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Doctor Who Club

Oh my, some pretty big character development. We sure are getting a lot of timelordy rage this season. Since when does the Doctor ever point a gun at someone?

But, overall, I liked this episode quite a lot more than the previous one, and perhaps even more than the season opener.

Oh, and best line:
"His name is Susan and he wants you to respect his life choices!"
 
I fucking LOVED the Time War implications throughout the Doctor's movements against Jex. Especially when Jex said that the Doctor has never probably made the same decisions he has, I had 'Nam-esque flashbacks of the Time Lords and the Master and Davros.

The juxtaposition between them is brilliant!
 
So, Toby Whithouse for next showrunner, anyone? He can certainly do characters.

Also. What do you guys think of the recurring elements in the first three episodes? We've had lightbulbs (dead and/or flickering), eggs, and Christmas. The last is a touch tenuous, I admit, but it might simply point towards something significant happening in the Christmas special, which we all probably assumed was true anyway.

But the other two? I don't mean to say they're foreshadowing in the way other series-arc motifs have been (i.e. within the plot) but I think they might be clues. Apparently
the Weeping Angels are coming back, and flickering lightbulbs are definitely something I associate with them.
No idea what the eggs could mean.
 
Is anyone else not too fond of the way the intro looks this series? Too dark, glowy and slightly tinted red for my liking.

EDIT: I just checked some other DW discussions and a couple of people seem to think that the intros are getting darker each episode. I just checked on iPlayer and I don't really see much difference between the first two episodes but Mercy definitely seems darker. Connected to the flickering lightbulbs maybe?

EDIT2: Heh, upon watching them closer, the "DOCTOR WHO" in each of the intros seem to be made out of something relevant to the episodes

And I'm certain the way the names fade away like smoke in addition to the font reminds me of something but I've no idea what.
 
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Photo Finish said:
Is anyone else not too fond of the way the intro looks this series? Too dark, glowy and slightly tinted red for my liking.

EDIT: I just checked some other DW discussions and a couple of people seem to think that the intros are getting darker each episode. I just checked on iPlayer and I don't really see much difference between the first two episodes but Mercy definitely seems darker. Connected to the flickering lightbulbs maybe?

EDIT2: Heh, upon watching them closer, the "DOCTOR WHO" in each of the intros seem to be made out of something relevant to the episodes

And I'm certain the way the names fade away like smoke in addition to the font reminds me of something but I've no idea what.
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Yeah, they're making the intro relevant to the episodes now.
 
The intro thing is weird. I mean it's okay, but... gah I don't know how I feel. But it's stupid if they incorporate it into the ending or something somehow. The credits are meant to be outside the show, you know? Most of the time I skip past it. (unless it's a new episode and I haven't seen it yet.)

This season is... weird. I can't connect with it at all. The constant "HEY I'M GAY LOOKY LOOKY" is getting annoying. Plus Amy and Rory's characters just... aren't the same. They're so off put and distant. I do NOT like it at all. Amy's become a bitch, and Rory a smart ass. Did I mention Amy's become a bitch?

And the Doctor, he's like a todler with a temper tantrum. Like in "A Town Called Mercy" the little stand off thing that led to the law man sacrificing himself. It was like a little kid after his mommy told him he couldn't have candy.

Matt Smith cannot be Ten or Nine. He tried. He failed. He's just not capable of being an angry/stoic/angst-y Doctor.
 
I think that's the point of Amy and Rory's characters now. They're so distant to the Doctor because they now have their own lives to run and they, like the Doctor, have become world-weary. Rory summed it up well in the preview: they've got two lives, their own lives and their lives with the Doctor. Amy's become a bitch because she's started to rely on herself, since the Doctor isn't always going to be there. Rory just gained some backbone after being kicked out by Amy.

We're not going to see Amelia and her childhood friend when we leave them, we're going to see Rory and Amy Williams, an average couple doing average things. They've outgrown the Doctor.
 
I agree with Phantom about this season. I don't think it's as good so far as last season. Last season started with a great overarching plot and a great monster in the Silence that drew in past seasons from the go. This season doesn't have a strong overarching plot and seems to be monster of the week, which is my least favourite plot device. And I agree that 11 is becoming weaker than 9/10. He's just too childlike for me, honestly. 9 and 10 both had extreme depth, and 11 is lacking that; he's a pure child. It's annoying. He's very gimmicky and physical which is why, I think, lots of people like him - 'I wear a stetson now, stetson are cool'. Yeah, it's cool, but... I want depth? Eh.

I still like Amy/Rory, but it's super annoying how they keep leaving and coming back. :\
 
Speaking of Eleven - has there been any talk about whether or not Matt Smith is staying on for a fourth series?
 
While I see where people are coming from with saying that Eleven lacks depth, I sort of disagree! He certainly does act more childish than his previous two incarnations, but along with that there's a sort of half-hidden dangerous animal sort of thing that he covers up. He's really the first out of the three to out-and-out kill when he didn't have to (excepting a few instances like Ten's stony-faced insect murder). And the difference there is that killing Filch got Eleven absolutely nothing except the revenge that, to this point, he has decried. It's maybe not executed in the best possible way, but I certainly find it interesting as far as his character goes.

