Re: Doctor Who - Season 31 (Spring: 2010)

by **Renny** 13th April 2010, 02:19

I don't know, i'm finding Amy Pond far easier on the eye than Billie Piper.

by rogartheranger 13th April 2010, 03:46

Renny wrote:I don't know, i'm finding Amy Pond far easier on the eye than Billie Piper.

Hell yeah Im liking the look of Amy Pond too. Dont mean to lower the tone here but Im sure I cant be the only one considering the implication of Amy arriving in the TARDIS straight from her bed in only her nightie. So when the Doctor was then holding her outside the TARDIS could he see, um…? If you know what I’m saying......snigger.... Shocked

by rogartheranger 13th April 2010, 03:48

Final viewing figures for The Eleventh Hour have today been published by BARB and give Matt Smith's debut story an final rating of 10.08 million viewers.

This total is over two million higher than the initial overnight figure of 8 million which implies a large number of viewers time shifted the programme by recording it and watching it later in the week.

On BBC One the story had 9.59 million watching, enough to make the story the second most watched on the channel for the week and the fourth most watched on all British television. However an additional 494,000 people watched the simulcast on BBC HD, giving the story a total audience 10.08 million and making it the third most watched overall. It was only beaten by two episodes of Coronation Street.

The Eleventh Hour has the eighth highest rating since the series returned in 2005. If the HD figure is included it is the first episode in the programmes history to be the third most watched of the week. Only twelve out of 757 episodes have ever made the top five.

by rogartheranger 13th April 2010, 03:50

The BBC has released a trailer for Episode Three of the new series, Victory of the Daleks, which can be viewed on You Tube here:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8BkpAwWg1k&feature=player_embedded

by scarab 14th April 2010, 06:28

well am a little late with my thoughts of "the beast below" episode

another episode i enjoyed although there were a few short commings , i still feel pretty confident that the doctor is a little more sinister than before , teetering on the edge as it were , my main reasons for this feeling are
the way in which he got rid of the rip on the oscillator in the tardis befor amy could see it !!#
the way in which he lost his rag
i just can't seem to shake the feeling .

i am enjoying matt smiths version of the doctor and amy pond (better than martha jones in my opinion )

ratings
bens 7.5/10
hayden 8/10
ruth 6/10
Laura 8/10

am really looking forward to next weeks episode but what is "the restoration of the darleks i wonder" oh i hope its davros back for more than the 1 episode (hoping i know)

by rogartheranger 14th April 2010, 10:47

am really looking forward to next weeks episode but what is "the restoration of the darleks i wonder" oh i hope its davros back for more than the 1 episode (hoping i know)

I think there may be a clue to this question on the front cover of this weeks Radio Times, (there are 3 varieties to choose from), but if you want to remain unspoilered then avoid the newsagents at all costs!! If rumours are to be believed then this could be the story that'll help resolve a certain continuity issue concerning the Daleks since their return in 2005, (fingers crossed Im right)!! Dont know about Davros, if he's around in this story then they're keeping it very quiet for the timebeing....but even if he's not around Im sure he'll turn up again in the not too distant future......

by **Renny** 18th April 2010, 09:03

I enjoyed Victory Of The Daleks a lot more than the last two. I thought Matt Smith was much more recognisable as the Doctor this week. Clever plotting regarding the Daleks manipulating the Doctor. Wasn't keen on the Dalek redesign, I have to say. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. These Daleks seem less intimidating, somehow. Intrigued by the notion that Amy has no memory of the Dalek's attack on Earth. Oh, and Spitfires in space was inspired. Overall, 8.5 out of 10.

by rogartheranger 18th April 2010, 12:47

As you’ve probably noted from my recent Dalek postings, I am a BIG fan of those famous metal meanies from Skaro, and so inevitably this particular episode was always going to hold a certain level of expectation for me, and one that is forced to follow in the footsteps of some fairly impressive Dalek offerings from the pen of Russell T Davies. And I’m pleased to say that from where I was sitting it certainly didn’t disappoint with an instalment packed with surprises and crowd-pleasing moments.

