[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@janetteb Yes, I found I had to keep referring to Chrissie’s transcript to try and keep things straight.

Did you watch Eve of the Daleks? It’s a lot less complicated (and it’s only got 3 Daleks in it, I think). And no Cybermen/Cyberlords/whatever. I’d rate it Chibz’s best.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

(And a re-watch right after Eve of the Daleks and Sea Devils): Oh dear. This is another Chibz pizza-deluxe-with-everything. It ends up (or starts out) confusing, and it’s hard to really care when you don’t really know what’s going on. Oh, and the sheer amount of ‘explaining’ by the Doc (chief offender, still) and the Master and everybody else just adds to the confusion.

We seem to be getting rid of Dan very early on in the piece – why? It’s nice to see Ace again (and I expect those who were watching in Tegan’s day would say the same for Tegan), but it does feel a bit as if they were written in just so they could make an appearance.

Yaz has become a very capable and resourceful companion.

I did like the cameos of the past Doctors from before the gap – that was a visually impressive scene. (Why none since McGann, I wonder? Too recent? Or does Chibz have a prejudice against RTD/Moff Doctors?)

And now we’ve suddenly got Graham back, for no apparent reason. Why? Did Graham ever give off vibes of heroic saving-the-world impulses? Dan could have done the job, and better than Graham I think. However, it was nice to see Doctor Ruth back (even as a hologram).

On the whole, the second half (after the Doctor was forced to regenerate into the Master) seemed a lot more coherent than the first. But why Rasputin, what does he have to do with it? (I have the impression Chibz just thought ‘Rasputin and the Winter Palace, cool, let’s chuck that in’. And the same goes for the Cyber-planet and the Qurunx – all just to power the regeneration machine? Why does it need that much power? Oh, just because it makes for cool CGI effects? Why couldn’t the Master’s much-more-powerful Type 75 Tardis do it, don’t Tardises have a power takeoff?
And the same for having Daleks *and* Cybermen. There’s enough plot material here for several episodes, all jumbled together.

Back in the days of RTD it was not unusual for the season-ender/specials to be turned up to 11. Only thing is, 11 is Chibz’ default setting, this feels like 15. The reason I recall Eve of the Daleks and Legend of the Sea Devils is because I have a mental picture – a gestalt – of them. My mental picture of PotD is – [confusion].

Re-reading my previous comments on these episodes, it seems I liked Eve of the Daleks, liked Sea Devils better this time around, but Power of the Doctor not so well. It may be that my recollection led to anticipation that wasn’t quite fulfilled.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

I see I was quite critical of this episode when I previously viewed it. I guess I was in the wrong frame of mind.

This time around, expectations were lower, and I wasn’t expecting a precisely constructed plot. Just switching off my critical streak and going with the flow, I found it a passable episode. Nice mystic atmosphere, and the music helps enormously.

The Sea Devil is a bit rubber-monster, but I’ve seen worse, and there’s a bit too much exposition by all concerned.

I did like the pirate queen, she looked a very determined and resourceful character.

There were all sorts of minor impossibilities, like when Yaz and Dan hoisted the Sea Devil up in a net – what was the net suspended from? Or, how did the pirate queen manage to hang Dan and Ying Ki up by the ankles when she’s alone and armed with a sword? But I can overlook those for the sake of the story.

Very much stolen from James Bond 007, the way the master-villain Sea Devil gives the Doc and Yaz a tour of his lair and explains his plans. And look – an underground/underwater base – quintessentially James Bond.

The Doc, Yaz, Dan, pirate queen and all, seem to be jumping from ship to ship with great abandon – howcome none of the Sea Devils stops them? There’s an awful lot of glossing over tricky details of practicality in this episode. The only way to watch it is to ignore it and just go with the flow.

So, very atmospheric, great production values, a plot so full of holes it would sink faster than Ji-Hun’s ship, but overall quite watchable. I found it more diverting than Curse of the Black Spot, which I guess is a modest recommendation.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@winston I missed almost all of Blakes 7 when it first screened. Years later, in the late 80’s, there was a re-run of the entire series on TVNZ. My boss took a dim view of the way I rocketed out the door at 4-45 on Thursdays (of course he didn’t notice that I was far more relaxed about finishing every other day), if I was lucky with the buses I could just catch the start of B7 at 5.30. Obviously there was no way I could tell him I was watching an old sci-fi series. I thought 5-30 was a bit early timeslot to be screening B7, it’s not exactly aimed at the kiddies, someone in TVNZ must have finally noticed because the finale – Blake – didn’t screen, no explanation given, it finally screened weeks later at 10pm.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

I just watched an episode of The Prisoner (the old Patrick McGoohan series) – Living in Harmony, which was a Western, and quite untypical of the rest of the series. Actually, considered purely as a Western, it’s not bad. I think they just wanted to ‘do’ a Western. Many sci-fi and fantasy series seem to do that, sooner or later. Doctor Who did with A Town Called Mercy, which was pretty good IMO. I can call to mind Farscape – Home on the Remains; Firefly did one with actual horses, I seem to recall (though I think I’ve heard it said the whole of Firefly was just a Western with spaceships); Red Dwarf – Gunmen of the Apocalypse.
I don’t know if Star Trek ever did a Western (Google says yes). Anyone know of any others?

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@janetteb Good luck! It will be interesting to see what you make of it.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

Eve of the Daleks – rewatching after Revolution of the Daleks (and skipping over the Fluxes)

Hey, this is really good. Some well-sketched characters and not too much of the emotional stuff. (I think the emotions should come from the audience and not from the actors talking at length on screen). I do like the interplay between the Doctor, Yaz and Dan. And we’re right into the action with the Dalek – but importantly, it’s a finite threat. And they all get dead before the titles – that’s new.

And we’re into a deadly re-run of Groundhog Day. But with deja vu. By the way, I can’t help noticing there’s lots of Running Through Corridors, but I forgive Chibz that because it’s very well justified by the plot.

Nick is nearly as annoying as Ryan used to be, though possibly a bit more capable than Ryan initially was. And Sarah’s mum is, I suppose, in the Doctor Who tradition of appalling associates’ mothers.

What I don’t get is why the time loop resets when they get killed. And – which one of them? Does it reset when the last humanoid is killed? And why is the loop a minute shorter each time? I suppose it’s logical that, IF they aren’t killed on the last iteration, then the time loop won’t reset and they all survive.

I thought the time-loop was a little confusing but not too hard to follow. It wasn’t as precisely logical as, say, Blink. For a series whose main protagonist owns a time machine, nuWho has actually dealt with the possible local convolutions of time travel surprisingly rarely. I can bring to mind The Day of the Doctor, and The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon, Blink of course, maybe Time Heist, a small one in Hell Bent, The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang maybe, and that’s about it. Maybe my recollection is patchy. (As for oldWho, I don’t know enough to judge).

Anyway, as episodes go, I found Eve of the Daleks a lot more coherent than the Flux episodes which preceded it. The Doctor has vastly improved from early episodes, with far less tendency to babble unintelligibly, and Yaz and Dan make excellent Companions.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

Revolution of the Daleks – second impression.

