Heads up! Dr Who starts Saturday....

[Steph]

Two things: firstly, the setting for the next episode looks remarkably like somewhere I put up on 'Guess the Place'. the cliffs by Dunraven. The little I caught of them on the trailer certainly looks like that stretch of coast.

Secondly, human(ish) servants wrapped in leather harnesses. Why exactly, apart from kinkiness, did the female one have such high heels on?

[red marley]

After 40 years of being an avid Dr Who fan* I've finally come to the realisation that it's a little bit boring and formulaic.

*I remember when I was about 9 sometime in the Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker era, thinking I'm glad my birthday is in the summer otherwise I'd miss Dr Who if I had a Saturday birthday party

[mattc]

Was all the "new companion" publicity back in the summer just a big con? Amy is in the trailer for Ep2 that I've heard, and the Doc still hasn't recruited a new one.

[TimO]

Was all the "new companion" publicity back in the summer just a big con? Amy is in the trailer for Ep2 that I've heard, and the Doc still hasn't recruited a new one.

The new companion isn't supposed to appear until the Christmas special, although no one has quite worked out the relevance, or not, of the actress who will be playing her, appearing in last weeks episode even though it was explicitly stated that she wouldn't appear before the Christmas special.

[mattc]

Ah, thanks. That'll learn me for not reading the small print.

[Actually I tend to glaze over whenever Christmas Specials are mentioned ... ]

[tonyh]

I tend to glaze over whenever Christmas Specials are mentioned

Ah yes but the evenings are getting slightly lighter by then....

[padbeat]

It took me ages to work out who the two robots were! Actually I didn't, my 14yo did in an instant.

[TimO]

It took me ages to work out who the two robots were! Actually I didn't, my 14yo did in an instant.

I though the Mitchell and Webb robots were one of the better parts of the episode!

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It was a little dark, insofar as Solomon was a complete arsehole, and you felt no sympathy for him whatsoever.  Similarly the killing of the Triceratops was a mite unpleasant, and could have been upsetting to any young children watching it.

Not a great deal of story, but the characters, the robots, Rory's dad, Nefertiti, and Riddell, as well as the more predictable Doctor, Amy and Rory, made for some enjoyable interactions.

A bit interesting that Solomon couldn't find a price for the Doctor (or presumably the Tardis either).  Since other's seem to be quite aware of the existence of Time Lords, it seems a little odd that he didn't appear to have any knowledge of them whatsoever.

[mattc]

I though the Mitchell and Webb robots were one of the better parts of the episode!

Definitely

(click to show/hide)

"I'm sure we used to be quicker." 

(Neat excuse for having slightly crap foes - hint that they've been slowly rusting away for years before out heroes meet them)

Excellent episode. Nice self-contained story (much of it ripped off from H2G2, but that's no crime ... ), with lots of good gags.

[Arch]

I though the Mitchell and Webb robots were one of the better parts of the episode!

Definitely

(click to show/hide)

"I'm sure we used to be quicker." 

(Neat excuse for having slightly crap foes - hint that they've been slowly rusting away for years before out heroes meet them)

Excellent episode. Nice self-contained story (much of it ripped off from H2G2, but that's no crime ... ), with lots of good gags.

And a few hefty 2001 references too.  Jolly good fun!

[citoyen]

It took me ages to work out who the two robots were! Actually I didn't, my 14yo did in an instant.

I though the Mitchell and Webb robots were one of the better parts of the episode!

(click to show/hide)

It was a little dark, insofar as Solomon was a complete arsehole, and you felt no sympathy for him whatsoever.  Similarly the killing of the Triceratops was a mite unpleasant, and could have been upsetting to any young children watching it.

Not a great deal of story, but the characters, the robots, Rory's dad, Nefertiti, and Riddell, as well as the more predictable Doctor, Amy and Rory, made for some enjoyable interactions.

A bit interesting that Solomon couldn't find a price for the Doctor (or presumably the Tardis either).  Since other's seem to be quite aware of the existence of Time Lords, it seems a little odd that he didn't appear to have any knowledge of them whatsoever.

