Doctor Who: Night Terrors - 3/9 (9/3)
By
Casual_Player,
Posted on: 2011-09-04 09:26 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
Just finished watching it. It was okay. I think it really did a good job of fitting the original concept of the show, which was a show for young people.
I didn't really feel the danger in this one. Not like, say, the Weeping Angels or the Vashta Narada. The weird, yes, the danger, no.
SPOILERS
Every once in a while, my poor American ears don't pick up on some of the wording because of British accents. I'm unclear what they were calling the alien du jour and some of the details. I gather its a reality-bending creature, and somehow bonds with societies alien to it, but I really didn't catch the details.
I'm also unclear why the child's song was used at the end. Are they implying something about the alien knows something about the Doctor's fate? It seemed a little silly to again bring up the obituaries. Those who've followed the season know it very well. So I'm guessing I missed something that would justify showing it again.
Quote:
I've forgotten what it was called, but basically I think he said it was like a Cuckoo (a type of bird) that lays it's eggs in another bird's nest and gets that other bird to bring it's baby up.|
Originally Posted by Rodoan
Every once in a while, my poor American ears don't pick up on some of the wording because of British accents. I'm unclear what they were calling the alien du jour and some of the details. I gather its a reality-bending creature, and somehow bonds with societies alien to it, but I really didn't catch the details.
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So basically, the child is a creature from another species who gives it's children to other species to raise.
Quite what this means for him when he grows up I don't know.
Yeah, I think the species was called Cucklids, or something similar.
Although the cuckoo is parasitic, wheras this species seems to be more of a symbiote.
Note, the Doctor's age: about 1000. 
I really should do something about this signature.
Interesting episode, I enjoyed it.
Also, Mark Gatiss has put the rhymes the dolls were singing on his twitter feed....
Quote:
I only made out part of each of them, nice to have them written down......have to wonder who they are singing about |
Tick tock goes the clock And what now shall we play? Tick tock goes the clock Now summer's gone away? Tick tock goes the clock And what then shall we see? Tick tock until the day That thou shalt marry me Tick tock goes the clock And all the years they fly Tick tock and all too soon You and I must die Tick tock goes the clock He cradled her and he rocked her Tick tock goes the clock Even for the Doctor... |
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thanks for that Coin!
Clearly the lines are meant to force the reader into thinking of River and the Doctor. Contrarywise, the writers have played this game before, with deliberate puzzlements like who really was Melody's father.
The alien was called a Tenza.
If the bit at the end felt a little "tacked on"...well apparently, it was. This episode was originally supposed to run in the first half of the season. For some reason, it got pushed back, and they made some edits to make it fit as best they could. Which explains why Amy and Rory aren't suffering any angst over the loss of their baby -- it was supposed to be taking place before they even knew they were going to be parents.
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Wow, that was stunningly bad. Reminded me a lot of Fear Her, only less interesting and with worse characters. It also seemed like it was written to pander to children looking for a "scare". This is the sort of thing I'd expect to see on Nickelodeon, maybe an old episode of Are You Afraid Of The Dark?.
Fortunately next week looks to be a return to better episodes.
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
You do have to wonder, with a being with reality-shaping power "off the scale", how long until the Silence try to manipulate him to fight the Doctor?
An eminently forgettable episode.
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
Methinks they're dipping into the well of masked automatons a bit too often.
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Did the BBC also show an ad for Doctor Who toys, or was that just on BBC America?
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
Quote:
And just in case it didn't, I believe the commercial for these is what he's talking about.|
Originally Posted by DarkGob
Did the BBC also show an ad for Doctor Who toys, or was that just on BBC America?
|
EDIT: "These" as in that toyline, not that specific set.
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
Quote:
Nothing is as bad as Fear Her. Nothing.|
Originally Posted by DarkGob
Wow, that was stunningly bad. Reminded me a lot of Fear Her, only less interesting and with worse characters.
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No, don't go for that reply button.
Nothing.
Quote:
The episode did have one thing going for it: the very beginning of the episode where the TARDIS materializes facing the wrong way. That was one of my favorite S2 moments.
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Originally Posted by Zikar
Nothing is as bad as Fear Her. Nothing.
