The Dr Who Thread 3 3

[Batman]

2 minutes ago, tv horror said:

You're NOT the real Batman...He would have said Cor Blimey old chum?

Cor blimey me old chum! Y'got me there...

[tv horror]

Then we can have this episode.

 

[The Voord]

2 hours ago, tv horror said:

Bring back this guy we need a bit of fun. Reese Shearsmith as the second Doctor.

 

Noel Gallagher would have been better as the 2nd Doctor re-do.

[tv horror]

If you have a nagging doubt about the new Doctor dump this fellow.  For U.S readers this is a creature from a recent advert.

 

[Ken Aldred]

3 hours ago, The Voord said:

Noel Gallagher would have been better as the 2nd Doctor re-do.

Blimey! You’ve got to be ‘avin’  a larf !

Edited October 12, 2018 by Ken Aldred

[Ken Aldred]

On 10/10/2018 at 10:33 PM, The Voord said:

I've lived in the UK all my life and I can honestly say that I've never heard anyone say, "Cor" . . . or "Blimey" . . . or even, "Cor, Blimey".  

Beezer, as in the comic, is another word I’ve never heard used. Apparently, thanks to Google, it used to mean   ‘Excellent’. 

Perhaps it’s something spoken  by the public school set, and so, as lowborn, proletarian, 21st Century scum, I would naturally be oblivious to its existence.  

Different circles.

 

Edited October 12, 2018 by Ken Aldred

[Batman]

2 hours ago, Ken Aldred said:

Beezer, as in the comic, is another word I’ve never heard used. Apparently, thanks to Google, it used to mean   ‘Excellent’. 

Perhaps it’s something spoken  by the public school set, and so, as lowborn, proletarian, 21st Century scum, I would naturally be oblivious to its existence.  

Different circles.

 

Beezer  

[Batman]

6 hours ago, The Voord said:

Noel Gallagher would have been better as the 2nd Doctor re-do.

Well, he was always the brother with the talent. Who does Liam get to play? The 8th Doctor?

[The Voord]

2 hours ago, Batman said:

Well, he was always the brother with the talent. Who does Liam get to play? The 8th Doctor?

Why, The Master, of course!

[The Voord]

5 hours ago, Ken Aldred said:

Beezer, as in the comic, is another word I’ve never heard used. Apparently, thanks to Google, it used to mean   ‘Excellent’. 

Perhaps it’s something spoken  by the public school set, and so, as lowborn, proletarian, 21st Century scum, I would naturally be oblivious to its existence.  

Different circles.

 

Strewth!

[Comicopolis]

Nobody watched the second episode?

[Batman]

20 hours ago, Comicopolis said:

Nobody watched the second episode?

Oh no, I watched it alright. I just don't know what to say...

Ok, I do. A race (that wasn't a race) across a desert planet?! Sentient killer sheets?! Art Malik in possibly his worst role ever?! (Well, since the last one, that is).

Rubbish.

Edited October 16, 2018 by Batman

[Ken Aldred]

The Doctor's Tattooine adventure.

Not a single original idea. Seen it all before.

A lead with zero charisma and boring to watch.

 

 

 

[Octavius]

Any number of continuity errors, characters that were bland and underwritten, and enemy so bad it could have come from the imagination of Zac Snyder. The only good that came out of the episode was the fact that it was beautifully shot.

[Comicopolis]

Considering it was the new guy in charge who wrote the first two episodes, it isn't looking good.

[Batman]

5 hours ago, Comicopolis said:

Considering it was the new guy in charge who wrote the first two episodes, it isn't looking good.

Definitely not.

[Get Marwood & I]

Managed to get a few minutes to post this. It is with a genuinely heavy heart that I say that I watched the second episode on Sunday and found it simply awful. I have a lot to say about it and why I feel like I do but I’ll try to keep it brief. This is a total unplanned brain dump so won’t be in my usual structured format.

First up, Jodie Whitaker clearly does not have the presence or acting ability needed to convince as the Doctor. Another female may have – but she does not. I found her irritatingly banal and without flair or mystery.

When David Tennant was announced, I was worried that he was an unknown. But he took the Doctor to a whole new level with an astonishing, barnstorming performance. When Matt Smith was announced I was worried he was too young. But he managed to convey old man in young body in a delightful way and I was won over by his physicality.

When Peter Capaldi was announced I was delighted. He became what I knew he would – the most convincing Doctor of all. Peerless.

When Jodie was announced I was worried she looked too pretty, and would be too bland having seen nothing in her previous work to suggest the talents needed to pull off the first female Doctor. Alas, I was right. She is a bland looking young woman reading the lines of a 1,000 year old being.

Now, a great Doctor can give you something to savour in even the worst story. And here is the real problem. The production team have no flair and no evident talent for Doctor Who story telling. When you get a new Doctor, you get the following:

1.      New Doctor

2.      New outfit

3.      New theme / titles

4.      New companions

5.      New Tardis

6.      New ‘direction’

Let’s look at how Chibnall and co dealt with some of these elements.

