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howe_sam posted:All the old seasons were on Prime. The currently airing season you had to pay for. You got me really excited for a minute there before I realized you didn't mean "Classic". 
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Feb 2, 2015 23:11
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Someone on Reddit was posting a fake list of BF's plans for 2018. Why is this notable? Because Rob Sherman debunked it, and the rumor, that he was retiring, by stating that he's working on a new script for BF!
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Feb 2, 2015 23:37
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That the classic show in its entirety or at least minus the reconstructions. isn't readily available on any kind of streaming media service is a crime worthy of the Daleks, and in fact is probably in part because of their dark leader, Terry Nation.
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Feb 2, 2015 23:38
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Davros1 posted:Someone on Reddit was posting a fake list of BF's plans for 2018. Why is this notable? Because Rob Sherman debunked it, and the rumor, that he was retiring, by stating that he's working on a new script for BF! Yeah, I broke that news back in July. When I hung out with Rob at the National Theatre.
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Feb 2, 2015 23:38
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DoctorWhat posted:Yeah, I broke that news back in July. Well, then, did you report this: As of immediately, due to licenses being up, not only will BF no longer make Robin Hood, Sapphire & Steel, Highlander, and Stargate audios, they're no longer even allowed to sell them.
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Feb 2, 2015 23:54
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Davros1 posted:Well, then, did you report this: I knew about that but did not report it because I didn't terribly care.
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Feb 2, 2015 23:55
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The last lot of Stargate stuff they did (the full-cast ones) weren't bad, but yeah, not sure how much is being lost there. They're also apparently doing something Prisoner related?
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Feb 3, 2015 00:02
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Apropos of nothing, I was watching some clips of this season, and whatever they did with the sonic, I like it. Besides it not being used as a magic wand every few minutes, it seems like they changed the prop, it seems heavier. I vaguely recall reading that Matt Smith broke like a half dozen of the props between flipping it around between takes and slinging it too hard to extend the claw gimmick, so maybe that's why they have a different prop now.
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Feb 3, 2015 01:11
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It's more that Matt Smith breaks any object he comes into contact with. He will drop phones, spill coffee all over people, and generally wreak havoc.
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Feb 3, 2015 01:13
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 The Android Invasion is a weird duck. It’s a pretty standard episode of Doctor Who, with strange goings-on, eerie moments, and an alien race behind it all with the purpose of destroying humanity. Taken in a vacuum, it’s an enjoyable little story even with it flaws. By virtue of its place of the broadcast order, however, it’s often considered one of the weaker serials of Tom Baker’s run, falling square in the middle of one of Baker’s best seasons. A UNIT soldier walks about in a trance, one arm twitching uncontrollably. The Doctor and Sarah Jane materialize nearby, in the right time, but miles from London by way of Devesham. After being shot at by a group of men in white containment suits, the Doctor and Sarah Jane head to the village, which they discover is empty of any inhabitants…until the men in white suits bring the inhabitants into town via flat-bed truck. The citizens quietly distribute themselves about the village and go about their normal activities. Why do all the citizens have freshly minted money from that very year, down to the exact same coinage? What does all this have to do with the UNIT Space Defence Station just up the road? Why does the UNIT soldier ask Sarah Jane if she’s part of “the test?” Why is Harry Sullivan of all people trying to hunt down Sarah Jane? Once reunited, why does the Doctor suspect that his faithful companion isn’t quite what she seems? And why are a pair of bickering aliens crowing about their master plan to wipe humanity off the face of the Earth? The Andoid Invasion, penned by Terry Nation, borrows from a LOT of other stories, both within the history of Doctor Who and from without. The master plan of these aliens, the Kraals, involves using android duplicates of human beings to transmit a plague so deadly, the human race will be extinct within three weeks, just in time for the Kraal invasion fleet to conquer the Earth for its valuable resources. The idea of an alien race replicating humans to take over the Earth can be traced back to the Zygons as well as the Autons, complete with the internal hand weaponry of that plastic menace. Considering the script was written in 1974, one could also argue that Nation took some ideas from movies such as Westworld and The Stepford Wives, both featuring lifelike robot recreations of human beings. With such familiar elements, the story itself is strictly boilerplate. A creepy village with people who