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I ... didn't hate it, but it was all setup. We'll see if Chibnall can stick the landing. I winced at the inclusion of the Weeping Angel, given how badly they've been handled ever since "Blink," but it wasn't too bad here, and it looks like it'll just be a side plot anyway. And while I rolled my eyes at Dan when he was announced as the new companion -- oh wow, a white guy from 21st-century Britain, really stretching for interesting companions are we? -- he's been decent so far. "Hi, I'm a super evil, universe-threatening, eternal enemy of the Doctor who's been somehow erased from her memory" isn't a bad premise to start with, but then Chibnall has a bad history with memory manipulation, so fingers crossed he pulls this one off. And the Swarm/Flux/whatever came across as genuinely scary, especially when it just casually gobbled up Neptune while pursuing the TARDIS into the solar system.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 00:06 |
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# ? Jun 8, 2024 08:47 |
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The episode was interesting, if not confusing.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 00:21 |
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Marmaduke! posted:Could still be the Master. My wife's been watching old Dr Who on Britbox this last year (I've already seen most of it so I'm halfwatching ) and we're just at Logopolis, so the Master being some deformed creature and setting off some scheme that starts deleting part of the universe would be somewhat fitting, I guess? Also all this time and all this Who and it wasn't until yesterday that I found out that this new series was starting. Not the worst episode but I'd have rather been rewatching Logopolis...
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 00:40 |
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SiKboy posted:Oh good, chibnal has gone back to the "the doctor has important things in her past that she doesnt remember" well. I literally broke out laughing at this revelation.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 01:00 |
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*Uncovers eyes* I'm so mad at you jerks who've seen this already. *Covers eyes and runs away*
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 01:08 |
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I enjoyed it! I realize some of that is just down to not having anything new in hundreds of years, but.... I'm interested to see how this Moffat style puzzle box all fits together, and I'm just hopped up enough on Halloween candy and cold medicine to maintain hope that it will.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 02:22 |
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Looks like the Sontarans will be foes but end up as friends. The interesting bit is that it looks to me like that angel was working with (or for) the Doctor and deliberately transporting someone back in time to be somewhen the Doctor will need her. I wonder if Chibnall asked the question "If the angels are from the dawn of time and quantum-locked, what did they need to be quantum-locked to protect themselves from?" Whether Bone-face is supposed to be Fenric or not isn't clear, but so far he and his sister seem to be very much in the Fenric/Gods of Ragnarok mold, suggesting we may be getting Chibnall's version of the Cartmel Masterplan this series. Sadly, the odds of him being Sutekh are just about zero (although he did have a sister!). I'm pretty sure the Black Guardian doesn't have relatives.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 02:22 |
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I'm on board. I've been thinking about Death's End a lot lately and this made me think of Death's End, though it doesn't seem to grasp the hard physics of that (not that I expect Doctor Who to hit the "hard SF" notes).
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 02:51 |
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Narsham posted:Whether Bone-face is supposed to be Fenric or not isn't clear, but so far he and his sister seem to be very much in the Fenric/Gods of Ragnarok mold, suggesting we may be getting Chibnall's version of the Cartmel Masterplan this series. Sadly, the odds of him being Sutekh are just about zero (although he did have a sister!). I'm pretty sure the Black Guardian doesn't have relatives. When I saw the crystals on his face for a moment I thought he was Eldrad, but I guess not!
