#CTV Sci-Fi Channel
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zonetrente-trois · 1 year ago
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Megan Donovan (Tennille Read) and the new owner of the Donovan House William Larson (Charlie Tomlinson)
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spockvarietyhour · 2 years ago
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anotheruserwithnoname · 7 months ago
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This is great. This was from what used to be called Space Channel here in Canada (it's now CTV Sci-Fi). And what makes this even funnier is it's gotten WORSE (well, for Trek-haters) as Space/Sci-Fi is one of the only places on the planet that also airs the nuTrek series (Discovery, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Prodigy) that otherwise stream in the rest of the word. And this week in particular not only are they airing the "original 5", but the new season of Discovery AND they're replaying Lower Decks. I think the only Trek that to date has never aired on CTV Sci-Fi is the 1970s animated series!
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laresearchette · 1 year ago
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Thursday, June 15, 2023 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)
WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: LOOK INTO MY EYES (Sundance Now) TRUE CRIME STORY: LOOK INTO MY EYES (Sundance Now) THE VILLAINS OF VALLEY VIEW (Disney Channel Canada) 8:00pm PROJECT RUNWAY (CTV Drama) 8:00pm/ (CTV Life) 9:00pm STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS (CTV Sci-Fi) 9:00pm PRETTY FREEKIN SCARY (Disney Channel Canada) 9:00pm 60 DAYS IN (A&E Canada) 9:00pm BOOKED: FIRST DAY IN (A&E Canada) 10:00pm OUTCHEF’D (Food Network Canada) 10:00pm
WHAT IS NOT PREMIERING IN CANADA TONIGHT: DRAGONS: THE NINE REALMS (TBD - YTV) POCKET DIAL MURDER (TBD - Lifetime Canada)
NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:
AMAZON PRIME CANADA THE GREAT INDIAN FAMILY HOTEL DAZE (Season 4) KUMARI SHRIMATI (Season 1) LOVE TRANSIT (Season 1) NEIGHBOURS (Season 20, Part 2)
CRAVE TV STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS (Season 2, Episode 1)
NETFLIX CANADA BLACK MIRROR (Season 6) DIRTY GRANDPA L.A. CONFIDENTIAL LIFE OF SOMETHING LIKE IT
2023 US OPEN (TSN3/TSN4) 9:40am: First Round - Part I (TSN3/TSN4) 1:00pm: First Round - Part II (TSN3/TSN4) 8:00pm: First Round - Part III
MLB BASEBALL (SN) 1:00pm: Jays vs. Orioles (SN1) 3:30pm: Rays vs. A’s (SN) 7:00pm: Rockies vs. Atlanta (SN Now) 8:00pm: Pirates vs. Cubs (TSN2) 8:30pm: Guardians vs. Padres (SN/SN Now) 10:00pm: White Sox vs. Dodgers
CFL FOOTBALL (TSN/TSN5) 7:30pm: Stamps vs. Redblacks
FUNNY WOMAN (W Network) 9:00pm: After accepting the marriage proposal, doubts begin to germinate in Barbara's mind.
SUPERMARKET STAKEOUT (Food Network Canada) 9:00pm (SEASON PREMIERE): The competing chefs search for the right ingredients to make fries; the chefs put their best fruit forward as Alex Guarnaschelli asks them to make a fruit-centric dish.
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yeonchi · 2 years ago
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Doctor Who 10 for 10 Part 6/10: Series 6
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We’re halfway through this series now, something I never thought I’d see this time last year. Series 6 of Doctor Who saw the series reaching new heights as it became more popular around the world, however it also saw the start of a misstep that led to the series not being broadcast at the same time each year, snowballing to the point where by the end of Chibnall era, we didn’t really know what was going on or have a clear timeframe when the next series would begin.
The misstep I’m talking about is the decision to split the series in two, with the first seven episodes premiering in April 2011 and the last six episodes premiering in August 2011. Admittedly, the wait wasn’t that egregious given both halves were only broadcast two months apart (but what would I know, I’d only just started following the series), but the split in Series 7 would be even more egregious. Anyway, let’s just jump into the retrospective for Series 6.
1. The international appeal
Series 6 saw a renaissance of popularity for Doctor Who in the US with episodes being broadcast on BBC America on the same day as the UK, something that the ABC in Australia wouldn’t see until Series 7 (albeit online at first). BBC America didn’t begin having the rights to the revived series until 2006 alongside a number of PBS stations, which broadcast the series at different times. It was only in 2010 that BBC America finally began to do a fast-tracked broadcast with the Christmas Special, A Christmas Carol.
In an effort to make the series accessible to newer audiences, broadcasts of Series 6 in the US would have a short narration from Karen Gillan as Amy before the opening titles, featuring a montage of footage from Series 5 episodes. This narration would appear in Australian broadcasts as well, among other countries. Although diehard fans didn’t like it because it was stating the obvious, Moffat made it clear that he was asked to write the narration for international broadcast, stating that even RTD loved it as well. I didn’t really mind the narration myself, plus I can see how that combined with the opening titles makes the series seem more like a US show.
