Dr. Who

[palmer_eldritch]

Christ, that dress.

And Foxes singing Queen.

I noticed those things too.

[Triforcer]

Yeah, that episode wasn't great, but I thought one point at the end was interesting.

[HaemishM]

I actually liked it. I mean, it was a one-off but it was the kind of one-off that didn't have me saying "WHAT?" by the end. It felt like Classic Who one-offs.

Now, if they could really stop hitting us over the head over and over again with the meta-narrative about what being a Companion means, that would be nice.

Also, Flapper Clara may be my favorite Clara.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I actually liked it. I mean, it was a one-off but it was the kind of one-off that didn't have me saying "WHAT?" by the end. It felt like Classic Who one-offs.

Now, if they could really stop hitting us over the head over and over again with the meta-narrative about what being a Companion means, that would be nice.

Also, Flapper Clara may be my favorite Clara.

PJ's Clara does funny things to me.

[slog]

In the mummy episode, Clara calls her boyfriend on the enhanced cell phone, who is in a different time.  If the doctor brings her back at the exact point he picked her up, did that conversation happen?

[Malakili]

In the mummy episode, Clara calls her boyfriend on the enhanced cell phone, who is in a different time.  If the doctor brings her back at the exact point he picked her up, did that conversation happen?

 

[Ironwood]

In the mummy episode, Clara calls her boyfriend on the enhanced cell phone, who is in a different time.  If the doctor brings her back at the exact point he picked her up, did that conversation happen?

Yes, but it would confuse him and he'd forget it.  Like the Doctor meeting himself.

I guess.

 

Also, I quite liked some of the mechanics of the recent episode, even if was a straight up scare fest for the kiddies (Elena loved it, kinda).  This series, despite having not really much better writing than Smith is being made awesome for me by Capaldi.  He can seem to do no wrong in his Doctor for me.

[NowhereMan]

That last one was just painful from any kind of science sense and also had the Doctor . In that sense it was actually kind of painful to watch. I also think I missed the whole bit where Mr. Pink asked her to stop travelling in the Tardis or did she tell him she was going to, change her mind and then just not tell him about that for some reason? Finally the  was kind of painful.

That said the visuals were fantastic and Capaldi was great again. I also found the to be really cute and funny, even if it didn't make a lot of sense it was along the lines of acceptable nonsense rather than stupid "The Doctor is really a fairytale" nonsense.

[Ironwood]

I guess I'll spoiler that.  I agree with the rest, but as I've mentioned, I don't like Fairytale Who, but it's clear moaning won't stop it till Moffat dies.

[Malakili]

That last one was just painful from any kind of science sense and also had the Doctor

Is anyone really watching Doctor Who for their hard science fiction fix?  Practically everything in the show from the Tardis on down is essentially magic.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I didn't see the ending as him banishing monsters with a magic wand, I believe that's how he wanted it to look.  Clearly there was some kind of green forcefield shit going on with the tardis before he even stepped out and using the soinc could have been a simple button press to have the tardis finish doing whatever it was doing.

As he said earlier in the episode, dimensional shit is kind of his peoples thing, so banishing some 2d guys back to their home plane does not seem a big stretch.

[palmer_eldritch]

I also think I missed the whole bit where Mr. Pink asked her to stop travelling in the Tardis or did she tell him she was going to, change her mind and then just not tell him about that for some reason? Finally the  was kind of painful.

That was actually one bit of the episode and the recent storyline in general (I find Clara really annoying recently but I enjoy the Clara/Mr Pink scenes) that I liked. She told the Doctor that Mr Pink was cool with her going off in the Tardis, and later the Doctor works out that she's been a bit sneaky and hasn't actually told Mr Pink what they get up to, ie fighting monsters and putting their lives on the line every week (and yes I bet it is roughly once a week in the story too!).

So the fact that you didn't actually see the conversation between Pink and Clara was cool because it let us have the reveal where we learn that she hasn't told him everything. And I imagine it might be leading up to them having a proper conversation about it for us to watch in the near future.

[NowhereMan]

That last one was just painful from any kind of science sense and also had the Doctor

Is anyone really watching Doctor Who for their hard science fiction fix?  Practically everything in the show from the Tardis on down is essentially magic.

No, I'm not watching it for any kind of hard Sci-Fi but I think there's still a line between the kind of very conceptual sci-fi Dr. Who traditionally does and the whole 'A Wizard did it!' fairytale stuff that has been going on in Nu-Who to a greater or lesser extent. Really the 2D aliens weren't that bad and they looked seriously cool.

On the Dr. Wizard, yeah I agree that there was obviously some other forcefield stuff going on as well but as Moffat (IIRC) has said that Dr. Who is really a fairytale rather than sci-fi then the image it presents seems hard to ignore. The Doctor has definitely gone all hardcore or bad guys before but he doesn't usually start spell slinging with the sonic screwdriver. It was the visuals that rubbed me the wrong way a bit in that. But like IW has said, it's clearly an aspect of nu-Who there's no point bitching about any more. It isn't going to change and I'll just do my best to ignore it.

[Ironwood]

When he was shooting the Silence with his screwdriver, that's when the final thud went into the coffin of complaint.

[apocrypha]

No, I'm not watching it for any kind of hard Sci-Fi but I think there's still a line between the kind of very conceptual sci-fi Dr. Who traditionally does and the whole 'A Wizard did it!' fairytale stuff that has been going on in Nu-Who to a greater or lesser extent.