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 07:07 |
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At first I thought this was just going to be a continuation of the Satan Pit. But seems new/old. I like the design though. This Dan guy is doing nothing for me, though sounds like everyone else likes him.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 07:20 |
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Oh wow Marina Sirtis is going to appear in the new Martha boxset. I know it's not a Doctor who actor but still! There's a bit about it in the new vortex magazine.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 10:57 |
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Confusedslight posted:Oh wow Marina Sirtis is going to appear in the new Martha boxset. I know it's not a Doctor who actor but still! There's a bit about it in the new vortex magazine. Yeah, she's on the cover to the boxset https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-year-of-martha-jones-2227
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 10:59 |
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The Halloween Apocalypse
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 11:43 |
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Doctor Who and the the Attack of the Houdini VFX. I actually quite enjoyed that, just felt it didn't know what sort of tone it wanted and didn't quite earn the big mystery box setup ending. Felt like they were going for Westworld S1, but ended up with Westworld S2.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 11:58 |
Shout out to the random half-arsed Great Value River Song style character intro and death in the middle of the ep. Ep was... fine. I guess I'm just worried about more Timeless Child levels of loving with the series before Chibnall's out so I'm not enjoy it? It was 100% a setup ep tho
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 12:26 |
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It always amazes me how Chibnall's sci-fi names for people or planets or whatever, with loads of K's and V's thrown in, are all so utterly bland and forgettable. They leave the mind the moment after they're spoken. Thought the ep was pretty decent, certainly above average for Chibnall after the pretty ropey Thor Ragnarok cold open. The glam costumes and glitter makeup for the baddies worked really well for me. Like Cenobites who prefer Studio 54 to Torture Garden. I suppose the episode did its job in getting me intrigued enough to stick with it, which I wouldn't have thought possible after the last season and special, but there's the slight feeling of running down the clock until RTD's new vision for the show.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 12:50 |
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Payndz posted:Every so often, I remember "Oh yeah, the Master destroyed a huge chunk of the entire universe almost as an aside, including Nyssa's home planet and everyone and everything she ever knew. Wonder if anything ever came of that?" Nope I'm sure there are stories that call back to previous ones as a hook that aren't terrible, but I can't think of any off the top of my head. Narsham posted:the brutalism of the Sixth Doctor era in particular The most brutalist story is The Sun Makers MrL_JaKiri fucked around with this message at 12:55 on Nov 1, 2021 |
# ? Nov 1, 2021 12:53 |
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MrL_JaKiri posted:I'm sure there are stories that call back to previous ones as a hook that aren't terrible, but I can't think of any off the top of my head. Curse of Fenric? Caves Of Androzani? (You can't tell me the third episode cliffhanger isn't a reference to Earthshock.) Rose's big speech to her mum in The Parting Of The Ways is play on her stuff from Rose too. Or maybe I've misunderstood the meaning of "hook" in this case? In which case, maybe Genesis Of The Daleks counts.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 13:06 |
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MrL_JaKiri posted:I'm sure there are stories that call back to previous ones as a hook that aren't terrible, but I can't think of any off the top of my head.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 13:13 |
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Open Source Idiom posted:Curse of Fenric? Caves Of Androzani? (You can't tell me the third episode cliffhanger isn't a reference to Earthshock.) Rose's big speech to her mum in The Parting Of The Ways is play on her stuff from Rose too. More of a plot hook, so Attack of the Cybermen, or any indeed any episode that brings up previous episodes to fill in the authors pet hate plot holes. There's plenty of times where it's worked well with previous unseen adventures, though, or indeed within the story like The Ark, but in the original run all the excessive continuity was bobbins.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 13:37 |
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Whoa, it's back already? I thought I had more time to catch up for some reason, lol. Somehow I have to fit this in between video games.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 14:37 |
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MrL_JaKiri posted:I'm sure there are stories that call back to previous ones as a hook that aren't terrible, but I can't think of any off the top of my head. I take it you’ve never seen Day of the Doctor? New series is full of call backs. If you restrict the equation to “new stories calling back to classic series in more than a general way,” you still have the call back to Spearhead from Space in Rose. If Sun Makers were a Six story, someone else would have been steamed to death before Leela’s turn came up in order to demonstrate the stakes. And we’ve have seen at least one of the underdwellers tortured to death. Also, the Gatherer would have been steamed to death instead of being thrown off a building.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 14:53 |
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I'm talking about Classic exclusively, obviously there are loads in the new series. (Traken being destroyed comes up a fair amount, although there are some serials where it is just ignored (eg Black Orchid))Narsham posted:If Sun Makers were a Six story It was a Brutalism joke
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 15:10 |
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MrL_JaKiri posted:I'm talking about Classic exclusively, obviously there are loads in the new series. (Traken being destroyed comes up a fair amount, although there are some serials where it is just ignored (eg Black Orchid)) Great Architect identified ITT!
