Doctor Who

[Millais]

a nice story, nothing groundbreaking but an enjoyable watch nonetheless.

and Karen Gillan. wowowow, she looked gorgeous.

[skydivingninja]

Decent Christmas special.  Started off a bit slow, but got better as it went on.  Had a few problems, though, such as (sized for spoilers):


-The beginning.  How the hell did the Doctor not implode, change into a spacesuit, and survive the impact to Earth and live?  I mean, surviving the fall in the End of Time was one thing that you could chalk up to sturdy time lord bones and the breathing in space could be explained by a TARDIS air bubble, but the impact don't make no sense.
-Moffat.  I feel like he's getting a bit lazy at times.  Like at the beginning, doing the whole "Doctor talks really fast oh how funny!" schtick wasn't so great, and "humany wumany" doesn't work the same way "wibbly wobbly timey wimey" does at all.  That being said, the second half was some of the best Doctor Who ever.
-The forester guys.  They showed up for just a few minutes to deliver a plot device.  I had hoped Bill Bailey would get to show off more.

Despite that I still quite liked it, so yeah.

[ariich]

Yeah I'd have loved to see more of the foresters as they were really funny, so that was a shame.

Can't say I had a problem with your other two issues, but then I generally love Moffat's style, so I'm probably just too much of a fanboi.

[ariich]

Oh an in response to your first point:

The spacesuit he was in had some sort of special qualities - he never explained what, but when Madge tried to get it off him, he was talking about how it was still repairing him. So I'm pretty sure he survived the fall because of the suit.

[Millais]

Decent Christmas special.  Started off a bit slow, but got better as it went on.  Had a few problems, though, such as (sized for spoilers):


-The beginning.  How the hell did the Doctor not implode, change into a spacesuit, and survive the impact to Earth and live?  I mean, surviving the fall in the End of Time was one thing that you could chalk up to sturdy time lord bones and the breathing in space could be explained by a TARDIS air bubble, but the impact don't make no sense.
-Moffat.  I feel like he's getting a bit lazy at times.  Like at the beginning, doing the whole "Doctor talks really fast oh how funny!" schtick wasn't so great, and "humany wumany" doesn't work the same way "wibbly wobbly timey wimey" does at all.  That being said, the second half was some of the best Doctor Who ever.
-The forester guys.  They showed up for just a few minutes to deliver a plot device.  I had hoped Bill Bailey would get to show off more.

Despite that I still quite liked it, so yeah.

yeah I'd agree with everything there.

[TheMadgician]

Oh an in response to your first point:

The spacesuit he was in had some sort of special qualities - he never explained what, but when Madge tried to get it off him, he was talking about how it was still repairing him. So I'm pretty sure he survived the fall because of the suit.

He said it was an impact suit. I'd imagine there was some kind of oxygen bubble shenanigans going on with the fall out of the ship.

[skydivingninja]

Oh an in response to your first point:

The spacesuit he was in had some sort of special qualities - he never explained what, but when Madge tried to get it off him, he was talking about how it was still repairing him. So I'm pretty sure he survived the fall because of the suit.

He said it was an impact suit. I'd imagine there was some kind of oxygen bubble shenanigans going on with the fall out of the ship.

Ooooooooh I missed that Ariich.  Explains that then!

[Kosmo]

That was a fun special. 

[Sigz]

Great special

Also, I just watched the Space/Time mini episodes they did for Red Nose Day

[ariich]

Great special

I know some people were underwhelmed by the special, but I think they miss the point - it's not supposed to be groundbreaking, it's supposed to be something you can watch with the family at Christmas. Personally I think with both of his Christmas episodes, Moffat has got the tone exactly right!

Also, I just watched the Space/Time mini episodes they did for Red Nose Day

Those are amazing. Amy flirting with herself.

[Sigz]

Great special

I know some people were underwhelmed by the special, but I think they miss the point - it's not supposed to be groundbreaking, it's supposed to be something you can watch with the family at Christmas. Personally I think with both of his Christmas episodes, Moffat has got the tone exactly right!

Yeah, but even considering that there was still a nice bit of character development for The Doctor at the end.

Also, I just watched the Space/Time mini episodes they did for Red Nose Day

Those are amazing. Amy flirting with herself.

 

[ariich]

Yeah, but even considering that there was still a nice bit of character development for The Doctor at the end.

Yeah definitely, I thought it was a lovely episode. Maybe not as clever as last year's, but very sweet and with some nice ideas in it.

