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Doctor Who — Page 52

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I'm genuinely surprised by the number of people that seem to have hated the finale (and this series in general).

That scene of Twelve beating up the TARDIS console in frustration and anger alone would have made me love the episode, but couple that with Michelle Gomez's truly psychotic (and drum-less!) Master, the fact that Moffat actually kept Danny dead, and the great final Twelve/Clara scene where neither can bring themselves to tell the other the truth ... man. It's certainly the best new-Who finale since The Big Bang for me.

Sure, there were aspects that I didn't like, but it wasn't nearly as egregious as the previous two Master finales (Last of the Time Lords and The End of Time), which I truly hated.

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Erik Pancakes said:

the fact that Moffat actually kept Danny dead

There's always the Christmas special

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.

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adywan said:


Am i the only one to think that this whole Missy/ master business is pretty lame? You build it up al the way through the series to the reveal and it was a bit of a damp squib. Why call her missy if you want to keep the suspense up until the climactic reveal? It was pretty obvious that the neversphere was the Gallifreyan matrix all along, but wouldn't it have been better for Missy to have turned out to be the Rani or even Roman gone bad and Missy being a total red herring to lead everyone to think that she is the master and BANG? But, no. Just Moffat being Moffat again


The Master has a history of using hilariously obvious aliases:

-Colonel Masters
-Reverend Magister (Latin for "Master")
-Professor Thascalos (Greek for "Master", Jo even says so in the show)
-Sir Gilles Estram (just an anagram of "Master")

So it may not have been a very good secret but it also wasn't exactly out of character, either.

http://i.imgur.com/7N84TM8.jpg

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Been sampling the marathon on BBC America. (Now that my crappy cable company actually lets me see it.) Why aren't they showing any Christopher Eccleston episodes? Seems a curious omission.

Where were you in '77?

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*possible spoilers*

Well I saw the Christmas Special.   Weird one.    Barely made any sense.   From now on it looks the entire series could be in a dream world and we'd never know.  wonderful.

*possible spoilers*

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As you may or may not know, I’ve sat out this season.  I watched the first two episodes and didn’t care for the sudden and nearly complete rewrite of Clara.  To me it came across as heavy-handed and a rushed attempt to ignore The Impossible Girl and recast the character as a casual companion (yet keeping the same actress).  I love Jenna Coleman, love The Impossible Girl.  Her time with 11 are some of my favorite episodes. Hide is my favorite episode of all time and I’m particularly fond of She Said, He said”.


The addition of Danny Pink sealed the deal for me with my taking a pass on 2014.  He also felt ham-fisted and rushed.  Not a reflection on Samuel Anderson at all, just the writing and the character.  I tried to watch a few moments throughout the year and couldn’t last more than five minutes at the most.   Clara was unrecognizable, Danny was uninteresting, they felt rushed and overbearing as a couple\story arc, and the Doctor seemed like an afterthought.  I’d have to wait until a new companion.


I felt the show would have been better served with 12 going it alone for a while until a new companion entered his life.  When it slipped that Jenna was probably leaving in the Christmas special, I knew I’d watch in hopes of getting one last glimpse of The Impossible Girl.


*no spoilers*


I was pleasantly surprised with the Christmas special.  I struggled a bit the first half hour or so because I’d lost touch with Clara and 12 (who I hardly know anyway).  After I settled in, I was engaged.  I loved the story and thought it was one of the more clever in recent years.  Instead of just taking inspiration from a few real world films, they brought them in-story and showed why the similarities existed.  They aren’t just inspirations, they’re part of the story itself.  Very interesting concept.


Nick Frost played what is now my personal canon for Santa Claus.  Outstanding!  Out-shined only by Faye Marsay as Shona.  To say she makes the episode for me would be an enormous understatement.  I was riveted by everything about her.  It’s not surprising the accolades she’s now getting because of her performance.  I was very moved by one scene in particular.  Fantastically written and fantasticly done by Faye Marsay.


I don’t know what will happen with Clara now that BBC has stated Jenna’s on for 2015, but I would love to see Shona take over as the companion.  Without spoiling anything, I think we were given two very subtle hints at that at least being a possibility.


