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Which season should the next animated reconstruction be from? This poll is closed. |
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| Season 1 (Marco Polo) |
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13 | 18.57% |
| Season 2 (The Crusade) |
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1 | 1.43% |
| Season 3 (Galaxy 4/The Myth Makers/The Daleks' Master Plan/The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve/The Celestial Toymaker/The Savages) |
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25 | 35.71% |
| Season 4 (The Smugglers/The Highlanders/The Underwater Menace/The Evil of the Daleks) |
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16 | 22.86% |
| Season 5 (The Abominable Snowmen/The Web of Fear/The Wheel in Space) |
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11 | 15.71% |
| Season 6 (The Space Pirates) |
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4 | 5.71% |
| Total: | 70 votes | ||
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 02:27 |
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I had assumed Gatiss was the likely replacement for Moffat and wasn't all that enthused about it, but he certainly had written better episodes than Chibnall (not a high bar to clear at that point), but I assumed that Chibnall's success showrunning Broadchurch meant he would end up doing a better job. Arguably he has done a pretty good job (I assume the scheduling issues are entirely out of his control?) in every aspect OTHER than the writing, and there's nothing beyond ego I'm assuming that dictates he HAS to write so many episodes if any at all. I think somebody mentioned Toby Whithouse might have been a possibility at one point? I haven't seen any of the shows he created but apparently Being Human was quite good?
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Mar 10, 2020 05:34
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Astroman posted:Remember that time when we thought Doctor Ruth was something to do with 6b and not the Morbius Doctors? I'm still holding on to that belief/hope until Chibnall expertly dashes it!
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Mar 10, 2020 09:22
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Season 11, Episode 5: The Tsuranga Conundrum Written by Chris Chibnall, Directed by Jennifer Perrott Ryan Sinclair posted:He's like a... a gap in my life. I legitimately kept forgetting this episode exists, and I feel it's a little unfair because it's actually not a bad episode. It's also, unfortunately, not really a good one either. It's perfectly serviceable and better on a second watch than it was on the first, but it's doomed to be an episode like Tooth and Claw, 42 or A Town Called Mercy where you often only remember they exist when you see them named on a list or some poor sap like me ends up writing a lot of words about them. There have been far worse episodes, but those stood out due to how bad they were. The only thing that really makes this episode memorable is that the Pting looks like a somewhat better rendered version of Glip Glop from Community.... which is a shame, because the episode also serves as an extremely strong example of world-building The episode opens with a literal bang, as the Doctor takes her companions to Seffilum 27, a trash planet in a junk galaxy, in search of parts for the TARDIS but ends up uncovering a sonic mine instead. It blows up in their faces, and when the Doctor comes to (interestingly, unlike in most serials she is the last to recover) she finds herself in a hospital called Tsuranga, upset and disoriented as she freaks out about the TARDIS being left unattended on a planet often scoured by scavengers. Ignoring the medic's insistence that she stay in place as she and the others finish stabilizing from their injuries, the Doctor sets off in search of the exit. This provides the excuse to introduce the other supporting characters in the story: Yoss, a pregnant male; Durkas and Cicero, siblings with a tense relationship; Ronan, the artificial lifeform/partner of Cicero; and the two medics Astos and Mabli.  [img]https://i.imgur.com/aVbCtDE.gif[/url][/img]At this point the story is having fun with some common tropes: namely that the Doctor is always right and also that doctors in general make terrible patients. She refuses to listen to the medics, and when she discovers Tsuranga is a ship and not a stationary building, she becomes all the more insistent on getting access to the flight deck or a teleporter or an escape pod so she can get back to the TARDIS. At this point, it seems like this is going to be the driving force of the story, the Doctor's attempts to get back. Happily it's a bit more exciting than that. The Doctor's insistence on running around while clearly not physically 100%, making demands and refusing to listen lead to a very nice moment where Astos chides her for not listening and reminds her that not only is she putting herself at risk, but the rest of the patients as well. It is to the Doctor's credit that she actually has the self-awareness to realize she is being a bit of a dick and to apologize, especially as it follows so soon after a scene where she can't help but brag to war-hero Cicero that she has a much larger entry than her in the Book of Celebrants, which recounts the feats of heroic figures in history. At this point in the story we've been fed a lot of background info that the Doctor has largely been ignoring, but she finally starts taking it onboard. The ship is automated and the medics get no control over navigation, they're skirting the edge of "disputed territory", they have a war hero on board, and the ship has a remote-activated auto-destruct system. This is a galaxy (or galaxies) at war, an environment where even junkheaps have been weaponized on the off-chance somebody could get some use out of them. So when something is seen on the scanners (and to be fair, nobody would have seen that if the Doctor wasn't poking her nose in where it didn't belong) and penetrates the shields, the immediate and understandable perception is that this is a hostile and intelligent force.   