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Trin Tragula posted:I can't hate on Delta and the Bannermen. It's not good, but it's not offensively bad like Battlefield/Time and the Rani/The Twin Dilemma. I still maintain that Battlefield is fun - sure its an incredibly goofy idea that really shouldn't work, but it was saved by UNIT and especially the Brigadier being there. Although it does say something that the only things I remember the Doctor doing in it is being knocked out by some random dragon thing and thus needing to be saved by the Brigadier, and then him being knocked out by the Brigadier as he goes off to defeat The Destroyer. Its certainly nowhere near the level of Twin Dilemma or either of the Rani stories... Its the weakest story of the 26th series; but that's because you have to compare it to Ghost Light and Curse of Fenric which are top tier Doctor Who stories IMO
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 05:30 |
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# ? Apr 23, 2024 22:17 |
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I do really dig the idea that it's the 7th Doctor encountering enemies he doesn't make until a later regeneration, and just rolling with the idea without issue. The fact they believe him to be Merlin is even better, given The Once and Future King had Merlin as a guy who was living his life backwards.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 05:35 |
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Rochallor posted:Paul "he always knew where the lights were" McGann What's that a reference to?
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 09:50 |
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Short Synopsis: The Doctor plays cards with a convicted felon, Turlough finds out there IS such a thing as a free lunch, and a cricket almanac saves the world. Long Synopsis: In London in the year 1702, the Doctor and Turlough find themselves in the middle of a rash of mysterious disappearances allegedly the work of the spirits of the damned. A local maid and a highwayman prove the key to unlocking the mysterious secret of Sir Nicholas Valentine, who along with cards has been playing a very long game indeed. What's Good:
What's Not:
Final Thoughts: Phantasmagoria is a pleasant surprise in that it's pretty good, as well as fairly distinctive. Blessed by a good supporting cast and fun writing, it probably helps that the setting is an interesting one for me and I don't think I'm the only one - well-meaning but slightly befuddled English Gentlemen operating out of clubs and getting into confrontations involving criminals and the supernatural is often mined territory, but for good reason - it's a lot of fun! For an early Big Finish, this is quite a good story, and any issues I have with it are not dealbreakers - it's an easy story to listen to, especially whenever either one or both of Jeake and Flowers are present.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 10:12 |
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Trin Tragula posted:I can't hate on Delta and the Bannermen. It's not good, but it's not offensively bad like Battlefield/Time and the Rani/The Twin Dilemma. Hmmm one story doesn't fit there
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 10:23 |
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Rat Flavoured Rats posted:What's that a reference to? It's the one nice thing he has to say about Eric Roberts on the commentary track for the TV movie.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 12:05 |
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Jerusalem posted:
It’s a Mark Gatiss script, starring Mark Gatiss, so it ticks off all the checkmarks – historical setting with alien influences. But coming after The Sirens of Time, it’s a much better blueprint for where Big Finish was going to take the license. I was very happy that of all the pairings that could have used coming out of the gate, they used Five and Turlough. I always thought they were an underrated team and having just the two of them together makes for some great dialogue and banter, especially since no one does “everyone else is an idiot but me” better than Mark Strickson. I agree the Doctor’s plan feels rushed…the whole serial was only 90 minutes long, which I think is among the shortest four-parters they’ve put together. But it’s a quick 90 minutes that’s decently put together. It’s a favorite story of mine, one of those you can just pop in when you’re in the mood.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 12:14 |
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You know I didn't even think to check who the writer was - I'm quite pleased to hear it was Gatiss, and looking at the dates he wrote this at the same time he was doing League of Gentlemen, which I still think is amongst the best stuff he has been creatively involved in. That he could be working on something that complicated and intensive and at the same time still produce something as good as this really speaks highly of him.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 13:01 |
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I really need to find a way to watch League of Gentlemen here in the States. The only bit I ever saw was Gatiss doing the cave tour and it was one of the funniest and darkest things I had ever busted a gut over.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 13:14 |
