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

Realised a massive fuck up in last night's - they start drilling because of the blue grass, which is caused by the Silurians drilling upwards. Except the Silurians don't start drilling until after the humans have, because it's that that wakes them up. Oops.

It's not necessarily a fuck-up. That's exactly the sort of thing that causes Matt Smith's Doctor to start smacking his head and going "gah why didn't I think of that before?!" though.

^^^^winning screen name.

Agreed - but geologists digging only to find a life form they're not expecting makes them slightly less culpable than driller-uppers who are coveting the surface knowing full well what/who is up there.

Something that bugged me about future Romy waving at them was that I thought there was going to be a twist that the people waving were actually Ambrose and someone else, esp. since the jacket that Ambrose was wearing looked like something an older Amy would wear.

Romy

ugh please don't do this

It is clever and you hate fun.

wld endorse Mira Sorvino as new additional companion (and then they lez up)

Ambrose *is* a dumb name.

I just called her "Welsh Felicia Day" because that's who she looked like.

It is clever and you hate fun.

works better than Jedward at least

Nothing works better than Jedward.

Samanda > Jedward

it's a shame Rosicky never took off

http://idoitforfootball.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/rosicky.jpg

I feel like posting the Jedward commercial but that would probably result in a sb.

"There will be no battle here today" - McCoy ref?

Decent episode. As usual in this season, definitely fun when plot is moving too fast for most of the characters to keep up. As said above, kid nightmare stuff = A+ execution. Don't get the Amy hate at all, frankly, (and Donna was/is probably my favorite companion of the new series, I don't see the conflict - I mean every companion was at least a little sassy), and I think she's already got a ton of background info/character development - we'll probably see even more as this series ends. And we don't even know if she's coming back next year or not (at least, I don't, so don't tell me).

BBC ethnicity conspiracy junkies ahoy today, can't refuse Meera Syal a shot in the TARDIS.

I really like the quieter Who episodes, the ones with less running around and yelling and dramatic music, so "Amy's Choice" worked really well for me. The strength of this new doctor is that he can embody a subtlety and dry humour I don't think the last guy was capable of. This last episode was very good though. Not too too much action, I thought.

The Meera Syal thing was about the small-ish Who fan faction (certainly smaller than Season 6B hypothesis, or Eighth Doctor is not canon) who believe that the BBC have an agenda to place ethnic minorities in positions of power wherever possible - it started with Hannah Barbera in Battlefield then was a consistent gripe throughout the RTD era (at times even stronger than the GAY AGENDAR clamour, although it's part of the same noise to me TBH).

She gets told no to coming into the TARDIS by the Doctor who looks REALLY angry about the idea of her coming in at one point, but eventually concedes. I thought this would have kicked off the conspiracy brigade, but the only people bothered about it seem to be RTD fans going SEE IT'S NOT JUST HIM HOOT!

(For your reference, Meera Syal is a famous British comedy actress - which is probably why she gets so may joeks and gets to be funny - and would have been considered Stunt Casting if this was the JNT era.)

See, that's just idiotic. Kind of shows a lack of understanding about the BBC in not acknowledging they'd use some of their biggest in-house stars, who happen to be from ethnic minorities - if anything, the producers are only guilty of using award-winning actors whenever possible, whether the actor is Sophie Okonedo or Toby Jones. Also LOL at complaining about Syal and Nina Wadia playing Asian doctors/scientists - like there are NONE OF THESE in Britain.

I was one of the people going YUSSSSSSSS whenever RTD went gayagendar because SCIENCE FICTION IS CAMP AS FUCK ALREADY. I am also short with people who whine about deus ex machina, having watched what is essentially a god in a machine change faces/solve shit for 47 years. UNHHHHH.

Deus ex Machina is just bad writing more than anything else, there have hardly been any in this series, which has been much more creative as far as resolutions go. They were really blatant in the second half of the RTD era.

Then again I am still fuming from the Lost finale so my tolerance of such things is at an all-time low.

so in short, there are Doctor Who fans on the internet who are also racist dimwits

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/files/2007/Sir_Patrick_Moore.jpg

who believe that the BBC have an agenda to place ethnic minorities in positions of power wherever possible

I'm sure they do. I don't see why this is a problem, though. (I know you're not saying you have a problem with it.)

"Positions of power" = eh not really. "Positions of visibility" yes.

I think "positions of power" means onscreen: doctors, prime ministers, scientists, etc.

There was that black President in the last Rusty story...

That seems a bit paranoid to me. I'd imagine the producers just select the most capable and interesting actors available with little regard for ethnicity (as regards Who). 80% of the show takes place in the future – they've got the ability to explain away any casting decisions they wish to make ('that's what it's like, then!') so I'd imagine they have a more free hand to cast according to whims and whiles than those shows aiming for contemporary or historical accuracy.

Making the future Queen of England a black woman was inspired. Take that racist fanboys and Daily Mail readers!

Well, quite

Take that racist fanboys and Daily Mail readers!

thing is if it's done for that reason rather than remy's "the producers just select the most capable and interesting actors available with little regard for ethnicity" then the racist fanboys kind of have a point - that ethnicity comes above talent in casting.

