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Author Topic: Dr. Who  (Read 624340 times)
HaemishM
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Reply #595 on: July 22, 2010, 01:58:16 PM

They shitcanned the US Torchwood, I think.

I actually liked RTD right up until the End of Time.

Surlyboi
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Reply #596 on: July 23, 2010, 09:33:48 AM

I too didn't have a problem with Davies for the most part. Sure, some of it was utter shit, but the good stuff more than made up for it.

Tuned in, immediately get to watch cringey Ubisoft talking head offering her deepest sympathies to the families impacted by the Orlando shooting while flanked by a man in a giraffe suit and some sort of "horrifically garish neon costumes through the ages" exhibit or something.  We need to stop this fucking planet right now and sort some shit out. -Kail
Reg
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Reply #597 on: July 23, 2010, 01:27:25 PM

He became self-indulgent and too fond of the enormous cast of companions and regulars but on the other hand the new guys clean sweep of everyone old and familiar left me indifferent to any of the characters introduced in the last season. Perhaps that will change as he builds up his own stable of characters.
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Reply #598 on: July 25, 2010, 12:52:06 AM

I really enjoyed this season and liked the long game with the entire story. Not sure what everyone is so bent out of shape about.

As for River Song, Alex Kingston makes me tingly in the pants so I hope she is back for more next season.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

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HaemishM
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Reply #599 on: July 25, 2010, 01:37:54 PM

Watched the season finale last night. Hmmmm.

On the one hand, I really really dig Matt Smith and Karen Gillian (and even Rory). On the other hand, could we not at least have a writer who doesn't contradict himself within minutes of the opening credits? We've seen all along from the first season that messing about along one's one timeline is BAD, we even see the explosive results of the two screwdrivers touching with sparks and everything. And then not only does Amy Pond touching her young self not cause this, the fucking Doctor touching himself doesn't do it either. Are they even trying?

It got better, though really the Wizard of Oz click your heels three times and wish me back to life thing was a bit saccharine. I have always liked River Song's character though, so I look forward to seeing some actual traction on that next season. I really hope they convince Smith to continue past next season too.

NowhereMan
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Reply #600 on: July 25, 2010, 03:59:02 PM

I think the only way they can explain it would be the whole, "History and the universe are ending, Earth is riding in the singularity/eye of the storm". It screams of lazy writing excuses but I guess if everything else is gone there can't be any of the Doctor's timeline left to really do anything. Plus if he doesn't do it they're utterly fucked anyway.

"Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?" - HaemishM
Ironwood
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Reply #601 on: July 26, 2010, 01:31:30 AM

 Argh!

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NowhereMan
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Reply #602 on: July 26, 2010, 02:35:20 AM

Timey-Wimey, Wibbly-Wobbly awesome, for real

"Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?" - HaemishM
HaemishM
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Reply #603 on: July 26, 2010, 09:01:01 AM

Argh!

Yeah, that. It was really lazy writing. Maybe they'll get better next season.

Slyfeind
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Reply #604 on: July 28, 2010, 12:16:16 PM

WTF this is Girl in the Fireplace-Blink-Forest of the Dead guy! We shouldn't be saying "Hopefully he'll get better!" He was supposed to be awesome, like those other times when he WAS awesome! GYAH!

Fume.

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Khaldun
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Reply #605 on: July 29, 2010, 08:40:46 AM

Seriously? You guys think this was *bad*? What's your gold standard set to? I thought the season ender was quite good. Sure, yes, problems in the plotting, and the nerdery in me wanted the Doctor to at least say, "Well, normally I can't do this, but with the universe compacted down to so little and River Song's contraband garbage time travel thingie, I'll take the risk of crossing the streams", but ok, it's cool. Fuck, you want a time travel show that *doesn't* play games with paradox? You're barking up the wrong genre tree, then. Time machines are the gun on the mantlepiece of the whole genre, and there isn't a time travel story that I can think of that doesn't pull some narrative rabbits out of its hat at some point.

There was certainly some total ass storytelling during this season, with the Dalek episode taking its place alongside the series' worst, but there were at least six episodes that I thoroughly enjoyed. And I'm actively interested in the two ongoing stories that Moffat's now got juggling in the air:

1. Who blew up the Tardis? Who are the Silence?
2. Who is River Song? How did she know to give the diary to Amy if Amy was the only one who could remember the Doctor back into existence?
palmer_eldritch
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Reply #606 on: July 29, 2010, 11:19:25 AM

Seriously? You guys think this was *bad*? What's your gold standard set to? I thought the season ender was quite good. Sure, yes, problems in the plotting, and the nerdery in me wanted the Doctor to at least say, "Well, normally I can't do this, but with the universe compacted down to so little and River Song's contraband garbage time travel thingie, I'll take the risk of crossing the streams", but ok, it's cool. Fuck, you want a time travel show that *doesn't* play games with paradox? You're barking up the wrong genre tree, then. Time machines are the gun on the mantlepiece of the whole genre, and there isn't a time travel story that I can think of that doesn't pull some narrative rabbits out of its hat at some point.

