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So I just discovered this thread, caught up to the current review, and realized that I came in between Love and Monsters and Fear Her. God bless, dude. I love this show, having blitzed through the first 5 seasons and started watching live at series 6. There's a lot more crap that you're going to be wading through if you're seeing this whole thing through to the end, but at least you'll be past the worst two individual episodes after this. I would argue that there's a two-parter later on that's worse than either of these. I have really enjoyed the transformation from hating this show to being a fan that has been on display. At the pace you're going, I figure by the end of next season you might start being tempted to listen to those radio dramas that DoctorWhat was
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Sep 5, 2014 10:37
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Okay, after reading your review I've been thinking about why I dislike this episode so much, and I think there are two main reasons. The first is that for the majority of this episode it feels like they just weren't trying. There are quite a few episodes of Doctor Who that I would describe a bland and forgettable, but for most of them you still can see that the people involved cared about the episode. I'll use School Reunion as an example. Having never watched the original run, most of that episode fell flat for me. The story was bland and felt like fan-pandering, and the villains were kind of side-lined with nonsensical motivations. Even still, you could tell that everyone involved (except maybe the CG artists) cared about the episode they were making. They wanted to make an homage to the old series, and give a popular character a proper send-off. Tennant, Piper, and Sladen seemed to be having fun with their characters, and Anthony Head still managed to give a memorable performance for such a forgettable episode. The episode also means something to the over-arching plot of the series by giving Mickey some growth as a character, for what that's worth. It's not a good episode, but you can at least tell that it wanted to be. And maybe, if I had grown up with the old series and knew who Sarah Jane Smith was prior to watching it, it might even have been an enjoyable episode to me. Fear Her, on the other hand, has no purpose to it. The writing is poor and story is bland, but those are hardly unfamiliar problems for a Doctor Who episode. What's worse is that the actors don't seem to care about the episode. I'm not talking about the two mains when I say that. Tennant throws himself wholeheartedly into it like he always does, because he is still the little kid living his dream. Piper gives a better than average performance here as well, and it is amazing how much she has grown into her role as Rose since the first season. The problem is the extras. I hate to pick on child actors, so instead I'll blame whoever cast Abisola Agbaje for this episode instead, because I assume he or she is related to her in some way. There is no other way that someone would look at her acting and think "yes, this child should play the main focus of an episode of the most popular series on TV." Beyond her, all the other bit actors seemed to be having a competition to see who could seem the most wooden. At no point does a single person seem to be living in a neighborhood where all their children are disappearing. The emotional response is more akin to a neighborhood where the power has been knocked out for a little under an hour, so everyone is ambling out into the street to see if they can catch sight of anyone to complain to. If it turned out that this was the neighborhood where all the mannequins from the first episode had migrated to, I would still feel that their actors were playing them a little too reserved. That brings us to Chloe's mom. Her actress plays her more or less as wooden as everyone else, and Occ already did a fine job of hitting what's wrong with her character. Coming so soon after Idiot Lantern's lesson of "Go after you're abusive father even after your mother finally gathered the courage to kick him out because... love or something?" this character further damages Who's ability to depict an abusive home with any sort of class. Occ claims this isn't as grave a sin as last episode's blow-job slab, but I would argue this. Love and Monster's end is a really bad quick joke that someone thought was funny. It was in poor taste, but probably not meant to be taken seriously. On the other hand, Chloe's relationship with her parents is a pretty big part of this episode's story. The writers clearly wanted to send some sort of message with this plot, to say something about domestic abuse or caring for your child after separation or not neglecting a child with going through obvious psychological problems. With a little more effort, maybe one of those may have hit home. As it is though, it comes across more like the writer was given a decree to write an episode about a topic that he did not really understand or care about, and the whole episode suffers for it. Oh hey, I said there were two reasons I didn't like this episode. The second is that Olympic torch scene. My problem with it isn't as principled as DoctorWhat's, but simply that it kills my immersion. Doctor Who is a silly show where contemporary London is invaded by aliens every season, but watching the doctor on television running the Olympic flame into the stadium was the one moment of this series where my brain immediately took me out of the show. Because I watched the 2012 Olympics on television prior to watching this episode, and this is not what happened. I know that sounds stupid because this is a TV show that has never made any real effort to pretend that it is possibly real on any level, but I can usually turn my brain off and enjoy stupid TV. I know that this episode was written before the Olympics, but the point is that it was too close to the event. The torch scene was just too real an event for me to do that for, and the episode suffers, perhaps unfairly, for it. But I'm going to go back to this post after The Idiot Lantern: Captain Fargle posted:This is the stuff we learned about in history class when we were eight. The stuff we heard our grandparents reminiscing about and I don't mean that in the broad, sweeping, hypothetical sense. I mean that in the "I could literally just go downstairs right now and talk to my grandmother and have her tell me this" sense. Because this is part of Doctor Who's fun; the blend of real historic events with monsters and aliens. When they try to do that with something contemporary, the magic disappears and reality comes crashing in to my silly scifi show about a man and his box. And that may be the gravest sin a Doctor Who episode can commit.
