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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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Doctor Spaceman posted:Blink is at least a good stand alone episode, whereas Heaven Sent doesn't really work unless you know who Clara is. It works fine, he's a Time Lord from Gallifrey and Clara's his friend who died
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Apr 8, 2016 17:04
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Eleventh Hour followed up by Amy's Choice might be fun.
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Apr 8, 2016 17:33
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Toxxupation posted:Also @jeru: I find it interesting that although we intellectually disagree on the accomplishments or failures of a specific episode very often (zygon inversion is way worse than invasion you monster!), and approach the material from exact opposite perspectives - you from like thirty years of who fandom and me from like barely two, with a significant portion of that being intellectual curiosity over genuine appreciation - we end up in exact lockstep on why hell bent wasn't very good. A really interesting thing about reading your thread was seeing how closely your thoughts about particular aspects of the show paralleled my own, only without any of the background knowledge or even childhood nostalgia that informed the way I came to think. It's certainly not always the case as you note, but it happens often enough. One thing I always struggle with when I'm thinking about the merits or otherwise of an episode is,"Well yeah, but how would a relative (or total) newcomer to the show feel about <x> and would it make any sense to them without the context I have so readily available to me?" and your thread has given me a pretty interesting take on that. The short answer is,"Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't!"
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Apr 8, 2016 17:44
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I was very lucky in that I heard Blue Forgotten Planet just before Hell Bent aired, which hit a lot of the same plot points from a different angle. Between the two, I found the audio more emotionally affecting, largely due to the many, many hours I've spent with... the companion in question. 
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Apr 8, 2016 21:55
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The problem with "The Hybrid", aside from all the others, is they already did the same story in season 5 with The Pandorica, and actually did it better there. (What descends on a world from out of nowhere to bring chaos and destruction to millions? The Doctor, stumbling on a group of Daleks/Cybermem/Sontarans/[Insert Species Here] by accident while they're executing a plan to benefit their own race).
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Apr 9, 2016 08:01
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And as noted, the "spend a season building up <x> as something big only to reveal it was ultimately meaningless and only had "meaning" because the Doctor's enemies chose to believe it did" thing was already done to somewhat better effect in season 7 with the Doctor's name. Which itself gets repeated in Time of the Doctor when Clara tells the Time Lords they're asking the wrong question when they asked for his name.
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Apr 9, 2016 08:38
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Jerusalem posted:And as noted, the "spend a season building up <x> as something big only to reveal it was ultimately meaningless and only had "meaning" because the Doctor's enemies chose to believe it did" thing was already done to somewhat better effect in season 7 with the Doctor's name. Which itself gets repeated in Time of the Doctor when Clara tells the Time Lords they're asking the wrong question when they asked for his name. In fairness in the first season Bad Wolf was built up as a big deal and later turned out to be largely pointless. "Bad Wolf means Bad Wolf" is not much of a revelation.
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Apr 9, 2016 08:43
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Yeah the "Bad Wolf" thing left me a bit  at first. I was like, "did I miss something? That was it?"
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Apr 9, 2016 15:35
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It was like a signature or something.
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Apr 9, 2016 16:16
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At the time, I thought Bad Wolf was really cool because I didn't notice it until the Doctor did in "Boom Town". 
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Apr 9, 2016 19:27
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I'm not entirely certain any of the season keywords have worked exactly. Bad Wolf was the most successful, certainly, because we had no clue what was going on, what RTD was capable of, what it could possibly be, etc.
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Apr 9, 2016 20:33
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Fil5000 posted:In fairness in the first season Bad Wolf was built up as a big deal and later turned out to be largely pointless. "Bad Wolf means Bad Wolf" is not much of a revelation. it wasn't really built up as much of a big deal though. it was just there in the background, right up until the finale two parter. so it only became prominent in any way at the same time as it was shown to be 'largely pointless'.
