|
|
| # ¿ May 17, 2024 19:26 |
|
|
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.
|
#
¿
Dec 20, 2019 13:21
|
|
|
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 |
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2019 15:10
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2019 22:00
|
|
|
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 
|
|
#
¿
Dec 22, 2019 23:55
|
|
|
MrL_JaKiri posted:So far the randomizer (to protect us from the Black Guardian) has given us: The Doctor putting a randomizer on the console only for it to "randomly" take him straight to Skaro always felt like the TARDIS was playing a practical joke on him 
|
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2019 03:10
|
|
|
Reminder that the new episode airs in 26 hours thank God oh Jesus thank you God. Edit: Wait no I did the math wrong and it's 38 hours? gently caress you, Satan t  t
|
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2019 05:38
|
|
|
The Queen is setting up a dark final season villain twist for The Crown season 6 
Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Dec 31, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2019 05:52
|
|
|
Tobias Menzies really grew on me, especially the Moon Landing episode, but yeah I missed Matt Smith too. I miss Matt Smith every day, though.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2019 07:19
|
|
|
More episodes like It Takes You Away please, I loving loved that episode.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2019 11:08
|
|
|
   It's been awhile since I listened to any Big Finish audios. Not because I got bored of them or anything, I just really didn't have the time to commit to long listens, especially once my commute changed. But with a bit of spare time on my hand, I caught up on the latest in my listen through the monthly range of classic Doctor Who. Luckily, the latest was a trilogy of stories featuring the 5th Doctor and Nyssa, all set in the town of Stockbridge, familiar from audio Circular Time as well as a graphic novel collection of Doctor Who comics. This afforded me the chance to - if not catch up - at least make some progress on my backlog of audios. As for the stories themselves? Well one is good, another comes tantalizingly close to being an all-time classic but falls at the last hurdle, and the other is just sadly... not very good. Castle of Fear This one is played for comedy and works the better for it. When the Doctor brings Nyssa to 19th Century Stockbridge to watch a Mummer's farce, they're alarmed by the presence of a character clearly modeled after the Doctor. They're further alarmed by one of the actors seemingly becoming possessed by a 12th Century peasant who recognizes Nyssa. Traveling back to 1199, they find Hubert, Earl of Mummerset has returned from the Crusades to reclaim his ancestral castle, only to find it occupied by ghosts. Offering acres of land as a prize for its recapture, Hubert is also branding as "Kowards" all those who chicken out after offering to make the attempt. The story clearly and unapologetically apes the style of Monty Python. It isn't anywhere near as clever or subversive as that, but it is funny. Full of false identities, unraveling lies, misunderstandings and a variety of coincidences, it's the type of story where the protagonists get pulled along by the current of events with every attempt to change course just making things worse. Hubert isn't what he seems but neither is Roland of Brittany and neither is Yavuz the Turkish Knight, and the Doctor and Nyssa lie about who they are too, and the thing occupying the castle is a being of pure deception. The Doctor's knowledge of future events proves his undoing, as the presence of a Rutan makes him assume it has come in pursuit of the Sontaran Jingo Linx from 3rd Doctor story The Time Warrior only to learn that was a complete coincidence... but now it knows and wants to do something about it! Everything falls apart until Nyssa comes to the reasonable conclusion that she can lie too, and just makes up a bunch of bullshit and it turns out the alien antagonist is as gullible and easily manipulated as the 12th Century peasants. Returning to the 19th Century after leaving things reasonably resolved, the Doctor and Nyssa discover that the implications of their solution have resonated through the centuries and reached a critical mass. The Doctor attempts to reverse a dangerous mix of Time Lord and alien technology but ironically runs out of time, and the story ends on a hell of a cliffhanger as the Doctor and Nyssa are seemingly blown into smithereens. The Eternal Summer The Doctor wakes in the sleepy town of Stockbridge where he is warmly greeted by the proprietors of his Bed and Breakfast, who assure him that he's been staying there for "as long as we can remember". Searching for Nyssa, he finds her working at the post office, where she's equally confused by people who insist she's worked there "as long as they can remember". Trying to figure out what is going on, they notice bizarre things happening: time seems to be skipping, a fire in a school becomes a funeral for the victim becomes the funeral for the parent of the victim decades later... but all happening in the same five minute window on the same day, always in summer. The day itself seems to be moving