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Doctor Who - Series 9 (continued)

Started by Replies From View, October 26, 2015, 06:51:48 PM

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Replies From View

I couldn't bring myself to watch the episode itself, but decided to watch the Doctor Who Confidential episode today for the 2009 story 'Planet of the Dead'.

I found Michelle Ryan's character annoying enough back in 2009, but when seeing the footage of her this time she was doubly annoying, because her smugness and "more than a match for the Doctor!!" qualities appear to have actually been the template for Clara this whole time.

Talulah, really!

Quote from: Kelvin on January 31, 2016, 05:21:18 PM
I hated that, as well. So much so that I rewatched the scene again afterwards and it's actually left slightly more ambiguous than that. We do get told by The Doctor that he left for reasons other than adventure and boredom, but he never actually admits that he left because he thought he was connected to the Hybrid. It's hinted at several times and Ashildr explicitly suggests it to him... but The Doctor just looks a bit haunted and then laughs in her face at the suggestion, leaving it open to interpretation whether that was really the reason he left or not.

I suppose it's pretty significant that Moffat is hinting there was more to him leaving Gallifrey than boredom, but at least it isn't set in stone that he only left because of the rubbish Hybrid storyline.

A truly dreadful moment and one of the reasons I hate all this continuity porn and fetishisation of the Doctor Who mythology. There are some things that they got right and should just be left alone, a magic Police Box is one of them and that the Doctor ran away to see the universe is another because it is poetic and beautiful, a symbolic urge that every child recognises, imaging just how great and glorious it would be to get away from all the stuffy old grown ups with their boring rules and simply have adventures, living in the splendour of the moment, discovering things for yourself.

This also, I think, underlies why some companion + Doctor relationships work and others don't. Accepting the idea that the Doctor's running away to see the universe echoes a childish urge we all recognise then in a similar manner the companion + Doctor relationship works with the companion representing the trapped in child and the Doctor, the magic Uncle/Grandfather figure. That member of the family who isn't a dull day to day fixture but a slightly mysterious figure who can swoop into your world and whisk you off to do something exciting and different. They are close enough to care for you but not in that overprotective, obsessive way your parents do when they are scared to expose to any of the lurking dangers that might be out there.

Looked at this way, a successful companion + Doctor relationship should start with the companion role being somehow related to childhood restrictions and the Doctor being the person that starts to remove some of those restraints, helping to slowly build character and self-reliance and liberate the real person. Amy Pond fits this pattern and the relationship works, Rose did, Donna did, Clara doesn't and the relationship doesn't (she was already self sufficient, the Doctor came looking for her) and Martha doesn't really need the Doctor either and again this is a less successful pairing. Even in the classic series you can find this kind of pairing working, it's why Jo Grant + 3rd Doctor is better than Liz Shaw + 3rd Doctor. In the case of Romana, if you assume Romana 2 was the precocious child waiting to escape the baleful influence of the faux-adult parental Romana 1 the idea still works. So basically companion + Doctor equals restricted child rescued from impoverishing boredom by a magic uncle.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Replies From View on January 31, 2016, 05:03:38 PM
It's only just dawned on me that in the finale to series 9...

You realise that you've just fucked up my glorious guide to Doctor Who threads, don't you, you heartless beast?

Replies From View

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on January 31, 2016, 07:47:56 PM
You realise that you've just fucked up my glorious guide to Doctor Who threads, don't you, you heartless beast?

How?

Phil_A

Quote from: Attila on January 21, 2016, 04:17:37 PM
If you poke around on Amazon.fr, you can find the handful of Target books translated into French; I picked up a copy of Le cerveau de Morbius that way!

Ah, any excuse to repost the hilariously inaccurate French novel covers featuring those weirdo Bogdanoff twins.


Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Replies From View on January 31, 2016, 08:15:33 PM
How?

How?  HOW??!!

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on January 22, 2016, 02:15:37 PM2015/10/26 - 2016/01/21Doctor Who - Series 9 (continued) (S09(35)E07 (The Zygon Invasion) - S09(35)E12 (Hell Bent) plus Christmas Special (The Husbands of River Song))

Completely and utterly RUINED.  And it's all YOUR FAULT.

I shan't forgive you, you know.

Replies From View

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on January 31, 2016, 09:06:28 PM
How?  HOW??!!

Completely and utterly RUINED.  And it's all YOUR FAULT.

I shan't forgive you, you know.

I am unashamed.  For I am the man who spools about the country putting the spines on people's DVD collections slightly out of line with one another.  And yes it is good.

Replies From View


Attila

Harrumph - I posted a scan of a random Cerveau de Morbius page in the Series 10 thread, but it was buried under the Chibnall gnashing and wailing :(

mothman

Just for the sake of clarification - I may have missed a memo - who the FUCK are Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, anyway?

Replies From View

Quote from: mothman on January 31, 2016, 11:03:51 PM
who the FUCK are Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, anyway?

You were eating them this evening.

Shaky

Quote from: mothman on January 31, 2016, 11:03:51 PM
Just for the sake of clarification - I may have missed a memo - who the FUCK are Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, anyway?

French scientific titans and the world's foremost Doctor Who ("Docteur Oooh") scholars.

Attila

Quote from: mothman on January 31, 2016, 11:03:51 PM
Just for the sake of clarification - I may have missed a memo - who the FUCK are Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, anyway?

Dip into the bonkers world of the Bogdanoff twins:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_and_Grichka_Bogdanoff

Controversy surrounding their doctorates

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogdanov_affair

mook

well i must say, this...

https://youtu.be/dEIufcrjEF4

... is really jolly good... i like the brucie stance ~57seconds in.


purlieu

There's something really, really wrong about Hartnell in Tom's outfit.

Replies From View

I could unearth the series 8 thread, where this belongs, or I could post this here or in the series 10 thread.  *tosses imaginary coin*  Oh, I needed something with three sides.  Fuck it:

http://jamiemathieson.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/cut-scene-from-mummy-on-orient-express.html