I thought it referenced beast below which means solar flares destroyed the earth. The UK escaped on a whale.
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Doctor Who Series 10 |OT| He's Back, and It's About Time
- Thread starter tomtom94
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I thought it referenced beast below which means solar flares destroyed the earth. The UK escaped on a whale.
Grizzlyjin
Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
Episode was okay. I was digging it up until they found the original ship. Got a bit tiresome around that halfway mark and I didn't find the resolution satisfying at all. Bill and The Doctor had some fun interactions though.
aHebrewMenagerie
Member
Pleasantly surprised by the episode, I wouldn't say it's great by any means, but considering I hated In the Forest of the Night, this one was I'd say a solid episode. Nothing special in terms of plot, but fun just to watch the Doctor and Bill playing off each other, some great character work.
Also, Nardole wasn't in this very much, but I think he's starting to grow on me, him and the Doctor are very fun to watch with each other.
Also, Nardole wasn't in this very much, but I think he's starting to grow on me, him and the Doctor are very fun to watch with each other.
I thought we got a solid episode of Who. Not the worst but not the best either.
Yeah we actually saw the Earth get destroyed in the second episode with the 9th Doctor and Rose.
Yeah we actually saw the Earth get destroyed in the second episode with the 9th Doctor and Rose.
GodParticle
Member
Ok episode. Certainly better than that terrible last one. It kind of lost steam about halfway through, like most new who
ClivePwned
Member
yeah, a solid ep. Forest was an abomination with that ending. This one at least stuck the landing.
That's a different event. Sometime in the 30th century the Earth is rendered uninhabitable by solar flares so the population evacuates until it's safe again.
The relevant stories are: The Ark in Space, The Beast Below and now probably Smile
paradox121
Member
I think the AV Club review nails it by describing it as a great character piece with a very simplistic Doctor Who story tagged onto the end of it.
I love Bill and the Doctor together. Bill's sense of discovery and curiosity is fantastic (I always wondered about the point of the seats too), but I also love that it brings out a barely-contained glee in the Doctor.
Like, any time 12 gets to introduce a new element, Capaldi has this big grin on his face and its adorable. The student-teacher dynamic is a really clever element, particularly for this Doctor.
In some ways I wish this had been a later episode in the series that could have focused on some of the elements more. I really like the idea of your emotions showing but only to others, and grief being viewed as a dangerous plague that needs to be wiped out. It ends up feeling very underdeveloped here which is why its great to have some stellar character work instead.
I love Bill and the Doctor together. Bill's sense of discovery and curiosity is fantastic (I always wondered about the point of the seats too), but I also love that it brings out a barely-contained glee in the Doctor.
Like, any time 12 gets to introduce a new element, Capaldi has this big grin on his face and its adorable. The student-teacher dynamic is a really clever element, particularly for this Doctor.
In some ways I wish this had been a later episode in the series that could have focused on some of the elements more. I really like the idea of your emotions showing but only to others, and grief being viewed as a dangerous plague that needs to be wiped out. It ends up feeling very underdeveloped here which is why its great to have some stellar character work instead.
The Elite
BOSS
That seemed more of a reference. They didn't actually do anything to build upon the details surrounding the event. If anything this episode was more vague about it.
FutureLarking
Member
Forgive me if this has already been mentioned, but do we know if Peter Jackson actually ended up doing anything for Who this run?
I was actually very pleasantly surprised. In a way this was the most old-school Doctor Who ep in ages. The Doctor and his companion just arriving on a planet (especially an idyllic settlement where something seems off) and spending a superlong time just exploring, talking, and discovering how this world works and what's off about it is extremely 60s Who. The ending was RTD levels of lame (another magic button to fix everything), but the lead up was real nice for me. Great location work as well, this was one of the best alien planets they had ever done. First episode did well in that regard as well. Maybe they finally figured out how to combine real world locations with small CG to create something new.
Loving this slow pace in these Capaldi episodes. Modern Who before that was always too hectic for me. Now they're allowed to take their time more - happy that hasn't changed in his final season.
