Doctor Who series 6: "prequel" teaser is online

Eejit said:
Yeah, we need more Davies overarching plotlines. i.e. DALEKS EVERY FOUR EPISODES
Click to expand...

Say what you want about them, but those Dalek episodes were consistently excellent, which is more than can be said for most of the show. There was not a single Dalek episode that I didn't like.

Starting the first Matt Smith season tonight.
 
Yorick said:
Say what you want about them, but those Dalek episodes were consistently excellent, which is more than can be said for most of the show. There was not a single Dalek episode that I didn't like.

Starting the first Matt Smith season tonight.
Click to expand...
You liked Daleks in Manhattan?
 
The season 4 finale Dalek episodes were also far from excellent.
 
I hate both the Daleks and the Cyber Men, not because of the plots in the episodes with them, but because of their ridiculous designs. Redesign them, and then I might take them seriously.

The plastic, multicolor Daleks of the Matt Smith series look even worse.
 
Remus said:
The plastic, multicolor Daleks of the Matt Smith series look even worse.
Click to expand...

Agree, they just look ****ing stupid. There was never any reason to do away with the gold versions.
 
the only good thing about the new daleks was when davros came back, and even that ****ing sucked. well, he rocked... but it was done badly, therefore shite.
 
Season 5 has a lot of changes that I just don't goddamn like. New Tardis, new sonic screwdriver, new daleks, new opening credits. It's hard enough readjusting with a new doctor, but this feels like a different show at times. That said, I like Matt Smith a lot more than I was expecting to.

Also I want to marry Amy Pond. Someone get that set up for me.
 
Yorick said:
Season 5 has a lot of changes that I just don't goddamn like. New Tardis, new sonic screwdriver, new daleks, new opening credits. It's hard enough readjusting with a new doctor, but this feels like a different show at times. That said, I like Matt Smith a lot more than I was expecting to.
Click to expand...
To be honest I love most of the changes, even the little ones. Much prefer the new Tardis interior to the old one (and did you notice the exterior is different too? It's more close to the original design from 1963), the new screwdriver is green so therefore brilliant, the new opening credits...well I wasn't so gone on the lightning at first (it grew on me) but I like the new arrangement of the theme and the logo is much improved. The RTD-era logo was pretty generic.

New Daleks...I'm not sure. They're bigger which is an improvement. They stupidly designed the previous batch to be at eye level with Billy Piper despite the fact that everyone is taller than Billy Piper making them really short. The colours...well. Yeah they loot like toys also their asses are huge (seriously, look a shot of them from the side). There's been a bunch of rumours about what's going to happen to them seeing as Moffat has seemingly managed to avoid using them once this series (unless for once he's managed to keep a plot twist secret and not plastered all over the BBC website). One going around was that the RTD Daleks would be returning as servants/drones to the new Daleks.

Also, Matt Smith's theme is brilliant. I never get sick of it, even though they play it in every episode :p


Yorick said:
Also I want to marry Amy Pond. Someone get that set up for me.
Click to expand...
I'll get right on that.
 
In retrospect, I'm still a bit bummed that Donna wasn't actually killed.

ríomhaire said:
To be honest I love most of the changes, even the little ones. Much prefer the new Tardis interior to the old one (and did you notice the exterior is different too? It's more close to the original design from 1963), the new screwdriver is green so therefore brilliant, the new opening credits...well I wasn't so gone on the lightning at first (it grew on me) but I like the new arrangement of the theme and the logo is much improved. The RTD-era logo was pretty generic.
Click to expand...

I actually did notice the exterior being different as well, and I definitely like the new logo. The throwbacks to the old series are lots on me, as I have never seen it. I might end up doing so at some point though.

I suppose part of the changes is differentiating Matt Smith and Moffat taking over the show and Tennant and Davies not being around anymore, which I definitely get, but I really liked Tennant, so little things about the change are bothering me more. Smith reminds me more of Christopher Eccleston in the 2005 season: Goofy and angry, whereas Tennant was more sad/afraid.

ríomhaire said:
New Daleks...I'm not sure. They're bigger which is an improvement. They stupidly designed the previous batch to be at eye level with Billy Piper despite the fact that everyone is taller than Billy Piper making them really short.
Click to expand...

Again, I don't know how they were in the original show, but I liked them being on the short side. It might just be because I'm used them being shorter, but they actually look kind of stretched to me. I don't care for the new design of them, even aside from the colours. They look too streamlined, less like mass-produced machines of war and conquering.

ríomhaire said:
(unless for once he's managed to keep a plot twist secret and not plastered all over the BBC website).
Click to expand...

Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. The subtlety of the "small things that lead up to the finale" seems to be completely ****ing butchered this season (I'm on 5) with the camera CONSTANTLY PANNING AND HOLDING STEADY on the cracks in universe. I much preferred the way the older seasons handled that, when you'd say aloud "There's Bad Wolf again, I wonder what it means."

ríomhaire said:
I'll get right on that.
Click to expand...

