IC Forum Archive

aderack · Posts: 5018

Legal Step wrote:

If they show clips and stuff then I'm going to have to wait. Still that should make acquiring all the Torchwood after the Doctor finishes...easier.

When does Sarah Jane start?

Missed this. Sorry!

The Sarah Jane series starts in the UK with a New Years special, then goes to full series sometime next year.

Torchwood doesn't show any direct clips of Doctor Who, and I doubt it will! However, here have been flashbacks to stuff that went on unseen during events shown later in series two. One of the main characters, it is revealed, was present at some of the events, and we see the effect those events had on his life. Likewise, there are lots of little throwaway (and not-so-throwaway) references to the parent series -- usually stated or shown a little obliquely, so you don't necessarily have to know what they're references to. They're a little annoying in the first couple of episodes, as it feels like they're just being shoved in to be "cute".

Dark Age Iron Savior · Posts: 3148

Not sure if this is the best place to file this post, but - has anyone played any of the non-flash Dr. Who games? I'm kind of surprised by how few of them there are.

An "episodic content" point-and-click adventure seems like it might be a good idea......at least to someone like me, who knows absolutely nothing about the series or it's legacy.

I guess maybe their intended audience isn't quite that technology-enabled? I wouldn't know.

aderack · Posts: 5018

I've not. There's Dalek Attack!, across several platforms (and available on Underdogs). There's Destiny of the Doctors, which is supposed to be a slightly not-terrible game on the Quake engine. It's mostly notable for having a bunch of FMV recorded by Anthony Ainly, the guy who played The Master during the 1980s. He's dead now; that was his final performance in the role.

I think there might be one or two other minor things.

aderack · Posts: 5018

This was a sweet episode, and the least problematic script to date -- if not quite as bombastic as last week's. I like the subtle touch of character continuity with Ianto. They didn't need to even say anything; it was all in the looks and the pauses and the body language.

What's encouraging me is how, as with last week's episode, this story was used to flesh out one of the main characters; tell us some things we didn't know about Jack, that brought us to where he is now. And as usual, the answers just open up new questions we wouldn't have thought to ask before. When returning from the Game Station, did he just aim roughly for the twentieth century and arrive in 1900? Has he been lingering this whole time? Or was that a flashback to an episode in his space con career? Since we're not expected to know any of Jack's background not already revealed, I'm guessing a lot of time has passed for him. This would explain tons.

No really solid explanation for why the fairies chose to torment people who weren't threatening their chosen one -- Jack's old Flame and Gwen. That doesn't matter, though. Their motives should probably remain enigmatic. I don't get the impression they're altogether rational or systematic in their actions.

The series is settling into a decent groove. Next week's also seems to have more potential than the two-line synopsis suggested.

Iammadmak · Posts: 210

Possible spoilers: I enjoyed how nothing worked out for pretty much anyone is this episode. I just wonder what significance the pursuit of Gwen has on her character. Is this all just because of her pursuit of the fairies or does it mean something more. Next weeks episode looks pretty decent. I'm glad that the show seems to be improving instead of just all being filler. Maybe those bad first few episodes were to get Doctor Who fans to settle in before RTD et all gave them the finger.

aderack · Posts: 5018

Oh hey. It continues!

He says episode ten is sitting around waiting to be seeded, so that should also be up any time now.

aderack · Posts: 5018

Some guy on OG wrote:

Cosgrove Hall were at the Bradford Animation Festival today, and were showing there work from their past 30 years, including a snippet of the Invasion and a picture of the Richard E Grant Doctor. There was a Q&A session at the end, and I asked the first question - "Any more Doctor Who on the horizon and is there and is there any particular episodes you would like to see animated".

Well, before I give you the answer, I'm sure you'll be able to guess what he said. After a few seconds of a "oh bugger what do I say here" look face, he said:

"Obviously we can't discuss projects like that at the moment, but I think we'd all like to see a Dalek one animated". He also mentioned that the animation of the Invasion was completed and "in the can" 15 months ago, but it took the BBC a long time for the release to be "slotted in" into the release schedule.