My Likes:

1) The Daleks:- with particular reference to the ‘Power of the Daleks’ inspired scenes of them pretending to act servile and being all round sneaky. Particular fun to be had with the Dalek propaganda posters and their polite-exchanges with such unlikely classics as “Would you care for some Tea!” It’s almost a shame that this devious side isn’t carried through for a bit longer before they show their true colours (literally in this case) and how they have set-up the whole thing to trick the Doctor into unwittingly assisting with their resurrection. I was a bit unsure at the pictures in the Radio Times of the new liveried Daleks, but was thankfully more convinced upon seeing these chunkier versions on screen which made the old-versions look a bit tatty by comparison. I imagine these new Daleks might go down very well with the kids although I have read less enthused comments on the forums from the adult viewers – but personally I don’t have a problem. Their voices are now much deeper and more menacing then before and the new eye-sticks are excellent – oh and they certainly still pack some whoop-arse too after they ruthlessly killed-off their ‘impure’ predecessors.

Something else I am particularly pleased about is to see more a more varied colour-scheme unveiled at last for the Daleks complete with designated functions for each which is something that has always frustrated me in the past when the series has consistently failed to imagine the possibilities presented by the Peter Cushing Dalek movies or those old TV Century 21 comic strips. So for clarification we have the following paradigm for the Dalek race; i) Red Dalek = Drone; ii) Orange Dalek = Scientist; iii) Blue Dalek = Strategist; iv) White Dalek = Supreme; and v) Yellow Dalek = Eternal. (At last I can rest easy knowing how the Dalek hierarchy works after their previous inconsistent TV appearances with Supremes that have been either Black, Gold and Black, Red or Gold - sighs). Although their ‘power-ranger’ reveal might seem a little strange, it is worth considering that going forward we are likely to see episodes with lots of the new Red Drone Daleks and in all probability the other liveries might only appear in limited quantities dependent on the narrative requirement, (but its nice to know that they’re there if needed!)

And a big cheer from me to see the Daleks win at last. As much as I have enjoyed the post 2005 RTD era Dalek stories, I have been disappointed that these instalments had been consistently themed around the Dalek race being depicted as survivors of the Time War and therefore only appearing in either limited numbers or in large armies for brief spurts only to completely wiped out by the end of the story. Having listened to the Big Finish Dalek Empire audio ranges and watched those old 60’s and 70’s Dalek stories I have been longing to see a permanent continuity fix being implemented so that their contemporary TV counterparts could be restored within the Universe and defeat the Doctor. And finally tonight my wish came true (much like the Spurs win over Chelsea today – snigger).

2) The Spitfires attacking the Dalek Saucer: This sequence was a fan-boy wet-dream, which made me whoop with joy when that classic line was paraphrased from ‘Where Eagles Dare’, “Broadsword to Dannyboy”. It was like Dan Dare, Star Wars and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow all mixed together and left me feeling a very happy man. Awesome!!!

3) Winston Churchill: It was refreshing to see a famous face from the past that already knew and had this comradely relationship with the Doctor, which provided a useful narrative short-cut to get us straight past the introductions and into the action in what was a very fast- paced episode. Ian McNeice was perfect and did a good job of embodying the spirit of Churchill – just loved how he nailed the Churchill pronunciation of Nazis as ‘Nazzis’.

4) Bracewell and his Ironsides: Well here we had a ‘mad-scientist’ with a difference – and it was a nice touch to have the creations build their supposed creator which made for a shocking reveal when his hand was shot off to reveal his android origins. It has been a while since I can recall the Daleks using android technology (perhaps not since 1965’s ‘The Chase’) which was another pleasing nod to the 60’s Dalek episodes. His character and emergent humanity made for a good contrast with the Dalek’s ruthlessness and ultimately made for a touching finale when the Doctor and Amy save him from destruction.

Dislikes:

This was very much an episode of two-halves and could perhaps have benefited from being a two-parter. For the first third of the episode we have this welcome ‘Power of the Daleks’ set-up in which the old-Daleks were acting sneakily within the war-rooms and helping Churchill in the war-effort. This plot-point could easily have been stretched out for longer to maintain the suspense and flesh out the supporting cast. Instead this initial set-up is abruptly halted after 15 minutes in favour of a series of important revelations and plot twists that dominated the rest of the episode. This made for a slightly disjointed viewing experience, although I should clarify that this didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment. It does make me wonder whether Steven Moffat was using this episode to set the scene for a subsequent appearance of the new Daleks (in larger numbers) for the series finale (?), which might explain why a two-parter was not used here?

Plot Arc Developments:

I was very curious to see that Amy did not recognise the Daleks. I had assumed she was from a contemporary period, but perhaps she’s from the 1990’s before the Dalek invasions? - unless something very strange is going on with time and that crack in the wall. Very intriguing!!!