act in a passively hostile way towards the Doctor. Antagonists who would rather shoot first and ask questions never. The Doctor and Sarah Jane run about, are captured, escape, and are captured again, with Sarah Jane falling down a cliff and hurting her ankle at one point (this happens to her as often as the Eighth Doctor gets amnesia!). The fourth serial is a race against time to warn the unwitting authorities not to go through with their plan, the execution of which is a vital part of the villain’s plan, all while the Doctor and Sarah Jane try to hide from and outwit their very own android doubles! There is something to be said about the cliffhangers in this serial, however, particularly the second episode’s…  Long time viewers of the genre will see it coming, but it’s still a nicely done moment. However, there are a few flaws which drag down the overall quality. The vast alien race intent on conquering Earth, the Kraals, consist on-screen of two aliens in pig-faced masks who argue back and forth about capturing, examining, and killing the Doctor. It’s not a new budgetary concept to the show (how many Zygons have you seen today?), but it’s definitely noticeable. One of the villains doesn’t realize that he himself in an android, even though all he has to do is lift his eyepatch and realize he actually has 20/20 vision instead of his original self’s ruined eye! The Android Invasion is also the last appearance of long-time characters Sergeant Benton and Harry Sullivan, but their importance to the story is tangible as best. It felt like they were thrown in just to have important characters thrown in, and not to provide any sense of closure or joyous reunion with regards to the Doctor. At least the human villain, Styggron, has his moment. The traitor astronaut is pure jerkass, with nary a redeeming quality in sight.  It’s Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen, so the viewer knows they’re at least in for a treat with their interactions. The Fourth Doctor has his effortless charm (“Is that finger loaded?”) and his cleverness in convincing a UNIT soldier that a duplicate Doctor just ran past him and that he’s the real deal. Baker was sick due to a scene where the Doctor was submerged in pond, leaving him with a raspy voice for much of The Android Invasion’s runtime, but it adds a bit to his performance. It’s Lis Sladen who gets to stand out in this story, as aside from jumping out of a tree before the coast was clear, it’s Sarah Jane’s turn to be smart, quiet, quick, and brave as she does some investigation of her own, even going so far as to actually break the DOCTOR out of jail for once. Both Baker and Sladen also deserve some kudos for their acting as their evil android duplicates. And if you thought one Tom Baker was enough to devour the scenery, just imagine TWO Tom Bakers…  By itself, The Android Invasion is a perfectly serviceable story of Doctor Who. This story tends to get looked down upon, however, with its flaws played up much more than its successes. The Android Invasion has its moments of tension…but the story that aired before this one was the Gothic-themed Pyramids of Mars, considered to be one of the Fourth Doctor’s best and scariest stories. The story that followed this one was The Brain of Morbius, which turned the Gothic aspects up to 11 and horrified Britain to the point that Mary Whitehouse took UMBRAGE (as opposed to umbrage) with how “the most horrifying material in Britain” was played out during a children’s program. The other episodes that aired during this season include Terror of the Zygons, Planet of Evil, and The Seeds of Doom. All of these episodes are considered to be among the best of Tom Baker’s time as the Fourth Doctor, and a handful are among the best the show has ever produced. The chills and thrills of The Android Invasion can’t hold a candle to the pure terror of the third episode cliffhanger for Pyramids of Mars… Imagine a run of Eleventh’s Doctor episodes consisting of The Eleventh Hour, The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone, Amy’s Choice, The Girl Who Waited, and The God Complex. Now, put Night Terrors in the middle. A fine episode, pretty solid, but when held up to those other episodes, it pales in comparison. (These are my personal opinions, but I stand by my examples) The Android Invasion suffers from the same problem. On its own, it’s a solid “B” episode, or a “two-and-a-half Rory’s” episode if you prefer. It’s a fine story and worth a watch, even with its flaws. But when sandwiched in between two absolute classics, it gets looked down upon a little more than it should. CobiWann fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Feb 3, 2015 |
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Feb 3, 2015 01:33
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CobiWann posted:Planet of Doom Never saw that one. Planet of Evil, however . . .
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Feb 3, 2015 01:40
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Davros1 posted:Never saw that one. Planet of Evil, however . . . Stupid cut-and-paste transmat...
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Feb 3, 2015 01:43
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Davros1 posted:Well, then, did you report this: Is this a specific instance of Robin Hood they're doing? Because there's no way Robin Hood isn't public domain, is there? I don't listen to any of BF's other stuff, nor am I really familiar with the other properties, but surely the Stargate or Highlander people can't have such big plans coming up that they won't lease the rights to BF for a while. Is there anything going on in that front that's not direct-to-video?
