Doctor Who

And Moffat sorta talked himself into a corner when discussing whether the previous Doctors liked being themselves.

I mean, whatever Moffat's opinions of Ten's arc, which, aside from an episode or two a year, he didn't have much control over, and while he did discuss aspects of it with Davies, it's not like he could change Davies's mind, and he probably didn't have full access to the scripts or the film reels, and a lot of the problems with the scene were that Donna was clearly and emphatically against it. Ignoring all of that, he and Davies are close friends and have been for years.

...And, I mean. Yeah, Davies sorta wrote a very shitty thing for television. Unbelievably, horrifically shitty. But I'm not entirely 100% sure it's worth ending a friendship over, especially since Davies isn't likely to be in the position to repeat that mistake.

If Donna had accepted it, decided she wanted to live, that would be one thing. But she didn't. She quite definitely would have preferred death to losing what she now had. And violating that choice is wrong.

And, no, Ten didn't seem to like himself after that. He also doesn't seem to have been self-aware enough to realize the sheer fucked-up-ness of what he actually did. His sadness seems more based on loneliness, on Donna not being able to travel with him or know him than the fact that he ignored her wishes.

EDIT: Bingo.

edited 20th Sep '14 9:57:02 AM by unnoun

Just look at what he said to Jackson: "They leave. Because they should or because they find someone else. And some of them, some of them... forget me. I suppose in the end, they break my heart." He takes no responsibility for her.

It occurs that in the original ending of Doctor's Daughter, Jennynetic Anomaly would have died so the Doctor could feel things, things that I believe are usually called 'manpain'?

Hm.

On the topic, imagine a world where the Jenny thing happened in a less packed season, where instead of not-dying at the end, she came with the Doctor for a few episodes before deciding to strike out on her own. Would that have been better or worse than what we got?

edited 20th Sep '14 10:06:42 AM by Bocaj

Better.

I would've interpreted her death as 'tying up a loose end in the plot', not 'making the Doctor feel things'.

...Yeah, I think that sounds really fucked up.

The way the end is, the Doctor gets to feel things that turn out to be ironic.

The episode still ties up the loose end in that Jenny ended up on a Long Bus Trip instead of getting fridged. But Ten still thinks she died, so the RTD Manpain is all the more tragic in that he doesn't know she's alive.

I think if she's never going to appear again, have her mentioned off-hand. Some random aliens talk about the Jenny that saved them that one time with a tea kettle, a piece of string, and an unstable strange matter defibrillator.

The Doctor's mid-life crisis. Well, his most recent one.

I can't help but think it's actually somewhat arbitrary.

When your timescale is "forever barring accidents" I'm not sure how you'd decide when you've reached the middle.

Richard Dawkins angry twitter meltdown bingo. Dawkins is relevant to Doctor Who because he's been in it once or twice and he married Romana. He's also despicable.

I really don't think making a female character a loose end to be tied up is much better.

How Easy it Is to Be a Magician (Masque of Mandragora)

Far More Than Just (The Deadly Assassin)

edited 20th Sep '14 11:07:26 AM by unnoun

It'll be so much fun to see the Next Time trailer and not have a clue what's happening.

The thing that I dislike most about what happened to Donna, in addition to unnoun said, is that is was completely unnecessary.

I mean, Donna only makes one appearance after "Journey's End", and as far as I can tell (having never seen "The End of Time") it's fairly inconsequential - it could have been cut. They could have just had her die at the send of series 4 and had that be the end of it - I think that would have been a very good ending to Donna's character arc.

But, okay, so maybe RTD didn't want to do that. Fair enough - I do think that, without this whole...fiasco hanging over them, the scenes between the Doctor and Wilf at the end would have been good scenes. All they had to do was to change just a few lines of dialogue - have Donna consent to the memory wipe. Sure, maybe it wouldn't have been perfect, but at least it would have been her choice. But no, they had to fuck it all up.

Damn it.

Wilf doesn't know the circumstances of the memory wipe. Ten just told him and her mother that there was an accident and it had to happen.

I don't find Dawkins despicable, just insufferably self-righteous.

Opinions still split on Day of the Doctor.

Personally, I was okay with Day's climax but didn't particularly like the towing scene although compared to other stuff going on in Journey's End it barely rates mentioning.

I barely remember the towing scene. What's people's problem with it again?

So, it looks like the Doctor still is trying to be Clara's boyfriend then.

I like that episode. It was cool that the Doctor managed to perform a rescue mission without even knowing what he was rescuing. Although, I did find Ms. Delphox really annoying. She said some stuff that was clearly only for exposition, and there was no reason for her to say it aside from that.

Its a pretty blatant set piece. Seems set up to give the assembled cameos something to do after they've spectacularly failed to accomplish anything.

I don't really know.

...It already aired?

Shit. I keep forgetting time zones are a thing.

Meh. There were some nice bits towards the end and Clara was pretty, but I couldn't really engage in anything. Maybe I just don't like heist episodes of anything, even sci-fi versions.

edited 20th Sep '14 12:41:54 PM by emeriin

eh, delphox was okay, I didn't find her too annoying. It was quite a fun episode, all twisty and turny. Twelve is a really fun doctor too.

Oh yeah, I'm loving Twelve. Capaldi is a phenomenal actor.

Weakest Capaldi episode so far, but still pretty good.

The script was really tight and the twist well thought out, I think the episode was let down by the editing which deprived us the time to ponder what it could be that would make the Doctor and Clara want to rob a bank, how the Teller was kept in place, or why in all the available time it was this day that the Architect chose

edited 20th Sep '14 12:52:15 PM by Whowho

I'll watch this one when I get the opportunity.

Also, I don't want to start an argument, but about that Cracked article earlier - what did they say about Orange Is the New Black? I don't even watch the show, but I'm curious what this person had to say about it...

Fun episode, if not real weighty - but given the magazine previews seem to imply we've got some rather dark episodes in the future, I can deal with a bit of light, especially since it's in keeping with the genre.

I twigged fairly early on that the Architect had to be the Doctor, and was very pleased that Saibra wasn't actually killed so early, because that would have been cheap. Also those flashes of Clara keeping her mind blank reminded me of... some other Clara scene. Not sure if visual effects or plot relevant.

Also for what it's worth I don't think that final scene is intended to imply the Doctor wants to date Clara, more that he's being possessive because someone is taking his BFF away. But I can totes see the shipper interpretation, too.

Dates do not have to be romantic.