Doctor Who and Torchwood

[lazarus]

That is not one of the better episodes.

I didn't care much for the Cybermen appearance in New Who, either.

 

[lazarus]

Prologue to episode 1 of the new season:


YouTube - Doctor Who Series 6 Prequel 1

 

[mobvok]

Man I've got really high hopes for this season. I don't know why but I'm drawing a sports analogy- last year was an expansion year with a new team, so maybe having a full offseason with the same players to refresh and clean out what didn't work will pay off.

Nixon!

 

[mobvok]

Whoa what got into season 3 of Torchwood? After watching about every other episode in Season 1 I gave up and skipped ahead to Day One. It's like the showrunner (Davies?) finally found an actual vision instead of tossing the inchoate scribblings of a horny 15 year old trying to imagine what "cool" detectives look like on screen.

Season 1 the whole dumb team squabbled like infants and usually just ran around waving guns from their stupid Eddie Bauer Torchwood brand SUV. I don't want to overexaggerate but the 53 minutes of Children of Earth so far hasn't just felt like a welcome breeze, it's a hurricane gale. Everyone has a role to play! No Owen!

 

[lazarus]

I'll still take the S1 and S2 finales over Children of Earth.

 

[clarityat3am]

No Owen!

This part makes me so sad. I love me some Captain Jack, but I really loved Owen.

 

[mobvok]

I'll still take the S1 and S2 finales over Children of Earth.

I disliked the characters so much (despite a brief respite with the ep Captain Jack Harkness) it was probably for the best to skip ahead. This did a ton of good for Ianto, for one, who I like much more than at any point immediately following his Cyberwoman breakdown.

 

[lazarus]

You really should try to go back and watch Season 2 when you're done. It's much more consistent.

 

[mobvok]

That was quite a rush.

Clearly the Frobisher/alien box scenes owed a lot to Independence Day, but the design choices were smart, Peter Capaldi just nailed the part and the (first few) PM cabinet meeting was extremely well done as well. The cherry on top of all that was the disastrous fait accompli from Torchwood, I don't think I breathed for a solid two hours there. The last hour started getting a little lost in its own bombast as our Torchwood gang didn't have anything to do at the start. But goodness with that ending Davies wanted to wring Jack out.

Solid work, and great fun.

 

[mobvok]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vIsQ25Krq8

I might be wrong.

But I think there's a lightning-quick shot of the interior of the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS.

....Pretty great time to get into the show(s), yeah? I think it's timed right so Torchwood S4 starts almost as Doctor Who S6 reaches midseason hiatus.

 

[mobvok]

Droppin' trailers like whoa:

The trailers are getting a little worse over time, but the glimpse is appreciated none the less.

YouTube - Exclusive DOCTOR WHO Extended Trailer 2011

 

[mobvok]

The Welsh have been quite industrious lately:

YouTube - Torchwood: Miracle Day Official Teaser Trailer

I doubt this was related to the inspiration behind it, but after CoE when Harkness was repeatedly shot, used as a living bomb and then buried alive in concrete it felt like they had sufficiently explored the full extent of that character factoid. The "no death" premise hopefully takes the emphasis off that a little.

 

[mobvok]

Woooo yay Season 3 premiere this time.

Donna being the "new" companion for the S3 Christmas episode was the second major surprise of the revised series so far. (The first was the existence of Captain Jack Harkness, somehow his complete existence eluded me) Was there a contractual issue that prevented her from being le compagnon for season 3? I thought her character was rather brilliant in contrast to the lovey-dovey eyed Rose of the last two season, and a welcome change for the Doctor. (But coming on to it clean though, I'm sure I would have wondered why on earth was Donna so goddamned loud!) I know the talented Euros Lyn (Silence in the Library, Girl in the Fireplace, End of Time, Children of Earth) directed this episode (and there was a welcome tonal shift from the dreary Army of Ghosts/Doomsday), but I can't help but wonder if Toby Haynes or Adam Smith (Moffat's ace directors) would have handled a moment like the Earth first congealing into itself with a touch more grace and wonder.

I think that's enough parenthesis for one paragraph.

"Don't you remember the Cybermen?"
"I was in Spain!"
"They had Cybermen in Spain."
"Scuba diving!"

Definitely caught the "on command of Saxon" part....

 

[mobvok]

Ok this is too cool to wait for further explanation, but I can't wait to find out why Daft Punk is stalking Martha.

