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Official Doctor Who Series 1, 5, 31, or Fnarg Thread of Moffat & Smith

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Jintor

Member
Alphahawk said:
So being American I just watched the Big Bang, kinda felt let down, it was an intresting concept but didn't really seem like finale material. ..

Dunno what you're smoking bro

/edit but yeah, opinions, whatevs
 

Furret

Banned
Alphahawk said:
So being American I just watched the Big Bang, kinda felt let down, it was an intresting concept but didn't really seem like finale material. ..

You don't have to be an American to be let down by the finale.

I thought it was one of the very worst episodes of the season (and the only one other than The Silurian two-parter I never watched twice).

It seemed especially disappointing after the excellence of the previous episode and its build up.
 

Mr. Sam

Member
6a00d834515e9269e20120a750927f970b-500wi


This glass, it's half full.
 

Mr. Sam

Member
I'm calling you negative without being rude. No way was the finale worse than Victory of the Daleks.

Found this posted by someone on Facebook just now:

"Yay, we are going to see a new Doctor after the next series!"

Coming from a guy who won't be happy unless he regenerates into David Tennant. A quick Google search makes me think it's baseless though.
 
Mr. Sam said:
I'm calling you negative without being rude. No way was the finale worse than Victory of the Daleks.

Found this posted by someone on Facebook just now:

"Yay, we are going to see a new Doctor after the next series!"

Coming from a guy who won't be happy unless he regenerates into David Tennant. A quick Google search makes me think it's baseless though.

People generally seem to think that Matt Smith is on a 3 year contract right now, with the possibility of extending it. Seems about right, because I doubt the BBC would want to hire someone who would only do a year and have another Ecclestone situation.
 

Furret

Banned
Mr. Sam said:
I'm calling you negative without being rude. No way was the finale worse than Victory of the Daleks.

Found this posted by someone on Facebook just now:

"Yay, we are going to see a new Doctor after the next series!"

Coming from a guy who won't be happy unless he regenerates into David Tennant. A quick Google search makes me think it's baseless though.

I feel so grateful you spared my feelings, after I had the effrontery of not liking something you did.

I had not realised that an aversion to Bill & Ted style time travel paradoxes, RTD-esque deus ex machina endings, and an almost complete lack of any antagonists made me "negative".

Next time the best series of Doctor Who ever ends with an episode that makes it look like they ran out of time, money and inspiration all at the same instant I'll try and look at my glass half full.
 

Jintor

Member
Furret said:
I had not realised that an aversion to Bill & Ted style time travel paradoxes, RTD-esque deus ex machina endings, and an almost complete lack of any antagonists made me "negative"..

Timey-wimey + contracting universe, everything that happened in it was foreshadowed continually throughout the season, isn't it exciting to know that not all drama has to be based on an antagonist
 

Furret

Banned
Jintor said:
Timey-wimey + contracting universe, everything that happened in it was foreshadowed continually throughout the season, isn't it exciting to know that not all drama has to be based on an antagonist

No, it was boring.

And all the stuff that was foreshadowed throughout the season implied something considerably more interesting than what actually happened.

It was also disappointing that while the rest of the season had kept just on the right side of the fantasy line the finale gave up any pretence of being science fiction and just started making up nonsense to explain everything away with a hand wave.
 

Reno7728

Member
Furret said:
No, it was boring.

And all the stuff that was foreshadowed throughout the season implied something considerably more interesting than what actually happened.

It was also disappointing that while the rest of the season had kept just on the right side of the fantasy line the finale gave up any pretence of being science fiction and just started making up nonsense to explain everything away with a hand wave.

What 'nonsense' was this?
 

Furret

Banned
Reno7728 said:
What 'nonsense' was this?

Erf... look I don't really want to spoil anyone's fun. I was just reacting to the obnoxious comments after I dared to criticised the finale.

But basically the finale started off by revolving around a completely impossible time travel paradox. One so obviously silly and illogical that exactly the same concept was played entirely for laughs at the end of the second Bill & Ted film.

By the second half the whole thing had been reduced to RTD style melodrama, where simply remembering The Doctor somehow magics both him and the TARDIS back into existence.

If you didn't notice any of that or, worse, were okay with it I dread to think what your glass was half full with.

I'm by no means suggesting that Doctor Who should be hard science fiction (although if it dabbled occasionally it wouldn't hurt), but when the end of such a cleverly scripted series ends in such a sloppy and careless mess I can't help but feel disappointed.
 
I enjoyed the finale a lot, much better than RTDs more recent attempts. Also the "magic" that brought him back was well explained and set up in the finale.

steven_moffat: @UPictures The Weeping Angels stood ready to conquer all dominions of space and time throughout the multiverse. But a moth saw them.