• New theme / titles – inexplicably absent from the first episode, we await them in the second. I think 99% of producers would have started episode two with a recap of the transfer to space, and then went from the shock of the Doctors face suspended in space in to the screech of the opening credits and theme. They didn’t. Straight into the theme. No suspense. Then straight into hanging in space. Any new joiner would have no idea what was going on. So bad set up, bad storytelling, bad narrative and the loss of the new theme cliff hanger moment. This shows a lack of flair
• New Tardis – finally appears at the end of episode two. A team with flair would know that we want to see the interior and marvel at it. We don’t see it in all its glory, just bits of it. It’s very dark. I can’t say I made out much of it. A production team with flair may have had a furry dice on the console which the Doctor could discard with a mock ‘hey, cheeky!’ but that would have required wit and flair. So I still don’t know what the Tardis interior looks like. Only that it’s dark. And has biscuits.
• The theme itself? Oddly dull. Grumbling. At odds with the young and fresh Jodie. The titles? What is it? Oil in water? No flair. Dull. Compare it to Matt Smiths Tardis bouncing about space to his upbeat theme which mirrored his energy. Or Capaldi’s eerie time clock
• The suit reveal. OK, in episode one – but as I recall we go from fat Nan dying to joking about in a second hand shop. What was the time frame here? With no Tardis, what was the Doctor doing from the death of fat Nan to the transportation into space? How many days elapsed? It doesn’t feel right

So, many of the 'big moments' feel squandered to me, I think, because the production team have no flair or feel for drama and the shows heritage.

Now the story of episode two. What was it? Not much at all. I can suspend disbelief when the story is cleaver or entertaining. This was neither. Why did they not die in space? How likely is it that the Doctor would crash land the spaceship (Revenge of the Sith anyone?) right on top of the others? Planets are fairly big things after all.

The two competitors. Were they supposed to be hardened and mercenary to be the last two standing in this odd competition? Why did they not jettison the Doctor the moment it became clear she had an interest in the Tardis, which I understood to be the prize? Why would they allow her to tag along?

Why did no one notice that there was no Tardis at the end, and therefore no prize?

The -script and dialogue. What did anyone say that was either telling, clever or interesting? Did any of the Doctors lines strike you as Doctor worthy? Nothing witty, nothing clever. Here’s an example. When the Doc says “I was a hologram once – the gossip I picked up!” what does that mean? If she had said “I was invisible once…” the gossip bit would make sense. But I’ve never associated being a hologram with picking up gossip so the line fell flat. This indicates to me that the writer has no flair or wit. His words are banal across the board.

Shoe horned in politics. We have the ‘I need to win to bring my family out of war torn etc’. That is a ‘be nice to immigrants’ message. “My mum never caught me so I’m on my own in life” Doctor – “We’re better together”. Brexit.

Preachy. Lefty. Boring.

Shoe horned in emotional scene. “Fat Nan's dead. I think of her all the time” Yes. She died yesterday – didn’t she? I’d be crying my eyes out, blaming the Doctor and saying helping her choose an outfit was the last thing on my mind. Better that we help the Police with their enquiries into her death. Although, if many days, weeks even, had passed (as fat Nan's funeral suggested) again, what was the Doctor doing without a Tardis. Walking the streets? In a B&B?

Bad scene setting equals unrealistic feel. Bad production. No flair.

Shoe horned in ‘possible future mystery’ line. “The abandoned Doctor”. Ooh, what could it all mean.

I watched ‘Deep Breath’, Peter Capaldi’s opener twice when it first aired. It was funny, clever, exciting and with a Doctor who was disdainful of the threat (“Rubbish robots of the past….”). Here, Jodie gives up. That’s a good one for the first female Doctor. “I used to be able to” she said (when I was a man). Is that not the polar opposite of what we should be seeing? Oh, she as a Lady Doctor so must be expected to fail. Bad storytelling and bad, unconvincing characterisation.

Some lines from Deep Breath that I remember without looking them up – ‘attack eyebrows’, ‘rubbish robots from the past’, ‘needy megalomaniacal game player (Clara!)’ etc etc. The scene where they are in the café and everyone moves as they move. Clever, creepy, fun. The Master/Missy, Madame Vastra, Sontaran etc.

Look at Capaldi’s second show, Into the Dalek. He arrives, insults someone. Clara says ‘Sorry, I’m his carer’. “That's right” the Doctor says “she cares so I don’t have to”. Funny clever lines that I can remember years later.

What lines do you remember so far from Jodie? Her lines are so banal. “I see summat needs fixin, Ah do wot I cahn”

So, here’s the thing. The wrong actor is the Doctor. That is evident. And the wrong team are in charge. They are pedestrian where they should be outstanding. This means the show is dead.

I may actually give up, as I can’t bear to watch them squander it all. I haven’t even mentioned the 'monsters', and how rubbish they were. More rubbish than Capaldi's rubbish robots from the past.

For health reasons this will likely be my last post here this year. I’m gutted it was a downbeat one about something I care about, but that’s the way of things lately. We need our heroes more than ever and we need our entertainment. I’ve lost one of my favourites. Peter Capaldi was the last Doctor. My personal view, the Doctor is a man. My Dad is a man. There is no need for a woman to be my Dad. My Dad is my Dad, and he is a man.

Bye everyone and hope to see you some time next year 

P.S. A quick look at the press between takes and it seems everyone loves the new show. So, it seems I just don't understand....

 

[tv horror]

20 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I Live! said:

When Jodie was announced I was worried she looked too pretty, and would be too bland having seen nothing in her previous work to suggest the talents needed to pull off the first female Doctor. Alas, I was right. She is a bland looking young woman reading the lines of a 1,000 year old being.

I agree with you Steve she came across as a Jane Horrocks impersonator only Jane has more talent, The Doctor IS a man nuff said. You forgot to add the Screamers Pitch black rip off in plots. On a personal note Steve take it easy and get well soon you shall be missed.

 

[tv horror]

[The Voord]

On ‎10‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 10:11 PM, Batman said:

Oh no, I watched it alright. I just don't know what to say...

Ok, I do. A race (that wasn't a race) across a desert planet?! Sentient killer sheets?! Art Malik in possibly his worst role ever?! (Well, since the last one, that is).

Rubbish.

Rubbish?

It wasn't that good.