Round 1 Strangers: Doctor Who (original) (raw)

[	Tags	|	doctor who, round 1	]
[	mood	|	pleased	]

We will be posting the last two Round 1 synopses today. Be on the lookout for Hercules later today!

Doctor Who

Vids Used

"The Black Parade" by Calapine (unlicensed_timetravel@yahoo.co.uk)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvb8UCkyo5w
recommended by elflore

"The Lonely People" by laurashapiro (laurasha@laurasha.com)
http://laurashapiro.livejournal.com/185101.html
recommended by aycheb and jarrow

"Exile" by wolfling (wolfling@livejournal.com)
http://www.fwolfling.com/vids/
recommended by sdwolfpup

Grokker Synopsis

Abbreviations used:
BPC = "The Black Parade" by Calapine
LPLS = "The Lonely People" by Laura Shapiro
EW = "Exile" by wolfling

Doctor Who is a long-running British science-fiction television show about an alien known only as "the Doctor" who picks up various assistants/companions, usually human, to travel with him (across the universe and through time) in a spaceship disguised as a police call box. Together, they fight crime get chained up a lot, run away from monsters and twist their ankles, scream, reverse the polarity of the neutron capacitors in order to stabilize the vortex manipulatron, defend the United Kingdom Earth from invasion by arrogant pepperpots, crack jokes in the face of mortal peril, and swan about in fabulous scarves and hats.

The Doctor has been played by ten different actors over the years. Well, more-- but only ten are canonical. (Don't. Ask.) The cast changovers are explained within the story as a special ability that the Doctor's people, the Time Lords, have. When fatally injured or exhausted badly enough, the Doctor regenerates and becomes a new man. Fans refer to the different versions of him by number.

The long, long hiatus between Eight (Paul McGann) and Nine (Christopher Eccleston) is the dividing line between classic and new Who canon.

BPC, which uses both classic and new Who for source, opens with the "death" of Three (Jon Pertwee), with his assistant, journalist Sarah Jane Smith (Elizabeth Sladen), at his side. This shot is followed by close-ups of later Doctors, and then we see our first shot of the TARDIS (the Doctor's ship) flying through the time vortex. Pretty much the rest of the vid consists of a montage of Doctors and companions. Some villains do appear, too, particularly the Doctor's impressively mustachioed Time Lord nemesis, the Master, who is featured in the "nonbelievers" section of the song. The line "when I was a young boy" ends (0:35-0:36) with a shot of One (William Hartnell), who was ironically the oldest-looking of the Doctors. This vid doesn't spoil a lot of plot points, actually, but it does introduce you to... more major characters than I can keep track of. *facepalm* (Hey, this series has a *lot* of canon.)

LPLS, by contrast, focuses on new Who, with major plot points. New Who represents something of a reboot of the series, differing sharply from classic Who in ways we shall not elaborate on here.

LPLS begins with Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), a 19 year-old London shopgirl who gets whisked away from her mundane life for adventures in time travel with Nine. Their lifestyle of fun, danger, and saving the universe comes at a cost; Rose's mother and boyfriend miss her terribly, and a lot of minor characters get killed off. When a particularly grim crisis looms, the Doctor tries to get Rose out of harm's way, but she can't bring herself to accept a sheltered life. Now that she knows what's out there, she has to take a stand for what's important-- and she does. Unfortunately, she can't save the Doctor, and he regenerates into Ten (David Tennant). They resume their heroic adventures, but are ultimately separated by a distance that even the TARDIS can't cross.

EW is obviously about the personal cost that the Doctor pays for his itinerant and lengthy life-- the instability, the many friends he's left behind-- but the most important thing you need to know for the purpose of watching this vid is that at some point shortly before new Who, the "last great Time War" led to the destruction of the Doctor's home planet, along with all of the Time Lords. As you might imagine, the Doctor now suffers from a serious case of survivor's guilt. 1:12-1:23 introduces and rapidly "kills off" both of Nine's companions, the aforementioned Rose and the ex-military Jack Harkness (John Barrowman). 1:45-2:07 refers to that one time Rose created a paradox and nearly killed everyone. 2:07-2:35 refers to how Nine and Rose rescued Jack from certain death and brought him aboard the TARDIS for the first time. 2:35-2:42 is about the Bad Wolf mystery that's been chasing Nine.

(Notice how I had too much self-control to throw in a gratuitous menion of Jack's canonical crush on the Doctor and their smooch at 2:18? ...Oops.)

Stranger Synopses

Stranger 1

All I knew about this fandom was:

There had been several different incarnations of the show, resulting in many actors playing the same characters.

Here's what this fandom is really about:

When Holly Davis and Kiefer Jameson discovered a magic telephone box, they thought all of their problems were over. With the box they can travel to any time or place they want, and become any person they want. In an instant, their dull boring lives where over and they could always look forward to the next morning. It all seemed so harmless. Little did they know that the box was given to them by an army of evil R2D2 units under the control of the evil Dr. Claw, in order to lure them into the practice of dark time magic Each time they used the box to roleplay someone else’s life, in the past or the future, they became a little less stable and they became imbued with the magic of the telephone box.

