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

#BringBackKeff

yeah I haven't noticed the music nearly as much this season.

idk maybe something about Saturday's Pro-Moon music struck a particularly jarring chord in my head because it got to a point where I couldn't pay attention to what was going on because it was so intrusive

Does Murray Gold score every single episode? Sounds like a big job (though I guess he reuses cues a lot).

v much doubt it's anti-abortion, as such - it doesn't get that far. it's just clunkily present as a unavoidable but necessarily unarticulated interpretation.

Yeah I agree with this, "anti-abortion propaganda" is overstating it. I mean leaving aside the fact that this sort of moral quandry is one that Dr Who deals with on a semi-regular basis, killing a baby that is right on the verge of being born isn't legally recognised as abortion, and the whole "what if everyone on earth dies?" is not is exactly the sort of counter-argument that can be easily applied to the debate. But it was clumsy, I admit, even if I enjoyed the episode in general.

Clara flaming the Doctor right at the end was probably my favourite bit, I'm not sure we've seen a companion get that... genuinely angry with him before.

Gold has done every single episode of the revived series AFAIK. It was a glorious relief to watch the leaked workprints of the early episodes this year and not be browbeaten with his obvious emote-o-tron orchestras.

Trying to work out when the Tardis gained a multiple of rooms after watching the Jon Pertwee era through

From memory, in story #3 way back in the Hartnell era, The Edge of Destruction, you see other rooms (the entire story is set on the TARDIS)

am still loving the sets this season, for some reason noticing them way more this time

I feel like they are using more sets, rather than location shooting. Lots more spaceships and corridors, much less CGI mattes making it much more closed in and claustrophobic to go with the darker feel overall.

the "moon" last week was the foreign location shoot for this year

I just moved onto watching the Baker era after completing the Pertwee one. & interesting to see that Baker is doing the proof that there is gravity by use of a yoyo thing at the start of story 2 the Ark In Space after him doing it at the start of last week's episode too.
There also seem to be some humourous cantankerous one-liners cropping up which remind me of Capaldi (or vice versa since Baker was much earlier of course) I think he sadisomething about humans knowing their place or something to that effect.
I watched the first story Robot yesterday which contains the explorationof character through wardrobe thing I thought lasted longer. I think it's actually 5 changes including Viking and Pierrot before he emerges with the first version of the new Who look and it's done at the TARDIS door so it indicates there is a wardrobe inside but doesn't show any expanded interior. THe previous episode shows a couple of the Doctor's Inverness capes hung on a coatstand at UNIT while Sarah Jane bewails the Doctor being dead since he's disappeared for weeks. MIght not mean anything more than they wanted something to evoke the Doctor's spiritual presence but might also suggest that there is no better place thought of to hang them like on the racks of his extensive onboard TARDIS wardrobe.
Seems like the absence of the extended interior may just be corners cut during the Pertwee era. Might just be they forgot about it since the era starts with the Doctor unable to use the TARDIS during his exile to Earth. So it had to be reintroduced later. I haven't seen far enough into the Baker era to see how it is broached. I do remember corridors being walked down at some point during the era though. I think Romana at least had her own room onboard too.

T Baker is certainly the other Doctor that Capaldi reminds me of most, perhaps with a touch of Pertwee dashingness.

At some point in the Baker era you see Leela swimming in the tardis pool

Yeah, wait until you get to the Invasion of Time. Also, alternate control room begins being used in... what, the Masque of Mandragora?

Slightly random thought re: Clara & Mr Pink:

I can't remember if it was this episode or the last, but Clara got Real Serious at one point with the Dr and said of Mr. Pink, "but I LOVE him!" like it was the most natural thing in the world and the Dr was being some thicko alien who does't get human emotions but I was like, you wot, Clara? Haven't you been out on a total of like four dates with him?

i am not that kinda fan; you're gonna have to be like "the one where they go to hell and the devil is there" or "the one where there's some frog beast that took over parliament"