He's probably not going to do it at all. That one video they did was more of a joke. Jackson always talks about doing certain projects that take him years and years to get to, if he does them at all. I'm sure a low budget BBC series that would actually take him quite a bit of time and which has a very tight schedule isn't on the top of his list.
Moffat also outright said it's not happening in his DWM letter column, but people often take that as 'Moffat is playing coy'. But I'm pretty sure it's just not happening.
Loving this slow pace in these Capaldi episodes. Modern Who before that was always too hectic for me. Now they're allowed to take their time more - happy that hasn't changed in his final season.
He's probably not going to do it at all. That one video they did was more of a joke. Jackson always talks about doing certain projects that take him years and years to get to, if he does them at all. I'm sure a low budget BBC series that would actually take him quite a bit of time and which has a very tight schedule isn't on the top of his list.
Moffat also outright said it's not happening in his DWM letter column, but people often take that as 'Moffat is playing coy'. But I'm pretty sure it's just not happening.
Well his only remaining opportunity is to do the Christmas special and I can't help but feel that if he were going to do that the BBC would have announced it by now.
My girlfriend, who admittedly is not a Doctor Who fan, thought this episode was terrible. I thought it was average, other than the resolution at the end which boiled down to "these robots murdered all your friends and family, but now they've forgotten, so don't be annoyed and also you have to pay them to live in the city you designed them to build for you, and be nice to them so they don't murder you all again".
The Doctor basically turning the last humans into an oppressed race forced to pay a bunch of murderers for shelter.
The Doctor basically turning the last humans into an oppressed race forced to pay a bunch of murderers for shelter.
ClivePwned
Member
yeah, but if you compare the ending of this to the last episode written by the same writer in season 8, you'll see why we're relatively positive on this episode. No
anti-science do-nothing ending or missing people materialising out of nowhere.
peanutbutterlatte
Member
This is a bland ass series to say it's Moffat's last.
Exterminieren
Banned
I thought it was three-quarters of an excellent episode with a pat, rushed ending bolted on.
Still, great location, lovely designs, and Capaldi and Mackie are just a dream when they're onscreen together. Just imagine how awful the episode would have been if it was Clara instead of Bill!
Still, great location, lovely designs, and Capaldi and Mackie are just a dream when they're onscreen together. Just imagine how awful the episode would have been if it was Clara instead of Bill!
EvilRedEye
Member
Judging by the Amazon prices, the big boxset is more expensive than the individual sets. You could probably shave off a bit more with price comparison sites too. Big set is quite arbitrary too, it cuts off in the middle of the Smith era.
There's a possibility that's a theme for this season, particularly in the context of the end of the previous one.
Anyhow, I got the impression that it was removing their 'must be loyal to the mission' programming - which in turn removed their understanding of humanity. Releasing them from slavery, because the very nature of their slavery was what was causing them to kill people.
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
Decent episode last night. Nothing spectacular, but there were some nice ideas mixed in, and it felt like a solid piece of Doctor Who.
Nah. Beast Below was a massive continuity fuck up. The solar flare events happened nowhere close to the 30th century; more likely somewhere between the 50th and 60th century (the Ark technology itself was from the 30th century, but it's specifically made clear that it's thousands of years old).
Nah. Beast Below was a massive continuity fuck up. The solar flare events happened nowhere close to the 30th century; more likely somewhere between the 50th and 60th century (the Ark technology itself was from the 30th century, but it's specifically made clear that it's thousands of years old).
To be fair, the reason and moment in time when humans left earth has always been all over the place across both the classic and new series. It's best not to try and discover a definitive future path for mankind within Doctor Who, since that pretty much always gets reset whenever they do another future story. It was that way in the classic series as well, decades before Beast Below.
I think the closest relevant story to Smile is The Ark (the First Doctor story, not The Ark in Space). Not only do we have a certain rumor about
the 1st Doctor returning
And the episode ends with an actual elephant. What's the other Doctor Who story that famously featured a live action elephant?
That's right, the Ark, which also was about a future human settlement where the at first seemingly docile cohost slave race revolts and takes over from the humans (the Monoids in this case). They actually explicitly mentioned the elephant link on this episode's fact file on the official website:
There are a lot of parralels between those two stories, and between the Hartnell era and this series (so far) as well. Another example is the season starting off with a strange man with a strange box in an educational institution taking an interest into an unusual student (vibes of An Unearthly Child - note the Susan link - there. And the original Pilot!). And, of course, we're getting the original Hartnell era Cybermen later on. Hartnell is all over this shit.
