Doctor Who

[BitterToad]

Utterly nonsensical crap.

I've forgiven Moffat of a lot over the years and thought certain episodes from the last series were a step in the right direction (Asylum of the Daleks & Day of the Doctor in particular we're great) but Smith deserved a hell of a lot more for the way he's carried the show over the last couple of years.

Disappointing.

[Flub]

The Doctor himself said it was a new set

[Jack]

Looks like it. A synopsis would be appreciated if you can explain it.

They brought up all of the plot threads that they hadn't resolved yet, then they were all sorted out because oh go on, it's Christmas.

[JPickford]

Those going on about how easy it is to understand. How about explaining it for us thicko's? Or are you just bullshitting?

[gospvg]

Good or Bad Matt Smith has done his stint. I admit I did not enjoy him to Tenant but looking forward very much to Capaldi. When does new season start?

[Hexx]

The plot was hardly that complicated, it just had a fair bit of shaky logic (e.g. No one knew the signal but it caused fear in all?)

Sentiment and spectacle are ok for a festive special - but it was a crap Christmas episode.

It was utterly overloaded with references/call backs for fans that were entirely superfluous to the plot (e.g. angels) and confusing to new viewers. (e.g. 1 line of shout dialogue in a frantic screen on how the angels work).

Seemed like the last episode Moffat always (loosely!) planned for 11 with Christmas show horned in (why the hell was the town Christmas?)

Disappointing after the 50th did a good job of telling a story well, and appealing to new and old viewers.

[Flub]

Which part did you have particular problems with Picky?

[mdn2]

Those going on about how easy it is to understand. How about explaining it for us thicko's? Or are you just bullshitting?

It made sense because Christmas.

[Hello Goaty ♥]

Why does doctor who need scenes like where Clara is asking him round to dinner and pose as her boyfriend?

Play it straight for god sakes.

Pick an assistant and take them on the road for a few years. Fight the baddies.

Sod taking them back home all the time!

Doctor who should be like the A team but in space.

[JPickford]

Good or Bad Matt Smith has done his stint. I admit I did not enjoy him to Tenant but looking forward very much to Capaldi. When does new season start?

September! It seems they can't make a decent number of episodes per year any more.

Which part did you have particular problems with Picky?

All of it. No clue why anything was happening really.

[kensei]

I can write a synopsis layer, it will look shit. And the episode was a bit, especially compared to name and dau. But it was an ep for outpost Galifrey. Give them one.

It was also a big reset. So I'm excited for next year.

[gospvg]

September! It seems they can't make a decent number of episodes per year any more.

All of it.

Boo damn the long wait.

[strider]

Is anyone still going to care about this by the time october rolls around? My 8-year old has rapidly become bored over the last season and this lengthy wait could be its deathknell (at least for our family).

[Tequlia]

I enjoyed watching it. That's what matters in the end.

Matt Smith was great, albeit nearly upstaged by Jenna Coleman's ass a couple of times.

I hope Peter Capaldi doesn't play it too intense.

[Ork1927]

Nahh Moffat can be genuinely amazing. I thought the 50th anniversary was magnificent.

I just couldn't follow this one at all. The extra regens coming from Galifrey was fine (I think). I just didn't really get the rest of it.

Anyway. Please switch to smaller stories next year. Lets have Peter Capaldi saving villages not universes.

Didn't this episode mainly involve Smith protecting a village?

