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

liquid wrote:

She changed the address and then explicitly told them to trigger the bombs which wasn't something that had to be done.

Are you sure she was able to change their programming to trigger the bombs. My impression was she just instructed the change of address which would cause them to trigger the bombs there instead of killing a lot of people.

She specifically told the robots to open the packages and pop the bubbles to get rid of the explosive. The show kind of made it seem like a urgent matter but there was no reason why the bombs couldn't have been set off hours, days, or months later. Still I wouldn't call it murder.

I think its still murder. But at the very least it can be considered a reckless endangerment and manslaughter. Detonating so many bombs at once in a confined space that seemed to be below a larger building where lots of people presumably reside and work in is just a bad idea. There was 0 need to detonate the bombs and if there was it could have been done in the vacuum of space or change the delivery in a star like the Sun or something.

I really don't like this season so far, it's very heavy-handed in its delivery and the doctor seems clueless most of the time, she's there for the ride just as much as the companions are, which is something I feared might happen with the number of main characters they settled on. It's probably worse than I imagined it may be because I was sure they would flesh out the doctor but will struggle for time to properly do the same for all the companions, instead they seem to have divided the screentime somewhat equally between all 4 and the result, for me at least, is a full cast I couldn't care less for. And that's ignoring the stories they've decided to do.

I'll wait for the whole season and the Christmas special to air before I continue and binge the whole thing as the single episode weekly installment isn't doing the show any favours and hopefully, things will feel a lot better and smoother when watched this way.

That's true - blowing up the foundations of the building is probably a bad idea (Although given that the explosives don't destroy their ankle bracelets or the side room where the worker was taken, I just assumed these were more of "doesn't damage infrastructure" type of explosives).

I do get what you mean about the Doctor feeling clueless though. I DO like the fact that she's no longer completely omnipresent and completely in charge of every situation she gets in, but i do worry they've maybe pushed a little TOO far in the opposite direction. Hopefully, that'll correct itself over time though.

So everyone's going to debate the morality of killing the bad guy in the episode, but gloss over the fact that a sweet, innocent woman was killed and the only reaction from the Doctor seemed to be "Well, wasn't that clever of the AI?"

Right, I forgot about that. I was surprised to see her reaction when I was watching but that quickly went out of my head as I was more baffled by her deliberate actions.

Tscott wrote:

So everyone's going to debate the morality of killing the bad guy in the episode, but gloss over the fact that a sweet, innocent woman was killed and the only reaction from the Doctor seemed to be "Well, wasn't that clever of the AI?"

That was our biggest problem with the episode. Make a likeable female character only so she can be killed in order to try to affect the villain. The lack of reaction from the Doctor also seemed really odd. At the time I took it as "The needs of the many..." Yadda yadda, as her actions DID save thousands of lives, but still, really weird.

I feel like I'm watching these now more for Graham than anything else.

Veloxi wrote:
Tscott wrote:

So everyone's going to debate the morality of killing the bad guy in the episode, but gloss over the fact that a sweet, innocent woman was killed and the only reaction from the Doctor seemed to be "Well, wasn't that clever of the AI?"

That was our biggest problem with the episode. Make a likeable female character only so she can be killed in order to try to affect the villain. The lack of reaction from the Doctor also seemed really odd. At the time I took it as "The needs of the many..." Yadda yadda, as her actions DID save thousands of lives, but still, really weird.

I feel like I'm watching these now more for Graham than anything else.

Not much different from making a likeable female minority character only so she can be killed in order to affect Graham and Ryan...

That new TARDIS design should have been a giveaway.

IMAGE(http://www.bitrebels.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/tardis-doctor-who-refrigerator-kit.jpg)

Well played, Clock!

sometimesdee wrote:
Veloxi wrote:
Tscott wrote:

So everyone's going to debate the morality of killing the bad guy in the episode, but gloss over the fact that a sweet, innocent woman was killed and the only reaction from the Doctor seemed to be "Well, wasn't that clever of the AI?"

That was our biggest problem with the episode. Make a likeable female character only so she can be killed in order to try to affect the villain. The lack of reaction from the Doctor also seemed really odd. At the time I took it as "The needs of the many..." Yadda yadda, as her actions DID save thousands of lives, but still, really weird.

I feel like I'm watching these now more for Graham than anything else.

Not much different from making a likeable female minority character only so she can be killed in order to affect Graham and Ryan...

Yeah, we weren't fond of that either, truth be told.

Why? That's what support characters are for. What made her death pointless was the lack of change in the guy after that.

liquid wrote:

Why? That's what support characters are for. What made her death pointless was the lack of change in the guy after that.

You are very consistent. I’ll give you that.

Here you go.

