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Pesky Splinter posted:On the one hand, it's a shame that we've only got the movie and Night of the Doctor as his only onscreen roles, because he's got great charisma, and an onscreen presence, but at the same time, yeah, not having an earlier revival has made the show better in the long run, though the movie bridges the gap quite nicely. Even considering a hypothetical series, I doubt it would have lasted long; US networks are fickle. It's highly unlikely it would have lasted to celebrate its 50th, for example. I understand the Fox passed on a new series because they wanted to do a third season of Sliders instead. Meanwhile, the Eighth Doctor spent some time in early 19th century Europe as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, serving under David Warner and Ioan Gruffudd.
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Feb 8, 2015 02:16
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Barry Foster posted:That's the saddest part of it, I think - that McGann was good enough to be one of the best Doctors ever, but if his 'series' had kicked off it would've spelled the death of Doctor Who as we know it. At least we have Big Finish now! And I'm forever grateful to this thread for talking about BF enough that I ended up checking it out when I never would have considered it otherwise. Did anyone see what happened in the other thread before the posts got edited out? It looks like it was a genuine accident/coincidence so I'm curious what it was.
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Feb 8, 2015 03:42
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Organza Quiz posted:Did anyone see what happened in the other thread before the posts got edited out? It looks like it was a genuine accident/coincidence so I'm curious what it was. It was a repost of the RTD/Moffat magazine letter page interaction from a few posts upthread.
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Feb 8, 2015 03:47
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Some test animation was done for the redesigned spider Daleks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a72hER8d5Y It does look like something out of Doom or Quake. And the Cybs--vain cyborg pirates in pieced-together costumes--might have been interesting. I think they were supposed to be scavengers, sort of like the Borg originally were, before they became more like the Cybermen.
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Feb 8, 2015 03:57
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Weren't most of those plots specifically just to show the network "these are the kinds of episodes we could do"? The Nth Doctor said they weren't actually planning to remake old stories, it was just proof of concept.
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Feb 8, 2015 04:13
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Action Jacktion posted:And the Cybs--vain cyborg pirates in pieced-together costumes--might have been interesting. I think they were supposed to be scavengers, sort of like the Borg originally were, before they became more like the Cybermen. I'm really torn on the Cyberman design. It's even more of an offense against the original design than the Daleks, but it is actually really cool as a 'space pirate scavengers' design. You could throw them into the current series as an entirely unrelated race, and it would actually work really well.
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Feb 8, 2015 04:36
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MrL_JaKiri posted:So you're saying Eccles is coming back this year? Fine, fine, fine.
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Feb 8, 2015 05:00
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CobiWann posted:You modern day Doctor Who fans have it so easy! Back in my day, we all had to kneel before the might of Sutekh! This was two pages back but I laughed so loving hard that I snorted my gum up into my nasal cavity.
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Feb 8, 2015 05:17
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Blasmeister posted:It was a repost of the RTD/Moffat magazine letter page interaction from a few posts upthread. Thanks. I can see how that could be confusing if you haven't seen Day of the Doctor and didn't realise it was a thing, yeah.
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Feb 8, 2015 05:28
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Barry Foster posted:That's the saddest part of it, I think - that McGann was good enough to be one of the best Doctors ever, but if his 'series' had kicked off it would've spelled the death of Doctor Who as we know it. I actually kind of love that in the end they made the decision that the 8th Doctor was the one who kept the flame burning during the darkest days for the character, the guy who fought to the very end to maintain his beliefs. Given that McGann was the face of Doctor Who for most people between 96 and 2005, it was a nice nod to the fact he was the guy who was there when everybody else had basically given up all hope. For so long after the revival kicked off, people kind of assumed that the 8th Doctor was the guy who cracked and wiped out the Daleks AND the Time Lords, and in the end Moffat decided not to put that millstone around the neck of any of the established Doctors, and instead create a "new" guy who could use that as the basis of his character arc without ignoring or dismissing everything that came before (because NOTHING came before!).
