Doctor Who Thread

[Alex]

This week's ep was great.

The Sci-Fi bit of it wasn't exactly the most whovian ever (though space-age clockwork is genius, as was using body parts for the ship and time windows = cool)

The comedy at the start was great, the emotion all the way through and to the end was fantastic and overall it was just a brilliantly written piece of television.

I wasn't really excited about this ep considering it was in between the Sarah-Jane/K9 ep and next week's Cybermen but it really surprised me by being very enjoyable.

[wussycat]

I don't get it... How is it that Cassandra's death made me cry, but the ending of this episode didn't?

[Alex]

J00 have no soul.

[ashurathecomic]

I loved this ep. Easilly my favourite of the season thus far.

--Ray

[The Tikal who had no Toes]

What happened in the beginning? I only saw half an hour of it, I came in at the bit where Rose and Mickey were about to get totalled by the robots.

[robbienekoda]

Loved the episode, but I'm getting REALLY sick of having a sad death at the end of every episode. It's desensitising, and that may explain why Wussycat (if that is your real name) didn't cry at tonight's ep.

[Alex]

Only Cassandra in the first ep has died at the end. Queen Victoria and Sarah-Jane both lived on happily.

[robbienekoda]

doctoroak said:

Only Cassandra in the first ep has died at the end. Queen Victoria and Sarah-Jane both lived on happily.

The Werewolf had a brief sad moment before he was killed, and the original K9 was destryed. K9's return was overshadowed by the "goodbye".

[Mobiusman]

Sorry to bring down the overall feeling of joy and happiness, but that was terrible. The whole idea was really weak, and there were mor eplotholes than I have fingers and toes.

[wussycat]

What plotholes?

[robbienekoda]

I believe he means the fact that time in France didn't speed up EVERY TIME the Doctor switched back to the ship.

[wussycat]

Still, that's only one plothole.

[Mobiusman]

Primarily, the crazy random time hops and the translation issues.

[Arch_one_zero_one]

Am I the only one who prefers the old style doctor who, where he spent several episodes taking down, I dunno, lets say the daleks, rather than doing it in 1? Everthing seems too rushed for me.

[subsonic]

no your not the only one arch101 I grew up watching repeats of the old doctor who and I still have lots of the eps on video and it was a lot better when you didn't see the monster till the second or third ep in a story as it gave more build up.

[robbienekoda]

I prefer one/two parters, if only because anything else wouldn't work in modern day TV.

Next week's ep - someone takes people and makes them into Cybermen. That sounds familiar!

[Mobiusman]

Which is better?

[Alex]

robbienekoda said:

I prefer one/two parters, if only because anything else wouldn't work in modern day TV.

Next week's ep - someone takes people and makes them into Cybermen. That sounds familiar!

Not just anyone.

Trigger

"Alright Dave?"

And the new Cybermen > Old Cybermen. If only because they don't look like skinny men in crappy silver suits with a bucket on their head.

[homsar]

I Just finished watching it on NTL On Demand. Excellent episode, the best of the series so far. The ending was a tearjerker, and there were loads of great lines.

"What's a horse doing on a Spaceship?"

"Mickey, What's pre Renascence France doing on a spaceship? Use some common sense." ;D

[Charles]

robbienekoda said:

Loved the episode, but I'm getting REALLY sick of having a sad death at the end of every episode.

Well, it is Doctor Who. It kills people all the time.

arch said:

Am I the only one who prefers the old style doctor who, where he spent several episodes taking down, I dunno, lets say the daleks, rather than doing it in 1? Everthing seems too rushed for me.

Yeah, it is a bit. The upside to this is that we get this with the two-parters, which are the length of your old-school 4-parter and are structured in such a way that they could be split up into 4 22-minute episodes no prob. Bad Wolf, with the mystery of who's behind the game shows and the sudden appearence of the Daleks, leading to an "episode" of build-up and then an all-out climax afterwards? That's blatant 4-parter plotting.

[Charles]

doctoroak said:

And the new Cybermen > Old Cybermen. If only because they don't look like skinny men in poo py silver suits with a bucket on their head.

Thing is, the Cybermen were skinny men. Then they got Cybernised. The point of the original Cybe design is that they were meant to be recognisably a human that's had bits attached, because that was what was meant to be scary about them, that they're people gone wrong.

