Time to slay. Vampires of the world beware!

Buffybot ,'Dirty Girls'


Boxed Set, Vol. V: Just a Hint of Denial and a Dash of Retcon  

A topic for the discussion of Doctor Who, Arrow, and The Flash. Beware possible invasions of iZombie, Sleepy Hollow, or pretty much any other "genre" (read: sci fi, superhero, or fantasy) show that captures our fancy. Expect adult content and discussion of the Big Gay Sex.

Marvel superheroes are discussed over at the MCU thread.

Whitefont all unaired in the U.S. ep discussion, identifying it as such, and including the show and ep title in blackfont.

Blackfont is allowed after the show has aired on the east coast.

This is NOT a general TV discussion thread.


billytea - Nov 16, 2015 1:33:06 am PST #28731 of 30001
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

Yes, it didn't really quite hang together. They actually made it a plot point, but I don't think that's really an excuse. It didn't feel like there was a deeper structure we're just missing, it just felt a bit sloppy. (And having the Doctor repeatedly agree that it didn't make sense was perhaps an ill-advised piece of reinforcement.)

Props to Reece Shearsmith, he conveyed unhinged and creepy very well. (For the last 10 minutes or so at least.) And while I didn't really go along with the subsequent explanation, the growing realisation that there are no cameras was good. (And for all that it's a total rip-off of The Ring, it's cute to have the villain's plot being to tell a good story - called back to The Girl Who Died. Especially when "good story" appears to be "half-remembered episode of Hinchcliffe-era Doctor Who".) Oh, and I did rather like the shots of the pod gliding through the deserted corridors (though again, less impressed with how that wound up).

But the plot never really came together and the characterisation for the most part was pretty cursory. (It's not just that I didn't care when someone died; I often didn't realise someone died, and when I did, wasn't sure who had died.) And eye-booger monsters just don't have the visceral pull of the Weeping Angels or the Vashta Nerada (or even the Autons). It's not the worst ep I've ever seen by any measure (not even the worst this year; certainly not the worst Gatiss, not while Victory of the Daleks exists), but it's a big step down from last week.


Jessica - Nov 16, 2015 1:59:16 am PST #28732 of 30001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

In theory this episode was incredibly creepy. In practice, I just didn't buy it, so it wasn't. And maybe having the entire episode be not that great and then at the end having the villain pop out and say "HA! The reason it wasn't a great episode is because of ME! And my Plot Reasons! Muahahaha!" isn't actually a good way to tell a story?


billytea - Nov 16, 2015 3:05:48 am PST #28733 of 30001
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

Meanwhile, because I:

a) have finished my studies for the year, and
b) am a giant nerd,

I have gone and ranked all the televised Doctor Who adventures (up to the last Christmas special). I've given them all ratings from 1 to 10, and made each category about equal (25 or 26 adventures for each number).

The First, Second, Third, Fifth and Seventh Doctors all get one adventure rated 10 out of 10. The Ninth Doctor gets two adventures. I agonised over how to bump up The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances; after discussing with Ryan, I docked Talons of Weng Chiang one point for the racism. The Eleventh Doctor gets three top-rated adventures.

Half of these positions, however, go to Ten (six adventures) and Four (seven adventures, six of which have "of" in the title). Rounding it out are three adventures with Peter Capaldi.

The Twelfth Doctor has the highest average adventure rating. I really liked last year. He's followed by the Ninth Doctor, Fourth Doctor and Third Doctor.


Rayne - Nov 17, 2015 12:38:02 am PST #28734 of 30001
"Oh no! Has falling sky liquid once again caused you the sadness?" -Starfire

Dominic Purcell's Yoplait Yoghurt commercial. This is a thing of beauty!


billytea - Nov 17, 2015 2:26:55 am PST #28735 of 30001
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

Sleep No More's Audience Appreciation score was 78 - the lowest score of any Doctor Who episode since Love and Monsters in 2006. (Probably due to being an experimental episode done somewhat poorly, but I like to imagine it was from exasperated parents whose kids refused to go to sleep because they would turn into eye booger monsters.)


Matt the Bruins fan - Nov 17, 2015 3:04:24 am PST #28736 of 30001
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand

Looks like I picked the right episode to skip.


SailAweigh - Nov 17, 2015 12:55:24 pm PST #28737 of 30001
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb

Totally. I was more invested in the game I was playing than the show. I didn't feel I really missed much. And did they ever actually resolve the fact that Clara was going to turn into a eye-booger monster? If so, it doesn't really matter, because the premise was pretty lame, anyway.


billytea - Nov 17, 2015 1:22:13 pm PST #28738 of 30001
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

And did they ever actually resolve the fact that Clara was going to turn into a eye-booger monster?

I'm going to say, not adequately; but I've seen suggestions that since Rasmussen had been lying about how it was spread anyway, and the carrier was actually an electronic impulse, Clara wasn't really infected in the first place. She got some dust in her eye through the Morpheus machine, but in terms of infection, it was sterile.


Typo Boy - Nov 17, 2015 1:24:44 pm PST #28739 of 30001
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

Did they actually stop the electronic broadcast. Because if not, the monsters won, and the human race was replace by eye booger monsters from the 30th century onward.


billytea - Nov 17, 2015 1:31:16 pm PST #28740 of 30001
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

Did they actually stop the electronic broadcast. Because if not, the monsters won, and the human race was replace by eye booger monsters from the 30th century onward.

They did not. Which isn't to say that nothing else stopped it, but really, that was just your standard horror movie final "the end... or IS it?" plot twist thingie. Like the undiscovered eggs at the end of the Buffy ep "Teacher's Pet".

But if you would like an extra frisson of dread to go with that, Mark Gatiss has said that Moffat's already talked to him about writing a sequel.