There was certainly some total ass storytelling during this season, with the Dalek episode taking its place alongside the series' worst, but there were at least six episodes that I thoroughly enjoyed. And I'm actively interested in the two ongoing stories that Moffat's now got juggling in the air:

1. Who blew up the Tardis? Who are the Silence?
2. Who is River Song? How did she know to give the diary to Amy if Amy was the only one who could remember the Doctor back into existence?


I also want to know who River Song is. Moffat has set up an interesting mystery there.

I'm guessing she won't be the Doctor's future wife because that was hinted at so heavily two seasons ago that it would be an anti-climax now.

I guess she could be the Doctor's daughter we saw in an earlier season, as it's easy to imagine her being "half a time lord" and a family member in some way. But after all the flirting she's done, that would be icky.

She hinted that she'd killed the Doctor. She could be a future incarnation of the Doctor himself, "killing" him by replacing him. The teasing relationship she has with him is a bit like the way different incarnations have interacted in the past (except with more flirting).The BBC have dropped hints in the distant past that the Doctor could be reincarnated as a woman which seem to have been invented by the PR department simply to drum up some publicity, but perhaps they gave the current writers ideas.
NowhereMan
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Reply #607 on: July 29, 2010, 11:30:05 AM

I doubt she's the Doctor from the future because apart from all the "no interacting with past incarnations" stuff it violates we also saw her die in The Library, which would be a really weird thing to throw into Who. I'm guessing she is his future wife, for me the mystery is really what it is about her that makes her able to get so close to the Doctor. Part Time-Lord? Part something else? Just really fucking smart and reckless?

"Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?" - HaemishM
HaemishM
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Reply #608 on: July 29, 2010, 11:43:19 AM

Seriously? You guys think this was *bad*? What's your gold standard set to?

For starters, the Bad Wolf season and 2nd season ender with Rose trapped in the alternate dimension. Those were fucking fantastic. Both were built up slowly over the entire season but with a lot more subtlety than big honking crack in timey-wimey appears to remind everyone there is a meta plot. They also didn't make me stop right in the middle of the show and go "Didn't he just say that couldn't happen like 5 seconds ago?" I'd have bought the time-stream crossing fuckup if they'd actually bothered to say "it's because of the unique nature of the world at this second" but they didn't. Meaning my brain stopped and said "Wait, he just said you couldn't do that and he demonstrated what would happen if you did!'

It was certainly better than other episodes of the season like the Dalek one you mention, but it didn't compare to Bad Wolf.

01101010
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Reply #609 on: July 29, 2010, 11:46:28 AM


I also want to know who River Song is. Moffat has set up an interesting mystery there.

I'm guessing she won't be the Doctor's future wife because that was hinted at so heavily two seasons ago that it would be an anti-climax now.

I guess she could be the Doctor's daughter we saw in an earlier season, as it's easy to imagine her being "half a time lord" and a family member in some way. But after all the flirting she's done, that would be icky.

She hinted that she'd killed the Doctor. She could be a future incarnation of the Doctor himself, "killing" him by replacing him. The teasing relationship she has with him is a bit like the way different incarnations have interacted in the past (except with more flirting).The BBC have dropped hints in the distant past that the Doctor could be reincarnated as a woman which seem to have been invented by the PR department simply to drum up some publicity, but perhaps they gave the current writers ideas.

Actually with all the talk about Matt Smith on his way out, who could they spot up as the next doctor? My girlfriend seems to think the writers might go for a darker skinned doctor. A female doctor is also an interesting choice.

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Khaldun
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Reply #610 on: July 29, 2010, 12:18:49 PM

Is Smith already supposedly on the way out? They're going to run into the Doctor's allegedly last incarnation pretty fast this way.

I'm thinking it would be interesting if River Song were the Rani--another renegade Time Lord. It would be a nice reboot of her personality--less the dour bitch experimenter and more a devil-may-care plunderer and adventurer, somewhat indifferent to the consequences of her actions. But I'm ok with just about anything besides her being his daughter (the aforementioned squickiness of the flirting). Don't think the "future incarnation" works out at all well either.
Khaldun
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Reply #611 on: July 29, 2010, 02:54:30 PM

Seriously? You guys think this was *bad*? What's your gold standard set to?

