Doctor Who Thread III: Reverse the Polarity of the Neutron Flow

[Androgeus]

11 Short stories to be written by children's authors, each to involve a different doctors

Also stamps

[Mercenary Pen]

11 Short stories to be written by children's authors, each to involve a different doctors

Also stamps

First of your links needs fixing- a new reply in this thread doesn't tell me what you wanted it to...

[Kato]

From what I skim read I can see its influence, but I'd have to actually watch the show to make accurate comparisons.

! CUrly has never seen Coupling! You're missing out, go watch it! It's nothing serious, just lots of light hearted, though often sex related humor. I love the show so much. Well, most of it.

Well I figure this one is obvious, ponythread is Doctor Whooves (yes) and the rest I have no idea.

Maybe the Master is versus threads, since he never properly regenerates yet always pops back up?

There are way too many pony threads. Obviously they are something that replicates really fast, like Cybermen or so
Do we have a thread that keeps getting killed of and then brought back over and over?
We have the prominent shounen manga threads but I'd have a hard time sorting them to someone...

[Androgeus]

First of your links needs fixing- a new reply in this thread doesn't tell me what you wanted it to...

I have no idea how I managed to mess that up . Fixed it now mind

[Avaris]

!
Do we have a thread that keeps getting killed of and then brought back over and over?

V's gender threads?

That or ones that get locked and then reopened occasionally. Relationship woes and advice for example.

[Friv]

Alright! I have a glass of whiskey and soda, an unusually large tolerance for old television, and a need to get some writing done today, so here we go.

After some consideration, I've decided to review The Silurians as suggested. I'm doing this for three main reasons:

1) If I continue chronologically we get to spend more time with Liz Shaw, and I have a soft spot for her.
2) I've got a great running gag for this one.
3) This serial is the reason that we have Madame Vastra and Jenny, and I like those two.

So, I hope everyone is ready, because here comes my review!

My past updates:

Spoiler

Show

Spearhead From Space:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Previously, on Doctor Who...

Spoiler

Show

And now, for the beginning of The Silurians!

Spoiler

Show

A bit of advance warning.

First up, this serial is long. It clocks in as a seven-parter, which is kind of an absurd length. It also has the dubious fame of technically being called “Doctor Who and the Silurians”, because of a script mix-up. Usually they didn't use the phrase “Doctor Who and...” in the episodes, but they often had them in early drafts. Somehow, the phrase didn't get taken out in time, and thus history.

The Silurians is a Malcolm Hulke story. Hulke co-created the Time Lords when he wrote large sections of The War Games, which is a bigger deal than the Silurians, but still. He's going to be writing a lot for the Third Doctor, and then will mostly vanish. This is also the first serial produced by Barry Letts, who would continue as producer for the rest of Pertwee's run as well as for the first and last serials of Tom Baker's runs.

Now, let us begin...

The plot opens up inside a mysterious tunnel. A pair of miners are exploring, but a mysterious roar draws their attention. They go to investigate, and stumble across a dinosaur, which promptly attacks the lead miner and terrifies the second one, who flees.

We then cut to the Doctor, who is singing from Jabberwock while working on his new car, Bessie. He has a good singing voice, actually. Liz arrives and is rather snide about said car, but the Doctor is quite happy with it – although, in classic IKEA style, he's got a part left over. But Liz wants him to know that the Brigadier wants them to report to Wenley Moor to join him in investigating some scientists. After a bit of grumbling, and two refusals, Liz cajoles him out by mentioning the region's giant cave systems that are worth investigating.

What follows leads me to suspect that there may have been some padding issues with this episode – a nineteen-second sequence of the Doctor's car driving down a single street. Just puttering along, generally not doing anything particularly noteworthy. Eventually, though, we cut to the moor, and an angry man talking to a roomful of scientists. This man doesn't think that “the errors holding back the work of this research centre” are something to bother UNIT, but the Brigadier disagrees. He explains to the Doctor that a nuclear research centre has been built into the caves, and leads him into the meeting. Angry Man dismisses the crew, and is introduced as Doctor Lawrence. He explains that the facility is a proton accelerator, which is researching cheap, safe atomic energy. Unfortunately, there is a suspiciously high rate of personnel problems due to nervous breakdowns and absenteeism, and also the facility has been losing power for no apparent reason. Lawrence is pretty sure that this is a solveable problem, and has gotten his feathers ruffled about the Brig being here.

It's funny... I have another memory of watching a story about Silurians that took place at a cutting-edge research station on the moors. Well, it's probably just my imagination.

Anyway, the Brig wants the plant's angry security chief, Major Baker, to run some more security checks in case someone is stealing power. Meanwhile, he assigns Liz to study the personnel issue, while the Doctor is assigned to study the reactor itself. Everyone goes to do their things, and Baker confronts the Brig. He's not thrilled that UNIT is here. The Brig points out that what's going on here is weird, but Baker believes that someone in the facility is carrying out a campaign of sabotage.

At the reactor, Lawrence's second in command, Doctor Quinn (and it really upsets me that he is not a Medicine Woman) is showing off his science room. Theoretically, if power fails at the wrong moment, it could turn the facility into a nuclear bomb. That would be bad, but Lawrence refuses to shut the research program down. This is a theme in a lot of Pertwee-era stuff; scientists who aren't careful enough and thus invite disaster. Liz develops a bad headache, which is presumably plot-related, but goes to check the personnel records anyway. The Doctor stays behind and learns that the two folks from the beginning of the episode were junior technicians – they were “in an accident” which killed one of them and left the other in the hospital.

The Doctor studies the log of experiments, and finds that it is incomplete. The man who kept the log was hurt in the cave, and now someone has torn pages out of the log. Sabotage! Meanwhile, Liz is talking to the staff doctor, Doctor Meredith, who attributes the problems to natural causes and refuses to allow the Doctor to see the injured man. The Doctor overrules him and goes to see Spencer, the injured man, who is in his room drawing all over the walls and attacking people if he's startled. The Doctor claims that the man has suffered from a fear that has “thrown his mind back millions of years”.

What.

No seriously, what?? This is kind of a bizarre thing to include, and it doesn't really add much. Apparently, seeing dinosaurs causes you to revert to an animalistic state, because reasons. Reasons are very important.

