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Doctor Who Series 2011 |OT| Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff

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Clegg

Member
I loved the Amy and Rory cameo too.

So is Amy famous now.

Do you think the slogan on her billboard was a message to the Doctor?
 

Trokil

Banned
sionyboy said:
Maybe next series we can have an episode with no companions/partners and just have the Doctor just by himself going about what constitutes a normal day in his life.

But he said he needs companions or else one day he would stop caring, because he is getting old, has seen too much.
 
Trokil said:
But he said he needs companions or else one day he would stop caring, because he is getting old, has seen too much.

Yeah but maybe this near death experience (because surely he isn't go to die.... surely?) will cause him to readjust some of his opinions.

I don't want him to be without companions forever, but just an episode of him bumbling around on his own could be fun. Matt Smith brings a hell of a lot of energy and eccentricity to the character but companions do tend to have a 'grounding' effect on the Doctor, be nice to see him without that for a bit.

In other news, Doctor Who fans are quick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor
 

Clegg

Member
Oh Shit!! Did anyone else notice that the fragrence Amy was modelling was called Petrichor?

Callback to the Doctors Wife. Definitely a message to the Doctor.
 

AngryMoth

Member
All season long I've been thinking there's no way the season ends without an alternate version of events in Utah where the doctor doesn't die. Now though I think he probably will die, and be resurrected somehow in the Christmas special.

Also I really like this episode. Cordon didn't bug anywhere near I much as I thought he would.
 
Can Amy go back to being a regular companion after this?

I mean, if she's now a supermodel in the Doctor Who universe, their ususual strangers-blundering-into-adventure template is hardly going to work any more.
 

Clegg

Member
Mama Robotnik said:
Can Amy go back to being a regular companion after this?

I mean, if she's now a supermodel in the Doctor Who universe, their ususual strangers-blundering-into-adventure template is hardly going to work any more.
I think you're forgetting the usual season finale DW ending.
Also known as "Hit the giant reset button"
 
That episode taught me three things

1) It would be awful if the buffoon Craig became a real companion!
2) Gareth Roberts would be an awful show runner.
3) It’s worth watching 40+ minutes of awfulness for an epic ending.

So much ineptness from Craig and the Cybermen (Don’t ask me why they didn’t stamp on the Doctor's head when he was unconscious) Craig is a moron and it was way too much of a risk taking a baby with him near a Cybermen facility, he’s only met the Doctor once and shouldn’t have assumed he had enough assurance, the Doctor: '‘doesn’t always win’'. The basic sitcom humour was not funny involving them being a couple and the women’s wear scene was especially awful. ‘Stormageddon’ wasn’t funny the first time nor any of the other times I lost count of. The worst episode this year so far and one of the worst of NewWho. The Cybermen need to be rebooted.

I feel like we’ve gone through this road before, the Doctor begins travelling on his own, leaving his friends behind and awaiting his death (except this time he won’t) Oh yeah that was only back in 09. The Doctor’s angst about his predicted and ‘fixed’ death was really boring but we’ll see how it goes.

Next week’s episode looks goddamn crazy. Pterodactyls, Roman Silurians, Dalek and whatever else you may notice. It might as well be a teaser for a whole new season. Perhaps the Doctor ends up creating an alternate universe where the ponds can actually raise their little Melody not to be a crazy, that would be a nice end for them.
 

maharg

idspispopd
King of the Potato People said:
he’s only met the Doctor once and shouldn’t have assumed he had enough assurance

He's only met the Doctor once, but that one time the Doctor head-butted his memories into him.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
I don't get a couple of things

- How was Amy there, yet also she was at the lake and wasn't famous? Or is the time of this episode different - its 'tomorrow' for the Doctor but not literally tomorrow?

- those kids in the alley at the end - they were the shop assistants but young? Whats all that about?

and my son said his coat was different this week?
 

maharg

idspispopd
mrklaw said:
I don't get a couple of things

- How was Amy there, yet also she was at the lake and wasn't famous? Or is the time of this episode different - its 'tomorrow' for the Doctor but not literally tomorrow?

