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The Big Dentist said,
July 2nd, 2008 

EXTERMINATE

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Ashar said,
July 2nd, 2008 

Bruce! No worries!! That’s what youtube is for. I just watched all the British aired episodes airing up to Journey’s End. Which hasn’t aired yet. But will in a few days. And if your on tune with the U.S. airings, oh boy, does it get bloody exciting.

Someone will put the episode in its entirety on the youtube! Although the downside might result in a slighty-crappy quality version. But who the hell cares! It’s Doctor-freaking-Who!!

Allons-y!!!

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790 said,
July 3rd, 2008 

Doctor Who is a phenominal show. Its the best sci-fi out there today !
The new series is the best version of Who yet !
Even better than BSG when it comes to pure sci-fi.

Cool post Bruce, I’m going to have to check the run time on my dvds. I feel I’ve been jipped.

Daleks rule!

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July 3rd, 2008 

Oh man, it’s absolute genius how they’ve managed to bring this show back to life.

They’ve captured the campiness, tongue in cheek factor, cool creatures, and everything else that made the original so great without losing a drop of it.

I was a fan of the old one and I have to admit to being sucked into it straight away and getting those old feelings right back.

If you’re looking for decent quality versions I wouldn’t touch You Tube…better with something (so I’ve heard) like Pirate Bay.

Although I don’t condone piracy at all.

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July 3rd, 2008 
No one here condones piracy at all, so I’d recommend we all stick to the proper, though limited legal channels we all have available to us!

And yea - for me, the last few episodes were kick a**. The biggest mystery through out it all was WHY he’d give his sonic screwdriver to ANYONE, in the future.

Clever clever clever show.

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Ashar said,
July 3rd, 2008 

Well who knows, we may never find out. Because it wasn’t clear how far in the future that was. Nor was it clear of what version of the Doctor it might have been, the eleventh? The last incarnation? What’s safe to say is that he’s a very, very, clever man.

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July 3rd, 2008 
Thank you 790.

Ashar: That’s the beauty of The Doctor. You don’t need to retain the same actor to portray the same character. A brilliant device / idea to be able to keep the character alive and well, no matter when or how long the show runs.

Not to mention it minimizes squabbles, or as they like to say, creative differences, with the cast!

Hmm, Watch out folks. I think the Big Dentist is a Dalek!!!

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Andy said,
July 3rd, 2008 

Dr. Who is one of my favorite shows on TV right now without a doubt. David Tenant is PERFECT as the Doctor, although I am not too crazy about Donna. Unfortunately, I only get to watch it on the SciFi channel, but now that I know what I am missing, I think my Netflix queue might be rearranged…

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steven the git said,
July 3rd, 2008 

The last episode coming up looks to be so full action and revelations that if SciFi cut it down it could really ruin it.

Quite looking forward to when Moffat takes over as his writing has been among the best.

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darkbhudda said,
July 4th, 2008 

I grew up in Australia so grew up with Doctor Who. My favourite show.

What other show could survive the main character changing? Or massive production changes, eg the change from Gothic Horror to straight sci-fi during the Tom Baker era. Each Doctor and each era brought something fresh yet it still had that magical famtasy sci-fi flavour.

It’s also one of the most profitable BBC shows, if not their most profitable. Even when the BBC would mistreat it. A single episode of Red Dwarf had the production budget of an entire 14 episode season of Doctor Who.

I was very unimpressed a few years ago when Stargate SG-1 was named the longest running sci-fi show because they kept showing re-runs between seasons on US TV.

I feel sorry for you US fans who have to watch butchered episodes. Especially if you’ll be missing out on more than 20 minutes of the finale. Ugh.

Next year is going to be hell. 4 specials rather than a full season. Oh well, hopefully The Sarah Jane Adventures will be a full season.

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790 said,
July 4th, 2008 

If Doctor Who is the most profitable BBC show, why don’t they produce a Doctor Who Movie? Can’t think of a better way to expand the fanbase.

DarkBudda are you sure about Red Dwarf costing so much?
And I’m still upset that we never got a Red Dwarf movie.
Smegheads !!!!

