Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Doctor Who, Season Four, Non-spoiler Thread

Page: 1 ... 8 9 10 11 12(13)14 15 16 17 18... 28

01:22 / 13.06.08

Dude. He writes epic music for every single second of the show,

Not really. His action music, I concede, is frequently a little too loud and heavy on the drums and over-dramatic string section. He has music other than generic "epic," though. My wording was a little misleading there, but I assumed people were just complaining about his action themes. Quieter moments have piano themes, funny scenes have plucked strings, or funny sounding horns, etc. His music is as obvious as that, but I'd prefer obvious, sincere music than the experimental atrocities that frequently graced the classic series. Get the 3rd Doctor story, The Sea Devils and listen to the music on that- it's hideous and so out of place. The composer is strangled by the technology and his own attempts to be obscure and different in a generic (but very exciting!) story about sword fights, boat chases and underwater monsters. Give me Murray Gold any day!

I think this criticism of Murray is unfounded particu- DUN DUN DUNDUNDUN DUN DUH DAH! DUN DUN DAH NAH NAH NAH! - in the context of the sc *DUN DOOOOOO NER NAH NAAAAAAAAAAAAAH* - you see.

Triplets- fix the volume levels on your tv to stop music drowning out dialogue. Really, a few minutes jiggery-pokery can sort everything out.

11:15 / 13.06.08

Does anyone know how MuGo actually composes though? I would think it far more likely that he is given some rough ideas and composes and records for a whole season in one chunk, which is then cut about a bit and placed into each episode as the director sees fit. Music is already reused from episode to episode so that seems likely to be the case. Cost is a factor, after all. It's how it's done in anime (Eureka Seven being the best example of how to use this kind of sound-tracking), money being tight it's much cheaper than scoring for each episode individually.

The problem with the mix of soundtrack and dialogue is much more likely to be a case of conflicting technology and it effects much more than just Dr Who. A lot of films seem sound designed to work on big-ass sound rigs in cinemas and home set-ups with bass bins that greatly extend the frequency range from telly speakers. When I watch the LoTR films without a decent sound system there's exactly the same problem, it seems to be how many people do things these days. People are making television for the best set-ups, I suspect.

I would say that what people perceive to be MuGo's failings are actually split between several people, with the blame also being placed on the format (money and working methods).

13:11 / 13.06.08

Apparently Gold writes to screen, according to an interview he did at the beginning of season 3. He does reuse a lot of material, but the reused stuff is usually associated with a character, or thematic moment: gallifrey music, doctor's music, etc.

16:31 / 13.06.08

On the subjects of celebrity historicals the recent Terrance Dicks novel 'Revenge of the Judoon' was originally going to feature Winston Churchill but the production team thought he was too good to throw away in a spin off and decided to keep him for a possible future episode. So there's at least a slightly more interesting choice than another writer the Doctor suddenly decides to rave about.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

09:41 / 14.06.08

Um, is this considered a spoiler?

I just read that the title of the season finale two-parter is called "The Stolen Earth," which I like because it very much sounds like old Who to me. Of course, the source is Wikipedia which, as we all know, is not exactly the most accurate source for anything.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

09:44 / 14.06.08

Ah. The Who website confirms.

(please free to delete, mods, if I have overstepped the bounds. I didn't mean to. It's just an episode title. But then, I was commenting I like the title.

)

11:46 / 14.06.08

There's also a moderately spoilerish, very exciting description of the episode on the BBC press-office website.

All Acting Regiment

13:22 / 14.06.08

I find the music in the program obvious and off-putting quite frequently, but again this is probably a constellation of things and not just Murray Gold's fault. I don't know whether or not the fierce electronic bleeps of old would work in new Who. They seem to suit a more static camera and a slower pace.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

15:31 / 14.06.08

Usually I am a spoilers kind of gal, but I find with certain things like Who, I let myself get just a little tease, a bare hint, but I don't wish to know anything more. I am all about reading episode synopii (??) after the episode has aired, searching for things I might have missed the first time around, but I really do my best to stay in the dark.