A main complaint of the BBC America broadcasts (and also the Canadian broadcasts on CBC and Space, now the CTV Sci-Fi Channel) was the commercial breaks due to them not being public television channels (et tu, CBC), which was why American (and Canadian) fans rejoiced when the RTD2 era was announced to be exclusive to Disney+, not knowing that Australians would no longer be able to watch the same era for free. Is this a small price for Australians to pay for the convenience of the rest of the world? I would say no because there’s no reason why the series should become streaming-exclusive everywhere else when BBC One would still be airing it in the UK.
2. Doctor Who Experience
Doctor Who has had exhibitions in the UK over the years, but 2011 saw the opening of the Doctor Who Experience, the only dedicated semi-permanent exhibition (to date) which has been publicised by the BBC. The Doctor Who Experience initially opened at London Olympia in February 2012 before it closed a year later. It was then moved to Porth Teigr in Cardiff in July 2012 for a 5-year lease before it closed in September 2017.
The Doctor Who Experience had an interactive adventure portion before two floors of exhibitions. Matt Smith contributed to the narrations as the Eleventh Doctor before Peter Capaldi took over the narrations as the Twelfth Doctor from 2014. The exhibitions contained a large number of props that the BBC had in storage, with new props being made available as each series finished broadcast.
It’s such a shame that something like this wasn’t done in the Chibnall era, not that it would have helped it significantly. In Year 10 of high school, I remember talking with a couple of my friends about a potential Schoolies trip where one of the stops would be the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff, but we didn’t have the money nor the willpower to make it happen, plus one of my friends moved schools and we grew distant, to say the least.
3. Death of the Doctor
In October 2010, the Doctor appeared in the SJA episode Death of the Doctor, reuniting with Jo Jones and Sarah Jane Smith, but that’s not what this is about. Elizabeth Sladen died a few days before Series 6 premiered, hence the series premiere was dedicated to her.
While Amy and Rory are watching the Doctor waving at them throughout history, they receive a TARDIS blue envelope with an invitation inside containing a date, time and coordinates. River also receives the same envelope from her cell in Stormcage. The three of them meet the Doctor in Utah on 22 April 2011 and they take him to Lake Silencio, where they have a picnic before the Doctor intended to take them on a trip to space 1969. When an astronaut emerged from the water at 5:02 PM, the Doctor went to it and it killed him by shooting him, then shooting him again before he was able to regenerate. An old man named Canton Everett Delaware III provided Amy, Rory and River with some petrol to burn the Doctor’s body before telling them that they would see him again. River noticed that Canton had a TARDIS blue envelope numbered 4 and wondered who had the envelope numbered 1.
At a diner, Amy, Rory and River discovered that that person was in fact a younger version of the Doctor, who was inexplicably alive, and told him that they were recruited for a mission in space 1969. The Doctor was initially reluctant to go to 1969, but Amy managed to convince him to go. Sneaking into the Oval Office, the Doctor was eventually caught by the younger Canton and President Nixon, who were listening to a recording of a call that a little girl made to the latter. Canton joins the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River as they head to Florida to find the little girl. During this, they encounter creatures that they forget once they look away from them.
Following an accident in a warehouse involving the little girl in an astronaut suit, the Doctor and the others investigated the Silence for the next three months, even staging a nationwide search of Amy, Rory and River by Canton and the FBI while the Doctor was being held prisoner in Area 51. Once they were all sealed in a cell of dwarf star alloy, the Doctor, Amy, Rory and Canton escape in the TARDIS, find River and summarise their findings. The Silence had been on Earth since the beginning of humanity, manipulating its development down to the Moon landing because they needed a spacesuit.
When Amy was kidnapped by the Silence while trying to track down the little girl, Canton managed to take a video of a Silent telling him that they should kill his kind on sight. The Doctor had him splice that footage to Apollo 11 just as Neil Armstrong was taking his first steps on the Moon, ordering the execution of the Silence for generations to come. The Silence were defeated and the Doctor and the others left.
The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon is the first two-parter to open a series. It continues the “Silence will fall” story arc of the last series and ups the stakes by putting the Doctor in a situation that his past self needs to get around. The story was filmed in Utah in a co-production with BBC America to capitalise on the growing popularity of the series’ revival in the US.
4. Prequelmania
Series 6 began a Moffat era tradition of “prequels”, which are short clips made for certain episodes that should really be considered prologues to them. They were released online on the BBC Doctor Who website (with some on YouTube) and later released on streaming services and home media. Other shorts not related to those episodes were also released and are known as mini-episodes, or minisodes. This is another tradition of the Moffat era that was sadly reduced or cut during the Chibnall era.
The shorts provide good bonus content for the series, so I’m not complaining. The only thing I would have preferred is if the preludes/minisodes relating to The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, The Magician’s Apprentice and The Pilot were actually integrated into their respective episodes.
