|
The Discontinuity Guide also says that episode 13 of Trial of a Timelord is "a masterpiece", and episode 14 achieves "near greatness". These statements are completely unacceptable and I await a full apology from the authors.
|
#
¿
Sep 18, 2015 13:54
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 22:46 |
|
|
I don't think episode 14 is exceptionally good in any respect. Yes, it was done in a few days based on location photos and with no knowledge of the existing script. It's still an unsatisfying conclusion to a season-long mystery. The dialogue is still the usual P&J rubbish. It was crap TV then, it's crap TV now and I genuinely think that (barring some sort of nightmarish archive calamity in the future where the only surviving recorded footage of anything is Trial of a Timelord) it will always be seen as crap TV. But sure, they knocked it out pretty quickly, although I suspect the final script wouldn't have been much better even if they'd had a couple of months to work on it. (And if they didn't want to kill the show by failing to deliver a full series of episodes, then they could always have, say, filmed the script they already had for episode 14, despite JNT's reservations.) Let's not depress ourselves with too much in-depth P & J Baker analysis this close to a new season of the show, though!
|
|
#
¿
Sep 18, 2015 14:28
|
|
|
Here's my question: why does Doctor Who have so many space bars all of a sudden, and why are they all invariably modeled on the cantina scene from Star Wars? It's so generic and dull.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2015 12:04
|
|
|
And More posted:Wasn't that the same space bar where the Doctor met the blue fat guy? I got the impression that they wanted me to have an emotional connection to that place, but I didn't. Oh right. That's sort of even worse E: computer parts posted:And since when does "Hyperspace" exist? So generic and dull. It would be generic and dull if every spaceship in Doctor Who used the Star Wars hyperspace effect every time they did something apart from normal space travel, I suppose! They don't, though. pinacotheca fucked around with this message at 12:49 on Sep 21, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2015 12:36
|
|
|
MrL_JaKiri posted:Arc of Infinity's first scene with the Doctor is a (presumably) Saward written explanation of a plot hole in the Saward written Earthshock, two stories ago. I think JNT told him to put it in because of the irate fan letters he'd received at the end of the previous season. Not that that actually makes any of it better, AoI is still utterly rank and I agree with your second paragraph in its entirety. E: Oh, and Saturday's episode was really good stuff
|
|
#
¿
Oct 5, 2015 18:30
|
|
|
egon_beeblebrox posted:Resurrection of the Daleks is really good. It's my first time seeing it. It doesn't look good, but the story is good. Probably the most I've enjoyed a Fifth Doctor TV story outside of "The Five Doctors" and "The Caves of Androzani." I like Resurrection much more than I should. It's relentlessly bleak (e.g. the body count, the effects of the Daleks' poison gas on the space prison crew, the nihilistic offing of the riverside detectorist etc.) which really works well with the overcast gritty location filming. Having Tegan leave at the end of the story due to the bleakness is almost like the programme holding its hands up and admitting it might have gone too far this time. How about some Peter Wyngarde in Lanzarote to lighten things up? Yes, it's got about four plots too many by the final episode, yes, the Doctor doesn't really do anything except walk around a warehouse, lie on a table and point a gun at Davros, yes, the dialogue is functional at best, and yes, Rodney Bewes can't stand the confusion in his mind, but... well, okay, it still isn't exactly good in any objective sense. But I still like it. Probably a lot more than if it had been directed by Peter Moffatt or Ron Jones, say. I actually think it looks pretty good for its time, daft headwear and shaving foam effects notwithstanding. Anyway, what I heard was that Nation was annoyed at the changes and additions Douglas Adams had made to Destiny of the Daleks (the jokes about them not being able to go upstairs, and so on) and had to be persuaded that the production team weren't going to take the mickey out of the Daleks again. This is a bit rich as apparently the scripts he had delivered for Destiny were very "thin" and had to be worked on heavily by Adams even just to fill out the running time to an acceptable length. I'd be surprised if he was thinking specifically about Evil or Power, not least because he'd happily written several Dalek stories for the show since their broadcast without bringing it up, but it's certainly possible. Oh, and it might sound like I'm forever defending Saward, but according to him he was happy to start from scratch with a completely new plotline for Resurrection, however JNT insisted he carry on from where Destiny left off, thus simultaneously satisfying a handful of Doctor Who fans and alienating the general viewing public at large. Ah, 1984!
