161 replies to this topic

[Veteran]

Yeah, I think I see it.

[Wolf O'Donnell]

You know, for an episode where Amy claims the Doctor stayed with them for three months, he didn't exactly do much staying with them for three months, did he?

[Veteran]

Hmmm, not sure about Amy and Rory's final episode.

Spoiler

If the Doc had nipped back inside the TARDIS to get an axe and then chopped the Angel's head off, I probably would've raved about it. No comeuppance? Flat ending.

[Wolf O'Donnell]

On another note:

Spoiler

Doctor Who has revealed how David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear. He knew it was a Weeping Angel.

On a more serious note.

Spoiler

That's New York! Surely somebody somewhere:

a). Would have noticed the freaking Statue of Liberty was missing!
b). Had been watching it at some point throughout the day.

[Veteran]

Not to mention walking around inside it!

[JRPomazon]

All good points as to some of the shenanigans the last episode contained. Frankly, I'm not sure what to feel about it all. It was a shocker of a finale, I guess it did it's job.

[Nevermind]

Holyshit Holyshit Holyshit.


That was awesome.

Spoiler

The Doctor broke.

Vet, I was also expecting some kind of righteous vengeance. I seriously thought he was going to whip out his screwdriver and wield it like a laser gun, if not fire an actual laser out of it.

Edited by Nevermind, 01 October 2012 - 08:00 AM.

[Selena]

Spoiler

And if you can't warp straight into New York, why not just warp over to Jersey and drive in? Are you too good for a taxi, Doctor?

In spite of the little technicalities, it was fairly good on an emotional note. Kind of abrupt, though.

[atleast3olives]

I can honestly say that i'm far more excited for the christmas special than christmas itself

[JRPomazon]

Yes, the Christmas special looks good although the trailers and the evil cannibal snowmen give me the impression that Steven Moffat is really just losing his touch. He was a great writer for the series during the Russell T. Davies tenure but the second he got to call all the shots, the show has been going on the decline. Too much Moffat to take at once, needs to be filtered and evened out with someone watching over him or working with him. Unlikely this will happen since he is the main writer for the series until BBC cans him.

[Sir Deimos]

I've been saying this since Moffat took over. I love what he's doing but there are flaws. The individual stories were better before. We're losing that, because he's focusing more on an overarching storyline. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I just miss the individual episodes having their own emotional impacts, as opposed to having episodes dedicated to putting a thought into your head that winds up being important ten episodes later.

[Veteran]

It's the payoff he misses. The overarching build up is usually good but then descends into "oh, he was a robot?"

I liked the 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue' ending though.

[Sir Deimos]

With that adorable accent of hers.

AYE REMEMBER YOOU RAHGGEDY MAHN!


I love Karen Gillan.

[JRPomazon]

She was alright, although her character along with Rory stuck around too long. There was literally nothing for them to build up on so they had to introduce useless drama in order to make the characters feel less . . . well useless. I suppose it was all for the mid season finale but it was kinda painful while they were getting there. Although, the stories so far this season weren't going through any over-arching plot that was too annoying or complicated and they had their own unique feel to themselves. That I liked.

What annoys me the most though about how the series tend to go under Moffat is that he is trying to reintroduce the serial style of Doctor Who, 22 minutes each week, building up and up and up, leading you left and right until finally it all comes to a grand climax and a good resolution. Perhaps he's nostalgic. But he doesn't get to break his episodes up like that with the format he is working with. He gets 45 minutes to tell a story, start to finish. And what he does is cramp a lot of useless plot developments in along with the things that are quite good and all we get is this stuffed mess of different things that frankly don't need to be there in the first place.

Angels take Manhattan, despite being the better story of series 7 so far, has a lot of the problems I mentioned. Why was the art collector character even brought into this story? What purpose did he serve to the story as a whole? If he was so important, why did he have so little screen time? Why didn't they elaborate more on the ending of the episode, which was a sudden rush of impactful events that sort of end abruptly? What about the aftermath of those events? Why are things the way they are, what could have been said to eliminate the loop holes Moffat made in his story writing? WHAT HAPPENED TO RORY'S DAD FOR CRYING OUTLOUD? (Funny though, they did draft together a story board sequence since the fans sorta demanded it but explaining what happened to that character was never in Moffat's actual design)

The whole episode is riddled with things like this, along with some of the other episodes so fat. What we have is a bunch of reused themes and gimmick that we've already seen before in other Moffat stories like Silence in the Library, Blink and etc. that are slammed into a 45 minute long sardine can. Is it because Moffat can't trim the fat? Is it because he's nostalgic and wants to offer the viewers the same sort of episodic telling that he might have enjoyed when he watched the classic series? Is it because he's too concerned about the action and tricks and the shock value that he's forgotten that there needs to me a human aspect to all of this that is completely missing from all the "emotional" scenes? (I'm looking at you "The Girl Who Waited") I don't know. All I know is that Steven Moffat, although a good writer, can't go without someone checking up on him from time to time. He needs to be filtered out with writing that compliments his own, adds to what he is lacking overall like in previous seasons when RTD was the head writer. Otherwise it's just like George Lucas with Star Wars all over again, running around with his "vision" of what Doctor Who should be.

