Doctor Who

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My stepson and I loved it. My husband and my son hated it. They called it “fan-fiction.” 😉

I thought it was a more enjoyable take on the Daleks and would actually be interested in seeing the episode again. I’m certainly looking forward to next week. DINOSAURS!!!👍
 
Anybody caught the latest Christmas episode? I thought it was pretty great, with lots of intrigue in store for the next half-season. Definitely my favorite episode from this season so far, if you consider this a proper continuation of Series 7.

Now I don’t know how to do spoilers so I’ll just give this SPOILER WARNING.

I must admit, the subtle liberal values in the show do get tiring. There was yet another reference to gay marriage in this episode and one that I would have loved removed. I am glad, though, that the Doctor has been portrayed as being completely unconcerned with all these “marriage ideas” to the point of not bothering to address them. One of the most disappointing things in Doctor Who was the previous (Tenth) Doctor actively encouraging Jack to pursue a same-sex relationship.

Moffat is more subtle than Russell T Davies and is thus an improvement, I feel. The presence of homosexual relationships is not as offensive as the show does not endorse them like in the Russell T Davies era. I just hope that we’ll one day get a completely wholesome Who again, but I think it’s pretty much impossible at this point unless society gets evangelized all over.
 
CmGuy89 said:
Anybody caught the latest Christmas episode? I thought it was pretty great, with lots of intrigue in store for the next half-season. Definitely my favorite episode from this season so far, if you consider this a proper continuation of Series 7.
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On a lighter note, how about the true identity of the villain (voiced by Ian McKellen, btw)?!?! A great nod for the 50th anniversary year!!!
 
CmGuy89 said:
Anybody caught the latest Christmas episode? I thought it was pretty great, with lots of intrigue in store for the next half-season. Definitely my favorite episode from this season so far, if you consider this a proper continuation of Series 7.

Now I don’t know how to do spoilers so I’ll just give this SPOILER WARNING.

I must admit, the subtle liberal values in the show do get tiring. There was yet another reference to gay marriage in this episode and one that I would have loved removed. I am glad, though, that the Doctor has been portrayed as being completely unconcerned with all these “marriage ideas” to the point of not bothering to address them. One of the most disappointing things in Doctor Who was the previous (Tenth) Doctor actively encouraging Jack to pursue a same-sex relationship.

Moffat is more subtle than Russell T Davies and is thus an improvement, I feel. The presence of homosexual relationships is not as offensive as the show does not endorse them like in the Russell T Davies era. I just hope that we’ll one day get a completely wholesome Who again, but I think it’s pretty much impossible at this point unless society gets evangelized all over.
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My own thoughts on the Christmas episode, in no particular order:

(Strax sez – “If you do not wish to see spoilers, turn back now, or I shall have to disintegrate you and then interrogate you. May I take your coat?” 🙂 )
  1. Strax is AWESOME. They need to keep him around a bit more. “Mistress Vastra asked if you might need some grenades.” “Grenades?!?” “Well, she may have said ‘assistance…’” And the “memory worm” gag near the beginning was hilarious.
  2. The actual setup of the episode was very nice. The villains were new, old, and a nice twist on the “hat” of another old villain. I’ll never look at snowmen quite the same way again. I’m only now getting over my irrational phobia of department-store mannequins 🙂
  3. The same-sex marraige thing from Moffat is wearing thin. He’s woven it in now on at least three occasions (the “thin-fat married gay Anglican marines” from “A Good Man Goes to War”, CEDIII in “Day of the Moon” and now Madam Vastra and Jenny.) But, yeah, at least it’s not Capt. Jack “have I mentioned I’m omnisexual today?” Harkness all over again. And he did have the Doctor stand up for traditional marraige as well by striving to repair Amy and Rory’s.
  4. I loved Amy Pond as a companion (and Karen Gillan was adorable), but I’ve a feeling that Jenna-Louise Coleman is gonna get people thinking “Amy Who?”. Although she might want to tone down the flirting – remember folks, he’s married, and his wife knows her way around meson beams and has killed Daleks… and his father in law is effectively a 2,000 year-old Roman centurion 😉
  5. I have this feeling that Moffat just cannot write endings to save his life. He has these wonderful, brilliant, out-of-the-box enemies (The Weeping Angels, The Silents/Greys in suits, and now the Snowmen) and astoundingly creative situations to put the Doctor in but he keeps using deus-ex-machina resolutions that seem to come out of left field. (I was particularly annoyed with the “Ha! Fooled you” ending of “The Wedding of River Song,” which invalidated the whole – very imaginative – premise of the episode and preceding season’s worth of episodes, and also heavily implied that the cosmos [or, even worse, God] can be buffaloed by a cheap parlor trick :mad: ). The whole “childrens’ tears” thing is another one of these. It’s not explained sufficiently to make sense (unless I missed something) and comes off as a little insulting to my intelligence. The explanation was essentially “kids’ tears of mourning for a beloved governess trumps the Great Intelligence’s plot.” Que? I beg your pardon, Mr. Moffat?!?
  6. Speaking of which, the callback was amazing. I had no idea who the Great Intelligence was until I stumbled on the reference’s backstory on TVTropes. Well played, Steven “Walking TARDIS Index File” Moffat 🙂 That being said, we haven’t resolved the Silence plot, so I hope that if the GI reoccurs, it’s part of that story arc rather than being a second big bad for The Doctor to have to square off with.
  7. The Doctor dresses up as Sherlock Holmes, and is even more manic that can be believed. My favorite Doctor is still Jon Pertwee, but Matt Smith is fast becoming my second favorite. He is weapons-grade awesome.
  8. I approve of the new TARDIS interior. I like it much better than the previous 7 seasons’ iterations.
  9. New mystery! What is the deal with (Strax says – “REMEMBER THE DISINTIGRATION. Would you like a refreshing beverage?”) Clara Oswin Oswald? From the first she seems to be a LOT more than meets the eye. I don’t think she’s Dalek!Oswin (as in “she is not in a Dalek casing” not “she is not the same person”), but getting the whole story is going to be fun to watch.
 