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Apr 9, 2016 21:45
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Cerv posted:it wasn't really built up as much of a big deal though. it was just there in the background, right up until the finale two parter. so it only became prominent in any way at the same time as it was shown to be 'largely pointless'. You're right, the show didn't build it up so it's not fair to judge it the same way as the hybrid references and such. It got built up a fair bit by the fans spotting the references though, so that's why I may be remembering it as a bigger deal.
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Apr 9, 2016 21:49
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And now it's A Thing You Do. I hope they start moving away from that, though; the story arcs run from superfluous to disappointing. Just do stories and have the stories affect the characters. (Or even not affect the characters. I love my favorite Doctor Who episodes for what happens in the weekly story, not what it does to the Doctor or companions. But I appreciate that I maybe unusual in that way.)
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Apr 9, 2016 22:32
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pgroce posted:And now it's A Thing You Do. I hope they start moving away from that, though; the story arcs run from superfluous to disappointing. Just do stories and have the stories affect the characters. (Or even not affect the characters. I love my favorite Doctor Who episodes for what happens in the weekly story, not what it does to the Doctor or companions. But I appreciate that I maybe unusual in that way.) Nope I agree. I think that the show has just gotten too beholden to the idea that there needs to be some big season arc, and I think they could have just as effectively done the story of the Doctor and Clara realizing their relationship was unhealthy without trying to hammer in the Hybrid stuff, even as a red herring.
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Apr 9, 2016 22:59
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Stupid basic question here. Why is the rest of Gallifrey stupid morons? Why don't they have the same super fast mind processing, actually able to gently caress with time easier than the Doctor, etc. Why are the Doctor and the Master/Missy the only two who have above average IQs?
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Apr 9, 2016 23:01
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If I was showrunner, my thing to join the season together would be to just borrow from the original show and have it one continuous long story, the ending of each episode is the first moment of the next (and take away the Next Time... trailers).
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Apr 9, 2016 23:07
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The_Doctor posted:I'm not entirely certain any of the season keywords have worked exactly. Bad Wolf was the most successful, certainly, because we had no clue what was going on, what RTD was capable of, what it could possibly be, etc. The Cracks worked. Partly because they were more than just a keyword, they were an actual Thing.
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Apr 9, 2016 23:40
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Jerusalem posted:Nope I agree. I think that the show has just gotten too beholden to the idea that there needs to be some big season arc, and I think they could have just as effectively done the story of the Doctor and Clara realizing their relationship was unhealthy without trying to hammer in the Hybrid stuff, even as a red herring. Each of RTD's seasons had a character arc alongside a conventional story arc. Seasons one and two were Rose's story, season three was Martha's story, season four was Donna's story, and the specials were the Doctor's story. Concurrently, season one had Bad Wolf and the Daleks controlling the Earth in 100,000 AD (though the latter dimension of it was only really in "Dalek", "The Long Game", "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways"), season two had Torchwood and to a certain extent the Cybermen, season three had Mr Saxon / Master ("You are not alone", Mr Saxon's agents trying to turn Martha's mother against the Doctor - though I don't think much ever really came of that), and season four had... erm, well it was a bit looser in that sense; it had the stuff about the universe being affected by Davros manipulating reality, didn't it? In any case, the character stuff is what I think RTD was most interested in, and I think it's where his strength lay. As for Moffat, I feel like season five was largely Amy's story. Seasons six and seven were the Doctor, but I don't know if their narrative throughline was as strong compared to what came both before and after them. Seasons eight and nine have been equal parts Clara and the Doctor. That's my impression, anyway. I don't know how to write television. 
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Apr 10, 2016 00:10
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happyhippy posted:Stupid basic question here. Its the same kind of question as "everyone has access to guns, why arent they shooting eachother?" It's a question of differing philosophies. The others are that smart, but they're insufferably arrogant and think non-interference is better so they dont gently caress history up. Getting a set of regenerations out a pocket dimension and into The Doctor was no easy feat.