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Feb 8, 2015 06:00
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Jerusalem posted:I actually kind of love that in the end they made the decision that the 8th Doctor was the one who kept the flame burning during the darkest days for the character, the guy who fought to the very end to maintain his beliefs. Given that McGann was the face of Doctor Who for most people between 96 and 2005, it was a nice nod to the fact he was the guy who was there when everybody else had basically given up all hope. Yeah, having listened to most of Eight's audio stuff now I absolutely appreciate that it wasn't him who decided to wipe out two species. It literally goes against everything this iteration of the Doctor stands for to even consider it. It's a major part of season four of the EDAs especially. I mean, I know the point of the decision is that it goes against what the Doctor stands for, but Eight in particular is particularly pacifist.
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Feb 8, 2015 06:37
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I dunno, after the events of the EDAs and the various Dark Eyes audios, I can see how Eight COULD have been the one to declare "No More". I'm glad he wasn't though.
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Feb 8, 2015 08:02
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Yeah, now Eight is just a coward who put his fingers in his ears while billions died. The Time War worked better before Moffat did anything with it, including the idea that it was so horrific it turned constant romantic Eight into the guy who wiped out two species. Which, by the way, reminds me about Capaldi saying this last season would explore the morality of the Doctor with the question of wether his reluctance to take action to protect his own moral standing was a horrible thing for a person with the power of the Doctor to do. In the end, I guess, it kind of tried to attempt that, but it mainly ended up with the far too transparent 'take this army' dilemma.
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Feb 8, 2015 13:51
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Jerusalem posted:Given that McGann was the face of Doctor Who for most people between 96 and 2005, it was a nice nod to the fact he was the guy who was there when everybody else had basically given up all hope. I'm pretty sure it was still Tom Baker.
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Feb 8, 2015 14:20
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Fil5000 posted:I dunno, after the events of the EDAs and the various Dark Eyes audios, I can see how Eight COULD have been the one to declare "No More". I'm glad he wasn't though. He's the Doctor whose heart just breaks after all he's seen. The EDA's and Dark Eyes, from what I've read, are him TRYING to remain the Doctor because, with all the insanity going on around him, SOMEONE has to be the Doctor. With his regeneration, it's not the Doctor who uses the Moment; it's a guy who USED to call himself the Doctor.
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Feb 8, 2015 14:24
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PriorMarcus posted:Yeah, now Eight is just a coward who put his fingers in his ears while billions died. "Then prove yourself, Doctor. What are you, coward or killer?"
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Feb 8, 2015 14:30
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CobiWann posted:He's the Doctor whose heart just breaks after all he's seen. The EDA's and Dark Eyes, from what I've read, are him TRYING to remain the Doctor because, with all the insanity going on around him, SOMEONE has to be the Doctor. With his regeneration, it's not the Doctor who uses the Moment; it's a guy who USED to call himself the Doctor. I absolutely get that - I'm just saying that it would have been understandable given the loss piled upon loss that Eight goes through (and so much of it at the hands of the Daleks) that he was the one that pulled the trigger.
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Feb 8, 2015 14:49
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Fil5000 posted:I absolutely get that - I'm just saying that it would have been understandable given the loss piled upon loss that Eight goes through (and so much of it at the hands of the Daleks) that he was the one that pulled the trigger. 
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Feb 8, 2015 15:21
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Fil5000 posted:I absolutely get that - I'm just saying that it would have been understandable given the loss piled upon loss that Eight goes through (and so much of it at the hands of the Daleks) that he was the one that pulled the trigger. Yeah, Big Finish were definitely building up to this when Moff pulled the John Hurt rug out from under them. I would've preferred it, to be honest - the 'nicest' Doctor pushed further than any of his other incarnations.
