Sea Devils And Die: GeroniMoffat's Doctor Who In The 2010s

Oh OK, I was looking for something like that but no dice - still, the zeppelin things in the episode seemed like precursors to the zeppelin tech in alt.universe and not the ones above.

they were the same as the balloons in the eccelston/rose episode that introduced jack harkness. what's weird to think about is that eccelsdoctor/rose/jack were in london simultaneous to smithdoctor/amy while meanwhile jack-frozen-under-the-earth-by his brother gray was present at the same time. crowded!

She was giving looks to lady comms long before lady comm's fella died.

Yes, because she was in emotional distress from the scene at the beginning where her fella's squadron was called up, and she knew there was a strong likelihood he would get killed

Are we in a parallel universe, though, or is Amy just from the 90s?

They had mobile phones with colour screens and hi-res cameras and Facebook on 'em in the '90s round your way?

They didn't have cracks in the space-timey-wimey thing round our way, is the point, I think. Time has gone wrong. Again.

It helps from a point POV because it's better to have an earth where alien invasions are utterly terrifying and new than it is to have an earth that's been invaded 19 times in the space of four years or whatever.

It also helps that people aren't looking to the Doctor as some kind of saviour who will inevitably turn up and make everything okay.

That seemed like the most old-school Who episode so far of the new series: lots of pointless standing around and talking, a rubbish matte backdrop of London, the entire story played out within two cheap-looking BBC sets. A bit crap, really.

Agree that Amy was a bit annoying and wooden this time (although that might have been Mrs Chuck's influence, as she kept yelling "Oh my god she's so annnnnoyyingggg" every five minutes).

Matt Smith was a bit subdued and insipid too, I thought -- not always quite selling his punchlines, which he's been better at before. Perhaps this episode was shot earlier than the previous one, because his performance seemed much less confident. Or maybe it was the shite script. That punch was terrific, though.

Yeah there were plenty of big pay-off lines that Smith just managed to get a piece of rather than hit square on the nose. The one that sticks out for me is "Oh Winston, you beauty!" which he just sort of bellows. I have to admit missing Tennant at that point. He would have allowed the new facts to settle in, eyes growing wider, and whispered it.

"It also helps that people aren't looking to the Doctor as some kind of saviour who will inevitably turn up and make everything okay."

although the previous ep had already re-established the royalty know who the doctor are bit.

Yeah there were plenty of big pay-off lines that Smith just managed to get a piece of rather than hit square on the nose. The one that sticks out for me is "Oh Winston, you beauty!" which he just sort of bellows. I have to admit missing Tennant at that point.

Too much of a Tennant line for me, that one. Part of the problem with episiodes like this is that the writers are writing in the dark a bit and are still have the last Doctor in mind quite a lot. You'd expect Smith's Doctor to come out a lot more in the Moffatt episodes and he's already doing that. The early Tennant episodes suffered from this quite a bit too, in that he still felt a bit not-quite-Ecclestone.

yeah thought of Tennant too re 'you byowty'

if Moffat going to get thru a whole series without anyone actually getting killed I wonder. surely he has to cave in soon. the odd thing about the Angels is that they have this angry demonic face when attacking but they're not actually killing or eating anyone (i can't actually remember what they get out of sending people back in time, some weird energy buzz?.

silly but what if the Doctor being not in his usual reality explained why he wasn't around for Torchwood: Children Of Earth lol (doesn't really make sense but)

Perhaps this episode was shot earlier than the previous one, because his performance seemed much less confident.

Yeah, they shot episodes 2 through 4 or 5 before they shot the first one so he would have a good grasp on what he was doing when he debuted.

Seems to have a catchphrase already, though: something like "Hah-harhhhhhh!" He's said it every episode.

"if Moffat going to get thru a whole series without anyone actually getting killed I wonder"

well ppl died in the Gatiss ep (well 2 guards on screen, and radio operator's husband/boyf), or do you just mean Moff's own stories?

just his own yes. he is writing the next two right? the ordering of all this seems strange on that basis. after Daleks and WAs so early what's left for the 2nd half of the series? oh yeah, Silurians and Cybermen, and that deadly monster Van Gogh.

I've been sort of expecting MORE DALEKS as the WWII was just a way to get the 'but how did...' stuff out of the way for a big story, but with any luck it's actually a way of putting off a big dalek story til next year.

need multicoloured collectable daleks at start of series rather than end of series, as any BBC Worldwide merchandiser kno

Don't think they need the crack in time as an excuse to bring back the Cybermen, given that the original Mondas Cyberman are presumably still around somewhere?

don't go there, sister. (here be raston warrior robots)

wish they would write out RTD's shite clompy Cybermen and their shite parallel universe and their shite fake Davros in favor of OG spooky Cybermen, but we already saw clompy cybertools in the end-of-ep-1 trailer.