This is not a bad episode. (I skipped Ascension of the Cybermen and The Timeless Children, this time round, I seem to remember they were a bit apocalyptic. So how the Doctor comes to be in jail, and how the gang are inhabiting a Tardis disguised as a house, I can’t remember. I do recall the GCHQ Dalek from, I think, Resolution, a season back).
1
This Tardis has a vastly improved interior over the Doctor’s (how could it not?). Yaz is becoming quite capable, in fact so are the rest of the gang.

I have to say Robertson is 100% correct (if predictable) in his reaction to the Dalek – ‘incinerate it!’

Captain Jack wins the prize medal for total lack of taste when he says ‘nice upgrade in here’ (it’s the Doctor’s Tardis he’s talking about!).

The episode could have conveniently lost fifteen minutes of the Doctor angsting about her identity and history, and doing personal relationships with Ryan et al (at which she is remarkably awkward, it has to be said). And I’m starting to find Graham annoying, I find it hard to believe that he and Ryan can be sneaking around a Dalek ship, babbling away.

So anyway, at the end we have this emotional scene where Ryan and Graham leave. Which is a promising development, or would be if the next series wasn’t the Flux. The Doctor and Yaz are a far better proposition (if only the Doctor would talk less). And the episode ends with Graham and Ryan setting off on further dyslexic-falling-off-his-bike adventures about which I couldn’t care less.

So overall, not a bad episode, but could have used some cutting. As I recall, the RTD and Moff years didn’t have these long soap-opera talkfests of personal relationships.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

[Whoosh!] That was me zipping overhead from Revolution of the Daleks to Eve of the Daleks without touching down on the way past.

@nerys As I recall it, this season was six unrelated stories with a background apocalyptic universe-wide disaster, all highly confusing. The Weeping Angels one was far the best, I think, but it got undercut by the overarching series theme.

@winston Coincidence you should post this at this time, since I have just this moment finished Revolution of the Daleks. I wouldn’t say I’m liking the Doctor more, maybe getting a little more used to her loquaciousness, and the Fam (ugh!) are getting a little better – well, a quantum leap better since Ryan and Graham just quit so Yaz is the one that’s left.
Is this where Dan appeared. I certainly found him a much more appealing companion than Graham. I thought the Karvanista idea was kind of quaint, though utterly ridiculous – howcome the number of Karvanistas exactly equals the number of humans? If a human dies, does his personal Karvanista dematerialise? But anyway, your post almost persuades me to watch at least this first episode. Maybe.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@janetteb Um driving lessons. Did the Doctor ever give driving lessons in anything but the Tardis? (And Mattdoc, I think, always left the handbrake on).
I can probably safely tell this now – when I first worked for Ministry of Works in Rarotonga, my girlfriend (now Mrs D) and I only had bikes. There was a visiting engineer due in on the Sunday plane, for whom the MoW rented a little car – I picked it up on the Friday, and it was parked outside our flat waiting for me to meet him with it. And my gf kept asking me ‘give me a driving lesson in it’. Eventually I weakened and asked “Can you drive?” and she said “Yes.” So off we set, across the deserted golf course (which is laid out around the radio station with huge masts and guy wires as hazards). So – we were obstacle-dodging on the golf course (where we shouldn’t have been) in a car which I shouldn’t have been driving at that time, never mind my gf who should never have driven it, if we cracked up on one of those guy wires I could think of absolutely no story that wouldn’t get me even deeper in it. After a brief but agonisingly long excursion we successfully made it back in one piece. So I said to gf, “When did you drive a car before?” “I said I could, I never said I had!”
All I could do is laugh, for a first-time driver she was quite good. Her motor-bike experience doubtless helped.
Best of luck with son2.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@janetteb I meant, a spoiler has to undercut an element of surprise. Not literally what I said. The opposite in fact. What a surprise 🙂

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@janetteb I’m fairly certain the identity of the writer can’t be a spoiler. I think a spoiler has to disclose an unexpected character or event in the plot of the episode itself, thus generating an element of surprise. Take the episode I’ve just watched, ‘Fugitive of the Judoon’ – I don’t think ‘It takes place in Gloucester’ could be a spoiler, or ‘Ruth is a tour guide’, since any other town could be substituted without affecting the plot, as could any other occupation for Ruth. The identity of Ruth would be a major spoiler, as would the result of the final confrontation. (I hope I haven’t trod too near the line…)

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@janetteb The Master was definitely in the very last story of Seven and Ace, Survival.

Do I take it from your previous post that Moff is doing the Christmas special? Or am I reading too much into it?

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@ps1l0v3y0u I think that’s quite a good summary. Voyage of the Damned – I though Kylie Minogue made that episode. There was something refreshing about Astrid Peth’s slightly naive enthusiasm, and she managed to not be annoying (which is always an occupational hazard with such characters).
Christmas Carol was, as you say, made by Michael Gambon, and had the fantastic twist that keeping Abigail on ice was not from evil intent, but well-intentioned because she only had a few days runtime left.

Dr Mysterio was fun. Like Husbands of River Song before it (and remembering that I watched all these in sequence one after the other with only a day or two in between) it suffered from following the climactic Heaven Sent/Hell Bent so could only be an anticlimax. But it was a good parody of the Batman/Superman genre.

Last Christmas – aside from being great fun – was, I think, as precisely plotted as Blink. A little confusing on first watch through, (not surprising since the Dream Crabs relied on deception), but I think the clues were there and it all followed logically and satisfyingly.

Twice Upon a Time – also slightly anticlimactic after World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls, but entertaining enough, even if the Doctor hardly needed to do anything (“It isn’t an evil plan. I don’t know what to do when it isn’t an evil plan!”) And I did like, very much, that the Doctor’s memories of Clara were restored.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@janetteb I think The End of Time deserves a second chance. It has a lot of good things in it – the climax was the sort of three-way duel between the Doctor, John Sim’s Master and Rassilon, where we’re not sure which way they’re going to jump. Sarcastic spiky green people. The Master turning all of humanity into replicas of himself. And so on.

I agree that Last Christmas was the best of the specifically Christmas specials. And Husbands of River Song definitely the weakest – though it had a sweet ending. (I keep confusing it with The Wedding of River Song, for obvious reasons connected with the title, though the two are nothing alike. My favourite line from the latter – “River Song didn’t get it all from you, sweetie”. (That has to be taken in context to get the full implication of that).

The Next Doctor – yes I agree that was pretty weak. I did like Rosita, the (Next) Doctor’s assistant, even though he seemed to be blind to her affection for him. Seems to be almost a theme for RTD Doctors. And I do agree about the giant stompy robot. The Moff did seem more conscious of the problem – as with Day of the Doctor – KATE: What’s our cover story for this? OSGOOD: Er, Derren Brown. KATE: Again? OSGOOD: We’ve sent him flowers.

@ps1l0v3y0u I do have to agree, Time of the Doctor started out really well (I loved Tasha Lem) but it sort of faded later, the siege was rubbish. Fugitive of the Judoon, in a Moffat season, would count as a middling ep, probably not worst of season. In a Chibz season it seems much better by comparison, such that nitpicking Ruth’s police box seems like – nitpicking. And wasn’t it nice to have a proper Tardis interior as a change from the Crystal Grotto?

