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Author Topic: New Doctor Who  (Read 59077 times)

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Mothra

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #420 on: July 03, 2010, 09:24:45 PM »

What was the plot? I'm curious if this was a RTD Doctor Who formula to the letter or something slightly more interesting.
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Thad

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #421 on: July 05, 2010, 03:01:34 PM »

Doctor and Amy go to 1963 London to see the Beatles; find it turned into a charred wasteland and humanity wiped out.  The Daleks aren't supposed to be able to change history on such a scale; the Doctor goes to Skaro to investigate and finds that they've gotten their hands on some kind of Time Lord MacGuffin.  He travels back in time and destroys it before they can use it.

It IS all a bit RTD (complete with sky full of Daleks in orderly lines), but it doesn't have his air of trying too hard and taking himself way too seriously.

As far as timeline: no Rory, so it's probably between Victory of the Daleks and Time of Angels.
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Thad

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #422 on: July 12, 2010, 07:52:22 PM »

Episode 2 is better than Episode 1.  Pretty standard "excavation digs up Cybermen in the Arctic" story.  Not much to it; easy to breeze right through.  You wouldn't think Arctic caves and bases would be a more interesting environment than a Dalek city, but they are.

Hits a bit of a sour note in the last act.  I know any video game requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief, but...who the fuck builds a lift that requires one person to operate it while the other rides it?
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Sharkey

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #423 on: July 20, 2010, 11:49:18 PM »

It's okay if you just call it an elevator.

Also, I'm almost thinking of playing these damn things because none of the other major sites are bothering to review them. Probably not even on account of they're not out over here, but man, it'd be fun if someone yelled at me for stealing from the BBC and jumping release date with a writeup.
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Niku

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #424 on: July 21, 2010, 05:52:29 AM »

You could always claim time travel.  That would be cheeky and meta or something.
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Thad

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #425 on: July 23, 2010, 10:11:17 PM »

In addition to the basic :hurr:-ness of the lifts, there are certain universe rules you shouldn't break just so you can resort to lazy genre tropes.  To wit: the Doctor should never, ever have to look for a fucking keycard.

MEANWHILE, IN RADIOLAND:

An Earthly Child has some good character moments and a whole lot bubbling under the surface but it's largely a wasted opportunity.

It's an Eighth Doctor story, and goddamned if I have any more of a bead on him after listening to it than I did before.  He's a perfectly decent line reader, and when there's good dialogue he delivers it well.  That's pretty much all I can say about him at this point.

The story, as you can probably infer from the title (leastways if you've spent a bit of time on the original series), features the return of Susan -- and the introduction of her son Alex (played by McGann's son).

The story picks up 30 years after The Dalek Invasion of Earth.  Human civilization has still not recovered; technology is stranded somewhere back in the mid-twentieth century (which I suppose is a decent enough retroactive explanation for why they didn't have cell phones in 2050).

A lot of the plot beats show promise.  Alex as a young member of an anti-alien extremist group is a nice touch, but it forces some serious suspension of disbelief -- Susan never told him she was an alien?  Really?  The Doctor's great-grandson doesn't know what a TARDIS is?

Susan's arc fares a bit better: she's an eloquent voice arguing that the Earth should solicit help from aliens, that they're not all evil -- and then she proceeds to beg for help from the first aliens she can contact, who of course turn out to be monsters intent on conquering the Earth.

From there, though, it's kinda lame.  The monsters are lame, the plot is predictable and often contrived, and really the whole thing feels pretty rote.

On the plus side, the reunion between Susan and the Doctor is quite satisfying.  There's a brief acknowledgement of The Five Doctors, and a good bit of banter about how that was already three regenerations ago now.  The show raises the question of how Susan had a baby by a human, and never actually answers it, and the fan-wanky question of "Is Susan a Time Lady, or are there Gallifreyans who aren't Time Lords?" is skirted.  (That said, the TV series has hinted pretty strongly that she was killed in the Time War along with the rest of them -- a subject never broached in this story but which pretty much has to be implicit in any post-2005 Eighth Doctor story.)

