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

OK, I enjoyed the first half hour of that as a boilerplate Base Under Seige (albeit hampered by the time constraints New Who imposes with only two episodes to tell the story) but then collapses into EMO WUB WILL SAVE THE DAY bollocks - even worse, PARENTAL WUB.

I still blame Rusty, but by now they're all merging into one omnicunt if I'm honest.

i liked it better than the last two

15 mins in and i'm falling asleep, but i've never liked a gatiss (script or novel) so

I thought Nightshade was fun

A so-so episode. The Ice Warrior looked pretty stupid under his helmet.

Watched the Second Doctor ice warrior story just before this (I'd never seen it before) and Gatiss really stuffs this new one with references to the original: doctor arrives in the middle of an emergency and solves it by having superior knowledge of the equipment the base-dwellers work with every day. Scientists find warrior in a block of ice and thaw it out assuming it's something innocuous. Doctor and base captain argue over who should confront the ice warrior. Untrustworthy guy offers to side with ice warrior but gets killed by him instead. Between all that and the Alien references there wasn't much room for anything original, still turned out fun enough though I guess.

So the Tardis translation matrix works regardless of the distance between the doctor/companion and the tardis? If that's the case, when does it stop working? Does eg Sarah Jane still get to use it etc? And why didn't it work on the dog language last week?

Maybe the Tardis didn't relocate too far away, i.e. within the range of the translation matrix but remote enough to be relatively safe from harm? /fanwank

Anyway, this one was a lot tighter and better written than most Gatiss episodes, A+ for him, B+ overall.

I liked the set up but, once again, it was all so horribly rushed that it failed to build the required atmosphere. The silly script was far too overloaded with lazy references to Alien and pop culture as well. CGI Ice Warrior head = whyyyyy? But compared to the rest of this series, it was above average.
It feels like a new showrunner, a new star, and a rethink are needed for the programme again now.

otm

smith doesn't seem to have anywhere to go now, and moffat is clearly bereft

I didn't even watch this episode because I never like Gatiss episodes.

It wasn't a bad episode but shit, something had to be radically better after last weeks violation.

This was the second least-worst Gatiss episode to date, one revision by a good script editor and 70% less CGI and it would have been really good (FSVO BUS)

Maybe the Tardis didn't relocate too far away, i.e. within the range of the translation matrix but remote enough to be relatively safe from harm? /fanwank

it went literally as far away as it is possible to go on the planet

though iirc the programme has selfwanked that the translation system piggybacks on the Doctor's telepathic circuits or w/e, so the companion only needs to be near him

It feels like a new showrunner, a new star, and a rethink are needed for the programme again now.

no way, really really want to see Smith with a new showrunner and new approach. (and then another one, if possible.) Tom wouldn't stand out as prominently as he does if his era had only been the Hinchcliffe/Holmes years*

*obv his overall standard would be a lot higher, but his time is richer for having Horror Of Fang Rock and The Key To Time year and City Of Death and even the Invasion Of Time, not to mention Bidmead's necessary and brilliant season-long deconstruction of his reign, etc etc

Some change needed here. They fucked up by not making Paterson Joseph the first black Dr Who and he did apply for the job.

can't say that casting the best actor ever to play the role counts as "fucking up"

I am not totally adverse to him but I wouldn't go that far! I know it is a cliche but in my era Tom Baker is unfuckwithable. it is what I grew up with and can't be fucked with.

I meant to say his aura and Dr Who can't be fucked with!

Very spoilery picture, so click at your own risk:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/25dda5e34a0c31c5ee83187ec1c94cf5/tumblr_mletvuUZF41rwu12co1_500.jpg

man Zygons look so terrible

Smh at their flat behinds.

I'm nerdily hoping there'll be an appearance from at least one pre-revival Doctor in the anniversary special.

McGann's the only one that doesn't look fit for the knacker's yard, though.

Revenge of the Spoons

Tom still looks reasonably distinguished, though he's by far the least likely to agree to it.

Colin Baker head has been floating over the titles this series, that would be a good return although he is quite portly these days

add an 's in there somewhere

haha feel free to hate me for offering this horrible horrible suggestion and i pray to god this is the geekiest thing i ever post but maybe they could cgi or edit matt or david and clara into old episodes like that one episode of deep space nine. talk amongst yrselves.

Tom still looks reasonably distinguished, though he's by far the least likely to agree to it.

Tom's the one who asked Big Finish to put together the all-year multi-Doctor series they're doing!

also Sylv doesn't look knackers-yard-ready, though he's 70 or something. maybe his Dr hat would cover up the greyness enough, if Peter Jackson would lend it back.

