OH MY GOD HE'S OOGLY: nu-Who season 8

aw that's sad

nah it's great! Ppl love Capaldi and are excited for him and can't resist letting him know; Coleman just got treated like anyone else in to do interviews.

it isn't Coleman's fault that non-Dalek Clara and Smith had the charisma of a damp fart; I really think her character is going to take off now that it's playing against an older-appearing, more irritable Doctor

eg I once heroically refrained from punching the prime minister in the face, when we were in the same lift

also :( that your cushion-wetting audiencemates presumably missed the next line taking the piss out of Tennant's final one

also she is adorable and I want to put her in my pocket it's going to be interesting to see how Clara's more pragmatic, semi-terrified reactions to the dangers of traveling with the Doctor will play against a Doctor much less likely to be indulgent or comforting

There was no room for charisma between 11 and Clara, as in all but two of their eps he was written to assholically ignore who she actually was as a person, getting caught up in his Impossible Girl quest instead. Forest for the trees.

xpost yes

I guess hoping for a Seventh Doctor/Ace dynamic would be too much.

I just rewatched Curse of Fenric this weekend and Ace comes across so much better than I remembered her; it's really too bad that half of the story is deus ex machina nonsense

Not so secret, you could have just bought a ticket! Sydney's is tonight, but at $100 they can fuck off.

Ace was one of the best companions, really.

I like Clara, I think she has potential. But I imagine she'll be gone at the end of this season. I preferred Amy and Donna both because they had more personality but I think Clara, with Capaldi, has the potential to be a kind of SJS Nancy Drew sort.

Also i missed Capaldi and Coleman and Daleks and whatnot in London last week because I was getting off a late plane from Barcelona, much to my dismay

so is anybody doing the early bird thing?

apparently the new title sequence looks a lot like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXOBHnWiinY

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/aug/15/doctor-who-title-sequence-fan-video-steven-moffat?CMP=fb_gu

That's pretty cool.

Sad that we still have to deal with Murray Gould's maudlin orchestrations, though. Couldn't they get Mike Paradinas or Riz Maslen or someone to do a proper elecronic score instead of this guy's second rate John Williams stuff?

tuomas otm

Yeah, return to the weird disconcerting synth wobbles of the 70s please.

As I have been informed by Radio4Extra the radiophonic workshop exists again, albeit as more of a museum inside the maida vale studios. There was a documentary the other week in which Cerys Matthews had exactly the right response for someone being let through the door; 'Can I play?'. Better wibbling in 5 minutes of a radio documentary than Murray Gold could manage in a lifetime.

speaking of the 70s it has previously escaped my notice that Peter Capaldi was in a punk band with Craig Ferguson called 'Dreamboys'

http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/files/2013/08/Dreamboys-1.jpg

Is the RWS "museum" just the results of Ayres' job in the '90s?

He has a supergroup of Radiophonic members that tour live, including Mills & Kingsland, btw.

Looks like the Manic Street Preachers singer guy was in Dreamboys too? (In the far right.)

http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/files/2013/08/Dreamboys-1.jpg

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/59260000/jpg/_59260725_jdb_rw_446.jpg

L-R: Peter Capaldi, Temple Clark, Craig Ferguson, Roderick Murray

Wow, I'm glad this didn't happen:

During the shooting of The Fires Of Pompeii, Russell T. Davies began preparing ideas for the 2008 Christmas Special, with the two foremost ideas being what would eventually become The Next Doctor, and an episode where the Time Beetle from Turn Left latches on to J.K. Rowling and converts her imagination to reality.

The main plot of the episode would have been the Doctor having to battle his way through a fantasy world of Victorian magic brought to life so that he could get to Rowling and remove the Beetle from her. This idea was later dropped because of concerns over whether or not Rowling could act and would agree to appear, and because of David Tennant’s concerns that it sounded more like a Doctor Who spoof than a real episode.

From here: http://whatculture.com/tv/25-facts-you-didnt-know-about-doctor-who.php/10

so did they actually hire / pay for a title sequence done by a fan artist for this series? that is awesome

I can't tell if that title sequence is a new take on the tune or not, if not it's a much better one than some of of the nuWho ones. A lot of which have dispensed with the proper baseline tape loop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?fv=XZ1kRxgKft4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ1kRxgKft4

there's probably a poll in that, but I quite like some of the late 80s one where they get some great sparkly FM synth noises in it.

read some more and yeah, moffat liked that guy's work when he saw it on youtube and hired him to work on the actual intro, which by all accounts is very close to the one posted above. cool!

Peter Capaldi was in a punk band with Craig Ferguson called 'Dreamboys'

Saw a Capaldi interview last night; he said the band was originally called 'Bastards from Hell'

Surprised that nobody saw the leaked episodes, or were they just avoiding spoilers?
Looking forward to seeing the completed episodes in full colour, overdubs & sfx complete anyway.
Still really hoping that Clara either improves or leaves. Or that Capaldi gets a new companion.

I think we've discussed this before, but I don't I don't think there's anything wrong with Clara as a character in theory, and the actress is pretty good too, the problem is that so far the writers haven't treated her as anything else but a MacGuffin. Previous companions were allowed to have subplots and a life of their own, but there's been nothing like that with Clara so far, she's been completely defined by her relationship to the Doctor, by the whole "Impossible Girl" plotline. So hopefully now that that plot is resolved, she'll be given more things to do as an individual character.

