It’s future alcohol too, it’s been perfected down to a science.
Spoilers Rosa grade and discussion thread
- Thread starter The Nth Doctor
- Start date
All the fun of being drunk without the consequences of a hangover or the threat of alcohol poisoning?
We can only hope.
Even drunker, they call it hyperdrunk. We lack the words to understand it, but imagine every single cell being drunk. The only human capable of understanding it from recent history is Hunter S. Thompson, who once reached 8% hyperdrunk. That’s being buzzed in the future.
Another potentially good episode falls flat, but thankfully there's another writer for a change helping to elevate the script. The main bad guy's motivations aren't really well explained, leaving the audience with less of a reason to thoroughly despise him. Thankfully we have the rest of the citizens of the town to hate.
It's nice to see the Doctor not spew Tennant's dialogue as often. Whittaker cannot handle the comedy and it's a cop-out for the show to be doing a 'female version of David Tennant' when it should be doing something a little more innovative.
Little touches like why the Doctor is putting everyone inside a hotel room adds to the sense of danger. The characterizations in this episode are pretty much the one thing that kept me hooked because a lot of everything else has me sighing in exasperation.
The racism and overall plot are very well handled.
Though it's also a cop-out since it is a surefire way to rake in ratings and the Doctor being the one to manipulate events for Rosa seems questionable, if not disingenuous. Keeping them sidelined and not interfering might have been a better idea to play out.
The incidental music is still fantastic.
The same teal/orange palette still goes against the far more colorful publicity material.
And as much as I will criticize the era, I am getting a vibe of how the writers want to tie in loosely with Classic WHO and NuWHO without getting too far. The "vortex manipulator" not being overemphasized, for example. On the other hand, the baddie's weapon couldn't recharge? Every other magic gizmo on the show acts as if there's no restrictions... but while he fired it several times the first round, when he sees the Doctor again he zaps a time suitcase to 79AD and she gloats how the weapon can overheat. What, was he doing target practice on a flock of budgies half a minute prior to finding the Doctor??
And why the captions? We didn't need one telling us where in Mexico "The Aztecs" took place. Or "Cathay,.. 1289". Or "The Ark" when it jumped 100 years and didn't need to caption and they had the technology to put up captions back then... the audience would still get a sense of not just passage of time between events but being in the past to begin with.
I miss the days when the Doctor had separate tool props with readouts instead of looking at "the sonic" to find out life signs, bacteria in water, teleporting things... is "the sonic" telepathic too? This is beyond idiotic now.
The 50s-esque "dum dum Doctor who dummm" music as intro to the TARDIS arriving was dumb, but not entirely surprising.
The best episode of the season so far is still let down by a number of Chibnallisms, including "the sonic", "magic pen", and other b.s. unbecoming of a show its audience claims is "pro-science".
The pseudohistorical aspect of another time traveler WAS intriguing but they do so little with it. It's underwhelming. What was told about him and his story wasn't that bad to be honest. The neural restrictor is a clever idea. Just be glad it didn't go faulty. And why is he so certain that civil rights is somehow the cause of a ginormous galactic problem?! This almost has a feel of an inverse of the Doctor's moral speech in "Genesis of the Daleks". There is an epic idea afoot as a former prison convict, but something about it all feels extremely underwhelming. An epic idea that just has no weight to it (but at least it now makes sense why the Doctor wants to get involved, without this scene it's too easy for any number of people to misconstrue a different belief. )
Or is there something deeper going on with the Stenza and desire to hunt humans as sport and a unified humanity is the threat? That's too obvious, isn't it.
And the Doctor pushing Rosa toward making history? Why couldn't the writers get Rosa to seek out more people, like this Doctor, instead? The official record is that Rosa was an active member of a civil rights group. Thankfully Yaz didn't have to stand up on the bus. And thankfully Ryan decided to stalk!
Did Rosa really meet MLK before? (They did meet in August 1955 and may have talked since, there you go.)