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Apr 10, 2016 00:17
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The Doctor and the Master think different to most Time Lords, and a large part of that comes down to their intimate exposure to a giant variety of different races/cultures - travel broadens the mind and all that. In the Master's case, it helps that she is batshit insane, but even with the Doctor if you go back to An Unearthly Child he's arrogant, aloof and completely unmindful/uncaring of the dangers he is putting others in. It's only through his exposure to Ian and Barbara that he softens and becomes a more "human" character. None of that was planned of course (initially the Doctor was just supposed to be a human from the future attempting to find a perfect reality for him and Susan to settle down in), but it all worked out pretty well. The rest of the Time Lords are isolated and small-minded even if they are technically intellectually the equal (or superior) of the Doctor.
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Apr 10, 2016 00:52
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The Time Lords are what would happen if the Federation took the Prime Directive to its logical but stupid conclusion; you just end up with a bunch of people in silly clothes and even sillier hats sitting around doing nothing at all
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Apr 10, 2016 01:19
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There's a reason the Doctor left Gallifrey, and it ain't because the Time Lords are engaging and interesting as a people. It's because of looms or some poo poo I assume.
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Apr 10, 2016 01:25
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Wheat Loaf posted:season four had... erm, well it was a bit looser in that sense; it had the stuff about the universe being affected by Davros manipulating reality, didn't it?
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Apr 10, 2016 06:23
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Have they released a soundtrack for the last season? I really need a full guitar version of Clara's theme.
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Apr 10, 2016 07:05
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The_Doctor posted:If I was showrunner, my thing to join the season together would be to just borrow from the original show and have it one continuous long story, the ending of each episode is the first moment of the next (and take away the Next Time... trailers). But then you couldn't have the books & audios filling the gaps inbetween TV stories!
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Apr 10, 2016 09:12
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Rhyno posted:Have they released a soundtrack for the last season? I really need a full guitar version of Clara's theme. Not yet, but series 8 came out in May last year, so hopefully about that time this year for 9.
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Apr 10, 2016 11:09
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greententacle posted:But then you couldn't have the books & audios filling the gaps inbetween TV stories! They'd find a way: Big Finish has a habit of sticking their audio releases in odd places including between episodes that lead into another one. There's an audio between The Sensorites and The Reign of Terror (basically they manage to fix it by making the Doctors reaction at the end of the audio the same as the end of the Sensorites; it's a bit of a bodge) and they've sometimes done audio releases set entirely in the middle of a TV story. The Tenth Doctor audio series is next month, right? I'm intrigued about what it will be like: I hope that it'll be good: its nice to see that there's no Nick Briggs or Daleks, just three stories that seem relatively self-contained. The one thing that I hope is that they take some risks with the range in the future rather than being incredibly risk-averse like they are with the Fourth Doctor range.
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Apr 10, 2016 12:20
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My only real issue with Big Finish is that as much as I enjoy Peri and the 5th Doctor, I think it's a bad idea to have had them had years and years of unseen adventures before Caves of Androzani. Part of what makes that story so great is that the Doctor's so willing to risk everything and sacrifice himself for a companion he barely knows.
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Apr 11, 2016 00:52
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The_Doctor posted:Not yet, but series 8 came out in May last year, so hopefully about that time this year for 9. Has a track list been released? I rewatch the diner scenes just to hear that music.
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Apr 11, 2016 00:54
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Jerusalem posted:My only real issue with Big Finish is that as much as I enjoy Peri and the 5th Doctor, I think it's a bad idea to have had them had years and years of unseen adventures before Caves of Androzani. Part of what makes that story so great is that the Doctor's so willing to risk everything and sacrifice himself for a companion he barely knows. I agree with this. It's another reason I'm fine with wobbly continuity. Either Five knew Peri very well, or basically not at all. It just depends on the story you're reacting to.
