|
I don’t know why you’d tear down the TARDIS set if you didn’t have to.
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2025 17:48
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2025 14:52 |
|
|
I guess some people were arguing the set was torn down because the series was cancelled?
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2025 17:56
|
|
|
Fair Bear Maiden posted:I guess some people were arguing the set was torn down because the series was cancelled? Yes, it’s this. People were swearing the set had already been struck, and that was proof the show was done for.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2025 18:07
|
|
|
Rewatching some early RTD because DOCTOR WHO IS BACK THIS WEEK AAAAAGHGHG Yo so when people watch / rewatch these, do you watch in 16:9 or 4:3?
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2025 19:45
|
|
|
4:3. The original, baybeh.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2025 19:51
|
|
|
Yeah I stick to original aspect ratio whenever I get the choice. I do not mind bars down the side of my telly.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2025 19:56
|
|
|
I will say, I didn't even have any idea that the original NuWho season got re-released in 16:9. I know they got Blu-ray releases that still look SD, but I thought those were still in 4:3.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2025 19:57
|
|
|
I thought the entirety of current-run Who was in native 16:9?
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2025 20:03
|
|
|
Edward Mass posted:I thought the entirety of current-run Who was in native 16:9? The early seasons of the show were shot in widescreen but framed in 4:3, because it was during the period when televisions were transitioning in format. Like a lot of shows from this time period, the earlier seasons look much better with 4:3 letterboxing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2025 20:22
|
|
|
The 9th Doctor and first two seasons of 10th are defined with that weird soft lighting and still looking like a 90s syndicated American television show.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2025 20:23
|
|
|
Open Source Idiom posted:The early seasons of the show were shot in widescreen but framed in 4:3, because it was during the period when televisions were transitioning in format. Really? Eccleston wan't in 4:3 on the Sci-Fi Channel, they letterboxed it for SD. I don't even know where it's available in that aspect ratio, the DVDs are in widescreen.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2025 20:38
|
|
|
Doctor Who reviews, Gareth Roberts edition: The Shakespeare Code: This story has been criticized for being a Shakespeare celebrity historical with surprisingly little interest in Shakespeare. It does at least have a suitably Shakespearean “monster” (witches), although this has the unfortunate effect of uncritically importing some early modern gender politics. It also has a few good gags that arise from it being about Shakespeare. Unfortunately the gag at the core of the resolution, with the out-of-place magic words, is cringe and also doesn’t have much to do with Shakespeare. The handling of race here is rather clumsy. “Just walk about like you own the place; works for me” is not an adequate response to Martha’s concerns, and I’m not sure the story realizes how inadequate it is. Given Roberts’ later bigoted turn, it’s tempting to blame him for this, but I have an uncomfortable feeling that the handling of race here was broadly Davies’ idea. (I don’t want to be too harsh on Davies – he did better in this regard in the Fifteenth Doctor era – but I feel like the new series has often had more diverse casting than the classic series, but without the overwhelmingly-white people on the other side of the camera thinking through the implications of this for the writing, with unintentionally offensive results.) Also, the Doctor’s pining over Rose, especially when he outright compares Martha unfavorably to her, was a misstep. It undermines the regular characters for the sake of someone who isn't in the show anymore. Rating: 2/5. The Caretaker: Speaking of race, this is the start of the Doctor’s hostility to Danny, and the “PE” remarks unintentionally come across as nastier than they otherwise would because Danny is black. (To be fair, this is also the story where the Doctor seems to seriously consider Courtney Woods as a possible companion.) Having said that, we’re still clearly not meant to approve of the Doctor’s attitude here. Danny’s view of the Doctor isn’t completely wrong; the Doctor even defeats the skovok blitzer at the end by establishing himself as a superior authority and giving it orders. Though I suppose the Doctor’s view of Danny isn’t completely wrong either; being a former soldier seems to be Danny’s primary personality trait. Though as I noted when I reviewed it, Listen shows that it’s partly the Doctor’s fault that Danny is like that! There were some pretty good gags in this episode. I especially liked the montage at the beginning, Clara assuming that the Doctor had a celebrity-historical adventure with Jane Austen, and “Last year you said she was a very disruptive influence, so I suppose that counts as an improvement.” Rating: 3/5. Silver2195 fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Apr 5, 2025 |
