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Doctor Who Series 9 |OT| Let Zygons Be Zygons

Blader

Member
my guess is that
the doctor is mopey after the death of clara, decides to go and see river to cheer himself up, but she doesn't recognise him

it seems kind of implausible that river doesn't believe he's the doctor though, given that she knows that time lords regenerate

She would have never met Twelve before, though. Originally the Doctor dies on Trenzalore as Eleven. The Time Lords changed history by giving the Doctor a new cycle of regenerations, so River has never encountered Twelve or any regeneration past him.
 
I continue to not like episodes by Mark Gatiss.

I was thinking along similar lines and then remembered I have a total soft spot for Crimson Horror. In a season that was kinda lacking personality and energy, that was a rare episode that felt like it had some life to it. And it gets a bad rap because Dame Diana Rigg had an alien worm puppet in her cleavage. When really people should love it because Dame Diana Rigg had an alien worm puppet in her cleavage.

But other than that he may have sank to Steve Thompson levels for me. Which annoys me because I hate blacklisting writers, but you can only give a guy so many chances.
 

GSR

Member
Spoilers for Christmas and what the River/12 relationship will be like via a UK newspaper

Despite her shock festive return, Doctor Who , played by Peter Capaldi, still faces being lonely this Christmas because River doesn’t recognise his new reincarnation and keeps romancing other fellas.

The lovelorn Timelord ends up chasing River around the universe in a vain bid to to win over her affections.

Show-runner Steven Moffat admitted that the Christmas special wasn’t very festive - but there’d be “lots of kissing” and flirting as Doctor Who turns into a saucy romcom.

Peter said: “It is a lighthearted fun thing River doesn’t recognise the Doctor and he gets upset because she is flirting and doing all sort of stuff with people.“

“She simply cannot be persuaded that he is the former Matt Smith/David Tennant/Christopher Eccleston - so there is lots of kissing, but not between River and the doctor!

Sounds a bit rubbish to be honest. I figured the special would be pretty much an excuse to have Capaldi and Kingston bounce off each other, but if that summary's true, it could easily turn into a trainwreck.

Oh well, here's hoping it's better than it sounds (or that the Mirror's just pulling things out of their behind - though I don't think they'd fabricate quotes.)
 

Quick

Banned
Little late, but I finally got to watch Sleep No More. Not bad at all. Gatiss done good.

Found Footage doesn't usually click with me, but it was inoffensive overall.

The Sandmen are pretty good monsters, because they're so simple. Their origins aren't anything too complicated. The ending makes sure they can come back, which is fine with me.

The moment we're introduced to Clara and the Doctor, and when we were suddenly seeing things from Clara's POV, I figured it would become an important point that Clara doesn't have a camera on her.
 

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
I enjoyed this episode.
The whole point is that the scientist was secretly a Sandman and he orchestrated the events of the video to transmit the static signal as THAT'S what's creating the Sandmen. Not an infection.

Just watched it. If this is the case, didn't he succeed? So the Doctor didn't actually save the day this time? Will that all come back up at some point? That a mad scientist sandman just sent the signal to the whole solar system?
 

Quick

Banned
Just watched it. If this is the case, didn't he succeed? So the Doctor didn't actually save the day this time? Will that all come back up at some point? That a mad scientist sandman just sent the signal to the whole solar system?

Yep. It's not a happy ending at all.
 
This episode started slowly ..but i enjoyed it ... the finale was there and i was waiting for either some clever ruse to solve it all or some "to be continued" thing when they were ambushed and then .. the ending happenned.

I'm not sure what to think really ..i really liked the way it was filmed... so it's clearly a Plus in my book ... but damn the ending of this episode fell so disapointing to me.

It reminded me so much of the weeping angels introduction episode , but without the "wow" factor.

An average episode for this season despite the premise.
 
Sounds a bit rubbish to be honest. I figured the special would be pretty much an excuse to have Capaldi and Kingston bounce off each other, but if that summary's true, it could easily turn into a trainwreck.

