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 No, the record for longest wait between Doctor Who episodes from 2005 onward will NOT be broken (only tied), as Doctor Who is back! The long-running show returns exactly one year after the previous episode aired, although while the previous was a holiday special, the next episode is not. This marks the first time since 1977 an episode has aired on New Year's Day and is NOT a special (which isn't saying much, admittedly). What will happen this series? Well former potential scriptwriter Stephen Fry and former Doctor Lenny Henry will both be making special appearances, alongside several other people not as famous to me. This includes the woman who played Rani, but not THE Rani. Other than that, we've got a few famous foes returning, which is nice! We have slightly more information about the series ahead of time than last series, when we had pretty much nothing. We're still in the dark about plots for every episode, though. Hopefully, there won't be a situation where a heavy subject matter episode has a next time trailer that's wacky! The series runs weekly after a debut on New Year's Day from 5 January to 1 March: 1-2) Spyfall 3) Orphan 55 4) Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror 5) Fugitive of the Judoon 6) Praxeus 7) Can You Hear Me? 8) The Haunting of Villa Diodati 9) Ascension of the Cybermen 10) The Timeless Children The previous thread can be found here. Now for the formalities. We have a designated spoiler thread, but under Chibnall the amount of spoilers have dried like the lake in that one episode. Use your best judgement. Episode titles can be spoiler-y, so use discretion when discussing episodes yet to air. For example, 'Hide' doesn't spoil anything, but 'OH poo poo IT'S THE DALEKS' does. WHERE DO I START? The previous series is a good place to start, beginning with The Woman Who Fell to Earth. This is not to discount Doctors 9-12, but so far their stories have not made a major point in the tenure of Whittaker's Doctor. If you want to watch the original series, there are plenty of places to start. You COULD start with An Unearthly Child and watch everything in chronological order. You could also watch individual serials of all the Doctors and determine which you like the best. Keep in mind, don't shotgun a whole Hartnell or Troughton in one go, or else you'll get complacent. Those 60's episodes are meant to be seen one at a time, and if you only just rented the DVD, wait a few hours between episodes. The most popular serials for the original series you can jump into are: First Doctor: An Unearthly Child, The Aztecs Second Doctor: The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Enemy of the World Third Doctor: Spearhead from Space, Carnival of Monsters Fourth Doctor: Pyramids of Mars, The Robots of Death Fifth Doctor: Kinda, Frontios Sixth Doctor: Vengeance on Varos, Revelation of the Daleks Seventh Doctor: Dragonfire, Remembrance of the Daleks WHERE CAN I WATCH DOCTOR WHO? If you're an American, you're in luck! You can watch the original run of Doctor Who both on TV (Retro TV and some PBS stations) and online (via Pluto TV and BritBox*)! The United Kingdom and Canada get BritBox, too. If you're Australian, I'm sorry but you'll have to buy or rent the episodes on DVD/Blu-ray. For the current run: ON TELEVISION UK - BBC One (first run), W USA - BBC America (first run), most PBS stations Canada - CTV Sci-Fi Channel Australia - ABC (first run), ABC ME, Syfy STREAMING UK - BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Sky Go USA - Prime Video (moving to HBO Max in May, probably) Canada - Crave Australia - Stan, Prime Video *Day of the Daleks, Planet of the Daleks, the Five Doctors, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks, and Remembrance of the Daleks are not available, along with almost every serial missing at least one episode. SHOULD I BUY THE DVDs AND BLU-RAYs? Just for the bonus features alone. THE NOT-AT-ALL BRIEF GUIDE TO BIG FINISH There are literally thousands of Doctor Who and Doctor Who-related audio dramas released by Big Finish Productions. This is not a post telling you what audio dramas to listen to, because everyone has an opinion that is different from everyone else (some people like Minuet in Hell, believe it or not). This is a post telling you the basic info on the different series of titles there are. I'm only covering ongoing ranges, since devoting a paragraph to the Stage Plays seems a bit silly. If you're wondering why I'm about to spend a good portion of the OP about audio dramas, you are clearly new to the Doctor Who thread. The Monthly Range Since 1999, Big Finish have released, on a consistent basis, mostly standalone stories featuring the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh (formerly including Eighth) Doctors. Up to 259th(!) release this month. The Fourth Doctor Adventures Tom Baker gets his own line of releases. The Seventh Doctor: The New Adventures Hey, remember the Virgin New Adventures? These take place during those! No, I don't know how to find cheap copies of those books. The