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2025 01:42
|
|
|
I was always put off by the Doctor's flippant dismissal of Martha's very real concern about how her race would impact on her treatment in that time period. Thin Ice does a MUCH better job by having the Doctor remind Bill this is a possibility and they just need to grit their teeth through it, then the very second the rear end in a top hat bad guy starts making a racist comment the Doctor just punches him in the loving face  
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2025 03:55
|
|
|
i do still hope they can get Martha back for a short appearance somewhere down the line, just so that her character isn't forever stuck in that era capped with "of course the two black characters we have on the show would just inexplicably get married"
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2025 04:02
|
|
|
Well, they’re very unlikely to ever get Noel Clarke back again.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2025 08:16
|
|
|
The_Doctor posted:Well, they’re very unlikely to ever get Noel Clarke back again. Sadly Micky died on the way back to his home planet.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2025 08:30
|
|
|
Edward Mass posted:Really? Eccleston wan't in 4:3 on the Sci-Fi Channel, they letterboxed it for SD. I don't even know where it's available in that aspect ratio, the DVDs are in widescreen. Yeah, it makes sense that it would have been broadcast in widescreen when available because that was seen as the inherently superior format. But it was framed for 4:3 and looks so much better that way. If you can adjust your screen to crop the image it's going to be a far more impressive experience. I've been watching some episodes, swapping between the two formats as an experiment, and the difference being communicated is stark. Rose, btw, is an incredibly nicely directed episode. Daleks Take Manhattan less so, but there's some cool Expressionist touches I didn't pick up on before. I wonder how much RTD contributed vs Helen Rayner, because there's stuff here that reads like him on autopilot (Tallulah, three elles and an ayche) and other stuff that seems to be a consequence of weak redrafting (the dalek reveal coming about half an hour before the Doctor's big scene where he discovers it by playing with a brain). Generally it's hard to connect the Great Depression material concerning displaced and exploited labour constructing the Empire State with the big theatre kid energy musical theatre subplot that's riffing on Phantom and broadway characters. It's like two people batting ideas back and fourth where they're both interested in different things and have decided to compromise, but that compromise doesn't actually benefit the storytelling at all. But there's other material that just doesn't work full stop, like the choreo for the musical number, or the inelegant way the story shovels on character monologues at the drop of a hat. Miranda Raison is very, very good in a flashy role, and Andrew Garfield is also good in a subdued one. But I don't know if the script benefits from having two characters with identical scripting roles, which again speaks to the bifurcated nature of the script.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2025 08:44
|
|
|
Hell, I shouldn't be surprised that I missed Andrew Garfield being in a Doctor Who episode, because I didn't know who he was at the time and that's an episode I've probably never rewatched. Oh God I'm going to have to watch one of those "20 actors you didn't know were in Doctor Who" aren't i
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2025 12:10
|
|
|
I'm terrible at recognising faces and names of actors I've seen before. I had to look up who Andrew Garfield is just now. I must have skipped his Spiderman films. Other than the really obvious ones (eg Capaldi in the Pompeii episode/Torchwood), I usually only have a faint sense of 'I've seen them before somewhere'. It's quite helpful if I've previously seen them play a real bastard, but I'm now watching something in which they're meant to be a sympathetic character. I only realised this morning that one of the main characters in the current series of The White Lotus played Zhukov in The Death of Stalin, which I've seen multiple times. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2025 12:57
|
|
|
if you're willing to have your heart crushed, he's absolutely fantastic in Tick Tick Boom
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2025 13:25
|
|
|
Speaking of Garfield films, I really dug Under the Silver Lake though it had some rather troubling (but deliberate as part of the story/themes) treatment of women - it kind of felt like I was watching a Daniel Clowes comic come to life, heavy Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron vibes to the whole thing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2025 01:43
|
|
|
What's the Doctor got against Gladiators? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqxuG1SFFII
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2025 02:25
|
|
|
Disney: So how are you spending our money? RTD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqxuG1SFFII Disney: Secure funding for another 10 years for this man. IMMEDIATELY. BBC: My God, that's 3-4 more seasons of Doctor Who guaranteed!
