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Which non-Power of the Daleks story would you like to see an episode found from? This poll is closed. |
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| Marco Polo |
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36 | 20.69% |
| The Myth Makers |
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10 | 5.75% |
| The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve |
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45 | 25.86% |
| The Savages |
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2 | 1.15% |
| The Smugglers |
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2 | 1.15% |
| The Highlanders |
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45 | 25.86% |
| The Macra Terror |
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21 | 12.07% |
| Fury from the Deep |
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13 | 7.47% |
| Total: | 174 votes | ||
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Jerusalem posted:Sleep No More is just the germ of an interesting idea not executed particularly well, compounded by feeling like this was the red-headed stepchild of an episode that got the short end of the stick when it came to budget allocation or any post-production attention Don't forget that according to our dear Delorean loving production guy they made a fuckload of stuff for the episodes, but he was away on holiday come filming time and they just forgot to put it up in his absence.
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Mar 27, 2016 11:48
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I didn't like Caves of Androzani that much when I watched it. I also don't really care for the 5th Doctor so that might be why.
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Mar 27, 2016 12:39
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MrL_JaKiri posted:Don't forget that according to our dear Delorean loving production guy they made a fuckload of stuff for the episodes, but he was away on holiday come filming time and they just forgot to put it up in his absence. Oh yeah, didn't he design an entirely new alphabet or something for it (based on the supposed Indo-Japanese dominant culture of the 38th Century) and we got maybe 0.5 of a blurry second of it appearing in a single monitor?
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Mar 27, 2016 12:42
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Rhyno posted:Physical media is for Jerks. All my Big Finish stories are on both CD and electronic form. 
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Mar 27, 2016 12:54
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CobiWann posted:All my Big Finish stories are on both CD and electronic form. Not every ones home is bigger on the inside!  I Need a bigger HD for all these Audios...
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Mar 27, 2016 14:52
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I can see why they'd stop bothering with DVDs. I haven't bought a DVD in years, and the last one I bought is still in the wrapper. But why stop selling branded merch? You can buy a loving TARDIS dress at Hot Topic for chrissakes, but you can't buy a DW t-shirt or mug from the BBC?
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Mar 27, 2016 15:12
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Astroman posted:But why stop selling branded merch? You can buy a loving TARDIS dress at Hot Topic for chrissakes, but you can't buy a DW t-shirt or mug from the BBC? You're assuming they sell that many compared to the 3rd party retailers
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Mar 27, 2016 15:25
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how many TV stations worldwide actually run their own merchandise & media stores?
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Mar 27, 2016 16:01
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Cerv posted:how many TV stations worldwide actually run their own merchandise & media stores? All the big American ones do afaik
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Mar 27, 2016 16:04
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I still have a Dalek t-shirt I got in New York in 2006 or so. I'm pretty sure I got it in the NBC shop.
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Mar 27, 2016 16:29
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To be fair the only time I used the BBC shop was to buy Engines of War for cheap and whenever they had their 3 Doctor Who DVDs for £15 deal.
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Mar 27, 2016 16:34
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MrL_JaKiri posted:All the big American ones do afaik Lol in America we just have vertically integrated media conglomerates that probably own the stores too.
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Mar 27, 2016 19:14
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Tim Burns Effect posted:Lol in America we just have vertically integrated media conglomerates that probably own the stores too. Go and watch Colony in Space already
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Mar 27, 2016 19:17
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Cerv posted:how many TV stations worldwide actually run their own merchandise & media stores? The ABC down here in Australia does, but they did switch to online-only recently.
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Mar 27, 2016 23:09
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MrL_JaKiri posted:All the big American ones do afaik And it's often cheaper to go to a 3rd party anyways.