Clearly he didn't confirm anything, but surely if they hadn't been contacted by the BBC, he would've been able to say so. Later on in the Q&A, he listed all the projects they have in the making just now, and advised there was 9 in total, some of which he can't tell us about.

So I think it's quite safe to say that we haven't seen the last animated reconstruction.

The implications here are clear enough, of course -- though it led to people assuming CH were just now thinking about starting a new project, and speculating how many years it would take to finish. So I responded thus:

Keep in mind also his statement about the animation being done a year and a half ago, and that all this time it had just been sitting there, waiting for its release to get sorted out. Basically in total secret for most of that time.

It was a weird thing to say in response to the question put forward:

Q: "Are any more releases coming?"
A: "Well... uh. We can't really talk about it. If you think about it, though, we've had over a year to work on any other projects of this nature we might or might not have going."

At least on the surface, the implication seems to be that they're already working on (or have even finished) another Who project, and at this point are mostly waiting for it to be scheduled and announced.

If that's the case, I would expect this project to be one of the other "mostly complete" stories like Ice Warriors. If you then factor in the earlier report suggesting that they were at least looking into animating Power, and the above suggestion that they're interested in doing a Dalek story, that says to me that they're making preparations for, or at least investigating the possibility of, Power as their third project. If nothing else, saying this would seem to throw the heat off the other work that they've got in the shop (or in the can). It would also allow them to answer honestly, if cautiously, while avoiding the real implication of the question.

aderack · Posts: 5018

The next classic release after "New Beginnings" (the release formerly titled "Return of the Master", containing the final two Tom Baker stories and the first Davison one) now is pretty much confirmed as "The Time Meddler" (1964). This is probably one of the most important stories in the original series, in that it's the first appearance of another member of the Doctor's race (aside from Susan). The term "Time Lord" wasn't used until The War Games, though the Monk does have his own TARDIS (again, the first time it's revealed that the neither the Doctor's TARDIS nor the name "TARDIS" are unique).

Beyond that, it's the first "false historical" in the sense that the trouble lies not in getting inextricably tangled in historical events; rather, in stopping historical events from getting altered by an outside force. This also changes the rules of time travel as portrayed in the series; originally time was supposed to be absolutely fixed, such that any attempt you made to change it will already have happened in the history you know. Starting with this serial, time is in constant flux.

Beyond that, it's the first episode with a completely new TARDIS crew. Susan left toward the start of the season, and as this story begins Ian and Barbara were just delivered home. The Doctor is rather put back that they chose to leave him at the first opportunity. It isn't until they discover Steven on board that he begins to cheer up again.

A lot of things change forever in this story. Also, though the story is a little slow, it's one of the most entertaining Hartnells I've seen. The energy between Vicki and Steven is really neat.

I understand the original is in really terrible shape. (Certainly the version I saw was, though it's hard to tell as everything from the '60s looks dreadful until it's restored.) It should prove interesting to see what they've done with it.

aderack · Posts: 5018

Legal Step · Posts: 1030

I just read my TV guide and the second part of last weeks episode won't be on this week. I may have to resort to the interwebs...

winkerwanker · Posts: 2414

What episode is it?

stotelheim · Posts: 414

I just saw episode 6 of Torchwood. Damn. That was disturbing. Though the focus of said episode is something that's always rather bothered me. It was very british though, in a way that I may have liked. Next episode seems a bit, I don't really know what it seems, but I don't think I approve.

winkerwanker · Posts: 2414

So it was good? The series may have hit it's stride then I suppose. Still needs more characters though.

stotelheim · Posts: 414

It wasn't what I was looking for, and it wasn't really what I think the show should be going for. But it was very disturbing, and things happened. Watch it and see what you think. I still haven't decided how I feel about it, aside from the fact that I found it very disturbing.