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Feb 3, 2015 02:44
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Death in Heaven wraps up the regular episodes of season 8, completing the season long narrative of the Doctor's questioning of his status as a "good man". Wrapping up the Clara/Danny storyline, explaining what the Master has been up to, and producing a rather neat new take on a typical Cyberman story - this episode has a LOT to get through, and gets extra time to tell it with 10 more minutes than a usual episode. It doesn't quite succeed in all aspects, and the nature of the story means it is guilty of discarding a lot of what has been built up to across the season and in the episode itself because most of what we've seen has been deliberately designed to misdirect both us the viewer as well as the characters in the show. But when everything is finally revealed, all pretense and agonizing over moral philosophies etc are put aside and we get to the heart of the matter, the story is exceptional. As an episode of Doctor Who, it is uneven and more akin to the type of thing that RTD used to produce than what I'm used to from Moffat, but like RTD he is able to make it work (for me at least), the highs are high enough for me to forgive the lows. As in Dark Water, this is an episode all about misdirection, both for the characters and for the viewer. To most markedly demonstrate this, the episode begins with Clara confronted by a Cyberman (named Dr. Skarosa, another smug in-joke by the Master?) and immediately she insists that she is a high-value target and thus needs to be kept alive. When the Cyberman scans and identifies her as Clara Oswald - an unimportant and valueless entity - she smoothly pivots into mocking it for being fooled, because Clara Oswald is actually a cover story, and her true identity is the Doctor. It's a lie clearly designed to keep her alive, but the show runs with it, going so far as to change the opening credits so she gets top billing over Peter Capaldi, and it's her eyes that appear in the time vortex over Capaldi's as the theme song plays. Clara easily lies, using what she knows about the Doctor's history to throw out information that muddies the waters for the Cybermen, they don't believe her but they can't be sure, and they lack the autonomy to make that decision for themselves. Both these factors are very important to the themes of this story. On the one hand, Clara easily lies, she smoothly and calmly reacts to a ludicrous and terrifying situation without even blinking. Danny warned her earlier in the season to be wary of the effect the Doctor was having on her as a person, and the Doctor himself echoed this later in the season when he pointed out what a good "Doctor" she was and how that was NOT a good thing. Clara has been changed enormously by her exposure to the Doctor, and that has both positive and negative impacts on her - she has become a person who adapts, who looks deeper than the surface and keeps her wits about her in situations that would make anybody else curl up in a ball and cry... but she's also the type of person who finds lies come to her easily, who doesn't hesitate to run into danger and even becomes exhilarated by it and even seeks it out. The other factor is the Cybermen's lack of autonomy, their inability to deal with just such a person - and the reason for that is because they are essentially not REAL Cybermen.   Dark Water/Death in Heaven are two stories that technically speaking could be considered a Cyberman story.... but they're not. In perhaps the most interesting twist we've seen in years on the traditional plodding cyborgs, these Cybermen aren't so much forcing conversion as they are getting people to unknowingly flock to them for the privilege. In another twist, the Cybermen are taking advantage of the massive stockpile of organic matter available on Earth by converting the dead (hey, we use dinosaur corpses to power our cars!) to make up their numbers - after all the dead can't protest and the bodies are essentially "spare parts" like they were in The Unquiet Dead. If this was a story in its own right without the involvement of the Master, it could make for a tremendous Cyberman story.... but that's not what these episodes are about. Instead, the Cybermen exist as both a red herring and a prop, and the stomping mechanical men we see all throughout the episode are NOT Cybermen in the traditional sense. Cybermen are sentient beings devoid of emotion, following an undeniable but long since perverted imperative of "WE MUZZZZZT SURVIVE!". A Cyber-Leader provides strategy, looking at the bigger picture and directing the others like an officer with soldiers (hugely important to these stories), but the regular Cybermen are not mindless, they all have their own minds, their own imperative to survive.... but as soldiers devoid of emotion they also accept the bigger picture strategy that says,"Sacrifice a few to save the species" even if their concept of species has been twisted beyond all recognition by this point. But that's not what we get in these stories - here the Cybermen ARE mindless, they are not sentient (with two particular exceptions), they're not alive in even the twisted sense that a Cyberman could be considered. These are zombies, mindless things subject to the will of whoever holds a particular technological device, empty shells that have lost even the nonsensical imperative that drives REAL Cybermen. I think this is the reason for the very strong zombie imagery present throughout the episode. The Master gleefully tricked "super-rich idiots" into unknowingly volunteering to become the spearhead of a "Cyberman" invasion, placing their minds into the nethersphere and stripping them of their emotions before downloading them back