I don’t know how the rewrite of Clara was received on a global fanbase scale.  It was fairly neutral on the Doctor Who board I’m on.  Personally, I felt they went a ways toward repairing that rewrite and I felt somewhat happy with Clara.  Not restored, but not as damaged (character-wise).  There was some in-story addressing of the rewrite also.  I welcomed it.

I’ve watched the Christmas special three times already and now look forward to 2015.  I’m hoping to see Shona again.  I’ll append this with spoilers after we’ve all seen it.

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I don't really think Clara was "re-written" in Series 8. I think she had basically no characterization in Series 7, and she was actually given some in Series 8.

Having said that, I never disliked Clara in S7. But the way her character was rounded out in S8 has made her one of my favorite new-Who companions (behind only Wilfred and Rory).

And Anchorhead, whatever you think of Clara's S8 characterization, there are some fantastic episodes in S8. If you just want to get to the meat of the S8 story, here's what you need to see:

  1. 801 Deep Breath
  2. 802 Into the Dalek
  3. 804 Listen
  4. 806 The Caretaker
  5. 807 Kill the Moon
  6. 808 Mummy on the Orient Express
  7. 809 Flatline
  8. 811 Dark Water
  9. 812 Death in Heaven
  10. Last Christmas

I will admit that Kill the Moon isn't exactly a highlight of the season (nor is Into the Dalek), but it contains important character development/story arc advancement. Flatline is less central to the story/character arcs, but it's perhaps the best episode of S8, so DEFINITELY watch it.

I skipped 810 In the Forest of the Night because, while it contains something that could be considered important Danny/Clara arc advancement, it's not brought up much in the episodes that follow, and Forest is widely considered to be a poor episode.

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*possible spoilers*

Boo!!!!!!!! (in regards to what they did to Osgood)

*possible spoilers*

 

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I was actually glad they did that. It made [REDACTED] feel like an actual threat to the Doctor and Clara.

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They didn't need to do that to make [REDACTED] feel like an actualy threat to the Doctor.  We are talking about [REDACTED] here, of course [REDACTED] is a thread threat to the Doctor.

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Warbler said:

They didn't need to do that to make [REDACTED] feel like an actualy threat to the Doctor.  We are talking about [REDACTED] here, of course [REDACTED] is a thread to the Doctor.

 You've just reversed the "thread = threat" meme.

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Warbler said:

*possible spoilers*

Well I saw the Christmas Special.   Weird one.    Barely made any sense.   From now on it looks the entire series could be in a dream world and we'd never know.  wonderful.

*possible spoilers*

 My thoughts went to the Dream Lord.

I kinda agree with Anchorhead on much of what he says on Clara and Danny Pink. But I also agree with Erik Pancakes. In S7, Clara was more of a plot device, now she is more of a character.

Regarding the last regular episode and the more recent discussion regarding [redacted], I don't care for casual treatment of death or the casual killing of characters; generally I don't care for death. I make an exception for the Vashta Nerada. The occasional use of death can be interesting, but it mostly leaves a bad taste for me. I agree with the Warbler that [redacted] didn't have to die.

The blue elephant in the room.

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Okay, this will be difficult to parse with [REDACTED] everywhere, so there will be MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES 8 FINALE IN THE REST OF THIS POST.

I MEAN IT. MAJOR SPOILERS.

YOU SURE YOU WANT TO KEEP READING?

REALLY?

DON'T COME WHINING TO ME IF YOU KEEP READING AND GET SPOILED.

LAST CHANCE TO BACK OUT!

...

Okay, here goes:

I personally never felt like the John Simm Master was a real threat, even when he had ostensibly "beaten" the Doctor. In fact, the last Master I felt was a true threat (outside of Big Finish)? Roger Delgado. And even his level of threatening...ness... diminished over time.

Now, Michelle Gomez? What she did to Osgood immediately made me take the Master seriously again in a way I never did in Series 3 or The End of Time. Sure, I was very sad to see Osgood go, especially so matter-of-factly, but I really do think it helped solidify "Missy" as a real, honest-to-god danger to the Doctor and, well, the whole world.

