[PaperOstrich]

We had Bad Wolf, of course. But then we first heard "Torchwood" at the end of series 1. Then at the end of the Torchwood series, we had a few "Mr Saxons".

Any ideas about what the arc word or idea might be for series 4? Based on past form, we will have heard it already....

(Forum rules: 1. No fulminating about Catherine Tate, please. 2. Er... 3. That's it.)

[Corwin]

The Eternals or Gallifrey.

[cheesey30]

Originally Posted by Corwin;

The Eternals or Gallifrey.

Agreed

[PaperOstrich]

Hm. I was hoping for "bananas are good".

What's with the Eternals? I thought they were just a reference to the original series, not a likely candidate for a big surprise arc. And they've only been mentioned once, haven't they?

[cyski]

Donna is possesed by the master throughout the series ala Turlough.

Couple of reasons:

A) They could make drastic changes to the character without having to explain how she grew a brain.
B) The hand that picked up the masters ring at the end of the latest series looked chubby and 40ish - exactly how Catherine Tate looks.

[backofsofatvfan]

Gallifrey is a brilliant one, it's generally more subtle than that though, am I wrong? Not many people spotted Mr Saxon in L&M. I'm having a cure my hangover DW S3 Day tomorrow and will keep a very beady eye on all posters and seemingly meaningless mentions!!

[Corwin]

Originally Posted by PaperOstrich

Hm. I was hoping for "bananas are good".

What's with the Eternals? I thought they were just a reference to the original series, not a likely candidate for a big surprise arc. And they've only been mentioned once, haven't they?

Twice though once was in Series 2 (Army of Ghosts) the other mention was in The Shakespeare Code.

RTD also mentioned them in his article on the Time War in the DW Annual.

The talk of the Titanic not being the real one (too small) brings them to mind as well as the last time we saw them they were "sailing" replicas of old Earth ships through space.

_____

There is one phrase that seemed (for me anyway) to stand out in LotTL and I've not seen it mentioned on here.

The Master says.

"I can remember the days when that famous Doctor, he was waging a Time War, battling Sea Devils, and Axons, he sealed the rift at Medusa Cascade, single handed. And look at him now. How did he ever come to this? Oh yes! Me!"

Now Axons and Sea Devils were both Stories that featured the Master so we can guess that Sealing the rift at the Medusa Cascade was also an encounter between the two of them.

This is not from the Classic Series and not AFAIK from any of the books/audios so while it could just be RTD referencing an unseen encounter between the Doctor and the Master I think Medusa Cascade or possibly just Medusa could be a contender for the Series 4 Arc Word(s).

Medusa does of course tie in with the Weeping Angels of Blink.

[performingmonk]

The arc will be that Donna is evil. She picked up the ring and is now either The Master or another evil Time Lord. We will get hints throughout the series.

[Tehanu]

Civilization Zero (2 mentions already; Blink, and the website for Sound of Drums)

Silver Devastation (2 mentions)

The symbol on the Master's ring - it was also on the LAzLabs logo - I think we will see it a few more times before we know what was really going on there.

[Fendalek]

I'll play a little game with myself and try to spot it in Voyage of the Damned. Torchwood was first mentioned in The Christmas Invasion and Mr Saxon likewise in The Runaway Bride. I'm sure that RTD will do the same this year, so I'll just have to pay attention. Not an easy task given the high piffle quotient in the Christmas specials; its very difficult to concentrate after a while, I find.

[Corwin]

Originally Posted by Fendalek

I'll play a little game with myself and try to spot it in Voyage of the Damned. Torchwood was first mentioned in The Christmas invasion and Mr Saxon likewise in The Runaway Bride. I'm sure that RTD will do the same this year, so I'll just have to pay attention. Not an easy task given the high piffle quotient in the Christmas specials; its very difficult to concentrate after a while, I find.

Actually Torchwood was first mentioned in "Bad Wolf" and Mr Saxon in "Love and Monsters".

[Fendalek]

Originally Posted by Corwin

Actually Torchwood was first mentioned in "Bad Wolf" and Mr Saxon in "Love and Monsters".

Whoops! I stand corrected.

[wonderpob]

Originally Posted by Corwin

The Eternals or Gallifrey.

An article by Russell T. Davies in the Doctor Who Annual 2006 states that during the Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks, the Eternals fled the Doctor's reality in despair, never to be seen again. So unless this was just an early ruse or a mistake on his part they might not be back.

Gallifrey would be an interesting place to see....

