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

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H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
She says "We think it's been ten years. Not for you, or Earth, but for us. Ten years older. Ten years of you, on and off."
 
A

APZonerunner

Member
Exterminieren said:
Also the first bit of actual tangible evidence that [SPECULATION]
we're seeing the past 4 episodes backwards chronologically; Rory can be seen with his phone charger in the Henry VIII bit.
Click to expand...

Rory's dad recognizes/knows The Doctor and the inside of the TARDIS in this, but didn't in Dinosaurs. Probably a minor error, maybe the running order was once a bit different?
 
I

Incendiary

Banned
As pretty much everyone else has said, loved the episode right up until the anti-climactic climax. The ending really felt rushed and it seemed like the writer had a great idea (The Slow Invasion) but didn't actually have a clue on how to wrap it up. No explanation as to what the weird doctor alien things were. Think it would have been better served if they'd regurgitated a past villain so they didn't have to cram a whole exposition of who/what/why/how into the last five minutes of the climax.

I was also hoping Rory's dad's endless studying would pay off somehow. Ah well.

Next week looks really good. Seems like the Angels are going to be back to the creepiness of Blink and time energy. Can't wait.
 
V

Ventilaator

Banned
Agree with the thoughts here. Great episode, but that ending was just way too fast.

I'm not sure about next week at all. The trailer makes it seem like the angels are used correctly, but River is there. She hasn't been used correctly since Silence in the Library.

Jintor said:
I am kind of contemplating how cool it would have been just to have the cubes just disappear and not have a crazy evil duder behind them at all. Just a weird thing instead.
Click to expand...

I would have written the cubes to be what alien-Google uses to map out places for alien-Streetview.
 
J

JoshuaJSlone

Member
Suairyu said:
And yet another writer treats a defibrillator as a magic device that can re-start a heart...
Click to expand...
At least they didn't do it with CPR again.
Sober said:
If the Doctor could dump Rory and Amy back almost exactly the same moment they left, why do they sometimes have people complain they go missing for months on end?
Click to expand...
maharg said:
The TARDIS is more accurate than it has been in the past, but presumably it's still sometimes a bit off. :p
Click to expand...
I thought it might be intentional, as a counter to the problem of aging differently. Though from the home viewers' point of view they seem to have aged pretty gracefully.
 
D

davidcotton

Member
Sober said:
Damn, the audiobooks are only read by one person? I was hoping they'd be more like a radio drama where all the voice talent is there to record and everything, you just don't have to worry about the visual component.

Although I guess with the giant gap they left for 11, there is plenty of stuff you can milk out of it even if he's on his own.
Click to expand...

Depends, the big finish stuff is full cast for the most part.
 
J

Jintor

Member
Ventilaator said:
I would have written the cubes to be what alien-Google uses to map out places for alien-Streetview.
Click to expand...

Brilliant.

You'd think there would be more benign amazing shit in the Doctor Who universe. I quietly like to pretend that the Hitch-hiker's Universe is somewhere out there off on the side.
 
N

NotTheGuyYouKill

Member
Quick said:
Also, did anyone else notice how there were still bodies on the beds in the ship moments before it blew up? One can assume that the Doctor, Amy, and Rory only had a few seconds to get out before it blew up. Error or did the three of them really just disregard at least more than five people? :p
Click to expand...

Yeah, I clocked that immediately too. It was really weird, like... "Oh well, no time, sorry people about to get fried, we're just gonna save Brian and pop out."

Other than that, decent episode, despite a kinda weak ending. But it was good.

Angels next week! Brrrrrr, they always give me the creeps.
 
S

StealthGoblin

Banned
I get the feeling that the latest episode suffered from a little bit of arc building. I imagine the antagonist and ending was more fleshed out, but Moffat needed a lot more scenes inserted to build up to the Ponds departure. Moffat basically gives people a concept to run with, or lets them run with their own concept, then goes over it with his red pen.
 
A

Alphahawk

Member
I thought this last episode kind of sucked. A majority of the episode has the doctor investigating cubes that don't do anything and don't immediately pose a threat to humanity. That's not exciting that's just boring.

Then the villain is introduced and it's some type of hologram of some god-like space enity who wants to destroy humanity for unclear reasons.

Oh well I've guess every great season needs a clunker.
 
8

8bit

Knows the Score
Jintor said:
Brilliant.

You'd think there would be more benign amazing shit in the Doctor Who universe. I quietly like to pretend that the Hitch-hiker's Universe is somewhere out there off on the side.
Click to expand...

The Tenth Doctor mentions meeting Arthur Dent in the Christmas Invasion, IIRC:
 
D

Dmax3901

Member
I must be in a terrible mood, because I didn't think much of this episode at all.

Several reasons, many already mentioned. What were the beaked people? Were they robots like the little girl, if so, why did they have beaks when she didn't?

As for the 'real life' parts of the ep, the implication that they spend SO much time with the Doctor off screen made me feel distanced from Amy and Rory. There's so many adventures that we don't get to see that it kinda felt like I didn't really know them. Ten years?! Part of the joy of series 5/6 was that we were with them every step of the way, discovering as they did.

I'm sure I'll watch this season again later and love it.
 
L

Locke_211

Member
Remember that 2 years pass in the Eleventh Hour, between the majority of the episode and the Doctor returning to pick Amy up at the very end. I guess that's part of the 10.
 
