Doctor Who - Series 9 (continued)

[Mister Six]

Rewatched The Woman Who Lived because I'm a masochist.

When Me is getting her gun out, she says to the Doctor "It's kill or be killed." in the episode where the main theme is that they are both immortal.

It's made pretty clear in both Maisie Williams episodes that she can be killed if she sustains enough damage. Likewise The Doctor.

Immortal isn't the same as indestructible or invulnerable.

[Mister Six]

the dialogue in the first half was a real struggle.

Fucking right.

COACHMAN: Do as he says. I've heard of this brigand. He's known as the Knightmare! Faster than Sam Swift the Quick, deadlier than Deadly Dupont.
HIGHWAYMAN: Dabbling lowpads the pair of 'em, with terrible pseudonyms to boot. Cash bags, jewels, the lot.

Christ almighty.

[Attila]

Reading the script makes it sound like something from one of Woody Allen's earlier books.

[Mister Six]

Except he was funny.

The big problem isn't the overwrought and clunky speech - it's expecting an actual human to deliver it with conviction.

[Replies From View]

I don't think it helps that one of those humans is a woman who's been pointlessly dubbed over by a man who can't act.

[Blumf]

Not a massive problem, but: Why wasn't whatsherface travelling further afield? She's immortal and that, yet she's just moping about in England. She could be adventuring around the New World, or trekking through Asia. Instead she just seems to have hung around Western Europe all that time.

[Mister Six]

Because travelling to the New World and foreign parts was highly dangerous and unpleasant, and she mostly just wanted to get loads of money? Also if she was determined to keep her library going, it would be a bit of a pain in the arse to cart back and forth.

I don't think it helps that one of those humans is a woman who's been pointlessly dubbed over by a man who can't act.

I thought his delivery was quite good, actually.

[Replies From View]

I thought his delivery was quite good, actually.

Here:  have a cake for being wrong.

[MojoJojo]

To be fair, I don't think the highwayman bits matter too much - Dr Who can often be a bit panto. What's annoying is they have two competent actors, an interesting setup between them, plenty of money to throw on flashbacks but due to the script it just ends up a bit flat and dull.

[HappyTree]

The opener was very reminiscent of Blackadder. Woman highwayman puts on a male voice. Woman being robbed hints at wanting to be ravished. Was half expecting Capaldi to start waxing lyrical about his own private kingdom.

[Replies From View]

Was half expecting Capaldi to start waxing lyrical about his own private kingdom parts.

YOU ARE OBSESSED WITH THAT.

[olliebean]

My predictions:

Spoiler alert

In episode 10, Maisie Williams, who has been watching over Clara, is back. Moffat's teaser says:

Spoiler alert

The Doctor and Clara, with their old friend Rigsy, find themselves in a secret alien world, folded away among the streets of London. Not all of them will get out alive. One of the three intruders must face the raven...

[close]

Spoiler alert

so either Rigsy or Clara will die, presumably. I'm guessing that's when Clara karks it.

[close]

Spoiler alert

But then episode 12 is called "Heaven Sent", and Moff's somewhat pretentious teaser goes on about a sad song called Clara, so I'm guessing she'll be back for that episode, sent from heaven or some such shit.

[close]

Source for Moffat's episode teasers: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-09-14/steven-moffats-exclusive-doctor-who-series-nine-episode-guide

[close]

[lipsink]

Just because.

[Blinder Data]

Is Doctor Who really doing Islamic State? Fucking hell lads

[Natnar]

Why can't they just let Zygons be Zygons?

[Blinder Data]

Cannot WAIT for The Region Legion's response to this.

[Norton Canes]

DONT GO IN HINKLEY!!

[Norton Canes]

Oh Hinkley.

[Norton Canes]

How did they manage to take a design as brilliant as the Zygons and tweak it just enough to look really shit?

[Norton Canes]

Clara does 'evil' by... smiling slightly

[Norton Canes]

Wow.

[biggytitbo]

Apart from a few poorly directed moments that was quite good fun, with a nice twist at the end. Really seem to have spent some money on it too.


'Hybrid'?

[weekender]

There is a hell of a lot going on in this series.  Politically speaking, there's a lot of commentary about the way the current world is operating. 

But fuck me putting a Zygon/possible not Zygon shooting an air to missile towards a plane is a fucking bold move.

Great episode.

[Serge]

Yeah, that was great. And no 'Next Time' clips to take away from the cliffhanger - they should do that every time. I know they went to New Mexico to shoot the scenes there, but it was a shame that Turmezistan was quite obviously Wales with some CGI mountains thrown in (and the Christmas village from 'Time Of The Doctor' again.) Didn't see the Clara twist coming, nice bit of misdirection going on there. Fingers crossed that part two lives up to that.

[Blinder Data]

Yes, pacing and editing were a little off at points but overall that was pretty great I thought. Very adult, felt more like Torchwood than DW. Most political episode in years.

It will be interesting to see if the Doctor gets out of this while satisfying his pacifist principles.

[Milverton]

Cannot WAIT for The Region Legion's response to this.

TRL isn't wrong though, is he? The BBC's product placements are far more insidious than ITV's ever were, because they aren't trying to sell mere soap powder, they're trying to sell social change. This episode is merely a supremely hamfisted attempt even by Auntie's startlingly low standards.

Rebecca Front's character is a fucking joke. Even without THE MESSAGE this would be a shit episode. I can't believe an actor of Capaldi's calibre is happy to go on with this nonsense. This is, what, his twentieth episode? What's he had, a couple of good 'uns?

[biggytitbo]

My comment that it sounded similar to Aliens of London was true, until this I don't think Doctor Who has been as explicitly political, with lots of straight up references to asylum seekers, bombing, ISIS, 'taking our benefits' etc.


Shame a few bizarre, poorly directed scenes spoils it slightly at times (eg most of the bits with Rebecca Front) as otherwise it was well done.

[biggytitbo]

One thi that bothered me throughout thouh - how did 20 million zygons infiltrate the uk? Does that mean 20 million humans are either dead or hidden away in pods somewhere, all with the approval of unit and the Doc? That doesn't really work as an idea does it?

[Old Nehamkin]

There's no dignified way of saying this, but when Clara went all evil, right, let's just say I experienced arousal, if you know what I mean.

[Kelvin]

I thought it was okay. The kind of standard the show should never be slipping below, if you know what I mean. I really don't mind Clara now she's become a more defined character and less quipy. If anything, I'm more bothered by the complete lack of any original character traits for Capaldi's Doctor. I'm reminded of that bit in Red Letter Media's dissection of Star Wars: Episode One where they asked people to describe the prequel characters in only three words. In this case, I don't know how you could describe Capaldi's Doctor without reference either to a quality that existed in the last 3 Doctors, or his ability to shred a guitar. He's just got nothing unique about him, whatsoever.

Is Doctor Who really doing Islamic State? Fucking hell lads

I thought it was a bit on the nose as first, but actually I quite liked how the message was that you don't solve terrorism by bombing countries.

Really seem to have spent some money on it too.

I thought the opposite. I was struck by how much of a drop in quality there had been since the American episodes in series 6. Those looked gorgeous. These looked drab, flat and badly directed. The cut in budget has been really obvious over the last two years.