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

awww Lil Ailsa saying her prayers.

That was medium awesome

Wish he'd taken the 8 yr old version with him, she'd have been a fantastic companion.

Though to be fair I wouldn't have really really fancied her the way I do with the one he did take. Er, obviously.

He's playing it a bit close to tennant though, so far.

BEST DOCTOR EVER (just countering all the moaners)

the bit where the camera revealed the door had opened was classic Moffat, kinda wish they had stuck to keeping it on that smaller ghost story level instead of extending the threat to the whole planet. interesting that we never actually saw Amy's Aunt. was there one arc meme dropped ("silence will fall") or two (something about "Pandorum"?)? not enough sarcastic Olivia Coleman despite the extra episode length. but totally good enough.

Already said BEST DOCTOR EVER to the fam. I think the silence and the Pandoracle(?) were connected.

i forgot when it was happening so only joined it at the what-do-tiggers-like-best bit (although: 'you're scottish, aren't you? fry something!' heeeeeee) but oh oh that was so fun!

new graphics: good
new music: terrible, shocker (altho i do appreciate the attempt to re-introduce some synthetic sounds, a bit)

WILD SPECULATION: Amy's aunt is River Song. They've both got red hair, River could have been off adventuring in time and space instead of looking after Amy the night Amy met the Doctor, er River / Pond... *shuffles feet*

WILDER SPECULATION: Amy is the young River! OMGWTFBBQ etc

Anyway, I really enjoyed that, although Smith does seem to be playing a bit Tennant so far. Hopefully he'll do more to put his own stamp on the role. The Who Bingo cards upthread were disappointingly OTM in several places :(

Have considered the possibility that Amy will somehow become River at some point, yeah. But iirc Alex Kingston shd be on dis ting at some point during the series??

Considering Moffat's love of the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff I could see River and Amy being on screen together. Possibly without Amy (or the audience) realising River is her future self for maximum poignancy further down the line.

Does seem a bit predictable for Moffat's style, though...

Gotta say that if that rottweiler had spoken it would've pushed this episode even higher up the auspicious beginnings chart

Ha, the same thought occurred to me. I'll give S-Moff the benefit of the doubt and assume the budget didn't stretch to it.

I already regret "S-Moff", tbh.

also he wd probably have permanently scarred many, many children

More than this atrocity did?

http://www.doctorwhoworld.org.uk/Images/sitegraphics/kandyman.jpg

Shirley not!

ok amy growing up into river song would be an absolute fucking travesty? i mean not only for the sheer laziness - like the whole 'sally sparrow for new companion!!' tedium, why is it any time there's a charming female character dudes are like 'let's stop at this one'? But also, I can't put this all that clearly, but there is something fundamentally awesome in "girl has an imaginary friend at seven, and then he turns out to be real and they go on adventures" which would be smothered by "oh and she becomes his most trusted boon companion 51st century kickass archaeologist river song".

Hey, I did say it was wild speculation - and predictable. Moffat's a much smarter writer than that.

I like the setup for Amy's relationship with the Doctor a lot, even if it does have a bit of a hint of "The Girl In The Fireplace" about it. I'm really looking forward to seeing what Moffat does with this series.

There was some quite "Girl in the Fireplace"-y music playing during the slow reveal of the house after his first "brb" moment

oh no that probably means there's a whole bunch of nobs "predicting" that Amy is also Madame Pompadour then...

Like it. Like him - less in your face, less gurning. Like the time afforded for calm sections - the freneticism of RTD/David Tennant got wearing on the nerves. Like the fairy tale element. Like what perhaps were little references to the previous reign? (DT being made to have an English accent/Amelia Pond goes from English to Scottish + instead of the RTD tv news channels across the world thing, just tuning the radio).

Liked the early childhood scenes.

Music was terrible.

deliberately rendering the screwdriver and the TARDIS useless was the biggest nod to the previous regime I think

new Tardis possibly a wee bit Steampunk for my liking

Yep, good point about the screwdriver and tardis, it was good that bit. And less needless sudden grinning as well, that used to drive me spare about both Ecclestone and Tennant.

Wee! Loved! Enjoyed the 'corner of your eye' stuff...Moff's so good with the stuff-of-nightmares stuff. And the build up to fish custard was lovely. And Amelia Pond has a nice edge to her as well as being incredibly gorgeous. Got a faint hint of Donna shoutiness in her, which I hope comes out a bit more.

But all round exciting good fun. Ripping stuff!

I am very much not stoked for the new series. Matt Smith is, let's face it, not David Tennant. In any way. I keep telling myself "b-b-but Steven Moffat", but it's not working. I may well not feel like this on Saturday night, I know.

