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I'm kind of in the same boat with this one. Lots of good moments, not stitched together terribly well. Second part might make me like it more, but at this point I can only see it going in one of two directions: Doctor shoots Davros as child, Davros as adult reveals that child was a fake, and that this was all a setup to prove to the Doctor that he is also a monster. Doctor shoots the hand mine things, and more things happen in the narrative between the two characters to demonstrate how the Doctor set him on his current path. Neither address the extermination of his companion, Missy, or the Tardis, but we have a planet that was disguised as a space station, so we're already operating from the point where we know that nothing a character sees can be trusted. I hope that isn't the case, and that they go with a more thoughtful solution than pulling back the curtain, but I've seen it too often to not be expecting it. Here's hoping for the unexpected.
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Sep 20, 2015 18:02
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I'm kind of disappointed that they did go with one of the two scenarios I guessed at for the ending. It worked, but I was still hoping it might transcend my expectations a bit. I still enjoy the show for the characters and their interactions, but my god, I wish Moffat would break formula once in a while. I can only handle so many deus ex machina (or his other favorite, love conquers all) endings. I do appreciate that he tried to give it a little credibility during the Missy/Clara segment in the sewer, but they never bothered to clue the audience in on the idea that the Doctor had access to that particular bit of knowledge. Did he visit there while he was joyriding on the seat of power? Did Missy somehow pass this information along? Was it a bluff? That bit just felt clumsy and unearned. The exchanges between Doctor/Davros, I enjoyed. Sure, it got a little hamfisted near the end, but it was well acted, so I didn't mind. Not so much once the trap had been triggered. That would have worked so much better if the Doctor had been a bit more in control. Instead of letting him react to the betrayal with resigned disappointment and follow it up with mischief or anger, they just had him flailing around like an insect stuck to windshield wiper during freeway traffic, and saved the reaction for after Davros' monologue and the Dalek cutaways. I was wrong about how the whole Missy/Clara disintegration bit would be resolved, but only because I felt that resolution was too much of a cop-out to consider. Not just a cop-out, but dumb. If the device was destroyed once it was used, then how did it trigger twice with a delay in between? Was there a second device hidden on Clara? If not, did the second device always have the ability to collect someone remotely? If so, then what was the point of the public tea time meetup in the previous episode if Missy could have simply collected Clara from anywhere at her leisure. At the core, it is still a show directed at children, so I can understand why they cut a lot of the corners they do, but please, once in a while, deliver a story that is solid from start to finish. I don't care if the FX budget has to get cut to get some decent story editors on the job, FX have never been a hallmark of the show.
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Sep 29, 2015 03:35
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2house2fly posted:Missy had two vortex manipulators and slapped one on Clara when they went to the Doctor's goodbye party last episode. I missed that detail, but at least it was there.
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Sep 29, 2015 12:37
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Stabbatical posted: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. This one felt much more like Classic Who. A simple yet conditional threat, a self contained setting, lots of questions being asked that served both the characters and the audience, and consistent pacing throughout. Nothing took me out of the episode like the first two. If they can maintain this for the rest of the season, I'll be happy to pick up another season pass and a DVD box.
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Oct 4, 2015 06:36
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That preview for next week. Peter Harness didn't do a whole lot for me with Kill The Moon, I'm not feeling terribly hopeful about him doing a story with Zygons. Oh well, at least it isn't the Slitheen. As for tonight's episode, it was a nice change of pace. I dig a good character piece once in a while.
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Oct 25, 2015 05:43
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Jerusalem posted:A lot of people are going with the idea that Clara is going to die, but I think they've been pushing more the idea that she's going to leave. We will find out in four weeks. Given that the actress quit after landing the lead in something else, I'm going to go with Dead dead. With a capital D.
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Oct 25, 2015 20:54
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Infinitum posted:At least Moffat's co-writing next week.. it'll come back around.. right? All that means is that in the last 5 minutes of the episode, they'll recover the box that was teased in the original opening, open it to find that it contains the power of love, and then love will conquer all to give us a happy ending. At least I went into this one expecting it to be a massive dud, and walked away thinking -- well, that could have been worse.
