Doctor Who *Spoilers Abound! We've lost Containment*

KidDork wrote:

It's good to see Troughton getting the love he deserves. The Eleventh is very much the Second Doctor but with a much younger body.

Yup. All the moments where Smith plays it dark and vengeful echo the Second Doctor like crazy. I'm really eager to see what sort of tone the Eleventh takes from tonight's episode onwards, particularly after all the build-up and likely foreshadowing we witnessed in episodes one through three this year.

It's sad, I know, but I am pretty nervous about tonight's episode.

Me too, spider_j. My only hope for it not to be soul-crushing (at least as far as family-friendly light sci-fi adventure tv goes) is for Rory to be insanely heroic once more. That's the only thing that could make me feel good about what's bound to be a heart-breaking series of events.

I was saying last week, and man, this is rough, but...if death is going to be involved, they need to both die.

Well, now that I've seen it ...

Spoiler:

AMELIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spoiler:

But seriously, that felt kind of rushed. Like the past four episodes. I love the Ponds, but I'm ready for a new companion and some actual adventures.

Spoiler:

It's pretty dusty in here. It's getting in my eyes.

spider_j wrote:
Spoiler:

It's pretty dusty in here. It's getting in my eyes.

Spoiler:

I must of eaten something spicy...

Two things..

Spoiler:

Is it The Doctor that is erasing himself or is it Oswin?

I thought the Pond's went out just as they should.

Demiurge wrote:

Well, now that I've seen it ...

Spoiler:

AMELIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spoiler:

But seriously, that felt kind of rushed. Like the past four episodes. I love the Ponds, but I'm ready for a new companion and some actual adventures.

Spoiler:

Says the man that can't even wait for it to come on in his time zone to watch it...

And yes, quite dusty in here.

yowza!

Spoiler:

Frakkin' statue of Liberty!!

Moff's still got it, and what's more, he can do insane heartbreak while being insanely humane. For as fast as that all played out, the ending was so perfect, I had to remind myself that I should still feel sad for the Doctor.

That said, let's go Xmas, clap clap, &c.

>Sniff<

Edit for funny observation:

Spoiler:

Rory racked up 3 more deaths in this one episode.

sometimesdee wrote:
Spoiler:

Frakkin' statue of Liberty!!

Spoiler:

The lady and I were wondering about that, after the fact.

The Statue of Liberty is apparently, in that reality/timeline, a massive freaking Weeping Angel. It starts walking around New York City, thumping down the street making massive amounts of noise.

How odd is it that nobody is looking at it? Because, you know, it couldn't be moving around if even a single person in New York City, the City That Never Sleeps, was looking at it wondering why it was taking a stroll down the street in the middle of the night. Right?

It was still funny, though.

[spoiler]one thing that struck me was the lack of people generally. Aside from the collector and his goons, New York was very, very quiet.

The ending for the Ponds was pretty perfect, in reflection. They got to live a life without having to constantly choose between relative, if displaced, normality, and the Doctor. Amy had to make her choice, and made absolutely the right one.

Since when could the Doctor use regeneration energy to heal others? I assume that it is a quirk of his unique relationship with River, or perhaps because it was her energy to start with; if not, he's left a fair few people to die or suffer that he could have saved.

Was there a fight with the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man in this episode?

Keldar wrote:

New York City, the City That Never Sleeps[/spoiler]

Spoiler:

He, yeah, first thing I was thinking at the start; wouldn't a city that never sleeps be the possibly worst place for the weeping angles to be in.

I live in New York City and

Spoiler:

I'll never be able to look at the Statue of Liberty the same again.

While I can't defend the whole 'why wouldn't there be someone watching the Statue all the time', I will say that for other statues that are high atop buildings in non-touristy areas, it's not often we look up at them. Especially at night. I thought about this when I first moved here regarding Spiderman - how can no one see this guy if he's flying through Manhattan's concrete canyons? It's because unless you're a jaded tourist that keeps getting in my way on the sidewalk, nobody really looks up.

Also

Spoiler:

AMELIAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

I'll watch it tonight, and I'm avoiding spoilers, but felt like this needed to be added to the conversation:

I have to assume that

Spoiler:

There weren't that many people out on the street to look at the angels because the angels took them already...

Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey, I know.

You gotta be kiddin me.

