Rassilon
Administrator
Grand Administrator
Posts: 751
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Post by Rassilon on Dec 24, 2011 3:11:57 GMT
Happy Xmas everyone!
What did you think?
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Post by Curufea on Dec 24, 2011 9:42:20 GMT
The trailer isn't encouraging - yet another parody. However, we'll see. It comes out here on Boxing Day.
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Post by Craig Oxbrow on Dec 25, 2011 22:50:21 GMT
Good, not great. Nice lines, nice ideas, didn't all fit together.
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Post by Kit on Dec 26, 2011 7:49:20 GMT
Good, not great. Nice lines, nice ideas, didn't all fit together. i'm with Craig.
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Post by Curufea on Dec 26, 2011 9:40:54 GMT
Needed more Bill Bailey It seemed a bit short to me as well - like a normal episode
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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 Dec 26, 2011 14:13:32 GMT
It was good but The Gruffalo's Child was better
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sirus
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 48
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Post by sirus on Dec 26, 2011 18:41:47 GMT
I hate to say it, but I never really think the specials are as good as the regular series shows. They always feel a bit more half-@$$ed. Good lines, good stories, but never as good as they could be.
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Post by jeffrywith1e on Dec 26, 2011 21:34:10 GMT
I loved it. I was a little unclear about some things, though. Why was he [still?] there three years later [or was he back again?] and what happened to the Caretaker the mom was expecting at the house? What was up with the Police Box? Not clear. But I did enjoy the episode a great deal. Doctor 11 seems especially good with kids.
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Post by Craig Oxbrow on Dec 26, 2011 21:49:00 GMT
He came back, apparently wishing does work.
We don't know. Perhaps he won the lottery despite there not being one at the time.
That was an actual Police Box, because they had them back then, so he said "can we try again?" indicating looking for the other Police Box in town which would be the TARDIS.
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Post by jeffrywith1e on Dec 26, 2011 22:32:49 GMT
He came back, apparently wishing does work. We don't know. Perhaps he won the lottery despite there not being one at the time. That was an actual Police Box, because they had them back then, so he said "can we try again?" indicating looking for the other Police Box in town which would be the TARDIS. Ok. I thought that he was on Earth without the TARDIS having arrived there in a space suit and all. And that seemed confirmed by the normal real police box. So I thought he was still on Earth 3 years later making a new one with all that wiring upstairs, wiring up the real police box into a new TARDIS. But that is kind of absurd even for Doctor Who and there were no more indications that this theory was what happened. He did mention something about trying to get off the planet under his breath as he was greeting the family at the house which did support that line of thought. The only other loose end that didn't make sense in my brain was one shot of the TARDIS flipping around out in space- which I assumed was unmanned.
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Post by Kit on Dec 26, 2011 23:10:05 GMT
Voyage of the Damned established that the TARDIS will home in on the nearest planet if set adrift in space. I assume this happened again in this episode.
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Post by Rel Fexive on Dec 26, 2011 23:52:59 GMT
Which would be why he had to go looking for it.
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Post by Escher on Dec 27, 2011 2:59:56 GMT
I'm with Craig & Kit.
This special felt 'nice' instead of being enthralling. Lots for the kids but not enough for the older kids and teens who grew up with Ecclestone and us adults. The Androzani tag was too much like a thrown-in device to placate the fans. It felt clumsy. It was a hundred miles away from The Girl In The Fireplace and Blink.
Under Moffat the series has grown into the 'dark fairytale' style he talked about but I feel it's lacking the emotional spikyness and urgency that Tennent's run had. This is all too evident during the Amy/ Melody Pond kidnap arc last season when it felt as if it went poof into thin air.
I'm sorry to be grumpy Mr Xmas but I really did feel it was a bit blah.
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Post by cliffordjones on Dec 27, 2011 11:45:49 GMT
I'm sorry to be grumpy Mr Xmas but I really did feel it was a bit blah. I too feel that familiar sense of guilt that comes with being a bit bah humbug about Christmas Who. It sometmes feels like it's just trying too hard to be 'Christmassy' and that is where all the focus is. So this year we end up with what is a thin pastiche of C.S. Lewis but which also was reminiscent, to me, of lots of other similar 'child/children (possibly orphaned) in a big-old-country-house-or-other-rural-location' type things such as The Secret Garden or The Railway Children. Just not really my cup of tea.
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Post by Eryx on Dec 27, 2011 20:28:37 GMT
It was a so-so average for me. I felt it was a little silly really. It took too long to get going and then just seemed to end. Could have been so much better.
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Post by Curufea on Dec 28, 2011 10:56:03 GMT
I'm assuming that the second series of Sherlock meant Moffat was distracted from refining his episode.
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Post by garethl on Dec 28, 2011 11:57:58 GMT
Well .... It was very Moffaty.