|
|
#
¿
Oct 7, 2015 10:21
|
|
|
MrL_JaKiri posted:Contemporary sources show Saward decided very early on that Davros must be included because he found dalek dialogue to be dull. He was going to kill Davros off, but Nation refused to let him. Oh yes, I didn't mean to suggest he wouldn't have used Davros even if given a completely free hand, just that he would have jettisoned the whole Movellan war/virus nonsense. To be fair, though, that would probably just have meant a whole lotta Lytton in its place, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Luckily all this has alerted me to the fact that Nation wrote some episodes for MacGyver's first season at around the same time he was making his various Dalek demands of the Dr Who production team, which I will now have to watch to satisfy the same irrational urge that compelled me to sit through those two episodes of Magnum PI featuring Peter Davison.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 7, 2015 12:56
|
|
|
The_Doctor posted:All revival Doctors, I see. Any alcoholic beverage that truly embodies the spirit of Tom Baker would probably instantly dissolve the liver of any normal drinker, so perhaps it's for health and safety reasons?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 14, 2015 17:12
|
|
|
I didn't think much of the opening two episodes, Under the Lake was decent, its second part not so much, The Girl Who Died was good, and last week's was okay. I don't think this series is quite as good as last year's (obviously only based on what we've seen so far). On the plus side, far fewer pages in the thread consisting solely of people arguing about giant space eggs so far this year.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 29, 2015 13:12
|
|
|
The Metro posted:But don’t despair, there will be a Christmas special to make up for the reduced season. They sure are spoiling us this year!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 6, 2015 15:40
|
|
|
FreezingInferno posted:They don't even got a making of documentary on it! I wanted to see people interviewed about why this didn't work! Aww. Hey, you could always watch it with the commentary on! It's a good one, but there's specifically a bit where Kevin McNally gently brings up the quality issue with a tactfully deployed "this isn't (polite cough) the most celebrated Doctor Who story ever, is it, Colin?"
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2015 18:29
|
|
|
DirtyRobot posted:I'm surprised there haven't been more multi-doc (or multi-master) stories in the TV show Well, remember that multi-Doctor stories just wouldn't have been possible for the first five years of the revival, unless they wheeled in one of the older Doctors (as indeed they very briefly did). I mean, I don't know the reasons, obviously. But when you've got a new actor in the role, you don't want to overshadow them by bringing back the old guy if you can possibly help it. In fact, the old guy might not even want to come back. And these days, once they've left the role of the Doctor, they generally go off to Hollywood and try and make it there, which limits their availability for filming on specific dates in the UK for a while. And don't forget, even if they do agree and their schedule works out, you need to pay them relatively handsomely to do so - clearly they (or more precisely, their agents) aren't going to just accept the usual Dr Who guest actor fee. Plus, we all know now what happens when multiple Doctors meet up: they bicker a bit. I imagine the multiple Masters in the BF thing will do the same. I mean, there's just not much really there apart from the thrill of seeing two or more different Doctors together onscreen at the same time. I'm not saying it's wrong to want to see that, but it's a lot of scheduling, persuading and money for something which generally doesn't add all that much to the narrative. And, of course, it also makes it slightly more impenetrable for the average viewer who doesn't know who all these other guys are. Personally, I think it's probably best if the continuity/what-if fan servicing is provided by Big Finish rather than the TV show.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 7, 2016 15:25
|
|
A decade and only one story? When any special with multi-docs would have to create a huge ratings jolt, and surely the actors (minus say Eccleston) would be on board for the brief spotlight jolt for their careers, given that it's only a special without the full year/season commitment.
|
It's missing from his Wikipedia entry (how strange!), but I used to think Harlan Ellison was a harmless (albeit leaning heavily on the cranky) eccentric until he groped Connie Willis onstage at the Hugos in 2006. Now I just think he's a desperately sad old man who shouldn't be allowed out on his own, and no amount of him praising Terrance Dicks in those intros to the US Who novelisations can really change that for me. If I'd known about him sending bricks and dead animals and whatnot through the postal system to people he has a professional disagreement with, then I guess I could have revised my opinion of him even before 2006. The more you know, etc. Also, given the news we've had so far this week, I just checked, and Terrance Dicks is 80. He's still got at least another twenty years with us, right? 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2016 13:00
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 22:46 |
|
|
Oh, for goodness' sake. The Seeds of Doom for me tonight, then.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2016 17:47
|
|