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Doctor Who [Spoilers]

Don't recall the "Churchill's Ironsides" story as being overtly political at all, but it was panned for such incongruous use of the Daleks, which undermined their menace. Also. I reckon people might have been starting to find Amy tiresome by then.
 
Min Bannister said:
I am not sure I recall that either and I would be inclined to give The Youth Of Today a wee bit more credit in being able to pick up on more subtle cues myself but hey ho. Mind you, I was behind Evil Businessman in shooting the giant spiders. I felt sorry for them too, it wasn't their fault but I am not clear on why standing watching them slowly suffocating to death is somehow more dignified and humane than shooting them.

PFHTS
People for the Humane Treatment of Spiders! :spider:
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They were going to get bigger and bigger till they died anyway, there was nothing they could do to arrest the issue, so best to leave them to expire out of harm's way, was my take on it.
 
GNC said:
They were going to get bigger and bigger till they died anyway, there was nothing they could do to arrest the issue, so best to leave them to expire out of harm's way, was my take on it.
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And the giant land crab or coconut crab is pretty well at the upper feasible size limit for a terrestrial arthropod.
Those medium-large spiders in DW, which were of a similar size, should not have been able to gallop like they did and the huge mummy spider should have been barely able to move.

IMG_0518.JPG
 
GNC said:
They were going to get bigger and bigger till they died anyway, there was nothing they could do to arrest the issue, so best to leave them to expire out of harm's way, was my take on it.
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But they were claiming that shooting them would be undignified and the spiders deserved better. Slowly starving or suffocating to death isn't better. It is very cowardly to just walk off and leave them like that. IMO.

blessmycottonsocks said:
And the giant land crab or coconut crab is pretty well at the upper feasible size limit for a terrestrial arthropod.
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:eek: Please tell me that is a really small bin.
 
GNC said:
It's almost as if it was all made up.
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You take that back!
Min Bannister said:
:eek: Please tell me that is a really small bin.
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Nope. Those things are big. Big enough to carry a coconut on their own, without a bit of vine. They used to sneak up on
GIs stationed in the Pacific during the war, and make off with their helmets, thinking they were an especially tough kind of coconut.
 
Min Bannister said:
But they were claiming that shooting them would be undignified and the spiders deserved better. Slowly starving or suffocating to death isn't better. It is very cowardly to just walk off and leave them like that. IMO.
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The point was the evil businessman wasn't shooting the big spider to humanely destroy it, he was shooting it out of spite and to reassert himself as the alpha, a position taken by the Doctor, much to his chagrin. And as I said, the spiders would have eaten each other. There was no happy ending available for the eight-legged freaks.
 
Well....I'm certainly no expert on Dr Who but I do like Whittaker ..for the most part...but the episode writing is abysmal imho and is not Dr Who regarding the science fiction aspects.
 
dr wu said:
Well....I'm certainly no expert on Dr Who but I do like Whittaker ..for the most part...but the episode writing is abysmal imho and is not Dr Who regarding the science fiction aspects.
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Think of it as "science fantasy", as George Lucas described Star Wars, and you'll get along with it better.
 
dr wu said:
Well....I'm certainly no expert on Dr Who but I do like Whittaker ..for the most part...but the episode writing is abysmal imho and is not Dr Who regarding the science fiction aspects.
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The writing's a bit shonky so far, and the stories nothing to write home about, but I'm still managing to enjoy what I'm watching. I get the argument about a female Who just being there to satisfy the PC brigade, but I don't really agree with that view. Regardless of how recently it was done, at least the show has given us a precedent of a Timelord changing sex before the Doctor's regeneration, and as long as JW acts the part well enough, I'll be happy with that.

I just hope that as the actor and the character grow into the part, it'll move away from the Victoria Wood/Jane Horrocks impersonation and into something a bit more... (insert name of serious Northern actress of your choice - Maxine Peake, maybe?).

The spiders episode was entertaining enough as a story, but fell into far too many right-on cliches to be taken seriously.
Nasty middle-aged white man, poorly characterised and with tenuous link to the adventure, but still got blamed for all the bad stuff? Check.
Set the show in present-day Earth, when there's a whole universe out there? Check.
Insane coincidence (involving one of the main characters' mothers getting fired from job at the hub of the crisis)? Check.