That refrigerator would so go with my grey countertops. Drool.

oilypenguin wrote:
liquid wrote:

Why? That's what support characters are for. What made her death pointless was the lack of change in the guy after that.

You are very consistent. I’ll give you that.

Here you go.

Still, literally the job of a support character. Gender and race are irrelevant, especially when it comes from the writers of Who.

liquid wrote:

Gender and race are irrelevant

Nope.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
liquid wrote:

Gender and race are irrelevant

Nope.

Representation is important.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
liquid wrote:

Gender and race are irrelevant

Nope.

Yeah, not like they made a big deal of The Doctor jumping through a glass ceiling. Or Yaz's grandma during the separation of India and Pakistan. Or Ryan talking about being unneccessarily stopped by police. Or the entire Rosa Parks episode.

Just caught up to episode 6 (Pakistan) and it is by far my favorite so far. It really cements the new doctor for me. I liked her well enough, but I really loved her in this one. She could very well end up as my second favorite doctor. And the Demons were just so well done.

Another good representation matters episode. Seems a bit weird the Doctor would try and go to Liz the First’s coronation, but like checking up on an old flame.

So I (along with my mate) have come to the following conclusion. The episodes as stand alones are not terrible, some are not great but they don't work together, it's almost as if the writers are not talking to each other, the Doctor is all over the place. She did it again this week

Spoiler:

Bad king, you killed an alien who wanted to kill you - (erm last week you blow someone up but hey, guess it only counts as bad when it's a human doing it....)

Also I do think 3 companions is too much, and it's Ryan that seems to be suffering for it. Graham is great though and Jodie Whitaker is smashing it.

"The frog bit" is very, VERY silly but the rest of this recent episode is REALLY good. Probably one of my favourites so far. Graham continues to be, to my surprise, the best companion, and I'd really not have expected that to be the case!

I love Graham so much. He's really become one of my top favorite companions next to Donna, Rory and Billy.

pyxistyx wrote:

"The frog bit" is very, VERY silly but the rest of this recent episode is REALLY good. Probably one of my favourites so far. Graham continues to be, to my surprise, the best companion, and I'd really not have expected that to be the case!

Agreed, he is the best thing in it. When it was announced that Bradley Walsh was going to be in it, I was concerned, I assumed he would be silly wacky comic relief but my god he is the best thing in it. Every time they are exploring his grief, I'm welling up (I lost my dad in May) and a lot of that stuff is hitting home.

Thought the whole...

Spoiler:

...mirroring in the mirror world was a nice touch. From Eric's Slayer T-Shirt to where Graham and the Doctor parted their hair to which ear the Doctor's Bajoran earring was on.

I’m enjoying this Doctor and her companions but so far this season has been really uneven with a third of episodes being really solid a third being okay and a third with annoying inconsistencies or enough structural/plot weakness to put me off.

I think I’m trying to like it more than I actually am most of the time.

It's the last episode next week, it seems odd since it's like the series hasn't really gone anywhere to lead upto anything. I know they were trying to move away from the long threads but even in RTD days we had bad wolf, the master ect. This is just monster of the week style.

Another Missing Doctor Who Story Is Being Revived With Animation

IMAGE(https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--xjUNPxiz--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/vucl0xmvcvgyy6u1jaqs.png)

Ninety-seven episodes from the earliest eras of Doctor Who remain lost, after old BBC archival policies meant the original film copies were destroyed to save space. Slowly but surely, parts of that missing TV history are being recovered—and when they can’t be, the BBC is turning to animation to bring them to life.

The BBC has revealed that the 1967 Second Doctor serial “The Macra Terror”—all four episodes of which were lost as part of the BBC’s archive junking—will be getting an overhaul for a home release next year. The story saw the Doctor and his companions Ben, Jamie, and Polly venture to a human colony in the far future, a seeming vacation paradise where guests lived carefree and happy lives. But, of course, this is Doctor Who, and all was not as it seemed—because the colonists were being brainwashed by giant killer crabs known as the Macra, and were forced to mine a toxic gas the Macra needed to survive. “The Macra Terror” was the Macra’s only Who presence for a very long time, until 2007's “Gridlock” re-introduced them as an offshoot colony that had transformed into feral monsters after gorging on the pollution caused by New Earth’s subsurface traffic colonies.

I know the animation can be a little goofy and for "Shada" the integration with the live action footage might induce headaches, but I think it's neat to see these lost old chapters of the franchise.

So I'm finally starting the current season and I'm very happy they changed the intro. I thought the gears and wavy clocks were amateurish. The music also more strongly calls back to the old openings.

Unfortunately though I still feel like I keep watching due to obligatory nostalgia. I think the show is probably great for a different audience. After it was restarted the nostalgia was far greater and I loved the callbacks and references. But that's all played out. But who knows, maybe this season will bring me back in.