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Best producer/showrunner?
This poll is closed.
Verity Lambert 30 15.31%
Barry Letts 7 3.57%
Phillip Hinchcliffe 32 16.33%
John Nathan-Turner 6 3.06%
Russell T Davies 33 16.84%
Steven Moffat 50 25.51%
Chris Chibnall (I am from the future) 38 19.39%
Total: 196 votes
[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

 
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DoctorWhat
Nov 18, 2011

A little privacy, please?

After The War posted:



The Fifth Doctor's Sonic and "The Visitation?" I see what you did there, DoctorWhat! You'll get yours... oh yes, you'll get yours! :sassargh:

Thank you, you're the best! :unsmith:

There should be another DVD either arrived or incoming.

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After The War
Apr 12, 2005

to all of my Architects
let me be traitor

The_Doctor posted:

And a cat?!

Well naturally, coming from such a dedicated fan of the Sixth Doctor!

I've made posing my DWSS gifts on cats something of a tradition, and I had to grab her now, since we will no longer be in the same house at the end of the month.

DoctorWhat posted:

There should be another DVD either arrived or incoming.

You monster! You glorious, glorious monster!

DoctorWhat
Nov 18, 2011

A little privacy, please?
Yeah, check your mailbox... now.

Bicyclops
Aug 27, 2004

Okay, I got frustrated enough at a Mario level that I went back to watching Doctor Who, and what is with the video quality on Arc of Infinity? Did someone sneeze on the film?


After The War posted:



The Fifth Doctor's Sonic and "The Visitation?" I see what you did there, DoctorWhat! You'll get yours... oh yes, you'll get yours! :sassargh:

Thank you, you're the best! :unsmith:

:shobon: I like Doctor Who Secret Santa. Good job, Doctor What. I have a conundrum regarding my Santee, but I think I may have a solution.

howe_sam
Mar 7, 2013

Creepy little garbage eaters

I finally made my way through the RTD era which means I get to watch Eleventh Hour again! :woop:

pgroce
Oct 24, 2002
E: Oops, there was a whole lot more posts after that one.

After The War
Apr 12, 2005

to all of my Architects
let me be traitor

DoctorWhat posted:

Yeah, check your mailbox... now.

The surprise will be something to look forward to through the drudgery of the work day and commute!

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

howe_sam posted:

I finally made my way through the RTD era which means I get to watch Eleventh Hour again! :woop:

It's so loving good.

"The word is out, and do you know what the word is? The word... is zero :smug:"

Shard
Jul 30, 2005

Did they ever explain why 19th century London was so cool with Vastra, Jenny and Strax or is it just one of those things?

docbeard
Jul 19, 2011

Spikeguy posted:

Did they ever explain why 19th century London was so cool with Vastra, Jenny and Strax or is it just one of those things?

They weren't, Vastra wore a veil in public and people would regularly faint at the sight of her. I assume Strax just didn't give a gently caress.

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


docbeard posted:

They weren't, Vastra wore a veil in public and people would regularly faint at the sight of her. I assume Strax just didn't give a gently caress.

They played some gags though in which Vastra was unveilled and people were more shocked at the same-sex relationship than at her scales.

2house2fly
Nov 14, 2012

You did a super job wrapping things up! And I'm not just saying that because I have to!
She said people refer to her as deformed, and probably the same is true of Strax. Basically yeah, just one of those things

Pesky Splinter
Feb 16, 2011

A worried pug.

Bicyclops posted:

Okay, I got frustrated enough at a Mario level that I went back to watching Doctor Who, and what is with the video quality on Arc of Infinity? Did someone sneeze on the film?

That's your eyes glazing over at how insufferably dull Arc of Infinity is.

MrL_JaKiri
Sep 23, 2003

A bracing glass of carrot juice!

Bicyclops posted:

Okay, I got frustrated enough at a Mario level that I went back to watching Doctor Who, and what is with the video quality on Arc of Infinity? Did someone sneeze on the film?

That's how all 80s porn was shot

After The War
Apr 12, 2005

to all of my Architects
let me be traitor

DoctorWhat posted:

Yeah, check your mailbox... now.



Snakedance? Snakedance?! Ssssnaaaaaaaaakedance!!!!!

Thanks to you, my Davison collection is almost complete! And I'm glad they included that helpful sign to show the thread that you sent a DVD, and not a cat.

Bicyclops
Aug 27, 2004

I'm watching part four of Snakedance at this very moment, as I type this!

