Doctor Who (2 Viewers)

[Adam Lenhardt]

That makes sense; thanks! BTW, what's the policy for this thread? Should we assume that spoiler tags should be used until BBC America has aired an episode?

 

[Tony J Case]

Finally finished watching Victory of the Daleks. It's the most uneven episode of the three.

Good bits:
* The Doctor finally clicked with me. His anger at the daleks was brilliant stuff, and I loved how he held everyone hostage with a cookie - a total Tom Baker move.
* The chemestry between Amy and the Doctor is finally starting to come together. Sure she didnt have much to do in the epsisode (save for the ending), but she worked well with the Doctor while doing it.

Not so good bits
* The plot was complete rubbish. Now, grant you - it's no more insane a dalek plan that carving out the core of a planet to install an engine so they can drive it around the universe, so I'll give that a pass. However putting together space worth spitfires from hypothetical plans AND training the RAF pilots to fly said spitfires all in the spane of about 10 minuets - that's crazy! Even with your check the brain at the door moments, I still enjoyed the episode mostly.
* The redesigned daleks! Blech! Phooey! The eye stalk is cool and I kind of dig the gunstick shoulder area, and I really like the Color Coded for Your Convenience color scheme the Daleks now sport (very Peter Cushing), but the Hunchback Daleks totally ruin the classic lines of the species. What the hell were they smoking!

I did like how they've finally stopped wiping out the daleks for the last time once and for all!, leaving them free to show up again later without the "I fell through time/I'm the last of my race" nonsense. It was fine for a while, but turning up the last of their kind five or six times now strains credibility. I'm good with Daleks just wandering the universe being evil.

Ah well, noit every episode is going to be pure gold. I 'm really interested in next weeks episode, and how they can sustain the Weeping Angels as more than just one trick pony bad guys.

 

[Tony J Case]

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt /forum/thread/299184/doctor-who#post_3682526
That makes sense; thanks! BTW, what's the policy for this thread? Should we assume that spoiler tags should be used until BBC America has aired an episode?

Problem with that is - what's the statute of limitations on spoilers? Canada is running beind the US (I believe), and Austrailia/New Zeleand (two big markets overseas) even further behind than that. Somebody, somewhere is going to get spoiled, unless we discuss the series six months down the road.

 

[AlexF]

Canada just aired the first episode this past Saturday night. FYI. Not sure where the US is, but I know BBC aired episode 3 (Daleks) Saturday.

 

[ChadMcCallum]

The episodes premiere in Canada and the US on the same date and time.

 

[LeslieG]

Well now that we've all at least seen Episode 1, here is a great extra for you. "Doctor Who Confidential" is a behind-the-scenes look at each individual episode. This is a bit shorter than the UK version, but still has a ton of cool intel behind "The Eleventh Hour":
bbcamerica.com/shows/doctor-who/video/new-series-videos.jsp
Enjoy!

 

[KevinGress]

Watched The Eleventh Hour last night (PVRed from BBCAmerica Sat.). Liked it pretty well. While I thought there were a few rough edges, they were a lot smaller than expected.

I think Matt Smith will fit in the role of the Doctor quickly, and the actress who play Amy is cute.

Liked the food scene and thought the ending displaying the Doctors in succession was cool.

Looking forward to seeing where this season (series) takes us!

 

[Stephen Orr]

Despite what some of you may have already read about it, I absolutely LOVED the third ep. and gotta get me a set of the new bad guys for my home theater room.

Second ep was good, but I think we are still waiting on the "outta-the'ballpark" episode, like Blink was.

 

[Francois Caron]

I found the third episode to be "okay." I was a bit distracted by the set since I've visited the cabinet war rooms a couple of years ago, and I was comparing what was in the episode with what I saw at the museum.
The set was way bigger than the actual place. And I suspect Churchill wasn't calling the Doctor from "the loo." /img/vbsmilies/htf/smile.gif
Next week will be very delicate. "Blink" was a masterstroke of creative writing, imagination and scary stuff. It'll be a very tough act to follow now that we know exactly what the Weeping Angels are.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This is starting to get interesting. The one thing I don't understand about the show is this: why, if you have a time machine, should there be any consequences to your actions? For instance, what would stop the Doctor from taking the TARDIS into Churchill's cabinet war room five minutes after they arrived in the last episode and warning himself not to identify the Daleks to themselves? It seems that, as long as the Doctor survives, no decision need have any lasting consequence.
I'm guessing that Dr. Green's wife from "E.R." has appeared on the show before. Does the show assume a certain amount of audience background knowledge for her character, or is she roughly as mysterious as she appeared to be to Amy Pond (and me)?
The stone angels are absolutely terrifying. I really enjoyed the idea that photography of them essentially becomes them, at least as long as the original image exists, because that ties in well with certain religions that believe being photographed is allowed a piece of your soul to be taken away.
The question does have to raised however: with thousands of stone angels in such close quarters how do they avoid looking at each other? It seems to me like they would all lock each other in place as they tried to surround the exploration party.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

I believe the Doctor can't go back in his own timeline and change things.

