Doctor Who: Is it Christmas yet? Is it Christmas yet? Is it Christmas yet?

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Doctor Who: Is it Christmas yet? Is it Christmas yet? Is it Christmas yet?

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Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

That Christmas episode was the most :effort:

I've seen from Moffat. I like that for once he wasn't trying to cram in everything he could think of, but the dream-within-a-dream stuff was cliched and dull. Being the next best Christmas episode after A Christmas Carol isn't much of an achievement.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2014 10:15

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 02:21

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Astroman posted:

I think that's for weaksauce fans. Go big or go home--watch ALL of both series in chronological order.

Time isn't a straight linear path from one end to the other. Multiple timelines mean it's better to consider it as a surface, where you can see all different paths at once.

Something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-XqZmLhOCY

# ¿ Jan 8, 2015 06:25

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

jng2058 posted:

Re: Watching the Revivial in Chronological Order:

No. Don't do this. It's a bad idea because, unlike Lost, Doctor Who is a real time travel show, so watching it in strict chronological order is meaningless.

Lost has a pretty significant amount of time travel in it.

It's still a really, really dumb idea, for both shows.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2015 07:59

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

vegetables posted:

I remember that people used to say every classic serial with the word "Time" in it was terrible, so one called "Time of Death" would probably cause a lot of people to feel confused.

The Time Warrior is fine :colbert:

# ¿ Jan 8, 2015 14:06

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

jng2058 posted:

Is there? Didn't realize, I never got past the pilot.

Yeah, it pops up a little in season 4 and is front-and-centre for all of season 5 (the two best seasons). At least with Lost "chronological" order would correspond to the viewpoint of a few minor character, assuming you don't try and slot in all of the flashbacks appropriately.

Also Arrested Development Season 4 isn't great chronologically either.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2015 01:34

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Bicyclops posted:

That actually sounds unbearably boring though. Like, even more than Doctor Who, Lost is about telling one larger story and then a smaller story each episode. The larger story and a lot of the Island stuff is riddled with nonsense, which is why it flags a lot in season 3 and in portions of season 6, and you basically lose all of the smaller stories by splitting them up among timelines. I guess I can sort of see watching all the flash-sideways together at the end being a little interesting, but other than that, it would be so boring, particularly toward the end. It's like the Memento chronological cut, I just don't get the point.

Memento is at least was a single story which was written, filmed and produced as a cohesive unit, and the way everything overlaps means everything fits together well. It wouldn't surprise me if the editors made a chronological cut during production, just to check that certain things worked.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2015 15:20

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 22:56

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

The Five-ish Doctors joke about Baker's (non)appearance in Five Doctors was great.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 23:57

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Big Mean Jerk posted:

If Charlie Brooker ever gets tired with Black Mirror (god forbid), I'd like to see him take a swing running Who.

I don't know about showrunning but I'd love to see him write for it too. Grant Morrison as well.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2015 08:21

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

M_Gargantua posted:

I could never figure the exact significance of it being issued in 1990? Crack related? Secretly centurian Rory?

It's a prop that wasn't meant to be looked at too closely.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2015 06:46

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Old Who's pacing suffers a bit from the way it's generally watched nowadays, since marathoning through a story makes it painfully obvious when stuff has been added just to provide a cliffhanger.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2015 11:22

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

I hate the idea of two random representatives from a species negotiating a massive peace treaty. It's not the worst bit of the Silurian 2-parter (because there are lots of other weak bits) but it's probably the only bit of the 50th I thought sucked.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2015 02:24

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

It also really, really didn't need to be a two-parter, and probably only was one because it was the season's "returning classic monster" story.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2015 12:22

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

I was really disappointed when Power of Three felt the need to actually include aliens at the end. I liked the idea of the Doctor (possibly subconsciously) using a weird, inexplicable thing as an excuse to hang out with Amy and Rory over a year.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2015 00:14

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

I got the impression the two-parter change was because of production issues, not because the audience didn't like them.

Also the chicken dance joke in Power of Three is fantastic.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2015 01:37

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

computer parts posted:

I think the Doctor is uniquely qualified to tell how living while the rest of your planet burned feels.

Although I guess he knows it didn't really burn so it doesn't count.

Burning the Earth's atmosphere is getting way too common in the show too.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2015 08:21

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

josh04 posted:

Did people not like Last Christmas? I thought the reception for it here was pretty good.

