Re: The Prequel (possible spoilers) While I was watching that clip, that immediately came to my mind. I hope that's the intention!
Moffat's use of children has been amazing so far -Creepy voice children -Children's nightmares/hide behind the couch moments -Children being a part of the story and looking up to the doctor
Re: The Prequel (possible spoilers) I wasn't expecting anything grandiose. I think it served it's purpose perfectly.
Re: The Prequel (possible spoilers) Definitely too short to be called a Prequel, but interesting nonetheless. I'm looking forward to some Tricky Dick shenanigans, but that was really a bad Nixon impersonation-- or maybe it's an alternate timeline where Karl Malden becomes President.
Re: The Prequel (possible spoilers) Or, for all we know, Nixon could simply just be the President of the United States and nothing more. We haven't seen the episode yet. Let's hold off on any judgements, and then consequences, just yet. Yes, there's the image of the tape player, but it's now well-known that Nixon recorded his phone conversations anyway, regardless of intent. And even if the episode becomes a potshot, it's not the first time Doctor Who took a potshot at a head of state: there's still Queen Victoria in Tooth And Claw, and her actions helped lead to the gigantic invasion at the end of Series 2. Now, the thought just occurred to me -- if a number of people here thought JFK would've been president for this episode, it'd be an interesting possibility if this was an alternate timeline where Nixon and not JFK won. But that's a bit of a longshot.
Re: The Prequel (possible spoilers) No, Forrest Gump was. Thanks for the link, I would not have made that particular connection myself, but as others have said, if Moffett intends for that to be the cause of the silence on the tapes, that's an awesome idea. But, then I'm a sucker for when shows/books/etc. explain away historical mysteries.
Re: The Prequel (possible spoilers) A bit of a throwback to those little two minute online prologues we got for each episode back during...series 3 was it?
Re: The Prequel (possible spoilers) I think you're watching the wrong show if that's your desire. Doctor Who has been blatantly political for most of its existence. There's hardly any Third Doctor story, for example, that doesn't come with a not so subtle message, often explained to us by the Doctor himself. To me, it seems to be just as much part of the show as silly monsters. Well, I honestly didn't think of that. I just thought it drove home the point that this is the Nixon administration. However, I really do like the idea of explaining the erasures of the tape that way, or at least hint on this being the reason.
That's never been the reason. It has always had to do with rights issues and the licence fee, the same reason why users outside the UK weren't allowed to download the games last year*, or properly play Amy's History Hunt or view any of Captain Jack's Monster Files or the A Ghost Story for Christmas webisode. Hell, users outside the UK weren't even allowed to view the little 10-second video that introduced the new logo! And the website actually posted a teaser for this prequel a few days ago and we weren't allowed to see it. I think it may have more to do with someone over at the BBC finally "getting it". Technically, under the way things were done previously, we should never have been able to see the Comic Relief mini-episodes either, but the BBC made them available on its YouTube channel. Because someone over there finally twigged to the fact that if they didn't do it, then someone else would, such as last year's "Big Questions" featurettes which were uploaded to the UK site, geolocked, and were usually posted in triplicate on YouTube or put on the torrents in a couple hours. Alex * Actually, the fact the UK and US broadcasts were out of synch WAS given as the reason why the first couple of games weren't released worldwide right way, but that excuse no longer applied when the last 2 games came along.
Re: The Prequel (possible spoilers) this is true.. and I am not an unreasonable person when it comes to stuff, I just feel like sometimes it is such an over done cliche, and not to mention that the Nixon family has had to deal with the demonization of one of their family member for like 30 years..he screwed up quite a lot.. but he wasn't some arrant monster like they try to always make him..JFK and RFK were a tragedy, but they weren't saints..nor gods..and their deaths came at the hands of communists..Oswald, and Sirhan Sirhan were both admitted Socialist or Communists who hated the West, and yet film makers in media seem to always decide to use the "VAST RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY" to put forth an agenda..yes, I am looking at you Oliver Stone. Oh Oli, if only you could have grown up like Twist, maybe your warped perspective on reality would be a bit more humble and sane.. wasn't that already done.. we saw what happened with that, the watchmen.. That director must be proud of himself.. he made people sit in a theatre and watch a large bright blue glowing CGI smurf penis on screen, and people paid for it!!.. I sure hope Moffat doesn't go there.. you make a great point count Zero, I guess I just tried to ignore the stuff Joe Grant would say and do and chalked it up to misguided 70's drug induced flower child nonsense..you do have a clever idea that I shall try to use in the future.." political slants played out in Doctor who should be laughed at and taken as seriously as Doctor who monsters".. that is brilliant!
Re: The Prequel (possible spoilers) I have to be contrary. I think it would be an awful idea if Moffat uses the Silents/Silence to explain the 18 1/2 minute gap, because we already know how the gap happened -- Nixon came into his secretary's office, while she was transcribing the tape, and hit the record button and the rewind button multiple times. There's no mystery as to how it happened; the only mystery is the precise conversation that Nixon had with his chief of staff, Haldeman, during that period. There's an effort afoot to recover the contents of the 18 1/2 minute gap. (The Wired article linked to states that it's a mystery who erased the tape. However, Nixon's secretary testified to the Watergate grand jury first that she destroyed the tape, then later that she witnessed Nixon destroy the tape.)
Re: The Prequel (possible spoilers) So we already know the secretary lied at least once in explaining the gap ... I'd hardly call the matter settled. Nah, an extraterrestrial explanation is preferable to the prosaic.