A Rimmer salute to you all….. ;-)

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steven the git said,
July 4th, 2008 

The BBC don’t seem to be very profitable overall. They recently wanted the licence fee to go up considerably, and since the Government will only raise it to a degree, the BBC are making cutbacks.

So whatever Dr Who is making for them, it isn’t enough to make a movie. Something else, from outside, would be needed; perhaps a joint venture with an american company.

I think at it’s height Red Dwarf did cost quite a bit. No idea on figures though.

A Rimmer salute back :)

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790 said,
July 4th, 2008 

Well there has to be another reason other than not enough money to make a film.
BBC could afford 45 mil for a feature. If done in the same epic way all the season finales have been, it could make over 200 mil worldwide.
Supposedly X-Files 2 is under 45 mil and that’s a genre based gamble that everyone believes is going to pay off bigtime.
The Doc Who fanbase would (IMO) garner a 50mil opening in the US.
Sheesh. BBC could pay some bills with 200mil.
What’s stopping them. Do they want to stay in the same tax bracket or what?
I ,Rimmer! Rimmer Salute thee…. ;-)

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steven the git said,
July 5th, 2008 

They aren’t making a series next year, just some specials, and I’m sure for the cost of those they could make a movie.
Doctor Who is still riding the wave here so a movie would be massive news. I also can’t see the cast turning down the chance to be in a film.

The BBC are just a pain in the arse. These days they seem to care more about ratings than quality. They produce some awful reality shows. :(
I also think they lack the guts to go for a movie.

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July 5th, 2008 
Steven, what you’ve just written sounds like our own American Sci-Fi Channel!!
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790 said,
July 5th, 2008 

Boy you said it Bruce, two companies that have it all, yet have no clue…

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July 5th, 2008 
Yep - sadly, they’re the only ones providing this specific commodity that we need, and can do what they want with it, no matter what we think because it is our only outlet. I hate addictions.
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steven the git said,
July 5th, 2008 

I know. The BBC do get things right, now and then, but usually when they let creative people get on with it.

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Belly said,
July 5th, 2008 

Bruce/Ashar, The Full 63 minutes of ‘Journeys End’ is on the BBC iPlayer for 7 days - decent quality too.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00cgnjr

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darkbhudda said,
July 6th, 2008 

@steven the git
I should have been clearer, my bad, the budget I was referring to was for the last seasons of classic Who back at the end of the 80s when they were making Red Dwarf at the same time. And yes, unfortunately it is accurate, at that time Doctor Who was the red headed step child of BBC programming. Doctor Who had low ratings at the time, they put it up against rating juggernaut Coronation Street, which would have killed any show. They believed that Red Dwarf was going to take the world by storm so were pouring money into it.

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790 said,
July 6th, 2008 

Red Dwarf, what a great show ! ;-)

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steven the git said,
July 6th, 2008 

Oh, I assumed that was when you meant. The budget for the show back then in the 80s was crappy, especially compared to now.
I imagine the first two series of RD weren’t that high either, but once they hit series 3 they had clearly been able to step up a few levels.

Oh, and what’s wrong with red headed children? I am one! :P ;)

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July 6th, 2008 
Thank you Belly.
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eric g said,
July 7th, 2008 

Dr who has gotten politically correct with the Black girl as the sidekick.

Well don’t stop there then, if you’re going to do that then why not a black doctor who too.

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790 said,
July 7th, 2008 

“Politically Correct”. Aaarrghh.

Eric G, your post reminded me of the great character arc of Mickey who later became Rickey in “The Rise of the Cyberman.”
I remember him as the dorky “black” boyfriend of “White” Rose Tyler.
He kinda faded away after season 1, and then in season 2 they met an alternate version of Mickey in a parallel universe named Ricky. He was the exact opposite of Mickey.
Total badars.
The actor that played him really impressed me as I never would have seen him as a action hero. (Of course fans know that only one survived the episode). Haha. Not tellin. Go watch!

Eric “DoctorWho” dosnt to be politically correct, they allready are, and I hate that term.
Doctor Who is perfect the way it is.
I wouldn’t mind a “black” Doctor at all but he has to be a great actor!!!!

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steven the git said,
July 8th, 2008 

You could easily have a black Doctor, or any non white. There is nothing about regeneration that says he has to stay white, unless the Time Lords are a white race.
Not sure about a female doctor though, not sure whether gender can be swapped.

