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

That was great. Stuffed without feeling overstuffed. Propelled forward by the sheer momentum of nonsense. Yes, the robots were rubbish, though.

Solomon said he got the robots cut price, hence their goofy patter. The idea of giving threatening evil robots camp C3PO-R2D2 banter isn't necessarily a bad one; the problem was in the execution.

Ah, yeah, I do remember him saying he got them cheap, now. I'm sure it is possible to pull off goofy-yet-menacing, but it was all so much of that shitty fanservice nudge-nudge bullshit that I can't stand.

Aldo, without spoiling the ep, it's not set in prehistoric earth time...

Not that your speculation isn't interesting

The Silurians still set off from prehistoric earth though, surely? Otherwise they'd have had no dinosaurs to save. It's just that the ship decided to turn back a couple of million years later (or something) and the dinosaurs were still alive (or something, somehow). Er actually I don't know what was going on.

Yeah, it was a bit confusing that. I suppose it could be the Silurians escaping Earth, but then the Adric comet didn't exactly give them time to gather together the dinosaurs and scram. Maybe another that planet that also has the same dinosaurs as earth? Just lazy writing I guess, a result of having dinosaurs on a spaceship and working backwards.

nothing about the Ark makes sense

cybermats!

o yeah, good one

It's just that the ship decided to turn back a couple of million years later (or something) and the dinosaurs were still alive (or something, somehow). Er actually I don't know what was going on.

I think the Doctor (or Solomon) sez that the Ark was pre-programmed to return to Earth when Solomon boarded/killed the Silurians.

As for the dinos, I assumed that they had also been in cryo and that all of Solomon's genocide woke them up.

Hmm. Plot-wise, almost a return to 'Classic' Who. The Doctor turns up as something threatens the Earth, does some Doctor-y stuff and the threat is resolved. There's some wandering up and down corridors - although we normally associate that with padding, which shouldn't really be needed in a 45 minute programme - and the classic mistaken identity trope.

Loved Rupert Graves and could watch whole series with him as a companion. David Bradley was great, just psychotic enough without overplaying it.

On the other hand, I love The Romans and think Doctor Who can work well as comedy. But this doesn't feel like comedy, it feels like zings and snark for the most part. The Peep Show robots felt like a weak Douglas Adams pastiche. Brian clearly must have known the Doctor before, as he was at his son's wedding (as was Brian, although played by a different actor). Amy's fan-worship of Nefertiti was barking - "we learned all about you in school, I'm a huge fan". Of what? All she's famous for is, with her husband, changing Egypt from a pantheist religion to being purely Sun-worshippers. Is that really what the kids are learning these days?

Timings of things are weird now too. Amy makes a big long point of saying it's 10 months since they previously saw the Doctor. Are we supposed to believe that this is post-Asylum and all the divorce stuff is forgotten? Or is it in fact before then in their time stream, putting at least a year between Wedding of River Song and Pond Life?

Oh, and how does a golf ball bounce like that?

maybe it was a concrete floor, golf balls get mad action off of them

Yeah, but it bounced for ages. Went round corners and everything.

I did like this though.

magic spaceship gravity?

Timings of things are weird now too

Meant to ask you about this, as Rory said he was 31, and I thought they were much younger than this when we first met them, Amy had "only" been waiting 12 years for him to return from when she met him as a wee girl (and she's the same age as Rory, isn't she?)

When hearing the 31 I assumed this was meant to take place much later than Asylum of the Daleks.

Yeah, come on, are you honestly going to demand proof that golf balls can bounce really really far? Can you really not suspend your disbelief about that stuff while watching a FAMILY SHOW ABOUT A TIME-TRAVELLING ALIEN? There are things that should be critiqued as being contradictory within the show's own milieu (timings, for instance, yes), but there are a lot of other things that do not matter in the slightest. This is one of them.

Your point about Nefertiti kind of stands - she was pretty much just a strikingly beautiful Sun-god loving Queen who had been found on loads of artefacts. But I think she was also known as a fighter-among-men, so... I can let that go to an extent.

xposts to aldo

(and she's the same age as Rory, isn't she?)

they have to be within a year or so of each other, per Let's Kill Hitler

I know, complaining about golf balls was just kind of a sarcastic sneer at myself. I'm not really bothered about them. And most of me thinks they were only there to justify a zing about testicles in any case.