The ending's pretty satisfying too -- predictable as hell, sure, but the subtext plays out nicely.  The Doctor doesn't come off so well here; he's plenty needy in begging his family to travel the universe with him, but you know as well as Susan does that as soon as he's gone he's going to forget about her for another 25 years.  That much is overt in the dialogue, but really the whole story plays out as something of an indictment of the Doctor's wanderlust and distractibility -- he leaves his granddaughter in a postwar wasteland and then just takes off and leaves the survivors to fend for themselves, not popping back in until 30 years later when he's in the neighborhood and gets a distress call reminding him that, oh yeah, things are still pretty shitty here.

Anyhow, real potential in this one, but most of it's left unrealized.  A sequel could be neat but it's probably not a good idea to hold your breath.

Don't think it's actually available for purchase on this continent, so I can't really give a recommendation; I'd definitely say it's not worth the import price.
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Thad

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #426 on: August 20, 2010, 04:26:56 PM »

So apparently the first two Adventure Games got an international release a few weeks back and are available at Direct2Drive for $5 (for both of them).  Not a bad price at all; I feel like I should probably pay for them since I played them.  Haven't been able to find any info on DRM as yet.

Third game, TARDIS, is due out next week; should have simultaneous international release but not simultaneous Mac release.
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JDigital

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #427 on: August 21, 2010, 08:01:22 AM »

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Thad

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #428 on: September 01, 2010, 08:20:41 PM »

Next season will do what current season of Venture Bros is doing and be two mini-seasons.

Moffat's still hammering away at the importance of all the Doctors being the same person; I'm sure it's going to be an important plot point coming up.
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Royal☭

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #429 on: September 02, 2010, 08:29:42 PM »

Apparently artist Rob Davis and writer Dan McDaid had made a Will Eisner-esque Tenth Doctor story for a collection that doesn't seem like it'll hit the light of day anytime soon, but it's popped up online: The Deep Hearafter

I have no idea who that companion is, though.

Thad

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #430 on: October 10, 2010, 08:28:28 PM »

Via io9:

Season 6/7 teases from something called the Doctor Who Brilliant Book 2011.  Highlights:

Quote
Scared of the eye in space? You should be.

Sounds like the guys from ep 1.  They DID kinda leave that whole Prisoner Zero thing hanging.

Quote
Bow Street Runners are cool.
Some lies are too much for the psychic paper.
What awaits the TARDIS at the zero point.
"How could a fellow Gallifreyan stoop so low?"
The Doctor will get married - twice.
Pay attention - its not really her.
The bones of the TARDIS.

There's more at the link.

Meanwhile, the next we'll be seeing of #11 is in an episode of Sarah Jane next month.

io9 has a synopsis and some conjecture on what it means:

Quote
Quote
As [Sarah and Jo] reminisce, viewers of the show will watch video flashbacks of previous Time Lords William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, whilst their iconic nemeses The Daleks, Sea Devils, Sontarans and Davros also make a return.

In case anyone is wondering how Jo and Sarah Jane are going to reminisce about two Doctors they never met, I'd guess we'll be seeing clips from the Third Doctor and Jo adventure "The Three Doctors," which was William Hartnell's one brief return to the show.

I've pointed out before that Moffat's gone back to the "showing previous Doctors" well so many times that it has to be more than fanwank, he has to be building to something with it.  Especially given his repeated emphasis in interviews of how important it is to remember there's only one Doctor; they're all the same person.  And I think it all ties in to a hint he dropped in an interview I read that he'd resolve the regeneration cap sometime during his run on the show.

To wit, there are some teases on the ep in question, including:

Quote
1. Doctors 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 and 11 all make an appearance.
[...]
6. The Doctor doesn't have to be white. And he can regenerate more than 12 times - a lot more!

So while this is a Rusty episode, and a spinoff at that, it definitely sounds like it fits in with Moffat's grand plan.

Course, the biggest thing hanging at the end of last season was...who blew up the TARDIS?  We heard repeated mentions of "the Silence" in the last season; that's certainly got something to do with it.  As for what it is, I'm guessing an alien race with a childhood-fear theme, along the lines of the Vashta Nerada.