It's a shame Chibnall and Pip and Jane Baker never teamed up ever. They have the hard sci-fi edge that would meld to his drama instead of this 4th rate Harry Potter garbage with "the sonic" being waved around as if to shoo flies after getting a thousand readouts on all biological, technical, ecological, and seismic activity in the location. It's a really forced stance Whittaker puts out and people didn't need 3 episodes to see how cringe inducing it is. I also gave up counting the number of times it was used, it's no longer a crutch - it's a motorized wheelchair.
Would this show have survived 2 episodes had it not been "Doctor Who" but been an attempt at a more original show? Probably not.
It's the best episode of the season, but it's still fairly underwhelming.
They used what amounts to caricatures of ancient history, as much as archaeologists and others of the time knew about to the best of their ability. And within a margin of error. It IS bold to use a modern time period, but that leaves less room for historical errors or contrivances. And this episode flirted with the latter. I maintain the Doctor and companions should have been sidelined.
By 35 minutes in I had had enough, though the Elvis getting a cell phone gag at the start almost had me tuning it off. By 43 minutes in we have the big confrontation with the underwhelming baddie. Ryan's shooting (which he didn't get to to last week) was nicely done, just don't worry about it running out of juice or overheating.
Especially as the episode wasn't anything approaching a documentary, and I'm still amazed at the choice of creative liberty taken - the Doctor was contriving the situation all along! And, for lack of better word, the story ends up trivializing Rosa's contributions. I'm amazed Rosa stood up without the Doctor prodding her shoulder!
The Doctor meeting Anne Frank? How many times in Earth's history will the Doctor NOT make an obtrusive presence? She even gave a cell phone to Elvis, I almost tuned the lamentable idiocy off right there and then.
And Rosa wasn't the first person to be arrested or resisting arrest as well. Claudette Colvin deserves an equal place. The Doctor's companions and Doctor seemed to be unaware of what more Earth people seem to know. Why is that?
And cliche pop song at the end, too.
5/10 at best
It's nice to see the Doctor not spew Tennant's dialogue as often. Whittaker cannot handle the comedy and it's a cop-out for the show to be doing a 'female version of David Tennant' when it should be doing something a little more innovative.
Little touches like why the Doctor is putting everyone inside a hotel room adds to the sense of danger. The characterizations in this episode are pretty much the one thing that kept me hooked because a lot of everything else has me sighing in exasperation.
The racism and overall plot are very well handled.
Though it's also a cop-out since it is a surefire way to rake in ratings and the Doctor being the one to manipulate events for Rosa seems questionable, if not disingenuous. Keeping them sidelined and not interfering might have been a better idea to play out.
The incidental music is still fantastic.
The same teal/orange palette still goes against the far more colorful publicity material.
And as much as I will criticize the era, I am getting a vibe of how the writers want to tie in loosely with Classic WHO and NuWHO without getting too far. The "vortex manipulator" not being overemphasized, for example. On the other hand, the baddie's weapon couldn't recharge? Every other magic gizmo on the show acts as if there's no restrictions... but while he fired it several times the first round, when he sees the Doctor again he zaps a time suitcase to 79AD and she gloats how the weapon can overheat. What, was he doing target practice on a flock of budgies half a minute prior to finding the Doctor??
And why the captions? We didn't need one telling us where in Mexico "The Aztecs" took place. Or "Cathay,.. 1289". Or "The Ark" when it jumped 100 years and didn't need to caption and they had the technology to put up captions back then... the audience would still get a sense of not just passage of time between events but being in the past to begin with.
I miss the days when the Doctor had separate tool props with readouts instead of looking at "the sonic" to find out life signs, bacteria in water, teleporting things... is "the sonic" telepathic too? This is beyond idiotic now.
The 50s-esque "dum dum Doctor who dummm" music as intro to the TARDIS arriving was dumb, but not entirely surprising.
The best episode of the season so far is still let down by a number of Chibnallisms, including "the sonic", "magic pen", and other b.s. unbecoming of a show its audience claims is "pro-science".
