Lets just hope it turns out to be a big climax. One as good as the pandoricum box thing whatever it was called.
Doctor Who... Page 662
Quote: chipolata @ April 26 2011, 11:26 AM BSTIt fails dramatically because you spend all your time thinking, "This is bloody nonsense. What is Moffat faffing at!"
Yeah, you do. And Marc! Not all of us.
Well I didn't say that, I just said I didn't get the logic of it and I am not Dorothy looking at the wizard of Oz 
I enjoyed it and will watch again, but in a universe where anything can happen it's not the big stuff that makes for great drama it is the little. Watch Casablanca for an example of this.
Dr Who has always had one big problem, it has no limits and minimal motivation. What started as a play for a day about an old chap exploring history (and as series a novel way of educating kids on history). Rapidly grew into a cross time, cross space adventure with no limits.
So the problem is left, why does the Dr do what he does?
Conversley in say Star Trek, it's the adventures of the naval flotilla of a space UN. So it's quite easy "go investigate that thing over there," or "go make peace with that thing."
Each motivator Dr Who tried has been a bit daffy. Either as an agent of the Time Lords or the more common just bumbling in at a fortuitous moment. It's made the series always feel a bit loose.
If the current regime are trying for the Dr is following a path, knows everything and is just doing what must be done. Then that seems to make as much sense as anything else. If anything the Bad Wolf and Silence Will Fall threads have quietly pulled some very disparate stories together quite nicely.
As for River and Dr not knowing each other. If it bothers you ignore it, it's a very slight bit of detail. Otherwise it's a clever idea and one that isn't that hard to grasp if you're paying attention.
Or do you want stuff so spoon fed you end up with the Tardis landing "In the Night Garden." And Dr Who is not a kids show, it's a show watched by kids.
In the same way Harry Potter had some pretty heavy themes and The Golden Compass more so. It's great that when it spilled over into The Sara Jane Adventures the more complex, nuanced ideas remained (unlike the one episode of that bollox I watched with an animated K9)
Quote: sootyj @ April 26 2011, 11:45 AM BSTit's a clever idea and one that isn't that hard to grasp if you're paying attention.
Okay you have my attention, what is the idea? Not the conceit or the device, what is the idea?
Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 26 2011, 11:37 AM BSTYeah, you do. And Marc! Not all of us.
It's only the River rubbish that niggles me. I still enjoyed the first episode.
I love Dr Who. It is great fun.
But......one thing that has always puzzled me is when you hear folk say 'ooooh, the Daleks have always scared the life out of me'.
I can't see how they are scary at all. There are far more scarier-looking aliens in the show- like those Ooods and those midget 'gherkin-looking' bods.
Quote: Marc P @ April 26 2011, 11:48 AM BSTOkay you have my attention, what is the idea? Not the conceit or the device, what is the idea?
That a time traveller, by dint of being a time traveller, may not turn up in your life in the right order.
The real problem here I feel, is that we're a little impatient to get to the 'truth' about River, and feel certain that when we do get to it, that it won't have been worth the wait. And some of the stories featuring her just haven't been interesting enough to justify the 'suspense'.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 26 2011, 11:53 AM BSTThat a time traveller, by dint of being a time traveller, may not turn up in your life in the right order.
Is it her choice not to show up in the right order? Although all her recent appearances seem to have had a linear quality.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 26 2011, 11:53 AM BSTThat a time traveller, by dint of being a time traveller, may not turn up in your life in the right order.
Thats not what we are talking about and you know that Matthew. SHe knows- she keeps saying spoilers (An hilarious in joke) for goodness sake - so there is more to it than that! That is what we are discussing.
Quote: john lucas 101 @ April 26 2011, 11:57 AM BSTThe real problem here I feel, is that we're a little impatient to get to the 'truth' about River, and feel certain that when we do get to it, that it won't have been worth the wait. And some of the stories featuring her just haven't been interesting enough to justify the 'suspense'.
This.
Quote: Marc P @ April 26 2011, 12:07 PM BSTThats not what we are talking about and you know that Matthew.
Well, the spoilers thing started as she knew more about the Doctors furutre life and adventures than he did, as obviously she'd met and had adventures with an older version of the Doctor. Basically she knows she can't tell him about certain things at that point as he has to live through it himself first.
Yes but she a a deep and dark knowing of something really really important! Something all tied up with the backwards in time business, not just the old regular conundrum.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 26 2011, 12:16 PM BSTWell, the spoilers thing started as she knew more about the Doctors furutre life and adventures than he did, as obviously she'd met and had adventures with an older version of the Doctor. Basically she knows she can't tell him about certain things at that point as he has to live through it himself first.
Why MUST she hang out with this younger doctor, though? Why not just carry on having adventures with the older one?
Quote: chipolata @ April 26 2011, 11:58 AM BSTIs it her choice not to show up in the right order?
I think it's been more the Doctor turning up randomly in her life than her purposefully doing it. Though that may obviously be wrong when we find out whatever it is that's supposed to be a secret.