@nerys

Do I mind the in fiction quotation of current ills/issues…? Not really. You may think Russ has reaped what he’s sewn, or he might argue he was on a hiding to nothing because the targets and statements aren’t really that different to the first run, it’s just the ratings are lower.

River… she has a damascene conversion in Hitler’s…[Read more]

@nerys

the central ‘2 quarters’ of this run were superb. With more than a hint of an agreeable ‘what the hell?’ More than a notch up on eps 1 & 2 anyway, though thematically they were also getting there.

My favourite is Dot and Bubble: though gen Z do seem to have taken it personally. Rogue is a marmite one and provoked lots of gnashing of teet…[Read more]

The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe.

This has a rep as a 2nd tier show, a year after the much loved Christmas Carol with its Blinovitch denying Timey Wimeyness. But, no companion, no arc… there really shouldn’t be a problem. It’s A Straightforward Christmas Show: a CS Lewis seasonal special derived from Lion W&W AND Magicians Nephew, with…[Read more]

@whohar @nerys @dentarthurdent @janetteb

design by committee? More dictact in my opinion, and contrary to the spirit of the show at that. I’ve probably said too much already.

The question is, with so much (supposed? imagined?) interference, why HAVE the main parties been so diplomatic? Well Andrew Cartmel wasn’t. Moffat has made the odd sal…[Read more]

@janetteb @whohar @dentarthurdent

Final word.

My initial thought re Chib was that the undoubted mess revealed a degree of incompetence and that was it. BUT I was also aware of criticism of Moff, suspicious about incongruities in his story lines (though I suppose that could also be the way Moff rolls); also a little surprised that the Being Human…[Read more]

@nerys @dentarthurdent
TTC… Russ at least was at pains to point out that TTC was as sound an idea as anything in Who. Of course Missy is shown as being heavily invested in Cybermen. In The Doctor Falls, The Doctor makes Gallifreyans ‘upgradeable’. Dunno what the significance of Ashad is. Anyway, that plot line COULD have been a slow burner…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent @translatorcircuit @janetteb

Sea Devil music was of course all by the Radiophonic workshop… KC’s The Devil’s Triangle features in Mind of Evil.

Tsk gonna have to watch that now.

@dentarthurdent @nerys

I still maintain Church, Babies and Devil were coming from the right place… but the execution is unaccountably off.

Also… song and dance went away after Devil. Came back a bit for Lux. Actually I don’t mind it. Though it’s not very well done.

So… was it Disney’s brief? ‘Ok’, says Russ ‘but two eps only.’

As for th…[Read more]

@translatorcircuit @dentarthurdent

Small episode: NOT… ‘the end of time itself!!!’ Not a Reality Bomb. T’bloody Floox. Entropy (what yer gonna do about it?) Sutekh’s gift of Death. Maybe the paradox machine was just about acceptable. And the Fendahl was ok. Generally small threats. To companions, the hero, maybe the odd civilisat…[Read more]

@translatorcircuit @whohar @janetteb

colorisations and edits… The Daleks was well received; War Games not, and rightly… I was very excited at the time: it’s an outstanding story but it should really have been divided into two specials… War Games and Time Lords. However, the original 250 mins is far too long.

Sea Devils? I’ll have to watch it.…[Read more]

@nerys

I hadn’t realised you didn’t see this first time round. It IS a marmite ep and I struggle to find enormous virtue therein, BUT… thematically and politically it’s sound. The problem is the plot seems undeveloped. There are a couple of nods to later in the series, but the babies in heavily armed buggies remind me of a certain classic W…[Read more]

@janetteb

yes. The only solution is to copy from pages

Anyway… love to read the full version.

I liked it. Xmas specials aren’t really Moff’s thing. Not a great rec for 2026…

‘Failed’ specials… part 2

The Moffat legacy. The last four, even the very slightly pedestrian Twice, were seriously good. Time of The Doctor, however, has an exposition problem. And it’s the conclusion of the Pandorica/Silence/Trenzalore arc. The Snowmen, as the second introduction of Clara and a mid series special, is also effected by this. T…[Read more]

Ok tis the season to get an earful… backward in time through 2nd tier xmas specials.

Church on Ruby Road; the one with the singing goblins.

Thesis… yeah you can have singing goblins. And a singing Doctor. And companion. It’s alright. A bit odd. But Chib had The Master grooving on down to Rasputin. Moff had Katherine Jenkins. Equally odd.…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent @nerys

Mitchell and Webb: Many favourites. The post apocalyptic game show, Sir Digby Chicken Caesar… most all ‘Get Me Hennimore’… just a bog standard parody of 70’s sitcoms and then one week they utterly subverted it… something to do with the Klan… I can’t remember now. It’s up there with the Shaun The Sheep when Shirley ate the I…[Read more]

@janetteb @winston

Series 1: up until The Slitheen.

Actually, there are plenty of parallels here with RTD2: the occasional and very deliberate bad taste, the ludicrous and self-serving nature of government, the cartoony humour (Rose, the Slitheen stories, End of The World), the seeding of the Time War arc (Unquiet Dead), the occasional…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

Yes… I have started it.

This IS a harder watch than I remember first time.

1. Good points…

the sense of foreboding over the Toymaker.

The CGI… you couldn’t do that 10 years ago.

The ‘net’ madness… everyone has to be right and no-one is an expert. I have talked about ‘noises off’; it is unbearable. My impression is, ne…[Read more]

@whohar @winston @janetteb

Doctor Who… new directions.

What are we dealing with?

Culture Wars: there is a lot of noise. Is it it real? I prefer continuity in terms of the show’s development and its tradition. I don’t like to feel we (the fans) are being dictated to. Trouble is everyone points at the ratings. A new showrunner won’t necessa…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

Image of the Fendahl.

Reference points: The Stone Tape; Lovecraft; Quatermass and The Pit; it’s horror.

And it’s well done. It’s Chris Boucher. A loss to Who. He went to Blake’s 7 and The Corp wouldn’t allow writers on two simultaneous broadcasts/productions.

They like making things hard for themselves don’t they? I am reminded…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

Yeah time for us to bury PotD not damn it with faint praise.

BUT… things DID get slightly better. My current theory is that Chib was initially under quite heavy manners from head of drama, especially over continuity. He may or may not have blamed Moffat for this but, nonetheless, mortal damage was done to ‘the original one mig…[Read more]