The Doctor Who thread

Myranda

Fretwired said:

DiscoStu said:

Fretwired said:

 All sci-fi shows copy and recycle ideas - there's nothing wrong in it.

Last night's episode had two Star Wars lifts as well as the Trek/Fantastic Voyage ones.

The Aristotle hiding in the asteroid belt mirrors the Falcon hiding in Empire, and the gang sliding down the tube in to the organic waste pit is the trash compactor scene from New Hope.

I'm all for nods and references but they went overboard on this one!

I tend to agree .. I was merely referring to the Cybermen/Borg. I think the Trek guys did enough to make them different.

There was also an element from the Terminator franchise. Turning a cyborg so that it attacks its creators. 

And there's a bit of footage on the web showing rusty beam Star Trek style onto the Dalek ship and self destruct blowing it up. I wonder why they cut it.

And my money's on Clara leaving as I'm sure we're seen her replacement.

I thought it was announced she'd be leaving at the end of the season already. I think they'd cut out the Dalek suicide bomber because it doesn't align with the character - ultra-intelligent marred only by unwavering hatred of Daleks - self destructing stops it's killing spree... surviving to build an army of robots programmed to kill Daleks and oversee a campaign of guerrilla attacks against the current Dalek empire however makes for a far more intelligent plan... perhaps allowing for a plot later where the doctor meets a colony of "good" Daleks...  

Fretwired

Myranda said:

I thought it was announced she'd be leaving at the end of the season already.

There was a rumour which was strenuously denied .. should have known Just like a football club chairman supporting his manager.

I think the show needs it as Capaldi is in a different league from Smith and Jenna doesn't work IMHO. She looked bored last night when she was with the Doctor. I bet she runs off with the new maths teacher at her school .. :-)

axisus

For me she is great eye candy, and I'm OK with her performances, but I think it's good to ditch an assistant at some point when a new Dr comes in. Better to write a new character that complements the new feel.

Richardj

DiscoStu said:

ICBM said:

DiscoStu said:

The Aristotle hiding in the asteroid belt mirrors the Falcon hiding in Empire, and the gang sliding down the tube in to the organic waste pit is the trash compactor scene from New Hope Star Wars.

Corrected.

You know, I thought about it before I typed it. I went with the wrong 'un!

I could have sworn that the bit where they are in the Death Star garbage masher was in Episode IV - A New Hope.

Fretwired

Richardj said:

DiscoStu said:

ICBM said:

DiscoStu said:

The Aristotle hiding in the asteroid belt mirrors the Falcon hiding in Empire, and the gang sliding down the tube in to the organic waste pit is the trash compactor scene from New Hope Star Wars.

Corrected.

You know, I thought about it before I typed it. I went with the wrong 'un!

I could have sworn that the bit where they are in the Death Star garbage masher was in Episode IV - A New Hope.

To oldies like me it's Star Wars .... :-)

fatherjack

axisus said:

For me she is great eye candy, and I'm OK with her performances, but I think it's good to ditch an assistant at some point when a new Dr comes in. Better to write a new character that complements the new feel.

I think there should be three-year limits on Doctors, Companions and Showrunners - stop them becoming complacent.

holnrew

We won't get another Amy Pond

John_P

holnrew said:

We won't get another Amy Pond

I stopped watching it with matt smith... it just didn't feel like dr who was much lighter.    I think with some good plots PC could be really good, but Jenna C (as pretty as she might be)  doesn't seem to add anything so far... maybe I missed the character development in the previous series but Amy had a lot more personality (and was more my type)

Myranda

holnrew said:

We won't get another Amy Pond

A character who expresses all forms of emotion with only the word "Doctor"

DiscoStu

Myranda said:

A character who expresses all forms of emotion with only the word "Doctor"

http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/hodor-1024.png?w=738

ICBM

Fretwired said:

Richardj said:

I could have sworn that the bit where they are in the Death Star garbage masher was in Episode IV - A New Hope.

To oldies like me it's Star Wars .... :-)

Correct. It's in Star Wars, which was not even called Episode I at that point, let alone "Episode IV" which encourages you to watch them in the wrong order and completely spoils the most important plot device of the whole series. As well as taking away the only real bit of value in the prequels as you spot the bits which lead you back to where you came in...

FelineGuitars

I really liked Steven Moffats earlier writing on the sitcom series - Coupling . It was clever and witty and made US sitcom Friends seem tame at times. Great cast in Coupling as well which helped no end.

