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Doctor Who Series 9 |OT| Let Zygons Be Zygons

Wait, didn't the Doctor say that him stealing the moon and the president's wife was a lie?

Transgender Doctor confirmed, then.

It just occurred to me that the Doctor staged a coup and bailed and that's just sort of brushed over

He's literally done that before, at the end of The Five Doctors.

Although Donald Sumpter's performance disappointed me in this episode, I hope they pick up the thread of the founder of the Time Lords alone and powerless in the universe, because that could be one hell of an interesting angle if they properly run with it.
 
We're already down two series of Capaldi. Time fucking flies.

I'll take a tally here: anybody want a Christmas Special OT, or do you guys just wanna keep it to this thread? I can whip one up no problem.

Also, I'm thinking of setting up another Off-Season thread like the last one. I think it worked out pretty well before.

And a new Big Finish thread would be neat. Just a thought. Doctor Who (the member, not the Doctor) had one before, I think. There's a ton of interest for Big Finish now more than before (myself included!).

Personally I'd rather just keep this thread since it's only a few weeks until Christmas anyway. After that I'm down for whatever.

And I imagine that off-season there wont be as much talk going on, so maybe that thread can just have a Big Finish section in the op to encourage audio discussion so that the thread still sees some action? Big Finish is a good pitstop for offseason anyway.

Ive listened to a lot of 8 and 6 so far and now I'm giving 7 a shot. I'm also anxiously awaiting the War Doctor stuff.
 

Mokujin

Member
This season was really underwhelming to me, but these past two episodes has been really, really great.

But me getting
a new really cool sonic screwdriver, and Riversong?
Happy Xmas to me!!
 
Not sure why people are taking the Season 10 in 2017 rumour as fact. Moffat said in an interview just the other day S10 is a full run and filming begins in may.
 
Not sure why people are taking the Season 10 in 2017 rumour as fact. Moffat said in an interview just the other day S10 is a full run and filming begins in may.

Nothing in that sentence says it'll go out in 2016 though.
Current rumor is that it starts very early 2017. They usually start filming in Jan, so moving to May would support that.
 

Broken Joystick

At least you can talk. Who are you?
We're already down two series of Capaldi. Time fucking flies.

I'll take a tally here: anybody want a Christmas Special OT, or do you guys just wanna keep it to this thread? I can whip one up no problem.

Also, I'm thinking of setting up another Off-Season thread like the last one. I think it worked out pretty well before.

And a new Big Finish thread would be neat. Just a thought. Doctor Who (the member, not the Doctor) had one before, I think. There's a ton of interest for Big Finish now more than before (myself included!).

Doctor Who Off-Series |OT| Tara, Clara, Hurrah!
Doctor Who Off-Series |OT| 2 Billion Years Later
 
Not sure why people are taking the Season 10 in 2017 rumour as fact. Moffat said in an interview just the other day S10 is a full run and filming begins in may.

They can't film a full run for 2016 if they aren't starting filming until May. It's either split around Christmas, or it's all at the start of 2017.

Sign me right up for "start of 2017".
 
We’re making a full series. I can confirm that," said Moffat. "I’m making a full series of 12 episodes, plus a Christmas special. I don’t know when it goes out. That’s up to someone else. And even if I did know – which I genuinely don’t – I wouldn’t be allowed to say so as I have absolutely no say in it whatsoever.

oh you.
 
If it does start in 2017 then it's going to be pretty jarring. Let's say that Capaldi doesn't want to renew his contract any longer. He has 12 episodes and an xmas episode so they either do

Xmas 2016
12 Episodes early 2017

or

12 Episodes early 2017
Xmas Episode late 2017

either way it's going to be awkward having a Regeneration involved. If it was regen at the end of episode 12 early 2017 then we have to wait till Xmas 2017 for the new doctor and he has to handle a christmas episode as his first.

I know Tennant did that but I don't feel like it gives enough time to focus on the new Doctor. The alternative is to completely miss 2016 and not have a christmas special which seems like an insane choice and then have wait till the full season run in 2018 for the new doctor.

