Oh the ingenuity thing was always bollocks. He'd come up with a nonsense science theory, with a nonsense science solution and then the producer would nick a load of equipment from Open University and some one would let some small fireworks off.
If you think Dr Who was ever educational or hard scifi, or scientific.
It wasn't.
Maybe for the very first season there was a little bit of history education. But science never.
In Blink, Moffat (to his credit again) had the Doctor communicating though time in an ingenious and intriguing manner, so that the earlier puzzling mystery was resolved in a highly satisfying way. That's what I'm talking about.
Yup that's a great episode and a rare use of time travel.
But it's not always going to be possible. I think in the last couple of seasons the Dr used the Screwdriver as a weapon and that's just a step to far in the wrong direction.
Quote: Nogget @ 9th September 2014, 9:42 AM BSTIn Blink, Moffat (to his credit again) had the Doctor communicating though time in an ingenious and intriguing manner
It's more to the credit of Philip K Dick since it was a straight steal from Ubik.
Most (if not all) of Moffat's ideas come from other writers/creators. I don't even think he does it consciously, I think he has cryptomnesia.
Quote: sootyj @ 9th September 2014, 8:55 AM BSTIf you think Dr Who was ever educational or hard scifi, or scientific.
It wasn't.
You obviously haven't seen season 18. (Leisure Hive - Logopolis). There was a concerted attempt to introduce a hard science element under Chris Bidmead who was an IT Journalist. Most of those stories are shit as well.
Saw them both, fun but not scifi.
Infact one of the final scenes where the Master makes threats against the whole universe from a microphone in a telescope on Earth.
Is according to some writers, one of the worst moments of scifi of all time for it's sure improbability.
The Leisure Hive was just a bit odd, one of those intermidable Nspace spin offs. What a peculiar pair to suggest as hard scifi.
I mean look to be fair very few scifi shows actually do scifi. And Dr Who never hit STNG levels of silliness with devolving crew members and intelligent microwaves.
But meaningful scifi just doesn't work on the small screen. Well maybe Twilight Zone.
But for me the acid test is can the events be explained equally probably by magic as by science. And Dr Who just never really passes it, I can think of a few the Green Death and the recent one with Clones.
Still neither were as bad as tonights which was just gibberish.
From a promising premise it turned into an episode of Coupling without any jokes.
The sad thing is your insulting Coupling
was there any sort of a story at all.
Well, no. He's just turned his back story notes into an episode. We didn't need to see any of it.
Some nicely creepy moments, shame it didn't make a lick of sense.
And Jemma Coleman I'd say is worse than Martha Jones.
She literally sucks the tension out of every scene she's in
Quote: sootyj @ 13th September 2014, 9:49 PM BSTAnd Jemma Coleman I'd say is worse than Martha Jones.
She literally sucks the tension out of every scene she's in
True, but that has a lot to do with Moffat's writing. She is still a lot less slapable than Karen Gillan.
Quote: Tursiops @ 13th September 2014, 10:00 PM BSTShe is still a lot less slapable than Karen Gillan.
Depends where you're slapping them. Mind you, either one of them could slap me all night and I wouldn't complain.
I might have to re watch Secret Diary of a Call Girl to try to get some kind of picture of what it may be like to be slapped by a Doctor Who Companion
Well - it was better.
Creepy enough to get the kids covering their eyes.
Plot didn't bear close scrutiny, but it felt like it had more 'weight'.
I think we're going to have to get used to Mr. Pink, sadly.
I thought it was a decent episode. Nicely self contained and not bogged down by an over-ambitous plot. Not sure it's worthy of the number of plaudits being thrown at it by fans though...