I found it pretty uninspired and good only by comparison to the average of Christmas specials, but I was in the minority.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2015 02:28

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

I'd have cared a lot less about the bad science in Kill the Moon if they hadn't spent a bunch of time at the start of the episode talking about how the moon was unusually heavy and that the increased gravity was causing tides that caused massive destruction and so on. They made me think about the science at the start and then spent a lot of time ignoring it.

Also the spiders were loving lazy and showed up whenever they needed to fill a few minutes with an easily disposable threat. They serve no other role.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2015 10:45

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

I loved the "oh it's unique and wonderful you can't kill it" idea, as if its lifecycle hadn't caused the death of thousands of species on Earth already.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2015 11:10

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

josh04 posted:

Unlike humans?

I don't see what that's got to do with it.

It's a creature whose lifecycle causes a catastrophic amount of destruction. It's all well and good to say that you shouldn't kill it because it's unique and magical, but by doing so you're dooming a shitload of other stuff that's arguably just as special.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2015 11:36

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

"But the moon isn't make of rock and stone, is it? It's made of eggshell. Which is basically limestone...on second thoughts, nuke the fucker".

# ¿ Jan 26, 2015 11:46

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

josh04 posted:

Again, unlike humans? The Doctor explicitly makes this comparison back in Deep Breath.

Again, I don't see what your point is.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2015 12:07

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

thexerox123 posted:

Rory the Centurion would be an awesome Big Finish line.

I wanted Danny Pink, Cyber Commander.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2015 08:02

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Little_wh0re posted:

Is the silurian 2 parter thr worst episodes of smiths run? The only episode I think might be as bad is wardrobe.

In the Forest of the Night was worse than it even before Rory's death. Rings of Akhaten is about as boring, just shorter.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2015 01:20

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

DetoxP posted:

Rings of Akhatan is the only Smith one I seem incapable of revisiting because I hate it so, so much, but I also haven't revisited the Silurian two parter in ages. Maybe it's worse. Still, I know someone in this thread loves it, but Akhatan is probably my least favourite Smith episode.

Yeah, I've seen people in this thread talk about it highly. I wish I saw the episode they watched.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2015 01:24

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Rochallor posted:

I don't really see what its detractors dislike about it

His speech felt like something I'd heard a million times before, there's one of the more awful bits of sonic screwdriver usage in the show and the (admittedly good) aliens were just background material. I can think of Smith episodes that annoyed me more (Kill the Moon) but those generally have things I really liked, or at least tried (Kill the Moon).

Wardrobe is another stinker though.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2015 01:32

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

qntm posted:

Does that make S6 the "difficult second album"?

It absolutely is.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2015 02:32

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Is the "sorry, Van Gogh was still loving depressed and killed himself" bit at the end of Vincent and the Doctor or later in the series?

# ¿ Feb 4, 2015 04:16

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Timby posted:

The best review was when he spent the first 2,000 words talking about a TV production process that was completely and literally opposite from the way Doctor Who is produced.

Which episode was that? I remember it happening but can't find it.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2015 00:45

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Angela Christine posted:

Aren't the LEGO vidya games more Run-Shoot than Run-Shout? They'd have to base the game on 3.

Depends a bit; there's not that much combat in the Harry Potter ones, and there's always plenty of (fairly easy) puzzle solving.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2015 02:49

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Cleretic posted:

The hardest part of Lego Doctor Who would be knowing when to stop. Sure, it could be a massive thing, but do you start with a New-Who game, then take a bit of a gamble in hoping you can transition into Classic Who for the sequel? Do you go the other way, risking the core audience not even being interested in playing as decades-old Doctors they aren't familiar with? The sequence was obvious with stuff like Star Wars and Harry Potter, but Doctor Who is long and storied, it'd be really hard to pitch in a way that makes sense for a game.

Do a Five Doctors thing, where the companion / Doctor pairings aren't necessarily the ones that actually happened? Hell, you could easily pair Doctors together with that.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2015 05:42

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Cleretic posted:

My experience with Lego games is limited, but as I recall being able to do that yourself is a key part of the gameplay. In replays of levels you can play as any characters you have unlocked, and doing so is actually part of how they handle unlockables. So in this hypothetical Lego Doctor Who, you can easily have Ten and Six team up to go at a First Doctor story for a replay. And there's probably benefits to doing so, because you're bringing a sonic screwdriver to a stage that didn't have one on the first runthrough.

