Spoilers Twice Upon a Time grading and discussion thread

Yeah, the Doctor hates bad military tactics like "shoot first, ask questions later". The Doctor knows that the guns blazing approach of just shooting whatever you don't understand, is really dumb.

 

Exactly. But Danny was the one there straight after his traumatic regeneration, all the trenzalore stuff, all the Day of the Doctor stuff. Eleven even phoned up Future Clara to warn her he was gonna be a mess. The Doctor is blasting Danny because of things to do with himself, nothing to do with Danny, Danny is just the symbol. Young. Soldier who deals with his past and never had to make the choices the Doctor has. Stealing away Clara in many ways. The Doctor is being a dick because of his experiences. There’s even a hint of anger around the Brig dying (don’t forget the other phone call eleven made.) in there. He doesn’t want to be friends with another soldier. They die. I think it works when you look at this side of things for the Doctor. Danny is just a symbol he’s venting on, his problem was absolutely never with Danny, it was with what he represented...which was, essentially, the Doctor himself as he was, not as he wished he could be.

Oh..and he does demean soldiers just for being...but it was usually officers. Just like Danny. See Fenric and Remembrance.

 

Yeah, count me in among those who didn't get the whole anti-military attitude of season 8. In addition to the Doctor's aforementioned close friendship with the Brigadier and being on generally civil terms with the other UNIT guys from the Pertwee era, quite a few of the companions have been military or at least warriors and the Doctor had previously been okay spending time with common soldiers, like Private Ross in The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, and back in The Sea Devils the Doctor claimed to consider Horatio Nelson a close personal friend. So to suddenly hate soldiers in season 8 was just odd indeed, and seemed to have been done for no real reason than to create tension between the Doctor and Danny Pink.

 

^ At times it seemed like a pseudo love triangle with the conflict between the Doctor and Danny plus Clara having to sneak around with the Doctor, and the resulting confrontation about that! Not really my cup of tea!

 

I'm very pleased to see that there is a consensus on the elements that lent series 8 a less consistent rate of good storytelling. I just hate that aspect of it, really.

 

I had completely missed that Ian Levine weighed in on the episode earlier this week:

 

"No unwanted opinions please."



He realizes he's on Twitter, right? And he's been giving us unwanted opinions about Jodie Whittaker since day one?

 

Isn't any dissenting opinion basically "unwanted" by Levine?

 

Its sad, because once you filter out the hatred and bipolar disorder he clearly is possessing of, he's actually a clever fan. I applaud him for his Shada recon, still. But his unremittingly sexist views on the Thirteenth Doctor's casting are nauseating, and frankly annoying.

 

I found it a bit depressing reading some of the retweets on his Twitter feed.

 

Ah, yes. Basically anything complaining about social justice, political correctness, or just plain criticising Whitaker or Chibnall is getting a Like from Levine.

 

Reason #653049 why you should never read the comments. Ever.

 

I love that the title of the latest episode of Radio Free Skaro is "No Unwanted Opinions."

While I think that the best thing for Levine's health, both mental and physical, would be if he simply stopped watching, even thinking about, Doctor Who, and I suspect that he'll be Twitter's #1 Doctor Who hate watcher come October/November, there's a slim possibility --slim! very slim! -- that he'll love the Chibnalll/Whitaker run and he'll be saying things like, "I always knew it would be brilliant! I had faith when the rest of you didn't! Anyone who hates this isn't a true Doctor Who fan like I am!"

 

Poor Levine - he'll always be second fiddle to Laurence Miles as "pretentious twat whose whinging about Doctor Who I might view if I'm off my face on scotch and fancy a laugh".

Mind you, the list doesn't go that much further, so I suppose he's in "good" company.

 

Miles, at least in recent years, seems to be in a much happier place. I'm not even sure that he watches Doctor Who any more. Probably for the best, and undoubtedly healthier for him.

 

That's the problem with Twitter. Everything is the comments

 

Yuuup. Which is why the whole thing should be burned down to the ground.

 

My response to Levine's "No unwanted comments" was the trendy fake Gandhi quote, "Be the change you want to see in the world." Too subtle, perhaps.

 

[Source]

I'm surprised. Was it shot in 4K, or is it likely to be an upscale?

 

I'd bet real money on "upscale". And while going from 480i to 1080P has advantages if compression is minimal (and if cleanup/deinterlacing/etc are done extremely well) and the classic DW re-releases won me over much to my surprise, I'm not sure the same can be said of going from 1080P to 4K unless the 4K algorithm is so much better as to make up for doubling the resolution so willy nilly.