Eighth Doctor Adventures / Dark Eyes / Doom Coalition / The Eighth Doctor - The Time War / Ravenous Paul McGann's Doctor also gets his own line. Goons love 'em. The Tenth Doctor Adventures David Tennant reprises his role in mini-seasons every chance he can get, and the results are very RTD-like. In a good way! The Companion Chronicles / The Early Adventures This is important: SOME OF THESE ARE NOT AUDIO DRAMAS. These are "enhanced audiobooks" for the most part, which means that one person does all the parts while another gives narration, but also contains sound effects and music cues. The Companion Chronicles originally were one-handers, but now may contain small casts, which the Early Adventure always have. The Ones with Fake Doctors The First Doctor Adventures, the Third Doctor Adventures, and the Ninth/Tenth/Eleventh/Twelveth Doctor Chronicles feature people who are not the original actors playing the roles of the title Doctor. If you're OK with that, by all means give them a try. Spinoffs There are a ton of these, ranging from good (I, Davros) to who gives a poo poo (anything involving a companion from the audio series). THE DISCORD Here it is. The future is now! FINALLY, let's take a look back....all the way to ten years ago! Let's see here, what Doctor Who episode aired this time ten years ago? Fon posted:This is literally the worst thing I have ever seen so far. Oh. eclipse posted:This is completely ridiculous. I guess a dignified ending to the series is out of the question. Oh dear. The_Doctor posted:This is really poo poo. Oh dear. James R posted:Oh, my good God. Oh dear. Noxville posted:Pretty sure that whole episode was built around RTD thinking up that 'Master race' line. 
Edward Mass fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Mar 2, 2020 |
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Dec 20, 2019 08:41
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I hated it at the time, but I think I kinda love “insane and unhinged, smearing burger wrappers on his face” SimmMaster now.
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Dec 20, 2019 08:51
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Yuck, that was a terrible scene. He ate the way my ex girlfriends father did.
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Dec 20, 2019 08:54
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Oh, you’ve redecorated? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVyVtL0rJGg
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Dec 20, 2019 09:03
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 "Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the Fourth Dimension? Have you?"
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Dec 20, 2019 09:10
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The quotes at the end of the OP are... so weird to me. I dunno, I really enjoyed The End of Time as a big, fun finale. The Master's scheme and the way it played out was stupid and silly, but I thought that was more to its benefit than anything else. If anything, I liked Part 1 more than Part 2. I'm not entirely sure I understood how Rassilon's plan to break free from the time bubble worked, especially with the part where he threw a gem at a hologram... and it somehow got out of the bubble and suddenly it was crash landing on Earth? The stuff with the drums inside the Master's head was kinda weird with its circular logic as well, but at least that part made sense in a predetermined time travel-y way. Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 10:02 on Dec 20, 2019 |
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Dec 20, 2019 09:59
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The_Doctor posted:Oh, you’ve redecorated? Patrick Troughton was a gift to this world.
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Dec 20, 2019 11:40
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I can't help thinking the longest wait between episodes was 1996 - 2005... E: Ehh, I must have missed the 'since 2005'bit somehow on the first read.
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Dec 20, 2019 11:47
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The End of Time was good I will fight you all.
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Dec 20, 2019 13:13
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End of Time Part 2 is a gigantic improvement over Part 1, which has incredible "this is my first draft but oh God I'm so tired and everybody's expecting me to deliver it" energy.
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Dec 20, 2019 13:21
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Jerusalem posted:End of Time Part 2 is a gigantic improvement over Part 1, which has incredible "this is my first draft but oh God I'm so tired and everybody's expecting me to deliver it" energy. Well he had a whole extra day to write it.
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Dec 20, 2019 13:33
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OH NO THE THREAD HAS BEEN DESTROYED  What's this a new thread? Kidneys. Still a ginger.
