New Doctor Who

[Thinkingstuff]

Is it just me or does anyone else find the Ood a bit irritating now?

I think they would be more interesting if the Devil Archetype inbeded some of himself in their collective and they went on a rampage killing star systems. That would be cool. However, I can't imagine a race that evolved siting in a circle singing songs with their brain in their hands. I think preditors would have done away with them long ago.

 

[ccrobinson]

Is it just me or does anyone else find the Ood a bit irritating now?

I don't think they're irritating, but RTD misused them. There was absolutely no reason given about how they are able to do what they do. They have the power they do because of RTD's lazy writing.

 

[ccrobinson]

Thinkingstuff, I learned this morning on another forum that all 5 specials (The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead, The Waters of Mars, and The End of Time Parts 1 & 2) will be released on a complete DVD set on February 2.

 

[ccrobinson]

Here's the explanation about why Moffat's production team is calling Matt Smith's first season "Series 1" instead of "Series 5".

Many fans have expressed bewilderment at the titling of the Matt Smith run - given that the first Russell T Davies’-stewarded series of Doctor Who was called “Series 1″ and starred Christopher Eccleston, and Davies’ second series (starring David Tennant) was labelled “Series 2″ it made sense for many fans to call the first run of Matt Smith’s time in the TARDIS “Series 5″.

Not so, says Moffat:

“It’s Series Thirty-One of Doctor Who, and it’s Series One of Matt Smith’s Doctor, Those are both real numbers. I submit that ‘Series Five of Doctor Who’ means absolutely nothing unless you really believe that Matt Smith is the third Doctor. Everyone knows he’s the Eleventh Doctor so that means it’s definitely not ‘Series Five’. Whichever number you choose, ‘Series Five’ is the one that’s flawed.”

So, I guess we call Matt's series S1/S31 and CE's 1st season is properly knowns as S1/S27.

 

[ccrobinson]

Since we already have this thread, I copied thinkingstuff's post here.

I finally got to see the Water's of Mars and both parts of the End of Time. The Water's fo Mars got to me a bit because the doctor uncharacteristically enforces his will over the "rules of time". Ending up accepting a role as his own deity by proclaiming "Time Lord Victorius" reminicent of the Roman Emperors' Roma Victus. It seemed such a minor incident to finally make the doctor tip that it didn't seem in character for me.
The End of time also seemed that the doctor was also uncharicteristically whinny about dieing or regenerating. Finally, the doctor's old self shown through when he said it would be an "honor" to trade places with Donna Noble's Father.

BTW whats the deal with Mickey and Martha getting Married and why were they fighting Centaurans?

Well, it's very much in the Doctor's character to save people from dying if possible. He knew he wasn't supposed to do what he did, but listening to them suffer and die, especially since he was listening to what was going on with Dr. Erlich, caused him to snap.

That scene with Dr. Erlich dying was extremely well done, btw. One of the best scenes in the entirety of DT's time as the Doctor.

See my post above about 10's speech. I hated every second of it.

Let's not start in on Mickey and Martha. Most everybody who posts on syfy's forums hated that RTD had those 2 get married. Want to know why he did it? RTD did that because he thought the Smith and Jones joke was too good to pass up.

:BangHead:

It's Sontarans and I don't understand why they were fighting the Sontarans either.

I don't really care for how RTD ended up leaving the Doctor's Companions, especially Donna. Donna deserved so much more than what she got.

:BangHead:

 

[ccrobinson]

In case there's anybody out here paying attention to this thread, I've got some goodies for you.

Here's a clip from The Eleventh Hour. What's The Eleventh Hour, you ask? It's the name of Matt Smith's first episode as the Doctor.

If you haven't seen it, here's the Season 5 trailer.

Here's another trailer from the Beeb.

The 2nd trailer says the season starts on Easter, but it actually starts on April 17th. AFAIC, it can't come too quickly.

 

[ccrobinson]

I stand corrected. Season 5 will start on April 3rd, not the 17th.

New trailer.

