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Irish Joe posted:I'm mainly complaining about the Clara/Pink scenes from the last couple of episodes. I've actually quite enjoyed how they've handled the Clara/Danny scenes, with the jumps back and forth between their interactions and their "Oh God I hosed that up so badly" later reactions. It gets across that agonizing overanalysis common to an early relationship where you're still getting to know each other and secondguessing your every move and wondering how the other person is thinking. Edit: Or maybe I'm just a sucker for the cheap joke of Danny dropping his head onto a surface v  v
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Sep 21, 2014 22:50
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Davros1 posted:I thought the Jamie Mathieson eps were the 2-parter? They're listed as two separate episodes, and they have different directors. It looks like the only two parter is the finale, which is being written by Moffat. So I guess you only get 45 minutes to tell your story, unless you're Moffat.
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Sep 21, 2014 22:50
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Jenna and Danny are clearly going to either a house party or a club night where it's school uniform to get in.
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Sep 21, 2014 22:52
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Cleretic posted:Yeah, on thinking about it, I would agree. It's actually a strong idea, with a story and script that could've held a two-parter quite easily, and I'm sure the characters would've been able to shine through from it, too. It's one of the few bits of TV in recent memory that's gotten my heart pounding, and at the very least the cyborg would've probably done very well with the extra time. Honestly this is one of those times where the old serial format probably would have been better for the story. I feel like a bank heist story in this style would have been a perfect fit.
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Sep 21, 2014 22:53
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I really enjoyed Time Heist, best episode of the season so far for me. The look of the victims were horrific, we had some great supporting characters and fun setting. Next week looks like it'll be painful.
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Sep 21, 2014 23:24
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I've watched this one three times, and I'll probably watch it at least once more. Don't get the complaints about pacing, I feel like it starts fast and stays that way and it's awesome. (Especially since, yeah, there are one or two things that will clunk a bit if you think too hard about them.) Capaldi is definitely channeling Tom Baker (like when Psi says they'll regret it if the bomb kills them and he says "Well, not very long."), but there's a distinctive Twelve emerging, too, as when Clara asks if he's broken up about Saibra and he essentially says "She's dead, prioritize or you will be too." That whole scene, really, is not one I would expect from Smith or Tennant -- maybe Eccleston -- but if there's a "Classic Twelve" yet, that's it. Jakiri's points about flaunting the genre convention are well-taken, but doing the heist setup at the beginning would screw up the twist at the end -- that they did the setup and recruitment themselves. (Admittedly not a tough twist to see coming, but still.) As it is, the setup establishes instant tension. It may be more accurate to say they didn't make a full heist episode, just the part they cared to make. There's a whole second post I could make on how this reminds me of a form you saw more in Old Who. In particular, it reminds me of The Leisure Hive. Maybe I'll write that up later when people are annoying the hell out of me with Big Finish reviews.  Despite Clara not getting much to do (the non-Doctor action was spread between three people, which may have had something to do with it) I think this may have been my favorite of the season so far.
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Sep 21, 2014 23:56
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The Doctor didn't actually do very much either, he just told people they should do what he says and then just follows the instructions he left for himself and little more.
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Sep 22, 2014 00:22
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This might have been said already but did anyone else think the Teller looked familiar once the straitjacket was off? 
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Sep 22, 2014 01:08
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pgroce posted:In particular, it reminds me of The Leisure Hive. Maybe I'll write that up later when people are annoying the hell out of me with Big Finish reviews. If nothing else, I love The Leisure Hive for its cliffhangers. Especially the episode 1 cliffhanger. Tom Baker's screaming CSO head flying towards the screen as the 80's cliffhanger sting plays. If you do a Leisure Hive review we need a GIF of that moment.
