Doctor Who

[DeNeo]

Yeah, it's River that says 'Of course'. The Doctor says 'It's okay, I know it's you.'

Also - I think we have to assume now that between AGMGTW and LKH, the Doctor was travelling for a long time. Since he got his Stetson (which is cool) and his blue envelopes at the end of this episode.

Or between last week and this week.

[Nick R]

Was the line about humans needing to protect their genetics (or something along those lines) important or just a throw away line? Would time lords need to do something similar if they were about to die?

Doubt it's Significant; it was just a throwaway joke about avoiding saying love saved the day.

[footle]

What was with the doctor's omniscience / mind control that was going on in that episode? Certainly there was a fair bit of "knowing things" that he'd not been around to know, and persuasion that normally he'd use a prop for.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

That was a total mess.

And next week's looks a hell of a lot messier. Ugh.

[Made of Ghosts]

That was shit. Total fluff.

And I'm not sure how they're going to explain everything in one episode, so I bet we're looking at a partial cliffhanger. Again.

[joeplus]

Liked that. Funny for most of it, then something to chew over. How long have the Silence and Peggy Patch been in control of River? And the Silence are her "owners"? And the creepy song again, the sound, the definition of sonic, the opposite of Silence.

I have no idea what the Next Week bit means, apart from KITCHEN SINK, BRING IT ON

[hereticboy]

I can still never work out where River Song is in her timeline when we see her.

Is it just me that's thick?

[Pete]

The cybermen seemed totally throw away, but it was good fun

[Jack]

I watched the last 25 minutes that I gave up on last night, ahahaha a shitty power of love ending ahahaha

Also you know James Corden is a really awful actor when he has less screen presence than a screaming baby.

[locke_211]

I can still never work out where River Song is in her timeline when we see her.

Is it just me that's thick?

I think there's always enough to work it out, if you watch really carefully.

At the end of LKH, she got into University and started looking for traces of the Doctor everywhere. Here, she was obviously still doing that, filling in the blue book he gave her in LKH with the testimonies of those three children. She'd also just graduated as a Doctor herself that day, according to Kovarian.

So this is the second episode of Alex Kingston River's timeline. So it's before all her other appearances, bar LKH. Which means whatever goes down on the beach, if indeed it's her in the astronaut suit at that point, is only the second time AK River has met the Doctor.

EDIT: plus AK does quite a good job in that scene of sounding like a much less experienced, more over-awed River.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

I watched the last 25 minutes that I gave up on last night, ahahaha a shitty power of love ending ahahaha

Also you know James Corden is a really awful actor when he has less screen presence than a screaming baby.

Of all the crap things in last night's episode, somehow the worst was the whole 'Stormageddon' thing. Cringe.

[hereticboy]

I think there's always enough to work it out, if you watch really carefully.

At the end of LKH, she got into University and started looking for traces of the Doctor everywhere. Here, she was obviously still doing that, filling in the blue book he gave her in LKH with the testimonies of those three children. She'd also just graduated as a Doctor herself that day, according to Kovarian.

So this is the second episode of Alex Kingston River's timeline. So it's before all her other appearances, bar LKH. Which means whatever goes down on the beach, if indeed it's her in the astronaut suit at that point, is only the second time AK River has met the Doctor.

EDIT: plus AK does quite a good job in that scene of sounding like a much less experienced, more over-awed River.

Of course. It's really quite simple now you've explained it. I guess I was just being a bit thick. Thanks.

[Harsin]

How many episodes are left? Is the finale a two-parter or just a single episode?

[JohnC]

A single normal length episode.

[Mogster]

I really enjoyed that. Lots of great scenes involving the Doctor just being the Doctor, and the Cybermen were great in their brief appearances. It looks like they've gone back to being proper Cybermen too, judging by the conversion process. They're not just brains in robot suits any more.

It was a bit disappointing to have them defeated by emotion again though. That was a very weak resolution, but I'll forgive it as it wasn't really the focus the episode.

[Liamness]

Couple of things that bothered me about this episode;

The Doctor being completely caught by surprise by a Cyberman and getting knocked out. Was he being cavalier because he knew he wasn't of any use to them? Either way he ended up looking a bit thick. Same story at the end.. he doesn't realise that there's another Cyberman behind him. I won't bore you with more examples, but basically the Doctor was a bit crap this episode. Also during Corden's 'conversion', did anyone else hear the sound of an electric saw? Felt a bit lied to, when he just popped out moments later completely unscathed. Shouldn't use saw sounds if no sawing has actually happened.

