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Doctor Who - Discussion Thread III (no untagged future spoilers)

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It was alright. I feel like the episode had a lot more potential than that though. There were a few points I liked (the chess, the doctor's internal debates, Clara questioning which 'doctor' it was, the cyberman and the remnants of the war), but the plot and the character interactions felt a bit butchered. I think it was intended to be a more serious episode (which could have worked) but the execution just wasn't there on some levels.

The next episode looks good though :colone:

Reply 881

aoxa

Original post by Rakas21

Spoiler

In the trailer, River and Clara are talking at the same time. Hence, Clara can't be River.

And besides, if anyone recalls, from the first time we met River in "Silence of the library" and "Forest of the dead", River dies, but is saved by the doctor, (David Tennant) when she lives on in the dream universe. So perhaps her gravestone in the trailer has something to do with that?

Reply 882

rhw

Personally feel you guys are being over-critical of DW, in fact, a lot of fans of the show just seem to be nitpicking at everything. Instead of criticising the writing, why not sit back and just enjoy it for what it is. It isn't the same mess it was during the Amy Pond era.

I think this was actually a really good episode, the Cybermen were actually terrifying for once and for the first time since the reboot I felt as though one Cyberman would be enough to destroy a planet. The Cybus ones from DT era were terrible in comparison because the only scare factor they had was their reputation. The ability for them to just upgrade any weaknesses was good too, however, maybe a bit unsustainable.

The emperor was actually quite a good character too, in my opinion. That being said, that girl was annoying and a bit unrealistic. A ~7 year old randomly finds out that her babysitter is a time traveller then decides to blackmail her into letting her go on a trip rather than being in awe. Just to top it off, when she gets taken to another planet she seems so apathetic and isn't grateful at all.

It was nice how at the end of the episode the camera panned up to show a spaceship remaining near the planet though, means they can avoid coming out of nothing when all of them had been wiped out - like they've often done with the Daleks.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 883

Hype en Ecosse

Original post by rhw

That being said, that girl was annoying and a bit unrealistic. A ~7 year old randomly finds out that her babysitter is a time traveller then decides to blackmail her into letting her go on a trip rather than being in awe. Just to top it off, when she gets taken to another planet she seems so apathetic and isn't grateful at all.

Oh God. This annoyed the hell out of me, too. Bitch you just travelled through time and space to another planet, with a theme park that has been recreated to look like the moon overlooking the Earth, with exploded galaxies in the sky and surrounded by technology you'll never see ever in your lifetime. That **** is ****ing amazing; when I was 7 I would **** myself with excitement to see a lion in the zoo! Piss off back to doing your times tables if that isn't interesting enough for you.

Reply 884

HotfireLegend

Original post by rhw

I didn't find her a useful addition to this episode at all, to be honest. The start of the episode in general felt really fake and rushed, a bit unnatural for DW. The boy got only a couple lines, and as someone else said, the girl's acting wasn't very good.

But it is next episode (the finale) on May 18th I both anticipate and dread for depending how it goes, it could either help or hinder the series a lot.

I'm in the middling camp...

Reply 885

Aula

Original post by rhw

The emperor was actually quite a good character too, in my opinion. That being said, that girl was annoying and a bit unrealistic. A ~7 year old randomly finds out that her babysitter is a time traveller then decides to blackmail her into letting her go on a trip rather than being in awe. Just to top it off, when she gets taken to another planet she seems so apathetic and isn't grateful at all.

The girl was not ~7, she was more like 13. The boy was probably about 7.

WRT the doctor fancying Clara, I don't think he does. I think the cyberthing assumed he did because so much of his brain was taken up with thinking about her.

Right, time to look for the prequel :teeth:

Reply 886

Rakas21

Original post by aoxa

You need to spoiler your post.

Spoiler

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 887

Hype en Ecosse

Forgot another thing that I liked: the shoutout to this bad boy.

Reply 888

aoxa

Original post by Rakas21

You need to spoiler your post.

Spoiler

Sorry about the spoiler thing :s-smilie:

Spoiler

And the library wasn't on a planet, it was a planet in its own right - the Lux family built it for CAL (Charlotte Ann Lux, if memory serves correct)

I don't think your spoiler tag worked either :/

Reply 889

Aula

Original post by Rakas21

You need to spoiler your post.