McGann commissioned a new outfit and photoshoot off his own bat last year, so they don't have to use old shots of the wig and costume he hated in 1996 anymore - so he's properly in-canon as looking his current age now.

pray to god this is the geekiest thing i ever post

breathe easy homie, got your back:

maybe they could cgi or edit matt or david and clara into old episodes like that one episode of deep space nine

they could have one of them go back and leave the wrong French Revolution textbook in the science lab before Remembrance

OK, I enjoyed the first half hour of that as a boilerplate Base Under Seige (albeit hampered by the time constraints New Who imposes with only two episodes to tell the story) but then collapses into EMO WUB WILL SAVE THE DAY bollocks - even worse, PARENTAL WUB.

I think you're overstating the emo angle here, but it was kind of a weak resolution anyway. I very rarely enjoy Base Under Siege stories anyway and this wasn't a great one.

Also, worst Russians ever.

I don't think I am - the Ice Warrior didn't press the button because Clara kept on making him think about how much he loved his daughter, how long she had been dead and how she was a victim of war too and it would be unfair to do the same to Earth. It wasn't a logic based argument, it was entirely about his memories of his daughter and 'what she would have wanted'.

That's pretty low on the nu-Who emo-resolution scale though.

That's true I suppose, that nuWho has set such appallingly low standards for itself.

IE it doesn't involve a ticking bomb not exploding, snow spontaneously turning to rain, the gollum-doctor returning to full life and flying across a room...

I'm surprised I didn't stop watching DW after the finale with the dobby/gollum doctor.

tbh that was redeemed for me by Martha telling the Doctor off for pining after Rose and leaving him

ha ha ha yesss: (Andrew Hickey on Rings of Akhetan)

In particular, the claim that there should not be a musical episode of Doctor Who is an absurd one. Doctor Who And The Pirates, which came out ten years ago this month, is a musical, and may be the best Doctor Who story ever in any medium. It’s certainly in the top ten. The Gunfighters, despite its reputation among the humourless portion of fandom, is a minor masterpiece. The Ultimate Adventure, the stage play from the late 80s, was a musical, and Terrance Dicks wrote that. If you think you know better than Terrance Dicks what is and isn’t Doctor Who then you’re just *wrong*.

But there *is* a problem with a musical episode of Doctor Who where the music is by Murray Gold.

Gold is, without a doubt, the single least talented composer I’ve ever heard. I mean this in a very precise sense. He clearly has a great deal of *technical ability*, in that he is able to use the orchestra in a fairly precise, controlled manner, and get it to sound exactly how he wants. He is, in that narrow sense, a skilled composer — certainly far more skilled than I am.

But in the sense of basic aesthetics, my God… the man writes ugly, ugly, obvious, unimaginative dross, and overorchestrates it to the point that it makes Brahms sound like the Ramones. It attempts to bludgeon the listener into submission, and is the equivalent of the composer screaming “FEEL! YOU BASTARD FEEL! I’M TUGGING ON YOUR FUCKING HEARTSTRINGS HERE!!!”

When you compare it to the eerie wonder of Delia Derbyshire’s original realisation of the theme tune, or to the ‘special sound’ from Brian Hodgson, or to the lovely little pieces of music for small chamber groups that Dudley Simpson would come up with, it’s heartbreaking to consider that this is supposed to be the same series. That a programme that hired Tristram Cary in 1963 is now reduced to this is heartbreaking. In the 60s even when they used library music, it was likely to be Bartok. Comparing that music to Gold is like comparing Will Eisner and Ed Benes. (To be fair, Gold is no less talented than Keff McCulloch, who did some of the music in Sylvester McCoy’s time. But Keff at least had the decency just to use a cheap synth and not to make actual musicians suffer through playing his outpourings.)

It's all symptomatic of the show's addiction to mawkishness, which is responsible for like 90% of its flaws. Doubt it even plays particularly well with the kids either.

oh fuck i just saw a poster

no spoilers but um okay wow

Yeah I've seen that too. Not very promising.

they had to do something big this year, and i did wonder if that would be it, and now it looks like it's at least something

links?

bbc doctor who twitter acct posted this (SPOILARZ) http://twitter.com/bbcdoctorwho/status/325188266812915712/photo/1

i'd love to post what 'er indoors said in response but that would be a spoiler too

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0snrsfk9t1r02r82.gif

The whole episode is going to be variations on the "Doctor Who?" joke Moffat has been running into the ground, isn't it?

oh god it is too

DANGER WILL ROBINSON