OMG how wrong was I? <3 Matt Smith already. Slightly driven to distraction by Amy's accent (which, as someone who left Inverness and only goes back into full-on accent in the presence of other Invernessians, is a rubbish and massively hypocritical criticism), but otherwise, great.

awww Lil Ailsa saying her prayers.

Yes, that was remarked upon here. How the hell do you know what I looked like when I was that age?

"You're Scottish - fry stuff" = top lolz.

Alex Kingston was in the "coming soon" trailer, btw. As was James Corden, Bill Nighy and Meera Syal, who are evidently less spoilertastic.

I dunno, James Corden spoiled it for me

lol

I suspect any Tennantisms in Matt Smith are down to - or could be plausibly attributed to - the Doctor being in a transitional phase. I think there was enough evidence that he will become less Tennanty as the series progresses.

Tell you what I really loved: no big regen crisis! (aside from a bit of a bellyache). First new doctor story we've had without some "he's amnesiac/asleep/insane/whatever" since...tom baker?

Yeah, I liked that too (though the pre-credits OMG-I-can't-control-the-TARDIS bit gave me the fear, thankfully wrongly).

New title sequence was horrible, btw.

real test when it comes down to the normal time. i know there was a lot of info to put into this one, but the episode had time to actually breathe, which was sorely missing in RTD days.

So, that bingo card: I make it yesses on:

Geronimo
secondary character spouts cryptic prophesy
Shadow Proclamation namechecked
Run!
Flashback or recap of regeneration (if show of doctors counts to that)
Amy gets tour of TARDIS
Alien invasion on the news (was it on the news or just on telly?)
Doctor admires his own reflection (nicely done!)
Shapeshifting alien is a dog (whoever did these cards has seen this, right?)
Aliens take over earth communications devices blah blah
swirly blue vortex in new title sequence O NO RLY?

So, not that many, but a good few. Some obvious ones not done. Yet.

btw, has the TARDIS always had a mezzanine floor?

err...

http://imgur.com/NOFTQ.jpg

http://imgur.com/4WONJ.jpg

So either the Tardis caused the cracks in time and space, or the thing making the cracks is also inside the Tardis?

Or that's two wobbly lines of different shapes?

I dunno, James Corden spoiled it for me

― Top Geir (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 4 April 2010 00:01 (34 minutes ago) Bookmark

maybe he dies? got to look on the bright side.

hopefully something prolonged and undignified

Tell you what I really loved: no big regen crisis!

The bit where Sophie Peep Show turned into him and he was all "WTF is that? Oh right, is that what I look like?" was nicely done. I did also really appreciate the lack of Tennant, making a clean break was really good (as a firm "OMG not going to be the same without him" Tennant stan, it seemed so much easier to put him behind me and get with Matt Smith).

Also the completely rubbish Patrick Moore cameo.

I wonder whether aldo hated it.

"Kiss-o-gram," eh??

Bingo also:
Nobody dies
TARDIS referred to as she (he called her sexy)

Is Patrick Moore the new Churchill-looking PM of the UK?

Slightly farther to the Right than Churchill iirc

dug Matt Smith, really good to have someone new in the role. loved Tennant but I hadn't realized just how annoying his angsty doctor had gotten towards the end.

only thing i hated was music and title sequence. which bums me out cause i really like the new logo.

As good a debut as I could have hoped for! Really enjoyed it, Matt Smith was very Tennant-esque, but I think he'll get more room to stretch his legs very soon and he was nonetheless quite entertaining. Amy was really cute, trademark Moffatt lurking horror and time jump stuff being very cool and looking forward to more! (I am enthused.)

Gah I'm away for the weekend and can't watch this but there's total anticipation building now that seemingly everyone likes it.

That conference call/Jeff stuff was a bit sketchy tho. Actually it was baloney, but I think you can excuse that sort of thing if the tone was good.

Also not sure about the Johnny 5 Alive! 'what have I missed' bit on the village green.

I welcomed the use of a village setting, maybe because it feels more trad Who than the now over-used inner city London tower blocks of the nu-Who. It helps give the series a different feel. It's less trying to be 'relevant to the kids of today', which was always kind of hopeless.

Little Amelia was great, though I don't really agree she would've made a good companion, just for boring practical reasons I suppose. She would be too much of a burden in tight corners, too dependant on the Doctor.
Plus Amy is saucy.

As an opener it was typically flashy, and a touch hyperactive, but Matt Smith hit the ground running imo, and I'm looking forward to more of Moffat's dark fairytale take.

started groaning at the so-overdone 'all that amazing stuff that happened' and then proper lol'd at the 'that was two years ago!'.