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Sep 22, 2014 02:41
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 The Doctor turns bank robber when he is given a task he cannot refuse - steal from the most dangerous bank in the cosmos. With the help of a beautiful shape-shifter and a cyber-augmented gamer, the Doctor and Clara must fight their way past deadly security, and come face-to-face with the fearsome Teller - a creature of terrifying power that can detect guilt. Peter Capaldi is the Doctor in Time Heist. Cast Peter Capaldi (The Doctor) Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) Keeley Hawes (Ms Delphox) Jonathan Bailey (Psi) Pippa Bennett-Warner (Saibra) Trevor Sellers (Mr Porrima) Ross Mullan (The Teller) Written by: Stephen Thompson and Steven Moffat Directed by: Douglas McKinnon Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5MxtpqBIiA Gifs by: J-Ru X X X X X Throughout its history, Doctor Who has visited a multitude of genres; Westerns, murder mysteries, tales of ghosts and goblins, and even war stories. So, when the show decides to take on a genre it hasn't before, the question isn't “why is the showing doing a story like this,” but “why did it take so bloody long for the show to do a story like this?” The plot of Time Heist is exactly what it says on the tin. The Doctor and Clara find themselves involved in a plot to break into the most secure and impregnable bank in the galaxy. Written by Stephen Thompson and Steven Moffat, the plot involves memory wipes, a misfit crew forced to work together, and a nasty head of security who protects the bank's assets through the most brutal of means, all tied together with a bit of time-travel shenanigans. The episode is a series of sequences and twists, with a unique spin on the end goal of the robbery. The story almost takes full advantage of the heist genre, falling just a bit short, but that doesn't stop Time Heist from being yet another strong episode for Peter Capaldi's Doctor.  The phone on the front of the TARDIS never rings. So when it does ring, the Doctor has no choice but to give in to his curiosity...and in an instant, the Doctor, Clara, a mentally cybernetically augmented human, and a mutated human who can assume anyone's physical appearance down to the genetic level all finds themselves in a darkened room, with no idea how they got there and security forces pounding on the door. All they know, thanks to a mysterious briefcase and a video recording from a man calling himself the Architect, is that they volunteered to have their memories wiped in order to facilitate a bank robbery. But this isn't just any bank. It's the Bank of Karabraxos, the most secure bank in the galaxy, with a lethal security system for anyone caught breaking in. And for those inside the bank who are thinking about breaking in, there's the Teller, a non-lethal security method that's the most brutal punishment of all... Stephen Thompson is the writer of two Eleventh Doctor episodes; The Curse of the Black Spot and Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS. Both episodes had can't miss premises (the Doctor on a pirate ship/Clara and the Doctor racing to the heart of the TARDIS to prevent its self-destruction), but both also fell short of their full potential, acting more as montages of scenes and concept than a cohesive story. Time Heist, with Steven Moffat on board as co-writer, boasts a twisting plot that's complex enough to hold the viewer's attention without folding and turning back on itself long enough for them to lose interest or focus. The initial hook of the Doctor and Clara voluntarily having their minds wiped so that they go into the bank heist not knowing anything grabs the viewer from the get-go. From there, the plot moves very quickly, and thanks to the directing by Douglas McKinnon (who also directed the previous episode Listen), the pace doesn't slow down, even when the onscreen action does. This is one of those episode where every penny of the budget was put on screen (although it seemed every patron of the most secure bank of the galaxy was human or humanoid, some alien diversity would have been nice), and McKinnon utilizes the scenery, sets, and props in every single shot. The only time the episode really falters in in the middle of the story; from when they break into the innards of the bank through the final cracking of the vault, there's an awful lot of corridor running. It's broken up by a scene with the Teller in his jail cell, but other than there, the four find themselves splitting up and running for their lives more often than necessary. And it also showcases one of the major flaws in the story. For the most secure bank in the galaxy, it's really not. The tunnels should have had guards throughout them, and I would imagine a lot more security cameras and what not. I've seen Target pharmacies with better security against people buying cold medication to make methamphetamine than this bank.  The supporting cast is one of Time Heist's highlights. One of the more unique creatures in Who history, both in terms of appearance and abilities, is introduced in the Teller, who can read a person's emotions and remove their memories while turning their brains into “soup,” as the Doctor calls it. The Teller's unique look, like he could have walked out of Pan's Labyrinth, and the way the skulls of his victim's cave in once he's done with them, both are sights that will stick with a viewer long after the conclusion of this story. On the human side of things, noted English actress Keely Hawes, who played the female lead in the critically acclaimed BBC series Ashes to Ashes, plays the cold, calculating, and politely vicious head of security for the Bank of Karabraxos, Ms. Delphox. Hawes nails the detached nature of Delphox, who goes about her business with efficiency, but always with the quiet desperation that one breach of security could see her suffer under the gaze of the Teller. Delphox is a very memorable one-shot villain, but one that will be easily forgotten after a few episodes have gone by. It's not any slight against her performance, it's just that her performance fits the standard “security chief in a heist movie” cliché to the