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Doctor Who Series Seven |OT| The Question You've Been Running From All Your Life

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Brilliant episode, I'll share more my thoughts later.

I think I pretty much know what happens to Rory and Amy now though, (I've been wrong about Moffatt's plotlines every time before). Here's my idea;
Episode 5 takes place in New York. Rory and Amy go back to the 60s to take care of baby Melody, which is why Kovarian and the Silence don't find her again until she's River. The sad twist of course is that either: one of them dies, and of course they can't go back to present times. This fixes the whole "can't have children". Which by the way, was a risky, and very good move by Moffatt. I was annoyed before that Amy and Rory apparently seemed fine with what went down and that they had lost a child, and now it seems future children, all thanks to the Doctor's intervention in their life. You could see Amy getting frustrated with him, and even though he came through, it doesn't exactly make up, and it does feel like their tenor is coming to an end.

As for Oswin... what the fuck! If it's the River
"Hasn't met her in the timeline
thing again, I'll be pretty PO'd. That's Rivers thing, and unique to her. But I really like her, moreso than Amy. I'd be very surprised if we didn't catch a glimpse of her every episode given Moffatt's love of "ooh what's that? Not telling you".


Also want to say that the "Zombie Dalek" sequence was awesome.

So damn good. Moffatt said he wanted to make the Daleks more scary, well there you go! Also the desperate, united "SAVE US! SAVE US! SAVE US!" was really unsettling.
 

DarkFlow

Banned
If this Oswin really is the companion then it has to be the Doctor going back in time and preventing her from ending up in the asylum. Otherwise if they were going to pull another Library why wouldn't she remember the Doctor?
Well none of the others that got darleked could remember anything unless needed. They made a point of saying that twice.
 
Dr Who is like Final Fantasy for me. Just so vast, so many episodes. Where the fuck to begin. Also, British humor makes me uneasy.

I daresay most people in this thread haven't seen all of the Doctor Who episodes, or even the majority of them. Continuity from more than 2 years ago tends to be nothing more than fan-pleasing.

But a good primer course would be
Blink (series 3)
Silence in the Library/ Forest of the Dead (Series 4)
and series 5, 6 and 7 after that.
 

Jintor

Member
One of my facebook friends is a doctor who elitist or some shit. Permanently stuck kissing RTD's arse, hating on everything Moffat, total bullshit. We are going to have words next time I run into him!
 
markey_mark_wtf.gif

Come at me.
 
One of my facebook friends is a doctor who elitist or some shit. Permanently stuck kissing RTD's arse, hating on everything Moffat, total bullshit. We are going to have words next time I run into him!

elite = "A group of people considered to be the best"

RTD ain't the best. Moffatt isn't perfect, but by god I don't miss RTD's shitty writing. Even my girlfriend who was a complete Tennant fangirl agreed Moffat's doing well.

Also, Ep5 rumours
apparently the statue of liberty is a weeping angel. Makes an absurd, creepy amount of sense

Is it just me too that wants the Doctor to have Oswin as a Dalek companion while he searches for a way to put her back in her body.
 
What I don't understand is if all this human stuff is a created fiction in Oswin's mind how come her soufflees don't come out perfect every time?

Maybe she was lousy at making souffles, and making a perfect created fiction would mean they would be imperfect.

Or maybe that was part of her mind telling her this was not real.

Could go a number of ways.
 
That was a really lackluster episode, both in reveal and execution.

We didn't have any continuation of the cliffhanger. It was treated like any other episode.

I know Moffat is too good a writer to just drop The Silence, and he's been building them up for, what, three years now?

This is what made it an exceptional episode. Also, the whole "Doctor Who?" stuff with the Daleks is probably going to play into the "Question" later on.
 
Asylum of the Daleks had an overnight audience of 6.4 million viewers, a share of 29.3% of the total TV audience.

The audience was steady throughout the show after inheriting 2.5 million viewers from Total Wipeout. The show following Doctor Who, The National Lottery, had 3.1 million watching.

Doctor Who won the time-slot, beating Ant and Dec's game show, Red or Black?, which got a rating of 3.5 million and was 6th for the day. Winner of the day was The X Factor, which had an audience of 8.6 million and a 36.8% share of the audience, making Doctor Who second in the charts for the day.

http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2012/09/asylum-of-daleks-ratings.html

Not great figures, but not bad. Will probably gain 2 million for the final figures.
 

ag-my001

Member
Re-watched the episode again this morning, liked a lot of the subtle things. Amy signing the paper with "Williams". Also the undertones of just how sinister the Asylum would be if still running properly. The "ICU" isn't for repairs, it's for R&D based on survivors of the Doctor. Just think, one of those Daleks could be the missing link of when they built in hovering to climb stairs!
 
The small glimpses of fandom I see on Facebook and Tumblr are frothing at the mouth over how bad they think this episode is.

There's even a review circulating about how the episode is "objectively bad" and reads like the worst gaming fanboy drivel I've ever read.

It really is all quite amazing and proves that Doctor Who will likely stay a solitary endeavor for me, personally.
 