I definitely think all those winks aren't coincidental. I'm happy they're really using the fact that we've got an older Doctor here to pay a bit of an homage to that era, since it seems unlikely we'll get another older Doctor any time soon.
Exterminieren
Banned
I hope the comparisons with The Ark weren't planned, because that serial is fucking terrible.
plagiarize
Banned
Right. People miss the nuance. Reseting the Vardi freed them and saved all the people. The Doctor didn't swear off ever wiping anyone's memory for any reason ever again last week.
Like, I'm sure he'd still do it in a Doctor Donna situation.
Oh yeah there are some very nasty racist undertones there as well. But it's been referenced before - the Doctor plays with some Monoid puppets in Matt Smith's regeneration story.
And hey Talons of Weng-Chian still gets referenced all the time (even on Sherlock) and praised as one of the best stories, so I guess they are fine ignoring some of the casual racist undertones in some of those old stories.
In the Ark's defense, it did have one of the best cliffhangers of the entire classic series. That statue reveal was pretty amazing for that era. And given that they call out The Ark on the website, I'm guessing it was intentional.
I don't mind them referencing crappy stories though. Destiny of the Daleks is trash but it's fun to see them use the Movellans for something like this - it works as a nice bit of worldbuilding while being a funny reference at the same time. Hell, one of the earliest more obscure Classic Who references was the one to the Sensorites in that Tennant Ood episode. All of the main writers have had an outspoken enthusiasm to do small, obscure references to the dodgier parts of the past where possible. It's a bit of an injoke at this point.
phisheep
NeoGAF's Chief Barrister
Stands to reason. If you are on the testing team and the robot murders you, then filling in a bug report will be the last thing on your mind.
An overall well done, solid episode with some highlights and an ending that feels like it was a result of the story being written into a corner. But that's kind of Doctor Who for the most part. At least we had some good performances and an overall solid story with a ton of tense moments that I loved. Also loved the art direction, felt really probable considering the emoji thing could have been totally stupid.
Sometimes Doctor Who stories can get up their own ass, but this one, mostly, stayed consistent and solid and didn't try to do too much.
Sometimes Doctor Who stories can get up their own ass, but this one, mostly, stayed consistent and solid and didn't try to do too much.
Yeah but I would've thought that someone would've gotten the hang of it over the course of the entirety of time, especially when the bugs come down to obvious stuff like being able to tell the difference between species.
I don't know why but I really didn't like the civilians in this episode. I feel like it had something to do with attempting to shoot nanomachines that make up the entirety of the building that you're standing in.
SpacePirate Ridley
Member
I really liked the epsiode, found it very solid, and was awesome to see my city featured in an episode of Doctor Who.
Ive travelled most of the corridors that the doctor and bill go through this episode, so that was fun seeing the changes they did to them (like adding blinking lights, that was a nice touch).
They've left most of it unaltered, so people outside may thing is super futuristic to them, but everything there was rpetty normal for me lol
Most of the altering shots where from when you see the whole city from the rice fields (for example adding two Palaces of Arts).
This is how it looks in real life, if anyone is interested:
https://earth.google.com/web/@39.45431702,-0.35037575,42.27493837a,667.21350641d,35y,-5.71720987h,67.42134888t,0r
Ive travelled most of the corridors that the doctor and bill go through this episode, so that was fun seeing the changes they did to them (like adding blinking lights, that was a nice touch).
They've left most of it unaltered, so people outside may thing is super futuristic to them, but everything there was rpetty normal for me lol
Most of the altering shots where from when you see the whole city from the rice fields (for example adding two Palaces of Arts).
This is how it looks in real life, if anyone is interested:
This is if you want to visit it though the new google earth (only works in chrome)
https://earth.google.com/web/@39.45431702,-0.35037575,42.27493837a,667.21350641d,35y,-5.71720987h,67.42134888t,0r
R_thanatos
Member
I liked this episode.
