Trailer for this week's episode, done in the style of a Richard Curtis film trail.

Doctor Who Adverture Game One available for download.

I'm all caught up now.

To be honest, I wasn't too impressed with the two-parter. I definitely think that there were some great ideas and themes in it, particularly the idea of their being "tipping points" that allow for The Doctor to essentially alter history, and the return of The Doctor relying on the humanity demonstrating the best of themselves and completely failing to do so, but apart from Rory's death there wasn't much to it that I found that interesting.

But that death, and the real crusher of having him be forgotten by Amy, was stunning and beautifully handled. Sadly I knew that it was coming thanks to the wonders of cultural osmosis, but it was still surprising to see it actually happen. I read an article a while back criticising Moffat for the lack of death (this was based on the opening three episodes, which were very light on blood-letting) but this was so much more meaningful than any of the random minor deaths that used to litter the show.

Darn proxies, darn minimum system requirements, darn work around for them.

Better darn well work!

-m0r

Amy ordering me about. Smashing.

I might download it later, not sure my laptop can take it but I'll have a go.

Apparently these video game episodes are set within the narrative of the series and from a part of this year's story arc.

I downloaded it overnight, I'll probably have a play this evening.

^ Played this for a bit last night, and it's not bad for a freebee (it's certainly a lot better than the other free games they have put up on the site).

My only real criticism is that the dialogue is a bit flat in places, like it's just someone reading lines rather than acting, and quite often it doesn't sound right for the location (i.e. it sounds like it was recorded in a studio).

What a good episode. Well done to Richard Curtis. Made my eyes leak too, which is always a good sign that they've made me care.

The historical inaccuracies made me angry; but it made me cry, so I won't write a letter in green crayon to Richard Curtis to complain about them

Really liked that episode. Van Goghs happiness at the end when he saw how loved his work was made me really happy.

I really enjoyed it. The monster thing with a turkey head was rubbish, but I won't grumble about that, the point was about the Van Gogh and Amy and it was.. Nice. Bit of a character piece really, the sort of thing Curtis isn't a stranger to.

I loved the "Starry Night" visual. And the scene with Van Gogh in the museum did make me a little emotional. No tears or anything, I just had a bit of a lump in my throat. For the second time this series. Yet it made me happy, and the final scene between the doctor and amy did too.

I'm loving this year's series.

Could have done without the soft-rock ballard, but apart from that a pretty good episode.

I was on its side - even though it features people fighting invisible things which, for me, always looks incredibly silly and not remotely scary, as was the case here - up until the last ten minutes, at which point I soured on it. I just found everything after Vincent went in the TARDIS to be the wrong side of schmaltzy, and the reveal of the amended Sunflowers at the end was downright nauseating. Up until that point, I thought it was fine.

Well I thought the last 10 minutes was great (I was actually hoping they'd let him know how he's appreciated now). Seeing Richard Curtis wrote it I wasn't going to be surprised if there was some schmaltz. For me, it made what was an otherwise average episode.




Well it is Doctor Who and not The South Bank Show. Personally I wanted him to hand Amy a hanky at the end and for her to open it and find a chunk of ear in it.

I don't have a problem with schmaltz in general, but I didn't feel that the episode had earned it. I didn't care about van Gogh as a character and his relationship with Amy seemed very hollow and forced. As a result, I found the last ten minutes uninteresting.

This

and the joke about the Dutch accent

Beautifully done.

My views don't add much, I enjoyed it but thought the monster as a physical representation of his mental demons was a good idea, not very well executed, and the cgi wasn't very good. The ending gave me a little lump in the throat though.
I'm not sure this is relevant, but did anyone else notice the TARDIS notice charred and burning when they revisited the Musee d'Orsay? It might just have been a plot point I missed.

The Tardis had flyers all over it, when the Doctor took Vincent back, and I assume the burning was the effect of them being burned up in the vortex.

I loved the end, took it from being a pretty good episode to a very good one for me. The monster was rubbish though.

Why all the hate on the monster? I thought it was a pretty original design having a four-legged chicken beast, and nice to have an episode where they're not debating with some alien race's right to survive when you can't really reason with a giant snarly beast.

Preview clip! of some of the scenes from this weeks episode up.

Might be spoilerish for some so click selectively.

What number the Doctor has on his shirt is answered at 4:20 though.

-m0r

This. And I wanted to throttle that Ambrose - not only for having a man's name but for being such a bumhole. The weakest two so far. And very like a Voyager epsiode with the reptile race hating on the primates except of a scientist who is nice.

Next - will watch the Van Go one. I like Tony Curran.

On another note - Matt has completely won me over. And it's like I went to near a crack in the Universe - 'who played the Doctor? Lanky? Scottish? Wob-eye?' The Moff has owned this series so far. Long live the Moff.

She didn't get enough comeuppance. If they'd offered her in a trade off with Alaya, none of the other crap would have happened! That's my point and I'm sticking to it.

I agree about the name thing, too.

Haha. "I WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS!"




Smith is definitely overtaking Tennant in my eyes.

As for Ambrose, I agree with you and Kate. If Ambrose got deaded Rory would still be alive, or should I say would have existed!