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Apr 11, 2016 00:56
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IceAgeComing posted:They'd find a way: Big Finish has a habit of sticking their audio releases in odd places including between episodes that lead into another one. There's an audio between The Sensorites and The Reign of Terror (basically they manage to fix it by making the Doctors reaction at the end of the audio the same as the end of the Sensorites; it's a bit of a bodge) and they've sometimes done audio releases set entirely in the middle of a TV story. I've noticed they tend to do that with Davison's stories alot - there's a few mentions of Tegan and Nyssa stuck in Amsterdam after the events of the Arc of Infinity, and one of the latest audios takes place explicitly immediately after it. Not so much C Baker or McCoy though, but it does happen. I'm kinda surprised at one of the gaps they haven't covered yet; Ace parting company with the Doctor. They've hinted at it, shown him submitting her for the test, and we've seen Ace on her own as a travelling time-person, but never the goodbye itself, as far as I'm aware anyway - there's too many audios to keep up with  It's a good idea really to limit the Daleks; if you think, we've already had Dark Eyes, the War Doctor boxsets, and we're soon to get more with the upcoming Time War boxsets. I'm looking forward to the interplay between Donna and Ten - hopefully that'll take us back a few years 
Pesky Splinter fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Apr 11, 2016 |
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Apr 11, 2016 02:52
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 When taking on most any media I always figure that context is king.... except for when it isn't. For an episode like The Husbands of River Song I think it is tremendously important to consider the context in which it was written and aired - it's mostly a fun lighthearted romp designed to keep the attention of overly fed family members who are lying groaning on the couch or the floor on Christmas night. In that sense, I can forgive a lot of the flaws or problems that might be more aggravating to me in a regular episode. Except as I said context is king except when it isn't, and long gone are the days where something aired once on a particular day/time and then people just moved on. Husbands is a capstone to series 9 even if it doesn't quite have the same connection that the (immensely better) Last Christmas had for series 8, even if the end of that previous Christmas Special also ended up setting the stage for the Doctor and Clara's determination to never give up on their second chance that became so important in series 9. So it's an episode people are going to be viewing outside of the context of its creation for a long time to come, and the question has to be asked, does it stand up on its own two feet? Almost. Because whether in the Christmas context or not, a major issue I have with this story is that it wants so desperately to have its cake and eat it too that it becomes an uneven mish-mash of comedy, tragedy, romance and adventure. None of the elements really flow together, one scene will be played completely over the top for laughs, then another will be poignant and sad, but there is little to no connective tissue between them. So when River Song stops in the middle of a madcap dash to avert disaster to gaze longingly at a planet and pontificate on her fate it just feels clunky. When the Doctor goes from comedically impersonating a companion's first-time exposure to the TARDIS interior to brooding over River's "true" personality - and then to yukking it up with an impromptu auction when they find themselves in a sticky situation - it feels disjointed. Which isn't to say there aren't excellent scenes both comedic and otherwise peppered all throughout the episode, just that it feels more like a collection of scenes than some greater whole. http://i.imgur.com/K2tja4F.gifv This is most apparent in the sudden change in setting. Though there is a linking element that brings the first and second half of the episode together, the shift from the colony world of Mendorax Dellora to the luxury space cruiser/restaurant Harmony & Redemption feels like two distinct episodes. The story is over stuffed, not just with setting but concepts and characters. You could easily do a single episode alone on the robot body that comes to consider itself the superior part of the identity of the organic head it was keeping alive; or a space cruiser of the wealthy murderous elite; of the split-headed Shoal of the Winter Harmony who idolize their despotic invader-King; or even of the attempt to hock off stolen goods to the highest bidder. All of it gets jammed together, including the catfish-man concierge Flemming who caters to the rich and powerful and has silently crafted plans to make use of them for his own purposes. This Christmas Special very much feels like a throwback to the RTD-era, where everything kind of just got thrown at the wall in some giant mess of vaguely realized concepts and jammed together scenes of comedy and pathos. Of course, RTD was generally-speaking really loving good at doing that kind of story, and Moffat's strengths usually