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Doctor Who

bionicbob

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If I were to order a Doctor Who Audio Story from Big Finish, which would to recommend? Any MUST HEAR productions that add to the mythology???
 

hebrides

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Well, considering that McGann only got to play Eighth on screen once, I'd definitely say his Eighth Doctor Adventures (and New Eighth Doctor Adventures) are a good place to start. I started with "Mary's Story," which (IIRC) is about $1 US to download, since it's a short one that was originally a part of a compilation.

I really, really liked it because it places The Doctor with Lord Byron, the Shelleys, and Dr. Polidori during the weekend that led to the writing of Frankenstein (I considered specializing in Romanticism for a while when I was going for my MA). It also most definitely adds to the mythology, and not just because Eighth is in it...

I'm also slowly working my way through other Eighth Doctor Adventures. Blood of the Daleks is a really good, very creepy and menacing adventure, making great use of sound to add suspense...
 

bionicbob

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Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Don't know if I was just not in a Who mood, but this one pretty much disappointed me.

A cute idea whose execution did not live up to it's potential.

To me, everything just felt way too forced and too convenient and too sentimental.
Too much humor. Or attempts at humor. Poorly careening from slapstick to dark drama.
The 2 robots felt like the twins from Bayformers 2.
The same gene pool solution way too obvious and not even well done.
The Ponds getting short shifted again with guest stars.
Why couldn't Earth self destruct the missiles once the Ark was moving away?
Why did the raptors conveniently wait outside for the hunter guy to return instead of attacking?
Why didn't the scanner recognize the Doctor as a Time Lord? They have in past episodes.

It was not all bad. There were a couple nice, touching moments.
Loved Rory's dad sitting on the edge of the Tardis eating his lunch looking down on the Earth.

In the end, it felt like Moffat and the crew were too ambitious and tried to be a bit of everything and not quite succeeding at anything.:-(

Hopefully, next week will be better. :)
 

hebrides

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It was definitely a lighter episode, but I think we may look back on it and see that all was not as breezy as it appeared. Too many hints of foreboding from The Doctor -- his looks, his reluctance to let the Ponds go, his conversation with Amy...I think something quite, quite bad may be coming, and as usual, he knows it first because he's already been there.
 

bionicbob

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hebrides said:
It was definitely a lighter episode, but I think we may look back on it and see that all was not as breezy as it appeared. Too many hints of foreboding from The Doctor -- his looks, his reluctance to let the Ponds go, his conversation with Amy...I think something quite, quite bad may be coming, and as usual, he knows it first because he's already been there.

I agree with you there. Those were the good moments for me. But I felt it lost some of its impact buried in much of the over the top silliness.

It was still a fun episode, I just wish it felt more balanced, slightly more subtle (I realize it is Dr. Who...LOL!) and less in your face.

But that said, my 12 year old daughter LOVED it!!! She laughed herself silly and nearly cried when the dinosaur got shot. So what do I know...? :lol:
 

lpd

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hebrides said:
It was definitely a lighter episode, but I think we may look back on it and see that all was not as breezy as it appeared. Too many hints of foreboding from The Doctor -- his looks, his reluctance to let the Ponds go, his conversation with Amy...I think something quite, quite bad may be coming, and as usual, he knows it first because he's already been there.

My thoughts exactly, there's a storm coming. I like the way the newer Doctor Who series' seem to have some form of back story running through them, keeps it interesting and there's a constant feeling that just round the corner something major is about to occur.
And a few nice cameos as well. The robots with Mitchell and Webb's voices, great stuff.
 

TomH1138

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I thought it was terrific fun all the way through. I guess it might seem like a comedown to some after "Asylum," but I thought it worked very well on its own terms. Of course, it helped that I saw two very boring classic serials - "Planet of the Daleks" and "Delta and the Bannermen" - in between.

I liked the mashup of different types of storylines. Instead of just giving us a historical story or just a story set in space, we had historical characters and futuristic characters and all other kinds of craziness happening at once!

I love Rory's dad. He's the new Wilf.

And in the midst of all the fun, there was that serious conversation between the Doctor and Amy, about how she can't ever have a normal life because she's always expecting him to come back for her. The scene was very well played by the actors, and it reminded me greatly of the scene in "Fear Her" where Rose says that she's going to travel with the Doctor forever - and then she's gone a few episodes later. I don't think the similarities in the conversations are a coincidence.