But yeah, for me it would need to be a worthy actor and not done for a gimmick.

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eric g said,
July 8th, 2008 

Black Dr Who = not watching

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July 10th, 2008 
So barring the obvious, what other shows over on the other side of the Atlantic are good sci-fi type shows?

Are there any resources for being able to watch them online?

I’m trying to expand my horizons beyond my American exposure!

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Mikey11201 said,
July 10th, 2008 

to Bruce - the only other show I’m aware of (and not mentioned in this post) is ‘Torchwood’, a Dr Who spinoff - I see it here in US on BBCAmerica (thank you cable!)
I remember Dr Who being shown in the US on public TV back in the late 70’s and wasn’t impressed. I was probably too young to get it and also didn’t see it from beginning. Found it again couple of years ago w/Chris Eccleston as the Doctor and have been sucked in ever since. I love this show! It’s my favorite sci-fi show since Star Trek:Next Generation and Stargate!
Don’t know when the finale is due to show on SciFi in USA…

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The Big Dentist said,
July 10th, 2008 

Bruce, to be honest I can’t think of a single one! Heads of UK channels have never been known for their love of science fiction. The CGI Captain Scarlet a couple of years ago was better than the original I thought, but no sign of any more yet. Hyperdrive starring Simon Pegg’s mate Nick Frost was generally pretty poor. Kind of a Red Dwarf-lite. Bet they wished they could have called it “Spaced” as well. Primeval would never have seen the light of day without the success of Doctor Who, and Life On Mars (present-day cop finds himself back in the early ’70s for no adequately explored reason) wasn’t really SF. All in all a bit rubbish then.

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The Big Dentist said,
July 10th, 2008 

Oh yeah, Torchwood! Good call.

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July 10th, 2008 
Dentist: Life On Mars. I’ve been seeing ads for that “new” show on ABC… so they’re just remaking an overseas classic… again.
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The Big Dentist said,
July 10th, 2008 

And black Dr Who = Paterson Joseph. He was in Aeon Flux and The Beach; mainly known for TV: PeepShow, Green Wing, the aforementioned Hyperdrive, Jekyll and - funnily enough - the last two episodes of the Ecclestone Doctor Who. He’s got the presence to pull it off.

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The Big Dentist said,
July 10th, 2008 

I never cared for Life On Mars, so they can “reimagine” that one all they want!

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steven the git said,
July 10th, 2008 

We did once had pretty good scifi. I’ve seen episodes of Blake’s Seven but not seen the lot, always wanted to.
We also had Tripods, the Day of the Triffids, and a show called Star Cops, which didn’t last long but seemed quite good.
There were pretty good shows done with puppets too, like Captain Scarlet, and I loved Terrahawks as a kid.
There was also Space 1999, which seems a bit daft in the title alone now!

Like the Dentist says, english tv seems little interested in scifi at the moment, even with the success of Doctor Who. Too much reality tv to make. Urgh.

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790 said,
July 10th, 2008 

Bruce here’s some non-US shows I highly reccomend checking on dvd.

1_ LEXX, a must see epic dark sci-fi journey aboard the mighty ship LEXX.
The show was made in Nova Scoatia*spell-check*
790’s favorite sci-fi tv show of all time beating out all Star Treks.

2_ Red Dwarf.
A must see BBC show. Hands down the best sci-fi comedy of all time.

3_Torchwood.
Spin-off of Doctor Who, lead character Capt. Jack.
Quality show when you can’t get Doctor Who.
;-)

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July 10th, 2008 
Steven: HAH!! Space 1999. I “remember” liking that show. Heck I even have diecasts of that oblong little space ship of their’s, it’s pretty cool.

790: Thanks…

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The Big Dentist said,
July 10th, 2008 

The Gerry Anderson shows give me a warm fuzzy glow. UFO and Space:1999 are still big faves of mine. Until the second series of the latter, which went all horrible. Rubber monsters, cheaper sets, kill off Barry Morse (easily the best actor in it), and add a crappy new theme tune. Has any other show simply dumped its own identity like that from one series to the next? Can’t think of one offhand.