Anyway, Reasons Man is busy drawing Silurians, and we cut away to the reactor tests. Something is once again wrong, and Doctor Quinn (but not the Medicine Woman one) has people checking it out. His assistant talks to him quietly, and makes it clear that both he and she are in on a conspiracy. She wants him to tell “them” to stop while UNIT is here, or to tell UNIT about what's going on. Doctor Quinn (Medicine Man) refuses and tells her to calm down. He's determined to gain incredible knowledge, which will certainly not kill him in any way.

Back with the Brig, Major Baker is suspicious of the Doctor, who conveniently arrives. Baker heads off, and the Doctor chats with the Brig. In the cyclotron lab, Lawrence wants the test run double-time. The test very slowly gets going, but one of the scientists spaces out completely, and almost misses his mark. Back in their chat, the Doctor explains what happened to Reasons, which doesn't impress Brig, and about the logs, which impresses him a bit more but doesn't convice him, which leads the Doctor to get angry and snap at him. *snicker* About not being Sherlock Holmes, which is just reminding me of Strax because this is a Silurians epiosde. The Brig responds by calling the Doctor “Doctor Watson”.

Anyway, the power goes out while they're arguing. It's erratically going from off to maximum power in rapid intervals, and everyone is getting worried. They start powering things down, which is not going well. The guy who went woobly earlier freaks out and doesn't shut things down, and then gets violent and crazy; the Doctor takes over when he attacks Doctor Quinn's Assistant Woman.

With everything back under control, the Doctor talks to Liz, who reveals that everyone who snapped worked in the main cyclotron room at one point, which is where she was also feeling weird and frightened. The Doctor speculates that the room is the deepest, and the problem could be coming from the caves. After studying the autopsy report, he discovers that the dead man was apparently clawed. He decides to investigate. Alone.

I'd be more upset, but really, this is the doctor.

About three seconds into the caves, he hears the mysterious roaring too. As one would expect, he goes to investigate, which involves about two minutes of staring at various things that the technicians dropped, and suddenly dinosaur!

And suddenly credits!

My Thoughts: Yeesh, I'd forgotten how slow this serial is. Silurians would have made a really good four-part serial, or possibly a decent five-part one. Seven was just plain indulgence on the part of the scriptwriters.

It's also kind of a tricky one to judge. I mean, the entire premise of the first episode is a mystery, but it's a mystery where anyone who knows what the Silurians are already has the answer. This makes a lot of the futzing about even longer and worse.

Best Moment: The Doctor's fine singing voice.
Worst Moment: Nineteen-second driving down a street sequence. Actually, you know what, I'm going to go ahead and upload that. Bask in the glory. Bask, I say.

I may try to collapse the next six parts and review two at a time. I padded out this review with a lot of secondary conversations, which won't exist going forwards, and a lot of the needed exposition is out of the way, which takes up more space.

[Dr. Simon]

@Friv,

Padding is a perennial problem with the Pertwee stories - if you think this one is bad you should see Planet of the Spiders where pretty much all of the second episode is a long and pointless chase sequence in various different vehicles.

Also, you are correct about The Hungry Earth being almost entirely a retread of this story. Mind you, the other stories featuring Silurians/Sea Devils are similar too. And the whole "scientists meddling with a new source of power" is repeated in the "Inferno" story, which is in the same season as this one! It uses almost exactly the same control room set.

[Androgeus]

So as I said earlier some short stories are to be written by famous children's authors with the stories being released monthly. The first story has been revealed (here) as being written by Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series and that sixth H2G2 book. The story itself will be released on 23rd January.

[comicshorse]

@Friv,

Padding is a perennial problem with the Pertwee stories - if you think this one is bad you should see Planet of the Spiders where pretty much all of the second episode is a long and pointless chase sequence in various different vehicles.
.

Love the alliteration

[Friv]

@Friv,

Padding is a perennial problem with the Pertwee stories - if you think this one is bad you should see Planet of the Spiders where pretty much all of the second episode is a long and pointless chase sequence in various different vehicles.

Yaaaay. Something to "look forwards to".

Also, you are correct about The Hungry Earth being almost entirely a retread of this story. Mind you, the other stories featuring Silurians/Sea Devils are similar too. And the whole "scientists meddling with a new source of power" is repeated in the "Inferno" story, which is in the same season as this one! It uses almost exactly the same control room set.

I'm quite looking forwards to Inferno, which is a Pertwee story I couldn't get ahold of on my first run through the series. :)

So as I said earlier some short stories are to be written by famous children's authors with the stories being released monthly. The first story has been revealed (here) as being written by Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series and that sixth H2G2 book. The story itself will be released on 23rd January.

Ooh! I do like me some Eoin Colfer.

[CurlyKitGirl]

Alright! I have a glass of whiskey and soda, an unusually large tolerance for old television, and a need to get some writing done today, so here we go.

Hooray for drinking! And, having read the review, you must have been in need for it.

After some consideration, I've decided to review The Silurians as suggested. I'm doing this for three main reasons:

1) If I continue chronologically we get to spend more time with Liz Shaw, and I have a soft spot for her.
2) I've got a great running gag for this one.
3) This serial is the reason that we have Madame Vastra and Jenny, and I like those two.

So, I hope everyone is ready, because here comes my review!

Plus noting the development of characters and themes as the show progresses!

Previously, on Doctor Who...

Spoiler

Show

That is terrifying. Have all my do not wants.

And now, for the beginning of The Silurians!

Spoiler

Show

A bit of advance warning.

First up, this serial is long. It clocks in as a seven-parter, which is kind of an absurd length. It also has the dubious fame of technically being called “Doctor Who and the Silurians”, because of a script mix-up. Usually they didn't use the phrase “Doctor Who and...” in the episodes, but they often had them in early drafts. Somehow, the phrase didn't get taken out in time, and thus history.

That is long, about two and a half hours yes? If it helps, Tom Baker is still credited as Doctor Who in 'Genesis'.

