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Post by timegirl on Sept 19, 2020 19:44:26 GMT
Both of these episodes are eerie esoteric stories that take your expectations and does something totally different with them. Listen makes you think you are getting a monster of the week episode about a creature that hides completely and instead is an examination on fear and where it comes from and how we overcome it and It takes You Away makes you think you are getting a story about a monster in the woods and instead it gives you a fairytale about grief and loneliness.
My take: I love both but I am going to side with Listen. Both are brilliant episodes that misdirect you at first and then give you something deeper than the monster of the week episode you thought you were getting. It takes you away is a fascinating dark fairytale that often evokes “Coraline” I even enjoy the madness that is the frog on the chair! The main flaw though is that the episode as a whole feels a bit disjointed between the world’s they explore. Listen wins for me for the simple reason is that it has an incredibly powerful message that has helped me personally in life, “Scared is a super power.” This is possibly one of the single most meaningful and powerful lines of any Doctor Who episodes ever! Also the tone, the atmosphere are all perfect and the ending sends me to tears every time!
Which episode do you prefer? Do you like both equally or neither?
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Sept 19, 2020 20:05:07 GMT
It Takes You Away. One of my favourite episodes of Who. I didn't know where the plot was going, I hope for more episodes like this from Ed Hime which take a few strange twists & turns.
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Post by mark687 on Sept 19, 2020 21:23:30 GMT
Oh another tricky one.
Both great EPs but with one thing in them I really don't like.
IT Takes You Away great stylistic and well performed but 13 lectures the Dad rather than empathizes with them. yes he was irresponsible but I understand why he did it.
Listen
Capaldi's 1st great performance excellent themes and direction apart from the Date and the Orsan "McGuffinn" which is annoying because A We don't know it will be a "McGuffinn" and B Sam Anderson plays Orsan better than he plays Danny, Also did I mention that Date makes Danny and Clara seem like awful people and its a really uncomfortable watch especially when you take the Rupert scenes into account. Despite this though it is still the better Ep overall.
Regards
mark687
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Post by tuigirl on Sept 19, 2020 21:25:12 GMT
It Takes You Away.
Yes, Listen has things going for it, but...
the setting, atmosphere, pacing, side characters and the general plot are just perfect in It Takes You Away.
And this includes the "completely bonkers" part of it.
Plus, Ellie Wallwork is a wonderful and nice person (I met her last year at a convention) and it was just lovely talking to her and how she was able to change little things about what a blind person would or would not do. She made her character her own and was pretty insistent to make the blind girl believable.
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Post by pazzer on Sept 19, 2020 22:58:47 GMT
Enjoy the mystery of Listen but ending just felt like lets make Clara even more of a super companion. Also the stuff with Orson doesn't really get resolved.
It Takes You Away felt like a breath of fresh air. Deals with subject of grief really well. Sure the buffer zone is just there so can have a cool looking monster and doesn't really fit with dad going back and forth. But it's still one of the best episodes of Who in recent years.
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Post by timegirl on Sept 19, 2020 23:14:28 GMT
Oh another tricky one. Both great EPs but with one thing in them I really don't like. IT Takes You Away great stylistic and well performed but 13 lectures the Dad rather than empathizes with them. yes he was irresponsible but I understand why he did it. Listen Capaldi's 1st great performance excellent themes and direction apart from the Date and the Orsan "McGuffinn" which is annoying because A We don't know it will be a "McGuffinn" and B Sam Anderson plays Orsan better than he plays Danny, Also did I mention that Date makes Danny and Clara seem like awful people and its a really uncomfortable watch especially when you take the Rupert scenes into account. Despite this though it is still the better Ep overall. Regards mark687 The Date scene is uncomfortable but I think it’s meant to be. I think it’s meant to show Clara and Danny as not a really being a good fit for each other romantically by showing a disconnect between the two of them. In a way Clara struggles with relationships in much the way the Doctor does. But then when Orsan (who I agree Sam played much better than Danny) shows up its almost as though Clara is resigning at times that she “has” to end up with Danny because of Orsan’s existence. Even though sometimes I like Danny (but not with Clara) I feel like Clara was pressuring herself to settle for a normal human partner when she really desperately wanted to be with the Doctor (her soulmate) despite them being different species and having an age difference that is far more apparent in his current form. |
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shutupbanks
Castellan
There’s a horror movie called Alien? That’s really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you.
