Things in Who that you need an answer to...

[Andrew Curnow]

He could be a member of LINDA, who had become obsessed with the Doctor. Then he was 'mentally altered' by Torchwood (or some other sinister organisation, such as the WI) to believe he really WAS the Doctor. At some future time, after having convinced him he was Doctor Who, he could have then been used to commit terrible atrocities (such as shaving the moustache, building a giant armored space station and destroying the planet Alderaan) and thus sully the reputation of the real Doctor forever!!!


PS, yes I know 'armored' should have a 'u' in it, but it just looks right to use the US spelling - I'm pretty sure it's what the definitive Marvel adaptation way back when used to use, along with the phrase "seat of his pants" when referring to Han Solo. Oh yes!

[Andrew Curnow]

Going back to Si's question about the Master, there are some adventures which could easily be swapped over - personally, I'd rather like to imagine that the last two Pertwee/Delgado adventures are The Daemons (caught at last) and The Sea Devils (free at last) after which he's never seen again. The events of The Time Monster and Frontier in Space could easily slot into season 9 at some point, without any trouble.

With the Ainley ones, I think there's some continuity between stories isn't there? In that I mean, Timeflight refers to Castrovalva, and The King's Demons refers back to Timeflight, and Mark of the Rani references Planet of Fire. You could stick Survival pretty much anywhere, if the fancy took you, I suppose!

[Captain Tancredi]

The one that occurred to me a few years back was the possibility of the opening scene of the TV movie occurring as a consequence of the events of 'Frontier in Space'...

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Talking of Time Monster on the first post, I've never understood how the Doctor was able to pilot the TARDIS in the story.

Bit of a late answer here, but watching these stories in order now, it does seem to me that the Doctor pretty much gets the TARDIS fixed long before the Time Lords lift his ban...

The Master shows him how to fix his dematerialistion circuit in Claws of Axos, from this point on the ship "works", but has the command to always return to Earth hardwired into it as a backup by the Time Lords. The Doctor then works to bypass this homing control and believes he has succeeded in Colony in Space. Despite the fact that the Time Lords hijack the ship and steer it where they want, nothing is said to indicate that the Doctor HASN'T fixed it as well (i.e. the Time Lords can steer it, but it appears the Doctor can too as long as they don't hijack it). In Day of the Daleks, the Doctor is working to block the Time Lord control so it JUST works for him, and by The Curse of Peladon he believes he's even managed this and nothing we see in the story (aside from an odd bit of supposition from the Doctor at the end) contradicts the idea that the TARDIS is fully working by now. It's also notable that when the TARDIS returns to Earth at the ends of Colony in Space and the Curse of Peladon, it's because the Doctor wants to go there and no implication is made that it's "forced" back...

... and I haven't got round to watching The Mutants yet, so maybe there's a line in there that wrecks all this. But it seems to me that as early as the Claw of Axos, the kinds of on-Earth piloting that we see in The Time Monster should be possible, and by early Season 9 it seems totally functional again.

Perhaps the Doctor COULD use the TARDIS for most of this time, but simply chose not to because he knew the Time Lords would know and punish him further. It was probably a good choice though, because since he got the nice new shiny circuit from the Time Lords, the ship worked much better than ever before

[Jonno]

Interesting, but... your theory doesn't really tie in with The Three Doctors in which the Time Lords reward him for defeating Omega by returning to him the dematerialisation codes that they blocked from his memory when he was exiled. As soon as this has happened, he can't wait to get away from Earth - hence the next three stories in S10!

In previous stories from Colony onwards, it's made fairly clear AFAIK that he is on Time Lord missions and they are controlling the TARDIS for him - with the exception of Time Monster, where they are not mentioned at all.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Well I've just watched that bunch of stories recently and what is actually said in them is...

Claws of Axos - After this story he is able to use the TARDIS after the Master shows him some engineering trick that the Timelords seem to have blocked from his memory... it will just always return him to Earth. So presumably he can hop around on Earth no problem, especially if he's not time travelling.

Colony in Space - The Timelords definitely hijack the TARDIS. But the Doctor believes he has it fixed anyway before this happens, he doesn't mention at any point that he believes the Timelords controlled his TARDIS, and when he returns to Earth it seems to be because he chooses to.

Day of the Daleks - He seems to have worked out by now that the Timelords steered the TARDIS in Colony in Space and is working to block their remote control ability. But it appears he only wants to block their ability to override his control, NOT that he doesn't have any control at all anymore.

Curse of Peladon - by this story he believes he's fixed it completely, no Timelord presence is seen at all, and the Doctor only suspects they might be involved because he happened to arrive at a crucial moment in the planet's history... which is an odd bit of reasoning because he always does that anyway (paranoia).

I haven't got round to watching The Mutants or The Three Doctors yet so maybe something else comes along to contradict all this. As far as I recall, in the Mutants they send him a box and send him on a mission, but I'm not sure if it's stated that he can't actually control the TARDIS. And I know they return his memories and give him a new circuit in the Three Doctors, but that doesn't necessarily mean he hadn't fashioned workarounds for both anyway, but just didn't want to use them too much because he knew the Timelords could track him. Maybe it was more the fear of reprisals that kept him there in the end, rather than a non-functioning TARDIS?

I really need to watch those other stories though because I really could be talking rubbish, but it seems that the TARDIS should definitely work just on Earth (possibly just in the 'present') at any point after the Claws of Axos.

[Wayne]

Not quite on topic i know, but rather than start a thread just one question.......

Does anyone know where there are any ready made fan covers on-line, (to fit a standard dvd case) for the Doctor Who Confidentials?

[Stephen Morgan]

You could try this Wayne, there's some good covers there but whether it's what yu want I don't know. Try it.http://www.cdcovers.cc/search/all/doctor-who

[Dirk Gently]

Or Pip Productions.

[Wayne]

I know about that one, thanks though Steve.
I was being lazy really. There's loads of links here, here but i just couldn't be arsed to look through them all. Just thought someone might know that's all.

[Wayne]

Found some great ones for S1 & 2.

http://gmaskew.com/art/emerald/index.htm

Just need S3.

[Pip Madeley]

Found some great ones for S1 & 2.

Really? Hmm, they look shoddy to me. Your call though As Tim mentioned, I did make some for my off-airs a while ago but they were in the Region 2 roundel style.

[Wayne]

Snob. They're miles better than what i can do, so that's all that matters.

Seriously though, if you have any handy on your pc that you could e-mail to me that would be great. I'm using a quad dvd case for each season that are the same size as a standard single case.