Sea Devils And Die: GeroniMoffat's Doctor Who In The 2010s

There were the elements of a great story there... The scuttling cherubs and scene with the chained up Angel were genuinely unsettling, but felt undercut by grafting a big Matrix back plot onto the Angels.

Most of my complaints are more to do with me not really getting their arc really at all, and all the timeline jiggery pokery, than any story holes or what have you.

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 3 October 2012 01:32 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is otm. Wibbly wobbly works well when it supports a story, or when nothing terribly important is supposed to be happening that week. In this case it should have taken a back seat to the exit of two major characters, but didn't.

The conversation they had on the roof before they jumped was fantastic and felt earned, but the coda was just stupid and annoying

― set me on fire RAAAAH (DJP), Wednesday, 3 October 2012 01:48 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That 'it's called marriage' line actually caused me to break my neck, because that's the speed at which the vomit came flying out of my face

Just occurred to me, since when can Angels take over statues? They're not possessing spirits, they're aliens who happen to look and behave like statues.

The statue that did for Mike McShane is an actual bronze statue in OK,dedicated in 1930.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Pioneer_2.jpg

The Asylum of the Daleks episode was okay, but, apart from that, I haven't liked or cared about this series one bit. I'm wondering whether I'm done with it, or it's just a bad (shortish) run?

This has been a pretty crappy run of episodes.

none of them were as bad as Victory of the Daleks, so there's slight comfort in that

This has been a pretty crappy run of episodes.

Yep. Hopefully the new year will be a burst of fun with the new companion, with fewer plot holes and 200% less Chibnall.

I finally watched this and the gaping "why doesn't the Doctor just pick them up in LA in 1940?" plot hole was so big and so stupid it undermined basically everything else. Amy and Rory jumping off the roof was indeed great though.

I really thought they were building up to Amy getting (normally) pregnant and her and Rory forcibly turning the Doctor away and telling him never to come back. Which would have been more elegant and more final than the mess we got.

Also I wish they'd get actual Americans actors to play Americans.

I rewatched Blink the other week and the Angels did not send the Doctor and Martha back to 1969. They were already in 1969 when the Angels stole the Tardis, leaving them stranded there. As they weren't time locked, they could return to the present day once they got the Tardis back.
So Moffat has been entirely consistent with the show's internal logic. When the Angels send someone back it's a done deal.

Strange then that the Doctor says to the Angel zapped policeman "Normally I'd offer you a lift home but somebody nicked my motor."

Yes, I remember that line and I read it as the Angels stole the Tardis. It's never explicitly stated that they zapped the Doctor and Martha back in the process. The convention is that the Angels send you back for good, making any Tardis rescues impossible.

Aye, but it also says that he could bring the policeman back, is I think onimo's point.

Yes, it implies he's taken other people home without shattering the fabric of time and space and the only thing stopping him is the TARDIS being stuck in the future.

That's the thing, being sent back in time isn't actually scary unless it actually locks you there.

Trying to work out how and why Moffatt has fallen off so badly recently - his early episodes and first full season were all fantastic but it's felt increasingly back-of-a-fag-packet since.

Actually, thinking about it the departure of the Ponds/season arc (and to a degree the whole story of Amy) is the emo bit of The Girl In The Fireplace stretched out over 5 episodes (and/or 3 seasons): The Doctor dips in and out of the companion's lives exposing that his timeline and their reality take place at different speeds/are not concurrent, the companion has grown up from childhood with a romanticised notion of The Doctor based on their first meeting, the companion is told by The Doctor he'll be right back, only to disappear for a number of years, the final fate of the companion is written down by them and read by The Doctor after their death.

ooh, good connection! The Girl in The Fireplace might have been my least favorite Tennant episode.

But... but... you DID see the Daleks in New York story, right?

Ha Ha I actually liked the Daleks take Manhattan. I thought it was funny.

