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

god for a bunch of time travel show nerds yall sure are wedded to your own timeline

congrats to former ilxor al ew1ng and my pal nick abad3is on getting to write new doctor who comics:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=51164

I'm as much of a spoilerphobe as there is on ILX (I avoid film trailers, tv promos, the copy on the back of novels/jackets, etc.), but if you follow Who even tangentially on the internet, something on the level of a new companion joining the cast is going to be impossible to avoid. It's the simply cost of being on the Internet, and a well-crafted episode will spring the surprise and delight on you no matter your foreknowledge -- I'm sure that a lot of us weren't going to be ~surprised~ that Capaldi would make a cameo in the 50th, if not actually expecting/anticipating it, but the way the show did it still managed to provoke a strong, visceral geekout.

it's not the announcement of casting I was talking about, and no idea at all why ppl think I was saying anything about speculation*; just the specific plot info that Clara will be returning to Coal Hill School and etc etc as mentioned.

*obv now we know, it'd be a little sad to not at least see the headmaster in the background of a scene, after the security guard in Adventure In Space And Time

Wait, really?

Wasn't Clara already shown teaching in the school in The Time of the Doctor?

no, Day Of, like I said

Well anyway, what I meant is that it isn't a huge spoiler she's teaching there by series 8, is it, if we're already seen her there in a previous episode?

Burying the lede here, I think - a1 ew1ng doing a Matt Smith comic? That's pretty cool.

she couldn't be returning if she hadn't already been there.

There's a new teaser trailer thing for series 8, someone start a nu thread with a witty title.

fingers crossed thread title incorporates 'Fuckity Bye'

OH MY GOD HE'S OOGLY: nu-Who season 8

Kissing u.

I've been rewatching Who lately, and I just finished season 5 (still the best nu-Who season overall, IMO), and I noticed a weird thing in "The Lodger". When Amy is trapped inside the TARDIS, there are a couple of times (most notably in the scene after the Doctor's football game) when she appears to be startled by something that's inside the TARDIS, offscreen to us viewers... But then she just shakes it off, and doesn't say anything about it to the Doctor. I checked the Doctor Who wiki to see if it had any info on this, and someone speculated that one of the Silents was inside the TARDIS, which would explain why Amy sees something, and then seemingly forgets the whole thing a moment later.

If this was indeed intentional on Moffat's part, then it's helluva piece of foreshadowing, because it's barely noticable and it's never mentioned again. I know there's a more obvious piece of foreshadowing in the episode, since the fake TARDIS the Doctor investigates is revealed to be built by the Silence in season 6, but this is way more subliminal. The timing would certainly be right: "The Lodger" takes place right before the season 5 finale, so presumably whatever it is the Silence did to make the TARDIS explode was done aroung this time.

JUst seeing headlines on Facebook about Capaldi definitely staying beyond season 10 which, is nice.

:D

great, he should stay on indefinitely

Eh, indefinitely wears thin after a while - Matt Smith was great to start with, but then he (or I suspect Moffat) wore that into a nub of antics. On the plus side, the best two seasons so far have been a show-runner's first.

On the minus side, neither of those showrunners have been Chris Chibnall.

On the plus side, the best two seasons so far have been a show-runner's first.

I'd argue pretty strongly that 4 > 1

I can see that argument, I prefer Donna over Rose, but I prefer Ecclestone a lot over Tennant (I should in fairness go back and rewatch them, I may have softened on Tennant, he'd just really really worn out his welcome, and that was before the never-ending goodbye).

A lot of the stories in Season 4 are just a bit meh (Partners in Crime, Planet of the Ood, The Doctor's Daughter, The Unicorn and the Wasp), though it does really build towards a storming end, which definitely affected me more than either The Parting of the Ways or Doomsday.

Whereas apart from the silly Aliens of London / World War III, the first series has Rose / The End of the World / Dalek / The Long Game / Father's Day / The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances / Boom Town / Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways - that's definitely enough to tip it over for me.

A lot of this is definitely affected by its context as the first new Doctor Who season, and the poses it sets out about what a new DW could be - The End of the World is a MASSIVE beneficiary of this, for example - but that's still the context I know it in.

I like 9 over 10 as far as Doctors go but 4 was an incredible season (not to take away from 1 because that was also incredible)

Season 1 is still my favourite, probably, if only because it gave me by far the most joy at the time.

apart from the silly Aliens of London / World War III

I even thought this was good back in the day!