 

[Pete]

I still haven't got around to ranting about last 3 or so specials here have I? Doubt I will....oh well Figured better just cruise through to say after seeing Matt in the TARDIS for that last minute or so of End Of Time I'm looking forward to seeing what he does as 11. Roll on season 31

 

[ccrobinson]

I think Matt's couple of minutes onscreen was the best part of TEoT.

 

[ccrobinson]

If you've been concerned at all about Doctor Who's new season, you shouldn't be. Matt Smith was brilliant. The Eleventh Hour is fantastic. As a poster in the Syfy forum put it, we may be entering a Golden Age of Doctor Who. This era of Moffat and Smith showed so much promise in their first story out.

Here's a ranking of all the 1st stories for each Doctor, minus An Unearthly Child because a) it wasn't a regeneration story and b) it's really in a class by itself. I debated about whether to include Rose or not and decided to. It's pretty clear he regenerated almost immediately prior to meeting her, though he did make a couple of stops at Krakatoa and the launching of the Titanic before they met.

Eleventh Hour
Christmas Invasion
Rose
Robot
Castrovalva
Spearhead in Space
Time and the Rani
The Enemy Within
Twin Dilemma

Unranked
Power of the Daleks - It was lost long ago and I've never seen it.


While I think DT was brilliant in Christmas Invasion, I liked Eleventh Hour better. Not because of the actor, but because the story was simply better. It's going to be a fantastic season.

 

[Thinkingstuff]

If you've been concerned at all about Doctor Who's new season, you shouldn't be. Matt Smith was brilliant. The Eleventh Hour is fantastic. As a poster in the Syfy forum put it, we may be entering a Golden Age of Doctor Who. This era of Moffat and Smith showed so much promise in their first story out.

Here's a ranking of all the 1st stories for each Doctor, minus An Unearthly Child because a) it wasn't a regeneration story and b) it's really in a class by itself. I debated about whether to include Rose or not and decided to. It's pretty clear he regenerated almost immediately prior to meeting her, though he did make a couple of stops at Krakatoa and the launching of the Titanic before they met.

Eleventh Hour
Christmas Invasion
Rose
Robot
Castrovalva
Spearhead in Space
Time and the Rani
The Enemy Within
Twin Dilemma

Unranked
Power of the Daleks - It was lost long ago and I've never seen it.


While I think DT was brilliant in Christmas Invasion, I liked Eleventh Hour better. Not because of the actor, but because the story was simply better. It's going to be a fantastic season.

Thats good to note. I'll wait until I can get the box set at the end of the year.

 

[Matt Black]

Matt Smith's first two stories have been brilliant. He is much less human than DT (witness his rant in the 2nd story, The Beast Below: "No-one human is allowed to talk to me right now!"). Although he's modelled himself largely on Troughton's Doctor (and reminds me of him) he also reminds me of Tom Baker's character with his other-worldliness and general 'weirdness'.

 

[ccrobinson]

Let's talk about Victory of the Daleks.

I've done this with spoiler fonts for those of you who haven't seen the episode yet.


*** spoilers ***
Stop me if you've heard this before.

The Doctor comes face to face with his oldest and deadliest enemy. However, instead of the mighty Dalek Empire seen in The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, we see the beatup Daleks like they are in Daleks in Manhattan, only worse. I'm reminded of this line from Revenge of the Cybermen.

"You've no home planet, no influence, nothing. You're just a bunch of pathetic tin soldiers skulking about the galaxy in an ancient spaceship!"

I've only watched it once, so it's unclear to me where these Daleks come from. Regardless, they're beat up, decrepit and on their last legs. We've seen this story before, right? The last of the Daleks have a plan to do something, but the Doctor will dispatch them and one of them will somehow find a way to get away and survive. Then, we do the same thing for the next story. Lather, rinse and repeat.

Not so fast, my friend.

This story was titled Victory of the Daleks. It's not an ironic title. They get a victory here over the Doctor. And the victory isn't just that they survive. They survive and are stronger than they've been since The Time War (Stolen Earth/Journey's End notwithstanding).

