Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
17 May 2013 at 10:48 #9421
Thanks. I feel a bit churlish for even asking.
Can you give me some tips on the HTML usage then when you have a moment. (Oh no, I sound like a 1980’s grandmother asking for help programming the video).
17 May 2013 at 10:43 #9419Of course, if now his name isn’t Bluntwin Hootwhistle, I’m going to cry my bloody eyes out
17 May 2013 at 06:39 #9400R.S. was born to kill the Doctor but ends up continually saving him. Is Clara’s character trajectory going to be the opposite
Interesting idea, although I’d go with metaphorically kill him if Clara succeeds.
17 May 2013 at 04:00 #9398Minor niggle – can you please add the formatting icons to the blog post text box. Struggling a bit with the HTML tags. Thanks.
17 May 2013 at 03:56 #9397If the final ep does turn out as I’ve described, I won’t know whether to feel happy or sad that I’ve got it all correct.
17 May 2013 at 03:54 #9396Yes, those extra few hours are going to be…difficult. Fortunately I’ll be asleep for some of them and then the UK will be asleep for some too.
It is very tempting to look at the, er, alternatives, to see if I can view it early.
I will be rasing a glass to you and all my fine friends on this board.
And I will be raising a Jammie Dodger in repsonse (trying to get healthy 🙁 )
17 May 2013 at 03:21 #9393I’m starting to think that TNotD will have its work cut out if it wants to compete with what people have been posting on the blog threads – because these here are uttery fascinating
Well said.
Bonkers Theories
I’m going for this: the Doc has created Clara (she is unaware of who /what she is) to store his memories because he is in fear of the Trenzalore question and knows this will be the only way to answer truthfully (ie without lying). Because of this he’s forgotten who Clara is; however she is programmed to know she’s done a good enough job (of wiping his memories) when the Doc can’t remember something really significant (eg his wife). In the meantime, the GI have somehow intercepted his memories and corrupted them. Clara re-uploads the corrupted memories into the Doc and is then made real via GI / Ganager / Tardis tech. The GI are now able to take control of the Doc. This revelation of Bad Doctor is the cliffhanger into the 50th.
In true Moffat fashion, this leaves plenty of loose ends; consider it my homage 🙂
17 May 2013 at 00:06 #938716 May 2013 at 12:22 #9336@Scary B
I’m not sure where I heard about the 4 versions of Tennant’s regen. I’ve certainly not seen it anywhere 🙁
What about this: As you say, Doc 11 has his memory wiped in tNotD. And, he’s not in any database anymore. Also, his planet and people are gone. So, no-one in the Universe now knows about him. Except the Impossible Girl (somehow). So, the cliffhanger to the 50th will be the Doc as a hole in the universe / a metaphorical baby. The 50th special will be about how Clara helps him recover himself / grow up.
16 May 2013 at 10:44 #9318maybe new personalities are necessary to cope with living so long
This is nice and makes perfect sense. Imagine all that dying-and-being reborn without some kind of memory wipe. It would make the Doc harder and more bitter as he got older.
Apparently Tennant recorded 4 versions of his ” I don’t want to go”, with version 1 being pretty hard-faced / stoic and version 4 being melodramatically emotional. They used version 3 in the show. I thought it was about right.
16 May 2013 at 03:32 #9308Regarding Tennant’s regen: RTD was trying to get away from the notion of “oh, I’m hurt / poisoned / shot, now I’m regenerating, now I’m Ok”. He didn’t want a regen to be akin to healing a broken arm – it has to be (almost) like losing a life.
15 May 2013 at 10:36 #9178Well you did go off on one a bit Koala girl :-). But you eeminded me of Chekhov’s Gun which I’d completely forgotten about so all good.
Like the meta reference – it would be interesting to put that to Gareth Roberts; not sure if he considered this sort of thing or not.
Given the, ahem, neat ending to NiS, I thought there’d be more discussion about DEM on the G blog.
15 May 2013 at 07:14 #9164I’ve just conflated the two halves of your post and am now imagining the Cybermen playing cricket!
Wouldn’t like to be the umpire in that match though.
15 May 2013 at 03:22 #9162Apologies, I’ll move over.
Just not the oily bit, ta
I think you’ll find that’s Omega-3. Blame the fish.