Edit: as for
escaping the pandorica
it's entirely possible that he spent centuries escaping the first time, then once he went back and freed himself he no longer had to spend that time in there, but still had to let himself out. Its not as crazy as it may seem.
 
I can understand Furret's disappointment. The giant deus ex machina payoff would have bugged me if the script weren't so damn entertaining. The time travel gags (the fez!) and the mind-bending structure of it was so brilliant, that it kind of made up for what could have been a disappointing conclusion. In say RTD's hands i think the same story would have been awful. Moffat's humour and storytelling sensibilities make the silliness click for me a lot more. The season had been foreshadowing a semi-reset of sorts as well, so that's why it didn't bother me too much either.

The escape from the Pandorica is also kind of a big copout and a nonsensical paradox, but i can handwave it because of how entertaining i found the rest, plus there was that badass Amy reveal. I understand it wouldn't be the same for everyone.

I'm listening to the proms right now. The music for this season was so good. Need the soundtrack NOW!!
 

pnjtony

Member
I can see why some people would be slightly let down. Essentially Moffat built us up all series and then only gave us half of the resolution.

In past recent series RTD has wrapped up the season in a nice little bow. This series Moffat explained the crack but not the reason for it, however this fact is clearly addressed at the end of The Big Bang. Having only half of a resolution, and a very satisfying one at that. This series finale has kept my pump primed for Christmas and the next series.

I loved it though. I got laid on the basis of the romantic efforts of Centurian Rory alone.
 

Reno7728

Member
Spotless Mind and wind_steaker summed it up pretty well really, i thought the ending was set up nicely throughout the series (Jacket!) and the explanation of the saving the universe really made sense to me. Also it was very entertaining and kept you guessing throughout
 

Furret

Banned
Spotless Mind said:
I can understand Furret's disappointment. The giant deus ex machina payoff would have bugged me if the script weren't so damn entertaining. The time travel gags (the fez!) and the mind-bending structure of it was so brilliant, that it kind of made up for what could have been a disappointing conclusion. In say RTD's hands i think the same story would have been awful. Moffat's humour and storytelling sensibilities make the silliness click for me a lot more. The season had been foreshadowing a semi-reset of sorts as well, so that's why it didn't bother me too much either.

The escape from the Pandorica is also kind of a big copout and a nonsensical paradox, but i can handwave it because of how entertaining i found the rest, plus there was that badass Amy reveal. I understand it wouldn't be the same for everyone.

I'm listening to the proms right now. The music for this season was so good. Need the soundtrack NOW!!

That all seems a perfectly reasonable stance to me. I loved the bits with the fez too.

I think one of the main problems with the finale is the huge tonal disconnect with the previous episode.

The Pandorica Opens was a grand sci-fi epic and the last 10 minutes or so were extremely dramatic, with some great acting from Smith and an impressive sense of doom and finality.

But the finale itself was just a straight farce, which is absolutely fine in the context of Doctor Who in general but not at all what was implied by the previous episode.

To me it felt like a cheap mid-series filler episode rather than the culmination of everything that had come before.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
I enjoyed it. Both parts. Matt Smith has filled the shoes well, they've managed to make Rory not seem like utter third wheel material anymore. Looking forward to what's next.
 

Thomper

Member
Was at the Doctor Who Prom yesterday. That. Was. Amazing. Wow. I'll post some more detailed impressions later and if anyone has questions about the video-bit or anything, go ahead and ask them. For now, though, I want to share one thing that I really, really loved: they played This Is Gallifrey/Vale Decem in the second half, and on the video-screens during those two songs they showed all of the Regenerations so far, in sequence. Audience went crazy for each and every single Doctor (though Tennant got the loudest cheers & applause by far).

Seeing that humble, humble black & white beginning with William Hartnell, and then realizing you're in a concert-hall with 15,000 people watching the music of that same show being played by a classical orchestra? Amazing. Moment I'll remember forever.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Night of the living Geriatrics confirmed.

Oh, shit. The "He's Mr. Cool." line and subsequent scene had me laughing my ass off.
 

Alphahawk

Member
All the paradoxes in the final make sense, when you relize that
the universe is dying and that time is weaker than it's ever been
also
Amy was able to bring back the doctor back because she slept next to pure time energy for 18 years which temporarly gave her god-like powers to repair the universe
was that last part stupid? maybe, but unlike the season 3 finale it totally made sense..
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Aww. Amy actually loves Rory. How adorable.

CAN WE GET BACK TO SPACE TRAVEL AND TIMEY WIMEY NOW PLZ?

