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The Doctor Who Thread.....


Greg1138

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I would have been fine with that.  The way they handled his storyline was interesting, but perhaps they could have had Sherlock beat him in another way first before having to beat him in the final way a second time.

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Just watched the series 7 finale so I'm onto the Capaldi era now.  Seeing Matt Smith go was a bit more emotional than I would have thought.  I don't know if I was every truly won over by him, certainly not head over heals like I was with Tennant, but he at least won my respect.  The last bit with Amy was tough.

 

I'm really liking Clara as a companion.  It doesn't hurt that she's played by the absolutely exquisite, lovely, and charming Jenna-Louise Coleman.  She's something.

 

It was great seeing Tennant back in the 50th anniversary episode, which was pretty solid.

 

To the earlier discussion about Moffat as show runner, I also agree that he has a tendency to drag out plot lines or arcs way past their usefulness.  Amy and Rory suffered a strange extension to their story thread after seeming like they just....left on their own accord, to get on with their lives.  Then suddenly Amy's a popular model and she's handing a bizzaro looking Rory divorce papers.  What?

 

Also, I'm not sure if I'm alone on this, but I really dislike the River Song character.  Moffat seems rather insistent that I like this character as much as he does.  She was fine in the one episode with Tennant and the library when she was introduced, but then she kept coming back in an unending stream of uninteresting cameos, expanding on her background, fleshing her out, and she slowly but surely became tiresome.  His attachment to her never made much sense and their time together never amounted to much.    We're supposed to get an idea of their intense and longstanding relationship through her eyes, and in the way she talks about their history, but it just never materializes in a serious way that is believable.  Maybe this is further explained in the 8th and 9th series, but I've had my fill at this point.

 

To the Sherlock point, I was not a fan of the ending for "His Last Vow" with the Moriarty bit.  His original exit was great and unexpected.

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Moffat's reluctance to let deaths in Who just actually be a character's end has grated for a while now ... Clara pulled out of her time at the millisecond before her death and off on adventures with Ashildr in a Tardis shaped like an American diner, Yes, she talks about how her death is a fixed point that 'has to happen' but one is left with the impression that she will delay it almost indefinitely. And we see River in the Xmas special spending her last night with the Doctor before presumably heading off on the events of 'Silence In The Library/Forest Of The Dead' ... on a planet where nights last 24 years.  

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Just finished up "Mummy on the Orient Express" which was pretty good.  I'm really digging the way Capaldi's doctor and Clara interact.  She challenges him a bit more on his bullshit.
 

Capaldi is just owning this character right now.

 

And oh my, that Jenna Coleman is lovely.  I would say so, oh yes...

 

post-52025-Doctor-Who-Clara-Oswald-yes-g

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8 hours ago, nightscape94 said:

Just finished up "Mummy on the Orient Express" which was pretty good.  I'm really digging the way Capaldi's doctor and Clara interact.  She challenges him a bit more on his bullshit.

 

I thought the Doctor's treatment of her was a problem in Capaldi's first series. I know several people who loved Clara at first and kept complaining about her by the time Capaldi arrived, but my only problem was that the Doctor was antagonising her so much, they never got to build up a real dynamic between them for much of that first series. But they fit together much better starting with the Christmas special.

 

8 hours ago, nightscape94 said:

Capaldi is just owning this character right now.

 

That's nothing yet compared to his second season. :)

 

I just realised: This is the first time since I started watching the series that I don't know when the next episode will come out.

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1 hour ago, Marian Schedenig said:

...but my only problem was that the Doctor was antagonising her so much, they never got to build up a real dynamic between them for much of that first series.

 

That's sort of what I like about it.  Capaldi's Doctor hasn't figured out who he is yet and he's going through growing pains at the expense of his relationships with other people.  He seems more distant and callous and Clara is having a hard time adjusting to that given her relationship with the previous Doctor who spent the final 300 or so years of his life saving a village of people over and over again.

 

When I say I like their interactions I don't mean to say I like their relationship, necessarily.  They're just feeling each other out at this point.  I'm certainly hoping for a continual improvement between the two of them.

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14 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

The 12th Doctor and Clara's relationship in series 8 was very Sherlock and John.

With the Doctor being a rude, cantankerous arse and Clara calling him out on it.