15 May 2013 at 03:09 #9161Yes, I agree that sequence with the motionless Cybermen (in Rise of the Cybermen / Age of Steel two-parter) was particularly creepy. I had a (briefly) similar thought in NiS when Clara and the soldiers were walking through the stalled Cyber army but it wasn’t quite as well done.
Closing Time.
I received a bit of a tongue lashing from @bluesqueakpip over on the G blog when this episode came out. I used the phrase “Deus Ex Machina”, so you can imagine how the exchange went :-). Fair enough and all that, I was a bit over-zealous (aka wrong) in my criticism. In my defence, my original post was a bit, ahem, alcohol-fuelled, m’lud. There’s a lesson learned right there.
The “love stops Cyber conversion” ending did bother me though and my fogged mind couldn’t articulate why at the time. Thinking about it since, it always struck me that if “love” (ie strong emotion) could have stopped a conversion, then surely “fear” would do the same and I imagine anyone undergoing said process would be terrified. I’ve still not resolved this satisfactorily, which is a shame as it spoilt an otherwise good episode.
15 May 2013 at 02:00 #9159@everyone
I love the sofa.
14 May 2013 at 06:49 #8999You do realise of course that when the regulars arrive they are going to know the night shift has been slacking off.
How’s it going btw? No Qantas club lounge for a while?
14 May 2013 at 06:46 #8998Will the GI see the Doc lbw at the MCC?
14 May 2013 at 06:41 #8996So this Ted Peate fellow shot Kennedy? Time for me to bail…
14 May 2013 at 06:31 #8995And it gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “madman in a box”
14 May 2013 at 06:26 #8994You’re theory leaves me stumped. Howzat?! Maybe the Doc will impress Clara – bowl a maiden over you might say. Or is that just another Silly Point?
You want some more? 😉
14 May 2013 at 00:27 #8982I seem to recall that, for last year’s finale, I was oiled up and naked, save for two bow ties and a fez. But I am a year older and 6 months wiser now, so….
Currently I’m in a hotel room, waiting for Fortescue and WhoHar hall to arrive, so celebrations will be a little low key. I’m going to have to borrow the bath back from @scaryb – I’ll need to commence filling it immediately if I’m to be ready to tNoftD, although I do have another few hours on the UK. Then its bubbles and bubbly. Oh, and a packet of Jammie Dodgers.
13 May 2013 at 06:28 #8870I actually agree with all of 1., and the sentiment of 2. – particularly since Hide, we’ve had very little Clara arc to go on, and that’s frustrating for me.
Regarding 3. – I’m not at all knowledgable about the internal machinations of the BBC but three Exec Prods in three years (I believe) would signal an issue somewhere in the DW team.
Also, I agree that some of the promotion for this show is way over the top. It should “under promise and over deliver” but sometimes seems to be the other way around. I first noticed this at the start of series 6 when Moffat claimed that someone in TIA would die. Actually die, for real (not a verbatim quote). Of course once the Doc was ‘shot’, you just knew that couldn’t be the case and, pfft, the tension had gone. It would have been better if he’d not said it, IMO.
The end result of all this is, I am a lot more concerned about the finale than I was a few short weeks ago, although I am still hopeful. As to the 50th, well. My theory is that Moffat has been focussing on that story so much, the main series has been left to run on autopilot a bit. On the plus side, that means the 50th should be an epic, not an epic fail. But that’s November, which seems a long way away right now.
13 May 2013 at 06:08 #8867Would it be an idea to have a username that alerts the whole board – eg @all, @board. That way it would make it easier for announcements (eg @ardaraith‘s spoiler alert) to be broadcast via email to everyone. It might make you’re life easier too if there was something you wanted to say to us all. Maybe with an option for board members to opt out of the broadcast if required.
Just a thought.
13 May 2013 at 06:04 #8865@ardaraith, @phaseshift @everyone_else_on_the_board
You know what’d be f’in hilarious – if you couldn’t watch the last episode on that dvd without having a passcode that you could only get from watching the episode when first broadcast on the BBC.
Or, if it turns out the episode is just a five second clip of River Song saying “Spoilers.”
13 May 2013 at 04:03 #8862I have found most of this run enjoyable but the last half (of this half) has stalled a bit for me. “Hide” seems to be the peak IMO. I have hopes for the finale but they are not the grand hopes I had earlier on.
Season 14 – remind me, is that early Pertwee?