5. The mystery of River Song revealed
As part of the decision to split Series 6 into two, there would be a mid-series finale and premiere. Apparently this was on the request of Steven Moffat to allow for this series’ story arcs, though there is speculation as to whether this was done to avoid ratings slumps both midway into the series and coming into the summer months. Mind you, based on what the ratings would show, it didn’t really work and ratings slumps would continue to show whether the production team liked it or not. According to Steven Moffat, he considered this split as “two separate series” and considering what we would see the next year in Series 7, I agree with his observation.
The Doctor first suspected something was wrong with Amy after she told him that she was pregnant then later denied it. He secretly ran a scan on Amy and became disturbed to find that she was both pregnant and not pregnant. Later, after an encounter with Flesh Gangers that was not entirely unplanned, the Doctor managed to cut off their signal to Amy, who had been held in Demon’s Run all this time, overseen by Madame Kovarian, and was about to give birth upon awakening.
Over the next month, the Doctor assembled an army to rescue Amy and scare whoever kidnapped her. His army included a Silurian, Madame Vastra; her human maid, Jenny Flint; a Sontaran, Strax; Henry Avery and the crew of the Fancy from The Curse of the Black Spot; “Danny Boy” and two more Spitfires from Victory of the Daleks; Dorium Maldovar and armies of Silurians and Judoon. Rory attempted to recruit River, but she told him that she couldn’t be there until the very end. Production-wise, Moffat wanted to include Jack Harkness as well and have him be beheaded by the Headless Monks so that he would become the Face of Boe, but John Barrowman was filming Torchwood: Miracle Day so he was not available, and thus the theory remains unconfirmed.
As Colonel Manton speaks to the Church Clerics and Headless Monks about the Doctor, the Doctor reveals himself disguised as one of the Monks as his army appear on Demon’s Run. In the course of 3 minutes and 42 seconds, the Doctor and his army managed to subdue the soldiers and capture both Colonel Manton and Madame Kovarian. After the Doctor told Manton to order his troops to run away, thereby claiming Demon’s Run without a drop of blood spilled, the Doctor learns from Vastra and Dorium hacking into Kovarian’s files that Amy and Rory’s child, Melody Pond, is actually part-Time Lord, eventually leading him to realise that she was the little girl he was looking for back in 1969 America. Kovarian reveals that she managed to fool the Doctor twice as Melody is also revealed to have been a Flesh Ganger, the real one having been with Kovarian for some time. River then arrives on Demon’s Run and revealed to the Doctor, Amy and Rory that she was, in fact, Melody, which led the Doctor to set out in search for her.
After waiting through summer, Amy and Rory caught the attention of the Doctor in the hope that he would have news about Melody, but the Doctor was unsuccessful in finding her. Their friend Mels appeared, having followed Amy and Rory, and demanded a ride in the TARDIS, suggesting that they head to World War II to kill Adolf Hitler. Following an incident in which Mels shoots the time rotor of the TARDIS, the TARDIS crashes into Hitler’s office in 1938 Berlin, knocking over a humanoid ship named the Teselecta. The occupants leave the smoking TARDIS before they realise who they just saved. The Teselecta gets up and Hitler shoots at it, but Mels gets hit by a bullet in the confusion, resulting in her regenerating into her River Song incarnation; the last time she regenerated was in New York in 1970.
Following her regeneration, River, who thought that name was stupid at the time, tries to kill the Doctor, only to have her attempts foiled by him. She eventually succeeds in doing so when she briefly pecks the Doctor on the lips, causing him to be poisoned. In the ensuing 32 minutes (or so) before the Doctor dies, River goes to the Hotel Adlon and robs the diners of their clothes while Amy and Rory are captured by the Teselecta. The Teselecta attempts to execute justice on River when the Doctor shows up. Through the Teselecta, the Doctor learns that the group who wants him dead is the Silence, who believe that silence will fall when the question is asked. As the Doctor continues to die, the Teselecta executes justice on River again, but Amy manages to turn the ship’s antibodies against its crew, forcing them to evacuate. River manages to use the TARDIS to rescue Amy and Rory before they are taken back to the Doctor. After whispering something into River’s ear, the Doctor dies. River asks who River Song is and Amy has the Teselecta show her form, which leads River to use up all her regenerations to resurrect the Doctor (but it doesn’t give them to him, which is something more relevant for the next series). River is left in a hospital with a blank diary to document her encounters with the Doctor before she is seen enrolling into Luna University in 5123, studying a degree in archaeology.
A Good Man Goes To War and Let’s Kill Hitler fully reveals the mystery behind River Song and adds some more context for the Doctor’s impending death as a fixed point in time. Admittedly, this is something that the Timeless Child revelation years later ruins because it misses the point of the Time Lords already being above humanity.
6. Bottle episodes and moved episodes
It’s no surprise that each series of Doctor Who is filmed out-of-order to accommodate schedules and locations and things, but there were times when the showrunner had to swap episodes for various reasons. During Series 4, RTD swapped the airing order for The Fires of Pompeii and Planet of the Ood because the latter was a darker episode, then swapped Midnight from episode 8 to episode 10 after Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead because Turn Left came after and Phil Collinson didn’t want two Donna Noble parallel world stories airing next to each other. As such, this meant that Silence in the Library would become the 50th episode of the revived series instead of Midnight, though Midnight was still the 50th episode to be filmed.