Kinda stiff at the start and the ending was rough , but overall it was enjoyable.
Kinda stiff at the start and the ending was rough , but overall it was enjoyable.
Oh, come now, that easily extends far beyond Doctor Who into huge swathes of science fiction.
Bonus points, of course, if the murder glitches result in murders that are in some way inherently ironic.
Yabberwocky
Member
The newest episode made me realize you could just have Capaldi's Doctor and Bill stuck in a plain room for an entire episode, but I'd still really enjoy it due to how well they play off each other. I wasn't expecting to love Bill so much, her energy is great, and Mackie's line delivery is really natural with some great timing. The Twelfth Doctor was already one of my favorite incarnations of the good Doc, but I think Bill is now easily one of my favorite companions. It feels very bittersweet we'll only have a season of them together, as I'm really enjoying their dynamic. I found the Nardole/Doctor banter surprisingly amusing this episode, too.
Funniest line of the episode, Capaldi's delivery was amazing: "I met an emperor made of algae once. He fancied me."
Funniest line of the episode, Capaldi's delivery was amazing: "I met an emperor made of algae once. He fancied me."
Sums up how I felt about it perfectly.
I like Bill a lot. Looking forward to her "companion-heavy" episode
Exterminieren
Banned
As part of my occasional stroll through modern Doctor Who... by Christ, if The Doctor's Daughter isn't the biggest pile of old guff the new series has put out I don't know what is. Every regular puts in their worst performances in their roles, Moffett's appallingly bad, the dialogue is atrocious, the direction is rubbish, the plot makes absolutely no sense, the Hath are the worst aliens the new series has put on screen, Donna's made a mathematical genius for absolutely no good reason, the laser corridor sequence is a failure from start to finish, A FISH DROWNS, series 4's terrible straw-pacifism reaches its most annoying point, the "MAN WHO NEVER WOULD!" speech is probably the single nadir of the new series... it's horrendous, from top to bottom.
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
The first two episodes have had rather standard formula plots-- the scary thing that you can't get away from, and the place when if you don't avoid some specific behavior, you die.
But that's great, frankly, because they were well done and the characters are great.
But that's great, frankly, because they were well done and the characters are great.
God I miss Donna and David so much chemistry between them. https://youtu.be/uD__LyLpymY?t=93
Exterminieren
Banned
The Pilot's consolidated ratings are in- 6.68 million, which makes it the 10th most watched programme of the week.
Kinda puts the show within the context of Britain's changing televisual landscape- Partners in Crime was also the tenth most watched programme of the week when it debuted, despite getting two and a half million extra viewers.
Kinda puts the show within the context of Britain's changing televisual landscape- Partners in Crime was also the tenth most watched programme of the week when it debuted, despite getting two and a half million extra viewers.
I watched the two episodes in a row and I found Bill fantastic. She's just here to learn and the Doctor is just here to show her the universe. I find this simplicity very welcome after years of overaching arcs and other Moffatisms. It feels like she is a new Donna.
Doctor Who is back and it wasn't too soon!
Doctor Who is back and it wasn't too soon!
aHebrewMenagerie
Member
Also worth saying that the overnights for Smile were half a million higher than The Witches Familiar, despite the move away from live television
Yeah, that's actually rather better than I was fearing. I was imagining something consolidating to the mid-to-late 5s.
Exterminieren
Banned
The Pilot was also third for the week on the BBC, behind Line of Duty and Peter Kay's Car Share. It's the first time the show has been in the top 10 of the weekly chart since Listen, discounting Christmas specials.
That's pretty mad for a drama that's been on for over a decade, let's be honest. It's not as big as it was, but that's true for everything that isn't Britain's Got Talent or big, short-term, Broadchurch-style dramas.
That's pretty mad for a drama that's been on for over a decade, let's be honest. It's not as big as it was, but that's true for everything that isn't Britain's Got Talent or big, short-term, Broadchurch-style dramas.
Even that would be a pretty solid, sustainable hit nowadays- remember, the BBC's target for a successful Doctor Who relaunch 12 years ago was 6 million on consolidated figures, and given the TV climate that we have today you'd be able to chop a million or two off that before you're in any real trouble.
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