@winston I actually agree with about half of your list, and the ones where I picked a different episode, I would still happily watch your pick. Oxygen, as janetteb commented, is depressing but very good. World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls come in the same category – with less expert writing they would be too gloomy to watch, as it is they are compulsive viewing (at least for me). (Yeah I know they’re Moff episodes so excluded from comparison, this is just an aside remark from me 🙂

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@janetteb I wouldn’t say The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe is a _bad_ episode. It just didn’t do anything much for me – I guess that’s a matter of personal taste.
In general those vaguely Dickensian ones (Lewisian ones?) don’t appeal to me. One that I did really like – which surprised me – was A Christmas Carol.

Of the specials, I really like about half of them. The Day of the Doctor, Last Christmas, The Time of the Doctor, and so on.

Some of them are tied right into the ongoing plot (such as those I mentioned), others are standalones and have no bearing on the series, such as The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe, Return of Dr Mysterio, A Christmas Carol, etc etc.

The Tennant finals – my reactions are mixed. The Next Doctor is one of those forgettable ones. Planet of the Dead was fun, I loved Lady Christina. The Waters of Mars was just too angsty for me. The End of Time, I liked, I thought Timothy Dalton was excellent as Rasillon (ever notice what a masterful voice he has?), I liked the clash between him and The Master (I think this was the best of the John Sim – Master eps if you discount World Enough and Time), and I thought the spiky green people were fun – Sinead Keenan does ‘exasperated’ relly well. Didn’t much like the way Wilf managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and Ten got a bit too emotional.

@nerys I see you too have a minor problem with finding really good episodes not written by Moffat 🙂 I do agree about Eve of the Daleks – far and away Chibs’ best episode, I think.

Vincent and the Doctor drew me back to Who, exactly as it did you. I’d somehow drifted away after the first couple of Amy episodes (The Beast Below, I think), then – in a completely different non-Who-related forum – I saw a reference to the Louvre scene – and I’ve always liked Bill Nighy (the curator) – which caused me to watch the episode, then jumped back to the start of Season 5.

I do love Last Christmas – sarcastic dwarves. Santa pointing out how unlikely he is. Dreams within dreams. Unlike you I absolutely loved Hell Bent, particularly the diner scene where you’re not sure which of them actually knows, until the last moment – Moffat does those multi-layer scenes so well.

@ps1l0v3y0u You’re being cryptic again. What’s ‘AU’?

I do agree about too much exposition and the preferability of ‘show not tell.’ Whitdoc is a particular offender in the talking-too-much stakes. I thought Rassilon (I assume you’re talking about The End of Time?) got away with it, mostly because of Timothy Dalton’s delivery. It’s a gift a few actors have, of imbuing their words with significance. I thought the Tesselector was a brilliant invention, though its raison d’etre – taking revenge on bad people – seemed somehow both petty and a vastly insufficient justification for such a sophisticated piece of technology.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@janetteb Interesting list. We seem to broadly agree on most, but far from all – which is as it should be.

Was The Beast Below Moffat’s worst? – probably. I can’t think of any worse ones. Um, how about The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe (checks – yep that was the Moff’s). I’d say that was his least good in the sense of, just not having anything notable or memorable about it. (And if that’s the worst I can say about Moff’s worst ep, it just shows how high his standard is).

So what, in your view, was RTD’s worst? Personally I won’t say Love & Monsters, not because I wish to avoid a rocket from ps1l0v3y0u, but because I have a soft spot for the little fans’ social club – it reminds me a bit of this website, actually. What fans do when they’re not fanning. I can’t really find a RTD ep that I consider to be unusually bad.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@ps1l0v3y0u @winston @janetteb @nerys

I can’t resist a list like that, or rather, making my own.

Best non-Moff eps. (By the way, was there any season to which the Moff contributed in which the best ep of the season was NOT one of his?)

Season 1 – The End of the World was fun, visually, and satisfied the classic sci-fi trope of space aliens. Parting of the Ways was epic, Rose as Bad Wolf was visually stunning. But Dalek was an excellent ep too. I find it hard to judge – maybe I’ll give it to Dalek.

Season 2 – Girl in the Fireplace. (Oh hang on, who wrote that? – the Moff. What a surprise). Then, Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, both for its emotional impact and for the pissing match between the Daleks and the Cybermen (“Daleks, be warned. You have declared war upon the Cybermen.” “This is not war. This is pest control.”)

Season 3 – Blink, by a mile, and we all know who wrote that 🙂 Shakespeare Code was fun, but I think I have to give it to Human Instinct/Family of Blood.

Season 4 – I’d say, Midnight, very narrowly edging out Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead. (I think this is the ONLY season where the best ep was not by Moff).

Season 5 – Nothing outstanding. I’d be split between Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone and The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang but all those were Moff so I can discount them. Next best I’d say Vincent and the Doctor.

Season 6 – A cracker of a season. The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon and The Wedding of River Song were Moffs, and equal best (IMO) with The Doctor’s Wife and The Girl Who Waited. The Doctor’s Wife was brilliant, but then The Girl Who Waited was so tragic in its dilemma – I just have to give them all first equal. I’d be useless as a judge.

Season 7 – Asylum of the Daleks (Moff again, as was The Snowmen and The Name of the Doctor, and does The Day of the Doctor count as part of this season?). Which leaves A Town Called Mercy (Toby Whithouse), Cold War (Mark Gatiss) and Hide (Neil Cross) – I’d pick A Town Called Mercy, just. (“Everyone who isn’t an American, drop your gun.”)

Season 8 – Listen (but that’s Moff, as were Dark Water/Death in Heaven) so Flatline (Jamie Mathieson) with Mummy on the Orient Express (also Jamie) as close runner-up.

Season 9 – Last Christmas, The Magician’s Apprentice, The Witch’s Familiar, Heaven Sent, Hell Bent – all Moff. Which leaves Face the Raven and The Zygon Invasion/Inversion, of which I’d (narrowly) pick the latter. Except the Moff shared a writing credit on those too. Okay, Face the Raven (I’m pretty sure Moff had a hand in that too, but his name isn’t on it).

Season 10 – Extremis. Oh, Moff again. Ditto World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls. Which kinda really just leaves Oxygen, Jamie Mathieson again. Eaters of Light was quite good too.

(And now the bar gets abruptly lowered to just a couple of inches above the ground…)

Season 11 – It Takes You Away, I suppose.

Season 12 – Fugitive of the Judoon, definitely. Resolution was not bad. Can You Hear Me – I must watch again, refresh my memory, it might be okay. And Villa Deodati I seem to remember was – okay.

Season 13 – Umm no. I can’t. Village of the Angels was the only one that had any good bits in it at all.

If we consider the specials that followed, Eve of the Daleks was actually *good*. I seem to recall Power of the Doctor was – okay.

And of the three Tennant specials, Wild Blue Yonder – by a mile. Really good. The bar just went back up to normal height.

Of the various specials Christmas and otherwise pre-Chibz (i.e. pre-Season 11), of which there were a plethora, I’d rate them Day of the Doctor (by a mile), Last Christmas, The Snowmen, The Time of the Doctor, then (rather sentimentally for me) A Christmas Carol – all by the Moff(!) – then Planet of the Dead by Russell T.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

Started to watch Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror, got about ten minutes in and got totally impatient with the contra-historicness of it.

So I skipped on to Fugitive of the Judoon. Now that is a much more promising episode. Can’t help feeling that Ruth’s job as a tour guide in Gloucester is probably hard work (could have been much worse, could have been Luton). But Ruth is an appealing character.

