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Wanted to chime in as I had also not seen A Christmas Carol since Netflix didn't have it when I was marathoning through all the seasons. I liked it. Probably my favorite of all the Christmas specials I have seen (though to be fair I read the Dickens short story every year so I'm a sucker for this story). If nothing else, credit where credit is due, Moffat somehow found a way to do "A Christmas Carol" without it feeling cliched and done before (no small feat for one of the most retold and adapted stories in history). One thing I had forgotten about Matt Smith is just how much fun he could be as the Doctor. He comes into the room and he's just a cartoon ball of energy that prattles on and seamlessly switches from one topic to the next. It actually made me think a little less of Season 8 watching this, not because Capaldi is doing a bad job but because it doesn't feel like the writers quite know what to do with him. From a writer's perspective (not that I'm an expert, just a bit of experience) 11 looks like he was much more fun to write than 12. I also came to a full realization...I cannot stand Clara. Seeing the Ponds in action again made me realize how little the character of Clara has actually added to the show for me. It was almost, almost interesting that they started to make it so she was becoming more cold and alien from spending time with the Doctor...but not enough. Anyway, back to the special. A lot of fun, well acted, a few weird plot holes. Like the days left to live countdown on the chamber. Does everyone have that? It looked like it, but I can't imagine it being universally applied. And I agree that Abigail wasn't treated as a person as much as an object. It was an idea that worked well on paper and the execution just squeaks by based on how quick and energetic the sequence is.
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Nov 26, 2014 18:16
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DoctorWhat posted:Spare Parts is an incredibly well-executed story about the origins of the Cybermen. Davison and Sutton, as well as the guest cast, turn in excellent performances in a fairly straightforward story. It has its moments, OH IT HAS WONDERFUL MOMENTS, but it is, by necessity, overrated[citation needed].
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Nov 26, 2014 18:32
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Fungah! posted:
I don't think Spare Parts could be better at what it sets out to do, apart from perhaps more directly dealing with the Adric stuff. And they really should just film the drat thing within the next couple of years, because SERIOUSLY. But literally nothing can live up to the amount of hype that gets raised about Spare Parts.
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Nov 26, 2014 18:35
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Now I'm thinking about Spare Parts again and I remember playing Bionic Commando during it. I played a game where the protagonist has replaced his arm with a robot grapple hook arm while listening to the secret origins of the Cybermen. How 'bout that poo poo.
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Nov 26, 2014 18:56
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jng2058 posted:You fortunate bastard. You better report back on your impressions when you finish, dammit! We don't get enough first watch responses to old episodes around here. About the only place it comes into effect is over in the Occ/Oxx thread. Watched A Christmas Carol for the first time last night. I'm not going to do a review style write up, especially after Jerusalem just posted his excellent write up of a different Christmas special, but I'll hit the bullet points. Keep in mind these are from the perspective of someone who has only seen a handful of Classic Who, and who has seen every episode of the revival, except this one. And as a warning, I love the poo poo out of whimsy.
(Sorry about the mismatched size of the gifs above, that was strangely the only gif I could find of the flying shark sleigh. Basically, this is why I watch Doctor Who. It was just a joy of an episode to watch, and will probably be added to my annual Christmas movie marathon rotation. Also to my favorite "episodes" of the revival list, along with The Eleventh Hour, Day of the Doctor, The Girl in the Fireplace, The Lodger, The Doctor's Wife, and The Girl Who Waited.
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Nov 26, 2014 19:06
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I don't think I've actually seen that episode yet, so it's going on my Thanksgiving watch list along with a bunch of other TV I have to catch up on.
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Nov 26, 2014 19:15
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Yeah, I've always loved "A Christmas Carol". It works for me.
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Nov 26, 2014 19:23
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FreezingInferno posted:Now I'm thinking about Spare Parts again and I remember playing Bionic Commando during it. I once listened to Project: Twilight while mowing the local sport center's lawn. No real connection there, it was just kind of a lovely, boring day all around. Though not as bad as that one time in the army when I was stuck in a damp tent for a week and the only book I had with me was Timewyrm: Genesys. The worst loving week of my life right there, let me tell you.
