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

;)

you know Pertwee would have been all about Point Break Doctor

hey veg

http://instagram.com/p/vNYfETH8oC/

Sic knows Hayley Campbell? Crazy stuff!

There's a ghostly face wearing sunglasses right next to sic! Wooooooo!

I was kinda disappointed by this episode, especially after the very strong setup in the previous one. It reminded me of Davies era season finales, in that plot coherence was sacrificed in favour of big sentimental "love saves the day" type of moments. There were so many questions and plot points left unanswered... Like, what was the point of the previous episode's opening scene, where Clara was looking at Post-It notes and figuring out something important? They never returned to that scene. Also, they revealed that Missy was the one that got Clara to meet the Doctor, but it was never explained what she hoped to accomplish with that? Seems her plan was simply to create an army of Cybermen, and then force the Doctor to take control of the army in order to save the Earth, but she could've carried out that plan without Clara being involved with the Doctor at all. And at the end of the episode, when Danny contacts Clara and they explain that only one person can be brought back from the Nethersphere, and Danny chooses the kid he had shot, it was never explained why only person can return. And how did the kid return in the first place? Danny shot him years ago, so presumably his body had been decomposed a long time ago... But if Missy's technology was somehow able to restore the kid's body, why couldn't the same have been done to Danny, and everyone else who wanted to return from the Nethersphere?

And those were just big unresolved questions the episode left me with, there were numerous smaller ones too. Presumably some of them migth be answered in the Christmas special, but I think most of them were simply there because Moffat seems to have preferred setting up big, "important" moments over good plotting.

Clara's post-its and phonecall - just her coming clean to Danny about her adventures with the Doctor. Pretty straightforward, no need to return to it.

Master's plan was pretty daft, but then this is the Master...

The resurrected kid bit was pretty hand-wavey, but it worked in terms of emotional payoff - Danny's final sacrifice.

Clara's post-its and phonecall - just her coming clean to Danny about her adventures with the Doctor. Pretty straightforward, no need to return to it.

Why did she need all the post-its if all she was gonna do was to call Danny and come clean? It looked more like she was trying to solve some mystery.

The resurrected kid bit was pretty hand-wavey, but it worked in terms of emotional payoff - Danny's final sacrifice.

I agree it worked on an emotional level, but if Moffat had put more effort into scripting, surely he could've come up with a solution where Danny's sacrifice/penance is an organic part of the plot, instead of introducing an inexplicable "only one person can be brought back" plot element, one that'd never been mentioned before, at the very end of the episode.

Why did she need all the post-its if all she was gonna do was to call Danny and come clean?

She's that kind of person. She makes lists and organizes everything.

x-post - Fair point, but I'm not sure trying to come up with some kind of scientific explanation would have added to the drama much.

Post-its also a nice way of telling the viewer why she's calling without having to put in some clunky scene where she rehearses what she's going to say to him.

the jump from the graveyard to clara at home when danny sends the kid back was the worst bit in the whole episode. "oh the doctor explained to you" blah blah...it just seemed like they were trying to cover a major hole, or something else had been cut for time.

this was otherwise good, if exceptionally silly. the end was touching though I was certain she wasn't departing yet because they still haven't explained how she and danny have a descendant in the future.

So now that this is done, is everyone here in agreement that Capaldi has been amazing in this role? Is that just because we're all old? My wife taught creative writing to a bunch of middle schoolers this week and at their break they were talking about Doctor Who and all said they had a hard time relating to him; they all liked Tennant the best.

Capaldi ruled and tbh I don't think you're supposed to relate to his Doctor so um mission successful?

I think there's more to it, or at least we were supposed to think so even if it went nowhere.

http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/doctor-who/32782/doctor-who-series-8-the-clues-in-claras-post-it-notes

This one makes me think she might be pregnant:

http://cdn-static.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeek/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/3/76//three_months.jpg

also as it says on the article, the Doctor describing her as “quite the mess of chemicals” after scanning her with the Sonic.

exactly.

whenever I pop in to comments in anything (youtube trailers, fb posts from the show) the amount of whining and bitching about this series is just exhausting. moffat is bad, clara is still bad, capaldi is bad, blah blah blah.

My kids like Capaldi being rude and blunt but I think both prefer Smith & Tennant.

I do think the age thing is an issue, sadly.

