two short 'Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken' questions

[jwgh]

There is a major (good) character named Tremas whose identity gets stolen by the Master at the end of the final episode. Does the Master intentionally go around knocking off people whose names are anigrams of his, or what?

As I've watched more and more of the old Doctor Who serieses I've grown to dislike John Nathan-Turner. Is this fair?

Comments

[urbeatle.livejournal.com]

I dunno, the Wikipedia article makes him sound a bit like Russeell T. Davies... which had the effect of making me feel a little more sympathetic towards Davies. Maybe they just try too hard to pay attention to the fans?

As far as I know, Tremas is the only person the Master killed whose name was an anagram of his. However, he routinely uses anagrams of his own name when using a secret identity. Maybe that is why he decided Tremas would make a good body.

[jwgh]

I thought of this connection, too, but I'm not sure I buy it. Part of it is that Davies brought Doctor Who back from the dead and immediately had some great shows, whereas JNT presided over its cancellation. He also got rid of Tom Baker (which probably needed to happen sooner or later, but still, possibly my favorite doctor ever!) and brought in Peter Davison -- who I think could have been good (and I know he has his fans) but who was hobbled by a bunch of bad stories and companions before he really got to find his feet.

I guess I rarely hear of a JNT decision where I think, "Yeah, that was a really good idea" and so I get hung up on stuff like his habit of decorating his Doctors with question marks, or changing the name of the character that the Master ends up taking over Tremas, and other stuff I think is pretty dumb. I also feel like the quality of writing fell off quite a bit after he took over.

I think RTD-era Doctor Who has its faults, but I've enjoyed pretty much all of the episodes, and some of them have been really excellent, so I am not inclined to be that critical.

(I noticed that if you search ask.com for 'jwgh' this article turns up on the front page: http://jwgh.livejournal.com/177676.html )