The Official Doctor Who Thread: Born To Save The Universe

[PriceofMagic]

I thought this episode was a bit hitting you over the head with metaphors as terms such as “radicalisation” were thrown around. Basically if you replace “Zygons” with “muslims”, the episode basically becomes about a very relevant current day topic.

Zygon Clara is an improvement over regular Clara.

Clara’s voicemail was a bit annoying- are the companions supposed to be advertising that they’re travelling with the doctor?

The tie backs to the 50th anniversary special were a nice touch.

Osgood should be the next companion. So which Osgood did Missy kill, the Zygon or the original?

The bit that annoyed me most about the episode was at the beginning when the doctor was talking to the two little “girls”. Firstly they were led to that playground with their class by their teacher. Why did the teacher not intervene when the girls were being chased around the climbing frame by a strange man?

[RumplesGirl]

The bit that annoyed me most about the episode was at the beginning when the doctor was talking to the two little “girls”. Firstly they were led to that playground with their class by their teacher. Why did the teacher not intervene when the girls were being chased around the climbing frame by a strange man?

Yeah, this is one of those times where I sorta want to take the writer aside and ask him to really think about what he’s showing. While it was funny, it got rather uncomfortable the longer it went on.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Jiminy’s Journal]

PriceofMagic wrote:

The bit that annoyed me most about the episode was at the beginning when the doctor was talking to the two little “girls”. Firstly they were led to that playground with their class by their teacher. Why did the teacher not intervene when the girls were being chased around the climbing frame by a strange man?

Yeah, this is one of those times where I sorta want to take the writer aside and ask him to really think about what he’s showing. While it was funny, it got rather uncomfortable the longer it went on.

Quote

Case in point, Ianto doing the same thing in “Children of Earth.”

[RumplesGirl]

Case in point, Ianto doing the same thing in “Children of Earth.”

Yes.

(also *sobs* Ianto)

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[RumplesGirl]

I’ll more thoughts later, but without thinking about the episode itself, I can honestly say that was one of Peter Capaldi’s best performances to date. His long monologue to Bonnie and Kate was seriously powerful.

Here’s next week’s trailer

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[RumplesGirl]

Review

 

So…after some thought, I think I liked this episode a wee bit better than last weeks, though (extremely heavy handed) political Doctor Who still isn’t my favorite flavor of Doctor Who. But it was a good solid episode with a nice message (the only way to live in peace is to forgive) and some great performances.

LIKED

–Peter Capaldi and his impressive monologue. I always take notes while watching DW but this was one of those rare times where I stopped writing and just watched.

–Jenna Coleman as Evil! Clara (Bonnie). Really nice performance out of her this week.

–“I’m over 2000 years old! I’m old enough to be your Messiah.” Yeah, you stay self-aware Doctor Who

–Another hybrid creation with Bonnie-Osgood, yes? There is definitely an endgame here somewhere.

–Doctor Puntastic, first name Basil

–Totally and Radically Driving in Space

MIXED

–I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that this is the 15th time the Doctor, Kate, and Bonnie have done this to-push-or-not-to-push. I’m glad the Doctor let Bonnie keep her memories because it means there is little chance of another uprising on her watch, but why did he erase Kate’s? And the fact that they’ve done all this before suddenly made the moment much lighter than it was originally.

DISLIKED

–Someone please kill the Sonic Glasses

–It was almost a bit too Clara centric for my taste, but at least the Doctor was the one who really saved the day (though, again, I didn’t really care for “Clara Oswald got in my head” and that’s why the Doctor didn’t push the button—yes, it’s Clara. But it’s also every single companion the Doctor has had over 50+ years because they all affect him, not just this one Impossible Girl)

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Jiminy’s Journal]

Basil Lungbarrow. That is all.

[darkones1fan]

Since this is the official Doctor Who thread I thought I put this here for anyone interested http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/doctor-who-the-war-doctor

 

 

[Jiminy’s Journal]

Since this is the official Doctor Who thread I thought I put this here for anyone interested http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/doctor-who-the-war-doctor

Quote

That’s not all, dearie!

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/doctor-who-the-tenth-doctor-adventures

[RumplesGirl]

Well.

I am going to need some more time to properly form thoughts but I think this is easily my *least* favorite episode this season, and it’s going to go somewhere near the bottom of “overall least favorite” episode.

Here’s why I’m struggling though. The concept Gatiss presents is really creating a story about creating a story. This episode seems designed to be subjective–Gatiss wants you to either love it or hate depending on your perspective of what makes a good story, just like Rasmussen was hoping everyone would enjoy the story that he crafted. In that regard, it’s brilliant. It’s either Doctor Who at it’s most bold and experimental (trying something very new after 52 years) OR it’s boring, cliche, and full of Doctor Who trappings like too-dark corridors, silly B-level science fiction monsters, exposition that is too mumbo jumbo to really understand, and it all hinges on the climax of the episode in the last few minutes which only comes about after dragging on forever and doesn’t make a lick of sense (the gunk in your eyes becomes a monster? But not really? It’s a transmission? What?)

So, in sum…the concept Gatiss wants to posit about the subjectivity in creating a story, and the execution of that concept (the 1st person perspective because we all tell our own stories from a 1st person perspective) is great. But the in-universe actual Doctor Who episode was a mess, silly, and frankly stupid.

So…I’m torn. But for the moment, it’s my least favorite episode of the season.

Here’s next weeks (not a sequel to this week’s, surprisingly)

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

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