I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the possibility of portraying such ‘leakage’ was offered to Capaldi by the show’s producers as an interesting acting challenge, to induce him to accept the role.
I kind of feel that Clara’s last minute change of attitude was the writers’ way of apologizing for the previous episode, and promising us we’ll never have to think about it again.
Knowing Capaldi’s level of Doctor Who fanboyism, I doubt they had to do anything to induce him to accept the role. I’m picturing more as, “Okay, Peter, okay! You’ve got the part! Now go away and leave us alone until it’s time to start shooting!” 
Reasonably certain that a) the episode has been in the can for weeks, making it impossible for it to be a response to some part of the fan base having a hissy-cow, b) the writers did not deliberately put something out they thought was crap, thereby causing them to feel a need to apologize, and c) in the unlikely event they’re responding to anything about last week, it’s just as likely they’re taking a bow for the many glowing reviews as for the folks who went apopletic.
Enjoyed this one quite a lot more than the last one (which I liked just fine), mostly because it was just gorgeous to look at. I’m a huge sucker for concepts like, ‘On a train…IN SPAAACE’, but that aside, the Doctor was fantastic in this episode! The little scenes of him talking to himself, the jelly baby cigarette case, all of it. I especially adored the moment on the beach where he says, “No, I just got us out of there and let them suffocate,” punctuated with that little laugh that was just uncomfortable enough that it kinda makes you wonder…
I think Clara’s change of heart was supposed to be the natural progression to the ‘addiction’ metaphor she and the Doctor had discussed. Earlier she’d asked him if he was going to stop by to see her occasionally, and didn’t seem to believe his “yes”, so stepping off the Tardis would have been like quitting cold turkey with no chance of going back. When faced with it, that probably seemed like too much for her.
If she keeps being as good as she has been this season, she can stay. Lose Pink, though. Or make him more . . . . something.
This was my favorite of the season so far. I like a good mystery and I like the way this played out. And a lot of little fun bits for the fans!
Ditto.
This was my favorite episode this season. I thought the reason for his mummy-like appearance was clever.
Does anyone else think that when Clara told Miss Pitt the Doctor could save her (or whatever the exact quote was) that even though the Doctor told her it was a lie, Clara thought it was actually the truth? In other words, did Clara’s faith in the Doctor make her believe that she wasn’t actually lying?
Concur. I like Clara as a generally competent companion, rather than the usual “sidekick whose moments of glory are highlighted by what a wreck s/he is most of the time”.
I do think they are going somewhere with the “Pink as soldier” thing, though. They’re just making a few solid orbits of the point before coming down to it.
Because this train was intended as a high-tech simulacrum of an earth-bound train and thus including things like smoke effects seems inwardly consistent. Rather like disguising a car or truck as a hotdog for a large corporation, or some amusement park attraction. Just as the interiors of the cars were cosmetically re-creating an old style of transportation, having similar cosmetic touches on an advanced magiteck spaceship does not require the same suspension of disbelief as demanded by last week’s episode. It’s cosplay for a spaceship, not a violation of laws of physics.
There are riverboat rides you can go on today that on first look appear to be steam-powered paddleboats. It’s only once you get on them and take a closer look that you realize that the paddle-wheels aren’t connected to anything and the boats are actually being powered by conventional marine diesel engines driving propellers, and the smokestacks and steam effects are just set dressing. The train in this episode was the same thing - a fantasy ride created as a simulation of an old earth train. The smoke from the stacks, the engine sounds, even most of the passengers were just fake set dressing to sell the illusion, as demonstrated when Gus switched off the holograms to reveal the actual interiors of the train.
The thing is, last episode’s ride just wasn’t enjoyable. The science was rubbish AND the story arc / character development was rubbish. I thought the “sometimes humans have to decide their own fate” thing was fine and that Clara’s flip out over it was unnecessary dreck.
I think that the Doctor and Clara’s relationship becoming such a focal point is a sign that the writers are out of ideas, and the sooner they get away from it, the better.
I disagree. It was stupid, but it was fun.
Except the “window dressing” last week were major plot points, whereas this time they weren’t, so they can be dismissed.
Smoke doesn’t work that way, and if the smoke had become a plot point, that would be incredibly annoying. If there were 10 other things like that, I’d have hated it as much as the last episode. The train was silly, but was just an eccentrically-shaped spaceship. Like a police box or something.
One huge annoyance: how did they get into the Tardis? Did they disable the force field? It doesn’t seem that Gus would have done so. That seems like a contrivance that was fixed at the speed of plot (as was the timing of the mummy’s appearance, which was annoying but not story-breaking). Done offscreen, no less.
In the first place, how do you know how smoke behaves in hyperspace?
Secondly, the whole thing was a historical re-enactment. Think of it as a simulation. The smoke is not functional, it’s part of the set dressing. They have some future technology to make the smoke behave like that. Maybe it’s holographic smoke, or something.
Well, yes. Bodies outside behaved as if they were in a vacuum. Smoke in a vacuum doesn’t look like that. I almost suggested holo-smoke but figured it was tangential. The point is, were it pointed out to be real smoke, and be an important plot point, it would be annoying.
I’m reminded of the Star Trek Enterprise episode where they land on a comet with a shuttle. I said to myself, “self, we know there’s basically no gravity on the comet, but it’s hard to film that so we won’t worry about it” and then there was an avalanche or someone got hurt trying to climb out of a depression on the surface, etc. In other words, the very science error I was willing to forgive was made THE important plot point.
My wife’s theory is this:
Moffat is a hack who constantly has to steal, er, homage other peoples work in order to come up with a coherent episode.
There’s some meme out there that says that the Amy/Rory/11 relationship is a lot like “Twilight”, which has done nothing but reinforced her viewpoint.
They had a teleporter. It’s a common convention that whatever magic makes force fields work also buggers up teleporters, but mostly that’s in fictional universes where teleporters are common enough to make force fields that don’t block teleporters pointless.
Or, the Doctor could have gotten past the force field whenever he wanted, but didn’t want to leave until he solved the mystery.