TARDIS spotted in Southern California

The history of the TARDIS in Old Town, San Clemente

Photo credit: Bridget Cole

Norm Kober runs the Jailhouse Cafe in Old Town, San Clemente. A small plaza in a small beach town of south Orange County, Old Town is the oldest part of the city. Eric Brandt, owner of Old Town and friend of Kober set it up with a Western theme, except for one certain blue box. Brandt and Kober stuck a TARDIS in front of Kober’s “spaghetti-western-pancake house.” As both men enjoy “Doctor Who” and have watched the classic series, they present a prop of the Doctor’s spaceship, the “TARDIS.”  Kober can be seen by his restaurant most days, ready to share his stories.

Where did this TARDIS come from?

Well this was actually used for the TV show “Doctor Who,” you know, the episode where the Doctor met Nixon in the oval office.  Well Eric, he’s a big fan of Doctor Who, he brought it here from the studio and then we fixed it up. He's still going to put monitors inside each window so each window will show the inside of eight different TARDIS’s. But he already put the sign [“the Nixon TARDIS”] up here. And then he had the Dalek made. So he really likes “Doctor Who.” I used to watch it, too in 64. No, in 63, when it was still in black and white. I watched all of the classic series, just not any of the new stuff. It's the longest running TV show in the world. Oh, yeah. It's been on the TV since 1963.

So the TARDIS is an actual prop from the show? According to the Old Town website it was from the "Impossible Astronaut," but that was filmed in Utah.

Yeah, so Eric got it from the studio out there. They weren’t going to take it with them back to Britain anyway. They built it just for that show so they were fine with Eric taking it.

Why do you call it the "Nixon TARDIS?"

So, you see a few shops down there's the Nixon museum, the little shop down there. It sells food and stuff but it really just has some history. Did you know San Clemente was Nixon's "Western White House?" The museum there really just has stuff on that. And, since this town has had Nixon here and the Doctor met Nixon in one of those episodes, we named the TARDIS that. The "Nixon TARDIS."

So how does the TARDIS and all the paint withstand the rain and stuff?

Oh it stays good for a long time. We had to redo the outside two or three times, because when it rains in San Clemente, which it rarely does, it really rains.Actually, the city of San Clemente didn’t like it.

Oh really? Why wouldn’t they have liked it?

They didn’t like it ‘cuz it isn’t Mexican. You know, since San Clemente is “the Spanish village by the sea” and all that. They don’t even like the Western theme, the new theme of Old Town. But since it’s gotten so popular, they got to learn to accept it.

So how many people have come to see this TARDIS?

It’s had over 66,500 hits on the internet. Everybody loves it. Each year we have a “Doctor Who” thing here, a convention, where everyone gets dressed as the Doctor and his companions. There are kids that come as Daleks, wrapped in aluminum foil and things.Yeah, the first week he got it he put it on my patio. We ended up bolting it to the wall because people kept trying to steal it. I got cameras everywhere and we caught a bunch of different college guys. They were doing some kind of treasure hunt, I think, to just take pictures with it, and some tried to move it around. But I ended up chasing them off.

Do you know what colleges they were from?

I don’t know, probably from all over.

When was that?

Probably the first week we had it.

How long has this been here then?

Four years.

Oh that’s cool. I’ve seen photos where it was just the blue box [TARDIS] without all the paint on the floor. How long ago was the paint added?

The paint’s been there for maybe a year. That’s when we had it sprayed with paint, and it was hand-done.  We didn’t plan to keep it on my patio, we just wanted to keep it there temporarily but since people loved it we decided to keep it here. Eric got people to add some extra stuff to it.

Can you tell me more about why Eric decided to add paint and the Dalek and such?

Like I said, Eric just really likes “Doctor Who” and so do I. All those travels through time and space. I’m not up to date with the newer stuff, but there is just so much in the show, like the Daleks and the space thing on the floor. Yeah, we just like “Doctor Who.”

So the TARDIS and the various pieces are for you and Eric’s enjoyment and not for popularity?

Well the popularity is a plus, but yeah, it’s just a cool thing we have here, and one that Eric is still working on, like the monitors inside the TARDIS.