After The War
Apr 12, 2005

to all of my Architects
let me be traitor

Bicyclops posted:

I'm watching part four of Snakedance at this very moment, as I type this!

Man, DoctorWhat is on top of everything!

DoctorWhat
Nov 18, 2011

A little privacy, please?
I'm cartoonishly hypercompetent!

Class3KillStorm
Feb 17, 2011




Why is your cat named DVD?

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

I'm finding the latest UNIT boxset surprisingly good, considering it has no (explicit) theme other than being four separate standalone stories. It's also got probably the most effective and non-forced reference/tribute to the Brigadier I've heard so far.

Small Strange Bird
Sep 22, 2006

Merci, chaton!

Jerusalem posted:

I'm finding the latest UNIT boxset surprisingly good, considering it has no (explicit) theme other than being four separate standalone stories. It's also got probably the most effective and non-forced reference/tribute to the Brigadier I've heard so far.
Anything has to be better than turning him into a kamikaze cyber-zombie.

Fil5000
Jun 23, 2003

HOLD ON GUYS I'M POSTING ABOUT INTERNET ROBOTS

Payndz posted:

Anything has to be better than turning him into a kamikaze cyber-zombie.

The more I think about that the more I've softened on it. I kind of like the idea that even being a) dead and b) cyberised doesn't stop the Brig from being the goddamned Brig.

Sydney Bottocks
Oct 15, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 60 days!

Payndz posted:

Anything has to be better than turning him into a kamikaze cyber-zombie.

OK, I hate to ask since I haven't watched DW in forever, but did they actually do this in the show, or is this a Big Finish thing?

Fair Bear Maiden
Jun 17, 2013

Sydney Bottocks posted:

OK, I hate to ask since I haven't watched DW in forever, but did they actually do this in the show, or is this a Big Finish thing?

That is, unfortunately, the work of Steven Moffat in the first Peter Capaldi season finale.

Sydney Bottocks
Oct 15, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 60 days!

Fair Bear Maiden posted:

That is, unfortunately, the work of Steven Moffat in the first Peter Capaldi season finale.

Figured as much. I'm going to assume they didn't even bother to put the Brig's hat on his cyber-head at a jaunty angle.

Davros1
Jul 19, 2007

You've got to admit, you are kind of implausible



Sydney Bottocks posted:

Figured as much. I'm going to assume they didn't even bother to put the Brig's hat on his cyber-head at a jaunty angle.

There's fan art of this, and it's become canon for me, so much so that when I think back to that ep, that's how it plays out in my mind

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
I’m glad it’s not just me that pictures this.

Big Mean Jerk
Jan 27, 2009

Well, of course I know him.
He's me.
Of all the things Moffat has done in questionable taste, that one still feels the most egregious.

After The War
Apr 12, 2005

to all of my Architects
let me be traitor

The_Doctor posted:

I’m glad it’s not just me that pictures this.



This. too, is canon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmsafe5d4oM

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

Big Mean Jerk posted:

Of all the things Moffat has done in questionable taste, that one still feels the most egregious.

It's between that and the whole "Melody actually grew up alongside you as kids and that's totally cool and the same as having raised your baby as adults anyway let's just completely move on to wacky new adventures!" for me - Moffat's run was for the most part extremely good and enjoyable but when he hosed up man he REALLY hosed up.

2house2fly
Nov 14, 2012

You did a super job wrapping things up! And I'm not just saying that because I have to!
Cyberbrig was cool

howe_sam
Mar 7, 2013

Creepy little garbage eaters

In the moment I thought Cyberbrig was fine, but considering my own private freakout over the thought of Amy and Rory being turned into Cybermen I get why people didn't like it.

Wolfechu
May 2, 2009

All the world's a stage I'm going through


Jerusalem posted:

It's between that and the whole "Melody actually grew up alongside you as kids and that's totally cool and the same as having raised your baby as adults anyway let's just completely move on to wacky new adventures!" for me - Moffat's run was for the most part extremely good and enjoyable but when he hosed up man he REALLY hosed up.

I think the Mel thing would have worked a whole damned lot better if she'd been introduced to the viewers over several episodes, instead of over about 10 minutes.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?



Synopsis: Four standalone stories with VERY loose connective tissue and no particular shared theme make for a fun and easy listen with characters that by now are well-established. UNIT encounters a Dalek, a ghost, Sontarans and perhaps the most terrifying foe of all: workplace romance.