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IceAgeComing posted:I still maintain that Battlefield is fun - sure its an incredibly goofy idea that really shouldn't work, but it was saved by UNIT and especially the Brigadier being there. Although it does say something that the only things I remember the Doctor doing in it is being knocked out by some random dragon thing and thus needing to be saved by the Brigadier, and then him being knocked out by the Brigadier as he goes off to defeat The Destroyer. Its certainly nowhere near the level of Twin Dilemma or either of the Rani stories... Its the weakest story of the 26th series; but that's because you have to compare it to Ghost Light and Curse of Fenric which are top tier Doctor Who stories IMO My beef with Battlefield is how technically inept it is, and in a way Doctor Who isn't usually. "So we have this cardboard model standing in for a crashed helicopter? Excellent! Point the camera right at that fucker!" The classic example is that bit right after the Part 1/2 transition when it's supposed to be "I'm the Doctor, and this is--" (interrupted by gunshot), which is amateur hour all over. It begins with the huge yawning gap between "this is..." and the actual shot (apparently the editor doesn't know what an L-cut is), which makes it all the more obvious that the director hasn't done the painfully obvious/sensible thing of telling Sylvester "keep saying 'and this is my friend Ace' and we'll interrupt you in the edit". The cut itself is terrible, it goes from the motion of Bambera raising the gun to eye level in the (itself awfully composed) wide shot to her firing from chest height; and then just to put the cherry on the top of the turd, Sylvester's umbrella has magically changed hands when we go back to the wide a second later (and he's gone from being in motion to lining up rock solid for the fourth wall, just to make sure it looks completely disjointed). I could go on for hours about how bad it is, and that's just one scene. They did more competently-recorded stuff in the 60s shooting as-live with no retakes.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 13:53 |
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And yet you give a pass for Delta, despite enormous plot and dialogue problems? You can fill in the gaps in the production much more easily than you can invent an entirely different actual serial
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 14:05 |
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Delta is at least technically competent and the script sets itself a bar that's about a quarter of an inch over the ground; it's a silly runaround about princesses and eggs and the Welsh and irrelevant comedy Americans, written by someone doing his first professional script and script-edited by someone who was in almost the same boat and who was at the same time having his brain slowly liquidised by having to deal with PipnJane. The technical people responsible for making a bollocks of recording Battlefield's dodgy-to-start raw material (as pure scripts they're both poor) were all allegedly industry professionals with much relevant experience.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 14:17 |
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Black Orchid is a silly runaround with a weak script, Delta's script could only be forgiven if it was the result of an improv group that normally does drawing room comedies being given the starting words "science fiction", "genocide", "interstellar war" and "Welsh holiday camp". The vast majority of the lines are dreadful, the character building is frequently exceptionally poor (proto-Ace is characterised as a tom boy and all action because she has a wrench and an allen key that fit the alien standards exactly? Not only is that not thought through it's incredibly lazy "Oh I know boys stuff, I carry tools around with me all the time"), the script keeps on leading itself down the garden path by introducing aspects that it makes out will be important and then aren't followed up on, and even goes out of its way to introduce plot holes like that one with the alien commander announcing that it made no sense to kill the mercenary at the start of episode 2. It sets itself an incredibly low bar then not only fails to get over it but also spends most of its time digging a nice deep hole underneath so it can fail even worse
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 14:44 |
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And now to watch all of Doctor Who's 30 years of special effects budget in a single shot - it's The Mysterious Planet!
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 15:33 |
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"I intend to adumbrate two typical instances from separate epistopic interfaces of the spectrum.", I don't know if it was Holmes or Saward who wrote this line but it has to be one of the worst in the programme
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 16:05 |
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MrL_JaKiri posted:"I intend to adumbrate two typical instances from separate epistopic interfaces of the spectrum.", I don't know if it was Holmes or Saward who wrote this line but it has to be one of the worst in the programme reasonable claim, counterpoint: The Doctor: "There's no such thing as an arboreal coincidence."