Quote:
This is starting to get interesting. The one thing I don't understand about the show is this: why, if you have a time machine, should there be any consequences to your actions? For instance, what would stop the Doctor from taking the TARDIS into Churchill's cabinet war room five minutes after they arrived in the last episode and warning himself not to identify the Daleks to themselves? It seems that, as long as the Doctor survives, no decision need have any lasting consequence.

 

[Stephen Orr]

Without giving away anything from Episode 4, it ranks up there with the best of the Moffat shows since Doctor Who came back on the air. It really is the one everyone has been hoping for, and the preview for its follow-up looks equally great.

 

[ChadMcCallum]

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt /forum/thread/299184/doctor-who#post_3684477
This is starting to get interesting. The one thing I don't understand about the show is this: why, if you have a time machine, should there be any consequences to your actions? For instance, what would stop the Doctor from taking the TARDIS into Churchill's cabinet war room five minutes after they arrived in the last episode and warning himself not to identify the Daleks to themselves? It seems that, as long as the Doctor survives, no decision need have any lasting consequence.
I'm guessing that Dr. Green's wife from "E.R." has appeared on the show before. Does the show assume a certain amount of audience background knowledge for her character, or is she roughly as mysterious as she appeared to be to Amy Pond (and me)?
The stone angels are absolutely terrifying. I really enjoyed the idea that photography of them essentially becomes them, at least as long as the original image exists, because that ties in well with certain religions that believe being photographed is allowed a piece of your soul to be taken away.
The question does have to raised however: with thousands of stone angels in such close quarters how do they avoid looking at each other? It seems to me like they would all lock each other in place as they tried to surround the exploration party.

The Doctor cannot cross his own time line. He sort of tried to in the 2005 episode Father's Day and it went very badly.
River Song first appeared in the 2008 episodes Silence in the Library and Forrest of the Dead. She arrives as part of a team investigating the mysteriously abandoned biggest library in the universe. She has a connection to the Doctor that's never really revealed except that she has a future version of his sonic screwdriver with a "red setting", knows a future version of the Doctor (its not clear how many different Doctor's she knows), knows things about the Tardis that the 10th Doctor doesn't such as snapping to open the doors and most importantly she knows his real name. The implication is that she is his future wife but that's pure speculation. I won't spoiler the rest of the episode for you but I highly recommend you see these two episodes. Very, very important things happen in them

 

[Tony J Case]

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt /forum/thread/299184/doctor-who#post_3684477
This is starting to get interesting. The one thing I don't understand about the show is this: why, if you have a time machine, should there be any consequences to your actions? For instance, what would stop the Doctor from taking the TARDIS into Churchill's cabinet war room five minutes after they arrived in the last episode and warning himself not to identify the Daleks to themselves? It seems that, as long as the Doctor survives, no decision need have any lasting consequence.

They occasionally address that - usualy with a handwave about not being able to cross his own timeline, at least without disastrous results. He (well, actually Rose) did interfear in their own direct timeline once in Fathers Day, and things got pretty ugly as a direct result. And very occasionaly he does indeed tell his former self what's going on. The Children in Need mini-episode Timecrash had 10 doing something absolutly brilliant with the Tardis and 5 going "Nobody is that good, even me!" and realizing that 10 only knew what to do because 5 saw him do it.
So basically it boils down to the Doctor is far more omnipotent than you, and knows what he's doing. (:

 

[Tony J Case]

Anyway - I just finished up The Time of Angels last night. Finally, we're getting writing and acting worthy of the old series (um, I mean the medium old series, not old vintage old series). Matt finally is starting to click with me as the Doctor, the story was a good, solid romp, and the Weeping Angels were wicked scary. Hopefully this means that Grand Moff Steven has finally gotten his legs under him.