Synopsis: In fine Doctor Who tradition, the presence of a Dalek is revealed in a "HOLY poo poo!" moment that is completely undercut by the fact the name is right there in the title. Somewhere in (presumably) South America, a Dalek has crashed to earth and been taken prisoner by freedom fighters who are not entirely what they seem. Seeking to auction the creature to the highest bidder to finance their revolution, they unknowingly do a deal with UNIT who are masquerading as corrupt Government officials, while the Dalek plots revenge and reveals that it too is not entirely what it seems.

The immediate and obvious parallels to Dalek are deliberate, with Kate even making a reference to having tracked a similar signal before that went as far as Utah before losing it. The stories quickly diverge though, as the on-the-surface plot is slowly stripped away to reveal the deeper machinations of the freedom fighter's leader and the Dalek respectively. Gonsalves keeps her cards close to her chest, nominally the leader of the freedom fighters who spouts the typical,"Yankee imperalist pig!" nonsense in a vaguely racist accent (the actor's father was Spanish and she was doing her best to emulate him, so I feel bad saying that) who appears to have a dangerous mix of arrogance, ignorance and revolutionary fervor. But she knows far more than she is letting on, and while her fervor is real she is also somewhat of a realist who knows exactly how to play people to her advantage. Unknown to most of her soldiers she uses their base as a storehouse for advanced weaponry, some of it for use in her "cause" but most of it there for the benefit of her benefactors - "The Auctioneers". Almost the funnest part of the story is seeing the members of UNIT gradually uncover more of the base and grasp just how little they understand what is actually going on here. Almost.

Because the titular Dalek is THE funnest part. Initially shown as completely helpless, mocked by Gonsalves as it splutters weakly that it is superior to her as she forcefeeds it soup and mocks it, it is a very sorry excuse for a Dalek. But as the story progresses we learn more, including that it allowed the freedom fighters to capture it and break it out of its casing, and has been faking its weakness to keep them complacent while it easily escapes its bonds each night and maps out the base so it can get access to the advanced alien weaponry that Gonsalves is hoarding. When UNIT arrives it immediately adjusts its strategies and plays them like fools in spite of them thinking they're fully briefed and prepared for how to deal with it. This leads to some tremendous scenes, such as when they find its corpse only to discover it shucked off pieces of its body so they'd think they'd defeated it, while it continues to work out its plan with them none the wiser. The revenge the Dalek promised against Gonsalves feels oddly satisfying even if it is brutish and horrific, and demonstrates that ultimately there is a distinct difference between humans and Daleks - the freedom fighters let their prisoners free when they realize they've been poisoned and are dying, so that they at least have a chance to escape rather than die like them. It also gives the UNIT military brass - Shindi and Carter - a chance to prove they are deserving of their spots, particularly Shindi who keeps his wits about him and figures out a way to keep them all alive. The destruction of the base at the end feels a bit pat but necessary for the loosely connected overarching threat present in the other stories, and also shares another fine tradition of Who and other similar Base Under Siege stories (particularly in the Davison era) where the only survivors are our heroes.



Synopsis: Kate investigates an old UNIT house that has remained on the books for years despite going unused, while Osgood and Carter investigate the links between a mysterious "Gray Man" and a reawakened old satellite that has begun transmitting a disturbing Latin invocation in a cheery Received Pronunciation voice. After remembering a link to her father's time as the Head of UNIT, Kate also sees the Gray Man, as does Osgood, leaving Carter as the only person who seems unable to see the Gray Man or even feel his presence.

Not quite a self-contained bottle episode due to an early party scene and a later piece with Shindi leading troops in an evacuation of a section of London, this story still has the nicely claustrophobic feel of a ghost story set in a spooky old house, like something out of Hide or Knock Knock or even Ghostlight. Even the piece with Carter at a Halloween party that initially feels like a timewaster and redundant use of the Gray Man serves a purpose, furthering the notion of the undercurrent of romantic interest/compatibility between himself and Osgood that has been referenced even as far back as the first UNIT boxset. Carter's dismissal of a prospective date because she (understandably!) fell apart when confronted with the weird feels a little dismissive, but is probably an accurate reflection of the sheer insanity that the likes of UNIT run into on the regular and quickly become used to and even take for granted. Later in the story Shindi is furious at soldiers who start to panic, using discipline to keep them in line in spite of their fear, while Osgood doesn't dismiss her terror but uses it to hyper-focus her thinking and figure out a way for Josh to help her. But the members of UNIT are by no means immune, they feel terror and work to overcome it by being prepared, but when Kate - probably the most together/stable of all the characters - first encounters the Gray Man she becomes terrified and loses control, because it wasn't something she was expecting or prepared for. Her indignation and irritation after her recovery feels real, because she knows it was out of character and uses it as motivation to learn more.