Overall I would give this 8.5 out of 10.

by **Renny** 18th April 2010, 19:33

Nice summary, Chris. The new Daleks have grown on me a bit with a second viewing. I'm sure we've not seen the last of the classic Dalek shape, though. For myself, I quite liked the fact this was one episode and agree that there will be a two parter in the offing at some point. A big improvement.

by scarab 19th April 2010, 02:57

well whilst the episode had some good parts overall the episode did not quiet live up to my hopes , although it is difficult to pinpoint where .
there were some points that made me smile , but the new style darleks just don't seem right , when speaking to mike he hit the nail on the head when he said " the darleks are like the new version mini" , i did like the idea of the different darleks representing different types , but sort of gives me the feeling that davros has become redundant !!!1 oh i hope not .

into episode 3 now and in each episode the doctor has shown a darker side !!!

ratings
ben 7.5/10
hayden 7/10 (his first ever score lower than 8 although i have been taking the mick that he nevers scores less than Cool

ruth 7/10

ben

by Mykilus 19th April 2010, 05:00

As my learned colleage said above,
A new mini Darlek adventure.........

Not bad, Though one of the spitfire pilots should have been called Skycaptain.

Looking forward to next week

Myke

by **kevinrolfe** 19th April 2010, 07:44

we watched the new episode, the kids liked it.

2) The Spitfires attacking the Dalek Saucer: This sequence was a fan-boy wet-dream, which made me whoop with joy when that classic line was paraphrased from ‘Where Eagles Dare’, “Broadsword to Dannyboy”. It was like Dan Dare, Star Wars and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow all mixed together and left me feeling a very happy man. Awesome!!!

um it looked like a poor imitation of ID4 vs starwars..

by rogartheranger 20th April 2010, 04:41

Final figures for The Beast Below published today by BARB show the story was watched by 8.42 million viewers.

The total is once more much higher than the initial overnight reported figure, implying many time-shifted the episode.

On BBC One the story had 7.93 million watching, enough to make the story the fifth most watched on the channel for the week, behind four editions of EastEnders, and the eleventh most watched on all British television. However an additional 494,000 people watched the simulcast on BBC HD, the identical audience to the week before. This gave the story a total audience 8.42 million, making it the tenth most watched overall. Very Happy

by rogartheranger 20th April 2010, 04:48

News Flash:-

Not strictly to do with 'Season 31', but none-the-less an important annoucment concerning the forthcoming series of the Sarah Jane Adventures:-

The BBC Press Office has today announced that The Sarah Jane Adventures will have two special guests when it returns for a fourth series this autumn. In a special two-part story written by Russell T Davies, Matt Smith will appear as the Doctor, and Katy Manning will guest as the Doctor's former companion Jo Grant. Manning starred in Doctor Who opposite the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, from 1971 to 1973. Manning has previously recorded some audio adventures for Big Finish Productions, but this will be the first time she has played Jo Grant on television in thirty-seven years!!!

The press release includes reactions from Elisabeth Sladen, who plays Sarah Jane Smith, Manning, and Sarah Jane Adventures executive producer Nikki Wilson:
Elisabeth Sladen, who plays Sarah Jane comments: "It's a fantastic script and I can't wait to work with another Doctor and hope Matt has fun with us. I've known Katy for ages and I am delighted to be working with her. I last met her in LA but this time we will be in Cardiff. LA was good but Cardiff is better."

Katy Manning, who recently returned to live in the UK again, adds: "Playing Jo Grant again is something I never really considered. I was gob-smacked when they told me and I am over the moon. What an incredible little treat. I come home and this is one of the first things that happens."

Executive producer Nikki Wilson says: "We are absolutely thrilled to be introducing Sarah Jane and the gang to both The Eleventh Doctor and Jo Grant, and to have a script penned by Russell T Davies is the icing on the cake!

"Viewers are in for a real treat, with an action-packed story full of Russell's usual wit and warmth, which takes the gang inside a secret base beneath Snowdon and introduces brand-new vulture aliens, the mysterious Shansheeth. All this, plus a trip to an alien planet – a first for The Sarah Jane Adventures."

