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Dr Who 23/4/11: The Impossible Spaceman

Started by Jim_Campbell, 23 April, 2011, 06:57:39 PM

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Jim_Campbell

Spoilers on this thread,  inevitably. Don't read any further if that's a problem -- it's unlikely that everyone will use the tags.

[spoiler]Um. Wow. Yes, OK. Am I imagining that, or was that the same (or a very similar) spaceship to the one from the slightly inexplicable Lodger episode last series?

Creepy, scary, Twitter full of gratifying accounts of children cowering behind sofas, and a zonking great thunderstorm rolling around over large parts of the country for this series opener.

All in all, not a bad start. Not bad at all.[/spoiler]

Cheers

Jim
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klute

Ive a DR Who fan on and off for the last 30 years atleast this is the first ive watched since the change of doctors.

Ive missed out quite a bit but that was a good episode and now has me hooked
loveforstitch - Does he fall in love? I like a little romance in all my movies.

Rekaert - Yes, he demonstrates it with bullets, punches and sentencing.

He's Mega City 1's own Don Juan.

W. R. Logan

I didnt get it, must admit its the first Who I've seem with Matt Smith but it just seemed to me that all the things that annoyed me about the other new 'Who's' are still there and maybe even worse, just running around, pulling levers and lots of people trying to tell people stuff and never quite managing it. For gods sake has anyone ever wanted to say something and never been able to fit it in especially with all the pauses in their dialogue.

For me Alex Kingston was the best thing about it, I admit I think she's fit but her character actually seemed interesting.

I'll watch it next week but I wont be suprised if it isnt just a lot of shouting and running round in circles.


chilipenguin

Fuck me, that was a bit good. Great start to the series. I can't wait to see where it goes, and the Silence are the first truly creepy monsters for a long time. A couple of early questions/theories...
[spoiler]
Where is the future Doc's TARDIS? He appears to have driven into the desert so maybe it has been lost by that point in his timeline. Oh, or possibly it's linked to the meta-TARDIS that River and Rory found. They're grown right? So, it could be a 'cutting' of some sort of the big blue.[/spoiler]

Greg M.

I thought it was a superb episode, in many ways quintessential Moffatt. (Should watch it again using Adrian's bingo board.) A lot of nods of the head to other episodes or classic Moffatty inflections though. We have [spoiler]creatures that it's dangerous to take your eyes off (just like the Weeping Angels), temporal paradox, spooky little children, impossible communications, haunted astronaut suits ('Forest of the Dead')[/spoiler] - the works. Agree with Mr. Penguin... those aliens were terrifying. And yup, Jim is right... [spoiler]that was indeed the ship from The Lodger.[/spoiler] Very impressive start to the series.

House of Usher

I liked it but I didn't have the patience for the story. I just laughed at the clever-funny dialogue, goggled at the scary aliens, played spot the Cardiff location filming and ogled at Alex Kingston, then asked the good woman to explain it to me. And drank whisky.
STRIKE !!!

Dan Kelly

Thought that was great. Albeit a tad scary for 6pm - I think I'm in trouble with my sis in law for getting my 2.5 yr niece too scared. As she doesn't habitually watch Who the "dr will fix it" doesn't really work.

Loved the suggestion that [spoiler]the chameleon circuit is just one more thing that the dr has forgotten about how to drive the Tardis[/spoiler]. And the official tease of a spoiler was dealt with deftly in the first few minutes to set up the whole shebang. Wonderful.

CrazyFoxMachine

No. No it was just horrible.

It was so complicated and confusing! I long for the days of Russell T Davies when there was only one plot a series, and there was a clear romance between the companion and the Doctor - when all of the characters weren't complex and the monsters were just animal heads.



...but seriously I've heard people actually saying things like this. Good lord I'm glad they don't have anything to do with it. It's nice to have a head writer with a brain :)

Adrian Bamforth


Paul faplad Finch

Quote from: CrazyFoxMachine on 23 April, 2011, 08:00:02 PM
It was so complicated and confusing! I long for the days of Russell T Davies...

...but seriously I've heard people actually saying things like this.

Comments like this are cropping up online, from people who watch and review television - science fiction television specifically - for a living.

Although to be fair, SFX (the only print sci-fi mag I read, can't speak for any others) have been up RTDs arse for years so I suppose it's not something that should come as a surprise.
It doesn't mean that round my way
Pessimism is Realism - Optimism is Insanity
The Impossible Quest
Musings Of A Nobody
Stuff I've Read

Colin YNWA

Well to be fair I thought it was just okay. Nice set up and all but no sense of were its going as an episode in its own right. It seemed almost too self satisfied, like it was enjoying all the mysteries it was dangling in front of us. Some of the poignant dialogue seemed so self consciously poignant. I have a few theories about stuff but assume that I was meant to have them and was being led down a path so that when everything comes out it'll feel more twisty.

Still much to like and I really enjoyed the not FBI fella, great character. Looking forward to seeing where ALL the things set up led.

Greg M.

Let's see.. by my count that's an arguable 11 out of 16 on the Moffattometer. (Cheers, Adrian!) Which I calculate to be about the same as 'The Empty Child'. Worthy company.  :)

Dandontdare

Well I thoroughly enjoyed that, very good episode with lots of lovely touches. Nice to see it dedicated to Lis Sladen.

The only bit that confused me was [spoiler]River talking about them meeting in the wrong order, and that her worst day will be the one when she meets the doctor again but he won't have any idea who she is - but didn't we already get that when WE first met River? It was the first time for him, but she didn't seem that gutted.[/spoiler]

Oh and I bet it's [spoiler]Amy in the spacesuit[/spoiler]

The Monarch

And now for the page brothers thoery...

[spoiler]River said that her and the doctors timelines are moving in oposite directions. He first meets her when she dies...therefore she first meets him whens shes killing him. Shes the impossible astronaut![/spoiler]

auxlen