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

when Nardole accidentally deleted himself, I was like "omg"

Yeah, very effective moment. And who would've thought that any reaction to Nardole deleting himself would be anything but unambiguous joy?

Ha, yeah, they did exactly enough character work with him through the first two thirds of the episode. It's like they actually thought about the fact that his character has been a somewhat annoying cipher this whole time and then took a little time to beef him up ("are you a secret badass?" etc) so that when he gets de-rezzed it actually matters, and not just because of what it implies for Bill. And the Doctor, but it took a long time to come to grips with the Doctor being Grand Theft Aught-Who.

I didn't spend a lot of time coming up with that so please, rubbish at will

I've never hated Nardole, though I agree it's nice they decided to flesh him out more. When they announced Matt Lucas is gonna be in the show, I was prepared to hate him because how awful "Little Britain" was, but it turned out he's perfectly fine as a comic actor when he isn't writing his own material.

Let's not forget his first TV role was his finest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-WEIVIbcQw

I thought this was great. Really well executed. A detail I liked: it leaves open that the Pope and friends have never actually been in the Tardis hilariously in real life, only in the simulation.

Enjoyed that, glad to see there are 12 episodes in this series.
Like the way they've interlinked all the episodes so far. It's almost a return to original era cliffhangerhood.
JUst wish we did have several more seasons of Capaldi. Liking him with Bill. Like him anyway but just wish there hadn't been seasons wasted with Clara.

Liked this one too. Something very 'classic series' about the world's armed forces being represented by a few people in costumes and a CGI plane and submarine.

I'm a few weeks behind but they really missed an opportunity for someone to go "it's bigger on the inside" during the house-hunting scene.

This was an enjoyable episode, but I don't understand why the Doctor hadn't told Bill about his regeneration ability, or why he didn't tell her about it during the countdown? That way Bill wouldn't have needed to consent to the Monks, since she would've known the Doctor can't really die.

Presumably if you get completely blown up, you can't regenerate, or something? Either way I'd file it under "stuff I'm happy to handwave".

Another good episode, although maybe the season's weakest so far? Was the first script by Harness I haven't found annoying, anyway.

Next week's looks good, but looking forward to getting back to more continuity-free Bill/Capaldi stories in eps 9-10, before the invetiable big-climax-two-parter.

I liked this episode. Didn't see much point in the military plot since the show gives away the real disaster-in-waiting right away. Working in a pyramid with mummies and the threads of life were nice touches.

nitpick corner: a) the lock dilemma could have been solved with some macguyvering. the doctor could have found a mirrored surface to let the scientist tell him what the lock says. b) lazy writer failsafe failures. automatic venting every 20 minutes, no braille on a lock in a place where people could easily become blinded. if you've seen one michael crichton movie.

she would've known the Doctor can't really die.

the Doctor can totally die

and the bbc can call the show "bill", it would be fine

the doctor could have found a mirrored surface to let the scientist tell him what the lock says

this is not a show that traditionally withstands a lot of "fridge logic" to borrow a term from the frequently wtf tvtropes

I liked this episode quite a bit, that's 2 for 2 with these monk mummies - monkies? no. mumkies. no. monksters. no. I give up.

YOU CONSENT OUT OF STRATEGY

b) lazy writer failsafe failures. automatic venting every 20 minutes, no braille on a lock in a place where people could easily become blinded. if you've seen one michael crichton movie.

And worst of all, an airlock system that allows both doors to be opened at the same time, which defeats the whole purpose for having an airlock! I think real life airlocks automatically keep the other door locked if the other one is open, exactly to avoid human error like the one seen in this episode?

The air venting system was really baffling... Why would a complex that deals with hazardous material and GM bacteria have a system that automatically vents its air into the atmosphere? You'd think that's exactly what they'd want to avoid in a breakout situation?

I think it was meant to be unusual (due to accident) that the product was that dangerous but yeah

Also, the whole "consent" thing was pretty nonsensical if you stop and think about it. It was established that consent needs to be given out of love and not fear, and clearly the implication is that humanity needs to love the Monks for them to gain power; they're like vampires, they need to be invited in. So after that's been established the viewer is like, how on earth are the Monks gonna make anyone love them? But then Bill gives her consent because she loves the Doctor and doesn't want him to die? So it's that easy for the Monks to rule over humanity? Then why didn't they use their fancy simulation machine to show the UN Secretary General images of his loved ones having died in the doomsday? Then he would've given his consent because of his love, just like Billy did. Also, consent given out of fear leads to disintegration, and Billy explicitly states he wants the Doctor to live because she's afraid of what would happen to Earth if the he wasn't around. But apparently that doesn't count as fear to the Monks?

The whole idea of "only love can give us power over you" is an interesting concept, but it feels like the writers had to resolve to semantic trickery to get the result they want, it didn't feel justified.

Doctor could've Periscoped his phone view to get the code too.

Just fear us, love us, do as we say and we will be your slaves

xp Yeah, the distinction between the consent given by military top brass and the consent given by Bill was sort of ... a workable distinction in outline, but maybe not in close up.

xp: pretty much all bioengineering facilities, especially those working with potential pathogens, are designed with negative pressure. Air flows in through entrances, etc, but is all sucked out through UV-illuminated HEPA filters in the lab hoods were all manipulation takes place.

another solution: Doctor takes a picture of the lock with his phone, shows it to scientist.

would have preferred him to stay blind until regeneration tbh, if this can be handwaved away anything can

This episode was clearly not written with adventure puzzle game enthusiasts in mind

Another contrived thing about that scene: the input for the unlock code was this weird, old-fashioned cylinder apparatus instead of the far more common 3x3 number pad, because if it had been the latter, it would've been quite easy for the Doctor to feel it with his fingers and deduce which buttons to push.

and then they couldn't have done this ending.

everyone criticising that last scene is otm imo but they couldn't have achieved this specific ending without a contrived obstacle to his sight. also, archaic and stupid things pop up in real life all the time, so this didn't feel like a huge stretch.

the monks magicking back his sight was much more stupid imo, unless this is all still inside the matrix, in case why do anything?

