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Hemingway To Go! posted:Between that and Bill being a well-written black lesbian whose identity is actually well-represented and having an anti-capitalism episode this feels like a really far left season, considerably more so than say, last seasons zysis episodes. I've just caught up with the new series and I was thinking exactly this- the second episode ends with settlers negotiating with natives to share their land, the third literally asks out loud whether a life built on the suffering of others is worthwhile and makes a rich man the villain, and then the fifth goes even further and makes capitalism the villain. It's not like Doctor Who has never had an ideology before, but this is some surprisingly on-the-nose lefty sentiment for a BBC show under a Tory government. Extremis was cool, felt weirdly like a lower-stakes Heaven Sent. I knew about the virtual reality twist going in but I didn't know the actual characters were simulations, and that was a fun thing to slowly realise. Now that I think about it, there was a little thread dangled early on about how every suicide's body was accounted for except one but he probably committed suicide too, and I don't think that ever paid off. Was that the priest in the forbidden library?
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May 25, 2017 18:37
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Avalerion posted:Giving people a crisis to figure out and see how they deal with it seems to be in line with the whole exercise. The Doctor specifically said that part of what the simulation was testing was the reactions of people smart enough to realise they're stimulants so this makes sense. Although in that case why was the villain so keen to take the Veritas from him?
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May 26, 2017 12:04
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radmonger posted:For example, as written the Veritas document wouldn't have worked. Anyone translating from a dead language would inevitably do the numbers first, and then move on to the trickier bits. So by the time they understood the prediction, they already knew what was on then next page.
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May 26, 2017 16:20
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The more I think on Extremis the more I like it. While it might not be realistic that they all commit suicide, I really like that the Veritas proves both that there is no God (in this setting) and that the world was intelligently designed, which makes it intolerable to devout Christians and amazing atheists alike. And the Doctor's acting in the Oval Office is fantastic, his dead voice when he says he read the Veritas is perfect. I really wish Capaldi wasn't leaving because I want to know if I could ever get tired of him.
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May 27, 2017 01:40
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Cleretic posted:Kinda funny, because you described that and I thought of something like the aliens from The Girl Who Died. Enemies who conquer not by actual conquest, but by being really good at convincing their enemies to surrender. The next episode sounds like it's going to be similar to that at least, from the summary they put out. And then the episode after that sounds like it's possible they'll succeed...
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May 27, 2017 14:45
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Ofaloaf posted:I'm never quite sure if Who is supposed to take place in the present or in some near-future that's just far enough removed that we can pretend world leaders are people we haven't heard of yet. Amy and Rory's last five episodes were all like a year apart from each other, and then in the last one they said it was 2012 even though the previous series was explicitly set in 2011 and Angels Take Manhattan had to be 2016 at the earliest.
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May 28, 2017 05:51
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I was really surprised at how contrived the whole lab thing was. I like the idea of a series of tiny events leading to a catastrophe, and I guess accidentally creating a world-ending bacteria by missing a decimal is within the realm of tolerable weirdness for Doctor Who, a show where one villain last series was the gunk in your eyes when you wake up in the morning, but the combination lock looked like a comedy prop and it was only there so the Doctor wouldn't be able to let himself out. Off the top of my head, make the lock a touchscreen, have him need to wire the sunglasses into the bomb to use as a timer, and have him give his sonic screwdriver to Nardole for some reason and that scenario is at least a bit less transparent. It's not like they're scared of for some reason because the lock is already a big cylinder combination padlock for some reason and the sonic couldn't unlock it for some reason. Could they not think of anything better? How rushed was this? I'm also fed up of the president of Earth thing, which I think Harness reused before in the Zygon episodes. Why does he love the Doctor being president of Earth so much? It was originally used in one episode to make a point, it's not some piece of inviolable canon. At least it was used for something here, with the Doctor's position of authority meaning Bill can act as his representative and sell out the world to save him. Which is more than I can say for the simulation, whose use in this episode doesn't really justify having a previous episode devoted to it. Though I guess the previous episode justifies itself by being good in its own right, certainly better than this one.
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May 29, 2017 14:17
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I'm 99% sure she was made lesbian because Steven Moffat wanted to address his image as a conservative fuddy duddy who can't imagine Doctor Who as anything but a show about a white man hero whose beautiful female sidekicks fall in love with him. Hey is the voice of the Monks the same guy who voiced the Mouth Of Sauron in Return Of The King? Edit: no he was not. He's not been in anything I'd recognise him from even though the voice sounds maddeningly familiar 2house2fly fucked around with this message at 15:25 on May 29, 2017 |
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May 29, 2017 15:19
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The_Doctor posted:It's the best run of Capaldi episodes yet. By this time in series 8 I didn't like the first half of Deep Breath, Time Heist or Kill The Moon. So far this series I haven't liked episode 4 and this new one, so as long as they can avoid another forest episode I'm optimistic
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May 30, 2017 00:30
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Vinylshadow posted:What's a Utah Diner doing in the middle of London? Same thing it was doing in Nevada 
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May 31, 2017 17:11
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The whole point of the president of earth thing originally was that it might make perfect sense for all the governments of the world to cede authority to the Doctor when aliens invade but it's wrong for the character. The episode Death In Heaven ultimately had the Master offer the Doctor the same deal as Earth had: take ultimate power to right all the universe's wrongs, like the military officer everyone knows he is. As far as I can tell, the president of earth thing was only used in this episode to have the Doctor be the focal point of the world's authority, allowing Bill to surrender it on his behalf. Which I guess is fine, but she could just as easily have spoken for the human race by virtue of being the only human there with seconds left on the clock. Fingers crossed for the next episode, anyway
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May 31, 2017 21:03
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The "getting too noisy" stuff was Matt Smith, I don't remember it really coming up with Capaldi at all, and I can't imagine he'd care
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Jun 1, 2017 00:47
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Extremis was cool enough in its own right that I wouldn't call it a waste tbh. It's got some laughs, some scares, and an existentially mind_obliterated Doctor. Not bad for a Saturday night.
