The Doctor Who 2014/15 Thread

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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

...probably the way health and safety in the workplace and fear of litigation has evolved over the years.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Denyer wrote:Am assuming that these days the Beeb have some sort of health checks for actors cast in physically demanding roles...
Christ, they have that where I work! Patrick Troughton is going to come replace me any second....
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Post by Rack 'n Ruin »

Robots of Sherwood

Hmmm, not feeling this one. The robot knights (I used to enjoy that game on cassette!) were OK, but are we really recycling the "aliens seeking the "Promised Land" crash, disguise their ship as a building and try to repair it" thing already? Ho hum. Ben Miller was good though. Thor less so. No Missy either, unless I missed her. And was that Pertwee-esque Space-fu I saw?

At least next week's one looks creepy rather than just crappy.
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Post by Heinrad »

I came in a little late on this one(found a really neat looking Sharper Image stereo at the indoor flea market. Unfortunately the brain in it was fried, and trying to get the thing working made me lose track of time. On the up side, they gave me a full refund), and I came in as the Doctor was fighting Robin Hood. Again, it wasn't bad, and the bit with who the guard picked as the leader of the band of rebels was priceless.

But it still felt.... I dunno..... A bit "Eh, not memorable". Just another historical story. And while this is the second time we've had this general concept in the last three weeks, they did make the odd change.

And was it just me, or did the sheriff bear an uncanny resemblance to Anthony Ainley?
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Post by Sades »

I found this episode thoroughly entertaining.

Recycling: I thought of it as more establishing a pattern than recycling, personally. But who knows?

In regards to age/actor's health: In addition, Hound was mumbling something about Hartnell doing more episodes in a season than Capaldi when reading this thread.
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Post by Rack 'n Ruin »

I'm guessing that Missy is gathering people who kill/sacrifice themselves for the Doctor. I'm kind of expecting one or both of Clara and Mr. Pink to end up in "The Promised Land" before this arc is through...
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Post by Skyquake87 »

I also found this episode very entertaining and the best of Capaldi's run so far. The alien spaceship plot is rapidly becoming C21 Who's "its really the Master in a clever disguise all along" - there may be some deliberate seeding of this narrative as the underlying thread is things making the way to the 'Promised Land'...but why is it of so much interest to Mechanical and possibly artificial life forms? Do they have Faith?

Enjoyed that this was a cheerful romp through the legend of Robin Hood -although the little John gag did put me in mind of Maid Marian And Her Merry Men.

Wasn't anything I really disliked in this one. Good stuff!

As for next week's episode...Steven Moffat really likes his nursery rhymes, doesn't he?
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Post by Heinrad »

My bet's on Jimmy..... Er, Danny.

The only reason I can think of for all the age references is that it's the show's way of dealing with the "couple" factor. The usual assumption the guest characters make is that the Doctor and Companion are a couple, which both vehemently deny. Now it's more the other characters reacting to the fact that in this couple, one is lots older than another.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

I assumed the Maid Marian Little John gag was a deliberate homage.

Considering the episode was about twenty minutes in before the robots were revealed and it was portrayed as a surprise I thought the title gave a bit to much away, but it was still a a huge amount of very silly fun with Ben Miller giving a few actors we've had in the show over the last few years a lesson in how to overact with style.

The whole thing was just an excuse to have that Patrick Troughton Robin Hood picture at the end wasn't it?

And if they're naming episodes after TV shows that did better in the ratings than the Colin Baker era I'm looking forward to The A-ndroid Team next week.
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Post by Summerhayes »

I really, really enjoyed this one. Hoping to see much more like it. I love fun doctor who and I love scary doctor who, I just don't like overwrought, emotional a-level theatre studies doctor who.
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Post by Tetsuro »

inflatable dalek wrote:Considering the episode was about twenty minutes in before the robots were revealed and it was portrayed as a surprise I thought the title gave a bit to much away, but it was still a a huge amount of very silly fun with Ben Miller giving a few actors we've had in the show over the last few years a lesson in how to overact with style.
I thought the title was obvious, so the twist must've been who turns out to be robots. The Doctor lays it in a little thick trying to convince the audience it must be Robin Hood and his merry men, too.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

But the Knight soldiers were in the trailer as well, no surprise there at all.

