Amph Doctor Who Discussion (Russell T. Davies returns)

I hate you all.

*goes to stalk YouTube*

 

Yep. Don't forget as well the Eleventh Doctor does spend a lot of time on his own too. In fact, in the latest two episodes i've just reviewed, although to Amy and Rory it was months before they received those envelopes, for all we know the Doctor spent decades traveling about. We got hints of that in the opening scenes of The Impossible Astronaut. In that same episode he claims to be around 1120 years of age. Plus, as you pointed out, the Doctor was on the planet for a very long time in Time Of the Doctor. As far as Timelord DNA goes, they seem to age far better than humans. So 2000 years isn't quite a stretch.

But, do I care? No. The age of the Doctor is substantially insignificant because the true count of a Timelord is the regeneration limit. This is where i've got a lot of criticism toward Moffat for, I still don't like the way it was dealt with.

 

Found it!

 

Is it just me or does the costume actually work better when we see Capaldi in an actual episode? I wasn't huge on the costume up until now but for some reason it now works.
Also, go to 0:25 - we see him wearing a tie. That's all it needs to finish it off. But even without the tie, it just looks great.

 

Definitely. All the costumes work better in the actual episodes than they do in promo stills (well a certain Pinstriped suit works any place it's seen when worn by David Tennant).

 

Also don't forget Eleven spent 800 years saying goodbye.

Thanks Obama!

 

Thanks for letting us knoooow, ****y chops.

 

This does not look fun. The Doctor wasn't even riding that dinosaur.

 

I hope we hear that theme through out the series. That was cool.

 

He is riding a horse though.

 

Been there, done that with 10 though.

 

And Eleven.

 

And Eleven. Forgot about that for a second.

 

I'm glad the show is starting to take itself more seriously. The dialogue will hopefully be more nuanced, the Doctor won't almost be literally bouncing off walls and I won't have moments wondering why someone doesn't just shoot the guy because this Doctor will hopefully act more like an adult.

 

Wish I could

 

Been falling a bit behind, so I've added another 5 locations to my blog, including the House from 'Hide'

(though not the room with the scary picture as that's a different location)

www.doctorwholocations.org

 

6.04: The Curse of the Black Spot

"Ever look in a mirror and think you're seeing a whole other world? Well this time it's not an illusion."

There's not a lot going for this one and it's with this episode, very early on, that the Series 6 slump begins. Series 5 can not only be thought of as a strong start for Matt but still to this day his strongest season. Although the aesthetics of the episode, as with nearly all of the Moffat era, present well in terms of the costumes, lighting, makeup and overall production, it's the writing which let it down. But, on that subject, the Mermaid looked awful. Beginning with her reverse dive entry the CGI doesn't blend well with the sets and the movement is inexcusably awkward where the plot cannot account for it.

The overall concept of this episode is unappealing because the Mermaid in both substance and form doesn't do enough to engage the audience. As discussed, the design is so uninspired and cut and paste that it's almost parodic. But, the explanation for why it was happening was also a major letdown too because there was no reason for the Mermaid to attempt to care for the humans. The virus didn't seem to affect them. So not only could I not empathise with her, but as a villain she was underwhelming because her motives were baseless. Meanwhile, the reflective surfaces rule fell flat because I spotted several reflective surfaces throughout the episode that she could have sprung from but for some reason she chose not to.

The only saving grace for this episode are the added development of the Doctor, Karen and Rory while the episode was well made as far as technical sets and props go. With the exception of the space ship, none of this was filmed in a studio, it was apparently filmed both on and below deck of a real ship. Apart from that, totally forgettable.

2 out of 5

 

I've said all along that some of the filler episodes (like this one and Night Terrors) could have been eliminated entirely for more focus on the arch this season (so the second half didn't seem so rushed), and nothing would have been lost from their exclusion. That being said, I did like this episode. It was a nice, mostly lighthearted rump that was kind of needed after the emotional rollercoaster that was the two part season premiere.Of course, I tend to like silly episodes like that, so *shrug* But yeah, if this episode was sacrificed in favor of the overall arc, I wouldn't have missed it.

 

It's 6.03

EDIT: Ah, I see you count the Christmas Special as the first episode in the series. You shouldn't.

 

I do this because Tennant's first official episode wasn't until The Christmas Invasion and I see that more as a Prologue to Series 2 than an Epilogue to Series 1. I've done the same ever since. Also, the events in Voyage Of The Damned have great connection to Turn Left plus the Christmas Specials usually saw the Doctor on his own after a companion left, so it felt fitting as a new beginning of sorts.

 

Why not just call it a Christmas special?

 

I like to group them in, just as a milestone type of thing. Besides, I don't want to start writing "Christmas Special 1, Christmas Special 2, Christmas Special 3." That and keeping in mind not all Christmas Specials have truly been Christmas Specials since two of them have been Doctor finales rather than Christmas Stories. Both have continued on the arc that preceded it. The End Of Time is the "four knocks" reveal while Time Of The Doctor addresses the more subtly placed question of his longevity which seemed to come up in Series 7 from time to time.

 

Doctor Who Series 8 Trailer breakdown

 

Why?

 

Seriously?