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That was the most enjoyable episode by Moffat in a good long while, but I do wish he'd stop digging into that same bag of tricks so frequently.
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Dec 26, 2014 12:52
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Noxville posted:That was the most enjoyable episode by Moffat in a good long while, but I do wish he'd stop digging into that same bag of tricks so frequently. The "try to suppress an involuntary bodily function" bag of tricks? Also, didn't they say that they shot two endings in case Coleman didn't want to extend her contract?
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Dec 26, 2014 12:57
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TinTower posted:The "try to suppress an involuntary bodily function" bag of tricks? I think the rumor was that they initially wrote it as Clara's ending and then patched it up to allow her to continue to travel with the Doctor, and to be honest, the script really feels like that. I don't mind, though, I like Clara as a companion and she had a good arc during the last season.
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Dec 26, 2014 13:24
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Cerv posted:Doesn't matter. Nobody had a head wound when they "really" woke up. So it's all still another level of dreaming. If we're assuming Inception rules here, time passes exponentially more slowly the more layers of dreams there are. So that strategy could be a double-edged sword for the headcrabs: it's really hard to figure out you're in a dream when you're five levels down, but after the first couple times they're waking up left and right, so by the time they wake up for real (...OR DID THEY...?) they've only had the facehuggers on long enough for them to just start drilling.
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Dec 26, 2014 13:27
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TinTower posted:The "try to suppress an involuntary bodily function" bag of tricks? It's only three seasons since Amy's Choice trod a lot of the same ground as this episode. Silence in the Library had the whole thing with people downloaded into the system in what was basically an artificial dream. Hell, the double episode that started last season had a scene at the begining where Clara is in a dream state with both her and the viewers unable to tell the difference until the reveal. The whole thing of being unable to distinguish some artificially induced mental existance from reality is a well-worn sci-fi trope by this point but in fifty years the show had barely if ever touched it before but now it's rife, and its so predictable that anyone watching this eppisode must know that they're not out of the dream until the episode ends.
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Dec 26, 2014 13:30
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dr_rat posted:Best line. I did love all the movie references, and the to do list at the end that showed why they were all there (because apparently Dave was a now forgiven rear end in a top hat!). Though she really was watching the wrong version of The thing Bunch of nerds making this show.
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Dec 26, 2014 13:33
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Whybird posted:Counterpoint: It was interesting, the story was mentally functional, everyone was nonspecifically bad in it. Simon Pegg was sober. I am reading an speech on everything I'd later remember. Amendment: I watched most of it again. My opinion didn't change. Although i might be slightly bias. I really hate christmas and anything with Santa in it gets an immediate fail mark for me. I still think Nick Frost was utterly wasted... in more ways than one. I'm not a grinch.
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Dec 26, 2014 14:51
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Gaz-L posted:I'm torn on her character. On the one hand, she's a really good decoy companion. (She's clearly there so that when they do the Clara-is-elderly fakeout that you assume she's the replacement.). On the other, that's because she's basically Lucie from Big Finish. Like, if they'd gotten Sheridan Smith to play her, I'm pretty sure BF would be owed some money. Considering it was rumoured that Clara was actually leaving, I wouldn't be surprised if she was written to be the next companion till Coleman changed her mind. I really would like her to come back, though, she certainly had enough character. Anyone have .gifs of her dancing in the infirmary? Yvonmukluk fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Dec 26, 2014 |
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Dec 26, 2014 15:13
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I think watching the Christmas special and hating Christmas, you're pretty much setting yourself up to hate it by default. The specials are Christmassy, you're going to have to accept that.
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Dec 26, 2014 15:19
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If she comes back Donna-style, I don't think anyone would complain. Certainly not me, she was great fun.
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Dec 26, 2014 15:20
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TinTower posted:The "try to suppress an involuntary bodily function" bag of tricks? That's the one. Somehow I never noticed how often that repeats until this season, but then again, it really does feel like he's been drawing on that more this season than ever before. "Deep Breath" (don't breathe), "Listen" (don't look behind you), and "Time Heist" (don't think about your guilt/your plans) come to mind immediately, and you can add "Last Christmas" to that as well. The best part is that I'm not so sure this one even needed the "don't think about the dreamcrabs" thing, because they had so many other gimmicks as monsters and it stopped being particularly relevant as soon as Clara got head-crabbed under the table.
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Dec 26, 2014 15:22
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TinTower posted:The "try to suppress an involuntary bodily function" bag of tricks? DOCTOR WHO SERIES 9 EPISODE GUIDE posted:
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Dec 26, 2014 15:25
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So....I liked it. I didn't love it, but I liked it. Frost was great as Santa, Shona's dance routine was hilarious, and the bit with dream Danny worked for me. On the other hand, the pacing did seem kind of off, in particular there was probably one too many waking up sequence. All that said, I still liked "A Christmas Carol" better. 