If the season was to show in 2016 then they can air it so episode 12 falls the week before xmas have Capaldi bow out at the end of the Xmas episode then a full run in 2017 with a new doctor. I really don't see 2016 having NOTHING
 

Quick

Banned
Doctor Who Off-Series |OT| Tara, Clara, Hurrah!
Doctor Who Off-Series |OT| 2 Billion Years Later

Doctor Who Off-Series |OT| I Am In 2017
Doctor Who Off-Series |OT| Going the long way around

:p

:(


So, it's filming next May. But that means the show could be slated to come out in late-2016 or early-2017. They can't start filming Series 10 in May and come out in September again. The only way this works is if they split Series 10 in half. Late-2016 for the first 6 episodes and the Christmas Special, and early-to-mid-2017 or last five episodes.

Series 8 and 9 started filming in January of 2014 and 2015 respectively for an August and September premiere.
 
The folks at Big Finish must have been super giddy after this episode.


I personally loved it. Totally fucks around with Gallifrey related mythos, especially Rassilon, but I don't care. It's the nature of the franchise is screw around with continuity.
 
It's not the first time. Probably won't be the last.

War hero or no, I'd have a deep sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever the Doctor shows back up on Gallifrey if I were a Timelord. Seems like every time he comes home, he dethrones the current government, crowns himself Lord President just long enough to complete his current scheme and then fucks off again, presumably throwing the local government into utter chaos.

Yeah, innit brilliant! It's like Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football. And the Time Lords fall for it every single time.
 
A split season doesn't seem unlikely now I think about it. Allows for late shooting to get the new Companion cast, opens up time for Sherlock and fit's neatly with a regeneration.

S10E01-06 New Companion- Time and Space - Foreshadowing - Monster of the Week - Return of classic recurring enemy (Late 2016)

Xmas Special

S10E07-12 Bigger, More Involved plot arc - Big Bad making the rounds - Connected Stories - 3 part final with Omega - Doctor Regen (Early 2017)

S11E01-06 New Doctor - New Enemies - New Tardis (Late 2017)

Xmas Special

S11E07-12 Bigger, More Involved plot arc - Big Bad making the rounds - Connected Stories - 3 part final with Rani - New Show Runner (Early 2018)

Full season late 2018
 

Quick

Banned
I think Moffat waits until Capaldi is at the end of his run before stepping down as showrunner. I don't think this'll happen until the end of Series 11.

Would give the new showrunner a clean slate, like Moffat was given.
 
I think Moffat waits until Capaldi is at the end of his run before stepping down as showrunner. I don't think this'll happen until the end of Series 11.

Would give the new showrunner a clean slate, like Moffat was given.

Moffat didn't want a clean slate, though (he tried to convince Tennant to stay), and has described The Eleventh Hour as his hardest writing task to date. It was such a bastard to write that he spent much of series 7 rejigging everything so Deep Breath wouldn't have to do the same job.
 

Quick

Banned
Moffat didn't want a clean slate, though (he tried to convince Tennant to stay), and has described The Eleventh Hour as his hardest writing task to date. It was such a bastard to write that he spent much of series 7 rejigging everything so Deep Breath wouldn't have to do the same job.

It was probably tough to essentially build his own world from scratch (with some misfires), but it worked out well in the end.

He didn't ask for it, but got the best scenario from it.
 
Moffat didn't want a clean slate, though (he tried to convince Tennant to stay), and has described The Eleventh Hour as his hardest writing task to date. It was such a bastard to write that he spent much of series 7 rejigging everything so Deep Breath wouldn't have to do the same job.

That's interesting because The Eleventh Hour is some of Moffat's best work. It's perfect as an introduction to Who, it does a great job bringing in the new Doctor, Amy, and Rory, setting up the main plot for the season, and all in one episode. I image in must have been hard to do, but Deep Breath was amateur in comparison.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
What a bloody weird and frankly limp episode.

The President was completely useless; he was introduced and chucked out in minutes and came across like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, plus the motivation for bringing the Doctor to Gallifrey was weak as shit, especially when he didn't do anything after the fact.
And why does Doctor blame him for the Time War as stated?
That whole thing felt rushed to me.

And besides the Gallifrey plot had little tension in it anyway, it's pretty obvious they have no plan; we've got to go find the Doctor and tell him off for a bit cos we can't do anything really anyway.
Heck, the episode as a whole had little tension, it's just a prolonged goodbye for Clara, little more. Nor do I understand the pseudoscience for having a memory wipe being able to fix a stalled heart? =/
It didn't do anything anyway, nor does her having no pulse seem to affect anything.

What is it with Moffat and his big end of the universe finales that never seem to have any coherent sense?
And I'm sick of his hand waving of any necessary exposition.
"how did gallifrey come back? don't know who cares!"
"how did you come back to life missy? don't know"
"how are you sustaining your reality bubble? just am"
Similarly, he can not commit to anything, the hybrid thing went nowhere, and why couldn't you just leave Clara dead and have it as a memorable and emotional farewell death, but no of course not cos Moffat.

