Amph Doctor Who Discussion (Russell T. Davies returns)

I cannot like this enough.

Is it weird that this sounds more appealing than the actual televised show?

Now I just have to afford to buy five box sets over the next year.

 

They're spread out a little further than that, I think. The Paul McGann one is in 2017.

 

He's released quite a few albums, you can get a few of them on US iTunes. Are you searching 'John Barrowman' in albums?
Also, if you've never read (or even better listened to) his autobiographies, I'd highly recommend it. They are really interesting and often hilarious!

 

It's almost like Big Finish knows my dreams

 

You Raise Me Up, Reflections from Broadway, Grease, JB Swings Cole Porter, a Phantom of the Opera one for the US but I'd like some of the UK ones.

 

Watching Missy and Clara with the commandeered Dalek makes me realise how much of a coup, a female Master is.

No-one sober, un-drugged, in command of their own will, would allow the Master to sit them down inside a Dalek, no matter how kindly he smiled.

With Missy, hours before, she has combined Scottish brogue with double homicide to confirm that "nooo, I've not turned good." And toppling Clara down that hole..., yet she got Clara into that Dalek, and every bit of new maliciousness caught me out.

 

https://www.facebook.com/BricksCulture/posts/897483626972541

 

That is adorable! I believe I'll ask for that for Christmas.

And, since I'll be 47 by then, if no one gets it for me... why, I'll just go out and buy it for myself! BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

There are also the LEGO Dimensions video game level packs to boost your display.

 

Not a fan of the LEGO logo all over the Dalek's sensor array globes, but other than that those are just precious.

 

I love how the entrance to the TARDIS latches on to the rest of the TARDIS console room set for that bigger-on-the-inside effect.

 

Is that from the Tenth Planet?

 

So Google says, yes.

 

Though I suppose it wouldn't hurt the franchise to go on a hiatus for a series or two, this current series has started out rather strong, so a hiatus after this would be sort-of-kind-of ironic. ; really enjoyed Under the Lake, from some nice tension with the ghosts on the loose, to the Doctor's wonderment of the existence of said ghosts (the flash card scene was fantastic), and the interesting enough (because we all know The Doctor will end up just fine) cliffhanger. Also, Calpadi's interactions with the petroleum mining crew.

 

I know I'm a week late, but just wanted to add that I somewhat liked the Under the Lake episode, definitely liked it more than the season premiere. The Doctor is going to die, he's sent out his last will and testament, he's not planning to win anymore? Boring, Lake Silencio was only a few years ago, and had a lazy solution with robo-Doc (though his partying beforehand wasn't bad).

The cue cards were funny (Aberdeen, huh?), was glad they got rid of the corporate guy early on, but otherwise don't think they've lost anyone else yet, so that's a nice change from normal. Well, its a two-parter so more will probably die, but usually when they start with this many they whittle down the numbers faster.

And while I don't like Moffat's writing, I think Capaldi is fantastic, love his Doctor. Don't like overly hammy Missy (though seeing her abuse Clara was kind of fun, but that was more Clara being really stupid than anything else), but Capaldi is great. No idea about ratings, but I hope Capaldi doesn't get any blame, he's easily one of the best things about the show. One of the worst things about series 8 was not enough Capaldi I thought. Like when the 12th was stuck inside a shrunk TARDIS, leaving it mostly up to Clara to solve things, or when he ran off during the moon episode, etc.

After last season not sure where things stand with Clara. Like half of last season she was whining about not being able to maintain her double life of teaching/boyfriend and traveling with the Doctor, now she's being too enthusiastic. Hope the next companion is better than her (doesn't help that Missy claims credit for putting them together, that's not a nice idea).

 

What I would give for a solid arc of Neil Gaiman penned Capaldi episodes directed by Ben Wheatley.
Eleven will always have a place in my heart, but Capaldi is channeling so much of every incarnation of the Doctor in his performance; I think that, freed from the now-tiring obsessions of Moffat, we could be looking at the 'definitive' Doctor for generations to come, much like Four was for the classic show.

 

I actually don't think Ben Wheatley did a great job with the episodes he did. Maybe it was the scripts he was directing but both Deep Breath and Into the Dalek seemed disjointed and to be honest cheap looking. Which is shocking considering Wheatley is a genuine professional. Maybe he just doesn't work well under TV shooting schedules and budgets, Idk.

 

Well Missy is likely to be lying, at least partially.

Now that we know she considers herself the Doctor's best friend, complicated relationship, etc., I can see her putting them in touch to get him out of that sulky monastery place in Victorian Times.

I would suspect she lied about the motivation, though.

I expect we will never know.

Edit: Mm. If Missy's statement about getting them together is nothing to do with my idea, then Moffatt will never address this, but it has just occurred to me that his idea of spreading various Clara's throughout the Doctor's timeline, the Master / Missy is the only non-Doctor character, not involved in that episode (Paternoster Gang and River Song were there) who would potentially notice her turning up multiple times.

"Hold on, what are you doing here, and why haven't you aged two hundred years?"

 

Another great episode. A few thoughts on the initial viewing. Some good, some bad

Spoiler

Loved the whole bootstrap paradox recognition.

Loved the guitar in the opening music (but given that I cannot abide the normal Capaldi arrangement, anything would be an improvement)

Loved that the amplifier was from Magpie

Loved hearing Peter Serafoniwicz

Hated the cat noise when the deaf woman felt the noise of the axe dragging

Hated the awful dubbing when the Doctor said to the bloke on the planet "You can't cheat death, I just tried"

Hated the whole (yet again) "Everything revolves around Clara" vibe.

 

Meh, liked the first part better.

Spoiler

As halibut mentioned, I hate that everything seems to revolve around Clara. She's always the most important companion ever so the Doctor is willing to break the rules to try and save her, and uh-oh, the TARDIS isn't willing to. Having the Clarion Bell ring that often kind of kills the importance.

So that whole Beethoven explanation basically comes down to timey-wimey ball? Predestination paradox, stable time loop, whatever. Back with Amy and Rory, trying to avoid their "deaths" by not reading the book felt more suspenseful, since that would somehow set the future in stone.

Was almost hoping for a Schroedinger's Box thing with that stasis unit, that the Doctor emerging would cancel out his ghost, but nah, the whole thing was just a hologram. Was there a reason that lady's ghost (the one who mentioned a lot of past Doctor history) didn't show up until later on, or just a contrivance to make her death a surprise?

Smart of Clara to figure out why those ghosts didn't attack that one guy, but sure a lot of almost-couples on that base.

The guitar bits were good though.

 

Spoiler

The guitar bits where The Doctor painfully explains to camera the paradox that stares you in the face anyway felt really stupid, like I'm stupid so I need stuff explaining to me. That crap took me right out of the episode. Aren't paradox questions supposed to trouble companions rather than Time Lords? Can't Time Lords, with their giant brains and timey wimey senses, just dismiss minor paradoxes as a childish human problem that misses the greater point (which will be explained later)?

Great to have Seraphinowhycan'tIspellyourname involved.

The monster was over designed and overexposed, especially in broad daylight. Really terrible design and realisation. It would have been better to have no body and leave a bit of mystery than show that Red Dwarf like rubber monster.

It was a fine story, I really enjoy stories that use time travel, but it was compromised. I'd love to have a fanedit with the crap cut out.