Doctor Who is on tonight! 8pm on BBC America where I am, 7pm on Space back in the Old Country where y'all are.
If you haven't heard anything about it, you might not want to read the following spoilers:
Spoiler
The Doctor tries to save a town called Christmas.
Matt Smith's doctor regenerates into Peter Capaldi's doctor.
Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Silurians, and a couple other races may be part of the action.
Enjoy!
It's times like this when I regret not setting up my PVR to record
Hah, the downloaded version will be better because no commercials :) Plus, the seeding will be FAST for the next couple of days. Not a lot of seeding credits, I'm willing to bet...
My initial response @ the end: Confusing.
My mega-fan daughter's response: hated it.
I expect it's better with a second viewing though.
I thought it was absolutely awesome.
It was ok but it is hard to top the "A Christmas Carol" one. It had a better story, better characters and singing!
I've been catching up on nu Who via Netflix
God I love this show!
Quote from: Lazybones on December 27, 2013, 07:31:37 PM
It was ok but it is hard to top the "A Christmas Carol" one. It had a better story, better characters and singing!
And flying sharks, dintit? Plus holy crap
"Scrooge" was Dumbledore!? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gambon)But love it or hate, that Christmas Special was goodbye to Matt Smith... gonna be missed for sure, that "clown and hero", that most "
human" of Doctors:
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/tv/doctor-who-farewell-10-extraordinary-matt-smith-moments
To paraphrase, "we wanted to see the universe, so we stole us a Time Lord and ran away -- he was the only one mad enough..."
Yeah, he will be missed that's for sure, not a long enough run but now we have a new Doctor to learn about
Quote from: Mr. Analog on December 30, 2013, 09:12:05 AM
Yeah, he will be missed that's for sure, not a long enough run but now we have a new Doctor to learn about
His run aka # of episodes = one of the tops IIRC; I think only One and Four had a longer run, and that only ended cuz of his ailing health...
found this infographic to help support my ^ pulled-outta-my-ass claim ^
http://www.cabletv.com/doctor-who-by-the-numbers
...and turns out I was wrong, I guess Ten had more eps than Eleven, yeesh didn't realize that! I guess all of those very-ambitious Eleven story arcs were far more ... Universe-Impacting, they just felt like they took longer to play out.
EDIT: this is the detailed infographic I was looking for...
http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2013/11/doctor-who-doctors-travels-one-infographic/
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131119-doctor-who-travels-through-time
...which tells us that Eleven might have been with us a shorter duration than some, BUT he was the Most Well-Travelled by far!
Well I think I mentioned either earlier here or on Facebook that I'd recently started going over nuWho episodes I've missed (which, admittedly, was a lot more than I thought).
What I found interesting with 11 was that they threaded themes all throughout his run seemingly culminating at various points but then continually adding at the same time
A trap the writers have fallen into is similar to bronze age comics in that they are repeatedly "killing off" things only to bring them back again. At one point having no Daleks or Cybermen or Time Lords was a very serious and surprising thing to do in canon, but by bringing things back so quickly and frequently the threat (and interest) in killing something off "for good" becomes kind of moot. I'd also like to see a return to some more balance in the favour of good (i.e. the Time Lords return), I suspect this is where things are heading given the overwhelming amount of evil waiting for them in the Christmas episode. I kind of like the idea of having more balance between good and evil because you can start to tell more stories where evil has to "work for it".
A recurring theme through the series is that evil lurks in the dark corners waiting for a chance to grow, these are usually among the better episodes because there is tension when things are smaller and more intimate, easier to get your head around. Not that I mind seeing huge battle fleets and armies causing CG mayhem but only because it's not something I'm used to seeing in Doctor Who, but I prefer the stories that get up close, where the threat of things to come is what is scary.
Tension is the Doctor stuck in a room with Davros for an hour rather than fighting hordes of Daleks for a few centuries.... actually those both sound like good ideas where's Terry Nation's phone number lol
But I also like the stories where they find something totally different too, the writers reminding themselves they aren't limited to the fan favourite villains and situations
Geekin' out here
Quote from: Mr. Analog on December 30, 2013, 11:49:59 AM
A trap the writers have fallen into is similar to bronze age comics in that they are repeatedly "killing off" things only to bring them back again. At one point having no Daleks or Cybermen or Time Lords was a very serious and surprising thing to do in canon, but by bringing things back so quickly and frequently the threat (and interest) in killing something off "for good" becomes kind of moot.