A lot of the stories in Season 4 are just a bit meh (Partners in Crime, Planet of the Ood, The Doctor's Daughter, The Unicorn and the Wasp)

I think two of those are good! But would agree on the other two.

The first half of S4 ranges from meh to complete shit (the Doctor's Daughter) but it turns a corner after that one and the second half is very strong.

The first half of S4 ranges from meh to complete shit (the Doctor's Daughter) but it turns a corner after that one

You could say it turns left.

JUst seeing headlines on Facebook about Capaldi definitely staying beyond season 10 which, is nice.

These are presumably responses to Moffat merely saying, in April this year, that Capaldi hadn't given notice that he would need to be written out in the 2017 Christmas special; he's on one-year contracts, and they haven't started filming S10 yet, let alone Moffat having to think about writing the episode which will shoot next year.

Possibly this information appeared behind the headlines; I don't know how Facebook works.

no comments on the christmas special? I thought it was great, though not as good as last year's. curious to reuse the same baddies as well; will they be coming back in the next season? because they aren't that compelling. Trailer for series 10 all looks good.

lol didn't realize there was an Xmas special!

The baddies were new, werent they? I enjoyed it a lot

I also thought they were new. I liked the breeziness and silliness of the plot, also happy that Nardole wasn't annoying.

it was pretty good! where do i know the superhero actor from?

i am warming to nardole, new companion looks p cool from the preview too

selected notes i made while watching it

- dr. sim set up as sniffler but this is dropped after he turns out to be an alien. was he sniffling because he needed a new body? NO
- why did the number of brains increase if they are just exchanging headspaces?
- so the aliens look like brains, but they can also split their hosts' brain areas apart? whut
- why did he open his face, again? update: they open the heads because they have guns in there. duuuuummmmb
- what's the deal with all this regressive male nanny talk. oh right women are the ones who make babies and that is their defining characteristic per moffat.
- was there a point where the doctor went back to repair matt lucas and decided the guy who lost his body early on while also talking like a retard would make a great companion?
- ok arousal/levitation callback altho the setup scene didn't make sense
- matt lucas replaced as companion with squeak toy
- why was the kid not supposed to use his superpowers again?

James, they were the baddies in the last Christmas special, the other one Matt Lucas was in. They had USB sticks in their heads in that one.

Hmm. I should rewatch that. Surprised how likeable i found nardole, given how much i loathe Little Britain.

This felt much more Chibnally than Moffaty imo. Rewatched the Scrooge In Space one from a few years back and it just seemed so much more sophisticated (perhaps to a fault) in comparison.

Carrie Fisher. :-((((

I'm genuinely curious as to what people saw in that, I thought it was fucking terrible. Why is it always superheroes that causes people not as clever as they think to decide that they have an angle that clearly no-one's thought of before?

Shoal of the Winter Harvest => Harvest Shoal is something I didn't spot, which is a little odd since I actually liked the previous episode.

"The Doctor is lonely" is the exact opposite of a Christmas Miracle.

- plodding from start to finish, packed with talking-head scenes that had no spark whatsoever
- abanana otm re the strange male-nanny focus
- either moffat can't write for americans, the american cast went to the tommy wiseau school of acting, or both
- nardole (?) is not very interesting

after 2015's incredible heights this was a mystifying disappointment. even capaldi was dull.

I agree it was plodding. I watched the NINE MINUTE pre-credits stretch twice because I thought I must have missed something. later on there was a 5 minute period where i zoned out (something about a bomb?)

not sure where the bomb came in, i had zoned out almost completely by the halfway mark.

honestly this reminded me of the phantom menace, in that 90% of the scenes were people in tiny spaces yapping.

nu companions ranked, not counting ones who were only in a single episode (Kylie, etc):

Donna
Rose
River Song
Clara Oswald
Mickey
Wilf
Jack Harkness
Martha Jones
James Corden
Adam
Amy Pond and her amazing plot device vagina
Rory
Britain

amy far far too far down the list

first-year amy belongs down there imo, but later-years amy was top five

Donna
River Song
Rose
Amy Pond (year 2+)
Jack Harkness
Clara Oswald
Rory
Wilf
Mickey
James Corden
Amy Pond (year 1)
Martha Jones
Adam
Britain

that's more like it. is 'britain' nardol? seems unfair to rank him at this point

who the fuck was adam?

adam was the guy who got a hole in his forehead in the first season. and yes britain is nardole.