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Dec 20, 2019 14:50
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CommonShore posted:OH NO THE THREAD HAS BEEN DESTROYED the moment has been prepared for
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Dec 20, 2019 15:24
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CommonShore posted:OH NO THE THREAD HAS BEEN DESTROYED That may have been a Doctor Who thread, but this is the Doctor Who thread. The definitive article, you might say. 
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Dec 20, 2019 15:34
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CommonShore posted:OH NO THE THREAD HAS BEEN DESTROYED Do you happen to know how to fly this thing?
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Dec 20, 2019 15:51
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I enjoy "Doctor Who"
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Dec 20, 2019 17:32
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egon_beeblebrox posted:I enjoy "Doctor Who" how dare you
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Dec 20, 2019 18:23
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egon_beeblebrox posted:I enjoy "Doctor Who" I like the wig
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Dec 20, 2019 18:28
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Suggestion for the "Where to Watch (US)" section. There's a free streaming app called PlutoTV which has a channel that just plays (3rd Doctor onward) classic serials 24/7. It's set up like regular TV so you don't control what's on or when and there's commercial breaks, but it's free and fills in while there's a dearth of options for the classics. Also, it's two channels over from an all MST3K all the time channel.
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Dec 20, 2019 20:07
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HelleSpud posted:Suggestion for the "Where to Watch (US)" section. There's a free streaming app called PlutoTV which has a channel that just plays (3rd Doctor onward) classic serials 24/7. It's set up like regular TV so you don't control what's on or when and there's commercial breaks, but it's free and fills in while there's a dearth of options for the classics. Also, it's two channels over from an all MST3K all the time channel. Oh! I thought that was only a temporary thing.
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Dec 20, 2019 20:57
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Looking around I don't see an end date listed, just that it's only licensed 200 episodes and that they may work to rotate out for other episodes depending on how it goes. I know their James Bond channel is a limited time thing and in that case it was included in the press release. Anyway, it exists for now, and Pyramids of Mars just started https://pluto.tv/live-tv/doctor-who-classic
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Dec 20, 2019 21:34
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BF announced the new season of Eighth Doctor Adventures, following on from "Ravenous". https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-stranded-1-2169 "Stranded"- The Doctor, Liv, and Helen find themselves without the TARDIS, having to live out their days in the Doctor's residence on Baker St, in London 2020. And the Doctor gets a new friend, the former PC, now Sergeant, Andy Davidson, from Torchwood!
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Dec 20, 2019 21:46
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Also, I was wrong in my thinking that the UK BritBox already had classic Doctor Who. It launches Boxing Day.
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Dec 20, 2019 23:00
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Davros1 posted:BF announced the new season of Eighth Doctor Adventures, following on from "Ravenous". Wonder what this means for him and Yvonne? :3
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Dec 21, 2019 00:31
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Davros1 posted:BF announced the new season of Eighth Doctor Adventures, following on from "Ravenous". Big Finish truly is just Doctor Who Mad Libs, isn't it? quote:
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Dec 21, 2019 08:26
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Season 11, Episode 3: Rosa Written by Malorie Blackman and Chris Chibnall, Directed by Mark Tonderai Yasmin Khan posted:But they don't win, those people. To my great shame, it wasn't until I sat down to write about this episode that something occurred to me for the first time I can recall; that it wasn't until the 2005 revival of the show that we got a non-white companion. Even then, Mickey Smith only got a brief run, and it was Martha Jones in 2006 who became the ever full-season non-white companion. After she left, it wasn't until the final year of the 12th Doctor's run that another black companion showed up in Bill Potts - as an aside, The Shakespeare Code and Thin Ice demonstrate how there was an increasing self-awareness of how tone-deaf the show sometimes was in relation to racism, in 10 and 12's different approaches to a black companion's concerns about being in the past. So new showrunner Chris Chibnall's decision to cast two of the three new companions Pakistani and black respectively in many ways was long overdue. The usual crowd of idiots claimed this was a sign of "PC gone mad", but if "madness" is somebody other than a white person getting television representation then bring on the lunacy I say. But