Moffat was writing Doctor Who in prose before he began writing scripts for it, although he's only written short prose works rather than novel-length ones.
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Steven_Moffat#Short_fiction
Class series one discussion thread (spoilers)
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Moffat was writing Doctor Who in prose before he began writing scripts for it, although he's only written short prose works rather than novel-length ones.
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Steven_Moffat#Short_fiction
Heh, heh. I think I'm one of the most vocal complainers about the Moffat monologues around here. And yeah, this episode was pretty bad dragging the climaxes of both its main plots out. I mean, it feels like it was ten minutes of April holding swords to the Shadow King's neck and Quill and Charlie being held at gunpoint. I think I actually screamed "someone do something already!"
I'm actually not sure which is worse, this or the Moffat Monologues. I mean, this was just a lifeless bore, but it was relatively short compared to say Hell Bent which was 25% Gallifrey and Time Lord stuff and 75% monologues between Clara, the Doctor and Ashildr. But even the worst Moffat Monologue has more life to it than this episode did. Talk about a yin-yang.
Seriously, what the fuck is UNIT even doing now? This is twice that something alien has arrived in London and killed people, and they seem to be just sitting on their asses letting it happen. It's even more glaring in this episode, because they are actually referenced as something Quill and the Governors are aware of. Hell, never mind UNIT, does London not have any emergency services they can dispatch to Coal Hill. Granted, the police, fire department and paramedics are probably less qualified for dealing with alien threats, but does no one witnessing alien entities killing people call 911? Or, I guess that's 999 in Britain.
It is 999 yes
I think it's the same trouble Torchwood had, although you could always make the argument that Jack could call UNIT up and say "It's ok guys, we've got this one."
It's made worse by the fact that Tanya referenced UNIT as well in the 2nd or 3rd episode I think. The worst thing is that all it takes is a bit of handwavy dialogue, have the headmistress say something like "Oh the Governors have an, arrangement shall we say, with UNIT. They stay out of UNIT's business and vice versa."
At the moment the only things bringing me back to the show are some engaging performances from the kids, the fact it's Who and Capaldi might show up again, but mainly Miss Quill.
I think the worst thing is, if this was a non Who related idea that Ness took to the BBC then it's hard to see what its USP would have been. I suppose the upside if it wasn't set in the Whoniverse is that we wouldn't be having conversations about UNIT etc.
Well, for the most part we can just assume that UNIT had very little presence in Cardiff on account of Torchwood's presence, especially after Jack took over Torchwood Cardiff given he severed ties with Torchwood London and was presumably more cooperative with UNIT, indeed I think there's some throwaway references in season 1 to Jack writing up reports for them, in season 2 UNIT loans Martha to Torchwood for a few weeks and in Children of Earth UNIT is very much involved with things.
It's a bit different now that we're in London, a city where we know UNIT HQ is located, you'd think they'd be aware of a school in the city with a space-time rift within that has been responsible for three attempted alien invasions in with deaths resulted in the past month, and the only protection is a group of teenagers and an alien terrorist essentially indentured to them who'd likely rather watch everyone die horribly.
That's true, but even if we pretend UNIT shouldn't exist, we get back to my other point of why aren't the emergency services responding to these crises? Have we even seen any police, firefighters or paramedics at all in this series?
Never mind UNIT, where's Team Sarah Jane?
I think you'll find she's an alien freedom fighter 
But yeah be it UNIT or just the emergency services it is weird that defence of the Earth is being left to a bunch of A-Level students. Whedon handled this so much better, for starters it was a small town rather than the nation's capitol, and the authorities were all in thrall to the mayor anyway.
I said from the beginning that I'd give Class a chance, but at the moment its basically somewhere between meh and ok.
But yeah be it UNIT or just the emergency services it is weird that defence of the Earth is being left to a bunch of A-Level students. Whedon handled this so much better, for starters it was a small town rather than the nation's capitol, and the authorities were all in thrall to the mayor anyway.
I said from the beginning that I'd give Class a chance, but at the moment its basically somewhere between meh and ok.
Ram's dad in particular is v bad. I may not be able to take Ram seriously anymore now you've said that!
What?
The season is six episodes long?
(IMdb says it's eight.)
WTF?
If what is know now, 4 months ago when these episodes of Class were being filmed, I can imagine Pearl Mackey showing up on set... "Look can I just hang around in the back ground, I won't say anythink, and the audience will only really know I am there if their TV has a zoom function. I can smell cancellation, and it's going to be weird them trying to sell lunch boxes with my face on them if Doctor Who gets cancelled and my episodes never air".
The season is six episodes long?
(IMdb says it's eight.)
WTF?
If what is know now, 4 months ago when these episodes of Class were being filmed, I can imagine Pearl Mackey showing up on set... "Look can I just hang around in the back ground, I won't say anythink, and the audience will only really know I am there if their TV has a zoom function. I can smell cancellation, and it's going to be weird them trying to sell lunch boxes with my face on them if Doctor Who gets cancelled and my episodes never air".
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It is 8, you are right.
Apologies I just assumed it was 6.
