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

I make this no earlier than Christmas 2012

could've had one of the old people go "heey wait isn't this that fella what carried the Olympic flame?"

this got 10m viewers to Eastenders 10.9. i just iplayered it along with another million (maybe).

not even being able to run convincingly and putting on a pair of glasses now and then but jesus john sim so awful too and the thing is they probably ASK him to be awful and everyone else who is awful but wish they would just ask them to be good for a bit and maybe it could be better

otm tbh

'now watch me jetpack away into the air and come down on a steel girder or a pile of sand or something and wait for you to catch up with me, and go rrrraaaarrr i am the master blah blah blah when you finally catch up with me' repeatx5

(i liked it)

i liked the soppy conversation in the cafe, I thought having Wilf there gave it more power than your typical sad-Doctor-is-sad scene. also i still miss the days when the Doctor and Donna just sailed around, having fun and being bros, so I liked how tangibly and palpably he seemed to miss Donna in that scene -- less moony and emo, like when he missed Rose, and more "goddammit this sucks."

This was the only part I liked, the rest was soooo bad. I imagine RTD drinking a case of Red Bull and writing the entire script five minutes before it was due, because I really don't know else you would end up with a story like that.

Also please don't get horrible stupid shitty Star Wars shit in my Doctor Who.

http://www.41n93w.net/who_wars.jpg

I repeat: this episode is the Phantom Menace of Doctor Who. Incoherent plot, established characters acting in random and profoundly stupid ways, pointless melodrama, horrible dialog, gratuitous yet ineffectual use of fanwank.

blueski is OTM here

I will be the first to admit I am muy oversensitive abt shit but I thought it was really tasteless that the Master said he had the "final solution" (while in Obama's body no less!). I mean "MASTER race" is excusable bcz it is a (lame) pun but after months of "OBAMA IS HITLER DO U SEE" from dumbass shitfucks all over America for the past few months that was about the last thing I needed in a Christmas sci-fi romp, is all this Hitler language coming out of former Obama bad guy.

I just watched it an hour ago, and I still can't even believe how bad it was.

I imagine RTD drinking a case of Red Bull and writing the entire script five minutes before it was due, because I really don't know else you would end up with a story like that.

Yeah, I read about half of "The Writer's Tale," the book where RTD talks about his writing process, and it turns out his process is basically "my script was due two weeks ago and I haven't started, o shit." I sympathize because this is my writing process too, but then he goes on to suggest that this writing style actually works, and gives Voyage of the Damned as a successful example, which, no.

It gave me a little sympathy for the way "Last of the Time Lords" and "Journey's End" seemed to squander the promise of the previous episodes, because I imagine there was little time for script rewrites by then and they were basically filming a first or second draft. But I thought the whole point of doing a year of specials was to give RTD some breathing room to do things right.

idk, maybe he spent the last half of the year chained up in some deranged Ianto fan's basement and only had a few days to dash off the finale once the police let him out.

Seriously what is up with David Tennant and the way he runs?

But God bless him for doing what he can with what he's got, and the same for John Simm, who, I mean, Jesus, do you really need John fucking Simm to snarl for 45 minutes?? That's some expensive snarling!

I think DT is spoofing the amount of running required in the scripts by doing his best Pepe le Pew impersonation.

was odd the master talking about "missing the drums" - you've not existed since being shot so how can you feel that loss? maybe he was conscious in the void/hell.

wanna know Moffat's writing process. "the whole thing comes to me in beautifully clever and coherent dreams and i just jot it all down while still asleep."

ledge makes a good point about the anti-potion potion not really, uh, working. The Master must have had an anti-anti-potion potion.

My favorite line was when the Master sees the anti-potion potion, looks suitably alarmed, and says something along the lines of "I forbid you to do that!"

I mean, when has that ever stopped anyone in the history of film or television? "Well I was just about to blow up the world but someone has just told me it's forbidden. Drat." I got through that part by just telling myself it was a Hammer film.

im the master an i laff and growl lol ;P

Also? Murray Gold should be horsewhipped for that score. He's usually pretty bad, but this was bad even by his standards.

starting to think including Obama was reasonable as it's been the only major optimistic political turn of events since Who returned. this doesn't excuse having numerous london background characters talking about him as messianic saviour of the world. likely RTD was just hammering this in a 'lol isn't it funny that they're/we're talking about Obama saving the world when in fact the Doctor will be doing literally just that again teehee' way, as if it could be anything other than annoying as fuck. but i can see the 'logic' of bringing in an IRL political figure at this point despite that (it's different re the Queen who has been the Queen since original Who began and referred to several times in the past) - and presumably Moffat will run with it.

but RTD please take that annoying american newsreader you insist on using EVERY TIME EVEN IN TORCHWOOD with you

Esp. since she couldn't even pronounce Barack Obama correctly.

tbh it was really cuet hearing all the British people say Obammer.

tbf obama had a skinhead

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=242931322175

Seriously what is up with David Tennant and the way he runs?