The Judoon I find utterly obnoxious (but I suppose that’s intentional). The Doctor alternately intimidating then cajoling the Judoon commander just didn’t work for me, why would it work on a space rhino? – she should choose one approach and stick to it.

Captain Jack – where did he come from? Mistaking Graham for the Doctor is quite a good joke though. Though the episode does show signs of Chibs’ throw-everything-at-it approach to plotting, it is still reasonably coherent. Though, since Jack then teleports out and his whole walk-on appearance was apparently just an occasion for fan-service and to leave a cryptic message for the Doctor, I’m a tad cynical about that.

The lighthouse is a very photogenic set. Location scouts did a good job there.

I have to say, I really like Doctor Ruth. I did quite enjoy the way Ruth ‘introduced’ Whitdoc to her Tardis, a reversal of roles is always entertaining. Forceful and determined, though Whitdoc does her best to undermine and undercut her in Whitdoc’s usual annoying way. If you’re having a showdown with your old enemy, last thing you need is interference from ‘we never use guns’ Whitdoc.

All the stuff about Ruth and Whitdoc being in each others past (or not) is all gobbledegook to me. Was it ever resolved?

So, a 95% good episode. Probably the best of the season. Not least because the threat is finite, specific and localised, not some apocalyptic doom which threatens the whole Universe.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@winston @janetteb The Doctor’s Wife is a favourite of mine, too. Just makes me wish Neil Gaiman had taken over as showrunner when the Moff retired.

Anyway, I’ve been very spasmodically working through the Chibz years, which is to say, just watching the episodes that really appeal to me, which amount to about three per season 🙂 Started watching Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror but my geek side rebelled after about ten minutes (‘that’s wrong – and that – and that was someone else’) so I skipped on to Fugitive of the Judoon which was excellent, I’ve posted a comment in that echo.

And in between, re-watching The Prisoner, the Patrick McGoohan series. They still hold up pretty well, I think A, B or C is the best of the early eps.

So I think I’ll hie me off to the Winchester to take up ps1l0v3y0u’s implied challenge on ‘best non-Moff eps’.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

Oh dear, this is not going to be good.

The Doctor is still talking too much, in this case to herself. Why did Chibbers make her so talkative? It’s as if her brain won’t work unless her mouth is moving. 🙂 And her talking (on a recording) to Ryan and Graham and anticipating what they’ll say is really annoying. It’s a feeble echo of the Doctor’s recording in Blink, but with no rational explanation.

And I really, really don’t like taking liberties with historical figures, such as Ada Lovelace. I think it devalues her. And having the Doctor give us long wordy biographies of historical people is just annoying. Does Chibbers think the audience are totally ignorant?

And I don’t like the psychopathic Master who likes randomly killing people. I’m not sure how true that is to previous incarnations of Masters, maybe it is.

Ryan smashing his phone – and Graham’s and Yaz’s – is really immature. A whole lot of people in this ep seem to have been hit with galloping immaturity.

Okay, so my tolerance in Part 1 seems to have abated somewhat 🙂 Also, it’s all kinda gloomy and depressing, compared with the upbeat Part 1.

Quite why Chibbers had to bring the Nazis into it I have no clue. I did have to have Noor Inayat Khan named for me, there weren’t any other clues as to her identity, but how many historic figures is Chibbers going to mess with? And how did the Germans manage to shoot holes in the entire floor without hitting the Doctor and Ada? Why didn’t they just take up the floorboards? Why did they leave afterwards instead of taking Khan into custody? That scene makes no sense at all.

(“I never use Facebook unless forced” – Barton. That got the biggest cheer of the episode from me, it just reminded me I have to google Facebook so I can wipe all the unwanted cr*p off Mrs D’s phone for her.)

“I’ve always wanted to return to Paris.” “It’s not at its best. Nightly bombing raids. Millions dead.” SINCE WHEN? The Germans never bombed Paris after 1940, why would they? They were in occupation. The Allies didn’t bomb Paris, it wasn’t a strategic target. I call BS.

Graham’s MI6 laser shoes – really. How absurd can one get. I’m afraid this ep has completely lost me.

Barton’s DNA – don’t tell me this is going to be another Cyberman ep. I’m so over Cybermen (and the Moff had the last word on them, IMO). Why not Skynet or the Matrix, it would make a change? Oh, and contra Barton’s claim, human (or any) DNA would make an absolutely useless data storage system. This is just technogobbledygook. (I see I liked the idea 2 years ago but now I’ve gone right off it. I must be getting more cantankerous with age).

So then the Doctor drops Ada Lovelace and Noor Khan back to their respective timelines. Given Khan’s fate, that was a bit – cold. “Bonne chance” – yeah right.

If Part 1 was a B, this is a D.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@janetteb I’d never seen Sacha Dhawan before that episode. But I agree he would have made a great Doctor. He’s got personality.
One thing that did ring false to me, was the Master’s glee at the prospect of instantly disposing of the Doctor. That’s not how the Master operated at all. Ultimately, he always wanted to beat the Doctor, enjoyed making the Doctor suffer a bit, I think he also wanted the Doctor’s (unwilling) acknowledgement that he (the Master) was a worthy / superior opponent. There’s no way he would be satisfied with just ending the Doctor, just like that.
As for the plot, I think some of it looked like Chibbers’ attempt to show that he could do James Bond. As such, it wasn’t a bad attempt.

By the way, the airliner with the phony rear cargo ramp, I’ve got a much better solution than a faked-over A320 – make it a Boeing 727, BAC 111 or DC9, all of which had genuine rear passenger airstairs. Admittedly they’re all obsolete by now, but there probably exist a number of low-hours examples which would make suitable corporate jets for VOR. [/geek mode]

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

Okay, I just watched Spyfall again 2 years later. So my impressions are almost fresh. I think it holds up well.

– Spyfall starts off really well and quite intriguing. Then the Doctor gets all annoying and patronising with ‘C’ to the point where I want to shout at her.

I do like “O” (the Master), he’s got some personality. The Doctor is still being annoying. But the farmhouse sequences are really good and scary.

The white ‘ghosts’ are an intriguing puzzle. Aliens of some sort, obviously. But what has happened to Yaz? And I did find it a bit – strange that the amateur spies Yaz and Ryan could successfully (well, kinda, Ryan escaped) pull off a mission in the heart of the high-tech ‘enemy’ headquarters.

I absolutely agree with O’s verdict on the crystal-grotto Tardis – ‘ridiculous.’

The party on the VOR estate – the Tardis group look distinctly over-dressed (and hot!) in their formal gear, that is not California party gear I think. And it transpires that Yaz and Ryan had been spotted on camera in VOR HQ. And anyway, Graham and Ryan going all juvenile over their roulette ‘winnings’, and the Doctor mistaking baccarat (?) for Snap, are just embarrassing. “O” and Yaz look to make a nice couple, though.