There was a documentary about British SF on the Sci-Fi Channel a while back. They showed a clip from Star Cops and it just looks embarrassing now. Moonbase 3 did the factual thing better. Loved Blake’s 7 despite the diabolical effects, and it had the best spit-yer-tea-across-the-room finale ever.

I never watched enough of Farscape to figure out what was going on, but I think that was part-Australian wasn’t it? Filmed there anyway.

Lexx! That’s another good call.

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July 10th, 2008 

Man, you guys are talking me back… Space 1999 and UFO… great stuff at the time.

Anyone watch The Prisoner? I have the entire series on DVD but I only got through a few episodes and set it aside due to lack of time. I’ll have to pick that up again and watch it all the way through.

Vic

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The Big Dentist said,
July 10th, 2008 

Make sure you strap yourself in for the final episode of that, Vic. McGoohan received death threats when it was first shown, and had to move his family to the US temporarily. There’ve always been periodic rumours of a movie, but a recent one had that man Eccleston again as Number Six - filming to be on location back in Portmeirion, site of the original Village. I’ll believe it when I see him in a piped blazer!

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790 said,
July 10th, 2008 

Yeah Big Dentist, UFO was a great show. Its great watching that show on dvd. Everyones smoking like its a heath fad. Stiker was cool, and the movie studio base was very original.
Space 1999 was awesome for its time. I had at least one or two Eagle spaceship toys. Personally I loved the second season theme more than the first, and being young and stupid I thought Barry Morse died in real life and was written out? ;-)
He was the Bones of the show. Never liked Dr Russell much. They would allways blur her facial image, “wonder why, lol”. Looking back now those uniforms were awefull. Haha.

(Farscape) was a show about a NASA test pilot ” John Chricton” that while flying a test spaceship was caught in a wormhole.
Due to the nature of his flight path and a solar flare, his ship was instantly transported to the other side of the universe smack dab in the middle of a intergalactic space-prison break.
Upon clearing some debris his ship was struck by a Sabacean Marauder. The pilot of the marauder was killed when his ship struck an asteroid.

The pilot was the brother of the Captian of the fleet, Captian Crais. Cap Crais was a “human landmine” and upon hearing the news of his brothers death freaks out, kills his XO and goes rogue to find John Chricton. And that’s just the pilot episode for season1.
John Cricton later in seasons 2 thru 4 was hunted down for his wormhole knowledge. Seems the PeaceKeepers (Sabaceans) and the Scarrens (big lizards) want to develop a wormhole weapon. The scarren makeup and overall look was awesome. The show was produced by the Jim Henson Co.

The show was amazingly original I reccomend watching it in order.

After the show was cancelled by Sci-fi because of budget woes, the fans created a viral campaign to get it backon the air. the fans were extremly angry over the last season 4 episode -ironically titled “bad timing”. That episode left off with a MASSIVE cliff hanger.
Because of the viral campaign (save farscape) a few weathly fans decided to become Angel investers and funded the show. Sci-fi agreed to air a 4 epsiode mini_series (Farscape the Peacekeeper Wars) to the close out the show with some class and boy did they.

Check out Farscape everyone. Its a great show !!!

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The Big Dentist said,
July 10th, 2008 

Thanks for that 790, that fills in a heap of blanks I had. For a start I couldn’t work out why Crais had it in for Crichton or who was escaping from whom, which is pretty fundamental really. So that Hellraiser-looking guy: what’s his problem?

Yeah, blurring Dr Russell just looks bizarre now. They used to do the same thing with practically every female character close-up in Star Trek as well, the weirdos. You’re spot-on about everyone smoking like chimneys in UFO. And drinking. Straker’s got a minibar in his office, f’God’s sake. That’s just what you need, isn’t it? A whiskeyed-up coughing man with blue eyeliner in charge of countering the alien threat to civilisation. No wonder that General hated his guts…

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steven the git said,
July 10th, 2008 

One British show that sneaks into the scifi bracket that I dearly loved was Ultraviolet. It was about vampires and an organisation that hunted them, but there was a hitech element to it, with guns with cameras attached (the undead didn’t show up) and even fancy coffins that only opened on a timer.
Very short series, about 6 episodes I think, and probably cancelled due to the usual dumb reasons. Was an excellent show and could really have gone on to more.

