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Irish Joe posted:I've hated this episode since before it was written. The opportunity to be a sound tech on a Bonnie Langford serial.
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Sep 13, 2014 14:08
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I didn't see this episode on Saturday because I got home late. I didn't see this episode on Sunday because I got sick and crashed before my fiancee and I could watch it. While asleep, I had a reoccurring dream I've had throughout my life - sometimes my bedroom, sometimes a place that's familiar to me (in this case my kitchen, but with nothing on the counter tops), but always knowing something is under the bed/around the corner/down the stairs/just outside the "how the hell did that get opened" front door. So this morning, on cold meds AND with that dream still in my head, I sat down to watch Listen.  This review should be fun.
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Sep 15, 2014 15:29
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 What scares the Doctor? Ghosts of the past and future crowd into the lives of the Doctor and Clara: a terrified caretaker in a children's home, the last man standing in the universe and a little boy who doesn't want to join the army. Listen! Peter Capaldi is the Doctor in Listen. Cast Peter Capaldi (The Doctor) Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) Samuel Anderson (Danny Pink/Orson Pink) Remi Gooding (Rupert Pink) Robert Goodman (Reg) Written by: Steven Moffat Director: Douglas Mackinnon Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N15qtDfix78 Gifs by: J-Ru X X X X X It's fall in the United Kingdom, which means it's time for the annual Philip Hinchcliffe-esque “let's scare the hell out of Britain” episode of Doctor Who.  Listen is Steven Moffat 101, with all the usual timey-wimey aspects one would expect from a Moffat script along with one plot point that can either be considered absolutely brilliant or a plot hole you could pilot a TARDIS through. Add to that a final 10 minutes that overshadows the proceeding 35 and Listen might be the most polarising episode of Doctor Who in a very long time. There is no denying, however, that all 45 minutes of this story are top-notch, specifically the fine directing and great performances by a more minimalist cast.  The Doctor asks a very simple question to himself. “Why do we talk to ourselves when we're alone?” The answer? “Because we know we're not alone.” Enlisting the help of Clara after a disasterous first date with her fellow teacher Danny Pink, the Doctor explains that, throughout history, humans have had the same dream; alone in their bedrooms, with something under the bed waiting for them. The Doctor and Clara travel back in time to a point in her history where Clara has had that exact dream...except, thanks to Clara thinking about her date during their time jump, it's not her having the dream. It's a young Danny Pink. And, indeed, something is under his bedspread waiting for him... For good or for ill, Steven Moffat's scripts try to come at Doctor Who from a different angle. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances saw what would happen if, just once, everyone lived. Blink introduced a new villain that only struck if their victims looked away, while The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon saw villains who were forgotten as soon as their victims looked away. And he took the Time War and the end of the Doctor's regenerative cycle head on in the Name/Night/Day/Time of the Doctor episodes. Listen is classic Moffat, combining the fear of something unknown as the driving force of the story with focused characterization on the story's players. His script mixes in plenty of tense, suspenseful moments, such as the scene with Clara under the bed or the Doctor explaining the “rational” causes for all the noises being heard at the end of the universe. There are very few “jump” scares and “boo” moments so much as a slowly building sense of dread that the actors sell VERY convincingly.  And the highest compliment I can give Moffat for Listen is that he gives the characters time to develop a little bit. We see how Clara and adult Danny fumble towards a relationship, we see Clara's teacher side come through when talking to young Danny, we see the Doctor and time-traveling Orson feel each other out, and the conversations feel natural and not at all rushed. The smaller cast helps as short-term characterization has always been one of Moffat's strengths as a writer. As a whole, however, the episode's various scenes seem very rushed and disjointed. It moves from scene to scene quickly, one plot point rolling right into the next without giving the viewer a chance to breathe. The overall narrative is there, but it goes from “date night” to “children's home” to “date night” to “the end of the universe.” This quick movement really prevents the episode from coming together. There's no chance for that “spark” to catch and ignite the story and make it truly brilliant. Samuel Anderson plays two parts in this episode; Danny Pink, ex-soldier and current school teacher, and Orson Pink, Earth's first chrononaut/time traveler. Now, as Orson Pink, his relative, Anderson nails the confusion about who his rescuers are and his eagerness at getting the hell home. I'm a little unsure about Danny Pink right now. There is a sort of chemistry between Pink/Anderson and Clara/Coleman that's getting a bit lost in the “they're meant to end up together” plot that Moffat seems to be weaving. It's forced, but it's not forced. The “ex-soldier” narrative, I'm very unsure about. I'm willing to give it a little longer, but when almost every comment and reaction seems to be about his military service, it goes from characterizating him to overshadowing everything else about him. There's probably a secret in his past, beyond digging wells and saving villages, but I'm just not invested in his story as of yet. The scene where Clara comforts the young Rupert (to be re-named Danny someday) Pink is another feather in Jenna Coleman's cap. After a series of being little more than a puzzle for the Doctor to solve while she pined for him, Clara Oswald has become one of my favorite companions of the revival. This episode, in the future, should be held up as the answer to the question “why does the Doctor need a companion?” She easily proves to be not only his equal, but his other half. Where he's cold and honest, she's warm and compassionate. He mocks her putting plastic soldiers around Rupert's bed even as she consoles the young child. And in the very end, when the Doctor is scared the most, Clara is the one who who gives him words of comfort and hope. Her part in the Doctor's past was done so much better than the “insert/Rotoscope her into scenes from the Doctor's past” we got during the lead-up to The Name of the Doctor. Instead of coming off as “a special snowflake,” Jenna Coleman's performance is simply one of a caring human being. The viewer isn't being told Clara is being awesome; instead, Clara is just BEING awesome. And it's nice that the usual “timey-wimey” stuff happens naturally and it isn't called attention to in a heavy-handed manner. Clara has an effect on Danny Pink's life, and that's the story I'm interested in seeing from her point of view. Capaldi firmly puts his stamp on the Twelfth Doctor in this episode with a great performance. One of the opinions I've seen about the relationship between the Doctor and Clara has been that the Doctor consistantly insults and belittles her, while she gives back just as good as she gets. A lot of people have asked why Clara would continue to travel with a man who is mean to her. On one hand, such bickering isn't new to Doctor Who. Six and Peri were a Doctor and a companion who seemed to have nothing in common even as they saved each others' bacon amidst sniping and put-downs like good friends always do. But to go a little further down this rabbit hole, the first eight incarnation of the Doctor spent his life running from Gallifrey and a society he didn't fit in to. The War Doctor burned down that society for the good of the whole of reality. The Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors spent more of their lives burdened by the guilt of Gallifrey's destruction. This is the first Doctor in over 1200 years who has no burdens, no traditions to uphold, no society to run from even as it beckons him home from time to time. All the Doctor has is himself and the TARDIS. He has no responsibilities to himself or anyone/anything else. Capaldi's Doctor isn't a dick. Capaldi's Doctor has no filters. Regeneration “fixes the flaws” in the last incarnation, as a rule of thumb. Eleven was one of the more “human” Doctors, integrating himself into Rory and Amy's lives, becoming a roommate in a flat for a brief period of time, and spending 200 years among the residents of Christmas to save them from the galaxy's most ruthless aliens. All that was a burden, whether or not the Doctor felt it. The Twelfth Doctor, on the other hand, has shown himself to be one of the more “alien” races, and with that, most social norms and concepts of politeness go out the window. When he's telling Rupert that being scared is his superpower, he's not trying to be reassuring for Rupert's sake. The Doctor was being reassuring to defeat the monster behind them. The Doctor's not trying to be mean or hurtful, he's just seeing things as they are and either can't take the time or won't take the time to sugarcoat things.  As for his performance in Listen, Capaldi does a fantastic job of an extremely clever man looking for a solution to a problem that may be there...or may NOT be there. What happens when people get bored? They find something do to. In the case of the Doctor, he hits the metaphorical hornet's nest just to see what happens. He goes from curious at the children's home to obsessed at the end of the universe because he has to know the answer. It's not enough to prove that he's right; along the way, he HAS to solve the puzzle. But as the ending shows, maybe the problem was never there at all and the Doctor simply made it up. He went looking for something that was never there. It could have been a Monster A-Go-Go style ending, but Capaldi sells it for all he's worth. He was wrong, he made a mistake, and he was willing to accept that mistake. With that said...WAS there something there? While it is nice to see the Doctor be wrong (someone that smart, they can be that wrong once in a while), that doesn't change the fact that something or someone WAS under Rupert's bedspread and stood behind him, Clara, and the Doctor. There WAS something at the end of the universe knocking on the door to Orson's time-ship. Or, WAS it just a change in atmospheric pressure? Was it an alien or a monster under Rupert's blanket, or one of his fellow housemates playing a prank and wondering why the hell Rupert was having a party in his room? To some people, it's the ultimate cop-out or a huge plot hole that ruins the episode. To me, however, not knowing if there truly was a monster or not falls into the same vein as what the Doctor saw inside his personal hotel room in my favorite Eleven episode The God Compelx. We don't know what he saw, and we could argue it until the end of the universe (Steven Moffat says it's one of the time cracks, I say it's eleven bodies hanging from a noose with the twelfth one waiting for him), but not knowing makes the episode better. And not knowing the truth, whether or not the Doctor simply courted trouble OR ended up overlooking/avoiding it, simply adds to the mystery of this new Doctor. Now, the final ten minutes. I will come right out and say it - I'm wary of anything resembling an “origin” story for the Doctor, and this includes going back into his childhood . For over 50 years, his existence prior to An Unearthly Child was barely touched upon, save for comments about his poor academic record from Romana and a few back-and-forth pieces of dialogue with the Master. This video sums it up much better than I ever could. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc4HSf6NKiQ Listen isn't an origin story. We still don't know anything about the Doctor's childhood that we didn't know before, save that he would sometimes sleep in the barn, didn't want to go into the army (which will probably tie into Danny Pink's story later in the season, a friend of mine wagers), and that the barn meant enough to him that it was where the War Doctor was going to use the Moment to end the Time War. The third one is a nice reveal, the second one is barely a surprise, and the first one is nothing more than flavor text. Clara whispering into his ear some of the things he would later say during his travels, I can buy it, but it's more from Jenna Coleman's performance than Moffat's writing. Again, it's delivered casually, soothing words to a frightened child, not a catchphrase stamped into the side of an anvil being dropped on the viewer's head about just how important the Impossible Girl is. My biggest sticking point is how, once again, it felt seperated from the rest of the episode, a key moment in the Doctor's development that's only tie is that Clara grabbed his ankle at one point from under the bed.  I enjoyed Listen. The ambiguity of the “monster” and the performances by Capaldi and Coleman were above board, but it was, to use a phrase, “timey wimey” in terms of narrative flow and structure. It's a very good episode, maybe the best so far this season, but I'm hesitant to call it one of the best of all time.
