Be Excellent To Each Other

I can understand the production team wanting a break and producing the (how many, 3, 4, 5? can't remember) short TV special season to recupperate. I don't mind that, since another big series is promised. I am worried about the schedule altering though, and the hostility Chinny is warning about.

Fortunately the big difference here is that Doc Who is still a media darling at the moment, and has an enthusiastic production staff - two assets old Who didn't have in its twilight years.

Having been in a room with programmers from across the whole BBC I'd suggest that you need to get in the mindset of the people who run the place:

1 - Dress like a middle aged hairdresser (male or female, doesn't matter).
2 - Take copious amounts of cocaine so that you are paranoid and high.
3 - Know you are always right even when everyone else is telling you that you are wrong.
4 - Push your own projects at the expense of anything your predecessor set up. Your aim is to make your mark in double quick time so you can get a cushy job in an indie before the BBC collapses in on itself.

Number 4 is very important.

Well, they certainly managed to keep that a secret.

I wish that had been the number that had prank called Stu. Imagine getting prank called by the Doctor, that would be pretty cool.

Wow.

And blimey.

I'm not talking about that.

La la la la la posting not reading la la la la la waiting for iplayer to update with eppy la la la la la christ hope you all liked it daren't read your posts la la la la!

the very end!


Malc

What, you don't think they'll travel back in time and prevent it happening?

Can Davies do anything but massive, shuddering invasions as the series finale? Did Queer as Folk end with the Catholics rampaging across Western Europe stapling all the gays to telephone poles? Halted by one of them turning out to be Jesus?

The phone thing was pathetic. Especially when, as Mr Smith was apparently already making all the exchanges on the planet ring the number because that works across space and time obviously, Rose and co kept hitting redial on their mobiles like it would help. Especially when Rose lifted hers up, I'm sure that's what did it. Jesus.

This is the same finale as last series, only with more Daleks pasted in. I think the people in charge are right wanting this Who killed, hopefully Moffat will get a chance to turn it around before they succeed.

Ooh. I'm fairly certain (watch the whole episode before reading on):

I didn't enjoy the episode all that much besides the ending, but then it was so heavily geared towards big fans of the series. And some of it was well corny.

There was some of it that wasn't corny?

Pah! Is what I say to you lot. You're the most miserable people on the internet! That was bloody brilliant.

A few minutes after it finished I started thinking "So why were..." and "I'm sure they're not actually going to..." and all that, but during and for five minutes following I was just totally caught up in it all. Couldn't wish for better Saturday evening entertainment. So many great moments.

Look, no, I mean - it was entertaining, it's just RTD does this every fucking series. Daleks and the kitchen sink.

That and everything looks really cheesy and low-budget these days - Who, Primeval, that Bonekickers that they're advertising everywhere that looks like a terrible mashup of (the awful new) Robin Hood and Time Team. It's all just comes across low-budget, poor-production-values rubbish. Because it is, US TV has been outshining this stuff for years, with all the Hollywood lavished on it.

I was engrossed, and I enjoyed it. But I'm embarrassed by that (and I still fucking hate Catherine Tate).

FTFY.

TRUE! On all counts!

You miserable twats!

They might as well shown 50 minutes of Russell T Davies wanking himself silly.

I really really hope the return of Davros isn't wasted.

It was entertaining, but only in a "lets throw the kitchen sink in" kind of way.

There was a lot wrong with that episode apart from a few good bits.

I wasn't too surprised by the ending to be honest. One of the spoiler sites I visited seemed to get the basic idea right.

I concur! Personally I thought it giddy, splendid aceness! And yay, Sarah Jane getting to be ace! Penelope Wilton getting fried! It's all there!

But this is the big invasion to end all big invasions. They will have to start doing different stuff for the new finales - um, actually half the episodes full stop. I didn't see it as RTD-wank either. He's bringing his reign to a close by wrapping up all the characters in a big invadey thing. What's wrong with that? And I thought it all looked pretty good really. What do you think was wrong with the production values, because I thought it looked pretty impressive.

