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[Razmos]

The point was that the whole "sand in your eye" thing and turning into one of them was all a red herring, the point was to raise the tension and danger for "the story" to keep people watching the video while it did its thing to the viewers brain, so that people would watch all the way to the end to find out the true way they spread, only for it to be too late by then.

The "Don't watch this" thing was reverse psychology to get people to watch it.

 

[Hot Coldman]

I actually liked it a lot besides the wonky ending

anyway I guess Clara dies from Morpheus

 

[GustyGardner]

Not that, I meant the part where the Doctor ran into the TARDIS saying "THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE" and then it ended

I assumed he was referring to how the whole climax was a charade by the scientist guy in order to make the footage more engaging for the viewer. He knew something was wrong but didn't want to stick around to figure it out. So the audience knows the full story, but the Doctor never will, I guess. I really doubt there's any long term significance of this episode and looking at the next time trailer, I doubt they'll acknowledge anything that happened this week at all.

Edit: Oh, actually that Morpheus thing must have some significance.

 

[MouldyK]

I complain about 2-Parters not having enough plot to warrant being 90 Minutes long...they make a shite and boring 1-Parter to spite me.

 

[Real Hero]

strange as fuck, I liked it.

 

[BGBW]

And thus Kirby was born.

 

[Broken Joystick]

I feel a bit stupid for stating, but I have no idea what actually happened this episode. So, the sandmen weren't real? It was all just a story?

I actually feel really stupid.

edit: Gatiss has a sequel planned :lol
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015...a-sequel-planned-to-doctor-whos-sleep-no-more

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

I actually liked it a lot besides the wonky ending

anyway I guess Clara dies from Morpheus

Naaaah whatever the Raven is in the Diagon Alley ripoff.

 

[VAD]

I'm in London to attend the Doctor Who festival tomorrow so I managed to watch the episode live on tv while I was there. I did not expect it to end like this. Will there be a follow up to this? It was so weird. The preview for next week episode seems promising.

 

[CloudyTuba]

I wasn't too bothered with the episode if I'm honest. It was trying very hard to be scary which is fine but it just didn't do anything for me.



Every story of the season should have been a 2 parter.

So the next episode picks up where this one left off then? I didnt think of that since the preview looked like it had nothing to do with this.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

I feel a bit stupid for stating, but I have no idea what actually happened this episode. So, the sandmen weren't real? It was all just a story?

I actually feel really stupid.

edit: Gatiss has a sequel planned :lol
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015...a-sequel-planned-to-doctor-whos-sleep-no-more

I have to admit this too. I watched it with my dad, and he said right after it finished:

"that's it? I'll be honest I don't have a clue what happened or what this was all about."

 

[MouldyK]

https://www.facebook.com/DoctorWho/videos/1239880389359319/?permPage=1

Doctor Who
Enter the Sandmen - how scary were they?
Like · Comment · Share · 9 mins

Olly George I never moan normally but that episode was actully just rubbish
Like · Reply · 45 · 8 minutes ago

Kathryn Todd Title "Sleep No More" - first episode in years I actually fell asleep watching. What a pile of ...
Like · Reply · 9 · 4 minutes ago

 

[mrklaw]

Should have been the Halloween episode. Relatively dull but interesting for the twist - yes it plays out like a cookie cutter dr who episode but really it's just designed as a carrier


Alternatively 'ringu, dr who style'

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

Hopefully he doesn't specifically have plans because he's taking over in a couple of years. The character dialogue was the flattest its been all series.

 

[Broken Joystick]

Don't. I paid good attention and until the post above I still didn't get what was going on. Badly written episode.

I didn't want to jump right to "badly written" just because I didn't understand it, but it's comforting to know I'm not alone. I don't think it was badly written, it just didn't finish how I expected. The Doctor doesn't solve the mystery. I'm fine with that, but it was really abrupt, which I guess is what Gatiss was going for.

I think I'll definitely have to watch this again.

 

[Slowdive]

It was originally going to be a two-parter:

"That was my plan, I'd always wanted to do a two-parter and I'd plotted the whole thing like that really. But the more I thought about it, with the found footage idea, I thought it's just not going to sustain over two. It's a very particular style and Steve [Moffat, Doctor Who's Executive Producer] agreed.

http://blogtorwho.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/doctor-who-series-9-mark-gatiss-talks.html

 

[AHA-Lambda]

It was originally going to be a two-parter:



http://blogtorwho.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/doctor-who-series-9-mark-gatiss-talks.html

So next week has indeed got nothing to do with this?

