Dr Who Series 6

[Jonsmad]

Begins…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/videos/p00fxf06

And I’m wondering if the presidents name is Adam Klaus-Clinton.

Topic

[Ian Symes]

Well, we know that River’s banged up for murdering “a good man”. I think whoever it is, it’ll be a ‘goodie’ who’s doing it for some timey wimey reason, and possibly under The Doctor’s instructions.

[Jo]

Re: Rory remembering his 2000 years waiting for Amy.
He didn’t say he’d forgotten it; The Doctor asked if he remembered and he said No, The Doctor then asked if he was lying and he said of course he was. He explained that he didn’t remember it all the time, I think he said something about a door in his mind that he can keep shut.

Maybe I’m wrong but I took this to mean that he *can* remember if he wants to but he chooses not too. I’d imagine that waiting 2000 years for the love of your life is not the most pleasant experience…

I think it might be Canton in the suit. It’s old Canton who says that the Doctor is definitely dead, then later on, young Canton states that he’ll shoot him himself…

He only said he’d shoot him if he didn’t deliver on his promise to explain where the phone call came from though…

[Jo]

River’s comment about how the more she gets to know The Doctor the less he knows her is slightly odd since we already know that time isn’t linear. Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey!

Maybe she just means that it seems that way to her, but her reaction to The Doctor saying they’d never kissed before is a little extreme – just because it’s his first kiss with her doesn’t automatically make it her last kiss with him.

WWTW.

[si]

I know Canton was only referring to what happened in the Office – that’s what made my suggestion Wild and Speculative! :)

[Jo]

Singingpotato1979 (I always call her that, even in bed) pointed out last night that the little girl could be Jenny. Having thought about it more, I think it could be The Doctor, and that’s how they get out of his death. Somehow.

He does, it’s true.
You’re probably right, given The Doctor’s death storyline this would make the most sense. It just seems off to me that The Doctor would walk up to a complete stranger and then regenerate. The little girl seemed to know that she was dying and that it would be ok, but her reaction to the regeneration starting seemed to me as if it was still a new thing to her and she wanted to show it off, that’s why I thought of Jenny. Perhaps she’s only regenerated once before and it’s still all new… It’s a theory anyway :oD

[Jo]

I know Canton was only referring to what happened in the Office – that’s what made my suggestion Wild and Speculative! :)

…fine. Are we not allowed to respond to wild and speculative theories then?

[si]

I was just being silly! See, it had an exclamation mark and a smiley face!

Another one: At the end of ep 1, Amy says she’s pregnant.Ep 2 starts three months later, and ends six months after that.

So the child regenerates nine months after Amy ‘thinks’ she’s pregnant…okay, I’m shutting up now.

!
:)

[Nick R]

River’s comment about how the more she gets to know The Doctor the less he knows her is slightly odd since we already know that time isn’t linear. Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey!

Maybe she just means that it seems that way to her, but her reaction to The Doctor saying they’d never kissed before is a little extreme – just because it’s his first kiss with her doesn’t automatically make it her last kiss with him.

Yes, IIRC in Silence in the library/Forest of the Dead the implication was that they were meeting each other randomly. But now that seems to be have been changed to “strictly linear, but in opposite directions”.

Someone (from Something Awful, apparently) came up with this timeline of what we know of their meetings:
http://i.imgur.com/RAbmS.png

[si]

Am I trying to read too much into things, or is there some significance in River’s first appearance being ‘Silence in the Library’? Silence? See.

No, shut up Simon, go to your corner and dribble…

[Jonathan Capps]

> Silence isn’t the only thing that’s going to fall though. The ratings are going to take a dive, as this isn’t the mainstream Doctor Who that RTD cultivated.

Last week’s final BARB figures (the one’s that matter) were 8.86 million. I can’t imagine episode 2 falling too far short of that considering the over nights were about 6. And none of that counts the 1 to 1.5 millions views it gets in iPlayer.

It’ll definitely be interesting to see if figures drop off as the weeks go by, but it doesn’t seem likely it’ll have a huge effect.

[si]

Neil Gaiman’s episode should grab the genre fans, and then the mid-season finale at week seven should tempt with promises of a massive cliffhanger. I don’t think there’s any problem.

[ori-STUDFARM]

Saw this on another forum. A kinda interesting timeline that shows the Doctor and River’s timelines and at which points they cross…

http://www.treksinscifi.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=7641.0;attach=9574;image

[Tanya Jones]

I reckon the Silence took Amy’s baby away after she had it under their capture, then wiped her memory, but the TARDIS is picking up on the confusion in her brain. The little girl’s not the Doctor’s kid, but was actually turned into a Time Child when exposed to the TARDIS’ radiation in the womb.