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Post by shutupbanks on Sept 20, 2020 1:03:36 GMT
Oh another tricky one. Both great EPs but with one thing in them I really don't like. IT Takes You Away great stylistic and well performed but 13 lectures the Dad rather than empathizes with them. yes he was irresponsible but I understand why he did it. Listen Capaldi's 1st great performance excellent themes and direction apart from the Date and the Orsan "McGuffinn" which is annoying because A We don't know it will be a "McGuffinn" and B Sam Anderson plays Orsan better than he plays Danny, Also did I mention that Date makes Danny and Clara seem like awful people and its a really uncomfortable watch especially when you take the Rupert scenes into account. Despite this though it is still the better Ep overall. Regards mark687 The Date scene is uncomfortable but I think it’s meant to be. I think it’s meant to show Clara and Danny as not a really being a good fit for each other romantically by showing a disconnect between the two of them. In a way Clara struggles with relationships in much the way the Doctor does. But then when Orsan (who I agree Sam played much better than Danny) shows up its almost as though Clara is resigning at times that she “has” to end up with Danny because of Orsan’s existence. Even though sometimes I like Danny (but not with Clara) I feel like Clara was pressuring herself to settle for a normal human partner when she really desperately wanted to be with the Doctor (her soulmate) despite them being different species and having an age difference that is far more apparent in his current form. The date scene is uncomfortable because Clara is realising that she is torn between her exciting life with the Doctor and a quiet, ordinary life with Danny. And she genuinely wants to have both but knows that she can’t but is still trying to. It also hit a few too many “Coupling” notes for me (a hilarious show and one of Moffat’s best creations) which threw me out of the story. The episode shows the relationships between the characters brilliantly but the whole thing, for me, falls flat because it doesn’t know what story is more important. It Takes You Away is more disciplined as a story but it also doesn’t want to commit to a dominant idea, although the first half is superb, with the second half being merely Very Good. ITYA gets my vote but only just. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2020 12:15:21 GMT
To be honest, I always found Listen difficult to like. There were a few good moments (the 'shape' rising from the bed being the best - but even that was never really explained, unless I missed it). People often seem to say good things about and that's great, but it never really grabbed me, despite Peter Capaldi, who is always brilliant.
So, clearly It Takes You Away is my choice, but not just because I don't rate the earlier story. It Takes You Away is a beautiful horror story, and one that succeeds mainly due to its weirdness, which makes it the kind of tale only Doctor Who could do so well. The setting, the limited number of characters and the completely unpredictable nature of the plot make this one of my favourite 13th Doctor stories so far - possibly the favourite.
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Post by newt5996 on Sept 21, 2020 23:46:47 GMT
Listen is a story that acts like it's saying stuff, but then kind of doesn't. Like what's the conclusion: Clara helped the Doctor as a child? It Takes You Away is one of those episodes where the ideas are strong and the themes are there, and honestly it might be my favorite Whittaker story.
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Post by elkawho on Sept 22, 2020 3:30:28 GMT
To be honest, I always found Listen difficult to like. There were a few good moments (the 'shape' rising from the bed being the best - but even that was never really explained, unless I missed it). People often seem to say good things about and that's great, but it never really grabbed me, despite Peter Capaldi, who is always brilliant.
So, clearly It Takes You Away is my choice, but not just because I don't rate the earlier story. It Takes You Away is a beautiful horror story, and one that succeeds mainly due to its weirdness, which makes it the kind of tale only Doctor Who could do so well. The setting, the limited number of characters and the completely unpredictable nature of the plot make this one of my favourite 13th Doctor stories so far - possibly the favourite.
I agree with everything you say here. I don't particularly like Listen. |
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