[cerveza_fiesta]

Yes. Finally saw the season-ender.

Good on all involved for making a solid 2 and despite my lukewarm initial reaction, I dig the new doctor. Way better than Tennant all around and no more Tennant Serious Face...now it's Smith Vacant Face, which is somehow more entertaining.

I thought the time travel aspects were handled just fine. They at least are consistent with the series so far in terms of how they are handled. Like the timelords escaping their time-bubble thingy. They don't know what the hell is wrong with the Master until the exact second they decide to go back and implant the drumbeat at the time of his exposure to the untempered schism. Likewise, in the museum scene, the doctor doesn't realize he has to go back and tell Rory what to do until he realizes how he escaped the Pandorica.

Hard to explain (obviously) but they seem to treat the time travel thing as closed loops. I like to think the loops exist because they always existed. That's how you avoid the obvious paradox problem...you don't need to have a reason to go back in time and tell yourself to do something, it was an inevitable loop in the timeline. One of those Fixed points the doctor is always talking about.

And River Song still pisses me off. I hope they make her less snarky and retarded next season.

[Traveller]

Just rewatched the finale - which is a first for me, as they usually have some aspect that annoys me too much to warrant a rewatch (tardis towing earth along? Everyone turning into the Master?)

...and I found it just as entertaining. The time travel in these episodes was a bit Bill and Ted - 'if we remember to put an item at point 'a' later, it should be here now!' but it all seemed to work. (Not sure that time and history would have remained exactly the same if all the stars had been wiped out during the Roman occupation of Britain though - the effects of navigation would probably rewrite history all on it's own.)

Matt Smith is a brilliant Doctor, better even than Tennant. The series as a whole has been much better though, with more original material, and slightly less reliance on wheeling out old enemies.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 02 July 2010 - 09:20 PM

[Coco with marshmallows]

actually CF, you just reminded me of that main niggle that bugged me about the time lords return / master bit.

the time lords hid a signal in the master so they could track it and follow it to escape the time lock.

so how the hell did that random woman manage to contact Wilf like that?

Still, roll on christmas.

[polishgenius]

Cocoreturns, on 02 July 2010 - 09:38 PM, said:

so how the hell did that random woman manage to contact Wilf like that?

Because RTD, that's why.

[QuickTidal]

The teaser trailer for this years Christmas special. Looks great! Much more Christmas-y than years past. Excited!

[polishgenius]

Michael Gambon! Awesome!

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 20 November 2010 - 12:36 AM

[QuickTidal]

Loved the Christmas Episode! Probably the best one of the revived series...very Chritmassy!

Review up here: http://icebergink.bl...tmas-carol.html

[Stalker]

anyone know when a new season will start?

and another great heads up for the Christmas episode, I never hear about these things in time in the US.

[polishgenius]

The first half of the next season (including Neil Gaiman's episode) air in roughly spring next year, but no airdate yet I don't think.

[Tsundoku]

The Christmas Carol special was nice, cheesy, feel-good fun. And it had Katherine Jenkins! Yum yum ...

[QuickTidal]

Sombra, on 29 December 2010 - 12:56 AM, said:

The Christmas Carol special was nice, cheesy, feel-good fun. And it had Katherine Jenkins! Yum yum ...

Yep, she's smokedy hot!

[McLovin]

Christmas special was nice. Good to see the gang again. Can't wait for next season.

[Sir Thursday]

I really enjoyed the Christmas special while I was watching it. A Christmas Carol fits so well with Doctor Who given its Ghost of Past/Present/Future motif, the performances were excellent, there was some decent eye candy and a plot that satisfyingly wasn't quite as simplistic as it could perhaps have been.

On later review, it did seem to break some of the established tenets of the New Doctor Who. I didn't think going back within the same timestream was allowed (or TERRIBLE THINGS will happen...)?

[QuickTidal]

Sir Thursday, on 29 December 2010 - 10:07 PM, said:

I really enjoyed the Christmas special while I was watching it. A Christmas Carol fits so well with Doctor Who given its Ghost of Past/Present/Future motif, the performances were excellent, there was some decent eye candy and a plot that satisfyingly wasn't quite as simplistic as it could perhaps have been.

On later review, it did seem to break some of the established tenets of the New Doctor Who. I didn't think going back within the same timestream was allowed (or TERRIBLE THINGS will happen...)?

The Doctor can't go back on his OWN timestream is the way I've always understood it....and he can only cross over other people time streams as far as I can tell....but If you use Amy as an example, he goes back over her's a few times....and then you can even use Rose as an example when the 9th Doctor took her back to when her father died and she was only a little girl.

[McLovin]

You would think though, as much jumping around as he does, he's bound to cross over it at some point. That could make an interesting series finale.

[stone monkey]

If you're interested...




The Neil Gaiman episode is in there somewhere, as is what is rumoured to be an episode that's set entirely within the labyrinthine corridors (what else would they be?) of the TARDIS.