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Mar 27, 2016 23:12
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 Sleep No More has the particular distinction of NOT being the worst episode of series 9, purely by dint of The Zygon Invasion being so awful. It's actually not that bad an episode to be perfectly honest.... but it's also not really any good. In fact if anything sums it up it is probably being so utterly forgettable, though when the gimmick of the episode is such a memorable one (the first "found footage" style episode of Who) getting something bland and uninteresting actually makes it a far worse episode than if they'd just done something straightforward and ordinary. I think people will long remember this episode beyond all reason because the found footage gimmick will stick out so much in their mind, giving it a level of notoriety it really doesn't particularly deserve for better or worse. Mark Gatiss is, next to Steven Moffat, the most regular contributor to Doctor Who since the revival began in 2005, and technically speaking he predates Moffat's time on the revival as he was the first non-showrunner to write an episode for the revival way back with The Unquiet Dead. Unfortunately, for a writer with such a marvelous pedigree of clever, experimental and intelligent writing he has rarely lived up to his potential on Who (some would argue NEVER), though I thought The Crimson Horror and Robot off Sherwood were both excellent showcases of his talent for comedy. This story, the only true straightforward single episode of the season (Face the Raven is the first part of a quasi-trilogy to round off the season) unfortunately is just yet another in a long list of episodes with potential that didn't really go anywhere, and I think it's due in part to Gatiss seemingly trying just a little too hard to finally deliver something truly unique and experimental to his body of work on Who. The germ of an interesting idea is there, but the episode feels badly placed, both in terms of fitting in with the rest of the season (it's a standalone story in a season full of two parters subtly furthering the dangerous codependency of the two main characters) as well as feeling like it got the short end of the stick in terms of filming time, production budget, and post-production care. It also doesn't help that the gimmick relies on that hoary old standby of the unreliable narrator, and though it's intended to further the idea that Rasmussen is pulling something, making the Doctor's final act of the episode to be getting into his TARDIS and just getting the gently caress out of the story while complaining,"None of this makes sense!" doesn't exactly endear it to the viewer. Right from the beginning the stage is set for an unpleasant experience that nobody wants any part of, and that kind of permeates the entire episode. It's intended to represent the characters' fears and desire to escape the death trap they've found themselves in, but for me it created an almost meta level of disdain - even the characters don't want to be there, even the narrator explicitly says,"Hey don't watch this!". We're first introduced to the character Rasmussen, who frequently appears throughout the episode in direct to camera addresses, having laid out the gimmick from the start that what we're seeing is edited together footage from multiple sources that he has attempted to stitch together into a narrative of the events that have plagued his space station. He introduces the rescue crew that have come to investigate the station after all communication was lost, laying out their chances of survival based on their skillsets and experience. This also provides some basic world-building elements that are further elaborated on when the crew encounters the Doctor and Clara, who emerge unintroduced into Rasmussen's narrative, a spanner in the works. http://i.imgur.com/URI5ElD.gifv Rasmussen has created a technology rather unimaginatively called Morpheus - it concentrates the physical and psychological benefits of sleep into an ultra-compressed five minute cycle, allowing corporations to eke twice or more the normal workday of their employees. This is a fascinating and horrible concept, not so much the removal of sleep from the human condition but in the concept of the worker being not just expected but required to work 18-20 hour workdays (if not longer). The utter destruction of the work-life balance all in the name of the golden calf of "productivity". This isn't just a potential use of the machine, it is the use it is specifically designed for and this idea is not only accepted but seemingly actively embraced by the workers. Those who disagree, who complain or refuse to use the machine are contemptuously referred to as Rips (as in Rip Van Winkle), and their objections are showcased in the episode as being primarily concerned with the intrusion into a person's sleep patterns as opposed to the horrific reduction of the human condition into just another interchangeable part in the great ever-running cogworks of business. The concentration of sleep isn't sold as a way to do your work AND enjoy a full day of leisure/home-life, but just to increase the amount of work you can achieve in a single day. But everything I've written is more that the episode really looks into the idea itself - the Doctor quite rightly