in spite of all that, when I learned that there was going to be a Doctor Who episode about Rosa Parks my initial reaction was concern. Not because I didn't think it wasn't good fodder for an episode (it absolutely is), but because I worried that the show might not have the chops to pull it off successfully. Malorie Blackman being one of the co-writers for the episode was a drat good sign though, her background writing young adult sci-fi that explored social and racial issues seemingly made her ideal for the role. Sadly, while Blackman (and to his credit, Chibnall) mostly deliver with the writing, and the acting performances sans one very important role are nailed just fine, the episode is a bit of a mess. The editing feels a little haphazard, the resolution doesn't quite hit with the impact it should have, and perhaps most sadly the music - so good in the previous two episodes - is astonishingly hamfisted and largely detracts from rather than enhances the story they're trying to tell.   After a brief prologue in 1943 showing Rosa's being abandoned in the rain by bus driver James F. Blake for the "crime" of entering the bus by the front door, the show opens with a confused and agitated Doctor attempting to convince her new companions that she's "mostly" capable of piloting the TARDIS. However numerous attempts to get them back to Sheffield in the 21st Century have failed, and now they find themselves somewhere in the United States in the 1950s. They go for a wander, all of them blissfully unaware of the dangerous situation they've found themselves in until Ryan attempts to be chivalrous and return a woman's dropped handkerchief. One of the criticisms leveled at this episode is that all the people of Montgomery, Alabama shown are openly, monstrously racist. Well... no poo poo! Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950s absolutely was openly, monstrously racist! I'm sure there were white people who were not racist and even some who put themselves in peril to stand up against the accepted and mainstream racism of the time. But the story isn't about them and throwing them in would serve essentially no purpose other than to make white people feel better about how unbelievably awful and lovely and terrible that period was. It's an episode all about the utter stupidity and nastiness and pointlessness of racism and the bravery of a black woman who stood up to it, and how that bravery resonated down through the ages. The act itself was "simply" refusing to move seats on the bus, but the bravery to do that is near beyond comprehension considering the world she existed in. As she notes to Ryan when he makes the "mistake" of trying to hand a white woman back her handkerchief, Emmett Till said a couple of words to a white woman and look what happened to him. It still blows my mind that an episode of Doctor Who would openly reference Emmett Till. If you click the link above, you will read about a truly revolting miscarriage of justice. But this is an episode that is trying to serve two masters: educate the viewers about a particular period of time but also incorporate fantastical sci-fi elements. This has been an issue the show has attempted to work with since its inception, where its original mandate was to do alternating stories educating on history before having fun with over-the-top future sci-fi. This eventually lead to the quiet retirement of "pure historicals", and even into the age of the revival has lead to a recurring issue where stories that absolutely need no more sci-fi dressing beyond "time travelers arrive in <x> time period" end up with unnecessary aliens/spaceships/other time travelers etc muddying the waters. So it isn't simply enough (it should be) for this to be a story about the Doctor and her companions getting involved in/watching history unfold with Rosa. Instead we get a side-story about another time traveler trying to get in Rosa's way, and while it creates some interesting commentary about our own present day, it also feels like a largely ancillary addition that simply pads things out and overall dilutes the story.  Cool visuals though! Even after meeting Rosa and getting her warning, the Doctor and her companions still don't fully grasp how fully the issues they just experienced permeate every single aspect of 1950s Alabama. The four settle down in a cafe, not noticing that the customers are all white and the kitchen staff all black. Sitting around chatting amicably, Graham gently chides Ryan for not quite remembering correctly Rosa Parks' significance in spite of his primary class being named after her. He redeems himself by recalling that her act was one of the first major moments in the Civil Rights Movement, and the Doctor points out that Martin Luther King is in Montgomery at this point in time as well. But as they chat, they slowly realize how quiet it has gotten, and are disturbed when a waitress approaches and coldly informs them that they don't serve Negroes.... or Mexicans. Ryan tries to crack a joke that falls flat while Yaz is left to belatedly realize that the Mexican comment was aimed at her. Even after this they still continue on like normal, the episode playing up for comedy Graham's desire to actually get a meal. The Doctor offers to let them wait in the TARDIS while she tracks down odd energy readings, at least acknowledging the unfair dangers both Ryan and Yaz will be facing, but they're determined to stick around, noting that Rosa Parks doesn't have the benefit of a time machine to go hide in and if she can live her life here they can last a couple of