I think he meant that it is even more WTF than randomly turning your show into a Western for an episode.

Well, you've also got The Girl Who was Death coming up, which also begins in a completely random place. I think that one at least has the usual credits, though.

MacGoohan had always wanted to do a Western, and they had a 17 episode allotment to fill. This is the part of the season where they started scrambling for story ideas.

So the Vs have been around for 20 years, huh?

I think I need to see a little more ground gained by the resistance--I was glad the fifth column was duping Wash, because the Vs were seeming too impregnable, and that takes away from my enjoyment of the story. I also didn't know where they could go with Erika being revealed to them so soon. So this makes more sense.

The son is still a waste of bandwidth. I'd be surprised if whatever nefarious plan they have in wait for him can change that.

Only one episode left until they rework it.

Okay, how did Erica know the combination to that room?? I mean, she is clearly awesome in many ways, but there has to be a reason.

There was an establishing shot of her watching a V enter the code with a minimum of stealth.

I think that one at least has the usual credits, though.

The fake credits were hysterical.

It took me ten or fifteen minutes to realize that it was bizarre that everyone had American accents.

There was an establishing shot of her watching a V enter the code with a minimum of stealth.

I figured it was something like that, but I missed it. Thanks.

This is the theory of DW and its theme which I promised to translate yesterday. I'm spoiler-fonting it, just in case - though it was published over 6 months ago, and based on a known fanon theory (so he says - I'm a new fan).

The theory in Hebrew, along the audio files, can be found here: [link]

I'm also sorry, but I didn't have the time to check my translation and to proofread it: I'm sure there are mistakes, but I'm so dead tired.

Anyway, here goes:

Perhaps one of the only moves that has been done in the new series, and the only one that made the Master's return worthy, was the addition of the bassline of the series into the show itself. As you probably remember, the Master complained that he keeps hearing in his head, since childhood, some kind of drums - four quick beatings, ta ta ta tam, ta ta ta tam, ta ta ta tam. He also used this rhythm in order to penetrate his subconscious messages into the heads of the UK citizens so he'll get elected as the PM.

All sorts of explanations to this can be given in the Dr. Who universe, even if you ignore the true reason ("it's cool"). The Master started hearing these drums after he looked into the vortex, maybe that's where they're from? Maybe it's the rhythm of time itself? This would explain the existence of the rhythm in the theme music of the show.

Another explanation, far more interesting, is that the Master has always been there in the background, not just a nemesis who keeps running into the Doctor the whole time, but that they're connected somehow, in more of an essential way. The other warnings that the Doctor received that "his song will come to end soon", first from the Ood, and now from the passenger with the prophetic powers, suggesting this way.

The theme music of the show was innovative at its time. Today, when electronic music is everywhere it's hard to understand it, but back then, the composer who worked in the BBC radiophonic workshop had to built the instruments that made this unforgettable tune on her own.

If we'll ignore the background noises, they're two elements to the tune: the threatening bass beats, and the grating, mysterious whistle that's playing on them. The combination between these too elements creates one of the most affective themes I know to the series that later been known as the one who's been watched from behind the couch.

(audio file - the first Doctor's theme)

Over the three next Doctors no major changes have been made - only prolonged the end so it'll fit the animation of the more recent seasons.

(audio file - the fourth Doctor's theme)

Only from the fifth Doctor and so on, major changes were done to the theme. The original taping has been abandoned, the instruments were replaced, a loud, irritating effect was added to the beginning, And the seven Doctor got something very 80's to it.

(audio file - Fifth)
(audio file - Six)
(audio file - Seven)

We'll ignore the Eighth (that was a TV movie anyway, so it doesn't have a theme like the others). The Ninth (and the Tenth, who share the same theme as much as I can tell) Doctor, returned to the sources, but added some wind instruments and over dramatic violins to the classic theme.

(audio file - the new theme)

So what will happen when "the Doctor's song will end"? Will the theme will change, for the first time in the series history with the move to the 11th Doctor? And what's the connection between the 4 knocks of the Master and the Doctor? Will it be discovered that the shadow of the Master was after the Doctor from the beginning of his travels in time and (continued...)

( continues...) space?

In the 27th season, the one that was never produced because the show was canceled, they were supposed to cast some light on the Doctor's vague past. His connection to a mysterious character in Gallifrey's history - "The Other" - was supposed to be revealed. The Doctor, as should have been discovered, is a genetic metamorphosis of the third rib (?) of the timelord race founders - Rassilon and Omega. Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter which co-starred with the first Doctor, was actually the Other's granddaughter, who recognized her grandfather in the Doctor, much younger than herself.

This plot, again, was never seen on the TV screens. It exists only in the books that were written after the show's cancellation, and they don't considered as canon. The Doctor's past in the universe, then, is still vague. It suits RTD to reveal, as his time on the show comes to an end, some of the past of the Doctor's in this universe. The link to the show's theme, if will be as I expected it to be here, is nothing less than brilliant. I hope that even after the Doctor's song will reach its end, the theme will continue to play for a long time.

Shir, do you consider the reveal in the 8th Doctor TV movie to be canon?

Scola, I'm a new fan - I only know the new series. So I have only a general, but not specific, idea of what you're talking about.

I really should find a way to get all those past seasons. And then find the time to watch them.

I have little interest in the past seasons because the fact that the Doctor is the Last of the Time Lords is so integral to the character and why I love him for me. I'm sure I would enjoy them, but I feel like I would be less invested.

The previous seasons are very different. They were targeted to me at the age I was when I was watching them, it felt, and current who is perfectly appropriate for me at 40. Watching the old stuff is at least partially an exercise in nostalgia--there's not as much of a premium on emotional arcing and there's very little shipping or angsting and absolutely no Captain Jack.