utmost. On the side of the bank robbers, noted British theater actress Pippa Bennett-Warner plays the shapechanger Saibra and prolific theater and BBC television actor Jonathan Bailey is the cybernetically enhanced Psi. Their reasons for accompanying the Doctor and Clara along fit their characters and motivations, and the special effects/make-up that go with their abilities are very well done. Psi, for one, is a character I would like to see return, especially after his trick to distract the Teller of flooding his own mind with every wanted criminal in the known galaxy. (And it was also a neat way to slide in a nice reference to a character from the Doctor Who weekly comic strip; Absalom Daak, chainsaw wielding Dalek killer!) This was a bit of an off-week for Clara. In Time Heist, she was along for the ride, and served the role of “the companion whose sole purpose is to ask questions and get in trouble,” much as she did last season with Matt Smith, though this time out Jenna Coleman didn't have to make googly eyes at the Doctor. Coleman did just fine with this episode, helping draw out exposition from Psi and Saibra and serve as the companion in distress to be saved. This was just the first episode this season where Clara was just...there, and it was a bit jarring to realize that fact. It's a good sign, though, as to just how great Capaldi and Coleman have been together and how much character development she's gotten over the past few episodes.  The Doctor is very “Twelve” in this episode, with Capaldi taking charge of Psi and Saibra without a passionate speech or uplifting words, but a cold pragmatism, reminding them that they must have agreed to everything before having their memories wiped. He admits to Saibra at a critical moment that he can't save her, but she can save herself via the “exit strategy” that they discussed before forgetting everything. He realizes there's no other way to get his memories back but to confront the Teller. And in the very end, the Doctor sets the whole thing in motion with one very simple note slipped to the right person. Capaldi has been channeling Jon Pertwee so far, but this episode could have come right out of the Seven Doctor era, with Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred cracking into a bank through some convoluted plan. It's during the climax where the time travel angle shows up, and one can see Moffat's hand in it, but it's Capaldi who sells it, with his mix of confusion, realization, and follow through. Although, the key portion of his plan, a moment where the bank would be most vulnerable, is something that you would expect the most secure bank in the galaxy to be WELL prepared for and have predicted in advance.  It feels like this review is a little short than most (Thank Tom Baker, some of you are thinking. Thank Colin Baker, one of you is thinking. And I know which one. Don't deny it). Time Heist is a very well done “heist” episode, one with no long-term ratifications to the overall seasonal arc that are readily apparent or major character development. It's a straight forward episode from start to finish. That shouldn't take away from the quality of this story, however. No pun intended, Time Heist comes off as a chance for viewers to sit back and enjoy 44 minutes of an enjoyable, well done bank caper.
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Sep 22, 2014 02:49
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Jerusalem posted:I've actually quite enjoyed how they've handled the Clara/Danny scenes, with the jumps back and forth between their interactions and their "Oh God I hosed that up so badly" later reactions. It gets across that agonizing overanalysis common to an early relationship where you're still getting to know each other and secondguessing your every move and wondering how the other person is thinking. The great thing is that it not only conveys that sense of first date overanalysis, it also flows well with the main story of the episode in Listen and nicely mirrors the flashback experiences that Danny and the Doctor are going through. It's a good way of gently easing an audience into experiencing traumatic flashbacks without the usual Hollywood "loud, split-second flash to exploding bombs and screaming in slow-mo" that people have sort of become desensitized to. Getting space from Listen has made me like a lot more, even if I'm not the biggest fan of the way it fits into the whole as a show. Taken as a single episode, it's really quite well done and focused.
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Sep 22, 2014 02:50
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Gally posted:This episode really felt like at least a 90 minute story crammed into a normal length. Things were just introduced so fast you blink and miss them
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Sep 22, 2014 03:33
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I guess you missed the part where she asked if it was painless. And where they guy was talking about how he has nothing left to remember so it doesn't matter if he dies.
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Sep 22, 2014 03:35
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I missed the first time he says it, but I caught him repeating it when he was about to use the thing himself. By that point it was clear that you're meant to think they're suicide devices despite them clearly being teleporter devices.
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Sep 22, 2014 03:45
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Didn't he refer to them as atomic shredders. Sounds fatal.
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Sep 22, 2014 04:11
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Brett824 posted:This Adric kid is making me want to stop watching 5th doctor serials. Wow I guess I don't have to deal with Adric anymore. That was brutal.
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Sep 22, 2014 04:20
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Brett824 posted:Wow I guess I don't have to deal with Adric anymore. That was brutal. The thought of Adric's fate helped get many people through the dark years of Thatcher's Britain.