Bloody idiots!

Dr Who Online have posted the synopsis for season finale The Big Bang on their web site without any spoiler warnings, so I now know how the previous episode ends.

Tossers.

Eejits. I'll avoid them then. I don't visit that place often anyway.

Though I can imagine it mentions the world/galaxy/universe blowing up, which is the norm, ha.

Just realised it's just 2 weeks until the finale. It has gone so fast.

^ It has, 11 weeks down as of tomorrow, only 2 left to go . . .

I read something, somewhere about a little girl must remember the stars is that about right for what they've posted?

-m0r

^Yes, but that's not the really spoilery bit!

Eleven Doctors Action Figure Set.

Not sure about either of the Baker figures - or the Pertwee one - but the Hartnell, Troughton and Davison figures look pretty good.

Excellent episode. Is next weeks part 1 of the finale?

^ Yes.

When does series 2 start? This one has passed far far to quickly. Wish they were longer

^ Series 6!

Next spring I would imagine, but there's a Christmas special on the way before that!

He was definitely wearing a towel.


Corden/Daisy Whatserface aside (don't much care for either of them), thought it was a good story, loved how it was low-key monster-wise (what little cgi there was, was done brilliantly, too).
And 11, nice.

"If you ever need me out of your hair just give me a shout"

"Why would I want that?"

"In case you want to bring someone round, a girlfriend... a boyfriend"

"Oh, I will, I'll shout if that happens, something like... I WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS!"

Absolute brilliance from Mr. Smith.

His delivery was hilarious. The talking to the cat was amusing too, I know people that do that, which made it funnier.

I actually laughed more than I should at another moment, where he closed the door, you could hear him say "oh you beauty" and then a load of clanging. Absolutely silly response from me there.

I loved this.

Corden aside, great episode. Some great comedic moments . Matt Smith is quickly trumping Tennant

As with a lot of others, I really don't like James Corden (I don't think he is half as clever as he likes to think he is) but he was okay in this - mainly because he was playing the straight man to Smith's comedy Doctor. One of the stronger episodes this year, but not quite as funny as I was expecting.

I'm revising down my opinion of Vincent and the Doctor, after watching it again on Friday, from Good to OK. There were some very good performances, and some good individual moments, but it doesn't hang together very well. Yes, you have a big emotional hit at the end (which was very good), but the whole Space Chicken bit wasn't half as good as it should have been. There were some very unconvincing bits where Curran is looking one way and the monster is evidently somewhere else. For a lot of the time he is swinging around as though he can't see it as well - which I guess was true for him as an actor, but it shouldn't have been for the character he was playing!

Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens - BBC One Trailer.

Could this be a barn-busting return to form for Moffat?

My biggest guffaw of this episode was when he took a big swig of wine and just opened his mouth to vom it back out. Hilarious.

This series has been absolute brills, very excited to see the return of Alex Kingston next week and the mystery of the crack in the wall and the Pandorica.

Urgh, Kingston's back?

She and the Doctor were smug and smugger in the disappointing weeping angels double-bill. River Song should have been left where she was, along with those stone baddies, in previous series.

I don't mind her. Though if she was more smug than previously then that would be annoying.

One thing I noticed on Saturday is another scene where we see previous incarnations of the Doctor, for about the third or fourth time this series I think. Trying to tell us something, Moffat?

I really enjoyed the last episode, even Corden. But what was witht he freaky picture in the hallway - did the eyes move???

Corden's a very fine comic actor, he's just suffering the backlash of ubiquity. Same thing happened to Jimmy Carr.

He just needs to say no to a few jobs; but not ones like Doctor Who. The other ones.

Yeah, I can't begrudge an actor for taking great jobs when they get offered. You never know when it's all going to dry up.

If only he'd stick to acting instead of trying to be some kind of plastic uber-lad. He was perfectly fine in Dr Who.

I like Corden when he's acting. His stage persona is a bit "In-your-face" but it doesn't annoy me. Not yet anyway, he just needs to wind it down a bit. I don't get the hate. At the same time I'm not sure about the people praising him as a genius.

Aside from this, he's a talented sitcom writer (In my opinion anyway, I liked Gavin and Stacey). I think he should steer clear of doing sketch shows, writing or performing.

I think he's good in G&S and I didn't mind him in DW, but I really haven't liked him in other things I've seen him in (Lesbian Vampire Killers, the sketch show he did etc).

James Corden's actually been around on TV for more than 10 years. First time I was aware of him was on Boyz Unlimited and that must've been 1999/2000, so it's a shame the whole backlash thing is happening just when he's really starting to get real recognition. He's a very good actor, both for comedy and drama, regardless. The thing about that sketch show he did with Matt Horne is that it should never have been a sketch show. It should've been a showcase where each episode focused on particular characters. James Corden's writing is suited for the on-screen slow burn, as seen with G&S, than quick sharp sketches.


But anyway, yes, liked the episode - and the Vincent one before it (nice little call back to it with the Vincent exhibition card on Craig's fridge. Although, he said he'd never been to Paris which is where the exhibition was. Hmm...).