Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Not as good as the last one, but still pretty cool, and the Fall of Arcadia is something that has become almost a myth in nuwho. Tennant mentions it when facing down the Cult of Skaro, 'one day I might even come to terms with that.'. Seeing it from the soldier's POV was a little too much like the first level of any FPS for me (look over here... look up... look down ect). The dalek was a little predictable but still cool.

Still very much excited for Saturday, and also for An Adventure in Space ad Time on BBC2 tonight, should be very good.

Even though the PoV annoyed me, Fall of Arcadia! I can't wait!

Well, the Last Day was pretty awful, glad I didn't pay for it.

An Adventure in Space and Time was an exceptionally moving, well-written and stunning piece of television, I recommend anyone who didn't see it last night looking it up. Even if you're not that into Old Who, it's a great piece of drama and well worth watching.

1 day to go...

So, that was just plain weird, then.

That 50th Anniversary Episode was great! God Tom Baker is old...

 Compel wrote:
So, that was just plain weird, then.

Yep. I can't tell if I liked it or not

I never was able too get into DW. But I've just seen the 50th anniversarie and I am hooked! My favourite part was in the end with all the doctors standing together (well sort off).

The episode was absolutely brilliant!

Interesting that they included an eye shot of the next doctor but didn't have him at the ending.

Also a nice new epic quest/story arc for the doctor to occupy himself with in the next few series.

I really enjoyed it, loved the hat tip to Tom Baker as the most popular doctor but a bit more of John Hurt would have been even better, perhaps 90 minutes rather than the odd timing of 75 mins.

Also good work on organising a worldwide screening with other networks for simultaneous post discussion.

Hooo boy! Very nice.

I wish there was more Time War and less Zygons... would have loved to have seen the Nightmare Child or the army of meanwhiles and neverwheres and the could have been king.

BUT

It hit all the right notes to me, it did what it needed to, bringing back Gallifrey, redeeming the character, and setting up a great quest arc for the next series.

Great to get a peek at... what I guess now is the 13th, Capaldi

I will miss Matt Smith very much though, he was my Doctor.

 MajorTom11 wrote:

I will miss Matt Smith very much though, he was my Doctor.

He has definitely been my favourite of the new doctor who.

Does this mean we now know of 15 incarnations? 13 doctors, the curator and the valeyard?

The Curator was Tom Baker's Doctor, not an unknown incarnation, and AFAIK the Valeyard is not necessarily a numbered incarnation, either, but more of a title based on his actions, or rather something akin the Dream Lord - existing as part of an existing Doctor as opposed to an altogether separate one.

Wow, the episode was brilliant. Just brilliant. Fantastic, even.

Funny, well-written, great acting, and JOHN HURT! I loved the way Hurt seemed to become the voice of Fandom, bemoaning the overuse of the sonic and endless arm-waving. He was the perfect gap between old and new style of Doctor. I did feel that Billie Piper's role was a little forced, but still worked.

Would have liked more Time War, less Zygon, or just a longer episode, as some of the Zygon stuff was pure gold. The rabbit scene was hilarious. I'd liked to have seen a proper resolution to the Zygon plot, but it's not essential.

The shots of the old Doctors and Capaldi were great, and now we've had the war Doctor-9th Doctor Regeneration (if not in full) we've now seen the complete set. I liked the appearances from the past that have been deniedfor months. Tom Baker was also a nice surprise, even if he had announced it to the world a few days ago online.

The change to the Time War plot was very well-handled, changing the setting and character of the show without breaking it. Should go somewhere interesting.

Looking forward, the teaser for Christmas looks great. Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, the Silence... This is hopefully going to wrap up a lot of plots so it can really get going in the new direction in 2014 with Capaldi at the helm.

Also, if you haven't seen the '5-ish Doctors rebooted' on the BBC site/red button service, check it out, it's hilariously good.

Regarding the Valeyard, he is a representation of a possible future of the doctor between his 12th and 13th incarnations (ie Smith and Capaldi), so it's not an actual regeneration. The Dream Lord is just a manifestation of his subconscious, and the Curator is I think an alternative version of Tom Baker's doctor. Not too sure on that last one though.

Ah, I'm worn out now. Probably going to go and watch Day of the Doctor again now....

That episode was fething amazing.
The three minute scene showing the actual fall of Arcadia was so incredible, I almost forgot to breath.

And by far the best line: "What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?"
The close second being "Geronimo!" "Allons-y!" "For God's sake, Gallifrey stands!"

 -Shrike- wrote:

And by far the best line: "What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?"
The close second being "Geronimo!" "Allons-y!" "For God's sake, Gallifrey stands!"

Agreed, Hurt's dialogue and criticisms of the new doctors was great. I loved the 'Can't you say anything without waving your arms around?' and the comments on the outfits and reliance on the sonic. The Tennant-Smith dialogue was also awesome.

MS pulls out larger sonic
DT: Someone's compensating.
MS: Compensating for what?
DT: Regeneration, it's a lucky dip.

Hilarious.

I liked it, but I was really hoping to see the Nightmare Child and a reference to the Crucible falling into its jaws.

Also, it seems that now, all that Smith has to do is go to Trenzalor, regenerate (because he won't want to go, Tennant says so) into Capaldi, find Gallifrey, then be gifted with a new set of regenerations for saving them from the time war.

