Doctor Who Series 5 - A Bloody Good Show

Well, the part where he's all 'democracy, yay(!)' was anvilicious enough to have come from Rusty's pen.

What do you think of the new direction? Last week we had the twitchycam in the park, and this week there was the flashback sequence. It's all very slick, but if they're going to have it as a setpiece every episode then the shine is going to wear off real quick.

I for one was pretty goddamn surprised when he got so pissed off at Amy. In a good way. Really didn't see it coming.

As for the direction, I like it... it pretty much shows how I imagined the Doctor sees things. I can only hope that it doesn't go too far and start giving people motion sickness, though.

Also, I adored the line after he puts the glass on the floor - "Why did you do that?" "I don't know, I have a lot of thoughts, it's hard to keep track..."

Alright, should I keep waiting for the S5 premiere to come on BBC America next week, or should I just cave and snarf it online?!

SlyChild wrote:

Alright, should I keep waiting for the S5 premiere to come on BBC America next week, or should I just cave and snarf it online?!

I might have to, since Australia gets episodes months later than anyone else.

EDIT: It felt a bit like an imitation (can't really explain why), but it was better than I expected. The new production values are quite amazing.

Raine wrote:

SlyChild wrote:

Alright, should I keep waiting for the S5 premiere to come on BBC America next week, or should I just cave and snarf it online?!

I might have to, since Australia gets episodes months later than anyone else.

EDIT: It felt a bit like an imitation (can't really explain why), but it was better than I expected. The new production values are quite amazing.

I'm quite impressed too, because they had a massive budget cut (and sometimes the CGI looks a little bit shonky). The good thing is, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan cost less together than David Tennant did alone.

Sutremaine wrote:

Are we going to be seeing Take A Fourth Option as a trope now?

Well considering Amy took the second option, it just worked out about 1000 times better than anybody other than her expected I doubt it.

Oh and GREAT BIG CRACK!!!

Liz Ten Rules UK!

This thread should really be moved to to Antidotes.

That said: I like Eleven in a way I never like Ten. While I agree with many of the specific criticisms (food gag went on too long, the bit about democracy was a bit cringe-worthy) he's more fun than Ten. Nine was a good guy, except for the fact that he didn't have "issues," he had the subscription. Ten was just a mess- often entertaining, but so wrapped up in his own issues and problems and issues that he was impossible be relate to. Eleven is neither of them, which is the way it should be. The only problem that I can see with the new series is how self-consiouesly retro it's being- between the blown glass in the TARDIS and the dial phones in "The Beast Below," it's like the Grand Moff's going out of his way to appeal to every 50's sci-fi cliche in the book.

gaijinguy wrote:

This thread should really be moved to to Antidotes.

Seconded!

gaijinguy wrote:

That said: I like Eleven in a way I never like Ten. While I agree with many of the specific criticisms (food gag went on too long, the bit about democracy was a bit cringe-worthy) he's more fun than Ten.

I know! He actually feels like the Doctor, in a way Ten never quite did.

gaijinguy wrote:

Nine was a good guy, except for the fact that he didn't have "issues," he had the subscription. Ten was just a mess- often entertaining, but so wrapped up in his own issues and problems and issues that he was impossible be relate to. Eleven is neither of them, which is the way it should be.

I will not hear a word against Nine. I think he could have been a brilliantly dark Doctor had he stayed.

gaijinguy wrote:

The only problem that I can see with the new series is how self-consiouesly retro it's being- between the blown glass in the TARDIS and the dial phones in "The Beast Below," it's like the Grand Moff's going out of his way to appeal to every 50's sci-fi cliche in the book.

STFU you. Rule of Cool

ZoZo wrote:

I will not hear a word against Nine. I think he could have been a brilliantly dark Doctor had he stayed.

I wish there had been just one more season with Nine.

gaijinguy wrote:

The only problem that I can see with the new series is how self-consiouesly retro it's being- between the blown glass in the TARDIS and the dial phones in "The Beast Below," it's like the Grand Moff's going out of his way to appeal to every 50's sci-fi cliche in the book.