[Roldom]

i feel like i have seen a different dr who to you all...at least this past series

its gotten way to childish, i hate rory with a passion and wish he had never existed, that wish was granted briefly for a while but then they ressurected him.

remember the episode turn left? how different earth was because donna didnt save the dr from going nuts on the spider queen, now imagine a universe that never contained the dr,

now compare that to the wedding scene we get from when the dr falls into the crack in exsistence. Terrible!

i loved coupling, but the new who seems dumbed down a little, the vamp episode was awefull, and a whole planet of weeping angels? the darlek offering tea was ridiculous and not that funny.

the plot had some good ideas but i feel let down, i dont mind the 11th dr, tho i prefer tennent. i liked the idea of cracks in the universe and the build up and everything that was given.

I cant wait to find out whose voice it was in the tardis who said the silence is coming

the christmas episode was a huge let down for me, too cheesey and a huge advert for that singer.

im not saying i hated it, i did enjoy it some, and will watch the rest, the season had some good points

mostly tho i just hate rory

[stone monkey]

I think Doctor Who fandom is pretty much unpleaseable as far as tone is concerned; there are those who think it should be a children's show that adults can get something out of (as the current showrunner Steven Moffet believes) and those who think that it needs to be more adult. The beauty of the concept is that it can support all of these things. I'm old enough to remember the dark days of the 70s and 80s when the show took great relish in messily slaughtering everyone in sight.

For the record, I prefer Moffat's take on it to RTD's, but I like his obsession with time travel conundra and fairy-tale logic. But I'm sure the wind will change at some stage; and it certainly hasn't been Ruined Forever.

[QuickTidal]

The Doctor appeared on the intro to the National Television Awards the other night.

Pretty fun!

[QuickTidal]

stone monkey, on 02 January 2011 - 01:04 PM, said:

I think Doctor Who fandom is pretty much unpleaseable as far as tone is concerned; there are those who think it should be a children's show that adults can get something out of (as the current showrunner Steven Moffet believes) and those who think that it needs to be more adult. The beauty of the concept is that it can support all of these things. I'm old enough to remember the dark days of the 70s and 80s when the show took great relish in messily slaughtering everyone in sight.

For the record, I prefer Moffat's take on it to RTD's, but I like his obsession with time travel conundra and fairy-tale logic. But I'm sure the wind will change at some stage; and it certainly hasn't been Ruined Forever.

Agreed. DW fandom is notoriously fickle as a whole. Just maintaining a presence over at the Gallifrey Mesage boards is a taxing experience because EVERYONE has such diverse opinions.

I liked RTD ERA who and what they did. I think Tennant will always be my fave Doctor. I DID, however, often found myself thinking certain things were less believable in some eps (The Poison Sky anyone?)....this did not hamper my enjoyement though. On the whole I loved every second of it. I think it is probably the best British export that straddles the line between adult and kid entertainment (like Harry Potter) where both groups can enjoy it for some of the same and some different reasons.

I'm 34 next week, and I grew up watching Who (Tom Baker and Peter Davison years) on PBS here in Canada. I LOVED it and never missed it. The theme song used to scare the crap outta me and I had nightmares about Daleks. I have watched the new series since its re-inception in 2005 on the CBC (and now later on Space), and I own all 5 seasons on DVD, plus all of Torchwood too. I thoroughly enjoy it and I even got my girlfriend, who is notorious for making fun of a lot of my SFF stuff that I like....but I got her into DW (VIA the charm of David Tennant...in case you were all wondering how to get a non-sci-fi girl into DW) and now she gets REALLY mad at me if I watch a new episode without her. I enjoyed it as a kid, and I enjoy it almost more as an adult. I'm glad I have those DVD's so I can get my kids into it (when I have kids that is).

@Roldom I really don't see anything wrong with most of Series 5 and Moffat's Who is a MUCH tighter written and run show than RTD ever was....Rory is fun...or at least I find him fun (like Mickey was in Series 1 & 2). If you liked Mickey...then I assume Rory is headed down a similar path where experiences with the Doctor will only harden him into something better. I also think you can't really yet compare the wedding at the end of THE BIG BANG to any season ender from the RTD years...because they haven't finished telling the story they started....silence still hasn't fallen, the TARDIS blows up for a reason....Series 6 is going to continue Series 5's story...so if anything you have to consider THE BIG BANG as the middle of the story....so comparing it with TURN LEFT is a fools game. TURN LEFT was the pre-emptor to RTD's main series finale (Tennant's series finale was of course later with the Specials in 2009) THE STOLEN EARTH & JOURNEY'S END...AKA then end run of his 5 years of working on Who...so he was tying up a giant bunch of character plotlines. They don't compare is my point I guess.

Anyways, I love the show and it really hasn't let me down yet...because even the most tepid episode of DW is still ooodles and oodles better than 60% of the shit on TV in North America.

Cause here in North America..."what do you want to watch?"

Cop/forensic show?
Hospital Drama?
Reality Show?

...cause that's about it...not counting good comedy shows.