[Official] Doctor Who Thread

By Rappy
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Grand Master

Son_Of_Dad

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I liked their use - a scanner/HUD display/remote camera. It made far more sense than waving the screwdriver at something and pretending to read a display. I'd say use the glasses for things like that, and the screwdriver for picking locks, working screws, detonating marsh gas.

I think there's room for both, and the glasses made more sense in the context of what Doctor Who was actually doing.

I don't really like either in the new series, I didn't have an issue with the limited function sonic from the old series, it didn't even open locks all the time but just to wave it in the air for whatever the plot calls for is sloppy writing to then use as a 'get out' of whatever story hole has been dug is worse writing. As for the glasses it would be better if they weren't just off the shelf glasses but then again they could easily look cheesy, surely they could add some small CGI tags and just have a random light(s) blink on occasion.

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lamminium

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No he hasn't. It was introduced, as a gag, in the last Troughton story back in 1969, and became an occasional tool for Pertwee. Then it was destroyed in the Davison era and he, Colin and Sylvester did without one. Then it was brought back for the movie and new series.

It didn't become Doctor Who's All Purpose Magic Fix-It Wand until the new series. That overuse makes me wish it would go away.

Couldn't agree more.

I thought the sunglasses were quite appropriate for the last three episodes. 

  • DConnell and Draconian Guppy
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Grand Master

+Peewee210 Subscriber¹

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Love how all the comments are about the sonic sunglasses, and not about the episode itself!

I feel 3 episodes in, this series is much better than the previous. Series 8 was horrific, I think I only enjoyed 1 episode. Enjoyed 'Under the Lake', and ended with a good cliffhanger. I do hope it's not one of those 'they're trapped in a bad place, they're not bad guys, we'll set them free, thanks Doctor/Carla, kthxbi' 

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lamminium

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Love how all the comments are about the sonic sunglasses, and not about the episode itself!

I feel 3 episodes in, this series is much better than the previous. Series 8 was horrific, I think I only enjoyed 1 episode. Enjoyed 'Under the Lake', and ended with a good cliffhanger. I do hope it's not one of those 'they're trapped in a bad place, they're not bad guys, we'll set them free, thanks Doctor/Carla, kthxbi' 

Let's hope.:P

This season started really well. 

Grand Master

MikeChipshop Member

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Could barely get through the latest episode (3), just a lot of overly dramatic music to make things seem more suspenseful than they were.
I'd imagine this was going for the same sort of claustrophobic 'trapped' feel that 'Midnight' got so right, yet to me it felt like a bunch of actors running around a set trying to act around some odd CGI. 

So far though, i'm liking the type of Doctor that Capaldi is playing, he's doing a really good job at it, and as for the sonic sunglasses, pffft, any of us out there old enough to remember anything before the reboot will know the doc occasionally latches on to a new idea that's "Of the time", just got to go with the flow really :p

Grand Master

DConnell Member

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Hate the glasses. What's next to 'update' the show? Fix the camo circuit, and change the Tardis from a phone box?

If the Sonic screwdriver has been with the Doctor sine 1969 that's still a good 46 years dangit!

 

The screwdriver hasn't been a constant presence the whole time. It didn't become standard equipment until Tom's era, and was absent for most of the 80s and 90s. The 90s meaning the comics and New Adventures novels, of course since there was no show.

The TARDIS has been briefly changed, back in Attack of the Cybermen. But since the BBC owns the design of the POLICE Box, it's unlikely to change long term. The TARDIS is a lot more central and iconic to the show than an overblown plot device.

Frankly, I have far less issue with the glasses than I had with "Doctor Who's All-Purpose Magic Fix-Everything Wand" since the glasses so far have specific uses. I'd be ok with the glasses going, as long as the Screwdriver stays gone or at least in a reduced role.

It's a multitool, not a magic wand. It should have specific functions, rather than the near-infinite capabilities the writers have given the  SS in recent years.

Edited by DConnell
Grand Master

margrave

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It's not a magic wand. Doesn't work on wood.

The episodes are good, and Capaldi is a great actor, and I like his Doctor. I like Missy.

The sunglasses are not only silly, but they looks SO cheap. Like they just ran out to the corner pharmacy like a Walgreens, and just grabbed a pair of dollar sunglasses.

