Doctor Who

[ozzy554]

The only reason invisible enemy wouldn't make it on my bottom ten is because its so ridiculous and insane that it makes it a bit entertaining. 

[ariich]

Image of the Fendahl is great.

Have to be honest, I can't even remember the Invisible Enemy that well, so I can't have liked it very much.

[Scorpion]

Invisible Enemy starts out kinda meh-ish, gets really awful by the time they start walking around the brain of some guy (forgot who!) and then finally goes beyond the point of all possible redemption when the nucleus of the swarm comes out of the brain with the Doctor.

[masterthes]

I don't know. I was kind of tickled by the Fantastic Voyage homage

Anyway, the thing that loses my interest with Fang Rock is ultimately that it's a bit of a downer. None of the guest stars survive. Despite how crappy you all think Invisible Enemy and the much loathed recent episodes like Fear Her and Love and Monsters are, at least they give you some modicum of hope (okay yes, the Earth itself is safe, but these characters we spent two hours with are not) It's probably the most bleakest episode of Doctor Who I have ever seen

[Scorpion]

See, while I totally get how some people would not like that a bit, the darkness of Fang Rock appeals to me - sure, I wouldn't want every, or even a large amount of DW episodes to be that way, the utter bleakness of Fang Rock make it a great watch, when I'm in the mood for bleak stuff - I can't think of another episode that is so relentlessly oppressing and bleak as Horror of Fang Rock is.

Two quick things that bother me in Fang Rock, though. #1 is really only a minor niggle, but why the hell does the Doctor say that Skinsale died with honour? No he fucking didn't, he tried to clobber up some diamonds on the fucking floor when a goddamn Rutan was advancing on him, knowing fully well that it's gonna electrocute his sorry ass if it manages to touch him.

#2, though, is a real storytelling flaw - not enough to ruin the story for me, but still pretty glaring - the Rutan landed that night, right? So where the hell does the legend of the Beast of Fang Rock come from? Is it all a massive coincidence, or just lazy writing? Now, if I overlooked something, please point it out, but it just seems sloppy, like a cool idea they had at the beginning (it landed ages ago and some people were killed by it, creating the legend), but then just changed the arrival time of the Rutan and not really giving the implications for the legend a second thought. Nitpicking, I know, but eh. (/SPOILERS).

[Jaq]

Horror of Fang Rock was a last minute replacement, as I said, for the script that eventually became Season 19's State of Decay. Wouldn't be shocked if any plot holes in it were Robert Holmes saying "fuck it, we need it NOW" and just letting it go as script editor.

[Scorpion]

That explains a lot. Thanks!

Though State of Decay is Season 18.

[Jaq]

I'd say what's one season but last of Tom Baker versus first of Peter Davison IS a bit of a difference 

[masterthes]

Invasion of Time was real fun, especially the last episode with them in the TARDIS. I thought Leela's exit was rushed though. They didn't seem to give that much indication that she was in love with that guy. Ah well, on to the Douglas Adams era

[Scorpion]

Yeah, I thought that Leela deserved a better exit than that. But you're right, Invasion is fun. Nothing too deep, but certainly entertaining. The way the locations are switched up keeps it interesting for most of its duration, though I find some ideas a little unresolved, like the Outsiders - cool idea, but very little development there. Oh well.

You're in for a treat next - The Ribos Operation is one of my favourite serials ever - maybe even Top 10 of the entire Classic Era.

[Mister Gold]

I need to get back into watching the Classic Who serials. My personal favorite is The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Leela was awesome in that.

[Scorpion]

Talons is awesome. One of Tom Baker's finest performances, and that's really saying a lot.

[Mister Gold]

Talons is awesome. One of Tom Baker's finest performances, and that's really saying a lot.

Completely agreed. You can really tell that he loved doing that serial. I also love how enormous that whole serial feels. Really reminds me of a classic Hammer Horror film. The producers really went out of their way to let the gothic horror era of Who end on a high note!

[Scorpion]

Yeah, the Hinchcliffe era is, all in all, probably the best three seasons of Classic Who. The only era that comes close to rivalling it is the Cartmel era - if it had continued beyond Season 26, I have no doubt there would have been some amazing stuff there, having read some of the novels of what Aaronovitch, Cartmel and Platt intended in the later seasons.

But still, I'd say that stretch from Ark in Space - Talons is some of the best television there is, barring none.

[Jaq]

Talons is awesome. One of Tom Baker's finest performances, and that's really saying a lot.

Completely agreed. You can really tell that he loved doing that serial. I also love how enormous that whole serial feels. Really reminds me of a classic Hammer Horror film. The producers really went out of their way to let the gothic horror era of Who end on a high note!