SPOILERS BELOW!!!

The whole episode had a lot of nice nods to the past for the 50th anniversary season. The new control room is a great throwback to the old series, with a console very similar to the fifth Doctor’s, and elements from the fourth Doctor’s auxiliary control room, like the brass rails (which are nearly identical). The new opening titles also seemed to incorporate elements from every credit sequence ever used. There was the “feedback” lines from the first three Doctors (including the colored ones from the third Doctor), a time tunnel, stars like the fourth through sixth Doctor’s openings, the camera angle shift from the ninth Doctor, and the Doctor’s FACE is back!

Here’s a link for anyone who hasn’t seen it:
youtu.be/NK859axJOkw
 
Clara is already quickly becoming one of my favourite companions and a good contender for favourite in the New Series.
Pat_Payne said:
  1. The same-sex marraige thing from Moffat is wearing thin. He’s woven it in now on at least three occasions (the “thin-fat married gay Anglican marines” from “A Good Man Goes to War”, CEDIII in “Day of the Moon” and now Madam Vastra and Jenny.) But, yeah, at least it’s not Capt. Jack “have I mentioned I’m omnisexual today?” Harkness all over again. And he did have the Doctor stand up for traditional marraige as well by striving to repair Amy and Rory’s.
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I loved that about the Eleventh Doctor. I’ll say again that I still appreciate Moffat not having the Doctor endorse same-sex marriage and using him as a soapbox.
Pat_Payne said:
  1. I have this feeling that Moffat just cannot write endings to save his life. He has these wonderful, brilliant, out-of-the-box enemies (The Weeping Angels, The Silents/Greys in suits, and now the Snowmen) and astoundingly creative situations to put the Doctor in but he keeps using deus-ex-machina resolutions that seem to come out of left field. (I was particularly annoyed with the “Ha! Fooled you” ending of “The Wedding of River Song,” which invalidated the whole – very imaginative – premise of the episode and preceding season’s worth of episodes, and also heavily implied that the cosmos [or, even worse, God] can be buffaloed by a cheap parlor trick :mad: ). The whole “childrens’ tears” thing is another one of these. It’s not explained sufficiently to make sense (unless I missed something) and comes off as a little insulting to my intelligence. The explanation was essentially “kids’ tears of mourning for a beloved governess trumps the Great Intelligence’s plot.” Que? I beg your pardon, Mr. Moffat?!?
Click to expand...
I don’t know, I actually really like Moffat’s deus ex machinas. They do stretch the limits of believability, but were acceptable to me. For example, I saw the resolution of the Wedding of River Song as a clever trick by Divine Providence to allow the Doctor to live when his fate was forcibly altered by the Silence. in comparison I found Davies far worse in that department, where his resolutions really came out of the left field. Some were almost literal deus ex machinas, like Bad wolf.

I really liked what Vastra was talking about with bargaining with the universe. It speaks of the universe as alive, hinting towards a divine presence. God wants the Doctor to get back into things to save the universe again. 🙂
 
I’m slowly falling in love with Matt Smith but ir was really hard at first when David Tennats last words were “I don’t want to go…”
 
The reference to “children’s tears” being the cause was the character’s mistaken assumption.
Back up, in your mind, a few scenes before.
The lovely Clara Oswald-Oswin, dying before them, has a single tear trickling out of the corner of her eye.
Where does it fall?
The carpet.
What’s soaked into the carpet?
That ice-monster they’re trying to keep under wraps.
This is the tear that’s the shoe in the gears.
Now as far as Doctors:
Most of them are my favorites, Tom Baker especially.
I confess a fondness for his companion Leela: brutal, primitive and pretty handy with a knife. Didn’t she throw one into the back of a Sontaran’s neck once, neatly scoring a steely bingo on the only location in a Sontaran’s battle-armor that’s vulnerable to attack?
 
Good episode – but Christmas Carol remains my favorite holiday episode.

The three things I enjoyed the most:
  1. Ian McKellan’s voice over for the Great Intelligence.
  2. The Sherlock Holmes references.
  3. Clara’s response when asked why The Doctor should help her.
 
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