In Series 6, Night Terrors was originally filmed as the fourth episode before Moffat moved it to Part 2 due to it being “too dark”. It was swapped with The Curse of the Black Spot, which was then swapped with The Doctor’s Wife (a holdover from Series 5) to be the third and fourth episodes respectively. Production codes for future episodes would no longer be released after this series so we wouldn’t know what episodes ended up being swapped for editing.
Following Night Terrors, there were a number of bottle episodes made to fill up the time before the series finale. Interestingly, both episodes are companion-focused pieces revolving around the plot point of Amy waiting for the Doctor to come back when she was seven years old.
The Girl Who Waited has Amy trapped in the Two Streams Facility when she enters the wrong time stream and Rory has to go in to find her without the Doctor because he would be infected with Chen-7 and die in a day. Rory manages to find Amy, but it has been 36 years for her, leading her to develop a resentment for the Doctor. The Doctor attempts to put things right by saving Amy’s past self when she just came into the facility, but Amy refuses because it would mean that she would cease to exist. Eventually, the older Amy relents and allows the Doctor to save her past self, but when Rory and the younger Amy get to the TARDIS, the Doctor locks the older Amy out, telling Rory that there can never be two Amys because the paradox would be too massive. The older Amy eventually told Rory not to let her in, sacrificing herself so her younger self can live the days she never did.
The God Complex is set in a hotel where its victims are shown rooms of their fears, which led them to “praise him” and be eaten by an alien Minotaur. After initially noting that the Minotaur fed on people’s fears, the Doctor realised that it was actually feeding on faith because by having people confront their most primal fear, they fall back to their most fundamental faith, and by telling them to find the thing that keeps them brave, the Doctor effectively led them to their deaths. When Amy suddenly begins to “praise him”, the Doctor and others hide in a room which turns out to be that of Amy’s fear that the Doctor wouldn’t come back for her when she was seven. Feeling guilty about this potentially leading to Amy dying, the Doctor tells her to forget her faith in him, deciding that they should see each other as they really are. By severing the Minotaur’s food supply, the hotel disintegrates and the Minotaur dies. Following this, the Doctor drops off Amy and Rory at their new home (not in Leadworth for some reason, and the timing of this in continuity is something I will follow up in the next instalment), deciding that this would be better for them instead of him standing over their graves.
7. The parallel Cyber-integration
During the RTD era, each series finale featured a villain that had escaped or survived the Time War. A similar but different tradition began in the Moffat era, where the twelfth episode of each series featured at least one Cyberman. This was reflected in Series 5’s The Pandorica Opens and it is reflected in Series 6’s Closing Time. The Cybermen used in these episodes reused the Cybusmen from the RTD era because they apparently lacked the budget to redesign them in Series 5 (according to Steven Moffat). By the filming of Closing Time, many of the Cybermen costumes were dilapidated, but fortunately it suited the script, allowing them to make one final appearance before being retired in favour of a redesign in the next series.
Closing Time is a double-banked companion-lite episode from Gareth Roberts that once again features Craig Owens in a continuation of The Lodger. Since the events of that episode, Craig and his partner, Sophie, moved house and had a baby, Alfie (who preferred to be called Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All). Meanwhile, after having dropped Amy and Rory off at their new home, the Doctor went on a 200-year farewell tour to avoid his fixed death at Lake Silencio. Near the end, the Doctor made a social call to Craig before deciding to visit the Alignment of Exodor, but he becomes too curious at the electrical fluctuations happening around Craig’s home.
The Doctor ends up going undercover at a department store to investigate the electrical fluctuations and the disappearances that have coincided with them. In doing so, he discovers the Cybermen have been taking people to their ship through a teleport relay. After the Doctor fused the teleport, he discovers a Cybermat, making their return from the classic era. He and Craig stay about after the store closed and follow the Cybermat in order to capture it. They hear the security guard being attacked and the Doctor heads down to the basement, but a Cyberman knocks him out. Heading back to Craig’s house, the Cybermat comes back to life and tries to attack the Doctor, but he knocks it out and escapes just as Craig returns from picking up milk. The Cybermat attacks Craig just as the Doctor is locked out without his sonic screwdriver, forcing him to smash through the window to save him, wiping the Cybermat’s brain.
The next morning, the Doctor takes the now-reprogrammed Cybermat back to the store to find out why the Cyberman appeared in the ship when he fused the teleport. Craig discovers this and heads there with Alfie, leaving him with another employee while he follows the Doctor. The Doctor discovers that the Cybermat came in through a door disguised as a wall behind a mirror. He heads in and discovers a crashed Cybership, which had been there for centuries until the council began laying cables. The Cybermen attempt to convert the Doctor into their CyberController, but he was not compatible; Craig, who had followed him, was, however, and the Cybermen took him and proceeded to convert him. As the Cybermen attempt to begin full conversion, Craig manages to hear the sound of Alfie crying, which allows him to break out as the Cybermen begin malfunctioning, destroying themselves and their ship with it as Craig and the Doctor teleport back up.
