charges $80. Hell, even Arthur Darvill charges $50! James Marsters, forever Spike-from-Buffy has-been, still insists on charging $50 even though no one cares about him except raging Buffy fans (of which there will always be a sizeable quantity). He is one of the out-of-work actors you speak of, goes to every single Con in the country, I swear. I suppose that even for actors like Karen Gillan who has a bright blossoming career it's a nice way to make some pocket change for a weekend's work.

Jacobkosh

poshniallo wrote: »

I haven't been to a con in 20 years. I didn't know people charged for autographs now. In the, apparently good, old days they just did it to promote themselves.

I am saddened anyone would pay for that.

Back when I started going to cons in the early 90s some TV personalities, of the Lou Ferrigno or "guy who was in a few episodes of Buck Rogers" caliber, wouldn't charge for the autograph itself but would ask you to buy one of their $10 glossy headshots or a copy of their new memoir or something like that to sign. That seemed reasonable enough to me, as it's more or less what authors on book tours etc do.

Ever since cons became big business, though, they just seem like money extraction machines. I wouldn't be surprised if many of those people listed also wanted you to buy something of theirs in addition to the actual price of the autograph. Which feels really shitty and not like something I'd want to partake in.

On the other hand, in the old days a convention was something that could comfortably fit into a hotel exhibition room, with maybe a couple hundred people milling around and chatting in small groups and a lot of the guests had downtime to relax at their tables or hang out with each other. Now it's a grinding assembly line with untold thousands of people all wanting ten seconds of Karen Gillan's time for ten hours a day for three days straight, which sounds honestly kind of hellish to me.

KafkaAU

I paid for John Barrowman's autograph. He signed our Torchwood box set wrote a cool message and had a brief chat to us. I thought it was worth the cash.

Morninglord

I was all damn that's silly prices for an autography.

"matt smith's is $100"

well that's not that much

dammit

i just love him so