Doctor Who 2008: Sontarans cometh, RTD Ood 'ave 'im etc.

The way the aliums get in is because one filter fails out of seven. I'd like to think if my, say, ARSENIC FILTER failed on my water supply I'd take it more seriously than the bloke who goes lol filter is shagged.

Noting the previous point that humans are 90% water according to the script, how much higher percentage can you conceivably get to support sentience? Is this some kind of homeopathy bollocks?

Most of those Qs I have no answer for, but here are a couple...

How do all the fires burn in the Martian atmosphere?
* I'm guessing they're burning with the venting oxygen as the whole place cracks open, etc. Plus TONNES of artisitic license because fire looks cool.

Where does all the water come from with the aliums? The pat answer the Doctor seems to give is that it's because 'humans are 90% water' and that's why their mouths crack (implying it's consuming their water). So in a bloke like Andy you might generate at most 14 stone of water? That's what, about 60 litres? Also please to remember from school chemistry that generating water from the oxygen in the air generally involves an explosion, and that the aliums are neither made of hydrogen nor is the air in the space station.
* The Doctor says something about the infected bodies producing water via fusion--presumably from the atmosphere, though not sure how much hydrogen there'd be--, and the blackness of the mouths being heat burns from the process.

What pissed me off: Aliens who take over the bodies of humans used to be a way of avoiding costly special effects. As the cost of CGI effects is now pretty minimal, bodysnatching aliens are now deployed as a way of avoiding the effort of developing backstory: basic motivation, no characterisation, no history whatsoever. The inexplicable nature of the zombies in NOTLD may have been scary and new once - it's starting to look lazy now.

(OK, so I wanted battalions of CGI Ice Warriors!)

otm. no-one said thank you, goodbye etc.

lol at RTD's "I am the Doctor/Tennant/Jesus" complex.

I SAVED TELEVISON'S DOCTOR WHO. LOOK AT WHAT I DID FOR YOU. WHAT DO I GET? NO THANKS, NOTHING. TOUGH, LET'S DO IT MY WAY. HOW'D YOU FANCY ANOTHER BILLIE GUEST APPEARANCE BEFORE I REGENERATE INTO MOFFAT?

All said in a shouty shouty zany 'n' wacky voice, natch.

Mars' atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide iirc, which scuppers both of them. (except for the 'it looks cool', which is fine for me as long as you don't rely on science to disprove other obvious plot holes such as ^^^^^^)

xpost

No, I agree, I'm just stretching to make excuses, really. I meant the atmosphere from the base, but now that I think about it, they were producing water while outside on the roof. Hmmm.

Basically, as long as the pseudoscience doesn't again reach the depths of DNA being conducted via electricity, I breathe a sigh of relief.

I actually have a coherent plot-related excuse for the water and the robot - the Doctor says at one point that the Flood (actually, that's one thing - when does he ever find out the name?) has chosen not to infect the birds and insects, so maybe it just 'chooses' not to have the water that soaks the robot be infected?

dogs can't play poker - CASE CLOSED

More to the point, why do the base have guns at all?

You'd think that what with the earth being attacked by aliens at a frequency of roughly once a month, it might have been considered a sensible precaution?

- holy shit Lindsay Duncan is terrific. more than a match for the Doctor. what seriousness of purpose. what sensitivity and deliberation. no wasted motion.

- Aliens - containment in the med clinic; the baddies suddenly realized to be ABOVE the crew; their intention to stow away aboard a ship to earth and destroy the world; "we'll nuke it from orbit"

- not sure why her grand-daughter would only gain sufficient inspiration to voyage to the stars on the condition that she dies. having Lindsay Duncan dead? of an apparently self-inflicted raygun blast? is that the only key to unlock that particular future? what's our investment in the grand daughter's stardom (!) anyway? if not her, it would be somebody else who piloted that first ship to Alpha Centauri or wherever. so who cares? isn't the main thing that the Martian base did get blown up, so that the water-things couldn't terrimify our freedomdz?

- Galactopedia actually says (yes i uh paused it o_O) "unexplicable circumstances" .. and of the reaction in the zombie monsters that it's "metaphysical"

- children, generations

- nice Pompeii reference, made me think of Malcolm from the Thick of It

- for a world that's gone through the wringer Lindsay Duncan alludes to - an oil catastrophe or whatever - that part of London looks pretty nice.

The pompeii reference unimaginatively made me think of the pompeii episode of Dr. Who.

^ pompeii Dr Who episode starred Peter Capaldi, who played Malcolm in The Thick of It.

This ep was better than Zoe Slater on a double decker bus, but not exactly OH WOW WHAT A SPECIAL SPECIAL! I do love Lindsay Duncan. Will read the rest of the thread now, but basically expect a whole lot of "lol Dalek fuck off" comment, and a smattering of "yes yes, Doctor is Jesus we get it already".