I was tired of the Daleks after Journey's End. Never wanted to see them again. Now, I've become interested in seeing them again. I've become interested in seeing where Moffat is going with them. I don't know whether the Daleks are coming back again this season or not, but there's no question in my mind that we'll be seeing them in Season 6.

Best line of the story, and maybe the season: "Yes, it's a jammy dodger, but I was promised tea."

There are several questions to be answered and I have no guesses as to the answers.

#1, why doesn't Amy recognize the Daleks?
#2, going back to The Eleventh Hour, why was Rory's hospital badge dated 1990, but the technology the Doctor used was from 2010?
#3, what's the Pandorica?
#4, is Amy causing the cracks, or are the cracks following her? Or, since the crack looks the same, is it the same crack everytime?
#5, again going back to The Eleventh Hour, where are Amy's parents? Where is her aunt?

*** spoilers end ***

If The Eleventh Hour gets a grade of A or even A+, Victory of the Daleks gets a solid B, maybe a B+. Looking forward to Time of the Angels and more of Alex Kingston, aka Professor River Song.

 

[ccrobinson]

Watched The Time of Angels for the 2nd time tonight.

It is so good. This is the kind of episode we were hoping to see when Moffat was announced as new showrunner. Excellent in every way.

I would write more about it, but instead, I choose to quote Dr. River Song.


"Spoilers."


:smilewinkgrin:

 

[Matt Black]

No ducks on the duck pond either...

 

[ccrobinson]

Indeed.

I can hardly wait to find out what it means.

If you're wondering what Matt and I are referring to, we're referring to a line from Flesh and Stone. As much as I loved The Eleventh Hour, this 2 parter is the best of S5 so far. I won't spoil it, but Flesh and Stone advances the story that was introduced in The Eleventh Hour.

*** spoilers ***
After the Doctor leaves Amy with the Clerics, he seems to come back and talk to her. However, this Doctor has his coat on. The problem is that he left his coat with the Angels. This is either an egregious mistake on Moffat's part, or it's something that's going to happen in the Doctor's future, and it's so bad that he's risking crossing his own timeline to talk to Amy.

Doctor: You need to remember what I told you when you were 7.
Amy: What did you tell me?
Doctor: That's the point. I can't tell you now. You have to remember.

What did he tell her when she was 7 that's important to remember? He said several things, but I think it's this one.

Doctor: "What's your name?"
Amy: "Amelia Pond."
Doctor: "That's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond. Like a name out of a fairy tale."


Why do I think that? At the end of Flesh and Stone, we have the following exchange between the Doctor and River.

River: "We'll see each other soon. At the opening of the Pandorica."
Doctor (laughs, then whispers in her ear): That's a fairy tale."
River: "Aren't we all?"

The Doctor clearly doesn't believe her about the Pandorica, but she says she remembers it well.

*** end spoilers ***

I have gone on record as saying that S3 was the best season of Doctor Who. I think that by the time we've seen all of S5, it will have surpassed S3.

 

[Matt Black]

Agreed; at first I just thought they were very sloppy continuity errors but there were too many and they were too obvious for that.

Latest episode screened here, Amy's Choice is excellent; I won't give any spoilers, just say it's very PoMo...

 

[ccrobinson]

I can't figure out what you mean by PoMo.

Watched Amy's Choice for the 2nd time tonight. Brilliant.

 

[Matt Black]

Just the whole 'questioning of reality' thing.

You'll like the next one, I think; without any real spoilers, let's just say that Moffat has revived a classic Pertwee enemy...

 

[ccrobinson]

By my count, that's 2 old enemies that Moffat has brilliantly rebooted, including taking a relatively new enemy and making them more malicious than the first time around. I've read some things that suggest that some people are having a hard time letting go of the RTD era and fully embracing the Moffat era, and it just sort of saddens me. Midnight was the last really good story of the RTD era. Every single episode of S5 has been better than every episode from Turn Left through The End of Time. Why anybody would want to continue watching the nonsense that RTD kept bringing at the end is beyond me.