I do feel like most of the people complaining about the sexism of modern Who (#notallcomplainers) never saw the original series

or noticed how every maternal figure in RTD's era was a terrible harridan who made life worse for everyone around them

The age thing is definitely an issue, they could get round that in future by including a younger/cooler/hotter male companion in the Tardis entourage though.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f9fWHdU_eiE/UYlI_st00EI/AAAAAAAAAdw/5Tf6BEcY7Ns/s1600/06+Adric.jpg

Will MattDC ever know if he was right?

I didn't notice the "three months" Post-It, but I guess Clara's pregancy is kinda likely now, since it seems Danny won't be coming back from the dead, and we already know an identical grandkid of his exists in the future, so Danny must've procreated somehow before his death. And I doubt they're gonna reveal he already had a kid with someone else...

hahahaha DJP

That would be a good plot idea Tuomas, had it not already been established (by the same writer) that foetuses travelling in TARDIS become Tiem Babbies and can regenerate and all kinds of shit. Plus because they're Tiem Babbies they're of special interest to time travelling alium species that nobody knows exists (and weren't defeated or anything, just had the "I don't need to show you what happened in the gap, go away and think" logic applied to them) who'll stop at nothing to kidnap and indoctrinate them because they're unique. Although of course they won't do that if The Doctor is in hiding and nobody in the entire universe knows he's alive.

Three months could well be pregnancy, but I took it more as her attempt to keep tabs on her own timeline... i.e. three months in Danny's time was when she went back to young Rupert's time. The Orson thing does suggest she's pregnant though.

I thought that only applied to kids *conceived* in the TARDIS? Which River was, but the potential child of Clara and Danny Pink presumably wasn't.

(xpost to Aldo)

I think that only applied to Amy Pond

I'd need to rewatch to check but pretty sure it was exposure to the vortex at the developmental stage. Pretty sure River was supposed to be conceived on their honeymoon.

pretty sure it was exposure to the vortex at the developmental stage

that's one hell of a deleted scene

Wiki sez conceived on their wedding night. Which they supposedly spent in TARDIS when I'm pretty sure they spent it at a party with Amy's newly resurrected parents.

maybe only babies conceived in front of their grandparents end up inheriting Time Lord powers

That's probably right.

Graeme Harper is directing tonight's Hollyoakes. How the mighty have fallen.

IIRC Amy explicitly said River was conceived in the TARDIS. It was certainly implied they had sex there.

Did the cervix turn red or blue?

Fairy nuff. Tiem Babbies are a bit like baking obviously, the magic happens at the point where you combine the ingredients and not afterwards.

There's probably a joke to be made about Rory being the one making the wheezing groaning noise.

Not totally a Tiem Babbie. Conceived in Tardis, then genetically engineered further by Madame Kovarian and Co.

Clara would've been rather callous not to tell Danny she's pregnant just before he sacrificed himself to save the world; so I'm guessing it's not that. Or maybe just that she doesn't know yet.

Anyway, the episode -- some of it was quite awful, and Capaldi was a a bit underused throughout, but then the final scene in the cafe (reminiscent of the scene with Bernard Cribbins, now I think of it) was just so heartbreaking and well done. And perhaps it's that mixture of awful and amazing that makes Doctor Who unique.

Re: Capaldi's age - I don't remember being that bothered by old lead actors, when I was a kid, but then again, when I was young, almost everyone on TV was a grey haired old white person, so I guess I didn't have much choice.

Shame about Oswald - I guess they needed a "no, the Master really is evil" moment, and someone slightly above the average redshirt for it to happen to - but it still felt like a waste.

(I mean Osgood)

The whole reason the finale of season five is called The Big Bang is because it alludes to the Ponds having sex in the TARDIS afterwards.

Willing to bet it was the Zygon Osgood that got vaporised.

chuck tatum otm

Osgood's death was the best bit!

I was disappointed with Osgood's death too, because I was kinda hoping she'd become the next companion, it would've been a nice change to have a female companion who looks and acts like a normal person... There hasn't really been one in nu-Who besides Donna.

Has there been any confirmation that Coleman will actually leave the show in the Christmas episode, though? Everyone seems to be assuming so, and last weeks episode certainly felt like her time as a companion will end, but I can't find anything on the internet that would confirm her leaving... There's just a Radio Times interview from September where she says she doesn't want to comment on the subject so future plot developments won't be spoiled. Which is fair enough, but I don't think it'd be much of a spoiler at this point anymore.

In what universe is Osgood a "normal person"

I meant "normal person" in the sense that she isn't necessarily super confident/brave/selfless/heroic, and that she doesn't look like a model.

I wasn't expecting Osgood to become a new companion, but I did like the idea of her character being a recurring one. So hopefully it was the Zygon. There have been less believable ways of bringing characters back.