The pseudohistorical aspect of another time traveler WAS intriguing but they do so little with it. It's underwhelming. What was told about him and his story wasn't that bad to be honest. The neural restrictor is a clever idea. Just be glad it didn't go faulty. And why is he so certain that civil rights is somehow the cause of a ginormous galactic problem?! This almost has a feel of an inverse of the Doctor's moral speech in "Genesis of the Daleks". There is an epic idea afoot as a former prison convict, but something about it all feels extremely underwhelming. An epic idea that just has no weight to it (but at least it now makes sense why the Doctor wants to get involved, without this scene it's too easy for any number of people to misconstrue a different belief. )
Or is there something deeper going on with the Stenza and desire to hunt humans as sport and a unified humanity is the threat? That's too obvious, isn't it.
And the Doctor pushing Rosa toward making history? Why couldn't the writers get Rosa to seek out more people, like this Doctor, instead? The official record is that Rosa was an active member of a civil rights group. Thankfully Yaz didn't have to stand up on the bus. And thankfully Ryan decided to stalk!
Did Rosa really meet MLK before? (They did meet in August 1955 and may have talked since, there you go.)
It's a shame Chibnall and Pip and Jane Baker never teamed up ever. They have the hard sci-fi edge that would meld to his drama instead of this 4th rate Harry Potter garbage with "the sonic" being waved around as if to shoo flies after getting a thousand readouts on all biological, technical, ecological, and seismic activity in the location. It's a really forced stance Whittaker puts out and people didn't need 3 episodes to see how cringe inducing it is. I also gave up counting the number of times it was used, it's no longer a crutch - it's a motorized wheelchair.
Would this show have survived 2 episodes had it not been "Doctor Who" but been an attempt at a more original show? Probably not.
It's the best episode of the season, but it's still fairly underwhelming.
They used what amounts to caricatures of ancient history, as much as archaeologists and others of the time knew about to the best of their ability. And within a margin of error. It IS bold to use a modern time period, but that leaves less room for historical errors or contrivances. And this episode flirted with the latter. I maintain the Doctor and companions should have been sidelined.
By 35 minutes in I had had enough, though the Elvis getting a cell phone gag at the start almost had me tuning it off. By 43 minutes in we have the big confrontation with the underwhelming baddie. Ryan's shooting (which he didn't get to to last week) was nicely done, just don't worry about it running out of juice or overheating.
Especially as the episode wasn't anything approaching a documentary, and I'm still amazed at the choice of creative liberty taken - the Doctor was contriving the situation all along! And, for lack of better word, the story ends up trivializing Rosa's contributions. I'm amazed Rosa stood up without the Doctor prodding her shoulder!
The Doctor meeting Anne Frank? How many times in Earth's history will the Doctor NOT make an obtrusive presence? She even gave a cell phone to Elvis, I almost tuned the lamentable idiocy off right there and then.
And Rosa wasn't the first person to be arrested or resisting arrest as well. Claudette Colvin deserves an equal place. The Doctor's companions and Doctor seemed to be unaware of what more Earth people seem to know. Why is that?
And cliche pop song at the end, too.
5/10 at best
It'd be interesting since then the episode would have a little more weight to an arc and plot of some depth. I doubt the gun has a failsafe so if someone who isn't the owner reprograms it it reprograms itself to transport whoever is hit with it back to-- yeah, that's not going to be a revelation. Based on level of plot contrivance, he might still be rescued. Homing device or some other piece of kit the Doctor would not have recognized. Again, too easy. What's my big complaint about this year so far? Yes, it's "cliche after convenience after cliche".
Well, he did want to shoot things and she didn't let him last week. Didn't people get tired of the arguments about her being a hypocrite on guns last week?
When there's no story, apparently a plethora of callbacks and fanwanky references make even the most impotent fan reach ecstasy?
If it weren't for Verity Lambert, which style would Chibnall have used? He's taken more than one cue from the early 60s. Much to my shock, some people from age 5 to 90 have said "it's too slow" - only because they never sat through any Classic WHO. The episode did have a couple problems, but story pacing was not one of them!
Makes you wonder how he really got all that gear - the vortex manipulator, timey wimey zap gun, etc.
What's the importance of Stormcage? Is there any? Nothing else about the guy had any depth or importance, just this wishy washy fluff about little changes in history for some woolly unsubstantiated belief.