The two supporting characters are interesting but ultimately rather underdeveloped which causes the resolution to lack some impact. This is particularly felt with Ben, who we learn was briefly a childhood friend of Kate. This should lend weight to their interactions but he mostly hangs out with Osgood and then his ultimate condemnation of Kate and her tactics has no weight, he is somebody I never knew who Kate barely remembers and whose opinion I don't particularly care about. Alice Donelly is more interesting but her biting, bitter memories of UNIT, the army and Kate's father in particular are based on loosely defined events we never really get the full story on. Ironically, where they have the most weight come in a couple of final lines from Kate in reference to her father. The "Gray Man" is the function of research that the Brigadier discovered and condemned, and his written notes on it and his decision to shut it down lend the character gravitas and dignity and prove why Kate holds the man in such high regard.

The resolution is well handled and based strongly on information presented directly and indirectly through the story, though the listener is left to figure out for themselves the true culprit behind the reactivation of the satellite and the summoning of the Gray Man. It was a surprising and rather neat decision that the threat was supposedly demonic in nature, as opposed to just an inexplicable alien but enough wriggle room is left to allow the listener to take that at face value or ascribe their own explanation. Kate's solution is pragmatic and sensible but understandably upsets Ben, and just like Carter's earlier condemnation of his would-be girlfriend it demonstrates well that life as part of UNIT does harden you, and while that may be a necessity it can be a regrettable one. These people CAN"T live ordinary lives, as much as they might want to.



Synopsis: Osgood's former mentor at the Ministry of Defense decides to headhunt her no matter what to help him with a very special project. Colonel Shindi finds himself captured by Sontarans who attempt to force him to aid them, while he attempts to convince them of the military and strategic benefits of working together.

I was legitimately surprised that this story did something with the Sontarans that had never been done before (I don't think) but in retrospect was immediately obvious. Professor Torrance, a former mentor of Osgood's, has sold out to the Auctioneers and been tasked with cloning... Sontarans. Yes Sontarans are all clones already, but the Auctioneer's idea is straightforward enough - clone NEW Sontarans who have none of the preconditioned Sontaran culture and make them loyal to/obey their new masters: whoever is willing to fork out the cash for them. Replace mercenaries and armies with batches of eternally loyal clones with built in martial prowess. The problem being... cloning is really hard! With the Auctioneers' resources, Torrance has been able to clone a monkey, but his Sontaran projects are constantly failing/falling apart or demonstrating disturbing possession of memories they should not have. His solution: bring on Osgood for support... whether she wants to or not.

Osgood has always been written in general as "genius" without much of a distinction of where her specialty lies - as UNIT's scientific adviser she seems to be an expert in just about everything in the typical "Genius = Knows Everything" style of television and comic book characters. True she does have access to technology and information far beyond what most do, but even back in the classic series of Who it was a given that the Doctor was a special case when it came to being Scientific Adviser. When Liz Shaw came in to take the role that the second Doctor had very briefly filled in The Invasion, it was understood that she was extremely intelligent but that the Doctor's expertise went far beyond her own (part of the reason Liz only lasted a season, she was essentially a redundant character as written). Torrance's desire to bring her in indicates that this has always been the case, Osgood is apparently one of the world's great geniuses, and as much as I enjoy the character and Ingrid Oliver's performance it does feel like somewhat lazy writing - she could use having SOME gaps in her knowledge. In any case, she is brought in and drugged with a particularly nasty alien formula that creates perfect compliance before quickly burning out the mind of the subject. It's an indication that Torrance is completely amoral, his lust for money sees him willing to go to any lengths, and his narcissism is such that even when he acknowledges that Osgood is smarter and better resourced than himself he still sees no issue with using and discarding her for a one-off goal. It makes him into a pretty despicable if one-note character, which makes his ultimate fate somewhat satisfying, and definitely poetic.