13 May 2013 at 03:54 #8861@lula. I worked in the US for some time and every evening, a guy from the South (sorry, can’t be more specific) used to leave with a “G’night y’all”. As I sat near to one of the doors, this must have stuck in my head and it was something I repeated for many months in my next (non-US) job. I got some funny looks I can tell you.
@bluesqueakpip – And on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead.
Understandably, people are a little bit nervy regarding the last ep. In fact, I can see it killing off speculation on this board as we all become a little Spoiler-averse. However, I can’t imagine that anything on the official BBC website is a spoiler as such. It may tie-in with one of the many bonkers theories on here but that’s not the same. In fact, if it is in the trailer, it is unlikely to be what it seems come the episode.
If you are really worried, best to keep away, if only for your own sanity.
11 May 2013 at 12:55 #8526Whaddya expect from a bloody Alchemist, eh @Fulcanelli.
11 May 2013 at 10:12 #8489Amen to that, er, sister. 😉
I’m all for questioning things but when it comes to religion, the questions asked always seem to be negative. I’d be interested to hear your further thoughts on the subject.
I’ve always thought that some scientists pursue their pet theory with a fevour bordering on religious.
10 May 2013 at 03:18 #84089 May 2013 at 13:57 #8316Yes, that would be splendid – and Gaiman could do it – but I suspect more clues (or possibly one big clue / partial reveal).
Would settle for just the “treat” part however.
9 May 2013 at 13:25 #8309Not sure why so many people (not here I might add) have such a downer on children being in the next episode. Admittedly the coda to CH was a bit clumsily done (I thought) but…we have Matt Smith’s Doctor who has always been delightful with children. And…we have Neil Gaiman who could do anything from killing off the kids to making them the heroes of the piece. I actually can’t see him going down the first path but you just don’t know. And that’s exciting.
Hopefully the Cybermen will revert to type (ie as menacing as they were in the Classic series), rather than the whipping boys they have turned into since the reboot. Of all the classic monsters, I’d say they have been the most poorly re-imagined.
9 May 2013 at 13:17 #8308Bonkers theorising seems to have slowed recently, probably down to the ‘arc’ not being progressed in show in the last two episodes. Hoping Mr. Gaiman will give us a treat, and some more clues.
9 May 2013 at 07:06 #8290Moffat’s take is that it is all about the companions; whereas classic Who was all about the Doctor. This is a bit of an oversimplification but maybe illustrates how the emphasis has changed. Some of the Pertwee / T Baker era Tardis crew were not called companions at all but were known as assistants which probably more accurately reflects their dynamic in that era.
9 May 2013 at 06:58 #8289I was a father and my first son
I had this rather frivolous notion that he was named after you and therefore called htpbdet 🙂
9 May 2013 at 06:53 #8288This is (another) nice post. I must say I struggled a bit with Davison as the Doc and, for various reasons, I tended to dip in and out of his stories which certainly doesn’t help. Probably time to do a bit of catch up with his portrayal though. From your post, it seems I was a bit unlucky with some of my viewings.
Oh and btw this…
I can date my hatred of Adric from him acting like a hammy twat in State of Decay
is genius.
8 May 2013 at 12:59 #8214Rule One is the Doc lies, Rule Zero is the Moff lies. 🙂
It’s a clever tactic by him though. Disinformation.
Totally agree.re.the spoilers thing though. I am treading very carefully through t’internet right now.
8 May 2013 at 12:33 #8211Spoilery
spoiler type things
but
not
really.
From the Neil Gaiman interview, it looks like you may get your wish.
8 May 2013 at 06:27 #8188@htpbdet
I wanted to give your post a little time to sink in before I responded, so apologies for the delay.
On two or three occasions now, I have had a strong emotional response to a post that was ostensibly about Doctor Who; twice on the Guardian blog and now to yours, a post which was, at once, both heart breaking and heart warming.
I always delight when I feel like this, although tinged with some guilt as I feel a bit like a voyeur, or an intruder into someone’s life. But then I remind myself that this information has been given freely and without any expectation save the need, perhaps, to share a personal experience, however painful that may have been.
Also, I delight because the poster feels comfortable enough in opening themselves up to what essentially is a group of strangers. It re-affirms my core belief in the inherent goodness of the vast majority of people, something that has been sorely tested on many occasions. Can I also give a general thanks, therefore, to this small internet space, which has cultivated an environment where such posts can flourish – it is a testament to each and everyone on this board. Well done. The trolls will never understand this. Never.