Well, a hostile one at least. Astos and the Doctor split up to go to the two different lifepods on the ship to make sure they're secure, and Astos finds himself ejected out of Tsuranga when damage to the lifepod causes it to jettison and explode. He just has time before he dies to offer words of encouragement to Mabli, who is the junior medic and has already been shown to have low enough self-confidence to let Ronan intimidate her into handing over adrenaline blockers for Cicero's use. The stage has well and truly been set here, and the writing has proven functional enough to set the stakes: there's a hostile force on board, a pregnant man about ready to give birth, a medic with shaken confidence, a Doctor still suffering the effects of a sonic mine, and a war hero with an android consort and a brother suspicious about what both are hiding from him. They encounter the creature and use the Tsuranga's extensive medical records to learn it is called a Pting, a highly hostile creature that is practically invulnerable, toxic to the touch, and while non-carnivorous can and will eat any non-organic material. The unusual thing here is that everybody involved, including the Doctor, is able to look at the Pting for more than a few seconds without realizing that it isn't intelligent. All of them ascribe malice and intelligence to its thinking, they assume it knowingly set up the trap for Astos and is stalking or otherwise playing with them as it eats. Nothing about its appearance or demeanor backs this up, it's a strange take for the story even accounting for the Doctor being at less than 100% - while its actions could be perceived as planned when it was an unseen force moving through the ship, from the moment they first encountered it, it should have been painfully obvious they were just dealing with an animal. That "revelation" comes later in the episode and it feels like it was delayed to add tension, but that was rather redundant since as an added bonus problem, the Doctor discovers that their destination of Resus One has detected something is wrong with the ship and is demanding to know if there is a problem. If they learn there is a Pting on board they will auto-destruct the ship, and if the ship sends back three "all clear" messages in a row they will assume it has been hijacked and blow it up anyway. The Doctor lampshades this a bit by complaining about who the hell would design a system like this. In any case, they need a plan and the Doctor of course comes up with one. She can send a false positive signal to Resus One claiming they're still on their automated route, while Durkas (an engineer) jury-rigs a control system that can hook into the nav-controls so Cicero (a pilot) can take control of the ship and fly them through an asteroid field and cut significant time off their journey. In the meantime, they'll need to figure out how to get the Pting off the ship AND deal with Yoss' imminent giving birth. Graham and Ryan are tasked with helping Yoss, while Yaz and Ronan are armed with stazers to stun the Pting if it comes after the anti-matter drive which is their only means of propulsion. This leads to a rather lovely if kind of out-of-nowhere moment where the show reverts back to its old educational roots for a moment and the Doctor lovingly explains how a particle accelerator works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJGaY58ysN4 The episode has been tight and functional, but the emotional beats have to come from somewhere and after the initial awkwardness of the Doctor realizing she's being a shithead to Astos, that is largely covered by the Yoss storyline. While Cicero and Durkas' sibling rivalry has its moments, it is really Ryan's reaction to Yoss that hits home. While arguably you could read the storyline as making GBS threads on people who put their kids up for adoption, I'd say Ryan's reaction to Yoss saying he will be giving up his child is more about him wanting to make sure he has truly thought about it rather than just jumping to what he assumes is the "right" decision. Regardless, it's a deeply personal thing for him, and we get given further background information on Ryan's parents: we already knew his dad was absent to the point of not even attending Grace's funeral, but we also learn that not only did Ryan's mother die young, but he was the one who found her body. This rather horrifying revelation plays out amidst the "comedy" of a male pregnancy, as Graham and Ryan struggle to come to terms with alien biology and cultural norms. It also plays out as a bonding moment (but still no fistbump for Graham!), as the two work together to aid Yoss and Mabli with the birth and Graham reveals that he loves Call the Midwife but always looks away during the squeamish bits. Yaz is again given the short end of the stick, mostly standing around asking questions and getting exposition dumps. Her one big moment comes when they toss a blanket over the Pting and she dropkicks it down a corridor. The supporting characters get to have more development than she does, as we learn that Cicero has "Pilot's heart" and her body can't deal with the strain of flying ships anymore, which is all that she ever wants to do. She and Durkas finally have a heart-to-heart moment as he aids and eventually replaces her in flying the ship, as she dies doing what she always loved. Even Ronan gets a moment, as Durkas apologizes for being such an rear end in a top hat to the artificial lifeform which is now going to shutdown as its consort has died. He offers the kindest compliment he can think of: that he gave good service to Cicero. Even that small moment is more than Yaz really gets character-wise.   