After this, the Doctor gave up his chance to see the Alignment of Exodor to repair the damage to Craig’s house. Taking some TARDIS blue envelopes from the fridge, the Doctor says goodbye to Craig, who gives him a Stetson as a parting gift. Just outside the TARDIS, he encounters three random kids and he tells them that he was here to help before leaving.
Closing Time is an amusing episode, but I think the real highlight was the random skits that Matt Smith and James Corden made late at night (or early in the morning) during the filming of the episode, which was aired on the Confidential for the episode. It was decided that the Daleks would be rested for this series, however a Paradigm Supreme Dalek appeared in the series finale for a cameo on the whim of Steven Moffat; it would be the last time that a Paradigm Dalek would be used prominently. And Terry Nation’s estate was sated once again and the Daleks would continue to appear for years to come, then the 2016 break happened and suddenly, I found myself changing my last sentence to say series to come.
8. The farewell tour ends
And so we come to the series finale. Following the events of Closing Time, Madame Kovarian finds River Song at Luna University, now a Doctor, and takes her to be placed in an astronaut suit under Lake Silencio. Meanwhile, the Doctor continues searching around to find out why the Silence want him to die. After defeating a Dalek to extract data from its core, the Doctor finds Father Gideon Vandaleur, who turns out to be a disguise for the Teselecta. Through Captain Carter, the Doctor is led to Gantok, who he manages to beat in live chess before he offers to take him to the beheaded Dorium in exchange for him conceding the game.
Dorium tells the Doctor why the Silence want him dead - “on the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the Eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely, or fail to answer, a question will be asked - a question that must never, ever be answered.” The Silence believe that silence must fall and that the Doctor must never reach Trenzalore. Dorium tells the Doctor what the question is, but we don’t hear it. In response, the Doctor takes Dorium to the TARDIS and attempts to run away, but when he attempts to call Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, he learns from his nursing home that he died, an allusion to his actor, Nicholas Courtney’s death in February 2011, two months before Series 6 premiered. The Doctor loses all hope and ends his farewell tour to go to his death, giving the TARDIS blue envelopes to the Teselecta to be sent to Amy, Rory, River and Canton in preparation for the events of The Impossible Astronaut.
The Doctor sits with his companions at Lake Silencio before he goes out to confront the past River in the astronaut suit. The Doctor reassures River that she is forgiven before he allows her to shoot him, but he doesn’t end up getting shot because River purposefully drained her weapon systems. By doing so, she rewrote a fixed point in time, causing time to begin collapsing as everything happened, stuck at 5:02 PM on 22 April 2011.
After spending some time locked in the Tower of London by Winston Churchill, the Doctor is taken by Amy to Cairo, with Rory under her command and River waiting for them with the captured Madame Kovarian. Presumably due to the crack in her bedroom wall, Amy was able to remember what happened in both timelines and River remembered as well due to being the opposite pole of the disruption. When the captured Silents begin breaking out of their confinement, the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River head up to the receptor room, where River had built a timey-wimey distress beacon to send out a distress call to all of time, much to the Doctor’s chagrin as he insists that nothing she does will work. As such, the Doctor decides to have a quick handfasting ceremony with River, marrying her while also apparently revealing his name to her. As the Doctor and River kiss, time begins to move again and the Doctor is killed at Lake Silencio.
Some time later, River, having just climbed out of the Byzantium from The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone, visits Amy, who was feeling guilty about killing Madame Kovarian, though River insists that it didn’t happen as it was an alternate timeline. It is then that River decides to reveal the Doctor’s final secret and the revelation that he isn’t dead elates Amy until she realises that she is his mother-in-law.
As Dorium’s head is returned to its pedestal, he learns that the Doctor didn’t die, having been the one to return Dorium’s head. When the Doctor gave the TARDIS blue envelopes to the Teselecta, Captain Carter asked if there was anything they could do, which gave him the idea to fake his death by having the Teselecta copy him while he hid within it. During the handfasting ceremony, the Doctor had River look into his eye, revealing himself within the Teselecta, which she had actually shot instead of the Doctor. Despite this, Dorium warns the Doctor that the First Question is still waiting for him, hidden in plain sight - “Doctor who? Doctor who? Doctor who?”
The Wedding of River Song is a one-parter finale instead of a two-parter finale like in previous series, wrapping up the story arcs of Series 5 and 6 while opening up another thread to be addressed in the Eleventh Doctor’s finale episodes. I suppose the Doctor surviving his death was predictable, particularly if you paid attention to Let’s Kill Hitler. Some people think this is the weakest finale of the Moffat era but I just thought it was alright. I mean, we all knew the Doctor would have to have survived somehow.
9. A different kind of Christmas
The 2011 Christmas Special, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, goes back to having a special guest companion instead of having the current companions, particularly given the Doctor’s parting with Amy and Rory near the end of Series 6. It’s the first Christmas Special to have a special guest companion in the middle of an existing companion’s run.