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Sep 6, 2014 07:20
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The Daleks really come across as a force here. You have this build up between the Cybermen, Torchwood, the alternate universe crew, and the Doctor where they're all ready to come to blows with each other, and then 4 Daleks show up and suddenly they're all teaming up to take down these things. The Cybermen pretty much call a time-out on the whole world conquest thing just to stop these screaming dustbins that showed up. And it doesn't even loving matter, because that whole "destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek" thing was clearly not a bluff. The Daleks just steamroll through everything, and then unleash billions more of themselves. If the Doctor hadn't managed to vacuum everything up, this would have been a complete victory for the Daleks, with the Cybermen not even warranting a mention.
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Sep 7, 2014 08:39
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Roach Warehouse posted:Dalek telecommunications are based around preventing inferior races from communicating without permission. It makes sense, since Dalek face-to-face communications are based around preventing inferior races from existing without permission.
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Sep 7, 2014 08:59
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When I said this earlier quote:I love this show, having blitzed through the first 5 seasons and started watching live at series 6. There's a lot more crap that you're going to be wading through if you're seeing this whole thing through to the end, but at least you'll be past the worst two individual episodes after this. I would argue that there's a two-parter later on that's worse than either of these. These upcoming episodes were what I was talking about. I'll actually be interested in your write up because there are very few details that I remember about them, and I can't even say the particular reason that I hated them so much, though I do seem to remember the second part being the worse of the two. All I know is that at same point after watching, my brain simply labeled these episodes terrible and promptly purged all details. Well, all details except that costume. You'll know what I mean.
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Sep 15, 2014 06:24
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The best thing about the Weeping Angels in this episode is their simplicity of design. Keep your eyes on them and your completely safe, look away and you're gone the second they touch you. No convoluted overly-complicated traps, no nonsensical monster designs, no quasi-magical powers. Just simple, elegant design. I had never heard before that this could have been a two-parter, but I agree that the potential is there looking back on it. The angels are an interesting enough monster to carry a two-parter, Sally is a well-written female character who I would have enjoyed seeing in more than one episode. Shame we got that other two-parter instead.
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Sep 27, 2014 07:24
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Lycus posted:The little dance that the Master's "wife" is doing in the background during the music scene made me laugh a little. This is what makes that scene for me. The whole "Here Comes the Drums" sequence might otherwise feel kind of clumsy and awkward, but the sheer amount of fun that the Master and Lucy are having there makes up for it entirely. Well, that and the fact that the Master uses the word Decimate correctly.
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Sep 30, 2014 04:44
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Donna is the best companion of the RTD era, but I would argue there is at least one better later on in the series. And yay for being 1 for 1 on the grading. I have a feeling that I am going to end up wrong more often than not, so it's nice to at least open strong.
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Oct 6, 2014 13:07
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Irony Be My Shield posted:I've said it before in the main thread, but I think the revival generally (I won't say it's 100% consistent) works on the logic that if you already know the outcome of an event you cannot change it (or at least it's a bad idea to try and change it), otherwise you've "crossed your own timeline" and created a paradox. This seems to be the most consistent rule in the show, but even then there are a number of examples I can think of off the top of my head that contradict this. The most obvious one that Occ has seen is that the doctor knows that Harriet Jones becomes prime minister and leads England into a golden age, but then changes that because he was a bit grumpy when he woke up. Doctor Who in general plays very loose with it's time travel rules, and the whole "can't change a fixed point in time" thing seems to change almost every time it is brought up.