I had looked forward to what he would bring to Dr Who, but if anything he has just exacerbated Russell T Davies camp melodramatic storylines with the Doctor being the centre of the whole universe and his previous foes joining forces to defeat him etc

Capaldi is a welcome return to normality after Tennant and Smith , who although fun in some ways both had way too much of a love-interest storyline integrated into the plot, which although popular with some viewers got a bit tedious in a Sci-Fi series.

Capaldi incorporates some of Pertwee (my first & favourite Doctor) with a touch of Ecclestone and Hartnell's grumpiness, which brings the Doctor back to a better place for me.
Hinting that he's not supposed to be anyone's boyfriend may be useful, maybe there is a hope that Clara can be more like Sarah Jane Smith as a companion (although I think her time is limited and a new companion will be found).

Hopefully it will find itself again.

holnrew

Star Wars is overrated.

axisus

FelineGuitars said:

I really liked Steven Moffats earlier writing on the sitcom series - Coupling . It was clever and witty and made US sitcom Friends seem tame at times. Great cast in Coupling as well which helped no end.

I had looked forward to what he would bring to Dr Who, but if anything he has just exacerbated Russell T Davies camp melodramatic storylines with the Doctor being the centre of the whole universe and his previous foes joining forces to defeat him etc

Capaldi is a welcome return to normality after Tennant and Smith , who although fun in some ways both had way too much of a love-interest storyline integrated into the plot, which although popular with some viewers got a bit tedious in a Sci-Fi series.

Capaldi incorporates some of Pertwee (my first & favourite Doctor) with a touch of Ecclestone and Hartnell's grumpiness, which brings the Doctor back to a better place for me.
Hinting that he's not supposed to be anyone's boyfriend may be useful, maybe there is a hope that Clara can be more like Sarah Jane Smith as a companion (although I think her time is limited and a new companion will be found).

Hopefully it will find itself again.

What a good post! My thoughts exactly (including Jon Pertwee!)

xmrchi

This has prob been said before in this thread, but I'm not going to read through 11 pages of Dr who, but it amazes me how popular this tripe is when we have had a huge improvement in recent years in TV, ie breaking bad, game of thrones, Luther, hannabal, American horror story, all these show just how terrible Dr who is, it's laughably poor but then again most kids TV progs are to us adults :-D

EricTheWeary

Caught up with the bank holiday episode last night. Neither of the kids wanted to watch it with us in the end, so two 49 year olds watching 'family' television. Sad.

I suspect that having the Doctor played by an old bloke (again) will harm the viewing figures, the interest that followed Matt Smith and Tennant and their love lives,etc, probably won't follow Capaldi around. He may be there to give it some gravitas as the beeb kill it off. 

Fretwired

EricTheWeary said:

I suspect that having the Doctor played by an old bloke (again) will harm the viewing figures, the interest that followed Matt Smith and Tennant and their love lives,etc, probably won't follow Capaldi around. He may be there to give it some gravitas as the beeb kill it off. 

I don't think it will if The Moff writes some better scripts that stops the Doctor being the centre of attention and then recruit a couple of young people for the love interest angle. That's how it used to work ... most schools had a Sarah Jane Appreciation society in my day ... :-)

EricTheWeary

Fretwired said:

EricTheWeary said:

I suspect that having the Doctor played by an old bloke (again) will harm the viewing figures, the interest that followed Matt Smith and Tennant and their love lives,etc, probably won't follow Capaldi around. He may be there to give it some gravitas as the beeb kill it off. 

I don't think it will if The Moff writes some better scripts that stops the Doctor being the centre of attention and then recruit a couple of young people for the love interest angle. That's how it used to work ... most schools had a Sarah Jane Appreciation society in my day ... :-)

So the 'I am not your boyfriend' stuff was an opening for Coleman to find an actual boyfriend I suppose.

Fretwired

EricTheWeary said:

Fretwired said:

EricTheWeary said:

I suspect that having the Doctor played by an old bloke (again) will harm the viewing figures, the interest that followed Matt Smith and Tennant and their love lives,etc, probably won't follow Capaldi around. He may be there to give it some gravitas as the beeb kill it off. 

I don't think it will if The Moff writes some better scripts that stops the Doctor being the centre of attention and then recruit a couple of young people for the love interest angle. That's how it used to work ... most schools had a Sarah Jane Appreciation society in my day ... :-)

So the 'I am not your boyfriend' stuff was an opening for Coleman to find an actual boyfriend I suppose.

Yes. I think she's found him. The soldier who teaches maths. I guess he'll look up with Coleman and teach the Doctor that not all soldiers are bad, run off with Coleman leaving the Doctor to go back to the spaceship in last week's episode and hook up with the woman soldier he rejected.

Jalapeno

Was a tad obvious I'd agree ......