It made sense last night…

[Ridley]

I’ve a feeling it will be completely standalone, as will anything non-Moffat-penned, I shoul imagine.

Like that crack business. ;)

[ChrisM]

I enjoyed that. I was a bit confused to start with and rewatched the start, but it all fell into place. Mostly.

Only bit I didn’t quite get (apart from the stuff that we’re not supposed to get yet, i.e. the stuff surrounding the little girl, and what was with the one eyed woman peering through the door?) was that little exchange between The Doctor and Rory. Wasn’t the version of Rory that waited for millennia an auton, with human Rory’s memories?

I assumed when the universe was brought back at the end of last series the human Rory was brought back with it. I wouldn’t have thought he’d remember anything anyway since it was effectively someone else…

No doubt I’ve missed a line somewhere as this being Roman Rory (at least in memory if not in substance, what with fathering a child and all. If that was him.) seems to be pretty much accepted. I suppose they both merged, or something… Since Pond’s memory seemed key to resolving the end of that story I guess that sort of makes sense. The memories originally went the other way after all.

I reckon the Silence took Amy’s baby away after she had it under their capture, then wiped her memory,

I thought that too…

but the TARDIS is picking up on the confusion in her brain.

I don’t think it was the confusion in her brain it was picking up as it was definitely the womb area that was shown in the scan. I suspect it’s more a time related thing, either due to the Tardis’s nature as a time machine or something time related to the child itself*, or both. I suppose the Time Child at the end could be the future self of that baby? The Silence have a Tardis of sorts after all. I wouldn’t be surprised if this were an red herring, but that photo certainly supports this idea.

I’m not convinced time radiation would turn a human child into a member of the Timelord’s race though. That suggests the only difference between them and us is their exposure to time radiation/energy/stuff. Unless she’s just a human child who has the time lords power of regeneration due exposure to the time energy, but… that seems a bit of a stretch to me. Could the Doctor’s, or another Time Lords’ sperm been nobbled at some point by the Silence and injected into Pond? Neither would remember the experience a second or so later after all. That seems a bit extreme for a show with a large child following though.

*I.e maybe the Tardis scanner can pick up two different states of a person/object past/present, and the results flickered back and forth between them both.

[Ben Paddon]

I loved the bit in yesterday’s episode where the Doctor said “shall we go and resolve this story arc, or shall we have a few non-connected adventures first to keep the kids happy?”

Moffat doesn’t put any dialog to waste. The Doctor’s decision to avoid locating the girl suggests to me that he knows something he’s not telling… just as the others know something about the Doctor’s future that they’re not telling.

[ChrisM]

I wasn’t too fussed by that bit simply because… well… they have a time machine. And this doctor seems to have a lot more control over it than his predecessors, what with being able to catch River when she did her famous plummet. I.e. I figured they can go off and have a few adventures, then come back where they left off…

Of course the bit at the end suggests that’s not the case since a few months on she has sickened and has to take care of things, and it does rather seem to be taking chances with peoples lives (especially that they’re going to survive in the interim.) Maybe ‘Doctor knowing something’ is the best theory there.

I suspect he has already worked out who sent the messages too. Or at least strongly suspects.

[Ridley]

Okay, where did the pirate who barricaded himself in with Amy, Rory and Toby go?

[ori-STUDFARM]

I was just asking my daughter the same thing. The same guy that played Libbie’s Dad recently in Eastenders and played Dodger (I think) in Our House back in the 80’s!

Can’t be arsed to IMDB…

[Jonsmad]

Not Now, siren singer.

[si]

Okay, SPOILERISH STUFF FOR ANYONE WHO HASN’T SEEN IT YET IN WHICH CASE THE INTERNET PROBABLY ISN’T THE BEST PLACE FOR YOU JUST YET:
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Well, I say ‘spoilerish’, dunno what I’m gonna say yet, but typing that gives me free reign.
That, going by what Twitter has to say, doesn’t look to have been received all that strongly. Personally, I thought it was a bit hit and miss – a little disjointed, it didn’t seem to flow that well. The Ghost Ship section was a bit off for me – the co-existing reality stuff – didn’t quite gel to my mind.
I noticed the missing pirate – thought that was just me – thought the Pirates flying off at the end was a bit corny.
However, I thought there was some good dialogue along the way – the Doctor had some decent lines, and I also thought Rory’s ‘post-Marked’ (ha! ‘Post-marked’! That’s quite funny, didn’t mean to write that, but I like it, it’s staying) state was amusing. And Amy as a Pirate. Works for me.
The ending, with Rory…who *really* expected him to die? Fair do’s,it was a close call, but the fact that he kept dying last year kind of numbed the experience for the viewer, I feel.
Also, I didn’t like the way The Doctor kept telling the others to ignore what he’d said before – made him look as though he’s always wrong, which, as we all know, he isn’t.
Not a terrible episode by any means, but just felt like it could have done with some tightening up.
Also, it has helped formulate a theory in my big old empty head about what may be happening. However, it’s the same theory that formulated in my head at the same stage of last year’s series, and I was wrong there, so I’ll just keep it to myself for now.