(click to show/hide)

Last week we had Daleks being blown up, but that was self-defence. This week, the Doctor dispatched his enemy in a cool, calculating way that seems a bit out of character to me. I don't like it. I also didn't like the triceratops being bumped off. The comedy robots were good but seemed a bit incongruous in this rather dark story.

I presumed the non-existence of the Doctor in the archives was to do with last week's Dalek story.

[andygates]

Entertainingly silly stuff!

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This shot brought a tear to my eye.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I was surprised to see Mr Weasley in a TARDIS, although I suppose he has lost his flying Ford Anglia.

[TimO]

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Last week we had Daleks being blown up, but that was self-defence. This week, the Doctor dispatched his enemy in a cool, calculating way that seems a bit out of character to me. I don't like it.

It did seem a bit too much like more traditional stories, where the baddies get knocked off by the goodies.  The Doctor traditionally seems to find more appropriate, and original solutions, which generally don't involve just killing the baddies.

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... The comedy robots were good but seemed a bit incongruous in this rather dark story.

That's also true, although with any dark episode, a certain amount of light relief is essential, but as you say it was a little incongruous.
 

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I presumed the non-existence of the Doctor in the archives was to do with last week's Dalek story.

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I wondered about that possibility, but can't see why removing something from the Dalek's "memory" would cause issues to the rest of the universe.  Sensibly the Daleks would isolate their data network from everyone else, because you'd expose yourself to corruption, software viruses etc.  The best approach to that, is a totally isolated system, with no direct links, hence the Doctor never having had any success hacking into it and of course Soufflé girl could do it, because she was "inside" their network.  That does of course work both ways, so no one else would have any direct access to the data and of course, Soufflé girls hacking would have no impact outside of the Dalek's system.

[mrcharly-YHT]

We didn't watch it 

Why not?  Because the Windows media player download option ain't available anymore. The only computer we can move to plug a decent screen into couldn't handle playing the HD BBC iPlayer download (which seems incredibly bloated).

anyone have any suggestions?

[TimO]

Are you sure that's still the case?  Over the weekend, I had problems downloading the normal resolution version using get_iplayer, and had to resort to downloading flashvhigh3, which would play on my netbook, unlike flashvhigh1 which would only playback whilst stuttering a lot (flashvhigh3 is 832×468, which is more tolerable on a netbook than the 1280×720 of flashhigh1.  flashstd (standard) is only 640×360).

They seem to have sorted this out now, and I can download the normal quality version using get_iplayer, so I would imagine it may well work with whatever you're using.

[mattc]

There are often repeats on BBC3.

[tiermat]

Drop me a PM MrC, if you want a SD copy of it, I have it recorded on my Myth box and could make it accessible to you.

[mrcharly-YHT]

It's suddenly appeared as available on mobile iplayer, so if all else fails we can play via my phone.

I'll be back in touch if that doesn't work.
ta, chaps

[TimO]

I'm pretty sure someone screwed up the upload at the weekend, and presumably the tech support guys who knew how to reconfigure things properly weren't around until this morning.  I've seen similar things happen in the past, and they normally get cleared up fairly rapidly on the morning of the first weekday after they went wrong.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Download/PC version still wasn't working last night. Let us download then started complaining about DRM.

So we streamed it using my phone and MHL connection. Wasn't super quality, but not bad at all really, considering it was:
A) streamed
B) same resolution as my screen (but on a 24" TFT)

Smartphones are freaking amazing

[TimO]

That's odd, I've managed to watch it "live" on a PC, Sony Bluray player and Xbox, as well as download an mp4 (transcoded from an flv) using get_iplayer, which will then happily play in VLC (and similar).

[BrianI]

Hmmm...

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too much like a poor version of West World without Yul Bryner as a cyporg gun slinger.

[David Martin]

I liked the robots. Not being familiar with Mitchell and Webb I thought they were very much tweedledum and tweedledee.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I quite enjoyed tonight's.