Oh well, here's hoping it's better than it sounds (or that the Mirror's just pulling things out of their behind - though I don't think they'd fabricate quotes.)

They've not fabricated them quite verifiably, as it seems this has been their teaser info for Christmas at the Who convention that took place in London this weekend.
 

GSR

Member
They've not fabricated them quite verifiably, as it seems this has been their teaser info for Christmas at the Who convention that took place in London this weekend.

There we go then. Would've been nice if they bothered to mention that in the article, granted.
 

Trike

Member
I think the sandmen were pretty dumb. But at the same time it kinda works. I mean Doctor Who is a family show, and it seems like the kind of monster that would freak out kids because it is made of something they see/feel every day. Then again I don't think kids are into weird clones with little intelligence. Unless you count Jango Fett.
 

Rymuth

Member
A shame about this season. Moffat is legit one of the best, if not the best, Doctors and yet he gets hampered with middling to boring storylines.
 
A shame about this season. Moffat is legit one of the best, if not the best, Doctors and yet he gets hampered with middling to boring storylines.

incredible ego

not content with writing two of the world's biggest shows, he has to act in it too

I agree about Capaldi. My favourite NuWho doctor by some distance
 

Symphonia

Banned
She would have never met Twelve before, though. Originally the Doctor dies on Trenzalore as Eleven. The Time Lords changed history by giving the Doctor a new cycle of regenerations, so River has never encountered Twelve or any regeneration past him.
Exactly. River's last appearance was in 'Name Of The Doctor' and she 'died' in that episode. She 'died' believing the Doctor was about to die, too, as foretold in that prophecy. As far as she's concerned, the Doctor is dead. His regenerations ended at Eleven. To have a grumpy, Scottish old guy approach you, telling you he's the Doctor, would be a lot to get over, given you know your husband died on Trenzalore.
 
I thought the show was disappointing, a bit like the whole season for me so far. It's not been bad but i don't think i'll be rewatching many of this years' episodes if i'm honest.

It's so frustrating that the show is almost there for me but just falls short each time. This could have been great but eye-bogey monsters? Meh. Also, what's the point of having soldiers whose last thought when being attacked is to use their weaponry. It's got to be a Dr Who trope surely?

Yeah, not terrible but getting there. There again it is a kids show so i have to accept disappointment from my expectations sometimes i suppose :)
 
disappointing episode. didn't really like find it interesting. the acting of that guy (can't remember his name) who put together the footage is terrible.

looking forward to next week though.
hopefully Clara finally leaves for good and more Maisie Williams.
 

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
Nothing is worse than Colin Baker's first episode.

Nothing.
TuZ0wkW.gif
 

Boem

Member
Rather liked this, although there were some strange choices. I wish they went a bit further with it mostly. I mean, you have monsters made out of sleep dust (which is a fun idea - especially with that ending and the fact that most kids watching have to go to bed right after it), but why are they simply lumpy, lumbering smashy guys? Couldn't they have played with what a lack of sleep does to people, or something with dreams, or something interesting? To me it all felt a bit rushed - like he had the idea of the basic structure of the episode (which is pretty solid), but didn't have the time to fill it out with interesting things happening within that framework.


You joke, but one very angry guy in our writer's Q&A asked him why he thought Doctor Who fans were idiots because he couldn't say there wasn't a full series next year.

Now you've made me curious to hear what Moffat answered to that. Not really for the actual question, just to know how he would have handled a jackass like that in public.
 

wetflame

Pizza Dog
I haven't highlighted any of the spoilers regarding the Christmas special so I'm guessing all this talk about River Song is just people arbitrarily mentioning her right? I only mention it because if we were to try and spoiler stuff and then just openly talk about her then people might start to think that she was involved in some way.
 