*in which case

like you AA i didn't mind most of the things people have pointed out here - the airlock that isn't an airlock was a bit of a stretch. but in the service of delivering excitement! i don't really mind these things. and the sight thing didn't bother me - i thought oh god that's terrible, they can even repair a time lord's sight, not something even he could do, they have control, what is the nature of that control and why does it require this manner of consent?

they can even repair a time lord's sight, not something even he could do, they have control, what is the nature of that control and why does it require this manner of consent?

otm, it was one of those episodes which makes 100% perfect sense within its arbitrary self-imposed rules which don't make a lot of sense (needing to fit some highly specific criteria for consent, which in itself is a highly specific criterion for deciding whether or not to let everyone perish). as sci-fi drama it's fine but it requires a particular suspension of disbelief to accept that some ocd politburo will go to these lengths for...? shits and giggles? christ just tell them someone fucked up in a lab, or better still land your pyramid on the lab so the doctor doesn't have to blow it up or even go there or even do any of this, and then you have a free slot to write idk a satire about how a giant orange fuck is ruining the universe.

I've noticed every episode this season seems to have its central mystery solved by inspired guesswork rather than Honest Puzzle Solving - a bad habit from Sherlock, maybe?

This week's was ridic - it went from "the problem could be literally anything in the world" to "it's an accident at a chemical factory!!" within two lines of dialogue.

Thin Ice wasn't solved by guesswork, was it?

(I did like how they identified which lab they needed to visit, though)

I've noticed every episode this season seems to have its central mystery solved by inspired guesswork rather than Honest Puzzle Solving - a bad habit from Sherlock, maybe?

This week's was ridic - it went from "the problem could be literally anything in the world" to "it's an accident at a chemical factory!!" within two lines of dialogue.

chibnall alert - brodchurch always astonished me by effectively making a series out of totally incompetent detective work. v little actual detection and the only way the murderer is discovered is through complete process of elimination, sure a definition of detective failure. in the agatha christie type/golden age story it's allowed for the reader to suspect *anyone* from a small community, in fact it's the point. but the detectives are usually seen to have known at some crucially earlier point. the killing was ok for me on this and i'm not sure why because the style was similar, but possibly bcos broadchurch was so confined and underpopulated.

i always felt that with sherlock holmes (the stories) displays of deduction would take place at the beginning of the story, but the discovery of the murderer often required not deduction but specialist knowledge/inspired guesswork or a moment of action to reveal the murderer. exceptions are the finest stories - the league of red-headed men, hound of the b's, and even they obv had a fair dollop of drama.

so i don't think there's such a thing as purity here.

on the speed of the solution, that feels more a requirement of keeping things lively and brief enough to fit in a short episode, which is why i'm fine with it. emphasis is important and doing it in two lines of dialogue is a success rather than a fault. (that said i enjoy the picking itt)

This week's was ridic - it went from "the problem could be literally anything in the world" to "it's an accident at a chemical factory!!" within two lines of dialogue.

I thought this too - apparently it was originally slightly less abrupt but a couple of lines referencing a terrorist attack were edited out late on

This is the bit of dialogue that was cut from last night's #DoctorWho. pic.twitter.com/Trpr9PVtKl

— Alex Daily 🏳️‍🌈 (@heyalexdaily) May 28, 2017

okay that does make more sense

Interesting! It's still kinda abrupt at full length but I see why they made the cut.

I only bring up the "lucky guesswork" as it's been more clumsily scripted than usual. But I suppose it's better to put your massive handwave halfway through the script (where it can be forgotten) than right at the end like RTD used to do. Either way - this has been one of the most enjoyable seasons so far, so moot point really.

(Also great post re: Holmes/deduction!)

Mostly the greatness of Bill has seen me over the rough bits of plotting

I'm also really glad to have these horrible, horrible Monks that aren't cuddly or intentionally funny. I mean they're a bit unintentionally funny but you know, having the courage of convictions and all that

While we wait, the neural network comes up with episode titles: http://lewisandquark.tumblr.com/post/159509399932/the-neural-network-writes-the-episode-list-for

The Dont
The Sires of the Daleks
The Argass of the Daleks
The Arges of the Daleks
The Wire of the Daleks
The Argoss of the Daleks
The Argass of the Daleks
The Argas of the Daleks
The Daleks of the Daleks
The Stick of the Doctor
The Keds of Death
The Twin Doctors
The Ten Doctors
Cold Clood
The Unicorn and the Daleks
The Fires of Poop
The Beads of the Daleks
The Sontaren Beep
The Power of Tron
The Awkroids of Tara
The Agaves of The Doctor
Dinosaurs of the Deep
The Pirate Lover
Loodly Moysters
The Wheeen Death
The Bile Doctors
Planet of lime
The Crows of Doom
Planet of Fire in Space
The Poupon Invasion

wd watch the crows of doom and the dalek of the daleks.

actually wd watch most of these.

Why do the monks have a German accent? (Or don't they?)

Villain Voice preset #3