It's hard to tell after only two episodes. Maybe he's just trying to find a style that works. We'll have to see the how the next few episodes go.

I like Eleven. He seems more mature than Ten, which isn't hard, when Ten often acted like a particularly volatile teenager.

Maybe Moffat just likes the 50s?

ZoZo wrote:

He actually feels like the Doctor, in a way Ten never quite did.

He's endearingly dotty. It's been a while since I saw any of the classic episodes, but Eleven has some of Three and Four's absent-minded professor characteristics. The wardrobe doesn't hurt that impression either.

Okay, well, since this is the forum's Doctor Who thread and I found something really cool and Doctor Who-related, I figured I may as well post it here. This guy is putting together an episode of Doctor Who made up of footage of other episodes and his own added effects. Yeah, it feels a little more like a summary of an episode than an episode itself, but given the way he's making it, I think it's forgivable.

Honestly, it's more exciting as a technical thing than as a story thing, but I forgive it because it's got its moments and it makes me happy.





It's pretty fun to see which episodes you recognise. I'm not sure whether or not to be embarrassed or proud over how many of them I can name. Embarrassed. Definitely embarrassed.

This guy's other videos are pretty neat too. He goes back and colourizes the old black and white episodes, among other things. The only problem is that he has a nasty habit of deciding things aren't good enough and removing them.

I suppose this would be a good place to mention that The Ten Doctors is completed and downloadable. It's an excellent webcomic and I highly recommend it if you haven't read it already.

I'm gonna chime in with the Eleven love. He's hard not to like. I absolutely adore how scatterbrained he is, and I would have been sold after "This is not going to be big on dignity." if I hadn't already been.

I sort of have mixed feelings about the way that Moff is so completely breaking off from the RTD-era, though. I love that Ten is done angsting (I loved Ten, but he could be so annoying sometimes), and it's nice that we've got a new TARDIS and a new sonic screwdriver and a new Doctor and a new companion. But I liked the crossovers. I liked when Captain Jack turned up every so often. I liked seeing Martha working for UNIT. I was really hoping someone would figure out a way to let Donna at least remember who she was. By all accounts, The Grand Moff is not bringing back any of RTD's major characters, though, and that breaks my heart a bit. Plus, we now have three Nu!Who Doctors. It'd be nice to see a multi-Doctor story, with two or all three of them charging out of their TARDISes yelling "Fantastic/Allons-y/Geronimo!" I feel like the new series is avoiding multi-Doctor stories, and I have a sneaking suspicion that that's one RTD tradition that Moff is going to uphold.

Even so, I think the new season is shaping up to be amazing. And I am mentally bracing myself for the upcoming two-parter with the Weeping Angels. I had trouble enough with those guys for just one episode. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

KelinciHutan wrote:

I suppose this would be a good place to mention that The Ten Doctors is completed and downloadable. It's an excellent webcomic and I highly recommend it if you haven't read it already.

I've been fucking reading this for hours. And I have NO CLUE what the hell is going on. Drax, Ace, Omega (why is his head shaped like that, isn't he Gallifreyan?), the Monk, the elder dude with the unpronounceable name, Toymaker? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE CANON.

....It's fucking AWESOME.


By the way, why can no one recognize his future incarnations? I thought they were all mildly psychic?

KelinciHutan wrote:

I suppose this would be a good place to mention that The Ten Doctors is completed and downloadable. It's an excellent webcomic and I highly recommend it if you haven't read it already.

AAAAH I started reading that when he first started putting it out and I stopped because he was moving too slowly (AKA I forgot). It's done?

And from Jesus' comment, I can tell it's going to be canon-heavy (*cough* I can't remember anything about it other than that I enjoyed it, Christ it's been a long time), which I like because the Doctor Who canon is ridiculous.

The new doctor is really rekindling my love for the series, which started to die out somewhere around midway through the fourth season of new Who.

Also this is probably a good place to mention that my mom knitted a Tom Baker scarf for kicks and then gave it to me. I've been meaning to use it on Halloween one of these years.