- those kids in the alley at the end - they were the shop assistants but young? Whats all that about?

and my son said his coat was different this week?

The coat has alternated every episode since it came back.
 

DieH@rd

Banned
OK episode, but that end! So pumped for the ending now.

Trokil said:
But he said he needs companions or else one day he would stop caring, because he is getting old, has seen too much.

WATERS OF MARS
 

beril

Member
I really enjoyed the episode apart from the blowing up cybermen with love part. Also the cyber conversion seemed very cheap. Sure the weird cybys industri conversion machines with giant sawblades and stuff were corny as hell, and I know these are different cybermen (did they ever show anyone being converted to a cyberman in the old show? I can't remember ), but just sticking some armor on a guy and then frying his brain doesn't really feel all that cyberish
 
mrklaw said:
I don't get a couple of things

- How was Amy there, yet also she was at the lake and wasn't famous? Or is the time of this episode different - its 'tomorrow' for the Doctor but not literally tomorrow?

- those kids in the alley at the end - they were the shop assistants but young? Whats all that about?

and my son said his coat was different this week?
The kids were just kids. At some point they get interviewed by someone about seeing the Doctor. Later, River digs up the reports.
 

xandaca

Member
Going against what seems to be the majority opinion here, but I thought that was a pretty bad episode to be honest. The Cybermen plot was so flimsy as to barely exist as anything other than a (poor) excuse for reuniting Corden and Smith. The ending to that story was so idiotic that even Gareth Roberts, the writer, seemed compelled to make a joke out of it, while the attempt to throw everything together for the season finale in the last few minutes wasn't much better. Was it supposed to be a cliffhanger that River Song was in the spacesuit? Didn't we know that already by everyone telling us that she's the one who 'kills' The Doctor? I liked 'The Lodger' a great deal, but this episode seemed to have little idea of what made that one fun. Corden did his best and Smith was as much fun as ever, but both were fighting an uphill battle.


Here's the full review I wrote on my blog.
 
mrklaw said:
- How was Amy there, yet also she was at the lake and wasn't famous? Or is the time of this episode different - its 'tomorrow' for the Doctor but not literally tomorrow?

Because meeting the Doctor at the lake isn't in Amy's future, it's in her past. She's already experienced the lake, but now we're getting to see the Doctor of the future that actually gets killed in The Impossible Astronaut.

So in a nutshell, Amy was at the lake before she was famous/on billboards.
 
xandaca said:
Going against what seems to be the majority opinion here, but I thought that was a pretty bad episode to be honest. The Cybermen plot was so flimsy as to barely exist as anything other than a (poor) excuse for reuniting Corden and Smith. The ending to that story was so idiotic that even Gareth Roberts, the writer, seemed compelled to make a joke out of it, while the attempt to throw everything together for the season finale in the last few minutes wasn't much better. Was it supposed to be a cliffhanger that River Song was in the spacesuit? Didn't we know that already by everyone telling us that she's the one who 'kills' The Doctor? I liked 'The Lodger' a great deal, but this episode seemed to have little idea of what made that one fun. Corden did his best and Smith was as much fun as ever, but both were fighting an uphill battle.


Here's the full review I wrote on my blog.

I don't think you're really going against opinion that much, it's certainly one of the weaker episodes (2nd worst?), but it did have a few amusing moments. I don't think an episode has to be that bad this season to rank that lowly either, and I always expect the odd dodgy episode with Who to be honest, it's just part of the ride, though something that has improved significantly recently.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Incendiary said:
Because meeting the Doctor at the lake isn't in Amy's future, it's in her past. She's already experienced the lake, but now we're getting to see the Doctor of the future that actually gets killed in The Impossible Astronaut.

So in a nutshell, Amy was at the lake before she was famous/on billboards.

so, this is '200 years older' Doctor?