They often wondered why all of their close friends died in freak accidents, but they never thought that their use of the magic box had anything to do with it. Their remaining acquaintances figured it out, and soon Holly and Kiefer had no friends at all. That’s when Dr. Claw struck. One morning at mass, Holly and Kiefer were attacked by a flying dragon, designed to set off the unstable magics inside them. After demolishing the church, the dragon vanished… and so did Holly and Kiefer.

They woke up inside a strange lab filled with tables, which seemed to hold the bodies of human beings connected to wires and tubes. They also woke up completely crazy, but that didn’t bother them. Unaware that Dr. Claw was orchestrating their every move, they mobilized the army of R2D2 units and attacked earth.

All hope seemed lost, until Holly somehow managed to regain control of herself. She used her powers to immolate herself after kissing Kiefer goodbye, destroying the robot army and Dr. Claw, and saving earth. Kiefer wandered the earth alone for the rest of his life, searching for Holly.

Stranger 2

All I knew about this fandom was:

I've seen one whole episode of this show, flipped by it occasionally, and gathered various bits from friends. There's a time-traveling 'Doctor,' and this fellow changes from time to time (though I'm not sure if this is a new character or just a different actor). I know there's a striped scarf, at least sometimes. The time travel occurs in a phone booth, and there was a murderous robot in the episode that I saw. Other than that, I'm clueless. And none of that information seems very helpful anyway!

Here's what this fandom is really about:

As the latest in a long series of time-traveling adventurers, each Doctor Who is fated to lead a lonely life. The Doctor has no home - no place to seek sanctuary, and few companions to share his experiences. He is destined to move from one point to the next in his phone booth and let fate send him through time and space to the next situation that needs his help.

But Doctor Who gets around! Women can't get enough of the Doctor, no matter the time or place (or atrocious fashions). Each Doctor may be a loner, but he always ends up surrounded by beautiful women - the sort of women that will throw themselves into his arms in a moment of triumph or despair. Eventually, he must pull himself from this brief comfort, and step back into his booth for the next destination.

Each stop is an adventure, with robots and monsters and all-too-human villains who are wreaking havoc on that particular world. The Doctor knows that his time is limited before another Doctor replaces him, and he must do what he can - touch all of the lives that he can, and find comfort in the salvation that he has offered to so many.

The last Doctor had particularly touched one life, that of a young woman named Rose. He became attached to Rose and her friends, which was a risky choice that endangered Rose, the Doctor, and his duties. But he could not tear himself from her side, even if it tore them apart. When the newest Doctor replaced him, Rose was still there. Will their affections pass the test of time and space?

Stranger 3

All I knew about this fandom was:

There's a...doctor? No, kidding, I know a teeny amount about this one, all through fandom rantings and pissy cut-tags. According to fandom, this show is all about a girl named Rose, and whoever she's banging. Sometimes, she's banging the doctor. Most people want to be banging the doctor. Now, it's looking like she won't be banging anyone, because some bitch named Martha is banging the doctor. Unless you don't think Martha's a bitch. And if you do think she's a bitch, you're a bitch. Or a racist. And sometimes there's a Tardis, and sadly, a history of dating geeks means I know BOTH VERSIONS of what that stands for. (Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space.) And one time on the show Coupling, Steve name-checked Daleks, and someone on LJ has a "Daleks of Procrastination!" icon. Daleks look like salt shakers and are tied with the original Centurion soldiers from Battlestar Galactica as the least-scary villains in sci-fi/fantasy television. Oh! And the reason that one dude's scarf was so long is because they gave some costuming assistant a giant bag of yarn and said, "knit a scarf" and she thought they meant she had to use all of the yarn they'd given her. Again, nerd-boyfriends.

Here's what this fandom is really about:

As suspected, this fandom is all about some blond Fairuza Balk look-alike (who I assume is Rose), and her quest for a decent boyfriend. It actually kind of reminds me of that Tom Robbins novel, Still Life With Woodpecker, about a princess who falls in love with an arsonist. But instead of sort of mellowing each other out, Rose is like, "Fuck yeah, let's keep blowing up buildings, and also possibly destroying the lives of my loved ones, who are mostly acclaimed British actors!" And so things are good for a while, but then eventually, Rose starts wanting a little variety, and maybe starts craving experience with more intense sex toys (Daleks). So her boyfriend is like, "Screw that! I'm going to become a WHOLE NEW DUDE FOR YOU!" And it's glorious! The two of them hold hands and blow shit up, and spend lots of time tossing their heads back and laughing and laughing. They also seem to have picked up the drag queen from Kinky Boots, which is pretty cool. However, once she'd had some robot lovin', Rose apparently could not. turn. away. and so she dumped her human boyfriend and ditched all her flesh-friends and just stood around with the Daleks all the time, grooving on how they looked so much like giant condiment dispensers. Her friends tried to stage an intervention, and her boyfriend was even all, "Fuck you, I'll make myself PART-MACHINE. I CAN SPIT FIRE. I CAN SPIT FIRE." but that didn't really work, either? And so in the end, he had to just console himself with his Tardis and whoever the sassy boy in the white tank-top was (I know straight dudes, and that was no straight-dude "I'm sorry your girlfriend dumped you for a crappy villain machine thing" kind of kiss. Just sayin'). I still, in all honesty, do not understand who the hell has a medical degree on this show...is the title sarcastic? Like, "Doctor *who*, asshole?"

