Doctor Who Series 7

[Connell]

The Hungry Earth and Cold blood are coincidentally the only episodes of Series 5 I haven’t seen. Again I watched about 15 minutes and just couldn’t put up with the lackluster story. Never made the connection between disappointing Who and Chibnall, but there you go.

I’m sticking to my guns, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was maybe good television, but rubbish Who.

[genericnerdyusername]

How do you know if you turned it off shortly after the opening credits?

[pfm]

The fact that he’s done Pond Life and 2 out of these 5 episodes has me worried indeed. I hope to the Lords of Kobol that he’s not being groomed for the next showrunner. His Torchwood tenure was saved by some decent writing by Catherine Treganna, Peter Hammond, Toby Whithouse and James Moran.

Probably the only episode of his I’ve really enjoyed was ‘Countrycide’ from Torchwood series 1.

[Jonsmad]

>but how do these things work? Do Chibnall and the other writers have to run their scripts by Moffat to be voted up or >down, or can they do what they want?

I dont fully know, but from comments made in interviews, some times, the show runner will give a writer a general outline of something they want, in this case, “dinosaurs on a space ship” or “daleks in world war two” and then the rest is left up to the commissioned writer to turn in the script. I guess in some cases that then requires re-writes of varying degrees, and might be a script dropped or a script moved to later due to varying reasons of production. It does work in otherways as well.

[Jimboid]

Midgets on Mars.

[Ben Paddon]

Of note, Russell T Davies said there were only two writers he never did page-one rewrites for: Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall. Which, y’know. Fuck.

I know that Moffat’s approach is far less “NO NO, I’LL DO IT” than RTD’s, but if there’s anyone who should be taking the time to polish one of CHibnall’s scripts, it’s SteMo.

That said, I enjoyed the episode. I’m going to try and write a proper review of it tomorrow, after a rewatch.

[thomasaevans]

Howard Burden Is the costume designer!

[pfm]

> Which, y’know. Fuck.

He probably looked at the draft and thought ‘where do I start…..?’

I know I often slate Moffat but that’s mainly frustration over what we KNOW he’s capable of (i.e. great episodes like ‘Asylum…’ as opposed to the wtf of last Christmas).

With Chibnall it’s almost a given that we’re gonna be at the very least bored to tears… That’s if you actually care about stuff like plotting and dialogue. I’m sure those focussing on dino action or those playing the ‘spot the reused set and/or location’ game will have been fairly satisfied…;)

And yay to Howard Burden!!! :D

[Ben Paddon]

I’m willing to give Moffat’s Doctor Who episodes a pass. You can’t really do proper Doctor Who at Christmas. A Christmas Day audience is not the same as a Saturday night audience, and you have to adjust your writing style accordingly. The basics of Doctor Who need to be there, obviously – the mad man with a box who fixes things – but beyond that you can’t really get away with big stories.

It’s incredibly telling that the highest-rated Christmas day story to date has been “Voyage of the Damned”.

[pfm]

> It’s incredibly telling that the highest-rated Christmas day story to date has been “Voyage of the Damned”.

The show was on such a hype train back then. Also, Kylie Minogue…;)

[Jimboid]

It’s nice that Who has become something of a Christmas tradition….but it’s creating an inordinate number of festive themed episodes.

In my current marathon, watching on average an episode a day, it’s Christmas every other week.

[srmcd1]

Christmas every other week? How horrible!

[Somebody]

If I recall his column in this month’s DWM correctly, Moffat said that they just used the first draft for DoaS practically untouched (paraphrasing, “two small notes, don’t bother with a full redraft”) and told Chibnall to do episode 4 with the extra time…

[Ben Paddon]

S’fine by me. I actually liked this episode. It’s silly, but it’s fun. So… yes.

[Pete Part Three]

I highly rate “A Christmas Carol” – thought it was great. Last Year’s wardrobe nonsense seemed like it was from the pen of a very tired writer.