Legal Step · Posts: 1030

winkerwanker wrote:

What episode is it?

Winker I'm trying to find it.

Okay it was The Impossible Planet.

S4t4N!!

aderack · Posts: 5018

Yeah, next episode over here is The Satan Pit. Sci-Fi's skipping this week due to Thanksiving; it'll air next week.

Torchwood -- yeah. I liked most of the first half, or two-thirds, or three-quarters or whatever, of the episode. It seemed really well-conceived and well-built, and I liked the character stuff. And then, the nature of the situation became clear.

Yeah, this isn't what Torchwood is for. This could have been a great episode of Millennium. Still, the tone is right, and there's some nice continuity to the character stories.

I don't know about the actual story next week, though I'm interested to see Tosh given a little more space. I still don't know what to think of her, six episodes in! She's the Asian doctor from Aliens of London! And... yeah?

This week's episode did suggest that she's just the secretive type.

aderack · Posts: 5018

For incredible awesomeness, download this. It's a recent live performance of a bunch of music from series one and two, and it's really well-done.

Beware, though: it was encoded by one of those people who can't name his tracks or fill out his tags correctly. You have to go through the attached text file and append track numbers if you want it to play in the intended order. Slight nuisance.

aderack · Posts: 5018

On further thought:

The tone here was perfect, and as with Cyberwoman I really like the character work (and continuity) Chibnall's bringing to the series. It's only in these last three episodes that I'm beginning to feel I know or give a slight damn about any of these people I'm watching (Jack included).

For about two-thirds or three-quarters of the way, the story also seemed really promising -- and then it became clear where it was going. Then it went there. This... really doesn't strike me as an appropriate direction for Torchwood to go in. As I said it would have made a great episode of Millennium, or a shocking episode of some crime drama, or even a good episode of The X-Files (if toned down a bit). The lack of any "alien" (roughly defined) impact at all, though, comes off not so much as a horrible surprise as kind of a let-down and a misuse of the format.

There are a couple of problems here. One, the show isn't established enough to start getting clever with the formula. Had Torchwood already gone on for two succesful series where it was hammered home that every problem you'll see in this show had a supernatural (such as it is) explanation, and were this halfway through the third season -- then okay. That's maybe a good time to throw a monkey wrench in and say "ah-ha! bet you thought it would be a real monster!"

As it is, this just strikes me as another example of the series getting ahead of itself without first bothering to set up the essential foundation. We hear Gwen ask Jack about whether the Rift has spread this far, and he doesn't know -- and yet have we yet had EVEN ONE episode dealing with the Rift? Or with it spreading? Even though it's supposed to be one of the central facets of the show? No, we go right into refuting it. What the hell?

This is frustrating, as the show has a lot of good stuff to work with yet it can't seem to focus and do what it needs to establish itself. So you've got a bunch of wacky people working in a secret organization to hunt down things that come out of a time-space rift. Great! And... six episodes in we've barely explored any of the characters (except Ianto -- who's the most interesting one of the bunch, yet is usually kept to the background) and we've not heard peep about the rift. What on Earth is going on? Who's in charge of planning here?

George · Posts: 1656

Buffy killed off 2 of it's main characters by nonsupernatural means, and I think everyone agrees that they're the best deaths on the show. But that was in the 5th and 6th seasons. You're right about establishing trends before you start bucking them if you want it to provide a genuine shock to the audience and the characters.

aderack · Posts: 5018

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPMlMj4CL64

First clip of Tennant and Freema... Agyurfasdaman... in-costume, on-set.

Ashura · Posts: 735

She's a hottie.

I dislike his blue suit though.

A side note: Aderack, did you get that ninja turtles email I sent you?

aderack · Posts: 5018

Yes! I'm... just slow at doing things! I haven't checked it out yet. I guess I'll take a look now?