The Silurians is a Malcolm Hulke story. Hulke co-created the Time Lords when he wrote large sections of The War Games, which is a bigger deal than the Silurians, but still. He's going to be writing a lot for the Third Doctor, and then will mostly vanish. This is also the first serial produced by Barry Letts, who would continue as producer for the rest of Pertwee's run as well as for the first and last serials of Tom Baker's runs.

Well, they're still two of the longest lasting Doctor Who species. And the talent does seem to be pretty good backstage at least.

The plot opens up inside a mysterious tunnel. A pair of miners are exploring, but a mysterious roar draws their attention. They go to investigate, and stumble across a dinosaur, which promptly attacks the lead miner and terrifies the second one, who flees.

And how bad is the dinosaur effect? Only I saw this one clip from 'Invasion of the Dinosaurs' a few years ago and wow. Is it just a dude in an obvious costume>

We then cut to the Doctor, who is singing from Jabberwock while working on his new car, Bessie. He has a good singing voice, actually. Liz arrives and is rather snide about said car, but the Doctor is quite happy with it – although, in classic IKEA style, he's got a part left over. But Liz wants him to know that the Brigadier wants them to report to Wenley Moor to join him in investigating some scientists. After a bit of grumbling, and two refusals, Liz cajoles him out by mentioning the region's giant cave systems that are worth investigating.

Well it would be classic fixer-upper humour without the one extra part now would it? And he does indeed have a nice singing voice. As the the cave system, my first thought was Wookey Hole. It's really the only major cave system here I can think of. Any idea if it was used for filming, or is it jsut another obvious set?

What follows leads me to suspect that there may have been some padding issues with this episode – a nineteen-second sequence of the Doctor's car driving down a single street. Just puttering along, generally not doing anything particularly noteworthy.

It wasn't a giant clam. I win. At least there was some scenery to look at, I just got a really easy innuendo and some growling and panting. (That' what she said)

It's funny... I have another memory of watching a story about Silurians that took place at a cutting-edge research station on the moors. Well, it's probably just my imagination.

That or about thirty-five years of television/movie scripts means that recycling is almost inevitable. That or Silurians are really set in their ways.

Anyway, the Brig wants the plant's angry security chief, Major Baker, to run some more security checks in case someone is stealing power. Meanwhile, he assigns Liz to study the personnel issue, while the Doctor is assigned to study the reactor itself. Everyone goes to do their things, and Baker confronts the Brig. He's not thrilled that UNIT is here. The Brig points out that what's going on here is weird, but Baker believes that someone in the facility is carrying out a campaign of sabotage.

What is it with this show and Bakers?
Tom Baker, Pip and Jane Baker, Colin Baker. The latter must complaining about sabotage. And rightly so.

At the reactor, Lawrence's second in command, Doctor Quinn (and it really upsets me that he is not a Medicine Woman) is showing off his science room.

Knee-jerk reaction to names. I had a hard time not calling the Doctor Doctor McCoy when I started doing 'Remembrance of the Daleks'. I'm sorry, but the only Doctor allowed to be called McCoy is from Georgia and is the CMO in the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) (and NCC-1701-A) (and ISS Enterprise).

Liz develops a bad headache, which is presumably plot-related, but goes to check the personnel records anyway.

Yes, she 'has a headache'.

The Doctor overrules [the non-Doctor doctor] and goes to see Spencer, the injured man, who is in his room drawing all over the walls and attacking people if he's startled. The Doctor claims that the man has suffered from a fear that has “thrown his mind back millions of years”.

What.

No seriously, what?? This is kind of a bizarre thing to include, and it doesn't really add much. Apparently, seeing dinosaurs causes you to revert to an animalistic state, because reasons. Reasons are very important.

Science!
Problem is, that is almost based on actual psychology. But not like that. It is entirely possible for someone to regress in personal development to an earlier age. Potentially a flashback or similar occurrence could be considered similar.
A startling sight would not send revert someone to a caveman-like state out of atavistic terror permanently.

Back in their chat, the Doctor explains what happened to Reasons, which doesn't impress Brig, and about the logs, which impresses him a bit more but doesn't convice him, which leads the Doctor to get angry and snap at him. *snicker* About not being Sherlock Holmes, which is just reminding me of Strax because this is a Silurians epiosde. The Brig responds by calling the Doctor “Doctor Watson”.

What are the odds?

With everything back under control, the Doctor talks to Liz, who reveals that everyone who snapped worked in the main cyclotron room at one point, which is where she was also feeling weird and frightened. The Doctor speculates that the room is the deepest, and the problem could be coming from the caves.

Hey look, something that makes sense when you remember reading psychology/sociology books from a year or two ago!
Generally, people who work deep underground, in the dark, or in other places that agitate one's instincts admit to feeling uneasy in places. Surprise, surprise, but that was me very poorly wording a sentence. Really, it's only natural that people are a little nervous in places like that because if something goes wrong, chances are you're not coming out.

After studying the autopsy report, he discovers that the dead man was apparently clawed. He decides to investigate. Alone.

I'd be more upset, but really, this is the doctor.

You really expect logic from the Doctor? At least he read the autopsy report first and knows to watch out for claws!

My Thoughts: Yeesh, I'd forgotten how slow this serial is. Silurians would have made a really good four-part serial, or possibly a decent five-part one. Seven was just plain indulgence on the part of the scriptwriters.

It's also kind of a tricky one to judge. I mean, the entire premise of the first episode is a mystery, but it's a mystery where anyone who knows what the Silurians are already has the answer. This makes a lot of the futzing about even longer and worse.

Padding, padding, padding! However, it could be possible some of it was due to other circumstances i.e., a script fell through or an extended season.
And yes, the wonderful Who tradition of spoiling things by telling you the answer in the title.
e.g. every Dalek serial ever. It was completely laughable during nu Who's Dalek two-parter because the Daleks were meant to be a super-surprise and what did they call it? 'Daleks in Manhattan' and 'Evolution of the Daleks'.
Should I ever become a Who writer I'd write a script called 'Attack of the Daleks', have the attack dealt with in five minutes and make the entire rest of the plot be about human insurgents/rebels or something.

[QUOTE=Friv;14480891]I may try to collapse the next six parts and review two at a time. I padded out this review with a lot of secondary conversations, which won't exist going forwards, and a lot of the needed exposition is out of the way, which takes up more space.

