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Post by Bazoolium on Oct 29, 2018 9:17:13 GMT
Technically, Silurians are not aliens, so: No, it’s not. (But in any reasonable sense, yeah, probably!) Where were the aliens in Rosa? Mr. Time Traveling White Supremacist was human, or at least strongly implied to be. Good point. I'm glad they're not just doing Big Lumbering Monster 46 every week.
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Post by relativetime on Oct 29, 2018 9:40:37 GMT
I liked this one more than The Ghost Monument, but not as much as Rosa, which to be fair is a very high bar to reach. Like The Ghost Monument, I think the production really does elevate this story. Who would have ever thought the show could look this gorgeous?! The writing here was stronger than that episode, though, and I think that's in large part due to better pacing. One thing that's been very prevalent so far throughout the four episodes are more reflective and character-driven moments, which I deeply appreciated. The actors really pull this material off very well and even some of the weaker moments are elevated by their talent. And while I've mentioned it every week so far, I'm just so happy to have something fresh in the music department that's not so flashy and in-your-face as Murray Gold's music could sometimes get. While this may not be the most groundbreaking episode in the show's history, there's something about the way it's presented, performed, and written that just feels so much more fresh than the show has felt for a very long time.
I will say that while I loved the first half of the episode, I am going to have to go back to rewatch the second bit, given I did become a little distracted and lost track of some important dialogue that probably would have cleared a few things up. It wasn't "eyes-glued-to-the-screen" gripping for me like Rosa was last week, but it did get me back by the end. The show's always been unmissable for me, but four episodes in and with this level of polish, this is even more unmissable than usual.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2018 9:49:12 GMT
6.43m so we are up on last week it seems.
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Post by omega on Oct 29, 2018 9:49:28 GMT
And was surprised to realise that they're not doing away with the 'Female Companion falls in love with the Doctor' trope after all. Not seeing that at all. Me neither. Najia asked Yaz is she and the Doctor were “together”, which Yaz of course said no but the Doctor didn’t really understand what that meant (and she was going through the plans at the time, so she was focusing on that).
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Post by omega on Oct 29, 2018 9:51:55 GMT
A great intense episode until the climax, shoving spiders in a panic room & erm that’s it no reversing the effects returning then back to normal size? The Doctor doesn’t want to kill them so would've been good have scene where The Doctor created a antidote & used the air vents to infect the spiders with it & return them to normal size, but instead we get nothing. Robertson i think will be a recurring character who’ll be a pain in the Doctor’s arse, i can forsee a episode were in the near future he’s become president & caused chaos which the Doctor & companions will have to investigate. I like the drama & emotion of the Chibnall era but when you invest your time in a long running tv show & do a episode about huge spiders at least give the audience a satisfactory pay off to the main plot. 3/5. The larger size was an inbuilt function of their biology, not caused by a growth ray or enbiggening serum. They represent a biological dead end.
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Post by omega on Oct 29, 2018 9:53:44 GMT
It was alright. Characters are still fun and obviously where Chibbers wants to focus. I like that the arch plot is character based rather than Intergalactic Word Games like Moffat did. Still don't understand the Doctor's aversion to guns. Why is locking spiders in a room to supposedly starve to death better than shooting them. Very messy and vaugue ending, Chibnall seems to do this a lot. Torchwood's Countryside and The Power of Three also had a rushed ending. Is this the first ever episode to not feature aliens other than the Doctor in New Who? If the Doctor shows up there’s an alien. You could count the black and white episodes of pure historicals where Hartnell was on holiday.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2018 11:04:12 GMT
I also really like how Graham's handled here: in conjunction with Bradley's performance, I like that his 'memories' of Grace don't magically give him answers on how to deal with things, or do some 'throwaway line that becomes life-affirming speech' schtick with her. It's rough, it's frustrating and I'm really intrigued with the idea of using TARDIS travel almost as grief therapy. I love, love, love the little scenes with Graham in the apartment. After a short while, he just... stops and sinks into the old memories. Walsh really sells the idea that at home -- in his own element -- he's lost, he's got no direction. Out there with the Doctor, among the strange and otherworldly, he's ironically got a greater purpose of life. Hard to believe that he was the most reluctant of the original five to get involved. It's a great bit of character development. I had a lot of fun, even with the abruptness of the ending. "Attack of the Alligators!" for Doctor Who.
