Yet another Hacker News

Douglas Adams and the exterminated Doctor Who adventure

57 points 6LLvveMx2koXfwn 2 days ago 37 comments

mapontosevenths 4 hours ago | parent

The unfinished original is one of my favorites, and the 2017 animated version is also wonderful.

I feel like the animated version filled in gaps I hadn't even realized were there in the old one that just had the voice overs.

If you like classic who, Adams, or both, and haven't seen it buy the blu-ray!

cubefox 4 hours ago | parent

What are they called?

ClearAndPresent 3 hours ago | parent

Likely the 2017 Doctor Who Shada release:

https://whospecialfeatures.fandom.com/wiki/Shada_(2017_Anima...

philipallstar 4 hours ago | parent

Who exterminated the 2026 Christmas special[0]?

[0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c621ln7vx7qo

consumer451 4 hours ago | parent

Thanks for posting that. Good to know the BBC is moving on from Davies, and investing in a full season with a new production company.

Star Trek is in far worse shape these days. According to Riker, this is the first time in decades where there is no TV or movie even in the planning phase.

philipallstar 4 hours ago | parent

And Star Wars. Complete train wreck. Disney just has so much money to burn from live action remakes they can limp along.

hdgvhicv 4 hours ago | parent

Development on ‘09 started after production wrapped on enterprise in March 2005, although there wasn’t a lot in it. Production in earnest was certainly underway 18 months after.

voidUpdate 3 hours ago | parent

I'll be honest, I think Dr Who is due for a 1989-style shelving for a while. I've loved watching the show since I was young, but I think the quality has fallen off significantly recently. Capaldi was the last "great doctor" in my opinion. Whittaker is a good actress, I thought she performed well in Broadchurch (ironically also written by Chibnall), but her writing was just awful, and it feels like they've just spent the last couple of seasons nostalgia-baiting the fans, like with the Midnight episode

jordanb 3 hours ago | parent

It fell apart in the Capaldi era. The "kill the moon" was the "jump the shark" of neu-Who

voidUpdate 3 hours ago | parent

Capaldi had strong episodes throughout his run, but yes, I personally did dislike some of the storylines. The Zygon stuff felt very weak to me, and I never understood the "The Hybrid" storyline. But heaven sent/hell bent were bangers, and I definitely enjoyed his finale Cybermen episodes.

But yes, the moon suddenly reappearing in between shots, perfectly fine and identical to before, was very silly

mr_roboto 2 hours ago | parent

They went ultra woke and it tanked exactly as you'd expect.

voidUpdate 2 hours ago | parent

Doctor Who has been "woke" for a long time. I believe the 4th doctor discuss what pronouns to use for an alien. There have been several episodes essentially about slavery in the 10th and 11th doctors runs. Also you should read about The Happiness Patrol, a 7th doctor episode

philipallstar 2 hours ago | parent

> I believe the 4th doctor discuss what pronouns to use for an alien.

You believe it because you've memorised it for such a time as this, but it is not the same as woke "black is white if it feels it is" style feelings.

> There have been several episodes essentially about slavery in the 10th and 11th doctors runs

Being anti-slavery isn't woke. Thinking that changing the name of a git branch from "master" to "main" fights slavery is woke.

voidUpdate 2 hours ago | parent

Could you please define what you think "woke" means then? Because I'm working off the definition of "being aware of and attentive to social and political injustices, especially regarding race, gender, and inequality"

philipallstar 2 hours ago | parent

I think you have to be completely in another universe to think that's all anyone means by that. Are you really so delusional about your own superiority that you think "anti-woke" just means anti those things? It's 2026 and there has been almost 10 years of woke excess. I don't think me explaining is going to do anything for you or to knock you off your high horse.

voidUpdate 2 hours ago | parent

That's why I'm asking you what your definition of woke is, so that I can understand what it is about new doctor who that you don't like

LoganDark 28 minutes ago | parent

Not the one you replied to, but to me my definition of woke is using those things as a marketing tactic. Being aware of pronouns, race, slavery, etc. is not woke, but bringing attention to them for attention or marketing purposes can be woke. Renaming "master" to "main" was a perfect example IMO, I always protested against that. Shit like saying Hermione is black would also be woke (and also tokenism and offensive in general).

rcxdude 1 hour ago | parent

That's pretty much the definition that the term started with (arguably it was a bit more general in some sense: just along the lines of 'politically aware and engaged'). It seems to have morphed, but I find that when it's used pejoratively there's not one fixed definition beyond 'I don't like it'.

philipallstar 20 minutes ago | parent

> That's pretty much the definition that the term started with

No, it started as being aware of issues black Americans were facing. Then it got co-opted and contorted by the far left in America into all sorts of crazy issues.

jimbokun 1 hour ago | parent

What is the word for when those are the ONLY things you can see in the world, to the exclusion of any other factors?

krapp 19 minutes ago | parent

"strawman"

jordanb 2 hours ago | parent

More like "go woke because you've run out of ideas." The only "woke" thing about Whittaker was that the doctor was female, something they would have done in earlier episodes (in fact, did do) and wouldn't have made a big deal about it.

