The Doctor's Past on Gallifrey

This article is part of my Doctor Who Guide.

This is a discussion on the Doctor's past, as established in the TV series (both classic and new). Though some of the novels tried to fill in some of his back story, those won't be given great attention here since several of them do not fit into the cannon established by the new TV series.

EARLY CHILDHOOD

In "The Time Monster", the Doctor told his companion Jo Grant that as a child he had lived in a house high up on a hill. In that story, and in "State of Decay" (TV story 113), he mentioned that a monk lived in this same area, a monk who told him ghost stories and taught him to open his mind to the beauty of nature and reality. Years later, the Doctor met this same monk again on Earth when the other Time Lord was living in the guise of a simple Tibetan monk called K'anpo.

In "State of Decay", the Doctor described the area of his childhood as having been in the Southern mountains of Gallifrey.

In the TV-movie, also known as "The Enemy Within", the Doctor mentioned watching a meteor storm on a warm night with his father. He described the meteor storm as "purple, green, brilliant yellow."

In the same TV-movie, the Doctor remarked that he was half-human on his mother's side, but this remark has been considered a joke by fans and writers/producers of the new series who consider him to be completely an alien. Likewise, nothing before the TV-movie ever implied that he had human heritage.

It seems that the Doctor had once had a brother. In "Smith and Jones", when he was asked if he had a brother, the Doctor remarked "No, not anymore."

Time Lords are immune to certain types of radiation and in "Smith and Jones" the Doctor mentioned having played with Roentgen bricks as a child.

In "The Empty Child", the Doctor saw what seemed to be a child shunned by his peers and remarked "never easy being the only child left out in the cold, y'know." When someone glibly said, "I suppose you'd know," the Doctor answered, quite seriously, "I do, actually, yes."

This is not the only indication of the Doctor having a sad and lonely childhood. When he was telepathically linked to a woman in "The Girl in the Fireplace", the woman remarked that the Doctor's memories revealed him to be "such a lonely little boy. Lonely then and lonelier now." She also remarked that the Doctor's hidden name was "more than just a secret."

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CRAZY SEXY GEEKS is out!

My new web-series aimed to be friendly for folks who've never read comics is now online. Our first episode (7 minutes), we chat with Amber Benson of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER about women super-heroes and question why we don't see more powerful women in films when there are so many of them in the comic books.

Watch it. Rate it. Love it!

Guide to the Different Star Trek Shows

This is part of my Star Trek Guide and gives a basic (and largely non-spoilery summary) of each Star Trek series.

Star Trek: The Cage - This was the original TV pilot for the series, filmed in 1964. Taking place in the 23rd century, it featured Captain Christopher Pike who commanded the Enterprise 1701. Other major characters included a young alien science officer named Spock and the first officer, a logic-driven woman only referred to as "Number One."

This pilot was not picked up by the studio and so creator Gene Roddenberry and his crew put another one together, this time involving an almost entirely new cast. Since the studio and viewers had not responded well to Number One as the First Officer, the actress Majel Barrett (who later married Roddenberry) was recast as Nurse Chapel. Spock was now made First Officer and was given Number One's logic-driven personality. Actor Jeremy Hunter did not return to reprise the role of Christopher Pike and so a new character was created: James T. Kirk.

In later Star Trek episodes, it would be established that Christopher Pike had commanded the Enterprise for several years before it was turned over to James T. Kirk and that the events of "The Cage" took place in the year 2254, soon after Spock joined as science officer.

Star Trek: The Original Series (also called Star Trek: TOS) - Roddenberry's second pilot episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was filmed in 1965 and spawned a series that aired from 1966-1968 and followed the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk, who became Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701) after Pike. The main series featured Kirk and his crew while they were engaged in a five-year mission to explore the very outskirts of the Alpha Quadrant.

Kirk's Enterprise was capable of achieving speeds of Warp 8. Often isolated from the rest of Starfleet, this Enterprise usually had to fight battles on its own.

Later Star Trek episodes established that Kirk's original five-year mission occurred between the years 2265-2270.

UNITED FEDERATION STARSHIP ENTERPRISE

During the time this series took place, the Federation was engaged in a cold war with the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire. Kirk's crew was the first to discover how to manipulate a starship's warp field in such a way that it could travel through time.

Star Trek: The Animated Series (TAS) - This continued the adventures of Kirk and his crew during their original five year mission. Since Roddenberry and many of the original series writers worked on it, this series is considered canon and helped establish further points of continuity, including the fact that Kirk's middle initial stood for "Tiberius" and that, before Captain Pike began his tour of duty, Captain Robert April was the first commander to put the Enterprise (NCC-1701) through its trial runs.

Star Trek: TOS Films - The first six Star Trek films continued the adventures of Kirk and his crew years after their original tour of duty had ended. Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released in 1979 and took place in the year 2273. The Enterprise has just been retrofitted, given brand new equipment and newly designed interiors, and its crew now served under Captain Matt Decker, until Kirk (now an Admiral in Starfleet) took command of his old ship due to a new emergency. To help him out, he forced McCoy out of retirement and soon Spock rejoined the ship as well, after having spent years on Vulcan. Following the film's conclusion, it has been the assumption of most fans and writers that Admiral Kirk commanded the Enterprise for its next tour of duty over the next few years.