Okay, thank you. That’s it, I’m done.

[pfm]

Enjoyed it more than the opening 2-parter. One of the better throwaway romp-y episodes in recent times; it didn’t make me utter the word ‘pah’ once… Alright alright, when Rory allllmost ‘died’ again sheesh!

> And Amy as a Pirate. Works for me.

God, yeah… she can swash my buckle any day!

Then shag me. Eleven times. The 2nd, 4th, 5th and 9th being the best…

[Pete Part Three]

Your bog standard 3 star Doctor Who episode. Perfectly watchable, not overly memorable and justifiably skippable in a series re-watch.

[Ben Paddon]

I enjoyed it rather a lot. Plenty of action, some cracking dialogue. My only niggles: there was some cheese at the end, and Rory’s non-death being more or less a foregone conclusion (I figured he wouldn’t die, what with the episode order reshuffle). Still, these are relatively minor complaints in the grand scheme of things. Loved it. Tons of fun.

I also liked that the Doctor kept getting it wrong – a stark change from the omnipotent Godlike figure presented in RTD’s era (and in series five, at times).

The medical bay aboard the alien ship looked a lot like the storage facility in Coma. A lot like it. Almost identical, in fact.

[si]

The medical bay reminded me a bit of that set from Evolution of the Daleks, with the multi-level bed-type-things and stuff…you, know? Looking for a photo, can’t find one.

I also liked that the Doctor kept getting it wrong – a stark change from the omnipotent Godlike figure presented in RTD’s era (and in series five, at times).

It was alright the first time, but the idea that he *kept* getting it wrong…I found it annoying. The first time is a bit of a twist, but he did it three times at least.

[redhead85]

I thought the episode was….OK. Nice bit of swash-buckling but nothing that stood out for me. Like Pete said – it’s one of those eps that you can cough awkwardly as you skip past it on the DVD release.

[genericnerdyusername]

I enjoyed it. Nice, simple episode.

But PM what do you actually have against Steven Moffat? Jekyll = brilliant. Press Gang = brilliant. His ep of Sherlock = brilliant. His Dr Who ep’s = brilliant. I really don’t get what your problem is.

[genericnerdyusername]

P.S Jonsmad, your comment is still making me smile.

[Ben Paddon]

It was alright the first time, but the idea that he *kept* getting it wrong…I found it annoying. The first time is a bit of a twist, but he did it three times at least.

I continue to love it. This is a Doctor who isn’t afraid to take wild stabs in the dark, but who also isn’t afraid to admit he’s completely and utterly wrong. A protagonist who knows everything about everything is… well, a bit dull.

[pfm]

> But PM what do you actually have against Steven Moffat?

My current bother with him is…it feels like he’s now taking the piss out of us, the viewers, with his writing. He used to draw you in to his Who stories but now…he makes it all too obvious that it’s a series you’re watching, taking you out of the drama on far too many occasions.

The worst moment in DotM was the Doctor saying right…should we carry on the main story now, because obviously you want to know what happens next…but, oh shit, we’ve got 4 more episodes to fill before we can do that so…random adventures it is then! We don’t need hitting over the head with that WITHIN the narrative! Moffat’s so full of himself, it’s like he’s making his version of Oasis’s ‘Be Here Now’, the smug, millionare’s, coke-fueled 3rd album, in front of our very eyes! Maybe a slightly OTT analogy but…ffs NEIL GAIMAN in less than 3 DAYS!!! :D

[genericnerdyusername]

I disagree entirely, I don’t see it as smug at all, and it certainly has nothing to do with cocaine…

It’s pretty futile to use the “RTD was/remains to be far more full of himself than Moffat ever could be” seeing as that’s completely besides the point… but I’m going to throw it out there anyway.

It’s just funny, really. Bit of humour in there never hurt anyone. Red Dwarf uses it quite a lot ;)

Tbh, I don’t mean any offence, but you do seem to be getting angry the same way the Daily Mail gets angry about things; you seem to have an agenda to not like something. Then again that could just be my imagination, seeing as I really love Steven Moffat’s writing style and find his scripts have so far always been of a high quality.

Now it’s time for me to try and get back to sleep. Night all!

[Seb Patrick]

It’s pretty futile to use the “RTD was/remains to be far more full of himself than Moffat ever could be” seeing as that’s completely besides the point… but I’m going to throw it out there anyway.

