My one complaint about this episode is that it was too short. I didn't realize this until I started to binge watch Interview with the Vampire Part II on Hoopla. That show also has 8 episodes, but each episode runs about an hour long. This episode could have been longer to fill in some more details about the barbershop. If we're only going to get 8 episodes, can we get longer episodes? It's not like it's on network TV and needs spots for ads.
Spoilers The Story & the Engine grade and discussion thread
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I agree. It was nice to see the Doctor extend his range but I simply did not care for the story
I will say that Ncuti was on fire in this one. They next time an episode does the 'clips of all the previous Doctors' trope, they'll be using a clip from this story.
It is network television in Britain and while BBC 1 doesn't do commercial breaks, they still get a say in how long each episode is.
Yet another winner, for me. 5 for 5, now.
Yes, like others I'm biased because storytelling is a passion, and I do love a good simple, focused setting, and I really don't mind telling when it's done so, so well. Besides, aural storytelling tradition was a huge part of the concept and theme, so it only made sense. The screen effect was gorgeous, and I am sad we didn't see more of it. Gotta comment on the direction, again; the transitions into the Fugitive Doctor flashback then out again in particular were superb.
I'm invested, now, which is dangerous, because the Interstellar Song Contest gives me pause, and as much as hope is building that all this will pay off, there's still, doubt, too. Not too long to find out, though.
Yes, like others I'm biased because storytelling is a passion, and I do love a good simple, focused setting, and I really don't mind telling when it's done so, so well. Besides, aural storytelling tradition was a huge part of the concept and theme, so it only made sense. The screen effect was gorgeous, and I am sad we didn't see more of it. Gotta comment on the direction, again; the transitions into the Fugitive Doctor flashback then out again in particular were superb.
I'm invested, now, which is dangerous, because the Interstellar Song Contest gives me pause, and as much as hope is building that all this will pay off, there's still, doubt, too. Not too long to find out, though.
In general, when the science starts to look too much like magic, it loses me. Call me a rigid fuddy-duddy but I like my sci-fi to remain more sciency and leave the magic to the fantasy genre. Mind you, I don't MIND a sci-fi / fantasy franchise that makes it clear that it's about both, but Doctor Who has never been that until recently.
An engine powered on stories? Nope. I'm out.
An engine powered on stories? Nope. I'm out.
Like the others said, it has to fit in its time slot. However, I do agree with you that it is a problem. They all feel so rushed. And the season is short as it is. And yet they still had a Doctor lite episode. In general, just not enough screen time for the season and for the episodes.
The Barbers dialogue framed it all as technology, not magic, and if you look, all the stories told are real life anecdotes rather than fiction.
Basically it’s a bigger on the inside ship, whose internal dimensions are independent of its external entrance/exig, riding a web of time, to the home of the gods who threw The Barber out, the man who kept them alive and made an engine for them…
Basically, you’ve heard about this magic before.
Remember Battlefield (and Arthur C Clarke) — any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
It’s rare I am in a position to defend or explain this era of Who, but it’s rare someone bothers to write something decent for the show too. (Even if they cribbed a bit from their own previous work — mind you even Douglas Adams ripped off Shada for Dirk Gently anyway. Another Door Tardis) I imagine normal service will be resumed next week.
Um, seriously? Doctor Who has always had a fair bit of fantasy scattered in.
Yeah, as far as fantastical elements on Doctor Who go, I would put an engine running on stories pretty far down on the list.
And in fact, Davies even said that he was deliberately leaning the show this time around towards some fantasy.
But as others have already said, the show has a history some of fantasy elements.
In the past there was always one or two episodes a season that I thought "Okay, that's too much fantasy now" and I wasn't able to enjoy them at all. The one where the moon was an egg, the one where forests grew over the whole planet overnight etc.
Now it feels like it's taken over the whole series and it's not for me anymore.
Now it feels like it's taken over the whole series and it's not for me anymore.
Oh no, thanks for un-repressing the moon egg episode memory lol.
In terms of the fantastical taking over the whole season. We've had five episodes so far and I count two of them as fantasy = 40%
Robot Revolution - more sci-fi than fantasy
Lux - Definitely leans into the fantasy/gods realm
The Well - A very different kind of alien life form but definitely more sci-fi than fantasy
Lucky Day - Not really any fantastical elements
The Story & the Engine - Very much Gods and fantasy!
Hard to comment on the three episodes we have left. The Interstellar Song Contest feels like it should be sci-fi but who can tell. I imagine the two part finale might loop back around to Gods. On that basis we're probably talking a 50/50 split overall.
Although it strikes me that is Maestro were ever to pop back up again, a story about an interstellar song contest would be a heck of a great time for that to happen!
Robot Revolution - more sci-fi than fantasy
Lux - Definitely leans into the fantasy/gods realm
The Well - A very different kind of alien life form but definitely more sci-fi than fantasy
Lucky Day - Not really any fantastical elements
The Story & the Engine - Very much Gods and fantasy!
Hard to comment on the three episodes we have left. The Interstellar Song Contest feels like it should be sci-fi but who can tell. I imagine the two part finale might loop back around to Gods. On that basis we're probably talking a 50/50 split overall.
Although it strikes me that is Maestro were ever to pop back up again, a story about an interstellar song contest would be a heck of a great time for that to happen!
I still wonder if all this fantasy and gods stuff is happening because the Doctor's not in his usual reality but in some other realm like the Land of Fiction. Or heck, maybe the Time War and Flux damaged the universe to the extent that science isn't what it used to be, back in the days when reality could be constructed via block transfer computation.
Lucky Day was just Buffy & Torchwood. The ‘aliens’ may as well have been trolls or goblins.
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