Doctor Who: Series 8 Rumours


This post obviously has potential spoilers so… Stop reading if you don’t like to be spoiled.

Surprising no one is the rumoured return of the Daleks, as they’ve literally been featured in every season/series of New Who. Whether this rumor is true or not sparks some discussion however. Is it high time that the Daleks took a break from exterminating for a season or two (or three)? I believe most people (including the show’s creators) are tired of the old pepper-pots at this stage. They’ve even featured heavily in the latest two episodes of the series (The Day/Time of the Doctor). I really hope this rumour falls flat because I don’t want more of the same, honestly.

The rumour comes from UK magazine the Star:

Peter Capaldi will fulfill a lifelong dream of fighting the Daleks in his first series as the new Doctor. BBC bosses originally wanted the 2014 series of the Time Lord’s adventures to be “exterminator-free’’. The Daleks featured in both last November’s 50th anniversary episode The Day of the Doctor and also the Christmas special The Time of the Doctor. So TV chiefs reckoned they should disappear for a while to allow the new Doc to tackle a new batch of monsters. But Capaldi, 55, who admits he is massive fan of the show, told producers it had been his childhood dream to fight the iconic pepperpot villains – and he has got his wish.

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Surprising everyone is the word-of-mouth rumour that one-off Series 2 monster, the Clockwork Droids, may make a return in Series 8’s first episode which happens to be Victorian. Should they make a return? I’m not convinced myself, but I’m open to the idea. The Girl in the Fireplace happens to be one of my all-time favorites, and their appearance is synonymous with that beautiful heartbreak of a story. Not much evidence to prove this ones authenticity, BUT one supporting actor, Sean Ashburn’s online CV lists him as playing a ‘Restaurant Droid.’ Your thoughts?

21 thoughts on “Doctor Who: Series 8 Rumours

  1. I would love to see Capaldi face off against the Daleks, but I think it could be held off for a season, assuming Number Twelve stays. For this season, I think the fans wouldn’t mind turning to Big Finish for their dose of Nicholas Briggs and the Daleks.

    That being said, I am somewhat ambivalent to the Clockwork Droids returning. It would be difficult to explain how they got off the dead spaceship.

    -DP
    (theodditywriter.wordpress.com)

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  2. To the point about throwing the Daleks out for a few seasons, I’ll say that while I’m ambivalent about their return or omission (although it would be nice to think Capaldi had a dream come true, particularly if there’s any weight to the one-season rumor) WHAT I DON’T WANT TO SEE is more Weeping Angels. They were essentially murdered as any kind of suspenseful plot device in the Christmas special. Frustratingly impotent.

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  3. The best show ever – with all the Doctors. Pathos, nuance, action. Matt Smith and David Tenant brought the show to new heights. Evoked laughter and tears. The best writers ever. Spoiler, sweetie. The best cast.

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  4. As noted in earlier reviews of Big Finish offerings on Third Eye, it took me many years remove (and some well written stories from BF) to truly appreciate and come to love the post-Tom Who. And though there were some strong entries later (City of Death, Logopolis, arguably Shada and Warrior’s Gate), The remainder of his run was noticeably weak, with the man himself looking quite tired. JNT brought an overly brittle sheen, with a mix of lower budget video, high camp and a general approach over reliant on dry ‘hard SF’ over fantasy and gothic (at least at first) – it was certainly a sea change akin to what Letts and Pertwee brought over the more educational cum child friendly feel of Lambert et al. But that said, it’s been several years since I’ve come to love Davison, McCoy, McGann and especially Colin Bakers Doctors, so this is more objective commentary than any sort of ‘ugh, New Who’ post (LOL)…

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  5. He (The Doctor) was also hailed as “Theta Sigma” in an old 1979 Tom Baker story Season 16’s “The Armageddon Factor” Fortunately and with a collective sigh of relief from the fans of the day it was never used again.

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    1. Good memory, my friend! I always found that season difficult to sit through, and Douglas Adams provided some of his least efforts for Who around this point (seriously…the Pirate Planet? Shudder…). The only things saving it were the Stones of Blood and the one true Romana, Mary Tamm…

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      1. Absolutely! I echo your opinion of the sadly missed Mary Tamm. I might be controversial here for the Adams-o-philes but I found his efforts as editor on Who to be over rated, too camp and not a patch on Bob Holmes or Terrance Dicks. For me, season 16 although not the worst in Who history by a long shot was the beginning of the decline in classic era. I actually enjoyed The Power of Kroll, Stones of Blood and Armageddon Factor but none of these would feature anywhere near my all-time top 25.

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      2. I guess I’m pretty much alone in really enjoying season 16 here. Even the Pirate Planet. Only one that I really actively hated was the Power of Kroll. As a whole, albeit the season many look to as the beginning of the decline of Who, I find the whole season extremely ambitious. They’d never had an overarching theme for a whole season of DW before, and for serialized television that was basically a first. It wasn’t executed with finesse, no, but it’s the roots of how we enjoy Who today. And I think that’s important. (But then again, I’m also a fan if Trial of a Time Lord…)

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  6. We are big fans but I still am a big fan of the doctor with the long scarf and David. The moon water one is the one which scared me. In fact week after week most of them scared me. But now it is getting old hat and I hope the new Dr. Who has a little different slant. I believe the doctors name is an anagram. Torchwood is doctor who so his name is an anagram on the planets name. What are your thoughts?

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    1. The Waters of Mars is one of my favorites, hands down. It’s a classic in it’s own right. My thoughts on the Doctor’s name… Hmm. I don’t think we’ll ever find out. I don’t think we ever should. It’s the one true mystery of the program, the one thread of truth we should never know. Realistically, if ever we were to figure out the name, the impact wouldn’t be that grand on the show in the long run, but in the short run there’d be a long groaning sigh of dissatisfaction, of anticlimax. There is no name on Earth or Gallifrey that would be a satisfactory answer to the 50 year mystery. It would just be a disservice to the character. That being said, I like to tell people his name is John Smith, but nobody actually believes him, seeing as how he’s been referring to that name since the late 60s-early 70s.

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  7. Happy for the clockwork droids to return, ESPECIALLY if it means we get more of the frothy Sophia Myles…………ahem. As for the Daleks as a true Dalekophile it might come as a surprise but I think they need a rest for 2 or even 3 seasons. Their shock value has dwindled since being used over and over and the stories involving them have frankly been pretty poor ever since the Manhattan story. The introduction of those despicable Thalish abomination shaking that a$$ “does my dalek bum look big in this” teletubby blasphemous paradigm monstrosities was almost the final straw for me.
    My view would be to rest them for a few years then do a stand alone 3-4 part mini-series after the 9pm watershed with no Doctor but using the Whoniverse as a reference point and with a much more adult theme where they technically win at the end showing the grim “reality” of the Daleks and only then return them to the main series. after this event where the Doctor can finally triumph but only after they have wrought a lot of havoc.

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