And again we're always being told how vicious the Doctor can be but we're never really shown it, it's frustrating to see it constantly brought up when it means so little. Like Clara has already said "your reign of terror will stop at the sound of the first crying child."

Similarly, Clara is held up as special but I just can't accept that she's any more special than any other companion, heck they even repeated the Donna leaving ploy.

I really can't be bothered with this show anymore, I used to love it but it's something I just watch out of habit now, hoping for the occasional good episode. Overall as an actor I like Capaldi very much, but he's only just good here, nothing outstanding, whereas Tennant blew it out of the park. Really feel this show died with David Tennant for me.

Oh well, least the glasses are gone?

EDIT: didn't realise the president was Timothy Dalton's character so I partly take that one back.
 

Dryk

Member
War hero or no, I'd have a deep sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever the Doctor shows back up on Gallifrey if I were a Timelord. Seems like every time he comes home, he dethrones the current government, crowns himself Lord President just long enough to complete his current scheme and then fucks off again, presumably throwing the local government into utter chaos.
The sitting President being killed or overthrown usually isn't his fault as far as I remember, but they really should stop giving him the job when he puts up his hand.
 
Goodness, I hate all the arcs and grand story in Nu Who. Just give me a jaunt in time and space with an interesting concept or twist every week and I'm happy. When Adric died we didn't get episode after episode of all this hooie.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
To be fair, if you thought the Hybrid thing went nowhere, you weren't watching at all anyway.

Nah, you'll need to explain that one there.

I'd call a season long tease culminating for the hybrid, the talk of the doom and destruction wrought, and the time lord's fear of it and their manipulation of the doctor as a result, just for it to be the doctor and his companion's resulting adventures as going pretty fucking nowhere personally.
 

BatDan

Bane? Get them on board, I'll call it in.
Weird episode. Kind of all over the place.
Didn't hate it (certainly not Season 3/29 bad) but it was just... odd.
Maybe Moffat does need a break. Get some new blood into the show.

At least the Screwdriver is back, and we're seeing River soon (I actually liked her, nuts to the haters)
 
Man that episode was brilliant.

When they were at the Diner and the Doctor was trying to remember who Clara was. And he was so adamant that they had both been to this diner before. It was beautiful.

Clara has good goodbyes.
I think the fakeout at the last Christmas episode was a good send off. And the time at the other diner was also a good send off. This just completes the trilogy.

Stellar episode.
 

TyrantII

Member
Guess I was the only one that loved the last three episodes and hated the rest of the season(s). I got some minor nit picks about this one, but overall I really liked the charter heavy focus and tight writing of the last three.

Still, I don't know how the universe didn't implode from the docotor screwing with a fixed point. Maybe they're more guidelines than rules.

Seems to me budget cuts have impacted them and they're saving it for a few big episodes here and there. Prior season they used it just to get Capaldi off the ground.
 
What a bloody weird and frankly limp episode.

The President was completely useless; he was introduced and chucked out in minutes and came across like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, plus the motivation for bringing the Doctor to Gallifrey was weak as shit, especially when he didn't do anything after the fact.
And why does Doctor blame him for the Time War as stated?
That whole thing felt rushed to me.

And besides the Gallifrey plot had little tension in it anyway, it's pretty obvious they have no plan; we've got to go find the Doctor and tell him off for a bit cos we can't do anything really anyway.
Heck, the episode as a whole had little tension, it's just a prolonged goodbye for Clara, little more. Nor do I understand the pseudoscience for having a memory wipe being able to fix a stalled heart? =/
It didn't do anything anyway, nor does her having no pulse seem to affect anything.

What is it with Moffat and his big end of the universe finales that never seem to have any coherent sense?
And I'm sick of his hand waving of any necessary exposition.
"how did gallifrey come back? don't know who cares!"
"how did you come back to life missy? don't know"
"how are you sustaining your reality bubble? just am"
Similarly, he can not commit to anything, the hybrid thing went nowhere, and why couldn't you just leave Clara dead and have it as a memorable and emotional farewell death, but no of course not cos Moffat.

And again we're always being told how vicious the Doctor can be but we're never really shown it, it's frustrating to see it constantly brought up when it means so little. Like Clara has already said "your reign of terror will stop at the sound of the first crying child."

