I'm sorry Chuck, now we have to kill you
no hard feelings?
― Call me at **BITCOIN (DJP), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 17:27 (eleven years ago) link
That blog post reads as hysterically overdramatic comedy butthurt to me but this is Doctor Who I suppose.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 2 May 2013 01:04 (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
instantly thought of ian levine when i read this
― mistah WRIGHT! WHAT you doin'? (Autumn Almanac), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 22:13 (eleven years ago) link
I made it through Happiness Patrol, you can't hurt me anymore
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 1 May 2013 22:32 (eleven years ago) link
Oh god how did I miss the that when I was listing stupid things that happened in Doctor Who
Fucking Delta and the Bannermen too, ffs
― Call me at **BITCOIN (DJP), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 22:38 (eleven years ago) link
watching Happiness Patrol tonight, RIP Helen A
― charli.xlsx (sic), Thursday, 2 May 2013 00:21 (eleven years ago) link
!!!
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 2 May 2013 14:30 (eleven years ago) link
okay lol
― Call me at **BITCOIN (DJP), Thursday, 2 May 2013 14:33 (eleven years ago) link
actually you know what was a super underrated 7th Doctor story that gets lumped in with the terrible ones but has a fantastically creepy kernel and is surprisingly enjoyable, is Paradise Towers
I have a hell of a lot of affection for that story, particularly as it came on telly when I was nine. The cleaner robots really shat me up at the time (think we've been through this before).
― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Thursday, 2 May 2013 14:46 (eleven years ago) link
I watched it again a few years ago, and while it's not in the least bit scary anymore it's good campy fun.
― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Thursday, 2 May 2013 14:48 (eleven years ago) link
It's probably been a good 10 years (or more!) since I last saw it but I remember being amazed that there was a good story there fighting to break through a terrible, terrible production
― Call me at **BITCOIN (DJP), Thursday, 2 May 2013 14:52 (eleven years ago) link
I feel like their enjoyable creepiness probably owes more to their poor production values than any kind of artistic choice (see also: all Carry On movies), but still, you take what you can.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 2 May 2013 16:24 (eleven years ago) link
the only part of PT that doesn't really make any sense no matter how you spin it is Mel's "I don't care if this whole place is a series of deathtraps, my ass is going swimming" determination
― far too much asshole flesh (DJP), Thursday, 2 May 2013 16:27 (eleven years ago) link
Mel is a complete moron, I don't expect her character to make any sense.
― The last of the famous international Greyjoys (Nicole), Thursday, 2 May 2013 17:44 (eleven years ago) link
this is the case of every Cartmel story* bar Remembrance, which still has to deal with all-video and Keff McCulloch
so with that said, Happiness Patrol is amazing and kid-me was a fool to hate the Kandyman *nb: Time And The Rani and Silver Nemesis were JNT commissions
― charli.xlsx (sic), Thursday, 2 May 2013 22:59 (eleven years ago) link
ha ha, the comments at Wife In Space are full of people who also hated it as kids loving it on rewatch 26 years later
― charli.xlsx (sic), Friday, 3 May 2013 06:47 (eleven years ago) link
Would've been a very average episode in the Tennant era, but now its straightforwardness was rather refreshing. I liked the sepia sequence.
― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Saturday, 4 May 2013 18:27 (eleven years ago) link
Diana Rigg was great. The death of Mr Sweet reminded me of Eraserhead.
― DavidM, Saturday, 4 May 2013 18:35 (eleven years ago) link
Really enjoyed that quite a lot. Diana Rigg's character reminded me go Harrison Chase, for reasons unclear.
― Troughton-masked Replicant (aldo), Saturday, 4 May 2013 20:59 (eleven years ago) link
that whistleblower blog has been taken down fwiw
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 4 May 2013 22:20 (eleven years ago) link
against my judgement we're sort of perfunctorily watching this, probably because we feel compelled to stick with television even when it loses us
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 4 May 2013 22:30 (eleven years ago) link
so far the following tropes that we're sick of have occurred:
- people doing something obviously alienish that makes it clear they're aliens even though we're supposed to be intrigued (this week the salt down the blouse thing)- aliens talking to other aliens- the doctor bursting in in full bumbling clown mode (which his only mode)
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 4 May 2013 22:38 (eleven years ago) link
when the doctor emerges bright red and like dying or whatever, we're supposed to be concerned/worried/saddened/whatever (and we would be if it were ecclestone or tennant), but because this doctor has only one mode (bumbling clown) we both just fully expected him to do a lol stumble down the hall or something
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 4 May 2013 22:40 (eleven years ago) link
also, fuck strax
Harsh AA. That was an enjoyable episode.