 

I liked the concept. My problem was that it limited what Clara could do and mostly turned her into a whiny sidekick that didn't really have anything to do other than complain. Whenever people were bitching about Clara I felt it was really just her character being reduced to the role of a whiny brat.

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So I'm done series 8 and the Christmas special, "Last Christmas".   And since series 9 will not be available to me until about August on Netflix, I have reached a pit stop in the Doctor Who road.  I could always buy the season on Amazon streaming, but I'll use that time to move onto other shows for now.

 

I will say that the series 8 finale left me a bit confused with character motivations.  I would have much preferred that Missy didn't end up being the Master, a character we haven't seen in 3 years up to this point.  And based on the way the episode ended it appears that she didn't die anyway.  Looked like another teleport at the last second.  There were some good things but at times a bit sloppy.

 

Though I did find the idea that a Time Lord can regenerate into a different gender pretty interesting.  I wonder if they'll ever try to pursue a female Doctor (no doubt a topic that's come up before), which could bring up some neat new possibilities.

 

I enjoyed the Christmas special, even though I think the end of series 8 seemed like a nice ending to the Clara story line.  It would have been cool to leave it like that, with neither character never truly knowing the real outcome.  Oh well.

 

 

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At this point I'm growing rather tired of Cybermen and Daleks.

 

Wait, Missy builds an army from the dead for the purposes of.....what, giving it to the Doctor, who she knows isn't going to take it?  What the frick was the point?  Was she surprised that he found a way to destroy it?

 

Also, if Missy was using Time Lord technology to collect the minds of the deceased from Earth, then how did she collect other people who weren't on earth?  There was the one soldier who died in "Into the Dalek" in a random shuttle in the far reaches of space.  When she died she was collected in Missy's "Heaven".  How the hell did she end up there?  In the series 8 finale it seemed to be isolated to Earth's history, no?  The device was stationed in London.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wtf?

 

Delaying the next series until 2017 to 'bring the nation together for what will be a huge event on the channel'?

 

That's one of the most 'full of shit' statements I've ever read. It probably isn't a PR cover for something else. It's just a terrible reason.

 

And Moffatt leaving.... that's huge. I kind of agree it's time for a new head writer and direction for a show though.

 

On 1/11/2016 at 11:43 PM, nightscape94 said:

Wait, Missy builds an army from the dead for the purposes of.....what, giving it to the Doctor, who she knows isn't going to take it?  What the frick was the point?  Was she surprised that he found a way to destroy it?

 

That was the point where I just lost it completely, and spent the rest of the episode desperately trying to work out what was going on. I never did.

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Whilst I'm not amongst the stringent Moffat-haters, it is probably time for a change. Shame that it'll be spring next year before another full series airs - both for the length of the wait and something about how the last 2 series showing in the autumn (when night had fallen outside) seemed to suit Who.   

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Shame. I've finally been getting into Doctor Who the past few months. Got up to the beginning of Season 8 now.

I was quite looking forward to actually being up-to-date soon. But I didn't expect I would then stay up-to-date for a year without actually watching anything....

Oh well, there is still Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures to hold me over, I suppose; haven't started those yet either. :D

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Well this will give me time to watch series 9 when it comes to Netflix.  Although, since the Summer Olympics end in late August, and Doctor Who traditionally starts in September, I'm not entirely sure I understand the reasoning.  Too much good stuff in 2016 sounds like a piss-poor excuse.  As long as the quality is good, however, I don't mind waiting an extra 7-8 months.

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12 hours ago, Stefancos said:

I really wonder if the one year hiatus has more to do with Moffat and co needing to work on Sherlock, and the fact that Who's ratings have slipped in the last few years.

 

If it really is that they need time to work on Sherlock, why not say it?

 

Politics absolutely sucks.

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Late 2016 vs early 2017... not that big a difference.

 

I'm a fan of Moffat, of course, and I'm still happy with what he does with the series, although he had his best individual episodes during the Russell T. Davies reign and his best arcs during the Matt Smith era. I don't mind what Steef often calls his preference of cleverness over emotion. I like a good puzzle, and I think that a sufficiently clever puzzle can convey emotion itself. Moffat is still doing fine with that.

 

But I also don't have the feeling that there's something he still desperately has to do on Doctor Who. There wasn't much of an arc in Capaldi's first year, and I'm still not sure how strongly the latest series' arc runs through the individual episodes. So I don't generally mind a change of personnel and a (hopefully) fresh direction.