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2025 02:52
|
|
|
The dalek base from Evolution Of The Daleks, the one hidden in the foundations of the Empire State Building, might be the single most ugly set in all of Doctor Who. Raw studio floor with garish little stands all over the place that sort of suggest walls, but actually give the impression of being at a dalek themed marketing conference. Every so often a bunch of flamethrowers go off for some reason, which is kind of cool. Also the script is based on a really weird bit of biotruths. Apparently human genetics are inherently moral, such that the incorporation of an utterly remorseless serial murderer villain into a dalek body somehow compels it to be a force for good and not just more evil. Whatever. The actors are trying, and there's some cool deep focus shots based around characters suddenly popping up in the extreme foreground as jump scares. Usually the pigmen, which are kind of gross and theoretically scary here in a way that completely upstages the daleks and definitely upstages the deeply unthreatening wreathe of penises. And the half built penthouse set is really cool, if largely underutilized in its coolness. Everyone's putting a lot of effort into something that just doesn't work because the script is rotten, but the script is also painfully earnest in its failures too. I can't dislike it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2025 05:44
|
|
|
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that humans are genetically more moral than a species genetically engineered to be psychotic omnicidal fascists who feel only hate, yes. Humans start out as pretty much a blank slate to be shaped, even Diagoras more than likely became who he was as a result of his circumstances. He had an underlying capacity for empathy and love and curiosity and all these other things even if they were suppressed by his upbringing, those things were surgically removed from the Dalek genome long ago. And Diagoras-Sec wasn't immediately a force for good. Hhis first thoughts were about how good humans are at waging war and destroying things. It was that incorporating a human opened his mind to ideas and feelings that weren't previously allowed to him. The Doctor was able to begin getting through to him in the short time he had.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2025 09:01
|
|
|
Dabir posted:I'm going to go out on a limb and say that humans are genetically more moral than a species genetically engineered to be psychotic omnicidal fascists who feel only hate, yes. Humans start out as pretty much a blank slate to be shaped, even Diagoras more than likely became who he was as a result of his circumstances. He had an underlying capacity for empathy and love and curiosity and all these other things even if they were suppressed by his upbringing, those things were surgically removed from the Dalek genome long ago. I'd find your argument compelling if Diagoras demonstrated more meaningful empathy and humanity in the entire episode he was still a human, and if his first act of human empathy wasn't dramatically caressing a broken radio in the campest way possible because he's realised the concept of "doing things for fun". It's zero to 100 in five minutes.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2025 12:09
|
|
|
Just recently rewatched Evil of the Daleks which has a similar theme of Daleks introduced to the "human factor" almost immediately grasping greedily onto the feelings and thoughts that were genetically excised from them eons earlier by Davros, and showing growth as individuals that the other Daleks immediately try to squash. There are a ton of (I assume intentional) parallels with that story in Evolution of the Daleks, even if the "blank" humans are more akin to Robo-Men from The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Both they and the Daleks with the Human Factor in Evil immediately commit the cardinal sin for Daleks of asking "why?" when given an order.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2025 12:10
|
|
|
Evilution is absolutely a soft remake of Evol.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2025 12:56
|
|
|
I think it's funny that Evolution of the Daleks, a tragedy about a creature overcoming its biology to become a better and more complete being only to be rejected and destroyed by its hateful reactionary people, as written by a TERF
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2025 13:05
|
|
|
No Dignity posted:I think it's funny that Evolution of the Daleks, a tragedy about a creature overcoming its biology to become a better and more complete being only to be rejected and destroyed by its hateful reactionary people, as written by a TERF TERFism is an ideology that doesn't go well with self-reflection.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2025 13:12
|
|
|
The Robot Revolution airs at 6:50 GDT this Saturday, so please spoiler tag your posts involving the episode until 7:35 GDT/1:35 Eastern.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2025 19:34
|
|
|
Doctor Who reviews, Second Doctor and Victoria edition: The Enemy of the World: This is the best Second Doctor story so far. Troughton’s performance here is very impressive; he really sells the idea that the Doctor and Salamander are completely different people. The side characters are very well done, too, especially Astrid, Benik, Fariah, and Griffin the grumpy chef. It’s action-packed but, as Elizabeth Sandifer points out, the cliffhangers show that the plot is really about what characters know, which helps give the story the substance to work as a 6-parter. There’s some great lines, although they don’t look quite as impressive as the page as they are when delivered. The Doctor, when Astrid asks what kind of Doctor he is: “Which law? Whose philosophies?” Griffin to Victoria: “Well sit down and write out the menus. First course interrupted by bomb explosion. Second course affected by earthquakes. Third course ruined by interference in the kitchen. I'm going out for a walk. It'll probably rain.” Fariah after being shot: “You can't threaten me now, Benik. I can only die once, and someone's beaten you to it.” You can poke holes in the plot, if you like. The subplot with the newspaper clipping is a bit overly convenient; why did a clipping get stuck to a food box now and not at any point over the past five years? And how did Salamander know where that Tardis was? But I’ve given 5s to stories that probably have worse plot issues if you care to poke at them; I