Anyone got an idea what time the Christmas episode clip is going to be shown at on Children In Need tonight?

It'll be all over the net by tomorrow whatever.

I suppose this is true, but I would still like to know roughly what time it's going to be on so I can record it for myself without having to wade through hours of CiN

Pretty sure it's not set yet, you'd be surprised how last-minute CiN is

guardian guide does split things up into 3 large chunks (little boots is on after 1am) but i imagine it's pretty fluid on the night.

oh, this is even more granular: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ny3gy

8.00pm-8.30pm

The stars of Hollyoaks rock TV Centre with their tribute to Queen, there is an exclusive sneak-peek of the Doctor Who Christmas special, and music from American superstar Taylor Swift.

Ha well - there you go!

Was going to post a couple of flabbergasted remarks re the CIN thing, but can't phrase them without spoilering. A pretty huge and unlikely development thrown away for a dumb joke, is what I'm talking about.

Hmm, just watched it, not quite sure what you mean tbh.

Ood Sigma - Theta Sigma - ??

The Queen Bess remarks.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/21/michael-moorcock-doctor-who-author

Moorcock on his plans to write for the show

Queen Bess thing = Rusty tying up the bit at the end of the Shakespeare Code when The Doctor has pissed off Queenie without actually having met her yet. Oh look, now he has, another loose end tied up, pat Rusty on the back and give him a cigar. But yeah, could he not just have nicked a crown or something?

I should really watch it again, this time without several gallons of wine inside me.

xpost: The article says that Moorcock is to write an original Dr. Who novel, not a script - unless you've heard differently? Be interesting to know if other big UK SF names have been asked.

Ah, yeah, the Queen stuff was pretty horrible. But that whole lurch from the end of last episode back to chirpy irritating tennant was pretty horrible anyway.

i dunno, he's done all this stuff between the desperate "No!" of WoM and arriving on Ood planet (is it really ice and snow all over their whole planet? how unlike our own - ok i know this is tv sci-fi law but still), plenty of time to flip back to cocky hedonist again

Sure, but I'm interested in the story from our perspective, not his.

Flipping from serious and emo to glib and chirpy is kind of what Tennant's Doctor has always done though. Is this an actual episode that's worth watching, btw?

no, you'll see it on Xmas Day anyway - not sure if its the opening scene or what

I couldn't put myself thru Children in Need even to see this so that's good to know.

Is on YouTube. That shit with the Tardis remote control lock seemed way too Children in Need throwaway to be actually in the Christmas eps.

One of the odder mash-ups I've encountered:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW0H_rprV-g

i was entertained

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZyTZyQVNck

read some stuff about the press screenings - general postitivity and real excitement about it all (except maybe the apparently "preposterous" actual details/caues of The Master's resurrection...i don't know anything about this other than what's in the latest trailers doing the rounds) including talk of a big twist/the most exciting wtf ending yet and that's just part 1 of the 2. have some emerging theories about this based on the trailers/clips but going to try and not read any more spoilery things.

they're showing what seems like quite a lot of stuff in the trailers (and battle scenes with The Master in this wasteland environ actually look a bit shit so far) but reviewers saying it's the tip of the iceberg. awesome.

my name...is *the master*! : D

at last we are at the beginning of his final adventure

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/02/04/article-1135510-033258D3000005DC-113_468x376.jpg

lol. that was fucking amazing btw, roll on pt 2.

Suddenly, after so many years of the tardis being moved or stolen being a basic plot device, it's really very easy to hide the it!

Otherwise, pretty cool.

It wasn't amazing. Noisy, overblown, daft ect ect but roll on pt.2 anyway?

In RTD terms it had some great parts in it, and not much painful head-slap. Very much reserving judgement to part 2, if we must have a reboot plz god let it be a consistent reboot.

Cribbins and Tennant in the caff staring down the double barrels of mortality was one of the best things in the show for ages tho.

It wasn't amazing

it was. the obama bits were cringy though.

I was hoping, when the Master became everyone, that John Simm's face would be morphed onto ppl Aphex Twin Style: women with the Master's face, children with the Master's face, 'Barack Obama' with the Master's face...

The Timelords turning up at the end was cheesy but pretty cool. Kind of like the whole thing.

No more Timelords any more was always bullshit - Timothy Dalton looks totally right in the robes.

Come on, Rusty's just setting it up to kill them all off again next week, surely?

First 20 minutes was a hideous mess, and the rest was kind of daft fun. Clip from next week up on the BBC website explains a lot of the Tim Dalton stuff btw.

What I hate about Rusty is his tendency towards narratives in which THERE WERE MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF THEM but they're ALL GONE FOR EVER AND EVER and IT'S TRUE, because IT'S TRUE!