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Feb 8, 2015 16:24
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Barry Foster posted:Yeah, Big Finish were definitely building up to this when Moff pulled the John Hurt rug out from under them. I would've preferred it, to be honest - the 'nicest' Doctor pushed further than any of his other incarnations. Eight is still the one who makes the choice that 'we don't need a Doctor, we need a Warrior' during his regeneration, at least.
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Feb 8, 2015 16:29
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Barry Foster posted:Yeah, Big Finish were definitely building up to this when Moff pulled the John Hurt rug out from under them. I would've preferred it, to be honest - the 'nicest' Doctor pushed further than any of his other incarnations. I'm pretty sure Briggs and Moffat and folks talked considerably before and during production of Day
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Feb 8, 2015 16:32
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Whenever you see a lead Dalek on NuWho, that's Barnaby Edwards, who's also a writer, director, and actor for BF. I few years back he started a Kickstarter project called "Textbook Stuff" which were readings on classic poems and stories by famous people. BF now sells the product, though it wasn't profitable enough to continue producing. Why do I mention this? Because before it got the ax, Barnaby had mentioned that he had a meeting with Eccelston, who apparently was very keen on doing one. So we almost had Eccelston doing BF! Now when it comes to the suggestion of Eccelston doing who for BF if they ever got the license, I try to be optimistic, if only for several reasons. 1) Eccelston did get along with people like Briggs and Edwards while working on the TV series. 2) Recording Who for BF isn't exactly a commitment like doing a TV show. Two days is the standard production for a two disc adventure. It's not like it's several months out of his schedule. 3) BF meets with the Doctors and asks the actor what they want to do. The reason for all the 8th Doctor mental trauma stories? That was all McGann. The 7th Doctor stories set before the TV movie with him traveling alone? That was McCoy. The softening of 6? The only was Colin would work for them. The 4th story "The Sand of Life/War Against the Laan"? Based on a suggestion from Tom. The reason Eccelston doesn't like to stay for long on shows is he gets bored doing the same thing over and over as an actor. BF has proven they provide a variety of stories for the actors to keep them interested. 4) Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nick Briggs are committed first and foremost to have an recording atmosphere that makes in enjoyable for the actors to want to come and work for them. David Warner has said that he's given his agent instructions to just accept when BF calls, and that he no longer even needs to see a script. Tom only signed on to do two series and the Lost Stories boxset. That's it. But he quickly changed his mind regarding that because he enjoys it so much. A lot of the actors simply gush just how much fun and relaxing working for BF is. One of the reasons McGann does it is because he just enjoys sitting in the green room talking with other actors. I think if BF could get Eccelston to agree to do just a few recordings, then it might be something that he would come back to.
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Feb 8, 2015 16:33
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Speaking of which, is it true that Tom and Lalla recorded separately for their stories together?
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Feb 8, 2015 16:49
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DoctorWhat posted:Speaking of which, is it true that Tom and Lalla recorded separately for their stories together? I don't think they've come out and directly stated it, but Briggs at a convention seemed to imply this. Plus, in the photos of the booklets, there is no photo of the two of them together.
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Feb 8, 2015 17:00
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DoctorWhat posted:I'm pretty sure Briggs and Moffat and folks talked considerably before and during production of Day True, but Dark Eyes I and the overall direction they were going in significantly predates the anniversary. They were trying to solve the "8th Doctor turns dark and fights the Time War" problem and then Moffat went and solved it for them. Quite frankly, Moffat may have been planning to do so all along, if his original idea of having Eccleston be the one who pushed the button came to fruition. Davros1 posted:David Warner has said that he's given his agent instructions to just accept when BF calls, and that he no longer even needs to see a script. "Yes, for our next project, we'd like David to do something we call a "Lost Story" and say, has he ever worked with Peter Purves and Maureen O'Brien before?" 
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Feb 8, 2015 17:08
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I don't blame her at all if it's true. I'm shocked that she agreed to do the stories at all, to be honest. I sort of figured she just wanted a clean break from that period of her life, for hundreds of reasons. I'm looking forward to listening to them either way, though. Her stuff on Gallifrey is great.