See, after just accusing PM of being unfair to Moffat… I think you’ve been massively unfair to RTD, there.

[genericnerdyusername]

You’re right, I take it back, I actually didn’t start that sentence to end it the way I did, I just forgot what I was going to say after the “…” But no, RTD is a good screen writer, I particularly enjoyed his Casanova.

[Ben Paddon]

I don’t think Moffat is taking the piss out of the viewer, and anyone who can reach that conclusion and then stick with it probably needs to get a CAT scan.

[Ridley]

Oh the Patrick squeeing will be unbearable. *looks at Twitter* Yep!

[Pete Part Three]

Short review as on way out: Batshit crazy, but a ton of fun. An extra 10 minutes would have been peachy. Compare to the similarly game-changing The Doctor’s Daughter and shudder about how bad this could have been.

And Rory died. Again.

[ori-STUDFARM]

>And Rory died. Again.

And also spent years and years waiting for Amy. I don’t think these recurrences of events are accidental. I reckon they’ve got to be tied in with the eye patch lady storyline.

Also…AWESOME EPISODE!!!

[hummingbird]

After last week being a bit of a disappointment, that was absolutely bloody marvellous.
So may things to love that I don’t know where to start.

[redhead85]

This week’s episode was made of utterly pure and undiluted win.

[Jonsmad]

The fact that the Tardis Point of view is that she stole the dr, all the stuff between them, the other consoles in this episode, and the Tardis scrapyard, the actress playing the character, the madness, foresight and playfullness of a human Tardis Matrix, and jokes about being “old girl” or “sexy” = utter brilliant. Loved it. Favourite line is “picking up strays”, also loved the room deleting being referenced again.

The promised “further inside the Tardis” being corridor time wasting nonsense = Boredom & Dissapointment.

The excitement of “There are Time Lords” turning to nothing, was a bit dissapointing too, but totally rightly so in terms of the story, and so quite brilliant in terms
of how the doctor felt through out this episode.

[ChrisM]

I wasn’t sure initially. I found myself a bit irritated by the characters in the introduction… but then the episode really took off and was rather good!

Again with the sound drowning out some of the dialogue though! Grr!

My favourite line: “You’re not the Tardis. You’re a mad bitey lady.”

[si]

NON-SPOILER
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Fucking BRILLIANT.

[genericnerdyusername]

Hate to be predictable, but I loved that episode. *So* *fucking* *much*. Although Gaiman probably should have had the corridor bits from Rory’s point of view with Amy being the one who died or something. When I saw Rory’s “corpse”, I just sort of rolled my eyes and thought “oh no, not again.”

But no, that was seriously fucking awesome.

[genericnerdyusername]

Oh and my favourite line was “I’m sexy”, and the fact that I found Human TARDIS attractive didn’t even have much to do with it.

[si]

Did we catch the ‘Ood Created by Russell T Davies’ credit? Didn’t notice that on my first viewing. Second time round, yes. And the third.

[Pete Part Three]

>The fact that the Tardis Point of view is that she stole the dr

Ah, yes. Lovely stuff. And “Hello”. Wonderful.

[Nick R]

It was a fantastic episode, and I’m sure I’d say that even if I didn’t know who’d written it. As I posted over at URP, the only real low point of the episode was the scene where Amy and Rory edge their way past the corridor-turned-pit – a wonderful idea, but the direction (and budget limitations?) didn’t show it at its best. It also would have been nice to see some other rooms, instead of just corridors and the Nine/Ten console room.

But that those are pretty minor complaints compared to the episode as a whole, which was crammed with ideas and humour. It’ll be a very rewarding episode to rewatch! Who cares about Day of the Moon ending with the Doctor pointing out how they’re going to put the series arc on hold to have some one-off adventures, when we got this as one of those one-off adventures?

Anyone want to ask Neil a question about the episode?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/may/14/neil-gaiman-doctor-who-live-blog

Although Gaiman probably should have had the corridor bits from Rory’s point of view with Amy being the one who died or something.

Just saw this posted on the xkcd forum:
http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ll84s4ZmKh1qafmk8o1_500.gif

lol

[ori-STUDFARM]

I really do think the repeated killing of Rory is tied in somehow to the ongoing story arc….Not coincidental.

[ChrisM]

I don’t mind the fake killings of Rory so much, but I thought the end part of The Black Spot was bad. Not just because it was Rory again (although that was a big factor) but also the fact it’s the type of scene done again and again elsewhere. It really has reached cliché status!

The fake (if it is fake) ‘aged to death’ stuff in this episode was okay with me though.

[Phil1034]

Can’t believe Idris wasn’t Romana, The Rani or Paul McGann. Bloody Gallifrey Base!

[Author]

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