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Sep 15, 2014 19:48
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Tim Burns Effect posted:Since we're on the subject of Big Finish again but it doesn't have its own thread, does anyone have any non-DW recommendations? The only one I have so far is Treasure Island but I haven't gotten around to actually listening to it yet. The Robin Hood stuff starring Richard Armitage looks particularly intriguing. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3345654&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=631#post432275339 My write-up for the recent release of Survivors might interest you... LividLiquid posted:It's vague enough for me to still imagine around it, instead of taking all of my input on who a young Doctor was away from me. Exactly. I don't need to know the specifics of the Doctor's time before he left Gallifrey...heck, I don't need to know the specifics of the Doctor's time after he left Gallifrey (re: the running gag about the Terrible Zodin). Even after all these years, the Doctor still has an air of mystery around him and that's part of his charm/appeal.
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Sep 15, 2014 21:59
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Jsor posted:All of them are honestly pretty drat funny on their own (and to be fair, in the first one the Doctor was regeneration-confused as gently caress), but as a pattern it makes me kind of uncomfortable, even independent of any possible feminist issues. Yeah, but Clara gives back just as good as she takes. To me, it's nothing more than two really good friends who needle one another and one of them is more socially inept than the other.
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Sep 16, 2014 01:59
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DoctorWhat posted:heloooo new iPod wallpaper Siri, please change my wallpaper when I regenerate into Sylvester McCoy.
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Sep 16, 2014 21:16
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Bicyclops posted:The Six one is actually just Sylvester McCoy with a wig on anyway. Would that make Eight abandonware?
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Sep 16, 2014 21:41
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Jerusalem posted:I haven't posted much the last couple of days because I've been building a rudimentary time machine so I can go back in time a couple of days and stop myself from listening to Minuet in Hell. Did it work? I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry.
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Sep 17, 2014 10:15
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This review was the poo poo. And gave the story a much more critical eye than it deserves. Really, if they had expanded the Doctor vs. “the Doctor” in the Institute into an hour-long episode for the Eighth Doctor Adventures line, then you could have had a decent story. Instead, what we got was…well, I’m glad McGann came back for the second audio season so we could get The Chimes of Midnight, Seasons of Fear, and Neverland, which more than make up for this major misstep.
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Sep 17, 2014 12:28
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Thunderfinger posted:That's not the one. Someone here in one of the last threads talks at length about it. I wanted to find that post. CobiWann posted:I’ve said for a while that the origins of the War Doctor came from the Fifth Doctor.
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Sep 17, 2014 16:15
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Stop with the Scottish referendum panic!
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Sep 18, 2014 00:00
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DoctorWhat posted:The Marian Conspiracy, The Spectre of Langyon Moor, The Holy Terror, Jubilee | Storm Warning, The Chimes of Midnight, Seasons of Fear | Spare Parts | and The Fearmonger. I would toss in Neverland after Seasons of Fear since it's the "season finale" for Charley's arc. Also, someone on my Facebook feed made an interesting comment - Listen is the closest the TV series will come to making a Big Finish audio-style episode.
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Sep 18, 2014 02:36
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Jerusalem posted:I know this isn't what you mean AT ALL, but I'm tickled pink at the idea of the top item on the agenda post-independence being negotiating an agreement for the continued use of Peter Capaldi in Doctor Who The new bi-lateral trade agreement indicates that the show must include at least one Scottish companion every five series.
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Sep 18, 2014 13:22
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Bicyclops posted:In addition, David Tennant must return to the show and re-film all prior seasons with his native accent. Addendum – Billie Piper must re-record all her dialogue in an Irish accent.