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Feb 8, 2015 19:07
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PriorMarcus posted:Yeah, now Eight is just a coward who put his fingers in his ears while billions died. To be fair, most of that time he had amnesia. 
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Feb 8, 2015 20:26
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Bicyclops posted:I don't blame her at all if it's true. I'm shocked that she agreed to do the stories at all, to be honest. I sort of figured she just wanted a clean break from that period of her life, for hundreds of reasons. Apparently, after working with Jameson on Gallifrey, Ward said to Briggs "So when am I working with Tom again?" Maybe not in the same recording room, but with Big Finish's track record and respect to the material and actors, I could see it happening easily.
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Feb 8, 2015 21:27
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PriorMarcus posted:now Eight is just a coward Metal Loaf posted:"Then prove yourself, Doctor. What are you, coward or killer?" Coward. Any day. 
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Feb 8, 2015 21:45
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CobiWann posted:Apparently, after working with Jameson on Gallifrey, Ward said to Briggs "So when am I working with Tom again?" Yeah, Ward suggested working with Tom again, and in the bonus features of "Romance" and "English", Tom is very respectful towards her when discussing her.
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Feb 8, 2015 21:52
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Last Christmas is a "special" episode, the now annual Christmas Episode of Doctor Who. However, unlike most of the other Christmas Specials, this one feels like an integral part of the actual season that preceded it, not so much an extension or epilogue of a complete season but almost a "true" finale to wrap up season 8 properly. Perhaps because of this, I feel inclined to say this is the BEST Christmas Special of the revival so far, a position I thought A Christmas Carol would hold for pretty much forever. That said, where Last Christmas falls down that A Christmas Carol doesn't is that it pretty much requires you to be familiar with season 8's storyarc. While it does catch you up as best it can with exposition, it feels so strongly linked in with season 8 that as a "Special" it may fall short, not being as accessible a story as Carol, which not only works as a standalone story from the preceding season, but plays off the extremely well known old Dickens tale that has been adapted what seems a million times. Death in Heaven ended with the Doctor and Clara parting ways with well-intentioned lies. Extremely importantly, in the mid-credits epilogue the Doctor is awoken by a knocked at the door, and discovers Santa Claus standing there declaring he means to sort out the Doctor and Clara, because neither of them are okay. The obvious interpretation here, putting aside the madness of Santa's appearance, is that he is talking about the two's parting, about the lies they told each other and how miserable they are apart, each thinking the other is happy. What we'll later learn is that this is only an incidental result of Santa's "help", and that the true danger here is something far more immediately deadly. This is a story seemingly full of shortcuts in the writing, plotholes, rushed and shallow characterization, and some very unimaginative echoing of some common horror movie tropes, including what seems like near plagiarism of pre-existing sci-fi horror film creatures. What is truly remarkable about this episode is that it not only manages to show the viewer that these negatives were deliberately included in the story, but also makes their very presence IMPROVE the quality of the story. A small crew in an Arctic station are essentially under siege from alien creatures that attach to the faces of their victims and turn them into the walking dead - empty-headed puppets controlled by the "Dream Crabs". The Doctor and Clara arrive, they come under attack, they slowly work out a strategy to fight off the creatures, come to a realization about the nature of the aliens, and finally make a triumphant escape and return to their normal lives, nearly all of them having just barely escaped death. It's a typical Base-Under-Siege episode with touches of Alien and The Thing from Outer Space AND Inception.... and with Santa Claus thrown in and the Doctor there to save the day. Nothing special on the surface, if anything a bit of a mess.... but what we get is sooooo good, because it uses all these basic ingredients to produce something truly remarkable.   