Doctor Whoooooooooooo, hey! Doctor Who!

[Ian Symes]

New discussion thread for Who – the old one was getting too massive.

My opinion: meh.

Topic

[hummingbird]

Watching it now. They’re just digging the bus out of the sand.
It’s obviously holding my attention so much that I’m posting at the same time.

[Richey]

I enjoyed tonight’s episode. Much much better than the Christmas Special. A lot more fun for a start. I’ll be looking forward to things getting darker nearer the end of Tennant’s time as The Doctor, but tonight I just wanted a fun adventure story and that’s what we got. Lee Evans was a hoot, also :D

[si]

I enjoyed that. Nice to see Harry Potter’s Night Bus make an appearance.

I’d give that a cheery 8/10, maybe 8.5.

The four ‘knocks’ are either a reference to the four specials, or the beat of The Master, should he return.

“He will knock four times” – twice on the pipes if the answer is no.

[Nick R]

Was it just me who, every time the bus took off, half-expected the wheels to fold over horizontally like Back to the Future’s DeLorean, and found it slightly jarring when they didn’t?

[JamesTC]

Only seen the last 15 minutes so in no place to decide.
The four knocks seem pretty obvious as the Master, I mean start doing that weird drumming thing, “duh duh duh dum, duh duh duh dum, duh duh duh dum”.

[RedDwarfFan2982]

I too suspected the four knocks to be the master

I thought Lee Evans was great in the episode.

[Andrew]

Found it very ‘meh’, to be honest. Oddly lacking in…sparkle.

[Seb Patrick]

Pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft.

[Seb Patrick]

>Oddly lacking in?sparkle.

… and depth of characterisation
… and an identifiable antagonist
… and an identifiable plot
… and decent CGI
… and not-being-written-by-Gareth-Roberts

[JamesTC]

The special effects for the flying bus looked naff but I loved the flying sting ray things, some wonderful CGI for them.

[Zombie Jim Undead]

Thought it was solid good fun. No complaints.

But I nearly forgot it was on! Must be something else on this evening that had drawn my attention…

[ori-STUDFARM]

Right. Nearly forgot there was an Easter special Dr Who! What with all this talk of “Dwarf”. Just watched it. We’ve got family visiting, so I didn’t give it quite 100% attention. My initial thoughts.

Michelle Ryans acting. I actually enjoyed her in Bionic Woman. I loved the show and have been eagerly waiting for her to join the Doctor! What a rubbish character! The acting, the character, the……..everything about her! Dreadful!! If she ever returns, hope she does a better job!!

Lee Evans. Now I love Lee. As far as comedy stand-up goes, he is hilarious. Not exactly the best comic I’ve seen, but always funny. His character in this special however, wound me up! I prefer serious and dark Dr Who. I don’t mind the odd comedy episodes. Helps you to appreciate the darker moments. As long as they don’t go too silly! Lee made it too silly!!

The special effects! I thought I was watching Red Dwarf! Everything looked so false. I actually prefered the Skutters in last nights Dwarf!! Dissappointed slightly.

Overall, the episode was enjoyable. Liked the bug headed aliens. Bit too silly, but a good show that the kids enjoyed. I enjoyed it. Doesn’t come anywhere near my top 10 episodes, but watchable.

[Ridley]

My opinion: meh.

Agreed.

[ChrisM]

I really liked this episode. Except for the rubbish about the flying manta-rays causing worm-holes by flying around really fast. (Ok I didn’t hate even that, it was amusing in it’s silliness, but I think they could have come up with something else. The rays emanate tachyon particles, etc, etc, blah, blah. Sure that’s far fetched, but they’re alien. We’ve got a squid that can jump dimensions! Assuming that bit wasn’t an illusion. Heh got back to Dwarf talk in a Who thread…)

And Michelle Ryan is lovely.

Loved the flying bus.

I quite liked the fly head aliens too, but a bit more imagination with their bodies would have been nice. It’s great that strange looking no longer automatically means evil.

[si]

Stop overanalysing it. It was good fun.

