I don’t know why, but this rubs me the wrong way as well. Call them stories, serials or adventures, but not episodes. There’s just one single episode serial in all of Doctor Who and that’s Mission to the Unknown.
It’s because, in some other parts in the world, the word “serial” is not used to describe television shows, but “episode” is. People call things by the name they’re most familiar with. I always have to catch myself from calling CW serials “episodes”.
I know exactly what you mean… and yet, sometimes it works. Just like you, I’m frustrated by the end of “Closing Time” and “Death in Heaven” but, in stark contrast, for me it absolutely works in “Boom”. I just think it feels earned and much more cleverly done. John Francis Vater saves the day through a father’s love for his daughter but only because the Doctor was connected the the Villengard systems via the ambulance whilst simultaneously connected to the AI John, and only because the Doctor encouraged him to hack in.
I wholeheartedly agree with you about Boom
As I recall what you wrote is the exact same thing I wrote in the thread about Boom a month ago
But yeah Closing Time and Death in Heaven have been relocated to the Sin Bin for this very reason
I confess to finding a lot of “Closing Time” frustrating. “Death in Heaven” though… there’s so much I love about it and the set up in “Dark Water” is fantastic. The resolution though? Really felt off. It’s a shame because I genuinely feel it deserved better.
I really like the set-up in Dark Water as well, and a classic Master reveal from Missy There is probably a level of disappointment about Death in Heaven, I wouldn’t expect a lazy “love saves the day” from Moffat in this fashion.
Plus the CyberBrig
What was the quote?
“I made a jigsaw out of your history. Did you like it?”
So many things I loved about that episode and this line is right up there. DW, unlike pretty much anything else on TV, has always rewritten, unwritten and overwritten its own history from the very beginning. As a show, it genuinely evolves. As conceits, parallel universes, timelines and time travel are the perfect means to do this. It frustrates me constantly when people expect the show to keep repeating the greatest hits from their favourite era. If any show is about change, it’s this one. Moreover, somehow, it still feels like a continuous whole.
It’s a kind of magic, I tells ya! I bloody LOVE it!
Say no more about the CyberBrig, sir, for it offendeth me!
Must have been a shared hallucination. It can’t have been real!
I used to really hate when they were referred to as “Doctor Who” until I watched a lot more Classic (specifically The War Machines) and it spun back around to being really funny. Missy making it canon in World Enough and Time cemented it. However, the “Doctor Who?” Oldest Question plot line felt so on the nose that it gave me tremendous ick at the time.
Some of the early 12/Clara dialog where he’s just needlessly mean to her also gave me the ick on first watch, then I went back and saw how 4 spoke to literally all of his companions except Sarah (and actually even Sarah at some points) so, as with everything I can somehow justify with in-canon characterization, I learned to live with it.
The Goblin Song. Actually, There’s Always A Twist At The End, too. Murray Gold might be a composer with very few equals in what he does, but a song-writer he is not.
This is hyper-specific, but I was a pretty active DW Tumblr roleplayer for a while, and there was a certain very specific characterization of the Ninth Doctor as a massively traumatized, mentally damaged person who was unable to care for himself or do basically anything without descending into hysterical tears. This was mostly for the benefit of pairing him into slashfic with Jack, or other Doctors, or The Master, but it’s just such a blatant undermining of his character that I’ve never been able to forgive.
This is something that really bothered me with Three and Jo - in their first two seasons he’s constantly belittling her. It got better later on, and was definitely a lot better with Sarah, but I really didn’t like the return to firm with Four’s other companions. I feel like it’s a lot better handled and less noticeable with Twelve. For him it feels more like room to grow.
It doesn’t bother me as much when Three does it, and not just because “ham-fisted bun vendor” is the greatest read ever put to print. It’s also that he’s pretty belligerent with everybody he meets, even people he’s just met, and it clearly stems from the frustration of being stranded on Earth. The development that comes between 3 and Jo I think really effectively shows him learning warmth and tact, and by the time Sarah-Jane arrives, despite some writing clangers (Time Warrior not good imo), we’ve seen him develop in the same way that 12 does. In a way, the arrival of Sarah-Jane sort of coincides with the arrival of Bill; a companion who a previously stern and patrician Doctor can now show his softer side with and become a teacher for. Weirdly, it took 3 regenerating into 4 to do that, but then once Elisabeth Sladen left, the fact that Tom wanted the whole thing to himself and really disliked the idea of having co-stars left us with the tension in the console room that actually never really left the Classic Series after that (except maybe once you get to 7 and Mel.)
I enjoyed reading this. I often feel that the Third Doctor is the most misunderstood of Doctors. He’s surprisingly vulnerable and wonderfully flawed. Yes, he can be a grouchy git and deliberately rude to so many (including people close to him) and yet… he’s clearly deeply fond of Jo. He doesn’t quite know how to express himself so very often and picks the wrong option. He cares, often more than many of the others, but he doesn’t quite know how to show it. I can relate to that.
Another aspect I’ve always enjoyed is how well he plays the establishment game, yet his politics undercuts this. He uses elitism and privilege against the elite and the privileged. Yes, he’s a hypocritical so-and-so, but that just makes me love him all the more. Because the best heroes are often those who are flawed. He’s imperfect, often petty and frequently petulant, but he tries. I think he’s rather wonderful!
You are correct. As I just saw in the opening of the very first episode: It’s Doctor OHO.
(And absolutely fitting it is, for the German (my mother tongue) interjection ‘oho’ can be translated to English as an expression of surprise or interest, similar to saying ‘oh,’ ‘wow,’ or ‘hello’ in English)
Anyone who ships Gwen/Jack, Torchwood fans who unironically believe in the Torchwood polycule, but most of all…the fans who don’t consider Big Finish as “canon” despite Night of The Doctor.
I fw Cyberbrig unironically
I need help here.
Fw? I don’t know what that means
In the post above you use the word polycule, no idea there either.
And I don’t believe in an actual canon for Doctor Who, I just pick and choose which EU stories I personally consider “canon”
fw means ‘F*** with’, in this sense meaning they’re unironically a fan of it
Polyamorous relationship (more than two people in a happy romantic relationship)
Polycule meaning a group of people who are romantically involved with each other, and sexually involved. As in, the entire Torchwood team are in a relationship. There are literally stories which explore jealousy and conflicts between the team members so to say they’re a polycule is just…incorrect lol. And a bit weird.
“Fw” meaning fck with. I like Cyberbrig, I think it’s a cool concept tbh.
I’d put that on a shirt. “I DON’T BELIEVE IN CANON”
I’m going to quote the 2nd Doctor in regards to “fw”: I don’t like it😉
And in regards to the CyberBrig? We are just going to have to agree to disagree. Nothing about it makes sense to me in the slightest with the CyberBrig.