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Oct 7, 2014 11:57
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Looking back now, I probably should have re-watched these episodes before guessing what you'd grade them. I predicted an A because I remembered this episode as having more emotional beats than it apparently does, so I figured enjoy it more. At least I was only one grade off this time.Toxxupation posted:[*] Donna: "Now that's what I call a spaceship. You got a box, he's got a Ferrari!" (The Doctor's little self-conscious gaze back at the TARDIS after this line is incredible.) People making fun of the doctor for how crappy the Tardis looks from the outside never gets old, nor does his indignation.
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Oct 11, 2014 05:15
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Wow, bottom of the list. Not too late to recover, but chances are looking dim. I guess I was being way too cynical with my guesses.
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Oct 14, 2014 21:00
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This is the first episode since the season opener that I've guessed dead on. Never thought I'd be so happy that you so hated an episode.
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Oct 18, 2014 04:56
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Oxxidation posted:Steven Moffat came up with the idea to have Jenny revive herself in the end of the episode and this knowledge was a dagger in my heart, a dagger in my heart, a dagger in my heart. I thought that Moffat just asked that she not be killed off, not that she magically be revived by magic space revival.
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Oct 25, 2014 02:15
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Welp, just as I was making a come-back Occ goes and gives this episode an A. This is another episode I'm going to have to go back and watch, because I definitely remember this episode being poo poo. Now I have to go back and see if that is just my memories overlooking the good parts of the episode, or if you're both being way too generous with its faults due to it being an Agatha Christie episode.
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Oct 28, 2014 11:32
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Toxxupation posted:I once asked Oxx if a Doctor had ever, or would ever, regenerate in the middle of a season. He told me in no uncertain terms that that would never ever happen because The Doctor regenerating is too huge an event to not stick in the end of a season, showrunner's run, or both. Oxxidation is a liar. I'm really happy he told you this lie, because it makes the sudden change over all the better. Doctor Who news is really hard to keep secret due to Britain basically all sharing some sort of Who hivemind, so everyone knew that Matt Smith had been cast as the next doctor by this time. However, it was pretty much assumed that the regeneration wouldn't be until the very end of this season, much like the Eccleston to Tennant switch at the end of the first season. Having the Doctor regenerate part-way through the finale was so unexpected that even the most ardent RTD haters at the time had to give him credit for keeping it a secret during production. Now hurry up and get that next review out, because we're almost done with Mr. Davies' Wild Ride, and so close to the best season of Doctor Who.
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Nov 11, 2014 17:14
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Honestly I based my grade entirely on Occ reacting to Rose coming back and blowing up daleks with her giant gun and getting the Doctor killed less positively than he did.
AndwhatIseeisme fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Nov 11, 2014 |
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Nov 11, 2014 18:33
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mind the walrus posted:Pikmin 3, Smash Bros, DKCReturns: Tropical Freeze, and Earthbound on the VC also make the Wii U worth a drat. 99% of anything else worth playing is available on PC. Don't forget Mario 3d World and Wind Waker HD. 3d World is the most fun I've had with a mario game since 64, and WWHD is the one of the best Zelda games in the series with all the annoying padding removed. Also Super Metroid and Link to the Past are on VC as well. Point is, anyone who doesn't have a WiiU should get one. It's easily the best console of the generation right now, and looks like it's going to stay that way for a while.
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Nov 15, 2014 05:30
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Alright, solid second to last position now! Just two more points to the bottom! I didn't even like this episode, but I thought the giant cyberman would be up Occ's alley. Unfortunately I guess I forgot how much he (understandably) hates the Cybermen. AndwhatIseeisme fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Nov 18, 2014 |
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Nov 18, 2014 03:09
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DoctorWhat posted:Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. Shepard, his arms wide.
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Nov 19, 2014 01:15
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Oxxidation posted:Anyone who can routinely write 1500+ words about Power Rangers should only be doing it with their fingernails on the inside of their cell. Not that I disagree with you, but I'm not sure someone who routinely writes 1500+ words about Doctor Who has much room to criticize.