In the prelude, which should really have been included in the episode, the Doctor has his finger on a button that will blow up a ship if he lets go of it. The Doctor tries to get Amy to fly the TARDIS to him, but he forgets that she already left ages ago, so the Doctor ends up getting in a spaceship and falling to Earth while trying to get into a spacesuit. Upon landing, he is met by Madge Arwell, who helps the Doctor get to the TARDIS.
Three years later, Madge’s husband, Reg, goes missing at sea as a pilot in World War II. Due to the bombing, Madge and her children, Cyril and Lily, are sent to their uncle’s country estate. Acting on Madge’s wish, the Doctor goes to the estate and acts as their caretaker to make sure Cyril and Lily have the best Christmas ever. When Cyril opens the Doctor’s present before Christmas, he wanders through a portal into a planet with natural Christmas tree forests known as Androzani trees. As the forest was being melted down for fuel using acid rain, the lifeforce of the trees decided to find a female host who would have them escape the forest.
Cyril entered the forest’s tower, followed by the Doctor and Lily and finally, Madge, who had followed each other through the portal. Madge was found to be strong and the entire forest’s lifeforce entered her as she began to fly the tower’s dome into the Time Vortex. After learning that the dome’s travel depends on thought, the Doctor tells Madge to think of home and she does. She thinks of Reg and gradually finds herself being shown his apparent death at sea. Upon landing at the estate, Madge is about to tell Cyril and Lily of Reg’s death when the Doctor discovers that Reg’s plane had landed outside; he saw the light of the dome and followed it through the Time Vortex to safety.
As Madge and her family celebrate Christmas, the Doctor prepares to leave when Madge sees the TARDIS and realises that he was the spaceman she helped three years earlier. When the Doctor tells Madge that his friends think that he is dead, Madge replies that he can’t let them think as such, especially at Christmas, and tells the Doctor to explain to them. After saying goodbye to Madge, the Doctor visits Amy and Rory at their new home, two years after he dropped them off, and joins them for Christmas dinner.
The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe is a beautiful episode and upon rewatching the ending, it reminded me of the Ninth Doctor’s “everybody lives!” speech from Series 1’s The Doctor Dances (also written by Steven Moffat alongside The Empty Child). The cameo of Amy and Rory was a beautiful and amusing inclusion to the special as well. This would be the last episode of Doctor Who to be shown for the next nine months, starting a trend of excruciating waits between series and specials that would come to be the hallmark of the Chibnall era.
10. The end of Confidential
On 28 September 2011, it was announced that Doctor Who Confidential would be cancelled at the end of its current series; initially, it was reported that the episode for the 2011 Christmas Special was still on but it was later confirmed that it would not be happening. This was due to budget cuts at the BBC, with it resulting in an initiative to focus on original British shows, particularly at the 9 and 10 PM timeslots on BBC Three. There was a petition to save Doctor Who Confidential from cancellation, but nothing came of it.
Behind-the-scenes material was still made for Series 7 and beyond, which was published online and released on home media. Other behind-the-scenes series including Doctor Who Extra, Inside Look, Closer Look, The Fan Show and Access All Areas were also made, but they never really reached the popularity that Confidential had. As I said in the retrospective for Series 2, Confidential is rumoured to return as Doctor Who Unleashed for the RTD2 era, but time will only tell whether it results in anything significant.
Where Series 5 was a continuation of the series format we all knew and loved, Series 6 marked a change in the format as the story arc was told across two runs split two months apart. The mystery of River Song and the Silence was solved and now, all that was left to be addressed was Trenzalore and the First Question.
Series 6 may not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but it opened the show up to new audiences as the hype towards the upcoming 50th Anniversary was starting to build. Stay tuned for Part 7 as we dive into the 50th Anniversary with my 10 takes on Series 7 and its associated specials.
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unfabulous-at-home · 6 days ago
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addie: ctv sci fi channel
@unfabulous-logo-art-tv-design
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spoilertv · 1 year ago
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snails-n-frogs · 2 years ago
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It is 3 am and I am currently watching the hobbit on ctv sci-fi channel (I guess Legolas and Tauriel are Vulcans)
It's better than what I remember.
The scene were they are covered in fishes is hilarious!
The acorn scene made me smile so hard, and seeing Thorin's face shift from joyful to somber so seemelessly
Also Thorin was so bloody dramatic when he refused to give Barn/Lake town their share of the gold, he seriously became a disney villain in this movie lmao
Also: 《YOU, pointy hat!》 (And gandalf fuckin' turns)
The end was : bury your gays and straights bc war is very sad and money corrupt.
