They fired Peter Davison?

No, they actually wanted Davison to stay on another year, but he was concerned about becoming typecast. (Apparently he'd received advice from the second doctor, Patrick Troughton, on the matter; though Patrick seems to me the Doctor most keen to reprise his role.)

So after Davison they had Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, then Paul McGann for the movie (and some audio work), and apparently a ninth doctor. (Strictly, this is a second 9th doctor. There was also a spoof called The Curse of Fatal Death featuring Rowan Atkinson.)

There was also a spoof called The Curse of Fatal Death featuring Rowan Atkinson.)

I bought a tape of that. I adore it. Short tape, though.

I bought a tape of that. I adore it. Short tape, though.

Looking at the credits, it appears that Richard E. Grant plays the Doctor in that too. I guess he enjoyed the gig.

Interesting that it is written by Paul Cornell

Started out as a fan fiction writer. His first Dr. Who novel, the fourth of the BBC series back in 90 or 91, was actually a reworking of a fanfiction novel he did featuring another Doctor.

I wish they'd called the euro the ``crown'' instead, which was one option floating around. Euro sounds like it was dreamed up by some faceless committee in a soulless room in Brussells.

I have new joy in my home -- thanks to the lovely Australian company Harvey Norman, $NZ1699 bought me a flatscreen LG telly, a video player and a DVD/CD player (converted to play all regions DVDs) and a cabinet to stack them all in (and they threw in the new Harry Potter DVD as well). So have plunged in to watching my season 2 Buffy with all the extra goodies the DVDs give. Joss was great doing his commentary on Innocence. But I found Marti Noxon something of a pain, especially her going on about what a ``dear, dear boy'' James Marsters was and how he'd confided to her some bad relationship stuff he'd been going through and she told him that hey, he was a TV star and he was hot, and he shouldn't have any trouble pulling women. Jesus Christ. A) Talk about shallow advice. And B) Talk about invasion of privacy. Put me right off her.

That actually sounds like a good, confidence-building, sweet thing to say to a friend that you can't actually help in any concrete way. I liked that she said it on the DVD because she was talking like an actual person. I liked her chattiness throughout her commentary. Your Marti may vary.

Me too. It struck me as candid and down to earth. Made her sound real.

Was the JM thing from the commentary for What's My Line, Kassto?

Made her sound real.

Yeah, had the same effect on me. I know the rabid abuse some fans have slung her way ticked me off to a greater extent after listening to it.

Yeah, it was What's My Line. It just seemed WAY too personal to be blabbing about in public. I would hate it if someone said that about me on a DVD for all the world to hear, even if I was hot and a TV star.

I don't know what it would be like to be an extraordinarily good-looking TV star who heaps of viewers lust after. What would it be like to live like that? What sort of life do you have behind that? It could get really confusing, particularly if you are not very sure of yourself, which seems to be the case with a lot of actors. What would it be like to be the object of so much looking?

From what I've seen of JM in public, he seems to be very willing to lap up the attention. Boy was working the head tilt/eye contact thing like nobody's business.

And why not? Hella potent.

edit: But you know what? That's pure speculation. Marti, OTOH, knows him reasonably well, I guess, so she has a better idea of what his boundaries are.