Oh sweet shit, episode 6 was just horrible. Basically, a sci-fi variation on The Breakfast Club. Not that I've ever seen The Breakfast Club, but as I understand it, it's about a group of kids in Detention getting to know each other. And that's basically what this episode is, Quill somehow manages to get the team in detention, during which an evil alien entity imprisoned in an asteroid gets sent through the rift into Coal Hill turning the classroom the team is in into a prison, making them pissed off, and whenever one of them picks up the asteroid rock that is the entity, they are compelled to tell the truth which just makes them admit stuff that makes for an awkward time. Of course, the trick to saving the day is for Charlie to pick up the rock, because he's alien, and that saves the day. I of course have this figured out less than twenty minutes into the episode, making for a very frustrating viewing experience. And in a cruel twist of irony, the episode actually ends on quite an interesting cliffhanger in which the Governors have freed Quill of her servitude, and the preview for next week makes it look like it'll be a Quill centred episode, likely what she was up to while the kids were baring their souls so to speak, and therefore guaranteed to be five times better than this one. Seriously, the most interesting character on this show finally getting the spotlight is worth returning after enduring this crap.
It's not like we even really learned anything interesting about the characters anyway. Ram madly loves April, but she doesn't love him equally as much. Matteusz is actually scared of Charlie, and Tanya feels like an outsider. Also, even though it's probably meant to be a serious and dramatic moment, I just laughed when Tanya began complaining about white people always expecting the best because they always get the best.
It's not like we even really learned anything interesting about the characters anyway. Ram madly loves April, but she doesn't love him equally as much. Matteusz is actually scared of Charlie, and Tanya feels like an outsider. Also, even though it's probably meant to be a serious and dramatic moment, I just laughed when Tanya began complaining about white people always expecting the best because they always get the best.
^^Yep.
I pretty much agree with everything you said, yet for some reason I kinda liked this one. As bottle shows go it was ok, and frankly Class has yet to get much better than ok. I am really looking forward to next episode however. I’d really love Miss Quill to turn up in the parent show, seems unlikely and I’m again wondering if she’ll make it to season 2 (if there is a season 2) if she has found a way to escape her enslavement/punishment. It's screaming noble/unexpected sacrifice in the final episode.
Hell, I think she'd make a great companion. I know, it seems even less likely that Katherine Kelly would spend a season as the Doctor's companion. But, I'd settle for even a similar character, someone sarcastic and bitter who is travelling with the Doctor for reasons not 100% out of choice. I'm not saying she'd be a slave or anything like that, but perhaps she has her own goals to accomplish, and travelling with the Doctor is the best way to do this even though she doesn't give a damn about the wonders of time and space.
Won't happen, of course in the days where companions almost always have to be girls in their mid twenties impressed and awed by time and space and amazed by and impressed with the Doctor.
Well, I don't think there was ever a time when there didn't have to be a female companion in her teens or twenties. Susan, Vicki, Dodo, Victoria, and Zoe were all teenagers, and Polly was evidently in her early 20s. They started to get a bit older after that; Liz Shaw was about 30 and the rest were mostly mid- to upper 20s -- Jo, Sara, Leela, both Romanas (well, their actresses), Tegan. Then it trended back toward teens and early 20s with Nyssa, Peri, Mel, and Ace. The only other over-30 female companions in the classic series were Barbara (33 at the start) and Sara Kingdom, if she counts (31).
Alright yes, the majority of female companions have been in their twenties, but they haven't always been completely enamoured with the Doctor. There may not have been any who outright hated him, though Tegan certainly comes pretty close. My main thing is that in Nu Who, we essentially get the same thing for most of the companions, they live a relatively normal life with varying degrees of happiness and satisfaction, meet the Doctor who blows their mind and they become a changed and better person as a result of their TARDIS developing a special relationship with and at times feelings for the Doctor travels until they go away permanently-ish. This has been all the companions for Nu Who, except Martha who was spared the permanent departure.
Donna was a step in the right direction in that she was more just a friend for the Doctor to hang with, rather than a potential love interest.
The classic companions never were. "No hanky-panky in the TARDIS" was a pretty firm rule, and of course neither of the first two Doctors was much of a romantic figure. Any hints of attraction were generally between companions -- Ian and Barbara, Ben and Polly, Jamie and Victoria/Zoe. Some people read romance into Three/Jo or Four/Sarah Jane, but I see the former as a father-daughter thing and the latter as a very close friendship (no matter what RTD claimed). I'm personally convinced that Four and Romana II were lovers, but that's all due to Baker and Ward's own relationship coming through in their performance. As written, Romana was anything but a doting admirer of the Doctor.
Hmm... In an odd way, I think maybe the classic companion who fits this mold best may be Leela. She wasn't romantically interested in the Doctor, but he did come into what was, for her, a normal life, upend all her assumptions, and become a figure of reverence who showed her a whole new way of thinking and existing and earned her devoted loyalty. Come to think of it, that sort of describes Jamie as well, though he was never quite as impressed with the Doctor himself. There's also Ace, whom the Doctor found as a troubled runaway and offered a better life to. The complexity of the Doctor-Ace relationship was on a par with the modern series's approach to its companions.
Well, Turlough was actually trying to kill him at first, although it wasn't his idea. And Romana I wasn't very impressed by him.
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