Im particularly buzzed by this news as it'll give us an opportunity to see Russell T Davies write for the 11th Doctor, and also unite two iconic Doctor Who companions for the first time!!! Very Happy

by Mykilus 24th April 2010, 08:56

Just to get my thoughts on this episode,
I thought the acting, especially that of the bad guys was very bad, i have seen some bad acting in my time but these guys seamed to be made of stone. Moffet seams to have laboured greatly to have chiselled out a story, But the main story is so thin that Blink and you will miss it, The bit where the doctor runs down the corridor doing his runny shouty thing is nothing we have not seen before.And the bit where it ends in a cliffhanger, well thats never been done before either....... Wink

Myke

by **Renny** 24th April 2010, 09:10

Which episode are you talking about?

by rogartheranger 24th April 2010, 09:25

Mykilus wrote:Just to get my thoughts on this episode,
I thought the acting, especially that of the bad guys was very bad, i have seen some bad acting in my time but these guys seamed to be made of stone. Moffet seams to have laboured greatly to have chiselled out a story, But the main story is so thin that Blink and you will miss it, The bit where the doctor runs down the corridor doing his runny shouty thing is nothing we have not seen before.And the bit where it ends in a cliffhanger, well thats never been done before either.......

Myke

....and as he spoke those fateful words there befell an eerie silence all around him, which was only cut short to mark the passing of a nearby tumbleweed as it blew over the horizon in recognition of his attempt at humour regarding 'The Time of Angels'...( Rolling Eyes

)

by Mykilus 24th April 2010, 10:08

Figured that as i wont be around to watch the episode live, i would get my review in first

Myke

by scarab 25th April 2010, 23:53

A WILD THEORY
A friend of mine that i saw today said did i see the referance to davros in the recent darlek episode , i had to admit that i didn't , well he made referance to the man who created the IronSide's (cant remember his name)
passed off as creator to the iron sides
he had his hand shot (again ill have to rely on our resident expert to tell us if the hands are the same for davros and the professor)
well this could just be pure coinsidence (but is there such a thing in doctor who these days)
and imagine that if this theory is right and this proffesor is indeed a new version of davros then the doctor has let him go !!!!!!!!

POWER FAMILY THOUGHTS

I particularly liked this episode , one of my favourites so far , i like the humour , the tardis landing certainly made me chuckle , and the "hello sweetie".some really good moments .although am dissapointed that the angels and breaking poeples necks and not throwing them back in time (which i thought was a excellent weapon) am looking forward to next weeks episode although seems to indicate that it will set onboard the space ship so not much of the creepy catacombs..

Ben score 8.5/10
haydens score 8/10 ( hayden doesnt much like the way in which the doctor now use's guns and that he seems ok with people saluting him , as he didnt in the past)

by rogartheranger 27th April 2010, 10:05

On the strength of this first episode, I am now chomping at the bit for ‘Flesh and Stone’ next Saturday. The Time of Angels was so good that I couldn’t find anything to fault – although those of you who watched on BBC1 may certainly have issue with the shocking appearance - not of the Angels themselves - but of an anamated Graham Norton graphic appearing at the bottom of your screen during the climax of the episode to promote 'Over the (f**king) Rainbow' which thankfully I mananged to avoid by the good fortune of watching this on the BBc's HD channel. This is the second time the BBC courtesy of Graham Norton - have spoiled Doctor Who and so I am fuming now to the point where I am tempted to request that Steven Moffat send the Weeping Angels round to take retribution on those responsible!! You have been warned BBC.

Anyway, getting back to the review, it was always going to be a big risk bringing back such a successful monster without viewers drawing unfavourable comparisons to their previous appearance in Blink which was last year voted the 2nd greatest Doctor Who story of all time! However, taking a leaf out of James Cameron’s book rather then try and copy the narrative style of ‘Alien’ (Blink), Steven Moffat has this time opted instead for the ‘Aliens’ approach by incorporating lots of Angels, underground catacombs, ‘space-marines’ (thank you Games Workshop) and a healthy dose of action. All we needed was for ‘Sacred’ Bob to start screaming “We’re in some real pretty shit now man. Game over, game over etc” for the parallel to be complete (but then again that wouldn’t be Doctor Who with language like that! Lol).