It's hard when you have a magpie mind.

18:30 / 14.06.08

I herd u liek a bit of ankle.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

18:33 / 14.06.08

Tell you what, I won't bother looking at this thread for the next three weeks so you all just go and ignore that boring 'don't spoil' instruction and tell everyone what happens in each episode? And don't moan at me for being a killjoy, I won't be reading.

19:39 / 14.06.08

Our Lady, there's absolutely no need to go off in a strop: it's the name of the episode and a link to a press-office teaser paragraph which you don't actually have to read. It's not exactly like people who have seen the episode are personally bombarding you with minute details of what happens, shoving their spoiler crotches in your face or whatever. There haven't been any spoilers in here this year. The only thing that comes remotely close, is speculation informed by a trailer that BBC1 put on before the Eurovision. Hardly the same as obtaining an illicit copy of the episode and spoiling it in detail.

Onto Midnight. That was very RTD wasn't it? Bleak and a little depressing, with humans portrayed almost as unflatteringly as the Toclafane were. The Doctor has all his usual catchphrases, manipulative people skills and charm turned against him. His favourite, brilliant humans are revealed as murderous and brutal, shoving his face into a chair, dragging him along in a contorted position which I thought was very gruesome. Even more RTD was that overly convenient pat ending. That's forgivable because the preceding 40 minutes are so tense, darkly funny and frightening. It looks like the purpose of this episode is to establishing the Doctor as firmly doubting his own skills and highlighting through her absence, just how important Donna is to him. Woderful episode and I hope next week's episode is as strong.

Poke it with a stick

20:23 / 14.06.08

Nasty little story. In the best possible way, of course: I don't think anyone came out of that smelling of roses at all - not even the geeky girl with the engineer father.

Well, come to think of it, Donna came out of it looking alright - sometimes all you need's a hug and a cup of tea. Or some jelly babies.

As to spoiler/not spoiler - the title doesn't actually tell me anything about the plot whatsoever, so I'm not sure that spoils anything. It's like catching a glimpse of a gift-wrapped box and complaining you know what you're getting for christmas.

Having said that, cuts or links solve the problem, so can we all try and preserve each other's innocence?

What's left of it, anyhow.

20:47 / 14.06.08

yeah, really liked the way it inverted everything, it was in many ways the anti-rtd,
the doctor screaming helplessly about how clever he was and unable to do anything to resolve
i absolutely hate that couple, they're the embodiment of vile humanity, the witch burners and the heretic stoners and the persecutors of all that is not them without logic and reason

RTD copying Moffatt in using kids games for inspiration?

and the Medusa Cascade again

on the spoiler front i think we're being pretty restrained, no one's even alluded to the big spoiler in the second half season 4 trailer, but yeah, if we could keep it to links and huge spaces and stuff

23:09 / 14.06.08

Not watched tonights episode yet but I have just watched the Moffat two-parter back to back.

[+] [-] Spoilers!

Aw man, I thought that was incredible, from start to finish. Fiendishly clever, packed with a million different ideas that all work in different directions before clicking together in perfect time, from crashing mess to clockwork mesh. Some of the best fantasy TV writing I've seen in a good while, and right up there with every other story he's done.

Still percolating through the brain at the moment, but particularly loved the way he opens the story directly into the imaginary spaces of the kids watching with the first episode. It gives this story taking place halfway across the universe a very tangible and credible link to every child being bored out of their fucking skull in maths.

Then in the second episode, it uses another aspect of the same plot point to prey on the fears of all the mums and dads huddled around the sofa with those very kids. In the same way it plays about with a child's instinct for imagination and creativity, it also crawls into the parental instinct and starts yinging big hairy spiders all over the shop.

Loved the way the second episode takes a complete left turn from the first, pulls all the threads of the story out and then weaves them all up again into something much larger and more satisfying.

The man makes it look absolutely effortless.