But more than that, your post showed how something as seemingly ordinary as a television show can help, heal and influence an individual and a generation. If Moffat and Co. ever decide to break the 4th wall and equate The Doctor with Doctor Who the television show, your post should be the place they start.
Apologies for the hyperbole but, as I can’t shake your hand in person, consider this the virtual equivalent.8 May 2013 at 05:09 #8187Having just read the.link posted by @phaseshift, my expectation levels are like the Doc’s sonic. Rising.
7 May 2013 at 13:02 #8110Hi Craig,
I don’t know if this has already been mentioned, and (shamefully) it’s only just occurred to me, but is hosting this website costing you any significant amount of money?
If so, then you must let me know – I’ll certainly be happy to contribute.
7 May 2013 at 06:04 #8098Very interesting observations and I think you do yourself a disservice regarding your writing skills.
I think the ‘next’ Doctor to ‘your’ Doctor is always a difficult transition foe the viewer. Interesting that it took until Troughton’s last story for you to be engaged by his portrayal. And then you’d have had to do it all again the very next ep. with Pertwee.
Thanks for responding. 🙂
7 May 2013 at 02:54 #8094Your thoughts and memories on Hartnell are well considered incisive and powerful. Looking at the stars for the Tardis is so emotive. You have a writer’s sensibility about you. This is a compliment and I hope will be taken as such.
It is interesting that you should post about this now, as I was going to ask you and @blenkinsopthebrave, for your thoughts on watching Hartnell turn into Troughton. How that felt, how much of a surprise it was, your initial impressions of Doc 2.
It is half a lifetime away from the modern era where secrets are difficult to keep and speculation abounds and I can only imagine how watching that first regeneration felt.
6 May 2013 at 13:09 #80096 May 2013 at 13:02 #8008I’ve just responded to your post on the G. I knew this could become complicated.
@bluesqueakpip 06 May 2013 12:13pm. Get cifFix for Chrome.I thought the sonic was just used to switch the de-petrifying machinery on
Yes, I am coming round to that viewpoint too.
red not dead
I initially thought it was Gatiss indulging himself with the Frankenstein riff and still think that may be the case. Of course it also allowed the Doctor-as-monster theme that’s been recurring in the series for some time to be revisited. Plus it allowed the Doctor to appear in the dead Thursday’s eye.
I did wonder what Ada’s motivation was in keeping the Doctor. Loneliness perhaps. Similarly with Jenny letting him out. An act of compassion certainly but also of bravery.6 May 2013 at 11:50 #7995You are just being…well…provocative, aren’t you!
A little, I guess. It’s almost 9pm here too but I’ve not imbibed, so it’s merely jealousy my friend. Enjoy.
I have to say, I’m a bit surprised by the pricing structure out here. You pay more for some of the local wine here than you do back in the UK.
6 May 2013 at 11:46 #7992I have to say I’m a bit concerned now. We are only two eps away from the end of season / set up for the 50th and there seems to be lots still to resolve. The arc (such as it is) seems to have stalled in the last two stories.
My hope that the loose ends from seasons 5 & 6 would be neatly tied up looks a little forlorn at this stage. I am lowering my expectations now and just hoping the end of this season is more satisfying than the WoRS.
On the plus side, Moffat is keeping us all guessing still.
6 May 2013 at 11:41 #7990I have just finished off a good bottle of red
You start early? Or is it that you just don’t stop 🙂
6 May 2013 at 10:12 #7974Anything that encourages reading is a good thing in my book / e-reader.
As I’m quite intrigued by other people, it’s always interesting to look at their books when I first go to their home / place of work.
I quite like having my own books out, though have had to have several culls to avoid moving to larger premises.
6 May 2013 at 04:43 #7963An enjoyable ep but I struggled with it a bit.
I think it was the mix of comedy and horror. Don’t get me wrong, I think it can work very well – the Cat and the Canary for example – it just didn’t work for me here.
For me the moments of comedy need to punctuate the horror side and provide some relief to the tension before it is ratcheted up again. Those set ups and payoffs take time; time you’d have if this had been a two-parter.
Really liked Ada though – get that woman in the Tardis, or in the Paternoster Gang spinoff.
Oh, me and @Shazzbot have come up with a new twist on Fields of Trenzalor. Field as in computer programming, not as in a place.
-
AuthorPosts
