Amph Doctor Who Discussion (Russell T. Davies returns)

Not sure what T-Shirt to wear to the cinema on saturday night. I have a TARDIS one, a Matt Smith costume one, a "Keep Calm and a have a Jelly Baby" one, a "Keep Calm, I'm the Doctor" one and a "It's smaller on the outside" one.

 

Woah. That's a lot of shirts.

 

Well this is the "Smaller on the outside" t-shirt which I wore when I got to visit the set of the new TARDIS



And this is my Matt Smith one worn whilst eating fish fingers and custard

 

Wear a plain white t-shirt.

 

Well, that's just dull

 

Fixed.

 

I don't know that any of your shirt choices count as not dull. You should go dressed as Amy Pond/police stripper. Now that would be interesting and provide the attention you seek.

 

Well I could go in my (wrongly coloured) Tennant suit



Or my Matt Smith wedding outfit



Or my Rory wedding outfit



Or just go as the TARDIS

 

...yes.

Plain white t-shirt.

 

The TARDIS!

 

Thanks No, not collated. I just write them into the thread software itself. But they're in there. However, I cannot remember which page they started at. But you're looking from February 1, 2014 and onwards.

 

I'll have more/extended thoughts about the second-section of series 7 later, but I do want to mention this: I actually liked The Crimson Horror... found it rather creepy, funny, and thus enjoyable. So, there!


*runs*

 

Plus, you know, penis monster.

 

Fathom might've come to that arrangement so that it wouldn't hurt BBC America's ratings, or something like that.

I figure I'll wait and see it at the Rialto. It's the old argument: "Do you want it now, or do you want it good?" Besides, being a Whovian, a MSTie and a STAR WARS fan have taught me patience.

 

Day of the Doctor: So as a prologue to my review let’s get a couple of things out of the way.
1. This is NuWho. As much as I would love to see all the other Doctors back in this, that’s not what this show is. Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker and Peter Davison will not be in this special because in large part they don‘t fit the part anymore, and any role they would have would be mostly non-active and not on-screen for very long (McGann is the exception here, because IMO his age and relative obscurity make him a great choice to be featured in a special. This turns out to be Night of the Doctor, which reviewed above proves to be a great thing. To me, it plays out like a backdoor pilot to his own show, and in a very Moffat way that seems feasible. Moffat loves to play with time, so it would make perfect sense for the first chapter to be his death. You get some possible companion interaction, some just Paul McGann absolutely selling himself in the role all the way through, him interacting with the Sisterhood of Karn, as well as a regeneration scene. Again, there’s an amazingly significant scene where he has to choose what his next regen will be like, something the Doctor has never been faced with, though I’m pretty sure the Time Lords have floated possible faces in front of him before). That was a long digression, but I think it’s the truth. And Tom Baker gets to be in it because he is the all time favorite. And Moffat writes him a role that makes sense and is mysterious and cool.

2. Unfortunately, the format is a 75 minute special. You know what would be great? A 4-6 part, 20 minute a piece serial that threwback to OldWho. That’s what I would do. But that’s not what we got. It’s unfortunate, but it’s reality.


3. Ecclestone would not have participated. Once again, this was not going to happen. Whatever grudge he has against the show has affected him so much that even a cameo seems to be below him. We just have to deal with this. In some ways, 9 in the role of the War Doctor would fit a lot. Same applies for McGann. You don’t HAVE to insert the War Doctor into the canon. All that being said though, I think John Hurt is a brilliant choice for this role, he plays it very well (especially in his stylistic clash with 10 and 11), and he really sells me with the War Doctor. IMO, I would have liked to see him do more warlike things, maybe I have to read Engines of War for that. With these points accepted we can go into the go into the special and really enjoy it for what it is.

