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Toxxupation posted:why do they keep making doctor who then Just for you
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Dec 29, 2014 09:23
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Toxxupation posted:why do they keep making doctor who then
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Dec 29, 2014 09:31
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Bicyclops posted:Doctor Who spoiled every Dalek episode in the classic series by naming them "[Serial] of the Daleks," and it's really funny, because there are a ton of cliffhangers where the Doctor finally realizes what's going on, when they burst in and he makes a face and they start yelling "EXTERMINATE!" I scan read that as 'Smell of the Daleks' and was confused/intrigued for a moment there.
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Dec 29, 2014 15:34
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Sentinel Red posted:I scan read that as 'Smell of the Daleks' and was confused/intrigued for a moment there. Remember: Daleks don't have noses.
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Dec 29, 2014 15:39
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... ... ..... ...how do they smell
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Dec 29, 2014 15:47
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Toxxupation posted:why do they keep making doctor who then Merchandizing. Or at least that's what I've been led to believe from my Facebook feed full of pictures of Doctor Who related crap people got for Christmas. I think I need new friends.
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Dec 29, 2014 15:53
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Dabir posted:... Terrible.
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Dec 29, 2014 15:57
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Oxxidation posted:Terrible. And they cannot communicate with the Tersurons 
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Dec 29, 2014 17:19
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Tiggum posted:Tradition is not a good reason to continue doing something bad. I didn't say that they should and pretty heavily implied that they shouldn't though 
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Dec 29, 2014 18:23
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Toxxupation posted:why do they keep making doctor who then Money.
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Dec 29, 2014 23:16
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Imasalmon posted:Money. This is actually quite true. People like to talk about how a broadcaster paid through taxes isn't supposed to care about ratings, but if a show has international distribution rights, merchandise licensing, etc it's going to mean a good amount of Not TV License money which is especially lucrative. If nothing else, they can tell taxpayers, "Yeah we take your money, but we're also making a share of our own."
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Dec 30, 2014 17:34
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everyone here vote for kentucky route zero on steam today, so i can spend less money on buying it for the contest
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Dec 30, 2014 19:08
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Also everyone buy Kentucky Route Zero because it's great and also so they'll finish it.
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Dec 30, 2014 19:11
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Toxxupation posted:everyone here vote for kentucky route zero on steam today, so i can spend less money on buying it for the contest How would I go about doing that? Is it one of those Greenlight things?
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Dec 30, 2014 19:19
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And More posted:How would I go about doing that? Is it one of those Greenlight things? On the front page 
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Dec 30, 2014 19:22
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This threads denizens are more Hatoful Boyfriend kind of people 
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Dec 30, 2014 19:22
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And More posted:How would I go about doing that? Is it one of those Greenlight things? Steam sales let you vote for a title on the next round of sale items, it's about midway down the page. KR0 is half-finished and still one of the best pieces of media you'll let into your eyeballs, give it your votes.
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Dec 30, 2014 19:23
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I voted KR0 but feel bad about denying others the chance to romance pigeons.
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Dec 30, 2014 19:26
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adhuin posted:This threads denizens are more Hatoful Boyfriend kind of people That game's for the birds.
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Dec 30, 2014 19:27
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I wonder if they'll ever do a British girlfriend pigeon spinoff since the bird =bird and bird =woman pun is so obvious and the Japanese love puns, but I dunno how well that bit of slang is known worldwide. Or just have the women be chickens I guess.
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Dec 30, 2014 19:33
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counterpoint: ultimate general was the best strategy game of the year and a successor to the best strategy game of all time
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Dec 30, 2014 19:38
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I already own KR0 but voted for it anyway, because it's a great looking game and everybody raves about it. I'm waiting till it's finished before I start playing though, like the Telltale games I like the idea of playing an episode a night for a week or so and getting the full story.
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Dec 31, 2014 00:17
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I just caught up on this thread and I notice that noone seems to have pointed out or gifted Toxx the current humble Dr. Who Audiobook bundle. Did I overlook something?
