Doctor Who

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Would it have killed them to have set Kovarian, or whatever her name is, as the antagonist for the latter half of the series? I'm sure it wouldn't have been hard to do most of the same stories, with them trying to track her down or whatever. Instead she just keeps popping up and we're supposed to buy her as some kind of wild arch villain or something, but she just comes across as some wildly camp middle aged woman who we know nothing about and who the doctor managed to beat in 5 minutes by having a few blokes walk in the back door or something.

[Hexx]

Only just realised that it's the silence post hypnotic suggestion they used to brainwash River

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Surely, right, every time they go back to Earth before the 70s there should be silents EVERYWHERE. I mean there would at least have been a couple standing in Hitler's office, loitering around in the background.

[Jack]

They were there, you just forgot.

[Sidewaysbob]

To all you nay sayers out there. You wait until you have a 7 year old child with you and you all try to watch a family show on a saturday night. There is fuck all on that you can all enjoy until Dr Who is on. It's ace, not too scary and doesn't involve singing horses or talking trees or attempts to make us buy the toy of the show endlessly. Watch any disney channel and it's mindless shite, designed to sell toy/DVDs/a singing career. There is never anything more substantial than, "team work helped us win and we did it for you guys !!!!!11!!!!" breaks into this weeks song.

Dr Who is perfect.

[Alex W.]

It's about the only adventure show that's on a mainstream channel at a sensible time, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. If Warehouse 13 and Eureka were on Channel 4 at teatime instead of Syfy at 8pm it'd have much stiffer competition, but it seems that watching sci-fi adventure after school is something this generation will have to do without.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

For all those who enjoyed everything related to the baby in the most recent episode, I would like to recommend some other high-quality infant antics.

Also, Steven Moffat retweeted this:

[Uncle Mike]

I quite enjoyed this episode, with the Doctor being all cooky and forlorn. It felt like a really nice one-shot standalone piece. If the current state of the series arc had been different, it would have fit in really well.

But, I have a few issues with that 'if': it's implying pretty strongly that The Doctor has been wandering for, what, 200 years or so between last week and this one (presumably nothing interesting happened, and he also didn't bother to go looking for Melody/River), and Rory/Amy seem to have completely accepted that they don't have a daughter to bring up (which is just inconceivable to me.)

[Space Gibbon]

To all you negative nancies, remember that next week Merlin starts up again. Watch and you'll remember how good you had it with Doctor Who. Spoiled bastards.

[Dr Derek Doctors]

For all those who enjoyed everything related to the baby in the most recent episode, I would like to recommend some other high-quality infant antics.

You forgot: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0270846/

[Lorfarius]

To all you negative nancies, remember that next week Merlin starts up again. Watch and you'll remember how good you had it with Doctor Who. Spoiled bastards.

Merlin rocks.

[Radish]

I hadn't realized Merlin was starting again - I'm more excited about that than I am next weeks episode of Dr Who

[kensei]

Their daughter was Mels. They grew up with her. Then she was River, who they can break the universe by dealing with wrong. I doubt they've forgotten, but they are stuffed.

[DeNeo]

But, I have a few issues with that 'if': it's implying pretty strongly that The Doctor has been wandering for, what, 200 years or so between last week and this one (presumably nothing interesting happened, and he also didn't bother to go looking for Melody/River), and Rory/Amy seem to have completely accepted that they don't have a daughter to bring up (which is just inconceivable to me.)

From io9:

If we're to believe the Doctor's statements in "The Impossible Astronaut" (and some stuff the production team has said in interviews), then "Closing Time" takes place a full 200 years after last week's "The God Complex," in terms of the Doctor's own timeline. The longest gap between Doctor Who stories ever — and in the meantime, the Doctor has had time to go through all the adventures in River Song's little blue diary, and he and River have had a whole life together. (This also makes the Eleventh Doctor possibly the most long-lived Doctor since William Hartnell. But of course, if you believe Stephen Moffat, the Doctor "has no clue" how old he actually is.)

Anyway, a long time has passed between stories — long enough for the Doctor to meet Jim the Fish and have a ton of other adventures with River that we'll probably never get to see.

Also - he's been doing all the things Amy and Rory were tracking him doing at the start of this series.

[PK]

If we're to believe the Doctor's statements in "The Impossible Astronaut" (and some stuff the production team has said in interviews),

What are those statements, out of interest?

[Hexx]

SFX Spoiler Free Preview

1 First, a heads-up. We didn’t get an office preview of this one because, at Steven Moffat’s request, no previews were sent out. Instead, I had to go to the show’s London PR office for a private screening. But one thing’s for sure – if we had had a preview version in our office, I would have watched the whole thing over again straight away. Sadly, I was a little too embarrassed to ask the PR guys if I could do that there and then. Now I wish I’d gone, “Sod professionalism…”

2 The reason I’d want to watch it again straight away is not because it’s massively complicated and you need to rewatch it to make sense of it. In fact, it’s a surprisingly simple tale, though told in a clever way. No, I wanted to watch it again because a) it’s so rich with detail and b) it’s enormous fun.

