Rassilon
Administrator
Grand Administrator
Posts: 751
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Post by Rassilon on Aug 30, 2012 16:22:36 GMT
What did you think?
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Post by Craig Oxbrow on Sept 8, 2012 22:06:42 GMT
Maybe I wasn't in the mood. I liked the asides, Ponds and Brian, Nefertiti, Mitchell And Webb 2.0, the Indian Space Agency, and indeed the dinosaurs and the spaceship, but was eh on the conflict and the resolution. It just felt rather... off, a bum note instead of a character turn, especially in an episode that otherwise felt particularly kid-friendly. A bit where, were I GMing, I'd ask the player "are you sure you want to do that?"
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Post by Craig Oxbrow on Sept 8, 2012 22:09:15 GMT
Anyway, here's the mini-Confidential for the Triceratops and the robots. It doesn't mention that the robots are visiting from the props department for Mission 2110. Not that I mind, they're fine robots and worthy guest stars.
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Post by Escher on Sept 8, 2012 22:30:56 GMT
I thought it was darker than usual. The cute Triceratops and then it's slaughter; the genocide of the Silurians and the Doctor's ruthless response. I also just noticed the opening titles are darker and a bit Halloweeny. I wonder if this is setting up the grim season finale?
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Post by Rel Fexive on Sept 8, 2012 23:48:38 GMT
It was all in good fun. End then the genociding, and the dino-killing, and the cold judgement.
In other words, good Doctor Who!
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Post by garethl on Sept 9, 2012 9:03:44 GMT
It was all in good fun. End then the genociding, and the dino-killing, and the cold judgement. In other words, good Doctor Who! Agreed! Was better than "Asylum of the Daleks", no really obvious plot-holes this time. At the end, it turned a bit dark. Was thinking the Doctor teleported Solomon away at the last minute... but he didn't. He didn't even give him a second chance. You could say that Solomon wasn't any better than a Dalek (genocide, etc.), but in the series four finale the Doctor tried to save Davros. Or it is meant to show that the distance between the Doctor and the Ponds is growing, because only the Queen Nefertiti, who was rather ruthless and threatening Riddel with execution, was near the Doctor "as companion" when he executed his plan.
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Post by da professor on Sept 9, 2012 10:07:28 GMT
It's not impossible that Solomon survived. If he was going too fast for the missiles to catch up, they would have run into each other, hence an explosion which could have masked his escape... though the shockwave might have damaged his ship and the clients hoping to buy dinos would have been unhappy with him.
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Post by Curufea on Sept 9, 2012 10:25:58 GMT
I also just noticed the opening titles are darker and a bit Halloweeny. The titles appear to matching the theme of the episode - the first ep had Dalek dots, and this one had reptillian green.
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Post by Rel Fexive on Sept 9, 2012 11:14:27 GMT
But the whole Vortex-thing and the TARDIS is sort of darker and blurrier this series too for some reason. I wonder if there's reason for that?
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stahlman
3rd Incarnation
Doctor, stop wasting my time, will you?
Posts: 222
Favourite Doctors: second,third,fourth
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Post by stahlman on Sept 9, 2012 17:42:22 GMT
Solomon would be a successful character in the average Traveller campaign. Having Queen Nefertiti as a player companion would be fun -all in all a good gaming episode. I think the Silurian spacecraftvisually echoed, Gent the intelligent menacing craft from series 1 of Space 1999.
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sirus
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 48
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Post by sirus on Sept 9, 2012 19:33:46 GMT
Not the best I've seen, but no where near the worst. I really enjoyed it. A dark ending, but it's seemed that MT's Doc is much darker than DT's Doc so I really wasn't to surprised at what he did.
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Post by Curufea on Sept 10, 2012 3:56:16 GMT
David's Doctor got very dark - especially towards the end (e.g. Waters of Mars) Matt's is more that he doesn't have the time to reform characters - it's like as he mentions in "Let's Kill Hitler" - he doesn't waste time punishing dead people.
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Post by Mark Anthony Quested on Sept 10, 2012 10:00:10 GMT
On Gallifrey Base, I gave both stories (Asylum and Dinosaurs) 10 out of 10. I loved both. I also enjoyed Pond Life.
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Post by imajica on Sept 10, 2012 15:17:24 GMT
Wasn't the best episode I've seen, wasn't the worst. For Episode 2 of a season fare, it was pretty solid. Not a fan of the new title sequence, even my kids don't like the blurriness, but things change. Not sure about next week's episode, but we'll see.
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Post by Kit on Sept 10, 2012 23:22:36 GMT
I watched the episode and thought, "some GM is really enjoying playing with his new Primeval RPG...'
it was a fun ep and i loved Mr Weasely and love that the Silurians had starships
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Post by Curufea on Sept 10, 2012 23:26:13 GMT
it was a fun ep and i loved Mr Weasely and love that the Silurians had starships Which means we may see a Silurian colony sometime...
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Post by boxer01 on Sept 11, 2012 12:35:33 GMT
I thought the transtemporal value index a nifty plot device and was sad when I realized that I couldn't really steal it for my much more grounded sci-fi game.
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jay042
3rd Incarnation
Working on some art.
Posts: 264
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Post by jay042 on Sept 11, 2012 14:01:21 GMT
You know, that does bring up an interesting thought to me...
Silurians leave Earth millions of years ago, and possibly go and colonize the galaxy. Could it be that several of the reptilian species we've run into through the series such as Ice Warriors and Draconians, are in fact evolutionary off shoots of homo reptilius?
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Post by Eryx on Sept 11, 2012 15:03:47 GMT
I found it to be a fun episode but not a great one. It was just too much of the silly. Why did we need Nefertiti in there for a start? Loved the Silurian element. I did not like that the Doctor killed Soloman though. That was very un-Doctor like.