Interesting that the Doctor has dropped off the Ponds back at home two weeks in a row. I thought this was odd, but then I heard a very interesting theory about that - which I won't share here in case it turns out to be true! :)
 

bionicbob

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The BBC has finally released a synopsis for the upcoming episode "THE POWER OF THREE"....

"The day the Earth got cubed. The year of the slow invasion. The time the Doctor came to stay."

There have been many ways to invade the Earth, and the Doctor has seen them all. Or so he always thought - and then the human race wakes up one morning and discovers the world has been overrun by... small black cubes. Which then proceed to... do nothing much at all. A plan is afoot, humanity is endangered - but by what and how and, above all, when? For the first time in his world-saving career the Doctor has to call upon the least of his virtues: patience. And the Ponds face something possibly more terrifying than any world-ending apocalypse - the Doctor is moving in!

Not just a tale of alien intervention, this is also the story of a nice young couple who happen to have a bow-tied lunatic from space staying in their spare room. It's halfway between an alien invasion movie and The Man Who Came to Dinner.
 

TomH1138

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Oh, wow. That episode sounds nothing short of amazing!
 

bionicbob

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A TOWN CALLED MERCY

Well that was brilliant!!!
That is the type of Doctor story I enjoy and had hoped Dinosaurs would have been more like... A much better constructed and balanced story in my opinion, with just the right amounts of humor, drama, cosmic and pathos!

Did anyone catch how old the Doctor said he was this time??? He said it so fast I am not sure I heard it right?
Did he say "1200 years old"?????

Lots of foreshadowing in terms of character.
I like the comment about Amy being a Mom. Makes me wonder though, perhaps this is a future Amy and she had another child????

Great spaghetti western homage music and I loved all the classic old western camera angles used.

All in all, this may be one of my favorite Smith adventures so far.

Two slightly different trailers for next week's episode....


the other with Amy's voice over...
 

TomH1138

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Since this was (I believe) the first episode filmed this season, we've seen more clips and photos of this than any other episode. So I've really been looking forward to it. Sadly, this is the first episode this year that didn't live up to the hype for me.

Admittedly, part of the problem was simply the marketing rather than the fault of the episode. I saw so many clips in advance that all of the jokes and the most thought-provoking lines were ruined for me before the episode started.

Another part of the problem, though, was the under-use of Ben Browder. He delivered some lines of exposition and then was killed off only halfway through. What a waste of a terrific talent. I would rather have seen him as the doctor or even as the villain.

Also, I didn't entirely agree with the Doctor's (ultimate) choices this time or Amy's sort-of moral high ground. Everything worked out in the end, but what if Kahler-Mas hadn't decided to take matters into his own hands? How many innocent people would the Doctor have been willing to let die to protect the "rights" of one killer? Maybe throwing him to the wolves isn't the right solution, but what exactly was the Doctor's plan if Kahler hadn't decided to do what he did? (The Doctor was clearly surprised to hear what Kahler was doing.) The notion that the Doctor and his comrades could have just kept confusing the Gunslinger by running around in disguise for the rest of their lives is ludicrous. The episode presented some very complicated ethical questions, but I wasn't satisfied that it really tried to answer them.

The Doctor has been all too willing, in the past, to lend a helping hand to villains (like trying to rescue the Master and Davros after they've committed untold atrocities) while being equally willing to throw more noble, if misguided, people under the bus (such as ruining the life and career of Harriet Jones; his vindictive behavior towards a scared mother who had her entire family kidnapped by Silurians; and - oh, yeah - blowing up his own entire planet over the actions of a few people at the top). So, yes, I have reasons for thinking that the Doctor's distorted sense of pacifism would tell him to let everyone in town get killed just so he could show the Gunslinger that he's "better than" just handing Kahler over.

I realize that, on some level, it's just a silly space show, and I shouldn't be so bothered by it. But I definitely think the logic here is loopy.