For starters, the Bad Wolf season and 2nd season ender with Rose trapped in the alternate dimension. Those were fucking fantastic. Both were built up slowly over the entire season but with a lot more subtlety than big honking crack in timey-wimey appears to remind everyone there is a meta plot. They also didn't make me stop right in the middle of the show and go "Didn't he just say that couldn't happen like 5 seconds ago?" I'd have bought the time-stream crossing fuckup if they'd actually bothered to say "it's because of the unique nature of the world at this second" but they didn't. Meaning my brain stopped and said "Wait, he just said you couldn't do that and he demonstrated what would happen if you did!'

It was certainly better than other episodes of the season like the Dalek one you mention, but it didn't compare to Bad Wolf.

See, I think if this season ender marks off something near the "bad" end of the scale and the entire Bad Wolf season and Doomsday marks off near the "good", you've got your bad and good ends pretty close together, with acres of unused real estate way out beyond on either side. The Eccleston season in particular has some very weak episodes in it, and as far as timey-wimey goes, the "oh, that Time War thing, we escaped it" plus "I am the heart of the Tardis" is pretty much just as much deus ex machina plus very much a violation of something the Doctor said couldn't happen.

One thing I really appreciated about this ender, in fact, was that it wasn't stuffed to the gills with RTD's insanely baroque plotting--there was a lot happening but it wasn't like a five-year old had just found the fireworks shed and decided to fire it all off at once.
HaemishM
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Reply #612 on: July 29, 2010, 03:24:38 PM

One thing I really appreciated about this ender, in fact, was that it wasn't stuffed to the gills with RTD's insanely baroque plotting--there was a lot happening but it wasn't like a five-year old had just found the fireworks shed and decided to fire it all off at once.

That was actually my problem with "The Pandorica Opens" episode. Too much ZOMG stuff, which was too much like RTD's last season finale episode.

raydeen
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Reply #613 on: August 01, 2010, 07:15:13 PM

Ok, so I'm on Hulu tonight and notice they have a Doctor Who clips section, which then ultimately leads me to this:

The Doctor Who Adventure games.
http://www.direct2drive.com/9642/product/Buy-Doctor-Who:-The-Adventure-Games---Episode-1-and-2-Download

At $5 it's almost a no brainer but has anyone played them yet?



I was drinking when I wrote this, so sue me if it goes astray.
palmer_eldritch
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Reply #614 on: August 02, 2010, 03:52:24 AM

Torchwood US is back on, it seems:

Quote
When Russell T Davies relocated to sunny Los Angeles after handing on the Doctor Who  torch to Steven Moffat, we kinda expected his next project to be something outside our genre – perhaps something in the vein of Queer As Folk? Wrong! Turns out he’s been beavering away on yet another new permutation of Torchwood. When the series returns to our screens in 2011 for a new adventure (one long story, consisting of 10 episodes), it will have a very American flavour. Most of it will be shot and set in the States (or other foreign countries), and round about now, a writers’ room of American TV scribes are starting work. It’s all happening thanks to a co-production deal struck between US network Starz, BBC Wales and BBC Worldwide (the BBC’s commercial arm).

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/07/23/interview-russell-t-davies-talks-torchwood/
HaemishM
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Reply #615 on: August 02, 2010, 09:21:20 AM

The fact that it's Starz and not Fox gives me hope it'll be good.

Raguel
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Reply #616 on: August 03, 2010, 07:41:57 AM

Is Smith already supposedly on the way out? They're going to run into the Doctor's allegedly last incarnation pretty fast this way.

I'm thinking it would be interesting if River Song were the Rani--another renegade Time Lord. It would be a nice reboot of her personality--less the dour bitch experimenter and more a devil-may-care plunderer and adventurer, somewhat indifferent to the consequences of her actions. But I'm ok with just about anything besides her being his daughter (the aforementioned squickiness of the flirting). Don't think the "future incarnation" works out at all well either.

I always figured River was the Master (probably cuz I'm a newb) but I'd prefer it if she was the Rani
NowhereMan
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Reply #617 on: August 05, 2010, 02:53:50 PM

I could just about buy the Rani as another hidden Time Lord but it would be a bit of a let down simply because that's a twist that's been done. Her being the Master (or really any established Who character) would be a let down, not only because it makes no sense for any of them (bar the Rani) but also because we've seen her death. Frankly I'd be almost happier with the slow fleshing out of a new character through temporally varies insights into her, I'd like her to be a smart and resourceful human that attracted the attention of the Doctor and see glimpses of her while younger (having probably first met the Doctor when he was much older). To me that would be a far more interesting character than simply a cheap reveal of a nostalgic name for the fans or something that references but also inevitably ends up confusing the existing canon.