calls the machine an abomination and talks fondly of the benefits of sleep, but the creation of the machine is merely the delivery mechanism for the far less interesting idea of it accidentally creating sleep monsters that want to eat human beings. This is down to a couple of things: the TV series (classic and revival both) have long seemed to run with the mindset that an episode MUST have a monster whether it helps the story or not, so we get eye-booger monsters in this episode. Secondly, the found-footage gimmick kinda requires some kind of monster involved, though arguably you could have got away with people disappearing/being picked off one-by-one by an unseen force. So Gatiss creates a futuristic society where sleep has been reduced to the point of outright banishment in the name of corporate productivity.... then uses it as the barely seen backdrop for idiots running around on a spaceship being chased by monsters made out of that grit you get in your eye when you sleep. http://i.imgur.com/3Vi70HN.gifv They're not too bad a design, though the concept is just ridiculous and - as the Doctor notes later - don't really make any sense. If people aren't sleeping, how is the grit forming? How is there so much of it? Why do they eat humans? Though the intention is that we discover the whole thing was designed by Rasmussen as a distraction to the actual threat, this suffers one of the major issues plaguing series 9 - making something nonsensical deliberately in order to reveal later that it was intentional doesn't make it any less nonsensical or frustrating to watch. It isn't helped by the crew being so mind-numbingly incompetent that they feel like the comedy characters Gaiman squeezed in Nightmare in Silver. Was this crew sent up to investigate because they were so useless as to be expendable? They have no discipline, panic at the first sign of trouble, never work as a team and the only purpose they seem to serve is as cannon-fodder for the sleep monsters to be able to eat because neither the Doctor or Clara could die. One of them is a "grunt", another interesting idea present purely as window-dressing that would have made a more interesting story than what we got - played by Bethany Black, 474 is the first Doctor Who character to knowingly/openly be played by a transgender, which makes it kind of disconcerting that she plays a character frequently looked upon with open contempt and distaste by the other characters and referred to as "it". The idea is that 474 is batch grown, only 5 years old with limited intelligence, she is designed/programmed for combat... except she seems to be as completely incompetent as everybody else. This isn't helped by a bafflingly awful scene where she knocks out another soldier in order to carry him through a wall of flames to safety. The idea is that she sacrifices herself to save him, being badly burned in the process.... except the "wall of flames" she passes through is laughably non-threatening, with the sleep-monsters even shown to easily step over the low level of flames without issue. And that's a frequent issue with this episode, whether due to a poor scrip-to-screen transition, or due to budget/time constraints, or just out-and-out padding, it seems like there is a ton of stuff in this story that has no impact or goes nowhere on the main narrative. Again, you could argue this is down to Rasmussen not caring so much about making sense as just producing a narrative compelling enough to keep the viewers' attention long enough for his real plan to take effect. But that doesn't excuse the nonsense, like the brief scene where one of the isolated soldiers has to sing a song to the ship's computer in order to get it to open a door. It feels like a derivation of a concept already seen in 42, with the computer's voice sounding distractingly like GLaDOS from the Portal series of computer games, only without the charm, humor and sociopathic tendencies. Or there is Clara snapping in a fury at Nagata for opening fire on a sleep-monster, asking if that is her answer to everything.... when as far as I can recall this is the ONLY time we see her use her weapon, and it seems like a perfectly valid reaction to the situation at hand. There is some clever stuff, of course, like the shift to Clara's POV for some shots after she is pulled into the sleeping-tube, which importantly doesn't get immediately pointed out or have attention brought to it for quite some time. Rasmussen dying halfway through the story despite being present for direct-to-camera pieces is fun since the first time around it leaves the viewer guessing (I'm a fan of his casual,"Oh, I'm not dead. You've probably guessed that by now") and the eventual reveal that the whole thing was designed to distract the viewer (both at home and in-world) from the real threat is well-handled, as it turns what feels like an artifact of the typical found-footage choppy editing style into an actual visualization of the electronic signal that perpetuates the REAL monsters.   