The CGI of the spaceships and the TARDIS were pretty poor IMO. No so much in quality but execution.

As a general shot across this series I sometimes wish they'd use more model shots. They did in season 1 (Big Ben being crashed into is one example). Seems the money might not be there anymore. Shame as in some circumstances models look better than CGI.

And just to add another thought, about the only thing not in this weeks episode was The Master and I also expect they'll have to do a reboot at the end just like last year.

True, there was a very ropey shot of the Tardis heading towards Earth along the signal loops. And a couple of other minor duffers. There was some good stuff though - the New York skyline though cheating somewhat (the Dalek laser fire didn't actually blow anything much up if you look twice) still looked impressive, Davros looked fun, the takedown of the Valient was brill and the FX ambience was consistent and compelling. It really felt like a huge chaotic invasion.

Loved the giggly Dalek voice giggling too. And Julian Bleach as Davros was very good. I actually enjoyed him, when I don't like Davros normally 'cept in Genesis.



Indeed, remains the best FX shot. Still, I never grow tired of seeing Daleks explode, and it was curiously shocking to see them torch that house.



There are a few plausible ways to do a reboot and I can imagine how they'd be done. I suspect there will be collective amnesia enforced by the Shadow Proclamation, with only the companions (sans Donna I suspect) and Wilf spared to look after her. A sort of mass 'covering up'. They'd blame the damage on a meteor shower or something. This would allow Doc Who to return to the people shouting 'Men From Mars!' stuff. Though it was idiotic of RTD to have Paul O'Grady do that gag, I laughed at the time but it did stretch the plausibility of human reaction.

Personally I really enjoyed it. I hope that we'll be leaving that style behind under Moffatt and saving it only for rare shockingly ace episodes, but I liked it. It was somewhat stupid, but it was so enthusiastic and determined and everyone was having bags of fun. Mum liked it lots too. I give it four out of five.

And the ending did surprise me!

The problem these days is nobody seems to realise that often less is more. The most shocking and realistic TV sci-fi drama I've ever seen was Survivors. So atmospheric, far more sense of danger and of a society wrecked. But you never really saw the cities or what happend to the vast majority of the people. These days they just chuck a load of CGI on it, some explosions and think that solves the problem. You could do the vast abandoned cities, but there wouldn't be that atmosphere.

I really wish I hadn't been spoiled about the cliffhanger and how it's resolved weeks ago, if only because then I wouldn't have had people asking me to TELL THEM WHAT HAPPENS! very loudly. They were quite disappointed when I did, if that's not too much of a spoiler.

All the yelling meant I didn't really know what was going on, but it seemed like an awful lot of the episode was just people sitting in rooms spouting exposition, which wasn't really what I was expecting. To have DAVROS and make him AWESOME and then HARDLY FEATURE HIM in favour of A SCENE WITH A MINOR CHARACTER THAT LASTS TEN MINUTES seems a bit rubbish, although I'm sure he'll be there loads next week. I'm sad because I really wanted to like this episode, but it really did seem to fritter the awesome away, and

That sounds a lot like Turn Left. It's odd to complain TV doesn't make shows like this anymore when the show we're discussing did pretty much this outstandingly well just last week.

As far as quality atmospheric Brit genuine-sci-fi goes, I agree we're completely lacking at the moment. But that's not Doc Who's mandate. Doc Who is primarily for the kids, which is a wise move - that it manages to entertain a good deal of adults as well, including me, is a bonus. That it manages to have around three of four episodes a series that I think are damn near perfect fantasy/sci-fi telly is a miracle. I have a far bigger bone to pick with RTD and company about Torchwood which could have been something genuinely clever, moving and stunning - which he had achieved somewhat with his excellent Second Coming - but completely and wretchedly wasn't. Torchwood had the ability to do clever ideas with cracking dialogue and a snappy feel, and instead it chose lurid pantomine.

