Dr. Who

[Reg]

Ah ok, so it's not the idea of story arcs just complaints about badly done ones. I've only been watching for the last few years since the series came back. I thought maybe story arcs went against how the series was originally and that was what was pissing people off.

[Ard]

The thing with the arcs is that they often involve characters in the early episodes who seem mysteriously to know what's going to happen later and drop cryptic hints, to which the Doctor looks worried, and then whatever they've been talking about eventually happens. It just seems clumsy sometimes.

I'm going to give Moffat the benefit of the doubt on this one for the time being.  Unlike RTD, he generally remembers that the Doctor is a time traveller, with all that entails.  Hopefully the overarching plot makes a bit more sense this time around.

[Ironwood]

I fucking doubt it.

[Ironwood]

Playing along with the foreshadowing (I agree it was clumsy), what was he doing at the end with that equipment in the Tardis? It looked to me like he was maybe taking her voiceprint, as he waited for her to say something close to it before fiddling with it.


I like Amy as a character. She's a lot like Rose in that she has a useless boyfriend and seems to fancy the Doctor (although Mickey became a great character over time), but I'm guessing Amy is going to be more than Rose mk. 2.

In that scene they were both lying.  An interesting start to the relationship.

She's got a wedding to go to and he knows more about her than he lets on.


Wish I did.

[raydeen]

A co-worker tried to get me to watch the first episode today. I watched up until the opening credits before I stopped the player. I want to see this with the wife and daughter with no spoilers. The opening was cool enough that I will wait and watch this as intended. I like where it's going. Except the new opening theme. That's going to have to grow on me.

And now for a brief comic interlude (although I'm sure most have probably seen it):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q88kt_Vtyl4

[Reg]

Are you talking about the first episode of the latest series reboot from 2005 or the first episode in the current season?

[raydeen]

Are you talking about the first episode of the latest series reboot from 2005 or the first episode in the current season?

Current season. It doesn't premier until 4/17 over here.

[Simond]

That felt a bit like a lost McCoy episode, but in a good way.

[Ironwood]

Hmmm.  'In a Good Way' is mutually exclusive to a McCoy episode.

It was Ok.  I liked it well enough.

[raydeen]

I think Sylvester McCoy gets too much of a bum rap. As I've later watched the Colin Baker and McCoy episodes, they weren't bad candidates for the Doctor. The writing, directing and production had gone to such shit by that point that no one could have saved the show from cancellation. There were some brilliant premises in the last few years of the original but the execution was just horrible. I think my favorite McCoy episode was The Curse of Fenric. It came soooo close to being on par with the best of the earlier years.

[Tale]

I wish he would stop saying things like "I am The Doctor and this is what I do". We fucking know that's what you do and we're well aware you're the regenerated Doctor. Enough affirmations, just get on with it.

[Ironwood]

At least he's not going on and on anymore about his people burning.  "There was a bad day" seems to cover it.

You know what bugs me about Moffat stories ?  The way they seem fine until you think about them and then you realise they actually made no fucking sense whatsoever.

[Reg]

I'm not big on the new "Geronimo" catch-phrase. Hopefully, once they've established it they can cut way back on its use.

[Ironwood]

On a related note, Confidential made it abundantly clear that the Doctor is totally tapping that IRL.

Lucky Bastard.

[NowhereMan]

You know what bugs me about Moffat stories ?  The way they seem fine until you think about them and then you realise they actually made no fucking sense whatsoever.

Ignoring everything else I think my favourite thing being
I'm still not completely convinced about the new Dr. but I think he's going to grow on me. I just hope the rest of it works slightly better than these first couple once they're happy that the characters have been introduced.

[Ironwood]

The Smilers were never actually explained.

Like, at all.

[Reg]

They were chilling and scary. Just like the statues in that episode that every one liked so much. Hopefully the new producer doesn't think things like that are going to be necessary in every single new show.

[NowhereMan]

Neither was
I'm not really holding out much hope that British Daleks will make a lot more sense, on top of the fact that he seems to be taking one of the older episodes and just putting it in WWII.

They were chilling and scary. Just like the statues in that episode that every one liked so much. Hopefully the new producer doesn't think things like that are going to be necessary in every single new show.

The difference being that the weeping angels were weird alien things that don't really need an explanation beyond what they are. Why the fuck did they decide to build smilers and what the fuck were they? The Angels got more and needed less in terms of explanation.

[Ironwood]

Again, don't get me wrong :  Did what was required.  Elena spent most of the episode hiding behind her hands.  That's what Dr Who is all about.

But usually the adults don't come away with that WTF feeling.

[Reg]

Hah, until you mentioned it I didn't even notice that the smilers made absolutely no sense at all. I can sort of rationalize Liz 10 not remembering she'd been ruling for 200 years but the smilers - especially the half smiler / half human ones were completely explanation free.

