tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post3922320164864969406..comments2024-03-17T11:05:22.464+00:00Comments on The Life And Opinions of Andrew Rilstone: [The Bells of St John (7.7)]Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-77631341629170282882013-04-03T13:14:55.438+01:002013-04-03T13:14:55.438+01:00I think the problem for Steven Moffat's Doctor...I think the problem for Steven Moffat's Doctor Who is that it's Steven Moffat vs the Internet.<br /><br />No tightly plotted multi-episode story, no matter how delicately foreshadowed, could outwit 50,000 obsessives working together to solve it. So he has no choice but to seed lots and lots of clues, some of which (most of which) aren't clues at all.<br /><br />This still leaves plenty of room for in-episode reversals, of which this most recent story had several, about as well done as you are likely to see.<br /><br />I disagree with Andrew about Matt Smith, who is charming enough but just a little obvious. (I prefer him at his most camp.) The best thing about the show right now is its 50-year <i>milieu</i>; rich enough that you can squeeze an interesting through-plot out of two half-remembered shamblers from the nineteen-sixties, with juice to spare.Salisburyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14693744385215450425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-85266463607446107532013-04-03T12:47:16.333+01:002013-04-03T12:47:16.333+01:00Who is the Snowmen/Web joke for?
"Not ordina...Who is the <b>Snowmen/Web</b> joke for?<br /><br /><i>"Not ordinary viewers. Not people in the their sixties who've actually seen Web of Fear. I think it's for the kind of fan who has never seen any black and white Doctor Who but has read about it in the their spotters guide to Doctor Who."</i><br /><br />It's a very good joke because the original Sixties stories were in quick succession too.<br /><br />Anybody who has merely only seen the Clara episodes can enjoy the "returning monster" element though - which has always been a big part of Doctor Who, and may yet be for the next few episodes. <br /><br />Also it's the 50th. If it was good enough for the 20th then it's good enough now.<br /><br />It can be a joke and it can be something else too.John Norhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08096540803723805612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-21600729046861898942013-04-03T00:46:34.680+01:002013-04-03T00:46:34.680+01:00" The plot is noise."
That's an int...<i>" The plot is noise."</i><br /><br />That's an interesting point, but I wonder if it applies more to the Davies era. Then following the plot seemed to be a bit like trying to work out the words to pop songs or the like, completely beside the point of the thing. There had to be Daleks or the Devil or parallel realities so the Doctor could be separated from Rose so the Doctor could miss Rose so he could do his tragic but noble face.<br /><br />The point about the show now is that we seem to constantly be told the plot <i>isn't</i> noise. "Ah, did you see that bit?" "Yes, and this over here." And occasionally, very occasionally, we get the odd bit of harmonic action amid the noise. <br /><br />To them have the plot fall back into noise, and be effectively told we were mistaken to be watching for it in the first place... well I would call it frustrating. But a more accurate description would be 'past caring.' I suspect I enjoyed your review more than I did the actual episode.Gavin Burrowshttp://lucidfrenzy.blogspot.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-61350711677597633142013-04-03T00:24:40.124+01:002013-04-03T00:24:40.124+01:00Being a heathen who has only watched the New Who, ...Being a heathen who has only watched the New Who, I didn't particularly mind Rose and the whole romance thing, though I understand that it was a break with prior tradition. For me it worked fine for what it was.<br /><br />However, when it happens over and over again... I'm beginning to find it more than a little odd and creepy that the Doctor appears ONLY* to be interested in traveling with young women, most of them quite attractive. Apparently only attractive young women are spunky and eccentric enough to make the companion grade nowadays?<br /><br />*I mean, obviously there was Rory and there was Mickey, but equally obviously Rory and Mickey were both essentially adjuncts to the female companion of their time. Even if I did rather like Rory.Knoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-45895527565313277962013-04-02T23:07:38.293+01:002013-04-02T23:07:38.293+01:00I have noticed recently that new Who episodes all ...I have noticed recently that new Who episodes all seem to be most enjoyable when watched about 2 or 3 years after they first came out. The anxiety (and sometimes disappointment) over whether the plot was any good is gone, but the little script details and characterisation are sufficiently blurred in memory to allow one to rediscover and enjoy them. I think that's probably related to what you're saying; maybe we expect way too much of plots because they are the Big Reveal of a new episode, but what we enjoy most and certainly what we want from episodes on rewatching is all the stuff going on around. So maybe I should get less uptight about spoilers!Louise Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15120364497851844081noreply@blogger.com