That'd be fine. If there's not much to say you might as well do two at a time. I just ramble a lot and get sidetracked. A lot. Also I've been relatively lucky in that so far I've not really seen much padding.

This was going to be in my next review, but it's here instead because of character limits. I will link it in my review too. And Androgeus, could you perhaps link this post somewhere in my review section on the front page? Maybe. If you think it helps anything.

An Interesting Question Via 'Fan Mail' Today:

Spoiler

Show

Backstory first, I write my reviews oddly, but the one thing I always write in chunks is my intro spiel with writer/background information. Then, depending on life and - to be honest, procrastination, it can be hours, days or weeks before I continue on with watching the episode itself.

So. I wrote my background information [for 'Genesis of the Daleks' (part 4/6) on the third or so of the month. Then my mum came down really bad with some bug, so nothing. It is now 07/01/2013 as I type this sentence, and some time day I . . . got an e-mail.

From someone who reads these reviews. And isn't a member of this forum. It's a little weird, never happened to me before, but I can see someone being reluctant to sign up for a forum just to ask a question. And besides, my e-mail is in my profile, so it's not exactly creepy, just a bit odd. But at the same time, my thought process upon seeing this e-mail from someone I don't know was 'Who is this person? Why are they e-mailing me? It could be spam, but how do spambots know I review things on the Playground? What if someone genuinely did read them, but was a complete troll and liked e-mailing people viruses?!'

Paranoia fully set in (and for good reason) I scanned that e-mail with all the anti-viral whatsits my dad made me install on this laptop while literally standing over my shoulder. It being clean I opened it and it was a very lovely e-mail telling me they liked my reviews, but they had a question they wanted to ask:

'When you review Doctor Who what exactly are you looking for? Do you have any specific lenses you look through? Why?

'Reading through the Doctor Who threads there are lots of jokes about your fondness for LGBTAQ, mainly that you point it out a lot, and enjoy (or appear to from your, and others' comments) looking for it, especially slash. Do you use queer theory in your reviews a lot because you studied it in university? Is it your favourite theory?'

The reason I've quoted this person's question here, and not replied to him/her/other personally is two-fold:
1) It's a good question and
2) I'm a little wary of replying to an anonymous person on the internet. The irony in that sentence is overwhelming, yes, yes, but we all understand.

So here it is:
Mostly I do it for fun, and it's from a fan's point of view, although one with a critical mindset. I don't really look for anything in Doctor Who if I can help it because that indicates a bias. Take, for example, 'Utopia' where I went in completely blind, because of that I was able to view to reveal about Derek Jacobi from the gobsmacked first-view fan, but then realise all of the foreshadowing about it after the fact. If I'd known beforehand I'd be looking out for clues about it, ignoring other elements of the narrative and character development. What was it someone said once? Like looking at the world from the viewpoint of an erudite fangirl?

I want to appreciate the show, and I do it by engaging with it in long, rambling reviews that go everywhere.

That said, I do have my own set of biases and favourite analytical viewpoints. One of which is simply my own experiences in general: if someone (Helen Raynor) writes a bad episode of Doctor Who/something else that I've seen or heard of I'll be more inclined to point out the bad things, while at least trying to point out the good; the same goes for actors etc. Conversely, while I'll be more willing to fangirl out over someone I really like (case in point: Derek Jacobi, Paul Cornell, Ben Aaronovitch), but come down all the more harshly on their bad points because I expected better on them. If it's with an episode I've seen before I'll focus on what stood out the most to me, theme, character or otherwise.

As for schools of criticism and more 'academic' viewpoints I suppose I'm more of a historicist than anything else, I believe context is extremely important when discussing a work, but that doesn't mean I won't ignore modern day ideals when doing so. But academically I specialised in medieval literature and languages, and within that I focused on females/women, sex and incest, and Biblical or religious works, religious influences on written works.

So really, one of my major academic viewpoints is a no-go as far as the forum rules go; meaning that when I do want to point out things that lead into religious areas I do tend to state it in a general term, or fairly simply. That and it's easy to read religion into things, so I try not to. I mean, I'm not going to tell you the Doctor can be read as a Jesus/God/messianic figure because it's a bit obvious if you want to go there. That and, given that the latest text I studied after I specialised is probably The Tempest I'm dealing with medieval/Early Modern theology etc. so it's a little bit out of date.

My major blind areas as far as academia and general knowledge goes: the vast majority of science, mathematics, politics post-1945. I mean, a year or so ago I was hard put to remember who was Prime Minister, I hesitated for some ten seconds before remembering there was (and still is? Look I don't know) a coalition government and Cameron was the PM. That said, if I can point out the errors in those areas based on logic and a bit of Googling, I'll call it out. A lot.

Oh, and I'm not much of a queer theorist. Gender and cultural stuff mostly would be my main hats.

Personal things:

I'm a biologically female bisexual with no set gender identity. I don't consider myself a feminist per se, but I am very aware of how females are treated in the media, so am likely to call out something that feels odd to me as a female, and sexism in general. As I am not a heterosexual person whose gender and sex are identical (identity as female and being biologically female) I am also aware of, and consider myself a part of the LGBTAQ movement, but I am not well-versed in the terminology for such. I also know that, at least under RTD, Doctor Who had LGBTAQ themes. I will point out things that fall under that banner if I feel able to talk about it.

Britain is a class conscious society. I was raised in a middle/upper-working class family in one of the poorest regions in the country. I have class perceptions, and am probably a bit of a snob and a reverse snob.
Privilege: as a white female living in Western Europe I have a lot of it. And I am also relatively sheltered on top of that. I won't say my glasses are the rosiest in the world, but they're pretty pink anyway.

I am a fangirl. Unrepentantly. As long as everyone involved in a relationship is legal and consenting I think it's okay. That said, I like slash of the m/m type. I blame Star Trek because it was obvious Kirk and Spock loved each other. I think it's fun, especially as it's so easy to read at times. That said, there are certain characters and fandoms in general where I don't seriously ship people all that much. Doctor Who for one, so I do at times play up/point out the homoeroticism/ship teasing even if I don't really see the pairing because it's funny and a little expected of me. And I'll let a lot of things slide if they make a sort-of sense, or can be hand-waved into sense. Look, for me it's characters over plot, and I'll let a lot of silliness slide if the characters make it work.

