Amph Doctor Who Discussion (Russell T. Davies returns)

I think I prefer to stay in the unspoiled camp. I'll resist the urge to ask for a link. Like a poster above, I read the AOTC and RoTS novels before seeing the films but it didn't ruin my enjoyment. However, I think I prefer to go into the new Who season unspoiled. It's a shame the scripts got leaked.

 

I read the RotJ novel before seeing the film and I did feel it spoiled things for me. On the other hand, if I think something might be crap, I'm not adverse to being forewarned of disappointment - hence be being spoilers allowed for AotC and RotS.

 

They really were awesomely crap.

 

Fanny.

 

My version
Series One: Fragging loved it.
Series Two: Fragging loved it. Only disappointment was that the boxed set did not have any commentaries.
Series Three: Awesome quality, but I still bear a grudge that Russell T Davies short-changed the fan base with only five episodes.
Series Four: Went on a bit long, had some good episodes, there was a tie-in to at least one of the related novels. I liked Torchwood vs the CIA, and the helicopter gunship scene on the Welsh beach.

 

Still need to see Torchwood.

 

For those of us who only (or primarily) saw Alex Kingston in ER - solojones - , her work in Doctor Who is an added treat; such an excellent choice to portray (the main version of) River Song.

 

So do I. Season Five, WHERE ARE YOU??!!

 

Hear hear!

 

River Song is pretty entertaining.

 

Yeah, the fact that she's played two of my favorite characters in both of my all-time favorite shows puts her high up on my list of actors I enjoy.

 

And in addition to that, for me anyhow (as I don't know how many avid viewers of this particular program there are around here):


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I'd of course seen her on SVU before I started watching Who, but when a rerun aired recently, it was only then I realized "Hmm, that's right, her name on SVU is Ms. Pond. Interesting, very interesting!"

 

Japanese Who...

 

5.12: The Pandorica Opens [Part 1]

"The Universe is big. It's vast and complicated and ridiculous. And sometimes—very rarely—impossible things just happen and we call them miracles. And that's the theory."

This episode has the perfect set up and cliffhanger. It's possibly one of the best ever first half of a two-part story the series has had. At this point in time it's unclear how the experiences of Amy Pond were used to create a reality or who specifically engineered it. I have a feeling that the coalition of the Doctor's enemies were behind this but upon this viewing i'm curious to know if there was a mastermind at work who pulled the strings from the centre of the web. It perhaps could be the silence but I think this is a matter that's left unresolved until later on in Matt's run.

By now Matt also seems to have full grasp of his take on the Doctor who is an eccentric, elderly mad alien professor stuck in the body of a young adult. I personally think his performance in Series 5 is stronger than that of Tennant in his first year because Matt's character feels that bit more rounded. I didn't finish Series 2 with much of an appreciation for David's Doctor at that point because he didn't seem as complex as Christopher's. But Matt's Doctor seems to give you that sense of Gallifreyan history that David's Doctor may not. But, it's also the last time that I reality have appreciation for Riversong as a character. While her charm here was fine and was a worthy contribution to the story, her "schtick" just becomes a bit repetitive.

The best moments of this episode are the final five minutes where Rory begins to develop an awareness of who he is while Amy starts to awaken to the man she lost only to be met with a chilling and tragic finish. It's a platform for what may have been, but, sadly we've seen the best of this particular story.

5 out of 5


Just for fun, while Matt is a great Doctor there's a certain magic that seems exclusive to some of the classic Doctors:

 

halibut
That was superb! More! More!

 

I personally prefer this:

 

I saw some of those clips years ago... Nice style, shame about the story and the music.

 

I always saw the anime clip of a test run more than a bona fide attempt at telling the story. I agree, the story is weak but despite DW's British sensibilities, it can translate very nicely into the Japanese art form of anime, better than I expected. I personally can't stand anime but I found myself really enjoying this. Heck, i'd love to see them bring some of the McGann audios and novels over to this format. I always saw the McGann era as having a darker, gothic type of vibe to it, much like the era it was born in (X-Files, Buffy, Millennium).

 

Picked up the new Tales of Trenzalore book at the local Waterstones bookstore today,

 

Delgado and Ainley together is a little bit amazing too.

 

5.13: The Big Bang [Part 2]

"We're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? 'Cause it was, you know. It was the best. The daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away. Did I ever tell you that I stole it? Well I borrowed it. I was always going to take it back."

Nope, still don't get it. I've re-watched this episode so many times now and still cannot give it the praise that so many others seem to be able to because throughout the season the writers have been getting us to pay attention to the small details in the show. When you do this here, things begin to fall apart. I'll get the positives out of the way first. It's well paced, well performed, looks good on screen and I like the fact that this time around the finale does leave some things open for future episodes which is different to RTD's nearly wrapped finishes on each season. I don't have a preference for either one as both have their strengths and weaknesses. RTD did a great job of closing arcs, but there would be times where because he feels the need to resolve things within a finite period there are times where the illogical solution triumphs over a more reasoned one. With Moffat, he just blatantly lies or leaves things unresolved but does give us some things to discuss. Take your pick. What I also like about The Big Bang is that it does establish an interesting conundrum for the Doctor and company to overcome but this is where the problems begin because the scenario is too strenuous to really have a logical resolution.