hours. They're right that they shouldn't have to hide, but the reality also hasn't quite sunk in for them beyond the intellectual level just yet how openly virulent racism was incorporated into nearly every aspect this society. They track the energy readings down to a Bus works shed, finding it seemingly empty until the Doctor disrupts a perception filter and finds a suitcase just left in the middle of the room filled with futuristic - but poorly maintained - technology. They're attacked at this point by the "villain" of the episode (racism alone wasn't enough, apparently), a man called Krasko who chases them out of the shed with an energy weapon he apparently can't aim very well. The "chase" is short-lived and not edited very well, and leads to a confrontation between the Doctor and Krasko where the Doctor is oddly unimpressive (it pays off later) despite revealing she has the spare battery for his Temporal Displacement Gun and that she's spotted he used a Vortex Manipulator to travel through time. For his part he recognized her TARDIS for what it was (and failed to displace it with his gun earlier, wasting more battery power) but seems to come out on top of their encounter, smugly warning her and the others to leave this time period or he'll kill them. The Doctor hurriedly scans him with her Sonic and appears to run away, confusing the others who aren't used to seeing her so put off, though she assures them she has no plans to leave. They make their way to a motel, where they notice again what has been a commonly seen sign all over the city: "Whites Only". Ryan and Yaz are forced to sneak their way into the hotel room via the bathroom window after the Doctor and Graham check in. Even now this is simply an annoying inconvenience, not exactly amusing but something they can still crack jokes about. But after settling in to work out exactly what Krasko is up to and how it involves Rosa Parks, a knock at the door leads to one of the strongest parts of the episode. Office Mason of the Montgomery Police has come to visit, having received multiple complaints about the shocking and disgusting and horrific crime of a couple of white people treating a black man and a "Mexican" woman like equals. So he gives Mr. and Mrs. Steve Jobs a "polite" but firm warning about harboring anybody like "the negro" who has "been going around picking fights with upstanding citizens." While they assure him they're not hiding anybody who doesn't have every right to be there, there are comedic moments to offset the seriousness of the situation, such as Graham giving the name Steve Jobs and pretending he and the Doctor are married (the Doctor's reaction to him putting his arm around her shoulders is hilarious). But it is what is going on outside the bathroom that is the real story. Ryan and Yaz have slipped out of the bathroom and hidden behind a dumpster, correctly guessing Mason would barge his way into the bathroom to see if anybody was in there. As they sit literally beside trash, they finally have come to more than an intellectual understanding of the reality of where and when they are. Quietly, they talk about the realities of growing up colored even in the modern, "enlightened" era of the early 21st Century. Sure there aren't "Whites Only" signs up anymore, but they both grew up being told by their families that they had to be careful never to give racists the "excuse" by losing their tempers. Rosa's decision not to sit on the bus did not end racism, and even to this day Ryan gets stopped and questioned by police more often than his white mates. Yaz points out that SHE is police, but admits that she does get hassled constantly regardless, called racist terms like "Paki" when dealing with domestic disputes, or being called a terrorist when she's on her way back from the mosque. But she makes the point that racists don't win, that while they still exist and perhaps always will, progress continues to be made thanks to people like Rosa who have the strength and bravery to stand up to them. Because of people like her, Yaz can be a police officer. 50 years after the brutal murder of Emmett Till, black people not being allowed to enter a bus from the front, whites only signs etc... a black man became President of these very same United States. It's a strong scene, and while you could argue it's being far too forgiving on the basis of "eventually things will very slowly get less worse!" what I think really makes it work is that you have two colored characters sitting in one of the darkest periods of US history talking openly about how racism is still a thing in the future but retaining an optimistic outlook in spite of their shared experiences. Of knowing that these assholes are on the wrong side of history and will be remembered as such, because incremental or otherwise, change is happening and always will be. A show like Doctor Who needs that optimism, and it is to its credit that it provides it without pretending like the horrors of the past are a solved problem in our "enlightened" present.   