I don't mind the Cybermen being weak, that wasn't the focus of the episode to me, just some filler giving them something to play around with

focus was clearly the Doctor. Away from his companion, on his own, trying a 'social visit' but clearly being uncomfortable and not knowing what to do. Pulling away from Craig even though Craig feels safer around him. And being all melancholy about his last days.
 

bengraven

Member
Again: epic ending.

Part of me feels like they gave River a bit of an "out" with the Silence and Madame using their abilities to program her mind, but then again it would be incredibly complicated to create a scenario where River kills the Doctor because she truly WANTS to and yet she's forgiven for doing so.

Complicated, but genius if they could have pulled it off.

That said, I still love me some River, me, so I'm excited about next episode.



Also noticed the Viking has an eyepatch and that made me 100% agree with the theory that it's something to protect from the Silence.

Mr. Sam said:
Already done when The Doctor went by, I think, Spock in The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.

I seriously just watched The Doctor Dances last night as well, I can't believe I didn't remember that.


mrklaw said:
so, this is '200 years older' Doctor?

Yep, this is the 1100 year old version of him.


Incendiary said:
Because meeting the Doctor at the lake isn't in Amy's future, it's in her past. She's already experienced the lake, but now we're getting to see the Doctor of the future that actually gets killed in The Impossible Astronaut.

So in a nutshell, Amy was at the lake before she was famous/on billboards.

Yep, Super Model Amy watched the Doctor die and was the one he left at that house with Rory.

The Doctor was writing those letters to send into the PAST...
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
the eyepatch thing is odd. If its 'you can remember them if you only see them with one eye', then how come all the people in the world with only sight in one eye didn't remember them?
 

maharg

idspispopd
mrklaw said:
the eyepatch thing is odd. If its 'you can remember them if you only see them with one eye', then how come all the people in the world with only sight in one eye didn't remember them?

Huh? No one's suggesting that. The current suggestion seems to be that there's a picture of a silent inside the eyepatch, or it's somehow being projected from the patch.
 
The Doctor knows way more than he's let on about the circumstances surrounding his death. Why would he do the farewell tour thing, and then invite his 3 most recent companions to watch him die? Weird.
 

Bossun

Member
Weak episode...I liked the lodger but everything was all half-assed in this one.

The ending make the circle with the beginning of the season but the only thing we learned was that the eye-patched woman work with the silence.

What truly makes this episode was the trailer for the finale wich was epic.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
maharg said:
Huh? No one's suggesting that. The current suggestion seems to be that there's a picture of a silent inside the eyepatch, or it's somehow being projected from the patch.

oh, ok. i was just guessing from what an eyepatch usually does. Quite difficult to see a picture taped inside an eyepatch so it didn't immediately spring to mind :)
 

isny

napkin dispenser
Incendiary said:
Because meeting the Doctor at the lake isn't in Amy's future, it's in her past. She's already experienced the lake, but now we're getting to see the Doctor of the future that actually gets killed in The Impossible Astronaut.

So in a nutshell, Amy was at the lake before she was famous/on billboards.

Back to the Future really explains it best.

"There are now two of me here, and there are two of you here. The other me is the Doctor Emmet Brown from 1955. The other me that helps the other you get back to 1985"

There would be two Amy's. One from early 2011 that met up with the Doctor and River, and one that's living with Rory and has become a model.
 
The Doctor Who spin off/reference in the season premiere of Community was pretty much the greatest thing I've ever seen.

The two most consistently creative shows on air intermixing like that was amazing.
 

mclem

Member
Stephen Colbert said:
The Doctor Who spin off/reference in the season premiere of Community was pretty much the greatest thing I've ever seen.

Word of God is that Doctor Who exists in the Community universe, and Inspector Spacetime was a shameless rip-off of it.
 
Can't be true. If that were true, the jesus of community's universe, Abed, would have hailed Inspector Spacetime as the SECOND greatest thing he has ever seen, not the first.
 