To begin with, how did the Doctor escape from the Pandorica? I mean, really? I've heard a lot of fans say over the past that because the universe has collapsed so have the rules of the universe. Untrue. Fast forward slightly to when the Doctor is released from the Pandorica, he clinks the two sonic devices which triggers a spark, impliedly an activation of the Blinovich Effect where if two identical subject matter make contact from different time streams there are adverse impacts. Yet when both Amy ponds hold hands, nothing happens. So, at the earliest stages of the episode there is a contradiction of the laws of space and time or lack thereof. This easily could have been written around where maybe if in The Pandorica Opens the Doctor either hands his sonic screwdriver to Amy or Rory or better still just leaves it sitting somewhere. Rory could pick it up and deduce that to open the Pandorica he could wave the sonic at it. You could even have the Doctor's fez sitting near it to hint at the fact he is inside.

Secondly, the light from inside of the Pandorica is a sufficient regeneration source. This I kind of buy because it does somewhat get an explanation. Again, early in the episode the Doctor explains that Amy can be saved because she does still have living cells inside her body after being shot. This is feasible because very few victims of firearm assaults actually die instantly upon impact, even if it appears they are dead they still have some life in them in the smallest of pulses or neural activity. So, I actually agreed with this. Where I have the issue is how the Dalek is reanimated. The Dalek has been sitting in concrete for nearly 2000 years. Remember, the Dalek is not the metal casing but the mutant inside which would have gone almost 2000 years without recharge, service, maintenance or anything else necessary for a mutant to survive. This stretches what the Doctor said earlier about Amy's reanimation being possible since she was only recently shot.

Then the Doctor himself miraculously crawls around a corner and nearly two rooms after being shot by a Dalek to crawl into the Pandorica. We've seen before that even if the Doctor can sustain a Dalek laser bolt, he can't do it for long. The shot looks almost identical to the one in The Stolen Earth which, at least to me, means he wouldn't have the power to move himself into the Pandorica. But, once again, all of this is avoidable by a simple alteration to the writing. Why couldn't it be that maybe that he whispers to Amy, Rory or River to distract the Dalek while the other two carry him into the Pandorica? At this stage it's all too miraculous to really absorb in one sitting. On top of this, despite Ten's multiple warnings throughout his tenure of the teleportation devices being dangerous, the Doctor uses this multiple times through the episode quite seamlessly. Once again, the explanation for this seems to stem from the fact the Universe is being unwritten. See my argument above.

The final point is where it really is beyond repair. So, we're lead to believe that by placing the Pandorica inside the explosion that it will split it open to which the reanimation light inside, along with the imprint of the universe inside it, will superimpose the Universe to full restoration to before Amy's parents were supposedly absorbed by the time cracks? That's fine, that half of it I buy. Then, how is it that if the Universe is reset to such a point where none of it was supposed to happen that they can remember the Doctor and Riversong? Yes, I saw the diary but there's no way Amy could have come into possession of the diary without ever having met the Doctor. She only met Riversong through the Doctor. Is it because they themselves were time travellers and were "at the eye of the storm"?

Then, not only do we have to swallow all of this, we get the characters not only living happily ever after, not only reunited with the Doctor again but in a better position than they were in the first place. True, RTD had some miraculous stuff in there but go back to my Utopia/Sound of Drums/Last Of The Timelords discussion where despite having a fairly tenuous resolution it came at a great cost and it's debatable as to whether at all the Doctor was indeed the hero. In some ways he let a lot of people down. Here, the Doctor is dancing like a constipated orangutang while dressed like Carey Grant. For this reason I didn't feel any compassion for the characters or the scenario, at least not in Big Bang. The Pandorica Opens was sublime, but too strong for its own good. But where my frustration lies is all that Moffat needed to do was tweak some of the writing because some of this could have worked. It is a clever story and makes an attempt to manipulate the mechanics of time travel well, but there's far too much plot convenience and falls well below the Moffat standard that I grew to like at the time. Definitely one of Moffat's lesser moments and a disappointing finish to what was one of Doctor Who's strongest seasons yet.

2 out of 5

 

This is where you and I disagree. I actually really really liked The Big Bang, and often thing it's the strongest of the Moffat era finales. Most everything seemed to tie together and things seemed both in terms of story and character seemed to click and fire on all cylinders. The highlight for me was the Doctor's speech to a sleeping Amelia. Watching it first - run was the first time I actually saw Matt for the first time as The Doctor, not simply Ten's replacement (rememeber what I said about my mourning for Ten tainting my first - run viewing of a lot of these eps).

Plus, it was nice to actually get a happy ending for once. It really gets annoying to have every season end in angst and dispair like in the RTD era.

 

It was the writing for me that let it down. Again, Matt was terrific and I agree that he really made the character his own toward the end of this season. Performance wise, everyone was at their best. I grew to like Matt's Doctor faster in his first Season than I did David's.