Spoilers Boom grade and discussion thread
- Thread starter The Nth Doctor
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He took away his ability to "RUN!"
Run is likely the answer. But Regenerate might be a candidate. Otherwise, fling yourself away from the mine and you'll be right as rain in a mo, except possibly ginger.
This does raise the question of why 13 didn't regenerate when she took the brunt of that sonic mine going off in The Tsuranga Conundrum. We didn't see the injuries then, but the medics made them sound severe (and she's in pain for the rest of the ep).
This does raise the question of why 13 didn't regenerate when she took the brunt of that sonic mine going off in The Tsuranga Conundrum. We didn't see the injuries then, but the medics made them sound severe (and she's in pain for the rest of the ep).
Watching the preview makes me think of the opening to Genesis of the Daleks where the Doctor steps on a land mine and Harry has to put rocks under it so it won't go off. I wonder if that will get a shout out. "Where's Harry when you need him?"
Good. Better than in a long time. Not good for those of a sensitive disposition with regards to certain trigger, such as myself. It’s bit… emotionally manipulative in that regard. Good SF too, of the kind DW used to do when it wasn’t on TV.
Needed another draft or some different execution though — the ‘bodies’ were too grim, and disrespectful. Splice was written like a six year old but closer to pre-teen, and also presented as emotionless — same goes for the Doctor. He did nothing in the end — Dad Ex Machina, which works but it needed something more. It needed, frankly, a happy ending; the complex space time event should have done something more to undo the losses in some manner, and be the one to take down Villengard. Not least as every death after Vater (Father) was a follow on from his actions. (Which certainly opens the door to time being rewritten.)
It needed more time in other words, the rushed nature feels like half a story (Though one that was very VNA/EDA with a hefty dose of Halo Jones and 2000AD.) and as I say — not the kind I think suitable for a lot of kids (who really don’t need to be scared of medical things, no matter how good the satire from an adult perspective) or some kids and adults even, especially post-pandemic. But that’s all objectively personal probably.
Some decent Doctorish stuff, will have to see if there’s anything worth tempting me back to watch other than Moffat on the credits. No other writer currently working on the show can touch him.
Even if the whole thing was in some ways a remake and inversion of The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances with a bit of a Moffat Greatest Hits thrown in — RTD remade Rose this season already.
Anyway, I have to go cleanse my mental palette, because even if it was quite good, it’s left me in a sad place mentally, where I don’t want to be. Glad I didn’t stick it on for family viewing.
Needed another draft or some different execution though — the ‘bodies’ were too grim, and disrespectful. Splice was written like a six year old but closer to pre-teen, and also presented as emotionless — same goes for the Doctor. He did nothing in the end — Dad Ex Machina, which works but it needed something more. It needed, frankly, a happy ending; the complex space time event should have done something more to undo the losses in some manner, and be the one to take down Villengard. Not least as every death after Vater (Father) was a follow on from his actions. (Which certainly opens the door to time being rewritten.)
It needed more time in other words, the rushed nature feels like half a story (Though one that was very VNA/EDA with a hefty dose of Halo Jones and 2000AD.) and as I say — not the kind I think suitable for a lot of kids (who really don’t need to be scared of medical things, no matter how good the satire from an adult perspective) or some kids and adults even, especially post-pandemic. But that’s all objectively personal probably.
Some decent Doctorish stuff, will have to see if there’s anything worth tempting me back to watch other than Moffat on the credits. No other writer currently working on the show can touch him.
Even if the whole thing was in some ways a remake and inversion of The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances with a bit of a Moffat Greatest Hits thrown in — RTD remade Rose this season already.
Anyway, I have to go cleanse my mental palette, because even if it was quite good, it’s left me in a sad place mentally, where I don’t want to be. Glad I didn’t stick it on for family viewing.
Damn, that was actually quite good. Gripping enough that I didn't mind nearly the whole episode takes place in the same location. The monologues seemed a bit reined in. And in a moment of genuine surprise from me, the dead characters stayed dead. This was a solid episode all around.
I will say it doesn't seem as though Moffat has a handle on writing for Gatwa, as much of the Doctor's dialogue in this episode seemed more suited to Smith or Capaldi. Granted, that could be due to early days and Moffat obviously didn't have any material of Gatwa as the Doctor to watch as reference while writing this. And it seems he just went back to what he often talked about as just writing the Doctor the same regardless which incarnation he's writing and leaving it up to the actors to deliver the lines in their unique manners. There probably should have been better coordination between him and RTD to make sure the Fifteenth Doctor was written more consistently with how he's been written in the previous three episodes, or four if you count The Giggle.
I will say it doesn't seem as though Moffat has a handle on writing for Gatwa, as much of the Doctor's dialogue in this episode seemed more suited to Smith or Capaldi. Granted, that could be due to early days and Moffat obviously didn't have any material of Gatwa as the Doctor to watch as reference while writing this. And it seems he just went back to what he often talked about as just writing the Doctor the same regardless which incarnation he's writing and leaving it up to the actors to deliver the lines in their unique manners. There probably should have been better coordination between him and RTD to make sure the Fifteenth Doctor was written more consistently with how he's been written in the previous three episodes, or four if you count The Giggle.