A number of the older shows, like Prisoner and UFO, are being shown again, if on obscure digital channels (ITV4).

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July 10th, 2008 
I got a diecast from the UFO show too! That tri-legged interceptor. Egads, the memories flood back and I realize that one box in storage has some really cool things in it.
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The Big Dentist said,
July 10th, 2008 

Never saw that one, steven. Is that recent?

You’ll get people beating each other to death with clubs on ebay for an Interceptor, Bruce. Dig that sucker out! I had one and painted it white. Because it was white in the show. Like a fool.

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steven the git said,
July 10th, 2008 

No, about ten years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_(TV_serial)

Pretty sure it is on dvd too, somewhere.

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July 10th, 2008 
we’ve all had our “moments”
I used a fully posable spiderman action figure for target practice when I was in high school.
I cut up a superman comic book that my dad gave me.. that cool pic with him holding the car begged to be cut out…
Etc., etc…

On the other hand, I still have my all metal diecast thunderbird #2! The flying sub from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, the Land of the Giants ship… yea.. I got one really coooool box…

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790 said,
July 10th, 2008 

Yeah I loved that office Straker had and that Mini-bar!
The General (if I remember correctly)was a lame duck and Straker knew it. He also felt theGeneral was a risk to have in power.
^
^
Haha, The hellraiser looking guy is called Scorpius.
He’s a hybrid, half Sabacean and half Scarren. He’s the Peacekeeper version of Darth Vader/Boba Fett.
He looks like that because his outfit is a special cooling suit. He’s very smart, strong and can tell if your lying by looking at your aura.
He keeps this a secret so as to allways be one step ahead of others.

On the rest:
(I’ll try not to spoil too much). Scorpius comes in at the end of season 1. Crais’s pursuit of Cricton ends because of Scorpius.

Scorpius dosnt care about Crais dead brother he finds out by capturing Chricton that he’s a human not a Sabacean and also stumbles upon wormhole information that was implanted by dimensional-time-aliens earlier in season 1.
Scorpius wants to use the wormhole information to build a weapon to destory the Scarrens.
Chricton actually does make a wormhole weapon near the end of season 3.
After that he’s the Galaxys most wanted, Scorpius and the Scarrens both want the weapon and hunt him down to get it. Chricton has to eventually pick a side and that’s covered in the 4 part mini series “the Peacekeeper Wars”…
Is a real good show!

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The Big Dentist said,
July 10th, 2008 

Right, that’s it! I’m looking for those DVDs as soon as I scrape some shekels together.

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790 said,
July 10th, 2008 

Haha yeah, season 1 and 2 are good, great even but season 3 is real complex in a good way and season 4 is just all out Scarrens.

(Cool thing about the Scarren story arc, is they find out that not only does Chricton have wormhole weapon secrets, he is also from Earth, and the Scarrens need something “else” that can only be found there).

Wormholes arnt just for killen, if ya get my drift. ;-)

The dvds are pretty cheap last time I looked. The PeaceKeeper War miniseries can be found at bestbuy for like 10 bucks. They condensed all 4 hours into one huge movie… Its so worth 10 bucks.

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790 said,
July 10th, 2008 

Bruce, another cool Uk import is a little show called, “Urban Gothic”. Its a twilight zone-ish show with a horror edge to it.
Kinda tough to find but Frys carries it.

Also if you love British humor you’ll love the Original “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy BBC movie”.
Douglas Adams real extended version of his book. Not the new movie version.

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The Big Dentist said,
July 12th, 2008 

I’ve just put my money where my mouth is and got hold of series 1 (surprised how easily available it is as well). Looking forward to it.

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kayla wiliams said,
July 28th, 2008 

I can’t wait to get the series 3 of doctor who.I love to wach doctor who. I wach doctor who on scifi.

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Dominic said,
September 19th, 2008 

I,m pleased that Dr who is as entertaining for you as it is for us in the UK. My views are that Seasons 1-2 were terrific but 3&4 lost their way. The end of season 4 was brilliant.My only criticism is why did the Supreme Dalek have such a bad paint job and what was those bits around its head?.The Scottish Doc is one of the best to date, pl bring back the Draconians and the Chronovores!

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