Clara wakes up when she hears noises on her roof, she heads upstairs and discovers Santa Claus and two elves (one played by Dan Starkey, who normally plays Strax) have crashed their sled. Santa attempts to play it off, insisting he is a roofer up to do some roofing, but Clara takes it completely at face value that Santa Claus is here, because hey.... it's not like she hasn't seen some bizarre poo poo in her time. The Doctor almost immediately arrives and cuts off any niceties to instruct Clara to for once just do as she is told and get into the TARDIS. After a bit of verbal sparring with Santa, who the Doctor does NOT believe in, he reenters the TARDIS and immediately takes off. While he's doing this, Clara simply stands and stares around in wonder, mumbling to herself that she didn't realize how much she missed traveling in it, and when the Doctor asks her if she believes in Santa, she is very quick to say that she does - because she's just gotten what she really, truly wanted for Christmas, she is back on the TARDIS. The presence of Santa Claus in this episode is treated like the anomaly it is, none of the characters accept him at face value other that Clara, who is confused for sure but isn't about to go around making claims that things are impossible. The episode has a great deal of fun with this disbelief, as Santa's explanations for who he is and how he does the things he does are given a light-hearted touch that doesn't even attempt the tired old cliche of offering some kind of technological explanation for Santa's amazing ability to travel the world in a single night delivering presents. He readily accepts the physical impossibility of what he does, then happily offers the most ludicrous of explanations - he can't deliver all the presents in a single night.... so he has a second sled doing one half of the planet; reindeer can't fly.... so he feeds them magic carrots; how does he fit all the presents in his sled? It's bigger on the inside - that last one REALLY irritates the Doctor, much to Santa's delight. The wonderful clash between the Doctor and Santa works so well, particularly for THIS Doctor, who is pragmatic and questions everything he sees, rather than having the almost childlike wonder and acceptance you might have expected from the 11th Doctor (or maybe even the 10th) who would have been delighted to have Santa Claus show up. Instead the Doctor treats him with suspicion, looking for a proper explanation for how this could be happening, refusing to take it at face value that Santa is who he says he is.... except for when Clara is in danger, and he immediately turns to Santa for help. What helps here is the near perfect casting of Nick Frost as Santa Claus. Frost, perhaps best known as Simon Pegg's co-star in The Cornetto Trilogy and Spaced, and his performance as Santa Claus is just wonderful. Somehow he manages to retain the jolly, helpful nature of Santa Claus even when he's being serious or revealing heavy truths to the cast, there was never a moment during the episode where I wasn't completely brought in to the idea that this guy IS Santa Claus, and not just some fat guy with a beard running around in a red costume. His easygoing chemistry with the rest of the cast is excellent, particularly with the Doctor but also in his interactions with Shona as she attempts to scientifically prove to Santa Claus that he doesn't actually exist. Santa, of course, is fully aware of this, and the show never really does the tired old cliche of having characters/the viewers go,"Maybe Santa really IS real after all", as Santa waits till just the right moment to reveal this truth to them - of course he isn't real, the notion that he exists is ridiculous, and then asks them what does his undeniable presence coupled with that information mean for them? Why, that none of this is real, that they're all dreaming, and Santa is there because they want him to be there - they need him, because their minds are trying to fight as alien creatures attempt to suck their brains dry. Santa is an idea, a belief in something greater and kinder and better, and collectively all of them want him to be real, because they need him.   The Dream Crabs create the illusion in the minds of their victims that they are living in a happy reality, keeping them docile while their minds are devoured. At first the characters believe that they have managed to escape this fate, all except for Clara who is grabbed by one while on an errand for the Doctor. The Doctor submits himself to another to attempt to retrieve her from the dream, where he finds her living in happy domestic bliss on Christmas Day with Danny Pink, alive and well. The Doctor has only just recently learned of Danny's death, and revealed his own lies to Clara, and he forces her to face up to that grim reality. She can't stay in this world and be happy because she'll die, and even as she attempts to deny this, her own subconscious acts through Danny to force her to face up to the truth. Throughout season 8, Danny at times came across as too perfect a character, too relaxed and sensible and able to approach things with a charming detachment. Here it makes sense though, as Clara gets the final goodbye she wanted face-to-face with "Danny", an idealized dream version of himself that tells her the things she subconsciously knew but couldn't consciously face up to - that they loved each other, but that he is dead and is NOT coming back, but that it's okay for her to move on with her life even if she misses him terrible. One could argue that Danny's line of,"I didn't save the world, I saved her... the rest of you got lucky" could come across as pretty