the one where he fumbles into Spaceship Britain and accidentally finds out its powered by an enslaved space whale; the one where he fumbles into a castle full of vampires in Venice and finds out they're aliums; the one where he fumbles into a near-future drilling operation that is waking up an Eocene population from suspension; the one where he fumbles into an ordinary dude's flat, life, job and soccer team and finds there's aliums upstairs; the one where he fumbles into a grumpy grinch's plutocracy and accidentally cures him with a sky shark and an opera singer; the one where he fumbles onto a pirate ship haunted by a siren and accidentally figures out there's an alium hospital; the one where he fumbles into a pocket universe after getting a txt from one of those psychic boxes from 1969's the long one about war and accidentally finds out that he wants to bang his TARDIS when she's in a person body; the one where he bumbles into a refinery in a castle where ppl use skinsuit avatars to handle dangerous material and he accidentally gets turned into a plastic double who saves the day before they start a campaign for non-human rights; the one where he bumbles into a tower flat where a kid is scared of the monsters in his cupboard and he accidentally figures out the kid is an alium cuckoo; the one where he fumbles into a quantum nursing home and accidentally gets into the wrong time track and duplicates one of his companions; the one where he accidentally ends up in a haunted hotel in space and accidentally realises it's got a fear Nimon in it and has to Fenric his companions; the one where he fumbles his way into a job in a department store and accidentally saves the world from Cybermat invasion by being friends with a baby; the one where he gets tricked into visiting the Dalek parliament on Skaro that he accidentally enabled and fumbles his way through a Dalek asylum planet and accidentally figures out that the person helping him doesn't rly exist; the one where he fumbles his way onto a crashing spaceship full of dinosaurs and helps the Indian space agency save the planet; the one where he fumbles his way into a wild west town again and accidentally becomes sheriff and has to stop an alium robot bounty hunter; the one where he fumbles his way into an aliem vampire-worshipping society and accidentally finds out the vampire is just a cover for a sun emoji that wants to eat everyone; the one where he fumbles his way into a 1970s haunted house because he wanted to ask some advice and accidentally finds out that there's a time traveller stuck in a fragment of Apple Timestretch trying to find her way back to a 1997 jungle track and then accidentally figures out that the alium monster trying to eat her is trying to find his ladyfriend; the one where he fumbles his way onto a cold war submarine with a frozen Martian general on it and accidentally loses the TARDIS and has to get a boat to the south pole; the one where he fumbles his way into a rebel skirmish during the Dalek Empire and accidentally cures a Dalek of being good; the one where he fumbles his way through a space bank robbery and accidentally figures out that he set himself up; the one where he fumbles his way onto a knackered space shuttle with a handful of nukes on it and accidentally figures out that the moon is an egg and they shouldn't nuke it, come on, this was literally FOUR DAYS ago

btw

haha yeah I feel you on this, and my viewing history mirrors yours. I find it sort of mildly enjoyable but I wouldn't miss it if it stopped, it does feel like an entirely different beast from how it used to be.

used to be when - during RTD or when you grew up on it? the beast has never had the same feel for more than four years at any time in the last 50 imo

(except maybe the DWM strip from 1997-2005 which I've not read but seems to have had fairly consistent creative stewardship)

I don't know what RTD is - I meant since the reboot

am still loving the sets this season, for some reason noticing them way more this time

I love the concentric rings of cryptic, sketched-out diagrams on the ceiling of the Tardis! (And how they're echoed in the opening credits.)

like: even the 1965-66 season feels different from the first two years. Holmes lasted less than a year after Hinchcliffe was moved on, and you can feel the difference in approach, style and budget from Williams' second story. Letts/Dicks stayed five years, but the first Pertwee season has a different feel from the next three (due to being commissioned by Sherwin/Bryant, budget cuts, cast, and the budgetary need to have three reeeeaallly long stories), and the last one loses the vibe as everyone gives notice and marks time. Even Saward's unfortunate reign of mediocrity had the 18-month mini-cancellation in the middle, and there's at least an intention to change tone when C. Baker comes in halfway through, and starts strangling companions instead of having a soapsworth of them roaming the TARDIS bedrooms.

xpost: RTD is Russell T Davies, showrunner from 2005-2009. so is it this year you think doesn't feel like the last eight, or the last five that don't feel like the previous four?

(nb not trying to sound belligerent here: for real curious)

xp i appreciate you taking the time to do that sic but i can't place any of those (didn't watch the most recent episode) so you may be banging your head against a wall here.

to your immediate question, i'd say the last four or five don't feel like the previous four.

my affinity for nu-who is in the first three or so years and then i felt like the show completely cocked up.

so is it this year you think doesn't feel like the last eight, or the last five that don't feel like the previous four?

I grew up watching the Pertwee/Baker/Davison era and idk the pacing and tone just felt different. I (half-jokingly) remarked to my wife that if you weren't bored during at least part of the episode than it wasn't really Dr. Who. You are unsurprisingly much more versed in the minutiae of this show than I am but yeah the reboot does feel like it has a more frantic and more nudge-nudge-wink-wink attitude running through it. Of the new seasons/Doctors I've probably enjoyed Tenant the most.

you guys are both just saying "a TV show written and run by Steven Moffatt doesn't feel quite the same as a TV show written and run by Russell T Davies," then*. Shakes I promise if you went back and watched representative episodes from the three different producer/script editor eras of Tom Baker, you could tell the difference between them.

frantic - TV just moves faster now. amusingly franticness annoyed me during Tennant and I see it as a storytelling style in the Moffatt/Smith era [they have notable slowed down hugely this year]

*though it's still lol/sad to me that forks got fed up with RTD's style after four years and quit because it was obviously going to stay the same when he left!

I wish I get this much attention and hand-holding when I vociferously complained about tv shows I didn't like.

i don't think i'm being vociferous; at this point i'm just answering when spoken to!

you guys are both just saying "a TV show written and run by Steven Moffatt doesn't feel quite the same as a TV show written and run by Russell T Davies," then

*though it's still lol/sad to me that forks got fed up with RTD's style after four years and quit because it was obviously going to stay the same when he left!

again, if you're getting some enjoyment out of the current series, more power to you and i don't mean to spoil your enjoyment!