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 15:19 |
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My 7am flight got delayed to 11:35 so I watched Flux episode 1 with all the gravitas Chibnall Who deserves---on airport wifi on my iPhone. I like Dan. I like the line inserted specifically designed to give a nice place for big finish adventures of Yaz and 13 to be slotted
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 15:25 |
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Just watched it. Bombast, Doctor being clever, season-long mystery, imaginative aliens... We've started out Moffat as all heck and I am here for it. If they play Thirteen's theme music when she does something clever, it'll be perfect.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 19:32 |
SiKboy posted:Oh good, chibnal has gone back to the "the doctor has important things in her past that she doesnt remember" well. still watching the episode, stalling before spoilers, but, what is the memory capacity of a human/timelord brain of the mass the brains are? Memories seem to be highly compressible or mutable, and are wildly unreliably in terms of recording the actual physical facts or reality of anything it remembers or perceives, so I don't know if that means it needs more or less space to do whatever it is doing. Point is, it's hard to believe the Doctorses could physically remember their lifetimes, let alone including any other Doctors' life. As a plot device that one seems totally fair to overuse along with "hey name, remember crazy event at outlandish place in whatever time that demonstrates character quirk and the fun we had together?" edit: okay, i mean, alright. i think the stakes are too high off the bat in a way that you know, like, it'll be undone someway (alternately: it's all cool on the other side of the flux) but whatever, the degree of the stakes aren't actually that important. I loved the idea of dog people on a mission to rescue their chosen humans and honestly I like the dogman than i've ever liked whatever kind of dog he is, i hope he sticks around as a recurring guest-companion. the glitter skull villains i liked more than i would think if i just heard them described. Khanstant fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Nov 1, 2021 |
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 19:49 |
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DVRed this and watched it today because Halloween night was for horror flicks. Pretty fun, it's a strong start- like others have said, it's whether they'll stick the landing that's at issue, but here we get to see a lot of cool things happening and the Doctor gets to be active and do stuff and have fun banter with Yaz. I liked "synchronize watches- never mind, I'm not wearing a watch." Dan has potential. They maybe overpush how nice and sacrificing a guy he is (the show's Up With People attitude is often overdone, especially in the Chibnall years) but the actor is good. At first I was annoyed with the dog-alien because it was "Oh another villain we don't take seriously" but then it turns out he's a good dog so that's actually a decent twist. The one plot hole I'll argue is, if the ships can weather the flux and there are enough of them to form a shell around the Earth, why not do that right away? Why did someone have to suggest it? Overall, strong start. Lots of wild crazy things.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 21:00 |
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Khanstant posted:still watching the episode, stalling before spoilers, but, what is the memory capacity of a human/timelord brain of the mass the brains are? Memories seem to be highly compressible or mutable, and are wildly unreliably in terms of recording the actual physical facts or reality of anything it remembers or perceives, so I don't know if that means it needs more or less space to do whatever it is doing. Point is, it's hard to believe the Doctorses could physically remember their lifetimes, let alone including any other Doctors' life. As a plot device that one seems totally fair to overuse along with "hey name, remember crazy event at outlandish place in whatever time that demonstrates character quirk and the fun we had together?" DW's already dealt with that sort of thing with Ashildr/Me, who was immortal but simply incapable of retaining a thousand years' worth of memories. But then, she wasn't a Time Lord.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 21:00 |
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Khanstant posted:still watching the episode, stalling before spoilers, but, what is the memory capacity of a human/timelord brain of the mass the brains are? Memories seem to be highly compressible or mutable, and are wildly unreliably in terms of recording the actual physical facts or reality of anything it remembers or perceives, so I don't know if that means it needs more or less space to do whatever it is doing. Point is, it's hard to believe the Doctorses could physically remember their lifetimes, let alone including any other Doctors' life. As a plot device that one seems totally fair to overuse along with "hey name, remember crazy event at outlandish place in whatever time that demonstrates character quirk and the fun we had together?" Also whatever else one may say about the Timeless Child stuff, it sets a precedent for the Doctor having had multiple lifetimes of adventures she has no memory of. I think that's always been one of the ideas, the Doctor's history is deeper than she even knows.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 21:02 |