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 16:38 |
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Toxxupation posted:reasonable claim, counterpoint: Counter counterpoint: "If I seem to lack gratitude, young woman, it is because on the previous occasion that the Doctor's path crossed mine, I found myself involved in a web of mayhem and intrigue." Edit: PIP AND JANE COMBO: "There's nothing you can do to prevent the catharsis of spurious morality."
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 16:46 |
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Okay Pip and Jane are loving cheating.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 16:50 |
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Fil5000 posted:Counter counterpoint: All of the classic series ones are from Trial of a Time Lord, coincidence??? And the first one is fine, the second one is dreadful (and like mine from the trial itself)
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 16:50 |
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Fil5000 posted:Counter counterpoint: This is clearly an excellent line. This, on the other hand... quote:PIP AND JANE COMBO: Well, I think you've already won.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 16:51 |
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CobiWann posted:I really need to find a way to watch League of Gentlemen here in the States. The only bit I ever saw was Gatiss doing the cave tour and it was one of the funniest and darkest things I had ever busted a gut over. The League of Gentlemen, at its best, is probably the best I've ever seen at the sort of humor that's just balanced on the razor's edge between funny and horrifying. (It gets even more horrifying when you find out just how many of the bizarre outlandish characters that feature are based broadly off real people that the writers/actors have met, which only goes to show that it's never a good idea to offend or upset or in any way distinguish yourself to a comedian.) It's probably even harder to track down for those of us in the U.S., but Psychoville (which features Reese Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton from League quite heavily) is well worth seeking out too, in this vein.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 16:55 |
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The Mysterious Planet is the mother lode for fans of "Robert Holmes thinks that every single thing in space is called a "constellation""
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 17:10 |
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Toxxupation posted:reasonable claim, counterpoint: I dunno, I hate that episode for good reason, but at least that line says something in kind of a fun way. It's not aimless nonsense, or anyone trying to sound much smarter than they are.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 17:13 |
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Also it's the Canada Goose not Canadian Goose
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 17:15 |
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MrL_JaKiri posted:Also it's the Canada Goose not Canadian Goose Sounds like you need Grey Goose.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 17:27 |
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Cleretic posted:I dunno, I hate that episode for good reason, but at least that line says something in kind of a fun way. It's not aimless nonsense, or anyone trying to sound much smarter than they are. it's soemthing an excessively whimsical fucker like eleven would say irt trees appearing out of nowhere, the more realist, cynical twelve would never put the unnecessary "Arboreal", also again it's self-consciously whimsical and whacky which makes it even more insufferable to hear on the screen the only way the line works is if eleven says it with his traditional earnestness and glee that defines him, when twelve aka Miserable rear end in a top hat says it it makes him look like a dumb motherfucker it's perhaps the worst possible example in an episode full of worst possible examples how the writer for in the forest of the night had no loving clue what the characters he was writing were like
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 17:36 |
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Toxxupation posted:it's soemthing an excessively whimsical fucker like eleven would say irt trees appearing out of nowhere, the more realist, cynical twelve would never put the unnecessary "Arboreal", also again it's self-consciously whimsical and whacky which makes it even more insufferable to hear on the screen I have to wonder if this was a script for a previous series that got delayed to now. That's happened before. Apparently this episode was super last minute in even its production, an after thought in every sense of the word.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 17:40 |
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considering how essential danny is to the, ahem, "plot" i doubt it ed: i mean, i guess it's possible but clara's not even a teacher in series 7
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 17:41 |
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Toxxupation posted:considering how essential danny is to the, ahem, "plot" i doubt it I am not going to lie I completely forgot Danny was in this episode. I really wanted to like Danny too... So that grandchild of Clara and Danny's that goes onto be the last man on Earth and what not, that's just never happened now right?
