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Poll: Who's your favourite Doctor?
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Who's your favourite Doctor?

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  #8861  
Old 5th November 2018, 01:01 AM
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Originally Posted by gag View Post
Well the guardian seems to think the series so far is .....well OK


https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-r...gra-condundrum


Doctor Who recap: series 37, episode 5 – The Tsuangra Condundrum
Team Tardis ends up in a sticky spot and the Doctor isn’t feeling too well in an episode that gives Tosin Cole a chance to show his class


Yaz and The Doctor
The Tsuangra Conundrum: whizzy and bright – but where’s the conundrum?
SPOILER ALERT: this weekly blog is for those who are watching the new series of Doctor Who. Don’t read ahead if you haven’t seen episode five, The Tsuangra Condundrum.

“Medicine, science, engineering, candyfloss, lego, philosophy, people, hope. Mostly hope.”
This week, we see another side to the Doctor rarely glimpsed; she’s vulnerable and in pain. For reasons best known to themselves, Team Tardis have to decided to play around with some metal detectors on a scavenger planet. What should have been a fun day off takes another unfortunate turn when they find a sonic mine, get blown to smithereens (although curiously without a scratch on them) and picked up by an automated spaceship hospital that’s been infiltrated by an unwelcome cargo. So Jodie spends half the episode staggering about clutching her midriff, or ‘ectospleen’ in Timelord parlance before jolting into Doctorish action.

To its credit, The Tsunagra Condumdrum boasts an awesome spaceship, an impressive guest cast (led by Casualty’s Suzanne Packer as General Cicero), a wonderfully deadpan android and an amusing subplot involving a pregnant man. To its detriment, there’s a rather over-reliance of exposition–ish pseudo-science (the antimatter passage just went on) and once again, here is an episode without very much of a real villain. And come to think of it, there isn’t really much of a “conundrum” to speak of at all. This was whizzy and bright and perfectly fine. But call me old-fashioned, right now I’m crying out for a jolly good alien invasion.



Now we’re at the halfway point, how is everyone feeling about Chris Chibnall’s tenure thus far? While I’ve yet to be absolutely blown away to the extent of Steven Moffat in his pomp, it’s also worth remembering that it took him a little while to get there too. The upside to that, though, is there hasn’t been a total dud either. In that, cutting the episode order to 10 near negates the risk of any duds. Certainly, the extra time and money that goes on each episode is showing up on screen – there has never been a more handsome-looking version of this programme.

Chibnall is not a comedy writer of the kind that Moffat was, so I’m learning to accept that it’s not going to make me laugh out loud the way it did before. The shift from magic realism to urban grit has also taken a bit of getting used to, but what Chibnall might lack in lols, he’s certainly making up for in emotional heft.

And, just quickly, look how quickly the issue of Jodie’s gender became a complete non-conversation from the moment she appeared on screen.

Life aboard the Tardis


Tosin Cole once again gets the big emotional moment, and your heart continues to break over Ryan’s Daddy issues. The Yoss subplot does give him a certain amount of resolution, realising how ill-equipped he would feel as a parent. But as he assures the new father, “You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to be there,” we get the sense that we’ve not seen the last emo moment from the young Mr Sinclair. Yaz remains reliable, plucky and underused, while Graham, still something of a wuss, is able to impart some wisdom suited to his years to his fellow patients. While also letting slip that he’s partial to a bit of Call the Midwife. Each to their own.

Fear factor
We talked a bit last week about Chibnall identifying the things that scare adults. And once again, he’s on the money with both hospitals and childbirth. Meanwhile, the Perting was another masterfully rendered piece of visual effects, even if the creature itself was rather more of a comedy creation than a genuinely scary menace. It put me in mind of the Adipose from 2008’s Partners in Crime. “It won’t eat us, but it’ll eat the ship we’re on.”

Mysteries, questions and continuity


In the search for some kind of story arc (or lack of one), we’re left wondering if the numerous references and made-up phrases are red herrings, or clues as to something more significant. Are we to read much into the Book of Celebrants? What is it like to go rainbathing in the upward tropics of Kinstano? What is “cotton fever” and a “pilot’s heart”?


Deeper into the vortex
Technically, it’s well documented that the Doctor is actually a Doctor of Thermodynamics, but let’s not get hung up on details.
Is the Doctor’s stethoscope sonic as well?
Poor, kind Astos. We barely even knew you. But Chibnall is certainly learning the value of a good body count.
The baby is named Avocado Pear. And why not?
Who knew that 51 was just an interesting number?
Next week!