That was amazing. A touching story about human emotion and parenthood with Cybermen (the complete antithesis to all of that) as the backdrop which made it all work. The scenes between the Doctor and Craig (every one of them) were great, the baby was hilarious through the Doctor's 'translation' of his dialogue, and the whole story was both funny and sincere. The scene of the Doctor telling Alfie what he has to look forward to in life was one of the best scenes of the season, and probably the best performance Matt Smith has given to date. With the exception of the epilogue which had nothing to do with the story, I loved every second of it. An easy 10/10, and my favorite story of the season.
 
I loved the episode, I just wish we got to hear about what the doctor got upto during those 200 years.

Cant wait for next week.

I seem to remember it being young River in the spaceman outfit when she kills the Doctor, like im pretty sure we even saw her face? Am I remembering wrong?
 
I liked the small touch at the end when the Doctor is doing his wrap-up of what happened, and the girl was "Why are you telling me this?"

ETA:

bobs99 ... said:
I loved the episode, I just wish we got to hear about what the doctor got upto during those 200 years.

Cant wait for next week.

I seem to remember it being young River in the spaceman outfit when she kills the Doctor, like im pretty sure we even saw her face? Am I remembering wrong?

On your first point, didn't someone say what we saw him doing at the beginning of The Impossible Astronaut is what he was doing those 200 years?

Second, no, we never saw the face of the person in the spacesuit at the lake. Only that the Doctor said "It's ok, I know it's you" or something to that effect. We did see Melody in a spacesuit later, but that was earlier in her time stream.

(As an aside, River mentions that the person who got out of the spacesuit must be incredibly strong. Was that a time lord thing that she gave up with the rest of her regenerations? Is there still more to River than we know?)

We also had River saying "Of course not" after she shot at the astronaut and had no effect. She would know that she wouldn't be shot there, since that's her earlier in her time stream.

Oooh, timey wimey indeed. And all of that is based on what's we've seen so far. Who the heck knows what next week holds.
 

Clegg

Member
bobs99 ... said:
I loved the episode, I just wish we got to hear about what the doctor got upto during those 200 years.

Cant wait for next week.

I seem to remember it being young River in the spaceman outfit when she kills the Doctor, like im pretty sure we even saw her face? Am I remembering wrong?
The Doctor was the only person to see the astronauts face in the Impossible Astronaut.

He said "its alright I know who you are" or something like that. The astronaut pulled up his/her visor but the camera angle changed to behind its shoulder so all we could see was the Doctors face.
 

isny

napkin dispenser
Went back and watched EP1 again. Well, the first bit anyways.

So the Doctor in EP1 is the Doctor from the end of EP12. (Stetson, Blue Envelopes, knowing the date he died, talking about how he needs to "stop running", being 1103, etc.

The Silence showing up while they have their pick-nick is watching over Astronaut River to make sure she does her job?

"It's OK, I know it's you", so he already knows it's River? (That's when he points to the ground, or the Sonic, and then bows his head)

Also, the light that he gets "shot" with seems to be the Sonic. The beam shot from the Astronaut is a lot like the "I have an Ap for that" new setting that he uses on the Cybermat in EP12.

I kind of want to go read Gallifrey Base, but am going to hold out a week and just enjoy the finale, as I'm sure it's going to leave us with more answers than resolutions.
 

cory.

Banned
Green Scar said:
Aha, true. Probably isn't even British, the special effects screamed 'Canadian' to me
Oh, actually the writers clarified that Doctor Who is a ripoff of Inspector Spacetime.
 
KuwabaraTheMan said:
A touching story about human emotion and parenthood with Cybermen (the complete antithesis to all of that) as the backdrop which made it all work.

The past two episodes were touching stories about human emotion, one showing the folly of blind faith and the other focusing on how honourable men were capable of doing terrible things, and of how terrible things were sometimes a necessary (amongst other timey-whimy issues such as what Rory has to go though). These themes were all explored elegantly using the shows sci-fi elements.

