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Doctor Who: Series Seven - Page 6

post #251 of 914

I liked this, but it did feel like it existed simply to justify the Amy/Doctor scene where she questions his behavior.  Like it's setting the table for something.

post #252 of 914
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Dark Shape View Post

 

Can we not do this?  There's nothing more annoying than someone with a persecution complex complaining that people disagree with him, then falling onto, "Oh yeah, so my opinion doesn't count?!?!?"  Yes, it counts.  Yes, you know it counts.  You are not a victim.

 

I'll stop venting about the internet now.


Fuck me - it was all a bit tongue-in-cheek. And failing that, even if it wasn't there's certainly no persecution complex or victimisation going on - we're all a bit bigger than taking comments made on a movie forum to heart aren't we?

 

Now get off your self-righteous fucking soapbox. tongue.gif

post #253 of 914
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stale Elvis View Post

Only positive opinions allowed in here now?

 

 

Allowed yes. Unchallenged no.

 

And one who espouses an unpopular opinion, as you yourself said, should logically be prepared to have more challenges than agreements.

post #254 of 914
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stale Elvis View Post


Fuck me - it was all a bit tongue-in-cheek. And failing that, even if it wasn't there's certainly no persecution complex or victimisation going on - we're all a bit bigger than taking comments made on a movie forum to heart aren't we?

 

Now get off your self-righteous fucking soapbox. tongue.gif

 

I will stand on a soap box against anyone who brings up theforce.net, sir.

post #255 of 914

I thought this was way less fluffy and filler-esque than most recent Doctor Who episodes, frankly. It actually addressed the issues that have been underlying the show for a while now.
 

post #256 of 914

By the way, I keep hearing about how the budget has been slashed, but it sure doesn't feel like it. I mean, don't get me wrong, the effects were chintzy as hell (and I'd be happy to declare a moratorium on the "cyborg with one robotic eye" design) but they had some huge ambitions here--shooting in America (right? It wasn't in England, at least), blowing up a bunch of stuff...combine that with the actually-pretty-great CGI dinos last week and the Parliament of Daleks in the opener and either the Who crew are wizards at stretching a dollar or the budget cuts have been overstated...

post #257 of 914

 I think this episode was shot in Spain.

post #258 of 914

I hadn't heard about them returning to America, so I guess that makes sense, though that was some very American-looking desert.
 

post #259 of 914

A lot of the iconic Westerns were shot in Spain. It's plenty American looking.

post #260 of 914

Is this the recurring theme of Doctor Who Series Seven?

 

Yes, that's right folks! All signs are pointing to this season's big bad being The Cosmic Electrician!

post #261 of 914

Just watched this and really enjoyed it, although I knew that doctor was a secret baddie from early on.  Literally gasped when The Doctor pulled and cocked the gun. What the fuck, dude!

post #262 of 914

Not sure if you guys have already seen this but a 4yr old girl recaps the first 3 episodes of this season. Look at how excited she gets about dinosaurs on a spaceship, and you understand why they did that episode for the kids. Heck, she's smarter than one of my friends, who thought it was Amy's dad on the dinosaurs episode.

 

P.S. Don't watch if you hate kids. I love her rendition of Exterminate! and "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship!", complete with british accent!

 

1. Asylum of the Daleks
 

2. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

 

 

3. Town Called Mercy

 

post #263 of 914
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrSaxon View Post

Is this the recurring theme of Doctor Who Series Seven?

 

Yes, that's right folks! All signs are pointing to this season's big bad being The Cosmic Electrician!

 

Well...

 

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Just a guess on my part (or a shot in the dark, if you will) but we know of big upcoming villains who prefer it dark and can cause light bulbs to fail.  And, one of them did get in Amy's eye...

post #264 of 914
Quote:
Originally Posted by redryder View Post

Not sure if you guys have already seen this but a 4yr old girl recaps the first 3 episodes of this season. Look at how excited she gets about dinosaurs on a spaceship, and you understand why they did that episode for the kids. Heck, she's smarter than one of my friends, who thought it was Amy's dad on the dinosaurs episode.

 

P.S. Don't watch if you hate kids. I love her rendition of Exterminate! and "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship!", complete with british accent!

 

1. Asylum of the Daleks
 

2. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

 

 

3. Town Called Mercy

 

 

 

Her enthusiasm at any display of affection on the show is seriously adorable.  "The Doctor kissed Rory!  Isn't that great!  The Doctor kissed Amy on the head!"

post #265 of 914

I can't wait to see her review episode 5.

 

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Yes, I am a monster and tears are the finest nectar to me.

post #266 of 914

I find I'm missing

Doctor Who Confidential

The behind the scenes weekly companion series.