Jintor

Member
If the kids thing is recurring this season that might be kinda interesting, especially if it ties into Melody in New York
 

SpeedingUptoStop

will totally Facebook friend you! *giggle* *LOL*
The only really poorly received thing I've seen was the "I can't get pregnant/I can't give you kids/Moffat hates Amy & women" stuff.
That plot in particular made it feel like we were dropped into the second episode of the season. It was weird. And the reasoning was kind of very adult, even for this show. Makes the webisodes prior to this season seem a little bit sillier because it's a sudden thing and its over something that probably should not break them apart. Fairly forced, but whatever, it was marginal to the rest of the ep.
 
Count how many times he says "objectively" if the points make your mind fall apart. It may help.

EDIT: Okay, it's not that many, but boy does he hammer that point home.

This is generally the direction I'm seeing with complaints about the new episode, consolidated into one review. Don't expect any meaningful criticism, but it gives you an idea at the tone of the bile.

A lot of anger is directed at how similar Oswin is to the other females in the series.

That plot in particular made it feel like we were dropped into the second episode of the season.

Moffat has a bad habit of doing that and it's one of the few things I don't like about his writing.
 

SpeedingUptoStop

will totally Facebook friend you! *giggle* *LOL*
Count how many times he says "objectively" if the points make your mind fall apart. It may help.

This is generally the direction I'm seeing with complaints about the new episode, consolidated into one review. Don't expect any meaningful criticism, but it gives you an idea at the tone of the bile.



Moffat has a bad habit of doing that and it's one of the few things I don't like about his writing.
It's so weird given how many reviews seemed to give the impression that this ep was bulletproof. I'm a huge fan of Moffat (probably leaning on the higher end of the scale given this thread) and I thought the Rory / Amy plot was a surprising reach. Maybe they'll do more with it coming up / set it up for something else., otherwise it was a bit of a silly waste just to fit theme.


The Moffat complaint about women though is always kind of lost on me as I'm used to shows having the women portrayed to be idiots. It's a bit much that Coleman may have similarities with River or The TARDIS, but is she really like Amy to people? I think given a lot of room to grow she'll end up much more distinct. I just don't get what's grating about a fun personality popping up frequently though, that's kind of why it's entertainment and not real life.
 

BatDan

Bane? Get them on board, I'll call it in.
The only really poorly received thing I've seen was the "I can't get pregnant/I can't give you kids/Moffat hates Amy & women" stuff.

I've seen a couple people compare the Dalek memory wipe to "One More Day". ... I don't think they actually read OMD.
 

Mariolee

Member
Count how many times he says "objectively" if the points make your mind fall apart. It may help.

This is generally the direction I'm seeing with complaints about the new episode, consolidated into one review. Don't expect any meaningful criticism, but it gives you an idea at the tone of the bile.



Moffat has a bad habit of doing that and it's one of the few things I don't like about his writing.

I counted four times. Here are some choice picks from his review, which are mostly nitpicks, but contain some valid points.

And then the rest of the episode happened. It was, objectively, bad television. And if you disagree, I humbly submit that you just have lower standards of quality than I do. Because it WAS bad television.

What Doctor Who character do you think of when I describe this: “She is a beautiful, smart, teasing, flirty, confident woman who can do things the Doctor can’t”. Did you think of Amy Pond, Sally Sparrow, or River Song? Or did you think of the new character in this episode, who is exactly the same as all of these other characters? Objectively bad writing.

...No. How boring. You know what turns me on? Characters with dimensions.

This scene, which should have been great, was the most awful infodump I’ve ever seen. “I can’t have kids!”, said Amy. “I know”, said Rory. So Rory knows. So why is she explaining it?

We spent all of season 6 dealing with them having kids. They have a child already! Her name’s River! Remember River? She’s exactly like the new girl except not new, remember?

Rory has always been the lapdog, but in this episode he’s just an idiot.

...for some reason they insisted on setting it up even more beforehand with this stupid scene of Rory hearing them say ‘ex’ and going ‘eggs? You want eggs?’ – Rory, you’re not a moron, you know what it means! It’s the only thing they say, what the hell?

Rory’s ‘what colour?’ was an entirely valid question. A question the Doctor didn’t answer. Neither did the writer. Fine if those new colours weren’t popular, but you can’t just hide them away in the story without even a throwaway one-line explanation about it.

When you’re noticing things and the Doctor isn’t, that’s not good. He should be better than us. That’s the point.

oh, so you made the whole Dalek empire forget who you were and then reintroduced yourself!? Well that was a smart thing to do! They’re not forgetting you now after you materialise into their ship, taunt them and then leave! And then – oh god – and then he spun around the console saying ‘Doctor Who!’ – IT’S HIS SHOW! It’s like he’s a fan of himself! You can’t DO THAT! And it was the EXACT same ending as the end of Season 6, right down to the Doc – tor – Who’ pronunciation at the end!! DO SOMETHING NEW OH GOD.