― Jason Dowd, Saturday, 4 May 2013 22:47 (eleven years ago) link
* eccleston
also, before sic comes in and schools me about the history of doctor who, the specific problem i have with aliens talking to other aliens is that it's a reduced experience for the viewer watching two beings with inflexible prosthetic heads (strax and that lizard woman thing who i don't care what she is because i'm just annoyed now) share a scene when basically everything they can deliver has to happen through speech or smiles alone (and tbh this is a further example of my criticism of this year's scripts being so *verbal*), and so you're left with basically deep space nine type scenes
xp we're now two thirds through and we're both bored out of our minds
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 4 May 2013 22:52 (eleven years ago) link
i mean there are clearly some great ideas in this episode, but it's all executed with the usual lack of light/shade in the production and scripts full of *words* and one-dimensional doctor (now 100% predictably) anger-bumbling his way to saving the universe
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 4 May 2013 22:55 (eleven years ago) link
and of course the score telling us exactly what to feel at any given moment
see, right now the doctor's 7/8 theme is going so obv he has won
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 4 May 2013 22:58 (eleven years ago) link
i also hate daft punk and comedy
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 4 May 2013 22:59 (eleven years ago) link
old woman falls to her death, doctor pulls comedy face, says 'ouch'
i just
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 4 May 2013 23:01 (eleven years ago) link
next week: base under siege again
fucking hell
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 4 May 2013 23:05 (eleven years ago) link
we're supposed to care about who clara ~is~ but she's been in the show for like five minutes and doesn't even do anything half the time (and there's not even any doctor/companion chemistry to help that along)
if clara fell down a mine and died forever i would probably pull a comedy doctor comedy face and say 'ouch'
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 4 May 2013 23:12 (eleven years ago) link
The lizard woman is a Silurian and therefore a native of Earth, not an alien, and directly tied to the history of the show going back to 1970.
― far too much asshole flesh (DJP), Sunday, 5 May 2013 03:09 (eleven years ago) link
okay, the prosthetic is where i was going
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 5 May 2013 03:12 (eleven years ago) link
let's say 'not human', if that works
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 5 May 2013 03:13 (eleven years ago) link
deep space nine is awesome fyi
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 5 May 2013 03:52 (eleven years ago) link
the phantom menace would have been a better analogy except they manage to convey bugger-all emotion without prosthetic interference
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 5 May 2013 03:56 (eleven years ago) link
None of this actually makes a difference really.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 5 May 2013 12:00 (eleven years ago) link
lol of course it doesn't, don't you recognize sad old fan flexing when you see it?
― far too much asshole flesh (DJP), Sunday, 5 May 2013 12:36 (eleven years ago) link
I liked this one, for once. Nice to not have the doctor in it for the first bit.
― kinder, Sunday, 5 May 2013 13:42 (eleven years ago) link
and scripts full of *words*
lol
― charli.xlsx (sic), Sunday, 5 May 2013 14:52 (eleven years ago) link
This was good for a laugh, I thought. I'm not usually keen on the 'funny' eps - and I'm not one who thinks the Victorian detective team deserve their own spin-off series - but this was breezy enough and had one or two great lines, and Diana Rigg was wonderful (good to see Rachel Stirling too). I liked the brutal ways the villains were killed off, as well as the fact that they were straightforwardly villainous - and not 'misunderstood' or lovelorn or whatever else. And for all of its knockabout frivolity - or, perhaps, because of it - it felt strangely like a Tom Baker era episode.
― DavidM, Sunday, 5 May 2013 15:29 (eleven years ago) link
my fave episode this season (though i liked the tardis one and the ghost one), even though you knew it was coming the leech reveal was fantastic, laffed hard at 'she's a lizard', rigg was wonderful. less doctor would've been nice (would've been nice to see victorian interspecies lesbian detectives kicking ass instead of just popping up 'looking for this' and holding up giant bottle of v8) but still happy it wasn't a nearly doctorless episode like 'blink' or something.
― balls, Sunday, 5 May 2013 20:16 (eleven years ago) link
the music emotion cues remain an abomination though and the way they've halfassed establishing clara and her relationship w/ the doctor (even though it's ostensibly the arc for this season or whatever) really prevents an episode like this from being what it could be.
― balls, Sunday, 5 May 2013 20:22 (eleven years ago) link
Would replace Clara with Jenny Flint in a heartbeat. Won't happen but it would be nice to have a companion who wasn't from Earth in the present day.
― Deafening silence (DL), Sunday, 5 May 2013 22:38 (eleven years ago) link
I even would replace Clara with Ada, who was way more interesting and had more rapport with Doctor in one episode than Clara has had in all of her episodes up until now.
― The last of the famous international Greyjoys (Nicole), Sunday, 5 May 2013 23:28 (eleven years ago) link
I'm pretty forgiving of Dr Who but that was ome of the stupidest TV I've seen in a long time. If the Lesbo lizard and killer potato show was Moffat's idea for a spinoff then the BBC still has some sense.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Monday, 6 May 2013 01:38 (ten years ago) link
the Lesbo lizard and killer potato show
amazing
― great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 6 May 2013 02:28 (ten years ago) link
"Lesbo"?
I miss Rory personally.
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 6 May 2013 03:06 (ten years ago) link
If the Lesbo lizard and killer potato show was Moffat's idea for a spinoff then the BBC still has some sense.
Moffatt only brought them back at all due to audience reaction and has no interest in (or time to make!) a spin-off
― charli.xlsx (sic), Monday, 6 May 2013 03:17 (ten years ago) link