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Post by bonehead on Mar 9, 2024 16:36:47 GMT
Martin 8th Review
Power of the Doctor - TV Story
Dang this was so good.
I had to play catch up with Chibnall’s era to get to this episode, hence the delay, but damn what a story to end on! ...
You know, I can't disagree with one word of that review.
Someone once said (and it might even have been on this forum) that Power of the Doctor is Chris Chibnall's own Caves of Androzani. I can't disagree with that either!
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Post by number13 on Mar 9, 2024 21:23:58 GMT
It’s stuff like this, that reinforces the fundamental themes of the entire series, are the things that make the whole Timeless Child/Other/Morbius Incarnations, stuff so baffling. Martin’s Doctor can’t be a pre-Hartnell Doctor because the Doctor didn’t learn to be the Doctor until he met Barbara and Ian. Insisting that she is one undermines the story.
That’s why the 6B theory makes so much more sense, and why I’m deeply disappointed that Chibnall didn’t have the guts to confirm it. To give us that final twist that would have fixed so much shit, but oh well.... I guess it’s up to us fans. Sorry to clip your excellent review - and yes, what a superb story it is - but I just wanted to comment on the bit I've highlighted. Exactly right, that is part of the core of the 'Timeless Child' problem - the Doctor really wasn't a very nice person in 'An Unearthly Child / Tribe of Gum' was he? Or when he selfishly faked the broken mercury link so they would have to explore the Dalek city. Or in 'Edge of Destruction' - though they were all getting 'cabin fever' in that one!
It's the long journey (7 episodes but many months in real time) in 'Marco Polo' where I think the Doctor really changes into the person we know, and even there he spends an episode sulking in the TARDIS! That road trip with Barbara, Ian and indeed Marco (who they all like even though he's using them for his own benefit) was the Doctor's time to mellow and really get used to a variety of humans and human culture as they slowly made their way down from the plain of Pamir all the way to Peking.
Equally, the Fugitive Doctor's TARDIS is the TARDIS, jammed chameleon circuit and all. The interior is different but they're all fond of redecorating from time to time. But only in Totter's Yard did the old girl become the Police Box. (Not to mention the point I made a while back, there is no way such a huge secret as 'resetting' the Doctor could be kept a secret in a hive of intrigue like Gallifrey, full of telepaths and with the all-knowing Matrix.)
6B does it for me.
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Post by bethhigdon on Mar 9, 2024 21:47:43 GMT
It’s stuff like this, that reinforces the fundamental themes of the entire series, are the things that make the whole Timeless Child/Other/Morbius Incarnations, stuff so baffling. Martin’s Doctor can’t be a pre-Hartnell Doctor because the Doctor didn’t learn to be the Doctor until he met Barbara and Ian. Insisting that she is one undermines the story.
That’s why the 6B theory makes so much more sense, and why I’m deeply disappointed that Chibnall didn’t have the guts to confirm it. To give us that final twist that would have fixed so much shit, but oh well.... I guess it’s up to us fans. Sorry to clip your excellent review - and yes, what a superb story it is - but I just wanted to comment on the bit I've highlighted. Exactly right, that is part of the core of the 'Timeless Child' problem - the Doctor really wasn't a very nice person in 'An Unearthly Child / Tribe of Gum' was he? Or when he selfishly faked the broken mercury link so they would have to explore the Dalek city. Or in 'Edge of Destruction' - though they were all getting 'cabin fever' in that one!
It's the long journey (7 episodes but many months in real time) in 'Marco Polo' where I think the Doctor really changes into the person we know, and even there he spends an episode sulking in the TARDIS! That road trip with Barbara, Ian and indeed Marco (who they all like even though he's using them for his own benefit) was the Doctor's time to mellow and really get used to a variety of humans and human culture as they slowly made their way down from the plain of Pamir all the way to Peking.
Equally, the Fugitive Doctor's TARDIS is the TARDIS, jammed chameleon circuit and all. The interior is different but they're all fond of redecorating from time to time. But only in Totter's Yard did the old girl become the Police Box. (Not to mention the point I made a while back, there is no way such a huge secret as 'resetting' the Doctor could be kept a secret in a hive of intrigue like Gallifrey, full of telepaths and with the all-knowing Matrix.)
6B does it for me. Another thing that supports the 6B theory is the hologram itself in PotD. Jodie remembers creating the program as Hartnell, meaning Martin shouldn't be in the system unless she was after Hartnell.