I completely understand being upset at the character's demise, and I'm not trying to say that you shouldn't be. I'm just saying I don't think it was wholly unnecessary - in fact, Death in Heaven woudln't have been nearly as effective for me without that scene.

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A couple questions:

1. Are you using the Blu-Ray upscales, or are you using the DVDs and upscaling them yourself?

2. If you're using the BR's, are you converting it back to 25fps from the slowed-down 23.976 of the BR upscales? How are you handling the audio if you're converting 23.976 back to 25 - using the DVD audio, or speeding up the BR audio?

3. If you're using the DVDs, are you using the PAL discs as a source or the NTSC's?

4. How's that prequel regrade project coming? ;)

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Erik Pancakes said:

A couple questions:

1. Are you using the Blu-Ray upscales, or are you using the DVDs and upscaling them yourself?

2. If you're using the BR's, are you converting it back to 25fps from the slowed-down 23.976 of the BR upscales? How are you handling the audio if you're converting 23.976 back to 25 - using the DVD audio, or speeding up the BR audio?

3. If you're using the DVDs, are you using the PAL discs as a source or the NTSC's?

4. How's that prequel regrade project coming? ;)

 1. the bluray upscales, though I'm considering using the PAL DVD's if the quality would be better.

2. still haven't decided on this yet, 1080p 25fps works on an mkv, so it's a possibility.  not sure how i'd deal with the audio just yet.

3. if I use the DVD's, PAL would be the way to go with the extra resolution.

4. this hasn't been taking much of my time up, as I only just started to look at making the non-HD doctor who episodes look much improved.  I'd probably consider the tennant specials and series 5 since they were still not shot on the beautiful ARRI Alexa's that Series 6 and on have shot with.  I have yet to make a thread on this, since the prequel regrades are going to be finished before any big work on a DW project starts.  I'd hope there'd be interest out there for this kind of project when I do get it into full gear quite a while from now.

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1. Nah, the PAL DVD's, even though they're at proper speed, definitely have more compression artifacts and ghosting to worry about. The Blu-Rays are a much better choice for your source.

2. If it were me, I'd go 1080p25 for mkv for sure, with the DVD audio. Not sure about any BR or AVCHD release though, as 25p isn't allowed in the BR spec, so it'd have to be 1080i50, and I don't think many US Blu-Ray players would play a 1080i50 disc...so for complete compatibility, it'd either need to be 1080p24 like the existing BR's (i.e., slowed down, in which case you should just use the BR audio), or 1080i60 like the older US Region A releases were (which preserves the running time/speed but can introduce interlacing artifacts; in this case, I'd use the correct-speed DVD audio).

3. Agreed, but as I said before, the Blu-Rays are much better quality visually due to more efficient compression alone, even with the speed changes.

4. I was just joking about the prequel thing, really, but I'm most definitely interested in a DW regrade project, especially since I really want Series 1-4 in 1080p but at the correct speed and, frankly, I'm too lazy to make my own 1080p25 files from the 1080p24 Blu-Rays. And your sample screenshot looks absolutely fantastic - I'd love to see all the S1-4 episodes with a visual look that's closer to the current feel of the show.

So yeah - definitely consider me interested, at the very least!

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I'm with Eric on this one.  Missy felt like a very real threat.  Not a cartoon, not a cardboard cut-out villain, not comic relief. Actual, serious danger.  There were depths to her performance that have been non-existent in the past. 

The graveyard scene was particularly amazing.  She was equal parts wanting to ruin him and wanting to be with him.  Very eery to say the least.  This scene may have been the finest moment of the season;

Armies are for people who think they're right. And nobody thinks they're righter than you. Give a good man firepower, and he'll never run out of people to kill.


... All those people suffering in the Dalek camps? Now you can save them. All those bad guys winning all the wars? Go and get the good guys back.

....You will, because you don't have a choice. There's only way you can stop these clouds from opening up and killing all your little pets down here. Conquer the universe, Mister President. Show a bad girl how it's done.

I'm going to watch it again tonight. This has put me in the mood.  Not that i need much of a push to watch Missy.

Now...Say.  Something.  Nice.

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Well done, Emanswfan.  Always room for Sally Sparrow.  *swoon*  One of my Top Five episodes.

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