What a waste of fucking time.

 

[Broken Joystick]

Next week's trailer
Next week's trailer

;__;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W4ePv6HBdk

 

[Shiggy]

I knew GAF would hate this episode. People on here seem to be more up for something boring, like with the Maisie Williams episodes, instead of something with tension and that requires thinking/active watching. People on here must have also hated the "Blink" episode.

Everybody has different expectations for this show. I for one am glad it was not a 2-parter. In most of the 2-parters there wasn't really enough "meat".

Spoiler

And ugh, next week Maisie Williams will return. Was hoping we were done with that girl.

 

[Hot Coldman]

OK, now I understand Reece Shearsmith's plot with the viral video and all that, it's a neat idea

but that execution on explaning all that in the final scene is just WOOF

 

[Slowdive]

Next week's trailer
Next week's trailer

;__;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W4ePv6HBdk

 

[Broken Joystick]

I knew GAF would hate this episode. People on here seem to be more up for something boring, like with the Ashildr episodes, instead of something with tension and that requires thinking/active watching. People on here must have also hated the "Blink" episode.

Everybody has different expectations for this show.

FWIW I don't hate it, I'll admit to not fully understanding it right at first though. (I love Blink though!) But yeah, I think what Hot Coldman says sums it up for me:

but that execution on explaning all that in the final scene is just WOOF

 

[AHA-Lambda]

I knew GAF would hate this episode. People on here seem to be more up for something boring, like with the Maisie Williams episodes, instead of something with tension and that requires thinking/active watching. People on here must have also hated the "Blink" episode.

Everybody has different expectations for this show. I for one am glad it was not a 2-parter. In most of the 2-parters there wasn't really enough "meat".

Spoiler

And ugh, next week Maisie Williams will return. Was hoping we were done with that girl.

I liked Blink, and also hated Maisie Williams. Sue me

Next week's trailer
Next week's trailer

;__;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W4ePv6HBdk

Good riddance.

 

[Razmos]

Next week's trailer
Next week's trailer

;__;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W4ePv6HBdk

Shall I just get the crying out of the way now to save me the trouble?

 

[Hot Coldman]

Next week looks like it was filmed on the old Diagon Alley sets.

 

[Jackpot]

Rather lame rip-off of the Vashta Narada and Blink.

 

[mrklaw]

Next week looks like it was filmed on the old Diagon Alley sets.

I was thinking that. Looked like the Harry Potter studio set. Presumably the BBC have Dickensian sets coming out of their ears, but that did look diagony

 

[Dr Zhivago]

Doctor Who: Isolation.

Thought that was a great episode, possibly my favourite of the series so far. My only real issue is the soldiers seemed reluctant to shoot the monsters until the end.

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

I knew GAF would hate this episode. People on here seem to be more up for something boring, like with the Maisie Williams episodes, instead of something with tension and that requires thinking/active watching. People on here must have also hated the "Blink" episode.

Everybody has different expectations for this show. I for one am glad it was not a 2-parter. In most of the 2-parters there wasn't really enough "meat".

Spoiler

And ugh, next week Maisie Williams will return. Was hoping we were done with that girl.

Don't project. Blink was really well written. As were the Maisie Williams episodes. This wasn't. "You need to actively think" isn't an excuse for Gattis's piss-poor dialogue throughout.

 

[Quick]

Next week's trailer
Next week's trailer

;__;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W4ePv6HBdk

 

[Broken Joystick]

.

We're all stories, in the end.

 

[Razmos]

Chopra sure was pretty though <3

 

[Hot Coldman]

like that big-chinned prick ever cared about Clara

 

[Broken Joystick]

like that big-chinned prick ever cared about Clara

I think Clara was lower on his list of priorities than Rory.

 

[EvilRedEye]

Thought this week's was interesting but I would have rather it had been interesting and better than it was. The 'found footage' style was interesting as it was a bit like what it might be like to actually live through a Doctor Who adventure, with the music all stripped out etc. but then the ludicrous premise of the enemy of the week (sleep dust evolving into craaazy monsters!) kind of took away from that.

It generally felt a bit awkward at times too. Why was there a random computerised expositionary bit about how the grunt would go mental when threatened when that was basically never mentioned again throughout the episode?

The ending just didn't work - it doesn't come across as a callback to 'that kind of thing' because it's not a standalone film, it's an episode in a 50-year-old TV show in a series of two-parters. Having a guy go "Oooh, my transmission is turning the solar system into sand people right now, whee!" and then having the preview for the next episode showing the main characters buggering about in Diagon Alley is just fucking weird.