lie in other directions. It's nice that he tried something different, but just because it is new or different doesn't automatically make it good. But there is a lot to like about the episode too, and I admit to being a big ol' softy when it comes to bittersweet endings, and I think this does it pretty well. There's a lot of fun to be had with the varying levels of deception going on too. There's the explicit (River is conning King Hydroflax to get at the diamond in his head); the implicit (the suggestion that River just uses and manipulates the Doctor for her own purposes) and even the self-created. The Doctor is completely honest with River and yet her own complete self-assurance in her knowledge means that she never grasps the significance of what he is saying, and so in the end he just kind of goes along with things as she opens up to him in a way she'd never do with him if she knew who he actually was. So she ends up being rather more honest with him than usual, even while all that deception is going on, and while this initially seems designed to set up the idea that she uses and looks down on the Doctor, it quickly becomes apparent just how in awe of him she actually is, and how that affects her own perception of herself.   There are different ways you could look at this perception of River. Some might say it makes her seem idiotic or naive, and I can see that argument being made. For me, I think it adds an interesting depth to her character - she's fully aware of the uneven nature of their relationship even when she seems to hold all the cards (she always lords having the diary over him, but HE is the one who gave her the diary and thus essentially dictated how long her story would be) and much of her flirting and needling boils down to her understanding of a line that the 10th Doctor once told Rose - she can spend the rest of her life with him, but he can never spend the rest of his life with her. Also, despite the Doctor straight up saying to her face,"I am the Doctor, River, it's me, I'm the Doctor. That's me, the Doctor. That's who I am. I am the Doctor" she doesn't grasp till near the end of the episode that is who he is. You could say this makes her an idiot, but I far prefer the notion that River is completely convinced of not only the validity of her information on the Doctor but also its completeness. Even though she knows she will only ever be a small part of his life, she thinks she understands and knows near the full breadth of his. So when some strange surgeon she's never met says,"I'm the Doctor" the thought that he might be THE Doctor never crosses her mind, because she thinks she knows every face he will ever have, and the limits that dictate how many he ever can or will. The notion that the Doctor might be out there with some other face just isn't something on her radar, so she misses the blatantly obvious even when it's right in her face saying,"I'M THE DOCTOR, RIVER! I AM THE DOCTOR!" - so not idiotic, she just can't see the forest for the trees.   Having temporarily escaped King Hydroflax's body only to discover her clients are his worshipers, and then to be turned into bait by Flemming to capture the Doctor, River just lets it all out. In a rather impressive performance, River rails against the stupidity and shortsightedness of Flemming, and it is ironic that she mocks him for his complete lack of understanding of the Doctor only to have her own (sweetly) exposed. With an honesty that she'd never have if she knew he was there, she reveals the extent of her awe for the Doctor, describing him as the sun and stars, a sunshine to be admired and even loved but not something you expect to be reciprocated. The moment when she slowly realizes that the Doctor IS present, is standing right next to her in fact, is great just for the look on her face, topped up lovely by Capaldi's quiet, smiling,"Hello sweetie". His gentle mocking as she attempts to regain her composure is a treat, but there is nothing cruel or meanspirited in it. River simply, genuinely let her guard down for a moment in his presence and is embarrassed to have been overheard. But she hasn't been humiliated, and their back and forth humanizes them both in a way I find far more interesting than any of the many attempts to make her a hyper-competent badass. River: You are so doing those roots. Doctor: What, the roots of the sunset? River: Don't you dare. Doctor: I'll have to check with the stars themselves. In fact River very quickly gets her groove back, as she reveals that she chose this ship as the site of her exchange for very specific reasons. To the previously gloating Flemming's shock, she explains that a meteor shower is about to strike the ship, and she knows this because she's an archeologist and she dug him up. It's a pretty great line, leaving unspoken a lot that explains or re-contextualizes her earlier actions/statements. She seemed to almost thrill to the notion of the ship being peopled by monsters and murderers before, implying she was one of them. But now we know that she was aware they were all mere hours away from a great karmic retribution. Flemming lorded it up over her when he had her diary, but she already knew his entire life story and his ultimate fate, and though they were initially friendly together his callous attempts to use her are now revealed as having always been doomed to failure, his fate already sealed. The Doctor puts a stop to the single-minded (and no-headed) robot body with the money mcguffin, locking it down with the best computer security systems in the universe, and then he and River jostle for position in an attempt to rescue the other while preventing the ship's crash. Quickly realizing the only people they're trying to save are themselves anyway, they just pop back into the TARDIS and leave the murderers to suffer the fate we already knew they were to suffer.   