Doctor Who

[MGW]

That was actually pretty creepy, I approve. A series full of creepy aliens, good writing and lots of short skirts for Karen Gillan makes Mat a happy boy

[Stormshadow]

Came here to see what people thought of the new trailer to find nothing.

For those who haven't seen it

[DFF]

I need new pants!

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Yeah, that looked incredible.

Cannot fucking wait.

[Chief87]

Slightly altered trailer....0:23!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC77kYyizvU&feature=player_embedded#at=37

and the american version with more enemies...

Cannot wait.

Edited March 31, 2011 by Chief87

[Colly]

Beard!

[9 to 5]

Elisabeth Sladen has passed away at the age of 63.

The actress is best known for portraying Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures. The cause of death is not yet clear.

Doctor Who Magazine tweeted: "With great sadness, DWM must report the loss of our beloved Sarah Jane, actress Elisabeth Sladen. The best of best friends. Too, too sad."

Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell said: "Very sorry to hear about Elisabeth Sladen, a great actor, special to everyone of my generation and a whole new one."

More to follow.

EDIT - BBC says it was cancer.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Sarah Jane

[Liam]

Died of cancer, apparently. Sad, even though I'm not a huge Doctor Who fan....saw her a fair few times in the Sarah Jane thing on CBBC. RIP.

[Noah]

I'll probably catch a bit of flak for this but screw Billie Piper, Elisabeth Sladen was the best Dr Who companion of all!

Another thing, I was honestly shocked, when I heard she was 63. I mean, doing the maths it fits (and should have been obvious to me at the time) but when I saw her in School Reunion she looked amazing and I would have guessed she was about 15 years younger than she actually was then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thjWMWzUa30

[Skummy]

Between Sarah Jane, The Brigadier and The Celestial Toymaker, it's been a shitty year.

[9 to 5]

Well, where the fuck do we begin there?

[Naitch]

Mark Sheppard

[GhostMachine]

Doesn't air here in the U.S. for 7 more hours.

[TGC]

Did we lose posts today?

[Colly]

Yup.

[Skummy]

I loved it. It was suitably dark, which I'm hoping for a lot of from this series, and was exactly what I want from Stephen Moffat - scary, conceptual, and emotional without the blatant tugging at the heartstrings that RTD was infamous for - I actually found myself welling up slightly during the "wake".

Character-wise it was great - for pretty much the first time ever, we were given a reason to give a shit about River Song now rather than spending all our time wondering about who she might be; for the first time she was a sympathetic character, and that makes her much more compelling.

The comparison drawn between her and Amy was fantastic, too - I've always liked the idea of the psychological effects that meeting someone like The Doctor would have on you. Under Russell T. Davies that was always presented as a borderline cult worship and adoration of the Doctor, but under Moffat, with Amy and now River Song, you realise that, actually, it can fuck you up in a pretty serious way, and it just adds to the ever-growing layer of reasons that, despite his best efforts, the Doctor isn't actually quite as good as he thinks he is.

While I'm not a big fan of the design of the "aliens" in this episode, I like the idea. It's similar to Blink, and to the first episode of the previous series, in that it taps into a very real fear of the not-quite-known, and presents you with something truly unsettling. Trailer for next week's is absolutely immense, too.

The only downside is that I don't like the idea of the Doctor messing with his own timeline, which has come up a couple of times already. The idea that The Doctor can cross his own timeline, and send for his "past" or "future" self, or that two Doctors could exist in the same time period...while I suppose it's been explored with The Two Doctors/Three Doctors/etc., it's something that kind of irks me, I suppose.

[Benji]

I'm letting the whole crossing his timelines thing go because I suspect the effect of the cracks isn't over yet. I think these aliens may be The Silent since they have an ability to remove themselves from your memory, which is essentially what the time cracks did. The episode itself was a bit middling for me. I go into a series opener of Doctor Who expecting something a bit more fun and charming, and whilst I did think the episode was good, it was too dark for a series opener to me. Not so much an issue with the episode though, rather than it's positioning in airing.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

I thought the same as Benji the first time through, then re-watched it on iPlayer and totally loved it. Once I got past the idea I wasn't getting a lively, bouncy opener, then I really appreciated the blend of wit and emotion with the Moffat standard 'What the fuck is going on?' feeling. Skummy is bang on about River too.

I read an interview with Moffat where he said that basically the goal of the last series was to re-assure viewers post Tenny. To hold their hands and go, 'Don't worry; it's still a great, fun show. We still have a quality Doctor, it'll be fun, promise,' but this year his goal to is unsettle us as much as possible, to throw viewers out of their comfort zones. I think that was his intention with putting up a weighty, finale-like epic up first. Oh, and the whole shooting the Doctor and then again mid re-generation thing. That too.

Overall, loved it.

[Jimmy]

Mark Sheppard

I hope his character sticks around. I've got a feeling he could crop up a few times. Or, I hope so, because I loved him in Battlestar and he was quite refreshing to the episode. Like someone above mentioned, I actually quite liked River in this episode, unlike last year. I thought this episode was a quality start to the series and hope this kind of tone is maintained throughout.