No, don't go for that reply button. Nothing. |
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
There is part of me that wants Tennant to be a torch bearer at some point while it's traveling through Great Britain.
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Quote:
Clearly, you've never seen "The Twin Dilemma". |
Originally Posted by Zikar
Nothing is as bad as Fear Her. Nothing.
|
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It wasn't a great episode but it wasn't a terrible episode either. I thought they child actor did terror very well and rather grew to like the dad. Anyway it was an odd episode and I think we should just take it as one of the many incidents that happen while he gallivants around.
But it's MY sadistic mechanical monster and I'm here to make sure it knows it. - Girl Genius
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Quote:
There's an actual petition going around for that.|
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
There is part of me that wants Tennant to be a torch bearer at some point while it's traveling through Great Britain.
|
Not even joking. Found out about it while I was looking for the scene I mentioned above from Fear Her.
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
Quote:
Not yet.|
Originally Posted by JKCarrier
Clearly, you've never seen "The Twin Dilemma".
|
Seen The Gunfighters though.
Think it goes into "not spectacular, but not bad" for me. Probably one of the ones I'll end up forgetting - I think there was a fair bit of potential, but that... yeah, it felt watered down to be a kids episode. And the landlord seemed a bit... forced.
Though I find it rather amusing (putting myself in the father's head) where he's coming back into the room and the Doctor's going "No, don't open the cupboard, the monsters are real!" after just being told "Ah, it's nothing" a minute before.
Quote:
Always with the Sixth Doctor hate. I'd rather watch The Twin Dilemma again than either Fear Her or Night Terrors. |
Originally Posted by JKCarrier
Clearly, you've never seen "The Twin Dilemma".
|
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
It was nice to see Daniel Mays (Alex, the father) back in something after his previous sci-fi outing, Outcasts, got canned by the BBC. (Canned on a cliffhanger ending no less. ><)
He was the best part of that show, and I think he was the best part of this episode. Especially the cup of tea scene.
However, the resolution of the episode felt rushed, and finding out that it was supposed to have been before AGMGTW makes a lot of sense now.
I think the episode limits and length of episodes doesn't help these matters. There's been a bunch of sub-par episodes that could easily have been better given an extra part or so. Ah well, the days of the serials are long gone.
Next week's looks interesting though.
Quote:
Honestly, I feel like we're coming back to that in a way (and not just for Doctor Who), albeit in a different form. I mean, just look at the story we're dealing with here. The Silence was first mentioned at the start of season 5, and despite a lot of progress the plotline still hasn't fully resolved itself. Look at shows like Heroes, Lost, and late DS9, all of which were episodic but also highly serialized.|
Originally Posted by Zortel
I think the episode limits and length of episodes doesn't help these matters. There's been a bunch of sub-par episodes that could easily have been better given an extra part or so. Ah well, the days of the serials are long gone.
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Networks like episodic television because it's more likely a person will be able to start watching a show mid-season, so any return to a serial format must necessarily be episodic to some degree.
In regards to Doctor Who, I don't know how beneficial it would be to go back to the pure serial format. I've only seen a few of the classic serials, so it's possible they were just all crummy, but most of them really seemed to drag on much more than they needed to. I know the First Doctor is probably not the best place to look for refined serials, but I thought The Daleks was about twice as long as it needed to be.
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
Quote:
The few of Doctor Two I've seen tended to drag on a bit as well to varying degrees. The Mind Robber was particularly tedious.|
Originally Posted by DarkGob
In regards to Doctor Who, I don't know how beneficial it would be to go back to the pure serial format. I've only seen a few of the classic serials, so it's possible they were just all crummy, but most of them really seemed to drag on much more than they needed to. I know the First Doctor is probably not the best place to look for refined serials, but I thought The Daleks was about twice as long as it needed to be.
|
Doctors Three and Four had the most consistently decent episode, I'd say. Of course, I'm a bit biased against Doctor Five, and haven't seen enough of Doctor Seven.
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
No thread yet?
Was gonna make one yesterday but was too tired.
At any rate, I really enjoyed this episode. I wasn't blown away by it or anything, but maybe that's because I was really tired... but I still had fun.