I don't know what to tell you. I don't care if villains turn into allies if it's done in an entertaining way. I think the Sontarans are ridiculous enemies anyway; they look like potatoes. As individual characters, I find Vastra, Jenny, and Strax fun to watch. That's all I require.
Silurians never really were villains, so there's nothing wrong with the Doctor befriending one. As for Strax, so what? One Sontaran is friend with the Doctor. People are allowed to be individuals, even in a race of cloned alien soldiers. I'm sure the rest of the Sontarans will gladly try to defeat the Doctor and chant "Sontar-Ha!" when next they meet. Actually, a storyline I want to see is Strax having a reunion with the Sontarans, but ends up betraying them in defense of Vastra and Jenny. Cliched as fuck, but it would certainly be awesome.
If it weren't for the necessity of the "Cyber" prefix, I would have called them "silverfish". They look and move almost exactly like real-life silverfish (I imagine that was their inspiration) and it has the "silver" adjective that is associated with the Cybermen in episode titles.
I think it's quite probable that the secret of Clara's nature will have something to do with why he is so attracted to her, beyond just the mystery. Nice to hear an ansible reference...
Are you hinting that that they might be lesbians? You seem to mention it in every post when it's not actually relevant to the discussion at hand. As for for the idea that the Sontarans being only bad guys - bit of an odd claim considering that they are the good guys in their second appearance!
Being a Neil Gaiman script, I expected it to be great, but it was merely good. I can only conclude that it wasn't up to the standard I've come to expect from Mr. Gaiman due to executive meddling, or some such.
I saw a comment on another forum - that as originally written this script had Amy and Rory in it? Anyone know anything about that?
Well that might be true, I know Gaiman says it's taken him ages to write (see it's not just Moffatt) and went through 4 or 5 drafts. I'd imagine it was unlikely given they seemed to know Karen and Arthur were leaving for some time, but you never know...
On GB, there's a guy who says he helped Gaiman with his Doctor Who lore for both scripts, and the first draft had the Victorian Clara and her Victorian children in it, so it would seem to have come along later than that.
This really looks like a TOS set! Lighting, angled walls, spacey future doorway, eccentric collection of relics..
I saw that and assuming the guy is reliable it seems they would've been Victorian and more integrated through the season. The change to the current modern version was known far enough ahead not to force his hand though. There was supposed to be more explanation for the kids' presence seeded in the episode but was cut for time, some tacked on to Crimson Horror as seen. Also, the Cyberman weren't to be stompy but that was added post-production as it was felt that it played as unfinished (like they forgot to add sound) rather than conveying the intent they were quiet.
You've nailed it. I couldn't put my finger on what it was about that set that was veeery familiar but that is it.
My rankings: 1. Asylum of the Daleks 2. Bells of St. John 3. The Crimson Horror 4. Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS 5. Hide 6. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship 7. Nightmare in Silver 8. Angels Take Manhattan 9. Rings of Akhaten 10. The Power of Three 11. The Snowmen 12. A Town Called Mercy 13. Cold War
I understand where you're coming from. There's also some people who've been watching Doctor Who since their childhood, so they feel a sense of ownership. Personally I didn't grew up on it and only watched a few classic episodes before 2005. I really started to get into Doctor who in 2005 with the new series. While Moffat wrote good episodes under RTD, I much prefer the RTD era. I felt the RTD episodes were less directed at a children audience than Moffat is. Moffat was a good writer under RTD but he seems to make a point to make his episodes directed to a young audience instead of a general audience (the child in us) like RTD was. He even said so himself. On the other hand, this episode was more enjoyable than the last few episodes. The 2 Doctor fighting each other in his head was pretty interesting. The Cybermen made me think of the Borg with their assimilation and the way they adapt. Resistance is futile! It's strange that they don't use their fast moving ability more often. While I strongly miss the RTD era, I still enjoy watching Doctor Who. It's not great but very much watchable.
Ah, all of series 7. For the whole of S7, my ordering is as follows: 1)The Angels Take Manhattan 2)Cold War 3)Asylum of the Daleks 4)The Bells of Saint John 5)Nightmare in Silver 6)The Power of Three 7)The Snowmen 8)Dinosaurs on a Spaceship 9)Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS 10)The Crimson Horror 11)Hide 12)A Town Called Mercy 13)The Rings of Akhaten So yeah, I'd say we have a similar idea about S7.