One of the journalists states that they have gone into “seclusion”, and only a day or two passed over the course of the episode.
Via the network of Archangel satellites.
It’s subtle, and I only caught it watching again this morning, but the Doctor hears a bell tolling (the Cloister Bell?) - the Tardis is crying for help.
I know what you mean, and those traits are to some extent characteristic of RTD scripts, but there are usually reasons for everything buried in there. A better writer would not require a re-watch to get them though.
Wow, that was a bit of surreal! Watched this late last night after returning home from work, and the only coherent thought I could form was “The hell??”
Now, after watching it again this morning, I have formed a more clear opinion. This being: the Master scares the crap out of me. I don’t know why, but his loopy, frantic evil capering just gives me the heebiest of jeebies. So, I guess that means the actor is doing a good job. And Mrs. Saxon! What is up with her?! She’s blonde, she “made her choice”, she’s his “faithful companion”…she’s Evil!Rose!! Her dancing at the end as one tenth of the Earth’s population was being destroyed was just beyond bizarre and for some reason reminded me very much of the girl dancing on top of the car in Blue Velvet.
As far as the crazy techno music as the Toclafane were descending, it totally worked for me and added to my Masterphobia.
I don’t know - this whole episode was just very upsetting for me and gave me a really bad feeling, and I don’t know why.
So, the Toclafane. Some speculations I’ve seen below:
Are they Daleks (please god no)?
Are they Gelth (they certainly sound like them, and seemed to come pouring out of a rift, but why would that break the Doctor’s hearts?)?
Are they TimeLords who went insane and disappeared into the Vortex?
Are they something totally new?
On a shallow note, I really hope they de-age the Doctor quickly next week. Hard to look at, that.
Edited to add after re-reading the post above mine, I think a big part of why this upset me was seeing what happened to the TARDIS. The idea of the TARDIS as a living thing resonates strongly with me for some reason, and I find the thought of it being in pain very distressing.
Auuuuggggghhhh! Can we please have an established spoiler policy in this thread? In every other TV thread I read, information about what has already been shown in the episode named in the title is fair game and can be discussed without spoilers.
Since Struan said s/he would spoil something in post #7 (I suspect s/he meant that s/he would spoiler it, that is, put it in a spoiler box) I assumed that that post was revealing something about the final episode. When ArizonaTeach responded with
I thought it meant that the Toclafane were baby Time Lords (much as Struan speculated) and that the Big Secret of the final episode had been ruined for me! I even reported the post, thinking that “Time Tots” should be spoilered.
Just to clarify, NOTHING IN THIS THREAD SO FAR REVEALS ANYTHING ABOUT FUTURE EPISODES! It seems silly to keep putting things in spoiler boxes when it is clear from the title that this is an episode review thread. Even individual posters have been inconsistent. Struan spoilered the info about the flashback to Gallifrey and the SHOCKING NEW information that the Doctor brought down a previous PM (Harriet Jones), but revealed openly that Martha leaves Jack at the end, that the Doctor is aged, that Toclafane come “pouring out,” and that the Master hypnotizes everyone using the Archangel mobile phone system. Really, what is the point?
Well sorry. Another board I go to features a poster who gets to view future episodes before they air, and the stuff I spoilered was some of her speculation which may be coloured by things she knows that the rest of us do not, so I thought I’d err on the side of caution.
Personally, I’d vote for the following to be spoilered:
information about upcoming episodes
speculation about upcoming episodes
information from trailers about upcoming episodes
I didn’t think you (or anyone, really) did anything wrong, I just thought we should try to avoid confusion. Speculation based on possibly reliable sources should be spoilered, I agree. Wild-ass speculation based entirely on what we’ve all seen, I don’t really care either way, so long as it is clearly labeled.
Your post was somewhere in between, since your friend might have seen the next episode. I personally would have left it unspoilered, since if she had seen the last episode, I don’t imagine she’d have to guess which of the possibilities you listed is correct. But the main thing is, you identified it as speculation, so I didn’t avoid it, thinking it was solid info about the next episode, nor did others wander into it, thinking it was about yesterday’s episode. So, good job.
