Doctor Who

Iannis_sl said:

Yeah, once Tasha came back for Clara it was pretty obvious who that was. He really did all but smack us in the face with it.

I feel like we only got about 2/3 of that episode. There were entire stretches of it that felt abbreviated. Knowing that Smiths speech at the end was improved makes it much better. One problem in the writing is that it was starting to become too self aware, but for the actors final scene that sort of self awareness is a different thing. It's not a play, he can't come out and take a bow after the curtain. That speech substitutes.

With how sentimental Smiths doctor became I think that it played the cheap emotion just about right though. Amy Pond had to be there, and I'm glad she was, even if she was just a hallucination.

Spoiler

Of course the one glaring hole I see, the really major one, is that the tardis didn't get biggie sized to stand over his tomb. Of course I guess it doesn't have to... it can always go sentinel his tomb at any point in the future. But that one struck me as, "Well.. I guess they either forgot about that or they decided that it was too convoluted to work in."

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I guess it was a fitting send off for Matt Smith, with his great acting and a terrible script. Story of his run.

Tea_sl said:

I guess it was a fitting send off for Matt Smith, with his great acting and a terrible script. Story of his run.

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I hate to agree, but I do. Moffat's eps were so great under Davies. I would watch them 3-4 times. His scripts as the showrunner..not so much. I try to chalk it up to him taking on too much responsibility with running this show and Sherlock as well as doing all the publicity tours. And yeah, Smith might not be very well liked like Tennant was, but he's ten times the actor imo. Incredible range. Played the Doctor as an old defeated man from the get go, but bringing a youthfulness even Davidson couldn't match in his heyday.

Capaldi though....can't wait. The guy is one of my favorite character actors.

I'm less averse to Moffat then most because he is a really great writer, but that's mostly because I don't mind looking past the flaws as much. I think his big problem right now is that he can't nail down the proper scope for the medium. The Christmas special is a great example. There is just way too much going on to fit into 60 minutes. As soon as they started making repeated use of voice over exposition it should have been a big flashing warning sign that they were in trouble. Too much scope for too little time.

This episode felt like an addendum to the 50th. The episode picks up after it and revolves around the events at the end with The Curator. They could have just cut the episode down and changed a few elements and tacked it onto the 50th (or released a mini episode to bridge it to christmas) . They should have made this Capaldi's first episode ala Christmas invasion with some half ass threat during Christmas


At least now we know what The Silence are.

I know it's far, far too early to judge just yet, but i'm curious as to what unique style Capaldi will bring to the role. Those few seconds we had there at the end of the episode really came off as an older version of Tennant's Doctor. I hope we get a not-so-happy grump of a Doctor for a change now.

I hope Capaldi calls Moffat on his shit and has input on the scripts and is able to improv. He is the Stephen Colbert of Doctor Who (Colbert is an expert in Tolkien lore and gave another expert a run for his money).

i checked, and that old lady was on an earlier doctor who episode, but she was not who i thought. she played somebody named Etta in 2 episodes back in 85.

Out of sheer random boredom while surfing Netflix I popped on 'Rose' to revisit the start of the modern series and just happened to notice something:

In the Xmas special Clara is living in the same estate apartments as Rose and Jackie. Now it could just be a coincidence of convenience for filming purposes, but they use almost exactly the same shot of the stairwell from the outside when Rose and the Doctor are heading downstairs following the Auton attack in her flat as when the Doctor and Clara do when hauling the Turkey down to the TARDIS.

Eccleston's Ninth Doctor really was Brilliant.

Qhue_sl said:

Out of sheer random boredom while surfing Netflix I popped on 'Rose' to revisit the start of the modern series and just happened to notice something:

In the Xmas special Clara is living in the same estate apartments as Rose and Jackie. Now it could just be a coincidence of convenience for filming purposes, but they use almost exactly the same shot of the stairwell from the outside when Rose and the Doctor are heading downstairs following the Auton attack in her flat as when the Doctor and Clara do when hauling the Turkey down to the TARDIS.

Eccleston's Ninth Doctor really was Brilliant.

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I'm not from Britain, but a lot of those Estates look exactly the same to me. Same one is in the beginning of the first ep of Life on Mars too.

And I agree, Eccleston was great. Too much drama and mystery over his leaving overshadowed the great performances he gave.

God, what 100% shit.

snicker.

It wasn't THAT bad. And to be fair to moffat, i'm not entirely sure how he could have made it better. He probably could have but I, personally, am not sure how exactly. Narrow the scope a little maybe, pull on a few different threads, but when you do that it's a different story. For the story that he did decide to tell (barring the awkward use of voice overs to assert the passage of time), it seems like it was done about as well as it could have been.

The wad was blown with the 50th. I think part of it is that the build up wasn't as well paced as Eccelstone or Tennants final episodes were.

Intrinsic_sl said:

I would have rather done away with the whole "300 years have passed" and the attempt to make us feel attached to this random town and random people.

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I thought it was more about him than us. After the 50th the Doctor is no longer "running away" from his people or his past, there's no need. He could finally settle down and do what's right. Just my take.

I liked the whole ep other than the goofy air guitar arm waving. But it made me think Smith's leaving was unexpected as they really tried to wrap up every major plot in 60 minutes. The Silence, what was behind door #11, Pandorica, Mel, etc..etc..

Felt like it was meant to play out over a series of eps leading to Trenzalore. Still no real complaints. Bring on Capaldi!

Fun fact: Peter Capaldi is the same age as William Hartnell was when he took on the role of the Doctor back in 1963 and is thus tied as the oldest actor to take on the role (Troughton was 46 and Jon Pertwee 51 when they became the 2nd and 3rd Doctors)

So anyone else wondering wtf happened to the "and no question can be failed to be answered" part of the prophecy? Kinda pissing me off.
Thoughts:
-Like the explanation of the Silence's power
-Like seeing the origin of the Silence church
-Tasha Lem is totally River Song (the actress was busy shooting for Arrow, if anyone was wondering)
-WTF happened to the shitload of angels in the beginning? They showed a single Angel being trapped in a reflection during the montage, but not the whole friggin army we saw
-The whole last speech Smith made was much more coming from the actor than the Doctor, I felt
-The brief shot of the crack behind the 11 door doesn't make sense as his greatest fear. It felt shoehorned in, just to give any sort of answer. Also, the cloister bell was playing when it opened the first time, the cracks haven't ever done that.
-I kinda wonder who the voice was they had saying "Doctor Who?" from the Time Lords. I feel like I should know this.

did they ever resolve that dude who could mess with reality and made amy pregnant then not pregnant?

Yeah, they resolved that at the end of that same episode.