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Dec 31, 2014 01:08
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NmareBfly posted:I just caught up on this thread and I notice that noone seems to have pointed out or gifted Toxx the current humble Dr. Who Audiobook bundle. Did I overlook something? i am literally too broke, post-ecksmas, to buy Toxx a bunch of colin baker audios this is my shame
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Dec 31, 2014 01:17
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As a person who loves the audio stories and has listened to more than 150 of them, I do think we should probably stop trying to force them on people who have absolutely no interest and mention them only in the context of when some of them are similar to (or the basis of) TV stories. Otherwise, I feel like you kind of come off as that person you go on an okay first date with, but then they call repeatedly a propos of nothing so often over the next couple of days that you decide there's something too desperate about them and make up a commitment to miss the second date. A really good humble bundle sale is probably worth a mention, though, because, hey, we're talking about sales in the Doctor Who thread and Big Finish is having one!
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Dec 31, 2014 01:25
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Jerusalem posted:I already own KR0 but voted for it anyway, because it's a great looking game and everybody raves about it. You will be waiting literally years dude. YEARS I'll let oxx handle this from here to convince you why you should play the game right now because that's his passion, but yeah
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Dec 31, 2014 01:51
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Toxxupation posted:You will be waiting literally years dude. YEARS I am very patient
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Dec 31, 2014 01:54
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Toxxupation posted:You will be waiting literally years dude. YEARS I've got plenty of games to play in the meantime v  v
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Dec 31, 2014 02:03
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What is KR0 even about?
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Dec 31, 2014 05:00
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Mordiceius posted:What is KR0 even about? A man must make a delivery. It's supposed to be a tragedy. Listen for the horses. Her television needs fixing. They're all underwater. He hears ghosts in the static. She sees ghosts in the lightning. The power is consolidated. Lives lashed to the bill. He's looking for the Zero. Be wary of the whiskey. He drove past himself in the dark. A dwelling is a museum. The past is an antique. Everyone has secrets. The debts keep growing. It's too late. It will only get later. Okay seriously, it's a point-and-click adventure game that's mostly sans puzzles, acting as more of an illustrated text adventure than anything. It takes place on the back roads of Kentucky, and gradually tells a magical-realist story about debt, loss, and the inescapable past. Giant Bomb did a reasonably decent quicklook of the first thirty minutes here.
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Dec 31, 2014 05:28
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NmareBfly posted:I just caught up on this thread and I notice that noone seems to have pointed out or gifted Toxx the current humble Dr. Who Audiobook bundle. Did I overlook something? Not specifically for toxx, but EVERYONE should give it a try. It's a motherloving 1 dollar for 8 hours of Daleks pew-pewing humans and other fun stuff. a perfect (and almost free) way to try out Doctor Who Audio dramas!
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Dec 31, 2014 06:53
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Oxxidation posted:They're all underwater. There All Is Aching.
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Dec 31, 2014 07:34
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adhuin posted:Not specifically for toxx, but EVERYONE should give it a try. I bought this on a whim, and I think it's absolutely excellent. There are basically eight standard Doctor Who episodes starring Collin Baker, and then there is Dalek Empire, which does not seem to feature the doctor at all, as far as I can tell. Instead you get to experience a Dalek invasion from the point of view of a bunch of normal people. Surprisingly, this makes the Daleks actually scary. Toxx obviously won't like it because he gets angry listening to fiction on the bus or something, but I highly recommend it to everybody else. The production quality is excellent, and Collin Baker is a lot of fun to listen to.
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Dec 31, 2014 07:50
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Just for clarification: The Colin Bakers ones are in the $15+ tier. Still a steal, but I haven't listened to them yet. Still in the middle of the 3rd season of the Dalek Empire (Starring David Tennant) and having a blast.