There was an unfortunate side effect to how good Talons looked. Hinchcliffe was removed from the show because of complaints about how violent the show had become. On the way out the door, he said, fuck it, money's no object, and overspent on his last couple of stories, especially Talons. BBC policy was if you went massively over budget, the next year you had your budget cut back as a punishment. Hence why the next year's run of shows are legendary for cheapness. Awesome story though, I'll give it that.

[Jamesman42]

For the US, series 7 is on Netflix now as of today

[Scorpion]

So I recently rewatched The Name of the Doctor for the first time since watching the classic era and I have to say that I gained a whole new appreciation for it, especially the intro, seeing as I recognised almost every clip and shouting at my laptop "That's from Invasion of Time!" made me feel like a better Doctor Who fan. Plus, the fact that Clara wears the costumes of the respective companions to the Doctors (like Ace's costume in the scene with the Seventh Doctor and Tegan's in the scene with the Fifth Doctor) was another cool touch that I didn't notice the first time around.

Though for that Invasion of Time clip she should have totally worn Leela's costume.

[wasteland]

[BlobVanDam]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HaiGKiUuik

A new teaser with slightly more to it.

[BlackInk]

They're not kidding when they call these "teasers". Still, looking forward to it!

[jonny108]

Also new promo pic.


The BBC has today confirmed the much-anticipated eighth series of the hit sci-fi drama Doctor Who will land on BBC One on Saturday 23 August, 2014.

The feature-length premiere episode entitled “Deep Breath” will see Peter Capaldi take on one of TV’s most iconic roles as the Twelfth Doctor, alongside Jenna Coleman as his companion Clara.

[BlobVanDam]

Feature length? Awesome!

Also, is seems there are some minor additions to the TARDIS interior. Those circular spotlights to the left of Clara's shoulder are new, as are the frame sort of things behind her head. I assume the different colouring is just for the promo image.

[Scorpion]

Feature-length is, what? An hour?

[BlobVanDam]

Feature-length is, what? An hour?

It depends on whether they're factoring in ads or not. At the very least I'd expect it to be long as the typical specials (60 minutes without ads), maybe as long as TDOTD, which was around 75 minutes without ads.
It's not really like Dr Who to do a typical double episode of movie length, it's usually more like a really long single episode. Regardless, I'm glad they're giving it a bit more time to establish the new Doctor, and the new story.

[hefdaddy42]

Looking forward to it. 

[wasteland]

David Tennant (and his lovely daughter Jenny wife Georgia) looks just as bored watching a Nadal game as I am! 

[Scorpion]

That is quite the beard he's sporting there.

[Onno]

I'm desperately looking for the 'slighty-bouncing-quickly-in-all-directions-smiley' to express my excitement following the new episode announcement 

David Tennant looks old in that pic, wow. It's probably due to the pic being quite low quality and it might be due to the game being boring, I don't know, I don't watch tennis

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

This one?

[wasteland]

I'm desperately looking for the 'slighty-bouncing-quickly-in-all-directions-smiley' to express my excitement following the new episode announcement 

David Tennant looks old in that pic, wow. It's probably due to the pic being quite low quality and it might be due to the game being boring, I don't know, I don't watch tennis

I am very biased on this, but the last Nadal match I didn't find boring was played in 2008

[Onno]

This one?

Not that one, but my description sucked anyway

[BlobVanDam]

This one?

Not that one, but my description sucked anyway

This guy perhaps?

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Hmm, there are other possibilities.




edit: dadgum, Blob beat me.

[ariich]

It depends on whether they're factoring in ads or not. At the very least I'd expect it to be long as the typical specials (60 minutes without ads), maybe as long as TDOTD, which was around 75 minutes without ads.

There are no adverts on BBC in the UK, so that won't be factored in.

My expectation is that it would be more than 1 hour. Plenty of other TV shows have 1-hour episodes as standard, so I can't imagine they'd make a big deal out of calling it "feature length" in that case. I would therefore expect at least an hour and a quarter.

[BlobVanDam]

It depends on whether they're factoring in ads or not. At the very least I'd expect it to be long as the typical specials (60 minutes without ads), maybe as long as TDOTD, which was around 75 minutes without ads.

There are no adverts on BBC in the UK, so that won't be factored in.

My expectation is that it would be more than 1 hour. Plenty of other TV shows have 1-hour episodes as standard, so I can't imagine they'd make a big deal out of calling it "feature length" in that case. I would therefore expect at least an hour and a quarter.

So regular episodes of Dr Who never have ads in the UK?