Spoiler

You need to spoiler it in your quote too :wink:

Spoiler

Reply 890

Maid Marian

Original post by rhw

Really? I didn't think they were that scary at all :s-smilie:

Reply 891

justanotherposter

What is it with this series and underwhelming endings? Activating a bomb and then teleporting to safety is not an exciting ending, it's extremely anti-climatic. Once the bomb was set how hard would it have been for the writers to limit the tech the empire ship had so that The Doctor and everyone else had to get to an extraction point to get teleported into the ship? If that was the case they would have had to find a way to slip past the cybermen to get there, this would have made the cybermen a lot more relevant and dangerous, as it was the cybermen didn't really do much other than to serve as a distraction to pad out the chess match.

Reply 892

The Wild Youth

Original post by Sherlockedd

I thought Neil Gaiman did this ep...? I agree with what you said though, essentially the cybermen were good but everything else was either mediocore or bad. Although I didnt like the pacing much...

Posted from TSR Mobile

oh, my bad!

well, 'a spin' anyway! :tongue:

Reply 893

bluester

thought Warwick Davis was quite a good edition for one episode - it wasn't too bad an episode but the kids were irritating (especially the girl). next week has the potential to either be really good or just a massive anticlimax

Reply 894

Skip_Snip

Original post by justanotherposter

That would be a bit similar to Asylum of the Daleks :wink:

Reply 895

Daniel Prince

Original post by bluester

The girl was written literally the worst possible way. Previous episodes hadn't indicated she was surly at all, but in this one all of a sudden she's a grumpy teenager not excited about anything, and even throws out this hate for Clara out of the blue.

Pretty shoddy work from the Writer. Wasn't impressed.

Reply 896

Rascacielos

Original post by Aula

I assumed that too, until the last scene where Clara left the Tardis and the Doctor said something like "an impossible girl who wears skirts a bit too tight..." And is clearly thinking about Clara in a tight skirt (or lack of). :sexface:

The prequel is out btw.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 897

tory88

It was an interesting episode tonight, and one I really enjoyed on the whole. However, the children weren't written in well at all, which let down an otherwise very good episode.

Reply 898

Dalek1099

Original post by Maid Marian

I didn't think this one was very good. Clara was incredibly annoying. I don't believe her or relate to her character at all :frown:

Completely hating her character-what happened to the Clara of Asylum/Snowmen its all disappeared and she has now become so dull-its such a shame She is in the next series because I really doubt the revelation of her character is going to make up for it.

This episode was really,really bad worse than even The Rings of Akaten its still better than Asylum of the Daleks though and I just kept waiting for something to actually happen and the ending was probably the worst ever of the whole series-there is a terrible invasion oh I know we'll blow up the planet the writing is getting ridiculously bad everyone on this thread could write better I bet- it just took me a second to write an ending about 100 times better, with the Doctor using the Cyber-Planner's control to dismantle the cybermen, with an epic quirky Matt Smith speech.The Doctor's solution could have only slowed the Cybermen down enough for them to get away and millions of new cybermen would storm the stars.

I think every episode bar the first one had a bad ending and even the ending to the first one was ok not perfect.There was one thing I liked though-Matt Smith playing the cyber-planner but it was completely overdone and became the episode.

I think the new cybermen weren't as good-not the same death through electrocution and no stomping around.I liked the mini cybermats but they were under used-I would have liked to have seen more scenes with them in.

A lot of it didn't even made sense- they need the children for the cyber-planner and suddenly after death millions of cybermen become alive again because of the Doctor and he is hailed savior of the cybermen how? and for some reason Neill Gaiman seems to have thought he was writing for the Borg-if I was their creators I would sue the Cybermen aren't Borg and the idea of adding small metal pieces instead of proper upgradation is very silly.

I am really angry because now they have messed up the Cybermen as well as the Daleks but I really don't think there has been a good full Cybermen episode since The Next Doctor-Russell T Davies seems to know how to write for them.

Reply 899

SciFiRory

good episode, great to see the Cybermen back as well, Warwick Davis was superb as well :biggrin:

the kids being in the series at all has to be the most pointless thrown in plot device to appeal to that demographic ever though, seriously, you could write them out of the entire season and lose exactly nought. (heck you would gain as you don't have the pointlessness of them being there!)