The frozen star is really fucking cool. The shots with the frozen TARDIS are simply too good for television.
 

Blader

Member
Alphahawk said:
All the paradoxes in the final make sense, when you relize that
the universe is dying and that time is weaker than it's ever been

Yep.

The "danger" of time paradoxes is that they'd tear apart the universe. But since the universe was already dying, the Doctor can fuck with time all he wants. :lol
 

Diablos54

Member
WanderingWind said:
The frozen star is really fucking cool. The shots with the frozen TARDIS are simply too good for television.
I loved that shot, easily my favorite of the season.

And there is plenty of Timey Wimey to come for you! :D
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Amy's Choice was very good.

I don't know. This series hasn't had a weak episode yet. The overall quality of season 5 is so above and beyond the other seasons that it almost feels like a different show. But, the narratives so far haven't been spectacular. Too many episodes grounded in the relationships, IMO. I want more aliens and weird worlds and what not.
 
WanderingWind said:
I don't know. This series hasn't had a weak episode yet. The overall quality of season 5 is so above and beyond the other seasons that it almost feels like a different show. But, the narratives so far haven't been spectacular. Too many episodes grounded in the relationships, IMO. I want more aliens and weird worlds and what not.
The two parter you're about to watch is about as alien as the rest of the series gets, though alien is perhaps not the right word at all. Regardless, they're widely considered to be the weakest of the series by far but they're followed by one of, if not the best episode.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Alphahawk said:
Also I loved the whole Fez thing "I wear a Fez now Fez's are cool" :lol

favorite bit of the whole season was him doing that and the two ladies destroying the Fez. :lol

I really liked the season finale (American, just came on last night) and don't think it comes close to the shit that RTD pulled.

It was established that Amy had the ability to pull things back (Rory) from the void. And in fact, she managed to pull her entire family back from the void already... I mean, it was a bit of a copout ending, but it was a lot of fun seeing the doctor make it through in the fashion he did.

The set up in the first half of the finale was so good that there was basically no way it could live up to the epicness of all the doctors enemies teaming up against him... but it was a really fun light-hearted ending which I really appreciate given how dark Davies and Tennant took the series towards the end of their run.

Hopefully I actually get the Christmas special at Christmas and the next series won't be on a 2-3 week delay.
 

G-Fex

Member
It's been better than a few other season or sorry Series finales. I didn't like it too much but...maybe cause I wasn't paying all attention, or cause I missed most of the season.

Looks good though, I enjoyed the end with the Doctor dancing.

Don't know why River and Amy had to hate on the fez.
 

Thomper

Member
The Doctor Who Prom was absolutely amazing. Definitely one of the best things I've ever been a part of. I find Murray Gold's music awesome, and he stepped it up for series 5, so this, to me, was probably the best possible thing to see this.

Never been to a prom before, or even the Royal Albert Hall (I'm Dutch! Booked a trip to London around this Prom! Worth it!), so that was already an amazing experience in itself. Got there nice and early and had dinner in one of the RAH's restaurants, sitting directly next to Elton John's piano. Had some pretty good seats, Choir section, directly overlooking the choir and orchestra, though facing their backs.

Atmosphere was wonderful, too. Was expecting the audience to be 90% young kids and parents, but it was much more varied than that, with plenty of older people too. Before the Prom started the camera was zooming around, with the spotlights looking for people wearing fezzes and bowties (there were plenty), and whenever it found one, the camera zoomed in and the crowd went wild.

Royal Albert Hall got pretty darn hot at times, but there were times where the music truly gave me chills and all my sweat disappeared. As I said, This is Gallifrey/Vale Decem set to a Regeneration-montage was a highlight. Maybe wasn't so fun for the radio-audience to hear the audience there break into wild cheers and applause every other minute, but an amazing thing to be a part of.

To be honest, though I liked some of the classical pieces they played, overall I didn't really care for those *that* much. The first half then, which had the biggest nummer of classics, wasn't always as exciting. Highlight was when they played I Am The Doctor, the 11th Doctor's action-y theme, and various aliens marched in. They came in from all corners of the Hall, so you could see and hear people excited whenever they discovered another Silurian/Vampire/Cyberman popping up.