Damn you BBC & your cutbacks!

post #267 of 914
Thread Starter 

Leaked awful quality-but-holy shit trailer for The Angels Take Manhattan:

 

http://kairusumizu.tumblr.com/post/32011679850/i-fucking-give-up-this-is-the-best-i-can-get

post #268 of 914
HOLY FUCK.
post #269 of 914

Wait, season finale??

post #270 of 914

*Does an impression of a Weeping Angel with hands over eyes upon seeing the link to leaked trailer*

post #271 of 914
Chibnall...Chibnall never changes. Sigh.

That said, the scene with the Doctor and Amy sitting by the river was great.
post #272 of 914
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sentinel Red View Post

Chibnall...Chibnall never changes. Sigh.
That said, the scene with the Doctor and Amy sitting by the river was great.

 

You know, I was fully expecting to hate this episode because, well, I can't stand Chibnall's writing. I was fully expecting to roll my eyes several times, possibly check my phone at some point and then come onto here and spew bile about the episode but..... I actually really enjoyed it. Sure, it didn't reach the heights of really great Eleventh Doctor episodes such as "The Pandorica Opens"  or "The Doctor's Wife" but it made me laugh a few times and reminded me of some of the early Earth-bound Tenth Doctor stories such as "Army Of Ghosts" which isn't a bad thing at all.

 

And next week's episode looks awesome!

post #273 of 914

And man does the Redgrave bloodline produce some fine-looking women.

post #274 of 914
Thread Starter 

The first half was better than the second -- the actual purpose of the cubes doesn't live up to the build-up -- but man do the character moments work.

 

Apologies if I turn into an angry crank after next week.  I am going to miss Amy and Rory.

post #275 of 914

I am not looking forward to next week.  Power of Three felt undercooked, but solid elements in the stew, I like this incarnation of UNIT.

post #276 of 914

Cheesy closing line aside it was OK. A nice set up, great character moments and a 'dissappointing' resolution. 

post #277 of 914

This episode also continued to explore the moral complexities of the Doctor when he, Amy, and Rory forget to wake up those sleeping people on that ship, which then blows up.

 

...whoops!

post #278 of 914

Amy reading The Doctor the riot act on the phone about missing their anniversary while he come up behind her was a good bit.

post #279 of 914
So the alien hologram spaceship controller - trying desperately to place his face from under the makeup. Stephen Berkoff.

Plus I actually liked this episode, but yeah, slightly undercooked.
post #280 of 914
Quote:
Originally Posted by PMR View Post

This episode also continued to explore the moral complexities of the Doctor when he, Amy, and Rory forget to wake up those sleeping people on that ship, which then blows up.

 

...whoops!

 

I thought they had been wheeling the sleeping people off while the Doctor had his argument with the hologram. Amy and Rory came running back when they were done.

 

But I'll grant you this has been something that happens in a surprising amount of movies and TV these days: "Quick, save the people we care about! OK, now let all those other innocent no-names die, that's cool." Are Hollywood people all sociopaths or something?

 

This episode could have had more weight to the ideas, but hell, that's basically the show's motto at this point. Emotionally it worked. Chibnall is definitely not sucking this season, to my surprise.

post #281 of 914

Good episode.  Loved the new UNIT and loved the nod to the Brigadier.  Rory's dad is still awesome and I would kill for a few episodes with him as a full time companion.

post #282 of 914
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Prankster View Post

 

I thought they had been wheeling the sleeping people off while the Doctor had his argument with the hologram. Amy and Rory came running back when they were done.

 

 

That's what I gathered.  I think there was a line about it too.

 

I don't get the baddies though, did they exist at all?  Were they long dead, and it was just AI running things?

post #283 of 914

So apparently "Town Called Mercy" took place during "The Power of Three":

 

 

post #284 of 914
Thread Starter 

Makes sense.  When the Doctor wants to take off at the end and Amy mentions their friends noticing they've aged, it means they have to go back to the anniversary party.

post #285 of 914

Watched it today and really loved everything with The Doctor/Amy/Rory's relationship, and the reveal of who the UNIT gal really was.  I especially loved that scene with Amy and The Doctor as he explains why he keeps coming back, but fuck, the music was overpowering Matt's performance.  I actually reached for the remote to mute the TV before I realized that I couldn't shut the music off.  I really didn't give a fuck about the cubes once the reveal came about their purpose. 

 

Rory's dad's face as he's being stretchered out of the spaceship made me howl laughing.  

 

ETA: My gut is telling me that when The Doctor returns Amy and Rory home, Rory's dad will be dead.  Something about those last shots made me think, "Yeah, that's the last time they'll ever see each other."  It'll be natural causes, Rory/Amy will be devastated because they were off in fantasyland while the real world was happening, and that'll be all she wrote.  I haven't read any spoilers, so don't tell me if I'm right if this has already been revealed.