I thought it was a decent episode though. I did like the lodger, and while this was a bit directionless by comparison, it was a nice light consequence free ep. Things have been getting a bit heavy of late.

[strider]

The best bit was when he hit the Cyber Mat with the Sonic Screwdriver and said 'I have an app for that'.

Well I thought it was funny.

[Mogster]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the cybermat! They even kept the pointless bleeping.

[Retroid]

Yeah the Dr looked a bit stupid last episode, like he's just dicking around really. The finale could have done with another 5 minutes as it seemed stupidly rushed especially when you think of the amount of time that was wasted with terrible jokes. Also did Corden need to be the superior Cyberman? Isn't getting turned into a normal one dramatic enough? The baby drawing the attention of the Cybermen - was there any need?

Honestly that was some of the worst tension building I've ever seen! Mask goes on, mask goes off...

[sprite]

I quite enjoyed this one, but then I've always been a fan of silly. It had me laughing out loud big time and the moment where the Doctor caught sight of Amy and Rory was beautiful.

It made me wonder, though. All this talk of how long he's been away - isn't it possible that he left Amy and Rory behind for two hundred of his years between the last episode and this one? I just sort of assumed that it might be that way based on his emotional reaction to seeing the pair of them, the coat, and all his waffle about being old all of a sudden and of course, what happens tomorrow.

[Fury4k]

.

[Not Thread Owner]

Just watched it.

It was awful.

I think when the baby crying stopped Corden from turning into a Cyberman THROUGH THE POWER OF LOVE, I may have been a little bit sick in my mouth. Jesus.

[Space Gibbon]

I honestly don't understand the bile coming out of half the people on here re: this week's episode. Especially when you compare it to some of the shit we've had to endure this season - Curse of the Black Spot, the shitty 'Attack of the Clones' two-parter, and the lame episode with the Doll's House.

I'm not a Corden fan (is anybody?) but when he's not being himself or one of his obnoxious characters I can put up with him no problem.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

It does feel like the pacing has been so off this series. I mean I can see what moffat's trying to do, but you get all these standalone episodes dotted about with 5 minutes of story arc just sort of sellotaped onto the end, and so many episodes seem to end up trying to shorhorn so much into 45 minutes that stuff often ends up seeming really rushed, which seems to be a factor in the repeated and irritating use of bullshit deus ex endings, which seem to have been a hallmark of the show since it restarted. I mean how in the hell are they going to add sufficient closure to all the threads that have been started over the last series or two in 45 minutes. Quite a few episodes this series could easily have been 2-parters with all that they had going on, and stuff like the pirate episode and the lodger part 2 could just have been jettisoned. Either that or they need to start trying to blend things like individual stories and the overarching themes together a bit better.

[The Bag]

I've been catching up on the last two on a shit net connection, iplayer buffering every 20 to 30 seconds. What was Rory's "was" line people have mentioned in the God Complex? I think I missed it.

[Red Alignment]

The cybermen seemed totally throw away, but it was good fun

They seemed grafted-on to the plot me, as if they weren't in the original script, but were brought in later on to replace an emotion-adverse throwaway 'monster of the week'. Maybe. (Arguably, the Cybermen was sort of incidental anyway, the episode being more character based, with the double act and so forth.)

[PopeSmokesDope]

Just watched it.

It was awful.

I think when the baby crying stopped Corden from turning into a Cyberman THROUGH THE POWER OF LOVE, I may have been a little bit sick in my mouth. Jesus.

You see, I like that bit.... Although it would have been better if it hadn't of been love... Any parent will know the feeling of being sleep deprived and the cry of their kid going through their body like fingernails down a blackboard...

[Not Thread Owner]

I'm not a Corden fan (is anybody?) but when he's not being himself or one of his obnoxious characters I can put up with him no problem.

But he appeared to be being exactly himself, only with less laughing at his own "jokes".

[NecroMorrius]

It wasn't actually the power of love, it was a boring biological reason which the Doctor started to explain before giving up because they were starting to glaze over. That's the joke folks.

[Alex W.]

I'm kind of pissed off about the setup for the finale here, and not just because of the increasingly unintentionally hilarious "creepy singing" thing they keep doing. Mind control is one of the most irksomely antidramatic plot devices out there, up there with "it is destined blah blah" in terms of robbing a plot of meaning or engagement, and not only did they hang that over us for several episodes, they've then gone and double-bluffed with with "Let's Kill Hitler"'s pretence that they'd dismissed it.

It's bollocks.