[Triforcer]

The episodes have been ok enough- I like Amy.  But Matt Smith doesn't seem to manifesting an actual personality, like 9 and 10.  He just kind of sloshes through. 

[NowhereMan]

Honestly while I might be disappointed I get the feeling he's going to grow into the role and I get the impression they're going to be taking him more in the direction of 'grumpy old bastard with a heart of gold' despite the obviously young appearance. They've made it clear the character is still coming to terms with who he is so I'll give him another couple of episodes before I'm going to say if he's doing a decent job. Frankly Ecclestone never really grew on me so I'm hoping to like him more.

I did enjoy both episodes but I'm quite aware that I've been waiting for a Who fix for a while and I don't think that I'd really want to watch either of them again. I'll enjoy this series but I'm still hoping it's going to improve.

[Mattemeo]

I'm loving Matt Smith as the Doctor. Loving. I thought Tennant had a good scrape at it, but his angry shouty wrathful oh ok let's be friends schtick was becoming more and more jarring, and by the end, while I wasn't grateful to see the back of him, I was really looking forward to a fresh face and approach. 2 episodes into the new series, Matt Smith has really struck a chord - a much more old school, eccentric style Doctor, more Troughton and Baker-ish.

His first line in episode 1 was simply killer - totally left-field, led on to some expertly timed comedic getting-to-know you scenes, and created an indelible emotional link with his new Companion. I watched the first episode twice - not something I've felt compelled to do with Dr Who for a while.
I don't mind the obvious set-up of a series arc mystery - especially as I think there's actually more than one. MYTH, anyone? Plot-wise, it was a little hokey, but far from the worst - the final encounter was gloriously camp, profoundly Dr Who-ish and a loving nod to all who came before Matt Smith.

Second episode was very enjoyable, but mostly for the interaction between the Doctor and Amy. The actual plot of the episode was beyond daft, the mystery ridiculous, the whole set-up was inherantly dreadful, but it established Amy as something way more interesting than most of the Companions we've had before. I loved that last bit. I was just rather disappointed with the lead-up. Still, early days.

Also, Doctor totally looking up Amy's nightie at the start. Totally.

[Tebonas]

Episode 2 made no sense whatsoever. You could drive a space whale through the plot holes, the whole premise was stupid. Feeding the kids to the beast even if they know the beast doesn't eat them? And thats just the most bantant one.

I am cautiously optimistic about the new doctor and heart the new companion, but they have to get a grip on storytelling!

[Mrbloodworth]

Finally got to see the new doctor, I cant say I hate him, and there was definitely a good energy to him. The new companion, wow, shes fiery, with what seems to be a bit of a condition caused by the doctor. 

[Oban]

Geez, did you even watch the episode?

[Tebonas]

No shit, Sherlock. Did you figure out these obvious things for yourself? How then could you miss that the DIDN'T get rid of the children though, because they were just running around in the lower decks. Clearly visible to the "command staff" not subjected to memory wipes.

[NowhereMan]

Totally logical that they'd replace CCTV with fairground style boxes with three faces  Completely made sense, and the extension of surveillance was the confusing bit not what the fuck they were or why you'd make something like them. I don't mean to be a dick but while it was all atmospheric and works if you don't stop to think about the details that episode really didn't make any sense. Like did pushing forget also

[Oban]

No shit, Sherlock. Did you figure out these obvious things for yourself? How then could you miss that the DIDN'T get rid of the children though, because they were just running around in the lower decks. Clearly visible to the "command staff" not subjected to memory wipes.

Nowhereman apparently had issues with these you jack booted nazi, also please learn to communicate in English if you wish to participate on this forum.

[Ironwood]

Gentlemen, no fighting in the war room.

[Tebonas]

And you don't answer his question.

They were aware that the space whale didn't eat the children, so they didn't get rid of the lesser members of society in that case, they just moved them somewhere else.

Edit: Oh nice stealth edit. Not being able to communicate in English? I'll laugh at that for weeks. Thanks.

[Ironwood]

YOU SEE WHAT MOFFAT HAS DONE ? ? ?

 


Gatiss wrote teh Dalek one coming up next though.  Might not be shite.

[Surlyboi]

Love is over.

[NowhereMan]

I didn't have a huge problem with it, I enjoyed the episode it just didn't seem to make any sense afterwards. I can understand why they had things like the smilers and what it was meant to be it just made as much sense as having monitoring devices that looked like ice cream vans. It looks sort of creepy but why would any sane person ever think it made sense as a monitoring device?

Of course if they have something insane like a gold dalek taking orders from a red dalek in the next episode I'll really put a rant together about how awful this whole thing is

[palmer_eldritch]

It really made no sense if you stopped to think about it, but Dr Who is often like that and it's still fun.

I liked the way that Amy figured out the solution to the problem rather than the Doctor.