And then of course there's River.  I read an interview where Moff said this season is it, we'll find out who she really is.

Months to go before any of that, of course.  But the Sarah Jane ep sounds like fun.

Oh, also:

Quote
8. Jo Jones (née Grant) has 7 children and (almost) 13 grandchildren.

So RTD DID manage to restrain himself and let Jo keep her happy ending instead of shoehorning her into his "every companion ends up sad and broken" narrative.
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Bal

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #431 on: October 12, 2010, 10:52:15 AM »

Any word on the Christmas special?
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Royal☭

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #432 on: October 12, 2010, 07:19:40 PM »

And I think it all ties in to a hint he dropped in an interview I read that he'd resolve the regeneration cap sometime during his run on the show.

Yeah, apparently by just ignoring it

Verde

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #433 on: October 14, 2010, 03:08:38 AM »

Look what I bumped in to on my travels



Thought I'd stumbled across some filming, but it turned out the real story is that the Metropolitan Police decided to bring back police boxes fifteen years ago, built this one and dumped it in Earl's Court, then realised the whole thing was a dumb idea.

Also turns out I have brain problems or something, because I swear I've never seen it before despite living here for years.

...sorry that this is barely relevant to anything.
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Thad

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #434 on: October 14, 2010, 06:36:32 AM »

Yeah, apparently by just ignoring it

See, I find it weird that everybody's responding to that article by assuming that just because it's a throwaway line in a spinoff means it won't be explained in the main series.  It's a pretty big deal (for the older fans, anyway -- and, lest we forget, the show is now run by one), AND Moffat can't go three episodes without showing us a picture of William Hartnell.

I see the Sarah Jane reveal (and that article, for that matter) as all part of a slow build.
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Thad

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #435 on: October 25, 2010, 07:00:58 PM »

The Sarah Jane Adventures: Death of the Doctor, Part 1

This one was a lot of fun.  There's rather a good bit at the beginning where Rani's dad talks about the nature of grieving -- one of the quieter, more sensitive pieces of dialogue I've seen RTD produce -- but the fun really starts when Jo shows up.  She rattles off a bunch of details of her life that are perfectly in keeping with where we last saw her in The Green Death; she's got a big happy family of globetrotting environmental activists.  Points off for a maudlin moment where she's sad when she finds out the Doctor came to see Sarah Jane but not her, but aside from that their interaction is positively lovely; they reminisce about the old days and talk like old friends because they know each other so well by reputation and common experience even though they've never met.  And both of them immediately suspect they're being played and the Doctor is still alive.

And of course they are and of course he is, as revealed by the alien vulture people who have rather a neat design but very cheap-looking costumes even by Doctor Who standards (BBC budget cuts at work).  And the vulture people are evil, despite Rani's earlier admonition not to judge a book by its cover -- so remember kids, the moral of the story is, you SHOULD judge people by their appearance.

Smith doesn't show up until the last few minutes but makes a great entrance and gives some great delivery to some fun dialogue.  And then, hey, cliffhanger, see you tomorrow.  But I quite liked this one!
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Bal

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #436 on: October 25, 2010, 09:05:00 PM »

That's a damn fine matte painting of the UNIT base.

EDIT: [spoiler]Next time on the Sarah Jane Smith adventures, UNIT agent goes rogue. My god it's like I'm really watching a Jo era episode. What we need now is for the TARDIS to materialize in that special quarry that's on every planet[/spoiler]
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Thad

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #437 on: October 25, 2010, 09:34:35 PM »

That's a damn fine matte painting of the UNIT base.

I predict that in next week's episode, the facade will come off to reveal a giant skull and we will discover that Dr. Wily was behind everything the whole time!
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Bal

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #438 on: October 25, 2010, 11:28:14 PM »

Luckily The Doctor already has the perfect weapon to use against Doorman.
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Bal

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Re: New Doctor Who
« Reply #439 on: November 06, 2010, 07:14:02 AM »

Second part is out. This may be old news, but I just remembered I was waiting for it. Matt Smith is good, and there's a great bit of him talking to Jo about his never showing up again, and we get an exact, probably false, number of times The Doctor can regenerate.
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