So, telling Barton to his face that you’re ‘on’ to him at his own party may not be the wisest idea. None of the Tardis crew are exactly James Bond. So then they all jump on motorbikes (taking time to put on helmets, of course) and pursue. Barton shooting at them out of his car is just so non-Bond-villain though, doesn’t he have people for that? The whole chase sequence doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. And Barton drives into his hangar, and doesn’t notice the huge doors opening again behind him as the Doctor and friends sneak in? – seriously? And, he is qualified to fly an A320 (looks like) single-handed – something no A320 is certified for, I think. Except his has been modified to have a clamshell rear door, military-style, for no apparent reason.

I have to say the revelation of ‘O’ as the Master caught me completely by surprise. But the I don’t think Chibbers gave us any clues at all, so that was maybe cheating. The CGI of the crashing plane is really not very good (such CGI’s never are). But then the last shot implies that the Doctor (and friends?) are all imprisoned in tentacle-land so the entire sequence from the party onwards was an illusion? That would account for the car chase etc etc being a caricature of a Bond movie, though I find that a little unsatisfying.

Still, a good episode, very watchable.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@robertcaligari I am NOT saying FX are more important than other factors, in fact they can’t compensate for inadequacies elsewhere (though some producers try). I don’t disagree with you. If it doesn’t need FX then it doesn’t.

Army of Darkness was a product of Sam Raimi, who, along with Rob Tapert, founded Renaissance Pictures which for five years produced the Hercules and Xena TV series around Auckland where I am. For that period they were virtually the whole of the New Zealand film industry. They were famous for their goofy / campy humour and their mastery of budget (cheap) special effects. (There is a continuous uninterrupted camera move in one episode that I still cannot explain, it could have been done with a very tiny drone but this was 20 years before small drones were a thing.) But generally their FX were – just adequate to support the story (with the exception of a few really painful rubber monsters). You could generally overlook the clunkiness if the story of the week was good. And the musical score was generally very good, which helped a lot to set the mood, I’d rate Joe LoDuca as better than Murray Gold.

When I say an ‘adequate’ level of special effects I mean adequate, not lavish. I’m not talking about Independence Day levels of excess, in fact too much CGI and not enough story is an embarrassment. I’ve got the remake of Total Recall – the original with Schwarzenegger had adequate FX, the remake has awe-inspiring CGI and it falls flat for me because too much CGI just overwhelms the story.

The FX need to be adequate for the scene. If it’s two people arguing in a hotel room then the FX required are absolutely minimal. If one of them runs out the door and gets hit by a car then the effects for that need to be – adequate. Or you can do it off-camera like in Father’s Day or Dark Water, which is equally effective. Either way you do at least need a real car.

Example of barely adequate props – almost every single gun in Blakes 7. And the space battles. B7 got its appeal from the personal clashes and sarcastic dialogue between (usually) the crew. Red Dwarf got away with FX that were hardly any better (in its early eps) because it was a comedy, I think audiences’ expectations of ‘realism’ are far more relaxed for a comedy, you’re looking for laughs so the perils don’t need to be so convincing.

@ps1l0v3y0u “Any story can crippled by acting, production, or effects (remember Capdoc on the prop horse in The Woman Who Lived?) but Whovians like to think the show lives or dies by the script/story.”
Well yes, that’s about my point. I thought the prop horse was – adequate. I’m not a horse person, sometimes our demands for ‘realism’ depend on our other fields of interest. For years, things to do with cars and driving on TV were often painfully bad – for me.
I’d agree that Who is mainly about the story. But since the advent of nuWho (i.e. ‘Rose’) I think the level of FX has generally been adequate to support the story. For example Smithdoc riding his old bike up the side of the Shard – not the most convincing, but near enough to not drop me out of the story with a snort.
The CGI blue spaceship in the Tennant/Donna story (can’t remember its name now) was an exception in the other direction, where the CGI was absolutely beautiful, but it supported rather than detracted from the story. The desert farmhouse with the Gallifreyan gunship looming over the Doctor in Hell Bent was another visually beautiful scene that enhanced a fantastically good story.
I hope the increased budgets (which have permitted better FX/CGI) can be matched by the writing. Um, Disney. Remains to be seen.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@nerys I’m sorry I missed your reply, I wasn’t ignoring you 🙂 Just semi-sentient recovering from my trip. Like you, I’ve been ‘woke’ (ugh!) on climate change for a long time. The world can’t keep absorbing more people with a higher standard of living (and hence energy and materials consumption) forever. The old traditional methods of controlling the population viz. wars and epidemics are quite rightly considered inappropriate these days. Partly I think it’s also a spectacular failure of economics – the only successful economies seem to be ones that are continually growing and demanding more people or generating more waste. Howcome the economists can’t devise some regime that works with a static or shrinking economy without massive job losses and the like?

But then I’ve just been to France and England for a month with no excuse other than taking a holiday, so who am I to judge?

I do hope your in-laws in Calgary are all right and the wildfires are back under control.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@devilishrobby Well, I only know Whitaker from Doctor Who, so to me she’s an awfully hammy actress. Everyone who’s seen her in other productions says she’s good, so I’ll just conclude that she was possibly slightly mis-cast (I think a ‘darker’ character would have done better) and certainly mis-directed and had some awful scripts. (“I’m the Doctor, sorting out fair play throughout the Universe”. Aaaaaarrgh! The bathos! Of course she was new to the role and famously hadn’t watched any previous Who’s – blame Chibbers for that – but I’m pretty sure Capaldi or Smith or Tennant would have demanded a rewrite of that line.)

@robertcaligari I haven’t seen either of those episodes which you quote. But I have this theory that a successful production requires a certain basic level of adequacy in each aspect e.g. script, acting, sets, sound, special effects etc. And any one of those that falls too far below the basic level risks distracting the viewer. So long as each of those meets its ‘adequate’ standard, the viewer can basically ignore it and direct their attention to the really good bits of the episode, whatever they may be.
Old Who (and Blakes 7) suffered from effects that were often so bad they did risk ‘dropping the viewer out’ of the story. I think FX generally got ‘good enough’ some time around the start of nuWho.
Of course the earliest oldWho had the advantage of being viewed on tiny black and white TV’s which had the huge advantage of hiding many defects. I do agree that the craftsmen did a remarkable job for the budget they had. Though mention of the budget and black and white TV’s brings to mind Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’, where he thought the ‘alien ship’ set looked so hokey and unconvincing he shot all the close-ups on ‘helmet cam’ played back through an old monochrome monitor with lots of ‘interference’ – and very convincing it was too.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@robertcaligari Sarcastic but a fairly valid generalisation, I fear. And as CGI gets better, there’s even more temptation to just ‘blow stuff up.’ Of course most of Who, most of it’s life, has suffered from pathetic special effects and rubber monsters. The recent ep with Tennant and Donna in the blue spaceship was a magnificent exception to that with restrained but beautiful CGI, done the way it should be.
Actually it was the Moff’s dictum that the audience needed something to grab them every five minutes (NOT necessarily an explosion!) and in that I tend to agree with him. But bigger and bigger explosions ain’t it. Look at any classic suspense movie – or Western – the graveyard scene from The Good the Bad and the Ugly comes to mind – minutes upon minutes of building tension and the ‘action’ when it comes is over in a few seconds.

@janetteb I’ve got the American Who movie. I think Paul McGann was okay in that but it lacked, as you say, something of the flavour of ‘real’ British Who. McGann was, IMO, far better in Night of the Doctor, or was that the Moff’s paradoxical-but-meaningful dialogue – or a bit of both?