The last great Brit scifi in my opinion was Joe Aherne's Ultraviolet, of which there really should have been more made. And my all time fave could possibly be Saphire & Steel. So I do sympathise, but I have to say I enjoy the current manifestation of Doctor Who quite a lot. I think ideally I'd be happiest with a magical middle ground between RTD's production values, epicness and character play and the big ideas, more intimate plots and subtler and more varied threats of the old series. I watched a Jon Pertwee one on Youtube recently about an experiment shifting the Doctor to an alternate Earth which he completely fails to save from its own nature-tinkering folly. And it was surprisingly shocking.

I quite liked Survivors - hell, I like anything with George Baker in -but it was a little too obvious at times for me and a little too relentlessly grim. (Though considering it was about the death of 999/1000 people, that was a bit tricky to avoid really.) I preferred the 1980's Day of the Triffids personally.

Don't worry Chinny, I'm sure a show will one day be made that you'll love. You'll just have to patiently wait for the right cokehead to get into power.

Poor Chinny. I suggest you watch these exciting new trailers for these atmospheric movies coming out soon, they'll cheer you up - they're right up your street!

You may think it sounds alot like Survivors, but it ain't. Very few series can touch Survivors for sheer atmosphere. It's literally is a 1970's version of 28 Days Later wrapped up in a weekly drama series.

Inferno is one of the finest Who stories ever. Very very gritty and shocking with a whole world destroyed. If it has been RTD he would have rebooted it at the end and would have had everyone happy. But no, everyone died. Love it and also love Ambassadors Of Death as well.



Day Of The Triffids is good, but needed more meat. Just felt like it needed a bit of extra money and some more love. Just a tad lack lustre and the original script didn't help.

Survivors is plodding and dull in places, and halfway through the run it gets lost in a world of basket weaving and small scale farming. However it picks up at the end. The whole Smallpox plot was really dark and shocking and the scenes with Ian McCulloch threatening to shoot his adopted family were quite shocking.



There is. There's lots of shows I love. I do like parts of new Who but I could never say it was "love" because time and again it gets ruined. I love the new Davros, but he's going to get buried in RTD's fanwank. Tennant is great (although I hope he gets chance to expand his role before he leaves), Tate varies between OK and awful and I share some of the same reservations about Torchwood as you (it really has been a wasted oppertunity. Turns out "grown up" Who is like that late night version of Hollyoaks. Just more of the same but with sex.). I'm hoping the new team will address these issues but since RTD is apparently in charge of the specials it will be a while before we see any changes.

Eh, I liked that just fine. Several times I laughed delightedly. So far, it's a billion times better than the previous series finale.

Wasn't the Sub-Wave network attributed to Mr Copper (of VOTD fame)? Or at least his money.

It seems unlikely they'd throw anyone else into that as well, doesn't it?

I'm sure you already know, but there's a new series of Survivors being made at the moment. I'm hoping it'll be good.

It certainly better be more gripping than The Last Train.

As much as Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister, probably dislikes the Doctor for deposing her, I can't honestly see her double-crossing him. I'd be very, very, VERY surprised if this turns out to be the case.

iplayer-dl b00cccvg
21.4% Doctor Who Series 4 - The Stolen Earth.mov (Original)

/me holds breath

I'm somewhat concerned about the devastation that's been meted out so far. With all the military exterminated into fuckery and a lot of buildings destroyed and lives lost it seems to be set up for another pressing of the magic reset switch.

Otherwise I enjoyed it rather a lot.

<fanboy>
What if the universes / dimensions collapsing and stuff leads to a reset - and er, brings back the 8th Doctor?
</faboy>

That was top grade silliness!

I hope he regenerates back into Christopher Ecclestone.

I'm also highly pleased to be able to download and watch stuff off the BBC now.

Eh? Is that down to the gubbins you said earlier? How exactly might one do that?

The iplayer allows you to download.

Ah the official windows torrent version.

I'sa Got'sa Mac'sa! So I can't do that.

Really enjoyed how over the top it was. I also watched the first two episodes of Sarah Jane Adventures so I quite enjoyed SJ and the kid being in it. And good old Mr Smith.

Well that's your own damned fault.