Yeah, I already accept there's countless adventures between what we ever see on the television show, or even adding in all the other media. I'm fine with the conceit that DW has existed for more lifetimes than the ones we've met, I just didn't like the whole, "evil unethical science via child torture prompts time-travel" part of things. One downside is that every time there is a character I don't know, I am wondering if that is a past Doctor or maybe forgotten doctor companion secretly.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 21:23 |
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Now that you mention it, it is profoundly strange that the show did a GIGANTIC shake-up to the status quo, didn't deal with it in its immediate follow-up because the special wanted to be about something else, which is fine, but then it's just been dropped completely. I thought we'd have to wait until Rusty came back for The Timeless Children to be memory holed, but alright I guess I'll go with it.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 21:47 |
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'This enemy seems to be from the Doctor's past but the Doctor doesn't remember them' and 'The Doctor had a secret past with pre-Hartnell regenerations due to the Timeless Child shake-up' seem to go hand-in-hand.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 22:03 |
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LividLiquid posted:Now that you mention it, it is profoundly strange that the show did a GIGANTIC shake-up to the status quo, didn't deal with it in its immediate follow-up because the special wanted to be about something else, which is fine, but then it's just been dropped completely. The Doctor was asking the Karvanista about 'the Division', so I don't think it's dropped.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 22:24 |
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Yeah, it's clearly building up to some big reveal. Hopefully something that lets the "previous lives" thing be shunted away to wither and die like it should (they should keep Jo Martin though, she's cool!) and firmly establishes the same thing that has been firmly established time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time again over the course of the revival and the entire classic series (apart from ONE throwaway scene that everybody hated and dismissed), that William Hartnell was the first Doctor. It really, genuinely does bother me that the show would ever try and take that away. Not just because William Hartnell was the first actor, obviously, or that it reeks of a writer desperately trying to stamp their personal mark on the show forever (which will of course be discarded by the next writer regardless, have comic books taught these people nothing!?!), but because the 1st Doctor was an rear end in a top hat when he first appeared. I think it's gigantically important that the Doctor learned to be a better, more "human" person because unlike his people he exposed himself to outside ideas and philosophies, and he grew as a person thanks to his personal experiences with human beings and other "lesser" species and came to reject supremacism and prejudice and eventually become somebody who fought with everything they had to protect people and reject cruelty and malice. Also they call him the Doctor before he used the fake name Doctor Foreman so Susan could go to school and socialize and Ian and Barbara called him Doctor automatically and the name stuck! Turning that into,"There were a million billion Doctors before Hartnell and they were all naturally committed idealists!" is just... ugh. UGH! Anyway forget all that bullshit, I largely liked the first episode and I am keeping my fingers crossed that once all six are out a lot of stuff that kind of doesn't make sense or felt weirdly paced will be recontextualized and come together as a greater whole. I certainly got the impression we were seeing a lot of people/events happening out of order that will come into sharper focus in individual episodes to come. It's new Doctor Who, we're watching new Doctor Who thank God!
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 23:23 |
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Lotta dizzy shakycam shenanigans in this episode, but I enjoyed it overall You have my attention, Doctor Who, let's see if you can stick the landing
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# ? Nov 2, 2021 00:22 |
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I suppose I should forgive myself for not remembering all the details of The Timeless Children considering I watched it so long ago back in last night.
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# ? Nov 2, 2021 00:38 |
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What is the timeless child?
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# ? Nov 2, 2021 02:16 |
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That episode ruled. I was hesitant to watch tonight after I had heard some reactions but am glad I did. Wasn't too into last season but this episode has given me hope for the season. The scene with the alien taking off his helmet was great.
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# ? Nov 2, 2021 02:17 |
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# ? Jun 8, 2024 08:47 |
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The World Inferno posted:What is the timeless child? The Doctor, we are led to believe.
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# ? Nov 2, 2021 02:31 |