Saturday 5 October 2013

Landmarks No.39


Bad Wolf / Parting of the Ways.
Final appearance for the Ninth Doctor - and first for the Tenth.
First regeneration of the new series.
Daleks. More Daleks than you can shake a Perigosto Stick at.
New Dalek Emperor.
"Bad Wolf" story arc explained.
The origins of Torchwood.
Sadly, Christopher Eccleston's departure had made it into the newspapers only a week or so after his first episode had aired - so the surprise of a regeneration was lost to us. Eccleston reportedly had a bit of a wretched time on the series. This was mainly down to the new production team learning the hard way as they went along and, had he stuck around for the second series, he may have had a more pleasant experience.
The new explosive regeneration effect will become the norm - being used for River and the Master as well as the Doctors. Up until this point, every regeneration had been different.
We had always dreamt of mass ranks of Daleks, but budgets had only ever stretched to 4 or 6, or to model displays of the Louis Marx toys. Now we could have hundreds, flying through space, thanks to CGI. The new Emperor has special guards with black domes - a nice nod to the version seen in Evil of the Daleks.
"Bad Wolf" caught the public attention far more than any story arc since. There were numerous articles in the popular press discussing who or what it might be.
RTD's story arcs were quite subtle - a word or name seeded through the series. These days, the arc seems to come first then stories are shoe-horned into it.
Captain Jack gets exterminated, then Rose / Bad Wolf brings him back to life. Unfortunately, he's brought back permanently - leading to the darker version we see in the spin-off series.

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