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Class series one discussion thread (spoilers)

It could've been series 1.

Idris could have had something to do with the Watcher, we know she exists across all time and space.

It was probably her that got all the incarnations together for TDOTD.
 
Have only read the summaries and saw some of the clips, but is anybody else reminded of Turlough, the alien exile who was disguised as a student-and of course was a travelling companion for the Fifth Doctor-in the 80's?
 
Well seen the second episode now. Christ how bad are those effects? The dragon was terrible, quite jarring. Some of the acting is a trifle ropey but I think my main complaint is; who is this aimed at? The tone is all over the place. At times it feels like SJA (that's a compliment) whilst at others it feels like early Torchwood (that's most assuredly not a compliment) and at others it feels like Doctor Who sans the Doctor (which is fair enough).

The kids are an engaging bunch, even Prince Valiant, but they do all feel like they've just stepped out of drahma school. I'm not suggesting I wanted something more 'street', and if Who's taught us anything it's that being down with the kidz can be quite wince inducing (rather than, for example, Ace, or Wicked ;)) but they do all feel a bit clean cut at the moment, even if Ram (gasp! Shock!) smokes. It almost feels like they need a Courtney Woods to shake them up a bit. A big deal was made of Ness understanding teenagers, but so far I haven't seen anything that most of us couldn't have come up with in terms of how modern teenagers act; i.e. just like the rest of us when we were teens but now with added Facetime! Of course it may be that things like drugs, sexting, body image issues, depression, exam stress, social media etc. might come along with time. I do like that they're all dealing with loss in some way: Alice's mum's disability, Ram's has grief over his dead girlfriend compounded by a newfound disability (genuinely did like how his dad just accepted his robot leg) Tanya's father died and obviously Charlie has lost everyone.

The trailer for episode 3 actually looks good, it has that Quatermass, alien/icky feel to it that seems promising. I'm intrigued as well by the robot inspector and references to the Governors (though isn't Ian one of the Governors of Coal Hill?) and frankly I'd keep watching for Miss Quill alone but at the moment this feels more like Torchwood than the Sarah Jane Adventures and I hope they haven't made the mistake of thinking some violence and gore automatically makes something grown up and edgy.

By the way does anyone know any genuine teens who've watched this as it'd be interesting to know what they think given this show is, in fairness, aimed at them.
 
Ram acted like a 14 year old with his nasty comments about his classmates being geeks... teenagers dont talk like that in sixth form.
 
He isn't 14?

The actor isn't, maybe, but there's not a lot of difference between 14 and 16 anyways.

Hes meant to be in Sixth Form. So, that means hes likely somewhere between 16 and 18 years old.
When I moved from school to college (college is basically the same thing as Sixth Form in the UK - neither should be confused with university) I noticed a change in the atmosphere... people no longer bullied others like they did in school. Everyone acted a little more adult and the social circles which seperated us in school largely disspeared.
Maybe its just me being weird but others have said the same thing.
 
Ram acted like a 14 year old with his nasty comments about his classmates being geeks... teenagers dont talk like that in sixth form.
A lot of depictions of teenagers in high school show them all behaving like Junior High/Middle School/whatever you call it where you're from. I actually remember that was a problem I had when I was 17 seeing Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man movie. Even as a loner teenage outcast at my own high school, I could tell that actual teenagers in high school don't act like the way they did in that movie. This is why I typically stay away from high school movies/shows, they either have the teens acting to immature for their age or too mature. Real high school aged teenagers just don't give a fuck about anything, this either comes out as irreverent apathy or depressed apathy, with a small minority who believe they're already grown up. But I guess that doesn't make compelling television.

In all honesty, I really couldn't think of a way to make my high school years compelling for anyone to watch. Most of the being picked on, friendship betrayals and general drama went on in junior high, with high school just stewing in misery and wanting to be anywhere else. Now workplace drama, I can easily supply a TV show about, and all I'd need to change are the names.
 
I think my main complaint is; who is this aimed at?

That would be the Young Adult fiction audience who've made Patrick Ness a very, very popular writer. Popular enough that he was asked to write a Doctor Who short story a couple years ago, popular enough that one of his novels has been filmed and another's in the works. Think Hunger Games, Mortal Instruments, the later Harry Potter books, Twilight, and all those other dark angsty teenage SF/fantasy/horror book series aimed at people in their late teens that actually get read by people of a much wider age range. I read one of Ness's novels; I liked it, despite having started high school in 1978, and I'll likely read more. It isn't for the SJA audience and was never intended to be.
 
Hes meant to be in Sixth Form. So, that means hes likely somewhere between 16 and 18 years old.
When I moved from school to college (college is basically the same thing as Sixth Form in the UK - neither should be confused with university) I noticed a change in the atmosphere... people no longer bullied others like they did in school. Everyone acted a little more adult and the social circles which seperated us in school largely disspeared.
Maybe its just me being weird but others have said the same thing.

Wow. Wish I'd had that experience. Admittedly, I'm Stateside, but the people in my high school (roughly 14-18) got worse the older they got. My senior year (age 17-18) was a nightmare of cliques, bullying and general hate.
 
The problem with demanding "real" teenage characters is that reality is sometimes less than realistic.
 
The problem with demanding "real" teenage characters is that reality is sometimes less than realistic.

I do have quite a high tolerance for unrealistic teen/kid characters and bad acting but Rams immature bullying attitude towards his classmates just really rubbed me up the wrong way. It just felt condecending to the college/sixth form audience.
Anyway, I'm sure it really isnt that big of a deal and they're not carrying on in that vain, it seems, so whatevz.
 
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