Quote: Chappers @ September 8 2012, 8:42 PM BSTI was going to say the same about M & W like the HHGTTG.
And next week's reminds me of West World.
What happened to the originality of the storylines?
Put me in mind of Red Dwarf, actually.
The shitty episodes with the T-rex on the spaceship were on Dave today.
Dwarf also did a cowboy episode.
There wasn't an original bone in it's body, right down to the robot designs stolen from The Fifth Element, but I quite enjoyed it. That said, as ever there was a complete lack of dramatic edge or tension.
Mind you, I do enjoy New Who's continuing fetish for hot black young women.
It was fun, glorious, blockbuster, Saturday night fun. Sometimes, that's all you want Who to be, and this was it. To think the same man who wrote the Silurian two parter came up with this bit of fun. Lovely. Pity Rory's Dad won't be around long.
Quote: Lazzard @ September 8 2012, 8:43 PM BSTEven the kids found this one boring.
Boring? When I was a kid I'd be sitting down to watch Time And The Rani; your kids don't know they're born! 
Their evaluation of Who - as was mine at their age - is whether it's scary or not (to kids).
This wasn't, where some of the older stuff - and the better of the current crop - most certainly was/is.
All the Amy/Rory shit just bores them senseless.
And they don't know who Mitchell & Webb are so that particular campy, in-joke was lost on them too.
Plus, by the sound of things I've got a good fifteen years on you.
I was being scared shitless by The Sea Devils and The Yetis.
Quote: Lazzard @ September 8 2012, 10:59 PM BSTTheir evaluation of Who - as was mine at their age - is whether it's scary or not (to kids).
This wasn't, where some of the older stuff - and the better of the current crop - most certainly was/is.
All the Amy/Rory shit just bores them senseless.
And they don't know who Mitchell & Webb are so that particular campy, in-joke was lost on them too.Plus, by the sound of things I've got a good fifteen years on you.
I was being scared shitless by The Sea Devils and The Yetis.
I'm with you on this one. Sci-fi needs to stay 'Real' to its own world or set-up.
We pick up the Doctor at the beginning with a giant unknown spaceship heading for earth (StarTrek plot)
He's asked to go and investigate as knowone can make contact.
He then goes and picks up a big game hunter (Jurasiac Park) without knowing that there are Dinosaurs onboard the ship?
Can anyone explain why?
And Neffattiti is taken along...Why? Apart from some hint that the Doctor was having an affair with her and then at the end she goes off with the Big Game hunter who makes made 'Big Weapon gags' that are meant presumably to keep the parents happy. Wouldnt it have made more sence if Neffitteeti was already onboard and kidnapped and the Doctor rescues her?
The basic plot and outline to this episode had all teh Haul marks of being driven by people who don't understand basic construction... rather than the excellent writing we normally expect from this series.
And given the sentemantallity thrown into last weeks episode it all has the taste of 'American market' thinking to me..
AP SCENE
Bye the way Mitchell & Webb have a show on Radio4 which is sometimes quite funny. Some great sketches last week check it out on RAdio4 podcast. But I'm not sure the kids will understand them all?APS
Quote: Punk Anarcho @ September 9 2012, 8:53 AM BSTHaul marks
Brilliant 
Quote: Punk Anarcho @ September 9 2012, 8:53 AM BSTWe pick up the Doctor at the beginning with a giant unknown spaceship heading for earth (StarTrek plot)
Star Trek plot? So no other show can or does have an unknown spaceship approaching Earth?!
Quote: Matthew Stott @ September 9 2012, 10:22 AM BST
Star Trek plot? So no other show can or does have an unknown spaceship approaching Earth?!
Yes - a little harsh, that.
And I doubt Star Trek were the first.
Quote: Punk Anarcho @ September 9 2012, 8:53 AM BSTHe then goes and picks up a big game hunter (Jurasiac Park) without knowing that there are Dinosaurs onboard the ship?
Can anyone explain why?
Terrible script editing?
And Neffattiti is taken along...Why? Apart from some hint that the Doctor was having an affair with her and then at the end she goes off with the Big Game hunter who makes made 'Big Weapon gags' that are meant presumably to keep the parents happy.
There was also the sophisticated and original balls joke.
You might have thought that an Egyptian queen, a big game hunter and a middle aged Brummie would have been just a little disconcerted at finding themselves in a spaceship full of dinosaurs and camp robots, but that might have slowed down the action, or more importantly left less time for emoting.
As for the Doctor's comment about never having had a gang before, which was presumably intended to provide some sort of explanation, this conveniently forgets the dire magnificent seven episode in the last series.
Really pisses me off the lazy way the writers use the Doctor's vagueness as a way of skirting round plot points that make no f**king sense.
Its what I call Dr Who script lubricant.
You've got 45 minutes you can piss about with meaningful explanations or you can just let some bits slide.
Its how DrWho avoids theres God awful ex positional episodes that ruin other shows.
So the story intenifies where need be and it creates a very unusual tension.
So Nefertiti and big game hunter low tension, it's a bit of fun who cares. Finding out the villain isn't a burglar he's a dinosaur killing, genocidare high tension.
It's like a volume switch adjusted gently.
SPOILER
And the twisty end where the Dr kills the robots with a flick of his sonic screw driver before murdering the villain. Was reminesent of the end of Waters of Mars. Except more brutal and ultimately more convincing.
Quote: Punk Anarcho @ September 9 2012, 8:53 AM BSTHe then goes and picks up a big game hunter (Jurasiac Park) without knowing that there are Dinosaurs onboard the ship?
Can anyone explain why?
He wasn't just a big game hunter, he was an explorer and an adventurer, which seem like good credentials for jumping aboard an unknown spaceship heading to Earth.
Because the Dr likes companions and picks them up at random.
Because he wanted to wean the Ponds off of his company.
Because he's an immortal time travelling alien, on a space ship that's 10,000,000 kilometers square even though surely it would have been easier to use their teleporters to fire the dinosaurs into space, makes that a silly question.
If you can't suspend your imagination a little watch Eastenders.
Episode quality aside; on other sites I've seen several people complain about the 'shoddy effects', which surprises me; I thought, for British TV, the effects were pretty good. I bought the dinosaurs more than the ITV Dinosaur show whose name momentarilly escapes me, anyway. The spaceship itself looked brilliant, too.
Primeleevil.
The effects were pretty good and I usually spot bad CGI
Except the triceratops was a little ropy when they were riding it, but that wasn't a biggy.
Call me old fashioned but I like my plot lines to have some sort of logic to them.
Why not just shoot back in time and pick up Rasputin.. Why Neffettiti? apart from the fact that she looked good? why not Akanatan or YuYA?
And I'm sorry the Big Game hunter pre assumed that the doctor new Dinosuars were aboard.. Noones yet given me a reasonable explanation apart from 'Dr Who's vague work it out for yourself..'
Good exposition should flow through the action like the 'force'..
And I never said a space ship heading for earth had only been used by Star Trek, infact if you count asteriods its a common plot line..
What I said is that this episode was Americanized.. Star trek, star gate, jurassic Park, the gags, the corney action riding a dinosaur...with piles of trite sentimentality.. the dinosaur gets shot.. a tear forms in teh corner of my eye for the jumping shark..
This wasnt just poor script editing the whole premise was wrong
APS
PS The lighting wasnt as good as last weeks. One of the problems with lots of Green Sceen is flat lighting. Always hard to make it look mean and moody especially on low budget.