I too wish a Capaldi/Chibnall season would have taken place. The more the current season dredges on so overwhelmingly, it's for the best he left.
Everyone seems
No, just taking an idea and using it elsewhere. I'm pretty sure something like a "limiter" existed before B7 in sci-fi or somewhere. Its use and example of it was the highlight of the episode. Still an underused and poorly set up villain.
Uh, no. The reference was so oblique that only Blake's 7 fans would notice it (and this one missed it!) and it certainly didn't detract from the episode at all.
What the was the reference because you can add another B7 to list of those who missed it.
not sure I would have taken the limiter as a B7 reference thought such devices had featured in other SciFi stories as a means of controlling violent offenders.
Why do people think he needed more motivation? He explained his motivation quite clearly. He's just another loser who blames his failures on the fact that people who don't look like him have a place in society, and assumes he'd be more successful if they weren't free to compete with him. The thing about racists is that their motivations are very simplistic and their worldviews aren't that interesting.
I massively disagree. I loved her tweaking of Graham about being Banksy.
I think she ran the screwdriver for a bit before it overheated, so I think she triggered it to do that.
Isn't it obvious? How else would we have known there was a 12-year time jump between the opening scene and what followed? After all, the TARDIS hadn't arrived yet, so we couldn't have gotten that information in dialogue.
"Now?" The Doctor's been using the screwdriver as a tricorder ever since the new series began, and it's never had any kind of readout. It's implicitly been telepathic all along -- either that or it was conveying information through the sound pattern it gave off. At least the new one actually does have a opening on the side with lights inside, and the way Whittaker looks at it makes me think there actually is supposed to be a visual readout in the side now.
Umm... you're blaming Chris Chibnall for things that have been typical of Doctor Who since before Chris Chibnall was born.
Are you kidding? That's racism 101 -- buying into the belief that your problems are the fault of people who are different from you. Of course it doesn't make sense, but it's hardly a new or unprecedented idea that racists think that way.
It may not even have been a reference, just a parallel story device. I saw someone elsewhere assume it was a reference to Spike's control chip in Buffy. The idea of an implant that prevents people from committing violence didn't originate with Blake's 7, and it has no unique claim to it. It might've been a wink in its direction, but it could've just been an independent use of a shared trope.
This. Did we need to see him get screwed over for a job or something? Do we need a "This is how I became a racist" scene?
Maybe if he actually were an evil criminal mastermind, then yeah, preventing Rosa Parks her historical bus ride is a bit of a random idea for an evil plan. But he's not a criminal mastermind, he's just a douche intent on making life miserable for someone. If anything it seems odd to me that him being from an era where humanity is a united race that is mingling with aliens in every definition that word can have and he has problems with someone his own species with a darker skin tone. But then, the sad reality is there's always going to be a jerk who hates people or groups of people for no reason at all. Sad truth is while we will continue to make great strides towards acceptance, unity, IDIC, we'll never completely eliminate hate, racism, prejudice and bigotry.
What?
Even today, in a time where most of the species has access to the greatest source of information, knowledge and commutation in history and we can get to it from a device we keep in our pocket and use just about anywhere. Yet we have people who spread hate and lies, deny basic facts about science and history, and rally around symbols of hate. This is an evil that infects mankind and we must constantly be on guard against.
‘Rod Serling’ said:
This will probably always be with us, even well into the future.
Yeah. He's the future equivalent of an Internet troll -- a petty, hateful man who got hold of a powerful piece of technology that let him weaponize his hate. The vortex manipulator is basically Reddit in this analogy. (Or is it 4chan?)
And like the internet keyboard warriors, he cannot actually act on his impulses. He’s limited to nudging at the edges, much like the Russian alt right trolls who spew garbage on twitter on the off chance a few thousand voters in key states will stay home. He’s really the perfect metaphor for the sad and pathetic who long for a time that never was where they’d finally get what they’re ‘owed’
Well, that’s just like your opinion, man.
I loved the simplicity of his plan. Since he couldn’t kill her, nudge history the right way and it changes.
I thought the same thing! That the show was sorta trolling the “fans” who were screaming to high heaven about a female Doctor.