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@ps1l0v3y0u   I will address just one comment – your last.   It is formally rejected (grin).   These days I wear sandals if catching a bus or a train (because bare feet for some reason make operators nervous) or – usually but not always – at the supermarket.    But not otherwise.   I used to have to wear shoes to the office but now I’m retired, so I don’t.

I just like going barefoot.

 

 

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@ps1l0v3y0u   @nerys    I would take any comment by tRump as the exact opposite of its face value.   That is, if he thinks Kamala is ‘very, very nasty and disrespectful’ I’d regard that as high praise for Kamala.   Only slightly diminished by that fact that almost *everybody* is ‘nasty and disrespectful’ to the narcissistic, malignant tumour that is tRump.

By the way, ‘stop plastic’ is a gross over-simplification.   Phones, computers, cars and aircraft, even electric power wouldn’t exist without plastic.   Or they would be massively bulky, brittle and expensive.   Even packaging – these days I can walk along the beach without, usually, cutting my feet, largely due to jars and soft drink bottles now being made of plastic not glass.   The occasional cut is usually due to some cretin with a glass beer bottle.   NO WAY would I ever want to see soft drink bottles revert to glass!    Of course the real cure is to persuade people not to litter, then it won’t matter what the bottles are made of.   (And stop selling bottled water in non-returnable containers – what a criminal waste of plastic and energy that is!    In third world countries where tap water isn’t safe, there might be an excuse, but none whatever in a country like NZ!)   OK, [/rant]

(Which means, by the way, that the heavy-handed message in ‘Praxeus’ did not go down well with me)

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

I was in Paris last week. On Friday the temperature hit 32 degrees. Couldn’t go down by the Seine** so all I could do was go to the Parc de Vincennes and lie on the grass under a tree by the lake. For several hours.

**Because the banks of the Seine have been closed for security reasons. Blame the Olympics. In my jaundiced view, Paris may do something for the Olympics but the Olympics have done *nothing* for Paris, its residents or tourists, other than create expensive hassles. But if it manages another 32 degrees it will have its revenge on the competitors. (Snarky thought while lying in the shade of a tree).

Hope like hell Kamala wins. The thought of what four years of tRump would do to the planet is scary. (Also, viewing the reaction of Donnie when he is beaten by a black woman should be entertaining, if predictable).

cr

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

I’ll echo @janetteb ‘s comments.   This forum works because its members are all respectful to each other and because Craig will step in if (and only if) someone gets out of line.

Anonymous, you’re completely wrong to say members are ‘forbidden from discussing what they want.’  I’ve rabbited on about everything from dahlias to my mad driving skillz (recent spectacular lack of) and nobody has ever told me I’m Off Topic.   On The Sofa and The Winchester are two areas where non-Who topics are freely discussed.

 

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@dwnerdfrommars   Thanks!   The weather keeps repeatedly getting better, which is to say it stops actually raining lightly for a little while.    I think I saw some sunshine once.

Anyway, I had a swim (Porth beach, Newquay), which is to say I immersed myself in the water for the required token one minute before deciding it was too freakin’ cold to stay in any longer.   I’m a wimp when it comes to cold water.   One item ticked off the list…

 

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

El Nino bad?  La Nina good?   Not that I know any Spanish, but if I were a feminist I’m sure I could see some significance in that.   🙂

 

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

Meanwhile, on more important topics – what the hell happened to the weather?   Three days ago I went to Hastings.   It rained, and there was a howling gale next morning.   Then I went to Chichester.   The rain eased but the gale remained.   Then I went for a trip on the Mid-Hants Railway (in the rain) and a quick walk in the New Forest (it was raining) and ended up in Weymouth (rain had stopped but the gale remained).   Today I’m in Newquay, via Dartmoor (raining) and Bodmin Moor (raining)  and – it’s still raining.     I don’t ever remember (in any of my few earlier visits this time of year) the weather being so hostile.     It’s all down to Brexit, I tell you.   (Except – when I was in France – it was raining much more than usual there too…)

Bah!    (At least I haven’t crashed any cars in the last two weeks.)

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@ps1l0v3y0u    Did tRump describe Farage as a patriot?    Well first of all it’s none of his business.   Secondly tRump’s idea of patriotism – well he has no concept of it.   His idea of what is good for the country is anything that makes money for tRump.

Any time tRump mentions ‘patriotism’ Dr Johnson’s savage dictum comes to mind ‘an appeal to patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.’    As if Mel Gibson hadn’t done enough to discredit the word already.

By the way, although PR can be subverted by a small pressure group holding the ‘balance of power’, the exact same thing can happen with FPP – all you need are two main parties fairly evenly matched plus a third small party in the middle.   Admittedly this can occur more readily with PR, since small parties tend to get trampled out of existence with FPP.   But no system is proof against wholesale corruption like we’ve seen in the last couple of US elections.

@nerys   It seems to me the that Constipation was written with the assumption that most elected representatives would have a modicum of integrity, and at least some respect for the truth, and the proper institutions of government.   It wasn’t intended to counter organised subversion, thuggery and corruption from within.   So when you have a totally underhanded and corrupt conspiracy (such as the Republican Party has become), ready to bend or break any laws or customs of proper behaviour, while its opponents the Dems still try mostly to observe the formalities and legalities, the whole system gets undermined.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

A while back Craig mentioned PR (Proportional Representation).   Just my 2p – speaking as a voter, it’s bloody marvellous.   Our flavour in New Zealand is MMP – Mixed Member Proportional.   I get two votes – one for our local MP (this is kind of a sop to our previous FPP electorate origins) and one for a party of my choice.   Of course I can vote the same way on both if I want, or not.   I can even vote for a MP from one party (if I think s/he’s a really good guy) and party-vote another.

In each electorate, the candidate with the most votes wins (as under FPP).   However, the final party numbers are adjusted in direct proportion to the total party vote.   So if a party gets 10% of the party votes, but only 2 MP’s win their electorates, then they are ‘topped up’ with extra MP’s from the pre-election published party ‘list’.

The big plus, for me, is no more ‘strategic’ voting.   I don’t have to hold my nose and vote for B (when I really wanted to vote for C) just because B has a slightly better chance of defeating A, who I detest.    And A no longer ‘gets in’ with 40% of the vote because B and C ‘split’ the opposition vote between them.   Nor is it possible for a party to win with fewer overall votes than its opposition.    It does tend to encourage coalitions but that (in my mind) is not necessarily a bad thing.   They can also happen with FPP.

MMP was introduced in 1996 after a public referendum and after a couple of FPP elections had put parties in power with a minority of the votes.   It ain’t perfect but it’s a lot better than what we had before, IMO.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

Hi @mudlark @janetteb and all

At the moment I’m sitting in a second-floor room in Finsbury Park.   Leaving tomorrow to pick up a car and head for Cornwall via Hastings.   Been too busy to even poke my head into the Winchester for the last couple of weeks, rambling round the Alps having sundry adventures and misadventures.   (At some point I might retail some of them including how I came to park my newish rental car in a narrow (but straight) bit of road, perfectly positioned in line with the white lines, just in the wrong lane and upside down.   And what hurts even more is, my photos of this fine piece of precision parking were on my cell phone which I lost in Paris.   Aargh!)