[JamesTC]

The War Games = 50
The Stones of Blood = 100
Planet of the Dead = 200

Hmm…

[Tanya Jones]

I thought Lee Evans was channelling Colin off Brittas, frankly, which was the best thing about it.

[ChrisM]

>Stop overanalysing it. It was good fun.

You’re absolutely right. I loved it and the fun went a long way. As I said, even the silly wormhole explanation was amusing.

[Ian Symes]

Stop overanalysing it. It was good fun.

Good point. We’d best shut down the internet.

[Zombie Jim Undead]

Oh and yes…the “knocks four times” thing seemed to point to the sound of drums.

[thomasaevans]

Andrew – Found it very ?meh?, to be honest. Oddly lacking in?sparkle.

100% agree. All the actors were great I thought, but It was very… Meh.

[Jonathan Capps]

What a bag of shit.

[ChrisM]

>What a bag of shit.

The fly folk like that apparently.

;)

[hummingbird]

Lee Evans was entertaining. The flying bus was bloody stupid.

[Jonathan Capps]

Lee Evans was a fucking idiot.

[ChrisM]

A thought just occurred.(Ping!) If they didn’t need the crystal, what was it used for on the alien ship? A power source? The bus was out of fuel but got by with just the anti-grav clamps…

Ok. Went into over-analytical mode again.

Yes the flying bus was stupid. (I loved it though. Then again I liked the flying train in BttF3 too.)

[Jonsmad]

>I thought Lee Evans was channelling Colin off Brittas, frankly, which was the best >thing about it.

This.

[Mr-Stabby]

Lee Evans was the best thing in it. Anyone else get the Malcolm reference? :) Got to be deliberate.

But like most people here, I thought it was ‘meh’. I honestly think NuWho has lost its sparkle. For me it happened after Rose left. Especially with the overuse of the Daleks and Cybermen and the constant bringing back of previous characters. I don’t feel like they’re moving the franchise forward like Series 1 and 2 did, they’re just repeating the same old stuff. Hopefully when Matt Smith comes along, the reset button will be hit, and we’ll get some new decent stories with the genius that is Steven Moffat at the helm.

Oh and i defended the doctor kissing every f*cking woman he met at the beginning, because it was new and different, but i just sighed when it was done this time. For gods sake do something original, like stick your hand down his trousers or something….jeeezus!

[hummingbird]

BtE > Planet of the Dead

[ChrisM]

>like stick your hand down his trousers or something?

So the name of this thread was prophetic then.

[JamesTC]

Lee Evans is the best thing in this? How shit is it?

[ChrisM]

>How shit is it?

Like that’s a bad thing. That’s a delicacy in some parts of the galaxy I’d have you know.

I’ll shut up with the fly poomunching gags now.

[Liam Fretwell]

My opinion – Thank fuck Russell T Davies is leaving.

[Rad]

‘I thought Lee Evans was channelling Colin off Brittas’.

Totally agree! Anyway, this episode was good fun. It wasn’t great but I don’t mind a couple more fluffy episodes of Who before The Doctor dies. Especially now that The Waters of Mars looks great in a Impossible Planet/Satan Pit way.

[JamesTC]

The Waters Of Mars = WARS OF THE MASTER

Anagram

[si]

>The Waters Of Mars = WARS OF THE MASTER

That is so brilliant. Though I can’t believe you’d be so anal to think of that.

[JamesTC]

I didn’t, copied of IMDB.

[JamesTC]

Though with an RTD script basically everything he writes is an anagram that will prophasise what will happen in an episode or two.

[Seb Patrick]

>BtE > Planet of the Dead

Yes. Even moreso after part two.

BUT I’M NOT GOING TO SPOILER THE DWARFCAST ANY MORE.

[pfm]

I don’t know whether it’s due to me being all about BtE at the moment but I could hardly even concentrate on watching this…let’s pick a word…SHITE?? OK there are several positives, including Lee Evans, the way Michelle Ryan looks when hanging on wires, the fact that you can actually tell they’re not in Cardiff (er apart from the bits that obviously were shot there), but fuck me if it wasn’t so mindless it made The Next Doctor (seriously, for me the worst of the Ten era) look like genius of epic proportions!