presumptuous/arrogant on Clara's behalf since it is HER subconscious informing this line, but it fits in pretty well with the Danny we got to see on the show, and hey it is her subconscious, of course it is going to be self-interested! The Doctor and Clara awaken from their dream state, the shock of it killing the Dream Crabs.... but this itself is simply another method of the Dream Crabs for keeping their victims docile. The Doctor and Clara finally face up to the fact that they couldn't have woken up from the dream, because they've been in a dream all along. All throughout the episode, the Doctor has questioned the crew of the station as to how they got here, what their mission is, what lead them to become scientists etc and the answer has always been,"It's a long story." When Clara replies the same way when the Doctor asks her WHY they came to the Arctic after he picked her up on her roof, they realize that Santa never saved them during the initial attack all six of them faced in the medical bay, that they were thrown into a dream where they were saved by Santa Claus. Santa admits this is true, laughing at the idea of himself being real (and hilariously calls into question the Doctor's own ridiculous nature) and instructs them to hold hands and believe, so they can wake up for real this time. The Doctor rather childishly insists he'll only hold hands with Clara (  ), ignored by the others as they do as instructed and wake up in the medical bay, the Dream Crabs dying as before. It seems they've all been saved, until Clara recalls that Santa was on her roof.... so if Santa is a dream, and he appeared on her roof BEFORE they came to the Arctic.... are they STILL dreaming? The Doctor figures out at last that the sleepers in the Medical Bay are in fact the crew they've been talking with all this time, that everything he has seen has indicated a crew of 4 and he never questioned why there were eight people there. The Sleepers attack again, appearing as a horde now (dream logic, warns the Doctor), and they rush outside where the Doctor this time is the one who suggests they call on Santa Claus to wake them. He arrives on his sleigh and hauls them away to safety, which in the dream state represents their slowly waking up and escaping the nightmare. This time in the real world, the surviving crew members (Albert, played by Michael Troughton, was killed by something out of Videodrome) all awake to discover they were based in different parts of England, all of them attacked at random by the Dream Crabs, their collective dream state bringing them together with the Doctor and Clara in the Arctic Base setting. Why? Because Shona fell asleep watching a couple of sci-fi horror films which informed the nature of the creatures that attacked them and the setting of their adventure, even if the Dream Crabs themselves were already similar to the face-huggers from Alien (the Doctor's reaction to learning about that movie is hilarious).  The small cast of supporting characters are mostly really well done, in particular Shona who is excellent, coming across like a tv version of Lucie Miller from Big Finish's 8th Doctor Adventures. Mouthy and opinionated, Shona's status as a scientist continually surprises everybody, which in turn offends her greatly. While for much of the episode, we're concerned with the characters running around trying to figure out a way to escape, the sled scene near the end of the episode where they all fly through the air together and discuss their growing awareness of their real lives is really touching. Shona's doomed attempts to figure out a way for them all to get back in touch with each other once they wake up is particularly good, as you know that none of them will remember any of the events of their "adventure", it will just be another barely remembered dream, the memory of which will be fading even as they wake up. I have to admit that I fully expected this to be Clara's final story, and that from Shona's opening scene where she dances her way through the Medical Bay to try and avoid awakening "The Sleepers", I honestly thought she might be the next regular companion. I would not have objected to that at all. Fiona, probably the less developed of the supporting cast, wakes to discover she is a wheelchair bound Grandmother, and the moment where she prepares to stand up, realizes she is in a wheelchair then seems confused as to why THAT confuses her is also really well done. It's just a quick and understated moment that further serves to remind us that these characters were all dreaming, and accepting at face value things that make no sense, just like we frequently do in dreams. That's one of the great strengths of this episode, the fact most of everything we see was a dream within a dream etc means that everything makes a weird kind of sense, because things in dreams DON'T make sense.... except they do, at the time, until you wake up and start to actually think about them. The Doctor forces that on them throughout the episode through moments like where he has them all independently read the same book, making them face up to things that make no sense, things that would never have attention called to them in a real dream. The