New Dr Who

[sindatur]

The Doctor's Wife definitely my favourite so far - but as Murrin mentioned, what else would you expect from an episode written by Neil Gaiman?

'The only water in the forest is the river' - mean anything?

And it looks like the next episode will have another of those faces peering through a slot in the wall. As well as some cool baddies.

Well, river probably refers to Dr. River Song, and the only water, possibly means no Amy Pond, Forest could be Forest of the Dead (Part 2 of Silence in the Library where Dr. #10 met River) or it could be any number of Forests we've seen the Doctor in or one we haven't been to yet.

Definitely I believe it concerns River and a lack of Amy's presence, IMHO.

Loved the Doctor's Wife, fantastic episode

Water is definitely a theme this Series

The Dr is travelling with River and Pond and invites them to his execution beside a body of water. The executioner comes up out of the body of water. Ep 3 took place on the Ocean. River was saved by diving off the building into the Pool, the Pool got deleted by House....

[I'm Murrin]

That "to be continued" was a little over dramatic, wasn't it? Not the scene, the bit where the words appeared.


Edit: also, (spoiler alert) ending was almost exactly the ending of Farscape's "Bringing Home the Beacon".

[sindatur]

Sadly we Americans and Canadians didn't get an episode this week, due to the American Memorial Day weekend, so, we're now a week behind the Brits.

Looking forward to Part 2 this coming weekend.

[I'm Murrin]

Today's episode has been going for about 10 minutes, and I'm getting a whole load of Star Wars and Farscape vibes.


Edit: Good ep.

Also: I wonder how deliberate the contrast between the end of the episode and the "Doctor Who returns in..." was, because it was pretty much exactly what was needed.

[Loredoctor]

Well, I've had a suspicion about the real identity of River Song since the end of last season, and I was proven right at the end A Good Man Goes to War. Suddenly, everything in the sixth season makes sense. You can see why she was imprisoned, and her relationship with the Clerics.

[I'm Murrin]

I don't know that it explains all of that. She said back in the Angels episodes that she'd killed a very good man, we still don't know the circumstances there.

Spoiler

And we know she was left stranded in Florida in 1969 - how did she come into the control of the Silents? How did she get into the past? What happened to her after she died and regenerated in 1970?

By around age 10 she obviously wasn't under the control of the people from A Good Man Goes To War any more.

And I guess the episode does make me wonder now about her title. Doctor River Song, eh?

[stonemaybe]

I have nothing to add to the musings.

Just wanted to say wow how good an episode was that? A tad predictable, perhaps, for grown adults with a penchant for sci-fi like ourselves but still superb.

[I'm Murrin]

Yeah. I'm inclined to think this latest season has been better than the others so far. (NB I haven't seen the Ecclestone season or all of Tennant before his last one.)

[I'm Murrin]

So the new eps have started and I didn't realise until I popped onto iPlayer for lack of things to do.

First ep, Let's Kill Hitler, was a mixed bag. It has a bit of a retcon of Amy's life by introducing a best friend that had never even been mentioned before.

A lot of the ep was, well, ideas that are kind of silly and out of nowhere but that the writer obviously thought would be cool. But that's a flaw Doctor Who almost always suffers from.

While it's certainly interesting in that it's essentially an origin story for River Song, I just don't think it was all that good.

[stonemaybe]

I'm with Murrin on ep1. A bit disappointing and River annoyed me.

Next one looks good from trailers.

[Cagliostro]

I'm sad. I just finished the first season of Matt Smith, and I want more now, but Netflix streaming has no more yet.

[I'm Murrin]

Catching up on last two weeks of eps.

"...And jettison the karaoke bar."

The reason I still watch Doctor Who is that every now and then a writer comes along and gives us an episode like The Girl Who Waited. It's unfortunate that so many of the main plot episodes these days fall flat, but when they get it right it is excellent. This was one of those episodes. Possibly the best ep I've seen since Matt Smith took over (and my memory of the eps I'd saw prior to Smith is sketchy).

Despite my moaning about Doctor Who in the Hugo Awards elsewhere, I think I wouldn't mind so much seeing this one get the nod next year.

[stonemaybe]

I liked that one too. Can't help but feel that this series has been a big let-down after the last one, though.

[I'm Murrin]

Yeah, it ain't great. The cybermen one was good apart from the ending (oh no cybermen have him! oh it's ok they're all dead).

[Ananda]

I've really enjoyed this series, the last few episodes not withstanding. Though, even these really cheesy ones have had some redeemable moments and a dark side. And, yes, that was a lame cyber-ending.

[I'm Murrin]

Cybermen are too predictable these days. There's always someone who they take as human and plug in to be their controller.

[Ananda]

That's very true. And, they keep coming back too often. The 7th doctor took care of so many loose ends only for all of his victories to be undone in the new series.

I do love this latest doctor, though. I was very dubious when I first saw him, but I really loved his portrayal after the first episode. I thought he was going to be too young and silly to play the role, but he's done an excellent job, I think. I like him much better than the last one and even slightly better than the one before that! Though, the first guy in 2005 didn't get much of a shot. He was gone as quickly as my favourite doctor, the 6th. Now there was a sexy doctor!

Speaking of the 6th doctor, didn't we get the reveal waaaay back then that the 13th doctor is going to be ... amoral in a way that no other doctor was? And, if there is a 13th, how are we supposed to be worried that this doctor is truly facing his last day? It's been years since I saw that one with the 'evil' doctor, so I'm not sure I'm remembering it right.

[I'm Murrin]

Hard to palce any stock in things from the old series - the first Matt Smith series pretty much eliminated any need to keep continuity with older episodes because of the "hole in time" that was erasing everything.

[sindatur]

The Evil Doctor was called the Valleyard, and he was actually from in between the 12th and 13th Doctor (There's a very good Audio Play in the Doctor Who Unbound Series called "He Jests at Scars" about him, that shows some real consequences of monkeying with time to fix things you got wrong). In a sense, last Season's Dreamlord could be viewed as the new Series version of the Valleyard

I've thoroughly enjoyed most of this season and last. The only episodes this season that didn't appeal much to me are the Pirate one (Curse of the Black Spot) and the one with the dolls (Night Terrors)

[stonemaybe]

Anyone see the Christmas Special?

Compared to last year - well, it didn't have flying sharks (or equivalent) and it didn't have Katherine Jenkins (or equivalent) but it still got 10/10 from me!