Later on in the first half, the Daleks popped up, deserving the award for 'biggest technical malfunction of the evening', with the talky-lights on one Dalek flickering while the other Dalek was talking. They were almost constantly reserved. Really put a damper on how scary those Daleks are. :lol

Second half then, and so far we'd only seen Karen Gillan. Then there was a video-message with Matt Smith as the Doctor waving and shouting to the people in the Hall, and I was kinda worried this'd mean we wouldn't him 'for real'. But then he opened a hatch in his video-scene-thingy (there was talk of timey-wimey explodey-wodey bombs threatening to blow up the Hall), and popped up right in the Arena, in the middle of the Hall, and the crowd (deservedly) went wild. Doctor ran into the audience, grabbed a kid to do a fun little scene (kid didn't exactly follow the script, so Smith had to improvise, making the thing extra fun), and then left again. Second half was the strongest to me, probably because I can't decide which theme I loved most. This is Gallifrey kicked ass, the van Gogh theme almost reduced me to tears again, and the entire crowd clapping along to the Song of Freedom was fun, too.

Smith and Arthur Darvill (Rory) popped up in the second half, too. Smith had gelled his hair down and put on a fancy black suit quickly. Might be a bit weird of a thing to say, this, but Karen Gillan definitely seemed 'closest' to her character. She's just as manic and giggly and wild-ish in real life. Arthur Darvill seems a lot less manic and panic-y than Rory, and Matt Smith is much, much more proper-cool as a real person. That's 'cool' in the relaxed-sense of the word, not the 'awesome'-sense of the word, as Eleventh Doctor's totally awesome, so there.

There were about ten minutes of standing ovations at the end, and I think the crowd probably would have gone on a lot longer if Karen/Matt/Arthur/Murray Gold/the conductors hadn't left the stage after those ten minutes. Crowd was ecstatic, loved it all, and again: this'll be a memory that will be with me forever. So, so, so much fun.

Should be on BBC Three next month or so, apparently. Definitely watch it if you can.
 

ag-my001

Member
What really hurts the brain is realizing that River mentions the events surrounding the Pandorica in both the Library episodes from Series 4 and the Byzantium/Angel ones in Series 5 (also mentioned in the library). So is that River post-Big Bang 2.0? If the explosion of the TARDIS occurred in every point in time and space, isn't everything?

Also, with respect to Amy's Choice, it's all nice and sweet that Amy doesn't want to live without Rory, but it seemed a bit odd that no thought at all was given to Rory's child. Perhaps the whole "it could be a dream so whatever" combined with the stress with the situation, but still.
 

Furret

Banned
Alphahawk said:
Amy was able to bring back the doctor back because she slept next to pure time energy for 18 years which temporarly gave her god-like powers to repair the universe
was that last part stupid? maybe, but unlike the season 3 finale it totally made sense..

It made no sense whatsoever.

It was the very definition of a deus ex machina ending.

Really, just read the Wikipedia entry - it's not very long and it basically describes exactly the finale of series 5 (happy ending can only be brought about by direct intervention of the gods, as they wave logic away and cut to the credits).
 

Reno7728

Member
infiniteloop said:
It's like Colin Baker?

Well Moffat described it as "Sherlock is far less human than The Doctor weirdly. He kind of enjoys humiliating people, whereas The Doctor just sort of does it accidentally.
Sherlock is a human who wants to be more than that and The Doctor is almost the opposite." (paraphrased from another forum)
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Furret said:
It made no sense whatsoever.

It was the very definition of a deus ex machina ending.

Really, just read the Wikipedia entry - it's not very long and it basically describes exactly the finale of series 5 (happy ending can only be brought about by direct intervention of the gods, as they wave logic away and cut to the credits).

Sure, but that's been a part of Dr. Who forever.

And I would argue this isn't Deus Ex... Deus Ex is when something is brought up at the very absolute end of a story as a cheap way out that was not mentioned at any point up until then.

"words" having the power to make the Dr. whole again so he could kill the master? Deus Ex.
Rose being able to look into the heart of the Tardis and bring people back to life? Deus Ex
Dr. Who regenerating into the hand, creating the Dr Donna and a human Dr clone? Deus Ex
The entirety of the End of Time including the Master being turned into some weird guy that eats people? Deus Ex

Amy having a subconcious power to remember people on the other side of the vortex and bring them back might be a bit silly, but we've already seen her do it. The Dalek's and company scanned her memory and made a Rory so real he still loved her. She was able to bring her parents back, etc.

I can get not liking it and thinking it a bit silly, but it was set up decently well and I would argue isn't Deus Ex at all.

Davis liked to "foreshadow" things that had nothing to do with anything. Rose being Badwolf, the drum beats in the Masters head, the Ood singing and shit. But the foreshadowing had nothing to do with the story and was basically a clever way of him saying "see, I knew I was going to make this shit up at the end of the day all along". I think Moffat did a much better job here, and while it was goofy, he explained the "rules" of the end of the series before he got there and stuck to his guns pretty well. Or at the very least, playing it up as light hearted instead of melodrama made it easier to swallow for me at least.
 