I think they have been making an effort to fill out Clara's character and life since DOTD. From the episode blurbs it sounds like she'll be given a lot more to do in terms of interacting with the Doctor and other people. I don't think they'll go down the RTD route with soapy Tyler subplots, but we'll see her on dates, at work etc. Of course, it all depends on how well written it is, but at least Moffat and co seem to recognise the problems with her to date.

The point of the Impossible Girl plotline is that the Doctor was being a self-involved dickbag to treat her like that. The actual stories showed us a character with a life, a personality, a propensity for problem-solving, a broad compassion, a tendency to put others ahead of herself, a bravado that covered self-doubt and fear, unfulfilled aspirations, reasons for holding herself back, strong enough self-regard to deny the Doctor his selfish desire to disrupt her life for his own ends. Treating her like a puzzle to be solved is actually pointed out to be an offensive and cunty thing to do. The Doctor's viewpoint is a narrative feint, denied by the actual text in episode after episode.

(eg: Clara finding the little girl in Akhaten, worrying about her, finding out what's wrong, and eventually resolving the threat through compassion - the reverse of the Doctor's behaviour; the psychic in Hide telling the Doctor outright to consider Clara as a person, not as a puzzle.)

a propensity for problem-solving, a broad compassion, a tendency to put others ahead of herself, a bravado that covered self-doubt and fear, unfulfilled aspirations, reasons for holding herself back

Most of these are kind of generic plucky (girl-)sidekick characteristics, though?

a) if true, still puts lie to claims of no character just mystery, b) not nec among Who sidekicks c) yr qualifying anyway. And eg the way Rory, professional nurse, caring abt others plays into stories is v different from how Clara, directionless-nanny-who-becomes-a-teacher, does.

I agree with Lee, nothing we've seen about Clara so far has made her different from the generic sidekick. And I wasn't saying that Clara doesn't have any character, just that her character is almost totally defined by her relationship to the Doctor. With Rose and Donna particularly, it felt like also existed as interesting characters outside their companion role, but I haven't felt that with Clara yet, she hasn't really done anything to step outside that template. I think Martha had the same problem, she never really felt unique in any way. I said previously that it isn't about the actor, but maybe it is? Billie Piper and Catherine Tate certainly were better at conveying their characters' idiosyncrasies than Freema Agyeman was, or Jenna Coleman has been so far.

Intriguing new take on the Doctor, pretty rote plot. Clara suddenly got really good!

Tonally all over the place, but the moments with just the Doctor and Clara were good, ie the restaurant scene.

It certainly was nowhere near the triumph of The 11th Hour, and I didn't take to 12 straight away. But maybe it's fine to have a more downbeat opener for a more downbeat Doctor?

Thought there was probably too much comedy in it, though I laughed at it all. Loved it when the Doctor left Clara behind and didn't open the door, and it was great to hear Vastra echoing the Brigadier. Knew Moffatt was heading for one of his own stories in referencing Girl In The Fireplace but he didn't half make it clear that it rips off the Cybermen something chronic.

Not sure having Michelle Gomez in this episode, so presumably in all of them, is going to work.

I seem to have had the opposite opinion to everyone else with the titles, liked the arrangement and hated the visuals.

I mostly enjoyed it. Much laughter at the eyebrows and the restaurant scenes but I agree it got too close to being a comedy show.
Hope they don't stick with the "lol u old" thing for long as it'll get old quickly.

the grey hair crap became tiresome quickly.

oh, and hang on, i know i had a few glasses of wine, but did i miss what happened to the dino stomping all over london ?

Was spontaneously combusted by robots for slightly unclear plot reasons.

Anyway, once the forced wackiness died down, Capaldi was very good, and the writing for Clara was a lot stronger. I appreciated the lack of manic pacing, but Ben Wheatley is crap at directing action.

Just when you thought there wasn't going to be any more sexing up - that 'lizbian' mouth-to-mouth.

The Easter egg at the end is lovely.

unclear? robot fella was harvesting 5 inches of the dinosaur's optic nerve to repair himself and presumably his unbreathing army, a fact both he the doctor repeated a few times just in case we didn't get it

i'm looking forward to next week's as the first one that won't need a lot of expository regeneration gab. by the way, i did not think the robots were scary. they looked as though you could knock them over with a light push. and somehow the fight with them was both laborious and too easy for our heroes. lotta fighting, no danger in it. clara's no donna but i like her. and capaldi was tremendous, the script lets him indulge a few malcolmisms and i'm glad he doesn't shy away from it. tremendous vision of birth and growth and aging, all in one episode. from a gibbering infant who doesn't know what bedrooms are, to the mirror stage (!) to someone who orders food in restaurants, and finally as someone who can repress desire.

I'm all for more Vastra and Jenny kissing. Also Jenny with her hair down. Also more Jenny in general.

I really liked this. Wasn't as great as the 11th Hour but it was awfully good.

as a first time in over three years watcher (i skipped the last doctor) this was thoroughly doofy and a little tired. i'll keep trying for capaldi.

I also liked that he openly acknowledged that his face came from somewhere else (Pompeii) with a hint that he chose it to learn something from it.