New episode! I really enjoyed it, got very tense a few times. And I love the weird marines who are also all priests aesthetic when it crops up
Yup. definitely a fun episode.
Next week looks like it might be back to the children of the toymaker theme?
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Celeste [Switch] - She'll be wrestling with inner demons when she comes...
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
edited May 18
BOOM!
woah, new companion appears early! Do we reckon she's gonna be playing this same character or is it a Freema Agyeman in Army of Ghosts / Karen Gillan in Fires of Pompeii type situation where the actor just impressed them and she's gonna be back as an unrelated new character?
She had a lot of screentime compared to those other two though, be a bit weird if she's not playing Mundy next season...
Also fuck me that was the best episode in a long while.
I felt that everyone was holding the idiot ball starting from the git-go. Then there's the AI and algorithm nonsense to tie to real-world goings on which hit like "How are you doing fellow children". And the solution to everything was a literal deus ex machina. It was a shallow, half-hearted idea that didn't go anywhere with the implications. It kept the episode in mostly one location like it was from trying to save on budget. Even the big reveal was telegraphed shortly after the inciting incident.
In short, Stephen Moffat needs to be kept as far away from the Dr Who writing room as humanly possible.
All opinions are my own and in no way reflect that of my employer.
Well, I guess the doctor's body can hack computers now.
I don't think he did?
the mine was converting his body into some kinda energy for the explosion, but the hack came from the meat tube remains of John in his hand. John just travelled through the Doctor, then through the projectile IV line into the ambulance.
Well, I guess the doctor's body can hack computers now.
I don't think he did?
the mine was converting his body into some kinda energy for the explosion, but the hack came from the meat tube remains of John in his hand. John just travelled through the Doctor, then through the projectile IV line into the ambulance.
Like holding a Van Der Graaf generator and shocking somebody else
[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
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Zilla36021st Century. |She/Her|Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered Userregular
Well, I guess the doctor's body can hack computers now.
I don't think he did?
the mine was converting his body into some kinda energy for the explosion, but the hack came from the meat tube remains of John in his hand. John just travelled through the Doctor, then through the projectile IV line into the ambulance.
Like holding a Van Der Graaf generator and shocking somebody else
Well, I guess the doctor's body can hack computers now.
Perhaps it's cyber-nanites left over from when they tried to assimilate them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbB3MKRpn_s
Cut to a close up shot of Ncuti's brain making 56k modem noises 😂:
Well, way to get Ruby killed. Fortunatley, the gun was on a lower setting.
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
Ep 4
I was expecting something along the lines of the Algorithm detecting that detonating the doctor would result in "unacceptably high casualties" and deactivate the mine with 1 sec on the clock but I guess that's not schmaltzy enough
Pretty good, though with episodes like that I tend to like them according to how tightly they obey the rules the episode sets up to resolve themselves. This one was a bit woolly but yeah, pretty good.
Pretty good, though with episodes like that I tend to like them according to how tightly they obey the rules the episode sets up to resolve themselves. This one was a bit woolly but yeah, pretty good.
The resolution was very hand-wavy but, I mean, we’re not going to have a mid-season episode end with The Doctor and his only companion getting vaporized.
Kind of a Moffat microcosm in a single episode: strong character dynamics, some rather casual cruelty, absolute disdain for the plot math that explains how we get to the resolution.
I’m not really a fan of his at all (I think he needs to have his fucking head examined for how often he goes to the Let’s Kill People Brutally for Plot Reasons well), but this is definitely one of his better efforts.
Chibnall has muddied the waters worse than Cartmell with the 7th Doctor but overall he's still a Time Lord, he has their physiology etc. Thing is while he (conveniently) looks human, I can believe that any body capable of totally global cellular regeneration is packing a lot of energy.
I really hope they put a lid on this 'Doctor is a god' thing. The whole thing works better if he's just 'a madman in a box'. The triumph of a clever mortal over immortals is just a more interesting tale imo.
As the father of a young girl this episode felt a little too targeted to hit me in the feels. Which it did like a nuke. So I'm compromised.
But it was very much a Moffat episode in that as usual it was a Fairy Tale masquerading as science fiction. I'm not sure you can analyse Moffat's work logically as all his plots fall apart. He cares about feelings not facts.
So it was a surprisingly tense, full of feelings and magical nonsense episode - pretty standard Moffat. Ymmv based on how much you need plots to make sense.
Most of the best Moffat episodes for me hold up really well in the moment, exploring the ramifications of a single hypothesis. This is the formula for Empty Child, Blink, Silence in the Library, etc. and it is almost always a hit for me. And they fall down in fridge logic analysis later, but I accept that; they aren't hard sci-fi but a Twilight Zone episode.
I think Boom fits pretty well into that mold, and I'm happy.
Not sure if I just am inoculated against Moffat's patterns due to repeated exposure, but this one didn't do it for me.
That 5 minute timer, for example, seemed to be not so much 5 minutes as "however long is left in the episode", and yeah that's how most timers like that work, but when every timer Moffat uses ends up being Zeno's Coutdown Timer Paradox, it kinda deflates the supposed tension for me.
Also, maybe it was just me, but that kid just seemed too incredibly detached from events surrounding her. Like, sure, she is looking for her dad, but she's standing in the center of a crater in a war zone with a man clearly on a land mine and people with guns yelling and shouting and clearly freaking out, and she's just gleefully scrolling through a photo album??
I like the suggestion that the algorithm would decide the explosion resulting from the Doctor would mess with the money and shut it down. Stupid, but at least it would be in line with the established premise of the setting. So would've the Doctor's original solution of having them surrender. But no, instead we get "AI rendering of a dead dad's last message to his daughter is somehow able to travel from the hologram projector, through the Doctor, through the tazer wires, to the Ambulance and hack the software somehow? Like that's some damn good adaptive AI software, far better than the software on the Ambulance that's...written by the same company?
