Who?

[Mumpo]

Who?

I should add that I am enjoying this season generally. I've long held the belief, and it still holds true, that Doctor Who only becomes really bad when the production team behind it becomes lazy and complacent. Fortunately that hasn't happened too often (classic series season 15, new series season 4 are clear examples) as the people both behind and in front of the cameras are generally busting a gut to get something original and exciting on the screen - even if the budget isn't up to it.

'Flatline' had an abundance of potential, but needed handling in a far more understated manner, rather than as the knockabout caper it ended up.

I'm 80% sold on Capaldi now, but the character of his Doctor still doesn't seem completely fleshed out, and his performances sometimes stray into awkward comedy - the kind of thing that David Tennant or Matt Smith could get away with, but doesn't suit Capaldi's gruffer demeanor. I know he wants to go in a naturalistic direction, but he needs some kind of hook, some quirk of behaviour or intonation that marks him out as alien.

[Patrick Thistle]

Who?

Wait? What's going on? Where were you all when I was flaming the new series after the first couple of episodes?

Actually my favourite bit of this episode was the idea of the Tardis being so small in its external dimensions that the Doctor couldn't get out.

Yes, the swinging chair wouldn't have really worked. Also what's the point of having Danny's character? Talk about an easy gig - 'Your job is to take the occasional phone call and, erm, that's it really. This week you're sitting on a bench.'

[Lucy Waterman]

Who?

Doctor Who only becomes really bad when the production team behind it becomes lazy and complacent.

Or when they forget how to make television (Warriors Of The Deep through to Survival, generally).

[Ginger Yellow]

Who?

Oh, for fuck's sake. After a couple of decentish episodes, that was the most unremitting giberish I've seen in a long time.

[ian.64]

Who?

The Horror Channel's been showing the old Whos and its led me to discover possibly the best Who adventure ever, City of Death, written by Douglas Adams under a pseudonym that'll resonate perfectly with one OTF regular on here. I vaguely remember it from my youth (where it created a minor buzz due to it having John Cleese in it for a cameo) but seeing it again yielded a lot of pleasure. Yep, the same old cheap effects and slightly ragged production values, but it's got Tom Baker in fine form, a cracking villainous turn by Julian Glover and the star of the show has to be the script. It's very well plotted, but, above all, is as funny as hell. It's rich in that quality that perhaps was only rarely seen in subsequent Whos: wit.

[Various Artist]

Who?

Oh yes, 'City of Death' is glorious fun, Who with all the shackles off — part of the joy is just watching Tom Baker and Lalla Ward running around Paris through the traffic like they haven't a care in the world. Terrific plot too, and yes Julian Glover is excellent, the Cleese cameo is great, and the script is full of funny lines. "I say, what a wonderful butler, he's so violent!"
One of the best ever. Fittingly, albeit partly thanks to an ITV strike removing the competition at the time, it got the highest audience in DW history, 16 million and something.

I'm not having Lucy's blanket dismissal of everything from 'Warriors On The Cheap' through to 'Survival', though — although I do recognise you added the "...generally" caveat. 'The Caves of Androzani' comes just a handful of stories into that sequence, and even the much-derided Colin Baker era had the very good 'Vengeance on Varos'. There's typically not a lot of love for Sylvester McCoy's tenure either, but I personally find the average quality (certainly once you get past the deeply patchy first series, after which his Doctor found his tone much better) as high as almost any part of the classic series' run. I'm a big fan of three stories that have a lot more to them than is usually credited, 'Delta and the Bannermen', 'The Happiness Patrol' and 'The Greatest Show in the Galaxy', and that's before you get to 'Remembrance of the Daleks' and the fine closing trio of 'Ghost Light', 'The Curse of Fenric' and 'Survival' itself. 'Fenric' is my favourite of all Doctor Who stories, particularly in the expanded, feature-length version on the DVD.

Meanwhile, back to the present, and I can't help but feel that Jongudmund's comment of a couple of weeks ago was oddly prescient:

No magical thinking or defeating the monsters with the tears of children or any of that garbage.

Or specifically, the love of children for their mummies. Am I right that that one, slightly troubled little girl made a phone call that somehow was broadcast, translated and heeded worldwide in time for the whole planet's governments to avoid napalming the magic protective ultra-canopy of forest before it somehow soaked up the solar flare then vanished?
The previous two episodes were great, though. As indeed was the set-up for this one, which makes the ending more of a shame. I also thought it was far more likely that once the inhabitants of London Zoo started escaping the protagonists were far more statistically likely to come across a confused meerkat or stick insect in the forest than a couple of wolves and an oddly pliant tiger, but there we go.

[Beatle Simon]

Who?

This is the third episode in a row that the Doctor "doesn't know" who or what is going on. He didn't know who is behind the mummy train, who the inter-dimensional beings are, and initially, why the forest suddenly appeared. He even said to Clara that people will forget the forest, like they forgot the last crisis (Battle Of Canary Wharf?).
Even in the trailer for next week, he doesn't seem to recognise Missy.
Maybe this is an in-joke on Capaldi's age/this Doctor's grumpiness, or maybe a re-boot?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Who?

I must have missed large bits of explanatory background stuff in the first few minutes last night, because I kept picking all sorts of holes in it. Like where was everyone else? Mr Pink and the school party are apparently alone in the woods, which quickly turn out to be Trafalgar Square. On any given day there are roughly a million people within half a mile of there, where were they all? That, and there is a apparently now an underground entrance right behind one of the lions, ie at the foot of Nelson's Column (there isn't).