One thing I did sort of notice is the look that the Doctor keeps having towards Amy as though he knows something bad is going to happen.
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misterharry
Dominus Tempus
Dalek Caan's Lovechild
Posts: 3,236
Favourite Doctors: Second, Third, Fourth, Eleventh, Thirteenth
Traits: Empathic, Face in the Crowd, Insatiable Curiosity, Stubborn, Phobia (Heights), Unadventurous
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Post by misterharry on Sept 11, 2012 18:48:30 GMT
Finally got to watch this episode today and really enjoyed it. I'm sure that there are many fans who don't like that the Doctor effectively killed the villain, but it didn't feel out of place to me. After all, the 10th Doctor was more direct in killing the Sycorax leader in The Christmas Invasion (other examples may be available, but that's the one that sprang to mind).
Loved Rory's Dad and hope we see more of him - is the implication that he travels with the Doctor for a while after this story?
And Mitchell and Webb - sublime!
I enjoyed the inclusion of Nefertiti - except that I was already planning a DWAITAS scenario based around her husband, Akhenaten (formerly Amenhotep IV). Ah well...
Riddell however seemed a bit wasted in this story.
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Post by garethl on Sept 11, 2012 19:13:06 GMT
Finally got to watch this episode today and really enjoyed it. I'm sure that there are many fans who don't like that the Doctor effectively killed the villain, but it didn't feel out of place to me. After all, the 10th Doctor was more direct in killing the Sycorax leader in The Christmas Invasion (other examples may be available, but that's the one that sprang to mind). This time was a bit different though. IIRC, in The Christmas Invasion, the Doctor gave him a peaceful option, but then the leader tried to attack him. "No second chances." Solomon was perfectly willing, even offering rewards to the Doctor, for a peaceful solution/surrender. And then the Doctor killed him. Loved Rory's Dad and hope we see more of him - is the implication that he travels with the Doctor for a while after this story? No, I think Rory's Dad is travelling our own world in our own time. Whereas before he would only go to the shops and the golf. The card from Siluria is from the Doctor.
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misterharry
Dominus Tempus
Dalek Caan's Lovechild
Posts: 3,236
Favourite Doctors: Second, Third, Fourth, Eleventh, Thirteenth
Traits: Empathic, Face in the Crowd, Insatiable Curiosity, Stubborn, Phobia (Heights), Unadventurous
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Post by misterharry on Sept 11, 2012 19:38:49 GMT
Finally got to watch this episode today and really enjoyed it. I'm sure that there are many fans who don't like that the Doctor effectively killed the villain, but it didn't feel out of place to me. After all, the 10th Doctor was more direct in killing the Sycorax leader in The Christmas Invasion (other examples may be available, but that's the one that sprang to mind). This time was a bit different though. IIRC, in The Christmas Invasion, the Doctor gave him a peaceful option, but then the leader tried to attack him. "No second chances." Solomon was perfectly willing, even offering rewards to the Doctor, for a peaceful solution/surrender. And then the Doctor killed him. I take the point about "no second chances", though I think the Doctor had given Solomon several chances by this time. And as for Solomon offering rewards, well that's never going to improve your position with the Doctor. I wonder whether this aspect of the Doctor's character is going to influence the theme of the rest of the season? Ah yes, of course. I think I just got carried away with the thought of Brian travelling with the Doctor.
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Post by Escher on Sept 11, 2012 22:53:46 GMT
I watched the episode and thought, "some GM is really enjoying playing with his new Primeval RPG...' I couldn't agree more !
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Post by Curufea on Sept 12, 2012 4:37:43 GMT
There's also the implication of the Doctor's continued arrogance and lack of empathy in his 11th incarnation - he has no problems with kidnapping people, and doesn't even bother to see if anyone else is present. I do like that Brian used a regular bulb, and Rory used a long life flourescent though Shows a change in generation.
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Post by Kit on Sept 16, 2012 1:25:25 GMT
Anyone else giving thought to Rory's age? He says hes 31. He wont be 31 til 2020...
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Post by Escher on Sept 16, 2012 4:28:15 GMT
Anyone else giving thought to Rory's age? He says hes 31. He wont be 31 til 2020... Yes, and also from The Eleventh Hour: Rory's ID issued in 1990
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Post by da professor on Sept 16, 2012 10:19:40 GMT
Anyone else giving thought to Rory's age? He says hes 31. He wont be 31 til 2020... Yes, and also from The Eleventh Hour: Rory's ID issued in 1990If Rory somehow is 31, that ID was issued when he was 9!
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Post by Rel Fexive on Sept 16, 2012 12:29:44 GMT
It's an old production error, spotted long ago. However, it would work if that were his birthday instead of the issue date....
But consider this: Amy first met the Doctor when she was seven. He returned twelve years later (to deal with Zero and the Atraxi) and again on the eve of her wedding (at the end of The Eleventh Hour) which was two years after that. So at that point, and (roughly) when she and Rory got married, she was therefore twenty one. Rory is of an age with her and they were in the same year in school. So he was also twenty one then. Both barring extra time spent time travelling in the meantime, of course. Which we'll get to in a sec.
But in this episode Rory says he is thirty one. How? Simple: they've been living their lives alternately at home and with the Doctor for ten subjective years. Hence Amy's comment in ...Mercy about their friends possibly noticing they are now older than they should be.
Does that mean that the 'present day' for the Ponds is 2020? Or is it 2012-ish with an extra eight years of living in the mix? I think next week's episode may help answering that.
Since their age is, as I understand, intended to be a ever-present theme leading to their departure the "I'm 31" is neither random nor wrong, but significant.
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Post by ugavine on Sept 16, 2012 19:58:51 GMT
I thought this was just a fun episode. Enjoyed it.
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