GNC said:
Think of it as "science fantasy", as George Lucas described Star Wars, and you'll get along with it better.
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If you're not careful, though, the fantasy will tend to take over. I really wish that a homemade sonic screwdriver wouldn't just open every kind of door. I really wish that the Doctor (did Tennant start this?) would stop holding said screwdriver like a magic wand - that kind of gives the game away...
 
Don't think it opens wooden locks, or it hasn't in the past.
 
It's older than Tennant. A lot of stuff blamed on NuWho started in the original series.
Writing and characterization will change. Compare Capaldi at the start to his last run.
As far as ratings, not surprised. Didn't crow about the numbers because pass the first anything numbers normalize and fall back. Give it after the first season to get an idea, with a full new crew.
 
So just me who isn't a fan of the new companions?
 
GNC said:
Don't think it opens wooden locks, or it hasn't in the past.
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It didn’t in the past but apparently, along with everything else, it does now. Got a problem, just use the sonic screwdriver, no need to worry about having to do good writing with that about!
 
Businessman will turn up again - probably as US President in a future future story. His story arc isn't finished, mark my words.

And as for 'making the show PC'...really? Black and asian people and women allowed to be in it? Whatever next...
 
"Black and asian people and women allowed to be in it? "

But ONLY if they are depicted as heroic.

Similarly, wealthy white men in suits must only ever be shown as villains.

I just wish DW would go back to pure sci-fi and leave the political commentary well alone.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Sorry...
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Ach, don't worry, the point I was clumsily making is that science fiction began over a century ago as an imaginative way of commenting on the modern world, and DW has always kept up that tradition, from the early days to this.
 
Xanatic* said:
So just me who isn't a fan of the new companions?
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Yas is kind of anonymous, but the thawing relationship between Graham and Ryan is really sweet, I think. Plus it's genuinely interesting to have a companion be a grieving widower, we've never seen that before, and Bradley is excellent at that, even if he's always going to basically be Bradley Walsh, gameshow host.
 
I think my final moan about last week's episode (which wasn't terrible, really) will be regarding the title: Arachnids on the UK.

I hope - I really hope - that the title didn't come before the script, though I fear that it might've done. I can all too easily picture a smug writer looking for a plot based on a Sex Pistols-related pun...

Next week's episode: Never Mind The Daleks?
 
Anyway, after bigging up the new series, seems I will have a complaint after all - rumours are there's no Christmas special this year! Boo! Does this mean I'll have to talk to my family after Christmas dinner? Come on, BBC!
 
Xanatic* said:
So just me who isn't a fan of the new companions?
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They're ok not as good as Martha or Amy Pond as new companions go. It's difficult for them to make an impact as the writing as been pretty dire.

It's getting better though. Jodie Whittaker has the charisma to pull it off.
 
Possibly part of the problem with the companions is that there are 3 of them. None of them have had a chance to build a relationship of their own with the Doctor, as most of their interactions are with each other.

I can't think if or when we previously had so many companions introduced at the same time. Apart from the very first story, in 1963, I suppose!
 
I hated Amy Pond as a companion. She came across to me as a self-serving, selfish little madam. I'm liking these companions more and more as we learn more about them.

And as for ethnic minorities being depicted as 'heroic' - well, we have no idea what colour Tim Shaw was, under those teeth, do we?
 
catseye said:
I hated Amy Pond as a companion. She came across to me as a self-serving, selfish little madam. I'm liking these companions more and more as we learn more about them.

And as for ethnic minorities being depicted as 'heroic' - well, we have no idea what colour Tim Shaw was, under those teeth, do we?
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She was great until Rory came along then lost her sparkle and became irritating.
 
Peripart said:
Possibly part of the problem with the companions is that there are 3 of them. None of them have had a chance to build a relationship of their own with the Doctor, as most of their interactions are with each other.

I can't think if or when we previously had so many companions introduced at the same time. Apart from the very first story, in 1963, I suppose!
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Peter Davison era had 3 from memory. Adric, Nyssa and Tegan. I can't remember if they were all introduced at the same time though.
 
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