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Dec 31, 2014 08:51
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Doctor Who Series 4 and "Year of Specials" Since this review will, essentially, be covering two years of Doctor Who, it will as a matter of course be a longer writeup than is usual- which is saying a lot, considering how verbose and overwritten these things usually are anyways. Series Three was, pretty much universally, regarded as largely a disappointment; worse, still, Series Three seemed indicative of a fundamental failure of ideas from RTD's part. As has been mentioned before, there were a lot of mistakes made in the third season of the Doctor Who revival; the most egregious of those were, of course, the way that Martha Jones' character was handled over the course of her single season as primary Companion. But that wasn't the only problem with Series Three. The mistreatment of Martha also combined with the downturn in the quality of Series Three's scripts and general overall plotting to create a season that felt to me like, ultimately, "Series 2.5". This didn't just create a largely mediocre season of television; it also came across as a dire warning sign. If he was already repeating character beats and general plots within just three years, had RTD simply run out of ideas? The reversion of Martha's character into a character suffering through the exact same one-sided romance plot that Series 1 Rose had could be viewed in two ways: As I mentioned before, in the Series 3 review, perhaps RTD felt lost and simply reverted to a story beat that he felt safe executing- in other words, he was being lazy and somewhat cowardly in the specific way that he wanted to executed the third season's Companion storyline. But, on the other hand, maybe he executed the Martha storyline in that specific way because he had no other options. Viewed from one specific angle, from the way Martha was treated to how the scripts were written to many scripts' various plots, one could reasonably form an assumption that the failure of Series 3 was in RTD simply having run out of ideas by the end of Series 2- that he had pushed out all of his best work in just two seasons -and the general mediocrity of Series 3 was in Davies simply pushing out all the B-tier work, all the scripts that he wasn't confident enough using in the previous year. That Davies was, creatively at least, done. Because, yeah, again, the failures of Series 3 come from how similar it was to what came before it, and perhaps Series 2 was a season that, despite still having problems, was RTD at his most creative and narratively coherent. I came off the end of Series 1 ready to quit Doctor Who. I came off Series 2 finally enjoying the show, ready to see where this weird Welsh fat man wanted to take the story. I came off Series 3...confused. I was going to watch Series 4, no doubt about that, and I did greatly enjoy the Series 3 finale (despite thread consensus being decidedly negative on it), but I wasn't exactly confident that it would be good, or even enjoyable. The regression and repetition, not just with Martha's character but with the third season as a whole, to me spoke of a greater issue with RTD as a showrunner; that he had been creatively spent and was merely spinning his wheels. Going into Series 4, my excitement for the season was more due to the fact that, whether or not it was good or bad, it would be the end; despite Oxxidation's best efforts at leaving me unspoiled I knew going into this season that Series 4 would be RTD's final season, and after getting 75% of the way done 13 more episodes wouldn't be that huge a sacrifice. After that, it would be the much reviled Steven Moffat's turn in the saddle; I was more eager to see what Moffat did in Series 5, to be quite honest, than to see what Davies did to end his time on Series 4. Basically I entered Series 4 with my expectations fairly low. Although I couldn't vocalize my concern, I felt like perhaps RTD had simply run out of ideas, or worse, hadn't the barest concept of what his failures were. Despite everyone, including Oxx, telling me that Series 4 was Davies' best (I remember, way back at the beginning of this thread, there being a common sentiment among the posters here that I simply skip Series 2 and 3 and go straight to 4; that's how strong thread opinion was on the quality of it), I was nervous that Russell had simply used up his very small bag of tricks over 3 wildly inconsistent seasons. And it sucked, because fundamentally speaking I really like Davies; I think that Davies at his best is better than Moffat, more emotionally resonant than Moffat, more creative and has a firmer grasp on the infinite possibilities a show like Doctor Who can be than Moffat; he just, 95% of the time, isn't. He's so wildly inconsistent, and so often very very bad, that he makes me not want to like him in spite of my predilection for enjoying his work. He ruins his own legacy by so often getting in his own way, and I wanted to remember RTD as a guy whose reach often exceeded his grasp, but at least he tried. Series 3 being so often a boring retread of what came before threatened to sully even that image of Davies I had formed