Eh, everyone knows children are typically cast with actors older than the characters are supposed to be. I suspect the motivating factor here is the older the child actor the longer you can have them on set, and Splice is in a decent percentage of this episode.
I wonder if she will come back, and the Doctor will fix the events of this episode properly when Mundy is the companion in series two. Between the Soufflé Girl Clara thing here, and the outright re-use of an inverted Emoty Child (the Villengard made the nanomedics in that episode as well.) it’s really going for George Lucas Rhymes and remixing their greatest hits.
Just wish it didn’t hit me so sadly.
Still.. it’s better than whatever the fuck RTD was serving after his reheated Rose.
Edit: oh and apparently RTD wanted this to be the season opener, so maybe the tonal shift wouldn’t have been so grating, nor the Doctor Dialogue. Having dodged ninety percent plus of the show since the end of the Giggle, I was pleased to see The Doctor being given some Doctor-ness.
Edit edit: And originally Devils Chord was going to be pre-finale, episode six of eight. Guess they wanted to get all the shite at the beginning and hope the next bit could redeem the series. Which it just might.
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Not sure if it means anything, but here's the poem the Doctor recited to calm himself down when the Skye Boat Song wasn't working. I had to guess at the line breaks, thanks for nothing, closed captioning. 
Probably not a verse of the Doctor's own devising, since it uses the fake version where it was the President's wife and not the President's daughter and the moon was stolen and not merely misplaced. A bit funny that they've memorized a poem about themself, but not entirely surprising (especially in light of Moffat's conception that the Doctor regards "the Doctor" as an aspirational, imaginary figure they try to live up to). Might be reading too much into it, but there was a theory that the night the Doctor stole/lost the moon and the President's wife/daughter is that that was when he left Gallifrey in spectacular fashion, and the young woman was Susan. Who was gratuitously mentioned last week, and I cannot discount the sheer joy of setting up a "Susan" twist featuring an actual person called "Susan Twist."
Still, the big question is who the dark, tall woman on a beach that's also a forest is. Or, maybe not a woman; the TARDIS is often called a "she," after all.
The nanomachines were Chula. Jack's squareness gun was from Villengard.
I went down to the beach
And there she stood
Dark and tall
At the edge of the wood
“The sky's too big
I’m scared,” I cried
She replied,
“Young man, don’t you know there’s more to life
Than the moon and the President’s wife?”
And there she stood
Dark and tall
At the edge of the wood
“The sky's too big
I’m scared,” I cried
She replied,
“Young man, don’t you know there’s more to life
Than the moon and the President’s wife?”
Probably not a verse of the Doctor's own devising, since it uses the fake version where it was the President's wife and not the President's daughter and the moon was stolen and not merely misplaced. A bit funny that they've memorized a poem about themself, but not entirely surprising (especially in light of Moffat's conception that the Doctor regards "the Doctor" as an aspirational, imaginary figure they try to live up to). Might be reading too much into it, but there was a theory that the night the Doctor stole/lost the moon and the President's wife/daughter is that that was when he left Gallifrey in spectacular fashion, and the young woman was Susan. Who was gratuitously mentioned last week, and I cannot discount the sheer joy of setting up a "Susan" twist featuring an actual person called "Susan Twist."
Still, the big question is who the dark, tall woman on a beach that's also a forest is. Or, maybe not a woman; the TARDIS is often called a "she," after all.
The nanomachines were Chula. Jack's squareness gun was from Villengard.
I enjoyed "Boom" quite a bit more than last week's episode. Tense and gripping the whole way through.
My only issues with it were the dialogue at times sounding like Moffat dusted off an unfilmed Matt Smith script, right down to the fish fingers and custard reference at the end. The daughter was also strangely written. She's so bizarrely deluded that I couldn't tell if she's shell-shocked, or simple-minded. Like, how was she not able to tell that her father was just a hologram, even when he suddenly had the photographs floating around him?
My only issues with it were the dialogue at times sounding like Moffat dusted off an unfilmed Matt Smith script, right down to the fish fingers and custard reference at the end. The daughter was also strangely written. She's so bizarrely deluded that I couldn't tell if she's shell-shocked, or simple-minded. Like, how was she not able to tell that her father was just a hologram, even when he suddenly had the photographs floating around him?
Not sure if it means anything, but here's the poem the Doctor recited to calm himself down when the Skye Boat Song wasn't working. I had to guess at the line breaks, thanks for nothing, closed captioning.
I went down to the beach
And there she stood
Dark and tall
At the edge of the wood
“The sky's too big
I’m scared,” I cried
She replied,
“Young man, don’t you know there’s more to life
Than the moon and the President’s wife?”