You mean like the 11-or-12 regeneration count limit? ;)
re. NuWho, I pretty much started with Eleven, saw a handful of Ten before that but ran through the entire Eleven story arcs week by week as my daughters were just as excited as me ... but I have refused to watch any Clara eps due to ... well, it's Clara ... My daughters have confirmed I made a good decision.
But eventually I'll watch them because I need to "get it" re. the stuff referenced in the Anniversary Special as well as this Special. But first I'm still pressing through my very first viewing of the Ten eps, during Christmas break finished up to The Satan Pit, wish I could watch them all in one sitting, but my head would asplode all Time-Vortex-Absorbing-like.
BTW I really hope that in the NEW NuWho they take full advantage of the 2 distinctive features of Peter Capaldi (http://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/peter%20capaldi)
-first of all his ability to actually use his true Scottish brogue (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The+Thick+Of+It+capaldi+Tucker+swearing) (sorry Mr. Tennant!) ... although I expect his dialog will be less family-unfriendly than he is used to saying (https://www.google.ca/search?q=malcolm+tucker+gif&tbm=isch) (aka as Malcolm Tucker (http://www.quickmeme.com/Malcolm-Tucker/)). {I think I've decided that this TV show is a must-see (http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2009/oct/15/thick-of-it-malcolm-tucker) for me.}
-secondly of course -- the EYES/EYBROWS* it's like he's a stern English schoolteacher or something, you almost feel like apologizing when you look at him -- even if maybe he's not mad at you, he's just grumpy? (http://media.sfx.co.uk/files/2013/12/petercapaldisscaryeyes_carousel.jpg) ... but they also function doubly for an exaggerated sense of wonder or amazement or maybe even fear/terror.
Like Tennant's consistent-but-fantastic shocked look in his eyes (http://rebloggy.com/post/doctor-who-matt-smith-eyes-david-tennant-christopher-eccleston-thousand-tom-bake/61803834963), I hope Capaldi's glare is actually over-used throughout the surprising plot-twist moments with Twelve. In the same way that both Eccleston and Smith's could instantly trigger a shared sense of childloike joy and excitement and hope etc. by just making a giant grin.
*yup, there's a tumblr for that! http://petercapaldieyeshotfanclub.tumblr.com/ ... and also a make-your-own-mask: http://whovianleap.blogspot.ca/2013/12/capaldeyes.html
Half the fun is learning the personality and look of a new Doctor.
Yarg, I'm looking forward to more episodes now...
Quote from: Mr. Analog on December 30, 2013, 01:44:37 PM
Half the fun is learning the personality and look of a new Doctor.
Yarg, I'm looking forward to more episodes now...
With this actor, east of the Atlantic he's got tons of fans who know him best as a perpetually angry spin doctor on
a half-improvised swear-filled dark comedy ... So makes me wonder how much freedom Steven Moffat is gonna give him to creatively riff on the set of Who ;D
The best roles have been filled by actors who could ad lib like maniacs, so hopefully lots
Interesting that Peter Capaldi has appeared as other Characters on both Torchwood and Dr. Who.
Quote from: Lazybones on December 30, 2013, 02:57:34 PM
Interesting that Peter Capaldi has appeared as other Characters on both Torchwood and Dr. Who.
Similar thing happened with Lalla Ward who played both Princess Astra and Romana II.
In terms of production she appeared as Astra during the Key to Time arc in Season 16 and then came back in the season 17 opener as a regular.
Reminds me of a few StarTrek actors that appeared in early seasons or in earlier series..
Quote from: Lazybones on December 30, 2013, 03:35:51 PM
Reminds me of a few StarTrek actors that appeared in early seasons or in earlier series..
Like Mark Lenard, who was Spock's dad, the Romulan Commander from my favourite episode (Balance of Terror) and the first Klingon to be seen with head ridges (in Star Trek the Motion Picture)
:)
(or Majel Barrett, or lots of other actors too :D )
For Christmas specials, I'd say The End Of Time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Time) (part 2) is my #1, followed closely by Voyage Of The Damned (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_Damned_(Doctor_Who)). But then, I'm a pretty big Tennant fan. I did like A Christmas Carol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol_(Doctor_Who)), but more for the darkness surrounding Abigail and her incurable disease and Kazran trying to decide when he will return her from cryo-storage for her last day alive. Such darkness within an episode that is supposed to be all about hope for the future really caught me.