in my head, by being so repetitive and so, generally, hacky. And then the Series 4 premiere, "Voyage of the Damned", happened. And all of my greatest fears of what Series 4 would end up being- a gross, boring retread of what came before it, one that would make me hate Davies as a showrunner and taint every single positive memory I had of him -came to pass. In an unbearably long, convoluted, stupid, boring, downright offensive near-hour-and-a-half of television, "Voyage of the Damned" to me spoke of Davies' fundamental inability to move on. "Voyage of the Damned" was bad, but it's made worse when one watches it as an unknowing indictment of Davies' worst excesses- the Companion falling for The Doctor, the general pointlessness of the Companion to the story being told, the unfocused narrative, the boring action sequences, the terrible and pointless side characters, the unintentionally offensive portrayals and stereotypes- it was "bad" Davies through and through and a horrible way to introduce a viewer to RTD's final season. Of course, in retrospect one looks at "Voyage of the Damned" as a qualitative outlier for the season as a whole. That's the thing about Series 4; despite having one of the single worst episodes maybe of the entire series kicking it off, it's still Davies' by far most consistent, creatively inventive, and narratively satisfying seasons as a whole. Going from "Voyage of the Damned" to "Partners in Crime" is a night-and-day shift in quality, one so sudden and so aggressive it's hard to believe that both episodes were written by the same person, much less that they followed each other sequentially. The greatest irony, of course, is that "Partners in Crime" is ultimately the one that's representative of the general quality increase of Series 4, despite the fact that "Voyage of the Damned" is so blatantly a recycling of themes and ideas from the previous three seasons. The (re-)introduction of Donna as the Series 4 Companion, although indicative of a rather worrying action on Davies' part to, as Oxxidation mentioned, having had to reach deep into his own backlog of characters in order to pull out one that wasn't defined by her attraction to The Doctor, but still, hey. He figured out that what was desperately needed in Series 4, what was a really important and distinctive narrative action to take, was to define the Companion/Doctor relationship in a different way than how it had been characterized for the last three years straight. And that's what happened. Catherine Tate explodes back onto the show as Donna, from her very first episode as Companion to her very last one. What's most impressive about Series 4, especially looking back, is how immediately impressive Donna is as a character, and how well-defined she is even at the beginning of this season. Of course, part of that is due to the fact that she's not a recurring character- RTD and Catherine Tate had a wellspring to draw from in the fun and enjoyable Series 3 Christmas Special, "The Runaway Bride". Even so, her character needed to change somewhat drastically from how she was left in Series 3- wherein she turns down Ten's offer to travel with him -and how she returns in Series 4- wherein she literally forces her way onto the TARDIS. The changes they made to her character- namely that Donna felt a bit lost and overwhelmed, adrift without a focus in life, feel like they thematically fit her unseen progression during the season she was gone, and are able to convince the audience that Donna's return to Who is one that makes narrative sense to Donna as a character. Even if such a progression didn't make narrative sense, though, it would be hard to argue that the result- Donna as a full-time Companion -wasn't worth any amount of yoga the plot structure had to pull to re-introduce her. From her very first moment back, Donna, and Catherine Tate as Donna, has an immediate command of the screen never before seen, and she slots in so fully and naturally to Ten's dynamic that it feels as if she had never left in the first place. Donna in Series 4 is everything that a Companion should be- aggressive, independent, self-reliant, and clever. Most importantly, though, she isn't Rose nor is she Not Rose- absolutely none of her character development or traits revolve around any sort of romantic affections for The Doctor. Donna was an important choice of Companion for Russell to make for Series 4, because she instantly changes the textural makeup of the season as a whole. Her complete dearth of any sort of romantic affections for The Doctor- oft times, she can barely keep from shouting at him, in fact -changes the dynamic of the Doctor/Companion instantly and permanently. With Rose and with Martha (to a lesser extent), the fact that they both had desires for The Doctor immediately placed them, intentionally or not, into a subservient position to the Doctor- they both had crushes on him, so they inherently had a lower status than The Doctor. In Martha's specific case, it was worse due to the fact that such feelings weren't reciprocated. In any case, the refrain of sexual tension colored every single interaction both previous Companions had with The Doctor, with Ten- were Rose and/or Martha