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shutupbanks
Castellan
There’s a horror movie called Alien? That’s really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you.
Likes: 5,718
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Post by shutupbanks on Oct 29, 2018 11:16:15 GMT
I bloody loved that. It was a hoot. There was no real fault to it besides wondering what's going to happen to the one in Yaz's neighbour's flat (mind you, Android Invasion had similar problems).
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Oct 29, 2018 12:32:01 GMT
It was a fun episode. Loved the Spider effects and everything, but of the four so far its at the bottom of the pile for me.
But those scenes with Graham in the house by himself really broke my heart
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Post by stcoop on Oct 29, 2018 12:49:15 GMT
6.43m so we are up on last week it seems.
Looks like the series has found its level, comfortably well above where it was by the time Moffat and Capaldi limped off stage.
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Post by fingersmash on Oct 29, 2018 12:54:40 GMT
A light episode of pure fun, which was needed after the very heavy Rosa. Is anyone else wondering when 13 gets her 'this is my Doctor' moment? We've gotten her 'I am the Doctor' moment but really, how will she be defined away from 10 and 11?
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Post by jolyon on Oct 29, 2018 13:47:12 GMT
I'm starting to think there's something wrong with the way I watch Doctor Who. The more I read comments here the more I realise that I don't bring my critical eyes, and simply get swept along by the adventure. When the spider moved under the bed I jumped, when Ryan was doing shadow puppet spiders I laughed, when the spider was shot I gasped, when the companions decided to become #teamtardis I felt all warm inside. I really liked Yaz's family and I wasn't fussed about the 'spiders in the panic room' ending.
I may not be a good judge of quality, but I'm always happy to tune in and enjoy it. 5 stars again.
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Post by charlesuirdhein on Oct 29, 2018 14:11:03 GMT
I had only one sticking point with the episode really. Yaz goes to pick up her mum, they meet in the hotel and are then accosted by an armed bodyguard and the owner. 1) no private bodyguard can carry a handgun for any reason in England, it's simply illegal, and 2) however probationary Yaz is still the police so she should have done something about this, even if it's calling her boss.
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Post by newt5996 on Oct 29, 2018 14:21:02 GMT
I had only one sticking point with the episode really. Yaz goes to pick up her mum, they meet in the hotel and are then accosted by an armed bodyguard and the owner. 1) no private bodyguard can carry a handgun for any reason in England, it's simply illegal, and 2) however probationary Yaz is still the police so she should have done something about this, even if it's calling her boss. Thinking on it, it kind of feels like this episode may have started with less companions in mind or just a different cast of characters. Seriously what was with that ending, it felt like it just cut after the spider is shot.
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bobod
Chancellery Guard
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Post by bobod on Oct 29, 2018 14:29:21 GMT
It was alright. Characters are still fun and obviously where Chibbers wants to focus. I like that the arch plot is character based rather than Intergalactic Word Games like Moffat did. Still don't understand the Doctor's aversion to guns. Why is locking spiders in a room to supposedly starve to death better than shooting them. Very messy and vaugue ending, Chibnall seems to do this a lot. Torchwood's Countryside and The Power of Three also had a rushed ending. Is this the first ever episode to not feature aliens other than the Doctor in New Who? If the Doctor shows up there’s an alien. You could count the black and white episodes of pure historicals where Hartnell was on holiday. Hence 'other than the Doctor'...
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Post by sherlock on Oct 29, 2018 14:54:44 GMT
Spoke to non-hardcore Who fan friend again. She liked it, but did wonder about the ending, namely that not all the spiders were seemingly dealt with. She was also watching with a group of friends who were apparently arachnophobic and found their terror at this episode somewhat amusing.
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Post by J.A. Prentice on Oct 29, 2018 17:51:21 GMT
I had only one sticking point with the episode really. Yaz goes to pick up her mum, they meet in the hotel and are then accosted by an armed bodyguard and the owner. 1) no private bodyguard can carry a handgun for any reason in England, it's simply illegal, and 2) however probationary Yaz is still the police so she should have done something about this, even if it's calling her boss. The scene seemed like it was leading to a “Yaz is a police officer so now not-Trump is in trouble” moment but it just never came. It felt very odd.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Oct 29, 2018 18:01:00 GMT
6.43m so we are up on last week it seems.
