Dr Who Series 6

[pfm]

> I don’t know what you mean.

Sry, I meant the episodes during his tenure as showrunner.

> but as he left through the door and it wasn’t revealed until later that he came back,

I’m still not sure whether I like that… Though I absolutely love the pure glee of the Doctor as we see him inside the Tesselecta. He’s never been more happy with himself than when River spies him through the eye!

One thing I’m calling for series 7 – Amy and Rory leaving the Tardis WITH baby Melody whom they DO bring up! Somehow it will work out. This is the only reason Amy would leave the Doctor (without them being ripped apart, and we’ve already seen that so it would be boring to repeat it), for her baby.

[Tarka Dal]

> Though I absolutely love the pure glee of the Doctor as we see him inside the Tesselecta. He’s never been more happy with himself than when River spies him through the eye!

Yes! Excellent grinning. I did notice a couple of people on twitter moaning. I’m disappointed. The twist was obviously. I find that a bit frustrating firstly because it wasn’t obviously. We didn’t all sit here all knowing exactly how it was going to play out, hardly anybody did in fact.

With the show nearly 50 years old clearly they were never going to actually kill off the lead character once and for all. Yet to say all the ‘Tick Tock… the Doctor dies’ advertising wasn’t fair game is wrong because as it played out, to almost everyone in the universe HE DID DIE.

The crew of the tesselecta’s records had his date of death as being on that beach, the Tardis records had the date of death as being on that beach, River sent a beacon all across time, space and reality stating that The Doctor was going to die and needed help, oh and the silence had at least one of their number on the beach watching the event to make sure it happened. So it was always about how he faked it.

What probably dejects me more is the idea that it was all about ‘the twist’, there was plenty in that episode in terms of dialogue, setup and character that I loved to bits.

Dickens writing Xmas Specials
Rory appearing again as the faithful soldier
The Doctor actually getting smegging married

It seems fairly likely Moffat will be in charge for the 50th anniversary show. That anniversary itself for me grants him a certain license to shift and manipulate the character and the mythos of the show more than a normal run of the show would have. We know the Doctor has a grand-daughter, there’s often hints of the family in his past. So tbh it’s about bloody time we saw an on-screen relationship. For me it hasn’t killed any of the mythos, it’s been ideal to the character, spectacularly written and bloody good fun.

[Ben Paddon]

In other matters – Confidential and The Axe. Who else thinks that that final(?) Instalment was one of the best we’ve ever seen? That River Timeline was exceptional.

The River Song timeline was an exceptional six-or-so minutes in an otherwise turgid hour of telly. Confidential completely justified its axing with that last episode.

But anyway, “The Wedding of River Song” was quite spectacular – a very “Empire Strikes Back” way of ending the series, I felt.

[Seb Patrick]

Excellent solid episode. Satisfying revelations. Great jokes. Lovely plotting. A few carrots dangled for Series 7 and maybe even the 50th anniversary.

Agree with all of this.

[Pete Part Three]

45 minutes of plot, 5 minutes of story. Moffat disguises it better than most with smart characterisation and witty dialogue, but it was still a bunch of exposition and nothing much actually happening. The Doctor got married, Madame Kovarian died, The Doctor revealed his real name to River. Oh, no…wait. None of that actually happened.

[pfm]

> with smart characterisation and witty dialogue

Yep. Despite the fact that Moffat is obsessed with putting Amy, Rory and River in various states of…’Do I know you? Do I know myself? Do I remember the alternate timeline??’ etc. they’re still the same brilliant characters who leave you smiling with the way they bounce off each other. The main cast have done an amazing job of holding it all together, in the face of Moffat’s ever-increasing lunacy! (*sigh* nevermind, Toby Whithouse in 2014…;P)

Karen and Arthur IMO have grown into the best onscreen partnership seen in new Who. And I’m so glad Moffat just embraced them as a couple rather than pushing for any kind of Amy/Doctor shenanigans. They’re easily the most successful element of Moffat’s tenure.

I do not hate Moffat…though thank the gods Confidential is ending ’cause I can’t bear the smugness no more!! :P Alright, maybe you CAN be that smug after you’ve written TEC/TDD or Blink……

[genericnerdyusername]

I haven’t gone back to re-watch it yet, but the more I think about the episode the less disappointed I am. I mean, my first reaction was more to do with the lack of any resolution but now I’ve had time to think, it was actually a fun episode with some good ideas in there…

I guess I just bigged (is there really no such words as bigged?? I use it all the time!) it up in my head and was disappointed when it wasn’t as cataclysmic as the last Doctor Who finale I’d seen (well, technically HEARD as it was To The Death, the Big Finish audio drama… which is absolutely amazing and everyone should listen to the whole of the 4th series of the Eighth Doctor Adventures, if they haven’t already).

So, reactionary side of me = WTF! That didn’t answer ANYTHING!
Tranquil, reflective side of me = That was quite fun, actually.