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Nov 26, 2014 19:26
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thrawn527 posted:[*]One thing I've seen come up a couples times in Doctor Who is his fascination with new creatures he's never encountered before. Here it's the fish who can float through fog. He just sort of stops everything and has to examine something that is beautiful and new. It's only happened a couple of times in the revival that I can remember. (I'm thinking of the Cybermite in Closing Time and David Tennant first seeing the Warewolf creature in Tooth and Claw.) Was this a thing that happened a lot in Classic Who? Because I'm a big fan. That one that immediately leaps to mind is The Green Death from the Pertwee era. Giant maggots are slithering around the countryside and one of them reaches adult form as a giant mutated fly. They manage to kill it but when the Doctor actually gets a chance to see it he stops and says with a mixture of curiosity and regret,"What a beautiful creature."
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Nov 26, 2014 22:09
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I've just started listening to Rat Trap, and every character is introducing themselves by name and providing their backstory without anyone even asking.
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Nov 27, 2014 08:47
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Fil5000 posted:I've just started listening to Rat Trap, and every character is introducing themselves by name and providing their backstory without anyone even asking. Rat Trap sucks. Seriously. A rare low point in a string of great 5/Tegan/Nyssa/Turlough audios.
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Nov 27, 2014 15:19
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A few months ago, I decided to watch everything in order. Hartnell was really good, Troughton was absolutely great, but Pertwee's not really clicking for me. Should I just give him time? I'm watching The Silurians and there's silly Godzilla costumes and things like that, but it's not feeling like the same sort of fun. For what it's worth, my favourite serials are The Web Planet and The Mind Robbers. I like surreal, fantastical things.
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Nov 27, 2014 15:38
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Astroman posted:Rat Trap sucks. Seriously. A rare low point in a string of great 5/Tegan/Nyssa/Turlough audios. I really liked Heroes of Sontar, mostly because Turlough being a cowardly craven arse is always great. But yeah, I've no interest in the rest of Rat Trap. Seriously, three people in a row just up and introducing themselves after encountering the Doctor and friends in some supposedly abandoned tunnels is really weird and forced. I mean, it's bad enough when characters refer to each other by name for no other reason than to tell the listener their name, when they're going "I'm John and I'm president of the guild of exposition givers" it's pretty appalling.
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Nov 27, 2014 16:09
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sunsweet posted:A few months ago, I decided to watch everything in order. Hartnell was really good, Troughton was absolutely great, but Pertwee's not really clicking for me. Should I just give him time? I'm watching The Silurians and there's silly Godzilla costumes and things like that, but it's not feeling like the same sort of fun. For what it's worth, my favourite serials are The Web Planet and The Mind Robbers. I like surreal, fantastical things. You will definitely get to things of this kind. For example, The Claws of Axos in the next season is surreal and fantastical, in a distinctively 70s way. Many of the Pertwee stories have a horror tinge to their fantastical elements - lots of stories with some unknowable alien presence, versus the good guys of UNIT - unlike the earlier serials you mention, which are more playful, and have the Doctor entering the alien world, rather than the aliens coming to unsettle us here. There are some really good stories in this era (even if, as usual, nobody can quite agree on which ones are the good ones) but given that it's quite a break from what came before, you probably need to see a few more in order to see some of its defining patterns.
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Nov 27, 2014 18:47
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sunsweet posted:A few months ago, I decided to watch everything in order. Hartnell was really good, Troughton was absolutely great, but Pertwee's not really clicking for me. Should I just give him time? I'm watching The Silurians and there's silly Godzilla costumes and things like that, but it's not feeling like the same sort of fun. For what it's worth, my favourite serials are The Web Planet and The Mind Robbers. I like surreal, fantastical things. A lot of Pertwee is definitely James Bond chase scenes and rubber masks, but I would stick it out until Roger Delgado shows up as the Master, at least. That way you can see Inferno, as well, and move on to his next companion. In terms of the more surreal stuff, A Carnival of Monsters is definitely up there, and you might also like the two Peladon stories in terms of the fantastical. Both The Time Monster and Planet of the Spiders are definitely in that vein, but neither are particularly great in my opinion. Of course, in the end, it's up to you; you'll definitely have to trek through a lot more rubber masks to go around.