saying the things they were saying because they felt like that was the right thing to do or say, or because they wanted The Doctor to like them? In contrast, Donna firmly plants a flag in the ground, in her first episode, stating that in no uncertain terms would she ever develop a crush on The Doctor, and because of that her status rises to equal (and sometimes exceed) The Doctor. In essence, the Doctor/Companion dynamic becomes one of two friends, and because of that Donna's able to challenge The Doctor in ways Rose and even Martha could not. Donna is able to constantly question, needle, and outright disobey The Doctor in ways that Rose and Martha never did, not only because her personality demands so- a more stubborn woman than Donna Noble you never did see -but also because she's constantly looking, unclouded by lust, to accomplish what she believes is the right thing to do. This change in interaction between Doctor and Companion is what creates some of the best episodes of the season and the series as a whole, "The Fires of Pompeii", "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead", and "Journey's End" are fantastic in large part due to how well executed of a character that Donna Noble is. But even in episodes that are, on the whole, bad- "The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky", "The Doctor's Daughter", etc- they're still largely enjoyable in the moment because of how fun and amazing Donna is to watch. Even the most utterly wretched episodes of Series 4 are saved in some way, tolerable in at least some marginal capacity, due to just how incredible Catherine Tate is to watch onscreen, and how fantastic her chemisty with David Tennant is on such a regular basis. The change in Companions, also, has blowback onto The Doctor himself- this would be Tennant's final year as The Doctor, just the same as Rusty's, and due to not being fixated on any romantic entanglements- whether that be Rose, Rose not being there, or Martha's advances -RTD and Tennant spend a lot of time in Series 4 examining who The Doctor ultimately is. Donna was introduced to The Doctor at his worst- over Rose and Martha seeing him as a dashing do-gooder whiz-bang alien shouty man with cool gadgets, Donna was forced into his life and then witnessed him coldly genocide an entire race. This always taints their interactions and at times Donna feels more like a doting, overprotective but strict mother figure to The Doctor in Series 4 then "just" a Companion. But it also seems to affect The Doctor's mood throughout Series 4 itself- his Companion is a living, constant reminder of when he was at his lowest possible point. Much hay is made in Series 4 of The Doctor looking inwardly, at his own personal failures, and attempting to fix, or at least understand, them. This is perhaps the greatest strength of the season as a whole- with Donna there as a Companion who is unwilling to let him slide, to let him live in denial of his own, myriad, personality problems, The Doctor is forced to confront his issues head-on- producing moments where, for instance, he has to justify his willingness to let Pompeii burn in "Fires of Pompeii", or when his usual smug protagonist shtick nearly gets him killed in "Midnight". In contrast to the previous seasons of the show and especially Tennant's previous seasons, there's a road of trials The Doctor has to confront- his own dark journeys into his own mind -before he's able to emerge out the other side, changed from the experience. Basically, Series 4 has a thematic cohesion that wasn't really present in the seasons before this, and definitely to nowhere near as great an extent as it does here, where The Doctor and Companion are both trying desperately to understand who they are and who they should be. For instance, the Silence in the Library two-parter- the in my opinion two best episodes of the entire show- is largely about Donna realizing the perfect life- finally experiencing true contentment -and having it cruelly taken away from her, while The Doctor meets River Song's character and finally understands how great of an impact he can have on another person's life. Both stories end tragically- with Donna's fantasy being revealed as just that, a fantasy, and The Doctor only getting a glimpse on how important River is to him before she heroically sacrifices herself to save everyone. The narrative importance of Series 4 as it continues on is in illustrating how broken of people, in their own distinct ways, The Doctor and Donna ultimately are, and how necessary to each others' growth and functioning as individuals they both are. Nowhere is this more evident than in "Midnight/Turn Left", which shows how bad Donna's and especially The Doctor's lives are when the other isn't there to lift them up. Although I have executional problems with both episodes, I can't deny how important both episodes are to the overall internal narrative of both mains. "Turn Left", especially, is an episode that works much more powerfully as part of a whole and not as an individualized episode. In writing these season-in-reviews, I've gone and reread my earlier episode reviews and "Turn Left" is the only review I actually regret writing. My tone is