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Dec 26, 2014 15:27
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I thought it was pretty good, and very intelligently put together. It occurs to me that this would have been a really interesting way to do a multi Doctor story, but I have no complaints about Santa Claus. I like Clara and I'm glad she's staying but that would have been a fine sendoff, and I think it would have been stronger if, instead of that encounter being yet another dream, it had ended with Clara mentioning that she'd seen him plenty of times after the dream crab thing and this was just a meeting out of sequence. Don't know if I'd call it the best of Who's Christmas specials, but it's definitely a worthy addition to the mix.
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Dec 26, 2014 15:39
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docbeard posted:I like Clara and I'm glad she's staying but that would have been a fine sendoff, and I think it would have been stronger if, instead of that encounter being yet another dream, it had ended with Clara mentioning that she'd seen him plenty of times after the dream crab thing and this was just a meeting out of sequence. That would've been pretty clever and funny and now I'm just kind of disappointed they didn't go with that. I suppose it would've taken some of the tension out of any future "Clara's in danger of dying!" scenes, but it would've been worth it.
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Dec 26, 2014 15:42
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This episode was utterly loving ridiculous and I loved every second of it. It mixed the holiday spirit, humor, horror, and sappiness into a great gift for the fans.
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Dec 26, 2014 16:00
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Cleretic posted:If she comes back Donna-style, I don't think anyone would complain. Certainly not me, she was great fun. If she comes back, she should dance herself out of peril at least once every episode.
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Dec 26, 2014 16:37
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I really wasn't into the episode at first, but it got progressively better and by the end I quite liked it. Thankfully they resolved the Danny thing pretty quickly because most scenes involving him have kind of been the glaring weak point of the season. Now that Coleman is staying at least for one more season, I hope we're gonna have a little less drama between Clara and the Doctor. Call me  but I kind of disliked Clara slapping the Doctor when he started going on about Danny, I mean I get that it was an emotional reaction but come on, you're the one who lied to him about it in the first place. But again, thankfully they didn't make a big deal about it and ended the episode on good terms.Re: Capaldi's Doctor, there were certainly a couple of missteps taken with his character, but I think mostly they've been able to let his "humanity" (uh, timelord-ity?) shine through in the end. Especially at the end of this episode they were really able to sell him as a "kid in an old man's body" with his childlike wonder at steering Santa's sleigh. Also I bet when Capaldi delivered the line "Look at me, I'm riding a sleigh!"  he was actually thinking "Look at me, I'm Doctor Who!" 
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Dec 26, 2014 16:41
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Yvonmukluk posted:Considering it was rumoured that Clara was actually leaving, I wouldn't be surprised if she was written to be the next companion till Coleman changed her mind. Her being the one that instantly gravitated to how implausible it was for Santa to be there certainly points that way. It's exactly the sort of thing you can see the Doctor using as his reason for asking her to join him. Fair Bear Maiden posted:I think the rumor was that they initially wrote it as Clara's ending and then patched it up to allow her to continue to travel with the Doctor, and to be honest, the script really feels like that. I don't mind, though, I like Clara as a companion and she had a good arc during the last season. I sort of wish they'd just scrapped the old Clara ending then. We ended up with Return of the King syndrome a bit. I understand how painful it might have been, as Coleman and Capaldi are really good in that scene (especially impressive for Jenna, under that makeup), but it's all sleight of hand as it currently stands. It works in the moment, but loses a lot once you know the 'twist'.
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Dec 26, 2014 16:50
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One thing though, how the gently caress does dinner sized blue crabs get around the UK without being seen once.
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Dec 26, 2014 16:55
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happyhippy posted:One thing though, how the gently caress does dinner sized blue crabs get around the UK without being seen once. They can control peoples perceptions I think the plot touched on it somewhere
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Dec 26, 2014 17:00
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Cerv posted:Carpenter's The Thing is set in the Antarctic. The Thing From Another World was Arctic, like this Santa episode had to be. Haha, don't think I would of ever picked up on that. if that's the reason they chose the original over the remake the remake, that's sort nerdishly brilliant.
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Dec 26, 2014 17:03
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happyhippy posted:One thing though, how the gently caress does dinner sized blue crabs get around the UK without being seen once. It's a long story.
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Dec 26, 2014 17:04
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happyhippy posted:One thing though, how the gently caress does dinner sized blue crabs get around the UK without being seen once. With the amount of times Londons been invaded by various aliens on the show now, people have probably gotten so use to them that if they do happen to see some alien thing wandering around and it's not activity trying to kill them, they just sort of ignore it and hope it will sort itself out in the next 45 minutes or so like it normally does (one and a half hours tops).