The problem with landing the tardis in 30s New York didn't have anything to do with events in the Dalek story did it?

Presumably had more to do with the energy battery the Angels had set up and which was destroyed by the end of the episode. So just realising if it was down to that, then the problem would have disappeared when the battery was flushed out of history, surely?

So is that another loophole they missed? or did somebody already mention that?

I think the logic was that the paradox created by Rory and Amy's "suicide" was so large that it would be dangerous to land a TARDIS at the same place and time again.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbey6uInjo1rhajxeo1_r2_500.png

I would definitely play an old school Lucasarts Doctor Who game.

Daleks in New York > Angels in New York... but honestly they should stop visiting America, its always pretty cringeworthy.

Well maybe if they used American actors for American parts it would all be better?

Gotta keep chasing that big US audience.

Did people watch the Coming Soon Christmas bit and if so can we talk companion?

I didn't and would like not to, but this may be a minority opinion now

Well maybe if they used American actors for American parts it would all be better?

Mike McShane is American, isn't he?

Canadian, if I remember WLIIA correctly.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Roeland Park, Kansas,

There is a 'special' accent I call "Radio 4 American".

I stand corrected on McShane.

Huh, I thought he was Canadian too.

oh was that Mike McShane in the last episode, I didn't recognise him. But he's been an ex-pat for years hasn't he? Was certainly in London in the 90s cos I saw him around Soho/Berwick St a few times at the time.

Had wondered if any of that was filmed in NYC for some reason, was that Cardiff doubling for Central Park?

Just thought they'd normally used English actors with bad BBC US accents as a staple through the history of the programme.

Central Park played the role of Central Park in tonight's performance.

No, that was genuinely Central Park. The dalek one didn't have any actual filming in NYC (apart from Confidential).

Wondered if they would, if the budget had sunk. Wasn't really sure if they actually needed to since it was only used intermittently.
Must cost quite a bit to shift the production to the U.S. if it could be recreated at home?

The opening scene with them reading in the park was very ostentatiously "look, we actaully filmed this in NY!"

Guess I'm kind of wondering why they would do something like that if they didn't actually need to. Seemed to be a pretty fleeting glimpse of actual NYC, years ago they would have just filmed somewhere else that didn't automatically incur costs to get to in the same league and tried to pass it off. So if there are budgetary constraints why are they using up what budget there is in that way?
Would have been nice to get a couple more episodes without as exotic locations?
Or has it come down to individual budgeting of individual episodes over so much money spread over a full series? Maybe it wouldn't make up that much difference, but surely relocating across continents costs something in itself?

The NYC shots spent a large percentage of their budget this year, which is why the dalek one didn't do it and why the dinosaur mattes were reused from Walking With Dinosaurs.

They also used the trip to the US to do a bunch of promo.

Would have been nice to get a couple more episodes without as exotic locations?

It doesn't work like this, they were commissioned for 14 episodes.

Would have been nice to get a couple more episodes decent scripts without as exotic locations?

I've been hoping they're saving all the good scripts for next year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XWU6XL9xI4k

The Angels Take Manhattan didn't make me cry, but this made me tear up a little.

Aw, yeah, that's nice.

Oh, this came out. I've not read it.

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2012/09/27/doctor-whos-first-e-book-exclusive-inspired-by-the-angels-take-manhattan/

Does anybody know where the snow scene in the dalek episode was shot? Just been wondering since seeing it. Was it the U.K. somewhere? Wasn't aware there was now around with nice weather when it did snow.

Almeria in Spain.

Anyway, I wasn't taken with the Ponds thing but you probably all guessed that. It does raise the question of how they became well enough established in 1946 to adopt without Rory drawing enough attention to himself and get drafted.

Maybe the US army has a policy against recruiting those with too much residual time energy.

Actually, how did Chris Chibnall write this? Was it, in fact, supposed to be at the end of The Power Of Three and spoiler Angels which is why it wasn't filmed?