The next film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, took place in the year 2285 and showed that Kirk and his crew were now instructors at Starfleet Academy, training a new crew to man the Enterprise with Spock as its new captain. Events in that film led to Kirk and his former senior officers taking charge of the ship again. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock takes place days after the events of Wrath of Khan. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home takes place three months later in the year 2286. These three films are seen by most fans as a trilogy, making up one large story-arc.

ENTERPRISE A

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier takes place months after the previous film, in the year 2287, with Kirk now in charge of the new Enterprise (NCC-1701-A).

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was released in theatres in 1991 and takes place in the year 2293. It features the final adventure of Kirk's crew aboard the Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) and showed that Hikaru Sulu, former helmsman under Kirk, was now Captain of the Excelsior. The film Star Trek: Generations revealed that the Enterprise (NCC-1701-B), under Captain John Harriman, was launched later that same year, making The Undiscovered Country the final adventure of the original cast as a whole.

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Alan Kistler's Star Trek Guide

This Guide is still under construction and being updated. Scroll down to the bottom for specific articles and essays concerning Star Trek.

 

"They used to say if man could fly, he'd have wings. But he did fly. He discovered he had to ...

"Doctor McCoy is right in pointing out the enormous danger potential in any contact with life and intelligence as fantastically advanced as this. But I must point out that the possibilities ... the potential for knowledge and advancement ... is equally great.

"Risk ... Risk is our business. That's what this starship is all about! That's why we're aboard her!"

- Captain James T. Kirk,

Star Trek: The Original Series, from the episode "Return to Tomorrow" 

STAR TREK IN A NUTSHELL

It began in the 21st century, after mankind had nearly destroyed itself in a nuclear world war, leaving society in shambles. A team of scientists led by a man named Zefram Cochrane began work on an experimental "warp drive", an engine that would allow a space-ship to warp gravity around itself so that it could move beyond the speed of light without its occupants suffering from time dilation. On April 6, 2060, Cochrane tested his experimental warp drive when he flew a ship called the Phoenix at faster than light speed. The ship's warp-trail attracted the attention of an alien craft and Earth soon made first contact with an outside race.

With the knowledge that they were not alone in the universe, the human race set aside its differences, understanding that they were all part of a larger community and needed to stick together in a universe they now realized they knew very little about. Resources once spent on war and conflict were now focused on scientific and medical advancement. Less than a century after Cochrane's historic first warp flight, no one on Earth was poor or starving and the danger of many diseases had been wiped out. People no longer worked for money but for the betterment of themselves and the community.

Eventually, Starfleet was created as the United Earth's primary exploration service. In the year 2151, Starfleet began launching deep-space exploration vessels that were tasked to "seek out new life and new civilizations" in the immediate area, known as the "Alpha Quadrant" (for mapping purposes, the galaxy was divided into Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta quadrants, each of which was further divided into smaller "sectors").

These missions, some of which involved acting as mediators between other races in conflict with each other, helped establish Starfleet as an interstellar power. Eventually, Earth, Vulcan and several other planets came together under the United Federation of Planets. Starfleet expanded and became the primary military/exploration service of the Federation, its Academy now open to non-Earth races as well.

The various TV series and movies that fall under the umbrella of Star Trek are based on this premise, featuring the adventures of Starfleet officers as they protect the Federation worlds and explore the unknown.

A BRIEF LOOK BEHIND THE SCENES

Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek and pitched it originally as a western in outer space, inspired by the space race of the 1960s and by an optimistic vision of humanity's future, when money would no longer exist and resources once spent on war and weapons were now spent on the betterment of man and the exploration of space. The series would provide heroic adventures while also serving as commentary on racial, social and political issues.

The first pilot "The Cage" was filmed in 1964 and featured a crew of space explorers in the 23rd century who served aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701, led by Captain Christopher Pike (played by Jeremy Hunter). Among Pike's crew was a devil-eared alien science officer who was simply called Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy). This pilot episode was rejected by the network for not having enough action or characters audiences could relate to.

Rather than turn the idea down completely, the network offered Roddenberry the chance to do a second pilot. Filmed in 1965, this new pilot was called "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Although the character of Spock remained (now promoted to the rank of First Officer), the rest of the crew was entirely different. Since actor Jeremy Hunter did not return for the second pilot, Captain Pike was replaced by the more emotional and confident James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner), who Roddenberry said was directly inspired by Horatio Hornblower.

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" was well received and spawned the original Star Trek series that lasted for three seasons from 1966-1969, depicting a five-year mission "to seek out new life and new civilizations." It was later established that this five-year tour of duty occurred between the years 2265-2270.

The original Star Trek series was followed by an animated series and six feature films, all of which continued the adventures of Kirk and his crew. In 1987, the new series Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered. Beginning in the year 2364, it depicted the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew aboard the Enterprise NCC-1701-D, roughly a century after Kirk's original mission.