 

I don't know much about Chibnall though. I haven't seen Broadchurch yet, but most of his Who episodes have been solid, but not favourite material for me. I'll probably check out Broadchurch in the meantime.

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I'm not sure the complicated multi layered puzzle is actually something that's right for Doctor Who. Individual episodes sure. But entire seasons?

 

The last series was OK, but I actually can't think of anything that really stood out. Even the dramatic death scene in Face The Raven was a bit underwelming.

 

It is an undeniable fact that the ratings have plummeted in the last few years, while Who remains quite an expensive show to produce.

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  • 2 months later...

https://youtu.be/lzPNcePZzNQ

 

Introductory clip of the new companion, shown this evening on BBC1.

 

There's already been a fair amount of (predictable) online whining, of course ... *miraculous* how these people are able to make their minds up after 2 minutes. 

 

I say wait and see ... it has been said that her 'thing' was going to be having no prior knowledge of the Doctor, so obviously (as the clip illustrates) she'll be asking a lot of questions. 

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10 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said:

https://youtu.be/lzPNcePZzNQ

 

Introductory clip of the new companion, shown this evening on BBC1.

 

There's already been a fair amount of (predictable) online whining, of course ... *miraculous* how these people are able to make their minds up after 2 minutes. 

 

I say wait and see ... it has been said that her 'thing' was going to be having no prior knowledge of the Doctor, so obviously (as the clip illustrates) she'll be asking a lot of questions. 

getting some major Donna Noble vibes. it is so nice and refreshing to have a companion that on surface level is an 'everyman', it speaks to that really wonderful message in Series 4 that nobody is unimportant no matter how they may seem at first. Clara ruined that by having the fact she's a critical person in the Doctor's life CONSTANTLY REFERENCED and it just went to ludicrous levels.

 

I do hope there's some other dynamic that makes their relationship a bit more interesting, but like you accurately said - 2 minute clip.

 

EDIT: some people on r/gallifrey are speculating that she's from a different era (possibly the 80s) because of the vibes she gives off and the fact the Doctor says 'We have to get back to the future'. God I hope so, that'd be really refreshing to not have another 20 something modern woman.

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I am looking into buying the new series of Doctor Who on DVD on Blu-ray, but am having a hard time making sense of it all.
There is plenty of stuff shown on bol.com and play.com, but what is and isn't included is a complete mystery.

Main things I care about:

- Must have subtitles (English is OK, but having also Dutch would be preferred)

- Must have all episodes, mini-episodes and specials

- As much bonus content as possible

 

In other words: I just want all the good stuff and I DON'T want to buy a gazillion different versions with overlapping content.

 

Does anyone have any advise on what releases are the best ones to get?

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  • 2 months later...

I've started watching the classic series and completed it as far as "The Sensorites" (and excluding Marco Polo, of course).

But the amount is rather daunting. Could you guys advise me on those episodes that are not to be missed and which ones may be more skippable?

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You have seen the first three stories. Good. Now watch whatever you can of "The Dalek Master plan", The Web Planet", The Tenth Planet", anything from " Evil Of The Daleks", "The Invasion", and  "The War Games". That takes you up to Jon Pertwee. As for the third Doctor, I recommend "Spearhead From Space" "Inferno", " The Daemons", "The Sea Devils", " Frontier In Space", and "Planet Of The Spiders".

That's enough to be going on with. :)

 

 

As for the new stuff; the blu-ray box sets from each series are your best bet. The BBC doesn't do the Confidential stuff, anymore.

If you can, watch "The Five-ish Doctors", and the 50th anniversary concert at the RAH.

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Thanks, Richard! That should hold me over for a while. :D

 

24 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Still sad this show took the year off (although I'm sure it's for the best). 5 months to the Xmas special....

Did it really? That's what I originally understood as well, but did they not just shift the release date a few months back?

So instead of it playing end of 2016, it'll start early 2017?

 

They're shooting it now, that much I know.

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We'll see. I'm willing to bet the show won't air until spring which would be more like a six month delay.

 

All I know is, it's a full calendar year between new Doctor Who episodes, the longest break since the show came back in 2005.  I started watching in 2007, so I've never gone this long without new Who!

 

 

5 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

Is it true Matt Smith will be back?

 

I wouldn't be surprised if he came back for the 2017 Xmas special, as that will be Moffat's last episode.

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