I haven't highlighted any of the spoilers regarding the Christmas special so I'm guessing all this talk about River Song is just people arbitrarily mentioning her right? I only mention it because if we were to try and spoiler stuff and then just openly talk about her then people might start to think that she was involved in some way.
She's been officially announced for it, so that's not a spoiler now. But what she's doing in it, obviously we don't know that yet.
 
I haven't highlighted any of the spoilers regarding the Christmas special so I'm guessing all this talk about River Song is just people arbitrarily mentioning her right? I only mention it because if we were to try and spoiler stuff and then just openly talk about her then people might start to think that she was involved in some way.

What was said above- it has been officially announced. I spoilered it for the sensitive, but it's worth keeping in mind what I posted wasn't anything that Moffat and Capaldi weren't okay saying in front of a hall of fans at a convention this weekend - that's where they said all this - so it's more a 'teaser' than an outright spoiler. Very vague. I just spoiler tagged it to be extra courteous, but based on the general rules of this thread I actually could've happily posted it without tags anyway, given that our loose self-enforced spoiler rules on Who GAF tend to be that if it's officially announced by the BBC or said by an official rep of a show in an interview or whatever, it's information they have chosen to release as carefully considered promotional material and therefore not a spoiler.
 
Just finished Sleep No More. That episode was absolute trash, one of the worst I've seen in a long while (yes, worse than last series Forest garbage, worse than Kill The Moon). This was Fear Her levels of bad, and the best thing I can say about it is that since it was not a two-parter, I won't ever need to watch it again.

What a disappointment after the wonderful Zygon Inversion.
 

bengraven

Member
I have no idea what happened in the last episode.

Didn't help I'm on pain med and zoned off here and there but what? What the jump scare thing was going on at the end?
 
I have no idea what happened in the last episode.

Didn't help I'm on pain med and zoned off here and there but what? What the jump scare thing was going on at the end?

I am not on pain meds and I also zoned out. I'm not too sure what happened in that episode only that the conclusion suggested that it was being done for some sort of television show or something.

I really couldn't make sense of it.
 
I was also confused. I fell asleep the first time through (not that unusual for me watching TV late at night) but when I went back to rewatch, I still found it confusing. Having an ambiguous/bleak ending was an interesting idea, but it was very unsatisfying. And way, way too much time speculating on the nature of the Sandmen complete with red herrings or wrong guesses, and not enough making a satisfying through line. There's virtually no story here at all.

Reminds me of the God Complex, which I didn't really like that much, only worse.
 

wetflame

Pizza Dog
I'm surprised at how many people didn't understand the episode's ending, I felt it was pretty clearly laid out. The issue I think is that it didn't seem like an episode of Doctor Who, more like an episode of Inside No. 9 or similar, where it's a little self contained, slightly unsettling spooky story. The footage of the episode, in universe, has been put together specifically to get us to watch it and spread the infection, which is housed in the static. Reese Sheersmith's character is playing with horror/suspense tropes to create a story, something that people will want to watch. He's engineering these story beats to drive up tension and keep people watching. The whole episode is very deliberately from outside of The Doctor's perspective, playing with him not understanding what happened, and he's just distracted and outwitted by the bad guy, as are we. His confusion at the end is him knowing that something's not right, but being pushed off the station leading to him having to abandon what's happening without getting to the true nature of the infection.
 
Mark Gatiss ‏@Markgatiss 2m2 minutes ago
Thanks for all your lovely/vile comments on my amazing/appalling episode. Thrilled to have saved/destroyed the show. Stay tuned! #DoctorWho
 

DECK'ARD

The Amiga Brotherhood
I'm surprised at how many people didn't understand the episode's ending, I felt it was pretty clearly laid out. The footage of the episode, in universe, has been put together specifically to get us to watch it and spread the infection, which is housed in the static. Reese Sheersmith's character is playing with Tropes to create something that people will want to watch and spread. The issue I think is that it didn't seem like an episode of Doctor Who, more like an episode of Inside No. 9 or similar, where it's a little self contained, slightly unsettling spooky story. The whole episode is very deliberately from outside of The Doctor's perspective, playing with him not understanding what happened, and he's just distracted and outwitted by the bad guy, as are we.