Furret

Banned
StoOgE said:
Sure, but that's been a part of Dr. Who forever.

And I would argue this isn't Deus Ex... Deus Ex is when something is brought up at the very absolute end of a story as a cheap way out that was not mentioned at any point up until then.

"words" having the power to make the Dr. whole again so he could kill the master? Deus Ex.
Rose being able to look into the heart of the Tardis and bring people back to life? Deus Ex
Dr. Who regenerating into the hand, creating the Dr Donna and a human Dr clone? Deus Ex
The entirety of the End of Time including the Master being turned into some weird guy that eats people? Deus Ex

Amy having a subconcious power to remember people on the other side of the vortex and bring them back might be a bit silly, but we've already seen her do it. The Dalek's and company scanned her memory and made a Rory so real he still loved her. She was able to bring her parents back, etc.

I can get not liking it and thinking it a bit silly, but it was set up decently well and I would argue isn't Deus Ex at all.

Davis liked to "foreshadow" things that had nothing to do with anything. Rose being Badwolf, the drum beats in the Masters head, the Ood singing and shit. But the foreshadowing had nothing to do with the story and was basically a clever way of him saying "see, I knew I was going to make this shit up at the end of the day all along". I think Moffat did a much better job here, and while it was goofy, he explained the "rules" of the end of the series before he got there and stuck to his guns pretty well. Or at the very least, playing it up as light hearted instead of melodrama made it easier to swallow for me at least.

The guy's post I was quoting literally referred to "godlike powers". Something I don't recall Amy exhibiting up until the last episode.

Really, just read the Wikipedia link, it really would have made no less sense if Heracles or Zeus (or the White Guardian) had jumped in at the end and sorted everything out.
 

cnet128

Banned
Furret said:
The guy's post I was quoting literally referred to "godlike powers". Something I don't recall Amy exhibiting up until the last episode.

Really, just read the Wikipedia link, it really would have made no less sense if Heracles or Zeus (or the White Guardian) had jumped in at the end and sorted everything out.
Yes, it would. Because nothing up to that point in the series had mentioned Heracles, Zeus or the White Guardian; there had been no hint at either their existence, or their having the ability to pull off such a feat.

By contrast, it had been firmly established that a) Amy had spent her whole life in direct proximity to the crack (evident from the very first episode), b) this had had huge consequences on her life (hinted at over the course of the series and made explicit in the final episode), c) this unique position had resulted in a powerful link between her and the time vortex, sufficient to recreate portions of the universe from nothing (this being the reason that Rory was able to return as more than a mere automaton in the penultimate episode), d) that the logic behind the cracks' modifying the universe was affected by highly subjective factors (it made things 'not have happened', but only parts of the consequences were actually removed, blatant inconsistencies resulted, and whether memories were erased or not could depend on how 'important' they were), and e) that the Doctor was not even strictly speaking 'gone', merely trapped on the other side of the cracks.

Based on these established facts, it seems entirely feasible that Amy remembering the Doctor could bring him back. The cracks' rewriting of the universe was imperfect; they just wiped from history anything that they 'absorbed', erased the most obvious consequences, and wiped memories to make things seem superficially consistent. The Pandorica's light directly reversed this effect, latching on to anything that had been imperfectly erased and fully restoring it. When this light was spread through the cracks themselves, reaching the entire universe just as the cracks did the same, it basically cancelled them out and restored the universe, removing all the inconsistencies with the exception of one: the Doctor himself (and the Tardis) were not restored, because they were at the centre of it all, right inside the cracks, outside of the universe.

As such, the cracks' logic persisted around that one point: all obvious consequences of the Doctor's existence were removed, and everyone's memories of him were wiped. They gave the world a superficial 'consistency' that did not include the Doctor. However, Amy remembering the Doctor caused that superficial consistency to break down. Perhaps ordinarily, one person remembering wouldn't be enough to actually bring him back, but as the person in question was Amy, wih her powerful connection to the whole phenomenon, it was enough to restore some measure of connection between the Doctor and the universe - and I'm guessing that the Doctor himself, was able to take advantage of that connection to transport himself out of the limbo he was trapped in, and back into the universe proper.

Now, this is just my understanding of the whole thing, and I'm not claiming that it's the only possible interpretation. I'm not saying that there aren't perfectly reasonable complaints you could make, either. I could understand, for instance, if you weren't happy with Amy's lifelong proximity to the crack giving her such a profound connection to the time vortex, or if you didn't like the idea that the Pandorica could have such an all-powerful restorative ability. But neither of these complaints make the conclusion deus ex machina, because deus ex machina come out of nowhere, whereas these factors had been hinted at and established ahead of time.
 
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