I was irrationally irritated this week that the TARDIS did not provide everyone with period-appropriate clothing. I know Chibnall is morally opposed to using anything from previous Who iterations, but HOW WAS RYAN NOT IMMEDIATELY BURNED AS A WITCH DUE TO HIS POLY-FILL PUFF COAT WITH FUCKING ZIPPERS ON IT.
Sometimes I miss having powers... Oh. Oh! I know what this is! This is peer pressure! Any second now you're gonna make me smoke tobacco and--and have drugs!
Anya ,'Showtime'
Boxed Set, Vol. VI: I am not a number, I am a free thread!
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.
Jessica - Nov 26, 2018 5:45:52 am PST #1209 of 2020
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?
Calli - Nov 26, 2018 5:59:27 am PST #1210 of 2020
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs
HOW WAS RYAN NOT IMMEDIATELY BURNED AS A WITCH DUE TO HIS POLY-FILL PUFF COAT WITH FUCKING ZIPPERS ON IT.
Well, once James I saw him, he was pretty safe from everything but 17th c. flirting.
sj - Nov 27, 2018 4:59:42 am PST #1211 of 2020
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
Black Lightning: The daughter from Medium makes a very creepy villain.
Dana - Nov 27, 2018 10:09:16 am PST #1212 of 2020
"I'm useless alone." // "We're all useless alone. It's a good thing you're not alone."
Love Legends of Tomorrow dragging on Hemmingway.
"That's for being on my eighth-grade summer reading list!"
sj - Nov 27, 2018 11:02:16 am PST #1213 of 2020
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
Yes, that was also the best. I love the casting of Nate's dad as well. So meta.
Katerina Bee - Nov 27, 2018 7:18:44 pm PST #1214 of 2020
Herding cats for fun
Secret Agent Man? I am not familiar.
Beverly - Nov 27, 2018 7:59:37 pm PST #1215 of 2020
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.
It was actually Secret Agent, with Patrick McGoohan. Johnny Rivers sang the theme song, Secret Agent Man, which my brain retrieves before the actual show title. McGoohan went on to star in The Prisoner, set in a pretty Welsh seaside village that nobody could leave. The theory was that agents got "retired" there, since they couldn't be allowed to roam loose in society after their service, since they *knew stuff.*
sj - Nov 28, 2018 2:10:55 am PST #1216 of 2020
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
He was Biff in Back to the Future.
Toddson - Nov 28, 2018 9:21:37 am PST #1217 of 2020
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"
The Prisoner was set in Portmeiron (ha!). The Secret Agent - OLD episodes - is being shown on a broadcast channel - Charge! TV - as Danger Man (which may have been its original title). They also show (OLD!) Avengers - ones with Honor Blackman.
billytea - Dec 02, 2018 3:58:13 am PST #1218 of 2020
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.
Have not seen tonight's yet - will use it for workout tomorrow. But I just realized what has been bugging me about this new doctor. She's NICE. The Doctor has mostly been good - with some very dark exceptions. But I don't remember any version of the Doctor who was nice. I'm not sure you could even say that about the fifth doctor.
I agree with this. The Fifth Doctor spent a lot of his time being not so much nice as tetchy, a side effect of having to travel through space and time with Adric and Tegan. The Second and Seventh Doctors were avuncular at times (notably the Second Doctor comforting Victoria about her father's death in the middle of Tomb of the Cybermen), but I wouldn't call them nice (especially the Seventh).
I'm fine with the idea of a nice Doctor in and of itself - one of the strengths of Doctor Who's format is that it can reinvent and explore options - but not if it makes her ineffectual as well. Particularly glaring in Arachnids in the UK, where she just lets Ed Sheeran walk. (I feel like there's an earlier draft of that ep with a different conclusion, given his "I'm exposed!" bout of scenery-chewing.) She was more effective both last week and this week, though last week included some problematic elements. (Side note: one thing I didn't notice about the resolution was that Kerblamazon was going to shut down for a month, but the staff were only going to receive two weeks' pay over that time.) Up till then, though - and really I'd include Kerblam! in this - she's made a habit of achieving only limited victories.
That's a closer point of comparison with the Fifth Doctor. When he took on the role, DW had spent twelve very successful years headed by Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker - both of whom were really characters first and actors second. (Extremely good at it, but still.) Peter Davison was quite the contrast - less attention-grabbing, less fuelled by leading-man charisma. More like the Second Doctor - he didn't just walk into a situation and take charge, he seemed to prefer to remain unnoticed while he worked things out. That could work well. I think Frontios shows him at his best; Caves of Androzani, which takes him out of his comfort zone, is regarded as one of the best adventures of all time.
However, these seem to be almost in spite of the production team. The script editor of the time seemed to be more taken with the villains and all too frequently showed up this Doctor as being insufficiently ruthless for a violent universe. Resurrection of the Daleks has a traumatised Tegan leaving at the end, unable to cope with all the death anymore. (And has the Doctor threatening to gun down Davros before vacillating. Nothing wrong with refusing to shoot him; but the initial threat makes him look weak.) Warriors of the Deep ends with the Doctor in a base, surrounded by the corpses of all the humans and the monsters who'd attacked them, impotently wishing there had been another way. And of course Earthshock saw, for the first time in 16 years, the death of a companion. (To raucous approval, but still.) Two of those were written by the script editor. Seems pretty much to have been his actual vision of what Doctor Who should be. (Lots of pretty brutal violence that the Doctor is often powerless to stop.)