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Reg
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Reply #618 on: December 27, 2010, 09:35:03 AM

Well, what's the verdict on this years' Christmas special? I liked it.  There was little if any puppy killing.  So I'm going to guess that the old school Who fans absolutely hated it.
Fraeg
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Reply #619 on: December 27, 2010, 09:39:20 AM

I need to rewatch it sober.    I am still at a loss what the flying shark was all about.

That said, Matt Smith definately has the acting chops, and hopefully this upcoming season will have more stuff like Vincent and the Doctor.

"There is dignity and deep satisfaction in facing life and death without the comfort of heaven or the fear of hell and in sailing toward the great abyss with a smile."
Tebonas
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Reply #620 on: December 27, 2010, 09:48:05 AM

Liked it as well. Matt Smith is a superb Doctor and it showed in this Christmas special. It was a bit feelgoody, but what do you expect at this time of year. Nice twist on the Ebenezer Scrooge Template.
Ironwood
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Reply #621 on: December 27, 2010, 09:49:51 AM

Usual really :  Moffat being a cunt and mixing Christmas Carol with The Little Matchstick Girl and thinking he's clever.  Good Cast, singing was a bit much, but you'd fuck the singer hard.  Storyline mince when you think about it, but it was a lot better than that Christmas special with the fucking Victorian Cyberman destroying London.

As ever, decide for yourself.

"Mr Soft Owl has Seen Some Shit." - Sun Tzu
Oban
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Reply #622 on: December 27, 2010, 10:17:40 AM




Palin 2012 : Let's go out with a bang!
rattran
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Reply #623 on: December 27, 2010, 10:20:24 AM

And more of the 'same person, different timestream points' touching with no effect. Seemed lazy, even for a xmas special.

But a good cast. Just shit writing.
Ironwood
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Reply #624 on: December 27, 2010, 10:34:12 AM

Indeed.  Welcome to the Moffat Era.

"Mr Soft Owl has Seen Some Shit." - Sun Tzu
Ironwood
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Reply #625 on: December 27, 2010, 10:50:17 AM


"Mr Soft Owl has Seen Some Shit." - Sun Tzu
rattran
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Unreasonable


Reply #626 on: December 27, 2010, 11:16:32 AM

Yeah, I had stopped watching midway through the last season, as it just wasn't good. Caught up to watch the xmas special, and now I feel it was a waste of my time. The redhead is cute, Smith seems to do a passable job, but my god the writing is shit.

<edit> It seems like he's writing a show that has only a marginal connection to Doctor Who. One of the strong points of the show has been some of the internal consistency of time travel, ie no crossing streams, don't change the past from your perspective, changing the time stream is bad, etc. Fuck, if you want to do a generic time travel show, do one, but don't call it Doctor Who.

He even ruined the stupid but nifty idea of Blink with his 2nd version of it.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2010, 11:22:47 AM by rattran »
Ironwood
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Reply #627 on: December 27, 2010, 11:58:42 AM

He doesn't care and has made that clear in countless interviews.  He thinks 'fans' (his Quotes) should fuck off and get a life.  Further, he's been clear that he considers Dr Who to be a 'Fairy Tale Mythos' and therefore you can pretty much carve it up any way you like, episode to episode.

He's an utter cockmonger.

I'm honestly waiting with bated breath for the Gaiman episode.  I think that will be the utter capstone of suck - Not because of Gaiman (a terrific writer) but because of the direction of Moffat.

Here's my most damning comment of Moffat :  He makes me wish for even the Worst Russel T Davis episodes to please come back.

"Mr Soft Owl has Seen Some Shit." - Sun Tzu
NowhereMan
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Reply #628 on: December 27, 2010, 12:02:18 PM

The follow up to Blink was cool in the very general concept (Alien -> Aliens) but just fucking awful in terms of everything that happened.

This special was entertaining enough and I still like the characters and actors. I'm doing my best to utterly disengage my brain when I watch Who though, which is a disappointing necessity.

Fakeedit: I expect the Gaiman episode to be a thoroughly enjoyable 'alternate' Dr. Who episode. I don't think it's going to be good Who but with the actors and writing I expect it to be a really good bit of television.

"Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?" - HaemishM
Reg
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Reply #629 on: December 27, 2010, 01:21:21 PM

Oh well, luckily it's a British show which means nobody holds onto it forever.  Unlike the Star Trek franchise which is still held in Rick Berman's death like grasp even after he wrecked it with Star Trek : Enterprise.
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