Doctor Who - The Angels Take Manhattan

[Charlie boy]

Torchwood... It really was Hollyoaks Later but with some kind of alien threat involved.

[SmallBlueThing]

To be honest, i never had a problem with torchwood- burn gorman's character was never supposed to be 'loveable' at the start. He was a cunt who used an alien device to get laid. Yes, the characters had sex a lot more than they did in dr who, but people (not dr who fans) like to see sex on tv, and that was the point. That many dr who fans couldnt accept characters who fucked each other without emotional connections says more about dr who fans than torchwood the series. But yes, it wasnt a particularly good show in the end (though i confess to finding series one and two just as, if not more, enjoyable than the parent show, and 'children of earth' was the best thing on tv than year by a mile. Didnt bother with the american series after part one- it seemed to be just another american scifi show). But as attachments to tv characters go, id much prefer to see jack, gwen and the rest on tv than most- they were great fun.

SBT

[Proudhuff]

It's like making a sequel to Catweazle set in a brothel run by serial killers or something.

brings a whole new meaning to the term Telling-bone

[IndigoPrime]

...and Moffat didn't devise an 'adult' spin-off from the kids' show in which one of the character's was a lovable date-rapist, every character fancied/snogged/had sex with every other character, regardless of current relationship status, and the hero assisted in the suicide of someone transported from the past to the present, for no other (expletive deleted) reason than he was lonely and missed his friends and family

Mm. The whole THIS IS ADULT vibe really made me shudder with Torchwood. It was a 14-year-old's version of adult, and the date-rape thing made both my wife and I very uncomfortable.

He was a cunt who used an alien device to get laid.

Thing is, the scripts even then were trying to somehow make you sorry for him, and later on you were supposed to feel sorry for a guy that should have been jailed for life.

That many dr who fans couldnt accept characters who fucked each other without emotional connections says more about dr who fans than torchwood the series.

Not really, because the point is that the show's sense of logic was even looser than Doctor Who's. People just did things seemingly at random. No characters were particularly fleshed out. Even Captain Jack turned from being a really interesting idea (in the future, everyone's equal and so sexuality is a wider ideal that encompasses practically everything and everyone) to being this miserable gay guy.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

I also thought 'jekyll', 'chalk' and 'coupling' were awful, and much earlier i hated 'press gang'. The sooner he goes off to the states and writes some californian sitcom the better. I also dont see anything special in 'sherlock'.

Crikey.

I don't think the last couple of years of Moffat on Who have been much cop, but all those other shows were amazingly good.

[Taryn Tailz]

Has it ever been explained why no-one takes a sledgehammer to the Angels?  It's not like they can run away.

Well you would actually have to be carrying a sledgehammer at the exact time you happened to ran into one of them. Otherwise the moment you went to get a sledgehammer the Angel would get you.

[Albion]

I didn't realise Moffat wrote Coupling. It was hilarious until Jeff (Richard Coyle) left the show. It wasn't quite the same after that.

As for Dr Who......I think I'm only watching it these days because its there. When it returned I thought it was the best thing on TV but now I'm not sure what to make of it. I find it all to quick and too much is crammed into one episode.
I watched some old Tom Baker stories awhile back and the old format of a story lasting for four or five episodes was much better. They just seem to try to cram too much into 45 minutes now and for me it usually doesn't really work.

Having said that I barely watch TV these days anyway so what do I know?

[Professor Bear]

Has it ever been explained why no-one takes a sledgehammer to the Angels?  It's not like they can run away.

Well you would actually have to be carrying a sledgehammer at the exact time you happened to ran into one of them. Otherwise the moment you went to get a sledgehammer the Angel would get you.

It needn't be an actual sledgehammer, it can be anything heavy and blunt like a bit of pipe, a crowbar, a brick, and so on.

Also, were the unexplained flickering lightbulbs in all the previous episodes meant to be foreshadowing of the flickering lightbulbs in the hotel in this episode?  It would make sense seeing as they only seemed to flicker when Rory/Amy were onscreen.

[Charlie boy]

Also, were the unexplained flickering lightbulbs in all the previous episodes meant to be foreshadowing of the flickering lightbulbs in the hotel in this episode?  It would make sense seeing as they only seemed to flicker when Rory/Amy were onscreen.

I'm not sure what the flashing lightbulbs were about for certain but a friend of mine reckons it could be to suggest The Silence are still about because in The Impossible Astronaut, they made the lights flicker before killing somebody and electrical disturbances were used with them at the end of the last series.

[Proudhuff]

or it could be a handy plot device, so we don't have to stare at the victim staring at the angel until the vic falls asleep? 

[Goaty]

Doctor Who "P.S."

Find out what happened to Rory's dad and the Ponds in this unshot scene by Chris Chibnall.

I cry! 

http://youtu.be/XWU6XL9xI4k

[Dandontdare]

To be honest, i never had a problem with torchwood- burn gorman's character was never supposed to be 'loveable' at the start. He was a cunt who used an alien device to get laid. Yes, the characters had sex a lot more than they did in dr who, but people (not dr who fans) like to see sex on tv, and that was the point. That many dr who fans couldnt accept characters who fucked each other without emotional connections says more about dr who fans than torchwood the series. But yes, it wasnt a particularly good show in the end (though i confess to finding series one and two just as, if not more, enjoyable than the parent show, and 'children of earth' was the best thing on tv than year by a mile. Didnt bother with the american series after part one- it seemed to be just another american scifi show). But as attachments to tv characters go, id much prefer to see jack, gwen and the rest on tv than most- they were great fun.

SBT

This must be one of those once-per-millenium planetary alignment things as it's a who-related post by SBT and I agree with every word of it!

[SmallBlueThing]

Rock on!

SBT

[shaolin_monkey]

I watched some old Tom Baker stories awhile back and the old format of a story lasting for four or five episodes was much better. They just seem to try to cram too much into 45 minutes now and for me it usually doesn't really work.

Having said that I barely watch TV these days anyway so what do I know?

I agree 100% mate.  They are trying to come up with something new, original and fun for each episode.  They end up ramming ideas in, not developing/explaining them, and coming to a rather unsatisfactory conclusion as the Dr does something 'Wibbly-fucking-wobbly' to save the day.  What a crock of shite!

I also have revisited a lot of the Tom Baker, and some Pertwee and Troughton stuff.  The pacing is excellent - there's a real sense of danger, the cliffhangers are marvellous, and there's a feeling of the Dr having to struggle to solve the situation.  Within each 4 or 6 parter, you get a better feel for the supporting characters and even feel *shock horror* empathy and sadness when one of them gets bumped off.

These latest episodes just feel like belly button fluff.  Interesting to pick at briefly, but carried away forever on a whimsical breeze.

That said, it's Dr Who, innit.  I'm never going to not watch it.

[Professor Bear]

Doctor Who "P.S."

Find out what happened to Rory's dad and the Ponds in this unshot scene by Chris Chibnall.

I cry! 

http://youtu.be/XWU6XL9xI4k

Why was Chris Chibnall writing an epilogue to someone else's script?  And how did they adopt with no identities?  And "I am in New York but will never travel anywhere else" really does need some form of explanation if they're going to go to the bother of mentioning it.

That is one clumsy and mawkish scene.  Thank goodness they didn't shoot it.