 

[mobvok]

I don't have a frame of reference to compare it to, but it certainly seems like this season the show is trying to make a major push for publicity across the Atlantic:

io9. We come from the future.

It's called "The Doctor's Wife"... It's episode four. It was going to be episode eleven of the last season. But I got a sad email as they started shooting the last season, when they got up to the point where they were going to be shooting my episode. It said, "We've run out of money, so we're going to be shooting "The Lodger" instead because we can shoot that in a flat around the corner. And we can't make your episode in the flat around the corner."

...

Rory didn't exist [in the earlier draft], and that was during Rory's transient non-existent bit, so suddenly getting Rory back meant I had to do a draft of the script that was actually more fun. I was so grumpy at having to write a new draft, and then I discovered I could write these great lines for Rory, and Rory and Amy together.

Gaiman said one of his favorite moments in his episode involves Rory and Amy: "Amy tells Rory off for leaving the Doctor on his own, and Rory says, 'Well, he's a Time Lord, he'll be fine." And she looks at Rory wit infinite compassion and says, 'Rory, it's just what they're called. it doesn't mean he actually knows what he's doing.'"

But despite his encyclopedic knowledge of the show, he kept in mind that for many viewers, this could be their first episode of the show. People are sometimes intimidated by the complexity of the show's backstory, but they should really just keep in mind that it's about a blue box that can travel anywhere in time and space and sometimes even get where it's going. And there will be a bloke in it, and he will try to fix what's wrong, and usually he'll succeed, "because he is awesome. Now shut up and watch 'Blink.'"

 

[mobvok]

Catherine Tate is one of the finalists to take over for Steve Carrell on The Office. No joke. Wow.

Of the five finalists, only two stand a realistic chance of taking over the gig full-time: Spader and Tate. Romano’s committed to Men of a Certain Age, Arnett just booked an NBC pilot, and Gervais has been there done that. Will Ferrell, meanwhile, wraps up his arc in mid-May, and — despite buzz to the contrary — is not expected back next season.

 

[mobvok]

I'm going to prop up this thread, damn it! To further what the kids are calling "social interaction" these days, I'm going to respond to a post made 3 years ago:

The two-parter Human Nature/Family of Blood was one of the best episodes ever.

I'll give the show and David Tennant credit for a pretty crackin' premise and finale. The one thing that got me, though, was that the design was TOO elegant: if Martha had the watch (or it was safely in the TARDIS) there would have been no episode. Instead, we watch the hand of the scriptwriter descend from the heavens and flick the watch another 40 minutes or so away from Martha via the kid stealing the watch.

Season 3 finale:

Wow, what a 3 car pile up. A damn shame, too, that so much potential was wasted. The neat part was in Utopia; first the wonderfully cool reaction of the Doctor to Jack Harkness' return peaking in the reactor core dialogue, and then the creeping dread as Martha starts piecing together the implications of the fob watch in the scientist's hand. (LOVED this) Alas, the show skimmed past what I thought was a pretty evocative concept- surviving in the entropic moroseness of an entire universe having spent itself dry. There's no one else out there, just you, the unending darkness above, and the wolves at the gate.

Harkness spends the next 90 minutes wandering around aimlessly.

Ugh, the Master. What a thanklessly hammy role he was given.

Dobby the Door Elf becomes Space Jesus through the magic of prayer. Did he have to levitate? Was that necessary?

At least with the benefit of foresight I can know RTD gets this out of his system now. He wrote a far superior take on this same premise in Children of Earth, and then dispelled the absurdity of The Sainted Doctor in the End of Time showdown- a delicious part of the appeal watching the Doctor wave his gun between the two targets was the sense of how ordinary and solitary an individual this Doctor of Man really was. Who was he to stand before the might of Gallifrey?

Family of Blood earned credit for its insightful parting question for the Doctor about the ridiculous body count that tends to follow one of his "happy endings". This was a good followup: "hooray, we've saved the day! We're just moments after they killed the President of the United States!".

Just a mess. Ok, on to season 4! Good luck, Martha! Neat girl.

 

[lazarus]

God, you had to go and remind me about that overblown finale.

Consider how Moffat's finale last season was equally ambitious, but totally restrained and dignified by comparison. And, you know, actually moving because of those choices.

 

[Screwtape2]

Season 3 finale:

Wow, what a 3 car pile up. A damn shame, too, that so much potential was wasted.

