|
|
Post by Queen E on Jun 12, 2010 23:46:27 GMT -5
Here's the thread. Enjoy!
|
|
|
|
Post by beccaelizabeth on Jun 19, 2010 5:46:09 GMT -5
My reviews be beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/2011809.html and beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/2012808.html(I've mostly been reviewing on dreamwidth and forgetting to xpost here) I thought this one was fun... when I could actually watch it. It took me two tries. The first time I was hiding behind my fingers and only peeking enough to read the subtitles. It's just that whole thing with trying to be normal and missing by a mile. My sympathy, it is massive. So then I get squirmy and hide. When the Doctor is wandering around being very Doctor-y it's usually just a good thing, because he's himself and the world can keep up or not as it pleases. But this time he's trying to be a normal bloke and still being very Doctor-y, which makes it all errors. There's rote learned social conventions with fail due to lack of understanding context. There's only understanding the official rules of a game and messing up socially while playing it. Basically in this one the Doctor is so very very Aspie, even compared to usual. So I was greatly relieved whenever it got back to the bit with the alien scary thing, because then the Doctor is on ground he understands, and being Doctor-y works. Except he's too much for it. Kind of like he was being too much for his flat mate. So lonely being a superhero  I also love the meta of getting Matt Smith to play football. In time for the world cup. and I'll cut and paste my second review-thought-thingy entire: Doctor Who does minor thing right: I have previously thought the cybermen controlling people through ear thingies was a bit dodgy, because it's like hearing aids of evil. Not very much like, but really, the whole cybermen idea is like assistive technology of evil, even before the maker in a wheelchair bit, so it was there. In The Lodger the Doctor is wandering around with a slightly steampunky brass thingy in his ear, and it is not of evil. It is of win. And nobody so much as comments on it, so it's just a normal steampunky ear thingy. I thought it looked a bit hearing aid. So the vague badness the cybermen association gets on it is fixed by the proper goodness of the Doctor using one. This season has been doing okay on disability, which is new and shiny for DW. And then the last little bit with Amy... I wish to know what she's thinking. I wish to see how this works out. ... I'm writing this with only a few hours to go before the episode. Yaays! |
|
|
|
Post by Riff on Jun 19, 2010 8:30:15 GMT -5
My reviews be beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/2011809.html and beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/2012808.html(I've mostly been reviewing on dreamwidth and forgetting to xpost here) I thought this one was fun... when I could actually watch it. It took me two tries. The first time I was hiding behind my fingers and only peeking enough to read the subtitles. It's just that whole thing with trying to be normal and missing by a mile. My sympathy, it is massive. So then I get squirmy and hide. When the Doctor is wandering around being very Doctor-y it's usually just a good thing, because he's himself and the world can keep up or not as it pleases. But this time he's trying to be a normal bloke and still being very Doctor-y, which makes it all errors. There's rote learned social conventions with fail due to lack of understanding context. There's only understanding the official rules of a game and messing up socially while playing it. Basically in this one the Doctor is so very very Aspie, even compared to usual. So I was greatly relieved whenever it got back to the bit with the alien scary thing, because then the Doctor is on ground he understands, and being Doctor-y works. Except he's too much for it. Kind of like he was being too much for his flat mate. So lonely being a superhero I also love the meta of getting Matt Smith to play football. In time for the world cup. and I'll cut and paste my second review-thought-thingy entire: Doctor Who does minor thing right: I have previously thought the cybermen controlling people through ear thingies was a bit dodgy, because it's like hearing aids of evil. Not very much like, but really, the whole cybermen idea is like assistive technology of evil, even before the maker in a wheelchair bit, so it was there. In The Lodger the Doctor is wandering around with a slightly steampunky brass thingy in his ear, and it is not of evil. It is of win. And nobody so much as comments on it, so it's just a normal steampunky ear thingy. I thought it looked a bit hearing aid. So the vague badness the cybermen association gets on it is fixed by the proper goodness of the Doctor using one. This season has been doing okay on disability, which is new and shiny for DW. And then the last little bit with Amy... I wish to know what she's thinking. I wish to see how this works out. ... I'm writing this with only a few hours to go before the episode. Yaays! Your point about the earpiece is interesting. Classic series DVDs seem to have greater consideration for those with sight or hearing difficulties than most commercial releases, and there are usually not a few visibly disabled people at conventions. Yet, as you point out, there has been some thoughtlessness of late. Even now, people like RTD refer to Davros as a "crippled" scientist. No one ever seems to notice or complain. Strange. The Pandorica will open shortly.  |
|
|
|
Post by Riff on Jul 7, 2010 11:37:59 GMT -5
In all of David Tennant’s seasons there was a “Doctor-lite” episode, in which he appeared little. These were arguably the more experimental stories: Love and Monsters, Blink, and Turn Left. In all but Turn Left, the companion as well as the Doctor had a week off, but for Season 5 we see a companion-lite episode in the which the Doctor takes centre stage. Interestingly, The Lodger as a story was first written for David Tennant, or at least for the Tenth Doctor. It originally appeared as a one-off comic in Doctor Who Magazine, and told the story of the newly-regenerated Doctor having to spend a few days in Mickey Smith’s flat while Rose was trapped in the TARDIS, at a point when she is still ostensibly Mickey's girlfriend. Gareth Roberts adapted his comic for television, and retained the title. There are some differences. While Craig is quite friendly with the Doctor for most of the ep, there is a confrontational relationship from the start with Mickey in the comic strip (one that the Doctor is hilariously unaware of for most of the story, it seems). The alien menace is more integral to the plot in the TV version. Some aspects of the comic have been altered but also retained (for the uber-nerds in the audience, like Steven Moffat). For example, in the ep the Doctor dashes to the rescue with Craig’s electric toothbrush, because he has left his sonic screwdriver in a glass in the bathroom; the comic begins with a sleepy Mickey going to brush his teeth, and then blasting them all out of his head because he has picked up the sonic by mistake! We see a lot of the Doctor in this episode, and it marks a real difference between Smith and Tennant. In the comic strip, the Doctor annoyed Mickey by being Mr Cool all the time, but here there is very little coolness to be seen, at least not what we would normally think of as coolness. Yes, there is the football scene (which was in the original comic and was not, as some believe, cynically included to reflect Matt Smith’s footballing background and the World Cup; though those things didn‘t hurt, obviously  ), but even here the Doctor’s ability to score goals is a little undercut by his general weirdness. Black Orchid isn’t the best story in the world, but the scene in which the Fifth Doctor single-handedly wins a cricket match is a high-point, and shows him to be dignified and skilful. The Eleventh Doctor looks bizarre and clumsy, despite the fact that ball finds it’s target over and over again. Indeed, if the Tenth Doctor were in this story his social graces wouldn’t be perfect, but they would be a lot better than the odd behaviour of Matt Smith. Yet Moffat continually reminds us that the Doctor is always the same man, who behaves a little differently in different bodies just because they are different bodies. So, we should perhaps ask if he is actually this socially inept, or if he is simply being weird just because he is simply weird. Certainly, this self-knowing oddness was seen in the Second, Fourth and Seventh Doctors quite frequently, and at times in all the others. As always, when the time comes to be serious, the Doctor’s silliness takes a back seat. Though Craig is not aware of it, the Doctor shows real tenderness when ministering to him after he has been poisoned. It’s a moment in which all the apparent eccentricities fade away and are revealed to be, perhaps, surface. Craig and Sophie are fun characters and right away there is an invitation to root for their stalled relationship. The Doctor picks up on this quickly (of course he does - he’s adept at picking up on romantic signals, as long as they’re not aimed in his direction; perhaps he shouldn't have used the English as role models ) and quite obviously sees the resolution of this little problem as a sort of side project. This adds to the intimate and domestic side of the story, but the idea of him being a matchmaker, especially since this is finally voiced by Amy, provides a piece of foreshadowing for what is to come. Just who is the villain of this piece? Originally, Gareth Roberts wanted it to be Meglos. Yes Meglos, the eponymous sentient cactus from a 1980 Tom Baker story. Sadly, this idea was shelved and we are left without knowing exactly who or what was behind the time ship that is the real top floor of the house where Craig lives. Some have noted definite similarities with the Eight Doctor’s control room and also with the Jagaroth ship from City of Death. Whether there will be some relevance to the presence of this ship remains to be seen. One thing that should be borne in mind is that the ship has effectively taken control of the TARDIS for much of the ep. Yet again we have a montage of past Doctors. This is now the fourth time this season that William Hartnell has appeared. So, the resolution. Amy has discovered the engagement ring. As Vincent saw in the last ep, she still has some sense of loss, buried deep. Will the ring be a trigger for her memory? Speaking of Vincent, did you notice the Van Gogh postcard on Craig’s fridge? It would be hard to miss the crack behind the fridge, because they’re getting wider. The Pandorica will open, and silence will fall… But in the meantime here, for your entertainment and edification, is the original comic strip:        |