Yaz gets to wander down her family tree, and hopefully gets something proper to do as Doctor Who tackles the Partition of India in Demons of the
What do you expect. The mainstream media will fall into line with the narrative the BBC are pushing out. Personally I don't want any agenda politics added to Dr Who. I notice The Guardian is all for the feminist line, and the continual bombarding of PCness. It's no longer Dr Who, it's Dr Lite in both story development and the qualities that made Dr Who, well, Dr Who.
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  #8862  
Old 5th November 2018, 01:06 AM
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The Guardian is a joke paper.
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  #8863  
Old 5th November 2018, 01:32 AM
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Originally Posted by iank View Post
The Guardian is a joke paper.
Totally agree but that's just one paper comment quite a few articles from different sources seem to be enjoying this serious , me its like the Sylvester Mcoy era all over again ( I'm pretty sure you know what I mean ) the writers deliberately ruining it .
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  #8864  
Old 5th November 2018, 01:38 AM
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Originally Posted by trebor8273 View Post
Think we will get one more series unless there is a big turn around in quality, ratings might be good at the moment but think they will steadily drop and next season will be the big crunch. Chibnall needs to go totally wrong for Doctor Who.
Totally agree we really need a real dedicated life long fan of doctor who to be the next series writer .
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  #8865  
Old 5th November 2018, 01:41 AM
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Totally agree but that's just one paper comment quite a few articles from different sources seem to be enjoying this serious , me its like the Sylvester Mcoy era all over again ( I'm pretty sure you know what I mean ) the writers deliberately ruining it .
Not really, I love Sylv's era.
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  #8866  
Old 5th November 2018, 02:08 AM
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Not really, I love Sylv's era.
In comparison for a doctor who series its been pretty pants really, we could do with someone bringing it back to old school doctor who, I didn't really rate last capaldi era tbh .
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  #8867  
Old 5th November 2018, 02:48 AM
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Neither did I.
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  #8868  
Old 5th November 2018, 06:41 AM
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November 5th: Today in Who-story

Births
1918 - Alan Tilvern (Forester in Planet of Giants)

1927 - Kenneth Waller (Hedges in The Invisible Enemy)

1953 - Malcolm Kohll (Writer of Delta and the Bannermen)
1970 - Tamzin Outhwaite (Captain Alice Ferrin in Nightmare in Silver)

1983 - Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake Simmonds in Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel and Doomsday and Morton Hardak in Big Finish Productions' Bernice Summerfield story Legion)

Deaths
1993 - Michael Bilton (Charles de Toligny in The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve, Collins in Pyramids of Mars and a Time Lord in The Deadly Assassin) aged 73

2003 - Brian McDermott (Sheard in Time-Flight) aged 69

2006 - R. J. Bell (The Garm in Terminus) aged 66

2016 - John Carson (Ambril in Snakedance) aged 89

2017 - John Bown (Antodus in the movie Dr. Who and the Daleks) aged 83

Episodes
1966 - The Power of the Daleks, Episode One: 7.9 million viewers
1977 - Image of the Fendahl, Part Two: 7.5 million viewers
2006 - Torchwood: Cyberwoman (BBC Three): 1.39 million viewers
2007 - The Sarah Jane Adventures: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?, Part Two (CBBC): 1.73 million viewers
2009 - The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Eternity Trap, Part One (CBBC): 1.14 million viewers
2016 - Class: Co-owner of a Lonely Heart (BBC Three)

Introductions
1966 - Patrick Troughton's full debut as the Second Doctor

Releases
2001 - The Adventuress of Henrietta Street and Instruments of Darkness (BBC Books)

2007 - The Infinite Quest (DVD - region 2); The Glittering Storm and The Thirteenth Stone (BBC Audio - The Sarah Jane Adventures); Doctor Who Official Soundtracks: Series Three (Silva Screen Records)

2009 - Hornets' Nest, Part Three ('The Circus of Doom') (AudioGO); issue 140 of Doctor Who Adventures (BBC Magazines); The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (Penguin Character Books)

2015 - Issue 8 of the relaunched Doctor Who Adventures (Panini Comics UK); Torchwood: Forgotten Lives (Big Finish)

Behind-the-Scenes
1998 - Recording of Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield stories Walking to Babylon and Birthright took place
2008 - Recording of the Big Finish audio The Magic Mousetrap took place

2009 - Recording of Big Finish's audio adaptation of the unmade TV story Point of Entry took place
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  #8869  
Old 5th November 2018, 09:40 AM
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Originally Posted by iank View Post
The Guardian is a joke paper.
it is, seems to be run by a bunch of pretentious arty farty prats, find it just as bad as the daily mail. mind most if not all of the British press is a joke
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  #8870  
Old 5th November 2018, 10:22 AM
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i didn't think the episode was any worse than last week's to be honest. the creature was as embarrassment, although i liked the (not entirely original) idea it ate energy. again it was too-PC - don't mind PC, just don't make it so damn obvious!

the episode construction was a bit more of a classic-Who set-up i.e. isolate the cast in a remote setting with a mystery to solve, except there was no mystery and the story was naff - and again another story with no actual villain... wtf!!!

other posters are right, Chibnall doesn't look a good fit for DW. clearly his talents are for earthbound drama as this creeps into every episode.

DW needs a new Gothic period to get it out of the doldrums imo.
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