Alright, thank you for your time.

Photo credit: Bridget Cole

New Years 'Doctor Who' Special trailer released

With the end of season 11 of "Doctor Who" comes the promise of a new beginning

For the first time since the start of the new series, the "Doctor Who" special will not be a Christmas special but a New Year's special. The trailer for the special discloses more information as to what threatens the Earth at the start of the new year.

The finale of the 13th Doctor's (Jodie Whittaker) first season brings much more darkness to the "Doctor Who" universe just as it sheds light on the characters. As the episode holds "battle" in its title "The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos," the Doctor and her "fam" not only fight against the enemy first introduced in the show, but with their own demons.

The Doctor must face responsibility for banishing the tooth-faced being Tzim-Sha as he constantly puts the blame for his crimes on her and Graham (Bradley Walsh) confronts his own feelings of whether or not he should exact revenge by killing him. The desire to kill is a strong term in the "Doctor Who" universe as the protagonist must be the "bigger man" and think outside the box and never resort to purposefully killing.

Luckily, the Doctor and her companions save the day and lock Tzim-Sha away.

The trailer shown at the end of the finale on BBC America, however, titles itself "Resolution." Labelling the finale a "battle" and the special a "resolution" only further suggests a link between the character development in not only the Doctor and the blame she must take but for her companions Graham, Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Yaz (Mandip Gill) as well.

The trailer itself depicts a dangerous creature living on Earth for centuries that threatens the planet, a theme similar to "the Runaway Bride," a Christmas special from 2006 in which a colony of spider-like creatures plan to conquer the Earth they once laid dormant within. But unlike the Christmas episode, there are knights and soldiers seen at battle and explosions.

Most of all, there is the unanswered question of the name of this creature the Doctor calls "the most dangerous creature in the universe." Could it be a new villain, or a classic villain that has threatened the planet and the universe countless times before?

The special will play New Year's Day and feature the Doctor, her companions, and the mysterious threat to Earth. Fans can only speculate as to what sort of "resolution" the new year will bring.

The Master's different faces

The transformation of the Master over time

The Doctor's fellow Time Lord rival, the Master has experienced several different faces of his own as he battles the Doctor over "Doctor Who" history.

BBC/"Terror of the Autons"

The debut of the Master (Roger Delgado) begins in the serial "Terror of the Autons" in 1971.

BBC/"The Deadly Assassin"

The Master (Peter Pratt) returns in a severely decayed state in "The Deadly Assassin" in 1976. Though it appears to be the Master's final moments, he has many more appearances in "Doctor Who."

BBC

The Master reappears as Anthony Ainley in "The Five Doctors" in 1983. As the 20th anniversary of "Doctor Who" five Doctors fight one Master.

BBC/"Doctor Who"

The Master (Eric Roberts) in the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie. Though fans consider the film not a part of the series, the Master truly looks the part of an Gallifreyan rival.

BBC

Here, a professor revealed himself to be the Master (Derek Jacobi) after forgetting who he was for some time in the episode "Utopia" in 2007.

BBC

The Master (John Simm) regenerates into this face in "Utopia" and is infamous for "The End of Time" episodes.

BBC/"Deep Breath"

The Master becomes Missy (Michelle Gomez) in the episode "Deep Breath" in 2014.

The Master and his future regeneration, Missy, team up in "the Doctor Falls" to raise an army of Cybermen and, of course, defeat the 12th Doctor (Peter Capaldi). 

BBC/"The Doctor Falls"

Now that the first female Doctor is a certain face next season, let's look forward to seeing the face of Missy come back soon, or possibly even a new regeneration of the Master.

The Doctors fight to the death in this fan-made video

"Doctor Who" meets "The Hunger Games" as the Daleks and the Master pit the Doctors against each other



The Master and the Daleks create something similar to the Hunger Games as they pit Doctors one through 12 (plus the "War Doctor") against each other in this fan-made Youtube video.

There have been over one million views of this video, as people are drawn in by the thumbnail and the details seen in the video itself. The labeling picture of the video imitates a poster for the 11th Doctor.