faster than it should, going quickly from morning to afternoon to night. When they ask the seemingly unaware townspeople for the date or other identifying information they get multiple answers all at once... from the same person. This story is ALMOST a classic. The setup is intriguing, and things only get more so as things go along. The Doctor finds a police box (not the TARDIS) and makes a phone-call... to himself. Which he then answers when the phone rings shortly after and he finds himself on the other side of the conversation. When a familiar (from the comics) character called Maxwell Edison arrives things just get more confusing for them, as he shows them that it is impossible to leave the town: get far enough away from the town and you'll find yourself walking back into it. Plus there are ghostly figures in Hazmat suits who sometimes appear on the edges of the forest. When Max takes them to see them, Nyssa disappears, and the Doctor makes a horrifying discovery as he is brought to meet the Lord and Lady of the Manor who rule over the town... and it's ancient, decrepit versions of the Doctor and Nyssa at the far end of the loop the Doctor is only just at the beginning of. Here is where the show reaches its apex... and then falls flat on its face. After the shock and horror of the reveal, the discovery that the "bubble" keeping Stockbridge in a state of temporal flux is failing, the monstrousness of how the citizens maintain their sanity, the further monstrousness of how the Lord and Lady live so long (they greedily devour the emotional trauma of "immortal" townsfolk whose minds can no longer tolerate their environment)... well, writer Jonathan Morris unfortunately flubs it. An out of nowhere 11th hour reveal that the Lord and Lady are in fact servants of "Viridios", some manifestation of a local legend given life by the temporal explosion that brought them to Stockbridge is baffling in how it both overcomplicates the situation as well as punctures the weight of the earlier reveal. While the story remains very good as the temporal flux increases to the point where every single moment of the last 50 years is constantly happening simultaneously, it never recaptures those heights. Instead things are resolved in a tidy if somewhat unsatisfying way, as the Doctor and Nyssa manage to save Stockbridge from its Eternal Summer, but the exciting life Maxwell Edison almost achieved is wiped out in the same action as the events that caused them to happen now... never did. Plague of the Daleks This story... isn't very good. I like Daleks as much as the next person (so long as the next person isn't Nick Briggs) but tying them into this trilogy of Stockbridge stories doesn't really make any sense and their presence adds nothing of any real value. Better would have been returning the first story's alien to the scene, but then I guess you couldn't put "Dalek" in the title and presumably get a little bump in the sales figures. The Doctor and Nyssa find themselves hauled through time once again and end up in Stockbridge. Again. In the far future when most of Earth was abandoned due to solar flares, Stockbridge remains. Now turned into a historic site of interest peopled by nth generation clones of the townsfolk from earlier stories, even this tenuous links to the previous stories quickly gets abandoned when they're turned into "zombies" by a nano-virus in the rain. From that point on, the setting is merely window-dressing, as the Doctor and Nyssa are separated and attempt with their tour guides to resolve the situation. In the process, we're treated to one of the sadly all-too-familiar redundant cliffhangers too often seen in Doctor Who, as one of the episodes ends with the shock reveal of a... GASP! A DALEK! In a story with "Dalek" in the title. Yes, a small squad of Daleks have based themselves in suspended animation deep beneath Stockbridge after finding the TARDIS there and deciding to lay an ambush for when the Doctor returned. They were there far, far longer than they expected, but now he's arrived they attempt to use their nano-virus to take control and turn him into a Robo-Man. That goes about as well as you might expect despite a weak attempt at a shock twist where he becomes their puppet. The Daleks aren't very impressive in this episode, in fact they're kind of pathetic, living in a cave and falling apart as the Doctor almost effortlessly tears their base down around them. The zombies largely don't do anything, the other supporting characters are killed in a peculiarly nasty way that doesn't really have any impact, and it ends up yet another 5th Doctor story were everybody dies and the Doctor and his companion walk away with a trail of corpses behind them. Final Thoughts: The Stockbridge Trilogy is a neat idea that starts strong, gets better, has a bit of a stumble and then goes off a cliff. The final story isn't really THAT bad, but it also doesn't feel like it has any real part in the actual trilogy itself which is kind of a big deal when it's the concluding story in a three-parter. Listening to the behind the scenes stuff, I did get the sense that writer Mark Morris was a square peg in a round hole. He wanted to write a particular kind of story and got saddled with a bunch of baggage to meet different demands. The first story is the most fun, but the second story really could have been an incredible piece if it didn't feel like somebody somewhere hadn't lost their nerve and tried to pull back from the interesting angle of the Doctor having to combat an ancient, evil version of himself who knew exactly how he thought and perhaps even what he was going to do because he may have been the one who originally did it, if you believe that it was a loop and not say a Rutan imprinted with the Doctor's personality but quickly driven insane. Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton share their usual strong chemistry at least, and Nyssa gets far more development in these audios than she ever got during the show. The trilogy is well worth a listen, but man... what could have been. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Dec 31, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2019 12:51
|
|
|
I really enjoy Castle of Fear too, you can tell everybody is having a really good time and it is infectious. Eternal Summer is just such a great concept that it pains me to see how close they came to something special before just kind of falling off to the wayside.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2019 14:08
|
|
|
Oh thank you Jesus finally a new episode.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2020 19:46
|
|
|
Wait... Part 1?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2020 20:03
|
|
|
SiKboy posted:These are the least intimidating men in black of all time. They're using GPS to get to their spy headquarters  Edit: The Graham/Ryan dynamic remains great 
Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Jan 1, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2020 20:09
|
|
|
Gaz-L posted:"Vore is more powerful than most nations today"- A thing Stephen Fry said on worldwide TV in 2020. After which he was promptly assassinated, are we sure the villain is actually a villain? 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2020 20:27
|
|
|
The Doctor playing snap
|
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2020 20:47
|
|
|
Whaaaaaat?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2020 20:54
|
|
|
I was sitting there thinking the plot didn't really make any sense, that it was a lot of weirdly sketched out scenes that didn't really flow together or follow on from one another... and then the reveal came and it all made a bizarre kind of perfect sense because it's just the Master loving with the Doctor for the fun of it. Still not sure if that forgives the first 3/4ths of the episode but when it ended I had a big smile on my face I miss Gomez but this new guy really nailed the,"Ahhhhh it's so great screwing with the Doctor's head!" aspect nicely. I love it when the Master pretends to be somebody nice so they can then revel in the fact that they're really a huge rear end in a top hat. Edit: To really make it perfect, next episode better have a: Doctor: You realize the aliens you're helping to take over the universe will eventually turn on you too, right? Master: moment. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Jan 1, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2020 21:00
|
|
|
I hadn't even considered the Omega idea but yeah I'm grateful they went with The Master instead.Voting Floater posted:Also, tissue compression got a smile and the little matchbox figure was the right kind of silly. The moment where he goes to pop it back in his pocket, then kinda shrugs and just tosses it aside like garbage was amazing. marktheando posted:People on twitter saying that this Master has to be in between Simm and Gomez since Missy died with her ability to regenerate suspended, they are obviously unfamiliar with the Master's ability to repeatedly come back from definitely being 100% killed for good this time. I think my favorite moment of this type of thing is still when a companion (Peri?) meets him and says,"Didn't you die?" after seeing him burn to death in a previous story and he just goes,"Nope!" and that's literally the only explanation we ever get
|
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2020 21:32
|
|
|
The Doctor will never know that she actually did get through to the Gomez-Master, and somehow I'm sure that fact just makes the current Master absolutely giddy with delight
|
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2020 21:41
|
|
|
Pinwiz11 posted:The Doctor's Black Tie outfit... She kept the 3/4 (high cuff?) pants and boots with it too 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2020 23:11
|
|
|
I kinda love the idea that all the Governments in the world are fully aware of extra terrestrial life and that the United Nations even had an Intelligence Taskforce that worked globally to deal with it for DECADES... but nobody ever actually told MI6
|
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2020 00:27
|
|
|
Mooseontheloose posted:great reveal, good opener. General consensus last year seemed to be that the main cast were really good with great chemistry, Whittaker was great, but the stories and the season overall were just kind of okay to good with a couple of standouts (like It Takes You Away), and that Chibnall shouldn't write too many of the episodes and just concentrate on being the showrunner.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2020 04:00