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Post by bonehead on Mar 9, 2024 21:56:20 GMT
Another thing that supports the 6B theory is the hologram itself in PotD. Jodie remembers creating the program as Hartnell, meaning Martin shouldn't be in the system unless she was after Hartnell. So apart from being an unneccessary and bizarre idea (I say this as someone who enjoyed a lot of Chris Chibnall's era), The Timeless Child story doesn't make sense either!
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Post by mark687 on Mar 9, 2024 22:14:44 GMT
Sorry to clip your excellent review - and yes, what a superb story it is - but I just wanted to comment on the bit I've highlighted. Exactly right, that is part of the core of the 'Timeless Child' problem - the Doctor really wasn't a very nice person in 'An Unearthly Child / Tribe of Gum' was he? Or when he selfishly faked the broken mercury link so they would have to explore the Dalek city. Or in 'Edge of Destruction' - though they were all getting 'cabin fever' in that one!
It's the long journey (7 episodes but many months in real time) in 'Marco Polo' where I think the Doctor really changes into the person we know, and even there he spends an episode sulking in the TARDIS! That road trip with Barbara, Ian and indeed Marco (who they all like even though he's using them for his own benefit) was the Doctor's time to mellow and really get used to a variety of humans and human culture as they slowly made their way down from the plain of Pamir all the way to Peking.
Equally, the Fugitive Doctor's TARDIS is the TARDIS, jammed chameleon circuit and all. The interior is different but they're all fond of redecorating from time to time. But only in Totter's Yard did the old girl become the Police Box. (Not to mention the point I made a while back, there is no way such a huge secret as 'resetting' the Doctor could be kept a secret in a hive of intrigue like Gallifrey, full of telepaths and with the all-knowing Matrix.)
6B does it for me. Another thing that supports the 6B theory is the hologram itself in PotD. Jodie remembers creating the program as Hartnell, meaning Martin shouldn't be in the system unless she was after Hartnell. Agreed but also either way in the context of the scene the Master should recognize her its the only flaw in the EP that they don't. Regards mark687
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Post by timleschild on Mar 9, 2024 23:15:25 GMT
It's not 6B. Accept it folks.
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Post by theillusiveman on Mar 10, 2024 1:18:37 GMT
It's not 6B. Accept it folks. Lol Even Chris Chibnall had gone on record saying he doesn’t know where Jo Martin fits in the timeline (which is hilarious as it shows how incompetent he is as a writer) So she could be 6B if people want to believe it Of course in my eyes she and Jodie aren’t canon and everything after twice upon a time is set in a AU
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Post by bethhigdon on Mar 10, 2024 1:45:39 GMT
Another thing that supports the 6B theory is the hologram itself in PotD. Jodie remembers creating the program as Hartnell, meaning Martin shouldn't be in the system unless she was after Hartnell. So apart from being an unneccessary and bizarre idea (I say this as someone who enjoyed a lot of Chris Chibnall's era), The Timeless Child story doesn't make sense either! Aspects of the Timeless Child could work, but Martin as a pre-Hartnell just doesn't. Not the way she is presented on screen. But as you said, it's just a wholly unnecessary lore dump for the sake of it so why bother?
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Post by bethhigdon on Mar 10, 2024 1:50:26 GMT
It's not 6B. Accept it folks. Why? Why should anyone have to accept anything? Doctor Who doesn't have a canon. Even if it did, canon doesn't matter anyway. And there's nothing on screen to contradict our interpretation as it's intentionally left open ended by the author. You can headcannon her as a pre-Hartnell if you want to, but you can't force other people to adopt your interpretation as being the only true way of engaging in fandom just by shouting at others that they're 'wrong'.
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Post by timleschild on Mar 10, 2024 9:05:32 GMT
It's not 6B. Accept it folks. Why? Why should anyone have to accept anything? Doctor Who doesn't have a canon. Even if it did, canon doesn't matter anyway. And there's nothing on screen to contradict our interpretation as it's intentionally left open ended by the author. You can headcannon her as a pre-Hartnell if you want to, but you can't force other people to adopt your interpretation as being the only true way of engaging in fandom just by shouting at others that they're 'wrong'. I'm not headcanoning anything. Canon exists. I'm not shouting. People seem to be spending a lot of time trying to create reasons to explain 6B. Rather than just accept there's a part of canon they don't like.