Originally Posted by Tehanu

Silver Devastation (2 mentions)

The symbol on the Master's ring - it was also on the LAzLabs logo - I think we will see it a few more times before we know what was really going on there.

Silver devastation would be a good tie in especially if there is a CJH angle, maybe explaining why his memory has two years missing.

The symbols on the masters ring are I think supposed to represent Timelord symbols. They tie in with the Lazlabs logo and the detailing on the two fob watches used by the doctor and the master. The Lazlabs logo was a portent of things to come since the master had already arrived by this time and was manipulating things from the background. He supported professor Lazarus's work (which the doctor noted to be very similar to Timelord regeneration processes) in order to develop the Laser screwdriver for himself.

[DibbleR]

Silver Devastation = Cybermens (again)

[wonderpob]

Originally Posted by DibbleR

Silver Devastation = Cybermens (again)

NOOOOOO! Surely with the universe being so large we could have a rest from the Cybermen(and daleks)! Even if it means rummaging in the BBC dressing up box and dusting off some old characters (or some new foes).
Series 4 would be a god send if they were brave enough to step away from these frankly tired 'favourites'.

[Phil 2804]

Originally Posted by wonderpob

The symbols on the masters ring are I think supposed to represent Timelord symbols. They tie in with the Lazlabs logo and the detailing on the two fob watches used by the doctor and the master. The Lazlabs logo was a portent of things to come since the master had already arrived by this time and was manipulating things from the background. He supported professor Lazarus's work (which the doctor noted to be very similar to Timelord regeneration processes) in order to develop the Laser screwdriver for himself.

I don't think were done with Lazarus just yet. The Master was clearly involved in that experiment, but to what end?

Creating a weapon to use on the Doctor- certainly. Was there more going on though?

[ethel_wombat]

All the things created by Saxon in the 18 months before The Sound of Drums will still exist, so are TW & UNIT busy fighting over Lazlabs & the Archangel network.

and who is taking over the British Government? The Cabinet is dead, the PM is "unavailable" so who does that leave?

[Gutted Girl]

Maybe Harriet Jones will stop being tired and go back to creating the Golden Age that The Doctor disrupted.

I'd say that probably Civilization Zero or Silver Devastation are the two that stood out for me, but as they stood out that means that they might not be.

I guess that we have to keep looking during SJA and TW to see if anything crops up in them. Saxon definitely did in TW and though I've not had a chance to rewatch it is suspect it did in the pilot for the SJA.

[Couch TV]

Gallifrey - but under a very cryptic veil!

[thenetworkbabe]

Not sure what season three was for. He's still missing Rose.

There were a lot of suicidal impulses and silly risk taking at the start of series three that made you wonder if the doctor was going to be bumped off but seemingly not.

The face of Boe story is done. Cassandra is done. The Daleks logically are pretty extinct. The cybermen now suffer from a terminal lack of firepower. Martha's family went before it really came. The Master came and went in a ridiculous story.

Basically there is not much left apart from retreading some of these stories even more and bringing back some old enemies from the second rank of foes.Thats what happens when you end storylines with conclusive scenes.

Then he can either sacrifice himself and end the series or they can just regenerate him and start again - at which point we find out if anyone has the bottle to go for the last taboo and have a female Doctor - one looking like a recent companion who looked into the heart of the tardis would be very interesting....

[PaperOstrich]

Hm, all interesting stuff (although I'm not too excited by the revival of "Rose-as-Doctor"...yeesh )

Anyway I must have missed out on Civilisation Zero. But I would love to see something of the Silver Devastation. I wonder if the arc will have something to do with the Doctor's character rather than any sort of complex Bad Wolf-esque plot (much as I liked that one) - I hark back to Donna's previous parting words to the Doctor ("I think you need someone to stop you") and the cruelty he showed in this series (at the end of the Family of Blood, although he was nice again by the end of Last of the Time Lords). And I really want some delivery on the "Lonely angel/lonely god" theme.

I guess by this time in previous series we'd only had one instance of the "meme", so it could be absolutely anything...

[joscos]

maybe something to do with UNIT? or the Gallifrey idea could be good.

[Pingu's Dad]

Healthy eating. Characters could be seen eating fruit throughout each episode.

[rhancockuk]

Maybe something to do with the doctor keep saying "i am sorry,I am so sorry"? Maybe somethingto do with him meddling in time and the effects this has caused to people.

[Gillray]

I think the one iconic Doctor Who villain who hasn't appeared yet is Davros. Considering there's only one Dalek left, now would be a good time to bring their creator back.