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Sep 18, 2014 14:12
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RodShaft posted:Thanks, guys. I'll grab these to see how I like it. And get the rest depending. Those are very good choices, though you may want to pick up some Six audios before DoctorWhat explodes. Spikeguy posted:I wanted to ask ya'll something because I greatly enjoy hearing the responses. Can you list the defining moment for each Doctor? By that I mean, the scene or action or plot point that you think defines that particular Doctor or the thing that you think characterizes the Doctor the most? Nine – The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances – “Everybody lives! Just this once, everybody lives!” After all he’s seen during the Time War, the Doctor gets one moment where everything goes perfectly right. It’s his pure joy that shines out through the PTSD he’d been hiding in previous episodes. CobiWann fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Sep 18, 2014 |
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Sep 18, 2014 17:03
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Jerusalem posted:I finally broke down and bought DVD copies of The Twin Dilemma and Time and the Rani today. You see, Scotland? YOU SEE WHAT YOU MADE HIM DO?!? Don’t worry, Jerusalem. Look who’s coming back to Big Finish next year! http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/doctor-who-main-range-the-next-fifth-doctor-stories-announced
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Sep 19, 2014 11:27
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Fil5000 posted:I don't know why I'm amused that they're going back to Adric's home world in that first one but they're doing so with the post Adric 5th doctor crew. Waterhouse has done audios, hasn't he? Waterhouse actually just did a series of audios as Adric with Five/Nyssa/Tegan. I’m saving them for when this season is over and I crave my first “crap, I need new Who” fix.
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Sep 19, 2014 13:15
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Davros1 posted:Don't wait. Get them NOW. "Iterations of I" is amazing. It is also surprising humorous. Oh, believe me, the box set is on my shelf and the audios are loaded on my iPhone. I’ve heard nothing but good things. As soon as the finale for this season hits, it’s Castrovalva (which I have never seen) and then these episodes.
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Sep 19, 2014 13:52
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Doctor Zero posted:So this weekend I finally got to meet Paul McGann! You lucky so-and-so!
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Sep 21, 2014 04:46
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I can die happy!
and said to his assistant, "Look at his shirt! I've never seen that! Look! 'The Whos!' ohhh that's brilliant! Look who's in the middle!" 
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Jerusalem posted:Oh good Lord I can't imagine watching Doctor Who with ads It's REALLY jarring. They will pick the appropriate places in terms of story to cut to a commercial, but it doesn't have any of the technical/script lead-up to the cut. It's just "oh, here's silence/a scene transition, let's go to commercial here!" It's been like this ever since the show was originally on Sci-Fi.
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Sep 21, 2014 04:52
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 The Doctor turns bank robber when he is given a task he cannot refuse - steal from the most dangerous bank in the cosmos. With the help of a beautiful shape-shifter and a cyber-augmented gamer, the Doctor and Clara must fight their way past deadly security, and come face-to-face with the fearsome Teller - a creature of terrifying power that can detect guilt. Peter Capaldi is the Doctor in Time Heist. Cast Peter Capaldi (The Doctor) Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) Keeley Hawes (Ms Delphox) Jonathan Bailey (Psi) Pippa Bennett-Warner (Saibra) Trevor Sellers (Mr Porrima) Ross Mullan (The Teller) Written by: Stephen Thompson and Steven Moffat Directed by: Douglas McKinnon Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5MxtpqBIiA Gifs by: J-Ru X X X X X Throughout its history, Doctor Who has visited a multitude of genres; Westerns, murder mysteries, tales of ghosts and goblins, and even war stories. So, when the show decides to take on a genre it hasn't before, the question isn't “why is the showing doing a story like this,” but “why did it take so bloody long for the show to do a story like this?” The plot of Time Heist is exactly what it says on the tin. The Doctor and Clara find themselves involved in a plot to break into the most secure and impregnable bank in the galaxy. Written by Stephen Thompson and Steven Moffat, the plot involves memory wipes, a misfit crew forced to work together, and a nasty head of security who protects the bank's assets through the most brutal of means, all tied together with a bit of time-travel shenanigans. The episode is a series of sequences and twists, with a unique spin on the end goal of the robbery. The story almost takes full advantage of the heist genre, falling just a bit short, but that doesn't stop Time Heist from being yet another strong episode for Peter Capaldi's Doctor.  The phone on the front of the TARDIS never rings. So when it does ring, the Doctor has no choice but to give in to his curiosity...and in an instant, the Doctor, Clara, a mentally cybernetically augmented human, and a mutated human who can assume anyone's physical appearance down to the genetic level all finds themselves in a darkened room, with no idea how they got there and security forces pounding on the door. All they know, thanks to a mysterious briefcase and a video recording from a man calling himself the Architect, is that they volunteered to have their memories wiped in order to facilitate a bank robbery. But this isn't just any bank. It's the Bank of Karabraxos, the most secure bank in the galaxy, with a lethal security system for anyone caught breaking in. And for those inside the bank who are thinking about breaking in, there's the Teller, a non-lethal security method that's the most brutal punishment of all... Stephen Thompson is the writer of two Eleventh Doctor episodes; The Curse of the Black Spot and Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS. Both episodes had can't miss premises (the Doctor on a pirate ship/Clara and the Doctor racing to the heart of the TARDIS to prevent its self-destruction), but both also fell short of their full potential, acting more as montages of scenes and concept than a cohesive story. Time Heist, with Steven Moffat on board as co-writer, boasts a twisting plot that's complex enough to hold the viewer's attention without folding and turning back on itself long enough for them to lose interest or focus. The initial hook of the Doctor and Clara voluntarily having their minds wiped