Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe

Soviet Heavy

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Jan 22, 2010
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It was nowhere near as good as last year's special. That one I felt was brilliant. This one was okay. It isn't the worst special, but it was merely average.
 

Doc Theta Sigma

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Jan 5, 2009
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I quite liked it to be honest. The plot was a bit... Soft. I mean I did question why there was a random wormhole entrance to the Time Vortex conveniently above the planet but hey it's a christmas episode. They're always silly and over sentimental. I'll let it slide. But what ruined it for me was... Amy and Rory. AGAIN. WE JUST GOT RID OF THEM. FOR FUCKS SAKE.

Amy needs to be thrown under a bus or into a sun. Rory can stay. I've grown fond of Rory. But that ginger bint can sod off.
 

TimeLord

For the Emperor!
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Aug 15, 2008
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Lilani said:
TimeLord said:
Totally off topic, but I have a question regarding Doctor Who and given your username and avatar you seem like the individual to ask. I've gotten my hands on several iTunes gift cards this Christmas and I've decided to use them all to get into Doctor Who, starting with David Tennant (because God knows I don't have the money or the time to start from the beginning right now, so he seems like a fun place to start). What I want to know is this: Are there any episodes from Tennant on up where the Doctor ends up in America in the old west? I'm talking cowboys and such. My dad's been ceaselessly watching westerns over the break and now I find myself very curious about it.
Not in the new series no. The only American new series episodes are episodes 1 and 2 of series 6. Which are Matt Smith episodes and not westerns. So you're out of luck unfortunately.
 

Jinx_Dragon

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Jan 19, 2009
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It, like the vast majority of Doctor Who episodes, did not disappoint me as it seems to have disappointed a few others. But then, I went into this one expecting a soppy Christmas type story, you know... what it was advertised as. The spots of humour where very well done, I still really do like the three 'space marines' and the interaction they had. The fact they had no clue what to do in any situation, which Bill Bailey is always good to pick for clueless, was beautifully done. Watching them practically surrender was hilarious, they didn't even realize they where doing it at the time. They where that inept....

I do have to have one gripe that just wants to come out, so sorry for the mini rant.

I still an very disappointed over the whole 'death of the doctor' ending myself... the theories online about him being flesh made FAR more sense. It would of allowed a great deal of twists and fueled endless threads of speculation. Also, it wouldn't of felt so much like a cheap out, as the original ending just screams 'we had no clue and just slapped this explanation together.'

I'm trying not to give spoilers away here, which is actually hard so forgive me for this little one, but the prophecy was the doctor would die. Not that the doctor would turn up on a lake and survive the attack. This was a real prophecy as well, something that can't be avoided as it was a fixed point in time. Evident by the fact he was trying to avoid it, refusing to go to that very day, and time was splintering apart because of it.

Then he... umm avoided it and everything got better all of a sudden?
 

Jinx_Dragon

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TimeLord said:
Didn't really get an explanation on why the trees were in human form and appeared to be the only two that existed. Unless they only existed to lure the human needed for the lifeboat.
Those two where part of the 'human trap' that had been set up, one to lure and the other to spring the trap itself. Makes sense that there where only two of them present, though who knows how many more 'lures' could of been set up if more of those balls had been touched. However, I do have to agree with you for the most part.

There was some real good chances to flesh out another world that where just... avoided. A lot of questions raised that could of easily been answered but the writers just did not seem to think they needed to. It really is a disservice, the more I think on it, that they didn't take this chance to write even more lore into a universe that is so choke full of it. I will go as far as to say the main reason we love this universe so much is because it has so much depth.

It makes us want to go out and explore it ourselves!
 

MercurySteam

Tastes Like Chicken!
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Apr 11, 2008
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A bit disappointing considering how good the last one was. It started off a bit funny then sad, then a bit of faffing around, and then the plot thickens with tree people. I'm hoping that the next season will be a good one, now that Matt Smith has pretty much fully settled in as the Doctor with two full seasons finished.
imnotparanoid said:
Lemonade tap
"I know, right?!"
 

CrashBang

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Jun 15, 2009
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I frakking loved it! Funny, interesting, Christmassy, everything a Christmas episode should be.

"Please tell me we can tell the difference between cotton and side-arms."
 

Spitfire

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Dec 27, 2008
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It had that parenthood-is-awesome theme again. I hated it the previous times they did that, and I hated it this time as well.

The "competent" space marines were fun, you know, for the whole 1 minute they were on-screen.

I'm having difficulty finding things that I liked about this episode. It certainly didn't touch the last Christmas special, which I count as one of the best Doctor Who episodes, at least from the new series.
 

Quellist

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Oct 7, 2010
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Personally i'm disgusted by the whole franchise now. The Doctor is supposed to be somewhere between 700 and 900 years old but displays shocking naivete and is constantly given life lessons by ordinary people who seem much wiser than him. Also the whole family focus and how the series just recently has become 'The Rory and Amy show, also starring the Doctor' since Stephen Moffat has taken charge. Just compare this weak and spineless Doctor (honestly, a Time Lord wouldn't have checked that the forest was about to be destroyed) with the more authoritative Doctors of the past.

