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Psybro
May 12, 2002
I heard 'Awesome' but assumed Orson because it was less of a jarring tonal shift that way.

I can't decide if that episode was absolutely wonderful or a big Moffaty candy shell with nothing in the middle, and as I enjoyed it, I'm afraid to rewatch and find out. Schroedinger's Moffat.

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Psybro
May 12, 2002
I've just rewatched a bit of Earthshock, and it seems to me that in context it represents a real change in how the show worked.

Killing off companions had technically been done before if you count Sara Kingdom, and gruesomely at that, but the Doctor is so drat powerless in a lot of the story and his TARDIS and companions get drawn right into the centre of the danger.

You can see it as a real aggressive reaction to the frippery of the Williams era.

Psybro
May 12, 2002

MrL_JaKiri posted:

Very sneaky, these Colemans.

He said "You've got Bernard Cribbins in the walls doing all the voices".

Psybro
May 12, 2002
Oh no I really enjoyed what I've read of TARDIS Eruditorum why did the guy have to turn out to be a dickhead :(

This is why I hate Internet 2.0, I don't want authors to be allowed to argue with me over what they actually mean, that completely subverts what my English Lit degree was all about, which is using other people's ideas to feel clever.

Psybro
May 12, 2002

Irish Joe posted:

you're a complete idiot. you are.

I'm going help you get smarter.

you're still an idiot.
you're an idiot

give yourself a pat on the back.

I don't know, I think maybe the Doctor's aggression is a little unwarranted, but I can see why you might not be troubled by it.

Psybro
May 12, 2002

Craptacular! posted:

Like, if you're a woman and you can relate with the dialogue for better or worse, by all means share your perspective. But the majority arguing with each other over what various minorities see or don't see in this episode, completely without knowledge and fully inexperienced, is the most tiring thing.

12 Years a Slave
Review by Psybro, white middle class male


There was a film, it had issues about slavery in it. It was a nice film. ****1/2

For on-topic content:

This is a thread about a programme which asks us to put ourselves in the shoes of a hundreds-year-old time traveller who can change his entire appearance.

In the past it has invited us to put ourselves in the shoes of mutant survivors of nuclear war, fish people in the far future and androids.

I am not troubled by the idea that this thread will have people questioning their own attitudes and that of the society in which they live.

Psybro fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Sep 16, 2014

Psybro
May 12, 2002
Can't find it on Youtube but I think 'Oh look, rocks!' is Four's defining moment.

Psybro
May 12, 2002

Thanks, all I could find was many, many people's speed metal covers of the theme music.

Psybro
May 12, 2002

Big Mean Jerk posted:

Smith is by far the most wasted Doctor we've had. So much potential and so little payoff thanks to mediocre scripts and all the production bullshit.

I don't know, Series 5 was just dandy and consider how badly 8 would've got screwed over if Big Finish hadn't thrown him a bone. Until The Next Dcotor we weren't even sure if 8 counted any more.

I will forever be angry about the split seasons but even then I adored every second Smith was on screen, and Moffat wrote him to have hundreds of off-screen years in that body, allowed him to literally die of old age and then even let him come back sans make-up for his final lines. It could've been worse.

I think of A Good Man Goes To War and Let's Kill Hitler etc. and I genuinely think only of Smith's performance, a Colossus of Rhodes ankle deep in poo poo.

On another note, Planet of Spiders hasn't aged well, has it? What was the story behind Pertwee leaving, he seemed to have a whale of a time?

Psybro fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Sep 19, 2014

Psybro
May 12, 2002

Random Stranger posted:

The production is rough and it goes too long (which I think you can say about 90% of the original series :v: ), but I kind of like Planet of the Spiders. At the very least having creepy giant spider puppets jump onto people's backs was memorable. And the regen scene is terrific. I also liked that trip back to Metabelis 3 where the giant spiders were being jerks and shoving people around; I kind of want to see them return as a villain.

You can cut about twenty minutes from that chase scene, though.

I forgot to mention how ace the callback in Turn Left is.

Psybro
May 12, 2002

PoshAlligator posted:

Two days left on Nevermore on iPlayer, the third story in the fourth series of Big Finish's Eighth Doctor Adventures range.




I found this one okay, but it was a bit hard to follow and I zoned out a little bit in places. I quite like the different dynamic Tamsin has with Eight than Lucie, and I'm surprised to like her as much as I do. The way this ties in to Poe is interesting, but I can't help but feel there are more interesting and lucrative ways to tie Doctor Who into Edgar Allan Poe's work, and I'm sure in the future there will be.

I thought the robot ravens were a perfect example of a funny idea that works in audio but would come across pretty badly on TV. The Poe references are campy but fun.

However, I cannot stand Tamsin (I'm not familiar with the other Big Finish companions for comparison) and there's a good example of Time Lords being used as a plot point for no good reason which makes me glad they're DEAD, DEAD I TELL YOU.

