Heads up! Dr Who starts Saturday....

[mattc]

Perhaps they could tell him its a 20-min special - he might then make something that fits nicely into 60!

[hillbilly]

Funny because it's true

[woollypigs]

Now that was a good doctor who, I enjoyed that. Now let's hope they can keep it up for a few more. Even though we are in for a wait, crimbo and next season.

[Kim]

I thought it was pants.  Great big billowing Y-fronts.  I take back any complaints I may have had about the previous episode.

Apart from the classic TARDIS.  That was good.

[hillbilly]

I thought it was confused and a below average end to the series.  A lot of it felt irrelevant. Ho hum.

Good series overall though.

[mattc]

Yes, "confused" seems the keyword. There were several nice ideas* in there, but it wasnt remotely glued together.
(perhaps the main man needs a script editor?? )

TBF it cant be easy writing coherent stuff with time-travel, memory loss and immortal beings ... but there are plenty of SF authors out there who do it for a fraction of the budget! And if the story seems too complicated ... well it probably is, write something simpler 

*

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e.g. The "twist" of the diner being a tardis piloted by the gurrrls was rather nice.

[hillbilly]

I fell asleep 5 minutes into it.....

What was the story line? (no iPlayer access here)

I've tried to condense a meandering 65 minutes into a paragraph in the spoiler tag below.  Clearly it has SPOILERS.  Don't open if you want to avoid them.  My own take is that Moffat tried to do something unexpected, particularly given where it was left last week, but it didn't quite pay off. 

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Doctor spent 4 billion years atomising a diamond wall in order to access Gallifreyan technology that would help him to extract Clara from her timeline, whisk her away and then give her the opportunity to live.  But to protect her, he had to wipe her memory.  But Clara is an ersatz Doctor and reversed the polarity, so the Doctor wiped his memory and Clara got to live, exploring the universe in a TARDIS she and Ashilde/me stole.

Basically it was implying the Doctor and Clara were the hybrid.

No Time Lords were harmed in the making of this episode.

Fair amount of fanwankery in the episode.  Which I liked but I think it would have left the majority wondering what the hell was going on.

The Christmas episode looks a bit suspect as well.  Has the return of a past character though, which I think might be a bit marmite.

[Kim]

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Doctor spent 4 billion years atomising a diamond wall in order to access Gallifreyan technology...

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Except he didn't.  From his perspective, he did all the castle^[1] stuff in the previous episode exactly once.  It took 4 billion years and some flagrant disregard for the laws of thermodynamics to finish the job, but that's not much different from jumping in a TARDIS and setting it for 4 billion years in the future.  Clever, but not the tremndous sacrifice that he made it out to be in this episode.


_{[1] The one that resets itself to the previous state, except where it's critical for the plot for it not to.} 

Christmas episodes are by definition a bit suspect.

[mike]

Thanks to a chum who works at the BBC I'm off to the preview screening of the christmas special tonight.. I won't have any idea what's going on, so there's no point asking me anything afterwards

There's a 'meet the cast' reception afterwards, the main reason I'm going it to try and persuade Peter Capaldi to channel Malcolm Tucker and say "f*ck*ty Bye!"

[mike]

it was awesome... Not going to post any photos or say too much about it, but I was invited into the greenroom before and had a chat with the Dr (he wouldn't swear, too many kids about), the baddie and a couple of other cast members.    The show was as expected, my chum kept me up to speed with the historical bits I would have missed and it was v. entertaining.

and then Jo Whiley hosted the Q&A at the end, I nearly melted. 

Free wine too

[woollypigs]

You lucky git

[hillbilly]

"A couple of other cast members"

Alex Kingston and Matt Lucas?  If they were also there....

...you doubly jammy bastard.

*jealous*

[mike]

"A couple of other cast members"

Alex Kingston and Matt Lucas?  If they were also there....

...you doubly jammy bastard.

*jealous*

not matt lucas, no.  Greg Davis was there though.. [very very tall]

[Mr Larrington]

Thank Dog for the absence of Matt Lucas as stabbing him repeatedly with a fork would have been tricky in front of so many witnesses.

[citoyen]

Greg Davis was there though.. [very very tall]

He's one of those people who's much taller than you expect him to be, even if you're already expecting him to be very tall.

[Steph]

Are we now going to get a double-woman spin off?

[hillbilly]

I wouldn't rule out Big Finish audio plays, or other media like novelisations, but I doubt a TV show would be given a green light.

[woollypigs]

Pearl Mackie has been named as the new Doctor Who companion alongside Peter Capaldi's Time Lord in the Tardis.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36119977

But we have to wait until SPRING 2017!!!!!!

[mattc]

I thought that was the best Xmas special I can remember. Proper entertaining nonsense. Passed the 6-laugh test*.

They should do more mash-ups with other genres. Much humour could await, and Mr Moffat's usual overblown melodrama has had its day.

(Did I hear that Moffat and Capaldi are both on the way out?? )

Thank Dog for the absence of Matt Lucas as stabbing him repeatedly with a fork would have been tricky in front of so many witnesses.

Did you enjoy yesterday's show Mr L?? TBH i couldn't figure out Lucas' character. My memory is failing - was he in the last series? He was harmless enough yesterday, but I felt his lines could have been delivered by any non-baddie character from the last 10 years of Who. A bit... so what?


*For Wittertainment fans

[TimO]

I'm not sure I'd consider that the best Christmas special ever, but it was perfectly acceptable, and quite enjoyable.  As you said, a genre crossover is always a fun novelty.

I don't think Matt Lucas was exceptional, but he did as good a job with that part as any actor would.  It didn't seem to be unreasonable to "resuscitate" him from his previous appearance, and the Doctor has previously had companions for a single occasion of several of the previous specials.  Ultimately, the companion isn't there to be in the limelight, but as a foil for the Doctor, and a character around which explanations can be woven.

[Mr Larrington]

Thank Dog for the absence of Matt Lucas as stabbing him repeatedly with a fork would have been tricky in front of so many witnesses.

Did you enjoy yesterday's show Mr L??

No.  Though this may be connected with the fact of not having watched it.

[BrianI]

According to breakfast news on the tv, Peter Capaldi is leaving Dr Who at the end of the year. 

[Kim]

Seems fair.  He's waited long enough for a decent storyline.

[woollypigs]

He was a good Doctor I think, just let down by the lack of good story lines and co actors.

[Dibdib]

Thankfully Moffatt is leaving at the same time. Shame really - as you all say, I think Capaldi would have done much better with a decent showrunner at the helm. No idea if the new guy's any good.

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(Vote Zawe Ashton for Doctor 2017)