BBC

The video contains detailed costumes and sets, including the TARDIS the Doctors brawl over, since the TARDIS is their way out. From the fact that the Ninth Doctor truly starts the bloodbath with the call "dibs on the laser gun!" to the 10th Doctor's "he never wanted to go," the references and the character portrayals make these "Doctor Games" brilliant.

Though the video puts the 11th, 10th, and 4th Doctors as the true stars of the show, the video portrays each of the Doctors in a fun way. The War Doctor gets called "eight and a half, or something" and the Fifth Doctor causes a lot of death with his decorative and ironically once-restorative celery in this overall chaos of the Doctors.

Ignoring the facts that the true Doctors would work together in such a situation rather than fight each other and that killing the First Doctor would create a paradox that would kill all future generations of the Doctor, the video is an accurate representation of what could happen in this new universe.

For fans of the 12th Doctor be warned that he gets killed off quickly, receiving less screen time then the River Song who does not even participate in the games herself.

This video may not follow all of "Doctor Who" mythology, but the video becomes a fun new twist on the Doctors in a "Hunger Games" universe with its chaos and attention to detail.

This video contains Doctors up to the 12th Doctor, just as the Hunger Games had 12 Districts. Now that "Doctor Who" has a 13th Doctor, could this influence the creators to fashion a new "Hunger Games" with 13 as the rebel district ready to save the Doctors and defeat the Master and Daleks?

BBC/"The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos"

Haters will fail in replacing the female Doctor

All the things wrong with an anti-female petition

The big reveal of the 13th Doctor presents Jodie Whittaker as the first female Doctor on July 16, 2017 and immediately fans responded. Not all of the responses were supportive, however.


A petition posted the same day BBC released the trailer demands BBC change the actor for the 13th Doctor.

The new Doctor has been cast. The Thirteenth Doctor has been cast as Jodie Whittaker, which is basically a giant dump on a lot of Doctor Who fans. 

I'm not trying to be sexist here, but you cannot just take a 54 year old show and change the main character to a female while keeping the same main character. This is annoying for so many reasons, because no-one wanted her as the Doctor. On the day she was announced, she was at the top by newspapers to take over from Capaldi. But the papers knew. And the papers did it for popularity. 

This is basically having a male Wonder Woman, just no thanks. I'd rather have Sylvester McCoy come back than have a female Doctor. You can't be a man for all your long Time Lord life and then have your genetics re-wrote to become a female. 

If this gets enough signatures, the BBC will see that Whovians do not like this change. Only us, the people who love this show and want a Doctor who doesn't change too much, can stop this from ruining this show. I tell you, the show will get cancelled soon.

First off, 8.2 million people tuned in Sunday, Oct. 7 to watch the debut of Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor, as reported by BBC News. This debut displays the highest viewership for the premiere date for a new season of "Doctor Who" since 2008 when David Tennant debuted as the 10th Doctor. Millions of people "wanted" Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor, not "no-one" as Dude claims.

A female Doctor exists in a very different universe than a male Wonder Woman would. Besides the fact the word "woman" is a part of her title, the world of "Wonder Woman" originates in the 1940s with the heroine being a strong, Amazonian woman. Her superhuman powers, however, include strength, speed, and a Lasso of Truth. These powers do not include regeneration.



 

Regeneration in "Doctor Who" involves the Doctor dying and then regenerating, or coming back to life as a new person. A new actor plays a new Doctor with a new personality, just with the same background history. Wonder Woman is one human with superpowers, played by different actresses simply to continue making new movies. The Doctor is an alien who changes into different people with every death. A male Wonder Woman, in which the same character becomes male, would not be the same as a female Doctor.

Time Lords, the alien race the Doctor belongs to, have evidence of gender change in other characters as well.




The General, first played by actor Ken Bones, regenerates into a woman played by actress T'Nia Miller. 

Missy (Michelle Gomez), 12th Doctor (Peter Capaldi), Master (John Simm)
Photo credit: BBC News

Then the Master, the rival of the Doctor since her childhood and a character of the "Doctor Who" universe since 1971, turned into a woman as well. She became known as Missy (Michelle Gomez), and it was her first time in the 47 years since introduced that she became a woman.