Edited by HarleyQuinn22 - 9/24/12 at 1:37pm
post #286 of 914

It's a shame that they didn't introduce Rory's dad much earlier as he's a great character and I would have loved to have seen more from him.
 

post #287 of 914
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrSaxon View Post

It's a shame that they didn't introduce Rory's dad much earlier as he's a great character and I would have loved to have seen more from him.
 

 

I concur.  I also just realized we haven't see River this season, and I didn't even notice her absence.

 

You know, the cubes didn't even have to have a purpose.  Just have them leave the way they came, with no explanation.  Or heck, even be benevolent.  Or deliver a 'You're the 1,000,000 planet' advertisement. Didn't really need any of the third act stuff apart from UNIT.

post #288 of 914
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrBananaGrabber View Post

 

Or deliver a 'You're the 1,000,000 planet' advertisement. Didn't really need any of the third act stuff apart from UNIT.

 

Ha! That would have been brilliant! I can imagine some people would have complained ("What an anticlimax" etc) but it would have made some people, such as myself, chuckle.

post #289 of 914
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrBananaGrabber View Post


You know, the cubes didn't even have to have a purpose.  Just have them leave the way they came, with no explanation.  Or heck, even be benevolent.  Or deliver a 'You're the 1,000,000 planet' advertisement. Didn't really need any of the third act stuff apart from UNIT.

 

That was such a huge wasted opportunity. The Cubes could have literally been ANYTHING ELSE and it would have worked, why make it yet another half-baked alien invasion plan. The idea that they actually were an ad campaign--but an alien one!--is actually really clever. As it is, they made less than no sense. If their purpose was to just kill humans, there are dozens of much faster ways to do so.

post #290 of 914
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrSaxon View Post

 

Ha! That would have been brilliant! I can imagine some people would have complained ("What an anticlimax" etc) but it would have made some people, such as myself, chuckle.

 

The thing is, they needed a threat, but they could have done something like that and still had one. There's a longstanding tradition in the modern Who of things that aren't actually meant to wreak havoc but do anyway--like the "killing with kindness" robots in The Girl Who Waited, or the "siren"/ship's medical program in The Curse of the Black Spot. Having it be some supposedly harmless doohickey that raged out of control because its masters were dead would have worked perfectly. It almost was that anyway, with the Shakri guy being a hologram and all.

post #291 of 914
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Prankster View Post

The thing is, they needed a threat, but they could have done something like that and still had one. There's a longstanding tradition in the modern Who of things that aren't actually meant to wreak havoc but do anyway--like the "killing with kindness" robots in The Girl Who Waited, or the "siren"/ship's medical program in The Curse of the Black Spot. Having it be some supposedly harmless doohickey that raged out of control because its masters were dead would have worked perfectly. It almost was that anyway, with the Shakri guy being a hologram and all.

 

 

Yes, Moffat in particular seems to be much happier with not having straight up villains in his stories (with the Angels being an exception, I suppose). The gas mask child was the result of nanobots run amok and a lonely child, the Vashta Nerada were essentially stolen from their home world and merely wanted to feed etc.

 

Oh, there’s a spoiler-free review of The Angels Take Manhattan here if anyone is interested. 

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by DEN OF GEEK 

did we love The Angels Take Manhattan? No, although we'd bet that many of you will. But it's nonetheless a good episode, that's excellent when its focus more overtly shifts to what we know is coming

post #292 of 914

This back and forth over the cubes would mean something if the episode was actually about the cubes.  It's not.  It could have been any cosmic threat.  The point was the Doctor/Amy/Rory dynamic and how it's changed all of them.  That's why it's called The Power of Three and not The Slow Invasion.  The threat is backdrop, not the focus.

post #293 of 914

I have the same feeling towards this season that I had towards Season 4 (Tennant's last full run) where I can't actually say the episodes are awful, and they all have great moments, but I've not been engaged by them at all. Usually I'm fairly effusive about the things I like, I felt like in the tag team reviews I was always playing the giddy fanboy to Prankster's stern critical approach, but I'm just feeling this season at all. Matt Smith continues to be amazing though, it kinda sucks his run has been saddled with these weird half seasons, and massive gaps between runs. 

post #294 of 914

I've been feeling the same way about the season, actually - sort of weirdly detached.  I can't figure out if it's because I'm watching on BBC America with their horribly-placed commercial breaks, or if knowledge of the Ponds' end has put a sort of weird damper on it for me, or if it's just the episodes themselves. 

post #295 of 914
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spike Marshall View Post

I have the same feeling towards this season that I had towards Season 4 (Tennant's last full run) where I can't actually say the episodes are awful, and they all have great moments, but I've not been engaged by them at all. Usually I'm fairly effusive about the things I like, I felt like in the tag team reviews I was always playing the giddy fanboy to Prankster's stern critical approach, but I'm just feeling this season at all. Matt Smith continues to be amazing though, it kinda sucks his run has been saddled with these weird half seasons, and massive gaps between runs. 