Find myself simultaneously wondering whether it's worth putting on the next episode, and beside myself with anticipation for all this new shit he's foreshadowing for his own run (let's face it, he'll have known at the very least that's he was a front runner for taking control and, by his own admission, he's been itching for this job for his whole life).

I did the happy-happy knee drumming thing several times!

00:04 / 15.06.08

Moffat said on last week's Doctor Who confidential that he knew around the time "Blink" was broadcast. That's a little under a year ago, and presumably around the time he was starting to write Forest of the Dead. It's very possibly that he threaded his own future plot elements into the script.

00:21 / 15.06.08

Perhaps the most impressive part of that episode was the way the information was drip-fed at such an impeccable rate that you make all the connections at the same time as The Doctor, thus making you feel every part the dapper genius.

I would have Stephen Moffat's Assbabies.

Actually, that would be a little too wasteful for my liking. Rather, I would make the most of his "resources" by tossing him off every night with a satin glove, lovingly catching every one of his sperms in a silver chalice, and then impregnating them into my prostate and bringing them to term one by one, creating a vast and shining race of Supermoffats.

Ah, what a world that would be.

---------

Very pleasantly surprised by Midnight. Done on shoestring budget, but turning out a belter of a little character piece. Very icky and dark psychological horror, done with very simple progressions and tricks and turns.

Where are we? Is the next episode the beginning of the end?

Feels like they're really trying to undermine everything we take for granted about the Doctor and his methods here. RTD penning makes me confident there's more being said here than just another throwaway yarn.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

01:53 / 15.06.08

Wow. Thank you, Iamus, that was disturbing and unpleasant on several levels. And to think Haus dared to say that posters in this forum are easily pleased! Obviously he was out of line.

Obviously.

02:15 / 15.06.08

Haus is a total buster. Let it be said.

Yeah, this episode was well horrible. All the "hoomans are mazin!" gushing of the last two seasons turned completely on it's head. Humanity is shit and even shitter when facing the Other.

Horrid tension with Sky who, for the better part of forever, DOESN'T TURN AROUND. Leading us to believe she's undergone some nasty transformation. She HAS, but it's mainly psychological.

Copyalien was freaky if a bit heavy handed during the closing minutes, "BATHHHHEE IN THE MIDNIGHT SUUUNNNNNNNNN!". Err, yeah, the once-possessed woman is still acting a bit weird, yeah?

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

07:39 / 15.06.08

OHMIGODIAMUPTOOLATE

That was...and forgive me for the comment, that was the most American Who EVER.

Watch it.

It really was. I am so ashamed right now.

11:41 / 15.06.08

Well I liked that muchly. However as I watched it on the Virgin catch up service and glimpsed the cast the episode was rather overshadowed by my annoyance of the spoilers included in said list.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

12:48 / 15.06.08

That was one of the nastiest episodes I have ever seen.

13:15 / 15.06.08

That was great television, with the only downside being that there's not a lot you can really say about it after the event (unless it turns out that it has hidden relevance to the rest of the season). If you imagine for a second that you don't have the long established viewer's priviledge of knowing the Doctor it's easy to see the show as a group of humans doing their best to cope with two nameless alien intruders in a confined space. We're only on the Doctor's side because we know him, to them he's as frightening and unknown as the alien that has possessed Sky. And while the Doctor would usually be the nameless saviour, this time it's the hostess, choosing between the two unnamed enemies and taking the course of action she suggested as soon as Silvestri started manifesting that she was possessed. What a beautifully written, elegant trap for the Doctor, to turn all his usual strengths against him and have him as lost as anyone else, with no easy answers by the end.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

13:24 / 15.06.08

No kidding, eh? The Doctor in no way can be a hero in this episode because as far as anyone's concerned he's just as bad as the thing knocking on the hull of the ship.

Briefly off-topic: re-watching series two on DVD as an idle way to spend the morning. Currently in the middle of "The Impossible Planet" and my goodness that was such a good episode.