SBed Mrs Chuck btw.

Female viewers: Oh, my womanly intuition allows me to notice that Amy's own womanly intuition has picked up on the distress of the lady communications officer.

Male viewers: ARE THEY GOING TO LEZ UP?

They had mobile phones with colour screens and hi-res cameras and Facebook on 'em in the '90s round your way?

It could be that it's a '90s universe where they'd been stealing the technology from another, more advanced universe, or I could be getting my SF shows mixed up.

The bit of Cyberman preview they showed looked as though it was in Stonehenge> I'm guessing there'll be some sort of Cybermen as Knights of the Round Table thing.

Silver Nemesis 2?

Also Amy fending one off with a flaming torch suggests low-tech.

I've only just watched the Victory of the Daleks episode. Yeah, I thought Mark Gattis' shouty script was more suited to David "YOU BEAUTYYYY-AH!" Tennant, and the RTD era in general. It was all a bit breathlessly crash-bang-wallop, though I don't think Tennant could've pulled off holding the daleks at bay with a Jammie Dodger quite as well as Smith managed.

I loved the idea of the daleks being used as a WWII war machine, pity we never got a shot of them being used in a battle or anything but, hey, budget cuts.

Looking forward to the rest of the series, the episode that's intriguing me most of all atm is:

BIG SPOILER DELETED

uh please don't do that here

Deleted the spoiler, people can click the link if they want to know.

Too late, I saw it, need some sort of fiendish alien mind eraser to forget it now

Episode 11 sounds like it'll bring the lolz though.

sadface @ spoiler

Best bit on that Radio Times link is where someone complains that Amy Pond saying "Oi! Churchill" is "not very respectful".

Matt DC, a big fan of James Corden ;-)

i've no idea what that spoiler was - even after following the link :-(

It was the synopsis of episode 7 that Steven Moffat gave to the Radio Times to publish. Not exactly a spoiler, unless you want to go into each episode knowing nothing (good luck with that).

I'm guessing it's a good thing that I don't know who James Corden is.

You do: he is the fat guy in The History Boys.

Amy Pond saying "Oi! Churchill" is "not very respectful"

It's true though. I dunno - out of nowhere it's like Amy turned into some kind of bantering lager lout.

Car insurance reference?

Hah, didn't get that but it's totally obvious.

next season, an adventure with Admiral Nelson is a dead cert now.

the final regeneration

http://retroyakking.today.com/files/2009/01/aleksandr_the_meerkat.jpg

out of nowhere it's like Amy turned into some kind of bantering lager lout.

You'd expect a stripper to be a bit more comely and reserved.

she doesn't strip, just kisses

all i expected is for her to be sort of the same person she was in the previous two episodes!

Maybe was a wee bit shy for a week or two as she's new to all this timey wimey malarkey and she's letting her true self come through now?

I still haven't got a handle on any kind of definable personality for her.

Hey, she may have felt a bit self-conscious in prior episodes, what with gallivanting around in nought but her nightie.

honestly i didn't have a problem with her in the episode, but if in fact that episode was meant for Tennant/Donna, that would make a lot of sense

she doesn't strip, just kisses

sure she does

Not exactly a spoiler, unless you want to go into each episode knowing nothing (good luck with that).

Thanks!

if in fact that episode was meant for Tennant/Donna, that would make a lot of sense

ooh that's right, RTD chucked this episode and went with "Fires of Pompeii" instead. I thought Amy felt off in this episode, that would explain it.

Speaking of filming order upthread, this upcoming two-parter was the first thing they filmed. It'll be interesting to see how everyone comes off.

Interesting. Definitely preferred Pompeii, if for no other reason but for that conversation at the end with Donna about fixed events and when it's okay to change history, something that's been basically ignored since the reboot started w/the exception of "Father's Day".

Btw, I knew practically nothing about this season until I saw the bits in the teaser after the first episode, so I'm still pretty in the dark - definitely appreciate keeping the spoiler talk out.

This episode and the last one have covered that ground a bit as well. Think Smith's Doctor will be a lot less cavalier about messing with things than Tennant's was.

Thought the Pompeii one was ropey, much preferred this one. Don't understand why Gatiss seemingly never uses Doctor Who to indulge his really dark side though.