[skydivingninja]

Yeah, but even considering that there was still a nice bit of character development for The Doctor at the end.

Yeah definitely, I thought it was a lovely episode. Maybe not as clever as last year's, but very sweet and with some nice ideas in it.

The part Sigz mentioned was my favorite part of the episode, and it was pulled off very well except for that line I had a problem with.

RANKHING THYME
A Christmas Carol
The End of Time
The Runaway Bride
The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe
The Christmas Invasion
The Next Doctor
Voyage of the Damned

[ariich]

The End of Time
A Christmas Carol
The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe
The Runaway Bride
The Christmas Invasion
Voyage of the Damned
The Next Doctor

For pure epicness, The End of Time has to get my vote. But the two Moffat ones are my favourite of the more straightforward traditional ones. The rest are mostly good, although I have to say I do find The Next Doctor a little dull.

[TheMadgician]

I'm surprised Voyage of the Damned isn't getting more love. I thought that was a fantastic episode.

[Jaq]

I loved the Christmas special this year. It doesn't compare, for me, to A Christmas Carol (that episode was damn near perfect IMO) but it was a fun ride and Moffat again revealed that, at heart, he's a softie. Ranking time:

A Christmas Carol
The Doctor, The Widow, And The Wardrobe
The Next Doctor
The Runaway Bride
Voyage of the Damned
The End of Time
The Christmas Invasion.

Yes...End of Time IS that low. Everything that was bad about the RTD era was in it in spades. The Christmas Invasion is only worse because most of the episode is everyone, INCLUDING Tennant, figuring out who the Doctor was now. And in that season I don't think they really figured that out until about, oh, The Girl In The Fireplace.

As for the merits of the others-Voyage of the Damned has some nice moments, but it tries too hard to be an action blockbuster. Runaway Bride is great because Catherine Tate was oh so shockingly good in it (don't get me started about what happened to Donna, we'll be here all week) and the Next Doctor is good because RTD largely restrains his goofier instincts, which have a tendency to undercut his dramatic side. (Seriously, go watch Midnight. THAT RTD can write his ass off. The guy who invented farting aliens and thought six billion Masters was a good plan, though...)

And A Christmas Carol is sublime. It's grounded by the familiar structure of the Dickens story, but it gets to go off in so many fun and heartbreaking at once directions, and Michael Gambon is BRILLIANT in it. I love it to pieces. 

[robwebster]

Decent Christmas special.  Started off a bit slow, but got better as it went on.  Had a few problems, though, such as (sized for spoilers):


-The beginning.  How the hell did the Doctor not implode, change into a spacesuit, and survive the impact to Earth and live?  I mean, surviving the fall in the End of Time was one thing that you could chalk up to sturdy time lord bones and the breathing in space could be explained by a TARDIS air bubble, but the impact don't make no sense.
-Moffat.  I feel like he's getting a bit lazy at times.  Like at the beginning, doing the whole "Doctor talks really fast oh how funny!" schtick wasn't so great, and "humany wumany" doesn't work the same way "wibbly wobbly timey wimey" does at all.  That being said, the second half was some of the best Doctor Who ever.
-The forester guys.  They showed up for just a few minutes to deliver a plot device.  I had hoped Bill Bailey would get to show off more.

Despite that I still quite liked it, so yeah.

It made precious little sense, but I bloody loved it.

My mum cried - but then she does bloody love Alexander Armstrong. I almost joined in. Didn't, but welled up. I spent the first ten minutes with my disbelief properly suspended, thinking "ohhh, god, I hope I don't turn into one of those guys," and the last ten very much not being one of those guys. Bliss.

And yeah, Bill Bailey was wasted. But every single scene he was in was golden, which helps make it okay. All of the Androzani (YES!) miners, in fact, were utterly perfect. Wool!

@Jaq: Funny 'bout The End of Time. I had a few reservations about the RTD era - I found his finales... er, well, no, I didn't find them lacking. I had a couple of issues with Last of the Time Lords, but the good 45 minutes outweighed the cringey five, but I didn't like Journey's End at all. Yet, I adored every second of TEoT. I loved every bit. The volatile Master, the Vinvocci, I thought all of the writing and acting was precisely the right kind of agonising. David Tennant against John Simm, David Tennant against Bernard Cribbins, John Simm acting against John Simm... everyone playing their little hearts out, with some of the best lines Doctor Who's ever seen. I understand the words "I didn't like the End of Time," and understand what people are trying to articulate when they say it embodied the worst of RTD's excesses, but I can't make sense of the thought. The feeling is totally alien.

