I hope it opens with Rory and The Doctor barbequeing cans of lager.

That was my favourite of the series so far. The 'tawdry quirks' line was fantastic, never mind the Peruvian folk band gag.

It got a little emotional at the end. I'm so happy for Rory, and the series if it means the end of another companion mooning over the Doctor.

Excellent stuff.

Toby Jones was just brilliant, and a nice bluff there - I can't have been the only one cocking my head and wondering if he was John Simm reborn yet again.
And yay for Rory and his eventual disappearing ponytail.

I liked that episode. I figured from the off that the tardis "world" was the dream, as there's no way someone would have control over it like that. . Also good to see that Amy isn't going to be lusting after the Doctor at all (probably)

Yet again, The Grauniad seem to have a different spin on it.

I wish I hadn't known who wrote it before I watched it - Rory getting from his bike to the front door seemed to owe a fair bit to Neil Morrissey.

"You hold him down and I'll cut it off!"

I'm very surprised it was that good. Quite deep and emotional from Nye. Clever and funny lines mixed with some genuine creepiness ("playtime's over!"). Hope Nye writes for Who again in the future.

This'll sound soppy but the last scene between Amy and Rory made me feel all warm. Quite like the Doctor-Amy-Rory team now, I agree it's good we won't have the companion mooning over the doctor this time.

Ack, it's not letting me edit my post...

Just remembered a line The Doctor said to the dream lord "No-one in the universe hates me as much as you". Considering what the dream lord turned out to be, that's quite deep.

Also reckon there will be complaints about the old people getting battered (hot fuzz memories heehee) and the doctor asking what they do instead of self harm.

The old lady who got hit with a bit of wood was the same one Rufus Hound abused on Argumental. She's a tough old bird.

It was a great episode for the grown ups watching but I'm not altogether sure how much younger kids would've got from it. I think the under 10s watching might've found it bit confusing.

I guessed the ending.
Just wanted to point that out.

Good episode.
Also, I liked the shot of the Dream Master looking back at the Doctor from a reflection at the end of the episode. There can't be many ways to explore the inner workings of your three main characters against the backdrop of an army of killer OAPS, and kudos is deserved for this if nothing else.

Nowhere near as confusing as the show was when I was an under 10

I still have no idea what's going on in 'Ghost Light', but it was my absolute favourite episode as a kid.

I really enjoyed the most recent episode, I like clever tricky plots like that and as someone else said Toby Jones was ace.

I didn't really enjoy the Vampires in Venice one so much so I hope future episodes are more like Amy's Choice than that.

At one point I thought the Dream Lord would turn out to be the Master. Then I realised that'd be silly so soon after he was in Doctor Who.

I don't normally watch confidential but saw it on iplayer last night. It's pretty amusing, especially Matt Smith and Arthur Darvill (Rory) taking the mick out of eachothers features (Chin and Nose respectively), and Karen Gillan's 'baby bump' dance.

He also actually whacked the old lady by accident.

I'm yet to be convinced that it's the absolute end of Companion 4 Doctor 4EVA but I'll wait and see.

I'm not sure why, but I wanted it to be cleverer than it was. Loved Toby Young, but doubted the speed of the "fatal" accident. I didn't think they had got their speed up enough.

I thought it was ok.

I really liked "Amy's Choice." It was like a cross between some of those surreal B&W Who episodes, and that episode of Buffy where she thinks that she's really in a mental institution and Sunnydale isn't real.

I'm really liking Rory as an addition to the Tardis, and would even be interested to see an episode with just him and the Doctor. And Amy had completely redeemed herself for me.




I think it's more that they thought it would kill them. Sort of like the end of Fight Club.

Smallville had an episode like that too, where Clark was attacked by something and dreamed he was in one and thought he had no powers.

Series Finale (episodes 12 and 13) titles announced.. SPOILERY

And they are...


Episode 12 - 'The Pandorica Opens'
Episode 13 - 'The Big Bang'


Which means someone at digital spy was bullshitting...

Vampires in Venice was reasonable - mainly only cos Helen McCrory is fucking ace in everything. The director clearly fancied that blonde lass more than the others. Rory's hen night shirts being the shittest ever seen.

Amy's Choice - bloody brilliant despite daft title. My favourite so far. The peculiar village mystery being a staple of British TV from the Avengers to The Prisoner to ... well ... classic Who. Loved it. Toby Jones being was his usual scene stealing perfection. Reminded me of one of the best ST:Voyager episodes with the dream aliens.