I love reading. A lot. So much so that this little fact about myself is important enough to put under my identity biases. You ask anyone to name one defining non-physical trait about myself and it's that. My life has been shaped by books and what is within them. I love the written word and everything about it. Words make me happy. I think it was because the first 'proper' book (well series) I read was The Chronicles of Narnia when I was five or six. Then it was Dickens, Eyre and Bronte at eight along with the usual stuff. There is nothing I appreciate more than good dialogue and character driven pieces. I don't even know how to explain it. I like intelligent things over stupid things. This is not me saying I don't like action films, I love them. I like engaging in a dialogue with my fiction, I like extrapolating and guessing and wondering and supposing. This most likely makes me a pretentious snob. Given that I hold fanfiction to the same standards of everything else, I am a pretentious snob. I don't like being talked down to. Unless it's for the purposes of explaining science and mathematically related things to me, in which case, thank you.

I am a hypocrite, probably a lot. I am a bitch. Probably a lot. I am not really very nice, although I am sweet.

However: I do firmly subscribe to 'the death of the author' idea. I hold no view sacred, and if Person A goes on record saying X is what was intended, fine. I'll look at X. And if I happen to see A, D, G - J and P as well, those are equally, if not more important than X.

Similarly, just because I see X doesn't necessarily mean that's all that [whatever] is about. I'm just a viewer with an opinion, it doesn't mean I'm right.

TL;DR:

What am I looking for? Fun mostly. I give an in-depth commentary and elaborate on things I find interesting. Or fun. Or silly. Just whatever stands out.
My lenses: fun; fan; fangirl; academic/critic; whatever suits; misc.

That was way too long and probably a bit too navel gazey towards the end, but I hope it gives you (and others) some insight into my mindset and what I generally look for, and why.

That said, I'd really rather people didn't contact me via my personal e-mail as it's a little unnerving. I mean, joining the forum for discussion would be better, especially if you have a pressing question or one that would involve a long discussion. Plus this is a lovely place.
I honestly can understand your reluctance, I dithered for three weeks before joining the forum, so imagine how unsettling it would be if you received such an e-mail.
I am grateful for the attention and that you were interested enough in my mindset to ask, I spent a good four hours on and off thinking about this.
But - and I apologise if this isn't very tactful, it's a little awkward to receive out-of-the-blue e-mails. I don't know how else to phrase it. Sorry.

[Thufir]

What was it someone said once? Like looking at the world from the viewpoint of an erudite fangirl?

I believe the phrase I used to describe you was "A combination between a refined, erudite scholar and an excitable, geeky fangirl."

*snip*

I actually found that really interesting, even though the majority of it was stuff I already knew about you. I guess it's just interesting seeing how people describe/account for themselves, their own views, biases, etc.

[Friv]

That is long, about two and a half hours yes? If it helps, Tom Baker is still credited as Doctor Who in 'Genesis'.

About right, yeah.

And how bad is the dinosaur effect? Only I saw this one clip from 'Invasion of the Dinosaurs' a few years ago and wow. Is it just a dude in an obvious costume>

Actually, the dinosaur is surprisingly good for a 1970 Doctor Who creature.

Well it would be classic fixer-upper humour without the one extra part now would it? And he does indeed have a nice singing voice. As the the cave system, my first thought was Wookey Hole. It's really the only major cave system here I can think of. Any idea if it was used for filming, or is it jsut another obvious set?

Oh, it's a set. See the dinosaur, above.

That or about thirty-five years of television/movie scripts means that recycling is almost inevitable. That or Silurians are really set in their ways.

Aheh. Aheheheh. (warning: Portal 2 spoilers)

I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil anything.

Science!
Problem is, that is almost based on actual psychology. But not like that. It is entirely possible for someone to regress in personal development to an earlier age. Potentially a flashback or similar occurrence could be considered similar.
A startling sight would not send revert someone to a caveman-like state out of atavistic terror permanently.

It also gives you the ability to draw like a supremely talented caveman.

Should I ever become a Who writer I'd write a script called 'Attack of the Daleks', have the attack dealt with in five minutes and make the entire rest of the plot be about human insurgents/rebels or something.

To be fair, when no one knew what Silurians were, it was a little more mysterious. ;)

[Hullabaloo]

I'm all caught up now, and thoroughly hooked. Might start looking around to start watching the early seasons of the tenth Doctor, he seems pretty crazy and enjoyable. Is the only way to see these on DVD?

In addition to someone saying they were on NetFlix streaming, I would like to confirm that all of the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh doctor are on Amazon Prime.

My wife got a Fire for Christmas, so have begun with at the start of the ninth. I really enjoy the stories, (of the three i have watched) really enjoying The End Of The World. But, not sure I'm digging Christopher Eccleston and the leather jacket.

[Dr. Simon]

Love the alliteration

Would you believe entirely accidental?

[Androgeus]

And Androgeus, could you perhaps link this post somewhere in my review section on the front page? Maybe. If you think it helps anything.

Done, I just stuck it after all your other reviews.

Oh and I have news on the 50th anniversary, well at least what Big Finish is doing. In November they will be releasing an audio play staring all the living classic Doctors. Source

Also the first two 8th Doctor audio plays that are being broadcast on 4Extra are available for streaming, Death In Blackpool & Situation Vacant. The third Nevermore is on right now, the link given should be where the episode will be available for streaming from later however. I've been lead to believe that these should be streamable by anyone and not just those in the UK.

So far I've only listened to Death in Blackpool, and it didn't feel like a good story to me. It might just be because I was half asleep so I'll reserve full judgement till I try and listen to it again. Giving it some quick thought now though I think it may have relied a bit too heavily on a previous story.

[Aotrs Commander]

Oh and I have news on the 50th anniversary, well at least what Big Finish is doing. In November they will be releasing an audio play staring all the living classic Doctors. Source

Ooooh. While generally not that bothered about the audio dramas, that's sufficiently enticing I might actually look into that when the time comes!