I'm more amazed by Christmas Invasion being at the bottom, though. That's barmy. With the utmost respect, but it IS!

And, while we're ranking...

1. The End of Time
2. The Next Doctor
3. A Christmas Carol
4. The Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe
5. The Christmas Invasion
6. Voyage of the Damned
7. The Runaway Bride

The Next Doctor, incidentally, was filmed in my hometown. Might've witnessed one of the scenes being filmed. Just a little bit.

[TheMadgician]

OH MY GOD ROB IS BACK OH GOD YES

You were probably my favorite to talk about Doctor Who with. Because you really truly understand the excitement of it all.

That said, rewatching all of the revival with the girlfriend. We're up to season 6. So much more sense a second time around. So much fun watching people trying to figure it out. She seems to catch things much faster than I did >_>

[robwebster]

OH MY GOD ROB IS BACK OH GOD YES

You were probably my favorite to talk about Doctor Who with. Because you really truly understand the excitement of it all.

That said, rewatching all of the revival with the girlfriend. We're up to season 6. So much more sense a second time around. So much fun watching people trying to figure it out. She seems to catch things much faster than I did >_>

Ah! I know the feeling. Actually, I always get borderline suspicious whenever anyone starts to catch all the right things. I didn't when I was watching it, I sat around ignorant, applauding every reveal of any kind like the worst kind of seal, so whenever anyone guesses all the twists or picks up on all the fine details I immediately decide they've been lying about not being a Doctor Who fan, and decide they're probably wearing a "The Angels Have the Phone Box" tee under their shirt, ready to break it open at the end and prove that they were fanatics all along.

I'll be right one of these days.

[TheMadgician]

It's smaller things. Like I remember at Christmas Invasion she realized The Doctor was alive much faster than I did my first time. Of course, she watched season 1, where as I started right on season 2. She caught "Pond" and "River" really fast in Time of Angels. Also asked right away "Is she a timelady?" when River flew the Tardis.

Though the last one might have been much more of a guess. She's always hoping there's going to be another timelord, or even more preferably a timelady.

[robwebster]

Yeah, definitely smaller things! People picking up Bad Wolf straight away and what have you. I didn't notice until... ohhhh, I think it was on a Fact File for The Doctor Dances on the BBC website? "Schlechter Wolf roughly translates as "bad wolf," now where have we heard those words before..." I don't know, where  have we?! I think I remembered the graffiti at a stretch, but bad wolf, for me, happened strictly through Wikipedia until the episode itself broadcast.

So if someone is watching Aliens of London and yelling "HEY IT'S A BAD WOLF THING LIKE GWYNETH" I instantly go into detective mode and bad-cop the truth out of them. Which invariably turns out to be the highly uncomfortable truth that they're just far more perceptive than myself.

Pond and River would have me sleuthing, definitely. I didn't get that one until... ohhh, probably Let's Kill Hitler. One day I'll rumble someone. One day.



NB: Yes, I know Pond/River is revealed in Good Man. Joke, not mistake. Shit joke, but joke nonetheless. Now laugh.

LAUGH.


Iiiiiiincidentally! I don't think I was here for S6B. What did everyone think of series six on the whole? Particularly in comparison to series five, but compared to the other four too if you want. Heck, or the other twenty-six before. (although I will have no idea what you're on about if you go that route.)

Not a loaded question, genuinely interested.

[Sigz]

SEASON 6 SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY PEOPLE

Iiiiiiincidentally! I don't think I was here for S6B. What did everyone think of series six on the whole? Particularly in comparison to series five, but compared to the other four too if you want. Heck, or the other twenty-six before. (although I will have no idea what you're on about if you go that route.)

Not a loaded question, genuinely interested.

LKH was good, though I personally thought River's whole 'transformation' or whatever was kinda sudden/weak.

Night Terrors was enjoyable, but nothing amazing.

I loved Girl Who Waited and God Complex.

Closing Time had great dialogue and the themes of it being The Doctor's last days were wonderful, but the Cyberman plot was extremely weak and felt pretty unnecessary.

Wedding of River Song was also enjoyable, but felt really rushed.

[robwebster]

WELCOME TO SPOILERVILLE.

Oh, wow - my opinions are perhaps a tad less controversial than I'd have thought, then!

I pretty much second every atom of that. Closing Time, in particular - I feel like I'm probably the only Doctor Who fan who got sick of the Stormageddon joke after about the third time he brought it up.