3 There is technobabble, but that’s largely a red herring

4 The teaser looks like it was more expensive than the rest of the “back six” put together. It’s a visual and conceptual delight

5 It does answer a lot of questions, but some old ones (from Matt Smith’s first series) are still left open, and some new ones are posed

6 There are many, many glorious special effects sequences

7 The denouement is bound to cause some debate. If you like the episode, you’ll be able to rationalise it, but if you don’t you’ll be going, “But hang on, in that episode…?” But that’s Doctor Who fandom

8 You’ll discover a whole new meaning to the phrase “Live Chess” that has nothing to do with Harry Potter

9 The Doctor wonders if he could be the fifth member of something

10 Wi-fi comes in handy

11 There’s the return of an old look for the Doctor

12 There are some unexpected (truly unexpected) returning characters

13 There’s a moving tribute to an old friend

14 The Doctor offers and eye for an eye patch

15 A big revelation may remind you of Little Britain

16 There are some peculiar postmen

17 Somebody’s portrait looks nothing like them

18 The episode title may not be as much of a red herring as you might think. But then again…

19 Bow ties are not just cool, they’re useful on occasion

20 It’s a bit of a gamechanger

21 The eye patch is explained

22 I can guarantee that some people will go, “Oh I guessed that all along,” at one point, but considering millions of fans on thousands of websites have been discussing every possible outcome, it’s not surprising that some people will have come across it. I’m happy to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe I’m thick

22 It’s not faultless – I have quibbles – but it’s ambitious, and clever, and unique, and surprising, and funny, and visually stunning, it’s emotionally engaging and it’s unlike anything else on TV. And I can’t wait to see it again

[Space Gibbon]

SFX Spoiler Free Preview

1 First, a heads-up. We didn’t get an office preview of this one because, at Steven Moffat’s request, no previews were sent out. Instead, I had to go to the show’s London PR office for a private screening. But one thing’s for sure – if we had had a preview version in our office, I would have watched the whole thing over again straight away. Sadly, I was a little too embarrassed to ask the PR guys if I could do that there and then. Now I wish I’d gone, “Sod professionalism…”

2 The reason I’d want to watch it again straight away is not because it’s massively complicated and you need to rewatch it to make sense of it. In fact, it’s a surprisingly simple tale, though told in a clever way. No, I wanted to watch it again because a) it’s so rich with detail and b) it’s enormous fun.

3 There is technobabble, but that’s largely a red herring

4 The teaser looks like it was more expensive than the rest of the “back six” put together. It’s a visual and conceptual delight

5 It does answer a lot of questions, but some old ones (from Matt Smith’s first series) are still left open, and some new ones are posed

6 There are many, many glorious special effects sequences

7 The denouement is bound to cause some debate. If you like the episode, you’ll be able to rationalise it, but if you don’t you’ll be going, “But hang on, in that episode…?” But that’s Doctor Who fandom

8 You’ll discover a whole new meaning to the phrase “Live Chess” that has nothing to do with Harry Potter

9 The Doctor wonders if he could be the fifth member of something

10 Wi-fi comes in handy

11 There’s the return of an old look for the Doctor

12 There are some unexpected (truly unexpected) returning characters

13 There’s a moving tribute to an old friend

14 The Doctor offers and eye for an eye patch

15 A big revelation may remind you of Little Britain

16 There are some peculiar postmen

17 Somebody’s portrait looks nothing like them

18 The episode title may not be as much of a red herring as you might think. But then again…

19 Bow ties are not just cool, they’re useful on occasion

20 It’s a bit of a gamechanger

21 The eye patch is explained

22 I can guarantee that some people will go, “Oh I guessed that all along,” at one point, but considering millions of fans on thousands of websites have been discussing every possible outcome, it’s not surprising that some people will have come across it. I’m happy to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe I’m thick

22 It’s not faultless – I have quibbles – but it’s ambitious, and clever, and unique, and surprising, and funny, and visually stunning, it’s emotionally engaging and it’s unlike anything else on TV. And I can’t wait to see it again

Interesting. I'm wondering if..

..the reference to 'that episode' is where the Doctor randomly pops up immediately after leaving during The Rebel Flesh. Was very suspicious at the time.

[Harsin]

I'm struggling to think of a time when SFX haven't dribbled uncontrollably that the next episode is the best thing ever.

[Made of Ghosts]

I wish they wouldn't print things like "aha, the next episode will contain an unexpected use of cottage cheese and something that reminds you of a tarpaulin". What am I supposed to gain from that as a reader? It's meaningless until you've seen the episode, and then pointless.

[scottcr]

Enjoyed the James Corden one... Are we to assume that he's spent 200 years traveling between dropping off Amy and Rolly and getting his Stetson?

So, he must've met Jim the Fish then...

[Meh]

I'm struggling to think of a time when SFX haven't dribbled uncontrollably that the next episode is the best thing ever.

Ugh, tell me about it. They were pretty bad with that shit when Buffy was around, but with DW they've turned the uncontrollable gushing up to 11.