I skipped the Matt Smith seasons because I had a visceral dislike of him as an actor. The Capaldi ones are allright but yeah they don't hypnotize me the way Baker-era did when I was a kid (which I'm sure has lots to do with being a nerdy kid alone at home on Sunday afternoons with nothing better to do than watch 1 1/2 of PBS)

am still loving the sets this season, for some reason noticing them way more this time

The sets are consistently very good on Nu-Who. Also I feel the make up and prosthetics don't get enough praise from fandom, there's been some phenomenal work in that department.

CGI on the other hand...

CGI's been mostly good or understated in the Moffatt era iirc? The enormous reduction in budgets (enough that their outside contractor went bust) has been met by using it more carefully & sparingly I think

walking into the Dalek's eyestalk in ep 2 this year prob the best-looking computer manipulated imagery in series history

Does anyone anywhere like Gold's music?

It's praised in this episode guide:

http://www.amazon.com/Who-Is-Doctor-Unofficial-Who-The/dp/1550229842

"At some point in the Baker era you see Leela swimming in the tardis pool"

in your dreams

Baker later moves into the 'second control room' which I think also showed up in one of the new series...maybe the Idris one.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K7yhTnZHbKA/UjzkrXuiWGI/AAAAAAAAOwc/r_5uOuNA_ow/s1600/Invasion+Leela+pool.gif

http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1vtntmfcM1qcwhkeo1_r1_400.gif

http://33.media.tumblr.com/9de99b0ea43544162e79a67e5d44d6ce/tumblr_mlmkut1rRM1qcwhkeo4_r2_250.gif

The secondary control room set was improperly stored and didn't even survive to the next year (1977), far less still be around THIRTY-FIVE years later for The Doctor's Wife.

yeah it wasn't the set but I think he talked about it

I totally forgot that the swimming pool was something they'd actually shown before. what an obscure callback

That leaping Sontaran gif is oddly mesmerising

I thought tonights (Orient Express) was good but could really have done with just a bit more mystery, a bit more atmosphere, maybe like ten minutes longer episode time

i really dug this ep! the mummy resolve was a bit of a letdown for the buildup but it was a v atmospheric (?) ep

liked the doc/clara interplay again, really doing good stuff together

this one was fun! except for the tegan redux "doctor, I'm leaving, I'm really leaving this time, I mean it, I'm going, I am done, oh OK one more time"

lol otm

scariest bit was when I thought frank skinner might be staying.

Yeah, had exactly that reaction so glad he didn't. Felt quite paniced at the time.

I've advanced through the Baker era noticing the advent of expanded Tardis. Sarah Jane appears with items next to an archway a couple of times in Planet of Evil; in Victoria's old dress referring to the extensive wardrobe in Pyramids of Mars; but its Masque of Mandragora before they're actually in corridors. Then the only thing on show for a while is the wooden console room and clothing on Sarah Jane and then Leela. Oh & the items Sarah Jane is carrying when she leaves which include a pot plant which might indicate she hjad her own room but is probably just what every moving out person ever carries.

Just remembering she's also got a racquet of some kind which she pats a dog's head with right at the end. So what's that, tennis or squash courts too?

I liked the details of the mummy dragging its horrible feet, and the basic conceit where only you can see it tapped into the bad old well of playground ghost stories

right. the mummy itself was fantastic - and yes, the dragging feet thing was very effective.

couple of things bugged me mildly about this episode - the other 'experts' in the train, just standing round in white coats looking at computer screens and retorts or test tubes like lemons. not one of them said anything once. I know the doctor made that point, but, well, it felt a bit silly.

there were a couple of odd script moments as well - I had difficulty untangling the 'no point hating something you don't like' bit. Couldn't work out whether she hated him because she liked him, whether she didn't hate him because she didn't like him, hated him because she didn't like him, didn't hate him and did like him or had once or something or other.

there were another couple of lines later that didn't seem right but i can't remember what they were now.

I assume the stopwatch going down/backwards was intended as mundane unfamiliarity, but i did and have spent a very small amount of effort trying to work out whether it was intended.

nice that his psychic paper ended up getting him in a bit of a pickle (again, i like the way in this series they've examined his 'get out of jail' tools a bit).

but this was still very good, effective, well-constructed television (tho having bits of Clara and Maisie stuck in a room was a bit laborious). The pacing of this series has been outstanding as well - i think it's the space they give Capaldi and Clara has forced the action bits to be handled substantially differently, compressing them or formalising them in a way different to the constant running of previous series. Here the pulses of 60-second action were v effective.

Yeah the pacing has definitely improved this season. My gripe with new series (notwithstanding that they can't possibly go back to old Who pacing due to changes in technology and competition from video games etc) was always that they rushed everything and missed chances to make things really scary or really wondrous, but recently, they seem to have been getting it right without actually slowing it down.

This ruled. Clara as nu-Tegan is a-ok with me since Tegan ruled.

Glad I wasn't the only one reminded of Tegan - I was getting to the point of proposing "Towards a Taxonomy of Companion Exits" and starting a catalog