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FishyFish

By FishyFish
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mayor_mike_haggar

mayor_mike_haggar

Posted
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Also presumably 1/3 of the worlds population now has significant brain damage due to prolonged oxygen starvation, so that should make the scenes on present Earth more entertaining.

Also also, I like how nobody who works in a hospital ever noticed a single lonely quiet child sitting by herself in an A&E department for like 6 months.

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NecroMorrius

NecroMorrius

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Also presumably 1/3 of the worlds population now has significant brain damage due to prolonged oxygen starvation, so that should make the scenes on present Earth more entertaining.

Also also, I like how nobody who works in a hospital ever noticed a single lonely quiet child sitting by herself in an A&E department for like 6 months.

Both of these things are pretty normal.

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mayor_mike_haggar

mayor_mike_haggar

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Did they every explain why the men with grilles for faces were taking people back to their space ship through the lift. Was it to make more grille-faced men, that an otherwise insubstantial and largely intangible alien threat be given a more immediate and visceral scary presence?

Or was it just to kidnap Mark Williams so that his INCREDIBLE jowls/neck didn't completely distract everyone in each and every scene that he's in.

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earlymodernsteve

earlymodernsteve

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Nope, there was no explanation for taking people to the spaceship whatsoever. Purely a plot device to get Rory on board. Shame really, as there were some interesting aspects to the episode but they got pissed away in a very RTD style. Still, Angels next week (which means my 5 year old can't watch it with me). I've been writing a book chapter for an academic Gothic media collection on the Library episodes recently and they still hold up. Despite my admiration for Moffatt as a writer, very few of the episodes whilst he's been at the helm match those he wrote under RTD. TV equivalent of a sportsman's form dropping when they're made captain?

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joeplus

joeplus

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On the plus side, the last two times they've done "the doctor stays at someone's house for a bit" storylines, they have both involved him staying in James Fucking Corden's house. However we avoided the hat-trick, which is something to be happy about, right?

Apart from the "you saved them all with LOVE!" endings, I really enjoyed those episodes and found Corden a very good foil for Matt Smith. :unsure:

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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It was an intriguing set-up that failed to deliver anything interesting. I quite enjoyed it up until the part where holo-Vader turned up, then it all went to shit. It felt like loads of badly thought-out ideas all thrown together. Those mouth people, what were they all about?! Baffling stuff.

---

Ah well, good for you if you got something out of The Chase. What's up next?

The Time Meddler!

New guy Steven snuck aboard the Tardis at the end of The Chase, so he's now the second companion. He's amusing, but he's no Ian. He just doesn't have that "Science Teacher With An Adventurous Spirit" thing going on. It'll never be the same again. :( Still, that now means the Doctor isn't travelling with any present day (well, 60s present day) companions anymore - both Steven and Vicki are from the future.

Anyway, I enjoyed The Time Meddler. I did not expect it to be another Time Lord with his own Tardis, even though he's never referred to us such. In fact, much of the Doctor's back story regarding his species and planet is a mystery at this point. It was fun to see the other Tardis disguised as something else, referencing the Doctor's "inferior" version, etc. The character of the meddler was enjoyable to watch, and the "what if" scenario of a time traveller breaking the rules was enjoyable. The 1066 setting allowed for a bit of history, and as the story didn't rely on special effects or complex props, it has aged relatively well compared to something set on an alien world.

Right, next is Galaxy 4. Much of this is reconstructed from fragments and pictures, but I am determined to watch every single episode regardless of its condition! :D

EDIT: Hmm, should I spoiler-tag reviews of Classic Who, or is that unnecessary?

Edited by Sprite Machine
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Red Alignment

Red Alignment

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It's just occurred to me how much of a pity it is that the final few episodes of the Amy and Rory era have turned out to be such a let-down. They were definitely the best of the new-era companions and they deserved a lot better than that. Episode 5 had better be a fucking humdinger.

Yeah, I agree. We've had decent companions (by any era of DW standards) going to waste this series. A decent Doctor too - yes, Matt Smith's too stagey at times, but his portrayal of the Doctor is genuinely compelling when handled properly by proper writing and direction.

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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They just recently found a lost episode of G4 but I don't think it's made it out beyond special screenings yet.

Yeah I had a quick look before I watched part 3, but couldn't see anything confirming a release. Bit of a shame, as the available photo material is extremely limited for these episodes, and the state of the surviving audio is very poor throughout. So much so that I missed some bits of dialogue that were too muffled. Fair play to the reconstruction team for what they've managed, but some subtitles wouldn't have gone amiss!