M

Mariolee

Member
Locke_211 said:
Remember that 2 years pass in the Eleventh Hour, between the majority of the episode and the Doctor returning to pick Amy up at the very end. I guess that's part of the 10.
Click to expand...

Yeah, plus the two years between the Series 6 finale and the Christmas special, and then the 10 months between Asylum and Dinosaurs.
 
H

hamchan

Member
Dmax3901 said:
As for the 'real life' parts of the ep, the implication that they spend SO much time with the Doctor off screen made me feel distanced from Amy and Rory. There's so many adventures that we don't get to see that it kinda felt like I didn't really know them. Ten years?! Part of the joy of series 5/6 was that we were with them every step of the way, discovering as they did.
Click to expand...

I actually liked that we're pretty much watching a highlights reel. They've done it effectively enough that it feels like the trio have been through a lot together, even though we didn't get to see it all. I can certainly feel the tight bonds between the Doctor and the Ponds, and I think they're my favorite companions ever now.

Next ep has a good chance of making me cry if they execute it right.
 
L

Locke_211

Member
Dmax3901 said:
Why does so much time need to pass? I hope they make it clear.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is a slightly odd way of doing things, and clearly a deliberate decision for a not entirely clear reason. Moffat was clear after "Closing Time" last series that the Ponds weren't regular companions any more, so there was clearly some logic to keeping them around as people he keeps popping in on and taking off for random visits, but we've not really seen why, and why them in particular.
 
H

hamchan

Member
Locke_211 said:
Yeah, it is a slightly odd way of doing things, and clearly a deliberate decision for a not entirely clear reason. Moffat was clear after "Closing Time" last series that the Ponds weren't regular companions any more, so there was clearly some logic to keeping them around as people he keeps popping in on and taking off for random visits, but we've not really seen why, and why them in particular.
Click to expand...

I think it's very clearly explained why it's always them this episode!

The Ponds are this Doctor's first companions. They're seared onto his hearts. He can't quit them.
 
M

Mariolee

Member
hamchan said:
I think it's very clearly explained why it's always them this episode!

The Ponds are this Doctor's first companions. They're seared onto his hearts. He can't quit them.
Click to expand...

One of the redeeming factors of this episode. Which will make the next episode all that more heartbreaking. :(
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
Also, I sort of had a dream about the Weeping Angels last night.

They were everywhere.
 
bengraven

bengraven

Member
According to Reddit, this was actually the last filmed episode of the Ponds.

The last scene they ever filmed was them going off into the TARDIS at the end. Apparently the doors closed and the three of them hugged and cried. :(



Also:

R9enb.jpg
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(look at the top right highlighted area in the first pic)
 
K

KuwabaraTheMan

Banned
Decent episode. I really liked the beginning, especially with the everyday life sort of feel. I think it lost some momentum as it went on, though, and the ending was kind of a let down. Still, it was good for the most part.
 
M

Mariolee

Member
bengraven said:
According to Reddit, this was actually the last filmed episode of the Ponds.

The last scene they ever filmed was them going off into the TARDIS at the end. Apparently the doors closed and the three of them hugged and cried. :(



Also:



(look at the top right highlighted area in the first pic)
Click to expand...

Might be even further confirmation that Mercy took place during the seven weeks of this episode what with Rory's charger and the Doctor playing the Wii being AFTER the seven weeks.
 
The Elite

The Elite

BOSS
I don't know why but seeing the Pond story coming to an end has made me think about Tegan's days on the TARDIS. She went through a lot of shit and it wasn't a happy ending.

Tegan Jovanka

Such an underrated companion.
 
J

JoshuaJSlone

Member
I know massive coincidence is one of those things that just happens in TV, but I thought one of the world's 7 connection points being not only in the same city but the very hospital where Rory worked pushed it pretty hard.
 
F

Future Foundation

Member
d12_zps7d9533b6.png


So there was something a bit funky about this week's opening titles:

Bleeding Cool said:
"We ran a piece earlier in the week about the changing Doctor Who titles week by week, getting darker, with those Weeping Angels electricity bursts everywhere. This continued this week, but something else happened. This bit suddenly broke through. Which reminded me of seventies Doctor Who titles… hell, that’s exactly what it is. So exactly just what is going on?"
Click to expand...
 
G

Goldrush

Member
How often do Doctor Who have stories without an antagonist? It really did seem like it was heading toward that direction until the last few minutes. The only one I can think of right now is the last one of the first series.
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Suairyu said:
Look, I just want to put it this way:

If the Doctor could in seconds reconfigure the entire network of cubes to restart the hearts of a third of the population who had been dead for maybe thirty minutes by that point in time, he should have had the tech to just run a scan on the cubes and work out what they were instantly.
Click to expand...

Well, yes. Plus how did he find the seven sources of the signal (one handily being in Rory's hospital) but couldn't do that from the beginning?

Anyway, all that is a pointless framework for some fine character time. Doctor and Amy time was really nice, made me a bit teary

Also, in the 'next time' preview, they make it very clear that angels send people back in time. Perhaps backtracking on the previous episode in order to set up Amy/Rory being sent back in time? Although I'm not really sure how big a problem that is for a guy with a time machine..
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
mrklaw said:
Well, yes. Plus how did he find the seven sources of the signal (one handily being in Rory's hospital) but couldn't do that from the beginning?
Click to expand...

This part they explained well, I thought. Now that the cubes are active he thinks they must be communicating somehow, so he looks for the energy field that billions of cubes would have to create and...I dunno, notices the seven epicenters in the pattern
 
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