into their now converted bodies. These are the closest thing to "real" Cybermen we see in the story.... and they commit suicide within the first few minutes of the episode. Operating on instructions from the Master, they place themselves strategically around the world over every major population center and explode, their exploding bodies seeding "Cyber-pollen" into the air and raining down over cemeteries and converting the bodies below. What does that give us? Mindless Cybermen, mechanized zombies, confused and slow as they slump against headstones or lay on graves, milling about uncertain and without purpose until some "authority" tells them what to do. The muted color in the graveyard scenes was, for me, amongst the best imagery of the episode, bringing to mind those old 70s/80s horror movies where they filmed on location in bad light and didn't have the money or expertise to do anything about it in post production. Given that the Cybermen in this scene are basically the walking dead, and Clara is wandering around mostly in silence, all wide-eyed and confused like a character in one of those movies, it gave the whole thing a muted zombie-movie feel and brought to mind for me that sense of dread and unease I got from watching those films as a kid. We're basically watching Night of the Living Cyberdead, the Cybermen are just empty shells, if they had minds in the Nethersphere (and I don't believe they did, that was the province of those rich idiots or people handpicked by the Master for the irony of it all) then whatever made those people "people" is gone, leaving empty shells who will act and react only at the direction of their "Master", props for somebody else's game - no more real Cybermen than a robot is a human being. They're basically extensions of the Master's bracelet, remote controlled drones that do whatever the person holding the control tells them to do.   This mindless lack of autonomy is everything that Danny feared, both for himself and for Clara as an unwitting victim of the Doctor as an "officer". We get to see at last the moment that destroyed Danny as a soldier, when his training kicked in during a firefight in Afghanistan and he acted as a mindless automaton, responding to stimuli without thinking.... and as a result, he shot and killed a young boy (who presumably the Master threw into the Nethersphere to help break Danny). This is the revelation we've been building to all season, the one that is supposed to explain both Danny's distaste for the Doctor/officers, as well as his strong devotion to children and the desire to protect and help them. Unfortunately the execution of this reveal is extremely lacking, mostly because there is a complete lack of any officer figure we see either pushing Danny into this situation, or upsetting Danny in the aftermath of the act. We're left to fill in the blanks ourselves, and while it's nice not to be handheld through every even slightly subtle turn of a story, it does affect the impact of Danny's story - this all comes across more as an unfortunate accident than a breaking point moment where Danny's faith in the army/trust in officers was shattered, or where his own personality was subsumed by training and detachment to the point where he committed this dreadful if unintended atrocity. Without these blanks being explicitly filled in, it leaves us with only the things we saw onscreen as concrete examples of why he acts/reacts the way he does, so his determination to think the absolute worst of the Doctor comes across as churlish and immature as opposed to having a strong (if misjudged) foundation. The Doctor himself assumes a very passive role for much of the episode, standing around complaining or struggling to figure out what is going on, achieving very little, mostly just being there to watch in horror as the Master kills those he has some kind of emotional connection to.... and that's entirely deliberately and extremely important to the development of the character that has been going on all season. Ever since Deep Breath we've seen people (including the Doctor himself) attempt to in some way define the Doctor, to categorize him and establish him as either good or bad, as a leader or a soldier, an officer or a friend etc. Here, we see UNIT and the Master both make exactly the same mistake, as both seek to offer the Doctor the solution to a problem that they believe he has, to help him become the person he truly is, to give him the tools he needs to achieve HIS goals..... and both prove they don't know him at all. UNIT arrives on the scene and takes the Master prisoner, but when the Cybermen immediately initiate her contingency plan, UNIT implement theirs. Gifting the Doctor global authority, he is named "President of the World", a temporary position during a time of global crisis, giving him all the resources at the Earth's disposal to do what needs to be done to save them. What does he do with all this authority/these resources? Absolutely nothing, he is completely lost and belligerent when thrust into this position and pretty much does nothing but stand around complaining and wracking his brain trying to figure out what is going on. Everything falls apart, as Cybermen tear their plane apart and the Master gleefully murders Osgood (which feels like a pretty cheap "look how evil this supervillain is!" to be honest) and sends Kate Stewart plummeting out of the plane to fall to her death. At the cemetery, the Master then reveals her plan is basically the same as UNIT's was - she's put together this mindless army of Cybermen capable of converting the dead purely so she can then hand it over to him, giving him the resources to "save" the universe, to conquer evil wherever he finds it, at the expense of having to set himself up as the defacto ruler of the universe. Why? Because to the Master's twisted way of thinking, this will prove that ultimately the Doctor is the same as her, and once he accepts that they can finally be friends again like they once were as children.   