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Post by number13 on Mar 10, 2024 9:59:54 GMT
It's not 6B. Accept it folks. Why? Why should anyone have to accept anything? Doctor Who doesn't have a canon. Even if it did, canon doesn't matter anyway. And there's nothing on screen to contradict our interpretation as it's intentionally left open ended by the author. You can headcannon her as a pre-Hartnell if you want to, but you can't force other people to adopt your interpretation as being the only true way of engaging in fandom just by shouting at others that they're 'wrong'. So for people who insist 'it's canon', here's a possibly not original joke:
Q: What's the difference between The Timeless Child as canon, and a cannon? A: A cannon has only one big hole in it.
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Post by number13 on Mar 10, 2024 10:02:37 GMT
Another thing that supports the 6B theory is the hologram itself in PotD. Jodie remembers creating the program as Hartnell, meaning Martin shouldn't be in the system unless she was after Hartnell. So apart from being an unneccessary and bizarre idea (I say this as someone who enjoyed a lot of Chris Chibnall's era), The Timeless Child story doesn't make sense either! Well there is that minor point...
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Post by mark687 on Mar 10, 2024 12:06:13 GMT
Why? Why should anyone have to accept anything? Doctor Who doesn't have a canon. Even if it did, canon doesn't matter anyway. And there's nothing on screen to contradict our interpretation as it's intentionally left open ended by the author. You can headcannon her as a pre-Hartnell if you want to, but you can't force other people to adopt your interpretation as being the only true way of engaging in fandom just by shouting at others that they're 'wrong'. I'm not headcanoning anything. Canon exists. I'm not shouting. People seem to be spending a lot of time trying to create reasons to explain 6B. Rather than just accept there's a part of canon they don't like. Because there's nothing wrong with head-cannon Anyone can acknowledge that stuff exists but it doesn't count for them or they have a preferred place or explanation for it. Regards mark687
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Post by bethhigdon on Mar 10, 2024 12:36:30 GMT
Why? Why should anyone have to accept anything? Doctor Who doesn't have a canon. Even if it did, canon doesn't matter anyway. And there's nothing on screen to contradict our interpretation as it's intentionally left open ended by the author. You can headcannon her as a pre-Hartnell if you want to, but you can't force other people to adopt your interpretation as being the only true way of engaging in fandom just by shouting at others that they're 'wrong'. I'm not headcanoning anything. Canon exists. I'm not shouting. People seem to be spending a lot of time trying to create reasons to explain 6B. Rather than just accept there's a part of canon they don't like. Doctor Who has never had an official cannon so you're arguing for nothing. Also what does it matter to you what other people do? How does it effect you in any way?
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Post by bethhigdon on Mar 11, 2024 0:57:17 GMT
Martin 9th Review
Fortnite: Doctor Who Island - Video Game
So over the weekend, my nephew taught me how to play Fortnite. An online multiplayer game that primarily focuses on third person shooting and hosts various games/events based around that core game play.
It's mostly Free To Play, with in-game purchases primarily being cosmetic additions. This means, a complete noob like myself can jump right in and potentially win without paying anything. However, there is a steep learning curve and lots of stuff to memorize in order to become good.
Just to briefly go over the basics, in Fortnite you have a battle royale type mode, which to my knowledge is the most popular way to play the game, and in it you run around collecting better guns and equipment to try and off your opponents. Last man standing wins.
You get a pick axe to break things, and a build button to make a shield/fort with, a glider to help you navigate the map, and items you find can included weapons, support/healing articles, and even vehicles to traverse the over-world with.
Said over-world will start to shrink over time, forcing players towards the center of the map. This way you can't just hide away till everyone else bumps everyone else off for you. I'm mean you can, potentially, but you have to still be on the move while doing so. You can't remain in one place without dying.
From there other modes build off this core concept; like creative/build mode, team play, and collect-a-thons ect. For the the purposes of this review however I'll only focus on the modes for the Doctor Who DLC.
The first mode is "Creative". It's a simple quest adventure where you collect crystals to fix the TARDIS with. You only need five crystals and there are multiple challenges that will give you such key items. Everything from simple quizzes, collecting things for NPCs, to easy platforming puzzles.
It's not a very hard mode, and at the end of the quest you get a little cosmetic tattoo for your character. It would be my favorite mode if it wasn't for one very big problem. It's laggy as hell.
The game ran fine in any other mode, both off and on the Doctor Who Island, but this one quest constantly kept freezing up on us.
