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As a series of pictures and sounds in an order with an underlying meaning, I enjoyed watching it. I didn't think that it worked though. I knew it didn't when I swapped over to Dad's Army on BBC2 after and immediately felt more gripped by the scene where Mainwaring pressured Wilson into talking to Pike about his date to the war dance. The Olde Englande arena was good as a funny bit of pissing around but I couldn't buy any of the serious stuff. Davros was played well, he's always a treat to see. I hope the second half picks up.
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Sep 19, 2015 21:36
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grobbo posted:Yeah, I think the two are pretty much conflated - the pacing issues and the grandiosity. I think this describes it pretty well. There's just too many payoffs (or "moments") and not enough build up. I also wasn't really feeling Missy in this either. She didn't feel actually important or threatening to me, which is odd (and unfortunate) as Michelle Gomez was clearly acting just as well as she did before. The same goes for Peter Capaldi, and Jenna Coleman. Julian Bleach as Davros was still as thrilling to watch as ever though. I just didn't feel the episode over all. Ah well.
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Sep 19, 2015 22:48
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Davros1 posted:Funny you should ask. This was just posted earlier today Wait, really? How many degrees of separation are there between most of the big names in Doctor Who? I didn't think British showbiz could be that small. Also, the visual design of the hand mines, with their one prominent eye, probably also relates symbolically to Davros' becoming a dick as an adult.
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Sep 26, 2015 18:04
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This week was much better than last. I especially liked the part where Davros was congratulating the Doctor on saving his race. I'd like to think the majority of their chat was genuine. Davros: The Most Sympathetic Space-Nazi? Seriously though, every moment between the Doctor and Davros was fantastic. I was also way more into Missy and Clara this week too. All the characters just came across more engagingly, for me, this week. Hybrid prophecy stuff I can take or leave. I'm guessing it's going to come into play with Clara having been inside a Dalek case during that whole regeneration-shenanigan. I also thought the Dalek word-filter made sense; of course they'd have an inbuilt independent thought stopper. It's probably canon inconsistent but who gives a toss about that. Between this and Into the Dalek, I think Moffat is trying to push the idea that the tank is as integral to the Dalek psychology as being a genetically engineered space-hate-race is. I'm alright with that. Judging from the trailer, it looks like next week's bad guy is The Great Intelligence? Or maybe ghosts from the Titanic or something? Just guessing from that one guy in the tophat. Looks cool anyway.
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Sep 26, 2015 21:09
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MrL_JaKiri posted:And just like Whedon's Marvel stuff, even the things that were supposedly deeply connected to the continuity were pointless except in the moment. The poo poo about the Dalek/Time Lord Prophecy, for example. After spending all that effort on making the Doctor just a guy having adventures, the last few episodes have doubled down on the "Doctor is the most important and amazing person in the universe" thing again. The nanosecond laser beam teleporter nonsense? When has the Doctor ever done anything like that? I enjoyed this week but I have to agree with this. I'm not sure when to pinpoint when this started to take over the new series. I don't remember it happening much under RTD but I'm probably misremembering that. It seems pretty constant in Moffat's run though, even The Eleventh Hour had elements of the show doubling down on The Doctor's importance. I think it started to get bad with that the end of S6 and the start of S7.
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Sep 27, 2015 17:04
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Acne Rain posted:Or "shouldn't have explained Davros, everyone should know what a Davros is" I mean really? Davros has only appeared once in Newwho. Not everyone watching is a classic who supernerd who's watched the audiodramas and listened to the episodes and built there own sixth doctor coat.Some perspective might be lost here, I don't think a more casual fan would have that much familiarity with Davros's. And it was like, one line? Idg what's being argued here. Wait, who said that? Who would say that? Surely the story needs to introduce Davros and give some reasons to care for new viewers, like the children which are the main target demographic of this show.
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Sep 27, 2015 17:22
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Maxwell Lord posted:A Deus Ex Machina is something that literally comes out of nowhere. We know regeneration energy is powerful and can be transferred in some circumstances. We know there are decomposing Dalek mutants in the sewers. There is foreshadowing. Ever since regeneration energy became a thing, rather than the Doctor or other timelords just having some regenerations, there hasn't really been any hard-and-fast rules about it. You could write regeneration energy as doing anything and it wouldn't contradict anything. It's basically magic. Besides, regeneration energy wasn't even mentioned in the episode up to that point. If I were new to Doctor Who, it would be totally out of nowhere.
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Sep 27, 2015 23:16
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Kikka posted:the doctors wife isnt a good episode to show to anyone or anything Finally, someone else saw the same episode that I did.