[Nick R]

The Doctor having knowledge of his own impending death, and spending a long time delaying it by having crazy adventures (finding his way into old films to wave at Amy & Rory), is quite a lot like the leadup to the Tenth Doctor's regeneration, isn't it? "Jim The Fish" sounds like it could have fit in with all the stuff that Ten got up to before The End of Time:

The Doctor: Ah, now! Sorry, there you are. So, where we? I was summoned, wasn't I? The Ood in the snow, calling to me. Well, I didn't just have to come straight here; had a bit of fun. You know, travelled about, did this and that, got into trouble, you know me. But it was brilliant. I saw the phosphorous carousel of the Great Magellan Gestadt, saved a planet from the Red Carnivorous Maw, named a galaxy Alison. Got married! That was a mistake. Good Queen Bess. And let me tell you, her nickname is no longer-- [clears throat] anyway, what do you want?

The difference is that for Ten, that knowledge came from a vague prophesy, whereas time travel is the reason Eleven is aware of it.

---

I linked to these last series, but I really recommend following script editor Andrew Ellard's Twitter notes on Doctor Who episodes. The format can make them awkward to read, but he does them via Twitter because he reckons it forces him to be more concise than he would be when writing full length pieces. That's what I like about them: I think he's very good at looking at episodes from a script editor's point of view and summarising why specific aspects of the episode and series work or fail.

Moffat follows him, too.

Some good points he made about this episode:

Arguably Craig's life has become the "Rose's mum" of this era. A domestic setting to return to, connect us back to 'real life'.

Interesting writer comparison - where RTD came back to mums and dads, for Roberts/Moffat it's a young(ish) man finding his way.

Unfortunate tendency to overplay a decent gag - the shush, the baby's name - to the point where it starts being FACT not MYSTERY...

...*Does* the Doctor have a shush power? Once and a callback is 'maybe', over and over is 'Why doesn't he use it every week?'

Cybermen are being decently-used in this era - both as small-number threat (that lone, kackered one in Pandorica Opens!)...

...and as extant force (GMGTW). It's as all-in-synch, catchphrasing invading army that they've sometimes felt like big toys.

Hard for The Doctor's sadness to fully come over in one ep when we've never spent time getting his take on his impending death...

...Doc's been *told* his fate, but wish he'd seen video of his killing or something. It exists as 'theory' for him, from our POV.

This ep tries to get us from 'Doctor who always fights' to 'going to his death with acceptance'. Sadly an impossible challenge...

...Emotionally & factually, it's a long way to take the Doctor, and even with this character-centric episode there's not room enough.

Especially hard to imagine 200 years have passed and Doc's never taken on another companion. They usual only last 2 or 3 years.

I recommend rewatching Closing Time and then jumping direct to Impossible Astronaut. First minutes now feel *very* different.

The Doctor's entire attitude - from silly history jaunts to his final day - reads very differently now we're coming at it from his end.

Doc's mad behaviour at series start now clear as him living out his days, having silly fun before ending. A nice realisation for us.

He also agrees with the consensus that "our daughter's vanished but we grew up with her as a schoolfriend instead, and we seem to be OK with that so we'll stop looking for her" is a big leap to accept.

[kensei]

Again, there is nothing to look for. They can't get the baby without breaking the universe. They could be more cut up, or more angry with the Doctor, but they can't get the baby.

[Lorfarius]

Again, there is nothing to look for.

It's hardly like losing your keys though is it? They wouldn't just throw their hands in the air 5 minutes later and say "oh what a shame, well we can always get another". There's been zero sense of loss and they haven't shown any sort of remorse or regret. Doesn't matter if they can't save the baby they would still try.

[footle]

It's hardly like losing your keys though is it? They wouldn't just throw their hands in the air 5 minutes later and say "oh what a shame, well we can always get another". There's been zero sense of loss and they haven't shown any sort of remorse or regret. Doesn't matter if they can't save the baby they would still try.

Rory barely knew he was a dad, though, and it's really not clear how much of the time Amy knew she was pregnant. Did she have time to bond?

[Spacehost]

Rory barely knew he was a dad, though, and it's really not clear how much of the time Amy knew she was pregnant. Did she have time to bond?

She seemed a bit put out when her fake child turned into a puddle of goo a while back. Maybe it just messed up her dress.

[minkee]

So Korvavian's eyepatch.

Anyone else think it's got a little picture of Silence on the inside, so she always remembers them?

Yes

If that eyepatch lady really is working for the silence, does that mean she has a tiny little silence drawn on her eyepatch saying 'hey, remember me!' so she knows what the HELL she's doing.

[minkee]

I definitely think that this will mean a Doctor Who themed Community will appear at some point in this series :3

[Eighthours]

Yes

The trailer for the finale featured:

River wearing an eyepatch

So I'd say that's a definite. Ingenious.

[minkee]

The trailer for the finale featured:

River wearing an eyepatch

So I'd say that's a definite. Ingenious.

I am the best.