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 17:51 |
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my theorycraft for How To Fix kill the moon, btw, is instead of having Vaguely Sexist Cold Bitch as the "antagonist" for the episode, you force Danny along for his one adventure which he quits at the end for recommending killing the space dragon into the "villain" role like, it fixes so much about series 8 and danny's arc within it if, like, right after or at the end of caretaker danny gets goaded against his will into being Mickey/Rory 2.0 (travel with his girlfriend aboard the TARDIS as the Companion's main squeeze), then he experiences the events of kill the moon - in which he recommends killing the unborn dragon out of an overt sense of pragmatism, also where you relate his whole "I was a soldier and forced to do not nice things", and maybe bring up his whole "I killed a kid" plot point then the counter moralistic option lands it's danny arguing the point - validly - that the greater good is really important while reinforcing the PTSD angle, and then at the end of the episode you have him quit the TARDIS in a sense of self-disgust over the horror of his actions, and set up how the overwhelming guilt of potentially killing another child - this time, worst of all, knowingly so - excuses his choice in the season finale to not come back when he could, because now it's a payoff and redemptive to an action we see him take onscreen earlier in the season plus, it makes clara's demonization of the doctor at the end of kill the moon land even harder - could even provide the implication that the doctor did all this to split up danny and clara or to "prove" to clara how awful soldiers are by messing with the love of her life overtly, while giving her real stakes in the episode at large - The Doctor's action in kill the moon turns almost monstrous, triggering a vet's PTSD in the service of proving a hosed up point i dunno, i think having danny aboard kill the moon turns it into one of the strongest of the season while setting up the dumber aspects of death in heaven, namely danny's whole "arc"
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 17:52 |
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i just wanted danny to be good guys i just wanted danny to be good
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 17:54 |
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Toxxupation posted:i just wanted danny to be good guys He kung fu flips (complete with tuck) over a robot whose upper half looks like Garrus from Mass Effect. What more do you want?
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 18:15 |
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Burkion posted:So that grandchild of Clara and Danny's that goes onto be the last man on Earth and what not, that's just never happened now right? It's probably going to be something like that kid that Danny pushed out of Missy's fake afterlife took his name as a tribute and it's his grandchild we met in Listen. And he looks like Danny because of that weird incident where a bunch of people on Earth got turned into Danny Pink because of some leftover Cyber-pollen that was stirred up by the moon-egg hatching. This also somehow explains why the Doctor looks like a Pompeiian dude and a 21st century U.K. civil servant. (Or Clara became pregnant before Danny died.)
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 18:27 |
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man imagine a series 9 starring a clara learning that she's pregnant with danny's child man oh man oh man
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 18:30 |
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And next on the Mediocre Bob Holmes train, The Krotons!
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 18:34 |
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Toxxupation posted:man imagine a series 9 starring a clara learning that she's pregnant with danny's child man oh man oh man This child will somehow also be River Song.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 18:36 |
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docbeard posted:This child will somehow also be River Song. on board. instantly.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 18:37 |
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It's not likely that any of the plots from series 8 were a holdover from the Smith run, just judging by how relevant the series' overarcing plot was to all of them (you could maybe argue Robot of Sherwood, but that's about it). Tt's almost a definite that not all the writers were on the same page with what kind of Doctor they were writing for, though. It's a problem whenever there's a new Doctor, the DVD commentary for Tooth and Claw had the writer talking about how much he underestimated the challenge; his earlier drafts apparently sounded largely like Tom Baker scripts, with bits of Eccleston and McCoy mixed in. You think you know how to write a new Doctor, because he's still the Doctor, but at that point you don't really know. And the issue's exacerbated a bit with Capaldi, who's not really too close to the 'archetypal Doctor' most people would end up writing if they didn't know a specific Doctor's character.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 18:57 |
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I got to thinking today about the scene where the Doctor is running out of the cathedral ahead of Missy flailing and screaming about how everyone's in danger as the onlookers go and oh man when is the new Doctor Who series when is it Also Danny Pink never existed. You hear me? He never happened.
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 20:35 |
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# ? Apr 23, 2024 22:17 |
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No that's Rory Williams
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# ? Sep 8, 2015 21:10 |