unnecessarily vitriolic when writing it- a mistake from attempting to "lean into" the comedic anger role -and my grade is ultimately too low. "Turn Left" is the only episode if, given a second chance at reviewing episodes, I would give a higher grade than what I previously had given it- there's plenty I would grade lower, but "Turn Left" is the only episode I think I was too hard on the first time through. I got too obsessed with the fact that it was a "What If" episode- although I still specifically dislike that narrative device especially as it applies to drama -and its retroactive applicability to the season finale, which I loved, makes it hard to ignore as a "relevant" episode of television for the season, framing narrative aside. I do think my central criticisms for the episode as a whole- that the antagonist was lovely and stupid and that, more importantly, the show quickly devolves into misery porn for Donna (especially that second Holocaust poo poo jesus fuckin' christ), or that an episode that's ostensibly "all about Donna" ends up being so much about The Doctor and how great he is, but I can't ignore its serialized importance as an episode of Series 4, or how it makes the finale of Series 4 bittersweet instead of just bitter. And this leads us into the Series 4 two-part finale. Looking back on the season as a whole, what I realize is that Donna's mind-wiping was heavily foreshadowed during the entire season, especially the second half. Not only that, but the fact that her arc ends on a bitter, sad note was the only reasonable way for her story to end- her entire arc for the season ended up being a somewhat quixotic quest for her to try to attain a solution to her problems that involved The Doctor, without realizing that the only way she could attain true happiness was by leaving The Doctor. Think about it- her very first episode on the show, she's content and happy, about to get married- until she's accidentally beamed into the TARDIS and The Doctor accidentally ends up ruining her entire life. From there, she's stuck in a rut of arrested development, trying desperately to contact The Doctor again, until she finally gets her wish- basically running away from fixing her own problems. Her fantasy perfect life, as illustrated in the Library two-parter, is also perfectly boring- she's a stay-at-home mom with two kids and a perfectly genial, uninteresting husband- completely opposite from her currently thrilling, full of danger and constant death-defying travels. Most importantly, though, it doesn't have The Doctor in it. And finally, one looks at "Turn Left", which strongly implies that if Donna had never met The Doctor she'd be living a fairly good life, one that gives her a sense of accomplishment and purpose, and it's literally only the fact that The Doctor's dead and unable to save the day that destroys it- what "Turn Left" implies is that Donna's life is ruined in both directions, whether she meets him or not, solely because of The Doctor. Which then we arrive at the finale, in which Donna becomes literally infected and near-destroyed by The Doctor- carrying that thematic narrative of The Doctor, unintentionally or not, destroying Donna's life to its natural extreme. The irony, of course, is that the Companion that needed him the least, that he relied on the most, his best Companion, is the one that's nearly killed by him. The only way for her to heal is to be cut off from The Doctor entirely, because the show posits that The Doctor, or at least The Tenth Doctor, is a malignant tumor to those around him- he may not mean to, but he gets the people closest to him killed and maimed and ruined so often that the only way someone can escape his own vortex is to be forcibly removed from it. Rose is an example of the opposite extreme of this. I know, objectively speaking, that RTD never meant for her to come across this way in "Journey's End", but it's hard to ignore how Rose ends up looking like a dark mirror of Donna's own desperate desire to be reunited with The Doctor (or, more accurately, Donna's desperate desire to be reunited with what The Doctor represents- a purpose in life). Donna spends a whole year poking around on internet forums and being a knockoff Hardy Boy so she might be able to hang out in the TARDIS one last time- Rose ends up hopping through entire loving universes just so she can make out, not with David Tennant himself, but with a clone of David Tennant. On an unintentional level, how sad is that? How pathetic must Rose's life be, how little sense of self-worth must she have, how desperate and pointless is her existence that she ends up breaking the fabric of space-time solely so she can plant big kisses on some dude? The greatest irony of Series 4 is that it despite Rose getting everything she wanted and Donna losing everything she ever had, one could argue easily that the opposite is also true- Rose gets her shallow, pointless, comfortable existence and Donna gets the backhanded gift of being removed from the one person who ruined her entire life, who prevented her chance at happiness. As Oxxidation noted in his 401 review, the fact that Donna witnessed the wonders of the universe is what made everything that