This leads to the end, a last night first mentioned way back in River's first appearance. With Moffat's usual puzzlebox efficiency, the Doctor sets up the funding, creation and success of a restaurant on the planet Darillium, and then organizes the best table in the house for Christmas four years later. River wakes to find herself forward in time and expected, guided to the Doctor's table where he greets her, shows her the famous singing towers and presents her with a gift - a specially reworked version of his old sonic screwdriver. It's hard to say whether actually seeing this final "date" was really necessary, though I'm also one of those who thought way back in series 4 that we'd never actually need to see River again. But whether it was necessary or not, I think both Alex Kingston and Peter Capaldi do a great job with the material they're given. At their closest together there is an unmistakable gulf between them, and though I think it was a mistake to make River so aware herself that her life was drawing near its end it does lead to some great exchanges between them. Playing back on the events of series 9, when River almost desperately suggests that the Doctor will find some last minute way to save her, his reply seems almost cold. But it is due to the realization of how badly he stepped over the line in his efforts to save Clara, rather than just accepting that sometimes your time with somebody has to come to an end. This isn't saving the innocents on his planet from two equally destructive forces, this isn't trying to save the life of a companion or even a stranger from some threat - Clara died and he tried to change that, and realized his mistake too late. River has already died too, way back on the first day he met her, and though he put off and put off their final night together now that it has come he isn't going to try and change time. River puts her heart on her sleeve while the Doctor, try as he might, seems incapable of truly understanding the depth of her need. The line,"You can't expect a monolith to love you back" is excellent, and the Doctor's own reply reveals that of course he is not without compassion, or even a slight variation on an old trick. When River notes this is to be their final night (the Doctor refuses to outright say this) she asks how long night lasts on Darillium, his reply is "24 years". Their closing lines together are perfect, with River saying she hates him and the Doctor telling her she doesn't - both completely comfortable and understanding of the other, ready to enjoy this last gift and coming as close together as it is possible for either of them. The Husbands of River Song is a mess that can't even justify itself by being a Christmas Special. It's tone is too uneven, it's too packed with settings, concepts, characters and guest stars (I barely even mentioned the wonderful Greg Davies as King Hydroflax) and the lack of flow between scenes and locations means that the comic and tragic never quite sit right. But the performances are good, the characterization of the two main leads works for me, and I found the bittersweet ending very touching. As a final River Song story (presumably) it is a good way for the character to go out, and it feels like a natural end to the televised appearances of the character. Perhaps that ending is just a bit too on the nose, but for me seeing the "monolith" that is the Doctor try his best to bridge that gap with River is a lovely, touching moment. He can't be what she wanted or pretended he might be, but they're both always been fully aware of that. On this last night, there's no more games or deceptions or lies, just two old time-travelers settling down for a relatively brief time to enjoy the closest thing to a happy ending their doomed relationship was ever going to have. http://i.imgur.com/mjRXl96.gifv Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 11:21 on Apr 11, 2016 |
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Apr 11, 2016 05:47
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Love your reviews, J-Ru. While both Hell Bent and Husbands were uneven episodes, they both ended on touching notes so they both get an emotional thumbs up from me.
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Apr 11, 2016 06:44
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Thumbs up on the reviews as always. I agree it was definitely an uneven episode in terms of "comedy/drama/pathos/no, comedy!" But as an X-Mas special it's exactly what it was supposed to be - fun, lighthearted, a touch poignant, and with a happy ending. So now that you finished the season, which classic episode do you want to review?
