New Doctor Who Series Discussion *Spoilers*

Good character work again, but the plotting was definateley off. The whole setup of how the society worked just seemed contrived and didn't follow any kind of real logic.

Are they now saying that only the UK survived the destruction of Earth?

I could be wrong, but im pretty sure they said that everyone else had already built their ships and the starship UK was the last one out, and the Whale is the only thing that kept them from paying the bill
 
Good character work again, but the plotting was definateley off. The whole setup of how the society worked just seemed contrived and didn't follow any kind of real logic.

Are they now saying that only the UK survived the destruction of Earth?

I think they were more saying that the UK was the last to leave the Earth, everyone else had buggered off already. Going to watch it again later, see if i missed anything.
 
I could be wrong, but im pretty sure they said that everyone else had already built their ships and the starship UK was the last one out, and the Whale is the only thing that kept them from paying the bill

That's assuming that wasn't part of the lie told to keep the people happy, part of the "forgotten" section.

However, the idea does provide background for Satellite 5 (The Gamestation) and New Earth so it's probably true after all.
 
So what did the other ships use for power?

I could buy the culture being based on guilt, but throwing kids to the monster for minor misdeamenours is just evil, which Liz 10 and her minions didn't seem to be at all. And what was up with the half-human half smiler guy? That didn't make sense at all (which Moffat pretty much admitted in Confidential - it was just there because it looked cool).

What happened to adults that were given to the whale, did it just eat them?

Why did they assume that torturing it made it go faster?

Why did nothing happen when Amy pressed the abdicate button? presumably there was some sort of mechanism keeping the creature attached to the ship, but the button appeared to do nothing at all.

Just too many ifs and buts for the episode to work for me. It felt like one of those movies where lots of stuff got cut, leaving the story not really making sense.
 
Why did nothing happen when Amy pressed the abdicate button? presumably there was some sort of mechanism keeping the creature attached to the ship, but the button appeared to do nothing at all.

Just too many ifs and buts for the episode to work for me. It felt like one of those movies where lots of stuff got cut, leaving the story not really making sense.

The Abdicate button stopped the torture ray, which allowed the whale to regain it's independence. It could have shaken off the people of the UK but instead let them keep riding it's back to wherever it was going.

Overall, Amy Pond has me sold. She's adorable, a thoughtful and spunky character. I'm still not completely sold on Matt Smith as the Doctor, but he grew a little on me. Still hate the opening sequence.
 
If RTD had helmed this, the following would happen :

A previously unmentioned totally unstoppable doomsday device that would rip a hole through space and time and end the universe as we know it would have been activated when Liz Ten makes her "choice", only to be saved by the Doctor working with thousands of space whales who turn out not to be dead, popping out of absolutely nowhere and have the amazingly convenient power of stopping the totally unstoppable doomsday devices that would rip a hole through space and time and end the universe as we know it through some kind of space whale version of Welsh harmony singing. And there would have been some serious innuendo between the openly bisexual Liz Ten, Amy AND the Dr.

Donna would have popped up at some point (on a video or in a history book) And some really obscure reference would be made only to make sense two or three series down the line.

Cut to outside shot with people gazing in wonder at thousands of star whales going along for the ride.

Overly dramatic plot with universe-wide stakes : check
Deus Ex Machina resolve : check
obscure reference to be used in a later special : check
inability to let go of a-list characters : check
GLB reference : check
melodramatic element : check
I think I have all my bases covered.
 
So what did the other ships use for power?

I could buy the culture being based on guilt, but throwing kids to the monster for minor misdeamenours is just evil, which Liz 10 and her minions didn't seem to be at all. And what was up with the half-human half smiler guy? That didn't make sense at all (which Moffat pretty much admitted in Confidential - it was just there because it looked cool).

What happened to adults that were given to the whale, did it just eat them?

Why did they assume that torturing it made it go faster?

Why did nothing happen when Amy pressed the abdicate button? presumably there was some sort of mechanism keeping the creature attached to the ship, but the button appeared to do nothing at all.

Just too many ifs and buts for the episode to work for me. It felt like one of those movies where lots of stuff got cut, leaving the story not really making sense.

Same here. I didn't like the episode. I thought it was going well with the scary guys in the booths, then I was disapointed with the end.

I do think the episodes will get better the further we go into the season.
 
Ha! I actually gasped when I saw that poster and my wife said, "Oh, God... someone one the RPF is going to make that and we'll have to hang it in our house."
:lol

I'm already working on it, but i suspect someone will get one out there first... Or knowing my luck I'll spend all week working on it and then it'll appear on the BBC website after next weeks broadcast!
 