Yeah, you do that a lot when replaying levels just to unlock stuff.

The Marvel and DC games haven't been adaptations of any particular movie and (especially in the Marvel case) involve a lot of team-ups that just wouldn't happen in the movies.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2015 06:52

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

The_Doctor posted:

I'm quite partial to Terror of the Vagina-Flowers, but that's just me.

Yeah, me too actually.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2015 23:18

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Big Mean Jerk posted:

I'd kill to have Morrison involved in any aspect of the show (yes, I'm aware he did DW comics).

Morrison and Charlie Brooker are the top of my dream Doctor Who writer list.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2015 08:07

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Yeah, he really likes the show. eg

Charlie Brooker posted:

All of which brings me to Doctor Who (Sat, 7.15pm, BBC1) - specifically, to episode one of the new series. Now, I've been effusive in my admiration of last year's series - effusive to the point of fellatio, you might say, if it were possible to fellate a television programme, which it isn't, not unless you take a printout of the scripts, furl them into a tube and mimic a blowjob on them, although the weirdness of your actions tends to overshadow your implied praise when you do something like that. Anyway, my anticipation gland was bursting as I settled down to watch the series opener - so you can guess what's coming next. It left me a bit ... well, a bit down.

For starters, there's a bit too much going on given the 45-minute running time: the plot revolves around shadowy goings-on in an intergalactic hospital, but there's also a lot of messing about with supporting characters who feel superfluous to the main storyline, diffusing your attention. It also makes a few jarring tonal shifts - leaping from high camp, to straight horror, to oleaginous sentimentality without warning. And David Tennant, trying to keep up with this, occasionally just ends up popping his eyes and shouting too much.

What I'm saying is it's a jumbled let-down. See what I'm doing here? I'm lowering your expectations. Not because I'm trying to trick you, but because I didn't think it was very good. And I bloody love Doctor Who. Sorry.

If I sound uncharacteristically mealy-mouthed in my criticism, it's because having a pop at Doctor Who actually pains me. In my head, it's come to represent everything that made Britain great - more so than, say, the foundation of the National Health Service. Or Marmite. Or the Sex Pistols. This means I'm mentally ill, obviously - but nonetheless, its 21st century reinvention has been a joy to behold, so when it farts out a bit of a dud, I'm not merely disappointed, I'm crushed - even though, at its very very worst, it's still 10,000 times better than 98% of the rest of the joyless Formica drizzleplop you get on the box.

But hey. Carping over. Now for the good news. All of this - the rush of anticipation, the slow guff of disappointment - all of this is all entirely in keeping with last year's premiere episode, which was also an overexcited manic sprawl of a thing, but turned out to be merely the slightly misfired opening salvo in a dazzlingly brilliant fun-for-all-the-family romp. And if NEXT week's episode is anything to go by, this year's going to be similar. Because next week's episode (also scripted by Russell T Davies) involves a much-publicised encounter with a werewolf guaranteed to make easily-spooked kiddy viewers crap their own spines through their bumholes. It's flipping great (as are Tennant and Piper).

In summary, then, your instructions are as follows: watch with a forgiving eye, because the predictive chart I'm preparing indicates a steep upturn in quality from hereon in. Hooray and phew for that.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2015 14:56

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

I dunno, Curse of the Black Spot and Night Terrors are stunningly forgettable.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2015 06:14

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

I don't dislike either of those episodes, I just find them (especially Night Terrors) fairly run-of-the-mill in a season that has crazy ups and downs, often within in the same episode.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2015 15:11

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

CobiWann posted:

Wow. The karate scene from Warriors of the Deep is even worse IN context.

You could fix Warriors of the Deep just by making it darker. In this specific case you'd just turn the lights off.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2015 23:39

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Arrow's doing Batman Begins but scaled down for TV, which is pretty fitting for the character since he started as "Batman, but with a bow". It's building up to the big comic book stuff, rather than starting with it from scratch.

Also Stephen Amell cares a lot about the show, which is a big change from Tom Wellings.

E: If you tolerate Who's failings and you're interested in Flash and Arrow then you should absolutely give them a look.

Doctor Spaceman fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Feb 18, 2015

# ¿ Feb 18, 2015 06:07

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 02:21

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

There was a multi-Master story already

# ¿ Feb 20, 2015 04:17

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Doctor Who: Is it Christmas yet? Is it Christmas yet? Is it Christmas yet?

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