Similarly, Clara is held up as special but I just can't accept that she's any more special than any other companion, heck they even repeated the Donna leaving ploy.

I really can't be bothered with this show anymore, I used to love it but it's something I just watch out of habit now, hoping for the occasional good episode. Overall as an actor I like Capaldi very much, but he's only just good here, nothing outstanding, whereas Tennant blew it out of the park. Really feel this show died with David Tennant for me.

Oh well, least the glasses are gone?

EDIT: didn't realise the president was Timothy Dalton's character so I partly take that one back.

Agree with most of this, Gallifrey the thing we have been waiting for pretty much the entire damn series, was basically a subplot. It was a macguffin to bring Clara back, because Moffat cannot leave well enough alone.

He neutered Rassilon, the friggen FOUNDER of Time Lord society, he failed at making the planet interesting in any way, and at the end of the day, there was no reason to BE there. It was all so Mary-Sue Oswald could come back. We learned practically nothing about the time lords this episode. What absolute horse shit.

Nah, you'll need to explain that one there.

I'd call a season long tease culminating for the hybrid, the talk of the doom and destruction wrought, and the time lord's fear of it and their manipulation of the doctor as a result, just for it to be the doctor and his companion's resulting adventures as going pretty fucking nowhere personally.

The Hybrid stuff was also crap. He didn't even bother answering the question. It was cheap, and pretty much useless. I did at least like the conversation between Me and the Doctor, but the idea that the Doctor and Clara are the hybrid is extremely silly. Why would it be them in particular? Why not the Doctor and every other human he has or will have traveled with? Doctor Donna was more of a hybrid than The Doctor and Clara. Moffat tried to be too clever by half, and the story suffered for it. And the shame of it all was this season had been great BECAUSE it had avoided a lot of the general over-complicated BS.

With the set up we had, I just don't get why Moffat didn't just do the actually sensible emotionally resonant thing: The Clara in the diner was one of the Clara's seeded throughout time, and he was seeing her for some closure. Clara deciding that her life wasn't worth the irreparable damage to space and time that her being around caused. The Doctor not being a spoiled child.

You know, stuff like that.
 
Decent finale if yet another "and everyone lives happily ever after". Was kind of all over the place and rushed.

Bringing Gallifrey + writing off Clara probably should have been a 2 part story.
 

bengraven

Member
I fucking loved it.

With Clara becoming more Doctor like, it's pretty nice to see her basically become his counter-part. And sharing her immortality with Me is pretty nice.

The last shot of their TARDISes (?) flying away together was pretty great. Heartbreaking to see her face and know he's been Donnaed.



Also, I guess we know what an American TARDIS would look like now.
 
Really liked the finale. And glad Clara got a happier ending. And it was one the doctor REALLY worked for (4 billion years in the making)

To me this is my favorite Dr who season. Passing Who season 5
 

Zomba13

Member
Just got around to watching it. Completely loved it. By far the best Companion farewell of New Who. I loooove the idea of Clara getting a lifetime of adventures with Ashildyr inbetween her final heartbeats. I love that she can do that stuff and still be put back and die. I love she stole her own TARDIS and it's a an American diner. I love that both her and Ashildyr are unaging and I loved how her becoming more Doctor like paid off in not only her doing a very Doctor like thing to save a life but also because she gets to go on adventures and help more people.

The Gallifrey stuff was a bit of a waste and the whole hybrid thing was flacid as fuck. I mean, Gallifrey wasn't in ruins Rassilon and the high council were just banished, The Doctor and Ashildyr could be seen as hybrids but who cares? They didn't bring any destruction, they were just there right at the end of the universe and then go on to have more adventures.
 
The folks at Big Finish must have been super giddy after this episode.

When I finished the episode, I understood what you meant, but during the episode, I was thinking "This is essentially what happened with Eight and Charley Pollard, isn't it?"

Moffat twisted it by incorporating a Donna element, and then applying it to the Doctor, and having "Charley" go running off with Captain Jack pt II.

But yeah, if I was Big Finish, I'd probably be happy with this episode. It's basically a Big Finish episode, just filmed. And I wouldn't be surprised if in a couple years we hear about Ashildr & Clara Adventures.
 

hamchan

Member
I'm getting a bit sick of every prophecy being about the Doctor.

EDIT: Wait, why was the Doctor running away because of the hybrid prophecy again? I'll have to go back and see if they answer exactly why he was running.
 
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