[dps]

@Friv,

Padding is a perennial problem with the Pertwee stories - if you think this one is bad you should see Planet of the Spiders where pretty much all of the second episode is a long and pointless chase sequence in various different vehicles.

That wasn't put in there as padding so much as a favor to Pertwee by the writers. He liked to drive fast, and they knew that he was leaving, so they wrote a car chase for him.

[Friv]

Gather around, kids, it's time for more fun way, way under the sun, with Part Two of Friv Reviews: Doctor Who And The Silurians.

My previous reviews:

Spoiler

Show

Spearhead From Space:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

The Silurians:
Part One

Previously on Friv Reviews Doctor Who: Dinosaurs! Moors! Caves! The Doctor being an idiot!

So pretty much a normal day in Doctor Who-Town.

And now, the continuation.

Spoiler

Show

Part 2!

The Doctor has just discovered exactly what he was looking for – a giant dinosaur living underground. The entirely logical result happens – it attempts to murder him, and he has no defense or escape route. But just before it can finish its job, a mysterious flute plays and the dinosaur backs away. Proving that common sense was never his strongest attribute, the Doctor gives pursuit – but finds only a giant footprint, which surprises him unduly given that he just saw the monster that left it.

Back at the lab, Liz is talking to the Brig, because the Doctor hasn't come back yet. Brig is angry, since he feels that the Doctor shouldn't have gone down alone, and that Liz should have told him what was up. Major Baker arrives with equipment for a rescue mission, but before they can go the Doctor returns happily, asking if he can join them.

In the cyclotron room, no one can figure out what's wrong. Lawrence and Medicine Man Quinn argue for a bit, and Lawrence lets slip that the Doctor went into the caves. This worries Quinn, who clearly knows that something's in the caves.

In the briefing room, the Doctor tells the Brig that he saw a monster, and describes it. Liz asks if it is prehistoric, to which the Doctor replies “It was certainly some kind of dinosaur, but nothing I've ever seen before”. So yes, I think is the answer. Although I guess you could get a non-prehistoric dinosaur. The important thing is, the Brig is taking everyone into the caves except for Liz. Liz considers this a slight against her gender.

Quick aside: This was a thing with the Brig, wasn't it? Every female companion seems to accuse him of rampant sexism at one point or another. I recall a similar conversation in The Invasion.

But for once the Doctor agrees with the Brig, although he's less in agreement when he finds out the Brig is planning to take guns. He doesn't convince the Brig that violence may not be the answer, and they head into the caves. There, they find the tracks, and a faint sound. Baker runs ahead, which is always safe, and three UNIT grunts go with him, leaving the Brig and the Doctor behind. Baker sees someone, yells at him to halt, and immediately opens fire, proving that he's a loose cannon who plays by his own rules. Then the dinosaur arrives, so Baker starts shooting at it too. It wounds him, then the flute plays and it runs off. The team finds him injured and raving. Upon investigating, they find traces of blood. The Doctor goes to study the blood, while the rest go after the injured being.

On the surface, a mysterious figure with a funny visor crawls up, and we alternately see the world through his tinted eyes and various bushes, which I am officially dubbing Monstro-Vision. Back at the lab, though, the Doctor and Liz are studying the blood, which appears to be reptilian. Brig returns and reports that the mystery being vanished into the moors; UNIT will mount a full-scale search in the morning. The Doctor is particularly upset that Baker went shooting, and curious that someone called the monster away before it could kill him or Baker. He thinks whoever is down there might not be hostile.

Back to Monstro-Vision! We approach a farmhouse, and the monster goes looking, very gradually, for shelter. This really didn't need to be in real time, but it is, so after looking around for a bit it goes to the barn and hides in some hay.

At the lab, Doctor Quinn has taken a rest day. His secretary is trying to cover for him, but Lawrence feels that Quinn is retreating to his cottage to write. He storms off. The Doctor comforts the assistant, who is clearly devoted to Quinn. At the same time, underground, we see Quinn! He finds a spot of the caves and gets scanned, and then enters an old rusty hallway. Passing through it, he goes to an alien communication screen and talks to an unseen alien voice, warning them that soldiers are searching the caves. The alien says that one of the aliens was wounded and fled. Quinn tries to convince them to stop taking power, but the aliens say they need it. The alien says that Quinn needs to get the alien back. When Quinn refuses, the alien says that they won't give Quinn their technology until the lost alien is returned. They give him a “summoning device” that the alien can hear and follow, and then send him on his way.

The next day, cheerful music announces that it is morning as we cut to a farm. A farmer heads to his barn to get some hay – and accidentally prods a giant reptile hand. He yells to his wife to call the police, and while he's busy yelling we move to Monstro-Vision. It's super-unclear who starts the fight, but it ends with a dead farmer and a screaming wife. At the HQ, Lawrence comes to meet the Brig; he's very annoyed about UNIT creating more delays for his lab, and doesn't like the Brig's answers. The Doctor arrives, confident that the system is completely intact, and thus must be being affected by something on the outside. He recommends closing the lab entirely, which Lawrence says no way to. The Doctor needles him about his motives, and Lawrence decides to demand to the Brig's superiors that UNIT be removed. He storms off. Just afterwards, the police call the Brig and tell him a farmer has been clawed to death.

At the farm, the Doctor confirms that whatever killed the farmer was the sentient monster, defending itself from the farmer and his pitchfork. His wife has been taken to the hospital in shock, and the farmer actually died of fear, not of his wounds. The Doctor speaks with the wife, who is in a state of terror and can't talk. The Doctor draws something for her to see, and she confirms that it killed her husband and is still in the barn. Also still in the barn is Liz. The Doctor and the Brig decide this is probably not something that is going to work out for the best, and run for it.

At the barn, Liz is busy working as the monster emerges from hiding. It approaches her in Monstro-Vision, she screams, it hits her, and episode close!

And if I'm going to review two parts tonight, I need a drink. Be right back.

[INTERMISSION]


And we're back! I don't normally drink while watching TV; this is a bad habit that I should probably break. Next time.