Having finally figured out that the Pting isn't intelligent and is just hungry, the Doctor figures out how to get it off the Tsuranga. Finding the bomb that would be used to destroy the ship in the event of hijacking/infection etc, she arms it and leaves it in the last functioning escape pod. The Pting is attracted to the energy source and eats it, and the Doctor ejects it from the Tsuranga. In an oddly sweet moment, the Pting falls into a happy food-daze after the bomb explodes in its stomach, and it floats away with a serene look on its face into the vacuum of space (which it can survive in). Having completed her promise to save everybody (Cicero died, but was "saved" in a different way), the Doctor is rewarded with Mabli letting her know that a now-informed Resus One has agreed that after a 3 hour quarantine they will arrange her transport back to Seffilum 27 to collect the TARDIS. Yoss informs them that he has decided he is going to at least try to raise the baby himself, admitting that he's going to make mistakes but he wants to at least try. Again, it's a rough balance in a storyline like that, the intended message is that dad's are important, but of course dads are dads whether their kids are biological or adopted, so I just choose to take this at face value of Yoss' initial decision being one he felt he HAD to take until Ryan offered him a different perspective from a son who felt abandoned by his father. It's this final scene that I think sums up my best feelings about this episode. Yeah it's largely forgettable as a functional storyline that doesn't really stand out in any way. But the world-building is handled incredibly well, this is a great example of an episode where the Doctor and companions land in a fully-formed place that feels like it existed before they arrived and will continue to exist after they're gone. It's the 67th Century in the midst of a period of war, an era of multiple alien species co-existing and aware of a culture and traditions alien to anybody from the 21st Century... but not the Doctor. The android clones simply exist in this world without being called out beyond a grumpy, slightly-jealous brother. The Book of Celebrants is a known cultural icon. But most tellingly of all comes during the "incant" for Cicero. No explanation for what this is gets given, and it doesn't need to be. The viewer can understand from the context that this is a ceremonial gesture for the recently deceased, and the participants all know it by heart. Even the Doctor, who admits she has spent less time than she should in this century, is fully versed in this tradition. It is the companions who are left on the outer as she joins the others in recognizing the passing of Cicero. They are strangers from a different time, while the Doctor is a citizen of all times and places. The Incant for Cicero posted:May the Saints of all the stars and constellations, bring you hope as they guide you out of the dark and into the light on this voyage and the next, and all the journeys still to come. For now and evermore. It's a lovely ending to an episode that most of us will forget within a day of being reminded of it. Ironically, it's one of the most solid "standard" episodes of Doctor Who that Chibnall has ever written, something that would have fit in fine as one of the "other" episodes during the RTD or Moffat eras. I feel bad for considering it a missed opportunity for some other writer (say Jamie Mathieson, for example) given that Chibnall gets to write the bulk of the episodes in a season now. But it's not bad, it's a strong example of world-building and it's nice that the Doctor found a non-fatal way to deal with the Pting that also had the benefit of leaving it sated and happy instead of hungry and angry. It's just... you know, it's nothing more than a completely standard and non-memorable episode of Doctor Who.   Index of Doctor Who Write-ups for Television Episodes/Big Finish Audio Stories. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Mar 10, 2020 |
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Mar 10, 2020 13:23
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Jo Martin's Doctor is going to get her mind wiped and then stumble out of the TARDIS and into a field, then get picked up by the Brigadier who will look at Jon Pertwee's face and say this isn't the man he thought it would be. Spearhead footage is even available in HD!
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Mar 11, 2020 01:14
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Still laugh every so often when I think about how the 6th Doctor tried to get out of being put on trial. Six: I'm the President so I declare you can't put me on trial. Councillor: You literally ran away 2 seconds after getting made President so we stripped you of the title and got a new President. Six: ....well you got me there.