This episode showed nothing remotely as deep or meaningful as those other two episodes. The message was simple, boring, and none of what happened carried any consequence. The premiss of the story was a dull, uninspired matter of "How hilarious would it be if a father who doesn't have a clue how to care for his child, goes on to save his child." with the comedy being totally off the mark, I mean baby-talk was cute and funny when it was first used, here it was used just to tell a joke on the level of something you'd see in Family Guy. To top it all off the involvement of the cyber-men seemed convoluted just so they could shoehorn in the fact they could be defeated by love.

A low point of the season.
 
Had time to process the episode more, I think its left a bitter taste.

I didn't enjoy it that much. The Cybermen are below useless now, defeated in a way that would make RTD proud - the power of love. They should be terrifying (and the conversion process was starting to go in that direction), but when they are utterly incapable of even sedating their victims to prevent a known weakness that could escalate into a self-destruction frenzy, its difficult to see them as anything other than despressingly incompetent.

The Doctor was even starting to get annoying in the episode, moving from charmingly alien to quirkiness for the sake of itself. There's a fine line and this episode was really crossing it. Craig was an okay character but taking his baby into places of incredible danger is stupid, end of.

I'm uncomfortable with the idea of Amy now being a supermodel (you wouldn't blow up the face of any product model to sell a fragrance, exposure is a given). How she can be a future companion in contemporary stories without someone recognising her (after all a child did) seems difficult to fathom. I don't think they will reset-button such a development out of the story, as that would suggest the entire removal of this story too.

The best bits were the baby's first word (which genuinely raised a laugh), the Cybermat being "cute", and the lead into next week's story. The worst was the pointless and inept Cybermen who desperately need a revamp, and their pitiable method of defeat.


(There's a Seventh Doctor story called The Harvest, in which a crashed Cyberman ship is found underneath London with little in the way of resources or power. They're heavily damaged, and don't have the ability to make full conversions: the result is an interesting hybrid race, with the strengths of machine bodies but the scheming abilities of the most cunning human beings. The government secretly starts trading them convicts for technology, its quite well done. Its certainly a damn sight better than this story.)
 
Spirit of Jazz said:
The past two episodes were touching stories about human emotion, one showing the folly of blind faith and the other focusing on how honourable men were capable of doing terrible things, and of how terrible things were sometimes a necessary (amongst other timey-whimy issues such as what Rory has to go though). These themes were all explored elegantly using the shows sci-fi elements.

This episode showed nothing remotely as deep or meaningful as those other two episodes. The message was simple, boring, and none of what happened carried any consequence. The premiss of the story was a dull, uninspired matter of "How hilarious would it be if a father who doesn't have a clue how to care for his child, goes on to save his child." with the comedy being totally off the mark, I mean baby-talk was cute and funny when it was first used, here it was used just to tell a joke on the level of something you'd see in Family Guy. To top it all off the involvement of the cyber-men seemed convoluted just so they could shoehorn in the fact they could be defeated by love.

A low point of the season.

I vehemently disagree. The Girl Who Waited and The God Complex both explored interesting concepts, but I felt like this was a much more mature story than either one. It explored not only parenthood (far better than this season's ridiculous arc has), but also had the wonderful scene of the Doctor talking to the baby, telling him about what he has to look forward to. I love science-fiction, but I also felt like this episode down to earth setting made the emotions even stronger.

Craig's love for his child enduring over the Cybermen was a great moment of genuine emotion, and the Doctor was at his most emotional here. His reaction to seeing Amy and Rory, his scene with Alfie in the bedroom, and the way he and Craig interacted throughout the episode were so refreshingly genuine in a season which has had very little for me to really care about. It explored concepts that genre television generally doesn't get involved with, and it felt so much stronger for actually showing a father struggling with how to care for his child rather than having the baby magically whisked off and raised to adulthood.
 
So, when did the Doctor take his 200 year journey? After "A Good Man Goes To War"? Or After he dropped Amy and Rory off at their new house? Or did he take a bunch of smaller trips in between?

Something doesn't fit.
 
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