Rasmussen is played by Reece Shearsmith, one of the writer/actors who featured with Mark Gatiss in the brilliant League of Gentlemen television series. He has a good mixture of weedy nerd/creepy genius/immoral scientist/coward going on and it is neat to see how he shifts from nervous messenger in his first direct-to-camera piece to creepy mastermind by his last. But like everything else in this story, it feels like wasted potential, and as I've said multiple times already the conceit that he created a nonsensical story that didn't hold up to close scrutiny can't excuse the fact that the story doesn't hold up to close scrutiny. There's a line he has towards the end that sums up the gap between concept and execution pretty well: Rasmussen posted:I do hope you've enjoyed the show. I did try to make it exciting. All those scary bits. All those death-defying scrapes, monsters, and a proper climax with a really big one at the end! Compulsive viewing. Except... well, he didn't succeed. It wasn't particularly exciting, it wasn't really scary, the death-defying scrapes were laughable, the monsters were an okay design but a really bad idea, there was no climax and the viewing wasn't compulsive. If Rasmussen's idea was to make his video viral in that horror movie sense ala The Ring, then he did a pretty poor job of actually doing so and it's possible that his evil plans will ultimately fail because the video he put together gets bad reviews on Space-Amazon (the Doctor complains to Clara in one funny bit that you don't just put "space-" in front of things when you're in space). The final visual of Rasmussen rubbing one eye which just collapses beneath the weight is good and belongs to a better executed version of this story, but like his face this story just tumbles into sand by the end. It doesn't help that this "clever" ending has an unfortunate air of Joseph Lidster to it, with the villain smugly explaining after the Doctor is long gone that actually he totally won and is going to get away with everything and the Doctor will never be any the wiser. It sucks when Lidster does it and it ain't any better with Gatiss doing the same. He has apparently planned a kind of sequel to this episode at some point in the future, but if it comes down to that I hope he abandons the found-footage idea and works harder to realize the potential this story did have. Because it did have potential.... it just didn't realize it. It's not the worst story of series 9, but it's down there, and Gatiss can and should do so much better. http://i.imgur.com/MLFlMIu.gifv Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Mar 28, 2016 |
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Mar 28, 2016 06:05
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If Sleep No More HADN’T been a “found footage” episode, would it have worked better in your mind?
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Mar 28, 2016 11:53
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CobiWann posted:If Sleep No More HADN’T been a “found footage” episode, would it have worked better in your mind? I dont think that's really the right question, as the entire episode is crafted from the premise rather than being merly shot in that style.
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Mar 28, 2016 12:26
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Neddy Seagoon posted:I dont think that's really the right question, as the entire episode is crafted from the premise rather than being merly shot in that style. It's not necessary to go all shaky on the viewer if you want to depict the artificiality of the medium. Inception, for example, is also essentially about creating a film. I think it would actually be more effective if the episode was really slickly shot and edited.
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Mar 28, 2016 12:57
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I think they were so committed to the gimmick that they focused more on that than the actual story of the episode itself. It's certainly not helped by having an unreliable narrator, even if any story can be changed by an editor even in a traditional sense it just ends up making the whole thing seem like a nonsensical mess. Lampshading that by having the Doctor say as much himself doesn't excuse that. They could have done a better story with or without the found footage gimmick, the onus was on them to take whatever format they came up with and make it work. Sadly, it didn't in this case. I'm all for experimentation, but experimentation alone isn't enough to give merit to a story.
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Mar 28, 2016 13:21
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CobiWann posted:If Sleep No More HADN’T been a “found footage” episode, would it have worked better in your mind? I think the plot has some serious issues outside of the found footage gimmick, and removing it would probably just highlight them.
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Mar 28, 2016 14:38
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The first 15 minutes is wonderful
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Mar 28, 2016 16:27
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Jerusalem posted:I think they were so committed to the gimmick that they focused more on that than the actual story of the episode itself. Funny, I honestly had the opposite reaction because I felt like they didn't try very hard to do the found footage part. The not-really-helmet-cams just kind of felt like a cop out to me. Then again I also spent several years making found footage for the internet so maybe I was just Care-Watching too hard.