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Nov 27, 2014 18:52
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Fil5000 posted:I really liked Heroes of Sontar, mostly because Turlough being a cowardly craven arse is always great. But yeah, I've no interest in the rest of Rat Trap. Seriously, three people in a row just up and introducing themselves after encountering the Doctor and friends in some supposedly abandoned tunnels is really weird and forced. I mean, it's bad enough when characters refer to each other by name for no other reason than to tell the listener their name, when they're going "I'm John and I'm president of the guild of exposition givers" it's pretty appalling. It's not just that. The monster is disgusting and a little silly. Nyssa acts silly as well. The good news is they get back on track with Emerald Tiger, which is fantastic. sunsweet posted:A few months ago, I decided to watch everything in order. Hartnell was really good, Troughton was absolutely great, but Pertwee's not really clicking for me. Should I just give him time? I'm watching The Silurians and there's silly Godzilla costumes and things like that, but it's not feeling like the same sort of fun. For what it's worth, my favourite serials are The Web Planet and The Mind Robbers. I like surreal, fantastical things. I guess if I think back to my original watch of Hartnell-Troughton-Pertwee I was a bit bored and anxious for them to get off Earth. But the Master stuff is unparalleled, and when they do get out for stories like Carnival of Monsters it's great.
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Nov 27, 2014 18:58
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Thanks for the replies. I'll keep pushing through, then. I've heard a lot about the Master but all I've seen of the character is a little of John Simm playing him opposite Tennant. Anyway, I guess being stuck on Earth's not much different as a premise than the hundreds of bases under siege that 2 happened upon.
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Nov 27, 2014 20:08
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The things that really did it for me about the Pertwee/UNIT stories where the character interactions. It took me a while to appreciate them though, because I felt the same way about the Doctor being stuck on Earth at first. Also, my first Doctor was Tom Baker, which set a completely different set of expecations for the show, as Hartnell snd Troughton do if you're going through them in order. If they're really not doing it for you, there's no shame in skipping ahead and coming back to them later. I neglected to watch all of Pertwee's run for years, until sometime after I'd watched all of the Avengers (the 60s British TV spy series, not the comic book characters). After it clicked for me, Pertwee became one of my favorite Doctors, and I love all the other characters: Delgado's Master, UNIT, Liz and Jo. They're all fantastic.
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Nov 27, 2014 21:01
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Yeah it pays to remember that the Pertwee era was a pretty radical departure for the show, his first season in particular. It takes a little while to get used to but once (if) you do, things REALLY click and it becomes a blast watching this medallion man Venusian Akido-ing his way through an army of henchmen so he can get to his souped up car to chase down a corrupt civil servant working for a foreign Government that turns out to be aliens who are being aided by, gasp, THE MASTER! 
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Nov 27, 2014 21:38
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By the way, happy Thanksgiving thread! May any Daleks you meet be unable to climb stairs.
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Nov 27, 2014 22:40
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I'm thankful for a place I can talk about Doctor Who that isn't filled with insanely spergy freaks or screwed up fetishists (at least not openly!), so thank you all for that  I'm especially thankful for Peter Capaldi, who is one of those actors I never even considered for the role but who, the moment I heard his name suggested, made me go,"But that would be perfect casting.... " and then we got it!
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Nov 27, 2014 22:59
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Jerusalem posted:I'm thankful for a place I can talk about Doctor Who that isn't filled with insanely spergy freaks Yeah, there's only one of me
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Nov 27, 2014 23:02
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MrL_JaKiri posted:Yeah, there's only one of me Adric?