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Jun 1, 2017 03:21
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That should have ended with present-day earth somehow contacting the Papal Mainframe in the distant future so the Silence can ask them for help, and the Mainframe agreeing to get rid of the kill order in exchange for the Silence coming to work for them as confessional priests.
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Jun 1, 2017 03:55
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I wonder if Moffat even had an original plan for all the "Silence will fall" stuff, or just figured it would come to him as he went. I assumed when it first became clear it would be a multi-season plot that he'd had some big Ultimate Doctor Adventure in his head for a long time that he was building up to but in retrospect it looks a lot more like he was writing by the seat of his pants.
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Jun 1, 2017 13:41
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Clara's grandmother was just a horny old lady
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Jun 1, 2017 13:56
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The scene can be sort of retroactively interpreted as River blowing it up without realising what she's doing, due to Silence brainwashing etc. Or it was some invisible alien who works for the Silence I guess
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Jun 1, 2017 14:51
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Well find out what it is and dish for fucks sakespectralent posted:Gonna admit I totally missed that the TARDIS exploding was ever answered.
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Jun 1, 2017 22:31
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Frankly what's more egregious is that they planned to kill the Doctor at Lake Silencio and pull some science wizardry to make it a fixed point in time so he could never be saved, but they neglected to do anything at all to lure him there. He just went there because he found out he was going to go there. What the gently caress was their plan, just assume he'd eventually show up?
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Jun 1, 2017 23:29
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Well that's unexpected. So it's not that he doesn't want to do it, it's that higher ups don't want him? I'd guess they want someone cheaper
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Jun 1, 2017 23:52
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Wheat Loaf posted:Any clue who? I'd bet Mark Gatiss, but mainly because I don't know many behind the scenes people in UK TV and of the ones I do know he's the most high-profile and who's been around the longest.
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Jun 2, 2017 01:21
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Goofus: casts a veteran actor whose performance is such that you could believe it's the part he was born to play Gallant: casts a dashing hunk Big Mean Jerk posted:If nothing else, maybe Chibnall can actually run the show without ridiculous delays, budget problems, and BTS drama. It's been said before, but during Moffat's tenure he managed to waste two of the best actors to ever play the role because he couldn't run the show in a professional and effective manner. The BBC's reaction and desire for a more marketable Doctor shouldn't be surprising, and Moffat should be held accountable for his fuckups instead of lauded by the fanbase for his half-assed output. 2house2fly fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Jun 2, 2017 |
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Jun 2, 2017 02:50
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Yvonmukluk posted:Yeah, whatever the foibles of RTD as a writer, the man could sure as hell produce the show consistently. Does anyone have an idea of how many series/episodes we've lost due to mismangement, as opposed to if we'd gotten the same consistency of 13 + Christmas Special annually of the RTD years? Well, there was no 2013 series (the episodes broadcast in 2013 were the back half of the 2012 series) and in 2014 and 15 the run was reduced from 13 to 12, so that's 15 episodes there, plus another 13 for 2015 makes 28. I'm hesitant to lay the 13-12 reduction at Moffat's feet though, really, that could be just BBC budget cuts.
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Jun 2, 2017 14:35
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That was 2012-2013
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Jun 2, 2017 15:07
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I didn't like how it betrayed its premise almost immediately, everyone even the Doctor being brainwashed and Bill having to do something about it sounded really interesting. I don't know why they had to spend so much time building up to that fakeout when they could have spent any amount of time at all on the monks, why they dress up as monks, or what they get out of ruling the world. I don't get the point of the line last week having the monks "take a form you are comfortable with" or whatever when there was no "true form" reveal. Why do they even dress like monks? Is it an atheist message about religion preaching lies to control people? Why does Bill's mental construct of her mother beat them? Is it like a bookend to Extremis, the monks getting defeated by the real-world presence of a fictional character? How does the fake version of Bill's mother beat the monks' fake version of history? Wouldn't a lie be beaten by the truth? Also, it's not the episode's fault but I was expecting "i want you next to me because it's the safest place on earth" to be a clever reversal and the Doctor actually thought he'd be safest with Bill since she's keeping the fake memories going so the monks wouldn't want to harm her. Why were they zombies in monk outfits?! Overall, I think Extremis should have ended with a Family Of Blood style montage of the Doctor beating the aliens and done something else for the two following episodes.