So who else is looking forward to an episode written by Not-Moffet? I'd love to see how Matt Smith does with a script without the words timey-wimey, etc thrown into it for no reason.
 
I think they were more saying that the UK was the last to leave the Earth, everyone else had buggered off already. Going to watch it again later, see if i missed anything.


I just watched it a second time and...
I noticed something that doesn't appear to have been resolved and that is the feeding people to the whale thing...yeah I wonder now that the whale is free and the queen knows what happened if the police state will be abolished and those smiling guy thingies will bugger off and they will try feeding the whale something else besides people but OOPS! We'll never know because that wasn't resolved or mentioned. it's a small ball to have been dropped but an important one none-the-less.
 
I'm already on it, too :p

In fact, I can now emulate the printing tech of that era! Makes it looks amazing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roboterkampf/4385787038/

ToVictory.jpg
 
yeah I wonder now that the whale is free and the queen knows what happened if the police state will be abolished and those smiling guy thingies will bugger off and they will try feeding the whale something else besides people but OOPS! We'll never know because that wasn't resolved or mentioned. it's a small ball to have been dropped but an important one none-the-less.

Well, they seemed to have been feeding it all the refuge from the ship.

But that was one of my big issues with the story - Liz 10 and her government were kind off portrayed as not evil peole, but ones faced with the same impossible problem that the Doctor thought he had at the end. Yet they had been been feeding folk to the thing (and apparently enslaving kids, since it wouldn't eat them)

Yet The Doctor seem to forget all this once Amy found the solution. I can't imagine 10 letting these crimes pass by, but I don't think it was a new characteristic of 11 either. It was just poor writing.

We could assume that no-one was ever actually fed to the whale - that all adult crimes/misdeameanors resulted with a visit to the vote room, as with Amy, and that not a single person ever voted to protest. But that still brings us round to the fact that they were sending kids into the pit for refusing to accept school punishment!
 
Well, they seemed to have been feeding it all the refuge from the ship.

But that was one of my big issues with the story - Liz 10 and her government were kind off portrayed as not evil peole, but ones faced with the same impossible problem that the Doctor thought he had at the end. Yet they had been been feeding folk to the thing (and apparently enslaving kids, since it wouldn't eat them)

Yet The Doctor seem to forget all this once Amy found the solution. I can't imagine 10 letting these crimes pass by, but I don't think it was a new characteristic of 11 either. It was just poor writing.

We could assume that no-one was ever actually fed to the whale - that all adult crimes/misdeameanors resulted with a visit to the vote room, as with Amy, and that not a single person ever voted to protest. But that still brings us round to the fact that they were sending kids into the pit for refusing to accept school punishment!

Yes, we could assume nobody was actually fed to the whale but as they said the whale won't eat children, the implication there means they must have tried it with them and adults to form the basis of that statement and since they said as much, so the moral dilemma as I see it was never addressed on THAT level just on the bigger picture. I mean at the end it was stated that there were going to be no more secrets so that means Liz 10 has to explain to the people whose family members never came back when they disappeared as adults, that they were being fed to the key to their salvation. To me the ending was...well too peaceful for that outrage to have existed past that point. Sloppy writing. I expected more from Moffat.
 
Also of note, this is probably not related, but did anyone else notice the sign above the restricted area that Amy broke into? It said Magpie Electricals.
 
If RTD had helmed this, the following would happen :

A previously unmentioned totally unstoppable doomsday device that would rip a hole through space and time and end the universe as we know it would have been activated when Liz Ten makes her "choice", only to be saved by the Doctor working with thousands of space whales who turn out not to be dead, popping out of absolutely nowhere and have the amazingly convenient power of stopping the totally unstoppable doomsday devices that would rip a hole through space and time and end the universe as we know it through some kind of space whale version of Welsh harmony singing. And there would have been some serious innuendo between the openly bisexual Liz Ten, Amy AND the Dr.

Donna would have popped up at some point (on a video or in a history book) And some really obscure reference would be made only to make sense two or three series down the line.

Cut to outside shot with people gazing in wonder at thousands of star whales going along for the ride.

Overly dramatic plot with universe-wide stakes : check
Deus Ex Machina resolve : check
obscure reference to be used in a later special : check
inability to let go of a-list characters : check
GLB reference : check
melodramatic element : check
I think I have all my bases covered.

:lol:lol:lol...too true!
this episode reminded me a bit of the ST:TNG pilot, with the trapped jellyfish monster doing it's captors bidding.....


Rich
 
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