15:51 / 15.06.08

I thought it was cool the way they used real time for most of the episode. Fast-ensuing paranoia makes good real time tv.

Is it just me, or did anyone else think that Jethro kid would make a very interesting, albeit ocasionally annoying, companion?

also briefly off-topic: I just saw the animated special "the infinite quest". It made me wish for a parallel/spin-off animates Doctor Who series. With serialized 30-minute episodes, 20 episodes-long seasons with complete storylines.

16:19 / 15.06.08

This was probably me imagining something, but just as the screen was closing to protect the cockpit, did anybody see a slight moving of a shadow, just like Claude said? It was probably only the sparkling of a diamond but I'm convinced there was something out there.

All Acting Regiment

16:27 / 15.06.08

I take it everyone saw what was briefly on the screen behind the doctor's head?

16:32 / 15.06.08

I'm convinced there was something out there.

Well, there was.

Poke it with a stick

16:32 / 15.06.08

You mean the same thing that appeared on one of UNIT's screens during The Sontaran Stratagem?

Yup.

Every time I've seen that it's reminded me of The Wire (not the cop show, obviously).

16:35 / 15.06.08

I know there was something out there, but was it something visible and physical? I think this is verging on being my favourite episode of Who- very Edge of Destruction. The thing that almost ruined it for me was Val's "Are you an immigrant?"
It seemed like RTD couldn't resist using his theme hammer making it abundantly clear that it was very much a Daily Mail crowd on board.

16:42 / 15.06.08

was it something visible and physical?

Maybe? The thing can slice the cabin off with little effort* and can knock on the outside of the big space truck. However, it's possibly a psychic entity (telepathic, telekinetic) given the way it takes over Sky. It's rapidly becoming one of my favourite Who monsters as we never come close to finding out what the hell it is, not even the Doctor, which is unusual. It might be physical, it might be intangible. All you know is that it's inside the truck with you. Pure alien and other.

*Interesting that it takes opening the cabin doors to find out the cockpit is missing, suggesting (fanwank!) that it was sliced off and then pull away near-silently.

16:49 / 15.06.08

Something that caught my eye on the wiki

This is the first time since Genesis of the Daleks where the TARDIS does not appear.[4] This is also the second story without a companion in the main narrative, the first being The Deadly Assassin. It's also one of the few times where the adversary is neither seen nor given a name. [4]

Which suggests that one of the reasons the episode works so well is that, along with the anti-human sentiment and ineffectualness of the Doctor (both rare for this Doctor), it removes at least three core Doctor Who elements, taking us out of our comfort zone. This ep is pretty much the Anti-Who and is totally better for it.

18:09 / 15.06.08

that it was sliced off and then pull away near-silently

Don't they explain this? As soon as it was cut off it 'lost integrity' so the shields stopped shielding it and it was vapourised by the super-sun. (Whatever this means!) Or were they just talking about the men then? And it was presumably sliced/destroyed when the huge bang impacted and Sky went funny? So, yeah, that wasn't particularly silent was it? (Or am I misremembering? Did they find it gone before the bang?)

20:13 / 15.06.08

No, you're remembering it right. The slicing away was what was happening while everybody within the main body of the craft was getting thrown around the place.

The thing I like most about the episode is that it's never made clear whether the creature was responsible for its own behaviour, or if the treacherous, murderous intent was what it learned from the passengers, along with their language.

01:10 / 16.06.08

also briefly off-topic: I just saw the animated special "the infinite quest". It made me wish for a parallel/spin-off animates Doctor Who series. With serialized 30-minute episodes, 20 episodes-long seasons with complete storylines.

Give it to Gainax and I'm so on board with that notion, specifically as writer and Kazuya Tsurumaki as series director. That would be stunning. Alternatively Hideaki Anno would be extraordinary in both roles. The script can always get ideas, revisions and translations by Brits for the sake of the market (just so it keeps the cultural reference points)... plus it'll need some phenomenal voice actors.

Page: 1 ... 8 9 10 11 12(13)14 15 16 17 18... 28