Not that I think it's really the case - they weren't exactly pro-minority in having their white Rose leaving her stupid cowardly black boyfriend behind (though they eventually boosted his character to official Brave status before giving him the only other minority companion as a wife - cutting out all that inter-racial sex that racist fanboys might object to).

Grizz: Come to think of it, I saw a white judge on Law and Order last night.
Tracy: Oh yeah, it's back on! Get ready, son. All you've ever known is your affirmative action job and Queen Latifah CoverGirl commercials.

ugh, Onimo, i've been trying to pretend the whole martha-and-mickey-get-married-for-no-apparent-reason bullshit never happened :(

i do think Who makes something of an effort to have multi-ethnic casting, though I think some of that is a straight-up desire to represent the multiethnic reality of life in the UK today (and then, bad wolf like, spread that social norm throughout space and time)? I've said this elsewhere, but I don't think it's a coincidence that in Vampires in Venice the two lead black characters both verbally identified themselves as Venetian.

80% of the show takes place in the future – they've got the ability to explain away any casting decisions they wish to make ('that's what it's like, then!')

out of nine eps this year we've had three in the distant future and space, and two a mere 20 years in the future on earth.

ugh, Onimo, i've been trying to pretend the whole martha-and-mickey-get-married-for-no-apparent-reason bullshit never happened :(

It happened for a pretty simple reason; RTD likes incredibly pat, unjustified sappy endings. If you can find a copy of his book Damaged Goods from... 1997? you will find an incredibly brutal, terrifying story ruined by this type of cloying nonsense.

I don't think they cast Meera Syal because they specifically wanted an Asian woman in the role, they cast her because she was Meera Syal and a household name beloved of much of middle Britain.

80% of the show takes place in the future – they've got the ability to explain away any casting decisions they wish to make ('that's what it's like, then!'

out of nine eps this year we've had three in the distant future and space, and two a mere 20 years in the future on earth.

okay, doctor is from the far far future (or distant distant past) and from a crazy mixed up muddled world with time-fractures in every direction and b/c this is sci-fi basically everything leaps all over the place we can do any sort of racial casting we can imagine b/c the particularity & granularity of the stories are never meant to represent a documentary reality but individual experiences which allow for basically any thing.

Queen Liz was brilliantly acted though, so the racist baiting touch was just a nice bonus.

Not a classic, but I enjoyed that more than the first one. Glad it turned into allegory of fragile diplomacy rather than all out war, because the warrior Silurians were frankly rubbish. Still, poor Rory.

Not quite sure how the Doctor can stick an entire hand into the crack and survive, but I suppose we'll find out. The fragment of the Tardis was a great bit of foreshadowing though.

Really? I thought it was the first unambiguously bad episode this season -- such hackneyed allegory.

Not quite sure how the Doctor can stick an entire hand into the crack and survive

... timey wimey...

The fragment of the Tardis was a great bit of foreshadowing though.

Would be hilarious if we see the crack opened up next to the Tardis, and a hand in a tweed sleeve coming through it break off a piece of its sign.

Rory (and Mickey?) is sort of the mirror image of the Doctor, right? They're all nerd analogues, but where the Doctor is dashing and adventurous, the Rory/Mickey type is the agoraphobic and domesticated inverse image.

It was alright. I was hoping we'd get a flash forward to the Silurians and humans living together at the end - maybe they're saving that for next season.

I think there were germs of quite a few good ideas in this two-parter, but it would've taken a major re-write to raise it from passable to excellent.

I was really picking up on the Amy-hate during the episode. Then she did well with the Rory business and it's fine again.

Overall kind of weak (felt very Star Trek at points, but that might be a combo of brokering peace treaties and lizard people), and I hope next week's is okay even though historical figure eps never blow me out of the water.

Also Richard Curtis doesn't have a track record of writing stories about scary monsters.

oof, is next week's the Curtis one? hmm...

I was really picking up on the Amy-hate during the episode. Then she did well with the Rory business and it's fine again.

I also kind of love that middle-aged Felicia Day turned out to be the weak, spat-upon example of humanity, I am so tired of these kinds of characters who do horrible things but its okay because its for their family!

Anyone else doubt that Rory is gone forever?

oh yeah, definitely some magic wand business at the end of this season, no doubt.

Engagement ring safe in a time machine is doubtless key

Did we find out what happened to the missing corpses, by the way?

Assumed they were getting experimented on by Lizard Farnsworth.

nice to hear stephen moore again.

Dissection thread turned out to be stupid, introduced in the last 30 seconds of last week's ep as an arbitrary cliffhanger then dismissed again in the first 3 minutes of this week's, after which evil surgeon transforms into avuncular voice of reason. Maybe arbitrary cliffhangars are meant to be a throwback to old-who?

Couple of nice moments in this one but yeah, bit wonky overall. Wasn't happy to see badmum get away with it, to be honest. Rory death wasn't particularly affecting either, felt too obvious he'd be coming back later. Also worrying that him being erased from amy's memory might lead to more of her trying to pull the doc, which was funny once but could grate pretty quickly.