Anyone heard the Doctor Who news?

[NileQT87]

Translation circuit

A translation circuit, or translation matrix, was a part of a TARDIS that allowed for the instantaneous translation of most languages spoken or written in the universe. As the Ninth Doctor once told Rose Tyler, the translation circuit was a "gift of the TARDIS, a telepathic field that gets...

tardis.fandom.com

The TARDIS famously has a translation circuit. When companions land in various places that are undoubtedly not speaking English (starting with the first adventure ever being to the time of cavemen!), the companion hears/sees whatever they understand. They're also seemingly tricked into it not looking like bad dubbing.

Not all of the Doctor's companions have even been humans from Earth either, as Romana is a fellow Time Lady, Leela is a hybridized future near-human (a survey team that became the tribal Sevateem), Adric is from Alzareus, Nyssa is from Traken, Vislor Turlough is from Trion, etc... Nyssa and Adric are literally not even from the same dimension (they're from E-Space)! Nardole is a more recent alien companion.

Australian Tegan Jovanka was undoubtedly speaking to *a lot* of non-English-speaking companions. She was utterly surrounded by aliens. Interestingly, the TARDIS wasn't translating the Australian aborigines, but Tegan knew it (oddly). The languages might be limited to what the Doctor or the TARDIS' data bank knows.

Katarina (first companion to die) was an ancient Trojan handmaiden, so yet another companion who undoubtedly didn't know a word of English.

Note that the 3rd Doctor had a humorous moment describing the inhabitants of the planet Delphon 'speaking' by moving their eyebrows, so the languages he speaks are not all verbal.

This is sometimes used for humor like when Donna Noble tries to speak Latin ("Veni, vidi, vici.") in Pompeii and they think she's speaking Welsh. In the last Big Finish audio I listened to, Jamie McCrimmon (who famously speaks in a Scots dialect with lots of ochs and ayes) kept saying he doesn't speak any French, only for the person he was speaking to reply that he is speaking French flawlessly (it's assumed he's trying to be funny, rather than serious).

However, the Doctor seemingly can at will turn it off for random little phrases, as the 10th Doctor famously says "allons-y" and "molto bene" quite often. The 3rd and 11th Doctors also sing La donna è mobile (in Italian) in the shower. It seems to be quite selective for him and what he wants people to hear (hence turning Latin into Welsh).

When the 10th Doctor is knocked out unconscious, the TARDIS translation circuit has ceased to work; meaning that nobody can understand the Sycorax until he wakes up. The Doctor has thus been proven to be part of the circuit; and if he's broken, the translation circuit is broken.

The real questions thus become what languages does the Doctor *really* speak without the TARDIS, which language does he speak/hear normally and is there a Gallifreyan accent being covered up. Fanfiction has definitely made use of this. Whovians definitely ponder such things.

Note that after Dodo Chaplet nearly killed a whole future human settlement and future human companion Steven Taylor with the common cold, the Doctor has also seemingly begun inoculating all of his companions against all the major diseases. And given Martha Jones' story in Torchwood, it wasn't done with their permission/knowledge.

 

[burrunjor]

Well, well it has been announced that the BBC have no plans for DW beyond 2022. Well I warned them. This is what happens when you sell out. Give it a rest and start again with no New Who. The female Doctor was a failed experiment. They had enough warning with the disaster that was Missy, but they insisted on pushing ahead. Maybe, just maybe they've learned their lesson now.

 

[burrunjor]

And just because I know it will infuriate some purists around here, here's the lovely Katy Manning herself on how Jo felt about the Doctor:

https://spacegranted.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F158898640297

And bonus:

https://spacegranted.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F158084131407

I do love the way you try and spin you wanting the Doctor to be someone you can fancy as some kind of progressive move forward for women and female fans? All this crap of it became an anti women fandom when we cast unattractive men, and the Doctor was made sexless in the 80s and 90s.

Also your assertion that the only way we can have any woman watching is if they want to shag the main lead is more anti women than anything I said. Apparently women can never be interested in good story telling, lore, world building, and male characters beyond wanting to shag them?

Also imagine if I did the same thing with an unconventional female hero. I demanded that Miss Marple be played by Maggie Q and be a big sexy character, and accused women who liked her as one of the few leading roles an older unconventional character actress can play as being anti men idiots who don't want men in the Miss Marple fandom? Wouldn't fly would it.

The Doctor as a character was not built for romantic stories. He was designed for sci fi, derring do type adventures. He also stood out because he was one of the few leading heroes that an unconventional character actor, IE someone who would be relegated to villains, character parts, comedy characters normally could play.

Trying to retool him into an Angel clone is rubbish. He doesn't fit being that type of character. (Same way Angel wouldn't fit being a dusty old professor like the Doctor.)

Far from desperately trying to copy Tennant which the show has done for the past 10 years, only for its viewership to dwindle and it to seem old hat. It's high time we moved away from that, and all the other new who baggage of identity politics, trying to rewrite the shows past, trying to show how hip and cooooool DW is by chasing fads like in this abominable scene.

Lets get back to telling proper sci fi stories, have the Doctor be someone that stands out from other leading characters, and put some money into it so the stories can hold their own. That really is all that is needed.

By all means if you insist on romance, play it up between the companions, but unless you have a really, really, really good story, and one that fits, leave it out of the Doctor.

PS this is all a moot point since the show is being cancelled now anyway.

Latest update on DW.

Basically it's gone.

Oh and as for it was only JNT making the Doctor asexual. One of the shows co-creators, one of the guys who cast William Hartnell, and the director of the first story.

 

[Buffy Summers]

Can we please discuss this topic without making it personal, please. I've asked this before.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Agreed.
After all Dr. Who is part of the English televisions landscape and has been for decades, so thinking it will change now is pure guess work.
Yes, it may stop being made but that does not mean it will cease to exist until a quality cast works with quality actors like Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston.