Rassilon
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Post by Rassilon on Sept 2, 2014 11:15:47 GMT
What did you think?
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,752
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Sept 6, 2014 19:18:41 GMT
I liked that. A little silly but I liked it. Good but not great.
"I am the Doctor and this is my spoon!"
Since when can the sonic screwdriver do that?
The Promised Land seems to be the arc for this season.
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Post by Rel Fexive on Sept 6, 2014 19:23:38 GMT
Exploding arrowhead activated by the sonic?
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,752
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Sept 6, 2014 19:47:36 GMT
Exploding arrowhead activated by the sonic? I should have thought of that, very plausible given he admitted gimmicking the arrow. |
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Post by da professor on Sept 7, 2014 8:48:39 GMT
Three episodes with broken technology, two with a mention of 'The Promised Land' and two with appearances of 'Missy'. Hmmm.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,752
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Sept 7, 2014 9:30:15 GMT
Three episodes with broken technology, two with a mention of 'The Promised Land' and two with appearances of 'Missy'. Hmmm. And two events of rather primitive time travel to Earth's past; the 51st century SS Marie Antoinette and the 29th century ship that ended up in Nottingham. Some sort of evacuation from the future? |
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Post by Rel Fexive on Sept 7, 2014 9:52:22 GMT
Amusing to note that one of the fictional Robin Hoods that was displayed was played by none other than Patrick Troughton!
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Post by Escher on Sept 7, 2014 14:01:20 GMT
Interesting. This was a like combo of classic and new Who. Very enjoyable episode. A bit pantomime in places but I thought this was cleverly dealt with as the Doctor kind of broke the fourth wall in a sense with him mirroring that viewpoint (‘they are not real, they can’t be…no one has teeth that white, why are you all laughing...etc.’).
The bantering while the Doctor and Robin were captive was great fun.
We see more facets of his personality and I’m starting to warm to him. He is a cranky middle-aged grump with no-nonsense demeanour (a kind of 1st & 3rd Doc mix in places). Personally, I felt we didn’t really see any endearing qualities or warmth in him for the first two episodes but now his personality is becoming more defined. I think I’ll need a few more episodes before I can make a firm judgement.
Missy…the woman in shop?…needy egomaniac game-player?… could she be…
The Master? / Mistress?
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Post by Stormcrow on Sept 7, 2014 15:18:55 GMT
I wasn't thrilled with Robin Hood being real. Robin Hood wasn't just made up; the folklore evolved over time. Maid Marian, for instance, didn't show up until the 16th century.
Every franchise with time travel ends up staging a Robin Hood episode. The show's protagonist always fights on a log over a stream with either Robin Hood or Little John, and they always participate in the archery contest. And I'll bet the show's creators think they're doing something terribly clever.
This is why I like the depiction in Time Bandits so much. They completely subvert the whole thing.
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Post by ninjaconor on Sept 7, 2014 15:45:36 GMT
Wasn't fond of this one at all. It kind of flew in the face of the darker tone they've been building. I think I might have enjoyed it better with Matt Smith, but it didn't really work as a Capaldi episode.
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thereviewer
3rd Incarnation
Posts: 278
Favourite Doctors: Jodie Whittaker, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, David Tennant, Christopher Eccelston, John Hurt, Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy, Peter Davison, Tom Baker, William Hartnell
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Post by thereviewer on Sept 7, 2014 16:39:14 GMT
I rather enjoyed the episode alot. Again, might've preferred if it were a Matt Smith Episode, but I overall thought it was great. I epsicially loved the ending and all the mideval fights. Nicely well done, even the spoon fight.
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Post by olegrand on Sept 7, 2014 19:12:53 GMT
I rather enjoyed the episode alot. Again, might've preferred if it were a Matt Smith Episode, but I overall thought it was great. I epsicially loved the ending and all the mideval fights. Nicely well done, even the spoon fight. I personally saw it as the reverse of a typical 11th Doctor episode: instead of having the Doctor playing the fidgety, hyperactive clown / enchanter making fun (or pretending to make light) of a dramatic situation, we had the dour, almost misanthropic 12th Doctor refusing to suspend his disbelief when faced with laughing outlaws and other flynnesque clichés - I think this contrast, this opposition was the core concept of the episode and was very adeptly handled. It also turned the traditional "ah, so the historical truth was very different from the legend" trope upside down, leaving the legendary Robin Hood as an obviously a-historical, "impossible" truth - something of an enigma, even for the blasé old Doctor. Robin Hood as "the impossible hero" (just like the Doctor himself). And Peter Capaldi's performance really is astounding. So far, I've not been terribly keen on the scripts themselves (as opposed to Capaldi's stellar acting) nor on the "Missy" bits, which do feel too much like a rehash of Madam Kovarian (and no, I don't think such "season arcs" or "metaplots" should become more important than the stories themselves), but this one was really good, in a delibaretly light-hearted way. |
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,752
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Sept 7, 2014 19:46:19 GMT
I wasn't thrilled with Robin Hood being real. Robin Hood wasn't just made up; the folklore evolved over time. Maid Marian, for instance, didn't show up until the 16th century. Every franchise with time travel ends up staging a Robin Hood episode. The show's protagonist always fights on a log over a stream with either Robin Hood or Little John, and they always participate in the archery contest. And I'll bet the show's creators think they're doing something terribly clever. This is why I like the depiction in Time Bandits so much. They completely subvert the whole thing. Well the only other explicitly time travel retelling of Robin Hood I remember was Hawke's The Ivanhoe Gambit. That had a rather different blend of elements of the Robin Hood and Ivanhoe legends, with Robin Hood and Little John as incompetent drunks (and terrible shots) and Robin completely dominated by "Maid" Marian, the sheriff's wife and the real leader of the Merry Men. And there was an independent renegade time traveller living in comfort in the forest who the outlaws were terrified of. That story was also peppered with weapons with high tech enhancements (sonic weapons, electric-shock swords, an "unbreakable" lance and homing arrows) that failed inconveniently. In the end the battle at the castle was fought with sub-machine guns and grenades... |
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Post by Stormcrow on Sept 8, 2014 14:08:12 GMT
Other examples of the trope include The Time Tunnel episode "The Revenge of Robin Hood" (Tony versus Little John with quarterstaves, but in a field, not on a log over water; I don't think this one has an archery contest, as they're busy in all-out war); Voyagers! episode "An Arrow Pointing East" (Bogg versus Little John with quarterstaves on a log over water; Bogg pretends to be a disguised Robin Hood in the archery contest). Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Qpid" manages to avoid both the Little John fight and the archery contest.
Another aspect of the Little John/log fight is that it always ends with the time traveler making friends with Little John or Robin Hood.
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Post by imajica on Sept 8, 2014 16:33:22 GMT
Time Bandits certainly did Robin Hood best of all recent(ish) goes. John Cleese can't be beaten. As we've all recently been on a Blackadder-DVDfest, the first thing that struck us about this Robin Hood was how Flasheart-esque he was. Halfway expected him to woof. Anyway. Time travel and Robin Hood. "Erasmus Hobart and the Golden Arrow." This season of Who appears to have borrowed a couple or three ideas from the book already... www.amazon.co.uk/Erasmus-Hobart-Golden-Arrow-Andrew-ebook/dp/B00A61ZTWWIt's a quick read but it's worth a laugh! |
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Post by Escher on Sept 8, 2014 16:43:26 GMT
Anyone spot the Venusian Aikido?
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Post by Rel Fexive on Sept 8, 2014 18:24:23 GMT
Yes! I'd forgotten that!
"HAAII!"
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Aerzyk
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 25
Favourite Doctors: All of them, particularly Hartnell & McGann!
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Post by Aerzyk on Sept 11, 2014 11:16:23 GMT
This one was okay, a little too silly for me, but I really enjoyed Capaldi. Also, that golden arrow would be pretty damn heavy, not sure it would've been able to fly & hit the ship that was rocketing away on rockets, let alone stick in it (gold's pretty soft). Another thing, they were at 83% engine capacity, right? That little bit of gold from the arrow smacking the exterior of the ship was enough to boost it into space??
I know it's Doctor Who, but that really broke my verisimilitude at the end there.
PS: I will say that I really liked the whole, "I'm as real as you are" thing at the very end, though.
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Post by Stormcrow on Sept 11, 2014 12:32:44 GMT
Really? You believed the existence of Robin Hood et. al, the splitting of arrow after arrow, and it was the golden arrow at the end you had trouble with?  |
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Aerzyk
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 25
Favourite Doctors: All of them, particularly Hartnell & McGann!
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Post by Aerzyk on Sept 12, 2014 18:52:25 GMT
lol, I guess it was just the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak.
Like I said, a little too silly for me. =D
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Post by adhseidh on Sept 12, 2014 19:44:50 GMT
2 time traveling spacecraft with the robotic crew looking for the promised land. In this one the promised land is shown as an orange planet.
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Post by The Cyberneticist on Sept 12, 2014 20:10:03 GMT
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Post by imajica on Sept 29, 2014 11:09:26 GMT
This episode is growing on me more and more. It's the first time I've seen my wife actually laugh while watching Dr Who! The banter between Hood and Who is excellent. Yes, so it's a bit silly in places. Could the spoon not be a nod to "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves?" and "I'll cut your heart out with a spoon!".
Every series needs to remember not to take itself too seriously.
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Post by Eryx on Nov 24, 2014 13:41:03 GMT
Didn't like it. The dialogue was awful. If this had been done as something similar to The Time Warrior it would have probably been really good. Instead it was silly jokes, awful dialogue and too many attempts to make the episode funny. Disappointing.
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rulandor
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 149
Favourite Doctors: Three, Four, Seven, War, Twelve
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Post by rulandor on Mar 10, 2015 19:47:44 GMT
Didn't like it. The dialogue was awful. If this had been done as something similar to The Time Warrior it would have probably been really good. Instead it was silly jokes, awful dialogue and too many attempts to make the episode funny. Disappointing. Same with me. Didn't like it at all. Bad dialogue, silly acting, silly script. And all the distortions of history by the Robin Hood mythos - "good king Richard", "bad prince john" - are canonised. Absolute rubbish. And the "silly doctor, clever Clara" motive is longe since overdone. It won't get any funnier by endless repetition. Never expected a Mark Gatiss script of this abysmal quality. |
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