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Mar 11, 2020 03:35
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Edward Mass posted:In "Why you hold off on buying single episode Blu-ray" news, Resolution will be on the Series 12 box set. God loving DAMMIT it should have been on the Series 11 boxset, and this makes me assume that the next holiday special is a looooong way away 
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Mar 12, 2020 04:15
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Another great thing about the Merlin stuff was that in at least one (and possibly all?) versions of King Arthur, Merlin was living backwards through time. So having "Merlin" show up in Battlefield to meet for the first time a villain who hated him for that other time earlier in HER life when he defeated her was great. On a slight tangent, I dug that Moffat did a similar thing with The Great Intelligence, where it turns out its first encounter with the Doctor was with 11, and THEN it went on to meet the 2nd Doctor next where it tried to get the jump on him, but despite having no knowledge of their future encounter the 2nd Doctor actually had the GI right where he wanted it and was ready to destroy it until Jamie (I think) hosed everything up by "saving" him.
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Mar 12, 2020 06:17
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To be fair to Chibnall, based on the very little public speaking he's done on the subject, his mindset seemed to be very much,"I'm doing it because people who agree it would be perfectly fine for the Doctor to be a woman are always coming up with excuses for why it can't be done NOW! and I don't want to do the same", and he'd worked with Jodie before and knew she was a good actor so why not offer her the role? I certainly haven't gotten any kind of impression that he did it as a scapegoat/preventative measure, if he didn't feel confident in his ability to run the show I don't think he would have taken the job. For better or worse, I feel like we're getting exactly the kind of show he wants out of Who, and that he's not trying to distract or obfuscate stuff with stunt-casting or faux-wokeness.
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Mar 13, 2020 04:56
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quote:On Pointless, Graham answers a series of questions of policework correctly. Ouch.
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Mar 14, 2020 01:53
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WSAENOTSOCK posted:I legit don't understand the point you've been trying to make, so you can be glib and sarcastic about it to make yourself feel clever, or you could further try to explain the thing you thought was important enough to say to a group of strangers. I'm pretty sure Dabir was just making fun of Narsham's post, which over-generalized the change to the Doctor's history to try and make it look indistinguishable from some other minor change that didn't get people up in arms. Their response to you was just making fun of Narsham's post again, not taking a shot at or arguing with you.
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Mar 14, 2020 05:43
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In the interest of positivity, let me point out one thing I absolutely adored about The Timeless Children. The Master tells this big story, all this so-called super important history and back-story and secrets that are supposed to be really really fascinating and big-time mind-blowing etc.... and the Doctor's first reaction/thought/concern after all this is revealed is (paraphrased): "Yeah but was the kid okay?" That's... perfect. I loved that, it fits with the Doctor's character so much that this would be her primary focus, and that it was probably also the last thing the Master would have thought to ask.
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Mar 14, 2020 10:46
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The Rani was a cool character in concept and loving awful in execution, but I adore her spot-on analysis of The Master being somebody who would get dizzy walking in a straight line. 
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Mar 16, 2020 22:21
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loving hell that's a great tease.
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Mar 18, 2020 23:16
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Muppetjedi posted:Day of The Doctor rewatch at 7pm tonight. Oh, so no change from my usual daily schedule then?
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Mar 21, 2020 14:44
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Carbon dioxide posted:Here it is! https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-03-21/doctor-who-new-moffat-scene/ "One thing is for certain... the Time Lords are back for good!" 
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Mar 22, 2020 02:17
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That's awesome, I love whenever RTD gets excited about stuff (so I love RTD a lot of the time).
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Mar 25, 2020 04:41
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She's seriously the absolute best thing Chibnall has done for the show. His casts are good but she was an inspired choice.
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Mar 25, 2020 13:41
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The_Doctor posted:“I’ve locked the doors...” Ahahahaha, perfect.
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Mar 26, 2020 01:54
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The_Doctor posted:His Instagram post of the pages someone made are fantastic. Page 128 and stop, the Target writer’s edict. Holy poo poo this is incredible. "A whirl of blue. That faithful blue." 
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Mar 26, 2020 21:52
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Didn't Norton's next episode after that feature him getting menaced by Daleks for loving up the show? 
