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

You know the more I remind myself about Alien Bodies, and what Lawrence did with Sam, I'm amazed he hasn't exploded already.

Alien Bodies: Lots of the most worstest baddies of all time gather in a remote city to attend an auction for the deadliest weapon ever made. The Doctor and Sam come along and it turns out that the weapon is a future Doctor's dead body in a big box. Also features a cameo from a not particularly dangerous and fairly obscure b&w era alium.

Sam: Turns out there were two Sams split in time, one who travelled with the Doctor and one who didn't (they get referred to as 'Blonde Sam' and 'Dark Sam'). When they discover a crack in time which is a leftover of the events of the McGann TV Movie, Sam falls into it and the only way she can be restored is to find Dark Sam and for her to cast herself into it. It turns out Blonde Sam never existed until Dark Sam fell into the rift, when she touched the Doctor's hand and his biodata created Blonde Sam in the past.

What price the Faction Paradox turning up then, eh?

I thought this was a priceless bit of knockabout children's telly, and would have liked it even more if it had all been told from Corden's character's point of view with no Amy and no TARDIS. Headbutting mindmeld, wearing tweedy jacket over football kit, air kissing, not-so-subtly getting wuvbirds together, putting clients on hold while eating a biscuit, all V. FUNNY. The Doctor had a real Cat in the Hat quality about him this week, as if he was going to ruin James Corden's life, but then actually improved it.

I would have liked it more if Corden's desire to turn into his own sofa had turned out to be some product of the ship upstairs, and that when it disappeared he would suddenly feel like going to Paris. Although I suppose that did kind of happen, since he did say he could now see the point of Paris if Daisy Haggard was there.

Still do not see Matt Smith as attractive, but maybe I would have been besotted with him if I was twelve.

> There was a postcard for the Vincent Van Gogh exhibition on the fridge (Corden made the point he'd never been to Paris)

i have one in my flat for the exhibition in london that finished recently. picked it up from one of those racks in a pub (after it had closed)

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/vangogh/?type=past

Yeah yeah, OK, but this one's hung around with Amy + Rory and various other humans, so all this air-kissy nonsense was just shit.

It was funny! Jesus this endless nitpicking about things of no consequence really must suck all the fun out of this show for some of you.

funny but inconsistent behaviour from the Doctor really. he's more absent-minded and clumsy now tho, which is fine.

Enjoyed this episode. Thankfully not much Amy in it. James Corden should stick to acting.

real Cat in the Hat quality about him this week,

ha, yes

I like the contrast between the two companion-light episodes. In Midnight is basically a story about how the Doctor is strange and people are scared of him and this season it becomes the Doctor is strange but people are amused by him and end up adoring him.

Creepy picture in the hall resolved, it's Music Hall legend Dan Leno.

It was funny! Jesus this endless nitpicking about things of no consequence really must suck all the fun out of this show for some of you.

I thought the Dr being eccentric and socially clueless was a) fun! and b) perfectly reasonable since even when he is hanging around humans he generally seems too busy thinking "hmm, timey-wimey" to pay much attention to their trivial chit-chat.

But I've also been quite entertained this past day or two wondering what the cat was actually sitting on if there weren't any stairs and why it kept trotting in and out of "upstairs". Not so much nitpicking as something you can build into a little bonus mystery of no consequence (probably) to this or future plots = no fun removed for ming-mongs who find being anal more fun than fun things. It's a bad habit, I know, but there it is.

the stairs were actually there, as part of the ship sitting on the flat. perception filter (man how many times has that term been used this series?) just disguised them.

I thought the Dr being eccentric and socially clueless was a) fun! and b) perfectly reasonable since even when he is hanging around humans he generally seems too busy thinking "hmm, timey-wimey" to pay much attention to their trivial chit-chat

Also he is always completely honest about being a Timelord, you don't see him pretending to be a human very often. Tennant's Doctor could have pulled it off, mind, Madame Du Pompidour and all that.

Surely the second use of a perception filter isn't accidental? The painting in the hall - there's talk of this 'goblin' inside the Pandorica. So my guess is the painting is of this mystery villain. It's his ship, he's been trying to build a time machine, it's caused the crack etc...

not just goblin, also reference to a Trickster and other things - just guesswork by the Doctor (much as I would love the Trickster to pop up).

can't see how the picture can tie in with anything but it was such a weird and wonderful thing to just drop in, i hope it does.

There were a lot of nice little visual nods that can people have formed elaborate theories from - the Van Gogh card, the monster glove in Colin's desk drawer - but they're just a bit of fun. The goblin/trickster character could be an evil version of the doctor. The picture has been described as a composite Doctor, although I'm not sure how significant it all is. Maybe it was just to add to the sense of unease, that in the hallway something's not quite right. It was flagged up a few times though...
I don't think all the loose ends and mysteries will be tied up in the season finale - that's not Moffat's style, considering the introduction of River Song in Silence In The Library. I hope the finale isn't the last we see of River Song either, as she has all the makings of a great recurring character.

