The Doctor Who thread

frankus

axisus said:

I like the guitar thing. 

I like the guitar, I don't like him playing it.

ICBM

frankus said:

axisus said:

I like the guitar thing. 

I like the guitar, I don't like him playing it.

Especially when he's not. OK this is getting into geeks moaning about details that other people don't notice or care about, but when you have him walking around 'playing' a guitar when the sound you hear has wah pedal on it...

Forget all the impossible time travel stuff and the other nonsense, it's things like that which make it really unbelievable.

stickyfiddle

Jalapeno said:

WezV said:

is not the one you meant??

No, think it was "midnight" - London bus was planet of the dead or indeed pitch black lite

Midnight was excellent, and every bit as good as Blink. An absolute triumph, and perfect example of a good idea, tightly scripted.

I literally fell asleep watching the Zygon one last night. What happened? Everyone's dead? Ok. 

There's no jeopardy if you know everyone will be brought back next week. They've done it too many times. Someone needs to pull a Whedon and actually let someone die occasionally.

english_bob

stickyfiddle said:

There's no jeopardy if you know everyone will be brought back next week. They've done it too many times. Someone needs to pull a Whedon and actually let someone die occasionally.

Agreed. I sometimes think Doctor Who has serious confusion about what it is and who it's for, and thus whether it's OK to do this sort of thing.

Both The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood seem to have failed, so the main shows is stuck trying to accommodate everyone who might have watched any of those shows, which is a fool's errand.

stickyfiddle

english_bob said:

stickyfiddle said:

There's no jeopardy if you know everyone will be brought back next week. They've done it too many times. Someone needs to pull a Whedon and actually let someone die occasionally.

Agreed. I sometimes think Doctor Who has serious confusion about what it is and who it's for, and thus whether it's OK to do this sort of thing.

Both The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood seem to have failed, so the main shows is stuck trying to accommodate everyone who might have watched any of those shows, which is a fool's errand.

Yup. I hate going down the "adults criticising a kids show" route, but it's a mass market worldwide phenomenon, and not just because of the 8-12 year old demographic! In any case, that doesn't give them an excuse - There are plenty of shows/movies that manage to tread the line perfectly - Star Wars, Pixar's entire catalogue (except maybe Cars), Indiana Jones, most of Doctor Who (2005 to 2011 ish)

Fretwired

Just watched episode one of the Zygon story. Yet another global apocalypse with some crass moralising "don't bomb them .. you'll radicalise them" ... ISIL/Syria anyone. The Zygons are unlikely foes - men in stupid rubber suits and they're stark bollock naked. Kids are used to high quality CGI not poor effects like this .. I can't believe how bad it was .. Zygon high command .. do me a favour .. from ISIL to the Nazis .. and why is Unit doubling up as Mumsnet?

Doctor Who needs an overhaul - Moffat needs to be sacked and some new writers who can craft a scary story that doesn't involve the imminent destruction of the Earth/universe by a bunch a blokes in rubber suits. Moffat is just trawling the archives .. new monsters are needed urgently.

thermionic

Fretwired said:

The Zygons are unlikely foes - men in stupid rubber suits and they're stark bollock naked. 

LOL, that was bothering me as well. They always seem to be running, trying to hide their nakedness.

thermionic

ICBM said:

I quite like Zygon Clara anyway.

You mean Zygella?

WezV

I don't think it was terrible. Although the whole scene with the boxes in the weapons locker was odd. Normally that's an opportunity to throw recognisable props in the background to please fans. We just got old computers....and a helmet from a few episodes prior

axisus

I enjoyed this 2 parter. It would be easy to analyse and pull it apart, but to be honest I prefer to just go with the flow and enjoy it. Clara was unbelievably hot in her flat clothes! For me the hottest woman I've seen on TV in many a year. Recorded it, will be watching that scene again later!

thermionic

axisus said:

I enjoyed this 2 parter. It would be easy to analyse and pull it apart, but to be honest I prefer to just go with the flow and enjoy it. Clara was unbelievably hot in her flat clothes! For me the hottest woman I've seen on TV in many a year. Recorded it, will be watching that scene again later!

I agree with everything you said.