Psybro
May 12, 2002

DoctorWhat posted:

I mean, was the post stupid and kind of pointless? Yeah, I'm prone to that. But please.

For what it's worth, David Tennant made me like wearing a tie, which I was previously completely opposed to.

Psybro
May 12, 2002
This thread has reminded me how the season-long mystery over Madame Kovarian was resolved by it turning out not to be particularly important who she was, where she came from or what her motivation was and then she died. What a loving state.

Psybro
May 12, 2002
When the revival started, I had given up on being a fan two years earlier because UK Gold weren't showing repeats any more, I couldn't afford to buy DVDs and it was obviously never coming back.

Psybro
May 12, 2002
I spent about £50 and loads of time putting together a half decent 11th Doctor for a Hallowe'en night out that never happened in 2012, I'm still biding my time. I already owned a Stetson so I can throw that in as a tribute to a specific scene/set of publicity stills.

Psybro
May 12, 2002
It's interesting that when RTD brought back the Time Lords in The End of Time, they were more closely aligned to the 'classical gods' idea than they had been for a long time. And then the Doctor tells them to gently caress off back to where they came from anyway.

Moffat decided that the 50th anniversary just had to be a Gallifrey story though, the RTD-era fanboy dickhead.

Psybro
May 12, 2002

Burkion posted:

No Time Lord has been DIRECTLY hit by the Dalek death beams.


The fact that the Eleventh Doctor getting exterminated out loud is such a minor detail in The Big Bang that everyone forgot it is ample demonstration of why I freaking love it so much.


Fil5000 posted:

This just makes me want Stewart Lee as the Doctor to face him.
I tried to find the bit from This Morning With Richard Not Judy where the Curious Orange becomes Davros but it's not on Youtube any more.

Psybro
May 12, 2002
I kind of think Moffat wanted a female Master because he understands why a female Doctor would be a good step but in his heart of hearts he hates the idea, so this is his compromise.

The bastard.

River Song was always basically the Master as far as I was concerned anyway.

Psybro
May 12, 2002
'The Master sexually assaulted The Doctor' is sort of definitely canon now, although that one scene in The End of Time Part Two already went most of the way there.

Psybro
May 12, 2002

Bicyclops posted:

The completely unexplained CGI Snake form of the Master shall henceforth be known as "Hissy."

It was explained in The Eight Doctors, which is the most canony of canon and required reading :colbert:

I'm not surprised there were complaints over Dark Water. I personally thought Moffat took his nightmare fuel unnecessarily far with the premise.

'Statues might be scary aliens coming to get you' and 'shadows may contain invisible space piranhas' were one thing, but 'Your dead relatives can feel everything that happens to them' and/or 'you know we told you if you were good you'd go to heaven? Well that was poo poo, you just die' are probably more than the plot demands.

It's interesting that the plot, Doctor and UK airtime are all getting progressively more adult. I'd say with this season the show is now squarely aimed at the Buffy demographic. Now Moffat is definitely better at everything than Eric Saward, but I'm still not 100% comfortable with where the show's being pitched, given it had a successful formula in place.

Psybro fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Nov 5, 2014

Psybro
May 12, 2002

Gaz-L posted:

There's a very clear attempt to homage Pertwee's era over the last year or two. The Master being the main villain, the return of UNIT with a Lethbridge-Stewart in charge, Capaldi's overall look and approach. And the original seasons 7 and 8 pretty much WERE pitched at adults. They were going for the 20-somethings that were watching The Avengers and such.

That's interesting, I've only seen Spearhead and The Daemons from that era but Spearhead is pretty serious and The Daemons can be a bit scary in spite of itself.

Psybro
May 12, 2002
Think this will be the first one I'll watch on the live broadcast since the Robin Hood one. I still haven't got round to watching Flatliners or In Forest of the Night due to being busy when they were on.

Psybro
May 12, 2002
1) Jesus Christ, did someone run over Steven Moffat's cat?

2) My immediate reaction is that after a real return to solid-but-not-scintillating form this series, that was like having a lovely three-course meal with some nice wine and then for dessert you've got meringue.

Meringue is ok, I appreciate that you need to whisk the egg whites and all that, but it's crunchy.

I don't loving like meringue.

3) That crossed the line from dark to nasty. All the way over. I liked the bits where The Doctor is just utterly abject and not even bothering to do anything other than hope The Master would shut up and piss off. But there was no payoff.

Getting rid of Annoying Asthma Girl like that felt like cheap heel heat for The Master, credit to Moffat that I was kind of devastated by that without ever realising I liked her as a character.

And all the stuff with Danny was just bleak. And for what, really? It didn't resolve satisfactorily, and we all got put through the wringer for the ending to The Poison Sky being redone.