It turns out the actual meaning of the title was made clear in the bit they cut out at the last second, the fight should have culminated in the sheriff having his head cut off, laughing about it and then reattaching it before moving up to the level above the vat. He was the robot of Sherwood all along!

Though the cut was made so as to be sensitive to current news, being dropped in a tub of molten gold is probably a far nastier death for (at best in the final version) a cyborg than a robot...

Speaking of deletions, the rough edit of the Dalek episode apparently ended with him becoming a suicide bomber Dalek, blowing up the mothership.
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Post by Rack 'n Ruin »

Listen

Oooh, I enjoyed that. It felt waaaaay longer than most episodes, but in a good way. Creepy, slow and talky. And more Hurt! Who'd have thought?

The only downside for me is just how incredibly vital to the Doctor's life Clara seems to be in comparison to every other companion he has had. It seems a tad OTT.
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Post by Skyquake87 »

I also enjoyed it. Really nice use of Time Travel and in less of a timey-wimey way too, with the subtle cause and effect thingy-me-do in there. And an explanation for the barn in Day Of The Doctor. Aww.

In terms of Clara, well I actually don't mind seeing the companion step up and do the things. It very much reminds me of the early days of the show when the Doctor was a slightly more distant and unknowable figure.

It does run the risk of side-lining Capaldi somewhat though, and whilst I understand that he can't do the same sort of physical stuff as his immediate predecessors, the writers really have got to think of something better than 'get the companion to do all the stuffs'. Really enjoyed Danny again. Shame about the ridiculous name. Still.
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Post by Heinrad »

I really liked this one! This one flowed really well, and the story was great. Good story, and one that should be memorable.
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Post by Tetsuro »

The preview for Listen made me think if it was gonna be another episode like the one with Matt Smith and the kid who was being menaced by giant puppets, but fortunately that turned out not to be the case.

The opening of the episode felt a bit silly (creatures evolved for perfect hiding? I immediately thought of pretty much any animal with active camouflage) but I thought the rest of the episode was pretty solid, and I liked the approach of not showing the monster, apart from that one blurry shot where you couldn't really make it out anyway. Probably because the concept was something I'd thought about a lot - if I was all alone in the universe, I'd still lock the door too.
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Post by Summerhayes »

Listen was absolutely amazing. Really creepy, really different... I hope the whole thing is never touched on again, as the idea that there might not have been a monster at all is incredible.

Inevitably, though, they'll return and lose all their mystery.
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Post by Tetsuro »

Summerhayes wrote:Listen was absolutely amazing. Really creepy, really different... I hope the whole thing is never touched on again, as the idea that there might not have been a monster at all is incredible.

Inevitably, though, they'll return and lose all their mystery.
Well, I think the monster in Listen was kinda like the one in Midnight, in the sense that it was never seen - and we've never seen it still, so...
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Post by Summerhayes »

I'd forgotten about that episode. The monster could possess people in that, right? Could explain the message being in the Doctor's handwriting.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Liked the Blair Witch style "Was there really a monster at all?" vibe, everything that happened in the episode had a potential rational mundane explanation (or at least as rational as "My friend from the future came back in time and grabbed me by the leg from under the bed" ever gets) and could the Doctor could just haver been straight up long.

Yes, the Moff is being very Terry Nation in shoving all his standards into the episode, but it still flowed well, the dating stuff was fun and the Young Doctor bit was surprisingly well done.

I'm baffled by how many people think the barn was on Gallifrey though, it clearly wasn't in Day of the Doctor (no billion billion Daleks in the sky and it would have been really stupid with all of time and space to go run off to and use the weapon in that the Doctor would basically go to the cosmic doorstep of the folks he's running from), and the Doctor being in a boys home of some sort of an alien planet adds to the mystery of his past rather than subtracting from it.
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