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Nov 27, 2014 23:03
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CobiWann posted:Adric? There wasn't a lot of him to go around and I fear he may have spread himself thin. You have to question the boy's cardio because he really got blown up. His complexion looks a little ashen, perhaps because he really bombed as a character.
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Nov 27, 2014 23:10
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Jerusalem posted:There wasn't a lot of him to go around and I fear he may have spread himself thin. You have to question the boy's cardio because he really got blown up. His complexion looks a little ashen, perhaps because he really bombed as a character. The math doesn't add up. I think this post will crash and burn.
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Nov 27, 2014 23:19
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sunsweet posted:Thanks for the replies. I'll keep pushing through, then. I've heard a lot about the Master but all I've seen of the character is a little of John Simm playing him opposite Tennant. Anyway, I guess being stuck on Earth's not much different as a premise than the hundreds of bases under siege that 2 happened upon. Treasure every moment with Brig, and Benton, and Yates. I watched Inferno the other day and the commentary was great; John Levene who plays Benton got a whole episode to comment on himself.
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Nov 28, 2014 05:32
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Rat Trap just felt like a really crap version of Terry Pratchett's Amazing Maurice...
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Nov 28, 2014 07:03
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I remember thinking this was setting up the cancellation of the show when it first aired and feeling very sad.
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Nov 28, 2014 12:12
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It's Black Friday, and guess what that means... http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/doctor-who-special-offer-on-the-entire-eighth-doctor-series
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Nov 28, 2014 16:00
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CobiWann posted:It's Black Friday, and guess what that means... Oh no. I'm up to the 8th Doctor Adventures...
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Nov 28, 2014 16:04
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Whew, almost forgot to sign up for DWSS! I procrastinated til the last day due to internet being spotty recently, but don't worry Doctor Who thread, I'm in! edit: am I the only one enjoying the hell out of the "doctor who script' thread in GBS? http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3682543&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1 McGann fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Nov 28, 2014 |
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Nov 28, 2014 16:18
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Posting again because it's the last day to sign up!The_Doctor posted:
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Nov 28, 2014 18:34
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CobiWann posted:It's Black Friday, and guess what that means... oh my giddy aunt
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Nov 28, 2014 19:04
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Fungah! posted:oh my giddy aunt I managed to confine myself to just the second series.
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Nov 28, 2014 19:27
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CobiWann posted:It's Black Friday, and guess what that means... And on the same day I was paid and everything.
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Nov 28, 2014 19:33
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DoctorWhat posted:I don't think Spare Parts could be better at what it sets out to do, apart from perhaps more directly dealing with the Adric stuff. And they really should just film the drat thing within the next couple of years, because SERIOUSLY. You could say the same thing about Chimes, though. Chimes is very good and all, but an awful lot of people have said an awful lot of hyperbolic stuff about it over the years.
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Nov 28, 2014 20:29
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Fungah! posted:You could say the same thing about Chimes, though. Chimes is very good and all, but an awful lot of people have said an awful lot of hyperbolic stuff about it over the years. yeah but Chimes is better. ... shut up, you're the worst 
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Nov 28, 2014 20:33
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Nothing lives up to hyperbole. Even hyperbole. I will say that Chimes is my favorite of the three (or four, he did The Maltese Penguin too, right?) of Rob Shearman's audios I've heard, by a considerable margin (Jubilee I admire the hell out of, but I connect with the human touches of Chimes a bit better, and, aside from Frobisher, I didn't really care for The Holy Terror), and that Spare Parts is easily my favorite Cybermen story. (Not that it had a lot of competition! Though I like Tomb a lot.) Don't ask me to choose between them. I'm one of those horrible people that, when you ask me for a favorite anything, you'll get ten answers. And if you ask me again a week later, you'll get ten different answers.
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Nov 28, 2014 21:23
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Nov 29, 2014 00:19
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For the first two Doctors, is that extant episodes, or including the missing ones?
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Nov 29, 2014 00:33
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