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FishyFish

By FishyFish
in Film, TV & Radio

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Space Gibbon

Space Gibbon

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With the finale only a couple of weeks away, I thought I'd do some idle theorising. It's been a while!

So, the Silence are an order who believe that 'Silence will Fall' when the question 'hiding in plain sight' is answered.

Seems likely that the question is "Doctor Who?" The Doctor's real name, then?

Back in Forest of the Dead, River told the Doctor his name to get his trust, and he said that there was only one time/way he could tell someone his name.

The season finale is called "The Wedding of River Song". Could the time that he reveals his name be his wedding? Or the moment be right before his death?

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zxcvbnm

zxcvbnm

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I tell you what's changed - Doctor Who has become scary again. When I think back to being a kid I remember being scared a lot of the time watching the Tom Baker episodes, and my daughters (4 and 7) are both massive Who fans and happily watched all of the Ecclestone and Tennant episodes, but I've noticed with the last few that it's given them the heebeejeebees - especially the Dolls, and the episode that just aired. That's how Doctor Who should be, not farting aliens and face fucking paving slabs.

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lordcookie

lordcookie

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I tell you what's changed - Doctor Who has become scary again. When I think back to being a kid I remember being scared a lot of the time watching the Tom Baker episodes, and my daughters (4 and 7) are both massive Who fans and happily watched all of the Ecclestone and Tennant episodes, but I've noticed with the last few that it's given them the heebeejeebees - especially the Dolls, and the episode that just aired. That's how Doctor Who should be, not farting aliens and face fucking paving slabs.

Whilst I agree I'm not sure the general public does. I think I'm right in saying that the last three episodes have had the worst audience figures since the show returned, about two million less than what an average RTD era episode was receiving. Although whether you can put it solely down to the darker direction is debatable as I wouldn't be surprised if the complexity of the overarching story has probably put more families off. It will be interesting to see if these lower numbers continue and whether or not it forces the BBC to simplify and lighten the tone.

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Hexx

Hexx

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It's darker - but a lot is "character dark" - which I can see most parents possibly not wanting their kids exposed to.

I think a lot of the "Timey Whimy" cleverness from Moffat might also put off a lot of people. We're all big geeky fan boys on here (;)) and a lot of the time we're confused. Can little 7 year old Billy follow it?

I love Moffat's Who, and the general tone/style of his era, but I think it's telling that the strongest episodes this series have been standalone (Wife, and the last 3).

Haven't they said next year is going to be less "arc" based?

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Teabag

Teabag

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Yeah, Moffat's said he's going in the other direction next year as the current series has been as 'arcy' as they can possibly be.

Think the lowest rated new-Who was one of the Satan Pit episodes which was 4 million or thereabouts (this is from memory). Consolidated figures for this series are averaging around 7 million I think, though the overnights are suffering. And being beaten by Family Fortunes on Saturday must hurt, even if there was only about 0.3 million in it (Who at 5.9, FF at 6.2).

Anyway, it's not going anywhere. Next season proper will have to fall through the floor to endanger its future, even if it doesn't start till next Autumn.

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Flub

Flub

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Whilst I agree I'm not sure the general public does. I think I'm right in saying that the last three episodes have had the worst audience figures since the show returned, about two million less than what an average RTD era episode was receiving. Although whether you can put it solely down to the darker direction is debatable as I wouldn't be surprised if the complexity of the overarching story has probably put more families off. It will be interesting to see if these lower numbers continue and whether or not it forces the BBC to simplify and lighten the tone.

I'm assuming you're basing this from the overnights rather than the massive boost they get from timeshifting. Not to mention the iPlayer figures that don't count towards the ratings (Well over a million each episode)

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Flub

Flub

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I think a lot of the "Timey Whimy" cleverness from Moffat might also put off a lot of people. We're all big geeky fan boys on here (;)) and a lot of the time we're confused. Can little 7 year old Billy follow it?

You're not that geeky if Moffat's plots are confusing. People have been complaining about the same since the show came back in 2005. It's easily solvable by listening to the words that come out of the actor's mouth.

Not saying you're all thick mind. Just that TV for a long time now has been training us to not pay much attention.

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lordcookie

lordcookie

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I'm assuming you're basing this from the overnights rather than the massive boost they get from timeshifting. Not to mention the iPlayer figures that don't count towards the ratings (Well over a million each episode)

Sorry, you're quite right. I thought the RTD era figures I found were just the overnight numbers too.

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locke_211

locke_211

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Yeah, the time-shifted audience figures have been between 7.5 and 8 million for all the post 2005 series. This one, I think, is also within that range, equal to Season 2 and slightly above Season 3.

I think the arc becomes complicated when you try to think it through, want every little thing to fit together and don't accept the simple explanations given on screen. Which is fair enough! But if you just take what you see onscreen as a given and let it speed on, it's probably easy for the casual audience to have a good enough grasp of what's going on.

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Teabag

Teabag

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I'm absolutely loving it, but wonder if making it so arcy was wise given that they also split the season in half. By the time we find out what happened in two weeks' time it'll be a long time since we saw the Doctor get shot in the first ten minutes of episode one.

I still think it's the best it's ever been though. I can't wait for the box set.

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Lorfarius

Lorfarius

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Have to say I don't get why they aren't still bothered about tracking the kid down. Still their baby no matter what it's future could be. Plus it's time travel so surely one of the three must consider some sort of rescue is possible or at least be constantly worrying about it. The way things are it's been brushed under the carpet.

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Nick R

Nick R

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A great surprise to find that last week's excellent episode was surpassed so soon! The guest characters were very well drawn - maybe the best ensemble of one-off guest characters since Midnight?

One of my favourite things about this episode was watching the Doctor's reaction to spying Rita as a potential new companion. The fact that he so readily joked about "firing" Amy made a nice contrast with the fact that the episode's conclusion was all about her.

I don't really have many criticisms of this episode in itself, but did anyone think it was slightly hurt by following on so soon from the very similar Night Terrors? Both episodes involved childhood fears, the doll's house and hotel were quite similar exit-less locations (seems to be something of a trend this series, what with the House-controlled TARDIS from The Doctor's Wife), and the mind control elements of both "praise him" and the doll transformations felt like similar threats. (But this episode really benefited from the fact that "praise him" was much more thoroughly explored than those doll transformations.)

On the teaser for next week's episode:

That last shot of what looked like a Cyberman bleeding from the eyes reminded me of that moment from Hitchcock's The Birds...

If it's less complex/serialised next year, I'll be disappointed. For me it's been a real strength of the run.

The arc-iness has been a bit unbalanced this series though. It felt to me as if in the first batch of episodes I was constantly on the lookout for clues to the mystery of the Eyepatch Woman and the Alley Regeneration, whereas the stories felt pretty stand-alone between the end of Let's Kill Hitler and the exit of Rory and Amy.

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Space Gibbon

Space Gibbon

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I think one weakness of the series is how the episodes seems to be written in isolation by their respective writers, with only Moffat to keep everyone on track and make everything gel together well. It would have made so much sense in The God Complex for someone to have mentioned how the Doctor let Amy down in The Girl Who Waited, for that to have acted as another reason why Amy and Rory had to leave. What people are saying about River being forgotten also falls under this category. I kind of wish they put more effort into glueing the season as a whole together better.

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