[Ginger Yellow]

Who?

Like I say, unremitting gibberish.

[Various Artist]

Who?

Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote: I must have missed large bits of explanatory background stuff in the first few minutes last night, because I kept picking all sorts of holes in it. Like where was everyone else? Mr Pink and the school party are apparently alone in the woods, which quickly turn out to be Trafalgar Square. On any given day there are roughly a million people within half a mile of there, where were they all? That, and there is a apparently now an underground entrance right behind one of the lions, ie at the foot of Nelson's Column (there isn't).

I don't think you missed anything Rogin; it feels a bit like a hangover from a rejected draft of the story where London is covered in forest because it's been abandoned for a century, rather than the trees having sprung up overnight. Presumably everybody else is trapped in their houses by undergrowth. I did think at the time it was odd the way the flamethrower squad issued one half-hearted warning when the kids came barrelling out of the forest, then after their fire-raising attempt failed they just vanished again. You'd think the area would've been on lockdown, or helicopters and bulldozers everywhere, but no.

The Doctor not knowing what's going on is fine by me — after all, it's an infinitely big universe (or multiple thereof); it would be a lot odder if even he could take one look at the weirdest goings-on and instantly surmise just what was afoot every time. His insistence that everyone would just forget the whole forest thing ever happened was a bit peculiar, though. I mean, apart from anything else there were presumably millions of people photographing, blogging and tweeting about the massive jungle that had sprung up over the whole globe overnight, not to mention about their enormous relief shortly afterwards at miraculously not being immolated from space.

Is it just me, meanwhile, or is the occasionally-glimpsed meta-plot we've glimpsed once or twice outside the main adventures incredibly reminiscent of the one a couple of years ago with sinister eyepatch-lady peeking in every so often on Amy Pond's timestream?

[Eggchaser]

Who?

I am willing to extend a great deal of sympathy towards slightly shonky Who plots, but that was terrible, I'm afraid. Promising start, pffft finish.

Next week looks good though. Non-existent Clara, eh?

[Diable Rouge]

Who?

Drama repeating feature-length Whos from the pre-Gatiss era, will be interesting to see if they were pure sci-fi in those days, or indeed if they were in any way more targeted at adults.

[Crusoe]

Who?

Velvet Android wrote: I don't think you missed anything Rogin; it feels a bit like a hangover from a rejected draft of the story where London is covered in forest because it's been abandoned for a century, rather than the trees having sprung up overnight.

It felt like someone had decided to knock out an entire episode based on a glance at the cover of Alan Weisman's World Without Us, but hadn't bothered with the plot.

[Eggchaser]

Who?

Incidentally, there's some poor middle aged woman wandering around her house, looking in wardrobes and the airing cupboard wondering where her spangly "night out with the girls" top has got to.

[jason voorhees]

Who?

*********MINOR DARK WATER SPOILERRRrrr*********

I was close, that's for sure (having thought Missy was The Rani.)

I guess we have a lot to learn about Time Lord procreation.

At least if you're going to have a lopsided season, at least end it good.

*****OVERrrrRR******

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Who?

Rogin the Armchair fan posted:

posted 24-08-2014 19:35
*****SPOILER******

jason voorhees wrote

Rogin - I was going to say The Rani.

Ooh, that's good. That's very very good. Possibly better than the actual writers have come up with.

The best I'd come up with was wondering if they'd just decided the Master had regenerated into a lass.

*****SPOILER *****
Looks like I was right after all ...

[jason voorhees]

Who?

Awesome pick, and awesome episode.

[Errorist Sympathiser]

Who?

Nobody else? Thought it was a great episode with some lovely touches like the Brigadier returning. Could have done without Osgood dying. Ended on a massive downer, though.

[Beatle Simon]

Who?

Of course, there is the possibility that could've been the Zygon version of Osgood.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Who?

I hope Missy getting zapped by Cybertehcnology at the end leaves it open for her (him) to return again. They've already emancipated the Daleks, we can't do without the Master.

[jason voorhees]

Who?

I totally missed that it was a blue Cyberman shot, as her teleportation was in blue. But yes, Michelle Gomez was one of the greatest heels of any show, and brought such a wonderful element. The writing, the performance, the kiss to the Pertwee/Delgado/Brigadier years...

Just wish the graveyard Cybermen were a little more, uh, non-Weeping Angel like. Un-statue like.

Loved the last scene with Clara and the Doctor, especially with the lack of Gallifrey. That is certainly not a relationship built on trust.

[jason voorhees]

Who?

I would advise anyone to copyright "Psycho Poppins" as a band name as well.

[Ray de Galles]

Who?

I thought it was hugely enjoyable, bonkers stuff. Great performances from Capaldi and Gomez, the latter especially.

I am normally the last person who worries about this but I really don't have a clue about the hows and whys of Missy's plan (though being "Bananas" is clearly their get out for the latter) and the whole "dead becoming Cybermen" thing was clearly nothing more than Moffat wanting the image of them climbing from graves.

[Ray de Galles]

Who?

Serge Gainsbourg wrote: Of course, there is the possibility that could've been the Zygon version of Osgood.

Anyone else think killing her off was Moffat's little bit of wish fulfillment with regard to the fanboy/girl obsessives?

[Eggchaser]

Who?

She died? Was I that pissed by 10.00 that I missed that bit (watched them back to back, stuff waiting a week for the cliffhanger resolution).