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Dec 26, 2014 17:08
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I was kind of hoping the Doctor would finally realize the depths of the dreams they were in once someone pointed out that he was wearing a hoodie. Everyone else's subconscious was trying to warn them by giving them Santa Claus, his subconscious was trying to warn him by placing him in that hoodie. Also, I had the closed captions on, and were Santa's elves really called "Ian" and "The Wolf"? Because the CC would attribute everything said by the not-Dan-Starkey as "The Wolf".
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Dec 26, 2014 17:14
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Just "Wolf," not "The Wolf," but yeah. They had their names on the backs of their jackets. Somehow I missed Ian's name and was terrified that the back of his jacket would say "Bad."
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Dec 26, 2014 17:22
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The fact that The Doctor himself was apparently attacked in a volcano is strange too. Maybe someone plotted it or something.
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Dec 26, 2014 17:29
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it was great episode. I am happy she is still staying but it would be greater if this one was Clara's last.
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Dec 26, 2014 17:34
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The big development in this one is, I think, that Clara's finally going to be a full-time TARDIS resident. She was the first "day-tripper" companion in the revival, bouncing back and forth between adventures in the TARDIS and her home life, but the end of this episode hinted pretty strongly she's in for the long haul now. I hope her story ends well. Clara's literally died throughout all of universal history for the Doctor and managed to put up with Twelve's attitude without stabbing him even once, she's earned it.
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Dec 26, 2014 18:57
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Irony Be My Shield posted:The fact that The Doctor himself was apparently attacked in a volcano is strange too. Maybe someone plotted it or something. Then Paul McGann wakes up.
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Dec 26, 2014 19:41
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One thing to think about... The whole, "They come alive if you think about them." was only part of the dream 'Horror Movie' part. In the real world parts it was clear that once you woke they died clearly. Something seeming dead and coming back was just the dream trope.
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Dec 26, 2014 19:47
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Elotana posted:Santa shows up in the season finale next season and asks him how he got there. Big Finish is just one long non-continuity dream? I will CUT you.
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Dec 26, 2014 20:03
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I pretty much enjoyed the episode, although was slightly disappointed that it wasn't a send off to Clara. I like that they finally developed her and thought they were wrapping it up nicely. Fingers crossed they won't have her keep going on about Danny in the next series, purely because I just don't like him, so if they can explain Orson without him showing up too often I'll be pleased. Overall loved the Alien/The Thing side of things, not quite as enthusiastic with Inception.
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Dec 26, 2014 20:09
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Irony Be My Shield posted:The fact that The Doctor himself was apparently attacked in a volcano is strange too. Maybe someone plotted it or something. Or they reused the volcano set.
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Dec 26, 2014 20:26
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I really enjoyed that and I regained my faith in Moffat. For reference here is the timeline of my faith in Moffat: Lost: The Wedding of River Song Regained: Day of the Doctor Lost again: Deep Breath Regained: The quality of the last series being generally high after that, until: Lost: Death in Heaven being all over the place and just really bleak Regained: This episode Oh, given the title of the next episode, can we have Moffat ripping off The Prestige now we've had him ripping Inception? It could be good. Psybro fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Dec 26, 2014 |
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Dec 26, 2014 20:51
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He was wearing a hoodie.
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Dec 26, 2014 23:28
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Oxxidation posted:The big development in this one is, I think, that Clara's finally going to be a full-time TARDIS resident. She was the first "day-tripper" companion in the revival, bouncing back and forth between adventures in the TARDIS and her home life, but the end of this episode hinted pretty strongly she's in for the long haul now. Amy and Rory did this for ages, remember? Season 7 was all day-tripping and it was implied they did it a lot more than we saw.
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Dec 26, 2014 23:45
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That was a pretty good Christmas episode, although they missed an opportunity to bring back Toby Jones for a scene as the Dream Lord.
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Dec 27, 2014 00:06
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Star Platinum posted:Also I bet when Capaldi delivered the line "Look at me, I'm riding a sleigh!" I loved during one of those behind-the-scenes commercial segments where Capaldi was describing why the Doctor doesn't like Santa and he started getting all salty about it himself. Oxxidation posted:The big development in this one is, I think, that Clara's finally going to be a full-time TARDIS resident. She was the first "day-tripper" companion in the revival, bouncing back and forth between adventures in the TARDIS and her home life, but the end of this episode hinted pretty strongly she's in for the long haul now. I was thinking that too. She's really got nothing left and she's just so in love with adventuring in the TARDIS. Coleman sold the hell of that, even had Clara with tears in her eyes at hearing the sound again (and Old Clara took up traveling and flying a plane in the dream, etc. as surrogates). She might as well just move in at this point, and I'd love to see her just going on adventures without any outside character drama for awhile.
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Dec 27, 2014 00:07
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Brigadier Sockface posted:He was wearing a hoodie. I wonder if it will stick around, Eleven was a 20 something wearing old man clothes so why not reverse it.
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Dec 27, 2014 01:06
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