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Nov 23, 2014 18:07
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Part of me has always been a little sad that they didn't do more with the Time Lord Victorious concept here, letting the special be a two-parter amd expanding on the concept. Tenant sells unfettered sociopath so well that you almost believe that he's acting from experience and the whole "fulfill childhood dream, become the doctor and marry the daughter of your greatest inspiration" thing may have been from him loving around with his own timeline. The doctor being the last of a master race of time traveling gods, and using that power to the fullest to mold humanity to his ideal image is a concept that could potentially be very interesting. But then I remember that this is RTD that we are talking about and that the whole concept would have turned into some silly escapade if it had been stretched out into a two-parter. To his credit he managed to restrain himself to just a brief moment of brilliance, and I think ultimately the episode is better off for it. Still, this is an undeniably great episode, and now I'm pissed that I guessed a B rating due to the beginning dragging a bit.
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Nov 26, 2014 03:58
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I actually liked Simms' performance in Season 3, because the over-the-top hamminess and sheer manic bombast that he portrayed served as a nice foil for Tennant's own quirks. I always thought of it as the master regenerating into a parody of 10. I thought he was a lot of fun and while I had a lot of problems with the finale that year, Simms was not one of them. That said, I found him really annoying in this episode. Not having seen these episodes in a while, I can't pinpoint exactly what it is that makes him much more annoying in End of time, but I remember it seeming almost forced here. Simms in season 3 seemed to be having fun with his role, and End of Time just seems like a job that he was felt obligated to do.
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Nov 29, 2014 04:37
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IronicDongz posted:Honestly I got tired of him after like, five minutes in the first two-parter. Everything he does is obnoxious. 
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Nov 29, 2014 04:49
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Little_wh0re posted:The End of Time Part 2 So for context on this quote, when I sent in my guesses I also added a short blurb on what my thinking was for that grade, or more precisely what I thought would be going through Occ's brain when watching. Now that I have finished tied for second to last, I guess I might as well post them and at least let everyone see where I was coming from for my horrible, horrible guesses. quote:Partners in Crime - B Looking back now, I almost wish I had actually rewatched this season rather than doing it from memory. But then again that would have meant having to rewatch Journey's End, Planet of the Dead, and The End of Time, and no contest is worth that kind of sacrifice.
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Dec 1, 2014 03:31
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Toxxupation posted:Okay all the prizes for the winners are out on my end, I still got four games left to give out (Terraria, Steamworld Dig, Jazzpunk and Gone Home) so let's go Bsam (because he's the one who lost the most) andwhatiseeisme (because i liked his post with the little asides about what I'd pick), Regy Rusty (because of the face of boe stuff) and little_whore (for running the contest) for the extra junk  Seriously, thanks. I don't have a preference either, so flipping a coin lands me terraria as my prize. I am currently transitioning computers at the moment, so I'll send a steam friend request sometime later this week.
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Dec 2, 2014 02:36
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jng2058 posted:So I got the copy of METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE from Occ today. Thank you, sir. I can't help but notice that METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE is the only game out of the 158 that I've got on Steam that feels the need to list its title all in caps. If by the end of the first stage you don't understand why it's in all CAPS, then this is not a game for you and you might be dead inside. Otherwise, have fun. The game is great, but make sure you learn to parry or you will be in for a struggle. RULES OF NATURE
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Dec 2, 2014 07:09
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Ohtsam posted:Dang it, missed the live watch, but I did finally beat MGR:R and NANOMACHINES SON is a perfectly legitimate reason to miss a Doctor Who livestream.
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Jan 4, 2015 02:01
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Couldn't someone behind the scenes have been working on an actual spaceship while this whole thing was going on. You know, let a few scientists be aware of it and have them tasked with the hope of one day making the space whale torture not the only option?
AndwhatIseeisme fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Jan 8, 2015 |
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Jan 8, 2015 16:21
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Jsor posted:I get the feeling I should watch these two movies before I learn too much about them... I felt the same way, and discovered they are not on netflix streaming. However, I am now watching episode 2 of Broadchurch because I happened to skim by it while on netflix and remember this thread talking about it.