Definitely, but they have to use her fast if they keep pulling the card where she's getting younger with every appearance. Such a thing could grow tiresome quickly, unless they change the actress (which would deflate the effect) as well as losing one of her centrally appealing characteristics, that she is as mysterious as the Doctor. I think at best they should bring her back for a last time when 11 changes to 12, and their adventures together are left to the imagination... that is, if they don't just erase her existence in this finale...

It doesn't suck the fun out of it, it's little unexplained things that I like to think have explanations somewhere that I might be missing. That's part of the fun, for me at any rate.

http://i45.tinypic.com/ju8exj.gif

The weird wall picture looks like an illustration from this book:

http://department.monm.edu/english/printing-press/scary_stories1.jpg

also reminded me of Richard E (Schalka-Doctor) Grant

I thought it looked like a bit of a doctor composite, and the silhoutte in the spaceship looked awfully like pertwee.

its bug eyed earl!

http://campus.fortunecity.com/einstein/404/rm_an1-1.gif

What does he mean I wonder?

"I didn't enjoy the environment and the culture that we, the cast and crew, had to work in.

I think he means Cardiff.

Fair dos

RTD insisted on giving him a big sloppy kiss after every take

his clothes were added in post-production

ha!

his ears were added in post-production

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l43a0r1DJ21qa10u7o1_400.jpg

it looks a bit like The Cube in the Transformers movie

There was a postcard for the Vincent Van Gogh exhibition on the fridge (Corden made the point he'd never been to Paris),

Can't believe I didn't realise earlier that postcards are often sent by someone else.

Yeah, i know they are, but it was just that I noticed it, it was odd that they specifically referenced Paris and that the postcard was so noticeable. Like someone said up there, it's probably just a LOST style in joke on the part of the writers. Nothing to see here, move on now.

just watched it, fave episode of the series so far.

I really dug it aside from the mortal threat to Amy which is responded to by the Dr's dithering around playing football rather than walking up a flight of stairs. That made absolutely no sense to me. I loved how they dodged the usual shlub-boyfriend's-girl-falls-for-obviously-superior-Doctor storyline. I agree that Smith has come into his own with this one (though it may be a function of just getting used to him since the filming order of eps isn't the running order).

Really looking forward to seeing how they pay off all this 'big season arc' stuff

ehhh. less so. liked this ep cos it was small, arcless.

Why is this season shorter than the past 4 have been?

it is? looks like 13 episodes like the rest

It does seem shorter. Timey wimey!

It feels shorter because it Amy hasn't grown as a character.

That was all a bit WOAH. If they just cancel next week's ep and then it never comes back, that'd be pretty fantastic in a way.

I thought I was pretty good, but was too desperate to get to the end because that was the exciting bit.

Think it's pointing towards the big bad for Christmas, or the next series, that's been rumoured for a while (and I don't think is a very good idea). The voice in the TARDIS definitely (I think) seals it.

Anyone got screen caps of the massed baddie alliance yet? Are there any fun old-who cameos in there?

A big bag of WTF. just the ticket for the last series cliffhanger I spose. Still... WTF?

Supposed to be Drahvins in the shot, but I couldn't see them. Everything else was NuWho, including the Weevils out of Torchwood.

loved it obv but a bit confused by what they've plucked out of Amy's memories and what's real e.g. how did the Doctor know about a thing called the Pandorica ("that's just a fairytale") if it's builders took the name from Amy's memory and it didn't exist for a purpose prior to containing the Doctor? same thing as with the Toclafane i guess.

"Silence will fall" voice a bit like Davros but no cigar.

It feels shorter because it Amy hasn't grown as a character.

With the exception of Donna, that's pretty much what happens every season. Unless you count Rose turning into a stage five clinger.

oh man, they BROUGHT it! finally, they construct a series finale through the series arc that actually really worked... so psyched for next week!

^this

I'd kind of guessed what the pandorica was for but thought it would contain some future doctor. Really psyched to see who the the mastermind behind this, I'm hoping its someone we haven't conceived of yet, would be bummed if it was davros (or the master for that matter); it should be a new villain or a classic who villain unused in the new series. I do feel though, that because none of "the Lodger" has come up yet it has something to do with the shadowy figure in the mystery ship upstairs; that would point towards a CGI Hartnell, certainly looked like that silhouette, or maybe that composite doctor from the picture up thread.

I'm also loving how River Song and the Doctor's timeline do not run parallel, indeed are running in reverse. Could River Song be the reflection of the Doctor, travelling the other way through the universe?

Super excited for next week.

One significant disappointment, the cliff from the dawn of time did not have "We apologise for the inconvenience".