Christmas Special - (Spoilers)

Das Kitty

Das Kitty wrote: »

I didn't hear her mention Mum at all. I still need a re-watch though.

I just flicked through the family scenes on bbc iplayer >>

Penn

Actually, maybe she's River Song

Frank Lee Midere

Stepmother would explain the coolness between them.

Busi_Girl08

It was mentioned pretty non-chalently in the behind the scenes feature that she is Clara's stepmother

Apolloyon

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

It was mentioned pretty non-chalently in the behind the scenes feature that she is Clara's stepmother

Ah busted! Oh well. It would have been nice if that had been clarified onscreen though. Thanks for sorting that out!

CastorTroy

Why didn't the Doctor go somewhere nice and quiet to regenerate instead of a moving TARDIS? It's like being told you're about to have a heart attack and then deciding to go for a drive. Did he not learn from becoming Matt Smith?

Penn

CastorTroy wrote: »

Why didn't the Doctor go somewhere nice and quiet to regenerate instead of a moving TARDIS? It's like being told you're about to have a heart attack and then deciding to go for a drive. Did he not learn from becoming Matt Smith?

Yeah even when Eccleston regenerated into Tennant he pretty much crashed.

Then again, like Tennant said regenerating kind of feels like dying. So it makes sense that he'd want to do it in what would be his favourite place to be; flying in the Tardis.

Cyndaquil

CastorTroy wrote: »

Why didn't the Doctor go somewhere nice and quiet to regenerate instead of a moving TARDIS? It's like being told you're about to have a heart attack and then deciding to go for a drive. Did he not learn from becoming Matt Smith?

I thought the same! Fair enough if he wants to be in the TARDIS but why set it in motion?

One thing I missed was no 'I am the Doctor' during the episode, though 'Wake Up' did seem to be fitting.

And was it just me or was that Ten's action theme played when Tasha Lem dedicates the Church to Silence?

ixoy

Okay.. So there was a few lines in there about how the Silence split off and went back in time five hundred years. What was this referring to? I'm under the weather but I'm sure it was clarifying something about a previous plot.

Doctor DooM

ixoy wrote: »

Okay.. So there was a few lines in there about how the Silence split off and went back in time five hundred years. What was this referring to? I'm under the weather but I'm sure it was clarifying something about a previous plot.

The Silents who invaded earth, blew up the Tardis, and generally made the Doctors life miserable in the past were not doing so with the blessig of Tasha Lem. They were a splinter group.

Das Kitty

ixoy wrote: »

Okay.. So there was a few lines in there about how the Silence split off and went back in time five hundred years. What was this referring to? I'm under the weather but I'm sure it was clarifying something about a previous plot.

The whole of series 6 pretty much. Kovarian's splinter group was responsible, taking Amy, stealing the baby, making her into River etc.

All that stuff that's really effing bleak if you think about it for too long.

Lord TSC

I also don't know if it's been commented on, but we finally got to see what was behind the Doctor's Door as well....

Das Kitty

Teamshadowclan wrote: »

I also don't know if it's been commented on, but we finally got to see what was behind the Doctor's Door as well....

Which made no sense because at the time his comment was, "who else?" He didn't know the time lords were back there til this episode.

It would have made more sense for it to be the War Doctor IMO. Ah well.

Penn

Teamshadowclan wrote: »

I also don't know if it's been commented on, but we finally got to see what was behind the Doctor's Door as well....

I was a bit surprised at that to be honest. One the War Doctor was revealed, I just assumed it was him in that room. It makes sense when you think about it, as the Room is supposed to contain what you fear the most, and he wasn't afraid of the War Doctor, it was just a part of him he regretted and was ashamed of. I suppose the fact he didn't know what caused the cracks and didn't know what they really meant frightened him.

TOMs WIFE

Sometimes I just wish that they would take a break from all the cheeky chappy childish humour and do some serious sci fi for a change. Without relentlessly coming back to present day earth, and maybe giving the BBC period drama wardrobe department a break as well now and then...it's just lazy stuff from Moffat.

pixelburp

TOMs WIFE wrote: »

Sometimes I just wish that they would take a break from all the cheeky chappy childish humour and do some serious sci fi for a change. Without relentlessly coming back to present day earth, and maybe giving the BBC period drama wardrobe department a break as well now and then...it's just lazy stuff from Moffat.

Apart from a period in the early 1980s, when Christopher Bidmead did much of the writing, Doctor Who has almost never been 'serious sci-fi' so I think you'll be waiting for a long time if you're looking for the show to be along the Battlestar Galactica levels spectrum of seriousness.

TOMs WIFE

pixelburp wrote: »

Apart from a period in the early 1980s, when Christopher Bidmead did much of the writing, Doctor Who has almost never been 'serious sci-fi' so I think you'll be waiting for a long time if you're looking for the show to be along the Battlestar Galactica levels spectrum of seriousness.