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Mar 28, 2016 16:28
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I rewatched Time Heist this weekend. It was enjoyable but it wasn't as good as I remember it the first time. Is there any reason that tehy couldn't have just TARDISed the whole thing? FWIW I wasn't following the thread when I first watched it, so I don't know what I'm supposed to think about it. And I have a soft spot for convoluted stories about memory and stories in which The Doctor solves problems by Bill and Tedding them away.
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Mar 30, 2016 00:02
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The Doctor notes that the TARDIS wouldn't be able to land in the bank when the solar storms were as severe as they were, but that was also the only time the Atomic Seal on the vault would be disrupted. Obviously he uses the TARDIS later to go to other parts of the bank and leave things for his earlier self to find, but he claims he wouldn't have been able to break into the vault itself even with the TARDIS if the Atomic Seal was still active.
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Mar 30, 2016 03:17
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 The Doctor posted:The Doctor is no longer here! You are stuck with me. And I will end you, and everything you love. Ironically considering the above, Face the Raven is the one where the Doctor feels most "present" of the entire season. The reason for this, for me anyway, is that this story succeeds in a way where Sleep No More ultimately failed in just being what you'd expect from an ordinary, straightforward episode of Doctor Who. A slightly above-average one for sure, but this episode mostly feels like a standalone in spite of featuring multiple references, a recurring character from throughout series 9, another returning character from series 8, a companion death and a cliffhanger ending leading into the final climax of the season. It basically boils down to a traditional episode of Who - the Doctor is made aware of a mystery/problem and sets about trying to fix things. This is not only true in terms of the traditional structure of a basic Doctor Who story, but in a meta sense this is exactly what Me's plan is all along - having spent over a 1000 years trying to understand everything she can of the strange man who came to her village and resurrected her, she's figured out exactly how to get the Doctor's attention (or hide from it, as she has the last 200 years) and actually sets up the puzzlebox of the murder mystery/Rigsy's impending execution/Anah being alive but imprisoned in a stasis field purely to get him exactly where she needs him to be. http://i.imgur.com/rS0VBap.gifv Rigsy returns from series 8, the graffiti artist from the excellent Flatline who served as the Clara to Clara's Doctor, a dynamic that gets repeated in this episode with fatal consequences. Joivan Wade is a welcome return, he and Jenna Coleman had good chemistry in their previous story and it returns here. And though it's sad that I even have to say this, it's also gratifying that in spite of their obvious chemistry together neither episode has even the slightest hint of any kind of sexual tension between them (a piece in Flatline where their grunting attempts to escape the Boneless could have been misconstrued over the phone goes beautifully no-sold by Danny Pink who wasn't so immature or territorial-macho as to jump wildly to conclusions). This is very much a mentor/protege relationship, Rigsy is in a committed relationship with an (unseen) woman with whom he has a child, and while he calls the Doctor for help it is really Clara he looks to for guidance, a guidance she is all too happy to provide. Clara has taken to adventuring with the Doctor with an enthusiasm rarely matched, and while others were content merely to continue to follow in his lead, Clara is not only eager to take the lead herself but feels stifled when she can't. She revels in the chance to be the Doctor, and Rigsy provides her that opportunity as well as an abiding memory of the time she got to be the Doctor in Flatline and how well it (comparatively) worked out. So this story divides mostly along two lines, as the Doctor investigates the Trap Street Clara and Rigsy are running their own little sideline operation by attempting to instigate a plan B if things don't go well. For Clara, it's an emulation of what she has seen the Doctor do so effectively, and when it all blows up in her face it isn't because she was less capable than him, but because he has an advantage she can never overcome - if things go horribly wrong for him and he dies, he can regenerate. It's that moment when Clara realizes what she has done to herself that she really shines, as she faces up to the consequences of flying too close to the sun and uses her final moments in the same way the Doctor she knows and loves would do, by trying her best to help him and protect others from his wrath. The immediate scenario used to entice the Doctor and Clara in is