ANYWAY, several people in the last few days have asked me if I would vote for Corbyn to which I have replied, I’m from NZ so I don’t get a vote.   But it was striking how many young people were electioneering.

By the way, I really *like* Finsbury Park.   Multicultural and cosmopolitan and all that, little food shops everywhere.   And an Underground station within 100 yards and ATM’s all over the place.   And everyone is friendly and helpful.

And I spent hours in the Science Museum yesterday and went back today, geeking out.

Best of luck Mudlark.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

Hi @winston Hope your leg is continuing to improve. I just watched the three specials too – on reflection I think the second one (Wild Blue Yonder) was far the best. Absolutely beautiful ship, stunning CGI that looked ‘real’, and what an awesome corridor (I can just imagine RTD saying ‘Running through corridors? I’ll give ’em corridors!’) And a really good puzzle that took up the whole episode with an entirely logical and well-plotted solution.
The third one (the Giggle) was, I think, pure ‘fan service’ – didn’t really do a lot for me. It was okay I guess.
And we hardly saw anything of Rose(2). After (I gather) a certain amount of hoop-la about a trans/non-binary/whatever-is-the-current-term character, she hardly featured. I just liked her as a really attractive girl, I would have liked to see her as a regular Companion. (Before someone shoots me, ‘attractive’ is not just looks, it’s personality too).

I liked the Seventh Doctor and Ace too (have only seen a few of their last episodes, on DVD, recently). McCoy and Sophie Aldred really did get on well on screen. Given a couple more seasons, maybe all the old grumpy men who complained bitterly about Rose and Ten getting romantically involved might have had something to grump about decades before 🙂

@janetteb The ep of which I spoke was just entitled ‘Resolution’ (the special that followed Chibz season 1). My sporadic watch-through was interrupted by the arrival of the three specials.

Anyway, I’m just about to go off on a 5-week trip to Europe (France, Italy, Switzerland, England) so I might go quiet for a while – depends on whether I have spare time (or wifi) wherever I am.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@janetteb Well yes, I’ll definitely watch it again. Just, knowing the answer to the puzzle does remove some of the suspense – in a way that most Who episodes aren’t quite so susceptible to. It’s a bit like watching Battlestar Galactica when you know which ones are Cylons 🙂
But still very, very watchable.

I had hoped that Rose(2) would be in this episode. She’s too good a character to just fade out of sight. Besides, she’s called Rose – she’s got to come back 🙂

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

If that was Newton (well it either had to be him, or George Washington, and he didn’t seem to be carying an axe). But this guy seems altogether too cheerful and normal for Newton, who was a bit of a weirdo. And as Chrissie at Chakoteya.net noted, Newton did NOT invent the word ‘gravity’, he simply added a new explanation for it. I should be all grumpy about this, but I’m in tolerant mood. (Later addendum: Having just read that ‘Newton’ was of mixed ancestry – I didn’t notice, so to me that’s a ‘so what?’. If he had been obviously ‘black’ I would say that was simply wrong, just as a woman would have been wrong, or an Arab. First, because Newton just wasn’t any of those things, and second, because in those days it is doubtful if any black person would have been sufficiently accepted in society to achieve what Newton did. Unless this was an alternate Universe. Don’t change history without good reason.)

The walkway in the alien ship is very, very impressive. Excellent CGI. 🙂 Given Donna’s ability to wreck the Tardis with a cup of coffee, there’s no way I’d let her drive that golf cart.

Interesting that the aliens use a decimal-based counting system, which makes no sense at all except in the historical context of humans having five digits on each hand. 12, or 16, would be far better number bases to use.

I do like the empty ship. Though its spookiness is very much a throwback to ‘Listen’.

This is back to the old trope of running through corridors – but it’s extremely well done and very effective. (I wonder if RTD decided to do this deliberately? ‘Running through corridors – I’ll give ’em running through corridors!’). Then the situation of two Doctors and two Donnas and how do they tell the genuine ones – always makes for an interesting impasse.

I was slightly chagrined that RTD referred to the Flux, I was hoping that most of Chibz’ assorted pollution of the Who backstory might be lost in the mists of time.

For a two-person episode in which only two things happened (and one of those, with Newton, was just a throwaway teaser), the writing/directing managed to sustain the interest quite well. The idea of the countdown so slow that it couldn’t be understood by the aliens is genuinely original. It made for absorbing watching (even if there was an awful lot of talk) but, unusually, probably not one I’ll watch again because once you know what the punchline is, much of the intrigue is lost.

Still, what remains in my memory a day later is the awesomeness of that ship. Quite the most beautiful corridor I’ve ever seen, and the ‘machinery’ in it was convincing and beautifully engineered. Maybe I will watch it again just to appreciate the classiness of the CGI.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

Oh, and – almost like a throw-back to past times – the DVD includes a decent collection of extras including a full-length commentary by David Tennant, Phil Collinson (exec producer) and producer Vicky Delow. It’s a while since a DVD set bothered to do that, I think.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

My first impressions as I watched it – (Written five minutes into first viewing): – This is more like it! Donna was never my favourite companion but it’s good to see her back. I like her daughter already. And the titles have a distinctly old-Who look about them. This is promising… Oh, and directed by Rachel Talalay. The old firm’s back!

The crashed spaceship is a bit Quatermass-ish. But the cute alien that speaks perfect English – I can’t help thinking Ewoks. Or something Muppet-ish. The two hunters now are – really rather terrible examples of the extras-in-a-rubber-suit genre. Bug-eyed monsters. Terrible. The Doc now has a proper Sonic Screwdriver again, at last.

It seems that UNIT must have been reactivated since the events of ‘Resolution’ where they had been disbanded.

Donna continues to be annoyingly insensitive (as in the old days) but after three seasons of a frequently-annoying Doc, it hardly registers.

The human/oid characters (by that I’m also including the Doctor, Donna (whatever Timelord DNA she might have absorbed) and Rose (whatever her parentage was) are all excellent. The aliens are a bit regrettable. All this is a bit too Star Wars Disney for my liking. Unless there’s some meta-explanation.

And Sylvia actually said ‘Thank you’ to the Doctor, which is the most extraordinary turn of events in this episode.

I did approve when RTD subverted all the cutesiness and the Meep turned out to be the villain and the BEM’s the good guys.

Interesting bit of retconning when it turns out that Donna, having had Rose, can now survive the Vortex or whatever-it-is. And they both gave up their regeneration energy – just like that? A bit too easy?

I like the new Tardis. Not as much as Capaldi’s, but a welcome relief from Whittaker’s crystal grotto. So of course Donna had to blow it up.

Immediate reaction – it started off really well but then it all went a bit Disney. About half the mental age of Moff/Capaldi’s era. I’ll just have to withhold judgement for a couple of episodes.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@janetteb Sad to hear of William Russell’s death. Apparently his appearance on The Power of the Doctor set a world record for longest gap between TV appearances (as, presumably the same-character-played-by-the-same-actor).

On a different tack, my 60th Anniversary specials DVDs arrived today. I had been intending to trot through the Chibs era (selected eps only!) to remind myself of the backstory before embarking on these, but I’m off overseas in a week so, so I’ll watch them now. I just watched The Star Beast and, as it turned out, I needn’t have worried, because so far as that episode goes the Chibz era might as well never have happened. My impressions of Star Beast were initially good, I liked all the actors and characters, but the monsters were too Disney and then the plot went all Disney too. I’ll reserve further judgement until I’ve watched the next couple of eps. (I posted my first-impression comments in the forum for TSB, now I’ll go and read what everyone else thought).