WezV

Yeah. She cant get enough screen time for me

thermionic

Did anybody else notice, for a couple of seconds after she emerged from her pod, she was sporting "just been shagged" hair?

thermionic

digitalscream

Well, it's good to see that - for 10 minutes - Capaldi finally proved his worth.

Incidentally, the box problem is silly; nobody would ever push a button, because they only have a 25% chance of winning. Four buttons to push - as soon as a button is pushed on one box, their opponent will do the same. Two combinations result in everybody losing, and the two remaining combinations are beneficial to one side only.

EricTheWeary

Watched second part this morning. I think I'm largely only watching it now so I can discuss with members of the Weary household and on here. I can't watch it with my brain engaged at all, it just becomes a list of things that don't add up. I'm tempted to rewatch some Ecclestone era episodes just to see if they were so much better than this or am I just remembering them more fondly? The Dr is shedding viewers so it's not just middle aged men on guitar forums who are losing interest. I guess this series is in the can but the next one needs a serious reboot. Clara has become a useless character - must make young woman into strong, confident character so not sexist mantra just means we have a young English teacher who is some sort of world power in her spare time. Once the companions lose their wide eyed wonder they cease to be companions - the Dr cultivates them and moves on, isn't that what he does? 

axisus

digitalscream said:

Incidentally, the box problem is silly; nobody would ever push a button,......

A psychopath would. Someone who was pissed off with everything would. A compulsive gambler would. A dalek would. Mrs A if she saw me watching Clara in her night clothes again would ...

axisus

EricTheWeary said:

 I'm tempted to rewatch some Ecclestone era episodes just to see if they were so much better than this or am I just remembering them more fondly? 

They had their own set of 'stuff' that wasn't great. The Bad Wolf running theme/series closer was terrible, didn't work at all. My daughters are big fans so I've seen a lot of Dr who again and again. My biggest problem is that the brilliant episodes are too few and far between. 

Myranda

Fretwired said:

Mkjackary said:

For me it does get really tiring where every episode it seems everyone is going to die and the baddies are unstoppable, then alst minute the doctor thinks of a clever way of fixing it.

Some of my favourite episodes have been the ones where it isn't an apocalyptic event on the line.
Why does it always need to be "oh my God the whole of time itself/world/universe is going to end.

Have to agree .. episodes like Dalek, the Doctor's Wife, the Girl in the Fireplace and Blink were terrific.

digitalscream said:

With all that said, I still think that The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit ranks among the best stories of the new run, even though it very definitely sits in the "all reality is in danger!" camp.

It's probably the only one, though.

Pretty much all of my favourite episodes mentioned in one page. And all for the same reason - character driven stories. Girl in the Fireplace was all about the characters... and even then pretty much just The Doctor and Madame de Pompadour...  The Doctors Wife - again, made by the interaction of the Doctor and the Tardis ... 

The Satan Pit was more of a story, but the Doctor and Rose were properly on a roll, the writing for that was a big part of it, and they invested time in the side characters so we cared when someone died. The whole Ood "He is risen" mass chanting was proper creepy/good too.

I hope that by next season someone tells them which the good episodes are, so that they can do more of that. Also, this season the Doctor un-wrote a load of what he did... so I rather hope that the Satan Pit baddie is free to come back again... even if we only ever see glimpses of what he has influenced as a subtle thing and is never truly confronted. 

Heartfeltdawn

Fretwired said:

Just watched episode one of the Zygon story. Yet another global apocalypse with some crass moralising "don't bomb them .. you'll radicalise them" ... ISIL/Syria anyone. The Zygons are unlikely foes - men in stupid rubber suits and they're stark bollock naked. Kids are used to high quality CGI not poor effects like this .. I can't believe how bad it was .. Zygon high command .. do me a favour .. from ISIL to the Nazis .. and why is Unit doubling up as Mumsnet?

It's strange how the new Zygon outfits don't look as good as the originals. The new ones are a bit too human in the face department. 

"Five rounds rapid" - stop the bloody callbacks. 

Fair play to Capaldi though. Superb Doctor working with some crappy material. The episode was geared around his speech and, fine though it was, it can't make up for the incoherent and downright ludicrous plotting of the two episodes.