New Doctor Who Series Discussion *Spoilers*

Am I wrong or did they also not tie it in to the crashed Silence spacecraft in 'the Lodger'

I always assumed it was just left there when the humans killed all of the Silence. If that is not the case that means the Silence were still around in current times (I think that is when the Lodger takes place).
 
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Anyone else have thoughts of an older sebastion shaw anakin at the sight of the Shakri? :)

Loved the throw-back elements: Coat rack, unit, Kate Stewart. Gotta think i missed one as well.

Looks like the Shakri could be a cool villain. Time will tell. (No pun intended :) )
 
I may have to re-watch it but I could not find any thing interesting in tonight's episode :lol. It really felt like a filler episode to get us to the next episode.

Although I did like the nod to the brigadier.
 
I always assumed it was just left there when the humans killed all of the Silence. If that is not the case that means the Silence were still around in current times (I think that is when the Lodger takes place).

That was my assumption as well. The only odd thing is the one we saw later in "The Impossible Astronaut" looked very old while the one in "The Lodger" looked pretty new.
 
Yeah, the only thing interesting was the introduction to the Brigadier's daughter. Everything else was boring.

Wasn't Kate introduced years ago in Downtime? Nice to see that the writers are bringing in characters from the wilderness years fiction.
 
I don't really follow the non TV show stuff so don't ever recall hearing about her.

Back when those were being released I got some for Xmas presents. Didn't really enjoy them all that much. More for older fans at the time than younger ones like myself.
 
Anyone else have thoughts of an older sebastion shaw anakin at the sight of the Shakri? :)

Loved the throw-back elements: Coat rack, unit, Kate Stewart. Gotta think i missed one as well.

Looks like the Shakri could be a cool villain. Time will tell. (No pun intended :) )

DEFINITELY saw Sebastian Shaw in the Shakri. :)

Loved Kate Stewart as well. A nice nod to the Brigadier. :thumbsup
 
Yeah, the only thing interesting was the introduction to the Brigadier's daughter. Everything else was boring.

Overall I agree. Very weak episode and clearly a setup for the Pond's departure soon.

If the production kept things more secret it would be WAY more interesting. This episode if done right could imply that Amy & Rory have chosen "Doctor life" and will travel with him a lot more but since EVERYONE knows that they're leaving in the next episode (betcha it's a 2 parter) it loses any impact it could have had.

Shakri will be back though. Guaranteed.
 
I didn't think it was boring. Quiet, yes. But that's the kind of episode I wanted. It's been so intense the last few episodes that I needed a break.
 
I didn't think it was boring. Quiet, yes. But that's the kind of episode I wanted. It's been so intense the last few episodes that I needed a break.

I wouldn't call it boring. Just really weak.

I started rolling my eyes at the montage of the Doctor keeping himself busy. :thumbsdown

Didn't help that they flashed little snippets of clearly more interesting adventures. I don't need intensity but this one was pretty mundane...
 
Lol. The thing that sucks the most is that I watched this episode before the rest of my family so I have to watch it again tomorrow night. :lol
 
It was ok - definitely seemed like setup for next week. But that's fine.
I didn't notice any flickering light bulb imagery unless you count all the Christmas lights at the end.
The Brigadier is in the great Geneva in the sky. :-( still sucks.
 
I didn't like that at all. Too many unanswered questions.. why was Brian kidnapped? Did the girl sit in the hospital for a year? What was the point of the Orderlies mouths?...I could go on.

I'm getting tired of the forced "comedy" moments that have me squirming. i.e. The Doctor painting the fence and the "welcome back lefty" just channelled Tennant at his worst for me. It's not Matt Smiths' fault, I genuinely like him, but when the writing is as poor as that I feel sorry for him.

Murray Golds' music continues to annoy me and the 'magic everyone better' resolution had me groaning. Again.

Poor. I hope next weeks is better.
 
They can't all be homeruns.

Perhaps there were too many of the little jokes. Perhaps just painting the fence instead of the montage of 7 different things. Didn't mind the lefty joke since it was the only one in the area. However, the intro of the show said this was the the doctor was part of their lives for a year. Turns out it wasn't. He was there 3-4 days it appeared, not a year.

I did like the rationale, though. Amy/Rory and humans in general are allowed to have their lives in their world. The doctor's world is the universe and if he's not keeping an eye on it, no one else is so he does have to be always on the go.