The Moff knows how to pick a guest star - hence he chooses the finest character actors around today like Sophie Okenado. Makes a change from fat Northern comedians, Father Dougal and Raquel from Corrie.

Ardal O'Hanlon was in Doctor Who?

Yes - he was the cat man in the traffic jam episode. You must remember - it's the WORST WHO EPISODE EVER.

Haha, now I do. Kittens with his human wife, eww.

I didn't mind that episode. Worst episode ever for me is them flouncing around Cardiff after Slitheen woman. and Fear Her.

Definitely agree about the guest stars improving anyway. Step up from previous series'. We've got Bill Nighy coming up too.

http://twitpic.com/1peq82

SQUEE.

One of the things I especially like about this last episode was a line that illustrated the light-years of improvement between Moffat's season and the RTD years. When the Doctor says "I'm going to blow up the TARDIS" in the ep, he does it with that air of glee Smith has added to the character, and the episode continues and resolves neatly while still subtly advancing the core storyline.

If that line was ever uttered during the RTD years, it would have been the final "CLIFFHANGER!" line in the first episode of a horribly pointless two parter, delivered by Tennant with maundering resoluteness, followed immediately by the return of Rose "I have 500 teeth" Tyler.

I haven't loved the show this much since watching the Baker years as a kid on PBS.

Someone's not seen Timelash . . .

Gaiman on writing Doctor Who.

I know it will be good (Just because Stardust rocked) but this part [referring to feeling like 'God'] :



Made me think that perhaps he should have been writing during the RTD years.

I'm thinking they're layering on the fairy tale coating a bit thick (for the thickheads probably) but I'm as happy as Larry with it and so welcome more.

Nice find Raven

-m0r

Just watched last Saturdays episode (Hungry Earth). I liked it, but it felt kind of like the weakest episode this series. The new Silurians look good though.

It looks like it's setting up a bigger second part to me. And I'll stop talking about tomorrows episode there because I've been told what apparently happens tomorrow night. Fucking spoilers (well, it could be BS or speculation, either way I'll say nothing here in case it's correct).

Rory!! Noooo! I was just getting to like him!

Indeed.
I'd been told he was gonna die (spoilers arghh), but had no idea he was going to be eaten by the crack and forgotten. Bleak. Loved the very end too, with the TARDIS piece. The series finale will be mental

Wow!

That was such a shock, I don't think I've cried so much at Doctor Who, not even when the Doctor and Rose were separated.

It just goes to show we shouldn't doubt Moffat as a showrunner. Lots of people questioned why we had another 'Micky' in the show, but that heartbreaking turn of events was so much more than I've expected. Not only to die, but to have the love of your life instantly forget you... it was so brutal.

I enjoyed the episode as a whole too. Much bigger ideas than we're used to and a real feel of classic SF.

There's no reset button anymore...

I hope hopehopehopehope there's more to this than we're seeing. Particularly as the ring was indicated loads of times, but not mentioned verbally.
It put us in a bad mood for Eurovision as well.

I hope not.

RTD was far too fond of things not really counting. That was tragic, but brilliant and instilled a real sense of peril to the new show. I hope it sticks.

Rory's in the cast list for The Big Bang. Potentially a red herring, but still.
It frustrates me because it implies the women in Doctor Who are not allowed functioning relationships whilst they're with him. A couple that was still a couple at the end of their tenure would have made a nice change.

ETA And Ambrose was a cock. They should have offered her in a trade off for Alaya's corpse. No one would have batted an eyelid.

Am I right in thinking he can remember Rory? Interesting if so. I'm not sure if the way he was looking at the ring box was sadness about what had happened, or if it was a "WTF is a ring doing here?" look.

He can, it's the time traveller thing. Amy could remember the soldiers, just as the Doctor can remember Rory, but Amy can't remember Rory because he's part of her life (or timeline).

True, also just remembered his concern for Amy atthe end too.

I'm a bit excited about the finale now though. I think 'The Big Bang' episode could see The TARDIS explode. I think it's safe to assume the TARDIS is creating the cracks or is part of it, given the ending of last nights episode

Either that or whatever is causing the cracks is going all psychological and fucking with the doctor's mind. Either way the doctor is clearly bricking it.

I suspect the Doctor would remember Rory anyway, as he can see when things have changed in time (all part and parcel of being a Timelord and all that . . .).