Rory was in the year below her in school, I'm sure it says in the Mels flashback. Amy is 7 in the first part of The Eleventh Hour and waits for 12 years so she is about 19/20 at the start of her first season and is 21 when the Doctor heals her crack and reboots time (they get married on 26 June 2010). Being 31 means this episode takes place in 2020 - the same year as her other encounter with the Silurians, which could be an explanation for the other Amy & Rory in that story.

most of me thinks they were only there to justify a zing about testicles in any case.

Ha, true.

is 21 when the Doctor heals her crack

o_O

Cheers, that makes sense.

lol emil.y beat me to it

Her crack was never the same after Rory got swallowed up by it.

I know what image I'm going to carry in mind all day now, thanks everyone.

Loved Rupert Graves and could watch whole series with him as a companion

Really? I thought he was dreadful, and the nudge-nudge wink-wink bits in this were really clunky and unfunny. Nefertiti wasn't much cop either.

The leads and Rory's dad were very good in this though, and the dino bits obviously. Whole series feels kind of expensive so far so expect a few episodes later on when they're basically locked in a room for 45mins.

I did laugh a little too hard at "Are you a queen, Amy Pond?" "... Yes. Yes I am."

There were a lot of funny parts to it, I was surprised. I really went in expecting nothing because Chibnall is generally so awful, but there was a lot of humor and also some unexpected character-related moments.

Also: (and it's a subtle thing so maybe I'm reading too much into it) based on Smith's performance/Eleven's reactions I'd say that Eleven was taking Amy and Rory out for one last adventure before whatever happens to them happens to them and they aren't aware of it due to timey-wimeyness.

expect a few episodes later on when they're basically locked in a room for 45mins.

I hope so.

midnight 2

Midnight is still my favorite RTD episode, I think he was much better when he had to be minimalist.

Edge of Destruction 2

xpost - me too, great ep

Like leee doesnt think of that all day anyway

rewatching the season with midnight in, it's placement in that series, complementing Turn Left, makes them even more remarkable, and caps the season as the best nu-who season by some distance (even factoring in sontaran snoozer)

yeah Midnight/Turn Left is probably nu-Who's most satisfying 1-2 punch

Sontarans + Doctor's Daughter + Planet of the Ood + tbh a lot of Journey's End knock it below Season 5, imho.

Also I really like that absent Rory, Amy is super-competent.

Is this actually the first time that we've seen the Doctor being a Doctor Doctor?

Sontarans + Doctor's Daughter + Planet of the Ood + tbh a lot of Journey's End knock it below Season 5, imho.

Agreed.

how many old Who adversaries have been resurrected on the nu-Who to date? I recall off the top of my head:

Autons
Daleks
Cybermen/Cybermats
The Macra <--- fucking lol btw
The Sontarans
The Silurians

The Ice Warriors haven't appeared yet, have they? They really should at some point (I know they've been referenced)

oh duh The Master

actually they've had the Sontarans but haven't actually mentioned the Rutan, have they?

Sensorites - one of the Good stories talks about the Sense-sphere.

you know drs daughter wasn't nearly so bad on rewatching. ood was only middling. i am quite the heretic on season finales tho - I've disliked all moffs finales, quite liked flying-magic-space-jesus dr season 2, and thoroughly enjoyed journey's end ;-)

other continuity monsters mentioned in passing as well as sensorites - ice warriors, nimon

Journey's End = FUCK YOU FOREVER, RTD. I will never forgive what he did to Donna, marrying her off to some random dude and giving her a lottery ticket doesn't make up for having her mind wiped.

tbh I thought the tragedy of Donna's fate and the danger if she ever rediscovered who The Doctor was, even though her mother and grandfather knew, was very strong storytelling

like, I hated that it happened because the evolution of Donna as a character was amazing, but it made narrative sense and was a semi-satisfying story (I agree the marriage was a little "um waht")

yeah Midnight/Turn Left is probably nu-Who's most satisfying 1-2 punch

― DARING PRINCESS (DJP)

Human Nature/Blink? Or does that count as a 1-2-3?

Recurring classic enemies who have yet to be properly revived by my count: Ice Warriors, Sea Devils, Yetis, Rani

well, "Blink" wasn't really tied to "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood" at all so I'd say the actual 1-2 is HN/FOB, which I'd already read as a New Adventure and found more satisfying as a book than television episodes aside from the addition of ppl discounting Martha due to her race and her reactions to that

I think that the Sea Devils fall under the Silurian general banner

Were the any more major differences in the novel?