9/10 movie👍
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onlyincanadayousay2 · 5 years ago
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Killjoys caps
KILLJOYS | 5x10 Last Dance
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anotheruserwithnoname · 2 years ago
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Spare a thought for the poor souls in Canada who saw Hell Bent for the very first time during the Christmas Day Series 9 marathon that Space Channel (now CTV Sci-Fi) ran ahead of the 2015 Christmas special, the infamous Husbands of River Song, which started immediately after the closing credits of Hell Bent  without so much as a commercial break. THORS is a horrible episode for a number of reasons I won’t go into, but doubly horrible if watched while still trying to process the ending of Hell Bent. Even worse, many fans in Canada not only saw Hell Bent for the very first time that day, but also Face the Raven and Heaven Sent - and then they had to sit through THORS? I know people with a deep hatred for THORS, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the special, but purely the timing.
I saw Hell Bent on Dec. 5 on its original airing by itself, but 20 days was not enough time! LOL (It’s why I feel Return of Doctor Mysterio should have been the 2015 Christmas special, with THORS saved until 2016. Both episodes are standalones, they’d have just had to change Nardole a bit. And he needed changing in THORS in the worst way!).
so, i just watched hell bent
it's one of the top three most emotionally devastating times of my life
i watched this man endure four and a half billion years of torture to get clara back - he literally fractured time to do so - only to watch him forget her in the end?
and people had to, like, go to work and feed their families after this aired?
unbelievable.
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zonetrente-trois · 1 year ago
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spockvarietyhour · 2 years ago
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Tonight's movie
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anotheruserwithnoname · 2 years ago
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Remembering the early days of the DW revival in North America
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(You never saw this in the UK or US) (Source)
With the return of Russell T Davies upon us, there’s a lot of nostalgia for the early days of the Doctor Who revival, the years before ... well, name a controversy. Lots of hope in the fanbase that RTD will be able to bring back the feels of the early days (and not just among those who were too young to remember the heady days of 2005-2010). There’s also a lot of hand-wringing over the fact that outside the UK the series will be part of the Disney+ family. But non-UK networks have always influenced the show in a lot of ways. 
Not everything was good - I have some real negatives below - but here’s a quick list of memories of the early years of the revival, which began at a time the mainstream in North America was still very much of the mind of “Doctor who?” and dismissed it as a grainy old series that usually aired after Monty Python on PBS after midnight on Saturdays.
I remember:
* When we had to wait months between UK and Canadian broadcasts. Just imagine trying to avoid spoilers today!
* When the Sci-Fi Channel in the US allegedly rejected the show for quality reasons. So many American fans didn’t get to see the first series with Eccleston for about a year (or had to order the DVDs).
* When Series 1 did air in Canada, the CBC had Christopher Eccleston record intros, commercial bumpers and “final comments” that included a mixture of trivia and promos for a “visit the set of Series 2″ contest being done with the Canadian edition of TV Guide (ironic, I know). By the time Christmas Invasion aired, Chris had left so they had Billie Piper do the intros and bumpers for it. They dropped the gimmick for Series 2. Thanks to the TV Guide tie-in, Doctor Who also got its first-ever cover on the iconic magazine, albeit only in Canada.
* When most episodes of Series 1 ended on the CBC with short documentaries and interviews with the Canadian DW fan club; one of them I believe was responsible for spreading the notion that the 1996 TV movie was titled “The Enemy Within” (which was just a suggested title apparently).
* The difficulty in getting the Series 1 DVD sets in Canadian stores due to the “Doctor who?” factor. I recall I had to special order and it cost me close to $100 in 2005 or 2006 money. And at the time only one DVD retailer (back when they could be referred to in the plural sense) would touch it. Amazon wasn’t a thing yet.
* The CBC not airing the part of “World War III” that resolved the cliffhanger of “Aliens of London”. For the CBC that was their “dancing animated Graham Norton” moment.
* How the CBC, after the initial flurry of interest, seemingly forgot about the show (a charge made by the main Canadian DW fan club a few years later), resulting in Runaway Bride airing after Series 3 began, the main CBC never airing Voyage of the Damned at all (leaving the Series 3 cliffhanger unresolved), and airing a 42-minute edit of “Journey’s End” that was totally incomprehensible (and delaying the broadcast until after the DVD release of Season 4). Torchwood likewise was bounced around. Soon after, the CBC cancelled Doctor Who and Space Channel (now CTV Sci-Fi) picked it up, eventually airing Voyage of the Damned and moving to same-day broadcast with the UK. They also picked up Torchwood. (Sarah Jane Adventures only aired on the BBC Kids cable network and either was cancelled or the network folded so we mostly saw it on DVD only; K9 never aired here at all, but again was on DVD.)
* The CBC also never showed the Children in Need minisodes, so I believe we had to wait for DVDs before seeing the prequel to Christmas Invasion and the Time Crash crossover.
* The sea-change when Series 5 arrived; Sci-Fi (Syfy) in the US and Space were now airing it the same day as the UK, though for here they added a US-style prologue to the opening credits with Amy explaining the concept of Doctor Who.
* When Sci-Fi aired Let’s Kill Hitler in the US with a special animated mini-episode during the commercial break promoting a sponsor - something that would be absolutely unheard of on the BBC! (It used to be on Youtube but I can’t find it anymore.)