Looks like the series has found its level, comfortably well above where it was by the time Moffat and Capaldi limped off stage.
They didn’t go down limping creatively. Ratings perhaps but series 10 is one of the strongest since its return. Anyway, did a rewatch of episode 4 and the downside is we are almost at the halfway point of the series.
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Post by kinghumble on Oct 29, 2018 18:36:55 GMT
Robertson i think will be a recurring character who’ll be a pain in the Doctor’s arse, i can forsee a episode were in the near future he’s become president & caused chaos which the Doctor & companions will have to investigate. My immediate thought when they made clear his sole motivation was that he's anti-Trump was, "Oh, so he's the hero now". So I'm excited to see where the show goes when the two protagonists square off against each other in a battle of can't/must? (I say this in jest)
Like many others, I loved Graham's scenes in his home, mourning his wife. I also love how he - in a very respectful way - asked Ryan not to join him, despite how he's clamoured for Ryan's approval in the last three episodes. It reminded me of my own life (I lost my father eighteen months ago and often wish my extended family would keep their noses out of my mourning) but also showed how their relationship is deepening organically - Graham still wants Ryan in his life, but feels more secure in their relationship that he can request his privacy be respected for something they both know is deeply personal and intimate. Episode by episode we're seeing them bond, and that little moment in this episode of Graham feeling secure in saying "no" was a fantastic, organic representation of how they're coming together.
I also related to Graham wanting to use travel as part of his mourning process; two months after my father's death I took a job in Bangladesh and it was an intense experience. Didn't fully do the trick for my mourning but I was glad to have the adventure to distract me. God, how I wish the Doctor had swooped in to take me off while I mourned - still am mourning, actually, still wish I had the TARDIS to chase away my tears And if the Doctor happens to have the smile of Jodie Whittaker while helping me run away from my demons, hey, that wouldn't be awful
I can see more of how people are comparing Whittaker's performance to Tennant's and Smith's, there's absolutely overlap, some of her quips in this episode seemed ripped right from their series. But she has so much less swagger than them that I do think there's a seriously distinct personality in evidence here, and that lack of ego is making her Doctor leap ahead in my estimation; she may develop into one of my favourites if she continues to show the wit and energy 10 and 11 had combined with a proper sense of humility and grounded empathy that, to my knowledge, no Doctor has ever shown (5 by Davison maybe comes closest?). She's not the "Oncoming Storm" or the "Time Lord Victorious", and I love that more than I can describe!
I just hope the series has better and better villains going forwards. I felt the alien bounty-hunter with the teeth in his cheeks was underwhelming, I felt the flying psychic rags were laiughable, and the time-travelling white-supremacist was underdeveloped and logistically nonsensical. The spiders this week were a huge improvement and Noth's character was fun, albeit one-dimensional, so I hope that the rest of the series will continue this improvement and give us proper adversaries to test 13 and make her worthy of our fandom!
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ljwilson
Chancellery Guard
It's tangerine....not orange
Likes: 5,063
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Post by ljwilson on Oct 29, 2018 18:48:11 GMT
I'm starting to think there's something wrong with the way I watch Doctor Who. The more I read comments here the more I realise that I don't bring my critical eyes, and simply get swept along by the adventure. When the spider moved under the bed I jumped, when Ryan was doing shadow puppet spiders I laughed, when the spider was shot I gasped, when the companions decided to become #teamtardis I felt all warm inside. I really liked Yaz's family and I wasn't fussed about the 'spiders in the panic room' ending. I may not be a good judge of quality, but I'm always happy to tune in and enjoy it. 5 stars again. Probably the best way to watch Doctor Who I reckon, which has been full of huge plot holes and bits that don't make sense since it started. The blob climbing the stairs in Fang Rock, which took about an hour, when it could have retained it's 'ridiculous human form' and saved itself 58 minutes springs to mind. If you just enjoy it for what it is, who gives a monkey's?
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