That or The Rani, but I love that we are all totally discounting a new character entirely.
I'm feeling that it'll be a new character. Unless Moffat disregards the Rani's character entirely, as Butler said, this character doesn't seem very Rani. And for once it actually seems like we're done with River.
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
Clara backstory,
I'm glad they brought up the original phone call. It always bugged me they never dealt with who gave her the Tardis phone number.
That or The Rani, but I love that we are all totally discounting a new character entirely.
I'm feeling that it'll be a new character. Unless Moffat disregards the Rani's character entirely, as Butler said, this character doesn't seem very Rani. And for once it actually seems like we're done with River.
iTunes or Amazon has it. Not sure if it's part of Hulu's BBC America package or not.
Loved this episode. Loved the little call-backs to the previous regenerations, esp. Four. Loved that
Clara struggled to deal with the new face of the Doctor, and loved the bit "I'm not your boyfriend." "I never thought you were." "I didn't say it was your mistake." Man. That was a nice bit.
It is nice that they acknowledged that it isn't just the assistants mooning over the Doctor; that he did lead them on a bit, even it was more for the purpose of convincing himself he was human(ish) than actually getting them into bed.
very nearly a full episode about how the new doctor was absolutely and thankfully not going to continue any of the romance subplots from prior seasons, having Missy call him her boyfriend almost made me glare holes into my tv.
I'm going to have to disagree with one of your points there
From what I've seen, the Fourth had a pretty bad habit of not paying attention to where Sarah Jane was and leaving her behind.
I think theres a difference
between losing a companion because shes just too damn nosy and doesnt know to stick with the alien vs deliberately leaving one behind a locked door and surrounded with no means to escape.
very nearly a full episode about how the new doctor was absolutely and thankfully not going to continue any of the romance subplots from prior seasons, having Missy call him her boyfriend almost made me glare holes into my tv.
Actually hes making it clear he isnt picking up companions for romance. River wasnt really a companion and she suggested he was more then eager to steal her from prison occasionally. I kinda get the feeling Time Lords have the equivlent of Pon-Far.
Stercus, Stercus, Stercus, Morituri Sum
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Quoththe RavenMiami, FL FOR REALRegistered Userregular
I did not really love the episode. Especially the beginning. I'm glad Clara got to step up a bit and showcase some smarts but at the same time, it felt weird.
It was set up, sure, but the idea that the Doctor would straight up leave her there and trust her to figure something out, or already know about the backup, or expect that the bad guy wouldn't just kill her... He came back, yes, but it still felt creepy overall. Scripted to create tension without having real logic behind it. I know that the whole show is like that to a certain extent, but before it felt like they Doctor and the companions were in it together and while he would figure a thing out, it wasn't really part of his plan to totally leave them in the dark in mortal danger. I'm sure it's happened before, duh, so I don't know why this time it felt so off to me. And I know Clara is supposed to be really smart, so him relying on her smarts may be perfectly reasonable in some sense, but eh.
Was it established that she doesn't remember anything from the other Claras because otherwise what the heck, she should be an old hand at this stuff.
The fairly valid assumption that Vestra would not have sent her into the resturant without some kind of backup, which she did. So you could say that the doctor assumed that she could call for help if she needed it, she just was trying to get as much information from the guy before doing it. while that MIGHT be a valid tactic, it was presented as much more of a coldly calculating guess. He even mentioned that to her before she calls for help...still think it was a less then cool thing for him to do especially since he didnt say anything about it as he walked away from the sealed door.
Stercus, Stercus, Stercus, Morituri Sum
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Quoththe RavenMiami, FL FOR REALRegistered Userregular
I mean
Moffat had to stick in an entire memory sequence to justify her decision to stand up to the bad guy, which was interesting but odd?The idea that we know so little about Clara, or that the action would otherwise feel too unbelievable... She could have alluded to the memory in dialogue somehow, maybe. I don't even know. None of it really felt cohesive and logical. It felt like Moffat knew what had to happen and was scrambling to make it work.
And then you have good stuff like him talking about how he didn't frown those lines into his face, the attack eyebrows, and it's like two different writers are involved. Blah.
Don't get me started on the opening stuff. I get that commenting on physical features makes sense for a dude who just changed them, but come on. Really.
GustavFriend of GoatsSomewhere in the OzarksRegistered Userregular
edited August 2014
I really enjoyed leaning more into the horror tone for this one. I rather hope it keeps this up and goes for a Hinchliffe era reprise. Ben Wheatley was such a stellar choice on director. I think this might have been the best directed episode in a long long while. It'll be neat to see him do a Dalek episode next.
Also, I might be alone in this, but I really enjoyed the episode being a lot slower. The show was starting to cram way too many ideas into too small of a runtime for quite awhile now. So I really dug the more leisurely pacing here.
And Peter Capaldi nailed it of course.
I'm totally throwing my hat into the Missy as the Master ring. The Master making an army of pissed off AI to defeat the Doctor would be a right classic plan.
Spoilers on future episode titles/ some set pics.