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Oct 2, 2015 16:30
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And More posted:You're totally supposed to be weirded out by it. It's on purpose. Here, read Talking to Girls at Parties where Gaiman basically does the opposite of what he does in The Doctor's Wife. I wasn't weirded out, I was nonplussed. I do mean to re-watch it, as it gets such rave reviews, but I remember just being bored by it the first time. Also I got the context, I just wasn't digging it at the time. Maybe that a few years have passed, I'll be more into its vibe. I gave that piece a read, but I'm not sure how that related to anything in The Doctor's Wife? It was an alright short story, I guess. I've never really read any Gaiman before, the only other Gaiman I know is Nightmare in Steel. Descriptions of his stuff have never sounded super appealing to me, personally. The story didn't come across as remarkable to me.
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Oct 2, 2015 18:28
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And More posted:I was hoping it would convey that Gaiman doesn't play things completely straight. You could read that short story as just a funny bit of nonsense, or you could read it as a commentary on how men or specifically boys perceive women and sexuality. He superficially indulges in Freudian daydreams and wish-fulfillment, but it never feels quite right. I get that those stories had a deeper, non-literal meaning. The episode was about the relationship between the Doctor and the TARDIS, just as the story was about how lads perceive lasses, and both are about communication between the sexes, and so on et cetera. Maybe what I've not communicated is that the starting question, what if the relationship between the Doctor and the TARDIS is like a longstanding human-interpersonal relationship, just wasn't of interest to me at the time. Fundamentally, I wasn't buying what Gaiman was selling. Why would the relation between those two persons manifest itself in such a normal way? It seems like a dull place to take the exploration, even though I'll acknowledge that I can't think of anything that I would've preferred. I wasn't super keen on the (as I remember) twee or self-consciously quirky (not sure I can actually put a good name to it) style that the costume design, dialogue, and even the naming scheme of the secondary characters had. Maybe that put against it from the start, probably unfairly, I can't be certain. I still mean to rewatch it.
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Oct 3, 2015 16:34
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And More posted:I'd like to think that Gaiman does a beautiful job of justifiying every aspect of the episode. From the odd family to the makeshift, ancient look of the characters' outfits, everything ties into the overarching themes of relationships, family and home. Sure thing. ----- Ah, now that was a good episode. Clear, solid plot, so far, good characters, even the Sonic Sunglasses were well-used and understated. The cue-cards gag was hilarious. Very tight all around. I just checked out Whithouse's other writing credits, and his stuff is generally really solid, so hopefully next week will be just as good.
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Oct 3, 2015 21:21
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That was great and refreshingly understated, compared to the bombast of the past few episodes.
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Oct 10, 2015 21:19
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The Viking Farmer Army training montage was funny, and nothing was offensively bad to me, as a guy who doesn't know much about electric eels, vikings, or geography. The mechanics of the contraption at the end weren't really elaborated on, which is fine as it would've all been technobabble anyway. I liked the smallness of the episode, much the like the past two-part story. I also liked that the Doctor was in clear moral conflict about the whole affair, never quite settling on whether he ought to leave be or help or where he should draw the line on helping. I liked his constant doubting, especially when he was kicking himself for making viking girl immortal. The key actors were good, the viking actors were entertaining but I can't remember the names of any of their characters. The cuts to 10's stuff was done as well as it could have been, not too big on the notion of doing continuity based on a casting choice from about 5 years ago but hey ho. Overall, it was alright, pretty standard stuff, the next time trailer looks to be more standard stuff in the same vein.
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Oct 17, 2015 22:45
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2house2fly posted:Donna got zapped into being super smart and stopped the Daleks from destroying the universe, Rose absorbed the time vortex and stopped the Doctor from getting killed. Those only happened in individual episodes, they weren't multiple season long arcs in which the companion saves The Doctor at every point in the past and he spends his whole time trying to unravel her mysterious circumstances. Anyway, episode was good. I think. I wouldn't have done multiple shots of Clara dying but then I don't edit TV for a living so what do I know. Ashilda/Lady Me is pretty poo poo though. Her actress is really dull.
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Nov 22, 2015 21:05
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Burkion posted:Donna was not and is not that. Never that. To save the universe she damns herself. Actually, she got her super-powers from a freak accident. If you trace it back, the universe was saved by Davros's lightning-hand and/or the Sycorax leader chopping off 10's hand.