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Mar 26, 2020 23:45
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I love the line about how maybe he would pass that restoration on to somebody else one day 
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Mar 27, 2020 05:01
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To be fair, Jack would also be flirting with a 59-year-old Peri.
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Mar 27, 2020 12:36
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I love you RTD, you beautiful Welsh giant. 
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Mar 28, 2020 01:42
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That shot of Amy among the sunflowers still blows me away
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Mar 28, 2020 04:48
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His mom immediately popping up to tell him how proud she is of him  Edit - Also: https://twitter.com/LockdownWho/status/1244690260992417796 
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Mar 30, 2020 23:09
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Me: Man I loved almost everything about the Hinchcliffe/Holmes era. Chibnal: Say no more, fam. Me: 
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Apr 2, 2020 22:54
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The Eleventh Hour was a masterpiece, and season 5 as a whole remains the best single season the revival has done so far. It was so, so loving good. Ironically the only story that doesn't live up to the quality is the Silurian 2-parter written by Chris Chibnal, and even that has that amazing epilogue where Rory dies (he gets better).
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Apr 3, 2020 21:57
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The epilogue you mean? Yeah I should have specified that it felt very obvious that there is a distinct moment where Chibnal's writing ends and Moffat's suddenly starts.
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Apr 3, 2020 22:52
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Troughton's face when he realizes it's a Dalek is so loving good.
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Apr 4, 2020 17:22
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Trump is only keeping up relationships with the UK because he's been trying to force Boris Johnson to send them K9, Boris has checked himself into hospital as a delaying tactic.
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Apr 6, 2020 00:17
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If it makes you feel better, pretend that he was the President the Toclafane disintegrated in Sound of the Drums.
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Apr 6, 2020 00:35
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That was incredibly sweet, I really liked it 
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Apr 7, 2020 12:49
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God if that isn't just the sweetest thing
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Apr 8, 2020 05:12
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I love how actors who take the role end up just straight up becoming the Doctor for real, it's the best Well, except Tom Baker who is legitimately just straight up the Doctor in real life and accidentally stumbled into being cast as himself.
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Apr 9, 2020 04:20
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The_Doctor posted:Deep cuts. I think I choose 4, 6 & 10. 4, 5 and probably 8 but maaaaybe 10. I hate to lose 1 though  Also yes, Day of the Doctor gets kept no matter what 
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Apr 9, 2020 11:28
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Astroman posted:but Clara and Eleven is just no contest when compared to Clara and Twelve. I have the complete opposite take. Clara and 11 never really seemed to gel for me until Day of the Doctor at which point their run together was almost at it's end, though I largely blame the decision to keep the Ponds (much as I love them) around for an extra half season for why Clara and 11 didn't really get a chance to find their stride. 12 and Clara, however, I absolutely loved. Their relationship running from it's breakdown to the glorious moment in Mummy on the Orient Express where she sees the Doctor really is absolutely 100% still THE Doctor tells a really good story, and then from there they just seemed to gel perfectly. Though the Danny Pink stuff was hit and miss, I did love her arc of becoming a bit too enamored with the lifestyle and so wrapped up on wanting to be like her own idealized version of the Doctor that she started putting herself into terrible danger. Plus it leads into Heaven Sent where she permeates every second of the episode despite largely not being in it. I think of Clara/11 a bit like 3/Sarah Jane. Yeah they traveled together and liked each other, but it wasn't until 4/Sarah Jane that the relationship really deepened into something special. Doctor: So Cyber-Leader, how's isolation treating you? How are you feeling? Cyber-Leader: ...... EXCELLENT! Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Apr 9, 2020 |
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Apr 9, 2020 22:37
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Ahh I see, yes sorry my bad I completely misread you. Still, at least now I've reminded myself I really need to rewatch Mummy on the Orient Express. Oh, and Flatline. Oh and and Last Christmas. Can't forget Heaven Sent either! So it's agreed, time to rewatch the entire revival!
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Apr 9, 2020 23:59
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Patrick Troughton, well known for his imposing height.
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Apr 11, 2020 00:49
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 02:27 |
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Tomtrek posted:Neil Gaiman wrote this little scene as an introduction for tonight's watch-along of The Doctor's Wife, and it's great: This is just brilliant, God I miss Rory Orphan 55 sucked but It Takes You Away was legit one of the best episodes of the revival so this is also good!
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Apr 12, 2020 00:09
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