Heads up! Dr Who starts Saturday....

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

And Harry Potter isn't children's books. The first two, maybe, but once you get past those you're into very adult themes, just using children as the characters to tell the stories. Besides, I don't think describing something as for children has to mean it has less intrinsic worth - there are good children's books and telly which are far higher quality than some adult's stuff.

[andygates]

I wuv army-green Daleks and jowly Churchill! 

Also, space-whale excellent.  On the kiddy side, you get the space-whale, a cave full of teeth and the scary booth people  On the prodding preconceptions side, you get the democracy gag and a black Queen (gor' bless'er).  And then there's ample opportunity for overthinking the implications of the forget-o-matic and the bleak-as-feck moral place they were in.

That really was quality stuff.

[David Martin]

I loved the end scene. It was turtles all the way down.

..d

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Doctor Who star Karen Gillan has defended short skirts - Monsters and Critics

Well, I for one don't think she needs to defend wearing short skirts... quite the opposite really!

[TimO]

Well, I suspect that wasn't the best episode that we'll see this series, but it wasn't bad.  I think we're still in the throat clearing stage of setting the scene with the characters of the new Doctor and Amy.  It certainly had it's good points though, as others have said the strangely Victorian multi-faced robots, and the big Forget & Protest (or Abdicate) buttons.

All the way through the episode I was sure I'd seen Liz Ten (aka Sophie Okonedo) in something like Doctor Who before, but I just couldn't remember what.  I had to resort to IMDB in the end, and she was Sithandra in Æon Flux, which was certainly Sci-Fi enough to count as "like" Doctor Who.

I can't help thinking Amy always being in her nightie is a bit Arthur Dent in his dressing gown though!

[Cunobelin]

I have a strong feeling that the 'silence will fall' quote we reoccur somewhere along the line

I was a bit disappointed at first that the crack in the wall part of the story wasn't developed further because I thought there was a lot of potential there. But there were several not-so-subtle clues that it would form a key part of the main series storyline...

Could be good as long as it isn't just a rehash of the Bad Wolf story.

If you watch I player, at the end there is a "pullback" to see the Space Whale, as the shot pans across the surface, and moments before the "Next Time"  cuts in  you clearly see "The Crack!








.......... but what does it mean?

[TimO]

Yes, that was a particularly non-subtle crack.  I suspect bits like this will be peppered throughout the series, until explained at the end.  Hopefully will have something other than just cracks in everything, the "crack in reality" is a bit of a science fiction cliche.

[Rhys W]

Damn! I saw that, but it didn't register. The Crack is clearly this season's Bad Wolf.

[LEE]

And Harry Potter isn't children's books. The first two, maybe, but once you get past those you're into very adult themes, just using children as the characters to tell the stories. Besides, I don't think describing something as for children has to mean it has less intrinsic worth - there are good children's books and telly which are far higher quality than some adult's stuff.

Oh please, Harry Potter isn't just just for kids, it's almost entirely "borrowed" (I want to say "stolen") from other kids books.  I think it's great that it's got millions of children reading books again but, if it were actually targetted at adults, it would be considered dross.  

Same for Dr Who. It's kids TV with a few adult references but it's kids TV . If it were targetted primarily at adults then it would be, quite rightly, panned, but, because it's a kids TV show (with a few adult references), adult critics cut it, quite rightly, some slack.

Dr Who is a kids TV show, it was in the 60's (when I first watched it), it was in the 70's (when the REAL Dr Who, Tom Baker, starred) and it always has been.  Nothing wrong with that but let's not confuse it with grown-up TV.  The Daleks, the Cybermen, et al, should be scary.  I'd understand a 9 year old being scared by the "Smiley Booth people" but surely no adult is scared by Dr Who "monsters".

Note.  I actually did hide behind the sofa from the Daleks when I was 8 (literally, behind the sofa).

Next week, 39 years on, I'll probably just need a cushion, I've grown up you see.


Note.  I live in Andover, home of "Stannah Stair Lifts", a division of "Dalek Invasion Solutions Corp."

[nicknack]

Nothing wrong with that but let's not confuse it with grown-up TV.  

Sounding a little pompous there, methinks. 

[Cunobelin]

I would hardly describe Amy Pond as a "subtle adult reference"..... its a fairly blatant "lets pull in the adult males" type reference!

Now don't take this the wrong way - but I think adults don't scare because they now have a knowledge and experience that prevents this. You can immerse yourself in something and enjoy it, without being scared or picking out the minor (or major) faults in the storyline. Many of the best books and films are totally unbelievable in the truest sense of the word

PS .. I thought there were definite references to Hitch  Hikers Guide - strolling around in a dressing gown ( although no where near as practical as Arthur's) and about how unclean the spaceship was were tow I picked up on

[LEE]

Nothing wrong with that but let's not confuse it with grown-up TV.  

Sounding a little pompous there, methinks. 

Phew!  I was worried it wouldn't come across

[Spinners]

Note.  I live in Andover...