As for that infographic (http://www.cabletv.com/doctor-who-by-the-numbers), it seems to count the old multi-part episodes as single episodes. For Tom Baker (4th doctor) for instance, it lists 43 episodes. Well, I have 42 folders with (usually) 4 x 22 minute parts for each episodes, coming out to 178 x 22 minutes. Given that NuWho uses 45 minute episodes, then to compare we'd have to say Tom Baker did about 89 episodes. I think if we went back and counted episode length, we'd find in order of least to most: McGann (8th), Eccleston (9th), Matt Smith (11th), Colin Baker (6th), David Tennant (10th), Sylvester McCoy (7th), Peter Davison (5th), Jon Pertwee (3rd), Patrick Troughton (2nd), William Hartnell (1st), then topping them all is Tom Baker (4th). I haven't done the actual counting, though :)
As for threaded themes, remember Fenric who was introduced in the fourth doctor's time, and was still a continuing thorn in the side of the universe in the seventh doctor's time? Ace (aka Dorothy) was supposedly a trap Fenric had set for the doctor... Then he figured it out and she became one of his companions. Even in NuWho, the threaded themes have existed since the beginning. For instance Bad Wolf, which we saw in almost every episode of the first season, only to find out it was Rose calling herself from the future.
One of my favourite eleventh doctor episodes was Cold War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War_(Doctor_Who)), set entirely within a submarine. I liked it because it was suspenseful and because it tied into things mentioned during episodes from decades ago (for instance the HADS system of the TARDIS). I understood that they did this episode because they needed to stay within the season's budget, but ultimately that didn't matter. Being up close and personal with a singular deadly alien (who just happens to have been first introduced 36 years prior and last used 29 years prior) and having the doctor have to figure out how to talk to said alien without it destroying the entire world for a personal slight, I thought was genius.
Things I really liked about this latest Christmas special were:
Spoiler
- explaining why Silence Will Fall (those creepy monsters turned out to be priests? really? cool!)
- the doctor showing patience and appreciation for one of his biggest enemies, in particular a cyberman's head
- answering the fans' long-held questions about how many regenerations he really gets (so he _did_ hit the limit? but he gets more regeneration energy as has been mentioned decades ago in story arcs like Trial Of A Time Lord? thank you for putting it in canon!)
- did you catch that the doctor and Clara were both actually naked when they hugged? those clothes were just holograms...
- seeing the doctor finally give up, completely despondent after 300 years of staying in the same place; this makes the doctor seem so much more human-like, as we would all eventually give up in those circumstances
I'm not sure I'll like Capaldi's doctor all that much; it depends on just how angry they make him. Capaldi's got that already-angry-face thing going on, so I hope to see him delighted and happy at times. Tennant was good for that, switching between heavy and dark then over to light and breezy. It's what I really liked about Tom Baker and Sylvester McCoy as well.
Overall I agree ^ but just a quick couple of nits
-From the way the ep was shot, I thought it was actually way more than 300 -- the aging visuals @ "300 years later" were way less ... agey ... than in the final act of the ep... Clara's multiple "visits" seemed to break up the time into distinct chunks, but
maybe that's just my own interpretation...
-Capaldi's got the dramatic chops for sure -- and he can and does smile (some of the Google image search results from my above links = him NOT looking angry) (only some, though ;) ) But they will definitely take full advantage of his Big Voice (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4eY4qU80lPM#t=8m01s) , plenty of third-act-speechifying soon to come I am sure...
and just a quick Q: did they ever directly
explain the head (aka "Handles") ? Or is it more of a "let the audience speculate for 9 months" type of relatively-minor-but-still-worth-discussing-over-the-water-cooler plot device?
*then again,
maybe it's not just me: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Trenzalore
Spoiler
For three hundred years the Doctor protected the planet from small incursions by various enemies with the help of the now-renamed Church of the Silence who dedicated themselves to stopping chaos from happening. A faction led by Madam Kovarian broke off from the Church to try to stop these events but only ended up causing them by creating the cracks in the first place.
Eventually the TARDIS returned with Clara, but the Church had been turned into Dalek puppets. Though the Doctor and Clara escaped with Tasha's help, the force field protecting the planet fell and the Doctor's enemies attacked in force. The Doctor sent Clara home once again and spent centuries more protecting the planet with the help of his former enemies, the Silence.