Running parallel to Osgood's story is Colonel Shindi, who is investigating an extraterrestial crash site when he runs into a group of Sontarans who take him prisoner to ascertain if he is responsible for the capture of one of their own. Played somewhat for humor, Shindi's reaction to the Sontarans stands in stark contrast to how he reacted to the Daleks. He actually feels some understanding/respect for the Sontarans because of their military nature, and is at great pains to try and explain that he is not their enemy and in fact is keen to work together in a joint military operation to achieve both their goals. The Sontaran Commander (played by Dan Starkey of course) seems interested but has his own procedures to follow, and with absolutely zero sadistic purpose tortures Shindi to get at the truth before eventually - again without malice or regret - agreeing to his suggestion. Even when Shindi turns the tables on him by leading him into an ambush by Kate and a superior force of UNIT soldiers, he simply considers it a clever tactic and accepts the joint operation under UNIT command in order to achieve his goal. Like the Ice Warriors, the Sontarans are most interesting when they're not either straight up bad guys or good guys, but complex characters who work to a defined personal or cultural code of conduct. They believe that a Sontaran has been captured and killed, his body used by humans in an undignified and dishonorable way. When the commander discovers the captured Sontaran alive and collapsed to the ground, he sneers at him to stand in the presence of an officer and you'd assume that he considers him a failure - that he instead congratulates him on using the resources at his disposal to reveal his location and survive long enough for their arrival is an indication that the Sontarans are not one-dimensional, but complex and nuanced characters. If there is one thing that Big Finish frequently gets right, it is the Sontarans, they lend them a gravitas and dignity often absent from their televised counterparts, even if both are portrayed by Dan Starkey.



Synopsis: Osgood and Carter take a break from some hardcore loving to plot the overthrow of the Government and the deaths of their hated superiors: Colonel Shindi and Kate Stewart.

The resolution of the previous story, with Osgood's rescue and the capture of Torrance's supervisor brought the Auctioneers further to UNIT's attention. One would presume this would be setting the stage for a final story where they go up against the Auctioneer's mysterious Overseer... but nope, this story seems to have absolutely no connection with these antagonists. Instead, it opens with a surprising scene where Osgood and Carter wake up in bed together, complain about alarm clocks and then decide to share a shower together before heading to work. The best part of this out-of-character scene is that both the characters are completely IN character, just doing bizarre things. It soon becomes apparent that the story is taking place in a parallel universe, not quite the Inferno reality (since that burned down) but one where the characters have far darker and cruel personalities. Osgood is arrogantly superior since everybody else is so dumb (but Carter is pretty enough not to mind so much), Carter is quick to fall into line with superiors when confronted, Shindi is bitter at UNIT not being run with military efficiency and openly derogatory of Kate's leadership, while Kate herself is lazy, close-minded and quick to blame others for her faults.

The "good" Osgood and Carter jump into this universe, having triggered a dimension jump from their own by accident while examining a recently collected alien artifact. As they try to find power cables to power the machine back up and escape, they run right into the "evil" Osgood and Carter's schemes. This leads to a series of mistaken identities, poor acting (by the characters, not the actors), and confusion. All of it is presented in surprisingly comical fashion, presumably to mitigate the darkness of what they' doing (their version of Sam suffers a pretty horrific fate). The most hilarious parts are poor "Good" Carter and Osgood having to pretend to be their evil counterparts to their respective partners, and being all lovey-dovey which they clearly find extremely uncomfortable. This gets played to its obvious conclusion when both good versions think the other is their evil counterpart and make out with each other to lull them into a false sense of security so they can take them captive, only for the good Kate Stewart to show up and immediately to know which is which, much to their surprise and belated horror. Of course the best joke of all is Kate's quiet,"Did the other me have an eyepatch....?" line.

The fun of course comes in getting to see familiar characters act so out-of-character, and you can tell the actors are having a blast doing it - it's not exactly a new concept, Osgood even lampshades the joke with a comment to a confused Josh after explaining alternate universes to him of,"It's a pretty standard trope..." - what makes it work is that while the characters are different you can see how with just a few slight changes the good characters we know could have ended up like this. If Kate had taken her role as the Brigadier's successor as a right instead of something to be earned; if Shindi had decided that the chain of command only applied within the military itself and thus Kate was exempt of his duty to respect her rank; if Osgood had looked at all the people that didn't understand the things she did and come to the conclusion that she was better than them. When the Osgoods meet and work through a problem together, you can see how both are completely in lockstep and coming to the same conclusions because they do share the same brain, just with different memories/experiences that have defined who they are. The slight nods to the greater society within that world - the dictator, his deposed/exiled brother etc - all lend it a sense of weight. They also close off the immediate threat of "invasion" in a sensible way that presumably makes this a one-and-done but does allow for a very slight chance of revisiting this world/these characters at some point in the future. Yeah it doesn't tie in all that much with the Auctioneers/Overseers stuff outside of a brief reference to Sam Bishop (Warren Brown was out of the country working on Strike Back) getting some intel on them, but as a final story it's a fun little standalone that just works by itself.