Tennant could skim by due to massive charisma and better writing but Matt Smiths doctor seems to be an insult to old time fans.
 

Insanum

The Basement Caretaker.
May 26, 2009
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Im getting a little tired of the writing, its all a little bit samey nowadays.

Dr thinks the place its safe, oh noez its no. Dr is asked of various occasions what's going on, and he doesn't know.

Im not saying it's bad, I just think that some of the storyline's are pretty much the same.

Also, The amusing space marines need another episode, to full flesh out the characters.

Overall, not one of the strongest episodes to date, 6/10.
 

Adrian Neyland

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Apr 20, 2011
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It was good, not great though. I hated that they brought the fater back, though I did like them going to Amy and Rory's house. The motherhood symbolism was very overpowering, actually it was basically the whole episode. The whole thing was kind of a mixed bag.
 

Phasmal

Sailor Jupiter Woman
Jun 10, 2011
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Catfood220 said:
Apparently its going to be a "heartbreaking" ending for the Ponds. So they're probably going to kill Rory again.
They had better not. Rory's hot, I hated getting upset every time they decided to off him.

I like Matt Smith as the Doctor in some ways, but not in others. I think the new season has been a bit too.. uh... overly-feel-good.

Also, Bill Bailey had like 5 lines?! Wtf.
 

Da Orky Man

Yeah, that's me
Apr 24, 2011
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Didn't really like it. It started in a promising way, but the the mum absorbs a forests worth of sprites? Then, to escape, the building flies into space wormhole? They seem to expect my suspension of disbelief to be near infinite.
 

Crazy Zaul

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Oct 5, 2010
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Most things have already been said, but on a more technical note... How were they gonna get fuel from the trees by burning them right there on the planet? Surely they would take them away to burn them in a power plant like actual wood.
Obviously the the Dad thing was there purely to make a happy ending but how could the time vortex pick up the plane when it would have to be in 3 dimensional space to do that.

Did anyone else think the troopers said they were from Andrazoni and think 'oh, nice reference'
(Where Dr 5 died) then later realize it was Andrazani and just a coincidence?
 

Encurtidos

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May 1, 2011
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I liked it, but perhaps I am just suffering Doctor-Who-Withdrawl. I am glad he saw the Ponds again because the series wrapped up rather harshly. Although I agree that the Doctor needs new companions, and Amy and Rory are just on there too long, but I still love them.

I kind of wish we could see more of the Doctors dark side, that's why I liked David Tennant so much - he portrayed that very well.
 

Thaluikhain

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Jan 16, 2010
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I really didn't like it.

Yeah, nowdays Doctor Who is mostly built around throwing weird crap at the screen in the hopes the audience will like it, and then abandoning it in favour of the next immediately afterwards in case they don't, but even so, it can be done better.

Smith's Doctor is also very annoying because he's unbelievably stupid. Not wacky/eccentric/zany...all the painfully unfunny bits at the start were that. But the story was based around them being in danger because he's stupid enough to have a magic door sitting round into a planet that may or may not be safe, wrapped up as a Christmas present.

Likewise, that ep with Stormageddon and his dad. All that mucking about with store staff thinking the two were gay wasn't funny, but not warning the store staff about the killer aliens you know are prowling the place at night so some of them die...WTF?

Also, in regards to this episode, the Doctor just doesn't work in WW2. He's got all his power and technology and is supposedly smart, so he decides to give fancy presents to two kids who've lost their dad. After this, problem fixed and he goes away again, nothing else going on that he might possibly want to concern himself with.
 

Gizmo1990

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Oct 19, 2010
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Quellist said:
Personally i'm disgusted by the whole franchise now. The Doctor is supposed to be somewhere between 700 and 900 years old but displays shocking naivete and is constantly given life lessons by ordinary people who seem much wiser than him. Also the whole family focus and how the series just recently has become 'The Rory and Amy show, also starring the Doctor' since Stephen Moffat has taken charge. Just compare this weak and spineless Doctor (honestly, a Time Lord wouldn't have checked that the forest was about to be destroyed) with the more authoritative Doctors of the past.

Tennant could skim by due to massive charisma and better writing but Matt Smiths doctor seems to be an insult to old time fans.
Finaly someone talking sense. I have never hated any character in a tv show or movie more than amy and rory. I do not think tha Matt Smith is a very good Doctor and althrough I throught that some of Moffat's episodes were good when he was just a writer I do not think he has done a very good job running the show. But all of that is small compared to River BLODDY Song.

I hate her with the passion of 1000 suns. The whole point of the Doctor is that he is an enigma, a genius who runs in, saves the day and then leaves before you know what the hell just happened. Even those who travele with him know nothing about him. Having a character who knows everything about him (and a really irratating character at that) is not good. Nobody should know more than the Doctor with the exception of the Master and that is only because he is Moriarty to the Doctor's Holmes.
 

darthotaku

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Aug 20, 2010
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I enjoyed it. the deus ex machina ending wasn't what I'd have written if I'd been in charge, but as a whole it was a funny and enjoyable episode. I hope amy and rory aren't in the next season though. I think their story is pretty much over and it's high time for a new companion. personally, I'd like to see a non-human companion, like a glitched cyberman or just something along those lines just add a bit to the series.