happened to her after that, in her day-to-day life, seem sterile and grey in comparison, so maybe the greatest gift of all is that she was reverted to who she was before she was forced into The Doctor's life- that ignorance, in Donna's case, truly was bliss. Her mind-wipe was sad, and depressing, and definitely is meant to be a dark end to her time on Who, but it might've been ultimately necessary, considering how toxic and lethal it can be to be around The Doctor for any significant length of time. What makes this sort of interpretation land, I think, is that regardless of if Donna's mind-wipe was a blessing in disguise, the way it affects The Doctor moving forward shows in no uncertain terms that it was a negative. The point of the Year of Specials, an overall inconsistent mess of five "episodes", is that it states that Donna was crucial in forcing The Doctor to rein in his own worst tendencies. The Year of Specials is a loving mess, with "The Next Doctor", "Planet of the Dead", and "The End of Time, Part One" being bad to outright terrible episodes of television, but the one thing that it did right was in forming a thematic throughline that The Doctor's time with Donna was cut short, and because it was cut short he was never able to understand what kind of person he was or who he was supposed to be. The Year of Specials posits that Donna was the one who was able to "fix" The Doctor, prevent Time Lord Victorious from surfacing, and she was able to make temporary, positive, could-have-become-permanent changes to The Doctor's personality, help him stay humble and realize his own flaws- and perhaps work to fix them. As Oxx mentioned way back in "The Christmas Invasion", Ten was ultimately "The Man Who Wasn't Sure", and Donna was able to make him almost become sure- before she was taken out of the story, much too soon, through no fault of her own. This sends The Doctor into a fatalistic tailspin, before it all comes to a head at the end of "Waters of Mars", wherein he adopts a gently caress-the-consequences attitude that ultimately proves to be his undoing. Such an attitude reveals that he himself undid all of the important character development that was impressed upon him in Series 4, simply because he didn't have a Donna- and he realizes that, which is what makes "The End of Time, Part Two" land. He realizes in the final moments of his life, especially in his final line- "I don't want to go." -that he was never able to make the emotional crossing that he needed to make to become satisfied with his place in the universe, because the one enabling his growth and change- Donna -was taken from his much too soon. The Doctor, the Tenth Doctor, is an unstable element, and without Donna to neutralize his own worst tendencies he explodes- as he did in "Waters of Mars". It's a bitter, sad end that comes as a dark mirror to Donna's- her mind getting wiped because she was exposed to too much of The Doctor, and The Doctor dying without ever figuring out who he was because he was exposed to not enough of Donna. Series 4, and the Year of Specials, ultimately posits one thing: that Donna is great. And because she is, Series 4 is also great. Season Grade: A
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since we're barely 48 hours away from this thread getting into moffat-town and subsequently rarin' back to life again i feel like i should remind everyone to please not post spoilers about the upcoming seasons, since multiple people got probated for it over the month long break, when the thread was hibernating! it's really not that hard to not post spoilers itt, so I would very much appreciate it if you didn't! thanks!
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Jan 2, 2015 03:55
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kentucky route zero owns
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Jan 2, 2015 04:05
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Are you guys going to look at any of the little short mini-episodes / extras (Meanwhile in the TARDIS, Night, Space/Time, Pond Life, various prequels / followups) that start appearing from now on? Some of them are pretty fun. E: Fixed. Doctor Spaceman fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Jan 2, 2015 |
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Jan 2, 2015 04:10
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Doctor Spaceman posted:All Good Now That one also takes place between the first and second episodes of the season, so maybe it would have been worth waiting until after Toxx saw "The Eleventh Hour" to post that? Or at least mentioning when it appeared? jng2058 fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Jan 2, 2015 |
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Jan 2, 2015 04:13
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Doctor Spaceman posted:the first one (E: takes place after the first episode) Then why are you posting it? Annakie's the one enforcing the zero-tolerance policy, not me, so you should probably edit that poo poo out before she makes another pass over this thread.
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Jan 2, 2015 04:18
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