Doctor Who

That was the most boring, dull and least interesting episode in a while and I liked last weeks episode. Lost interest one third into the episode.
the ending just pissed me off. The TARDIS disappears without explanation (purely for the story purpose of putting the Doctor and Clara at peril) and then it reappears at the South Pole and the episode ends without resolution. Seriously, that's how you're going to end the story Gatiss? That's fucking awful writing
Worst episode of this batch so far and next weeks episode looks even less interesting. I hate ghost/haunted house stories. This is science fiction. I want aliens and spaceships!
 
Awww.. even without opening the spoiler-bit you manage to confirm what I was afraid of. The preview of this episode already put me in "aww.. not really my kind of story" mode, and now you're dialing my want to actually watch it even more down :eek:
 
Awww.. even without opening the spoiler-bit you manage to confirm what I was afraid of. The preview of this episode already put me in "aww.. not really my kind of story" mode, and now you're dialing my want to actually watch it even more down :eek:

Well I liked last weeks episode despite all the hate it got.this week might just be a case of vice versa.
 
Well I thought last weeks episode was fairly nice, just very predictable and clich?. I'm afraid I might be on the same page with you regarding todays ep. Anyway, I will judge after watching it, which will be done as soon as the 720p (which just popped up in my rss) is on my disk.
 
Oh wow, that wasn't half bad. I have to rewatch it. People kept talking over the TV. But what an excellently handled re-introduction of the
Ice Warriors.

Also, best thing about Gatiss' writing is the way he captures the spirit of the time. Some of the exposition about Mutually Assured Destruction... :O

Finally... Oh Vienna.

EDIT: weird - polarising reactions. To be fair though, this is exactly my kind of story. Tense, claustrophobic, and deals with the issue of nuclear warfare... which, quite frankly, is 1000x more terrifying of a prospect than any Dalek invasion. And still very possible.
 
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Ok, watched it. And I think it wasn't too bad. I was afraid they'd go red october on this ep, but the [see PaperBiros spoiler] was something I didn't expect in the first place and a nice story. The setting on a sub in the cw... meh.. overall, not superawesome but fairly solid and I liked it.

Gotta totally agree on next weeks preview. I could not care less for ghost-crap, I was never a fan of the ancient/victorian stories/episodes, and this haunted crap seems to be exactly what I not want.
 
If you think the TARDIS "disappeared without warning", you don't know your Who-story. HADS may not have been used since the Troughton Era, but it certainly exists and is in continuity. We all know that this series is a Love Letter to the Troughton Era anyway, so you need to catch up, kid.

As for this episode, I liked it better when it was called "Dalek". That being said...Ultravox, Duran Duran, references to the events from the Soviet side surrounding Able Archer 83 (it may have been the closest we got to the Hot War other than the Cuban Missile Crisis), our first Ice Warrior since 1974 (and our first Ice Warrior out of the freakin' armor), and, best of all, DAVID FUCKIN' WARNER! Gatiss is a gentleman and a scholar (in fact, he's one of a league of those). Gotta love it. Gotta love it and hate last week's episode with the heat of ten thousand suns.

In other words, Kenobi, you need to bone up on your history and recalibrate your taste.
 
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I will not take a side in the battle of the Who-nerds on what is canon and what is not and how that influences what one thinks about the episode. What I will say is that I liked this episode much better than last weeks.
I think it was more Das Boot than hunt for Red October and a bit more claustrophobia would thus not have gone amiss. Apart from that - another Alien race resurrected for the big anniversary coming up, another Who trademark big speech to talk the enemy into showing mercy, some pretty nice period touches (I especially liked the "New Romantic"-style remix of the Who theme in the final sequence).

Another day at the office, nothing to write home about, but not a bad episode by any means. In another series, without controversial all-time-lows like last week's episode or "Dinosaurs", it would have gone unnoticed as a solid episode, with some people complaining that another Wham! episode is due.
 
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If you think the TARDIS "disappeared without warning", you don't know your Who-story. HADS may not have been used since the Troughton Era, but it certainly exists and is in continuity. We all know that this series is a Love Letter to the Troughton Era anyway, so you need to catch up, kid.
In other words, Kenobi, you need to bone up on your history and recalibrate your taste.

I'm already aware of how it's been used in the past. But in previous times (for example The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit) its been worked into the story well. This time it felt it was just put there and what really annoyed me was the ending. It had the feeling of those cheesy 80s cartoons where everyone laughs into the screen and there's no real resolution.
The TARDIS is stuck in the South Pole. The Doctor andClara have somehow got to get there while also stuck on a broken soviet submarine with no radio in the northern arctic. That isn't plot resolution it's a hole the size of a tip in the space time continuum. Its bad writing and amateur at best.which is a shame since the episode was done by Gatiss

I'm fine with Doctor Who being far fetched since that's what Doctor Who is. but it isn't supposed to treat its audience like brain dead idiots. That's what you have The Voice & Britains Got Retards for.
 