So this has what the entire season has been building to - is he a good man? Is he a bad man? Is he an officer? A King? A President? A man who - with the best of intentions - conquers the universe with an army of the dead? Somebody who makes grand speeches but then tosses his high-minded ideals away for the sake of expediency/the greater good (like he allows Danny's emotions to be suppressed in order to learn the specifics of the Master's plan)? The Master tears away everything the Doctor has to demonstrate just how easy it is for a bad person to wreak havoc... and then offers him the pre-packaged solution - take control of this Army of Ghosts (get it!?!  ) and stop people like the Master from doing this type of thing ever again. And the Doctor considers it, he lets the possibilities wash over him, he thinks about everything he has seen, all the people who have accused him of being heartless, a pragmatist, a man with a hate full of heart, a "good Dalek" etc, and he finally figure it all out, he finally knows the answer to the question of whether he is a good man or not... and the answer is no, he is not! But he's not a bad man either, he's not an officer or a King or a President..... so what is he? He's an idiot with an box!The Doctor posted:I really didn't know. I wasn't sure. You lose sight sometimes. Thank you! I am not a good man! I am not a bad man. I am not a hero. And I'm definitely not a president. And no, I'm not an officer. Do you know what I am? I am an idiot, with a box and a screwdriver. Just passing through, helping out, learning. I don't need an army. I never have, because I've got them (points to Clara and Danny). Always them. Because love, it's not an emotion. Love is a promise. And he will NEVER hurt her! There is only one thing better than watching the Master gleefully put a sadistic and mad plan together.... and that's watching it unravel. Watching Michelle Gomez's Master easily (almost casually) control events every step of the way is a joy to watch, as she is always a few steps ahead of everybody else, including the Doctor. So when everything then start to fall apart, it is so wonderful to see her brow furrow and her face fall as she tries to figure out just how the hell this is possible. It is so great to see her get get sulky at just how goddamned unfair this all is, mumbling grumpily that no, this is impossible. After a season of questioning himself, of having others try to define him, of being offered gifts and resources and authority and power, the 12th Doctor finally comes to understand himself, with genuine gratitude towards his oldest friend the Master for holding that mirror up to his face. When he saw himself reflected while talking to the Half-Face Man in Deep Breath, he didn't recognize himself anymore - now he knows who he is, he's the Doctor, and he understands at last what that means. He took the mask off and let Clara see him for the old man he truly is, but the good-hearted, goofy, endearing and endlessly curious persona of the 11th Doctor wasn't an act, and he is still that same person at heart. Who else would have noticed what the Master missed - unlike End of Time this isn't some hyper-detailed picking of a slight variation in heights, this time what he was that the Master missed was that when the mindless puppets of the Cybermen were mimicking the Master's little performance, CyberDanny was motionless, the only one not looking at her, concentrated solely on Clara as she embraced his cold corpse and wept. So the Doctor rejects the bracelet that the Master gave him and gives it to Danny instead - not because he's an officer who wants somebody else to get their hands dirty, but because he's given Danny AND the Cybermen their dignity and humanity back. From one soldier to another, Danny declares that they will do their duty and save the planet, and with a final assurance to Clara that she will sleep safe in her bed tonight, he leads all the Cybermen around the world into the skies where they self-destruct, burning up the cyber-pollen and clearing the skies, ending the threat of the dead to the living. Of course that solution is not without its problems, not least of which is that we've basically just seen a mass suicide run treated as an honorable act. Of course they were all dead already, and basically all of them but Danny were mindless, but I think this is where the muddied waters around the nature of the Nethersphere causes a problem. Even though Seb (whose own "death" is part of a pretty terrible bit of writing) admits that the whole thing is a lie, there is still the suggestion hanging out there that the Master somehow had the mind of EVERYBODY who ever died throughout ALL of human history stored inside that Matrix Slice. By making the bulk of this 2-parter based on lies presented as truth to misdirect from the Master's actual plan, it leaves a lot of disturbing implications kind of hanging out there. This is exacerbated by a really rough moment where Moffat's enthusiasm seems to have gotten the best of him, as we get another example of the type of writing we used to get from RTD, where he would think of a concept he loved and put it into an episode without thinking about the potential implications of what that meant. With all her plans in tatters, the Master plays one last gambit and offers the Doctor the location of Gallifrey, which according to her is actually in the exact location it USED to be in before the Time War, he just never thought to go back there to check! Furious with the Master for all her callous manipulations, particularly her abuse of Danny's corpse, Clara grabs the control box/blaster that the Master has been toying with all episode and prepares to kill her. Proving again he is not an "officer", the Doctor recognizes her determination and tells her he will take on that role himself - he won't let the Master's blood be on Clara's hands, they will be on his. Preparing to kill his oldest friend, the Doctor and Clara are shocked with a blue blast comes out of nowhere and hits the Master, and her body appears to vaporize (bearing a suspicious similarity to the teleport effect we saw her use earlier in the episode, bringing to mind the "shredders" from Time Heist). There is one Cyberman still standing, and when the Doctor and Clara find Kate Stewart somehow alive and whole on the ground and mumbling about her father, the Doctor deduces that this Cyberman is in fact the Brigadier.   