Probably not a verse of the Doctor's own devising, since it uses the fake version where it was the President's wife and not the President's daughter and the moon was stolen and not merely misplaced. A bit funny that they've memorized a poem about themself, but not entirely surprising (especially in light of Moffat's conception that the Doctor regards "the Doctor" as an aspirational, imaginary figure they try to live up to). Might be reading too much into it, but there was a theory that the night the Doctor stole/lost the moon and the President's wife/daughter is that that was when he left Gallifrey in spectacular fashion, and the young woman was Susan. Who was gratuitously mentioned last week, and I cannot discount the sheer joy of setting up a "Susan" twist featuring an actual person called "Susan Twist."
Still, the big question is who the dark, tall woman on a beach that's also a forest is. Or, maybe not a woman; the TARDIS is often called a "she," after all.
The nanomachines were Chula. Jack's squareness gun was from Villengard.
Yup. I realised it was the gun — replaced with banana — after posting xD
The Presidents wife would possibly be Patience from the novels (Who was actually Omegas wife, rather than Rassilons, but if they nick it they will change it — with whom The Doctor had an affair and I think ended up married to in one continuity.) Gallifreys Moon comes up rather a lot in the old days.
The alternate reading is that The Presidents Wife is River Song (The Doctor was basically Lord High President of Gallifrey, most often in exile, since his Fifth Incarnation onwards. Which also explains part of the reason he can tell Rassilon to Naff Off in the Clara finale.) and the Moon is the Doctor Moon above the library. I wouldn’t bet on the second, but can well imagine them repurposing the first and making a version of Patience into Susans Nan directly.
They imply it’s a bit Trek-like and that’s just how she deals with death because that’s how she was raised, but really she comes over as about six. She just bounces right over grief, which wasn’t great. (Trying to be objective about it, which is fiddly, I wish it wasn’t so emotionally manipulative in that regard. A child in a war zone needed better explanation, as frankly did the start of the war — if it had been something engineered by Villengard, that would have made better sense. Maybe we’re going to get a timey wimey thing that explains it better, and even gives the Doctor more direct involvement in the Dad Ex Machina ending.)
She told Mundy she'd seen a hologram when she got there, then asked where he was, so she apparently thought it was a live feed (sorry) and not an AI.
It's a reference to a bookend story from season 9.
From "The Magician's Apprentice"
CLARA: Since when do you care about the Doctor?
MISSY: Since always. Since the Cloister Wars. Since the night he stole the moon and the President's wife. Since he was a little girl. One of those was a lie. Can you guess which one?
MISSY: Since always. Since the Cloister Wars. Since the night he stole the moon and the President's wife. Since he was a little girl. One of those was a lie. Can you guess which one?
From "Hell Bent"
DOCTOR: A long time ago, there was a student at the Academy. He got in [the Cloisters], disappeared for four days. Showed up in a completely different part of the city. Said the Sliders talked to him, they showed him the secret passage out. And we just need the code.
CLARA: What, and the kid told you the secret?
DOCTOR: Ah, no, he didn't tell anyone anything. He went completely mad. Never right in the head again, so they say.
CLARA: Okay, that's encouraging.
DOCTOR: The last I heard, he stole the moon and the President's wife.
CLARA: Was she er... was she nice, the President's wife?
DOCTOR: Ah, well, that was a lie put about by the Shabogans. It was the President's daughter. And I didn't steal the moon, I lost it....
CLARA: I'd know you anywhere.
DOCTOR: I was a completely different person in those days. Eccentric, a bit mad, rude to people.
CLARA: What, and the kid told you the secret?
DOCTOR: Ah, no, he didn't tell anyone anything. He went completely mad. Never right in the head again, so they say.
CLARA: Okay, that's encouraging.
DOCTOR: The last I heard, he stole the moon and the President's wife.
CLARA: Was she er... was she nice, the President's wife?
DOCTOR: Ah, well, that was a lie put about by the Shabogans. It was the President's daughter. And I didn't steal the moon, I lost it....
CLARA: I'd know you anywhere.
DOCTOR: I was a completely different person in those days. Eccentric, a bit mad, rude to people.
Yeah, I can see the vague threads of how Moffat wanted it to read, but from the final cut and the performance, the daughter just comes across like she doesn't understand death at all, like it's an unfamiliar concept.
What bumps me is that the hologram doesn't act like a normal human at all for most of the time it's sharing a scene with the daughter, and she doesn't pick up on it.
Which I took as a reference to the EDA stuff with Patience at the time then as well xD (I also wondered if the Moon may have been a sly reference to The Edifice in… I think it was Ancestor Cell. Inside out corrupted Tardis, hanging above the Nine Gallifreys, as Imperatrix Romana was waging her Time War.
The show has been riffing on the books for years, and we *know* RTD has a set, and Moffat too most likely. Chibnall had the cliff notes for Lungbarrow, or read it on the BBC website at best.
Edit: just realised that Missy’s lie could be the handy get out of jail free card on making the TC stuff a matrix fabrication by the Master. Blimey Moffat is handy. Like he knew it was coming.
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