This is a truly great episode guys. Entertaining all the way through, some timey wimey fun to be had playing with the situation they’ve been put in. Multiple rewatches have proved rewarding, especially watching Matt’s interactions with everyone. 11 has done this before, twice, and he’s generally having a good time and working ahead of everyone is. He has some great moments in this (admitting to forgetting the number of children, pure delight he has at quite a lot of things that really sets his Doctor aside from the others, any time he’s interacting with Tennant).

Real quick I want to go over the companion pairings that are mostly happening. The Doctors all get to interact with one another, but the beginning part of the episode spotlights 11 and Clara, who I think is now a decent companion who works adequately in the special (can anyone explain the weird hand movement/high ten/both look up at once thing they do? It’s kind of cool, I just don’t know what it’s saying about their relationship?). War and The Moment/Rose also get some screentime together, which is really quite interesting to think about. The Moment can form a conscience, and it’s interesting that War’s conscience is his next form’s only onscreen companion, and future love. I like the future-meets-past type dynamics that go on in this special. Lastly we get 10ant and Queen Elizabeth, something that’s been mentioned in the past but not seen until now. Tennant does a good job here, seems resigned to his role of paramour of the Queen and possibly future King of England.
The climax ends with the Doctors figuring out they can save Gallifrey, rather than destroying it something War has to wrestle with doing, especially seeing how his future selves handle that choice. This echoes the decision that Lethbridge-Stewart has to make, when she’s firm that she will destroy London. Erasing everybody’s memory and making them hammer out the best solution is brilliant. The echoing of the main conflict works well, and the argument could be made that if 9 was here, the effects would be much more clear, but I think the juxtaposition between Doctors works. Here’s what I absolutely love about this: the Doctor still thinks he did the deed, up until 11. Even if he didn’t do the crime, he will still beat himself up for it. Saving Gallifrey is a must-do moment because it solidifies who the Doctor is, at his heart, he will find a way to save the day. In addition, it gives him a purpose to his life, to save his people, hopefully try to redeem them and look forward to something rather than looking back on them. To me, it plays perfectly. Just the thing this anniversary should do. The all 13 Doctors moment is also great, with an extra special appearance of Capaldi’s eyebrows.
Lastly, the moment with 11 and Baker was amazing. 11 thinking he could be a curator, and then a far future version of himself coming to say he will, and that there’s still hope out in the universe for him to run towards. It’s such a great scene played wonderfully by two amazing actors. I pointed out all those exceptions because those are real complaints that could be made. If you take those away however, this is a superb special that takes quite a lot form the history of the show (the opening is a great throwback to the first episode, there’s all kinds of goodies in the Black Archive, the Zygons are very cool enemies to feature here). What this 50th Anniversary had to do was solidify the current series, and reassure us that it still has the intrigue, deep-plotting, brilliant characterization and longevity to last another 50 years. And it did that. What will the show look like when it reaches the 100th anniversary? The answer is simple.





50/5

I'll probably get to Time of the Doctor tomorrow.

 

The thing to remember about War is that we're meeting him at the end of his run, just as we did with Eight. (It just occurred to me, with something of a thrill -- both Eight and War's appearances through Night/Day are characterised by despair: Eight's despair drives his transformation into War; War's despair drives him to steal the Moment and put a plague on both your houses.)

But like I said, War's thing was that he's at the end of being a warrior -- he has been utterly broken down by the Time War; remember he doesn't want to survive the Moment's activation.

The best line I got on rewatching was this bit:
Eleven: "What would be the point?"
Ten: "Two point four billion."

 

TIME HEIST HAS LEAKED HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING

No Listen yet. Interesting.

 

Dude, spoiler cut for those not opting to find the leaked eps, please?

 

Is it episode titles that's the problem?

 

Some people might consider them as spoilers.

 

Yeah, "Time Heist." I never thought a Doctor Who episode would ever have anything to do with time.

 

I think my sleep addled brain momentarily forgot that 'Listen' was an episode title in and of itself. Sorry.

 

That's nowhere near as bad as the DVD release of The Godfather Part 3 where one of the chapters prior to the credits is titled

Spoiler

The death of Michael Corleone

.