After the foursome reassemble, they decide to build a timeline of Rosa's pivotal day and do some research to figure out why Krasko is obsessed with her but also hasn't attempted to kill or temporally displace her. They figure out which bus Rosa takes, we learn about the middle section of the bus only being allowed for "coloreds" if no white people want the seats. Plus we get yet another example of how pants-on-head stupid racism is when Yaz figures out that despite not being welcome to sit in or stay at most places she's allowed up with the whites on the bus while Ryan is forced to board from the back and sit away from the rest of the group. They divide up, with Graham's own experience as a bus driver giving him an in to meet James Blake (who he detests), Yaz compiling the timeline from the info provided so far (part of a recurring theme of her doing all the police stuff you rarely see police do on television), Ryan following Rosa to find out more about her, while the Doctor decides to confront Krasko again on her own. Alone, separated from the others, this confrontation is very different. The Doctor here either feels more free because she doesn't have to worry about her companions, or her earlier awkwardness/seeming intimidation was an act to lull Krasko into a false sense of security. Because she absolutely demolishes him, and it's a thrill to watch how effortlessly she does so. Tricking him into temporally displacing his own equipment into the 79th Century, she also overheats his displacement gun, reveals she figured out he's a former prisoner of Stormcage (where River Song was "imprisoned" for a long time) and that he's got a neural restrictor in his brain. The latter is why he hasn't killed Rosa, and she takes advantage to strip him of the Vortex Manipulator and smash it, then openly mock him as he attempts to choke her and quickly gets overwhelmed by the restrictor in his brain. Krasko tries to put up a good front, but he's pathetic and the episode isn't making any attempt to cover that up. His reasoning for going after Rosa is only implied here but more than clear, he thinks the Civil Rights Movement is where "things started to go wrong". Or in other words, he's a racist. A 79th Century racist, which is a depressing thought but plays into Ryan and Yaz's earlier conversation. Racism doesn't go away, but as time progresses it stops being the accepted norm and those that espouse those views are rightfully held in contempt. The Doctor makes Krasko the offer, now that he's trapped in the past without his weapons and equipment, his only way back to his own time is with her assistance. He refuses, of course, determined that he has figured out how to change the past via tiny, seemingly inconsequential changes. He leaves, and importantly he leaves his overheated displacement gun behind.   Ryan meanwhile completely fails to spy on Rosa, who spots him and confronts him. He explains he wants to help the Movement, and she has to agree that a FBI spy probably would be better at sneaking around. She invites him in to her place where he meets her husband, Fred Gray... and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. He's thrilled, of course, especially when he talks about his recently deceased Nan and MLK offers his condolences. It's a sadly too brief peek at what would have been a far more interesting part of Rosa's story, her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Even perhaps a look at the idea/theory that her decision not to be moved on the bus may have actually been a carefully coordinated protest as part of efforts to raise awareness of the unfair treatment of black people in America (she was not the first black woman to refuse to move seats in Montgomery, Alabama). Instead we get this brief look, and then a short piece a few minutes later where Ryan exits the meeting and offers his gratitude to Rosa for allowing him to meet with them and hear them all talk. Careful not to say anything out of turn, he tells her he knows that things will get better even if they won't be perfect, and that on behalf of himself and his Nan he simply wants to tell her it is worth the fight. This genuine and heartfelt moment is where the strength of the episode lies, and it's a shame the Krasko storyline had to be in the way. They return to the motel where the Doctor is looking over the temporal displacement gun, and in a rare case of not thinking (or at least, not thinking the worse) indulges Ryan's curiosity and explains to him how it works. Graham informs them that he met James Blake and learned he is taking tomorrow off, which doesn't fit with history. The Doctor grasps at last that Krasko's plan is to use these tiny changes to nudge things just enough of course that Rosa's protest never happens. She's not having that of course, and declares their mission is to nudge everything back so the events that are supposed to happen, actually do happen. This is one of the weaknesses of the story, as Krasko's plan... makes no sense. If Rosa didn't refuse to move tomorrow, it would have happened some other day and history would have unfolded basically he same anyway. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was probably always going to happen, the Browder vs. Gayle case was going to come down in opposition to bus segregation. Rosa's moment was historic and inspiring, but the suggestion that the ENTIRE Civil Rights Movement wouldn't have happened if she hadn't refused to be moved on that one specific evening should be the kind of half-baked dumb villain plot that makes the Doctor laugh in his face... but then I guess we wouldn't have a rest of the episode! So the Doctor and Yaz organize to remove Blake's replacement from the picture, showing up at his house to announce he's won a raffle to see Frank Sinatra in Vegas thanks to the Doctor pulling some connections out of her back pocket. Graham and Ryan take advantage of Blake's racism to ruin his day off fishing, as he is put off by Ryan's cheerful presence but even more upset to learn about a planned bus sit-in they've made up. The Doctor and Yaz then move on to the department