Rigsy's baffled discovery one morning of a tattoo on his neck. At first it sounds remarkably straightforward, especially when he also comments that he has no memory of the previous day and his phone has been cracked - surely just a night out too heavy on the booze, right? Except the tattoo is of a number, and the number keeps counting down. When the Doctor investigates it, he quickly shifts from indifferent to horrified, as he recognizes the tattoo for what it is, the execution mark of a "Quantum Shade", a dangerous lifeform that can strike across time and space to kill its target when the tattoo reaches 0. With only a few hours to figure out how he got it, the Doctor and Clara go in search of wherever Rigsy was attacked. Since the attack was obviously alien in origin, they hunt for hidden signs of alien occupation, looking first through maps and then at London itself from overhead, trying to pick up on locations where maps don't register and the eye can't seem to lock on to. It's during this scene (and the opening pre-credits teaser) that we see again just how much of a rush Clara gets out of being in death-defying situations, that adrenaline rush of excitement and sense of fun that never quite accepts the notion that things might go wrong. When they find the "Trap Street", parts of Rigsy's memory returns, and they all learn to their horror that he was marked for execution because he allegedly murdered one of the alien inhabitants of the street, a sweet woman named Anah who was loved by everyone. The best part of this is that while Clara refuses to accept that Rigsy could have done so, he himself questions whether he may be guilty or not - he knows he wouldn't have intended to hurt her, but maybe in his panic he lashed out? It is I think a sign of the maturity of the character, he doesn't just outright reject an idea because he can't remember it, and acknowledges that any of us could do something horrible in the moment without intending to.   The Trap Street is a great concept, and it's relatively well executed though some of the special effects are a little wobbly, making use of still shots in places that stand out against the use of actual filmed creatures, especially when they don't quite seem to be on the same angle as their illusory counterparts. There is a bit of a Diagon Alley vibe to the whole thing unfortunately, but the set design and props are remarkable nonetheless and it's obvious how much love and work was poured into its creation. The Trap Street is managed by its immortal mayor - Me - the returning Ashildr who has taken it upon herself to create a refuge for exiles, runaways and other immigrants who are just looking for a safe place without being judged, imprisoned or killed simply for being who they are. There are Cybermen there, Sontarans and many other familiar and unfamiliar races all somehow living peacefully together. The Cybermen are the big shock, but the reveal that a loving couple also suffering under the Quantum Shade sentence of death are Cybermen helps make it work - these are obviously Cybermen in name only, they have rejected or bypassed the emotional blocks and pushed past the meaningless imperative to survive at all costs. So it is for all of them, they're not necessarily good people but they're peaceful ones, and the peace of the street has been shattered by Anah's murder. As the Doctor, Clara and Rigsy investigate it becomes clear that even those who question the official story don't want to make waves - not out of fear of Ashildr, but fear that the revelation that one of their own murdered another will destroy the sense of shared community that keeps them together. They essentially live on a knife-edge, in fear of being discovered by humans or by their own kind, only able to rely on each other to make a little island where they can be safe. So infractions are penalized severely, and thanks to Me's immortality the person in charge of everything remains a constant presence in all their lives. And she doesn't just rule there because the script says she does, and it would be pushing suspension of disbelief to believe that even with her 1000+ years of experience or her killer tattoo that she'd be able to set up and manage the street all by herself. And the episode acknowledges this, as Me reveals towards the end that benefactors have provided her with the means to create and maintain this oasis, and that her rather abominable actions (calling Rigsy to the Street, faking Anah's death, blaming him and giving him a death sentence etc) are the price for this - they want the Doctor, she can deliver, and in return for this betrayal she saves untold lives. The Doctor would probably congratulate her and appreciate the intention behind the deception if not for one thing, and that's Clara throwing a spanner in the works of her carefully laid out plans that, while cruel, never intended to see anybody die as a result. http://i.imgur.com/g2Uj4nK.gifv Because Clara - of course - decides to think like the Doctor and takes entirely the wrong message from the death of the Cyberman by