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

otm

Yeah Bill is a very refreshing and likeable character. She's great. It'll be sad to see Capaldi go at the end of this season, hopefully she stays on with the next Doctor and hopefully he's not that one guy. ugh.

I thought this was excellent

Some subtextual stuff about relationships and loss of identity, I thought - an ongoing concern for The Doctor, obvs, and made explicit by this water-beast that imitates you and wants to be you, and you be it, forever, together

Good episode - a smattering of the usual Moffat flaws of course, but generally very human and likable, just like Bill.

i assumed the doctor in the background of the pic would be coming back later in the season and would play somewhat into why he's so interested in Bill to begin with.

it'll definitely come back, but i thought maybe that moment would factor into her decision to join him, given that that fact about him would have stuck in her head more than anything

*more than anything else

I need to rewatch because I don't remember exactly how the scene played out but I'm not 100% convinced that we are supposed to think Bill noticed the Doctor's reflection in the background of that picture; I think that was solely for the audience so that we would know that the Doctor went back in time and took a bunch of pictures of her mother as a surprise Christmas present. (Again, I need to rewatch; at the time I thought she noticed but I read a review that thought it was meant to be ambiguous but didn't come off correctly due to how astute Bill had been about everything else, so I now I'm second-guessing.)

i wasn't sure either so i've just now rewatched the scene (it's around 15 mins in). she definitely sees him in the photo because she looks quite closely at his face and reacts to it.

Oh, she noticed but decided not to call him out on it.

i know it's a dumb thing to get caught up on, but it should have come up in some way in those final scenes. her mother's death is still raw, he's inside that photo, and she doesn't even think about it when he asks her to tag along? rtd is probably not so popular now, but he'd at least have indicated to the audience that it was on her mind. as it stands it looks like they just forgot.

…by which i mean they chose to show the audience her reaction to the photo (which i want to call chekhov's photo), but not any thoughts she might have had about it at the end. it seems very odd to reveal one moment and not the other.

i didn't think she quite caught it tbh. as if she could tell something was off but not what. a bit like the puddle. the zoom in was for us. (and i needed it!) but i am notorious for not thinking that hard about dr who

"but i am notorious for not thinking that hard about dr who"

I love Tracer Hand !

was the Doctor at the University an intentional nod to Shada/Dirk Gently?

spoilery as fuck rumour that makes me deliriously happy (DON'T EVEN HOVER OVER THIS LINK)

One of my friends just posted that rumor on my Facebook wall.

this one would be 800 billion times better than… the other one

I didn't see the other one; was actively avoiding it.

i wonder if they leak these things deliberately just to see how people respond

"The next Doctor will be... Richard Coyle!"

the entire cast of coupling in rotation

next week: gina bellman rescues bill from a terrible mark gatiss script

ten million percent happier with that rumour than the first one - fingers crossed

an on-screen presence like nobody i've seen since tennant tbh, and the talent to back it up

I feel I've said elsewhere that I suspect they made the new companion black and gay and female to deflect criticism when her second doctor is none of them - I'd be happy to be wrong of course!

Bah: https://twitter.com/MichaelaCoel/status/855431949967659008

Comments (61)

I have a feeling whoever they pick will be lower profile than all the favorites or rumored people so far. as much as I'd love to see Idris Elba or Tilda Swinton.

The Rock imo

holding out for billy crystal

Would love ~ Swinton.

Just watched the premiere (didn't know it had started again -- bad nerd!), and I was really underwhelmed by the meta-winkiness that stood in for plot, dialogue, or cool things happening. The episode being a riff on "The Water of Mars" didn't help much, either.

But then, I thought through the episode from Heather's POV, which was a story about mental illness, and it was a little better. You have her bottomless depression balanced against the Doctor's usual mania, how her real-life alienation (see what I did there) was so profound that she let herself be taken and absorbed by this thing that turned into an almost-unyielding, crushing (see what I did there) force of nature.

And if only those Daleks had better aim, we'd be spared any more of this Nardwuar.

- i continue to dislike britainbot. this time he's got frankenstein's monster's body, which is better than explaining his body 30 minutes into the episode like last time. he again has a wide-eyed moment where he explains the theme. stop this.
- i like how they say that bill smiles when she doesn't understand something, then it's demonstrated later on. it's subtle enough.
- third time nu who has used "doctor wot?" donna's is still the best.
- bill trying out different explanations for the tardis, i was surprised that she thought it was a time travel machine based on the time of day changing -- i expected it to go the other way around (traveling through time and the time changing, but bill thinking they went halfway around the world)
- the vault is supposed to be a mystery, right? same with why the doctor shouldn't be time traveling. lack of time travel could suggest a tribute to pertwee's second season.
- cg still looks like shit, oh well. the practical fx look good.
- the episode is designed as an intro for new viewers. i'm ok with it being a bunch of old ideas being reintroduced. i hope the season adds new ideas and isn't a rehash memberberry. i'm a bit worried that it will be, based on the preview clips.

those comments are based on "the pilot" btw.

he again has a wide-eyed moment where he explains the theme. stop this.

there's a specific name for that one character who explains obvious shit to the audience, can't remember what it is just now

I enjoyed this one a lot more than the Pilot. It wasn't an especially revolutionary concept but it all just looked so fantastic. Bill is a great companion as well.

A great location find, but a pretty uninspired story with equally blandly designed robots. It was all secondary to some nice dialogue exchanges and relationship building stuff, though, which is fine for now. Hopefully, things will step up a gear for next week's Georgian frost fair episode.

not enough people generally. last week's villain was some water, this week's was some robots/nanobots. i mean i get that the doctor and bill are meant to bouncing off each other atm but they're reacting to concepts rather than people. even the people at the end of this one (antony royle &c.) were bashing out cardboard dialogue.

also this one didn't have 30 minutes of plot much less 45, and the ending was lazy.

I liked this again. Do enjoy the show when it's being light and simple and unambitious.

Bill remains excellent but I hope they don't lean too you much into the old codger vs. voice of yoof dynamic. There were some very 7/Ace style exchanges in this ep.

Though there was a bit with the skeleton cupboards when I was like, er, maybe I'm not ready for "dayglo aushwitz" as a sci-fi concept.

Got reminded of a load of things, Sam Slade Robo Hunter, The Happiness Patrol, among others.

Is the location a real thing or what is it? I don't know how much CGI costs for something like that.
Are they doing much filming outside the UK these days? Just looks like it would make more sense in a more tropical or temperate place.

Building is in Valencia, took me a while to recognise.
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-04-22/visit-doctor-whos-spectacular-colony-world-in-valencia

"The Happiness Patrol" OTM. I liked this fine though bill and the doctor's riffing actually got a bit tiresome to me.

Just watched - liked the design and pacing and ideas and visuals. I'm not sure about the ending yet. Will read what people here said about it since last time I was on this thread

Yeah so the bit where everything is solved by the idea of paying rent to landlords ...

Alternatively, reparations.

There were some very 7/Ace style exchanges in this ep.

You say that like it's a bad thing!

Ha, didn't mean it that way! Not sure it's the best fit for Capaldi, but it's only episode 2.

Will say about this one, I think they got the atmosphere and environment 'right' in a way they often don't in nu-who. It still moves far too quickly (and I would have liked to be able to just watch for five minutes as bits of the building peel off into a nano-swarm and then reform somewhere else etc) but at least the setting has some substance built up?