Still, the Shakri could have been brought into it earlier instead of dwelling on the black boxes for a year (3/4ths of the show). Then again, it could be as noted above, the first 3 were pretty intense and they wanted to dial it back a bit.

As for questions, why was Brian Kidnapped? Seemed like just wrong place, wrong time to me. There wasn't a reason other than they didn't want anyone seeing them disappear into that elevator.

The orderlies mouths? They were serving the Skakri so the rationale is probably there - but why do any aliens look the way they do? It could be it will be explained down the road. Not everything needs to be answered the same show it's raised in. Put it this way, if you were Brian, Rory, Amy, etc, would you have known why their faces were that way? No. It could be very simple, too. Just to make it clear they were under the control of the Shakri.
 
I don't know, I think the "meaning of cubed is the power of three" (tune)Dun Dun Da Da Dun Dun Dun Da Da (/tune), thing at the end did me in. :lol:lol:lol

I have watched it twice so far, I am going to try one more time to see if I can find anything that is at least building suspense for the next episode. It really seemed like killing time until the Season finish.

I thought the boxes sitting around for so long had a very Torchwood miniseries feel to it (when I saw the Range Rover pull up, for a second I had hopes that Jack would pop out the door and add a little excitement to the episode, no luck :cry).
 
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I didn't like that at all. Too many unanswered questions.. why was Brian kidnapped? Did the girl sit in the hospital for a year? What was the point of the Orderlies mouths?...I could go on.

Brian was kidnapped because he disturbed the orderlies. The mouths? I dunno, they had to make them look different. I've never questioned stylistic choices. What DID bug me was the girl in the hospital for 9 months with nobody noticing. You could say she had a perception filter but she was noticed pretty quickly when Amy & the Doctor ran past her in the hall...

I'm getting tired of the forced "comedy" moments that have me squirming. i.e. The Doctor painting the fence and the "welcome back lefty" just channelled Tennant at his worst for me. It's not Matt Smiths' fault, I genuinely like him, but when the writing is as poor as that I feel sorry for him.

YES! Although "Welcome back lefty" wasn't so bad. The rest was too much.

Murray Golds' music continues to annoy me and the 'magic everyone better' resolution had me groaning. Again.

I love Murray Gold's score but the resolution was terrible I agree. Zap to ship, say a few words, resurrect everyone, then ship blows up. Neat & tidy. :thumbsdown

Poor. I hope next weeks is better.

Agreed!!!
 
Perhaps there were too many of the little jokes. Perhaps just painting the fence instead of the montage of 7 different things. Didn't mind the lefty joke since it was the only one in the area. However, the intro of the show said this was the the doctor was part of their lives for a year. Turns out it wasn't. He was there 3-4 days it appeared, not a year.

They indicated at the end that he hung out for a while. I got the impression that throughout the episode he was with them for a couple weeks anyway.

That said this episode really cemented my feeling that the Pond's HAVE TO GO. I'm really tired of them. River is obviously in the next episode, hopefully she goes with them. Also looking like the Angels will indeed send them somewhere that the Doctor won't be able to retrieve them from for some reason.
 
On second viewing:

Amy says it's the year of the slow invasion. Never says the Doctor says for a year. :) I estimate he stays for about 3-4 weeks. 4 days to begin with then almost a month after their anniversary.

The Doctor seems a little pathetic when Rory says "there's more to life than what you do" (or something to that regard). Previous Doctors would have left LONG ago but this one just seems needy. I'm not buying the "you're the first person this face saw" thing either, no connection like that has ever presented itself in the past.

Earth authorities are COMPLETE morons to allow these cubes to be left everywhere for a year. Especially considering that it isn't until a month before they activate that the UN declares them "provisionally safe". What were they doing for all that time? They should have been going door to door in every country that would participate and collecting them. Presuming the Doctor didn't use his magic at the end it would have saved millions of lives.

Finally the ending just bugs the hell out of me, even more so the second time. The orderlies disappear after taking care of Rory and all it takes is a few swipes of the sonic to "make everything better". WEAK. Typical lame third act that lets the whole story down. This episode would have been alright if it had a stronger conclusion.

Not looking forward to River's return but the best part of this episode was the preview for the next one. ;)
 
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