Quote from: Thorin on December 30, 2013, 04:33:32 PM
Spoiler
- explaining why Silence Will Fall (those creepy monsters turned out to be priests? really? cool!)
- the doctor showing patience and appreciation for one of his biggest enemies, in particular a cyberman's head
- answering the fans' long-held questions about how many regenerations he really gets (so he _did_ hit the limit? but he gets more regeneration energy as has been mentioned decades ago in story arcs like Trial Of A Time Lord? thank you for putting it in canon!)
- did you catch that the doctor and Clara were both actually naked when they hugged? those clothes were just holograms...
- seeing the doctor finally give up, completely despondent after 300 years of staying in the same place; this makes the doctor seem so much more human-like, as we would all eventually give up in those circumstances
Spoiler
Until they get the tardus down to the planet and get dressed ALL of the Doctor interactions are especially awkward from the the moment he shows up at Clara's apparent for dinner etc..
One favorite plot elements are from the series has to be "The DoctorDonna"
Spoiler
The DoctorDonna is NOT the Doctor and Donna but the two combined when she gains time lord powers, which ultimately means that Donna has to have her memory wiped.
As soon as I saw the Seal of the High Council I knew they were going to offer more regenerations as they did the Master in The Five Doctors, where the seal first appeared. It is those little details that keep me happy as a fan of old and new :)
I was surprised to see the Ice Warriors come back, then again I was surprised to see a return of the Silurians, the Sea Devils and the Sontarans.
As for "how long" each Doctor or companion stuck around, well that's going to be just about impossible to figure out. The best choice (which I think is what was used in the infographic) was based on story. For a very long time Doctor Who episodes were 25 minute episodes done in ~4 part serials, later for North America there were hastily cobbled together "omnibus" editions for PBS that would try to cram stories into larger almost movie-like blocks (this is what I grew up with). Then you have the new series which is 45 minutes (so it fills an hour)... On top of that you have books and audio stories, comics, video games, etc which further complicates things. So I think doing it by story is the best.
I am also happy that Trial of Time Lord and The Five Doctors are both considered canon, some people may argue about the Valeyards very existence but he's a big fat liar and who knows who he really is anyway
Quote from: Mr. Analog on December 31, 2013, 08:52:15 AM
As for "how long" each Doctor ... stuck around, well that's going to be just about impossible to figure out.
Hmmm...
Quote from: Darren Dirt on December 30, 2013, 04:47:56 PM
-From the way the ep was shot, I thought it was actually way more than 300 -- the aging visuals @ "300 years later" were way less ... agey ... than in the final act of the ep... Clara's multiple "visits" seemed to break up the time into distinct chunks, but maybe that's just my own interpretation...
*then again, maybe it's not just me: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Trenzalore
Spoiler
For three hundred years the Doctor protected the planet from small incursions by various enemies with the help of the now-renamed Church of the Silence who dedicated themselves to stopping chaos from happening. A faction led by Madam Kovarian broke off from the Church to try to stop these events but only ended up causing them by creating the cracks in the first place.
Eventually the TARDIS returned with Clara, but the Church had been turned into Dalek puppets. Though the Doctor and Clara escaped with Tasha's help, the force field protecting the planet fell and the Doctor's enemies attacked in force. The Doctor sent Clara home once again and spent centuries more protecting the planet with the help of his former enemies, the Silence.
...Looks like I didn't imagine it in the Christmas Special, it WAS "300 + unknown" so MAN this new Doc is OLD!
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Doctor%27s_age#Eleventh_Doctor]
Spoiler
The Doctor spent 300 years defending the world of Trenzalore, making him at least 1500 years old by the time Clara saw him next; Clara was then sent away, and he aged another unknown amount by the time she returned. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
Each regeneration is implied to be very long lived, yep!
Off-Topic kinda, but anyone hating on that apparently-expensive* art piece by the intersection of Whitemud and Fox Drive, that big pyramid of steel balls ...
(http://www.ball-nogues.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/big_image/P1000806_copy.jpg)
... well, maybe behind the design is great intelligence? (http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Great_Intelligence)
(http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120905085629/tardis/images/c/ce/Downtime_balls.jpg)
(see also https://www.google.com/search?q=doctor+who+control+sphere+pyramid&tbm=isch )
;)
*if you consider 592k "expensive" (http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=3adf7d5c-6fc1-436b-83e3-4b9868b7145f) -- its name is allegedly Talus Dome (http://www.ball-nogues.com/#project-146) but just in case that's just a codename I think it would be prudent to have an audio pick-up nearby recording at all times watching out for the voice of Ian McKellen...