Good man.
 
I am all caught up!

Thoughts thus far.

- I stand by what I said about the new Doctor being a step backwards. They had a lot of character development with David Tennant and they've thrown it all out the window to make Matt Smith's doctor angry. Pretty disappointed in that.

- I do like the more overarching stories that are happening, but they all seem to center around Amy, which is getting a bit old.

- Rory is fantastic, I like him so much more than I expected to.

- Changes are becoming even more apparent. For instance, while the new Tardis does look more like an actual police box, it also looks too "new" and plastic. There's no wear and tear on it.

- River Song's origin is pretty neat, can't say that I saw that one coming, though I feel like I should have.

- "When a Good Man Goes to War" was terribly anticlimactic.

In short: The companions are much more interesting (I'm up in the air as to whether Amy Pond or Martha Jones is my favourite). David Tennant is still my favourite doctor, but I don't despise Matt Smith. The plot is moving around a bit more but still isn't to the degree I'd like to see. Something about Seasons 5-6 makes it seem like the magic of the universe has gone, but I'm not sure what I mean by that.
 
The other night's episode, while having some really endearing Rory/Amy moments, highlights a large part of my problem with the changes the show has made in the past two years. The Doctor has always been evasive or less-than-truthful when it comes to small things, like his past, but he outright lied about saving someone, and left Rory to make a really unfair decision. He absolutely crossed a line, and I'm really disappointed at the things they've done with the Matt Smith series.
 
Agreed, what's with Smith being such a dick? Even Ecclestone's brilliant Post-Traumatic Stress Doctor wouldn't do that.
 
I didn't really like the last episode. Doctor Who has always had scenarios that don't really make any logical sense once you really think about it, but now it's starting to annoy me.

So you have this fabulous planet that serves as a tourist attraction for creatures from all over the known universe. The indigenous civilisation is supposed to be very technologically advanced.

And yet you have this shit:

- Some sort of plague on the planet. That would be easily eradicated with nanobots
- A quarantine system that doesn't understand the concept of an alien creature, even though all sorts of aliens arriving on the planet is supposed to be a common occurrence.
- They can control the flow of time yet they have a dumb AI controlling the facility, and dumb robots that can't even see where the hell they are going.

I mean, WTF man?!

So, I can honestly say that I'm liking the new Torchwood a lot more than the new Doctor Who series.
 
Remus said:
So you have this fabulous planet that serves as a tourist attraction for creatures from all over the known universe. The indigenous civilisation is supposed to be very technologically advanced.

And yet you have this shit:

- Some sort of plague on the planet. That would be easily eradicated with nanobots
- A quarantine system that doesn't understand the concept of an alien creature, even though all sorts of aliens arriving on the planet is supposed to be a common occurrence.
- They can control the flow of time yet they have a dumb AI controlling the facility, and dumb robots that can't even see where the hell they are going.

I mean, WTF man?!
Click to expand...

Not to mention the arbitrary plot device of "We need the doctor to stay on the Tardis soooo let's make it so this disease affects Timelords but not Humans. Because why not.

Not to mention the whole "Go to paradise only to find it has been closed down for hundreds/thousands of years" has been done TO DEATH on this show already. The Library and the Midnight episode with the Crystalline Resort both pulled it off (and quite well), but this episode failed miserably with it.
 
I hate to post yet again, but did you notice how

The Doctor said he'd save Rory/Amy's daughter, then when they actually found her said "Nope, can't take her with us, we know too much" and just kind of ditch her somewhere, and then for the next 2+ episodes everyone seems to forget there even being a child?
 
Yorick said:
I hate to post yet again, but did you notice how

The Doctor said he'd save Rory/Amy's daughter, then when they actually found her said "Nope, can't take her with us, we know too much" and just kind of ditch her somewhere, and then for the next 2+ episodes everyone seems to forget there even being a child?
Click to expand...

Yeah I know. They were all like "Oh, Amy's daughter will grow up to be a psychopathic time traveler aka River Song, well that's OK then, moving on". I also didn't understand who those people that wanted the doctor dead really were. And how the hell did they know where he would be, in order to concoct that convoluted plan. That episode where they reach their space station/base, with the beheaded/robot monks (Serious Sam LOL) was just plain bizarre. I went through that episode constantly thinking "uh.. ok? wait what?". Maybe I'm just slow but, the last two series (and more so this one) even if entertaining at times, felt like watching a series of bizarre dreams in TV show format.
 
This show just keeps getting worse. I think I might stop watching after this season.
 
Yeah, decent episode. Of course the impact will probably be minimised if Rory and Amy rejoin the Doctor a couple of episodes down the line. Lets hope they don't, with only two eps left in the season.
 