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Jan 20, 2015 02:03
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Mo0 posted:The only thing you didn't touch on when talking about the things they were doing differently in this episode was using an actual honest to god cliffhanger. Cliffhangers in Who are often as not cheap tricks, and everyone involved knows it. They're situations that arise at the last minute, are solved in ten seconds on the following episode, and are on the level of Adam West Batman in terms of being taken seriously. This one goes way beyond that. Everyone is dead or dying or some horrifying limbo state. Not a single protagonist is in any state to recover. In a sense, the good guys lost... unless you look at it from the other lens, that the Doctor himself is the bad guy. In that lens, it's completely expected that they'd be capital D Doomed. Yeah, one of the best parts of this whole episode is the ending, where Matt gives his desperate plea to let him save the universe, River runs into a brick wall, Rory holds Amy's body in his arms, and the camera lifts up into space all as some nice dramatic music plays... and then the stars all go out and the music cuts abruptly. Fade to black, the end. How the hell do you have a part two when part one ended with the universe, well, ending?
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Feb 12, 2015 05:32
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We haven't posted many Chameleon Circuit songs in this thread, but they produced two really good songs out of this episode. One of which is basically the Doctor's monologue to Amy almost verbatim, because it's just that loving good. The Big Bang Two https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f0xBe0kq3E Silence and the End of all Things https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u0L-jzlK_E
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Feb 14, 2015 04:29
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Season's over, new ratings guesses are sent, my average is still on the lower side of mediocre and I continue to guess without re-watching seasons... guess I might as well post my "what will Occ be thinking" comments. quote:Eleventh Hour: Tennant who?
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Feb 16, 2015 00:57
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Toxxupation posted:[*] Okay, even for me the whole "The Doctor says he's gonna do something then does the opposite of what he meant as River smugly actually does whatever he planned on doing" scene was too "look at how amazing River is". We get it, she's super special and rad. That scene was annoying to me until it became apparent that the Doctor was pretty much loving with her. There's that scene where he's on the ground and tells her to make the TARDIS visible again where she and the viewer realize that the doctor was fully aware that she was doing all this poo poo behind his back in the TARDIS and he was just humoring her. River as a character kind of becomes less annoying when you realize that for all her posturing and apparent badassedness, the doctor really does operate on an entirely different level from her. Like the doctor says "Don't play games with me. Don't ever, ever think you're capable of that".
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Mar 17, 2015 02:36
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This is the best reaction to the Nier announcement that I've seen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtRUFjd9v08 This has been a great E3, there are so many games on the horizon that I can't wait for
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Jun 17, 2015 04:51
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Toxxupation posted:Random Thoughts: The implication prior to the 50th had never really been that Nine had ended the time war, but that Eight had. Remember back to "Rose" when Eccleston passes by a mirror in Rose's house, and seems to be taking stock of his features for the first time. The long-held theory was that Nine had just recently regenerated, and that the events of "Rose" were the first real action he was involved in. Nine was never commonly seen as the personality responsible for whatever happened at the end of the time war (though you are certainly not the only to hold that thought), but more as the personality that was forced to cope with the self-perceived atrocities that he had to commit. Creating the War doctor was less about taking away Nine's agency, and more about taking those actions off of Eight.
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Jun 21, 2015 01:18
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So this thread has now gotten me to watch Broadchurch, Hot Fuzz, and now Rick and Morty. If I hadn't already played Nier and MGR:REVENGANCE, this thread probably would have gotten me to play them as well. I guess what I'm saying is that, Occ, you have really good opinions on things when you aren't being completely wrong about Doctor Who episodes.
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Jul 2, 2015 01:50
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After missing last season, I managed to get my votes in on time this season. I'll be interested to see how knowing the Master twist ahead of time affects your perception of Missy.
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Jul 6, 2015 22:59
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 12:32 |
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Barry Foster posted:It's worth mentioning that abortion isn't nearly as big an issue in the UK as it is in America. At all. This is something I was wondering while reading the reactions to this episode. Maybe the writers didn't feel they were writing an abortion metaphor because abortion isn't an issue at they hear debated about day-to-day, unlike in America where it's somehow a campaign defining issue in some cases. I mean, I'm pretty sure this was still a pretty lovely episode regardless of the message, but I am curious whether non-American watchers picked up any abortion subtext when they first watched it.
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Jul 31, 2015 19:11
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