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Nov 22, 2015 21:11
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PriorMarcus posted:Taken in the full context of her achievements Clara is the single most important person in the series after the Doctor himself. Her influence over his life extends further than any other companions, even his grand daughter. I like to think that got undone by Trenzalore not being The Doctor's grave anymore. Which means we could get more Richard E. Grant as the Great Intelligence, which would be cool (with a good plot).
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Nov 22, 2015 21:18
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2house2fly posted:He escalated the stakes higher and higher every single time. What weird AU have I entered where RTD's time on the show was characterised by sensible stakes and companions who weren't Mary Sues? I want to see the alternate world where RTD stayed on for another series and tried to up the stakes from destroying reality and time. Not sure if the Mary Sue thing sticks though, isn't that term supposed to refer to a self-insert?
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Nov 22, 2015 21:23
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HD DAD posted:This. 4 wasn't the best conclusion, but it was satisfying and had some wonderful moments. I'd have cut the plane stuff. It was time-filling bollocks.
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Nov 24, 2015 20:07
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So was him coming out of his confession dial meant to mean that that was all some kind of dream or something? Or that the puzzle castle was some kind of pocket universe or something?
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Nov 28, 2015 22:14
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Murderion posted:Don't worry, kids! The Doctor didn't really die! It just felt like he did. Billions upon billions of times. In unimaginable agony. After being chased for days on end by a thing from his darkest nightmares. Except when he first used a teleporter. Along with everyone else who's ever teleported but...
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Nov 29, 2015 21:06
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Davros1 posted:Yeah, people were upset about Ten going for weeks without regenerating, while forgetting that Three floated around in the TARDIS for weeks after suffering from radiation poisoning. The precedent for a not immediate regeneration had been established in the classic series. I always like it when people talk about "precedent" being set in Doctor Who, as if the show is like the law or theology.
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Nov 30, 2015 00:58
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Barry Foster posted:The 'self' is essentially a very convincing cognitive illusion An illusion to who, though?
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Dec 4, 2015 00:08
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MrL_JaKiri posted:OK, so to summarise: This is interesting stuff. Is there a book somewhere that collects this kind of trivia, or is this all from assorted sources?
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Dec 5, 2015 01:56
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Wheat Loaf posted:I liked the episode. It wasn't as good as last week's story but that was a very difficult one to follow. I did not feel bored watching it. There's only really been a couple of episodes I didn't really enjoy this season, so I think it has been pretty good on the whole. Same here. My Mum has been watching this stuff since it started in 1963, and the past half series episodes she's started saying to me how since these 'new writers' (she thinks they changed them all after Smith) it's been 'very intense recently, it used to just be light-hearted'. Worse, 'I've got no idea what's going on, it's not really aimed at kids anymore, is it?' I'm inclined to agree. She liked the Christmas trailer though. I enjoyed the series of pictures and sounds I saw tonight, I liked some of the Clara stuff this week, but it (like Clara) never came together as a cohesive whole. I could not look over Clara's character arc (or arcs?) and give you anything too solid about her character traits. Everyone acted the gently caress out of it though, even Maisie Williams who I normally find dull did well. PriorMarcus posted:It's a massive retcon, and at this point means that Moffat has written the entire Doctor's past as fact, whereas before he was in charge we only had brief hints. Also, this is something that's been bugging me about Moffat's stuff for years. He's never seemed content to just pick up the ball and run with it instead of changing the markings of the pitch to his liking.
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Dec 6, 2015 02:29
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Wheat Loaf posted:My dad's been a bit cold on it since Tennant left, because he doesn't think Smith or Capaldi have as much gravitas. Make of that what you will. The man likes his RTD, I suppose. Can't blame him. Really, the last thing I know for certain she really liked was the banter between 12 and Robin Hood. She likes the Cybermen cameos which have shown up in the past few episodes too. I think she thought the Missy/Master reveal was clever? She'd forgotten about Danny by the time Clara mentioned him in Face the Raven. The_Doctor posted:I think I liked that? I always like Time Lord shenanigans, and I loved the design of the Sliders. The hybrid stuff still makes very little sense, and I'm hoping it never turns up again. I think this is the best possible assessment. The Sliders looked great.
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Dec 6, 2015 03:04
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DoctorWhat posted:This is the Doctor Who you get when you decide you want to tell a story about character relationships but have to deal with nerds who complain when there's a sci-fi mythos plotarc and then complain when the arc's actually a red herring and it was supposed to be about the characters all along. I'm not sure that I read anyone complaining that the 'plot wasn't sci-fi enough'. You know that a story can be written which has a focus on character interrelations and a plot which doesn't feel like it's made of wall filler, right?