God complex was slightly better but still not good.
The actors are doing their best, but the scripts are just ugh..

The first 2 episodes are the only ones I liked in this season. "Hail to the Chief" every few minutes was hilarious.
If they built an entire story ark set in the 1960's I would've loved it. That secret service agent was also a good new character and they never reused him.

Also on the whole "the Doctor is the real enemy of the Universe" idea they've been toying with in the last 2 seasons. It would be more convincing if they made him act a bit more evil once in a while.
 
They don't have to make him evil. They've been making him something to be feared and having the Doctor encouraging that.

"I'm the Doctor and you're in the biggest library in the universe, look me up."
"I'm the Doctor. Basically
"There's one thing you never want to put in a trap..."
" If you're sitting up there in your silly little spaceships with all your silly little guns, and you've got any plans on taking the Pandorica, tonight, just remember who's standing in your way. Remember every black day I ever stopped you. And then, AND THEN, do the smart thing. Let someone else try first"
"Fear me, Doctor. I've killed hundreds of Time Lords." "Fear me. I've killed all of them."
"Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many."

He flaunts his reputation and encourages people to fear him. As for what he'd done. He's done a shitload of things for people to be afraid of him. A whole load of genocides, including his own people and programming the human race to murder the Silence without even knowing it and doing the occasional pretty awful thing like imprisoned the Family of Blood to each be alone for all eternity. Not to mention pretty much everywhere he goes people die in their droves. You can't blame people for making a connection there.
 
Remus said:
Also on the whole "the Doctor is the real enemy of the Universe" idea they've been toying with in the last 2 seasons. It would be more convincing if they made him act a bit more evil once in a while.
Click to expand...

He's not evil, but he has always been morally gray. He always gives the "bad guys" a chance to surrender when they're winning and obviously won't do it and then often kills them / gets them to kill themselves. The entire thing with the Pandorica is that he has pushed so many of them into a corner that they have no choice but to completely fight back against him.

I'd make an analogy to Batman, specifically The Dark Knight, which is fresh in my mind since I just watched it again a few (k)nights ago. Bruce remarks that the mob crossed a line, and Alfred responds that "You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn't fully understand."

It's not to say that what the Doctor is doing is wrong, what he is doing needs to be done. And it's not to say that his methods are wrong either. But he is the only Timelord in existence and he has taken it upon himself to be a moral man in an immoral universe and that is definitely going to have consequences.

A Good Man Goes to War disappointed me because it brings this to focus and then doesn't really live up to it, and the whole thing kind of falls apart. The bad guys decide that they will get an assassin to kill The Doctor. They manage to capture Amy Pond's baby, which is part TimeLord because of the Tardis. Okay, that's all fine. But where you lose me is this.

The bad guys escape, with the child. The Doctor pledges to find them and rescue her. But we know that
a) She is with them until ditched(?) on Earth when she looks to be about, what, 8?
b) She grows up alongside Amy
c) She succeeds in killing the Doctor in the 1940's, when she's around 20.

So the Doctor has all of time and space to **** around with, and he cannot manage to encounter this child beforehand? And I know that's how it "has to happen" for her to grow up to be River Song and all the fun that that entails, but in that case he shouldn't have known where Melody was, or that she was part Timelord, because how in the world could that man not rip the galaxy apart to find her, if not for her own sake than for her parents?

IT ALL JUST FALLS APART WITH WEAK WRITING.

[/Rant]
 
Is it me, or is Yorick still actually posting in the Doctor Who thread? It's actually like he kept watching.
 
Yorick said:
He's not evil, but he has always been morally gray. He always gives the "bad guys" a chance to surrender when they're winning and obviously won't do it and then often kills them / gets them to kill themselves. The entire thing with the Pandorica is that he has pushed so many of them into a corner that they have no choice but to completely fight back against him.

I'd make an analogy to Batman, specifically The Dark Knight, which is fresh in my mind since I just watched it again a few (k)nights ago. Bruce remarks that the mob crossed a line, and Alfred responds that "You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn't fully understand."
Click to expand...

Usually the "bad guys" deserve being exterminated.
Examples: The Sontarans, which declare war on everybody for shits and giggles. The Cybermen, "you will be assimilated resistance is futile". The Daleks, which pretty much want to kill everyone.
The only aliens in this show that would've eventually listened to a diplomatic solution (after a lot of work) were the ones that were invading Earth out of necessity, to survive, not for fun.
Now com to think of it the only other species I remember him making peace with in the last 2 seasons were those underground reptiles, although technically they were also indigenous to Earth.

The Batman analogy is OK to a point, but it falls apart when it comes to killing people. Batman might have let that guy die in Batman Begins, but he doesn't directly kill anybody. While The Doctor has no problem with it, if it's necessary.