Quantum Shade. That whole thing - both a contrivance of the plot and perhaps cruelly by Me as well - seems designed to showcase that the threat of the Quantum Shade is very real. The tattoo is the mark, and when it hits zero the titular raven will strike, passing through space (and if necessary time) to tear the life out of the victim. But the tattoo can be passed on if both parties are willing, and though the Cyberman refuses to give it to his dying wife, Clara eagerly takes it from Rigsy. Rigsy himself is none-too-keen, but Clara explains that the idea is to force Me's hand. If they can't prove his innocence before the time runs out, then she'll reveal to Me that she has it now and that they'll need more time unless Me wants to be responsible for the death of an innocent. Not quite grasping the significance of guard-alien Rump's explanation of how the transfer works, Clara blindly assumes the Doctor's confidence when it comes to shaking things up and messing with the plans of other people, and this time her death-defying stunt proves not to be a laugh. Because when the Doctor releases Anah from her stasis tube he does so knowing he is going to be caught in an obvious trap but happy to do it if it saves Rigsy, and that is what Me was counting on because she never intended to kill him either.... but she can't do anything about Clara. Though never specified exactly in Rump's words, they were solid enough that she should have realized their significance - the tattoo of the Quantum Shade that Me wears marks her as one half of a contract - the judge to the condemned. She can order the Raven to kill a specific victim, and she can call off that execution... but she never told it to kill Clara. The terms of the contract have been changed, Me is no longer a valid part of it, and now nothing can prevent the raven from striking Clara. The moment this bombshell hits is so well handled by all involved: Me is horrified that her plans have been upended in a way Clara never intended; Rigsy is horrified because he believed Clara when she breezily (but genuinely) told him the swapover was no big deal; the Doctor is horrified because he realizes there is nothing he can do, and Clara is of course horrified because this is that sickening moment when you realize you done hosed up, and hosed up in a way that you can't do anything about. Furthering the ongoing theme of series 9, we see just how far the lengths the Doctor will go to to maintain his codependent relationship with Clara will go. For Clara herself, the whole thing has had a bit of an air of unreality about it, and it is to her credit that the moment the chickens come home to roost she is the one who takes the mature and responsible action. SHE did this, SHE hosed up, and when the Doctor goes on a (terrifying) tirade against Me, Clara is the one who steps in and echoes back to her oh-so-important plea to the 11th Doctor back in The Day of the Doctor - she is going to die and nothing can be done about that, and she means to face it as bravely as she can.... but she doesn't want him to invalidate either that or their time together by forgetting who he is: he is the Doctor, not a warrior. The dialogue between the two is top notch, but it's elevated by the performances, the chemistry between Capaldi and Coleman has been out of this world and has improved Clara as a character out of sight since her sadly compressed time with Matt Smith. She says her goodbyes and walks out to face her death alone, the only person not to run from the raven. And it would be a phenomenal exit from the show if not for a couple of things - the first is that she returns in the finale, though that was not unexpected, and the second is less forgivably that they basically botch her death scene by the baffling decision to show it over and over again from multiple angles to the point that it actually becomes almost comical, which is hardly what they should have been going for. http://i.imgur.com/BByKwgr.gifv Imagine the gif above going on about four times as long as this from multiple angles including close-ups. With Clara gone, the Doctor coldly turns on Me and warns her that he cannot guarantee his promise to Clara not to bring down ruin on her and the Trap Street in revenge. It's both a very un-Doctor-like thing to say as well as completely in keeping with his character - this Doctor has a malice to him when he's angry that I'd argue only early William Hartnell and perhaps later Tom Baker ever exhibited (Baker's disgust towards a drug dealer is one of the only highlights of the otherwise terrible Nightmare in Eden). To her credit, Maisie Williams has sold the entire scene very well by completely discarding the usual smug confidence of Me for the wide-eyed look of somebody who is simultaneously sad at the death she has caused as well as terrified of the repercussions. She doesn't laugh off or counter the Doctor's threats in any way, she just quietly accepts his quiet, dangerous warnings towards her as he is transported away to face whoever her mysterious benefactors are, leaving her in possession of his TARDIS key and his confession dial from way back in the first episode. It's a solid episode, a standard episode written very well that kicks things into high gear in the end as they set the stage for the finale episodes. I believe it is Sarah Dollard's first episode of Who, and based on this I'd like to see her write more, she certainly seems to have the knack for it. http://i.imgur.com/AeaCsEP.gifv Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 10:51 on Mar 30, 2016 |