I don't think we've seen the end of Rory, I don't think it will be a reset button, but I think he will get resurrected again - it's a family show, to have it otherwise would make it a bit too bleak for tea-time viewing.

We don't have to spoiler what's been aired on UK TV, right? Speculation is fine too, as long as you haven't read actual plot details in advance?

I avoided this thread until I'd seen the show on catch-up earlier.

^ Good point, spoiler tags removed from my previous post.

I tripped over Kate's spoiler above as I was expecting it to be about this episode, and not about future episodes - doh!

Sorry, I guess I should have pointed out it was a spoiler of a future episode, I though leaving the sentence partially intact would make it too obvious what was in the spoiler tags.

Don't worry about it, it was correctly spoiler tagged, it just wasn't what I was expecting!

That ending destroyed me. I've been a big fan of Rory, he's streets ahead of Amy in my opinion, and the harshness of him being killed and erased from time turned me into a blubbering idiot.

And while I would like nothing more than to see Rory brought back, I don't think the Moff will let us off that easily. Amy's memories of him may be brought back, but I don't think he'll come back to life.

One thing is, if the ring was still there, how did it it get there if Rory never existed? I did think it might be because the inside of TARDIS sort of exists outside of space and time though.

Sucks that I had been avoiding spoilers all the time yet get told the biggest of all. Though I wasn't told about the crack taking Rory. Still sad to see him go though.

Speculation time from me,

The Dream Lord was a representation of The Doctor who used his mind to create 2 realities. 1 in the TARDIS and 1 in Levensworth.

Within that episode Amy chose Rory over the Doctor.

Since the Dream Lord obviously wanted Amy to either have a bad time of it all round or pick The Doctor over Rory what is the only way to tilt the balance in the favour of The Doctor again?

Removing Rory from ever existing means that Amy is now free to fancy The Doctor all over again satisfying his inner lust/need/want for her.

This means it's either all still going on in Amy's Choice, The Dream Lord has powers beyond that of hallucination or something even more stupendous.

Either way not a bad episode and some quality filler.

-m0r

I did have a thought, that instead of deleting people from existence, the crack deletes them from the minds of their loved ones, and part of their history. Also that Prisoner Zero escaped prison via a crack, and I'm sure either the weeping angels or vampire fish people mentioned seeing other worlds through cracks. Same could have happened to Rory.

That said, I don't see them bringing Rory back into it, unless they go for another "reset". Plus he seemed to be dead before it took him.

I'll fly in the face of popular opinion then.
I was thoroughly bored through that two parter. Up until the end.

It wasn't a bad story (like my personal most hateds, Fear Her and Tooth and Claw), just a really bland addition to a series which is otherwise competing with series 4 as the better series.
It was more like the "I had to sit through all this to get to this ending?" I felt after watching Waters of Mars than the "I had to... sit through... all this... to get to this ending?!?!?!?" I felt after watching The End of Time. Still not good though.

I like the crack. It looks like a smile.
How come the Doctor can reach in and yank things out of it, but if it touches anyone else they vanish from existence. Can't he just reach in and pull them back out?
Also, if the Tardis (or bits of it) are in there, shouldn't it have been erased from time already?

Also, I've just read the synopsis for 'The Lodger' episode.
Simon 'Men Behaving Badly' Nye should have written this one, surely?

I was the same.

I do still really like Matt Smith as the Doctor but I found it all, well, a bit meh on Saturday.

Caught up yesterday so avoided this thread but having read the review in the Guide (at least I think it was the Guide), they mentioned a main character getting killed off.

I immediately guessed it would be Rory, although to kill Amy off would have been a real shocker and a rather brilliant twist (even though I like her).

My main fun from the episode was trying to guess who the people were all lizarded up.

I think the series is treading water at the moment. Firmly in the comfort zone.

And I.

I'm catching up with the episodes I missed whilst I was in America.

I bloody loved Amy's Choice. It reminded me of The Constant (my favourite episode of Lost), as well as episodes of Buffy and Farscape that I'm rather fond of, and I thought that the dual timeline plot was very well implemented. It perhaps wasn't the cleverest plot - you knew that Leadworth wouldn't be real because, on a practical level, it'd be very difficult to write the show if Amy gave birth and they had to deal with a baby on the TARDIS and have exciting adventures every week - but it made both halves feel believable for the purposes of the story, so I was completely invested in Rory's "death" even though I knew it couldn't be real.

I wrote a more detailed account of my thoughts on my blog, so I'll leave off here and leave the thread until I've watched the other two episodes.