And I really liked that opening, with River's escape by Tardis - great cracking scene. And I loved Matt's impersonation of the Tardis demat sound. Leaving the parking brake on indeed! (:

Of course, as is usual for two parters, I'll withhold final judgment until I see part 2 - but it seems we're off to a good start!

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

And I really liked that opening, with River's escape by Tardis - great cracking scene. And I loved Matt's impersonation of the Tardis demat sound. Leaving the parking brake on indeed! (:

 

[ChadMcCallum]

The Doctor can go back to the same day but usually doesn't so as not to interfere with his own time line and I think the Doctor has a "been there, done that" attitude and always wants to go somewhere new. If he does go back to a day he previously visited he stays out the way of his previous self, which we see on screen in Father's Day. The stories The War Machines, The Faceless Ones and Evil of the Daleks apparently take place on the same day around London tough the various versions of the Doctor never come close to bumping into each other.

The Time Lords do have 12 regenerations but there are ways to extend that. I'm not sure if you know who The Master is but he's a renegade Time Lord who has been able to extend his number of regenerations through various means. Regeneration has never been fully explained so there's plenty of wiggle room for a writer to explain away this problem and have The Doctor regenerate in to the 14th Doctor when the time comes, which is almost sure to happen. It would be silly of the BBC to end the show because of a line of dialogue in a 25 year episode.

 

[Tony J Case]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt /forum/thread/299184/doctor-who/30#post_3684997
I'm guessing we're going to get a couple Earth-bound episodes after this two parter, since I'm pretty sure they blew the equivilant budget of an entire series of "Life on Mars" on that hour.

I had been just watching The Underworld the day before The Time of Angels - a 4th Doctor episode that was infamous for its effects because - quite literarly - the production had run out of money for sets and had to shoot 75% of the episode against a green screen. Just the budget for the pre-credit sequance alone would have paid for 10 Underworlds.

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt
Thanks for the info, and the recommendation. I might get around to the previous Doctors eventually, I'm sort of enjoying ride into this fresh, with the occasional helpful tip from you guys to fill in the blanks. I thought Time Lords got twelve regenerations, for a total of thirteen physical bodies? That would mean the Doctor has two new "faces" left before he runs out of lives for good. Although perhaps that was a rule inforced by the Time Lords, and anything goes now that he's the only one left.

It's been mentioned a couple of times in the past that more regenerations can be granted to a time lord (the Master is offered a full pardon and a new regeneration cycle in the Five Doctors), so going beyond 13 bodies is not unheard of. I seem to remember a quote from RTD who pretty much summed the 12 regenerations as a non issue. When the time comes, the Doctor finds a MacGuffin Crystal on the planet Zog and BOOM! New bodies to spare.
Me, I've always liked the idea of the 13th Doctor on his deathbead (or whatever) struggling to hold on to life, making a big deal about dieing for real - snuffing it and then regenerating. He sits up, says "Well, that shouldn't have happened!" and we cue the end credits. . ..

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Looks like the show's going to be delving into the nature of time in a big way now, so perhaps some of my earlier questions will be further clarified.

I liked this second hour even more than the first, because of the ideas it raised: did Amy remember the previous time lines because she traveled in the TARDIS, or did she remember them because the cause of the alterations in time is directly tied to her and something that happens on her wedding day?

Do Time Lords have sex in the way that humans have sex? Does the Doctor even have a penis as we biologically conceive of one? (After all, we know he has two hearts.) These are the disturbing questions raised by a delightfully playful final scene. I love that Amy's response to an imminent marriage is one last quickie with an extraterrestrial.

Most of all, I loved the hope in the Doctor's voice at the idea that time can be rewritten. Since his entire species got wiped out, I'm guessing there's plenty of macro events that he'd like to fiddle with.

 

[Tony J Case]

Still not a Doctor Dances/School Reunion home run out of the park, Vampires of Venice was a pretty kick ass episode. I loved Matt Smith's confrontation with the Head Bad Guy, the "I'm giving you one chance to stop this" moment - well done from Matt. And I loved the pre-credit cliff-hanger. Best one of the series (actually, I loved the touches of humor throughout like the William Hartnell library card. Good stuff)

The special effects were pretty dire. The Space Fish were good, but that green screen of the Doctor climbing the tower was messed up!

My one thought - how did she take her clothes off if she was wearing a perception filter? She was technically naked the entire time, so there wasn't anything to take off. Whoops!

But other than a couple of small points, great episode with solid acting from all involved.