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Mar 30, 2016 04:49
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My main memory of that episode is when Me says "I do as they tell me and the street is safe" and Capaldi is so delightfully menacing when he clasps his hands together and whispers "They?" "Who are they?"  Capaldi is full of little touches I love, like the delicate way he steps out of the teleporter at the start of Heaven Sent. The writing hasn't always been there for him but acting-wise, whoever follows him has a lot to live up to.
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Mar 30, 2016 05:12
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My favorite part of that episode is when he threatens her if she doesn't help Clara and his threats absolutely terrify Me and horrify Clara. He just sold it so well.
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Mar 30, 2016 05:26
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Yeah, for all of series 9's faults, Capaldi still brings his A game 99% of the time. When he gets a really solid scene or piece of writing he just sinks his teeth in and relishes it. He's pretty amazing in the climax to Face the Raven, especially after most of the episode has had him somewhat sidelined - then Clara's scheme blows up in her face and the Doctor steps forward to take center stage and it's pretty drat great. There's also a hilarious bit where he goes running down the street and passes by the raven, it caws at him and he yells,"Shut up I've still got 10 minutes!" and the raven seems so goddamn indignant about it 
Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Mar 30, 2016 |
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Mar 30, 2016 07:07
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I completely missed Big Finish's March Madness sale (seriously, you had to check their website once every hour?) and I don't see any details about what was put up on offer. Anybody got a listing? Edit: Nevermind, found a listing on their twitter account - it was either stuff I already had or stuff I had no plans to buy anyway 
Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Mar 30, 2016 |
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Mar 30, 2016 22:44
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Kiddo - "I need to watch more classic Who with the Tenth Doctor." Said as I was loading up The Deadly Assassin.
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Mar 31, 2016 14:24
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CobiWann posted:Kiddo - "I need to watch more classic Who with the Tenth Doctor." Tennant's first season was a decade ago. She wasn't able to read then, if I recall how old you've said she was. It IS classic to her.
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Mar 31, 2016 15:57
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Classic by age, maybe. Classic by other definitions? Ehhh....
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Mar 31, 2016 15:59
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All this talk of Classic Who, are we watching Vengeance on Varos?
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Mar 31, 2016 16:29
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 I too shall treasure it for all time
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Apr 1, 2016 09:43
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Peter all standing stock-still and hoping nobody asks if it is okay to kiss him. 
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Apr 1, 2016 10:02
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I think Ian's hand is firmly grasping Peter's bum.
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Apr 1, 2016 10:06
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That's a Peter waxwork surely.
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Apr 1, 2016 10:08
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Fil5000 posted:That's a Peter waxwork surely. I legitimately, seriously don't know. That's what is partly so fascinating about this picture.
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Apr 1, 2016 10:34
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 18:44 |
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Just listened to BF's The Peterloo Massacre, and goddam BF needs to stop hiring Nigel Fairs to do the music. He just recycles the same poo poo he uses in all his other stories.
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Apr 1, 2016 13:19
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