Seriously. It seemed that RTD struggled with execution in his last two season finales which is strange because End of Time and the two Torchwood finales (three if you include the final part of Children of Earth) were great.

So much of season 3 makes me cringe to be honest. I don't know what was worse, the three part season finale or the Daleks In Manhattan two parter. Season 4 was a huge improvement though. Unfortunately it ended with the absurd Journey's End. Blink, Midnight, Silence In The Library, Forest of The Dead and The Stolen Earth made up for it though.

 

[mobvok]

Behold, clips:

YouTube - Doctor Who The Impossible Astronaut Preview Clip One
YouTube - Doctor Who The Impossible Astronaut Preview Clip Two

It took me a few watches to realize why the first clip bugged me: the geography is all wrong. Rory and Amy should have seen the Doctor on his car, and River walking up.

LOVE the Doctor's attitude in the second clip.

 

[lazarus]

Sigh.

The Doctor Who News Page: Elisabeth Sladen 1948-2011

 

[mobvok]

The BBC America commercial breaks were appallingly distracting and ill timed, especially compared to the complete Netflix streams and S5 videos I had been watching. I think I'm going to torrent it next week.

So I don't know quite how that affected the narrative momentum. That's A), by the way. Mark Sheppard is going to narrate my dreams tonight.

B) First half of a two parter usually is a little wonky/busy (much less the season premiere), so this episode gets a pass as of now.

Not a normative judgment: I don't think that episode was what BBC America wanted, given the recent Stateside publicity push. Dense! It felt like Moffat was frantically hopping around, planting a dozen seeds. Looks a little messy now, but hopefully the end result justifies it.

The one real miscalculation was having Amy announce her pregnancy as part of the climactic beat.

 

[mobvok]

The concept of The Silence works pretty well as an allegory for the human tendency for self-delusion (climate change? disaster prevention?), and River's monologue to Rory crystallized a surprisingly (for me) fresh take that what she's essentially dealing with is dementia/Alzheimers in the Doctor.

I hope they find a way to tie that in thematically to the rest of the season. Well, mostly the Silence. I'd be most disappointed if that ability just ended up being a weird quirk about them.

....edited to add that it appears memory is a common thread to both issues. Hmmm.

 

[mobvok]

Commercial-less rewatch was a lot of fun because the pacing suddenly felt better. I've heard that the end of the next episode has a serious major-league WTF/mindfuck moment.

I wonder if The Silents have a Pregnancy Field/Auto Inseminator 6000. And if River and Rory's surprising silence (no "holy shit what is that" when seeing the creatures was confusing) is the silent part of the name.

 

[deep]

One of the Silents could have been the 3rd shooter in the JFK assassination.

And of course we know the 18 minute gap on the Nixon tapes (they keep showing the tape machine) was some ranting about the Silents.

or it could have just been the TARDIS incident?

 

[lazarus]

I still can't get over the idea that a black secret service agent was on Nixon's Oval Office staff.

Come on now.

 

[deep]

only in (BBC) America.

 

[mobvok]

Holy crap. Holy crap. Hoooooooooooooooly moly.

So much! happened. I didn't mention this last week but The Silents didn't scare me that much. But Amy-In-The-Attic was amazing, and the difference was watching the "stitched together" version with the edited memories, not the slightly cheesy "oh.....what-was-I-looking-at? "master tape" from last episode. That was awesome. Also awesome? The ensemble drama flavor with Amy and Delaware doing their best X-Files impression.

Moffat made chopped liver of the script but somehow it hung together (LOVED using Nixon as the trump card). Wow.

Here's my take: the kid is River and the Doctor's, but Amy raised it. The pregnancy scare was a misdirection. They also need a better "regeneration" effect that doesn't make the target look like a scarecrow.

 

[mobvok]

Post Hypnotic Suggestions

"Tell the Doctor what he must know, and what he must never know"
~Silent in the White House bathroom

That's what the Doctor was getting at with his questioning of Amy's pregnancy at the end.

 

[lazarus]

Moffat made chopped liver of the script but somehow it hung together (LOVED using Nixon as the trump card).

I don't think it hung together. Too confusing and tonally all over the place. Compared to the first part this was a fucking mess.

What Moffat is doing in the long term looks interesting but as an individual story this kind of disappeared up its own asshole, which is completely different from last season's brilliant opener.