I forgot this one until just now:

Spoiler:

When the Doctor is gussying himself up to see River, he checks his reflection in a plaque. The camera focused on it very briefly after the Doctor's reflection went out of the shot. It was for a Rolls Royce motor, FD Type V11. I know that the TARDIS is full of all kinds of odds and ends, but is seems odd to focus in on it.

I looked online last night, and couldn't find anything that matched it. Now, I just find Who references. I wonder how its going to fit in later?

Having just watched the last episode:

Spoiler:

Crap. Despite knowing it would happen, what a punch in the gut to lose Amy and Rory. And if it weren't enough on its own, my son asked - "So what's the Doctor supposed to say to Rory's dad?"

And I started asking myself, why did they bring Rory's dad only to have us now know they'd never see each other again?

spider_j wrote:

I forgot this one until just now:

Spoiler:

When the Doctor is gussying himself up to see River, he checks his reflection in a plaque. The camera focused on it very briefly after the Doctor's reflection went out of the shot. It was for a Rolls Royce motor, FD Type V11. I know that the TARDIS is full of all kinds of odds and ends, but is seems odd to focus in on it.

I looked online last night, and couldn't find anything that matched it. Now, I just find Who references. I wonder how its going to fit in later?

Spoiler:

As with most things on TARDIS console it is made of bits and bobbles. Current guesses are that it came from a Spitfire

Overall, I liked it....but (puts on nerd glasses)

Spoiler:

the Statue of Liberty was a bit much. To expect that no one would have noticed it was gone, or that it was strolling around Manhattan, was a bit much. And it was unnecessary, since the story would have been fine without it.

Yes, it's an image that is hard to resist. I can see that. So why not just show it at the beginning of the episode? Have the camera zoom in on a well known New York landmark, and then we see that's it growling? That would have been enough. The scene in the room where Rory died was so dramatic and well done, and then to have this giant goofy statue standing outside the building detracted from that.

As for the Ponds, why couldn't the Doctor simply have met them in another city other than New York? And why couldn't he just pick them up there, and ensure that Rory and Amy would be buried in New York? Did I miss something?

Rahmen wrote:

Having just watched the last episode:

Spoiler:

Crap. Despite knowing it would happen, what a punch in the gut to lose Amy and Rory. And if it weren't enough on its own, my son asked - "So what's the Doctor supposed to say to Rory's dad?"

And I started asking myself, why did they bring Rory's dad only to have us now know they'd never see each other again?

Spoiler:

Could the Doctor not take him back and drop him off with them to live out his life with them? I'm not sure I understand the limitations of the time line continuum.

If you're wondering how he eats and breathes
And other science facts,
Just repeat to yourself "It's just a show,
I should really just relax
For Mystery Science Theater 3000."

Certainly, but I've only watched like 15 total shows (working my way through the Amazon backlog now). Wasn't sure if some of what I saw in this episode was semi-common knowledge in the who-verse.

The show has somewhat established that you cant go back and change your own timeline - unless you are a really pissed Doctor who goes ahead and do it anyway.
Likewise, some events are "fixed" in time = the excuse every time the question of ' Why didn't they just go back in time and fix Y?' appears. Unless you are a really pissed Doctor... etc.
And of course wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff.

Spoiler:

Maybe Moffat gets sentimental some day and goes back to revisiting Amy 20 times "Rose-style" :P

Ranger Rick wrote:

(Edit: I don't know why quoting isn't working here, it looks right no me...)

You ended the spoiler with /quote instead of /spoiler, and it's not happy about it because the number of open and closes for either don't match. Incidentally that's why your sig is shoved off to the right, too.

(Edit: I don't know why quoting isn't working here, it looks right no me...)

KidDork wrote:

Overall, I liked it....but (puts on nerd glasses)

Spoiler:

the Statue of Liberty was a bit much. To expect that no one would have noticed it was gone, or that it was strolling around Manhattan, was a bit much. And it was unnecessary, since the story would have been fine without it.

Spoiler:

The other thing that I didn't get about the Statue of Liberty....

They established previously that they're another alien race. But, we have photographic evidence that the Statue of Liberty was a metal structure built by humans. I guess they can make up whatever new rules about how the weeping angels exist if they want (weeping angels "posses" existing statues instead?), but it seemed pretty silly to me.

I now know how Clocky feels being the only one disliking something in other threads, because this episode seemed so contrived that I had a hard time even being emotional about it at the end, despite liking Rory and Amy. I think I've passed my limit on Moffat loving to play with paradoxes. He spends so much time being clever that he forgets to write an interesting story that stands up if you stop focusing on the twist.