so that they go into the bank heist not knowing anything grabs the viewer from the get-go. From there, the plot moves very quickly, and thanks to the directing by Douglas McKinnon (who also directed the previous episode Listen), the pace doesn't slow down, even when the onscreen action does. This is one of those episode where every penny of the budget was put on screen (although it seemed every patron of the most secure bank of the galaxy was human or humanoid, some alien diversity would have been nice), and McKinnon utilizes the scenery, sets, and props in every single shot. The only time the episode really falters in in the middle of the story; from when they break into the innards of the bank through the final cracking of the vault, there's an awful lot of corridor running. It's broken up by a scene with the Teller in his jail cell, but other than there, the four find themselves splitting up and running for their lives more often than necessary. And it also showcases one of the major flaws in the story. For the most secure bank in the galaxy, it's really not. The tunnels should have had guards throughout them, and I would imagine a lot more security cameras and what not. I've seen Target pharmacies with better security against people buying cold medication to make methamphetamine than this bank.  The supporting cast is one of Time Heist's highlights. One of the more unique creatures in Who history, both in terms of appearance and abilities, is introduced in the Teller, who can read a person's emotions and remove their memories while turning their brains into “soup,” as the Doctor calls it. The Teller's unique look, like he could have walked out of Pan's Labyrinth, and the way the skulls of his victim's cave in once he's done with them, both are sights that will stick with a viewer long after the conclusion of this story. On the human side of things, noted English actress Keely Hawes, who played the female lead in the critically acclaimed BBC series Ashes to Ashes, plays the cold, calculating, and politely vicious head of security for the Bank of Karabraxos, Ms. Delphox. Hawes nails the detached nature of Delphox, who goes about her business with efficiency, but always with the quiet desperation that one breach of security could see her suffer under the gaze of the Teller. Delphox is a very memorable one-shot villain, but one that will be easily forgotten after a few episodes have gone by. It's not any slight against her performance, it's just that her performance fits the standard “security chief in a heist movie” cliché to the utmost. On the side of the bank robbers, noted British theater actress Pippa Bennett-Warner plays the shapechanger Saibra and prolific theater and BBC television actor Jonathan Bailey is the cybernetically enhanced Psi. Their reasons for accompanying the Doctor and Clara along fit their characters and motivations, and the special effects/make-up that go with their abilities are very well done. Psi, for one, is a character I would like to see return, especially after his trick to distract the Teller of flooding his own mind with every wanted criminal in the known galaxy. (And it was also a neat way to slide in a nice reference to a character from the Doctor Who weekly comic strip; Absalom Daak, chainsaw wielding Dalek killer!) This was a bit of an off-week for Clara. In Time Heist, she was along for the ride, and served the role of “the companion whose sole purpose is to ask questions and get in trouble,” much as she did last season with Matt Smith, though this time out Jenna Coleman didn't have to make googly eyes at the Doctor. Coleman did just fine with this episode, helping draw out exposition from Psi and Saibra and serve as the companion in distress to be saved. This was just the first episode this season where Clara was just...there, and it was a bit jarring to realize that fact. It's a good sign, though, as to just how great Capaldi and Coleman have been together and how much character development she's gotten over the past few episodes.  The Doctor is very “Twelve” in this episode, with Capaldi taking charge of Psi and Saibra without a passionate speech or uplifting words, but a cold pragmatism, reminding them that they must have agreed to everything before having their memories wiped. He admits to Saibra at a critical moment that he can't save her, but she can save herself via the “exit strategy” that they discussed before forgetting everything. He realizes there's no other way to get his memories back but to confront the Teller. And in the very end, the Doctor sets the whole thing in motion with one very simple note slipped to the right person. Capaldi has been channeling Jon Pertwee so far, but this episode could have come right out of the Seven Doctor era, with Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred cracking into a bank through some convoluted plan. It's during the climax where the time travel angle shows up, and one can see Moffat's hand in it, but it's Capaldi who sells it, with his mix of confusion, realization, and follow through. Although, the key portion of his plan, a moment where the bank would be most vulnerable, is something that you would expect the most secure bank in the galaxy to be WELL prepared for and have predicted in advance.  It feels like this review is a little short than most (Thank Tom Baker, some of you are thinking. Thank Colin Baker, one of you is thinking. And I know which one. Don't deny it). Time Heist is a very well done “heist” episode, one with no long-term ratifications to the overall seasonal arc that are readily apparent or major character development. It's a straight forward episode from start to finish. That shouldn't take away from the quality of this story, however. No pun intended, Time Heist comes off as a chance for viewers to sit back and enjoy 44 minutes of an enjoyable, well done bank caper.
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Sep 22, 2014 02:49
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Wishful thinking – the bank robbery in Time Heist was related to the aborted bank robbery in Revenge of the Cybermen.
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Sep 22, 2014 14:35
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MrL_JaKiri posted:You are Eric Saward and I claim my five pounds Oh, you so-and-so… Fine. Hold this memory worm while I dig out my wallet.
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Sep 22, 2014 15:45
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Bicyclops posted:If you look at the weathervane from the right perspective it's pretty clear that it's wearing a wig, honestly. Oh here we go, another voyage 'round the English hairline!
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Sep 23, 2014 18:06
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Is this the first time that a companion has started dating someone while they’re still travelling with the Doctor? I’m not counting Amy/Rory because when she actually left with the Doctor, they were already engaged.