Anyway, I got the gist of it. A doomed planet and two different groups trying to leave in their crashed ships: the Amazonian-like Drahvins and the grotesque Rills and their creepy robot drones. It turns out the humanoid women are the bad guys and the rubber suit things are the good guys, thereby teaching kids a valuable lesson in something or other.

Altogether too much footage of the little robot chumbleys driving around making the same irritating noises over and over.

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NecroMorrius

NecroMorrius

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Yeah, I agree. We've had decent companions (by any era of DW standards) going to waste this series. A decent Doctor too - yes, Matt Smith's too stagey at times, but his portrayal of the Doctor is genuinely compelling when handled properly by proper writing and direction.

He's great when he juggling his japey persona with a really dark undercurrent, like he did in earlier episodes. He's got a killer thousand-yard stare and a face that flicks from childlike to ancient looking with ease. However, most of the writers/directors/whoever is to blame seem content to have the character act like a Butlins redcoat most of the time.

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Nick R

Nick R

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I'm a sucker for Apparently Inert Blank Alien Artefacts, so that aspect of the story intrigued me. Unfortunately, the revelation of what they did couldn't help but be disappointing.

As others have said, most of the other things in the episode were pretty messy, particularly the villain: the thing about his race being the Bogeymen of Gallifreyan children's stories seemed to me a perfect example of telling viewers about a threat being less effective than showing it to us!

Despite my admiration for Moffatt as a writer, very few of the episodes whilst he's been at the helm match those he wrote under RTD. TV equivalent of a sportsman's form dropping when they're made captain?

Or of a band member whose songwriting contributions are rare but really good, but who becomes much less consistent when they start a solo career.

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Retroguy

Retroguy

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Were there any flickering lights and mentions of Christmas in this episode? I forgot to look out for them.

Good build up (I quite like the idea of an alien invasion being of a very boring nature and then lulling us into a false sense of security), but far too quick a wrap-up with many things not explained and easy solutions.

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Harsin

Harsin

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Every show this series has felt 15 minutes too short. Why can't they just make the ruddy thing an hour long so that stories can be fleshed out a bit more, and paced more sensibly. Fucking national lottery secret fortune gets an hour, as does that ballroom dancing nonsense that annoying women on facebook constantly gibber over.

Can't flog it to the yanks as easily then.

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El Pibe

El Pibe

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Caught up with the Western one last night. Again, I thought it was pretty enjoyable but agree with comments that it didn't really feel exciting enough or that the danger felt oppressive. I think there was probably a really good episode in there that didn't quite make it out.

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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So, back to Hartnell Who with an episode that doesn't feature him at all, or any of his companions. 'Mission to the Unknown' (aka Dalek Cutaway) instead focuses on three human astronauts who all end up dead by the end of the episode, but not before uncovering a Dalek invasion plan. It was intended as a teaser for the 12-part Dalek epic that's coming up, and I thought it was quite effective. Unfortunately, no video material exists, but from the photos at least you could tell the scenery, ship and costumes looked quite convincing and the story was pretty bleak. It's spoiled somewhat by the council of one-dimensional villains explaining their plan to invade Earth, and in the mixing up of space terms, confusing galaxies with solar systems and so on. Being made in the 60s is no excuse for poor research.

The Daleks are made out to be a serious threat here, with their empire stretching out across space, but if I'm being picky, shouldn't that mean the Doctor would have known about them when he first arrived on Skaro in the future? I guess that's time travel for you.

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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Next episodes of Classic Who are 'The Mythmakers', where the Doctor and co take part in the siege of Troy! Obviously this means they get captured and/or split up again and the Doctor has to help the Greeks build their giant wooden horse, etcetera, etcetera. Amongst the predictable plot, there were some enjoyable characters, although I was disappointed that Achilles didn't get shot through the heel. Vicki and Steven take on the names of Cressida and Diomedes, and play their roles in the legend. She falls in love with Hector's brother Troilus and ultimately stays behind with him. Steven gets wounded at the end as the Doctor gets them out of there in the Tardis. One of Cassandra's hand maidens, Katerina, joins the Doctor and Steven in the Tardis, and into the next episode(s). Will she be a permanent replacement for Vicki? That could be interesting. She still seems to think the Doctor is a god and the Tardis is his temple.

All four episodes were reconstructed from audio and photos, with the odd video clip and text description. They were watchable but it's quite action-heavy so it suffers from not being able to see what's going on more than some of the other reconstructions.

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