I can totally believe that first draft thing about DoaS. There’s a distinct whiff of “well, there’s a shitload of stuff in this script. Will this do?”

[Jason aka Smeg4Brains]

I didn’t really mind DoaS too much untill the very end where the doctor as good as kills Soloman. I didn’t think he was supposed to do shit like that.

[Ben Paddon]

I thought that was a little brutal… I think we are once again beginning to see why the Doctor shouldn’t travel alone.

[Connell]

That was a superb episode. Thoroughly enjoyed it and found myself yet again wishing Who had a permanent hour timeslot. Must admit I wasn’t keen on the whole ‘I’ll just hand myself in’ ending, but it was a near perfect episode.

8/10 from me.

[pfm]

A great one this week. Enjoyed it immensely! Top location and production values. Adrian Scarborough being his reliable self. Matt’s performance pretty commanding (for him).

Amy might have had one good moment but I found the low key nature of the Ponds’ appearance in this episode to the be the right choice, as the story was, thankfully, the main focus. I keep wanting Doctor Who to be more like this. Just give us a bloody story, and a well-written one at that, with all the prattling and pissing about cut down to a minimum! While I’m almost sounding like my dad right now…I just want to be entertained by an episode of television, is that too much to ask?!??

Yeah 8/10 is about right, with the ending slightly letting it down.

[Ben Paddon]

The Doctor, Amy and Rory already being there reminded me very much of Sylvester McCoy’s era, where he and Ace would already be in a location and you wouldn’t see them arrive.

[si]

I’ve seen a lot of negative comments and a couple of negative reviews this morning, which I cannot understand at all. Cameron, over at Blogtor Who, even says he turned the episode off halfway through last night (although, thinking about it, he *had* already seen it). Personally, I thought it was great, some great lines, some great comedy moments, too.
I did find a couple of elements of The Gunslinger off – the ‘TERMINATE’ POV-screen was only missing Arnie, and I wasn’t keen on the voice.
But Matt Smith gave a fantastic performance, I thought. He does Angry very well too, doesn’t he?

[pfm]

I suppose this is what you get when you’ve got several million tuning in just as something to have on before The X Factor. If you don’t write for them then you’re gonna have people switching off. Sad but true…

I’m guessing a general lack of the Ponds was a factor.

[Connell]

I loved it and it really makes the me think the world is backwards when this episode gets more negative comments than Dinosaurs on a fucking Spaceship. Can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t like the episode, apart form the lack of Ponds, which if I’m honest didn’t bother me that much. If they’d not had Rory there and given all his lines to Amy then I think that problem would’ve been solved.

[Pete Part Three]

Not bad, not bad at all. Not a classic, but far better than last week’s episode. An actual grown-up story rather than a bunch of kid-friendly elements pretending to be a story.

Very keen for the Ponds to go now. Dislike the “temping companions” angle.

[Ben Paddon]

Dislike the “temping companions” angle.

Why? It doesn’t affect us as the viewer, because they’re still in every story each week, and it’s an interesting, new dynamic we haven’t seen before. I like it.

[Pete Part Three]

Because it makes it feel like a “job” for Amy and Rory rather than a life choice, like they’re just appeasing The Doctor by keeping him company and then popping back home. The vibe that they don’t actually want to be there isn’t welcome.

[Ben Paddon]

I have no idea where you’re getting that notion from. Looks to me like you’re filling in blanks that aren’t there.

[Pete Part Three]

Yes, that must be it. Thanks.

[Ben Paddon]

You’re welcome.

Next I will tell you why every bad opinion you’ve ever held about every show I’ve ever loved is wrong, all the time, forever. We’ll start with the As…

[genericnerdyusername]

Looks like they’re going to deal with that aspect in the next episode, judging from the “we have to choose which life” thing in the trailer.

[Pecospete666]

No comments about the “Power of Three” ?
Mercy was good except the location was crap! They were here USA to do NYC, they should of went to Tombstone Az and did it.

[peepingsignal]

I enjoyed the Power of Three, but was slightly ruined by the shit ending. It was too rushed and didn’t explain enough.