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Sep 22, 2014 04:24
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DoctorWhat posted:I'm not sure what you've been "right" or "wrong" ABOUT. I don't think I've yet raised any disagreement with you on any matter other than your petty insults. What are your actual POSITIONS, other than "jokes about posters"? What "substantive comments" do you think I ought to address? DoctorWhat, the best thing about you is that your positions, and your face both make you the most punchable forums member in the doctor who series 8 (34) thread. Thanks to your clown outfit avatar i can just imagine assaulting you myself.
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Sep 22, 2014 04:27
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Brett824 posted:Wow I guess I don't have to deal with Adric anymore. That was brutal. Now rewatch the scene but play yakkety-sax. Do not respond to mattd1zzl3, he's as much of a troll as Irish Joe.
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Sep 22, 2014 04:30
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I didn't hate this episode, didn't love it, it was just kind of there. Capaldi is amazing, and I like Twelve more and more with each passing episode. That said, there's one aspect to his Doctor that is bothering me: the whole "hating the Architect" thing illustrates something that I think his been an underlying theme this year, which is the Doctor's apparent self loathing. That seems a little jarring to me, especially coming on the heels of Eleven, who seemed to mostly be at peace with himself and his place in the universe: "I will always remember when the Doctor was me" indicated to me a degree of inner peace that seems to have been lost. As far as the structure of the story, I was thinking of how this might've been better as a two parter, because I don't think there was enough time to develop Psi and Saibra to the point that their apparent sacrifices had much weight to them. The ending, with them joking and eating Chinese food in the TARDIS, didn't seem earned, because I felt no attachment to the new characters (Though one aspect of this I liked was showing Twelve warming up to people other than Clara. I'm hoping his abrasiveness is smoothed out a bit as his tenure goes on). I thought it'd be better if it followed a more standard heist formula, where it shows the Doctor recruiting these people, and planning the heist, but I realized that would totally negate the whole purpose of the crew going in as essentially blank slates. Other than that, I thought it was a fun little romp, a decent 45 minutes that I don't see myself rushing to rewatch any time soon. One last thing: maybe I'm missing something, but when exactly would the Doctor have left those cases throughout the bank for them to find?
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Sep 22, 2014 04:43
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TL posted:One last thing: maybe I'm missing something, but when exactly would the Doctor have left those cases throughout the bank for them to find? I assumed (based on the flashback) in the time between him getting the phonecall and him wiping his memory.
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Sep 22, 2014 04:46
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TL posted:I didn't hate this episode, didn't love it, it was just kind of there. Capaldi is amazing, and I like Twelve more and more with each passing episode. That said, there's one aspect to his Doctor that is bothering me: the whole "hating the Architect" thing illustrates something that I think his been an underlying theme this year, which is the Doctor's apparent self loathing. That seems a little jarring to me, especially coming on the heels of Eleven, who seemed to mostly be at peace with himself and his place in the universe: "I will always remember when the Doctor was me" indicated to me a degree of inner peace that seems to have been lost. Except 11 knew that the Dream Lord was an aspect of himself because nobody else in the universe hates him as much as himself.
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Sep 22, 2014 04:46
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Time Heist was the most enjoyable episode this season. I don't have any big complaints, though a little disappointed that Clara didn't really do anything at all, especially compared to the other episodes. Still, I liked it a lot.
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Sep 22, 2014 04:50
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Doctor Spaceman posted:I assumed (based on the flashback) in the time between him getting the phonecall and him wiping his memory. Yeah, from what it sounds like you could TARDIS in to any part of the bank except the vault itself so he just left them there before he wiped his memory.
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Sep 22, 2014 04:53
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Brett824 posted:Wow I guess I don't have to deal with Adric anymore. That was brutal. I like the conversation at the start of the next episode. "Hey maybe we should-" "No! I could never do that! It would... uh... break the first law of time. Yeah. That's it."
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Sep 22, 2014 04:55
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Brett824 posted:Wow I guess I don't have to deal with Adric anymore. That was brutal. wait you DIDN'T KNOW!? ... you just got earthshocked, my friend.
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Sep 22, 2014 05:04
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computer parts posted:Yeah, from what it sounds like you could TARDIS in to any part of the bank except the vault itself so he just left them there before he wiped his memory. No, it was about being in the right place at the right time and the Doctor said he'd have no chance in hell of getting the TARDIS into the vault during the solar storm, hence the heist plan. Just popping in any old time would create a paradox because it's a stable time loop involving his own timeline. DoctorWhat posted:wait Well to be fair, neither will Adric  .