Regarding his character a conversation with Amy comes to mind. She asks him: "Don't you ever read a history book before traveling to a planet?!". And he responds: "You know that's not how I travel."
So the point is, yeah he could travel all over the universe to awesome places, and do he's research before had to make sure it's safe, but he doesn't want to. Because that way there would be no dangerous thrill ride. In short, he's bonkers.

The personality type that would fit him would be "chaotic good" I think.
 
Remus said:
Usually the "bad guys" deserve being exterminated.
Click to expand...
This really doesn't matter. At this point the Doctor has probably killed more people than any other single person in the whole of the universe. That's scary regardless of if he's good or evil.
 
Yorick said:
What?
Click to expand...

He isn't the only time lord in existence. He SHOULD be, but the writers like to **** around with that analogy, I mean we've seen it in this current series for crying out loud..
 
Shift said:
He isn't the only time lord in existence. He SHOULD be, but the writers like to **** around with that analogy, I mean we've seen it in this current series for crying out loud..
Click to expand...

Well, that only happened once. Though I suppose I should have said "That we know of".
 
c3uZ1.jpg
 
What a lousy finale. Especially the "lol we said Doctor Who but we really meant Doctor, Who?" bit. **** you Moffat, you muppet.

This season was absolutely the worst of the 2005-current series.
 
Yorick said:
This season was absolutely the worst of the 2005-current series.
Click to expand...
SUBJECT: YORICK
RIGHT TO OPINION REVOKED: 03/10/2011
REASON: ABILITY TO TOLERATE ENTIRE SEASON OF CATHERINE TATE
 
Hey this Doctor-disguised ship also does a good regeneration impression HOW CONVENIENT

Also fixed points in time only really care about what appears to be happening.


Worst finale since, eh, season 4. Only seasons 2 and 3 had decent finales really.
 
Ok so I really liked the final episode. I liked the whole "all time is happening at once" idea though not as much as the history disintegrating thing from last season. They've finally showed us why messing with "fixed points" is a bad thing. Previously it was just this is bad because we say it is. Show, don't tell, as they say. The recap method of storytelling while usually kind of annoying didn't bother me too much and they finally got around to having a moment where someone looks down at their arm and suddenly marks on it. I was waiting for a moment like that since the second episode of the season. I love "oh shit" moments. By the way did anyone notice that the Doctor was holding a spear and implying he'd been killing Silents with it? Rory gets more awesome every episode too.

I think what I like most of all is how all the big questions have been answered in the most mundane ways. What is River's relationship with the Doctor? They're married as was obvious from the start. Who is River in prison for killing? The Doctor as was the obvious answer. Why did River not recognise all the stuff with the spacesuit? She did she was just lying. How did she know it wasn't a clone or fake Doctor? She knew damn well it was a fake Doctor she was just lying through her teeth to help fake the Doctor's death. How did the Doctor escape his real death? It was a robot the whole time he was never shot.

And now that's to River's broadcast asking for help everyone in the whole universe "knows" that the Doctor has been killed and the Silence know they succeeded. He can now bow out and return to being a mad man with a box travelling through space and time.

That said I am disappointed with some of the elements of this series overall, or rather with some things it was lacking. How did the Silence take control of the TARDIS last series? Where they just trying to kill the Doctor or was destroying the universe intended? Where did the disembodied voice come from? None of this was answered at all. Also we never saw the Forests of Gamma and I was pretty disappointed in that River gets her name as River just from them telling her that's her name. I was expected Gamma to be linked to River's backstory in an interesting way. River's past as a Doctor-seeking missile was also wrapped up far too soon in Let's Kill Hitler. I was expecting her to be chasing them down for a few episodes or something but it all gets done with very very quickly. Also annoyed that they didn't leave space to have River replaced with a new actress. We see the start and end of her final regeneration so there's no chance of us seeing a different regeneration of her now. I was hoping that she might become a (very) long-term character with a chance of changing actress just like the Doctor and generally being the female counterpart of the Doctor.

So overall I would say the finale and series as a whole was not as good as the previous one, but still pretty damn good. Also Rory got upgraded to full time companion which is brilliant and we got to see more of River. Also I'm not sure why but for some reason I like that the four current main characters are all married and related.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Stylo
US Election: I know this place is dead but...?
Replies
15
Views
4K
Krynn72
Krynn72
B
From Warren Spector to Arkane Studios: Half-Life 2's cancelled Ravenholm episode
Replies
2
Views
10K
Clan Wolf 2
Clan Wolf 2
B
Who's left or joined Valve in recent history
Replies
4
Views
32K
MFL
MFL
B
The leaked maps of the Half-Life 2 episodes - Part 2
Replies
0
Views
8K
Barnz
B
TheBreakfast
UPDATED: "Left 4 Dead: Survivors" Arcade Port In Development
Replies
0
Views
6K
TheBreakfast
TheBreakfast
Back
Top