|
|
|
HardKase posted:but at least there isn't a Dr companion romantic subplot. https://i.imgur.com/Ck5TUNm.mp4 Jodie does amazing facial expressions Edit: Does anybody know anything about what the gently caress imgur does to mp4s or if I'm doing something wrong. I'm trying to put together gifs but decided to just extract mp4s instead (way, way faster than making gifs the old-fashioned way) and upload them. But no matter what resolution I upload at imgur seems to automatically resize them to 960x536 and they look like poo poo. I've tried looking it up but every search I do just gives me various,"Now you can upload mp4s!" announcements. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 10:06 on Jan 2, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2020 09:24
|
|
|
Spyfall part 1 gifs (click to view)                     The Master being giddy is fantastic, but I just wanna draw attention to this moment when he gets rumbled:  I love that brief second where you can see him thinking, trying to figure out a way to keep the cover going jussssst a little bit longer before deciding,"gently caress it!" and reveling in not having to pretend anymore. It also puts his original appearance in the episode in a new context, that little smile he makes when the TARDIS arrives in Australia is the smug look of an rear end in a top hat whose sinister plans are finally coming together and he is relishing every second. Sacha Dhawan is awesome, and man does it look like he is having a GREAT time: 
Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 11:19 on Jan 2, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2020 11:15
|
|
|
Senor Tron posted:realise it's the Master just reveling in the Doctor inviting him into her TARDIS and not even knowing. Going back and knowing that he's doing his version of 12 pretending to be agape when River brings him in for the "first" time is pretty incredible
|
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2020 13:45
|
|
|
Yeah, Yaz actually had more to do this episode and it was a big improvement over last season where even in the episodes about her family she was largely just there. I was hoping they'd do more with her shock/trauma from being teleported from England to an alien dimension to Australia in quick succession though.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2020 22:36
|
|
|
I like to think Capaldi knew, but also that literally nobody told him. He just knew.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2020 23:28
|
|
|
Class3KillStorm posted:On that point, was there something establishing that O was supposed to be a great sprinter or something that I missed prior to the reveal? From memory there were at least a couple of scenes where the Doctor mentioned how she'd never met O but had read up on his file and knew lots of details about him, though I can't remember specifics at the moment and maybe I just filled in that gap in my own head.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 4, 2020 00:31
|
|
|
JacquelineDempsey posted:Reason #672 I've been with my husband for 17 years: he saw this on Jan 1. Knowing my hatred of spoilers, he has been swallowing that reveal for a good two days and didn't drop a single hint until I finally got to see it tonight. Such a good man. Marry him! Wait.... uhhh... stay married to him!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 4, 2020 08:31
|
|
|
Only really just occurred to me that the Master probably believes with all his hearts that the Doctor "stole" the idea of regenerating into a woman from him.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 4, 2020 12:11
|
|
|
How is Dracula? More like Sherlock season 1 or more like Sherlock season 4?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 5, 2020 10:35
|
|
|
Turns out he's before Missy.... WAY before, he's actually the post-Delgado Master! Big Finish begins furiously rewriting all their charts JacquelineDempsey posted:Dracula! Thanks, I'll check it out and hope for the best!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 5, 2020 12:55
|
|
|
Time for an hour of the Master chewing the scenery Edit: How to land a plane without a cockpit See, this is why you always read the card in the front pocket! Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Jan 5, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Jan 5, 2020 20:02
|
|
|
Graham yelling at a recording telling him please not to talk to a recording
|
|
#
¿
Jan 5, 2020 20:08
|
|
|
Love the dude just casually following the Doctor around listening to her mad story.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 5, 2020 20:14
|
|
|
Is that Charles Babb.... oh it is!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 5, 2020 20:19
|
|
|
I'd say ending up in Paris 1943 instead of London 2019 meant the Kahsavin resisted her attempts to control them, but it's probably just the Doctor's usual level of control over time travel Edit: DANCE GRAHAM DANCE!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 5, 2020 20:26
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 17, 2024 19:26 |
|
|
Noor Inayat Khan in 1943  Edit: Contact! When was the last time they used that? 3rd Doctor? Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Jan 5, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Jan 5, 2020 20:33
|
|