store where Rosa works as a seamstress, putting a tear in the Doctor's coat so that Rosa will have to work late and catch the correct bus home. But while they work to set things right, Krasko continues to work to push them off. Forced by his neural restrictor to work smarter instead of just killing people, he fakes vandalism of Blake's normal bus and informs him as a mechanic that they've arranged to cancel the route for the evening. He then puts route canceled fliers on the route's stops so no passengers will be around, so that even if a bus did run, Blake - who has a history with Rosa - wouldn't be the driver and there wouldn't be enough passengers onboard. Catching wind of what Krasko is doing, the Doctor hotwires a bus from the depot and has Graham drive it to where Blake is making his way home, informing the by now completely bewildered driver that this is the replacement bus for his route and he's running behind. Graham and the Doctor stay onboard, while Ryan rushes along the route to tell waiting passengers the bus is coming, only to discover the fliers. He tears them down and tries to tell an elderly white couple the bus is coming, only to get snarled at and called "boy". Biting his tongue he continues on, and runs into Krasko who has resorted to literally parking his car in the middle of the street to block the bus when it comes. Ryan and Krasko confront each other, with the latter finally just outright stating his racism as he proclaims that with Rosa not getting a chance to refuse to move, "your kind won't get above themselves." Disgusted and fed-up, Ryan informs the man from the future that he really is living in the past, and if he likes it so much he can stay there: he fires the Temporal Displacement Gun thanks to the Doctor telling him how it worked, and sends a surprised Krasko into the deep, deep past where he'll presumably fall prey to a caveman thanks to his inability to fight back. It's a... well it's hard to feel any sympathy for Krasko, but Ryan doing this feels like an odd choice even if it is poetic justice. It's symptomatic of the problem with Krasko being included as the villain in the first place, he just kind of got in the way until getting literally vanished out of the story.  With a bit of a rush from Yaz, Rosa gets onboard the bus and everything is seemingly back on track, with every member of the cast having been given something to do for a change. Ryan joins them, revealing what he did to Krasko which goes oddly uncommented on by the Doctor. But when Graham decides it is time for them to leave, the Doctor comes to a nasty realization: they're still three passengers short of a packed bus, which means if they leave there will be spare seats and Rosa won't be asked to move. So to Graham's deep shame, he is forced to remain and be part of the reason why Rosa is first confronted by Blake, then forcibly removed from the bus and placed under arrest by the police. Importantly, while the Doctor and her companions have to remain on the bus, they never push or prod or are in any way responsible for her decision not to move. Instead, they're simply there as spectators, they made sure things would unfold as they were meant to, but it was Rosa who had the idea, Rosa who followed through and had the bravery to stand tall against the true villain that was the accepted, embraced and legally permissible overt racism of her times. Unfortunately, the impact of this final moment is undercut by the overly dramatic use of music, an issue that permeates the rest of the episode too. Rosa and Krasko both have themes that blast whenever they are on screen, cues that hammer the viewer over the head with,"This is a noble and patriotic woman!" and "This is a cruel and mean villain!" in about as unsubtle a way as you can imagine. The song, Rise Up, is a fine song but it's not used effectively here. It feels too on the nose, too clumsily trying to evoke an emotional reaction, and isn't helped by the Doctor and her companions returning to the TARDIS for the odd decision to celebrate the fact an asteroid got named after Rosa. Better is the reveal that Rosa recieved the Congressional Medal in 1999 but that it came after a lifetime of hardship she and her husband suffered in spite of the plaudits Rosa received for her courageous stand. As Ryan notes, it took too long for Rosa to be truly, officially recognized by the country she helped to change, almost her entire life. The Doctor agrees, but points out she changed the world. Forgetting the asteroid bit, that message works well in relation to the rest of the episode: change comes only with a fight, but the change is worth the fight. It's just a pity the episode wasn't better, because if you took out the Krasko (who looks like a Rob McElhenney impersonator) parts and just concentrated on telling the story of Rosa Parks, you'd have one hell of a pure historical that would have fit in perfectly with that original classic series brief of informing the audience about important events in history.  Ironically, the next episode about giant spiders running around Sheffield in 2018 features no aliens or bad guys from the future or spaceships at all! Index of Doctor Who Write-ups for Television Episodes/Big Finish Audio Stories. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Dec 22, 2019 |
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Dec 21, 2019 15:10
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History fact: Montgomery wasn’t even the first place to protest the buses, Baton Rouge had that honour back in 1953, inspiring the more famous ones.