Doctor also awakes (seemingly in the same volcanic location as Dark Water, probably just an economical decision) and rushes back into the TARDIS, flying to Clara's where - with the benefit of being awake and actually able to think about things critically - he is able to remove the Dream Crab from her face. Clara is still asleep, having wanted to remain on the sled with Santa just a little bit longer, Santa clearly representing the Doctor in her mind (as she makes clear on at least a couple of occasions), and so in the end he really forces her to wake up from the dream, as she still wants to live in the warm and welcoming dream world rather than the lonely reality of her real life. But when she wakes, it all comes flooding back, and we learn that we simply took it for granted that only a small amount of time had passed between Death in Heaven and this Christmas Special, as Clara is revealed to be an old woman, it has been more than 60 years since the Doctor last saw her. Though the make-up effects are a little obvious, the scene serves as a rather touching parallel to The Time of the Doctor, as the Doctor finds himself the "young" one lovingly assisting his elderly friend to celebrate what could be their "last Christmas" together. The Doctor places a paper crown on her head, and we see her from his point of view - like the 11th Doctor always saw Amy as a little girl until The God Complex, the 12th Doctor still sees Clara as she was when they first met, no matter how old and frail she has become. She reveals she lead a good and fulfilling life, but never found another love after Danny, though there was no shortage of suitors. So now, after a lifetime of traveling the world like her mother always wanted to, Clara is ready to say goodbye, knowing it is too late for her to pick up and travel with the Doctor again, that this is once again probably the last time they will see each other. Because once again, though a dream makes anything possible, in the real world you have to face up to, well... reality! And now this ends the Doctor and Clara's travels together in about as authoritative way as is possible, because there is no way to "fix" this.   And THAT is when Santa Claus shows up to fix everything.   The Doctor wakes up yet again, one last trick of the Dream Crabs foiled by he and Clara's subconscious fighting the aliens trying to hold on to their last two victims after losing the other three. The Doctor once again rushes back into the TARDIS and to Clara's house, where he wakes her up and she gasps, the certainty of the dream reality still strong enough to make her question if it was real or not - is she old? Is she young? The Doctor can't tell her because, once again, he doesn't see her that way, so he gives her a mirror and to her great relief she discovers she is still young, that 60 years have not passed (have you ever had a dream like that? The realization it was not real is a relief that it is hard to describe) and she still has her whole life ahead of her. Last Christmas is a deliberately misleading story, much as the previous two episodes were. Nothing we saw for 95% of the episode was "real", but it all still happened. In their collective dreamscape, they learned things about each other, they saw alternate timelines and how things could have been, and they finally opened up to each other about the deep hurt they were hiding from the other. Atmospheric and spooky, choc full of references/homages to existing sci-fi horror movies, providing a beautiful (if "unreal") final scene between Clara and Danny, and lots of goofy fun with Santa Claus.... this episode was already amongst my absolute favorites of the season. What pushes it up to arguably the BEST episode of the entire season (Mummy on the Orient Express and Flatline both give it a run for its money) is this final scene after the Doctor and Clara realize they haven't missed their shot. Echoing his opening lines to her in the episode but in a far kinder fashion, he asks her to get into the TARDIS without argument, and she happily accepts. The sheer joy of this final scene is simply beautiful, easily avoiding saccharine sweetness because it feels so goddamn genuine - they both rush down the stairs like a couple of kids eager to see their presents on Christmas Day, Clara gleefully taking this second chance that only moments before she thought she'd already missed forever. They pause outside by the TARDIS where Clara comments that it is rare to see him so happy. The Doctor posted:Do you know what's rarer? Second chances. I never get a second chance, so what happened this time? Don't even know who to thank. And with that they hop into their TARDIS and dematerialize, the camera focusing for just a moment on a tangerine in the foreground. Who do we have to thank? Whether he's real or not is immaterial, we know who to thank for this wonderful episode, for bringing two lonely and sad people back together and making them indescribably happy in the process. Who cares if Santa Claus is real or not, because on December 25th, 2014 he delivered one hell of a Doctor Who Christmas Special, and ended season 8 on an unbelievably high note, and left me excited as hell for season 9 in 2015. 
Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 11:35 on Feb 9, 2015 |
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Feb 9, 2015 05:06
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The ending of Last Christmas works with or without that final wake-up call, but one thing I loved about it is that Santa comes in just as Twelve finally, finally decides to be honest with himself about Clara. Throughout their whole season they'd been constantly lying to each other in a dozen different ways - through obfuscation, misdirection, skepticism, cynicism, and flat-out deceit - and their second chance comes when Twelve cracks and straightforwardly admits his feelings to Clara's face. It's a really nice capper to Series 8, thematically.
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Feb 9, 2015 05:24
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Yeah, it's also a really nice counter to the the Doctor's lie to Clara in the previous episode, where he thought it was the noble thing to do in order to give her "permission" to live the happy life he thought he was leaving her to. Clara lies as well, but she does it in response to the Doctor's initial lie, before that she was preparing to tell him that Danny was dead. I can't really express in words how wonderful that ending is, with the two of them running excitedly out of the house to the TARDIS to go off on all new adventures together. It's so hopeful and sweet, and they seem so genuinely excited to be back together.
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Feb 9, 2015 06:12
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It's Nick Frost that truly makes this episode for me. Everything else is absolutely grand and could have a made a very good "base under siege" episode, but the addition of Santa as played by Nick Frost pushes this episode into "classic" territory for me. Anyone else in the red suit and it might have come off as silly snd out of place, even with the "dream/weak plot explanation" twist. Frost just sells it without even trying. And now I kind of want Pegg and Wright to pen an episode...
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Feb 9, 2015 11:44
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well holy poo poo: quote:Big Finish is delighted to announce that Kate Stewart and her UNIT team from the Doctor Who TV series will be starring in a brand new series of audio dramas, in a licensing deal with BBC Worldwide.
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Feb 9, 2015 13:15
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Oh my loving God, finally a chance for her to go on endlessly about her dad in audio! But seriously, if anyone can make me give a poo poo about that character it's Big Finish, good loving job to them, and this pretty heavily hints towards them being able to move into the New Who playground in years to come.
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Feb 9, 2015 13:23
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DoctorWhat posted:well holy poo poo: I just saw this and I pretty much unintentionally did the "WHAT? WHAT?? WHAT???" routine.
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Feb 9, 2015 13:24
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So they have to have some kind of nuWho license now, yeah?
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Feb 9, 2015 13:35
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Big Mean Jerk posted:So they have to have some kind of nuWho license now, yeah? Not necessarily, Kate Stewart is a pre-existing character, previously used in things like the BBV thing Downtime, and a couple of novels in the Wilderness Years. So her status is kind of up in the air. This might be enuogh of a loophole for BF to be able to use her.
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Feb 9, 2015 13:45
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The_Doctor posted:Not necessarily, Kate Stewart is a pre-existing character, previously used in things like the BBV thing Downtime, and a couple of novels in the Wilderness Years. So her status is kind of up in the air. This might be enuogh of a loophole for BF to be able to use her. There's reason to believe that, from a legal standpoint, Downtime!Kate and Power of Three!Kate are distinct things.
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Feb 9, 2015 13:51
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