I thought the ending was pretty clear as well, but it basically boils down to "Hah, I cobbled together a bad story so you would watch thinking it was a good story but it wasn't and it doesn't matter because now you're a sandman lol".

It's less twist and more "sucka!", a nice excuse for telling a weak story that had me checking the clock more times than any other this series.
 

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
Maybe I should rewatch it. I can't figure out if the Doctor and Clara actually had that adventure or not. It seems odd the Doctor would just leave things the way they are at the end of that episode.
 
I'm surprised at how many people didn't understand the episode's ending, I felt it was pretty clearly laid out. The issue I think is that it didn't seem like an episode of Doctor Who, more like an episode of Inside No. 9 or similar, where it's a little self contained, slightly unsettling spooky story. The footage of the episode, in universe, has been put together specifically to get us to watch it and spread the infection, which is housed in the static. Reese Sheersmith's character is playing with horror/suspense tropes to create a story, something that people will want to watch. He's engineering these story beats to drive up tension and keep people watching. The whole episode is very deliberately from outside of The Doctor's perspective, playing with him not understanding what happened, and he's just distracted and outwitted by the bad guy, as are we. His confusion at the end is him knowing that something's not right, but being pushed off the station leading to him having to abandon what's happening without getting to the true nature of the infection.

The ending was clear, but it was a muddled mess getting there and I'm still not sure about a lot of the particulars. I get that the episode was written with the end in mind, but it needed something coherent to carry it along.

I don't mind being confused by a story as I am watching it if it's clearly part of a bigger, coherent thing outside my understanding-- in fact I quite like some stories like that. But for it to work, there has to be a through-line worth following and there has to be some consistency to the clues that we get, even if the whole picture is never laid out.
 

tomtom94

Member
Starting to wonder if Sleep No More was originally written as the first part of a two-parter, and then the second part was dropped and they just put out part one with minimal tweaking.
 

DECK'ARD

The Amiga Brotherhood
Starting to wonder if Sleep No More was originally written as the first part of a two-parter, and then the second part was dropped and they just put out part one with minimal tweaking.

It was envisioned as a 2-parter, but he didn't think it would support it. As it turns out it didn't support 1 either.
 

DECK'ARD

The Amiga Brotherhood
Well, there is the stuff for a good idea in there. It just got wrapped up in an. at best, uneven episode.

The wrap-up was the story though, the rest was so weak and messy because it had worked backwards from a cheap gotcha so it ultimately didn't matter.
 

MudoSkills

Volcano High Alumnus (Cum Laude)
Weak episode. The twist ending didn't really make sense to me, because if the freaky sleep dust was caused by using the Morpheus machine, why would seeing an ordinary broadcast have the same effect?

Also, if nobody sleeps where did all the fucking sleep dust come from?
 

gabbo

Member
The wrap-up was the story though, the rest was so weak and messy because it had worked backwards from a cheap gotcha so it ultimately didn't matter.

I think the idea of Morpheus and the effects of removing sleep from our lives/the monsters was interesting. The rescue mission/reality tv via handicam idea failed it.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
Just finished Sleep No More. That episode was absolute trash, one of the worst I've seen in a long while (yes, worse than last series Forest garbage, worse than Kill The Moon). This was Fear Her levels of bad, and the best thing I can say about it is that since it was not a two-parter, I won't ever need to watch it again.

What a disappointment after the wonderful Zygon Inversion.
Wow. I enjoyed this episode quite a bit more than the likes of Kill the Moon, Forest of the Night episodes, or most of last series, really. It's certainly not on the same level as the sublime Zygon Inversion, but I thought it to be at least a solid Who episode in its own right and it really doesn't possess the kind of weaknesses that made those other episodes so unbearable to watch.
 
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