For the record I have stopped watching this show, but I do want to comment on the whole fairy tale aspect of it.

The thing is that it never used to be fairy tale, it was science fiction, and science fiction stimulates imagination and encourages curiosity, whereas fairy tales suppress curiosity and turn stories into conduits for moralism. With Doctor Who it's become just a vehicle for patronising epithets like "love conquers all" and "good always triumphs over evil", not to mention the regular servings of fawning over royalty or 'great men' such as Winston fucking Churchill. Also, if they're fairy tales then they're pretty boring ones. It's more like Harry Potter in space (or more often, Earth with magic) than Brothers Grimm.

So I do think it matters that Moffatt and the BBC have turned it into yet another unimaginative, middle-class British product, designed for easy export and with the added bonus of piles of toy sales.

[Ironwood]

Well, yes, it matters to them.  It's what they wanted to do with it.  It's making money.

[slog]

No, I'm not watching it for any kind of hard Sci-Fi but I think there's still a line between the kind of very conceptual sci-fi Dr. Who traditionally does and the whole 'A Wizard did it!' fairytale stuff that has been going on in Nu-Who to a greater or lesser extent.

For the record I have stopped watching this show, but I do want to comment on the whole fairy tale aspect of it.

The thing is that it never used to be fairy tale, it was science fiction, and science fiction stimulates imagination and encourages curiosity, whereas fairy tales suppress curiosity and turn stories into conduits for moralism. With Doctor Who it's become just a vehicle for patronising epithets like "love conquers all" and "good always triumphs over evil", not to mention the regular servings of fawning over royalty or 'great men' such as Winston fucking Churchill. Also, if they're fairy tales then they're pretty boring ones. It's more like Harry Potter in space (or more often, Earth with magic) than Brothers Grimm.

So I do think it matters that Moffatt and the BBC have turned it into yet another unimaginative, middle-class British product, designed for easy export and with the added bonus of piles of toy sales.

It was always like this.  You just got older.

[Ironwood]

That's utter bullshit and you should stop saying it.

[slog]

That's utter bullshit and you should stop saying it.

I wish it was.  I started watching Dr. Who in 1978ish.  It didn't make much sense then either, but it was fun to watch.

[Ironwood]

Given your bullshit Slog, that last episode couldn't have been more timely.

What a pile of utter shitewank.

[palmer_eldritch]

I'm not sure it's a good idea to tell kids that people with mental illnesses should not receive medical treatment.

[Triforcer]

Given your bullshit Slog, that last episode couldn't have been more timely.

What a pile of utter shitewank.

On in a few hours in America.  Was the earth saved by the power of love, or wishing, or believing?  Really no need to spoiler the answer 

[palmer_eldritch]

I'm not entirely sure but I think a missing girl was returned to her family by some sort of magic resulting from the Doctor telling her sister, who has been prescribed medicine for an illness, not to take her medicine. It's even more nonsensical than usual so I may be wrong.

[Ironwood]

Given your bullshit Slog, that last episode couldn't have been more timely.

What a pile of utter shitewank.

On in a few hours in America.  Was the earth saved by the power of love, or wishing, or believing?  Really no need to spoiler the answer 

Yes.

[HaemishM]

I liked the 2d people episode. It was at least believable without any golden arrow bullshit machinations. Shrunken TARDIS was hilarious, as was Dr. Oswald. Still hating anything about what the fuck ever that women in heaven thing is.

[NowhereMan]

The sad thing is that this season feels like it's managing to go even more hardcore into nonsensical bullshit fairytale stuff without the redeeming amazing episode every now and again. I really don't think this is due to any weakness on the actors' part , there's some real talent there but the writing has just moved from shitty moralism/fairytale or entertaining mediocrity with the occasional real gem of writing and acting to leaving out the occasional gem. I might be jumping the gun since the season isn't over yet but we're heading into the finale which historically has only ever been a good/average build up with a shitshow of a conclusion.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, the teaser wasn't exactly confidence building.

[NowhereMan]

'I'm not Clara Oswald, Clara Oswald never existed!'

Wishing doesn't make it so...

[Lakov_Sanite]

Terrible episode macro, great episode micro.  All the character interactions were good, even the initial premise was decent but what they did with it was fuckstupid. 

It's weird cause I liked the little things about the kids or the dialogue but oh my god the plot....

[NowhereMan]

The acting was really quite good. The writing not only made no real sense it was even beyond the whole fairytale thing in terms of ridiculous stupidity. God even on basic biology/physic it made less than no sense.

[HaemishM]

Sense, this show does not make it. I mean not even a little fucking bit. Magic growing trees that shield the Earth from solar flares then magically disappear. I mean, who in the ever living fuck reads this shit and thinks it's a good Doctor Who script? I can't blame the actors because they are giving good character bits set up against a backdrop of complete stupidity. I long for Douglas Adams to rise from the fucking grave, walk into the script writers room with Harlan Ellison in tow and just kick the everliving shit out of these fucksticks.

Doctor Who has been written "for kids" since forever. So why is it that all the years prior to Moffat felt like it treated the kids like they had some intelligence, while this stuff treats its entire audience, adults and kids alike, as if they are watching this while chowing down on a great big bucket of wallpaper paste?

[Ironwood]

I...I...I..

Oh God Stop.

[Evildrider]

That good?   

[Surlyboi]

Called that one at the beginning of the season.

[Evildrider]

This episode made me hate Clara.