Also, doesn't that mean that the Doctor's mother is still down there before serving as a "weeping angel?" Also, this means that something can be done with the loose ends with Rassillon from The End of Time.

EDIT: And thank you, Moffat. You didn't turn the anniversary special into an "I miss Rose" pity party. (That's what I was expecting as soon as it was announced that she'd be in the episode.)

 Avatar 720 wrote:
The Curator was Tom Baker's Doctor, not an unknown incarnation, and AFAIK the Valeyard is not necessarily a numbered incarnation, either, but more of a title based on his actions, or rather something akin the Dream Lord - existing as part of an existing Doctor as opposed to an altogether separate one.

The curator said that the Doctor would return to old faces in the future. Granted, I just watched it but... I think this is a future incarnation that chose Tom Baker's face to go back to, not Tom Baker's doctor. After all, if it was Tom Baker's doctor that would be some explaining to do. As for the Valeyard, even if it is a title based on actions it is a future incarnation that takes that title. The dream lord is an incarnation that wasn't a doctor, just part of his consciousness because of dream pollen or whatever.

The explanation for the curator is that the producer wanted a cameo role for Tom Baker as the oldest surviving Dr. Who actor, who is also the longest serving in the role and one of the most popular.

His on screen persona may have represented the current Doctor’s subconscious mind integrating changed knowledge of the outcome of the Time War.

Wow. This is probably the best NuWho episode yet. It hit every note. Would I have liked more Time War, less Zygon? Yep. In the end, that doesn't really matter. My only real complaint was that it was too short - and extra 15 minutes would've been perfect.

Also, some more random thoughts and observations:

Did anyone else wipe away tears of joy when the Doctors realized they could save Gallifrey? Man. I haven't felt that much emotion in ages.

I totally didn't expect to see Peter Capaldi's angry-puffin eyes staring out of the screen at me. I quite literally whooped!

The parallels between the Doctors' situation and the Human/Zygon situation were really neat.

Overall, I'm very excited to see that there's a huge new plot arc coming up, one that could very possible change everything about the show. I mean, the return of the Timelords would be HUGE. I'm really gonna miss Matt, though - I started DW with season 6, so I'm very emotionally attached to him. Still, Capaldi will most likely be brilliant.

Anyways, I need to go have a lie-down or I'm afraid my heart will burst from excitement.

~Tim?

I have been musing this. I wonder if we will see a pretty young male assistant when Capaldi takes the reins, in order to retain the seeming horde of young female viewers the show currently has?

I predict a floppy haired fella as an assistant if the viewing figures are deemed to dip with Capaldi returning the Doctor to old irritable bastard status.

Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:

Overall, I'm very excited to see that there's a huge new plot arc coming up, one that could very possible change everything about the show. I mean, the return of the Timelords would be HUGE. I'm really gonna miss Matt, though - I started DW with season 6, so I'm very emotionally attached to him. Still, Capaldi will most likely be brilliant.

I also started with the 11th Doctor, but gone back and watched most everything else (working through Classic Who now). I do wonder though, if they bring back the Time Lords, will the be like from the Christmas Special that gave us Matt Smith? (evil masterminds trying to come out of "exile") or will the be more or less, good guys?

MeanGreenStompa wrote:I have been musing this. I wonder if we will see a pretty young male assistant when Capaldi takes the reins, in order to retain the seeming horde of young female viewers the show currently has?

I predict a floppy haired fella as an assistant if the viewing figures are deemed to dip with Capaldi returning the Doctor to old irritable bastard status.

I personally think that if they get some air time for male companions/assistants, they may go with their tried and true, Captain Jack Harkness. Or, they'd probably go a similar route to the Rory/Amy dynamic, though perhaps siblings instead of married couple?

Siblings does seem to make sense.

And especially since Clara is all alternative reality / reincarnation / splintered through time stuff anyway, they could very well get a lot of mileage out of something like Clara's brother but not Clara-the-companion's brother. Especially if the brother's Clara has (yet another) horrible death.

Adding in a brother would be far better than the alternative I imagine they'll go for, introducing a Micky/Rory boyfriend character.

To be honest, though, I just hope Clara's gone by the end of the next series, unless the writing for her character gets a heck of a lot better.

I enjoyed it, I found the Zygons a bit misplaced and they often seemed reduced to slobbering monsters, especially when in their natural orange form, that growl instead of their more talkative and quiet menace of their original appearance.

The story changed what we know about the time war well without hitting a reset button, the insertion of another Doctor between the others was done well and John Hurt was a great addition. It's a shame Eccleston didn't want to be involved but he has his reasons, and his absence did seem a bit obvious at times, but we had a good multi doctor story all the same and all the older doctors were included as much as could be practical.

Now I'll be buying that not-John Hurt Doctor from Heresy Miniatures. Oh yes, need all my 12 Doctors together.

Did anyone else really like how Moffat handled Rose? I'd take this Rose over RTD's any day.

~Tim?

 Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:
Did anyone else really like how Moffat handled Rose? I'd take this Rose over RTD's any day.

~Tim?

To be honest, I did. The excuse did seem a little shoehorned in at first, but on the other hand, it was far far better than her other reappearances (like the one in Stolen Earth/Journey's End) which seemed to be just yet another repeat of the frankly poor Doctor-Rose love story. So yeah, better 'consciousness of ultimate weapon' than 'the Doctor's ex shows up again, cue snogging.'