We've veered all the way from series finales which were totally lacking in emotional content to something that felt openly, and grubbily, manipulative.

4) I guess what I'm saying is it was alright.

Psybro
May 12, 2002
Imagine you watched that and for some reason you didn't really know who The Master was. It would make even less sense than it already did, which was none.

Psybro
May 12, 2002
I'm going to struggle to rewatch Day of the Doctor in the future unless Father Christmas Nick Frost brings Osgood back to life, that poo poo was spiteful to feed a villain who you write out in twenty minutes' time.

Psybro
May 12, 2002

PriorMarcus posted:

CyberBrig was poo poo though. Just nonsense. To anyone whose not familiar with the classic series it's basically gibberish and, honestly, I just found it kind of pointless and a little crass. It was trying so hard to make me feel something, anything, that the manipulation made me numb to it all.

I rewatched that scene and Capaldi really does amazingly in selling the moment, possibly my favourite bit of him so far.

And then the Cybermen goes flying off like a Roman candle.

You really couldn't make it up.

Psybro
May 12, 2002

Noxville posted:

I don't have any real affection for the character but it is a really lazy writer's trick, killing off a liked character just to make the audience hate your bad guy more.

MICHELLE GOMEZ: "I can't wait until this episode is over so I can get the Hell out of [viewer's hometown name] and never see another one of you hillbilly rednecks again!"

OFFSCREEN VIEWERS: "BOOOOOOOO!"

Psybro
May 12, 2002

DoctorWhat posted:

also Missy HAD BETTER PULL A PLANET-OF-FIRE, MOFFAT!!!

"So you escaped from the bad episode?"
"[smug look]"

I bet all the kids are looking forward to seeing Santa, in no way having been traumatised by the bleak and morbid experience they have just undergone.

also Revelation of the Daleks did it better (nb it probably didn't)

Psybro
May 12, 2002
This series has felt a lot more consistent quality-wise than 6 and 7, without hitting the highs of something like The Girl Who Waited.

The only episodes I didn't like were Deep Breath and Death in Heaven, which is unfortunate because they're the ones that leave the most lasting impressions.

I'm at the same point now as I was with RTD where I like the tone and direction overall with Moffat, but I just wish he'd stick to script editing and setting the pace and write less himself.

Much like RTD was capable of writing a Gridlock or a Midnight away from the stresses of writing the season arc stuff, I'd like to see more Listens and fewer The Wedding of River Songs. I don't want a fundamental overhaul of the show, just a paring down of the bits that clearly do not work.

Psybro
May 12, 2002

MrL_JaKiri posted:

I loaded up a bit of the old Satan Pit to compare Woolf in that and jesus christ I know we talk about Tennant being a gurning buffoon a lot but... jesus christ

http://youtu.be/fWK9xmBdZrc?t=1m2s

Meanwhile,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydLvYuEBtwE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06yKM2rubaw

I didn't realise the Gallifrey co-ordinates came from Pyramids, that's my new favourite old series reference.

Psybro
May 12, 2002

God I love the language in Holmes episodes so much. You've got 'abase', 'perfidious' and 'abominated' all flying about on a Saturday teatime, and the way 'abhorrence' explodes off Tom's lips is just delicious.

Psybro
May 12, 2002
I love how in The Invisible Enemy and The Invasion of Time, they've gone 'We have big ideas that we simply don't have the budget to portray', like RTD did with the Shadow Proclamation, but they decided to film it anyway.

Psybro
May 12, 2002

Craptacular! posted:

The only thing I knew about Peri for a long time was a YouTube video assembled from regeneration episodes where Five says something to the effect of, "I'm sorry about this, Peri; I'm afraid my curiosity got the best of me." Knowing what her tension with Six was like because it's the gold standard for toxic Doctor Who production, I had hoped she'd have been with Five long enough that Five fans could feel sorry for her, but nope.

That character just got hosed all the way around, hm?

I think having tried out all kinds of different dynamics with Adric/Nyssa/Tegan/Turlough/Kamelion, by that point in the show the writers had a borderline hatred of the necessity for having a companion at all, so Peri gets treated with a fair bit of contempt.

Then they cast Bonnie Langford.

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Psybro
May 12, 2002
When I rewatched Hot Fuzz recently I was actually struck by how much stronger it was than I remembered. Shaun of the Dead conversely hasn't stood up as well.

World's End for me was fairly incoherent beyond the excellent action sequences.

Payndz posted:

I was distracted to an annoying degree from the otherwise very good Flatline by the presence of a long-out-of-mainline-service Diesel Multiple Unit, in 1960s British Railways livery at that. :sperg:

Was Flatline set in the North because if so that's not a continuity error, they alternate two of those an hour with guys on one of those handpump-operated things from the Wild West.

Psybro fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Nov 15, 2014

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