Unfortunately, outside of the immediate thought of,"How sweet", what naturally follows up is,"Hang on.... the Brigadier's corpse got turned into a Cyberman? And it's still 'alive'?" The whole things comes across as emotionally manipulative and more than a little crass. I think it was done with the best of intentions and to further hammer home the Danny notion that a Cyberman is still capable of being more man (or woman) than cyber. That doesn't entirely excuse it, but I didn't get the sense that it was a cold or cynical bit of fan-referencing - the Brigadier basically reached across the barrier of death to rescue his daughter and to FINALLY pump one round rapid into the Master. I think the sum total of the thinking that went into it was that Moffat felt it would be a nice emotional moment to have the Brigadier save his daughter, then to have the Doctor salute him. Presumably the Cyber-Brig then flew off and self-destructed, which is still pretty screwed up if you think about it... but I don't think Moffat did, I think the presumed Cyber-Brig just flew away off Moffat's page and disappeared forever. The story has a lot of little moments like this, moments where you ponder just what the hell happened between writing it down on the page and somebody reading it and saying,"Hang on a second here....." There is the obvious, like the hamfisted close-ups on the morgue paperwork for Danny being clenched in Cyber-Danny's fist, to the poorly executed like when the Doctor plummets through the air key in hand to capture the TARDIS, to the terrible like Seb's "SQUEE!" moment, to the troublesome like Osgood's death scene, which serves to demonstrate the Master's mad jealousy (she spots the Doctor being impressed by Osgood which basically seals her fate) but reduces her to little more than a prop for emotional manipulation. Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity comes towards the end though, when Danny's voice calls out to Clara in the night, and we learn that the Doctor told her (off-screen!) that Danny would be able to use the bracelet to return to the physical world in his original body. While this is kind of established by the Master being able to jump back and forth between the physical world and the Matrix Slice (in turn established by the Doctor and the Master in The Deadly Assassin), it doesn't really explain how it would unconvert Danny's cyber-body, or reconstitute his exploded remains. We have to take it as a given that it just DOES somehow, but of course it's a one-time trip since the Matrix Slice is apparently failing now having fulfilled the programming the Master gave it, and of course Danny chooses to send through the kid he killed instead of himself. That makes perfect sense given Danny's character, but the lack of development of expansion on what little we get to see of this story means the moment falls pretty flat for me, and it's meant to be the big emotional climax of the Danny/Clara storyline. That can't help but have a negative impact on the episode, and in the end Death in Heaven is an uneven affair, a bittersweet story that still feels like an appropriate end to season 8. Yes it has its problems, including some very compelling false-starts that are there to provide distractions/misdirections from the villain's actual plot. But that latter plot is really great, a perfectly in-character piece of narcissistic madness from the Master who - of course - takes the Doctors saving Gallifrey from total destruction as being all about HER, and chooses to express her gratitude by murdering people he likes, turning the population of the earth into undead monstrosities, then handing it over to him happily like a cat with the remains of a dead bird. Michelle Gomez is the saving grace of this episode, it would have worked without her, but with her it is elevated into something remarkable, it's difficult to take your eyes off of her when she is off-screen, and her chemistry with Peter Capaldi is excellent - especially that yearning look in her eyes when it seems for a moment that he is going to accept her "gift". Plus, how can you dislike an episode where THIS happens:  But it's the epilogue that really stands out, for a very important reason. The Doctor meets Clara roughly a month after the events of the episode at a little cafe, where the two lie to each other about happy and content they are. Clara means to tell the truth at first (remember how she always tried to avoid that throughout most of the season) but when the Doctor lies to her - not that she knows he is lying - she does what she thinks is the right thing and lies right back to him. So you have two characters who, out of a desire to be kind to the other, tells lies about how happy their own lives are so the other can go be happy guilt-free, neither knowing the other is utterly miserable. The Doctor finally acquiesces to a hug from Clara, explaining at last why he dislikes them - it allows