Jesus. wrote:

KelinciHutan wrote:

I suppose this would be a good place to mention that The Ten Doctors is completed and downloadable. It's an excellent webcomic and I highly recommend it if you haven't read it already.

I've been fucking reading this for hours. And I have NO CLUE what the hell is going on. Drax, Ace, Omega (why is his head shaped like that, isn't he Gallifreyan?), the Monk, the elder dude with the unpronounceable name, Toymaker? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE CANON.

....It's fucking AWESOME.


By the way, why can no one recognize his future incarnations? I thought they were all mildly psychic?

Possibly the author's doing? The most Doctors that were ever featured in one episode on the show was Five. And even then, One appeared via a cameo (William Hartnell was dead by then, but the chap who played him did a very good imitation) and Four got stuck in a votex and was only referred to (Tom Baker didn't want to come back to the show), so it actually only had Two, Three and Five, plus assorted companions But they definately recognized each other, which I'd always just assumed was a Time Lord thing. Like the Doctor recognizing the Master when he saw him, even if he'd regenerated.

KelinciHutan wrote:

I was really hoping someone would figure out a way to let Donna at least remember who she was.

I don't think I've ever been so angry over the treatment of a fictional character before. Poor Donna, seriously. She was my favourite character, and she was such a breath of fresh air after all of Ten's angst. I was hoping in the specials she'd at least get a little more screen time that wasn't spent in a coma.

Quote :

Even so, I think the new season is shaping up to be amazing. And I am mentally bracing myself for the upcoming two-parter with the Weeping Angels. I had trouble enough with those guys for just one episode. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Don't remind me! Last time I watched that was when we had a stone fountain out the front of our house with a heap of little angels perched on it. By the end of the episode we were all staring out the window sure it would suddenly spring to life.

Rabid Badger wrote:

Jesus. wrote:

KelinciHutan wrote:

I suppose this would be a good place to mention that The Ten Doctors is completed and downloadable. It's an excellent webcomic and I highly recommend it if you haven't read it already.

By the way, why can no one recognize his future incarnations? I thought they were all mildly psychic?

Possibly the author's doing? The most Doctors that were ever featured in one episode on the show was Five. And even then, One appeared via a cameo (William Hartnell was dead by then, but the chap who played him did a very good imitation) and Four got stuck in a votex and was only referred to (Tom Baker didn't want to come back to the show), so it actually only had Two, Three and Five, plus assorted companions But they definately recognized each other, which I'd always just assumed was a Time Lord thing. Like the Doctor recognizing the Master when he saw him, even if he'd regenerated.

There's some kind of timey-wimey reason that the other Time Lords don't recognize the various Doctors that the author mentions near the end. And as for why Omega looks like that, I think he looked sort of like that in the show, but I'm not sure. There are also author summations of the action at the bottom of each page, and a plot flow-chart at the end (although, this being a thing that involves time-travel, the flow-chart flows in a lot of different directions at once in some places).

Jesus. wrote:

(why is his head shaped like that, isn't he Gallifreyan?)

I haven't seen him in the comic yet, but Omega has always looked really weird (Both of those are pictures of him).

Why are the new Daleks hunchbacks? They look awful. Also, lol at the Doctor continuing to solve his problems by threatening to kill himself.

Seule wrote:

The new daleks are pretty crap, really.

I like the colour scheme. Can we hope to see them branching out into leopard print when they show up?

Also, next week looks bloody terrifying. I may buy a sofa to hide behind.

The colour scheme has been used before (I remember the red Dalek from when I was like six or something), and it fits their strict social ordering pretty well. Does anyone else think the change in their eyestalks mirrors the change in the Doctor's screwdriver?

Next week, the return of the Weeping Angels and River Song. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] I should be glad that Moffat wasn't the one to write The Doctor's Daughter, otherwise we'd have Jenny turning up again as well. But hey, at least the Weeping Angels are cool. The makeup alone is amazing, and goes to show that actors wearing suits can still cut it as nightmare fuel in the age of HD.

I'd really like a Jammy Dodger right about now.