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Doctor Who [Spoilers]

MorningAngel said:
Wasn’t a great fan of the story. I want to know whose Ruby’s mother is. And how could he leave them with the crack in the roof and a small baby?
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The story seemed a bit perfunctory, but it is Christmas. I thoroughly enjoyed Ncuti and Millie and I'm looking forward to seeing them in the forthcoming series. As for the crack.... maybe it will be back.

Mrs Flood has me intrigued.
 
CharmerKamelion said:
The story seemed a bit perfunctory, but it is Christmas. I thoroughly enjoyed Ncuti and Millie and I'm looking forward to seeing them in the forthcoming series. As for the crack.... maybe it will be back.

Mrs Flood has me intrigued.
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Yes, who is she? I don't know that I will continue to watch the series but I quite enjoyed it.
I scen
MorningAngel said:
I want to know whose Ruby’s mother is
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I scent another Bad Wolf style story arc!
 
Not quite sure why yesterday's Christmas special is getting so much praise. I was looking forward to it but for me it was one of the worst episodes ever. Terrible script and the editing was poor. It started off as a bad rip off of Gremlins and just got worse as it went on. Then at the end they took the Lovejoy route by breaking the fourth wall with "Mrs Flood". Not sure if I will bother with the new Series after this episode.
 
Venkmans on the case said:
Not quite sure why yesterday's Christmas special is getting so much praise. I was looking forward to it but for me it was one of the worst episodes ever. Terrible script and the editing was poor. It started off as a bad rip off of Gremlins and just got worse as it went on. Then at the end they took the Lovejoy route by breaking the fourth wall with "Mrs Flood". Not sure if I will bother with the new Series after this episode.
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Shame you didn't enjoy it. I know what you mean about the editing. I found it a bit disorientating a couple of times, but there have been worse ("Legend of the Sea Devils" stands out in the wacky editing stakes).

Re: the 4th wall, I can take that on the chin as it was clearly done for dramatic effect to deliver a final punch to be used as a hook. Hopefully it won't become too regular a thing. Probably could have done without Anita's wink though! Even so, I certainly prefer that to all the weird 4th wall meta stuff that Moffat threw at us (all that "Doctor WHOOOOO??" crap - and Missy doing her "I'm Doctor Who and I have adventures with my companions, Exposition and Comic Relief" schtick). Just Moffat being a bit too smart arse for my taste.
 
The overnights for the Xmas day episode are 4.73m. That’s for the captive Xmas night audience. That’s gone down from the first of the specials and we’re in Whittaker territory already.
 
stu neville said:
Who or whatever she is, they wouldn't waste Anita Dobson for an (effectively) ten-line part.
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Of course, the Big Bad in 2009's special episode "The Waters of Mars" (co-written by RTD) was called THE Flood.... so maybe Mrs Flood will turn out to be its mummy. "He's not the Great Deluge. He's a very naughty boy."
 
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I don't watch Doctor Who but know a number of people who are devoted fans, and who are very serious about the programme. I wondered...how do fans feel about the levels of seriousness & playfulness in the show? For instance, casting Anita Dobson - an actor whose television history endears her to British audiences - perhaps as a kind of fairy godmother...isn't that a bit 'pantomime'? And are fans offended when some Who actors 'kid' their role and/or the show? The writers too, sometimes.

None of the above is a criticism of the show or its cast or creators, by the way - I'm just interested in how devoted fans feel: should Who be presented in a serious manner, or in a 'It's just entertainment' way...or a mixture of both?
 
Steven said:
I don't watch Doctor Who but know a number of people who are devoted fans, and who are very serious about the programme. I wondered...how do fans feel about the levels of seriousness & playfulness in the show? For instance, casting Anita Dobson - an actor whose television history endears her to British audiences - perhaps as a kind of fairy godmother...isn't that a bit 'pantomime'? And are fans offended when some Who actors 'kid' their role and/or the show? The writers too, sometimes.