I'm already aware of how it's been used in the past. But in previous times (for example The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit) its been worked into the story well. This time it felt it was just put there.
It was a massive departure from the usual Who way of "simply ignoring the fact that he has a TIME MACHINE and can bail out at any second".

The TARDIS is stuck in the South Pole. The Doctor andClara have somehow got to get there while also stuck on a broken soviet submarine with no radio in the northern arctic.
It's a massive plot hole, but let's be honest - if you'd have liked the episode so far, you would not have cared a bit. It's not the first plot hole the size of a dinosaur in Doctor Who and it won't be the last.
 
The TARDIS is stuck in the South Pole. The Doctor andClara have somehow got to get there while also stuck on a broken soviet submarine with no radio in the northern arctic. That isn't plot resolution it's a hole the size of a tip in the space time continuum. Its bad writing and amateur at best.which is a shame since the episode was done by Gatiss

If you're the Doctor, and you have a magic screwdriver which you can use to hack a cash machine, getting to the South Pole might not be as hard as it sounds. Michael Palin did it, why can't the Doctor? :p

I think it was a deliberate plot hole, played for laughs. Impossible things happen every week on Doctor Who. The Doctor getting to the South Pole isn't that much a stretch of the imagination.
 
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That ending was fucking horrible.

It was pretty good right up until they showed the face of the Ice Warrior. It all went downhill from there. They should have stuck to the Alien rule, not show the alien at all, just shadows and claws escaping from the corner of your eye. But that ending, what the crap? Started going into the personal history of the Ice Warrior's daughter, then abandoned that story and aborted the whole episode.
 
The T.V. Club's Alasdair Wilkins loves this episode to bits (review contains spoilers).
Additionally, this weeks installment of his "Insane, Obviously Wrong Theory Corner" features:
"The Doctor reactivates the Hostile Action Displacement System, or HADS, which was last seen in the Patrick Troughton story ?The Krotons.? The HADS sends the TARDIS to the South Pole, which means we can cram in at least a few months of TARDIS-free wandering the Earth before the Doctor and Clara actually retrieve the blue box. I am now imagining an entire hidden season of 1983-set Doctor and Clara adventures, and it?s glorious."

One should do this and get Philip Glenister on board.

- - - Updated - - -

Wilkins points out another thing I have missed about "The Bells Of St. John":
"Nina, one of the children in Clara?s care, is reading a book by Amelia Williams?time-displaced companion turned author Amy Pond, naturally?and Clara is quick to point out that, as good as the tenth chapter is, chapter 11 is even better. I?ll leave you to ponder the deeper significance of that last one."
 
The whole ending thing was simple to explain. If you're bringing back the Ice Warriors, you need a cutesy reference to a past Ice Warrior story. Why not reference the Ice Warriors' debut story? I can live with it, but, then again, I get a boner every time a correct continuity reference is made.
 
I have to admit that I liked this past episode. But then, having served in the US Navy from 1984 to 1988, I may be a bit biased.

One thing about the ending, though.

The sub (A Delta III) could not have launched its missiles when it was on the shelf. The SS-N-20 missiles are designed to be fired from a depth of no greater than 50 meters. Even if the more sensitive systems of the missile survived the pressure of 700 metres of water, it would burn too much fuel on its way to the surface to reach an optimum ballistic trajectory. Helsinki and (then) Leningrad might have been in range, but more than likely the warheads would have failed to detonate.

When the Ice Warrior ship brought the boat to the surface, however, well, then they could have done a great deal of damage. Luckily, either Skaldak didn't know that or was just so happy to be back with his people that he didn't care about revenge.

As far as the Doctor getting back to the TARDIS, couldn't he have just called UNIT and gotten a lift?
 
I thought it was OK but not one I would rush to watch again.

They should have called the episode "The Hunt for Blue Box". :lol:
 
As far as the Doctor getting back to the TARDIS, couldn't he have just called UNIT and gotten a lift?

So basically there's a untold tale somewhere out there of the Eleventh Doctor and Clara running around with the Brig? I like that idea a lot, just a shame it'll never happen.
 

Very interesting. On a unrelated subject I ran into and met Alex Kingston at an Apple store last year in Beverly Hills, she was trying to decide on buying an iPad or something (I was there to get my phone replaced) and randomly asked for my opinion because I happened to be standing there. I gave her some useless advice and told her how much I liked in work in Who.
 
Better, but still feel like Who has been off its game recently. The episodes aren't as exciting and not brilliantly written. Plus I'm still not warming to Clara. With Amy I loved her the moment I met her, with Clara. The whole 'who is she?' Arc is making it difficult to like her.

loved the old references to Metebelis 3' the Doctors coat rack on the TARDIS and the eye of Harmony. Still not sure about the Clara & the TARDIS deal.

Next weeks looks interesting since I love concepts dealing with the innards of the TARDIS but still waiting for a great episode like Blink, Vincent and the Doctor or the Doctors Wife.
 
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