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Sep 22, 2014 06:11
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I have a question for the old-timers: has the Doctor ever been so precise with the TARDIS that he could land it inside fairly small spaces the way Twelve has done multiple times? Because I don't remember him ever purposefully doing it in the revival. He just didn't have the control.
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Sep 22, 2014 06:58
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Spatula City posted:I have a question for the old-timers: has the Doctor ever been so precise with the TARDIS that he could land it inside fairly small spaces the way Twelve has done multiple times? Because I don't remember him ever purposefully doing it in the revival. He just didn't have the control. Ten's done it a couple of times. Martha's apartment for one.
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Sep 22, 2014 07:01
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In Loups-Garoux the Fifth Doctor lands the TARDIS on a moving train by partially materializing just above the tracks and finishing the job as the train passes through the space. It was pretty impressive.
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Sep 22, 2014 07:11
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The TARDIS landing joke in Fear Her is basically the only good bit of the episode.Spatula City posted:I have a question for the old-timers: has the Doctor ever been so precise with the TARDIS that he could land it inside fairly small spaces the way Twelve has done multiple times? Because I don't remember him ever purposefully doing it in the revival. He just didn't have the control. Not reliably. The accuracy of his piloting is basically a function of the narrative.
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Sep 22, 2014 07:38
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Spatula City posted:I have a question for the old-timers: has the Doctor ever been so precise with the TARDIS that he could land it inside fairly small spaces the way Twelve has done multiple times? Because I don't remember him ever purposefully doing it in the revival. He just didn't have the control. One of the later 10 episodes (the one with the 'Children Of Time', can't be arsed to figure out which one) implied that the precision was impossible because a TARDIS is supposed to be manned by 6-8 people. With 12, I chalk it up to an physically and mentally older Doctor that decided to hell with that, he wants control of the TARDIS, so he's made it easier to control in both time and space.
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Sep 22, 2014 07:38
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Potsticker posted:In Loups-Garoux the Fifth Doctor lands the TARDIS on a moving train by partially materializing just above the tracks and finishing the job as the train passes through the space. It was pretty impressive. He even comments on it himself, he's quite chuffed As for the show itself, there were times the Doctor was unusually precise (like City of Death where he is able to successfully travel to Renaissance Italy then back to "modern" Paris) but usually he would be miles or years (or entire galaxies!) off where he intended to be. At the end of the Key to Time storyarc, he does add a randomizer to the TARDIS in order to avoid being tracked down, which kind of suggests he may have actually had some finer control over his landings than he ever let on - hilariously the first place the randomizer takes him is to Skaro  Honestly though, it does make some sense that his control has improved as he's gotten older, he's been flying that TARDIS for something like 1600+ years now, you have to get the hang of it eventually!
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Sep 22, 2014 07:40
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Jerusalem posted:He even comments on it himself, he's quite chuffed It felt a little fan-fiction-y thinking back on it, but it was done well enough and I was really into the story at that point that I didn't mind at all when it happened.
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Sep 22, 2014 07:44
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He does a short hop to materialise around another police box (which is actually the Master's TARDIS which itself has materialised around a police box) in Logopolis.
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Sep 22, 2014 07:47
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Considering The Doctor's Wife, it's probably more that he can fly it just fine, the TARDIS just diverts him when need be.
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Sep 22, 2014 08:28
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Eleven materialised it around clara in the snowmen
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Sep 22, 2014 08:46
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8 materialized it so perfectly in the rear storage compartment of a crashing spaceship that the doors lined up.
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Sep 22, 2014 09:01
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Basically the Doctor can pilot the TARDIS as well as he loving wants to. Twelve just cares more consistently about landing properly.
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Sep 22, 2014 09:04
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Eleven managed to fit it into the Oval Office, and in Rings of Akhaten(sp?) it was in an alley, and in Cold War he fit it in a cramped submarine. In (I believe) Angels Take Manhattan, he nearly parks it in the armpit of a staircase or something before it's knocked back. Eight landed on a very small space for his 50th appearance. I think that it's to do with having a better TARDIS box than they used to have, along with more dramatic lighting and better visual effects processing than the RTD era where the show looked like a teatime soap with monsters. The show's most enduring icon deserves a good presentation.
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Sep 22, 2014 09:46
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