With Robots of Sherwood, the Cybermen, and some robot looking baddies in the trailer you are building up a lot of mechanical/digital minded enemies for Missy to take to the promise land
Gustav on
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
Clara the teacher.
I loved that flashback scene. As a teacher I just looked at it and laughed. That was super accurate.
says he's where he'll always be: At her back. And he was. She was scared he wouldn't be, but she was right. He was at her back. He more left the room for a second than abandoned her.
Weirdly for being an episode about the new regeneration I think most of my highlights came from all the scenes with Lady Vastra and crew and Clara's big speech after the flashback.
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Quoththe RavenMiami, FL FOR REALRegistered Userregular
says he's where he'll always be: At her back. And he was. She was scared he wouldn't be, but she was right. He was at her back. He more left the room for a second than abandoned her.
Well, if he wasn't then that would have been quite the shocker, wouldn't it? But he straight up said he was leaving because it didn't make sense for both of them to die. He didn't say "I'll be back" or "give me a minute" or anything like that. So her faith in him was entirely based on who he was before, from her perspective. And if you follow that train, it sort of makes it weird for her to walk away from him later, since he's basically proven himself, even if he did then run off again to convince a robot to commit suicide.
Attention Nyssa fans: Charlie Jane at io9 has written a pretty plausible story outline that addresses the terrible waste of Nyssa during her time on-screen. It is my new head canon.
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
non-spoilery observations:
- in general I feel like this show has always put me in the position of agreeing with the broad strokes of creative decisions even when I hate the execution. I think Davies and Moffat are both good producers in that sense, even when the actual writing fails them. In this episode's case, addressing the Doctor's new "age" head-on was absolutely the right call, because - like it or not - it potentially marks one of the biggest shifts in the show's approach since it came back, and the course change had to be signaled. On the other hand, in terms of the actual episode, I thought it made Clara seem kind of unpleasant and peevish for a long stretch, which struck me as doubly weird since she has more experience of multiple Doctors than most companions.
- Capaldi is a talented actor who wanted this role so I never really had any doubts about his ability, so it wasn't a surprise as such to see that he was good, but I'm looking forward to getting a better sense of his character - it came through a bit there at the end, but not quite as much as Smith or Tennant's debuts.
- The scene with the tramp was a definite highlight, both entertaining and kind of squirmy and uncomfortable (but deliberately so). "I probably blame the English."
- I feel like a recurring problem in Moffat's scripts has been a weird dearth of characters. In a 75-minute episode, which is barely shorter than the full length of one of the classic show's 4-parters, the speaking roles of any significance are the two main characters, their three sidekicks, the villain, and a tramp (and plot arc person at the end, I guess). That is literally it. There's not even really any reason this episode had to take place in Victorian London; the setting is entirely nominal and doesn't play into the story or the action at all.
- All that said, I actually quite enjoyed the final conversation between the Doctor and the villain. It was genuinely gladdening to see an episode feature a sustained argument, and that's part of why I think the show suffers so much for its ironclad insistence on having a monster every week; half the monsters can't talk and aren't really good for much more besides running from and waving the screwdriver at.
- The very end, of course, the bit at the TARDIS (keeping it vague) was well-done and quite satisfying but this show always bets the farm on the big emotional moments and I would really be happier if it just addressed some of the wobblier bits of its day-to-day execution instead of constantly racing for the big payoff finish line.
I do think the best part of the whole episode was just the conversation between the Doctor and the Half-Face Man in the escape pod. I feel like the argument could have been better written, but both actors did a pretty good job with what they were given.
I'm just going to leave this here and errrrr .... go over there, errr somewhere and do something that needs to be done.
I'm pretty sure that these sort of sentiments have already been expressed in this thread (but for some reason I'm getting a 404 navigating backwards through it), and this article just does the normal newspaper thing of blowing it out of proportion.
That is, some people thought that the kiss was gratuitous and sloppy writing by Moffat, and on recollection needing to share oxygen for 5 seconds makes no sense at all.
But that doesn't mean people aren't fine with lizbians. It just means they should find the same scene gratuitous and sloppy with different characters in the same roles.
Like for example, Jack Harkness and the Doctor. Or the Doctor and Clara. Although there were only 4 people in the room at the time, so that limits our shipping options somewhat. How well do Silurians survive low oxygen environments anyway?
I'm just going to leave this here and errrrr .... go over there, errr somewhere and do something that needs to be done.
I'm pretty sure that these sort of sentiments have already been expressed in this thread (but for some reason I'm getting a 404 navigating backwards through it), and this article just does the normal newspaper thing of blowing it out of proportion.
That is, some people thought that the kiss was gratuitous and sloppy writing by Moffat, and on recollection needing to share oxygen for 5 seconds makes no sense at all.
But that doesn't mean people aren't fine with lizbians. It just means they should find the same scene gratuitous and sloppy with different characters in the same roles.
Like for example, Jack Harkness and the Doctor. Or the Doctor and Clara. Although there were only 4 people in the room at the time, so that limits our shipping options somewhat. How well do Silurians survive low oxygen environments anyway?