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Dec 21, 2019 17:45
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The_Doctor posted:History fact: Montgomery wasn’t even the first place to protest the buses, Baton Rouge had that honour back in 1953, inspiring the more famous ones. I really recommend people who aren't aware read up on this and the more famous Montgomery Bus boycott. The utter bullshit these people had to put up with but that they persevered through is frankly amazing. While this episode is lacking in a lot of ways, the fact it's bringing attention to this part of history and hopefully leading viewers (especially younger ones) to read up on this stuff and become more aware of it is an indisputably good thing.
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Dec 21, 2019 22:00
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I have a personal interest in Baton Rouge, having lived there for college about a decade ago. A long time friend has just become director of the state museum based there, and she wants to feature the bus boycotts a bit more heavily than the current single panel of information. The museum currently also has MLK Jr’s funeral hearse on display, adding to the whole Rosa vibe.
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Dec 22, 2019 00:06
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The_Doctor posted:Oh, you’ve redecorated?
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Dec 22, 2019 01:14
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Curse of Fenric seen. Needs more alien zombie vikings, because there was a sore lack of them The Doctor was an absolute delight from start to finish
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Dec 22, 2019 18:00
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American peeps! FYI, certain cinemas will be showing eps 1 and 2 of the new season on January 5th.
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Dec 22, 2019 18:09
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Vinylshadow posted:Curse of Fenric seen. The Doctor, in full view of everyone, simultaneously forging two letters which he then uses to establish himself and Ace as being completely authorized to be at this top secret military base is one of Doctor Who's perfect moments.
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Dec 22, 2019 18:28
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docbeard posted:The Doctor, in full view of everyone, simultaneously forging two letters which he then uses to establish himself and Ace as being completely authorized to be at this top secret military base is one of Doctor Who's perfect moments. More of that and less Psychic Paper would've been nice for the new series - just have the Doctor pull a thick sheaf of papers out of his pocket at any given moment - same result, but more dramatic
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Dec 22, 2019 19:03
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docbeard posted:The Doctor, in full view of everyone, simultaneously forging two letters which he then uses to establish himself and Ace as being completely authorized to be at this top secret military base is one of Doctor Who's perfect moments. God I love it so much 
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Dec 22, 2019 23:55
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Big Mean Jerk posted:I hated it at the time, but I think I kinda love “insane and unhinged, smearing burger wrappers on his face” SimmMaster now. The fact that he got to come back as a Serious Goatee'd Master makes it less dire in retrospect.
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Dec 23, 2019 05:28
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My boyfriend was attending a family funeral today, and got talking to a woman who turned out to be Louise Jameson.
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Dec 24, 2019 02:39
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Incidentally, a happy Christmas to all of you at home
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Dec 24, 2019 20:15
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| # ? Apr 30, 2024 02:11 |
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It's that time of year again https://twitter.com/bluebox99/status/1209528855188389888
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Dec 24, 2019 23:36
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