What should have been a quick 15 to 20 min. game turned into an hour slog of constant restarts.
The other three modes played a lot smother.
First was Box Battle. All players are trapped in a single room with nothing but pre-assigned guns and the build button. The object of the game is to kill your opponents before they can kill you, while building mazes and forts to protect yourself. It's lasts for 10 short rounds and the person at the end with the most kills wins.
This was my nephew's favorite mode, mainly because he kept beating me. I was less enthused, but that was nothing to do with the way the game played, and everything to do with my lack of experience and my dislike of the controls set up... which can be changed, but I just don't know how to yet.
I will give the visuals praise here though. Setting the box battle inside a giant Kerblam delivery box is inspired.
Then there was the war mode. You either fought with the Daleks or the Timelords in a closed battle arena. Teams are chosen by the game, you don't get to pick, and each team has access to the same weapons sets, but you get to choose what you want from the selections on offer.
This probably would have been a really fun mode with a large group of people, but sadly no one was playing but us two. We also couldn't figure out how to 'win/end' the game as there was no timer and you re-spawned when you died. We finally agreed when we were ready to quit that my nephew won again as he had the most kills.
Final mode is just a 'museum' to walk around in. It's cute. The models do look nice, but there's nothing to really do there.
All in all, it's a nice free to play game that, while not much, is still fun to play and is competently executed.
If the lag issue could be fixed in mode one (and tbf that only happened during the day we decided to play and not others) and if you can get more of a group together for the Time War mode, this would a solid gaming experience.
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Post by bethhigdon on Mar 12, 2024 0:21:14 GMT
Martin 10th Review
The Curse of Fatal Death - Minisode
Made and released during the wilderness years, The Curse of Fatal Death is a charity short that parodies the classic series.
The timing of when this short came out kind of places it in a special category of it's own, despite not being cannon in any way. At the time it received a home video release, behind the scenes makings, a spin-off novel, and spots in DWM.
It's basically Blackadder meets Doctor Who, and I don't just say that because Rowan Atkinson plays the Doctor through out most of it. The styling of the humor isn't too far off from a Blackadder episode. Tongue in cheek sincerity mixed with low brow 'adult' humor.
Sadly though. I don't find this as funny as Blackadder. Some of the jokes land, but the toilet humor and trans jokes are very dated now, and it lacks a lot of the more clever word play that punctuated the better seasons of that show.
It's not bad. It's achieves what it sets out to achieve. It's just what it does, doesn't interest me very much.
So why include it in the marathon? Well for one, there aren't any shorts with Martin's Doctor as far as I'm aware of, and this is the first instance where the Doctor is played by a woman on screen.
The audio story that I'll be covering next is actually the first instance of the Doctor being played by a woman, but this is also an important stepping stone in getting to Jodie and Martin. Including being written by Moffat and featuring actors that would reappear in the new series. So it just makes sense to cover it here.
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Post by bethhigdon on Mar 12, 2024 15:14:13 GMT
Martin 11th Review
Unbound: Exile - Short Audio
The Unbound series was a brief spin-off of Big Finish audios that focused on AUs.
This particular Unbound asks the question ... what would have happened if the Doctor escaped the Time Lords at the end of the War Games and hid on Earth?
It's also the second time the Doctor was played by a woman, though it's still not canon to the show.
In fact one could argue that the story is trying to do too much... introducing a female incarnation, trying to use that as a serious vehicle to do a character study on alcoholism, and trying to make it a comedy routine about stuffy aliens trying to blend in on then modern day Earth.
The tone is all over the place, with gross out humor and crass language thrown in for seemingly no reason, that will then veer into a serious case study on why people over drink, only to then flip over to juvenile antics regarding accents, ect.
There's also an unfortunate and misplaced implication that Time Lords alternating genders is tied to suicide and is for some inexplicable reason deemed a high crime by Gallifryian society... that's also completely glossed over with bad jokes. Even the author himself has admitted regret over that particular decision.
By all means this story shouldn't work, and the general consensus seems to be that it doesn't. However, I honestly enjoyed the story over all. Certainly more so than The Curse of Fatal Death. So take that how you will.
There's a few things here that do work for me.
1. As clumsy as it is, the story's take on alcoholism is pretty effective at times, and gives the story an amount of heart to latch onto. I also appreciate that a female Doctor is given flaws and a character arc, and not just deemed mega-awesome perfect by everyone and the story all the time.