Ah, now I understand.

[Spinners]

I'm quite liking this new doctor.

Yep, me too. And I didn't think I would.

[citoyen]

And Harry Potter isn't children's books. The first two, maybe, but once you get past those you're into very adult themes

All the best children's books deal with "adult" themes but they're still children's books (eg to pick a couple of examples that my son has read recently, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas and Two Weeks With The Queen). It's not the themes it's how you deal with them. The Harry Potter books are very much at the emotional and intellectual level of a teenager.

Besides, I don't think describing something as for children has to mean it has less intrinsic worth

Of course not. That's not what LEE said. And there's nothing wrong with being an adult and enjoying books, TV, films etc that are aimed at children. I enjoyed all the Harry Potter books. They are very good children's books. But they are children's books.

- there are good children's books and telly which are far higher quality than some adult's stuff.

Agreed. But however good they are, they're still children's books and telly.

Dr Who is a kids TV show, it was in the 60's (when I first watched it)

I saw Tom Baker yesterday. He was driving into Rye as I was riding out. Only caught a brief glimpse but it was definitely him. I had a real starstruck moment.

surely no adult is scared by Dr Who "monsters".

Except the blinking angels, or whatever they're called. They scared the bejeesus out of me. Slightly disappointed they're making a reappearance this series though - they won't have the same impact a second time. And the Family of Blood were a bit creepy.

I used to be terrified of the Cybermen when I was a tiny person, but not any more. The Daleks were always just a wee bit too camp to be genuinely scary.

Note.  I live in Andover, home of "Stannah Stair Lifts", a division of "Dalek Invasion Solutions Corp."

 

d.

[Wascally Weasel]

Well, that was fairly shit in terms of story but very interesting in terms of the relationship between the Doctor and Amy. Not at all excited about more Daleks though. They need to not give us Daleks for a couple of years - I'm bored of them.

I don't know - I don't think RTB really 'got' the Daleks so this next one could be the first decent Dalek episode. 

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

The weeping angels were really scary - but even scarier was the wee boy in the gas mask and the creepy clockwork monkey banging the cymbals. *fear*

[citoyen]

the wee boy in the gas mask

Forgot about him. Very scary.

As were the clockwork robots in the Girl In The Fireplace episode.

And the darkness stuff in the library that ate everything.

All Moffat creations, of course. 

Interestingly, Moffat hasn't written a Daleks or Cybermen story yet. And he hasn't written the Daleks story for this series either - Mark Gatiss gets the writing credit, according to Wikipedia. Which I have to say is very probably the next best thing, since Mark Gatiss is a brilliant writer and his Doctor Who episodes have been excellent (he did the one with Charles Dickens and the one with Maureen Lipman stuck inside a telly).

Also according to Wikipedia, there's an episode later in the series written by Richard Curtis, with Vincent Van Gogh as a character. Hmmm. Could be... interesting. 

And one by Simon "Men Behaving Badly" Nye. Huh?

There's also one by Toby Whithouse, who previously wrote the episode in which K-9 and Sarah Jane Smith appeared, which was pretty good. He also wrote Being Human, which I've not seen but have heard good things about, and No Angels, the thing about naughty nurses in a Leeds hospital, which I vaguely recall enjoying when it was on.

Plus one by Gareth Roberts (who did the Agatha Christie and Shakespeare episodes) and a two-parter by Chris Chibnall, who was head writer on Torchwood.

Overall, the serise has ten separate stories, four of which are written by Moffat himself, two of them two-parters.

d.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

As were the clockwork robots in the Girl In The Fireplace episode.

They scared me because they reminded me of the Robots of Death, which terrified me when I was little. Well, that and the fact anything in a mask is scary.

[andygates]

There's another crack, you know - on one of the screens in the TARDIS.  It looks like a crack in a map of the Universe:



...and to get the RTD-levels back up, why is the vworper* now a huge glass butt plug?  Has Captain Jack been decorating?  Crack, butt-plug, I'm sensing that the rest of the arc may have fewer spooky children and more plumbers with moustaches.



* Well, what do you call the thing in the middle of the console that pumps up and down and makes it do the vworp vworp thing?

[redshift]

...and to get the RTD-levels back up, why is the vworper* now a huge glass butt plug? 

You know, I thought it was just me that thought that.  Since noone else had mentioned it, I'd simply accepted it as a symptom that I need to get out more... 

[citoyen]

I didn't notice until you mentioned it. Now I'll never be able to look at it the same again.

While we're on the subject of inappropriate observations, am I the only one who wondered if Amy was wearing knickers while floating outside the Tardis at the start of the episode?

d.

[Cunobelin]

Here's another reference

.. but probably not very exciting

[Bledlow]

While we're on the subject of inappropriate observations, am I the only one who wondered if Amy was wearing knickers while floating outside the Tardis at the start of the episode?

d.

Pictures, please.

[Kathy]

More importantly, when they started talking about the "Starwhal", how many others yelled "YEEEEAAAAAAH!"?