[mdn2]

Jenna Coleman was awful. There was a couple of points her 'acting' really threw me. I hope they get someone new next year.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Things happened just because. The Cybermen (including a wooden one whose weapon was a fucking flamethrower) and the Daleks and the Silence and the Weeping Angels and the Sontarans (off-screen) and everything else showed up again for very pertinent plot reasons of course rather than just being shitty underexplained fanservice and the town was called Christmas and you can't lie in it but Clara is only surprised by the name rather than the 'truth field' because she doesn't live on a planet where there are literally dozens of towns called Christmas or anything and the Doctor has a pet Cyberman head and there's a patronising voiceover and the question is "Doctor WHOOOO?" repeated ad nauseam because catchphrases and there was also a cutesy family Christmas on earth and a sultry space nun who fancies the Doctor because all women fancy the Doctor (including Clara, explicitly) and the Doctor aged hundreds more years because Moffat has to do things bigger and better than ever before so that Doctor 11 has lived longer than any other regeneration and the name of the Doctor is The Doctor and the Time Lords love the Doctor so much that they sent him time energy through a crack in the universe and also some regenerations and he blasted all the Daleks with it and then exploded and then got young again and then he turned into Peter Capaldi the end.

What's not to fucking understand you THICK SHITS TURN YOUR BRAIN OFF YOU'RE OVERTHINKING DOCTOR WHO.

[Flub]

All of it. No clue why anything was happening really.

Time Lords were trying to come home. needed to make sure they were in the right universe. Used the crack to beam a message out through time and space to bring the Doctor to provide a piece of information only he knows in a truth field so they know it's the right person saying the right name. No fucker else wants the Timelords back so they're either going to burn the planet or if the Doctor lets the Time lords out start the time war again. Doctor ends up staying 300 years on the planet keeping the bad guys at bay with the help of the hottie space nun. At the end when all is lost Clara convinces the Time Lords (Rather unconvincingly) to help and they give him a new set of regenerations (This has prior. They offered it to the master once). BOOOM. The Doctor now drinks iron bru and has new kidneys.

If you're confused about the crack they happened when the Tardis was blown up by a breakaway sect of the Church who wanted to stop the Doctor ever getting to Trenzalore but all they achieved was causing the very problem they wanted to solve. WIBBLEY WOBBLEY.

And yes. They changed the future. The people present at the Impossible Girl incident will remember it happening but it also never happened. AT THE SAME TIME.

[FishyFish]

Didn't this episode mainly involve Smith protecting a village?

Yes. With the outcome being that the universe would be destroyed if he didn't.

[Flub]

Yes. With the outcome being that the universe would be destroyed if he didn't.

Nope. If he walked away right at the start they've had burned one planet. That was the stakes. The Time War would only restart if the Doctor let out the Time Lords. Burning the planet would prevent that. However they didn't dare try to burn the planet while the Doctor was there because he was threatening to say his name. More fool them for believing he would do it.

[Hexx]

Things happened just because. The Cybermen (including a wooden one whose weapon was a fucking flamethrower) and the Daleks and the Silence and the Weeping Angels and the Sontarans (off-screen) and everything else showed up again for very pertinent plot reasons of course rather than just being shitty underexplained fanservice and the town was called Christmas and you can't lie in it but Clara is only surprised by the name rather than the 'truth field' because she doesn't live on a planet where there are literally dozens of towns called Christmas or anything and the Doctor has a pet Cyberman head and there's a patronising voiceover and the question is "Doctor WHOOOO?" repeated ad nauseam because catchphrases and there was also a cutesy family Christmas on earth and a sultry space nun who fancies the Doctor because all women fancy the Doctor (including Clara, explicitly) and the Doctor aged hundreds more years because Moffat has to do things bigger and better than ever before so that Doctor 11 has lived longer than any other regeneration and the name of the Doctor is The Doctor and the Time Lords love the Doctor so much that they sent him time energy through a crack in the universe and also some regenerations and he blasted all the Daleks with it and then exploded and then got young again and then he turned into Peter Capaldi the end.

What's not to fucking understand you THICK SHITS TURN YOUR BRAIN OFF YOU'RE OVERTHINKING DOCTOR WHO.

Oh so seems you understood it, but you didn't like it.

Do you relalise those are 2 entirely seperate things?

[Mr Cochese]

Anyway. Please switch to smaller stories next year. Lets have Peter Capaldi saving villages not universes.

He spent the whole of this episode saving a stupid village!