But there is a lot of potential for gaming: The Christmas present tunnel: Another way for people to travel through time and space. Apparently there are places in space where you can enter the Time Vortex by just flying into it. Anything that is a sort of metal cage can safely travel through the Vortex.(see the plane). Humanoid aliens whose method of taking over planets is by jumping out of their ships. What other naturally occurring things are there? (Christmas trees)
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Post by Kit on Dec 28, 2011 23:44:08 GMT
Well .... It was very Moffaty. But there is a lot of potential for gaming: The Christmas present tunnel: Another way for people to travel through time and space. Apparently there are places in space where you can enter the Time Vortex by just flying into it. Anything that is a sort of metal cage can safely travel through the Vortex.(see the plane). Humanoid aliens whose method of taking over planets is by jumping out of their ships. What other naturally occurring things are there? (Christmas trees) The Christmas present portal is a bit freaky. I'm not sure how to handle that. And I missed 'Humanoid aliens whose method of taking over planets is by jumping out of their ships.' when/where was this?
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Post by Rel Fexive on Dec 28, 2011 23:54:04 GMT
And I missed 'Humanoid aliens whose method of taking over planets is by jumping out of their ships.' when/where was this? I presume this relates to the bit at the beginning where the Doctor runs (at full speed just ahead of a massive explosion or ten) into an airlock area which then explodes leaving itself open to space. I imagine if he'd had the time he'd have found a shuttle or teleport or whatever, providing they hadn't already exploded.
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Post by garethl on Dec 29, 2011 9:57:15 GMT
Yeah that was what I meant, the bit where the doctor grabs the suit (humanoid) and jumps/falls to the earth. It may have been my own interpretation, but why else would they have spacesuits capable of surviving such an impact. You would only do that when you deploy soldiers or whatever, because they have no way of getting back to the ship, so I presumed that their soldiers would just jump to tactical locations. Yeah, maybe a bit far-fetched. I wonder what happened to the crew of that spaceship?
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Post by Curufea on Dec 29, 2011 10:11:12 GMT
I'm assuming that a spaceship capable of re-entry is the perfect spacesuit - you would not need escape pods or re-entry vehicles for precisely the reasons the Doctor created - ie catastrophic malfunction of the ship.
If you had the technology, why wouldn't you build a re-entry capable spacesuit? You always need spacesuits if in space, they're ubiquitous and necessary.
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Post by garethl on Dec 29, 2011 10:29:46 GMT
I'm assuming that a spaceship capable of re-entry is the perfect spacesuit - you would not need escape pods or re-entry vehicles for precisely the reasons the Doctor created - ie catastrophic malfunction of the ship. If you had the technology, why wouldn't you build a re-entry capable spacesuit? You always need spacesuits if in space, they're ubiquitous and necessary. I can imagine that they would be a lot more expensive and possibly less practical than not re-entry capable spacesuits. I don't know, the spacesuit just felt a bit out of place IMHO.
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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 Dec 29, 2011 19:19:37 GMT
I wouldn't spend too much time trying to import logic into the teaser.
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Post by Craig Oxbrow on Dec 30, 2011 2:25:02 GMT
Yeah, it's pretty much an excuse to have the Doctor stumbling around with a space helmet on backwards.
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korith
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 131
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Post by korith on Jan 5, 2012 15:17:14 GMT
Well, a re-entry capable suit would take less resources to construct than a re-entry capable shuttle, though more advanced technology (including some sort of inertial dampener miniaturized to the point where it works in such a suit) would be a requirement.
There are also space savings in ship design to account for - and having rows on rows of space suits would make it easier to access them in the event of a hull breach or similar catastrophe.
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Post by cliffordjones on Jan 5, 2012 21:03:29 GMT
Yeah, it's pretty much an excuse to have the Doctor stumbling around with a space helmet on backwards. Yes, pretty much so that The Doctor could meet the widow but she wouldn't be able to immediately recognize him later in the episode. It's a shame that they didn't/couldn't/wouldn't get David Tennant* to do the pre-titles sequence. That would have been awesome. *Or Paul McGann (now that really would have been awesome).
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Post by jeffrywith1e on Jan 5, 2012 22:02:14 GMT
I'm assuming that the second series of Sherlock meant Moffat was distracted from refining his episode. ...and what a start! I thought A Scandal in Belgravia was wonderful! I just love that show.
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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 Jan 5, 2012 22:22:01 GMT
Paul McGann is superb as the eighth Doctor in the Big Finish audio dramas
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Post by Rel Fexive on Jan 5, 2012 22:53:18 GMT
I'm listening to the latest of his audios now, the 10 episode series. Great stuff.
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Post by cliffordjones on Jan 6, 2012 1:10:44 GMT
If the 8th Doctor doesn't put in an appearance as part of the 2013 anniversary celebrations I shall be writing to Points of View.
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