even praised Terror of the Zygons for lampshading its implausibilities, interpreting it as a parody of the Pertwee era. And at least The Enemy of the World’s setting has fast transportation to avoid the “Why is everyone right next to each other?” issue that The Brain of Morbius and Genesis of the Daleks had. Rating: 5/5. The Web of Fear: The second Yeti/Great Intelligence story is genuinely tense in a way the first one wasn’t. The Great Intelligence is more proactive, the darkness of the London Underground makes for a more ominous atmosphere than a monastery, and the Yeti have been upgraded. Funny how Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart is placed in the usual situation of the Doctor in base-under-siege stories: a guy who turns up seemingly from nowhere and starts trying to take charge. Of course, that makes him the obvious suspect for the Great Intelligence’s spy! He’s recognizably the same character that he’ll be in the early Pertwee era, but he has the bad luck of being in a situation where the other characters (and the audience at the time) perceive him very differently. My only complaint about this story is the ethnic-stereotype side characters: Silverstein, a Jew who values his possessions more than his safety, and Evans, a Welshman who values his safety more than his dignity. To be fair, I’m not sure whether cowardice is a stereotype of the Welsh particularly, but he’s definitely presented as a comic-relief character (much as Welsh characters in the Pertwee era will tend to be). Rating: 4/5. Minor observations:
Next: Some statistics on seasons/companions/monsters I've seen all of. After that, probably a couple of Eleventh Doctor stories.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2025 03:26
|
|
|
My Doctor Who rating averages for completed seasons, writers, companions, monsters, etc. so far: First, a few notes. I normally use the list at https://tardis.wiki/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_television_stories to define a season and a story. So Disney season 1 includes The Church of Ruby Road, and Empire of Death and The Legend of Ruby Sunday are counted as a single story, but the three Fourteenth Doctor specials are effectively their own three-story season. There will likely be a few exceptions in the future, though; I will probably treat Trial of a Time Lord as four stories rather than one, and The Five Doctors as part of season 20 rather than as its own one-story season. Not sure yet how I’ll handle Flux. The question of what counts as a substantial enough appearance of an ally or monster is trickier. Is The Five Doctors a Yeti story? And how can I evaluate that if I haven’t seen The Five Doctors yet? My solution for now is to default to how tardis.guide classifies stories. So The Five Doctors isn’t a Yeti story. Seasons: Season 7 (4 stories): 4 Season 8 (5 stories): 3.2 Disney season 1 (8 stories): 3.125 Monsters: Sutekh (2 stories): 2.5 Yeti (2 stories): 3 Companions and aliies: Liz Shaw (as a regular) (4 stories): 4 Adam Mitchell (2 stories): 3 Ruby Sunday (as a regular) (8 stories): 3.125 Writers: Don Houghton (2 stories): 3 Script editors: Victor Pemberton (1 story): 3 Antony Root (3 stories): 2.667 Silver2195 fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Apr 8, 2025 |
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2025 01:29
|
|
|
Open Source Idiom posted:Yeah, it makes sense that it would have been broadcast in widescreen when available because that was seen as the inherently superior format. But it was framed for 4:3 and looks so much better that way. If you can adjust your screen to crop the image it's going to be a far more impressive experience. Dalek feels a lot more claustrophobic in 4:3, which makes sense as a base-under-siege story.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2025 02:31
|
|
|
Silver2195 posted:My Doctor Who rating averages for completed seasons, writers, companions, monsters, etc. so far: I'm very glad to see Liz scoring high.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2025 10:54
|
|
|
Fil5000 posted:I'm very glad to see Liz scoring high. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up being the top-scoring companion in the end.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2025 12:35
|
|
|
It's a really good season of the show which helps
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2025 12:57
|
|
|
Doctor Who reviews, Amy and Rory edition: Amy’s Choice: This has more of the love triangle stuff I’m not a fan of, but the situation is genuinely tense. The concept of the Dream Lord allows for some good exploration of the Eleventh Doctor’s character, too. As in Last Christmas, the dream concept allows for some humor at the expense of Doctor Who’s standard tropes (scientifically-questionable astronomical concepts, thinly-motivated alien villains). I suppose I can’t object too much to that sort of thing after I praised Terror of the Zygons for it. Rating: 3/5. The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood: This is a season 7 throwback: The Silurians with a bit of Inferno. For the first three-quarters or so of the story it mostly works fine, but then Chibnall is stuck in the position of coming up with a happy-ish ending for The Silurians that doesn’t make present-day-ish Earth unrecognizable, with only 25 or so minutes to do it in. Less than that, actually, since he has to devote some of that time to the cracks in time storyline (which I assume Moffat mandated or even wrote himself) with Rory’s fake-out death. And so the story falls apart in a clunky discussion followed by a rush of contrivances. Maybe this story should have been set in Pete’s World or something like that to avoid the status-quo issue. Still, this is better than I was expecting. I prefer it to either of Chibnall’s stories I’ve seen from his own era. Rating: 2/5. Minor observations:
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2025 03:29
|
|
|
can't believe we're getting new doctor who in a couple of days!!! and it might be that last season we get for quite some time so i''ve avoided all trailers and info except for the name of the first episode and i'm excited to go in almost completely blind.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2025 03:49
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2025 14:52 |
|
|
Yeah. Due to the way I got into Doctor Who by reading discussion of Doctor Who, this will be the first time I've seen a Doctor Who story genuinely unspoiled.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2025 03:54
|
|