Like, clearly, Moffat wanted the "father to father" connection and have that drive the solution, but also desperately wanted to kill the dad too because he thinks killing characters drives drama apparently, and just put both pieces in rather than bothering to resolve the conflicting story bits. Feels like he's done that several times before, but I can't think of a good example offhand.
It's a shame, too. There are really good elements here. The concept of them having unwittingly triggered the capitalist algorithm to drive the ideal casualty ratio is a really good one, a great way to set up a mystery and a revealed answer that also sets up a good morality point without being all that heavy handed about it. Actually using that, either directly or twisted, in the resolution, would've helped so much; instead, it just stands as an odd dangling detail that only serves for the Doctor to lecture them for a bit on the morality (and in such a skilled manner, since all that passion apparently didn't trigger any adrenaline or heart rate changes to trigger the landmine.)
Ultimately I'm left unhappy because it feels like there were so many base pieces here for an amazing episode, but they were just left there rather than composing them into a cohesive whole.
So yeah. Once again I took a lot of words to explain what in the end took someone else far less to say (Raziel in this case: Moffat cares about feelings, not facts).
"Let's take a look at the scores! The girls are at the square root of Pi, while the boys are still at a crudely drawn picture of a duck. Clearly, it's anybody's game!"
My issue with boom is the child actor was definitely supposed to be much younger like 5-6 but she was closer to 11!or 12 and it made her scenes feel very off
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Yup. definitely a fun episode.
Next week looks like it might be back to the children of the toymaker theme?
Celeste [Switch] - She'll be wrestling with inner demons when she comes...
She had a lot of screentime compared to those other two though, be a bit weird if she's not playing Mundy next season...
Also fuck me that was the best episode in a long while.
In short, Stephen Moffat needs to be kept as far away from the Dr Who writing room as humanly possible.
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Midnight's my favorite, but all of the other best episodes are Moffat ones.
I don't think he did?
Cut to a close up shot of Ncuti's brain making 56k modem noises 😂:
not a barnstormer, but fine overall
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I don’t think he’s a Time Lord at all, actually, thanks to Chibs’ many retcons.
At this point we don’t know what he is. He could be a God on the same level as Maestro and Toymaker.
His special abilities were never really Time Lord abilities.
That was why the Time Lords eventually did not bother to restrain him and he did so much good that they gave him more regenerations.
What the hell have you done, Ruby!?
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The resolution was very hand-wavy but, I mean, we’re not going to have a mid-season episode end with The Doctor and his only companion getting vaporized.
Kind of a Moffat microcosm in a single episode: strong character dynamics, some rather casual cruelty, absolute disdain for the plot math that explains how we get to the resolution.
I’m not really a fan of his at all (I think he needs to have his fucking head examined for how often he goes to the Let’s Kill People Brutally for Plot Reasons well), but this is definitely one of his better efforts.
I really hope they put a lid on this 'Doctor is a god' thing. The whole thing works better if he's just 'a madman in a box'. The triumph of a clever mortal over immortals is just a more interesting tale imo.
So it was a surprisingly tense, full of feelings and magical nonsense episode - pretty standard Moffat. Ymmv based on how much you need plots to make sense.
I think Boom fits pretty well into that mold, and I'm happy.
That 5 minute timer, for example, seemed to be not so much 5 minutes as "however long is left in the episode", and yeah that's how most timers like that work, but when every timer Moffat uses ends up being Zeno's Coutdown Timer Paradox, it kinda deflates the supposed tension for me.
Also, maybe it was just me, but that kid just seemed too incredibly detached from events surrounding her. Like, sure, she is looking for her dad, but she's standing in the center of a crater in a war zone with a man clearly on a land mine and people with guns yelling and shouting and clearly freaking out, and she's just gleefully scrolling through a photo album??
I like the suggestion that the algorithm would decide the explosion resulting from the Doctor would mess with the money and shut it down. Stupid, but at least it would be in line with the established premise of the setting. So would've the Doctor's original solution of having them surrender. But no, instead we get "AI rendering of a dead dad's last message to his daughter is somehow able to travel from the hologram projector, through the Doctor, through the tazer wires, to the Ambulance and hack the software somehow? Like that's some damn good adaptive AI software, far better than the software on the Ambulance that's...written by the same company?
Like, clearly, Moffat wanted the "father to father" connection and have that drive the solution, but also desperately wanted to kill the dad too because he thinks killing characters drives drama apparently, and just put both pieces in rather than bothering to resolve the conflicting story bits. Feels like he's done that several times before, but I can't think of a good example offhand.
It's a shame, too. There are really good elements here. The concept of them having unwittingly triggered the capitalist algorithm to drive the ideal casualty ratio is a really good one, a great way to set up a mystery and a revealed answer that also sets up a good morality point without being all that heavy handed about it. Actually using that, either directly or twisted, in the resolution, would've helped so much; instead, it just stands as an odd dangling detail that only serves for the Doctor to lecture them for a bit on the morality (and in such a skilled manner, since all that passion apparently didn't trigger any adrenaline or heart rate changes to trigger the landmine.)
Ultimately I'm left unhappy because it feels like there were so many base pieces here for an amazing episode, but they were just left there rather than composing them into a cohesive whole.
So yeah. Once again I took a lot of words to explain what in the end took someone else far less to say (Raziel in this case: Moffat cares about feelings, not facts).
On average, this thread was drifting in space
@Krathoon will create the new thread
@Phoenix-D is backup