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Sep 24, 2014 13:59
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Yeah, they bounce around between Seven and Mel doing a drama The Fires of Vulcan, a comedy Bang-Bang-A-Boom!, and a story with a unique plotting style and really uncomfortable immigrant overtones Flip Flop. Then there’s Seven/Ace picking up from the end of the show (The Fearmonger, The Genocide Machine, Dust Breeding, Colditz, The Rapture). And The Rapture is SO bad, that the big plot point of Ace having an older brother is NEVER brought up again in continuity. And then there’s the two “sideways” stories in The Shadow of the Scourge/The Dark Flame. It isn’t until Hex shows up that the stories focus solely on Seven/Ace/Hex, and their chemistry is SO good, and Hex fills the sibling spot SO well. I still enjoy McCoy with Big Finish, it just took a lot longer for him to find his footing. Plus, they had to have Ace “grow up” into Dorothy so in-her-40’s Sophie Aldred wasn’t still playing a teenager.
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Sep 24, 2014 15:46
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The_Doctor posted:She's no Hex, obviously.
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Sep 24, 2014 18:21
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Bicyclops posted:The most bizarre thing about Something Awful Doctor Who is that in all three threads, there are posters talking about the other threads as though they are an entirely separate culture that they're incapable of interacting with, even though the people posting in all three threads are, by and large, the same and mostly saying the exact same thing in each thread. My God...are we...are we The Almost People?  Quick, is there someone who sort of looks like me posting in another thread?!?
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Sep 26, 2014 20:13
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DoctorWhat posted:Don't worry about it, man. May you find yourself trapped on a 16-hour airline flight with a long-legged, gobby mouthed Australian stewardess.
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Sep 26, 2014 20:22
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MrL_JaKiri posted:No! Not the spoiler thread. My dreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeams of...POOOOOOOSTING!
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Sep 27, 2014 13:40
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Muppetjedi posted:Did someone say Jo Grant? The Pertwee cosplay continues!
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Sep 27, 2014 19:46
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I haven’t see “The Caretaker” yet, so I won’t wade into this conversation… …but Maggie Stables. This one hurts. I’m about a 1/3 of the way through her tenure with Six and it’s been absolutely wonderful, magickal, heartbreaking, and amazing. She’s the perfect companion for the Sixth Doctor; already wise in the ways of the world, she was never afraid to call him out on his BS and admit that sometimes he was too alien and too detached from all the death and destruction around him. Where Tegan only acknowledged it when she left and even then came running back at the end, Evelyn had an entire serial, Arrangements for War dedicated to it. And the last seven minutes of that story are some of the best Big Finish has ever produced. She’ll be missed. I’m very glad Evelyn got a proper, happy ending to her story.
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Sep 29, 2014 16:07
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Brave heart, DoctorWhat.
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Sep 29, 2014 19:10
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Jerusalem posted:Doctor: Davros.... you actually did the dishes! “Hi, Jerusalem? Steven Moffat here. Yes. Yes. Yes, I’m glad they killed Adric too. Listen, I have this Mark Gatiss script here and was wondering if you could give it a wee little rewrite.” And then we just need Murray Gold to recompose "The Odd Couple" theme. CobiWann fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Sep 30, 2014 |
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Sep 30, 2014 17:39
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Big Mean Jerk posted:Honestly, a DW convention seems like a generally terrible idea. All that squee-ing and endless catchphrases. I'll let you know. I'm going to my first ever convention in March, and taking my stepdaughter who insists she dress like Nine and I dress like Two. But it's cool. I get to have tea with Sylvester McCoy and Colin Baker. Or to her, I get to have tea with Radagast the Brown and that fellow in the funny coat.