[Veteran]

Christmas special.

I will love anything with Strax in it.

"Try anything and you will be obliterated. May I take your coat?"

"This dwelling is under attack. Remain calm, human scum."

"Please do not noogie me during combat prep."

[Masamune]

Spoiler

I'm disappointed that the Oswin we'll probably be getting will be yet another shmuck from modern day. I was really looking forward to the possibility of a companion from some other time period tagging along with the Doctor. How fun would it be for him to have to explain modern culture to her and not the other way around? An Oswin from the future (like the one we saw in the Dalek episode) or the one in this special would have been so much more interesting.

[Sir Deimos]

I really don't know what to make of this. I'm incredibly curious and eager for more.

[Fëanen]

Spoiler

Well, I really enjoyed that more than most Christmas specials. I certainly wasn't expecting an origin story for a Troughton-era villain! Must run off and buy an audio copy of "The Web of Fear" now.

[JRPomazon]

Spoiler

I'm disappointed that the Oswin we'll probably be getting will be yet another shmuck from modern day. I was really looking forward to the possibility of a companion from some other time period tagging along with the Doctor. How fun would it be for him to have to explain modern culture to her and not the other way around? An Oswin from the future (like the one we saw in the Dalek episode) or the one in this special would have been so much more interesting.

Spoiler

The majority of the Doctor's companions are always, always contemporary with the audience. It's a way the show lets us relate to the adventures because we see these smucks and go "hey, they're just like us!"
Or at least, that's my theory on the matter.

[Fëanen]

Spoiler

I'm disappointed that the Oswin we'll probably be getting will be yet another shmuck from modern day. I was really looking forward to the possibility of a companion from some other time period tagging along with the Doctor. How fun would it be for him to have to explain modern culture to her and not the other way around? An Oswin from the future (like the one we saw in the Dalek episode) or the one in this special would have been so much more interesting.

Spoiler

The majority of the Doctor's companions are always, always contemporary with the audience. It's a way the show lets us relate to the adventures because we see these smucks and go "hey, they're just like us!"
Or at least, that's my theory on the matter.

Spoiler

Yeah, that's the case. Off the top of my head, we haven't had a companion from the past since Jamie left in 1969. We've had a few humanoid aliens (Nyssa, Adric, Romana, Turlough) and a character from an Earth colony which had gone savage (Leela), but modern is pretty much the standard. To emphasize the point, the Third, Sixth and Seventh Doctors ONLY had modern-era companions.

[JRPomazon]

Thread revive!

Part 2 opener!

Discuss!

Moffat makes his seasons like gigantic serials rather than a collection of one-off adventures, this has finally occurred to me. I can forgive him a little now.

[Wolf O'Donnell]

I was almost scared Moffatt had stumbled on one of my own ideas. It was bound to happen. Then it failed to materialise, but the similarity was so uncanny...

[Nevermind]

ho boy dat clara

[Sir Deimos]

Ugh I know. Clara. <3


It was interesting. Iunno. I kinda miss the single serve episode days. :/

[Showsni]

I was trying to watch with my three year old niece int he room, so I managed to miss a fair amount whilst trying to answer questions... "WHy are they baddies?" "WHy is she in a computer?" "Who's that?"

[Wolf O'Donnell]

I was trying to watch with my three year old niece int he room, so I managed to miss a fair amount whilst trying to answer questions... "WHy are they baddies?" "WHy is she in a computer?" "Who's that?"

A very insightful question when you consider what happens to the "baddy" at the end.

[JRPomazon]

It's been a long time since I've watched an episode of Doctor Who and not have had my feelings towards it take a 180 degree flip. Solid episode, I'll enjoy to see where the show goes from here.

[Sir Deimos]

For as "eh" as I felt about last week? This episode was wonderful. ;_; feels. Oh the feels.

[JRPomazon]

I'm not sure what to make of this week's episode.

Spoiler

It fleshes Clara (this one anyway) out a lot, shows a light on the Doctor trying to figure out who she is and what it all means, blah, blah, blah questions. I think it had a really good start and the episode reminded me of some of the older episodes with David Tennant with the colors and the alien interactions and the Doctor being goofy as all hell eating blue pudding that glows. Then the little girl starts singing . . . and that kind goes on for a bit and I sorta felt that the episode sorta lost it's tempo sometime afterword. It reminded me of an idea I considered interesting for the show, so that was spooky. The sentimentality, the Doctor's declaration to "Grandfather", I felt that was alright at best but they kinda pored on the "peace, hope, love" stuff too heavily by the end.

Edited by Game Master JRPomazon, 06 April 2013 - 11:42 PM.

[Wolf O'Donnell]

I was interrupted during two key scenes in the episode. Once during the cold opening and a second time during the big reveal. As such, I had no idea what was going on, except there was some kind of vampire and that they rehashed an old solar plot point.

I do know however that the mop head my mom bought that day can be washed at 60 degrees Celsius but not by machine and should not be ironed.