Doctor Who

I enjoyed this episode. Mark Gatiss isn't the best writer, but I think he'd be amazing with a steampunk Victorian era adventure series to write. This sort of thing is well within his wheelhouse.

I also loved the reference to Alpha Centauri at the end.

You mean that part with the alien that makes contact with the Ice Queen? Is that a Mythology Gag to the old school Who? Because it sure felt like one.

Yep, Alpha Centauri showed up in two Third Doctor stories, the Curse of Peladon and the Monster of Peladon. It's a representative of the planet Alpha Centauri at first and later becomes the representative of the Galactic Federation to Peladon. Alpha Centauri is a friend of the Doctor and unambiguously a good...person (that species are hermaphrodites). They even got the original voice actress back, at 94 years old!

edited 11th Jun '17 8:04:45 AM by Zendervai

I thought so.

It reeked of a Mythology Gag from the moment I saw it.

The episode was actually quite okay. I liked that almost all sides of the conflict had a reasonable combination of motivations instead of being the Unreasonable Evil Bad. Except the captain. I hoped that when he took the Queen hostage, he would have tried to negotiate for the whole regiment get to leave the planet, instead of just himself.

Also, what became of the rest of the British soldiers? Alpha Centauri ship discreetly dropped them to back to where they were found? Or did they all swear fealty to the Martians?

This episode has by far the best characterisation of Bill since the pilot.

I guess it wasn't too bad, I already know I don't like Gatiss' writing, and at times it felt even more "but the answer is in the middle!!11!" than usual, but it was ok. Once again a good idea with bad writing is saved by a good director. Although the lie of the land had a good episode in there somewhere, while this just had a gatiss episode in there.

BTW in audio drama The Lives of Captain Jack (Big Finish Doctor Who, so it's canon) true name of Jack Harkness was finally revealed.

So... he's name is Javic Piotr Thane

So, for some reason, I totally want an episode where a male companion (probably new) has to beat a Cyberman in a fist fight...

Or the Doctor Teams with with a WWE superstar to defeat a new alien threat in one on one combat.

You're all free to consider me insane.

You want The Doctor to make Roman look really, really strong?

Screw him.

I'm talking Shinsuke Nakamura!

Or Finn Balor maybe.

Or even Tyler Bate, to stick with England.

I don't hate Roman, but him being on the show would probably do more harm than good.

Jacobi is back as The Master [Big Finish only]

Only on Big Finish eh?

I suppose it can't be helped. He was only really the Master for a few short minutes.

Anyway, I caught the parts of the last episode that I missed. I find the circumstances behind the Tardis returning very circumspect. A lever (that doesn't look like it should be able to move on its own) just does so all of a sudden, and Nardole, who should know as much about the Tardis as the Doctor at this point, can't get it to return. The only option is Missy.

Now, the thing is, I think it's obvious that the Doctor's old enemy is behind this...it's just a question of which version.

Missy might have found a way to engineer it, and her seeming Heel–Face Turn is a big old snow job, but with Simm master slated to be back, I actually wonder if this was his doing, and Missy really is (for now) genuine about changing her ways. Time will tell, and both are on the table.

A bit here and there this week. I thought the explanation for the crows was very cheesy and the lengthy Doctor/Missy interactions scenes felt like it was padding out an underlength script.

give us a kiss

I just love the scene with bisexuality being normal. Accurate too, no matter what homophobes are gonna say,

So this was great.

Anyone expecting "Survival but with a budget and queerness" is gonna be disappointed, though. You've got the general theme of senseless violence being...senseless...but that's about where it ends. "Eaters of the Light" is very much its own beast.

I really liked the comments about sexuality this episode, and the diversity was pretty cool too. It was a fun little episode.

Where do you people live to have seen the episode already. It's still hours away where I am.

It's aired in England already.

I don't live there.

Infer what you will.

I choose to infer that you're from another planet and you've been stealing cable.

>"Survival but with a budget and queerness"

Wasn't Survival where Ace developed a lesbian crush on a cheetah woman?

Yep

I meant, like, explicit queerness.

Survival kinda dances around it, because 80s.

The directing was fantastic. This was a gorgeous looking episode. I've been enjoying the season so far (with caveats around the Monk trilogy of episodes, which all have a weird problem where all of them would be way better...with different surrounding episodes) and this one is a high-water mark.

I love how the writer Knows we expect Bill to have a textual lesbian connection with the first woman she meets, and but then has the screaming and the chasing.