Press play to watch this week’s podKast, live, as we discuss Doctor Who Series 8 opener Deep Breath and Peter Capaldi’s first appearance as the Doctor!
Recorded on Sunday, 24th August it features Christian Cawley, Brian A. Terranova and James McLean and comments from some of the Doctor Who fans who watched us on Hangouts or on YouTube.
The usual audio podKast will be along in due course, essentially a trimmed down audio version of the live webcast.
To everyone who viewed and messaged us, a big thank you!
Two things to say, the most important first. Am sorry James but Brian’s bedroom looking like a set?!; am afraid it looked far nicer than yours!!. All nice and neat and some of his props all nicely displayed and his chest of draws looked a lot classier than yours!. Come on you’ve got to up your game on these live ones; lol and secondly and a lot less important than tidiness of bedrooms and prop collections!. On the subject of Missy and who she is and the connection with the big returning villain Moffat has said will be coming back this season. Can’t get it out of my head, don’t know where it has come from and certainly haven’t read or heard any spoilers anywhere but i can’t help feeling it’s the Black Guardian!!!. Whether she is the Black Guardian; after all in the key to time season it was stated the two Guardians can appear as anything or anyone?!. or indeed this new character of D Pink is the Black and Missy is the White. Turn the season on it’s head the perceived villain behind the scenes is in fact the one helping the Doctor and the semi-companion is the Black Guardian. Like i said no spoilers; haven’t read anything and the other speculation of the Rani or the Master might be more obvious but when has Moffat ever done the obvious or straight-forward!
Yes, but he’s is just a wall! Anyone can spot a wall with stuff and Doctor Who stuff, I have to use the Butler’s annex (as to webcam into the study is pay-per-view, and Christian refuses to pay). What you see is what the Butler gets!
Black Guardian is an interesting idea. I always felt the Trickster touched on that villain node. Has to be said, I don’t think Moffat has ever surprised me yet. Impossible Girl storyline was a little disappointing, Big Bang didn’t resolve until Time of the Doctor, River Song wasn’t something that amazed people in its reveal. I don’t personally think lying to the Press and media to hide reveals/surprises – as he proudly did last year with some of the weaker Press (those who are primarily Who fans) shockingly gushing over the tactic – was to be admired either. I’m not hoping for surprises or tricks, just good stories – and let’s face it, he can do some stunning ones.
In fact, I think this slower pace might really suit him. If one considers some of the best of his work (imo) – Empty Child, Girl in the Fireplace, and of course, the wonderful Blink, all had a slower pace and I think he thrives better on that.
The character moments were wonderful here, I hope we see more of this to.
What I think this nu Who audience, everyone really should realize and appreciate, is that one shouldn’t confuse padding with building on characterization. I for one LIKE that it wasn’t a manic race like most of nuWho’s story. I think it’ll be a bit of a learning curve this season. As for the Victorian Three— they were in there to help with the changeover, much like Sarah when Baker came in and Rose with Tennant.
That being said, I think it’s time for them to fade away for a while.
Interesting point as always!
I think there is a difference building on character and padding. Building on character should still work within the episode form; the show should feel it’s moving, building – whatever the pace, and that there’s a connectivity between the set-pieces. If a story meanders when the story should be moving, there’s an issue imo. I felt the scene where Strax was checking Clara over was meander. It didn’t serve the story, it didn’t really serve the characters, and it didn’t really give the audience anything the scene in the bedroom between the pair hadn’t already offered in terms of levity.
That said, on its own, it wasn’t a bad scene, if a little indulgent, but I do feel when the over-all story felt quite uneven, unable to find its footing till well into the second act, I think it is fair to suggest that the first act in comparison to the rest of the story, felt padded out somewhat. That’s not to say the scenes were pad, nor even unenjoyable, just didn’t serve the greater whole very well.
I think if they’d lost the dinosaur, and moved in a little more of the clockworks in the early act, they could have kept the character scenes and had the story moving without any imbalance.
I think Spearhead is a good example of a slower but well balanced story. As much as the Doctor takes primary focus, the Auton story is never misplaced nor forgotten, and as such as a whole the story floats better, imo. I think Day of the Doctor is a good example of Moffat doing good balanced even if it was more gung-ho pace. Empty Child perhaps, for me, is the best example of Moffat doing slower with a very good balance to all the elements.
