Rise of the Ghosts
Revenge of the Ghosts
The Phantom Menace.
no, wait...
Revenge of the Ghosts
The Phantom Menace.
no, wait...
We've been given the title of the Chrimbo story...
- Thread starter Bones2
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This merits a thread?
I'm throwing in 'The Five-Hundred-And-Seven Days of Christmas'.
I'm throwing in 'The Five-Hundred-And-Seven Days of Christmas'.
I definitely want to see the story that fits this title.
No, it's not. "A Christmas Carol"'s greatest sin as a title is that it's unimaginative. "The Deadly Assassin"'s greatest sin as a title is that it's ridiculous and redundant -- it's trying to sound tense and it just sounds stupid. It might as well have been titled "The Curse of Fatal Death" (one of Moffat's more brilliant titles, really).
That's just awful.
I thought "Amy's Choice" was a very intriguing episode title. It seemed a somewhat obvious allusion to Sophie's Choice, though I suspect that would go over most kids' heads, but I still thought it was a good and interesting title. And I liked its use in dialogue, too.
* * *
As far as alternate Christmas special titles go...
For my money, I would have gone with "Father Who."
I would seriously tune in to watch this episode.
As I said before, its greatest sin is attempting to trade off the popularity of a well loved classic. It really is pathetic. I recall Robert Holmes' gave some explanation for The Deadly Assassin's title that made sense; something about the origin of the term assassin that means it's not such a tautology. But it is a rubbish name, and if you have to explain the title of something like that, then's it's not worked. Good story though, and I'm not saying the Christmas special won't be either. But I think A Christmas Carol is the worst story title in all of Doctor Who by a long way.
Why?
Of course, starting with a title and building a story around it probably isn't great practice, but ideas have to come from somewhere. I seem to recall reading that RTD came up with the title "The Christmas Invasion" and wrote the story to suit it. And fair play to him, it was almost watchable.
As for good titles, I'd say The Eleventh Hour's easily the best of the previous series. I could imagine that was a case of the title before the story, though that was good too. The Time of Angels was a rubbish title compared to what the episode was actually about, and I agree with shatnertage about Amy's Choice being a bit dreadful. Same for Cold Blood.
I think we can say with relative confidence that anybody watching the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas special is going to be aware that Doctor Who did not, in fact, originate the title "A Christmas Carol" and that the special's title is an allusion to the Dickens classic. In that regard, I'm not sure how it can be said to be "trading off the popularity of a well-loved classic," since it's not like anyone's going to be confusing one for the other.
It just sounds silly to me. Silly in a bad way -- like it's trying to be clever but fails. It just makes me snicker.
"The Eleventh Hour" was a very clever title, yes. My personal favorite, though, is probably "Flesh and Stone" -- it's a clever twist both on the physical dichotomy between Humans and Weeping Angels, but on the events of the episode's coda, too (as Amy displays something of a weakness of the flesh when she hits on the Doctor).
Ok, "A Christmas Who Carol" or something then. Is that better?
There will never a title as good as The Eleventh Hour. It works on every level.
Cold Blood, The Lodger, and Amy's Choice are poor titles, but at least they're a change from The Deadly Death of Death that often pops up.
Cold Blood, The Lodger, and Amy's Choice are poor titles, but at least they're a change from The Deadly Death of Death that often pops up.
"The Doctor's Daughter". Easily the worst. Not only is it false advertising, it leads into the worst episode of Doctor Who ever made. And, frankly, it's just.....dumb. Elementary.
Well, that's all the proof I need to know it's a brilliant title, Bones.
And for some reason "Amy's Choice" didn't bring to mind Sophie's Choice or even a Hobson's choice, but Taster's Choice coffee. Shows where my mind is, I guess. Outstanding episode, too.
Honestly, just in terms of titles -- not talking about the quality of the episode associated with it, but just in terms of titles -- I think "The Eleventh Hour" doesn't quite match up to "Last of the Time Lords." "Last of the Time Lords" is a very melancholy, evocative title -- I honestly think it should have been the title of "The End of Time, Part Two" rather than the episode it was actually assigned to. But that's just my two cents.
Insightful kid, that one.
Insightful kid, that one.
He also said upon hearing the title for the first episode of the forthcoming series that "'I think we can do better, Daddy. We need clever. Not cheesy."
He's obviously a very clever kid...
Of course, the title "Last of the Time Lords" was around long before the new show. It was a potential title for a Doctor Who film.
As for Moffat's son, he has his own youtube channel where he's done a few interviews with his dad. There's one video just after The Big Bang aired and they'd watched it. Moffat says something like "well I liked it".
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