[Flub]

Things happened just because. The Cybermen (including a wooden one whose weapon was a fucking flamethrower) and the Daleks and the Silence and the Weeping Angels and the Sontarans (off-screen) and everything else showed up again for very pertinent plot reasons of course rather than just being shitty underexplained fanservice and the town was called Christmas and you can't lie in it but Clara is only surprised by the name rather than the 'truth field' because she doesn't live on a planet where there are literally dozens of towns called Christmas or anything and the Doctor has a pet Cyberman head and there's a patronising voiceover and the question is "Doctor WHOOOO?" repeated ad nauseam because catchphrases and there was also a cutesy family Christmas on earth and a sultry space nun who fancies the Doctor because all women fancy the Doctor (including Clara, explicitly) and the Doctor aged hundreds more years because Moffat has to do things bigger and better than ever before so that Doctor 11 has lived longer than any other regeneration and the name of the Doctor is The Doctor and the Time Lords love the Doctor so much that they sent him time energy through a crack in the universe and also some regenerations and he blasted all the Daleks with it and then exploded and then got young again and then he turned into Peter Capaldi the end.

What's not to fucking understand you THICK SHITS TURN YOUR BRAIN OFF YOU'RE OVERTHINKING DOCTOR WHO.

All you've done there is explain why it was a bad episode. Like pretty much every single episode of Doctor Who ever if you listen to the dialogue you can understand it. Sometimes like Time Lash you wish you hadn't bothered but the point remains the same

[Hexx]

Look. You can't expect people to understand that.

Even when there's an entire scene set up overlooking the village with him explaining he comes there to remind him what he's fighting for and why (each individual life saved is a victory).

[Flub]

I would like to make one very important point. When Clara and the Doctor first teleported down into the snow she was completely naked. They must have been like bullets. They could probably cut glass

[FishyFish]

Nope. If he walked away right at the start they've had burned one planet. That was the stakes. The Time War would only restart if the Doctor let out the Time Lords. Burning the planet would prevent that. However they didn't dare try to burn the planet while the Doctor was there because he was threatening to say his name. More fool them for believing he would do it.

My point was more along the lines of it not just being a story about the Doctor saving a village.

[Hexx]

They really shouldn't have bothered with that last scene. Just had capaldi walking up the stairs...

Best Suggestion I've seen:from someone on another forum. and something I thought it could be while watching (Smith looked CGIed in)

I thought it was Capaldi walking up the stairs but wearing a Matt Smith hologram body so that Clara could say goodbye to him.

Would have been a good introduction/transition to Capaldi, while still letting MS have an emotional send off scene.

Otherwise the holigrams are another seemingly unimportant bit thrown into an already overstuffed episode.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Oh so you understood it, but you didn't like it.

Do you relalise those are 2 entirely seperate things?

Nah that isn't understanding, that's just listing things that happened in the episode. However, turns out there was basically no coherent plot anyway and things just happened one after the other at breakneck speed and with enough orchestral backing to make people think it's got an actual storyline. That was really badly written on both the micro and macro scale - I was confused throughout.

I really disliked the 50th anniversary episode but at least I understood what was going on and had a rough idea of where the next scene might be - this one was haphazard and jumped around all over the place and they had to resort to voiceover to cover the most egregious scene-changes, trading organic plot development for portentous-sounding exposition that still seemed to bear no relation to what had gone before or what came in the following scenes.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

It wasn't that the episode was hard to understand. It was just hard to care about.

[Flub]

Look. You can't expect people to understand that.

Even when there's an entire scene set up overlooking the village with him explaining he comes there to remind him what he's fighting for and why (each individual life saved is a victory).

You can't win really. I've read enough sci-fi to be happy at barely explain plots, motivations and resolutions but even when a TV show goes out of its way to explain what it's doing at ever step of the way it's "incomprehensible". Moffat even restrained himself and only threw in one explicit paradox. The other one is irrelevant and not mentioned at all.