Yup. I don’t think the Doctor was late at all, let alone 12 years late.
“Parts of space and time pushed together”? ID badges saying 1990 but 2010 technology? Prisoner Zero taunting the Doctor for not knowing where the cracks (plural? can’t remember) came from?
Yeah, I reckon he wasn’t 12 years late. I think two parts of space and time got pushed together, and this is going to be a theme throughout the series.
I wanted to just question why you thought this was significant? Amy said that Leadworth was 30 minutes’ drive from the nearest city which was Gloucester, how is that cut off from the rest of civilisation? There are lots of small villages and towns like that in the UK which are a short drive from the nearest city. If you go to places like Scotland and northern England you can be hours from civilisation.
Hmmmm. That’s interesting. Moffat seems to have put a lot of hints (and no doubt red herrings) in for the geekier end of the fan spectrum. He was a regular poster on Outpost Gallifrey before he took over the main role (and even deliberately included a joke in Blink referring to a very long running fandom bugbear), so he knows what the fans can be like - it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s having fun fucking with peoples heads a little.
Details?
It’s when Sally and Billy are in the basement of the police station looking at the Tardis: Billy says something along the lines of “it appears to be a standard 1960s police box, except that the windows are the wrong size”. The latter part being a point of contention on Outpost Gallifrey ever since the first publicity stills of the RTD era. Yes, that’s really geeky. 
Also, the Millennium Dome (or whatever it’s called now) and London Eye were also in the opening shot, dating it as at least the 21st Century when he crashed into Amelia’s garden.
I could see that being a potential production error…but the badge…no way.
-Joe
That’s not a lie detector, that’s the crack appearing on the TARDIS scanner. Prisoner Zero implies that there are cracks appearing throughout the universe (and is surprised that the Doctor doesn’t know about them).
…umm, I think you miss his point. (Although it is a subtle one.) The Doctor says he is lonely. The honest truth is [speculation] something is happening that involves the village, Amy and cracks. and he is taking Amy away to get to the bottom of it. [/end speculation] The Doctor knows about the crack and I believe he knows what it means, and he needs Amy to fix it. Does that make sense?
I was wondering if I should ask to get the thread title changed so that this thread can be a series long (UK pace) thread. This has been a busy enough thread, but inevitably after the season opener activity will drop off a bit on subsequent episode threads - I’m thinking that it might be best just to keep the conversation in here?
Any thoughts?
Sounds like a good idea to me, especially since the series looks to have a fairly strong arc across it.
-Joe
Regarding Alex Kingston and her role in upcoming episodes, the BBC Press Office has a synopsis for episode 4 - link for those who want spoilers.
Sorry for PM’ing pretty much everybody in this thread with a restatement of post number 90. I probably should go and lie down for a bit.
A nap sounds good.
I expect and hope that season five will have a great continuous story through it, so a long-running thread makes sense.
So since it says UK pace in the title I take it we don’t have to use spoilers anymore?
Huh.
Re-enters? I was assuming that this would actually be enters as we have to find out how they first meet …
I just re-watched it, and find myself with tears in my eyes at the scene of young Amelia sitting on her suitcase. It’s a scene of emotional impact with Sarah Jane Smith saying “You were my life!”
Am I the first to post about tonight’s episode? Cool!
Wow. Just wow. I was completely blown away by tonight’s episode; it had everything you need to make a truly memorable. There was mystery, there was sheer creepiness, there was action, there was a great climax followed by a genuinely touching and almost heart rending ending (I nearly cried!). Moffat really does write the best episodes, they consistently raise the bar for the series and leave a lasting impression.
I particularly liked the part where Amy was stuck in the voting booth and presented with the option to protest or forget, and you’re wondering “what can this be about?”. Then she watches the movie and without hesitation slams the forget button, only to be told later that virtually everyone does before seeing a message from herself pre-wipe telling her to GTFO!
Whilst I saw some of the plot coming I didn’t see the climax until it unfolded, and I particularly didn’t see the resolution. I predict good things of Amy Pond to come. 
[spoiler]I have to ask though, who now is going to serve as feed for the whale if no-one is protesting? Maybe they’ll just give it fish and chips like they should have done all along.
Oh and aren’t the Daleks appearing about 12 episodes too early in the series? Still, shows they’re not being used as the (rubbish) big bad for the series finale for the umpteenth time.[/spoiler]
What did everyone else think?
Great stuff. A million ideas and themes and plot arc and character moments. In fact, there was just so much stuff packed into it that I’m currently waiting for the Beeb to fix the iPlayer so I can watch it again. The episode could have done with being a bit longer, I got the impression that it had been edited down for running time in a couple of places.
Moffat writes such wonderful, funny dialogue: “I’m the Queen. Basically, I rule!”, “There’s an escaped fish” “This isn’t going to be big on dignity” made me lol. The whole scene at the end with the phone call was golden - Amy passes the phone over to the Doctor and his first words to Winston Churchill are “Hello dear”.
I like that with the budget cut (and the move to HD filming) there’s less reliance on cgi and a move to really nice set design. Some of the scenes eg in Liz Ten’s apartments, were gorgeous.
Matt and Karen were both excellent again, loving them in their roles.
They did rather beat us about the head with the “last of his kind” analogy between the Doctor and the space whale, but I usually just rationalise stuff like that away with “it’s for the kids”.
So, the first normal episode of the Moffat/Smith/Gillan era and it’s a good 'un.
Really, my only problem with the new episode was that I worked out it was The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas shortly through it, so the plot wasn’t much of a surprise. Oh, and they really hammered home a bit too much the comparison between the creature and the Doctor, but I suppose that’s inevitable, as **Baron Greenback **said.