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FishyFish

By FishyFish
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Unofficial Who

Unofficial Who

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You've worked out the big plot twist about John Hurt then!

For those who haven't yet....in the best Dr Who fashion someone completely spoiled the twist for the next season for me.....back in 1992.

Do not click these unless you want to ruin the next season.

John Hurt is most likely the 13th Doctor.

We've seen the 13th Doctor before, but he didn't use the name Doctor.

The Great Intelligence actually mentions the alias the 13th Doctor goes by.

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Unofficial Who

Unofficial Who

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The cracks were by far Moffat's best, and had the most satisfying resolution. Clara was pretty good too, but to be honest needed a full season and a few more deaths to cement the character. But it's just his style, and a bit more to my tastes than RTDs random words. The next bloke will do something else, and there'll be posts lamenting the lack of timey whimeyness, much like the retrospective RTD love.

That was a genuinely good Ep though, and set up the 50th nicely, and easily Moffs best since Day of the Moon. I think season 7 will look better in retrospect, a bit like how 6 looks worse.

I went off this season because of that whole "it's the internet that will kill you" episode. But I've watched the others back to back and it's not as bad as everyone has been declaring.

And I loved the last episode, it was a reveal that made some sense and didn't disappoint. And that last scene. I love how they frame it so it looks like the other man might be the return of The Master.

If the next season is about who I think it is (and it's not The Master)...it's going to be amazing.

How about getting The Mill to do some real work and have him have four McGann heads at one time? No? Okay.

You've just given me the most awful vision of what a TV version of That Hideous Strength would look like.
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DocG

DocG

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Tssk:

The Valeyard isn't the 13th Doctor exactly. He's "an amalgam of the Doctor's darker side, somewhere between his twelfth and thirteenth regenerations". I'm not convinced it fits with the semi-rebooted show. I think the throwaway reference to him was fan service, and Hurt will be a formerly-unknown regeneration between the 8th and 9th, ravaged by the Time War. Or possible just an aged and recast 8th.

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Unofficial Who

Unofficial Who

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Tssk:

The Valeyard isn't the 13th Doctor exactly. He's "an amalgam of the Doctor's darker side, somewhere between his twelfth and thirteenth regenerations". I'm not convinced it fits with the semi-rebooted show. I think the throwaway reference to him was fan service, and Hurt will be a formerly-unknown regeneration between the 8th and 9th, ravaged by the Time War. Or possible just an aged and recast 8th.

I still think my theory might just be correct but...yours has some legs. There's the darkness at the end of the sixth Doctor's short run which continued into the run of the seventh Doctor. (There was a good arguement to be made that rather than saving Ace the Doctor seemed to be incredibly abusive towards her.)

Either theory would fit.

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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Horror of Fang Rock

(Blog has pictures)

You know what would be genuinely new? If the alien of the week WASN'T a savage killing machine. If it was a friendly or benevolent creature who simply misunderstood what it was doing and didn't intend to kill or enslave. Sci-fi is more interesting when it isn't just man versus beast. However, it wouldn't really be a "horror" then, and for what it's worth, Horror of Fang Rock does do the traditional horror setup pretty well.

[Picture: The Doctor and Reuben look out to sea atop the lighthouse.]

The shipwreck is slightly too convenient a way to get another group of characters together into the lighthouse, especially after the timing of the Doctor and Leela's arrival has already pushed convenience to a point. These characters are mostly unlikeable, from the money-minded businessman to the hysterical fainting woman, so it's no great loss when they are offed by the monster.

[Picture: Disguised as Reuben, the creature effortlessly kills Lady Adelaide.]

I have to say that Leela is an absolute star in this, with such fantastically blunt lines as "you will do as the Doctor instructs or I will cut out your heart" (she really means it, too!) and later giving the hysterical woman a slap around the face for screaming. With a strong sense of loyalty and no fear of death, she is the most interesting companion the show has had so far. The Doctor also takes his lighthearted humour to new levels, at one point exclaiming "good news" before calmly pointing out that everyone is probably going to die by the morning.

[Picture: The cast of soon-be-deads.]

And he's right. The creature kills everybody, except for the Doctor and Leela, which is pretty bleak, isn't it? The stakes are raised when the creature is identified as the first of an invasion fleet, but thankfully the Doctor manages to destroy the arriving mothership using a laser beam made from the lighthouse beacon and a large diamond (from a bag of diamonds that he hilariously discards).

[Picture: The Doctor has a lovely chat with the Rutan, before killing it with fire.]

With a voice like a Dalek and the appearance of a soggy cabbage with tentacles, the Rutan creature turns out to be not such a scary beast - but they sensibly keep him hidden until the end, and use his shape-changing ability for misdirection. In that respect, it's quite effective and keeps the tension up. This is a pretty solid story, then, elevated to something much better by witty writing. Over the years, I've watched this show gradually replace melodrama with irreverence, adding wit and charm to horror and fear, and now it handles stories like this with confidence and conviction. There is warmth within the cold.

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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Along with Robots of Death, Fang Rock is my favourite Who story, depending on my mood (I have three "favourites", the other you've not got to yet).

I just love the tone of it all, the claustrophobic location, the Doctor's gradual realisation of what they're dealing with. Baker really sells the fear in this, especially the scene where he says "Leela I've made a terrible mistake. I thought I'd locked the enemy out. Instead I've locked it in. With us!". It's another towering performance.

And yes, it's another strong Leela story. She's deadlier than most of the baddies, gloating "Enjoy your death Rutan, as I enjoyed killing you!". Easy tiger!

FInally, I absolutely love the ending of the story. Note to Moffat: "Everyone dies, just this once, everyone dies!", and there's that lovely quote from 'The Ballad of Flannan Isle' at the end.

Sadly, and your mileage may vary, this marks the end of what I consider to be an unbroken run of out and out classics. The show's new producer Graham Williams was given a mandate to tone down the horror and violence, and he does so over the course of the next two seasons. That doesn't mean there aren't any more good stories, far from it, but some real stinkers do start creeping in. Baker remains watchable though, thankfully, and in a couple of stories time you've got another great Hinchcliffe style gothic horror.

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Harsin

Harsin

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Apparently BBC will announce tomorrow as a Sunday paper is planning to reveal all Sunday.

Names I've heard are

Domnhall Gleeson - was in Dredd

Daniel Kaluya - tealeaf

Dominic Cooper - Papa Stark

That's a pretty uninspiring list.
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Fireproofradiator

Fireproofradiator

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Does feel like another Johnson, Kinnear, and I would have loved Patterson Joseph in the role so I'm super wary this time round. There's a tiny part of me thinks Moffat wouldn't say no to changing the game completely and using John Hurt as Who with the young demographic (shoot me now) catered for with hot young assistants or other central characters. Keeps the Valeyard wolf from the door.

But that's a ridiculous idea.

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davidcotton

davidcotton

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Does feel like another Johnson, Kinnear, and I would have loved Patterson Joseph in the role so I'm super wary this time round. There's a tiny part of me thinks Moffat wouldn't say no to changing the game completely and using John Hurt as Who with the young demographic (shoot me now) catered for with hot young assistants or other central characters. Keeps the Valeyard wolf from the door.

But that's a ridiculous idea.

Speaking of valeyard :-

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/this-year-s-subscriber-bonus---doctor-who-trial-of-the-valeyard

Cheers

I read that as Roy Kinnear at first and thought, hang on a mo...

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