Liz is still being attacked by a monster. After hitting her and knocking her over, it runs to the barn door, sees that there are police outside, and locks itself in the barn. Back at Quinn's cottage, his assistant has arrived to talk to him. He is busy trying to find the alien, and shows her the transmitter; the two of the explain the plot of the last episode between them over the course of a minute or two. Quinn runs out to be a Medicine Man, saving lives, all that jazz.

Back at the barn, UNIT forces their way in and searches the barn. They only discover a chicken, and evidence that the creature tore a hole in the back wall and escaped. Liz wakes up, and is the first human to see the creature without just flat-out going crazy, although she is still shaken. She describes the creature as a reptile who walked like a man, and generally starts to recover. Quinn arrives, arousing the Doctor's instant suspicion, and claims to have been on his way back to the research centre from the cottage when he saw all the trouble. The Doctor stops Liz from telling Quinn what's up, and the Brig asks Quinn where he would go if he wanted to hide. We then get another long montage, this time of UNIT sweeping the moors. Extensively. Exhaustively, even. A full minute of extras trooping around. Quinn claims to be going back to the research centre, but refuses to take Liz with him and then claims that he has to go to the village first. After he leaves, Liz checks the map and realizes that the farm is miles out of the way if that was Quinn's route.

Quinn slips off and activates his communication device, which makes dogs bark, and then gets spotted by a helicopter and leaves. The helicopter radios to Hawkins, the man leading the search, who tells the Brig and the Doctor. Hawkins thinks that he heard a sort of flute sound, like in the caves, where Quinn was spotted.

Another quick aside – I really like that UNIT is competent, with a few notable exceptions (such as the lovely Auton In A Tent incident). They don't have superpowers or anything, but they rarely drop clues, they hold their own against monsters... just generally they're useful followers to have rather than tromping around tripping over their own feet.

Quinn's communicator seems to also be a tracker, since it beeps faster as the alien gets closer, and we slip in and out of Monstro-Vision as it finds him. The Doctor and the Brig arrive to investigate, after more padding, and find monster tracks along with tire tracks, which makes the Doctor think of Quinn.

Back at the lab, Liz goes to talk to Major Baker, who wants to get back into the field to kill some bad guys. He remembers the guy he shot at, but not the monster. Liz tells him to get some rest, and predictably as soon as she leaves he jumps out of bed and gets ready to go.

The Doctor arrives at Quinn's cottage, and starts pointedly chatting with Quinn, noting things like how warm the cottage is and wondering why Quinn is home. Quinn tries to get rid of him, and gets increasingly jumpy about it. The Doctor, now certain that something's up, confronts him directly and says that Quinn needs help. Quinn firmly shows him the door.

At the lab, the Doctor and Liz are searching Quinn's office. The Doctor breaks into his cabinet, finding incriminating notes and an ancient globe. Liz apparently has never heard of continental drift, because she is baffled by the land masses being in the wrong places. The Doctor discovers that Quinn has been calculating the age of the Earth in the Silurian Era. They get surprised by Quinn's assistant, and confront her. She almost breaks, but when the Brig arrives she clams up.

Back at Quinn's cottage, his assistant arrives to warn him against his Medicine Womanly ways. She tries to convince him to let the Doctor help, but Quinn is obsessed with getting the credit for their discoveries. He puts together the brilliant plan of holding the creature he found captive until he learns its secrets. This will go very well.

At the briefing room, Baker wants a mass attack against the caves, the Doctor wants careful study, and the Brig is generally annoyed with everyone. He sends Baker back to the hospital, and prepares for a full-scale assault. Meanwhile, Lawrence has called in skeptical guns to get UNIT kicked out, so everything is going well. The Doctor is equally mad at Lawrence and the Brig, and goes to try and convince Quinn to tell him everything “before it's too late”. He goes back to Quinn's cottage, and when no one answers he tries the door and finds it unlocked. This is apparently not ominous enough for the Doctor, who of course goes right in.

Can anyone guess what happens next?

Did you guess that Doctor Quinn will never Medicine Woman again? Because he's dead? Cause of death: Silurian? (Alternate Cause Of Death: Suicide By Being A Twit?)

You guessed right. The Doctor finds Quinn, and the communicator. Showing why he's a transcendental lord of time, he promptly turns on this unknown object to see what it does.

Cue a Silurian stepping into the room, and we get our first good look at it! Well, for a certain definition of “good look”.

And credits!


My Thoughts: Okay, it was a little long for two parts, but it would have been short as heck for one part. And actually, other than the padding, this was a very solid two episodes. A bitter, jealous scientist, an angry violent guy, and a scientific leader who is convinced that the Doctor and his friends are trouble... not a bad combination, and you can see where it's going to cause problems. It's also notable because, compared to the previous serials involving UNIT, where there was a clear alien threat, the Doctor in this one is much less convinced that the aliens are a threat at all, which is bringing him into conflict with the Brigadier's military doctrine.

Best Moment: Quinn's paranoid rant, although it is blatantly obvious what's going to happen next. Also I kind of like that Liz is apparently highly resistant to the Fear From Beyond Time. Will Save, I suppose.

Worst Moment: Padding. Also, Monstro-Vision is wildly overused.

[Sunken Valley]

http://robotaverage.tumblr.com/post/...of-the-snowmen

A review that agrees with my sentiment that the snowmen makes the Doctor a bad role model.

[Dr. Simon]

A review that agrees with my sentiment that the snowmen makes the Doctor a bad role model.

But why should the character need to be a role model?

[dps]

Personally, I thought that a big part of the point of the story was that The Doctor wasn't behaving the way he should.

I'm not really all that happy with the Moffat era in a lot of ways, but some of the criticisms of him I just don't get.

I have kind of come to the conclusion that maybe it's not a good idea for the showrunner to be a scriptwriter. If someone writes a script that has some problems, the showrunner can act as a check on them, but what check is there on the writer if he's also the showrunner? This is one overlooked area in which NuWho differs from ClassicWho. I'll point out that the stories that are usually considered Moffat's best were written in the RTD era, and stories generally considered the best of the Moffat era weren't written by him (though personally, I do really like Asylum of the Daleks, but even there, I wonder if the weakest part of that story, the pointless Amy/Rory divorce subplot, would have stayed in if someone else had been in place to veto some of Moffat's ideas). And RTD wrote Love and Monsters--need I say more?