[Ben Paddon]

I don’t think the ending was shit. It made sense. But it was rushed, especially considering the pacing of the rest of the episode.

[Pete Part Three]

I have a theory that, if you liked Turn Left, you’ll like that. I didn’t so I don’t.

[si]

Mercy was good except the location was crap!

Yes, crap location, they should’ve gone and filmed it in the same place as the great Spaghetti Westerns…oh.

[Ian Symes]

I quite liked Turn Left, but thought this was SHIT. It was a good concept but after forty minutes or so of set up, it just ended. Any resolution that boils down to The Doctor going somewhere, pressing a few buttons and leaving again – and everything is just instantly fixed with no additional problems – doesn’t belong in Doctor Who. Brigadier Junior was good, Mark Williams was Mark Williams, but overall it was a nothing of an episode.

[Pete Part Three]

Well, bang goes that theory…But am in complete agreement.

First 10 minutes I thought “Ooh, this is interesting, this could be good” and then…nothing.

[si]

I liked The Power of Three. Loved it, in fact. And I hate Chris Chibnall episodes, as a rule. Ho hum.

[pfm]

Turn Left had a brilliant ending IMO, so it’s quite the opposite to TPoT!

There were some very good elements in this episode, not least the introduction of, hopefully, the re-occuring character of the Brig’s daughter. Though…do I ever want to watch it again? I’ve seen Asylum of the Daleks 4 times.

[Connell]

The Power of Three is certainly what I’d call a lackluster episode. I agree, the first 10 minutes draws you in, I was enticed into thinking this would be a great episode, only to have literally nothing happen in the middle. And just when you think the ending will save it all, we get a huge cop-out like that. It wasn’t dreadful but it certainly wasn’t good enough for me to be amazed. It was good television for a casual viewer, but average Doctor Who.

[Ben Paddon]

The Power of Three is certainly what I’d call a lackluster episode.

Wrong, wrong, absolutely brimming over with wrongability.

[thomasaevans]

Seriously not LOVING the seventh series as far. Mercy episode was the best out of the four.

Fate that Red Dwarf takes over weekly sci-fi after the DW finale.

Fate.

[Kris Carter]

Why were the humans being abducted? Why did no-one at the hospital spot the little girl who was there by herself for a YEAR? And didn’t being defibrilated actually finish off the Seventh Doctor?

Gah.

I loved the start of this episode. Then it all went a bit meh in the middle (apart from that nice little scene with Amy and The Doctor as he told her he missed her, and she was the first face his new face saw). And finally the end stormed in too quickly with a wave of the sonic and that was it. Very, very poor.

[si]

Oh. Apparently Craig and Danny want a Red Dwarf/Doctor Who crossover. Who are we to argue?

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-09-25/red-dwarf-cast-we-want-doctor-who-crossover

EDIT: Bollocks. That Thomas fella has beaten me to a piece of news again: http://www.ganymede.tv/forums/topic/red-who-highly-unlikely-but-radio-times-quotes-craig-and-danny/

Oh well.

*ahem*

[Jimboid]

I had no problems with TPoT. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Turn Left on the other hand…not keen.

[Ben Paddon]

And didn’t being defibrilated actually finish off the Seventh Doctor?

Nope. It was the exploratory surgery that killed him.

[Kris Carter]

Ah, couldn’t remember, not seen the movie for a while. But I’ll wager being riddled with bullets didn’t help ol’ numero Seven either.

[Ben Paddon]

He only got the one or two hits, as I recall. I might be wrong. Maybe I’ll watch it later today.

[Seb Patrick]

The shooting wasn’t anywhere near life-threatening, it’s just a narrative device to get him into the hospital. It was the mistake in not knowing he had two hearts. They jabbed a great big spikey camera right into one of them and killed him.

[genericnerdyusername]

I just want to take this opportunity to point out that Paul McGann was/is an excellent Doctor. People don’t point that out nearly as much as it deserves to be.

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