the other person to hide their face, and you can't see how they REALLY feel. So the Doctor hops into his TARDIS, the two sharing a wonderful bittersweet goodbye. Clara: Doctor? Traveling with you made me feel really special. Thank you for that. Thank you for making me feel special. Doctor: Thank you for exactly the same. And with that he leaves, and Clara is left to walk away into her empty and lonely life. The Doctor thinks Danny is alive and the two will be happy together, while she thinks he has returned to Gallifrey (it turned out not to be where the Master said it was) to live happily amongst his own people. It's bittersweet but somehow oddly perfect, the two lied to each other because they cared more about the perceived happiness of the other than their own. Is that a downbeat ending? Perhaps, but maybe it's time we grew up and faced up to the fact that stuff like this happens? Maybe it's time to see that the Doctor can't always come up with a solution to an impossible problem, that sometimes you have to face up to the reality that bad things happen and you can't fix it, that the world isn't fair or kind and that sometimes people end up alone and sad and that was the best possible outcome for them. So they suck it up and they live their lives the best they can, sacrificing their own happiness for somebody else, neither knowing the other is just as miserable. Grow up Doctor Who fans, and accept that the show can't always have a fairytale ending - it's time to be mature and adult about this, and that means sad endings and miserable people   And THAT is when Santa Claus shows up in the TARDIS and tells him it's time to get him and Clara sorted out!  
Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Feb 3, 2015 |
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Feb 3, 2015 03:18
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Rochallor posted:Is this a specific instance of Robin Hood they're doing? Because there's no way Robin Hood isn't public domain, is there? Based on a BBC series of Robin Hood, apparently. As for Stargate, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin are currently trying to plan to make a new Stargate movie that is unrelated to the TV series. Just rebooting it from the original movie. Ugh.
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Feb 3, 2015 04:41
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Davros1 posted:Well, then, did you report this: Oh bummer, I was going to get my wife some of the Stargate audios. She loves Stargate. Since they're out of print, maybe they'll pop up somewhere.
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Feb 3, 2015 04:45
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Yeah, some people outside the UK may not realise it, but Who kinda started a bit of a revival in doing genre TV over here. BBC did new versions of Robin Hood and Merlin, as well as currently airing Musketeers and Atlantis series, and ITV had Primeval. egon_beeblebrox posted:Oh bummer, I was going to get my wife some of the Stargate audios. She loves Stargate. Since they're out of print, maybe they'll pop up somewhere. Try and find her the third season. It's not perfect, but it has Shanks and Black (and the dude who played Ba'al) and does at least try to tie up some elements that were a bit abruptly handled in the show.
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Feb 3, 2015 04:55
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Bicyclops posted:That the classic show in its entirety or at least minus the reconstructions. isn't readily available on any kind of streaming media service is a crime worthy of the Daleks, and in fact is probably in part because of their dark leader, Terry Nation. Just put 'em all up but any episode with the daleks replace with a 20-minute screen of 'TERRY NATION IS A DICK'. whatsabattle posted:Apropos of nothing, I was watching some clips of this season, and whatever they did with the sonic, I like it. What happens - and what happened with 10, too - is that they'll make a screwdriver prop, it's kinda fragile, they use that for a season, and then the merchandise department will come out with a toy screwdriver that's cheaper, sturdier and better so they just switch to buying them off the shelf. MikeJF fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Feb 3, 2015 |
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Feb 3, 2015 05:07
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Feb 3, 2015 05:54
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Gaz-L posted:Yeah, some people outside the UK may not realise it, but Who kinda started a bit of a revival in doing genre TV over here. BBC did new versions of Robin Hood and Merlin, as well as currently airing Musketeers and Atlantis series, and ITV had Primeval. Atlantis has been cancelled.
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Feb 3, 2015 10:10
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Holy poo poo, Primeval managed five seasons. I was sure that thing pulled a Bonekickers and disappeared almost immediately.
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Feb 3, 2015 10:23
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Yeah, I saw that stuff ages ago. Like, 18 months back. Where have you been, Astroman?
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Feb 3, 2015 20:29
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I misread that telesnap envelope and thought it read "John Cena" for a minute and got very confused.
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Feb 3, 2015 20:43
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Gaz-L posted:I misread that telesnap envelope and thought it read "John Cena" for a minute and got very confused. Lord knowns Cena is ready to regenerate into Finn Balor.