If the Master and the General could both regenerate into a woman, the Doctor can as well.

Sylvester McCoy was the Seventh Doctor, and, since the Doctor regenerates into a new person with a new actor each time, it would be far more interesting to continually have new faces, rather than a an aged flashback.

Tim Masters/BBC News

Besides, if his face became the Doctor now, it would be hard not to be reminded of his other role in "The Hobbit."

Radagast as seen in "The Hobbit"

Though the petition sprang up when the female Doctor first appeared in July of last year, there have been recent comments and signatures up to this past Monday. The petition is still active.

As of today, there are a total of 59 signatures, while Dude set the goal at 1,000 signatures. That is 59 people compared to the million who tuned in to watch that first episode of Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor.

The season finale for the 13th Doctor's first season is this Sunday, so tune in to prove these haters wrong, for "Doctor Who" will not be cancelled for having a female Doctor.

BBC News

The morals of famous, non-human "Doctor Who" villains

A doctor of ethics explains the reasoning behind Daleks and Cybermen

Dr. Basil Smith

A Professor of Philosophy and Chair of Philosophy and Humanities at Saddleback College, Dr. Basil Smith calls himself a “Doctor Who purist.” He finished his Ph.D at Cardiff University and enjoys non-commercial British 80’s music. As a science fiction fan, he watched the old “Doctor Who” TV series and can help explain the mentality of classic villains that appear in the old and new series. Though he has seen little of the new series, he sheds light on the morality behind famous Doctor Who villains such as the Daleks and the Cybermen. These villains interest him due to their simple, if nonexistent morality that influences their behavior and role in the show.

From what you have seen of Doctor Who, how would you describe the structure of the show? And are there a certain ethical dilemmas that you see repeated each show there's certain structure that's repeated or has there been variation.

The thing is that I just really remember the third and fourth doctor and all the kind of ethical stuff that I remember being really interesting and important were the villains which were the Cybermen and Daleks and there was the master. Do they still have the master?

They still have the master. They turned the master into a female as well.

That was always a dumb character and the reason why is the master was always curiously unmotivated and if you ever see a villain in a show like someone like Lex Luthor in Superman and they're curiously evil they have no specific reason to have all the feeling of malice and trying to harm others that they do. And yet this is their defining characteristic. They just do bad just to be bad.

The Cybermen don't actually communicate like we communicate; they communicate as a group. If you were a Cybermen, this means that you all would have the same experiences. And not only is it good for communication, but it allows you to to work as a unit and have no sense of self at all because none of them have a sense of self. And to me that was really great because it showed that it was at least conceptually possible that you could have beings who are just as intelligent as us with no sense of self at all and who had a kind of unity that was not based upon empathy or anything like that. It was simply based upon being part of a web and they all had the same experiences.

And so yeah I really liked that because it showed a different kind of existence. And that was great. And the Daleks of course because they were kind of evil but not in a weirdly unmotivated way. It was part of the character that they were conquerors. There’s this whole idea of why they existed to go out and conquer planets. And so the writers even in those early episodes had them be devoid of all the kinds of sloppy emotions that a bad script would give them.

And that was the great thing there. Since they were devoid of them and they were consistently devoid of them and they were they were never malicious either. They didn't kill people just because they were angry, because they didn't get angry, they didn't conquer plants because of some ego, they didn't have ego, it was simply built into who they were as a species. And that was really great. And even though their voices were stupid, you know, “Exterminate” and all that, the idea that you could have people being equally motivated to do the same actions but for these kinds of non emotional reasons and you didn't compromise that at all ever. And you didn't have the kind of inconsistency you'd have with the bad plot. And that was really really great because it showed how our ethics is based upon something quite different. Yeah. The absence of empathy or to feel a fellow feeling proves the fact we know we have a lot in common. We know that we have the same interests as a species, which we privilege each other as a species. That we privilege ourselves as a species, but yeah, this is all based upon emotions. Yeah. So I like those two particular villains: the Cybermen and the Daleks.