One thing you can say about Edmonton: we got balls
We also have abstract catchers mitts and a not-to-scale metal bat that rotates every 30 minutes?
Giant Legs at Southgate??
WHAT'S THE DEAL EDMONTON?
Quote from: Mr. Analog on December 31, 2013, 11:31:40 AM
We also have ... a not-to-scale metal bat that rotates every 30 minutes?
The damn thing used to FREELY ROTATE MANUALLY! When my kids were very young (i.e. right after NAIT) I used to walk with them to that bat, lift them up and place them on the bottom part of the bat and get them to hold on tight, then I would walk as I pushed (like a swing, only it would just be in a forward direction), I'd keep walking in circles slowly accelerating my pace and it would slooooooowwwwly build up speed, never getting too fast (but in hindsight certainly reaching a quite dangerous speed (just not a LUDICROUS speed!) ) ... eventually they added something in the base to limit the maximum speed, then after that they even locked it completely... probably because some unsupervised kids did what I did with my kids, and got injured #sigh
But yeah Edmonton's art scene is as weird as Moffat's Whoverse is canon-modifying.
ps: FUN FACT --
due to marrying his own daughter* , "Ten" is the Real Life son-in-law of both "Five" and "Trillian" from the HHGG miniseries ... wow the BBC family is
tight!*in-universe, of course! http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Georgia_Moffett (no relation to similarly-sounding Steven Moffat...)
He's also a Pokeyman...
(http://i.imgur.com/ey2mxDu.gif)
(http://i.imgur.com/uj2tnol.gif)
INTENSE BROW ACTION
So uh, did you catch this?
Spoiler
Madame Kovarian split off from the Church of the Papal Mainframe (changed to the Church of the Silence) and started the whole movement that stole Amy and replaced her with the Flesh and then stole her baby Melody Pond, who became River Song. Madame Kovarian was shown in Time Of The Doctor and the split was mentioned during the episode... Makes ya wanna go back and watch A Good Man Goes To War and fact-check, eh?
It was hard not to miss!
Personally I felt all the tying things together was done a bit hastily and they ruined a really great and enigmatic foe by explaining them off a little too simply.
I fully expect there to be more story added in the future (or past?) ... at least I hope so
I'll just leave this here...
(http://i.imgur.com/hIN0EGU.jpg)
(http://imgur.com/xtb29Jc.gif)
Quote from: Mr. Analog on January 02, 2014, 08:33:27 AM
I'll just leave this here...
(http://i.imgur.com/hIN0EGU.jpg)
HA! Funny thing is, I was watching one of the "reveal" clips on Youtube, and they mentioned ANOTHER "letter from Peter re. Doctor Who" -- this time from when he was around 15 years old, very articulate IIRC.
EDIT: Found a mention here: http://tellyspotting.org/2013/08/05/15-yr-old-fan-peter-capaldi-named-the-twelfth-doctor-40-years-later/
(http://tellyspotting.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Peter-Capaldi-15-writes-fan-letter-to-Doctor-Who.jpg)
also, in case photos disappear, this (http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/08/05/peter-capaldis-letter-in-praise-of-doctor-who-to-radio-times-aged-15/) contains the text...
In a letter (1973) entitled ?Dalek-builders? he said:?May I congratulate you on your excellent Dr Who Special. The articles, photos, and especially the Terry Nation Dalek story with the twist in the tail, were excellent.
The Dalek construction plans will have no doubt inspired many a school to build their own Daleks. Who knows, the country could be invaded by an army of school Daleks! Ah, but we?d be sage, as we?d have Dr Who to protect us!
Your Special has certainly made the year for Dr Who fans. A rather sad year due to the un-timely death of the Master, alias Roger Delgado. But I hope that in 15 years? time, in 1988, you will publish another Special to celebrate 25 years of wandering in time with the Doctor.?
Peter Capaldi
(aged 15)
PS: perhaps not so funny: his level of fandom was borderline stalking-ish maybe?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2386587/Young-Peter-Capaldi-obsessed-Doctor-Who-badgered-staff-constantly.html
This guy has been a serious fan his whole life, this is why I'm looking forward to see what he brings.