It's... I think Series 6 is fun, very fun - fun in spades - but completely inelegant. The plot jolts from side to side fairly erratically, with massive bombastic info-dumps at the fringes, which went completely unmentioned in-between. Miles upon miles away from the utter perfection of Series 5, where the arc just sang. Rang through the episodes from start to finish, growing and shifting with revelations in all the right places, paving the way for the next few episodes, and the next few, and the next few, right up to the finale where it all came together in the best finale Doctor Who's ever done.

In fairness, they were never going to be able to match that, but it's the first time a series of Doctor Who hasn't eclipsed the previous year, for me, so I kinda fancy having a chat about it!

I think it's telling that they messed the order around a lot. Originally, part A was meant to look like this...

1. The Impossible Astronaut /
2. Day of the Moon
3. The Doctor's Wife
4. Night Terrors
5. The Rebel Flesh /
6. The Almost People
7. A Good Man Goes to War

...with Curse coming in directly after Let's Kill Hitler, as far as I'm aware.

Which meant, that aside from that weird "In the flesh" line at the end of Night Terrors (which would originally have been not only a clue for The Rebel Flesh, but have been the exact moment that the Doctor pinpointed that there was something wrong with Amy, making the entire first half of the series flow really nicely from one episode to the other), they had to kind of reorder all the references. Slopping extra shots of The Doctor looking at the pregno-scanner into Curse, throwing Madame Kovarian in... the arc wasn't ingrained into the episodes as much as jackhammered in, and I think the series suffered for it.

I also don't like the one-part finales. Mainly 'cos Good Man, Let's Kill Hitler and Wedding of River Song all felt very similar, thematically, I thought. Very similar paces and styles and looks and textures. I love all of them individually - in fact, I love all of series six individually - but the whole is a little less than the sum of its parts.

Aha - I needed to get that out, didn't I? I love S6. But I love it slightly less than S5 and S4, so I dunno, am I alone in that?

[Millais]

the christmas special was good.

..but it had absolutely nothing on tonights Sherlock episode. Wow. There's 364 days left in the year. If anything beats that in terms of script writing, acting, visuals .. ANYTHING I will be surprised. That was truly incredible television.

[robwebster]

the christmas special was good.

..but it had absolutely nothing on tonights Sherlock episode. Wow. There's 364 days left in the year. If anything beats that in terms of script writing, acting, visuals .. ANYTHING I will be surprised. That was truly incredible television.

365 days - it's a leap year!

But a TV script editor I'm following on twitter said almost the exact same thing. Look, see? Popular opinion! But I reckon something'll give it a run for its money in... ohhh, I'll give it seven.

[Sigz]

ARRGGGHHH New Sherlock is on, and what's BBCA playing all day? Absolutely Fabulous.

[ACID_FOX]

ARRGGGHHH New Sherlock is on, and what's BBCA playing all day? Absolutely Fabulous.

Don't knock it.

[Sigz]

Not knocking it, but it's literally an all day marathon, when there's a new Sherlock that they're not showing.

Oh, and should I note, will never be showing. BBC gives Sherlock to PBS to air in fucking May ಠ_ಠ

[Jaq]

I'm 1 minute away from checking out the new Sherlock myself.

[Fiery Winds]

Not knocking it, but it's literally an all day marathon, when there's a new Sherlock that they're not showing.

Oh, and should I note, will never be showing. BBC gives Sherlock to PBS to air in fucking May ಠ_ಠ

That's disgraceful.  I'll still be watching it tonight or tomorrow though.   

[Sigz]

Yup

[ACID_FOX]

I'd like to take a moment to say: I fucking love being British.

WE HAVE DOCTOR WHO

WE HAVE SHERLOCK

WE HAVE STEVEN WILSON

[petrucci07]

Watched Sherlock, thought it was pretty bad in places. Pretty cheesy.

I AM SHER-LOCKED

[TheMadgician]

So my girlfriend remembers that I raged hard after an episode of Doctor Who (A Good Man Goes To War). We finish The Almost People. I ask her if she enjoyed the mind fuck. She asks if that's what I raged about. I said we're getting there. She asks what it's going to be. She asks if the baby is going to be River Song. She then starts logicing and figures it out.

So not fair.

Guys I think my girlfriend is smarter than me

[Sigz]

How to write in Gellifreyan: https://blackhatguy.deviantart.com/art/How-to-Write-Gallifreyan-271881225