Personally, my main complaint would be that just because they're gay, doesn't mean they want to bang any woman who happens to be passing by. Although I suppose this applies more to Vastra than Jenny. The rest of it, I couldn't decide whether it was clumsily trying to assert that it's cool with lesbians by having them reference in every scene that they're gay and married, or just trying to piss off the Daily Mail.
Posts
The text from twitter says "it started with a phone call and ended with a phone call"
edt: ugh how do you embed twitter comments?
Coran Attack!
Loved this episode. Loved the little call-backs to the previous regenerations, esp. Four. Loved that
wish list
Steam wishlist
Etsy wishlist
That was all 100% stalker.
I think theres a difference
Actually hes making it clear he isnt picking up companions for romance. River wasnt really a companion and she suggested he was more then eager to steal her from prison occasionally. I kinda get the feeling Time Lords have the equivlent of Pon-Far.
Was it established that she doesn't remember anything from the other Claras because otherwise what the heck, she should be an old hand at this stuff.
And then you have good stuff like him talking about how he didn't frown those lines into his face, the attack eyebrows, and it's like two different writers are involved. Blah.
Don't get me started on the opening stuff. I get that commenting on physical features makes sense for a dude who just changed them, but come on. Really.
Also, I might be alone in this, but I really enjoyed the episode being a lot slower. The show was starting to cram way too many ideas into too small of a runtime for quite awhile now. So I really dug the more leisurely pacing here.
And Peter Capaldi nailed it of course.
Spoilers on future episode titles/ some set pics.
- in general I feel like this show has always put me in the position of agreeing with the broad strokes of creative decisions even when I hate the execution. I think Davies and Moffat are both good producers in that sense, even when the actual writing fails them. In this episode's case, addressing the Doctor's new "age" head-on was absolutely the right call, because - like it or not - it potentially marks one of the biggest shifts in the show's approach since it came back, and the course change had to be signaled. On the other hand, in terms of the actual episode, I thought it made Clara seem kind of unpleasant and peevish for a long stretch, which struck me as doubly weird since she has more experience of multiple Doctors than most companions.
- Capaldi is a talented actor who wanted this role so I never really had any doubts about his ability, so it wasn't a surprise as such to see that he was good, but I'm looking forward to getting a better sense of his character - it came through a bit there at the end, but not quite as much as Smith or Tennant's debuts.
- The scene with the tramp was a definite highlight, both entertaining and kind of squirmy and uncomfortable (but deliberately so). "I probably blame the English."
- I feel like a recurring problem in Moffat's scripts has been a weird dearth of characters. In a 75-minute episode, which is barely shorter than the full length of one of the classic show's 4-parters, the speaking roles of any significance are the two main characters, their three sidekicks, the villain, and a tramp (and plot arc person at the end, I guess). That is literally it. There's not even really any reason this episode had to take place in Victorian London; the setting is entirely nominal and doesn't play into the story or the action at all.
- All that said, I actually quite enjoyed the final conversation between the Doctor and the villain. It was genuinely gladdening to see an episode feature a sustained argument, and that's part of why I think the show suffers so much for its ironclad insistence on having a monster every week; half the monsters can't talk and aren't really good for much more besides running from and waving the screwdriver at.
- The very end, of course, the bit at the TARDIS (keeping it vague) was well-done and quite satisfying but this show always bets the farm on the big emotional moments and I would really be happier if it just addressed some of the wobblier bits of its day-to-day execution instead of constantly racing for the big payoff finish line.
Everyone go watch Green Wing now.
@Tube depending when you're back would this be of use? http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/tv/iplayer-downloads-service 30 days after you download it.
In the land of the blind the one eyed man is a heretic.
I'm pretty sure that these sort of sentiments have already been expressed in this thread (but for some reason I'm getting a 404 navigating backwards through it), and this article just does the normal newspaper thing of blowing it out of proportion.
That is, some people thought that the kiss was gratuitous and sloppy writing by Moffat, and on recollection needing to share oxygen for 5 seconds makes no sense at all.
But that doesn't mean people aren't fine with lizbians. It just means they should find the same scene gratuitous and sloppy with different characters in the same roles.
Like for example, Jack Harkness and the Doctor. Or the Doctor and Clara. Although there were only 4 people in the room at the time, so that limits our shipping options somewhat. How well do Silurians survive low oxygen environments anyway?
I'm pretty sure that these sort of sentiments have already been expressed in this thread (but for some reason I'm getting a 404 navigating backwards through it), and this article just does the normal newspaper thing of blowing it out of proportion.
That is, some people thought that the kiss was gratuitous and sloppy writing by Moffat, and on recollection needing to share oxygen for 5 seconds makes no sense at all.
But that doesn't mean people aren't fine with lizbians. It just means they should find the same scene gratuitous and sloppy with different characters in the same roles.
Like for example, Jack Harkness and the Doctor. Or the Doctor and Clara. Although there were only 4 people in the room at the time, so that limits our shipping options somewhat. How well do Silurians survive low oxygen environments anyway?