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Doctor Who Series 11 Discussion

Started by Andy Lambert, 07 October, 2018, 08:13:12 PM

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M.I.K.

Quote from: Proudhuff on 29 November, 2018, 01:16:51 PM
EEEK! I missed that  :o

never mind its where I live, but 'The "witches" held their covens on the Auld Kirk Green, part of the modern-day North Berwick Harbour area'  is at the end of my street!

Also Cumming's  aunt and cousins live in the town  :D

So does my brother, and the wifey wumman accused of being the 'elder witch' at North Berwick, (Agnes Sampson), lived just down the road from me.

There's a field and plantation near here that's officially known as the "Witches Syke", which may be due to her living nearby or could be because of some other witchy types unrelated to the North Berwick trials. The Lothians used to be crawling with them, the wrongly accused and otherwise. Most folk are oblivious.

Hawkmumbler

Prince James absolutely stole the show in The Witchfinders. Best guest star in a story for years.

TordelBack

He really was (King James to you, though!).

TordelBack

Good grief. Who the hell signed off on that frog. Decent enough story, but badly screwed by a single crappy effect. Seriously have to ask what was going on there.

And why Norway? Were they going for a Norse myth svartheim/hel thing and then changed their minds? Dearie me.

Modern Panther

"Your nan and me always wanted to go to Norway"

"Why didn't you?"

The correct answer is "we couldn't affjord it".  Anything else is a waste of dialogue.

Taryn Tailz

And the 13th Doctor has her first genuine classic episode!

After weeks of dispiritingly surface level stories, in which everything has been exactly what it appeared to be and plot twists have been almost entirely absent, we finally...finally...have an episode with depth. At almost every turn 'It Takes You Away' subverted its own expectations, jumping from apparent base-under-siege, to alien world, to parallel universe, and finally on to something altogether different. In the case of 'The Tsuranga Conundrum' I had both major plot points worked out a full half hour before the story ended. This time, I didn't have a clue what was going to happen next, and that was so refreshing after the comparative banality of the rest of this series.

Not only that but there was actual thematic depth to the story as well; the conscious universe cast out from the rest of existence, the blind girl taken away from her friends in the city and apparently abandoned by her father, the grieving husbands drifting from their former lives following the loss of their partners, all of which serve almost as mirrors to the character of the Doctor herself.

It's just a bit concerning that we're back to a Chibnall episode next week (though an extra point for the 'Slayer' reference).

Colin YNWA

Yep thought that was superb, rubbish frog or not. Genuninely creepy at first. Then superbly intriguing and brilliant by the end.

Best to date...

... Alas I don't think the kids agree. They liked it but were a bit confused... damnit can't bloody win!

JamesC

That was absolutely mental and I loved it.
I thought the frog was the best bit - it was utterly charming - or to put it another way 'it is a form that delights me!'

Colin YNWA

Should say I thought the idea of the frog was a piece of genius. It was the special effects only that let it down.

JamesC

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 02 December, 2018, 08:04:52 PM
Should say I thought the idea of the frog was a piece of genius. It was the special effects only that let it down.

This is Doctor Who we're talking about.

Andy Lambert

I'll try to get my head round a talking frog on a chair... it's been 38 years and I'm still getting my head round a talking cactus.

TordelBack

Frog-on-chair was a great idea, but honestly, it's 2018, do better than whatever that was supposed to be.  I thought it turned a clever episode into a skit on shit Dr Who effects.

Dandontdare

Quote from: Taryn Tailz on 02 December, 2018, 07:43:46 PM
After weeks of dispiritingly surface level stories, in which everything has been exactly what it appeared to be and plot twists have been almost entirely absent, we finally...finally...have an episode with depth.

^^^This.

I'm encouraged by any episode that starts "Written by: (anyone but Chibnall)". And what was wrong with the frog? looked fine to me.

Steve Green

For a series that promoted it wanting to look 'filmic' with new lenses etc.

It looked a bit low-budget, something more like classic Who would come up with.

Doing lip-sync on something that small is hard work, on Men in Black they did a great 'small' alien but it was an oversized prop.

The other options are to shoot a real one, and just do it as telepathy, a CGI one, or a mixture.

I know there was the connection to the necklace, but just a glowing triangle would have worked, and mirrored the shape of the attic.

Compared to the moths, it looked pretty rough.

TordelBack

#374
From where I was sitting,  it looked like it had a totally static lower jaw that just hinged up and down. Lip-sync on animals whose mouths aren't designed to talk is obviously incredibly tricky,  as countless examples have shown. So if you see that you can can't pull it off, why bother?  Why not telepathy? 

I'm banging on about this frog too much, I know, and I've certainly enjoyed SF (and Dr Who) with far worse SFX - but it seems a pity. The 'baddie' being a sentient universe that ends up as a frog because Graham knew that Grace liked frogs is a neat idea, and one hell of cut above 'toxic waste makes big spiders'. It seems a shame to undercut that with an effect that's not a significant improvement on Posh Paws.

On other matters,  I did enjoy the Doctor chomping on soil, and the flesh moths were ace. Ryan got a bit of a chance to shine this week, and really... didn't.  Yaz was barely in it, but came across as refreshingly competent, and as usual Graham was top banana: being lost in time and space while lost in his own head is working really well.