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Apr 11, 2016 10:03
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MysticalMachineGun posted:While both Hell Bent and Husbands were uneven episodes, they both ended on touching notes so they both get an emotional thumbs up from me. Yeah I admit I'm a bit of a sucker for moments like that, but they go a long way towards making me less bothered by other issues that might otherwise have dragged the episode down. The Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe is an example of the opposite being true, the attempt to tug at the heartstrings and give an uplifting final moment feels so awful and contrived that it actually makes me hate all the other really awful bits in the episode that I might otherwise have been able to overlook. CobiWann posted:So now that you finished the season, which classic episode do you want to review? Back to finishing up the last season of the 8th Doctor Adventures, then alternating between the monthly series and each version of Dark Eyes for a bit before I jump onto the 4th Doctor Adventures properly. Also of course keeping up with all the other big stuff Big Finish has coming out. There will ALWAYS be more Doctor Who I haven't experienced yet, and that's a good thing 
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Apr 11, 2016 11:15
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Jerusalem posted:Back to finishing up the last season of the 8th Doctor Adventures, then alternating between the monthly series and each version of Dark Eyes for a bit before I jump onto the 4th Doctor Adventures properly. Also of course keeping up with all the other big stuff Big Finish has coming out. There will ALWAYS be more Doctor Who I haven't experienced yet, and that's a good thing I'm at a gap in the main range now myself, so until I get the cash to fill it (drat it Big Finish, I need a McCoy sale!) I might throw up a Companion Chronicle or two.
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Apr 11, 2016 11:37
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CobiWann posted:I'm at a gap in the main range now myself, so until I get the cash to fill it (drat it Big Finish, I need a McCoy sale!) I might throw up a Companion Chronicle or two. I've just finished the third Sara Kingdom one and those are fantastic. Not least because Jean loving Marsh, but they also have a very evocative framing narrative and convey the feel of the darker/mysterious Hartnell era without feeling retro or nostalgic.
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Apr 11, 2016 18:05
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pgroce posted:And now it's A Thing You Do. I hope they start moving away from that, though; the story arcs run from superfluous to disappointing. Just do stories and have the stories affect the characters. (Or even not affect the characters. I love my favorite Doctor Who episodes for what happens in the weekly story, not what it does to the Doctor or companions. But I appreciate that I maybe unusual in that way.) nope.  I often tell people that Doctor Who is at its strongest when it embraces its strength of being a platform for sci-fi shorts with the ability to investigate literally any premise in any setting, and it's at its worst when it tries to set up a consistent and persistent universe in which the Doctor has continuous adventures and ongoing problems (i.e. when it tries to be Star Trek). And likewise, I say that Star Trek is at its strongest when it works on exploring different subdivisions of the same persistent universe and the ongoing tensions between the various factions, and it's at its worst when it tries to investigate literally any premise in any random setting via the holodeck (i.e. when it tries to be Doctor Who).
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Apr 11, 2016 18:51
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CommonShore posted:And likewise, I say that Star Trek is at its strongest when it works on exploring different subdivisions of the same persistent universe and the ongoing tensions between the various factions, and it's at its worst when it tries to investigate literally any premise in any random setting via the holodeck (i.e. when it tries to be Doctor Who). The only Star Trek that was like consistently that was DS9 (along with a few scattered TNGs). The majority of the franchise is a different place and idea each week, especially in Gangster World/Roman World/Native American World/Nazi World/etc TOS. I still feel the ideal balance would be like X-Files in it's first three seasons: our familiar characters go somewhere new each week, with the possibility of exploring little subgenres, and a Very Few Stories building off each other into an ongoing plot. Spinoffs can totally deal with the ramifications of living in that universe, of course - Gallifrey being my go-to example as always.
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Apr 11, 2016 19:36
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