Michelle Ryan is beautiful and is sometimes good in things (Merlin) but it’s as though she doesn’t know how to do ‘normal’. Every line was forced (it didn’t help that there was LOADS of ADR due to the location, wire work etc.) to the point where you just don’t care what she’s saying. Tennant was either on autopilot or over-egging stuff ad nauseum. One of my least-favourite turns from him. Lee Evans saved it. Whether he was channeling Colin or Rob Brydon in Gavin & Stacey I’m not sure, but it worked really well and I would love another appearance by him at some stage.

The whole thing felt like it didn’t matter. Perhaps RTD went into it with this mindset too, considering what’s around the corner. GENERIC civilians on the bus in ‘peril’, ready to cheer and thank the Doctor at the end. BORING oh look someone’s got low-level psychic abilities. CGI mostly dull and grey, no doubt partly due to the switch to HD (Torchwood suffered from this). The bus flying at the end felt too similar to the Doctor in the balloon and also the Titanic, another one of those overly-‘joyous’ moments that grate with me (I’m a misery, you see).

4/10.

[Pete Part Three]

This was incredibly ropey. They went to a desert, they got out of the desert. That was it. Feeble. Would have added a bit of weight to proceedings if the Doctor had let Michelle Ryan’s character get carted off by the police. But they bailed on that.

>I thought Lee Evans was channelling Colin off Brittas, frankly, which was the best thing about it.

I was genuinely going to post the same thing.

>Stop overanalysing it. It was good fun.

One for the “Recommendations” bit.

[JamesTC]

Just coming up to the end now, Lee Evans didn’t acually annoy me too much, he was annoying but not that much.

When it started it was just horrible, I doubt they have 4 guards on a holy grail as well as lasers, even if they did you would think one of them would look up.
Then the police arrive within ten seconds of the alarm going off. It was just one big cringe, then David Tennant got on the bus and offered a piece of easter egg, well it made me smile.
I won’t go into detail too much because it would all be too negative and over all I would rather be positive, since I have nothing positive to say I will leave it at that.
3/10
Wasn’t as bad as ‘Time and the Rani’ or ‘Last of the Time Lords’ but certainly below average.

[pfm]

> if the Doctor had let Michelle Ryan?s character get carted off by the police. But they bailed on that.

I wish he had just screwdrivered the cuffs and the cop car drove away without us knowing whether she really got away or not. That would have made it more interesting than the overly obvious thing of her getting in the bus. But this is an RTD special we’re talking about!

I’ve currently got the HD version downloading so I AM going to watch it again, even though I’m not overly fussed. It’s just like The Next Doctor and Voyage of the Damned, I know I’ll never look back on it with any kind of fondness, unlike 90% of the rest of new Who.

[Another Phil]

One thing that occured to me while watching Confidential on iplayer: given the trouble they went to getting the bus to Dubai and filming in a sandstorm, why didn’t they just do it on a beach in Rhyl? It could hardly have been worse…

[NitroChrisUK]

was a decent episode decent story but with awefully shit cgi on the bus which ruined it and michelle ryan was a bossy lara croft wannabe hope to god she dont turn up again

[Danny Stephenson]

Was it just me who, every time the bus took off, half-expected the wheels to fold over horizontally like Back to the Future?s DeLorean, and found it slightly jarring when they didn?t?

“Oyster Cards? Where we’re going we won’t need *flips shades down* Oyster cards…”

[si]

Yeah. You have to pay the Flux conductor.

[Carlito]

“Sorry, no room on board, the bus is full to capacitor”.

Hmm…

Nah.

[Jo]

>si / Sat, 2009-04-11 20:12 / #
>Stop overanalysing it. It was good fun.

Says the Hyperdrive fan ;o)

I thought the episode was… meh. Didn’t think much of Michelle Ryan, but to be fair to her I think it was the script that let her down rather than her acting ability.

I think one touch could have save the whole episode… the bus turning around and flying back into the camera. :oD

[Dave]

>What a rubbish character! The acting, the character, the??..everything about her!

She has a lovely bum.

[Author]

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