Not only silly, but cheap. Would be better to give him a smartphone of some kind.... a tricorder of sorts if you don't like the screwdriver, which is perfect by the way.

It you don't like the sonic screwdriver, and how it can fix most everything, it's only because you can't fully understand alien technology. When's the last time you went to Gallifrey? Of course it just fixes most issues on this planet in our time period, or in our past! It's a superior piece of technology compared to what we have!

Now on other planets, and in future time periods sure, but not a European swallow. I agree with that.

Grand Master

DConnell Member

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It's not a magic wand. Doesn't work on wood.

The episodes are good, and Capaldi is a great actor, and I like his Doctor. I like Missy.

The sunglasses are not only silly, but they looks SO cheap. Like they just ran out to the corner pharmacy like a Walgreens, and just grabbed a pair of dollar sunglasses.

Not only silly, but cheap. Would be better to give him a smartphone of some kind.... a tricorder of sorts if you don't like the screwdriver, which is perfect by the way.

It you don't like the sonic screwdriver, and how it can fix most everything, it's only because you can't fully understand alien technology. When's the last time you went to Gallifrey? Of course it just fixes most issues on this planet in our time period, or in our past! It's a superior piece of technology compared to what we have!

Now on other planets, and in future time periods sure, but not a European swallow. I agree with that.

I'm guessing you've only watched the new series? The Sonic Screwdriver didn't have "magic" powers back in the old series, and it was still written out in the John Nathan-Turner era because it made things too easy for Doctor Who. And now that's been taken to a ludicrous extreme! Having an arbitrary limitation like "doesn't work on wood" doesn't change the fact that it's about the only thing the screwdriver can't do. It takes away from the fun of the show IMO.

The glasses work because they do look ordinary - their high-tech properties are in how they work. So far they broadcast a signal that the TARDIS can home in on, and they can scan transmit visual images. That isn't unreasonable for a piece of alien tech to do.

Basically, I'd rather have a prop that "looks cheap" like you claim the glasses do than one that allows cheap storytelling like the screwdriver has become. But then cheap looking props and sets are a tradition in Doctor Who. :)

The screwdriver either needs to stay gone or be reduced to its Pertwee/Baker era capabilities.

On the show itself, I'm somewhat liking the fact that we're getting our second 2 parter of the season. It reminds me of the classic series serial format. I'd love if we got back to that, as I feel that another weakness of the new series (apart from the all-powerful Sonic Screwdriver) is the need to wrap everything up in 47 minutes. The half-hour serial format allowed for much richer storytelling; more character development, more in-depth problem resolutions, a less hectic pace. This story especially would feel right at home in the Troughton era, and that's a good thing! (And he didn't rely on a magic screwdriver, either!)

Mentor

Veiva

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I was actually skeptical of this story for the first 20-30 minutes. It felt too much like Silence in the Library (rich guy doesn't care about his employees dying, and when they die, they become the enemy) and The Satan Pit (undecipherable text being crucial plot point), but I was wrong. Pretty neat story so far, looking forward to the next episode.

I also don't care about the sonic screwdriver being replaced with fancy eyewear. Although the screwdriver had a better aesthetic, that's the only thing it did better... The handwaving on how the screwdriver actually works was very jarring at times.

Grand Master

Draconian Guppy

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Are they really any worse than the crap the Doctor has used over the years though? 3D glasses to see hell particles and what not? Etc?

Actually I thought that was kinda clever in the sense that something as mundane as 3d glasses helped solve extra-universal issues.

Grand Master

MikeChipshop Member

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3D glasses were campy fun. These sunglasses are just sad. Like he's trying to be cool. Be something he's not. Not true to himself.

Pffft... Capaldi himself is an old punker/rocker, if any one should be wearing cheapo looking sunnies, it's him :D

I actually have a very similar pair, that cost me £1 (yes, £1!) from Tesco :p

Grand Master

LOC Veteran

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Actually I thought that was kinda clever in the sense that something as mundane as 3d glasses helped solve extra-universal issues.

Sure in the context of whatever epsidoe(s) anything could be considered clever I suppose. I was just pulling something out of my butt for that one though :D

I'm just talking in general of course though. I mean I started watching Doctor Who in 1979 and I gotta say - the Doctor has used some weird things over the years :|

  • lamminium and Draconian Guppy
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