Does exactly what it says on the tin. Some of the nonsense contained herein may be very loosely related to The Sisters of Mercy, but I wouldn't bet your PayPal account on it. In keeping with the internet's general theme nothing written here should be taken as Gospel: over three quarters of it is utter gibberish, and most of the forum's denizens haven't spoken to another human being face-to-face for decades. Don't worry your pretty little heads about it. Above all else, remember this: You don't have to stay forever. I will understand.
While I was watching I kept thinking that exactly the same plot in the hands of Russell T Davies and David Tennant would have been so sentimentally cloying that it would have been unbearable. Moffat's darker touch, combined with Smith's astute underplaying of any emotional moments made it great.
More smug flitting around between time zones (which undermines any dramatic tension because you can always go back and change things), huge lapses in logic (Scrooge or whatever his name was had the girl's portrait and fridge in his room before the Doctor had changed history and actually introduced them), an unbelievable central character (he may have been a nasty old man but he wasn't nearly evil enough and didn't have any other strong motivation to just allow hundreds of people to die) and a distinct lack of Amy and Rory. And after a while it just forgot about the imminent carnage altogether to indulge in silly hi-jinks. As bad as most of the current series but at least all of the actors were on form.
That's true, but Moffat did make it very clear it was meant to be just a light-hearted Christmas special. And if we're talking silly hi-jinks, last years Christmas special did feature John Simm in a pink dress at one point and a killer oven-mitt! "End of Time" made even less sense to me than this did!
Enjoyed it myself.
Essentially, we are dealing with children's television here, but before anyone jumps on me, I quite agree that's no excuse for dumbing down.
The brief was to entertain and I think it accomplished that.
DeWinter wrote:And if we're talking silly hi-jinks, last years Christmas special did feature John Simm in a pink dress at one point and a killer oven-mitt!
Please don't remind me.
Erudite wrote:Enjoyed it myself.
Essentially, we are dealing with children's television here
The show was originally devised as family entertainment, for everyone to watch together. That's very different to children's TV but the recent production teams seem to forget that most of the time.
I liked Eccleston, but he was the first Doctor I'd ever seen. What you a lot of guys are decrying as northern grimness I just wrote off as "Eh, he's a time traveling alien. Bound to be grumpy..."
But the sonic screwdriver as deus ex machina criticism seems perfectly valid to me.
I do enjoy Torchwood, though I've only seen season I and a little of II. They are a little hamfisted on the bisexual thing at times.
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The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.
sultan2075 wrote:I liked Eccleston, but he was the first Doctor I'd ever seen. What you a lot of guys are decrying as northern grimness I just wrote off as "Eh, he's a time traveling alien. Bound to be grumpy..."
My complaint isn't so much Northern grimness per se, just it's what you're guaranteed from the actor concerned! Chris Eccleton is synonymous with dramas about ex-miners, brass bands, string vests and brassy loud women. In the rain. And drinking too much! Just not the guy you'd cast!
Incidentally, he was second choice after..Hugh Grant.
Don't forget Cribbins' attempt at straight acting. Or 45 minutes of the last episode being dedicated to watching Tennants lip wobble/stare sadly into space.
Am looking forward to seeing The Silents, in a way it'd be nice if the main villain is something totally new. Especially if it's actually vaguely intimidating unlike the Slitheen which seemed to be devised to amuse schoolboys who like toilet humour. Oh, and my River Song prediction is already wrong, she's not a future Amy Pond according to Moffers.