I also didn't believe in this town being as progressive as it was, even post-Civil War. Are we supposed to believe that no one in Nevada in the 1800s would have been the least alarmed or frightened of an extraterrestrial living in their town until someone else came looking for him? Even the casting of the person of African descent as the pastor seemed implausible. It wouldn't be until nearly a decade later in this country that an African-American priest leading a congregation of Caucasians would even begin to seem normal, as sad as it is to say.

At any rate, I honestly didn't see the twist coming about Kahler not being such a good guy or the Gunslinger being more sympathetic than he appeared. So largely on the basis of that, and because of the acting and the beautiful scenery, I'll give this episode a 3 out of 5. But it's my least favorite of the new episodes.

Oh, well. Next week is a new episode, so it's time for me to move on.

The Doctor forced to stay in one place - what an interesting twist! :)

 

bionicbob

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^ Funny, how we as Who Fans have completely different takes on the same episodes... LOL.

So I reading some interesting observations and theories over on The Den of the Geek...

Along with the repeated themes of no one knowing the Doctor and foreshadowing of the Ponds departure,
did anyone notice the flickering lights in all three episodes so far? In Amy's model change room,
then Rory's Dad changing a flickering light bulb and then when the Doctor and Ponds arrive in Mercy, the street light start to flicker. Is Moffet messing with us, or does it mean something????

Also, the last episode with the Ponds is Angels in New York. I am not sure, but do any of the trailers say what time period the story takes place? As the last time we saw young Melody Pond was in 1960s New York, what if the Ponds are reunited with her and stay to raise her???? Altered timeline? Fixed point? It would be a sweet, sad ending... Just throwing ideas out there.... LOL!
 

Zarius

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You're not alone with that theory Bob, a lot of fans are coming to the same conclusions about The Ponds.

The lights flickering seem to be symbolic imagery, prepping the audience for the Angels story. Everyone knows the Angels thrive on flickering lights (and indeed, one shot sees the baby Angel blowing out Rory's flickering match)

Could also be symbolic of the companions "flickering" in and out of The Doctor's life...until the time comes to blow the candle out.
 

bionicbob

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...only a few more hours now til....

2&feature=plpp_video[/video]
 

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Very excited for the new episode tonight! Can't wait to see whats going to happen. I also noticed the flickering lights, though I didn't think anything of it until you mentioned it bionicbob. I guess we'll just have to wait to find out, though its not going to be too long of a wait.
 

bionicbob

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I wonder, with the story supposedly taking place over a year on Earth (at least I think that is what I read???) if the producers will take the moment to have the Doctor acknowledge the passing of Sarah Jane? I think it would be nice touch, and it would add to the drama of Ponds departure.
 

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How did we all feel about the episode. I'll be honest it left me a little underwhelmed. It had this massive build up and when things kicked off the Doctor seemed to solve the problem in minutes. It felt like he pulled all the answers out of thin air.
I'll have to give it another watch.
 

LastSurvivor

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Well, after two disappointing opening episodes (particularly the Dinosaur episode which was destroyed by those two highly, um, hilarious robots... not) I was delighted to experience my favourite episode of the entire Matt Smith/Steven Moffat era in "A Town Called Mercy". What was this I found? A skillfully and nicely paced narrative. The Doctor almost taking centre stage. Amy not annoying in the slightest. Beautifully filmed and edited. A genuinely excellent villain (if you can call him that) in The Gunslinger and a finale which packed an emotional punch. What's more, it actually felt like Doctor Who. Brilliant stuff.

And, to my surprise, a lot of that good work was continued in last nights episode, "The Power of Three". Chris Chibnall's writing does threaten to allow the Doctor and his companions to come across as far too silly at times, but every time you think this might happen he reins it in and the danger and excitement in the invasion of the cubes story is kept intact. However, where the story falls down is in the rushed finale to try and tie things up in a way that makes some kind of sense. Ummm, well it doesn't really and yet again that bloody sonic screwdriver comes to the damned rescue again as a device to save the day. It's about time Moffat and co dispatched with the sonic device which has now become nothing but an annoying way to get the writers out of a tight corner. Far too lazy for my liking. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Good interplay between the main leads and Murray Gold's "bang you over the head" music very nicely low down in the mix.

Can the good run of two top notch episodes continue in the next episode? Hmmm... The angels are back.. and so is River Song. Does this mean Moffat is writing another episode again? Oh well, I guess it was too good to last.
 
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