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Oct 1, 2014 03:29
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 When terrifying events threaten Coal Hill School, the Doctor decides to go undercover. The Skovox Blitzer is ready to destroy all humanity... ...and worse, any second now, Danny Pink and the Doctor are going to meet. Peter Capaldi is the Doctor in The Caretaker. Cast Peter Capaldi (The Doctor) Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) Samuel Anderson (Danny Pink) Ellis George (Courtney Woods) Nigel Betts (Mr. Armitage) Chris Addison (Seb) Michelle Gomez (Missy) Jimmy Vee (Skovox Blitzer) Written by: Gareth Roberts and Steven Moffat Directed by: Paul Murphy Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3mO79TCRCM Gifs by: J-Ru X X X X X One of the major difference between the classic series of Doctor Who and the revival has been how the lives of the Doctor’s companions have been portrayed. In the old days, a companion would join the Doctor, travel with him in the TARDIS, and eventually leave the Doctor. During that time, the companion’s whole world was the Doctor, the TARDIS, and whatever adventures they had alongside of the Time Lord. Once they left the TARDIS, their story (at least on television) was completed and the Doctor would move along, to the next adventure…and the next companion. Starting when the Ninth Doctor took Rose back to her mother’s flat in Aliens of London, the new series has seen the Doctor weave in and out of his companions’ “home” lives. As the companion travels with the Doctor, their family and friends seem to be drawn into the insanity that such travels bring, from Rose’s boyfriend Mickey becoming a soldier in a parallel world, to Donna’s grandfather Wilf knocking three times to signify the end of the Tenth Doctor’s regeneration. The Eleventh Doctor took this to a much larger degree, as he would leave Amy and Rory behind for months on end before coming back to pick them up for another whirlwind excursion. From the very beginning when he took three weeks to get coffee for himself and Clara, the Twelfth Doctor has perfect the art of “dropping in,” landing the TARDIS with precision at both Clara’s apartment and at her school to take her away while allowing her to continue her professional career. As well as giving her the opportunity to develop a bit of a love life.  The Caretaker is a slice-of-life episode, as the Doctor firmly plants himself in Clara’s life as he attempts to flush out a hostile creature with the power to destroy all life, gathering the attention of one Danny Pink in the process. In most circumstances, The Caretaker would have been an interesting, light hearted concept with a hint of drama and danger. But the relationship between the Doctor and Danny throws the entire thing off kilter, overshadowing the rest of the episode by its jarring nature. Clara has been run ragged, juggling her time with the Doctor and her time with her boyfriend, Danny Pink, the two lives within bare seconds and meters of colliding with one another. When the Doctor tells Clara he’s going deep, deep undercover and she must remain at school, Clara sees it as a chance to spend some uninterrupted time with Danny. That is, until the Doctor shows up at school as the temporary caretaker (janitor, for us Yanks). There’s an alien hiding near Coal Hill School, one with the capability to destroy the entire planet. The Doctor plans to flush him out and take him to the end of time, but the process will take a few days. Clara tries to avoid the Doctor’s intrusive presence, but Danny can’t help but notice the connection between Clara and the new caretaker…  Gareth Roberts is no stranger to Doctor Who, having written The Shakespeare Code and The Unicorn and the Wasp. Nor is he a stranger to these types of episodes, as he penned The Lodger and Closing Time. In both episodes, the Doctor casually drops in to the normal, boring life of a young Englishman and does his best to remain unobtrusive while protecting them from an alien menace. Both episodes came off with a bit of sitcom style, as the Doctor’s efforts to remain unobtrusive lead to a mix of farcical comedy, misunderstanding and miscommunication, and grave peril. The Caretaker, co-written by both Roberts and Steven Moffat, definitely attempts to apply those concepts to the story, but for the most part they fall flat. The grave peril is a military assault robot known as a Skovox Blitzer, which looks like a mix between a metal spider and Garrus from the Mass Effect video game series, as well as possessing the aim of an Imperial Stormtrooper. It doesn’t look or act like the type of weapon that could destroy an entire planet, which is what the Doctor is trying to stop throughout the episode. It talks a very tough game, a soldier simply following its orders/programming, but it just doesn’t carry any weight on screen. If it was a case of “could destroy the whole neighborhood/all of London” and did more than off a policeman and blow a hole in a stack of chars, then the Blitzer would be more believable as a major threat. Even if the Blitzer is the plot device used solely to push the Doctor/Clara/Danny conflict forward, it just comes off as silly and unbelievable as a villain to take seriously. The humor is supposed to come from misunderstandings as the Doctor tries to pass for human and Clara attempts to endure his presence at Coal Hill. But instead of focusing on confusion and just the general “strangeness” of the Doctor as caretaker, the attempts at humor instead come from the Doctor being a jerk. Through this regeneration, the Doctor has been acebic with biting comments and insights about the insanity of the situations he's found himself in. In The Caretaker, it seems like this aspect of his personality has been turned out to 11.  The humor is either coming from the Doctor being deliberately obtuse or the Doctor being a raging asshat. Now, to be fair, part of that could just come from Peter Capaldi's forceful delivery, but as soon as the Doctor started wielding the broom to keep Clara away, she wasn't his companion anymore. She was someone in his way. If the stakes were truly as high as the Doctor said they were, than I could buy his detachment and need to dismiss social skills in an effort to get the job done. Without it, the Doctor is just being mean, without any of the charm and grace that his previous incarnations have shown. There's no greater justification for this opinion than the scene in the garden, where the Doctor keeps saying that, because Danny was a soldier, he couldn't possibly be a math teacher. The Doctor, who has seen the width and bredth of time and space and never judges people at face value, makes a judgment in the face of Danny's continued correctness. The Doctor isn't that dense. He's being a jerk to Danny because of his military past and it's uncalled for. And I could chalk up the Doctor's reaction if the Doctor knew Danny was dating Clara by this point in the episode as simply jealousy or “you're not good enough for my friend,' but he doesn't find out until much later. And when he does find out, the episode just goes right to the ground floor and keeps on going. On one hand, the Doctor survived the Time War and has the memories of not only his true sacrifice back, but the memories of everything he did during the conflict memories he isn't very proud of. So I would be willing to accept his dislike of soldiers on those grounds, or perhaps a major case of self-loathing from his time as the War Doctor. But he says to Danny that soldiers just follow orders and don't think for themselves. When he said this, I held up three fingers.    