Anyway, I’ve been debating this episode, and Utopia, in my mind, and after the three previous, it falls kinda flat. Simm chewing the scenery is too blatant, even though the character Saxon knows he’ll win. Killing the cabinet members made no sense, his plan is supposed to hatch within 24 hours - so why do anything that might arouse suspicion. Play it safe, keep a low profile and wait to 8.02. The only reason for all this is to establish him to us, the viewers, as a truly repulsive and evil character, but we knew that.
Borrowman, when getting credit in the opening as a regular, had too little to do and Martha’s character is no Rose, and I so wish they would trade her for Sally Sparrow who was far more interesting.
All in all, we’ve had two weeks setting up the Big Bang finale, achieving less than Moffat did in 45 minutes in blink. Sorry Russ, stick to being the showrunner and let someone else do the writing/plotting.
Watched this again a bit ago and enjoyed it far more than the initial viewing. The part with the Master prancing around on Skybase (Captain Scarlet! Do de do de do!) still reminded me way too much of the Batman telly show, but it was less annoying than the first time. The Master pretty much has the same mannerisms as the Doctor, only more manic and evil. Which is growing on me.
I’m not a fan of RTD’s episodes, infact I can’t wait 'til he retires as showrunner at the end of the next season, but I enjoyed this episode.
I liked John Simms’ Master, I thought he was just the right amount of crazy. As was said earlier in the thread he’s supposed to be the Anti-Doctor, and with the new Doctor being rather “zany” having Simms ham it up in the way that he did achieves just that (I liked the gag with the door and the screaming). I really liked the idea of the Master having a companion, and I thought that Lucy was brilliantly played, especially her happy little dance whilst the Earth was being decimated.
The thing that I really liked about the episode, which suprised me somewhat, was Martha’s family. I thought that they acted in a believeable way to being cajoled by a shadowy government agency, and then being arrested and shipped off. It suprised me, simply because I’ve been against the involvement of companions’ families from day one, thinking that basically they were a crap idea… well not this time. I thought Elise Du Toit’s performance as a secret policeman was quite impressively evil (“Ready, Aim… Fire”).
I really liked the look of the new Gallifrey, and it was nice to see that they’ve kept continuity with old Who with regards to the look of the Timelords… even down to their dour expressions and costumes.
I’m also glad that they didn’t spend any time in the resolution of last week’s cliffhanger, as much as escaping zombiesque hordes breaking through the door is a good idea there wasn’t any need for it.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this episode and whilst I’m looking forward to next week’s resolution, I’m also sad that it’ll be the last one 'til Chrimbo and next March.
Oh and I too think that the Toclaphane will turn out to be the lost Time Tots.
And I hope the Timelord Battlefleet I’ve read about turns up too, I’ll be disappointed otherwise.
Is it a coincidence that there are 6 billion Totra… Tocra… spherical droid thingies, and the population of the Earth is 6.6 billion (6 billion after decimation)?
Another vote for a mess. RTD seemed to be falling back on old ticks and details that we’ve seen from him before: the companion’s family getting dragged in, killings in No. 10, TV reactions to First Contact, mind control via mobile phones and billions of hostile machines streaming out of the sky.
Did like the Master’s routine with the gas mask.
What annoys me about this BBC aging makeup technique is that everyone always winds up looking like the same elderly man. I spent most of “The Lazarus Experiment” episode wondering where I’d seen the actor playing the aged version of Gatiss before - it’s actually just him in makeup and I eventually realised that I was being reminded of Paul Whitehouse made-up as the elderly patient in Help. And now the Doctor looks just like the pair of them.
Struan is a place name, centre of the lands formerly held by Clan Donnachaidh (now called Clan Robertson ) near Blair Atholl in Perthshire, Scotland. The clan chieftain was called Chief Whatever of Struan, but the family name was Robertson. I’m descended from this family.
Lots of other families took on the name though, because apparently the chiefs were fair-minded in comparison with others in the area. From the wiki link:
Nowadays the name Struan is used as a first name - mostly Robertsons and the various septs (Reid, Stark and Duncan being most common I think). It seems fairly popular among the revival of Gaelic names going on at the moment.
I’ve never read Noble House, but I’ve heard its based on the history of Jardine Matheson & co. - a Scots founded company with a rather colourful history in the Far East.