Does that mean that they have a morality system? I mean obviously it's very different from our own but do they see any right and wrong in killing or sparing people?

 No they’re just completely amoral beings. They kill people when the mission requires it. You ever notice though they never appeal on the moral considerations? They’re not immoral but amoral, somehow below morality. I always like the idea of seeing well worked-out conceptual possibility, because when you see that it allows you not to have these sort of blinders on, that our way of thinking about things like moral categories and precepts and theories is so natural that its the only way.

But since both those villains both have like a group mentality, would you say that they don't have empathy for each other?

Not really.

How are they not? How would they still stay together then?

I would say it's automated in both cases because imagine that someone were to shoot one Cyberman, and, you know, you being a psychopath you wouldn't go "boo hoo" and, like, crouch around his body and say “Awh I’ll take care of your cyber-children.” No. You would go on and they would stay together simply because this is part of who they are. And then you go and hang out with the other cyber-people, but you wouldn't play hacky sack together, and you wouldn't sit around and watch "Friends." Your basis of doing these things is all governed by an automated desire to achieve this general mission of conquest. It’s the same with the Daleks. But I liked that just for that reason that it is possible it could actually be the case. So they don't need our emotions to stay together. It's a very human reaction that suggests that maybe they would have less cohesion. I don't think that. I don't think they do. I don't know if that's really possible. But when you look at worker bees and things like that you see with less intelligent creatures it's possible. It’s definitely possible with other species and maybe the only thing is surprising about it since those species are as intelligent as us, we would expect them to have group identity for the same reasons but they don't.

Yeah, of course. You've said that Daleks specifically have no morals. They are a group mind and they don’t have a morality. But there have been, in the new series of Doctor Who, instances where Daleks would gain emotions from becoming too much part human. One of the most recent ones with the 12th Doctor, they found in a Gallifreyan library, live individuals, and one of them was a Dalek and the Dalek was saying “Exterminate me.”  Would a Dalek have the concept of suicide, of suicidal thought? 

No

Even if they were locked up for years, in their enemy’s library?

Never. The Dalek would just sit there and wait, and kind of shut down beyond idle and that would be it. Just like Marvin from “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy;” he was an ironically depressed robot but he just waited for something for thousands of years rather than killing himself. The Dalek would never have the thought to kill itself, it doesn’t even make sense, but I have a feeling [the writers] could’ve done one or two things: they are either violating the whole idea behind the Daleks or they are changing it and contextualizing why that happened and sell us on the changes. But if somehow inexplicably the Daleks have become more human, it could make sense. What I’m saying is, as a purist, the appeal of these characters is that they act the way they do when they have a character and to inexplicably change the character is usually a bad idea unless they contextualize it.

Alright I believe that’s all I have. Thank you.

Add some timey-wimey fun to the holiday season

Prepare for the Holidays with these 'Doctor Who' Christmas Specials

BBC/BBC Worldwide

The countdown to Christmas has started, and we are all sad to note that the current season of Doctor Who will not have the traditional Christmas special that existed since the start of the new series in 2005. Though we still have a New Year's special for "Doctor Who," we can still get ready for the holiday season, with some 'Doctor Who' Christmas specials listed in order from "okay" to "brilliant."

13.  "The Snowmen" (2012)

BBC One

The 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) fights the lackluster Great Intelligence, an old "Doctor Who" villain and his minions, the snowmen and icy governess. A Victorian incarnation of Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) stands alongside the Doctor in this chilling Christmas special from 2012; it is a fun ride as all Doctor Who episodes are but it is not a legendary one.

12.  "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" (2016)

BBC

There is some Christmas spirit to this 2016 special with the 12th Doctor (Peter Capaldi), but the main focus is on the superhero, Ghost (Justin Chawin). The Doctor teams up with companion Nardole (Matt Lucas) and an investigative journalist (Charity Wakefield)), and of course the superhero to save New York City from brain-swapping aliens. Putting a superhero with the Doctor feels strange, but it does not have that classic "Doctor Who" Christmas feel to it.