[Tarka Dal]

> it was still a bunch of exposition and nothing much actually happening.

Does a story actually have to contain physical actions in order to be classed as a story though? Sure Moffat who does seem to involve a lot more standing around talking through clever dialogue than RTD’s approach off run about a lot, shout a dramatic catchphrase, go emo over Rose, but c’est la vie.

I went to see Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy recently. The whole thing is essentially blokes in suits sitting around talking, but that doesn’t mean a tale isn’t being told and that the story isn’t always progressing, it’s simply doing so internally rather than externally. And no I’m not saying the Who finale had the emotional depth of a John Le Carre novel I use it simply as an example.

I can’t recall if it was Seb or flatmate of the website Julian who mentioned at the weekend that Moff explained River’s entire arc to Alex Kingston on the flight over to the US prior to filing in the opening episode. The result being that River/Alex Kingston knew she was playing Amy’s daughter at a point when Karen/Amy had no clue.

This led to Alex/River grabbing hold of ‘mother’ at emotional moments and Karen reacting (as would the character) with a WTF!? element of suprise.
Such things do not on the face of it add to the story, but they do add integrity and re-watch value.

Another example would be the glorious opening fifteen minutes of Inglorious Basterds which could be summarized as Nazis find and… *spoilers*, but it’s such a fantastic scene and to summarise it so would be a disservice.

I guess, I’m saying does it really ever really matter how much happens if the way it’s told is entertaining, watchable TV?

[Bob Loblaw]

> I guess I just bigged (is there really no such words as bigged?? I use it all the time!)

I believe the word you’re looking for is embiggen. That is a far more cromulent word.

[Danny Stephenson]

That is a far more cromulent word.

That reminds me of the legend of Cromulent and Chaka-Demus. Or is it Oliver Cromulent? I digest.

Anyways. I’ve managed to actually stick with the Smith-era of Who, having tried countless time and falling behind ridiculously. There was, a tiny speck of wonder, whether they were actually going to kill the Doctor off… Isn’t there some thing about the Doctor only being to regenerate a certain number of times, or is that something one particular writer came up with that isn’t canon?

Really enjoying it, though. Some cracking episodes.

[Somebody]

Re: Danny Stephenson/Doctor’ regeneration limit

He’s only meant to be able to regenerate twelve times per Deadly Assassin & Twin Dilemma – and, given that one of his shots went on Handy/10.5, he should really only have one left (and River giving up “all her remaining regenerations” says there is still *a* limit). ISTR something (Five Doctors?) attributing it to a fear that too many regenerations sent a Time Lord permanently doolally.

OTOH, it’s something that there’s at least a 50/50 chance of them handwaving it away with a line like “they unlocked the limit during the Time War” (which River wasn’t in). Certainly, we know the Time Lords “resurrected” the Master during it (& RTD said in A Writer’s Tale that he believed they’d brought all the dead TLs back), and Eleven claimed he could regenerate 507 times when bugged by Clyde in his RTD-written guest appearance in SJA.

PS: Pagination. Time for new thread?

[Seb Patrick]

>given that one of his shots went on Handy/10.5

The words “I didn’t need to regenerate, why should I?” suggest that no, he didn’t.

[Somebody]

The line was “You see? Used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but as soon as that was done, I didn’t need to change. I didn’t want to, why would I?“

And then Handy said “I’m unique – never been another like me, ’cause all that regeneration energy went into the hand. Look at the hand – I love that hand – but then you touched it. *Wham!* “

So, yeah, he used a full shot.

[pfm]

Okay, not series 6 related, but I still can’t stop laughing at this…

[si]

That is brilliant.

[Ben Paddon]

Brent Spiner was telling people at Collect-O-Mania that he’d love to be in Doctor Who. Turns out he already was.

[Alex]

A new one for Doctor Dwarf; Mark Williams was seen filming for series 7 this morning.

[si]

Spoilers!! Re: Doctor Dwarf – I did actually start making loads of notes. All the actors and crew members who have worked on both shows. Then Francis Barber started popping up in Who last year, and I decided to wait. So ‘The Ultimate Doctor Dwarf Encyclopedia’ is added to my list of ‘things I’m gonna write no really I am’. Likewise the ‘Red Dwarf Title Sequence Montage Dissection’ piece I’ve currently got a dozen pages of notes on.

Sorry, gone off topic. :/

[Tarka Dal]

> A new one for Doctor Dwarf; Mark Williams was seen filming for series 7 this morning.

They wanna be together.

[Tarka Dal]

> A new one for Doctor Dwarf; Mark Williams was seen filming for series 7 this morning.

They wanna be together.

[Nick R]

> They wanna be together.

Wait, that was Mark Williams in that advert?

I remember that phrase vividly, but never realised it was him! Mind blown.

[Jonathan Capps]

The Doctor Who thread is dead, long live the Doctor Who thread!

[Author]

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