h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just in case no-one's noticed. Saturday teatime, be there:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006q2x0

Deb

So excited!

I saw the trailer on the telly and was excited. Then I saw the @nabileswarning Twitter account and got less excited. I'm all for fake websites and social media accounts being used for promotional purposes, but this just seems a bit rushed and generally quite poor. It should have been started months ago, and made to look like an actual Twitter account made by an actual person and then slowly got more paranoid and full of warnings. Instead it springs up a couple of days before the episode, posts "do not click" and a link to a Youtube vid, and has 'fictional BBC account' emblazoned across it.

Really, it's an exercise in how not to use fake social media accounts for promotional purposes. It generates no interest or excitement.

Well, what did folks think?

Geggs

>>Well, what did folks think?<<

It's four hours later, so the answer would seem to be 'not a lot'. Like all of this series 7 (and that's another thing that bugs me, Moffatt claiming that we've got a great big series 7 of 14 programmes with a bit of a gap in the middle. Bollocks. We've had a really stingy 5 episode series in 2012, a Christmas special, and a pretty stingy 8 episode series in 2013) there was a lot of flash, a lot of nudges, a lot of hints of bigger things to come, but no actual coherent interesting enthralling Doctor Who story.

Page One!

MMF

No I think we're on about page 249 Am I missing something

I missed the Christmas episode so I was wondering if I'd be able to keep up. The answer is 'mostly'. I liked Clara a lot and I guess we're not supposed to have a clue what's going on with her at this point.

The plot was fine - nothing special but fun all the same. I liked the idea of hacking humans and I liked the look of disgust on the Doctors face when he had to hack one of the humans to release the others.

The Shard has really made it now, being used as a Doctor Who secret base, and I loved that Amelia Williams wrote the book. Nice call back. I really don't like the new titles but that's a very minor quibble.

We enjoyed it. My brother has complained that the Doctor was doing big-scale 'save the world' yet *again*. But I felt it was really just about saving Clara - the fact that he saved lots of other people was just a happy by-product.

Only three of us watch it now in this house, though - used to be all five.

Mol

I really liked it. Witty dialogue, a companion who seems to be a character rather than a companion, reasonably nervous-making scenario and memorable 'spoon-heads'. Nice baddies (and a really unnerving final scene for the main woman). And I really liked the way the episode title is explained.

(Hygenic: 'page one' was a ref in the episode to something that doesn't seem to have been resolved yet.)

On the down side: it was good not great. The reveal of the 'client' was a bit of an anti-climax (though possibly building towards something later in the series, from what I hear). Was I supposed to know who 'the woman in the shop' who gave wossername the Doctor's number was? Sally Sparrow? I am getting a bit lost in 11th Doctor continuity, I feel - really need to re-watch the last 1 1/2 seasons (and wouldn't like to be a casual viewer).

Gif

I still like Clara, and the way she and the Doctor work together, but ye gods, if you even think about trying to pick at the plot holes then the whole thing just falls apart.
The entire sequence before the intro credits left me entirely cold and cynical so I had to work very hard to get back in to it.

I don't think we know who 'the woman in the shop' is, but it may not matter. It might get explained at some point, but the Doctor is quite capable of now going to the shop, giving the woman the number and telling her photo give it to and when, and all of that does not need to appear on screen.

It is a bit of a plot hole, but one the Doctor could fix without pausing for breath.


Geggs

I cannot believe that I can actually shed some light on the Sally Sparrow business. Me, the least geeky/nerdy/whatever person on this forum. Yes, I googled her name, but only to confirm what I already suspected. Goodness, my Who credentials may just be on the rise!

She's from Blink, she's the one the Dr left the messages for:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1000252/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

Deb

Of course, back on form, I missed the Sally Sparrow reference when I was actually watching it

Deb

Yeah I liked it. Wish they hadn't shown the face at the end and kept us guessing.

Didn't tear town any trees but a lot to get going on.

FB

I did think it was a bit strange bringing back a Troughton era villian that only serious whovians remember for the Christmas special. And also playing with the time frames, so that from the Great Intelligence's perspective that wad their first encounter. And now, this week was their fourth skirmish. I'm guessing it won't be the last - if you managed to get Richard E Grant on board then you'd want to make use of him.


Geggs

Is that a tie-in with the 50th Anniversary episode?
Troughton era overload maybe, with Ice Warriors to come?

<BB<

The one thing I liked most about this episode is that the new companion is capable of keeping the Doctor on his toes by saying and doing things he doesn't expect. That adds an extra direction to proceedings.

Yes yes, I like Clara and their relationship very very much. And, even better, she's not Amy. Although I liked Rory.

I thought I was watching Who the other day, but it turned out to be Broadchurch