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Jun 3, 2017 23:33
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Jerusalem posted:Even if the Master isn't putting on an act (which she almost certainly is), 70+ years of sitting in a room that only got a piano in the last couple months probably has her so bored that she's turned introspective and gotten a bit weepy. The very second she's outside and free again she'll immediately cut loose, right now she's choosing to stay imprisoned whether out of some sense of duty, pigheaded stubbornness* or part of a hyper long-term trolling of the Doctor. I did love her pointing out that all of the Doctor's extremely careful procedures/locks are only keeping her locked up because she chooses to let them. For all that I didn't like the plot, this episode had some good lines, and "I once made a gun out of leaves" was one I enjoyed. MysticalMachineGun posted:Since when can the Doctor fake regenerating? I know he can call it "on demand" a bit, but that seemed to be a lot more. Also, Bill doesn't know about regenerating, so that little flare is basically entirely for the audience's benefit. Unless the Doctor just told her about it offscreen and it's assumed that by know she knows everything Clara did before her. 2house2fly fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Jun 4, 2017 |
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Jun 4, 2017 14:18
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In the current Lore he should be the First Of The Time Lords, since Gallifrey being at the end of the universe means it doesn't exist yet.
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Jun 4, 2017 16:21
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I like the idea of regeneration being an energy that's in the body and there's enough of it to get a full do-over 12 times, but you can also do little things like fixing up your friend's hand or putting on a bizarre grotesque pretend show to make sure your friend isn't brainwashed E: wait if Bill does know about regeneration then what exactly was she hoping to achieve by shooting him? He comes back to life as Jim Broadbent and still doesn't want to help her, so she shoots him again, he rises again as Hugh Grant and the same thing happens, then he comes back as Joanna Lumley and is finally persuaded? 2house2fly fucked around with this message at 18:18 on Jun 4, 2017 |
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Jun 4, 2017 18:12
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I thought stuffing Clara into a Dalek and then trying to get the Doctor to unknowingly kill her was fairly monstrous
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Jun 4, 2017 20:16
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Senor Tron posted:At what point do people say that enough is enough and start holding the Doctor responsible for any crimes that Missy commits? Clara did that at the end of series 8: "If you've ever let this creature live then everything that happened today is on you" MysticalMachineGun posted:Did anyone catch the line about Bill saying the giant fish was in Paris? Where did that come from? episode 3
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Jun 5, 2017 01:54
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Missy's evil, asking her is a last resort E: oh hey did anyone ask this yet "if the population is controlled by the statues then did people just LET them put the statues up?" Another E: this is a trilogy where each episode makes the previous one look better, with villains who have killed a simulated Doctor "many times" yet just let him hang out on a boat when they take over the earth for real, who don't want to rule by fear but send out death squads for thoughtcriminals, and who look like rotting corpses in monk outfits who live on a flying pyramid none of which means anything. I'm getting really steamed about this! 2house2fly fucked around with this message at 13:38 on Jun 5, 2017 |
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Jun 5, 2017 12:50
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this episode is cool because it isn't very good to begin with and thinking about it even for a second makes it seem much worse
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Jun 7, 2017 20:16
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The Doctor, levitating amid angelic light as the Master cowers: "Tell me Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable now,
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Jun 8, 2017 23:59
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Vinylshadow posted:Moffat looks back on "Blink" Funny thing, I sat down and made a list of my ten favourite Moffat episodes, and I decided Blink wouldn't actually end up on there. I wouldn't mind him looking back on a few more of his episodes, since he basically clammed up after series 6
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Jun 9, 2017 21:05
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The first half of Deep Breath didn't land for me but the second half totally did. I was weirded out when I saw people saying they didn't feel Capaldi because his character wasn't defined until the second series because, uh, are you kidding:
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Jun 9, 2017 21:38
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Clara wasn't going to stay with him, but she hung around out of obligation when Matt Smith phoned her and they got attached. Then when Bill came around he was much nicer anyway.
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Jun 9, 2017 22:29
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docbeard posted:Anyway, if you were going to put me on the spot for a short list of favorite Moffat episodes, Deep Breath wouldn't be on it, but The Wizard's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar would be. Now that's a controversial choice!
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Jun 10, 2017 01:30
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I loved the payoff to the Doctor not knowing any movies. Decent episode, but then anything would look good after last week.
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Jun 11, 2017 01:38
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I thought it was Missy too, and she was going to kill them offscreen and then take the tardis home. I kind of wish they'd delayed her showing up a bit because now I'm just impatiently waiting for the other shoe to drop.
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Jun 11, 2017 02:02
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Astroman posted:They even played with it in a cheeky way, when the white soldier brought the sergeant a drink and the black soldier was like "What about me?" and you expect it to be a race thing, but oh haha no, it's because the sergeant outranks him lol there was no discrimination in history! I've seen plenty of people On Line watch/play/read things with discrimination in them and say they don't want to see that sort of thing in escapist fiction because they see enough of it in real life
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Jun 11, 2017 21:20
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