Indeed. Maybe "serious sci fi" was pushing it! But it has gotten very childish. I hope Capaldi has some decent stuff written for him that suits his age. I'm tired of young girls being placed in a borderline "equality" role too! Man up Doctor!

ixoy

TOMs WIFE wrote: »

Indeed. Maybe "serious sci fi" was pushing it! But it has gotten very childish.

Gotten? I don't see how it's any more childish now than at any point since its return. Tennant's era was particularly childish at times.

I hope Capaldi has some decent stuff written for him that suits his age. I'm tired of young girls being placed in a borderline "equality" role too! Man up Doctor!

Not a chance that we will return to the old companion dynamic. They'll now nearly always be on a more level footing as that's the way it's been designed for the current audience. The screaming girl sidekick is finished.

pixelburp

TOMs WIFE wrote: »

Indeed. Maybe "serious sci fi" was pushing it! But it has gotten very childish. I hope Capaldi has some decent stuff written for him that suits his age. I'm tired of young girls being placed in a borderline "equality" role too! Man up Doctor!

Completely disagree on both points; there's more than enough grim, overwrought drama on the TV, and it's nice to watch a show like Doctor Who that still remembers the concept of levity and fun. Mind you, we're a long way from Slitheen and the overall camp silliness of the RTD era so not sure what's so childish; if anything Moffats turn is noteworthy for turning the show into something of a dark fairytale.

As for the air-quotes over equality, well I for one am glad the show moved away from the often-times embarrassingly patronising tone it took with female companions. I'd like to see more male faces in the TARDIS myself, Rory added a useful dynamic to the interactions when he was travelling, but the one thing the new run has shown has been the importance of companionship for the Doctor. Not even sure "man up" is supposed to mean - the Doc's not an alpha-male lunkhead protagonist, he's an asexual, 1500 year old alien pacifist; what's to man up?

flazio

TOMs WIFE wrote: »

Sometimes I just wish that they would take a break from all the cheeky chappy childish humour and do some serious sci fi for a change. Without relentlessly coming back to present day earth, and maybe giving the BBC period drama wardrobe department a break as well now and then...it's just lazy stuff from Moffat.

You have to remember where the program is slotted. Prime time Saturday Night on the main flagship channel of the United Kingdom. You start putting high concept Science Fiction in a slot like that, then you're going to lose that slot very fast. You need to be entertaining to remain in that slot.

ebbsy

flazio wrote: »

You have to remember where the program is slotted. Prime time Saturday Night on the main flagship channel of the United Kingdom. You start putting high concept Science Fiction in a slot like that, then you're going to lose that slot very fast. You need to be entertaining to remain in that slot.

They also cannot disturb the revenue streams.

Frank Lee Midere

TOMs WIFE wrote: »

Indeed. Maybe "serious sci fi" was pushing it! But it has gotten very childish. I hope Capaldi has some decent stuff written for him that suits his age. I'm tired of young girls being placed in a borderline "equality" role too! Man up Doctor!

Dr Who is magic. It's a magic man in a box , bigger on the inside, who can travel anywhere in time or space without obvious propulsion and who has a magic wand. Well, screwdriver.

pixelburp

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

Dr Who is magic. It's a magic man in a box , bigger on the inside, who can travel anywhere in time or space without obvious propulsion and who has a magic wand. Well, screwdriver.

Exactly: Doctor Who isn't Science-Fiction, it's Science-Fantasy really at this point in its run, and as much as I enjoyed the Bidmead era of Dr. Who - Warrior's Gate a particular favourite in the generally forgotten / maligned season 18 - it was still a fairly torpid & ponderous phase, completely anti-mainstream, and often jarred against the light-hearted spirit of Who anyway

Doctor DooM

Interesting points raised from Radio Free Skaro's review:

Further to the point about Clara being the companion that subverts the norm by always saving him, she also subverted the "I always watch my companions grow old" thing. she watched him.

Perhaps the weakness in 7B was down to Moffat's energies being directed towards the "...of the Doctor" trilogy.

The Master's seal is a direct reference to the story where he gets offered a new regeneration cycle by the Timelords (I've the 5 Doctors too and I forgot about that!)

Clara repeats the whole thing that "his name is really the Doctor" thing to the Timelords, possibly she remembers his name from the book in the Tardis too (her memories returned) and really meant that.

Mr.Saturn

Now that, lads, is how you send off a Doctor. A quiet celebration of the role, with an undercurrent of sadness that reveals itself slowly, yet imbued with an optimism for what's to come that demonstrates wholly why Doctor Who is a show unlike any other.

Moffat beautifully dodged another future plot-restraint too. All we know is that The Doctor got a new regeneration cycle, there was never a number bolted onto it. Yes, 13 lives is standard, but it does leave us with a little more wiggle-room than the Deadly Assassin.

Gingervitis

I thought this was nice. It shows Matt Smith on his read through of the script and he starts tearing up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgE1dkJanEc&t=7m55s

MrVestek

I love how he clings on to Moffat like a little kid...

Eamo71

Finally got around to watching the Christmas episode. My kids loved it - it's really great kids TV as it always was and of course the adults can watch as well a good all round family show. Roll on the new doctor and goodbye to Matt. It was emotional.