Before its cancellation seven years later, TNG inspired the spin-off series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in 1993. Yet another spin-off series, Star Trek: Voyager, began airing in 1995 and lasted until 2001. In 2001, Enterprise (later retitled Star Trek: Enterprise) premiered as a prequel series, taking place roughly a century before Kirk's adventures. The show was cancelled in 2005, despite fan protests and since then there has been no regular Star Trek series on television.

After TNG was cancelled, the adventures of Picard and his crew were continued in four films, the last being Star Trek: Nemesis, which was released in theatres in 2002 and took place in the year 2379.

The 2009 film, directed by J.J. Abrams and simply called Star Trek, rebooted the franchise practically from scratch by creating an alternate universe where a young Kirk and young Spock were first meeting and taking command of the original Federation ship Enterprise NC-1701. This alternate universe is different in several ways from the original timeline and Paramount intends to continue exploring it in future films.

Along with all these TV shows and films, Star Trek stories have appeared in various comic book series and tie-in novels. These tie-in novels continue to expand on the original timeline and its characters.

My Star Trek Articles include:

Guide to the Different Star Trek TV Shows

Top 5 Reasons Why We Love Kirk

Top 5 Original Series Episode Recommendations

Star Trek Film Annotations - Detailed annotations on the references the 2009 film makes to previously established continuity.

Superman in Media - Part 2

This is Part 2 of my look on Superman in Media and is part of my Superman Files. Part 1 can be found here.

DONNER TO THE PLATE

In 1973, producer Ilya Salkind figured that it was about time the Man of Steel starred in a feature live-action film. He and his brother Alexander became producers on the project and spent the next couple years going through different directors and story ideas. Screenwriters included David and Leslie Newman, Robert Benton, and Mario Puzo (who wrote the novel and screenplay The Godfather).

Eventually, Richard Donner was brought in as director, who had directd The Omen and had worked on television series such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Fugitive, Wild Wild West, Get Smart and The Six Million Dollar Man. He also directed the famous Twilight Zone episode that starred William Shatner and a gremlin. In later years, Donner would direct films such as the first three Lethal Weapon films, Scrooged, Ladyhawke, Maverick, Conspiracy Theory and Goonies.

Although Donner wanted to make a family film, he felt that the script Warner Bros. had was too campy and talked down to the audience. He brought in his friend Tom Mankiewicz as creative consultant, reworking several parts of the story. Mankiewicz had worked on several James Bond films in the past, as well as TV specials with the Rat Pack.

Donner did not want to emulate the feel of George Reeves and Kirk Alyn. Whereas those had emphasized the heroic and larger-than-life nature of the character and had been intended mainly for a kid audience, Donner wanted a story that adults could also relate to and find hope in. Superman, he felt, was a very human character due to his upbringing as a Kansas farm boy, an upbringing which must have been difficult since he'd have to hide his gifts even from friends. Donner wanted the audience to identify with Clark Kent as a human being, as someone who wanted to belong and cared very deeply for those around him, before they ever saw him put on the famous costume. He wanted a hero who was relevant to modern society, someone people would wish actually existed.

In his research, Donner took interest in the trend of comics in the 1970s to paint Superman as an almost messianic figure. Around this time, we had stories that spoke of Superman's arrival on Earth as a matter of destiny and which revealed that even his name Kal-El had deeper meaning, as it was ancient Kryptonese for "star-child." Superman was also, historically, the first true super-hero and was the man behind which the other DC heroes rallied and against whom many modern heroes were still compared. Thus, Donner's film began by making Superman's escape from Krypton a Christ-like moment. This was made most clear when Jor-El spoke to his son before placing him in a rocket that looked like a shining star.

JOR-EL: "You will travel far, my little Kal-El. But we will never leave you. Even in the face of our death, the richness of our lives shall be yours. All that I have, all that I've learned, everything I feel... all this, and more, I ... I bequeath you, my son. You will carry me inside you all the days of your life. You will make my strength your own and see my life through your eyes as your life will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father, and the father the son ..."

Clark arrives on Earth and is raised by the Kents. He is troubled by having to keep his increasing powers secret as he grows older. Whereas before, the comics had always shown that Clark simply accepted that he had to keep his abilities secret, Donner's film showed a very understandable protest from the boy. He asked his father why he couldn't use his abilities to become a football star rather than simply hiding and being thought of as a weak nerd.

CLARK: "... every time I kick the football I can make a touchdown. Every time! I mean, is it showing off if somebody's doing the things he's capable of doing? Is a bird showing off when it flies?"

JONATHAN KENT: " ... When you first came to us, we thought people would come and take you away because, when they found out, you know, the things you could do ... and that worried us a lot. But then a man gets older, and he starts thinking differently and things get very clear. And one thing I do know, son, and that is you are here for a reason. I don't know whose reason, or whatever the reason is. Maybe it's because, uh ... I don't know. But I do know one thing. It's not to score touchdowns."

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