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Feb 3, 2015 21:32
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CobiWann posted:Lord knowns Cena is ready to regenerate into Finn Balor. I just had a vision of Cena going "It's the end...but the moment has been prepared for" and then the Watcher is revealed to be Roman Reigns. 
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Feb 3, 2015 23:20
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Spatula City posted:It was beautiful. I am so glad nobody spoiled what happens to Rory for him, either his death or return. It's not like he needs a spoiler to know that Rory returns. He's not stupid. He's already expressed that the main point of avoiding spoilers in the thread is because spoilers (and the non-clever 'non-spoiler' spoilers) are lovely posts.
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Feb 3, 2015 23:28
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ashpanash posted:It's not like he needs a spoiler to know that Rory returns. He's not stupid. You, uh, seem pretty defensive about spoilers there.
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Feb 3, 2015 23:38
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ashpanash posted:It's not like he needs a spoiler to know that Rory returns. He's not stupid. Did you read his last review? He seemed pretty convinced that Rory is gone for good.
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Feb 3, 2015 23:57
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Diabolik900 posted:Did you read his last review? He seemed pretty convinced that Rory is gone for good. Yeah, I also know he's smart about TV and understands tropes. I know he writes from the perspective of the episode and what has led up to it, not what he generally assumes the future will hold. And I also read the irc where he acknowledged that he knew, so there's that, too.
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Feb 4, 2015 00:17
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Diabolik900 posted:Did you read his last review? He seemed pretty convinced that Rory is gone for good. A clever man would notice that no one has posted a lot about Rory and his time on the show beyond the jokes and concluded that he would return. A clever man would...
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Feb 4, 2015 00:20
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Gaz-L posted:I misread that telesnap envelope and thought it read "John Cena" for a minute and got very confused. In order to regenerate he would first have to take damage of any sort
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Feb 4, 2015 02:02
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ashpanash posted:Yeah, I also know he's smart about TV and understands tropes. I know he writes from the perspective of the episode and what has led up to it, not what he generally assumes the future will hold. He thinks Rory's gone for good and I am lying to him constantly to reinforce that assumption. Don't make spoilers in my thread, tia
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Feb 4, 2015 02:56
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ashpanash posted:And I also read the irc where he acknowledged that he knew, so there's that, too. What's this now?
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Feb 4, 2015 03:02
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Oxxidation posted:Don't make spoilers in my thread, tia No need to worry about that. I know the rules. Nor would I do it elsewhere or bring it up, if someone hadn't already done it in IRC.
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Feb 4, 2015 03:04
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ashpanash posted:No need to worry about that. I know the rules. Ok, stop being coy, I caught this post before the edit. Did Bown blow the lid off the end-of-series spoiler in IRC or something?
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Feb 4, 2015 03:05
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Chokes McGee posted:In order to regenerate he would first have to take damage of any sort He can just get old.  Wearing a bit thin!
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Feb 4, 2015 03:09
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Oxxidation posted:Ok, stop being coy, I caught this post before the edit. Did Bown blow the lid off the end-of-series spoiler in IRC or something? Didn't want to call out names if I didn't have to, but I guess the cat's out of the bag. Bown revealed - without explicitly saying it, though he was drawing attention to it - that Rory would be back. Occ said he figured that was the case, said that while he doesn't really care about spoilers that much and he mostly just doesn't want it to poo poo up the thread, he didn't want to know any more. Edit: See my later post. It was not Bown. ashpanash fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Feb 4, 2015 |
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Feb 4, 2015 03:10
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It's like finding out Santa isn't real.
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Feb 4, 2015 03:12
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ashpanash posted:Didn't want to call out names if I didn't have to, but I guess the cat's out of the bag. Bown revealed - without explicitly saying it, though he was drawing attention to it - that Rory would be back. Occ said he figured that was the case, said that while he doesn't really care about spoilers that much and he mostly just doesn't want it to poo poo up the thread, he didn't want to know any more. I knew it was a good idea throwing out that loving head case when I had the chance. At least he doesn't know the circumstances yet.
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Feb 4, 2015 03:13
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| # ? May 12, 2024 04:12 |
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ashpanash posted:Didn't want to call out names if I didn't have to, but I guess the cat's out of the bag. Bown revealed - without explicitly saying it, though he was drawing attention to it - that Rory would be back. Occ said he figured that was the case, said that while he doesn't really care about spoilers that much and he mostly just doesn't want it to poo poo up the thread, he didn't want to know any more. Oh gently caress you Bown. gently caress. You.
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Feb 4, 2015 03:26
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