I was disappointed by Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (uuuugh how do you mess that up), but Mercy was certainly way better and it even sort of made me feel better about what I felt was majorly wrong with Dinosaurs. Also getting tired of 'did i mention i'm bi but not really? teeheee' from the writers.
 
Blastoise Fortooate said:
While I see where people are coming from with saying that Eleven lacks depth, I sort of disagree! He certainly does act more childish than his previous two incarnations, but along with that there's a sort of half-hidden dangerous animal sort of thing that he covers up. He's really the first out of the three to out-and-out kill when he didn't have to (excepting a few instances like Ten's stony-faced insect murder). And the difference there is that killing Filch got Eleven absolutely nothing except the revenge that, to this point, he has decried. It's maybe not executed in the best possible way, but I certainly find it interesting as far as his character goes.
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Actually both Nine and Ten had killed intentionally. Sort of. Nine had Lady C. Ten had The Family of blood, insect lady, and they both had plenty of rage moments. See Tennant Waters of Mars.
 
The ending seemed a bit rushed but overall I quite liked this episode.
But surely all those people whose hearts stopped beating would just die anyway? I mean the Doctor had to get from UNIT to the hospital so it's not like it was in real time. And what was up with the girl at the hospital who turned out to be a robot working with the cubes? She really, really had nothing to do with anything. Was she just sitting in the same seat at the hospital for the entire year?

Christmas: There were fairy lights behind the TARDIS when it was December

Lightbulbs: There was a power-cut at UNIT.
 
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Blastoise Fortooate said:
While I see where people are coming from with saying that Eleven lacks depth, I sort of disagree! He certainly does act more childish than his previous two incarnations, but along with that there's a sort of half-hidden dangerous animal sort of thing that he covers up. He's really the first out of the three to out-and-out kill when he didn't have to (excepting a few instances like Ten's stony-faced insect murder). And the difference there is that killing Filch got Eleven absolutely nothing except the revenge that, to this point, he has decried. It's maybe not executed in the best possible way, but I certainly find it interesting as far as his character goes.

I was disappointed by Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (uuuugh how do you mess that up), but Mercy was certainly way better and it even sort of made me feel better about what I felt was majorly wrong with Dinosaurs. Also getting tired of 'did i mention i'm bi but not really? teeheee' from the writers.
[/spoiler]
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Yeah, the thing is, that comes off more as bad writing rather than actual depth. Because he seems to have no reaction at all to killing those people, which jars so much with his character. Nine and ten had so much depth when they killed that it seems like a pitiful comparison, and I probably would still be loving 11 way more than I do now had he not done the killing and I not had to compare.

re: this episode... I think it was pretty good but again the Amy/Rory leaving all the time is just getting really annoying. I know they're prepping for when they leave for good but it's just grating constantly. 9_9 And the Amy voiceovers are just bleh. Otherwise aside from the girl android who yes was wtf, it was a decent episode... The most interesting part for me was when Amy/Eleven had the conversation in which she mentioned how he's always running. I think that's actually rather interesting and something he still doesn't realize about himself because he denied it.
 
ok. The cube stole my bloody idea. The annoying chicken dance behind sound proof door was MY idea. From my youtube channel. Except mine involved the Master and robots with self esteem issues.

Still...

MINE
 
I really liked this episode. I was just thinking why the book has to be taken as truth when they could just make River write lies and avoid the whole changing the future thing, but then BAM they end up seeing old Rory dying so even if the book isn't telling the truth, they can't deny that Rory dying didn't happen.

Sad to see Amy and Rory leaving but perhaps it would have been sadder if iPlayer didn't have "The Doctor's heart-breaking farewell to Amy and Rory" in its description. Seriously, that's the worst place to put a spoiler. At least seeing the Doctor Who facebook page post about could be blamed on me for not isolating myself before seeing the episode, but the main reason iPlayer is used is for people who didn't see it live.
Unless them dying in this particular episode was already known so it isn't exactly a spoiler but still!

I don't want to say "it's good they died" since that's quite a mean thing to say. But it is good that they didn't pull an 'actually in a parallel universe so officially dead in ours' or 'lost her memory so kind of dead' when the hook of the episode was that she is going to die in this episode got really old very fast.
It's nice that they lived into their 80s 2080s, continuing on from last week's theme of them having a normal life without the Doctor, which they finally had to have in the end.

A lingering question though, what happened to that last angel in the cemetery, did they just leave it there? (Also while I guessed from the episode title that the statue of liberty might be an angel, it was quite unrealistic that nobody would be looking at it long enough for it to move)
 
So... if they can't go back to New York to pick up Rory, why can't they go back to, say, New Jersey and drive up?
 
Phantom said:
Even the Doctor avoids Jersey Shore.
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