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Grace View Post

I've been feeling the same way about the season, actually - sort of weirdly detached.  I can't figure out if it's because I'm watching on BBC America with their horribly-placed commercial breaks, or if knowledge of the Ponds' end has put a sort of weird damper on it for me, or if it's just the episodes themselves. 

 

Scarily enough, I feel the same way. For me, it comes down to two main reasons. The first is the horrible structure of the season where, instead of being given a continuous run of episodes, we're instead given five episodes, forced to wait for the Christmas special and then have to wait again for the concluding part of the season. Second is the (seeming) absence of a season-long mystery as I truly enjoyed the long game played by Moffat in the two previous seasons.

 

Saying that, I really enjoyed "Asylum Of The Daleks". I haven't felt quite the same toward the other episodes this season even though they've each had their moments. Still, I'm very much looking forward to this week's episode. I do hope my expectations for it aren't too high.

post #296 of 914

Which is funny, because I'm pretty into this season.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post

This back and forth over the cubes would mean something if the episode was actually about the cubes.  It's not.  It could have been any cosmic threat.  The point was the Doctor/Amy/Rory dynamic and how it's changed all of them.  That's why it's called The Power of Three and not The Slow Invasion.  The threat is backdrop, not the focus.

 

That's fine, but even as a backdrop it's the thing that motivates the plot, which means it still has to make SENSE. In fact, that's the perfect rationale for something that's not a straightforward, RTD-esque global invasion--as I said, if the threat of the cubes had been more oblique or indirect it would have worked precisely because the episode wasn't about them. Maybe they could have revealed the cubes weren't harmful at all but they were being, I don't know, hunted by the dudes with the sucky-faces or the robot girl, neither of which was ever explained properly. There were all kinds of possibilities, and Chibnall went for the one that was both most predictable and made no sense.

 

The idea of building an episode around a "slow invasion" is great, but it requires something more original than "these things will (eventually) KILL YOU!!!" If they're going to take their time like that, there has to be a fairly compelling reason--it's the cubes' major trait, and it's not explained in a satisfying way at all. That's not a minor nitpick. It doesn't detract from the excellent character stuff, or even the first part of the slow invasion, which is great, but it bobbles the landing badly.

post #297 of 914
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spike Marshall View Post

I have the same feeling towards this season that I had towards Season 4 (Tennant's last full run) where I can't actually say the episodes are awful, and they all have great moments, but I've not been engaged by them at all. Usually I'm fairly effusive about the things I like, I felt like in the tag team reviews I was always playing the giddy fanboy to Prankster's stern critical approach, but I'm just feeling this season at all. Matt Smith continues to be amazing though, it kinda sucks his run has been saddled with these weird half seasons, and massive gaps between runs. 

 

Everything that was set up in the Series 6 finale has been pretty much ignored.  Fall of the Eleventh?  The Question?  We hear the Daleks yelling DOCTOR WHO, but The Doctor doesn't acknowledge it as being something Dorium warned him about.  He just gloats over Oswin pulling it off.  It feels very disconnected from last year, but I guess I should be used to this.  They set up finding out who blew up the TARDIS in the Series 5 finale, and that was totally dropped.  The lack of an overarching plot thread to weave all of the episodes together has hurt this season for me, so far.

post #298 of 914
Thread Starter 

The Silence blew up the TARDIS in season 5.  If there's any major question left from that, it's why did they choose to blow it up on the day of River's conception.  (Or, I suppose, how they blew it up, though I'm not particularly interested in that and I'm sure Moffat isn't either.)

 

This season has been fun, we just haven't had a real knock-out of an episode yet (by this time last year we'd had The Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon, and The Doctor's Wife -- with A Good Man Goes to War up to bat).  Of course, we haven't had a total snoozer yet, either.

post #299 of 914

Any season that doesn't have The Doctor's Wife will suffer when doing a best-of comparison. After all, it is scientifically proven to be the best new Who episode.

post #300 of 914
Thread Starter 

Sixty percent of the time, it's the best every time.

 

Funny thing is, when I break it down into stories instead of individual episodes, Series 7 looks a bit better.

 

The Impossible Astronaut > Asylum of the Daleks

The Curse of the Black Spot < Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

The Doctor's Wife > A Town Called Mercy

The Rebel Flesh < The Power of Three

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