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Dec 6, 2015 14:31
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Is that John Hurt's face after some CGI trickery or is that just some other guy entirely?
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Dec 8, 2015 15:39
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Dr. Gene Dango MD posted:They heavily inferred it three times, once by Davros, the other time in the confession dial and a third time in the cloister room. While you're right, he never said "I left Gallifrey because I was scared of the Hybrid" I don't know what else it could be. I thought he explicitly said that in Heaven Sent? I must be misremembering it then.
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Dec 10, 2015 21:37
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Eh, actors are precious. The fact that she discussed it in a public interview would indicate that they all talked it over it's fine between them all now. Even if not, it's not our affair.
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Dec 13, 2015 03:42
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DoctorWhat posted:Oh and totally loving DUNKING on what Ten did in Journey's End. That was fan loving tastic. DoctorWhat posted:Hell Bent is all about resolving that. It's about declaring Clara's death in Raven to be insufficient. Doctor Who is really boring if all it's going to be about is rebuking it's own previous episodes.
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Dec 13, 2015 21:54
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And More posted:Self-reflection is boring, now? You're gonna make half the authors of the past two centuries spin in their graves. Self-reflection isn't boring, that's not what I said. I think that viewing the show giving some kind of moral rebuttal to itself (which is how I understand DoctorWhat read last week's one based on what I quoted) is as interesting as broadcasting an Official BBC Apology for The Doctor's bad behaviour (i.e. not very).
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Dec 13, 2015 22:09
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saucerman posted:Oh I think I misunderstood, I was thinking of something like Doctor Who without the Doctor. Nevermind. Like Blink then? 
Stabbatical fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Dec 13, 2015 |
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Dec 13, 2015 22:44
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And More posted:Fairly sure he's instead gonna ramble for twenty paragraphs about the power of Capaldi's acting, actually. To be fair he acted the poo poo out of that monologue, regardless of how well written it was.
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Dec 20, 2015 13:21
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Lottery of Babylon posted:Mark Gatiss would not be a good Who showrunner because all his episodes are uninspired, formulaic, by-the-numbers affairs, and are bad. Sounds perfect for a lead producer job then! Seriously though, he can't be much worse than Moffat has been at times at the actual 'running the show' part of the job. Why does the head of the scripts/overall story need to be the head of the practical stuff/money again?
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Dec 23, 2015 22:41
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Wheat Loaf posted:I wonder if it's a sort of JNT situation where Moffat has to stay because the BBC will can the thing if he goes. I mean, he's not just Steven Moffat any more - he's Primetime Emmy AwardTM winning screenwriter Steven Moffat now. I'd be surprised if it was. Isn't it BBC Worldwide's biggest property? The amount of Doctor Who merchandise alone would compel them to keep it going, plus they don't have Top Gear to fall back on for a while. The main Beeb keeps doing specialised indents and stuff for the show. The Doctor featured semi-heavily in the BBC One Christmas campaign this year.
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Dec 24, 2015 00:23
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That was some fun nonsense. River was the best she'd been in years, Matt Lucas and Greg Davies were great fun to watch. The villains costumes all looked great. Even the continuity stuff was good, and I normally don't like that stuff. Some good comic moments too, like the part when The Doctor complained about monarchy to a stoney silence or the waiter alien discussing his children's mother-eating ceremony. Capaldi's Doctor works well as a grump in a comic farce.
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Dec 26, 2015 12:37
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Jerusalem posted:I don't know if there was a thread for it that I just missed, but I watched the Sherlock special and it was really loving good... how long until they make season 4? I saw it on the day, thought it started strong and ended a bit naff really. I don't think it was half as clever as it seemed to think it was, I wish Moffat would just play things straight just one more time in his life.
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Jan 9, 2016 14:27
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qntm posted:Sherlock's been like that since its first episode, so sounds like a conventional episode. I remember Sherlock S1 being pretty good. Not that I've actually been bothered to check it, mind you. Angela Christine posted:Without Amy we don't get Rory though, and Rory is the best. Rory good. Donna better.
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Jan 9, 2016 21:40
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Random Stranger posted:Which is really everyone's reaction to Harlan Ellison. Actually he owns. quote:DID HARLAN REALLY MAIL A DEAD GOPHER TO AN EDITOR? http://harlanellison.com/text/newsfaq.txt
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Jan 15, 2016 00:59
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CobiWann posted:If you're considering getting into Torchwood, this story is a fine place to start. Well, it's better than some of the other options... 
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Jan 16, 2016 12:31
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