11. "The End of Time" (2009)

Mark Oshiro

As the last two-part Christmas special for the 10th Doctor (David Tennant), the episode focuses on a legendary send-off for the 10th Doctor against the classic villain the Master (John Simm). The Master takes over the present-day Earth by turning every human into him, which makes this dramatically-told tale ridiculous.

10. "The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe" (2011)

BBC One

The 11th Doctor brings more shenanigans to this Christmas special as he gifts Madge Arwell (Claire Skinner) a box to a wintry, Narnia-esque world. It's heavy with themes of the strength of mothers and the harsh reality of World War II all packaged in a little episode.

9. "The Next Doctor" (2008)

BBC/Paul Kelley

This special was really writer Russell T. Davis's way of trolling the fans. The so-called "Next Doctor" is actually a normal human (David Morissey) who believes he is the Doctor. This human-Doctor teams up with the 10th Doctor to stop the Cybermen army in 19th century London.

8. "The Time of the Doctor" (2013)

Adrian Rogers/BBC

On the Doctor's fated end on the planet Trenzalore, the 11th Doctor goes out with a bang by defending the town called Christmas from threats by the Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels and more. The fanatics of the episode really focuses on the 11th Doctor's regeneration, and Matt Smith's goodbye, as the 12th Doctor is introduced.

7.  "The Runaway Bride" (2006)

BBC America

Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) makes her first appearance in a wedding dress a year earlier then her season as a companion. She joins the 10th Doctor in stopping the plot of a giant arachnid and her colony from emerging from the center of the Earth to conquer it. Watch out for the fun action scene involving Donna, in her white dress, jumping into the TARDIS from a moving car.

6. "The Voyage of the Damned" (2007)

BBC

The 10th Doctor find himself on a spaceship called the Titanic on a collision course to Earth due to a malicious captain, and he must change the Titanic's path with waitress Astrid Peth (Kylie Minogue) even as people die around him. This is an action packed episode with the Doctor saving the Earth at the cost of the space-Titanic.

5.  "A Christmas Carol" (2010)

BBC One

A twist on Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol," Kazran Sardick (Michael Gambon) is the Scrooge who leaves a space liner with 4,000 people captive in a cloud belt. The 11th Doctor travels to Kazran's past to influence his future self into being kinder. This is a fun take on the classic Christmas story with its own crazy time-travelling, flying shark craziness that only "Doctor Who" can pull off.

4. "Twice Upon a Time" (2017)

BBC

The 12th Doctor and the First Doctor (David Bradley) find each other both unwilling to regenerate and allowing their current selves to die. Together, they overcome this fear of death along with a First World War British captain in the history-preserving, time-travelling spaceship. The episode ends on a tearful note as the Doctors watching soldiers on both sides of the battle singing "Silent Night," as well as the exciting reveal of the 13th Doctor (Jodie Whittaker).

3. "The Husbands of River Song" (2015)

BBC

The episode kicks off with the introduction of the companion Nardole and the final appearance of River Song (Alex Kingston). Not recognizing the 12th Doctor, she brings him along on her adventures with her one husband, while fighting against her other husband. By the end, however, River Song realizes that the 12th Doctor is her husband, the Doctor. This episode is worth it for the final date between the Doctor and River Song.

2. "Last Christmas" (2014)

BBC One/Seb Patrick

In all of "Doctor Who," never has there been a stranger sight than seeing Santa Claus help the 12th Doctor and Clara fight Alien-inspired dream crabs on a space station. It's truly what any sci-fi fan would wish for Christmas: a combination of "Doctor Who," "Inception" and "Alien."

1. "The Christmas Invasion" (2005)

Tom Bishop/BBC

As the first Christmas special in the new series, it is unlike many others where it gifts a legendary ending to a Doctor, but it truly introduces the 10th Doctor. The Doctor, weakened in his still-regenerating state, saves humanity from enslavement by the Sycorax alongside companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper). Of course, this is where the classic Santa-masked Roboforms and their bazooka-trombones are introduced as well.



Though the 13th Doctor will not get a Christmas special of her own this year, she will still be seen in the New Years special. Get into the holiday season with all the past Doctors before starting the new year with the female Doctor.

BBC One