But they had no reason for people to watch Who by the time you got to Whittaker, and the show should have been cancelled already but it was making too much money, so they treated her like a Cousin Oliver and made the fact that she was the First Female Doctor (not even true) into a huge thing because they had nothing else.

voidUpdate 2 hours ago | parent

I think the episode written by Malorie Blackman about some random time criminal appearing during MLK and Rosa Parks' protests would fall under "woke" too, but that was just a shit episode because of bad writing. A competent episode writer could probably have done something better with that time period/setting

philipallstar 1 hour ago | parent

Probably the fact that in one episode[0] the Doctor's incarnations were actually mostly women except for the most recent few - who obscured this important fact - smelled a lot like "yet another man taking credit for a woman's work".

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Timeless_Children

jimbokun 1 hour ago | parent

I wasn’t aware of those episodes but from that description sounds like people writing the show who despise the character and the audience.

philipallstar 18 minutes ago | parent

That is a key trait needed to be hired as a writer into all sorts of successful shows in the last 15 years.

nilamo 56 minutes ago | parent

idk, Who, Trek, Star Wars have been woke since the 60s. At this point, it seems more likely that you've changed woke to mean "anything I don't like". Or you watch too much Fox

afavour 20 minutes ago | parent

Staggers me when I see viewpoints like this about Who, Trek and the like. Take a second to consider, maybe it isn't the show's outlook that changed, it's you?

Who has always been progressive. Trek, too. If you were your current age in the 60s I bet you'd be railing against Kirk kissing Uhura.

jordanb 2 hours ago | parent

Maybe Capaldi ended on a high note. I was done with the show after the moon episode and quit watching. I couldn't keep suspending disbelief after that. It wasn't just one bad episode the whole thing felt tired.

Capaldi was a great actor and it was nice that he got some good scripts (I really liked the one where he was in Doctor Prison, great concept), but his run felt to me like a show running out of ideas.

I didn't watch the Whittaker doctor. Heard it was awful and wasn't surprised. I eventually saw the pilot and it was indeed, awful.

voidUpdate 2 hours ago | parent

Back when it was airing, I sort of lost interest around Capaldi. I think his episodes were a bit too "mature" for me, when I preferred funny scifi show. But I've come to appreciate a lot of his episodes more. But he did have some really dogshit ones, like the moon episode, The Caretaker (Where a school gets attacked by a dalek knockoff), and Sleep No More, which was so bad that me and my girlfriend spent the whole episode talking about other stuff when having a marathon rewatch. Both of us are big fans of doctor who in general

afavour 22 minutes ago | parent

I think it just needs fresh blood.

Much like the show in the latter years of its first run it collapsed under the weight of its own canon, and writers/showrunners that enthusiastically embraced that canon and alienated the casual audience.

IMO they should never have brought back the Time Lords. That was the genius stroke of the 2005 reboot. Just make the Doctor an intergalactic oddball, let the adventures run from there. What's weird is that Russell Davies was the one who understood this... then when he came back to the show he shoveled nostalgia on top of nostalgia and sank the thing.

I never even watched the Chibnall era so I'm not fully informed but from reading about the Timeless Child arc it just sounds like a show disappearing up its own arse. It's supposed to be a family show, younger kids don't care about that kind of stuff. Just make it fun.

Wowfunhappy 3 minutes ago | parent

The Chibnall episodes sucked but then Russel T David came back as showrunner. If you haven't seen the first three episodes he did, with David Tennant returning as the doctor, you're missing out.

I liked the regular season that followed too, it had good and bad episodes just like the last time RTD was showrunner.

sien 3 hours ago | parent

The wikipedia entry is well worth a read for anyone interested in this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shada_(Doctor_Who)

The tie in between Shada and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective agency is worth noting.

metalman 3 hours ago | parent

I recoverd a 3/4” studio broadcast VCR/P that when checked, contains a tape that says Doctor Who. I also at once recovered a wire recorder, with a wire spool inside, and another time wax cylinder recorder, with cylinders. All sitting there as minor mysteries. ;)

spiralpolitik 1 hour ago | parent

There have also been a couple of audio versions over the years (one with Paul McGann).

There was also a partial BBC attempt in late 80s/90s that was released on VHS with Tom Baker narrating the missing scenes.

nosrednAhsoJ 1 hour ago | parent

The book is good, at least...

hedora 36 minutes ago | parent

I recently discovered his text adventure bureaucracy.