Doctor Who

[Davros sock drawer]

Surprised you say that about the pacing. One of the complaints I heard (on The Incomparable podcast) was that they slowed the pace down for the scene between Ryan and his Dad in the cafe.

 

Personally it didn’t feel rushed at all, and I enjoyed the way they actually took time to explore these character moments. There was also plenty of screen time for Dalek Lyn to establish itself as a memorable baddie.

[Fireproofradiator]

Ryan’s Dad did result in the best bit for me (“He’s mine.” “No, he’s mine!”). Could have made more of that moment really. 

 

 

[Nick R]

5 hours ago, Davros sock drawer said:

and the total shit-show that is 'Dark Water/Death in Heaven' 

 

They are a good pair of episodes!

 

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1058132769933574144.html

 

I know it's a really really long thread, but that's because it also includes his comments on rewatching Last Christmas and series 9. But please, just read the ones at the start on Dark Water/Death In Heaven! There's some interesting stuff in there...

[Mogster]

I remember really liking Dark Water, but I was slightly disappointed with Death In Heaven by comparison. It was still okay though, and still better than most of the RTD finalés for me.

[Hexx]

Death in Heaven was crap on a crap stick served with a side of crap

 

Dark Water had some nice moments but failed largely to being ALL ABOUT CLARA (eurgh) and Danny (eurgh).

 

Plus it's retroactively ruined by DiH and nonsense about the entire "plot"

 

[DirkCrisis]

I came here for JPickford's review of the New Years Day episode and he hasn't posted one.

 

Shite 

[JPickford]

Didn't bother watching it. 

[Sprite Machine]

22 hours ago, Davros sock drawer said:

Surprised you say that about the pacing. One of the complaints I heard (on The Incomparable podcast) was that they slowed the pace down for the scene between Ryan and his Dad in the cafe.

I liked that bit!   I would like the whole show to be roughly the same pace.

 

It's weird, because although I got bored watching some of the classic serials (as you may recall from my blog posts over the years), I would actually welcome a return to that style of pacing now. Make every story four parts long again. Everything seems so rush-rush, necessitating clumsy techno-exposition. It'll never happen, so it's a pointless request, but maybe my tastes are changing over time.

 

I'm struggling to articulate the problem, but let's take the scenes early on where the Doc and DalekGirl are trying to outwit one another, and in particular talk to one another (before the latter has built its armour). An important moment in itself as you want the hero and villain to come face to face. But this story doesn't have time to set this up to happen in person, so it has to quickly invent a method of telecommunication (holograms!), explain what it is in about three seconds, explain why it's working when it is, and why it's not when it's not. This makes most of the hero's dialogue technobabble about signal interference and tracking and jamming and overriding and all stuff like that. And then they meet again in person and you have more explainy dialogue about sonic interference followed shortly by "aha, I've overridden your tech with my better tech". And, again, when the episode ends with a "vacuum tunnel" (quickly explain what it is while shouting) and then it starts going wrong (quickly explain why it's going wrong approximately three seconds after explaining what it is), and... it's just exhausting to listen to and I want the Doctor to be much more than that.

[deKay]

5 hours ago, JPickford said:

Didn't bother watching it. 

 

So how are you going to complain about it?

[Ste_S]

On 03/01/2019 at 14:39, Davros sock drawer said:

I hope Chibnall has as decent a crack at the Cybermen as he did the Daleks, as they really have been treated badly as villains by both Moffat and RTD. I mean, the Brigadier as a re-animated corpse Cyberman FFS...

 

I wouldn't use the Brigadier Cyberman as a stick to beat Moffat with,  Chibnall did far worse with the Torchwood Cyberwoman episode.

 

I rewatched Rise of the Cybermen/ Age of Steel recently and it's aged a lot better than I thought it would do. Other than that I really enjoyed World Enough and Time/ Doctor Falls; the last Moffat series as a whole was a return to form shorn of all the Clara-isms.

I need to re-watch Nightmare in Silver. I remember being disappointed with it considering how good Gaiman's Doctor's Wife was, probably deserves another chance.

 

[nakamura]

Watching some Tennant episodes on TV and they just seem packed with more drama and action. 

[Oaf]

I suppose it’s still called Doctor Who because “Scooby Doo set in present day Sheffield” is a bit of a mouthful.

[SeanR]

27 minutes ago, nakamura said:

Watching some Tennant episodes on TV and they just seem packed with more drama and action. 

 

Yeah, and more open-mouthed staring.

 

currently the girl in the fireplace.

[Unofficial Who]

On 04/01/2019 at 22:48, JPickford said:

Didn't bother watching it. 

 

On 05/01/2019 at 04:15, deKay said:

 

So how are you going to complain about it?

 

I think that's a bit unfair @deKay. What John said is a perfectly valid response.

 

If I can come at this from a different angle. My wife and I were all in on this. A female Doctor? A large diverse cast? A little bit of social justice? (I'd argue that a lot of the best Doctor Who episodes have him as a social justice warrior.) We were all in and keen. Loved the first episode. Loved the second...apart from the last few minutes. Liked the third apart from the last few minutes (which I loathed. That end was total shit.) And so on.

 

And despite being primed and on board it was just good to ok. And the final few minutes were always rubbish. As in the episodes would have been far better if we'd switched off ten minutes from the end.

 

So what did I think about Resolution? I can't tell you. We haven't been bothered to watch it. Or the episode before. So here I am in the same boat as John and all the other naysayers. I love most of the cast. But the core party is too bog (I have the same issue with the latest Avengers movie, too many story arcs to squeeze in too small a timeframe.) Turns out a box that's bigger on the inside can feel cramped. And the stories have all had dreadful endings apart from the first episode. The new doctor says sorry too much thus falling into the very trope she was supposed to resist.

 

And as for the social justice stuff? You need to do it with a light touch (something that Rosa almost managed.) Otherwise it ends up feeling preachy and smug.

 

I guess I'll get around to the last two episodes eventually but at the moment with some free time on my hands I'm about to do some work at home with some podcasts on rather than watch them. Which should tell you how motivated I am about it.

 

 

[Darren]

I finally got round to watching this tonight. I loved the idea of the threat being not just a lone Dalek but a lone Dalek with no “tank.” And then I loved the idea of that Dalek going all Iron Man 1 and knocking together a steampunk version of its armour.

 

BUT the end result was too good! I wanted it to be properly shonky, so that the Doctor laughed at it until it started shooting. Preferably it should have been made from square boxes rather than cylinders, and then it could have made this canon at the same time.

 

 

[Qazimod]

 

EDIT: although the Amazon promotion feels weird after Kerblam!  

[c-cat114]

Just watched the New Year special. 

 

Um. Was Murray Gold back for the soundtrack? 

 

Also another episode where almost all of the supporting cast endear me more than the 'fam' ugh. 

 

But..... Was better than 90% of the series I guess. I liked some of the direction and the Sheffield catacombs were lovely. 6/10 imo.

[Flub]

Love this

 

 

[NEG]

 

Even when shilling in his 90's, Baker is still awesome.