None of the above is a criticism of the show or its cast or creators, by the way - I'm just interested in how devoted fans feel: should Who be presented in a serious manner, or in a 'It's just entertainment' way...or a mixture of both?
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Good question.
I personally don't like the juvenile direction Chibnall and Davies have taken DW. Of course there's a place for occasional whimsicality - Tom Baker with a skipping rope and Sylvester McCoy's Liquorice Allsorts monster spring to mind, but the song-and-dance sequences are getting too frequent now (is RTD a Bollywood fan?) and the singing gremlins were just too imbecilic for words. I'm guessing the king goblin was a tribute to Barry Humphries' obese king goblin in the Hobbit movie? Oh and now The Doctor has super-strength magical gloves as well as the bloody sonic screwdriver. Just Noooooooo! Cue lots more sloppy plots where the Doctor's magical gadgets can get him out of every predicament.
Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson), who didn't seem at all phased by the appearance of the Tardis, was the most intriguing element of the otherwise rather meh Christmas special and has led to speculation as to who she could be. I'm hoping she may turn out to be Susan - the original Doctor's "granddaughter"!
I'm also hoping that future storylines may guide DW away from puerile fluff and back towards something a bit more Quatermassy.
 
I love Doctor Who, and have done most of my life. I know it inside out and take it "seriously" as a bit of fun. It's fiction, it's fantasy, it's entertainment. There has been great stuff and okay stuff and awful stuff all the way through its life. It has always had an inbuilt level of self-aware absurdity and I think that is a large part of why I love it. Fans tying themselves up in knots trying to make it all make some kind of uniform sense is just a game to me, because much as I love it as a form of entertainment none of it really matters in the end.

If I ever do stop enjoying it, I will stop watching it and go and do something else instead. But I hope that day never comes.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Good question.
I personally don't like the juvenile direction Chibnall and Davies have taken DW. Of course there's a place for occasional whimsicality - Tom Baker with a skipping rope and Sylvester McCoy's Liquorice Allsorts monster spring to mind, but the song-and-dance sequences are getting too frequent now (is RTD a Bollywood fan?) and the singing gremlins were just too imbecilic for words. I'm guessing the king goblin was a tribute to Barry Humphries' obese king goblin in the Hobbit movie? Oh and now The Doctor has super-strength magical gloves as well as the bloody sonic screwdriver. Just Noooooooo! Cue lots more sloppy plots where the Doctor's magical gadgets can get him out of every predicament.
Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson), who didn't seem at all phased by the appearance of the Tardis, was the most intriguing element of the otherwise rather meh Christmas special and has led to speculation as to who she could be. I'm hoping she may turn out to be Susan - the original Doctor's "granddaughter"!
I'm also hoping that future storylines may guide DW away from puerile fluff and back towards something a bit more Quatermassy.
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The super strength gloves were ridiculous.
 
Venkmans on the case said:
The super strength gloves were ridiculous.
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I would say they were about as ridiculous of most of the rest of Doctor Who. As long as they don't try to market them. That could result in a rash of plummeting children.

Personally, I am looking forward to my Goblin King action figure, complete with blinking eyes, fully mobile tongue, and a selection of babies to eat (and no, I don't mean jelly ones).
 
Re the Mrs Flood character, we noticed that at the end of”The giggle” someone picked up the Toymakers gold tooth, which he claimed held the Master. Could this she be the tooth holder?
 
Steven said:
Five stars for the new Who:

'Ncuti Gatwa makes a delightful full appearance as the Doctor in a fun-packed extravaganza. He oozes charisma, flits from charming to serious in the blink of an eye – and saves Davina McCall’s life.'

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-...3-christmas-special-ncuti-gatwa-millie-gibson
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It was good fun, if a bit light on plot, but Gatwa is certainly charismatic. Not sure that I'm quite as gushing as the Guardian, but he's extremely watchable. The singing and dancing were justified in context, so I hope we don't get too much more of that!

MorningAngel said:
Wasn’t a great fan of the story. I want to know whose Ruby’s mother is. And how could he leave them with the crack in the roof and a small baby?
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Well, they made a whole season out of the crack in Amy's wall, so there's certainly a precedent...
 
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