Doctor Who: The Wedding of River Song (01/10/11)

[Lobo Baggins]

Or a riff on Rondo Hatton.

Both, in fact - Rondo Hatton played the Haxton Creeper in the 1944 Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movie 'The Pearl of Death'.

There was a similar character called the Golem in the last Sherlock, written by Mark Gatiss.

[Tiplodocus]

Thumbs up from everybody in the Tips Househould. Of course we iPlayered it (in HD - couldn't see much difference frankly) so if there's any talk of viewing figures add 4 to them.

Our 11 year old declared it "genius" and "very clever how it all came together".

I particularly liked the "you may kiss the bride" being the thing that restarted time/saved the universe - again a recurring theme from this age of the show.

And that the call to the Brig was the thing that made him realise it was time to move on.

Basically, haven't Moffat's two series said "Yabbo sooks!" to RTD. Firstly rewriting the universe so all of the invasions and monster cybermen etc. never happened and secondly saying that the Doctor is stepping back into the shadows.

[brendan1]

Basically, haven't Moffat's two series said "Yabbo sooks!" to RTD. Firstly rewriting the universe so all of the invasions and monster cybermen etc. never happened and secondly saying that the Doctor is stepping back into the shadows.

Who's Yabbo?

All invasions and monster cybermen never happened? What are you talking about?

[mogzilla]

i think he means the ott our time earth invasions of the RTD era which he sorted with the crack in time reebooting everything ( meaning amy didnt remember the dalek invasion and planets in the sky)

  think hes going for a more basics dr rather than the superhero/messiah rtd created.

[brendan1]

Ah, right.

It will be interesting to see where this goes next.

I really hope that this series hasn't damaged its mass-market appeal - which I have been talking about for some time - and that it maintains the status it has enjoyed such RTD brought it back.

It's a magnificent testimony to how great our TV can be that a programme like Who is even on our screens.

I will admit that I struggled to warm to Matt Smith's gabbling, funny-eyed eccentric, but warm to him I have.
I didn't understand or enjoy quite a bit of this "arc"; it was wilfully obfuscatory and confusing at times; downright tedious at others.
I fucking despise River Song.
I don't even like Rory much.
I hate the superfan anti-RTD/ Tennant bollocks, and I suppose I do feel I'm better-placed than most on here - or God forbid Who websites - simply because I'm not really *that* bothered about it that I can't be objective.


But do I still like Dr Who?

God, yes. It's still - by a mile - the best British TV around.

I don't watch every single episode, but I make more of an effort for it than anything else, and by and large, it's worth it.

[Goaty]

Just watch it today as back from night in Edinburgh as did Great Edinburgh Run this morning.

What a great and brilliant episode! I enjoy that! That was great opening with everythings from Times in London, Steam Trains from buildings, balloon-mini? Romans, and funny with Dont Feed the Pteranodons!

Never realise that was Mark Gatiss! Skulls was so creepy! and that moment after they eat, they turn skulls to Doctor? Creeepy!

Nice to see little Star Trek crew in Robot again!

Enjoy with when Doctor try to remind Amy about remember the Doctor but realise she does!

Nice touch when Rory as Silents says the one who always die, and die will finally die this time.... not.

That was good ending too! Nice to kept next more stories very quiet better than RTD stories that always with big Alien Forces etc...

Doctor Who? Make me wonder why they give the title of this programme Doctor Who..... mmmmm

[M.I.K.]

I hate the superfan anti-RTD/ Tennant bollocks, and I suppose I do feel I'm better-placed than most on here - or God forbid Who websites - simply because I'm not really *that* bothered about it that I can't be objective.

Will you please stop inferring that every single person who doesn't like Davis's stuff is a convention-going, big hat and scarf-wearing, anoraky uber-geek.

I own absolutely no Doctor Who DVDs, videos or audio dramas. Last time I watched the programme regularly before 2005 was around quarter of a century earlier, when I was about five years old. I can in no way be classed as a "superfan". You have to stretch the defintion a bit to even refer to me as a fan - but RTD's writing annoyed the hell out of me. (For balance I was going to cite a couple of examples of stories of his which I really did like here, but I've just discovered I'd mistakenly attributed them to him when they were actually by somebody else.)

[Goaty]

I don't watch every single episode, but I make more of an effort for it than anything else, and by and large, it's worth it.

And you moan a lot about it??

[Hawkmumbler]

I would be lieng if I said I didn't shed a little tear a when the Doctor idscovered that the Brigadier was dead.
I my self still feel a tad deppresed upon hearing of his death, he was such an important figure in my development as a who fan, and amongst my favourite charaters of any franchise.
RIP Nicholas Courtney, he truely has become 'that chap with wings there'.

Over all, I really liked this episode. I mean REALLY like it. Easily one of the best narrative's in many a series, and it put to bed some of the previouse links and arcs in the series. Also, "The fall of the Eleventh" Please say it isn't so!
Also, I want to see more of Dorium. He has true comedic value.

[Leigh S]

Brendan1  - I can only repeat what others have said.. If theres any "fascism of opinion" with regards the merits of RTD Dr Who within "superfandom", then its wholly positive as far as I can see.   

From Ian Levine to Jonathon Blum to superfans like Moffatt, Gatiss and Roberts, (who could be forgiven for their bias!), they've all sold the line that the naysayers are just hard sci-fi snobs who want Bidmead to bring back mathematics over emotions.

If anything, fans have embraced the new series success at all costs, and it seems to be returning or casual viewers who are more suspect of the whole thing.. after all, the superfan can watch McCoy, so a bit of RTD is childs play!  Its probably more likely to be fair weather fans like myself (stopped after Tom) who are giving it stick.  Though admittedly theres no stats to prove it either way!

[Adrian Bamforth]

Basically, haven't Moffat's two series said "Yabbo sooks!" to RTD. Firstly rewriting the universe so all of the invasions and monster cybermen etc. never happened and secondly saying that the Doctor is stepping back into the shadows.

Yep - I like the way a Dalek appears for only about 10 seconds in the finale episode.

[Hawkmumbler]

Basically, haven't Moffat's two series said "Yabbo sooks!" to RTD. Firstly rewriting the universe so all of the invasions and monster cybermen etc. never happened and secondly saying that the Doctor is stepping back into the shadows.

Yep - I like the way a Dalek appears for only about 10 seconds in the finale episode.

Keep it that way.

[A.Cow]

Or a riff on Rondo Hatton.

Both, in fact - Rondo Hatton played the Haxton Creeper in the 1944 Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movie 'The Pearl of Death'.

... and was also the face of Judge Dredd for a moment or two in Prog 52, as drawn by Brian Bolland ...



(Image swiped from GuruMog's blog)

[DrJomster]

Really quite liked this! Pleasant turnaround after the (for me) Let's Kill Hitler low.

More please, Auntie Beeb!

[Christov]

I've really enjoyed this series as a whole, but I find myself getting a bit miffed at people complaining that it's so convoluted and confusing, because it honestly isn't.

'When writing television for families you need to make it complicated enough for the children and simple enough for the adults' or however that saying goes.

Fill in the gaps, suspend your disbelief, etc.

I can understand where some of the criticisms come from though, but Moffat has had to deal with getting a massive chunk of canon out of the way regarding River Song, setting up the 2013 50th anniversary, undoing the NuWho idea that the Doctor is a cosmic superstar, and a seemingly ever diminishing running length. For all the faults, this series was absolutely necessary to play things out bigger and better in the future series.