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Nov 1, 2015 19:42
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This episode is the first time I've gotten to the end credits and had to say to myself, 'wait, what happened?'. Then I went back and rewatched bits of it to see if I just hadn't been paying enough attention (which, I will freely admit, had been flagging). I've come to the conclusion that, nope, that was just lovely writing, all the way down.
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Nov 16, 2015 01:08
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Gaz-L posted:Oh, it's almost certainly that, and it's almost certainly why they named her that in her second episode, to set up this week's cliffhanger line. This is true. But I think we're all forgetting that she was not the ONLY hybrid who was created via that process. There is a third option.
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Dec 1, 2015 07:23
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Cleretic posted:Okay, I'll admit, this was a bad episode. But it's a great kind of bad episode. There's like six different plot ideas in the one story and they're all absolutely batshit. And they don't so much step on each other as just last for long enough to get to the NEXT batshit idea, without reaching their own potential. It's a really fun lovely finale, and I love it. What struck me as odd about it is how much it screwed with my expectations. It didn't build toward an event which tied up an overreaching story, and any foreshadowing was there to serve as a MacGuffin in order to motivate everyone to do awful things to one another. And what a motive. It is something they touched on previously with the entire "Last Centurion" mythos, where the combination of dedication and guilt will set someone with a seemingly infinite lifespan to the single minded goal of recovering someone they care about. But in this case, the goal was hidden. In the previous episode, it seemed as though he was just being stubborn for the sake of sticking it to the person or persons behind the trap. Now we know it is because he truly didn't know the answer. He suspected, but could not be certain. To pass the truth test, he has to answer "I don't know." and the instant he gives that answer, he is no longer needed. He loses access to the people who so desperately want the answer as well as any power or control he has over them. The only point at which he actually does answer is once he is free of the trap. And he does so in a way that is half-honest. He tells them what he suspects, but cannot confirm, and does so in a way where the alternative interpretation makes him out to be an even bigger threat. I need to re-watch the ending though. I was paying too much attention to the conversation and not enough to the surroundings during the whole sit down with Me, and I'm curious to see how many elements of the prophecy are met in ambiguous ways by the actions within the episode itself.
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Dec 6, 2015 19:11
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Gordon Shumway posted:I really enjoyed the Christmas Special. Like Jerusalem said, it was goofy fun without being too goofy or on the nose with the Christmas stuff, and the stuff with River once she realized he was the Doctor was fantastic. It was a good final episode for her character. Best part, NO CHILDREN.
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Dec 26, 2015 04:31
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AndyElusive posted:My only negative comment is how I don't really understand where in Rivers continuity this episode comes in at. It's after Angels in Manhattan but before Silence in the Library, right? Isn't The Doctor supposed to know less about River when she meets him the closer to her death she gets? Right. After “The Angels Take Manhattan” before “Silence In The Library”/“Forest Of The Dead.” The sonic screwdriver that he gives her is the one that the 10th Doctor eventually uses to turn her into a 'backup save' at the Library. The next time they meet will be his first encounter with her, and her last with him. At least in physical form. edit: Adding tags, even though they probably aren't necessary. I never know how far along or in what order people are watching this thing. EricFate fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Dec 26, 2015 |
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Dec 26, 2015 15:26
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Wheat Loaf posted:Apparently this was Alan Moore's immediate reaction when he was invited to write some DWM comic strips in the 1970s (but he did it anyway because it was better than his current job cleaning toilets). It's not like they're FORCING him to use his beard, he's just doing it out of convenience.
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Dec 31, 2015 22:43
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Rochallor posted:My "favorite" Harlan Ellison story is that a few years ago he was getting rid of a lot of his books, so he put them up for sale. He did this by posting a catalog online and having his wife take requests over the telephone. In 2010. He does that every year, usually to raise funds for charity. He sells some awesome stuff, too.
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Jan 15, 2016 02:53
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