 

[tonysidaway]

I found this fairly disappointing on first watching. There are well constructed episodes that just don't work that well for me: the Satan Pit was one, 42 was another. I'm inclined to put Kill the Moon in the same category, but that was a recent episode and it may well grow on me.

I do enjoy Gatiss's writing. Victory of the Daleks with Iain McNiece as Churchill and Bill Paterson as Bracewell is a particular favourite. Two memorable characters and that's before the expertly handled thriller plot.

Perhaps this juxtaposition with the four two-parters that began the series is inevitably bringing about a sense of disappointment by giving me no resolution to look forward to next week. Or perhaps it's a subtle change in Doctor Who's relationship with Clara. Did he not seem a little frostier than usual?

 

[Shiggy]

Don't project. Blink was really well written. As were the Maisie Williams episodes. This wasn't. "You need to actively think" isn't an excuse for Gattis's piss-poor dialogue throughout.

Well written doesn't matter when they were still boring as hell. Unlike this.

 

[Freewheelin']

I didn't get what happened there

Will someone explain it to me

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

Well written doesn't matter when they were still boring as hell. Unlike this.

They weren't boring though; they examined fascinating concepts in the light of The Doctor, particularly the latter of the two. This was just Mark Gatiss trying to do found footage about 7 years after it stopped being novel to do so.

 

[Shiggy]

They weren't boring though; they examined fascinating concepts in the light of The Doctor, particularly the latter of the two. This was just Mark Gatiss trying to do found footage about 7 years after it stopped being novel to do so.

The first of the two was a complete snorefest. They just didn't have any action or interesting things happen.

This, in contrast, was tense. And it had a surprising twist at the end (not sure why so few people understood it, guess they weren't really paying attention - I mean, this was not an Inception-like story that you better watch twice to fully grasp)

 

[Platy]

Next week's trailer
Next week's trailer

;__;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W4ePv6HBdk

...that was pretty spoilerish preview

 

[CrimsonFist]

There wasn't a hybrid reference this episode was there? Unless I missed it.

 

[ClivePwned]

Yup, that was pretty, pretty bad. Worst of the season so far.

Gatiss is just weird. I like Mark Gatiss, but his Who work is all over the show, either really enjoyable, or terrible. This was a terrible episode. In fact it was Captain Terrible of Team Terrible. It's literally so truly terrible, my retina has detached.

Next week's look good, though.

 

[CorrisD]

I didn't get what happened there

Will someone explain it to me

It was essentially an episode that seemed to be based on the effect we have seen previously with the weeping angels, or even The Ring I guess. The video of a man warning us wasn't a real warning or diary of events, and it wasn't a real recording of events that had happened previously. The man who turned out to be a sand monster at the end had made up the events we saw and made them interesting so that you would keep watching, the idea being that contained in the video was a signal that would slowly infect you and create another sand monster, but it could only do this if you watched it long enough.

 

[MrBadger]

I enjoyed it, but I had trouble following it. The whole "this could happen to you, too!" ending didn't do anything to me because I didn't really get how the monsters worked. That ending worked much better in Blink.

I'll give it another watch tomorrow, though. It had a good atmosphere, and I wasn't bored like I was in the Zygon invasion.

 

[Freewheelin']

So was the Doctor ever even there?

 

[MrBadger]

So was the Doctor ever even there?

Yes. The events all happened, but they were orchestrated by the guy in the video at the end.

 

[Mariolee]

Even after reading the posts I'm still confused. So the monsters really were made up of the sand from our eyes that digested us and came from the Morpheus? But now just by watching the video it can infect us as well? And how did the guy survive all those death scenes? Was he already a monster? If so, when did he gain the ability to transform to becoming a human? I'm so confused.

 

[mrklaw]

They must be running out of 'weird little things our bodies do that are actually aliens/monsters.....ooh spooky'

Have they done someone shivering and Clara nonchalantly going 'someone walk over your grave?' and the doctor suddenly turning to her with a lightbulb above his head?

 

[Dryk]

Found this XD

Even after reading the posts I'm still confused. So the monsters really were made up of the sand from our eyes that digested us and came from the Morpheus? But now just by watching the video it can infect us as well? And how did the guy survive all those death scenes? Was he already a monster? If so, when did he gain the ability to transform to becoming a human? I'm so confused.

He was in cahoots with the the rheum monsters so they shoved him all in them to make it look like he died and then spat him back out again.

I thought the concept was good but jeez a lot of that dialogue was shit.