Final Thoughts: A big step up from the previous UNIT boxset, the lack of a theme doesn't detract from Encounters at all. In fact it feels overdue, a four volume set that just details several adventures of Kate Stewart's UNIT and gives a better sense of what "day to day" life might be like for a global spanning but primarily secret organisation. Take the Auctioneers out of the picture and any one of these could be a standalone story, and even leaving the references to them in wouldn't leave the listener feeling like they'd missed out on anything. It does highlight that the cast largely works best when it is tight - Kate, Osgood, Shindi and Carter - with Sam's absence going unfelt outside of the frequent references to him not being there. By this point Big Finish has an idea of what they want their version of UNIT to be like, and I have to say it is mostly working for me - I wish this version of UNIT was what we got on television, and who knows, maybe we will in the Chibnall era... if we get them at all.

Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Dec 10, 2017

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

That review was way longer than I thought it was, sorry for all the :words:

Burkion
May 10, 2012

by Fluffdaddy
Man, I just threw down 8,000 words on a random thought ramble on the general thesis of some other show I like.

You're fine, you actually made points and went into the full content of the work.

Long reviews are great

MrL_JaKiri
Sep 23, 2003

A bracing glass of carrot juice!

howe_sam posted:

In the moment I thought Cyberbrig was fine, but considering my own private freakout over the thought of Amy and Rory being turned into Cybermen I get why people didn't like it.

But... it's not that we're very attached to the character and are sad because he's been cybered, it's that the reason that the character is dead in-universe is that Nicholas Courtney died.

Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill are, time of writing, very much alive.

It's not quite the same level of wtf but this generates the same reaction in me as the "I, a history student, never understood the holocaust was sad until someone photoshopped a MLP character in" picture

pgroce
Oct 24, 2002

MrL_JaKiri posted:

But... it's not that we're very attached to the character and are sad because he's been cybered, it's that the reason that the character is dead in-universe is that Nicholas Courtney died.

Exactly. The appropriateness of sending off a character is a bit different to paying tribute to an colleague and friend—of the show certainly, and likely to many of the people involved personally.

I think the first phone-call-in-the-TARDIS tribute hit the right note. They integrated the personal respect and sense of loss into the show without ever diminishing the solemnity of the real event for the sake of the story. The death of those we love is inevitable and sad, both for the Doctor and for all of us.

I guess they felt like it wasn’t big enough, but IMO it was bigger than they realized.

Open Source Idiom
Jan 4, 2013

pgroce posted:

I think the first phone-call-in-the-TARDIS tribute hit the right note.

Except for the bit where the woman on the phone talked like a robot. Drags me out of the scene every time.

(Amongst many of the weird characterisation tics that Moffat has, none annoys me more than the person -- often a soldier, but as the case above suggests they can be any kind of civil servant really -- who punctuates every other sentence with "sir". It's not just that the cadences feel off, though they do to my ears. I mostly think it's just very cookie cutter.)

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Box of Bunnies
Apr 3, 2012

by Pragmatica
The deets for series four of the Third Doctor Adventures have been updated, confirming that the second story features the Cybermen and is written by Marc Platt.

This isn't a range I've really paid much attention to so far apart from buying the first set on sale (but not having yet listened to it) given that a) Pertwee's era is one where I'm missing is proper TV experience (ahead of only Davison in number of stories I've seen) and b) the fact that the lead is a recast in full cast dramas also kinda lowers the "it's the originals!" draw a bit (Treloar doing narration and the Doctor is one thing, I can buy that, there's just this dumb arbitrary line in my head when you ditch the narration and move to full cast. Same as I like The Early Adventures for their "lost serial soundtrack" feel but wouldn't want Peter Purves or William Russell playing the Doctor 100% in full cast audios).

But holy moly if "the Third Doctor faces off against the Cybermen in a story penned by Marc 'Spare Parts and Silver Turk' Platt" isn't a "shut up and take my money" prospect. I've been waiting for an accessible 3 vs Cybes story forever given that the previous CC Big Fin did featuring that matchup is stuck in the "CD only" ghetto of the first series.

Box of Bunnies fucked around with this message at 13:07 on Dec 11, 2017

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