|
|
|
Post by Anne, Old S'cubie Cat on Jul 10, 2010 23:16:29 GMT -5
The Doctor is rather endearingly geeky, off on his own, but I can see that it'd get annoying quickly. On the other hand, he's so innocent and well-meaning that it makes up for a lot of the annoying, and this Doctor does love to see people finding their true love, too. There was a postcard for the Van Gogh exhibit on the fridge. Continuity, hee. I was wondering what the ear-thingy was, until it was explained. These days, though, nobody's going to look twice at someone otherwise normal-looking who is talking to him/herself anyway - odds are that Borg earpiece is a hands-free cellphone. I'm with becca - I want to know what Amy's thinking. And we end with the crack in the wall... Oh, and The Lodger is also a 1927 Hitchcock film about a serial killer. |
|
|
|
Post by Riff on Jul 11, 2010 7:31:13 GMT -5
The Doctor is rather endearingly geeky, off on his own, but I can see that it'd get annoying quickly. On the other hand, he's so innocent and well-meaning that it makes up for a lot of the annoying, and this Doctor does love to see people finding their true love, too. There was a postcard for the Van Gogh exhibit on the fridge. Continuity, hee. I was wondering what the ear-thingy was, until it was explained. These days, though, nobody's going to look twice at someone otherwise normal-looking who is talking to him/herself anyway - odds are that Borg earpiece is a hands-free cellphone. I'm with becca - I want to know what Amy's thinking. And we end with the crack in the wall...Oh, and The Lodger is also a 1927 Hitchcock film about a serial killer. Ah, well. The first part of the finale beckons. The Pandorica is about to open... I think an interesting question to ask is if his geekiness is deliberate. In other words is it not a lack of social knowledge; is it just weirdness? |
|
|
|
Post by Lola m on Jul 11, 2010 19:40:12 GMT -5
Doctor separated from Amy and she’s traveling in an out of control TARDIS and eeep! Don’t go up the stairs – don’t do it! Best. New. Lodger. Ever!! A bag-full of money, an air kiss to both cheeks, “I call me the Doctor too”, and “Is that a reference from the Archbishop of Canterbury?!”. Heeeee! ;D “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a bit weird?” “They never really stop.”  “All I’ve got to do is pass as an ordinary human being. Simple! What could possibly go wrong?” “Have you seen you?” OMG and now the woman he likes is gonna get all googly over the football-playing-towel-wearing Doctor, isn’t she? Well, maybe it will be the catalyst for him to tell her how he feels, eh? Oh, nice effect with the mini-timeloop and the Doctor just strolling out of it. There’s a theme/point/deeper meaning-thingee here, eh, with these folks hardly going out and not trying things and he was not lured into the upstairs apartment and so on, isn’t there? How adorable! He’s building some kind of who knows what in his bedroom. Dude, you soooooo shouldn’t touch that . . . whoopsie. Awwww. The Doctor is a very sweet guy at times. Taking care of him . . . so good.  And the Doctor is just completely turning this poor guy’s life upside-down and inside-out. “Monkeys, monkeys.” “Bad weird”. Heeee! “I like you. I can’t see the point of anywhere else. Madrid? Ha! What a dump!” Noooo – don’t be lured by the scary fake-little-girl! “There. Is. No. Upstairs!” OMG, that’s wonderful! That line is totally the new “the call is coming from inside the house”. “Hello, I’m Captain Troy Handsome of International Rescue. Please state the nature of your emergency.” That? Was awesome!!! Ah, there’s the whole “why do you want to stay here” pay-off. Kiss the girl and save the solar system. Ha! ;D Gotta love those handy perception filters. They solve so very many messy situations. And there's the crack to cut the sweetness of all those human-Doctor connections: his own set of keys, the magnet message, and photos of football glory. Nice nice nice use of the imagery – opening the box with the ring, opening memories, opening the crack. |
|
|
|
Post by Lola m on Jul 11, 2010 19:44:14 GMT -5
My reviews be beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/2011809.html and beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/2012808.html(I've mostly been reviewing on dreamwidth and forgetting to xpost here) I thought this one was fun... when I could actually watch it. It took me two tries. The first time I was hiding behind my fingers and only peeking enough to read the subtitles. It's just that whole thing with trying to be normal and missing by a mile. My sympathy, it is massive. So then I get squirmy and hide. My trouble is always with my embarrassment squick. Most of The Office, for example? I simply can't watch. Too ouchy. ;D |
|
|
|
Post by Lola m on Jul 11, 2010 19:49:37 GMT -5