[Sunken Valley]

Personally, I thought that a big part of the point of the story was that The Doctor wasn't behaving the way he should.

I'm not really all that happy with the Moffat era in a lot of ways, but some of the criticisms of him I just don't get.

I have kind of come to the conclusion that maybe it's not a good idea for the showrunner to be a scriptwriter. If someone writes a script that has some problems, the showrunner can act as a check on them, but what check is there on the writer if he's also the showrunner? This is one overlooked area in which NuWho differs from ClassicWho. I'll point out that the stories that are usually considered Moffat's best were written in the RTD era, and stories generally considered the best of the Moffat era weren't written by him (though personally, I do really like Asylum of the Daleks, but even there, I wonder if the weakest part of that story, the pointless Amy/Rory divorce subplot, would have stayed in if someone else had been in place to veto some of Moffat's ideas). And RTD wrote Love and Monsters--need I say more?

Moffat and RTD both edited a lot of scripts in there runs. However, interestingly enough, the only Moffat story RTD edited was the Empty Child two parter. All the others (Fireplace, Blink, Library) RTD did not edit. At all. Fun fact.

Another Fun fact is the Bechedel Test. A medium passes the bechedel test if it has two named female characters talking about a non-male subject. In the RTD era, Bechedel test rates were high with 11 out of 13 passes in Seasons 1 & 4, 9 in Season 2 and a whopping 12 out of 13 in Season 3 (Lazarus Experiment failing). Compare Season 5 & 6, with 2 and 4 Bechedel passes, respectively. Say what you will about RTD but only 3 of his Who episodes have ever failed (Love and Monsters, Voyage of the Damned (only Christmas Special to fail) and Planet of the Dead). Moffat is roughly 50/50 like most writers with 10 passes and 12 fails.

This does not mean that Bechedel passes are good (all the twilight films pass) or that Bechedel fails are bad (lots of good films fail the bechedel test). Its just a piece of info.

Also, is Eoin Colfer going to be writing an adventure with Hartnell's Doctor or some other Doctor?

[Friv]

http://robotaverage.tumblr.com/post/...of-the-snowmen

A review that agrees with my sentiment that the snowmen makes the Doctor a bad role model.

While there are certainly criticisms of Moffat to be made, and while the "Impossible Man" critique is certainly a valid general critique of Doctor Who in general and NuWho in particular, anyone who tries to claim that "Mr. Nice Guy" and "Impossible Man" are in any way a new, Moffat-based problem never watched any of Russel T. Davies' arcs, especially the ending of...

well...

Of every season. Actually every season. I mean, the end of "End of Time" was the worst of the bunch, but it happened every time. The "Lonely God" was actually a term that we used with frequency.

[ShinyCap]

EDIT: And now I'm actually reading the article and realizing it's not about the "tiny legs" line. All of my points are about that line (as discussed in this post: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showp...postcount=1020).

I actually agree with Sunken here. My thoughts as I was watching the episode was basically this:

Personally, I thought that a big part of the point of the story was that The Doctor wasn't behaving the way he should.

Along the lines of, "wow, the Doctor's really messed up if he's insulting his ally like this."

But I'm also a college student. I don't need to have things spelled out for me, and I can understand the subtext even if it's completely contradictory to the text itself.

This is a family show. It's going to be watched by people who don't understand that. I'm not saying the Doctor has to be a great role model, I'm saying he's the hero and kids look up to him, so they should be able to know that he's not being very heroic at that point (yes, we all caught it, but my little brother might not have). The Doctor may not be human, but he makes mistakes. What he said was a mistake, and he should know that. I don't think there's anything wrong with the Doctor saying it. I think it's wrong that he wasn't called out for it.

[BRC]

Reading that post, while "The Impossible Man" is certainly a factor, I don't think Moffat uses it like the post implies.

They say that he enjoys taking away the Impossible Man to show how terrible the world would be without them. But that dosn't really happen Sherlock/The Doctor go away, and their friends are miserable, but that's what happens when your friends go away. The world keeps on turning, society keeps functioning.

Yes The Doctor goes away an the world is in danger, but that's because he's The Doctor, and he fights world-ending threats. The world was in danger, and had he not come back, he would not have been able to stop it, however that is basically the premise of the show.

[Kato]

Yes The Doctor goes away an the world is in danger, but that's because he's The Doctor, and he fights world-ending threats. The world was in danger, and had he not come back, he would not have been able to stop it, however that is basically the premise of the show.

Exactly. Because RTD's "Turn Left" was totally not about how the world would end soon if the Doctor was gone... It's all Moffat, totally. He came up with everything bad that has ever happened to television and Who especially

[BRC]

Exactly. Because RTD's "Turn Left" was totally not about how the world would end soon if the Doctor was gone... It's all Moffat, totally. He came up with everything bad that has ever happened to television and Who especially

Plus, you can make that argument in all sorts of shows/books/movies
"If Batman was gone the Joker would destroy Gotham." "If Spiderman was gone the Green Goblin would burn down New York" "If Superman was gone Lex Luthor would...probably get over his obsession and use his genius/massive fortune to improve the world, which would then get destroyed by something". That is the nature of the "Save The World" story, if the Hero wasn't there, then the world Would Not Be Saved. It's so omnipresent as to be unnoticeable.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Exactly. Because RTD's "Turn Left" was totally not about how the world would end soon if the Doctor was gone... It's all Moffat, totally. He came up with everything bad that has ever happened to television and Who especially

Come to think of it, the Season 5 finale was directly contrary to this episode. (which is not necessarily a bad thing)

Spoiler

Show

It posited a reality where the Doctor was erased from existence, and it didn't seem to bring out the Apocalypse. I've heard rather convincing fanon that moves from the observed phenomenon that when the cracks erase something, the rest of the universe moves to compensate for the hole, "Nature abhors a vacuum" and whatnot. Which means that no matter what The Doctor had done, there were ways to compensate for his achievements.

[Androgeus]

I was about to do a bit of calculation to work out when the new series could start, by looking at how long it would take the repeats that BBC3 is currently running, when BBC decided to ruin all my fun and announce that the show will resume Easter weekend, 30th March.