I’m thinking Missy might be a Time Lady who was given the task of cleaning up the messes that the Doctor leaves behind.
Also, do you think Moffat has a fixation on this whole “clingy woman” thing?
I think James; when you’re talking about Dinosaur scenes and pacing and keeping the character bits and losing the others, we really of a certain age have to take a step back and admit actually what we’re talking about is primarily a kids show here and although we of a certain age are still very much watching it, it’s not aimed at us and never has been or neither should it be!. My ten yr old lad loves Doctor Who and i love watching it with him and on sat night when the first scene came on and the dinosaur roared at the camera he turned to me and said one word?! COOL!. Now i know you’re probably rolling you’re eyes at the very thought i know; lol but that’s the point of the dinosaur. It’s that obvious that 3 middle-aged men talking it over and dissecting it inch by inch are never going to get in a million yrs!.My ten yr old lad was won over immediately, he was already willing and ready to accept not only a new Doctor but a very different Doctor because within a couple of minutes he’d produced a big dinosaur and then was very funny when talking to it and flirting with it!!!. Even before the new credits rolled he was laughing, enjoying it and thinking it was cool!. No in depth character piece in the Tardis with a strange elderly man, is going to make him think that. Then Moffat produced a masterstroke; my lad loves Dinosaurs, like most lads of his age do but of all the things he’s seen on them over the last few yrs, none has made him ever feel sorry for one or get a bit upset about one dying; until sat!. The new Doctor reading the dinosaurs thoughts in his sleep, had him at first amazed and then just a little bit sad; setting him up for the punchline when the thing bursts into flames and breaks his heart.So in the first 10 mins of so-called padding, my lad has immediately taken to this strange older Doctor cus he’s produced a Dinosaur, then this new Doctor has made him fall about laughing, flirting with it, lol and then to finish his 3 card trick Moffat has pulled on my lads heart strings and he’s sat there amazed as this new Doctor has made him feel like he’s never felt about a dinosaur before. In short he’s won over already so by the time we get to the talky bits as he calls them and all us grizzled middle-aged men call character development; lol, he’s not bored and he actually wants to listen to what this Doctor has to say cus Moffat and Capaldi have already won him over. Not bad for 10 mins of padding that should of been cut eh!. As for the Strax and Clara scene, yeah that was padding but for a reason; it was the competition winners thing of Blue Peter; design something for Strax to use etc; went on for a little bit too long but like you said they where both lovely in it and am glad they didn’t cut it down.Interestingly my lad said when it was over am glad the Doctor threw him out onto big ben not cus he was the villian of the week so to speak but and i quote cus he killed the Dinosaur!
Perhaps the ‘major foe’ could end up in Paradise. If so, we may see a new kind of Alliance that The Doctor has to fight in the finale. If the half faced man is alive, it leaves the door open for other characters from previous episodes to return and characters from later episodes in the series to come back. Once again, the dead aren’t going to die.
Angels are often associated with Heaven, so the Weeping Angels are a possibility – not that I’d place them under ‘major.’
Also, I felt that the ‘woman in the shop’ wanting Clara and The Doctor to stay together did not make sense. Surely by sending them to the half faced man, she wanted them dead which is only understandable (because of her obsession) if after his death, he ends up in Paradise where she can trap him.
Overall an excellent episode.
Just a note to Brian, Mof DID address where the droid absorbed the ‘promised land’ quest…
The question of where this quest comes from is directly stated by 12 to have been “absorbed” from all these bits of humanity he keeps putting inside him. (as is his concept of beauty, addressed when looking over London.)
The droid is sort of a reverse cyberman. Where with the cybermen we are meant to question whether they’ve replaced so much of themselves, are they really human?
With this droid, we are meant to question, he’s replaced so much of himself, is he still a droid? Is he part human? Will his own humanity, save the rest of London/the world, from his crimes?
I found this relation of concepts fascinating. (The pure droid’s original directive for self-preservation evolves, with human influence, into a belief in an afterlife. When faced with the concept of his own mortality, his human parts wear out quicker than his machine parts ever did, and there being less and less of those machine parts, his survival directive has to evolve to include “the promised land” because he cannot accept the inevitability his own end.)
So… all that to say… it is addressed.
And quite beautifully I might add.