In all of David Tennant’s seasons there was a “Doctor-lite” episode, in which he appeared little. These were arguably the more experimental stories: Love and Monsters, Blink, and Turn Left. In all but Turn Left, the companion as well as the Doctor had a week off, but for Season 5 we see a companion-lite episode in the which the Doctor takes centre stage. Interestingly, The Lodger as a story was first written for David Tennant, or at least for the Tenth Doctor. It originally appeared as a one-off comic in Doctor Who Magazine, and told the story of the newly-regenerated Doctor having to spend a few days in Mickey Smith’s flat while Rose was trapped in the TARDIS, at a point when she is still ostensibly Mickey's girlfriend. Gareth Roberts adapted his comic for television, and retained the title. There are some differences. While Craig is quite friendly with the Doctor for most of the ep, there is a confrontational relationship from the start with Mickey in the comic strip (one that the Doctor is hilariously unaware of for most of the story, it seems). The alien menace is more integral to the plot in the TV version. Some aspects of the comic have been altered but also retained (for the uber-nerds in the audience, like Steven Moffat). For example, in the ep the Doctor dashes to the rescue with Craig’s electric toothbrush, because he has left his sonic screwdriver in a glass in the bathroom; the comic begins with a sleepy Mickey going to brush his teeth, and then blasting them all out of his head because he has picked up the sonic by mistake! We see a lot of the Doctor in this episode, and it marks a real difference between Smith and Tennant. In the comic strip, the Doctor annoyed Mickey by being Mr Cool all the time, but here there is very little coolness to be seen, at least not what we would normally think of as coolness. Yes, there is the football scene (which was in the original comic and was not, as some believe, cynically included to reflect Matt Smith’s footballing background and the World Cup; though those things didn‘t hurt, obviously ), but even here the Doctor’s ability to score goals is a little undercut by his general weirdness. Black Orchid isn’t the best story in the world, but the scene in which the Fifth Doctor single-handedly wins a cricket match is a high-point, and shows him to be dignified and skilful. The Eleventh Doctor looks bizarre and clumsy, despite the fact that ball finds it’s target over and over again. Indeed, if the Tenth Doctor were in this story his social graces wouldn’t be perfect, but they would be a lot better than the odd behaviour of Matt Smith. Yet Moffat continually reminds us that the Doctor is always the same man, who behaves a little differently in different bodies just because they are different bodies. So, we should perhaps ask if he is actually this socially inept, or if he is simply being weird just because he is simply weird. Certainly, this self-knowing oddness was seen in the Second, Fourth and Seventh Doctors quite frequently, and at times in all the others. As always, when the time comes to be serious, the Doctor’s silliness takes a back seat. Though Craig is not aware of it, the Doctor shows real tenderness when ministering to him after he has been poisoned. It’s a moment in which all the apparent eccentricities fade away and are revealed to be, perhaps, surface. That was a particularly wonderful moment. Oh that would have been rather interesting. And odd. And oddly interesting. And yet it was also cool to do it as as an unsolved mystery - just another automated program working its way thru the human race. |
|
|
|
Post by Lola m on Jul 11, 2010 19:56:55 GMT -5
The Doctor is rather endearingly geeky, off on his own, but I can see that it'd get annoying quickly. On the other hand, he's so innocent and well-meaning that it makes up for a lot of the annoying, and this Doctor does love to see people finding their true love, too. There was a postcard for the Van Gogh exhibit on the fridge. Continuity, hee. I was wondering what the ear-thingy was, until it was explained. These days, though, nobody's going to look twice at someone otherwise normal-looking who is talking to him/herself anyway - odds are that Borg earpiece is a hands-free cellphone. Indeed! No one would think it odd at all. Well, they wouldn't think the earpiece is odd, at least. I love that comparison because in other circumstances, wouldn't that be one of the things we could have worried about the Doctor, if we didn't know who he was and if it had been a different kind of show or movie, eh? |
|
|
|
Post by Rachael on Jul 12, 2010 12:55:41 GMT -5
I liked this episode a bit less than the previous one (both, for the most part, "monster of the week" eps). The love story really did...nothing for me. It was predictable and ordinary and human, and, yes, I *do* understand that that was the point - to juxtapose some actual humans against The Doctor's incredibly failed attempt to mimic humans. It still didn't work for me. Look, no woman spends that much time at a man's home with him if she's not interested on some level. ESPECIALLY if she's got her own frickin' keys...oy, but he deserved to suffer if he's that dense. And, as for her...he was so painfully interested in her...is it REALLY an English thing not to be able to see that? Granted, some people are completely blind to signals (my own husband comes to mind - I had to push him against a wall and be quite direct (with words))...but TWO of them? At the same time? Meh. Bored now. OTOH, The Doctor was fascinating - not for the story, but for character development purposes. Matt Smith