I loved this one the most:

The Doctor does NOT have a big chin! Rory does NOT have a big nose! It’s fun for just Amy to make those jokes because then it’s part of her character, it’s what she personally sees them as. But Carla or Oswin or whatever doing it as well?? That’s just inaccurate.

I just realized I posted about 70% of the post lol
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
The small glimpses of fandom I see on Facebook and Tumblr are frothing at the mouth over how bad they think this episode is.

There's even a review circulating about how the episode is "objectively bad" and reads like the worst gaming fanboy drivel I've ever read.

It really is all quite amazing and proves that Doctor Who will likely stay a solitary endeavor for me, personally.

What? Are these the same fans that thought that Series 5 and 6 were absolutely brilliant? If so then it looks like they and I will continue to disagree.


EDIT:
When you’re noticing things and the Doctor isn’t, that’s not good. He should be better than us. That’s the point.
Yup, looks like I am.
 

SpeedingUptoStop

will totally Facebook friend you! *giggle* *LOL*
I think Rory does have a big nose. *shrug*

Doctor's chin is a bit more debatable, but it's kind of clear he's sensitive about it either way.
 
The Moffat complaint about women though is always kind of lost on me as I'm used to shows having the women portrayed to be idiots. It's a bit much that Coleman may have similarities with River or The TARDIS, but is she really like Amy to people? I think given a lot of room to grow she'll end up much more distinct. I just don't get what's grating about a fun personality popping up frequently though, that's kind of why it's entertainment and not real life.

Pretty much. I see Amy as a very different character from River and Oswin. Amy brings the Doctor down to humanity, centers him. River gives him somebody who is as good as him, on his level. Oswin gives him somebody who's smart in a different way (in a Captain Jack direction), and is not infatuated with him. These characters give the Doctor a constant reminder of his own humility, which is a theme of Moffat's Doctor run.

Compared to Series 1-4, where I found a lot of the female leads to be indistinguishable and make really stupid decisions, the new characters are pretty awesome and make perfect sense in a purely character interaction way.

its the opposite of OMD, since the Daleks no longer fear the doctor they are more dangerous than ever

That's a great point. Almost all of the Dalek interactions in NuWho have been standoffs usually with the Doctor bluffing based on his past brilliance. It isn't until he's had time to think that he manages to pull off a daring escape.

I counted four times. Here are some choice picks from his review, which are mostly nitpicks, but contain some valid points.

It felt like it was more, because he kept on repeating the whole "you have bad standards if you disagree" mantra. Oh well.
 

BatDan

Bane? Get them on board, I'll call it in.
its the opposite of OMD, since the Daleks no longer fear the doctor they are more dangerous than ever

Yeah. Without the fear of the Doctor looming overhead, they can go around time and space killing whatever they want.

On that review: Wow that was dreadful, so many things wrong. Wasn't the 11th Doctor's chin one of the first things he noticed post-regeneration? "Chin *feels* Blimey!" Rory does have a fairly big nose. Not every female companion is alike.
Rory heard "eggs" because he's never met a Dalek and doesn't know their catchphrase, and "what color" is a stupid question, but it makes for a funny joke.

Seriously, what the hell?
 

Mariolee

Member
Yeah. Without the fear of the Doctor looming overhead, they can go around time and space killing whatever they want.

On that review: Wow that was dreadful, so many things wrong. Wasn't the 11th Doctor's chin one of the first things he noticed post-regeneration? "Chin *feels* Blimey!" Rory does have a fairly big nose. Not every female companion is alike.
Rory heard "eggs" because he's never met a Dalek and doesn't know their catchphrase, and "what color" is a stupid question, but it makes for a funny joke.

Seriously, what the hell?

That's what I thought too, but you gotta remember the Big Bang finale with the Dalek chasing the gang around.
 
The only really poorly received thing I've seen was the "I can't get pregnant/I can't give you kids/Moffat hates Amy & women" stuff.

But it makes sense really. The last thing Kovarian would want after spending all this effort brain-washing and conditioning River as the ultimate Doctor killing machine is for her to have another timebaby. It makes sense that she'd sterilise Amy. Horrible sense, but sense.

And I do think its a shame after how strong Rory's been that they're going with another spunky female companion yes. C'mon Moffatt. We know you like your poorly written female leads, but you write Sherlock for christ's sake.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
But it makes sense really. The last thing Kovarian would want after spending all this effort brain-washing and conditioning River as the ultimate Doctor killing machine is for her to have another timebaby. It makes sense that she'd sterilise Amy. Horrible sense, but sense.

And I do think its a shame after how strong Rory's been that they're going with another spunky female companion yes. C'mon Moffatt. We know you like your poorly written female leads, but you write Sherlock for christ's sake.

They have a chance to do spunky female lead right this time, I feel. If they can avoid the mistakes of River (loves the Doctor), Amy (acts like an annoying college girl in a foreign country), Martha (loves the Doctor) or Rose (loves the Doctor) Oswin might be really entertaining. I want to see her and the Doctor running around getting on each others nerves.
 
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