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@janetteb Osgoods. I wish I could remember the exact sequence of Osgoods. We know she got ‘cloned’ (well, Zygoned) but then Missy killed one, I don’t think we ever found out which one. But did the survivor get Zygoned again, since there were supposed to be always two Osgoods – that I don’t know either.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

So (in my now-spasmodic re-watch of Chibs’ era) I skipped the Battle of – thing, and went straight to the next ep, Resolution. Which is actually quite a good episode. I can (almost) forgive the Beeb for making me buy a one-off DVD then including it in Season 12 set.

The bit of mediaevalism at the start always helps to give an air of gravity and mystery. Though ‘Resolution’ is kind of a vague title, and invites confusion with e.g. Revolution of the Daleks. (In fact how many names like that could one conjure up – Revelation of the Daleks. Revenge of the Daleks. Retribution of the Daleks. Restitution of the Daleks. Constitution of the Daleks. Constipation of the… ooops, not that one. Dissolution of the Daleks. Irritation of the Daleks (what, and make them even angrier?) I must stop this. Termination of the Daleks…)

I’ll skip the points which (I find) I already made at great length a couple of years ago. Occupational hazard of playing catch-up, one keeps tripping over ones own trail. I just noticed a couple of odd geeky things though – why did Lin drive away from the roundabout *on the wrong side of the road*? And then she stops by the right-hand kerb and the police car stops behind her and the plod’s first words are ‘Do you know what speed you were doing, luv?’ – NO mention of driving on the wrong side. Just bad editing or what?

And, “It’s shooting out the cameras to stop us tracking it.” So all you gotta do is follow the trail of shot-up cameras? Not the smartest Dalek in history.

But anyway, it was quite watchable, specially since I fast-forwarded past the tedious bits of Ryan’s family values, but probably the best Doctor 13 episode up to that point.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@janetteb Oh yes, Bill did raise that. In one sense, our identity is linked with our memories – without them, are we really ‘us’? Clara felt the same way of course in Hell Bent. I thought it was a really nice gesture when Bill/Testimony restored the Doctor’s memories of Clara. And also, possibly the most memorable line in that episode belongs to the Doctor – “It isn’t an evil plan. I don’t know what to do when it isn’t an evil plan.”

@winston Umm, yes of course, the Ten at Bad Wolf Bay. My instinctive reaction (and Rose’s) was that it wasn’t the original – but on reflection, why not?
I will have a great trip, thanks. Our lemon tree was here when we bought the house so it’s at least 40 years old, I think it has two crops a year but that may just be our losing track of time and being surprised when it does it again. Good luck with the exercise, your knee will be a bit stiff to start with but hopefully it improves fast.

I think the show that did the most with a clone was Farscape, with two Crichtons (Ben Browder, the sheriff in A Town Called Mercy). In the episode ‘Eat Me’ (gotta love those Aussie titles 🙂 a villain was cloning people with an instant-copy machine so he could eat their brains – kinda typical Farscape 🙂 Anyway he cloned Crichton and the episode finished with one of those memorable vignettes that every series has from time to time, of the two Crichtons sitting at a table with their favourite gun between them, doggedly playing Rock Paper Scissors and coming up with a tie every time…
Anyway to complicate matters Crichton (both of him) was hopelessly in love with Aeryn Sun, and then the ‘original’ Crichton was heroically killed, and the ‘clone’ just couldn’t adjust to the fact that Aeryn loved the dead one. Anyone who thinks the Doctor’s companions have a challenging time of it should follow the crew of Moya.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@cedarbranchtardis Hi, yes. I’m originally English, but lived in NZ most of my life. Our scenery is pretty good, and not overcrowded except around Auckland where I live. And the climate is okay, it rarely freezes. But there’s great scenery to be found in – most places of the world, I’m soon due to fly over for a month in France, Italy and England and there’s some pretty good scenery there too.

Back to Who – I expect I could get right up-to-date with the latest Who episodes now, maybe I should check out the cost of streaming services. But I’m a bit old-fashioned, I tend to prefer to have my own copy on a DVD or hard drive so I can watch it when I want. I’ve got used to playing catch-up 🙂

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@winston Good to hear you’re improving even though it’s a slow process, so long as it’s positive progress. I haven’t seen any of the new series either so I’ve been quiet for the last couple of weeks too. (I just ordered the three Tennant specials on DVD so I’ve got that to look forward to, probably after my upcoming trip to France/Italy and UK next month).

@janetteb Lack of rain has not been our problem. We have a small lemon tree which is just starting to ripen now. It’ll be ripe in the middle of winter. Our vegetation is nuts.

On my erratic spasmodic cruise through Season 11 I skipped Kerblamazon, thought I’d try The Witchfinders but I found that even Alan Cumming camping it up outrageously as King James didn’t really draw me in to the episode (partly due to doubts about how rural 17th-century Lancashire folk would have reacted to two black strangers – Ryan and Yaz – interrupting their proceedings. I don’t know the answer to that but I would have thought it would have called for comment, at least). So after ten minutes I gave up, and skipped to It Takes You Away.

It Takes You Away is definitely the best ep of the season, despite its flaws. I wrote some lengthy comments on it but I see I already said very similar things a couple of years ago. I liked the atmosphere. Thought the whole world-between-worlds subplot with Gollum/’Ribbons’ and the unconvincing killer moths could just have been omitted. I found the Doctor’s ‘explanation’ of the conscious alternate Universe very long-winded and confusing, hence unconvincing, could have been simplified a lot, but got clearer as the episode developed. The ‘consciousness’ was rather touching, just wanting to be friends. I thought it distinctly sneaky of the Doctor to say ‘let them go, I’ll stay and be your friend’ and then pointing out why she couldn’t.

I also had a sneaky thought that Graham should have stayed in La la land with ‘Grace’, along with Ryan – and why not, they already killed off the best character in the series, viz Grace, why not collect the full set? – then it would just be the Doctor and Yaz show, which seemed to work better in a later season. The episode raised an interesting question – if you ‘create’ a replica of a person, complete with all their thoughts and memories, how is it not the ‘real’ person?

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

And while I’m at it, the writer interviews page is fascinating too:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/writers/scripts/whoniverse/whoniverse-writer-interviews-and-blogs

I just watched the interview with Moffat and amongst the snippets of information, apparently his two favourite episodes of anything he’s written are Blink and A Scandal in Belgravia (and they’re the ones I would have chosen so he must be right 🙂 and coincidentally, Wester Drumlins (the haunted house in Blink) was also Irene Adler’s house. It was also used in ‘Knock Knock’ – I think that house probably has more TV credits than many bit-part actors.

[Dentarthurdent @replies]

@whohar I’ve found Chrissie’s site an excellent resource.

Also Tardis.fandom.com which has detailed episode synopses.

Anyway, those scripts on the BBC are good to know about. At least 90% of ‘new’ Who is there. I think we may be lucky in that, for example New Tricks (which ran for nine? years) only has a couple of scripts up.

All of Sherlock is there, too.

cr

[Author]

Posts