is playing The Doctor quite a lot more alien than David Tennant did. I said almost exactly this to Dave: Indeed, if the Tenth Doctor were in this story his social graces wouldn’t be perfect, but they would be a lot better than the odd behaviour of Matt Smith. Yet Moffat continually reminds us that the Doctor is always the same man, who behaves a little differently in different bodies just because they are different bodies. So, we should perhaps ask if he is actually this socially inept, or if he is simply being weird just because he is simply weird. Certainly, this self-knowing oddness was seen in the Second, Fourth and Seventh Doctors quite frequently, and at times in all the others. Basically, Eleven is more alien, a lot less human. Ten actually WAS human, once, and retained the memories...Eleven is more what we'd expect from a Time Lord. He's not gonna get all swanny over his companion, I'll wager. He wants to take care of her, like a well-loved pet...make her love life work properly (sigh), etc., but I very much doubt he's capable of loving her on anything like a human level. |
|
|
|
Post by Riff on Jul 13, 2010 10:56:09 GMT -5
That was a particularly wonderful moment. Wasn't it? So genuine. It seemed like the Doctor was putting the silly antics on hold (possibly to eat a biscuit?) to deal with something serious and important. *grumpy* I'd rather have had the cactus. Only joking - it's good for morale. These lose ends are rarely just left hanging, though. Hmmm... |
|
|
|
Post by Riff on Jul 13, 2010 11:08:49 GMT -5
Basically, Eleven is more alien, a lot less human. Ten actually WAS human, once, and retained the memories...Eleven is more what we'd expect from a Time Lord. He's not gonna get all swanny over his companion, I'll wager. He wants to take care of her, like a well-loved pet...make her love life work properly (sigh), etc., but I very much doubt he's capable of loving her on anything like a human level. While it was interesting to have a romantic and more-human Doctor, I do welcome the feel Moffat and Smith have brought to the show. I agree that it's unlikely we'll see any kind of romance between the Doctor and his companion in the near future... ...Unless and until that companion is River Song! Then again, Moffat is trying to mislead us about her, so who knows. |
|
|
|
Post by Anne, Old S'cubie Cat on Jul 15, 2010 15:49:43 GMT -5
I'm not sure where to put this, but I want to get it down someplace before I forget again. Since I'm all confused and don't want to inadvertently spoil anyone, I'll stick the gory details under a spoiler thingy. So, in the teaser for next week and all the ads running for next week's episode, there's this big box thingy, which I assume from all the shouting is the Pandorica. On the box are concentric circles of symbols of some kind. I looked at it several times, and whatever those markings are, they look to me (and the Younger Daughter, when I asked her) like the ones on this artifact here. If so, it's an interesting little joke on the viewer. Unless, of course, that turns out to be relevant to the plot. But don't tell me yet, please! So I'll be waiting impatiently until Saturday evening to see what's going on, and until then, I'm staying away from that episode discussion thread. Really. Honest. Seriously. If my sieve-like brain remembers, I'll bring this over to the proper episode thread, assuming I'm not completely off base. By the way, Riff, have you got that fetching Amy Pond outfit picked out yet? |
|
|
|
Post by Riff on Jul 16, 2010 5:48:53 GMT -5
I'm not sure where to put this, but I want to get it down someplace before I forget again. Since I'm all confused and don't want to inadvertently spoil anyone, I'll stick the gory details under a spoiler thingy. So, in the teaser for next week and all the ads running for next week's episode, there's this big box thingy, which I assume from all the shouting is the Pandorica. On the box are concentric circles of symbols of some kind. I looked at it several times, and whatever those markings are, they look to me (and the Younger Daughter, when I asked her) like the ones on this artifact here. If so, it's an interesting little joke on the viewer. Unless, of course, that turns out to be relevant to the plot. But don't tell me yet, please! So I'll be waiting impatiently until Saturday evening to see what's going on, and until then, I'm staying away from that episode discussion thread. Really. Honest. Seriously. If my sieve-like brain remembers, I'll bring this over to the proper episode thread, assuming I'm not completely off base. By the way, Riff, have you got that fetching Amy Pond outfit picked out yet? You know, any reply I make to this post, whether about your idea or about the outfit, would be spoilery. The finale has aired here now. I am all-knowing. What I will say is that circles and especially concentric circles have appeared conspicuously throughout the season and there are more to come; the Doctor even draws circles in the air as he explains that time can be rewritten or unwritten. So, something of a theme of circularity going on... Here is a small sample of what we have seen, some of which at least is probably deliberate: This in The Eleventh Hour...  ...is exactly repeated multiple times in the Dalek ship.  Here's a few more:     [/quote] |
|