I was wondering whether he was intentionally overdoing the Doctor Who Running Crisis Grimace with his eyes popping and gritted teeth, it was really hilarious to watch.

Also thinking that at this point the Obama 'cameo' while annoying and distracting was the least of this ep's problems.

one man's hilarious is another man's just shit

And I am sorry to be this guy but I just didn't buy the cafe scene from Tennant at all. It felt really really obvious that the director was like "OK you need to cry here", either because it was actually in the script or for some other reason and Tennant is like whatever you say chief and does the parlour trick with actual tears that all actual actors can do. And Cribsy caught the ball perfectly of course. But yeesh. I don't know. It would have worked better if the emotion came upon Tennant even more suddenly, just blindsided him, maybe when he sees Donna, rather than getting conjured in the hazy middle distance as he speaks. Did the camera actually do a slow zoom in on him at that point? Probably.

one man's hilarious is another man's just shit

I think you've done a tidy job of explaining M's incessant laughing in this ep as well

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/1988/18868222880768387526123.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3wBPnsNj_U

What the hell @ Wilf with the gun...

Didn't spot the one Wilf in that poster until just now

^ haha, me neither. Like Where's Wally, but Where's Wilf. Nice work!

i didn't until you pointed it out

I believe that RTD started with the "master race!" pun and reverse-engineered the entire script from there, astounding himself at just how clever he is.

Part 2 better have lots of Dalton and Time Lords in it, otherwise this was a shrill waste of time.

OMG @ the rumoured spoiler about Tennant's last scene.

If it's true, Rusty is an utter, utter fuckwit.

where did you find this spoiler so that I can find it too (am not going to see Part two until mid January unless my hotel room has BBC America)?

Would normally resist, but figure I will see the internet before I see the episode, so the whole thing will end up spoiled anyway.

It concerns the last shot of the episode being set in the with parallel universe, with Rose and the Fucktoy Fake Doctor, and the spirit of Tennant/RTD living on in their newborn Time Baby.

It's just so bad that it can't be made up...

haha, OMG, that really really can't happen.

I just found a better spoiler for why she's in it. It doesn't involve babies or kissing or anything.

I caught a bit of David interviewing Rusty on the radio earlier this evening when I was in the car. I got really fed up with Rusty's "OMG no-one knows who I am, I'm nothing, just the guy behind the scenes" faux-humility schtick and had to turn it over, so I have no idea if I missed anything exciting.

Are you talking about Who On Who, because he didn't say that at all. The complete opposite in fact, ever since the controvosy surrounding Queer as Folk, he's been unusually well known for a TV writer.

He said something about not being known. Maybe he was joking.

look, it's even mentioned in the Guardian's review of it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/dec/30/who-on-who-review

It concerns the last shot of the episode being set in the with parallel universe, with Rose and the Fucktoy Fake Doctor, and the spirit of Tennant/RTD living on in their newborn Time Baby.

It's just so bad that it can't be made up...

― James Mitchell, Wednesday, 30 December 2009 01:55 (12 hours ago)

Oy...... If this happens I will seriously break into my local BBC store and pee* over their stock of "Dark Season" and "Century Falls" DVDs.

Whilst wearing a Cyberman voice changing helmet.

*not really. Tis a joek.

He's really going to do this, isn't he? That's such a Typical Rusty Move these days. I can picture him writing that on his sideways-turned PC monitor before applauding himself and crying out "Hooray! This is a hoot! A HOOT!".

...whilst thinking to himself something about how the ending gives a remarkable "circle of life" quality to the character, something akin to his Doctor being able to sustain himself beyond death, like if he was able to stay around somehow.

Like if he could "regenerate", or something.

http://digitalleon.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/the-lion-king-pride-rock-rafiki-simba-1.jpg

sorry but

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KTJWhtuRLac/Szom2m8ClDI/AAAAAAAAJdI/P0647KHFrC0/Picture+27.png

Well he's got to be heard way up there in the top balcony of whatever Time Lord Palladium they're in.