The Second Doctor was pleased as punch to see Sergeant Benton in The Three Doctors. And no less than the Sixth Doctor considered the Brigadier one of his best friends. I can buy the Doctor being anti-military and pro-soldier, not about the armed forces mindset but basing his individual decisions around the actions of the person, not the uniform. But the scene where he cut loose on Danny is out-of-nowhere with its viciousness and venom. Don't get me wrong, Capaldi sold the hell out of it, but it was so incredibly jarring and threw the entire episode out of whack. Danny's response to finding out that the Doctor was “aristocracy” and “an officer” was justified in return, escalating the scene's tension, and Samuel Anderson just lets loose with such a barrage of anger that I wonder if something happened with an officer during Pink's time in Iraq that will come up down the line. It's just as a whole the scene was a sharp contrast to the rest of the episode, save for the Doctor's unjustified anger and rage as Danny being a soldier. For a teacher's whose school and students are threatened, Clara Oswald is more concerned with going about her day and finding out what the Doctor is up to than making sure her students are safe, aside from giving lip service to the concept a few times as well as snapping off a few choice words. quote:“I used to have a teacher like you.” Jenna Coleman was nothing more than a prop in this episode, who's only point was to be torn between the Doctor's life and her time with Danny. And even then, she seemed to lean more towards the Doctor than Danny, not listening to Danny's suggestion to evacuate the school in any way, shape, or form, even to say “we don't have time, listen to the Doctor.” She explains the Doctor to Danny, but doesn't explain Danny to the Doctor (that we see). For an episode set in the middle of Clara's very life and livelihood, I would have hoped for more from the writing for Miss Oswald. I feel like I've been harsh on this episode, but with good reason. Capaldi, Coleman, and Anderson do very well with what the script tasks them to do, but the script doesn't really seem to do the characters justice. Even the very bit at the end, after Danny saves the day by doing this...  ...and the Doctor uses military speak to get the Blitzer to stand down, it just feels like nothing was worth it. Sure, the Doctor and Danny seem to reach a form of detente with one another, but it comes off as...not even forced. Just a tacked-on coda to the episode. Maybe I was just expecting another The Lodger, but this effort from Gareth Roberts doesn't come close to that episode.  The very end of the episode, though, is worth mentioning, as a policeman who was killed by the Blitzer finds himself in what looks like the afterlife...a bureaucracy staffed by none other than Chris Addison, Peter Capaldi's castmate from The Thick of It. With a brief appearance from Missy, I guess it's time to come up with my own theory about what this “Promised Land” is. I think Addison and Missy work in a special portion of this afterlife dedicated to dealing with anyone who's died as a result of the Doctor's actions or adventures, which is why Missy knows the Doctor as well as she claims to. He keeps her busy... Next up - In the near future, the Doctor and Clara find themselves on a space shuttle making a suicide mission to the Moon. Crash-landing on the lunar surface they find the most terrible things... Peter Capald is the Doctor in...Kill the Moon. CobiWann fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Oct 3, 2014 |
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Oct 3, 2014 01:20
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Oh god drat it, Cobi. Nice catch, but I'm now re-installing Deus Ex because you mentioned it you BASTARD. CobiWann fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Oct 3, 2014 |
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Oct 3, 2014 01:24
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adhuin posted:Help needed from Audiophiles. quote:I’ve seen entire species destroyed, civilizations left in ruins. I’ve witnessed solar systems vanish in the twinkling of an eye. I’ve seen things that would freeze your blood... So don’t threaten me, don’t ever threaten me. [...] My real fear is the things I don't enjoy. The things I've seen and never want to see again. [...] Now, entity, what can I show you... let's start with evil from the dawn of time, and go on from there, shall we? [...] I wouldn't make these things up — I couldn't! I saw them all! [...] Well, evil from the past is one thing. But I have seen the future, too... [...] Wouldn't you like to see what's coming? It scares the living daylights out of me. I wonder what it'll do to you. [...] Oh, no, wait-wait-wait! There's worse than that! There are the things that I am afraid I might do one day. quote:You're telling me you don't recognize your archenemy? Surely I'm the most arch enemy you've got!
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Oct 3, 2014 02:53
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Jerusalem posted:The Doctor's attitude towards Danny didn't particular strike me as standing out from how he treats most other people, but enough people have brought up their distaste with it that it seems clear there was some kind of problem in communicating whatever message was intended by the writers. I'm still surprised by just how intense the reaction has been, because this Doctor being ascerbic and stubborn-minded about his initial take on any subject until the weight of evidence comes down against him seems to me to have been well communicated across the entire season so far. "You're a PE teacher." "No, I'm a math teacher." To me, that should have been the weight of evidence. Once is a misunderstanding, twice is understandable, twelve times is something else entirely.
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Oct 3, 2014 03:37
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 05:06 |
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vegetables posted:Peri and the Piscon Paradox is on sale now at Big Finish. Some other stuff is as well, but you should definitely make a beeline to this one first. Along with Solitaire and one Charlotte Pollard... adhuin posted:Thanks for all the suggestions and links. I've slept on it and ended up with this "To the Death"-quote. Good choice!
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Oct 3, 2014 13:43
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