Cleverly Steven Moffat has attempted to keep the concept of the Angels fresh by giving them some new abilities to wrong foot the audience who think the've got them all figured out. For example, we all knew that we shouldn’t blink – but now this has been twisted round to provide a nasty side-effect as poor Amy is beginning to find out after she stared into the eyes of an Angel, and became possessed with creepy side-effects such as dust from the eyes, and a stone hand etc. We also found out that anything that captures the image of an Angel, will itself become an Angel which was ingeniously deployed with the 4 second video clip sequence (itself a homage I think to the Japanese horror movie Ringu). I figured that this might be particularly frightening to younger viewers, and was proven right when I popped round to Digger’s afterwards to find that he had started watching this episode with a couple of guests, only to have to turn over the channel and watch Men in Black instead when things became too scary for Mike’s son – proof that Dr Who is back to doing what it does best - scarying the shit out of youngsters!!! The other clever device I thought was by having the Angel kill people but without sending them back through time (presumably they only do this when they need to feed), and instead stripping out the voices of their victims to communicate with the Doctor and other unwary Marines – a creepy way to communicate with an otherwise mute monster!! Some nice twists also deployed along the way by revealing that the other statues in the catacombs were decaying versions of the Angels, - which was in some ways even more disturbing as these wretched corpse-like statues slowly shuffled their way after the marines sucking power out of their torches!! This type of material with monsters chasing after the Doctor is quintessential Doctor Who and was executed brilliantly!!

Although the Angels are effectively used, the real focus of this first episode was on the return of River Song and I was delighted at how well this played-out. From the ingenuity of the opening teaser, (which was like a James Bond prologue), to her repartee with the Doctor, and Amy’s amused reactions to the possibility that she might be his wife (great lines such as the TARDIS gag, ‘Sonic Me Doctor’, and the ‘Hello Sweatie’ message), I just couldn’t keep my eyes off Alex Kingston. I particularly like how Steven Moffat is playing with our expectations of who she is – or will be (and whether she can be trusted), and the concept of them meeting each other ‘out of order’ at different points in their lives is a neat way of maintaining the intriguing mystery (for the time-being) around River Song. Its rewarding too for the loyal viewers to see references to her previous appearance in the Slience in the Library when she retrieved her diary and asked the 10th Doctor whether they had done the crash of the Byzantium yet, - and now here we are at the crash of the Byzantium!!! Heres hoping that he’ll also get round to writing a 3rd story soon using the ‘Picnic at Asgard’ anecdote as his inspiration! Please, please, please can you sign Alex Kingston up as a fully fledged companion!!!

I think it goes without saying that Matt Smith was superb again, (especially as this was the first episode he filmed!). His grumpy-face, uncomfortable reaction shots to being around River Song were great and that final speech from him provided a suitably rousing conclusion for this tense episode which reminded me of the 9th Doctor’s warning to the Daleks at the end of Bad Wolf. Roll on Part Two!!! The perfect 10 out of 10 for me this time!! Very Happy

by rogartheranger 27th April 2010, 10:32

Following a storm of controversy over the latest 'Nortongate' incident, (something like 5,583 complaints), the BBC has now issued a formal apology:

"The Over the Rainbow trail in Doctor Who should not have played out on Saturday and we apologise to all Doctor Who fans whose enjoyment of the show was disrupted. We recognise the strength of feeling that has been expressed and are taking steps to ensure that this mistake will not happen again."

Common sense really - I mean that climax took the production team something like 6 hours to film (according to what they said on Doctor Who Confidential) so after all that hard work someone in the BBC scheduling office decides that it would be perfectly acceptable to 'doodle' all over their hard work with a stupid graphic to promote a program the schedulers were already going to trail during the end-credits anyway. And all this from an organisation that keeps saying that its not ratings-driven - pah! Shame on you BBC. Mad

by rogartheranger 5th May 2010, 08:24

rogartheranger wrote:Following a storm of controversy over the latest 'Nortongate' incident, (something like 5,583 complaints), the BBC has now issued a formal apology:

"The Over the Rainbow trail in Doctor Who should not have played out on Saturday and we apologise to all Doctor Who fans whose enjoyment of the show was disrupted. We recognise the strength of feeling that has been expressed and are taking steps to ensure that this mistake will not happen again."

Common sense really - I mean that climax took the production team something like 6 hours to film (according to what they said on Doctor Who Confidential) so after all that hard work someone in the BBC scheduling office decides that it would be perfectly acceptable to 'doodle' all over their hard work with a stupid graphic to promote a program the schedulers were already going to trail during the end-credits anyway. And all this from an organisation that keeps saying that its not ratings-driven - pah! Shame on you BBC.

Now this is more like it as the Daleks get their revenge on Graham Norton Very Happy

: http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2010/05/norton-clip-online.html

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