I tell you I have this theory. It goes where, you're the one who's not my sister. Cuz mom adopted you from a shoe box full of baby howler monkeys, and never told you cuz it could hurt your delicate baby feelings.

Dawn ,'Selfless'


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.


billytea - Jan 09, 2019 3:26:44 am PST #1264 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.

One of my favourite internet corners for Doctor Who was pretty scathing about Resolution. They have their reasons; I feel rather more forgiving. Still, here are some of my favourite criticisms:

I always thought mediocrity would be childsplay to achieve but they've made it look like really hard work.

(Well that one's a bit harsh.)

On Ryan's dad: His oven is given almost exactly as much characterization as he is.

Yyyeah I can't disagree. I still have little idea of why Ryan's dad was so neglectful, if he's really learned something or just wants to avoid the consequences of his actions, and (perhaps most importantly) whether Ryan is best served trying to re-establish a relationship or learning how to set firm boundaries instead. (I mean, don't throw him to the Daleks, but there are other options.) I do think that it would better serve kids to teach them that they don't have to assume responsibility for their parents' inability to parent than to give them another "it's not too late" message. Those are hardly in short supply on TV already. (I also think it would've made a better story for Ryan's dad to sacrifice himself to defeat the Dalek. However, it would've had wider implications for the series, possibly even making it hard for Ryan to keep travelling with the Doctor. Or it may have made for more texture in the TARDIS relationships and the Doctor's own self-image, who knows.)

Finally, I agree with both of these comments SO HARD:

In a way, Chibnall's failings for me are best represented by him having a Dalek controlling someone driving a car, yelling at them wanting them to go faster, and utterly passing on the opportunity to have it yell "ACCELERATE! ACCELERATE!"

Look, if you're going to do an episode where the Dalek has to rebuild (it? his? her?)self out of spare parts and not have a gag where the Dalek uses an actual plunger, you're just failing at being Doctor Who.

The serious point behind this: I think Chibnall's Doctor Who takes itself a bit too seriously. Which is to say, I think it's too worried that someone's going to laugh at it. It's a family show promising all of time and space. If it can't get silly sometimes, who can?

(Plus, I would've loved if they'd really leaned into the junkyard Dalek idea. Actual plunger! Corrugated iron skirt! Helmet made from a hubcap! And still taking out an entire platoon of soldiers. I'd have been right into that.)

Another analysis of this season which I found quite compelling: [link] It suggests that the key difference between this Doctor and previous ones isn't that she is more morally opposed to killing. It's that she doesn't have any inner conflict; and the world in which she operates doesn't challenge that. (I would say more that the Doctor and writers don't really notice when the world challenges that.) That marks her out from every Doctor since at least the Ninth. I must admit, this surprises me. Broadchurch was chock-full of inner, and outer, conflict. We have the biggest TARDIS crew, with the greatest number of possible interactions, in 35 years. I really was expecting to see more.


Jessica - Jan 09, 2019 3:54:56 am PST #1265 of 2020
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?

(Plus, I would've loved if they'd really leaned into the junkyard Dalek idea. Actual plunger! Corrugated iron skirt! Helmet made from a hubcap! And still taking out an entire platoon of soldiers. I'd have been right into that.)

I would have LOVED that.


Matt the Bruins fan - Jan 09, 2019 5:43:11 am PST #1266 of 2020
"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

Yeah, it would have been a chuckle to see a Dalek going Junkyard Wars and rebuilding its main beam weapon out of an old TV picture tube, or having the base of its outer casing be a tractor tire.


Tom Scola - Jan 10, 2019 3:58:46 pm PST #1267 of 2020
Mr. Scola’s wardrobe by Botany 500

I finally got caught up on The Magicians.

Me too. Except for maybe The Good Place, The Magicians is the show that made me laugh the most this past year. Only The Magicians isn't really a comedy, it's kind of bleak...


askye - Jan 11, 2019 6:18:13 am PST #1268 of 2020
Thrive to spite them

But they know how to balance the funny and the bleak .


Toddson - Jan 11, 2019 11:51:26 am PST #1269 of 2020
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"

Yeah, it would have been a chuckle to see a Dalek going Junkyard Wars and rebuilding its main beam weapon out of an old TV picture tube, or having the base of its outer casing be a tractor tire.

So ... MacGyver Dalek?


billytea - Jan 11, 2019 8:04:39 pm PST #1270 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.

So ... MacGyver Dalek?

Yes! And now I'm thinking I'd like to see a Dalek put itself together in an abandoned amusement park. It can ride around on an old, sparking dodgem car. The eyestalk protrudes from the mouth of one of those clown heads. The torso can have the Dalek inside a claw game, perched on a mound of creepy dilapidated dolls. Creepy dolls! It plays merry-go-round music whenever it builds up speed! I bet Russell T. Davies would've done it if he'd thought of it.


Toddson - Jan 16, 2019 7:06:26 am PST #1271 of 2020
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"

Possibly the 2019 Christmas special?

I watched the first episode of Roswell, NM ... not terribly excited by it.

I did, however, get a good deal on the DVDs for the first season of Dracula (the Jonathan Rhys-Meyers version). It made my snowbound weekend better.


Jessica - Jan 16, 2019 7:17:03 am PST #1272 of 2020
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?

I've been burning through Wynona Earp S3 on Amazon (S1 and 2 are on Netflix) and is it just me or did this show cross an invisible line from Buffy-esque to Buffy-okay-now-we're-just-wholesale-lifting-entire-plotlines-but-with-swearing-and-snow? Not that I'm complaining! S3 is awesomely bonkers so far! But, I mean, Wishverse ep where the hero is erased and everything goes to shit? Vampires that turn to dust when staked? Love interest of main character is now a vampire but, you know, not a bad one?


Steph L. - Jan 23, 2019 7:49:58 am PST #1273 of 2020
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe

I can't remember a goddamn thing that happened on Black Lightning, other than Tobias ripping Khalil's metal spine out of his body. Holy fucking shit. I honestly just expected Tobias to kill him.