Doctor Who: Flux (season 39)

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Doctor Who: Flux (season 39)

Forktoss: Feb 13, 2012; I'm OK, you're so-so

Narsham posted:

Whether Bone-face is supposed to be Fenric or not isn't clear, but so far he and his sister seem to be very much in the Fenric/Gods of Ragnarok mold, suggesting we may be getting Chibnall's version of the Cartmel Masterplan this series. Sadly, the odds of him being Sutekh are just about zero (although he did have a sister!). I'm pretty sure the Black Guardian doesn't have relatives.

When I saw the crystals on his face for a moment I thought he was Eldrad, but I guess not!

# ¿ Nov 1, 2021 07:07

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 08:04

Forktoss: Feb 13, 2012; I'm OK, you're so-so

The_Doctor posted:

THE 2021 DOCTOR WHO THREAD SECRET SANTA!

Aww man I don't think I can take part this year but I heartily recommend everyone else to do so!

# ¿ Nov 7, 2021 19:19

Forktoss: Feb 13, 2012; I'm OK, you're so-so

Jerusalem posted:

I for one salute our Sontaran friends for granting Finland the gift of independence a good 60-something years in advance :finland:

# ¿ Nov 8, 2021 13:04

Forktoss: Feb 13, 2012; I'm OK, you're so-so

The Ultimate Foe part one is a legitimately great episode of Who, for me it's the closest Seasons 22-23 ever come to being genuinely good. I love Colin but despite all the good will I can muster I honestly can't say any of his stories clear a bar higher than "ok at parts but still kinda bad" (not even Vengeance on Varos really, despite what some say). The Ultimate Foe part two is such a disjointed mess that that story on the whole unfortunately doesn't either.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2021 06:35

Forktoss: Feb 13, 2012; I'm OK, you're so-so

There's a lot of good stuff in The Two Doctors but I don't think it really comes together as a whole. It is a high point in Season 22 (although I do have soft spot for Revelation of the Daleks too), but I still wouldn't call it a proper no-caveats solid-quality serial of the kind you can find in almost every other season of Classic Who. I haven't seen it in ages though, it might be better than I remember!

# ¿ Nov 11, 2021 11:59

Forktoss: Feb 13, 2012; I'm OK, you're so-so

The thing with the Weeping Angels for me is that they worked really well in Blink because that's a really tightly constructed story where every element is designed to fit with each other. They work in Blink because they're tailor-made for Blink, and they never really work in anything else because they're tailor-made for Blink. Seems like if you want to use the Angels in a story that's not Blink you're either forced to come up with new gimmicks or start bending the original rules, both of which undermine the point of using the Angels in the first place. They're an essential cog that makes the narrative machinery of Blink work very well, but when you remove them from the rest of it you're left with basically just their most basic modus operandi and visual design along with some catchphrases like "don't blink", just empty iconography and story mechanics devoid of purpose.

I'm sure someone could come up with a way to tell another functional Weeping Angels story, but even then you would have to work backwards and tailor the story for their purposes to the extent that I don't know what the point of that kind of story could be beyond "another functional Weeping Angels story".

# ¿ Nov 22, 2021 14:23

Forktoss: Feb 13, 2012; I'm OK, you're so-so

A weird thing in the Chibnall era I've noticed is that he constantly introduces new story elements, themes, imagery, etc. that feel like they should obviously go together or connect to some other existing thing and they just... never do. A few examples:

The Fugitive Doctor and the Timeless Child poo poo are the most obvious one. In the same season, Chibnall reveals that the Doctor has a previously-unknown secret past incarnation that she has no memory of as well as a secret past that she has no memory of involving multiple previously-unknown incarnations. But apparently Jo Martin isn't one of these incarnations but a slightly later one that's secret and forgotten in a slightly different way?
The Master completely destroyed the Time Lords, with no real acknowledgement that they were all just resurrected from when they were previously completely destroyed.
Division is so clearly modelled on the Gallifreyan CIA from the classic series (which in itself was something of a joke to begin with and should never have been taken as seriously as fans and later writers did), but as far as I remember no connection between the two has been made explicit. TARDIS Wiki pretends they're the same but they're making assumptions I think.
The Grand Serpent has followers with wrist tattoos of snakes, just like the Mara; no reason to assume there would be any connection there, but it's a really specific image from the classic series that's being echoed for no apparent purpose.
This one's a bit spurious but the way Tecteun was initially presented really reminded me of the White Guardian: a mysterious elderly figure with white hair and a hat, residing in what looks like a garden of sorts, secretly pulling the strings behind everything; even the way her straw hat frames her head kinda looks like the back of the Guardian's chair in The Ribos Operation. Again, I don't think there's a real connection there, but there are weird similarities.

There are other examples, but these are the ones that come immediately to mind. Of course there are still episodes left so it's possible some of these strands will be tied up, but for most of them I feel like that's not where they're going. They're just these strange parallels that pretend they're not. I don't know if Chibnall intended them as red herrings or something, but it feels really weird.

Voting Floater posted:

So with badguys who are probably associated with The Division showing up with little snake tattoos, what are the odds that this whole thing is all Chibnall setting up to explain why Three had a tattoo?

This would be very dumb and exactly the kind of thing I could see Chibnall doing.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2021 13:49

Forktoss: Feb 13, 2012; I'm OK, you're so-so

Nick Briggs always keeps a toothbrush at the ready, just in case.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2021 17:55

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 08:04

Forktoss: Feb 13, 2012; I'm OK, you're so-so

A new Doctor Who episode that's genuinely pretty good! Haven't seen one of these in a while. I will honestly gladly take just the three of these instead of another full season of nonsense. Hope Chibnall stays on the ball and the next one is as focused as this was (the third one is probably a lost cause already with all the dumb plot threads it has to tie together, though it would be nice to be pleasantly surprised!).

# ¿ Jan 2, 2022 15:24

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Doctor Who: Flux (season 39)