That said, my faves are the Cybermen from The Invasion in 1969. You have to love their permanent bemused smiles. The 80s Cybermen looked grumpy, the new Cybes look slightly upset, but the '69 and 70s Cybermen looked like they were having a great time invading places (and still having a great time when UNIT shot at them).

[Chigs!]

Trigger turning unsuspecting people into cybermen - now that's dastardly!

I missed the begining of this weeks episode, was there any explanation as to what the clockwork robots were? I mean I know they were trying to repair the ship, and I know the doctor mentioned space age clockwork - but I didn't understand WHY they were clockwork (other than the fact that they looked bloody cool of corse )

Aside from that small bit of confusion - another nice little episode - roll on next week

Trigger: "They're all cybermen Dave..."

Mickey: ";;"

[Robert Frazer]

Next week's ep - someone takes people and makes them into Cybermen. That sounds familiar!

Considering that The Tenth Planet (William Hartnell's swansong and the adventure that introduced the Cybermen) predates Q Who? (the Star Trek: TNG episode that introduced the Borg) by some twenty-six years, it should.

With regards to the Girl in the Fireplace, I found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable episode. While the spaceship itself was rather humdrum and generic, the historical scenes were stunningly realised, with genuine effort invested in the costumes and environments so that they appeared quite sumptuous and opulent. While the clockwork repair robots may not necessarily have cohered with the high-tech spaceship that they were supposed to be manning (and surely the crew wouldn't have just blithered about allowing their own drones to dissect them?), their baroque stylisation suited the elegant atmosphere of the period scenes admirably. The peculiar logic through which they attached such importance to Madam de Pompadour was also suitably unsubtly mechanical and made them much more convincing creatures. I know that a fair many veterans of Doctor Who are spitting blood over the fact that the Doctor could ever be in love with someone (even though there was actually a sex scene where the Doctor romances a newly-invested Time Lady in The Infinity Doctors!), but the plot was interesting both as a novelty and in its own merit too, with the relationship itself evolving over the years (from the flirtatious kiss of youth to the possessiveness demonstrated when Rose arrives, and the comfortable, natural ease once the robots are defeated), and there were some interesting quirks of direction as well (such as the camera tracking across a bed for a good half-minute when Le Madam "wanted to show the Doctor something" - saucy!). I'm also pleased that the programme didn't attempt to hammer in a 'social issue' theme or subtext, as the previous series had a habit of doing, and concentrated on telling the story - it was all the better for it. The shot where the Doctor crashes through the mirror - the valiant warrior on a dashing white stallion has come to save the day! - was also dramatic and well-executed, and didn't look too obviously computer-assisted. The scene where the Doctor acts as though inebriated is also a classically quirky and indirect way of the Doctor confounding his foes (like when Paul McGann steals a pistol in the TV film - rather than threatening to gun down other people to facilitate an escape, he jabs it at himself and declares that he'll commit suicide if his captors don't release him!), and the surprise caused by the real contents of his glass is emphasised by the fact that we're expecting him to be drunk, too!

I do have to echo a few criticisms raised on the reviews of Outpost Gallifrey - while the episode wasn't nearly as rushed as Davies' own near-schizophrenic episodes are, the programme could have done with a few additional minutes to absorb some more palatial splendour. Also, for all of their unsettlingly rigid, leering, cackling masks, the robots were hardly terrifying villains - they stagger about sheathing and unsheathing their blades like someone playing with a penknife (I know that you can't exactly have disembowellings on a children's programme, but a few swipes through the air and off-picture shots of shadows screaming would have been enough) and quite happily stand around while the Doctor rips off their wigs at every other opportunity.

Beyond those quibbles, though, it was sterling work.

[Charles]

cancerion84 said:

Trigger turning unsuspecting people into cybermen - now that's dastardly!

Season 3 will have Del Boy trying to flog the Hand of Omega as an antique table.

was there any explanation as to what the clockwork robots were? I mean I know they were trying to repair the ship, and I know the doctor mentioned space age clockwork - but I didn't understand WHY they were clockwork

They're the robots that maintained the ship and kept it in working order. No reason given for them being clockwork- I think it was just a trendy design fad in the 51st Century.

[robbienekoda]

robertfrazer said:

Next week's ep - someone takes people and makes them into Cybermen. That sounds familiar!

Considering that The Tenth Planet (William Hartnell's swansong and the adventure that introduced the Cybermen) predates Q Who? (the Star Trek: TNG episode that introduced the Borg) by some twenty-six years, it should.

Was actually pointing out that the Daleks did the exact same thing at the end of the last series.