Stranger 4

All I knew about this fandom was:

There's a Doctor, who lives in a phone booth and wears a scarf. There are Daleks which are robots that say "EXTERMINATE", and there's something called a TARDIS that time-travels. There is also someone named Rose who everyone in fandom hates.

Here's what this fandom is really about:

After watching "The Black Parade" by Calapine the first time, I was totally confused. There are more characters in this vid, and by extension in this fandom, than there are in all of my fandoms combined. But after watching it again, I realized what they all have in common: cheese.

No, not cheese like the food. Cheese like, this is the cheesiest show ever. Okay, the Doctor travels in time and maybe in space. He travels to Planet of the Cheesy Hairstyles. He travels to Planet of the Cheesy Outfits. There is a stop at Planet of the Cheesy Dancing Around Looking Weird, and one at Planet of the Cheesy Epic Swordfighting Between Good and Evil. And most importantly, judging from the other two videos, he travels to Planet of the Cheesy Sci-Fi Special Effects.

The second video I watched, "The Lonely People" by Laura Shapiro, showed a cute blond girl who works at a shopping mall until an odd-looking guy, who must be the Doctor, rescues her from her hum-drum existence and takes her away from all this. Unfortunately, he takes her to the Planet of the Cheesy Sci-Fi Special Effects, where, according to the third video, "Exile" by Wolfling, they are doomed to spend the rest of their
lives. Alas!

I did think that robot dog thing was cute. (But cheesy!)

Stranger 5

All I knew about this fandom was:

(Did not specify.)

Here's what this fandom is really about:

Dr Who spans over, it looks like, decades. There are several people who fly about in a police call box for some unknown reason. They travel to different dimensions and times going through what looks like worm holes. There is always a woman with them whether that be for purely aesthetic reasons or for a balance issue in the magic they travel by, I'm unsure. The doctor in Dr. Who must be a changeable figure. It seems that over time it changes pretty frequently. They are constantly running away from motorized bumpy garbage cans on wheels. Why are they afraid of the bumpy garbage cans?

It seems like most of the focus is on one particular blonde girl and Christopher Eccleston. It looks like she worked a regular day job until she meets him. She's got a boyfriend and a mother but it looks like no father in the picture. She meets our good friend Chris and then starts to travel with him. She leaves her mother and boyfriend behind to do battle with all manner of flying thingies... in churches? David Tennant comes on the scene. It seems like there's a romance between the two of them.

Then blonde girl is eventually ejected from the world she's come to travel in for reasons unknown.

Also, the only pet these people are allowed to keep is a boxy motorized dog. Why don't the dog and the bumpy garbage cans get more technologically advanced over time? Why is blonde girl so popular? Why does the dude get to kiss Christopher? Is he gay in this show? Do I need to start watching this show now?

Stranger 6

All I knew about this fandom was:

It's British, I keep meaning to watch it, it has something to do with time travel and the doctor has a number. There's GAY. It's a scifi classic that keeps reinventing and coming back.

Here's what this fandom is really about:

There's a doctor. Um, yeah. And there's always a different doctor, and there's always a girl. That's the first thing. Wow, there are a lot of doctors. And the girl seems necessary…she's called a Companion, right? I think maybe she helps somehow. And they are British, obviously. And there's reincarnation of sorts, because the doctor changes. There is both time travel AND aliens, and the time travel happens with the use of a very British looking phone booth. The doctor, whichever one it is at the time, has some kind of special powers and is trying to do something by traveling in the phone booth. The Companion doesn't choose her lot in life – it seems to just find HER, somehow, and she doesn't have many options, but it's kind of a cool job. Overall, it's kind of hard out there for a doctor. They get to do cool stuff, like time travel and hanging out with aliens and having a secret lair of sorts inside of a "police box" (whatever the hell that is), but they're also fundamentally alone. They also get kissed by VERY cute boys, which is never bad, though. And cute girls! Yay! Oh. And there are wormholes, like Stargate. Hee. Basically, for some reason, the doctor is a guy who has the ability to shoot energy out of his hands and eyes, travel through time, meet aliens, kiss boys AND girls, and have existential dilemmas. And the show has been on since the beginning of time, but it looks MUCH cooler now.