* The “good old days” when most of the “good stuff” (basically anything involving video or gaming) on the BBC’s main Doctor Who website was “geolocked” and inaccessible to North American visitors. Fortunately this didn’t include the minisodes created to promote Series 2, but people had to sail the high seas (or later turn to Youtube) to obtain stuff like the mini-episode Karen Gillan made as a tie-in with an Amy Pond game and some of the scripted stuff Sarah Jane Adventures had on its site, and the Captain Jack’s Monster Files webseries starring John Barrowman.
A lot of this is in the past - as far as I know there are no longer restrictions on BBC website content (or if there is, it ends up on Youtube in about 10 minutes anyway); same-day broadcast is the norm; it’s easy to get DW-related DVDs and Blu-rays (though it remains to be seen if we ever see anything from RTD 2.0 on permanent media here in North America with Disney+ in the picture); and the idea of Syfy or CTV Sci-Fi - or certainly Disney+ - taking a 75-minute episode and trimming 30 minutes out of it for broadcast as was done to Journey’s End is impossible to imagine. Sadly though, at least for now, the enthusiasm for the show where people did care that Let’s Kill Hitler had an extra scene for the US only, or that Billie and Chris recorded exclusive materal for the CBC ... it too is in the past. I hope RTD is able to restore it and prove you can go home again.
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space-manatees · 1 year ago
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Hey thanks for the reply. I checked Disney+ for doctor who literally yesterday and none of it is streaming there yet so I was discouraged. But I did notice that prime video is streaming seasons 1-10 so I was extremely confused. Also usually the premiers are on cable on ctv sci-fi channel but this time around there’s nothing scheduled.
does anyone know where folks in canada can watch the Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials?
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laresearchette · 1 month ago
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Monday, October 07, 2024 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)
WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: SOLAR OPPOSITES HALLOWEEN SPECIAL (Disney + Star) HOARDERS (A&E Canada) 8:00pm KIDS BAKING CHAMPIONSHIP: SCARY GOOD (Food Network Canada) 8:00pm SUPERMAN & LOIS (CTV Sci-Fi) 8:00pm BELOW DECK SAILING YACHT (Bravo Canada) 9:00pm
WHAT IS NOT PREMIERING IN CANADA TONIGHT?: WHAT WOULD YOU DO? (ABC Feed)
NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:
AMAZON PRIME CANADA LAKATABU SHRINK
DISNEY + STAR THE SOLAR OPPOSITES HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2: THE HUNT FOR BROWN OCTOBER
NETFLIX CANADA BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS: CHUNIN RE-EXAMINATION BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS: KAWAKI: KARA CLASH BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS: KAWAKI: OTSUTSUKI AWAKENING THE HUNGER GAMES THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 1 THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2 THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS (Netflix Documentary)
MLB BASEBALL (SN) 4:00pm: Tigers vs. Guardians - Game 2 (SN) 7:30pm: Royals vs. Yankees - Game 2
MURDOCH MYSTERIES (CBC) 8:00pm (SEASON PREMIERE): Murdoch and Crabtree enjoy a war re-enactment, until a fellow pretend soldier is murdered.
WILD ROSE VETS (APTN) 8:00pm: Dr. Cori taps into her wealth of experience to bring Ranger, the ailing cat, back from a life-or-death situation; in Saskatoon, a lost kitty gets a clean bill of health and finds a loving home with one of Dr. Allison's team members.
NFL FOOTBALL (TSN/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5) 8:15pm: Saints vs. Chiefs
HORSE WARRIORS (APTN) 8:30pm: After a disastrous race, Justin must get back on the horse that trampled him and Sedrik's place on the River Cree team is in jeopardy.
PLAN B (CBC) 9:00pm (SEASON PREMIERE): Police officer Mia Coleman is haunted by a case involving a murder-suicide; she calls the Plan B agency, determined to go back in time and prevent the tragedy.
PARIS HAS FALLEN (CTV Drama) 9:00pm: Jacob tries to reach Cedric Duval and Beatrice Paquin; Vincent and Zara attempt to get to them before he can.
DEADLIEST CATCH: BLOODLINE (Discovery Channel Canada) 9:00pm (SEASON PREMIERE): A year after finding his father's fishing charts, Josh and Casey return to Hawaii to grow their fledgling fishing business; they join with business partner Jeff Silva to devise a strategy to navigate the waters ahead.
FOUR DAUGHTERS (Crave) 9:00pm: The story of Olfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian woman whose two eldest daughters were radicalized by Islamic extremists.
THE TRAITORS CANADA (CTV) 10:00pm: After a chaotic first round, players must pair up for a volatile mission; with suspicions everywhere, a glance between two players at the round table could change the course of the game.
INSOMNIA (CTV Drama) 10:00pm: As Emma comes under the spotlight, she becomes increasingly convinced of her sister's treachery; before she can get answers to a newly emerging memory, tragedy strikes and Emma begins to mistrust herself.
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the-chosen-half-of-one · 4 years ago
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Harry from Resident Alien at any minor inconvenience:
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