2. The acting is good. Briggs' Doctor is off... but I don't think he's trying to play any particular incarnation here so it still works. Weir is good and I'm sad we never got more of her, as she's a pretty unique take on the main character. And finally we get a pre-doctor David Tennant stealing every scene he's in as one of the Time Lord agents sent to hunt the Doctor down.
3. Not every joke lands, obviously, but what does work really works and most of it is down to Tennant and his comedy chops. But the sub plot involving the Time Lord agents mucking about on Earth is indeed charming and I much prefer that over turning them into a tragedy all the time like with New Who.
Anyways, I don't regret giving this a listen and might even go back to re-hear it another time.
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Post by bethhigdon on Mar 13, 2024 12:53:03 GMT
Martin 12th Review
Iris Wildthyme Reloaded: Comeback of the Scorchies - Spin-off
How to explain Iris Wildthyme to Who newbies?
I won't get into the deliberately complicated and contradictory origins of the character and just state that she is by design a parody of the Doctor. A Time Lady on the run from Gallifrey, over the top and eccentric; Iris’s adventures are broad absurdists comedies meant to gently mock the main series, yet also function as stand alone adventures that can sometimes crossover into the main range.
Comeback of the Scorchies is one such adventure. Apparently the Scorchies are sentient puppets that feed off people's emotions. They had appeared earlier in a companion chronicle with Jo.
I was able to follow the story just fine without having heard this previous audio, but I bet if I had, it would have furthered my enjoyment no doubt.
This is only the second time I've come across the character of Iris and the first time I ever dipped into the spin off and I'm still trying to determine what I think of it.
Granted, kicking off with the fourth season may have hampered things as there's no real introduction for anyone. I was able to parse out that the companion is a stuffy military man from the Victorian/Edwardian era, but this clearly isn't an introduction to his character.
Also, while things are explained clearly, the whole story goes at break neck pace that it's sometimes hard for things to sink in.
That said I enjoyed the musical numbers, and liked what I saw of the companion... I'm still on the fence with Iris herself, but I liked the villains and some of the jokes landed. It's certainly more tasteful humor over the last two entries.
Over all, based off this one entry, I wouldn't be opposed to listening to more adventures but I don't know if I would go out of my way to collect the entire series or anything.
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Post by bethhigdon on Mar 14, 2024 17:24:12 GMT
Martin 13th Review
Doctor Who Velocity: The Vashta Nerada Return! - Fan Film
This was so cute!
So Doctor Who Velocity is a fan film series following a female doctor. Billed as an alternate 13th Doctor, I guess an AU Doctor then, the series is compiled of standalone shorts that are easy enough to dip in and out of.
This particular episode is a Christmas special. It takes the horror themed Vashta Nerada from Silence in the Library and cleverly updates the premise of the data world and uses it as a vehicle to parody Hallmark Christmas movies brilliantly.
Now this is a fan film, and if you wanted to be mean, you could nitpick the common issues fan productions have, but why would you? As far a fan films go this is decently polished and has a lot of clever writing to it.
But what really sells it for me is that the companion is a middle aged single mom. She has a grown up son, so she's free to travel, but when's the last time you saw an the Doctor traveling with an older woman?.... Kate Stewart, maybe, but she not exactly normal.
It's just a refreshing change of pace is all I'm saying. I may come back to this series again on my own time.
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Post by bethhigdon on Mar 14, 2024 17:37:07 GMT
Martin Ranking
Favorite Story: Power of the Doctor - Perhaps my new favorite episode of Doctor Who of all time. I have to probably rewatch it a few more times to confirm this, but it's really, really high up there.
Least Favorite Story: Curse of the Fatal Death - I just don't find it funny. Sorry. And given that it's intended to be a comedy that's pretty damning.
1. Power of the Doctor (tv story) 2. The Tourist (short story) 3. Origins (comic) 4. Fortnite: Doctor Who Island (video game) 5. Doctor Who Velocity: The Vashta Nerada Return! (fan work) 6. Unbound: Exile (short audio) 7. Cold Fusion (full audio) 8. Timewyrm: Revelation (novel) 9. Iris Wildthyme Reload: Comeback of the Scorchies (spin-off) 10. A Sit Down with Jo Martin (behind the scenes) 11. Fugitive of the Judoon (mini-novelization) 12. Time Fracture (miscellaneous)
13. Curse of the Fatal Death (minisode)
Next up we start in on the third doctor, Pertwee.
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