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

I really, really loved 'The Five(ish) Doctors' - my wife laughed a few times despite herself (she's being annoyed at all Doctor Who related programmes at the moment), with favourite moments being Sir Ian saying that The Hobbit would be better without 'Sylvester Who?' and Colin Baker getting the new edition of 'Vengeance of Varos' to replace the one that disappeared mysteriously.

Why was this relegated to being on the Red Button?

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Absolutely loved it when I saw it the first time... Especially Tom Baker's appearance at the end...

Then watched it a second time and listened to what he said... Am now totally confused... Was that actually the fourth doctor? If so, how did he know about the time war? What were the comments about revisiting old faces about?

I'm in two minds whether Stephen Moffat was just being deliberately obscure with the script just to give the actor, Tom Baker, a cameo role as a curator of the black archive, or, (considering the Matt Smith doctor had just said that he'd like to retire to become the curator of the black archive), that the Tom Baker character _was_ the fourth doctor and the brief little discussion we saw actually gave us all sorts of hints as to what's going to happen with the next regeneration.

Just watched 'The Five(ish) Doctors'. It's very fun, although it feels a bit like they had a pile of left-over good will after being done with the more conventional commemorations, and were looking for ways to squander it. I especially liked them roping in Peter Jackson and Ian McKellen. And the Barrowman 'secret'.

I rather liked it too.

Just ran across this 2 minute clip which is quite fun... Clara having an argument with the Tardis, and losing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8I9z6Y4mBY

That's better than some whole recent episodes.

Shall I kick off then?

Poor Matt Smith.

Well the ending was good. The rest of it was a bit disjointed and incomprehensible. One of the byproducts of time travel I suppose...

They introduced the turkey early on, and through most of it I was thinking "turkey". Some of the trimmings I enjoyed though: the cyberman personal oraganiser, bits of the truth field. I'm not looking forward to a series dominated by eyebrows and interference from a distant time-lord council.

We all really enjoyed it. The turkey and snow made it sufficiently Christmassy. The 'arch enemies' only really had cameo appearances. There were nods to the start of Matt Smith's tenure (the crack, the fish fingers and custard). There was new stuff (the wooden cyberman, the cyberman personal organiser). The extra regenerations problem was solved quite neatly. And it all got quite emotional right at the end.

I don't think anybody had 'kidneys' down as the new Doctor's first word, either, so kudos to the Moff there. But I don't think he's ever entirely at his best for the Christmas special. It's such a huge balancing act, because he needs to make something which ordinary punters will enjoy (and which might suck them in as regular viewers), and which at the very least won't alienate [vernacular removed by filther] the fans, while also being Christmassy enough for the prime Christmas Day spot. That's a tall order, and it's to his credit that he achieved it. But it does mean it's not the best Doctor Who, because it's having to do these other things as well.

Mol

I found myself drifting off at times to think about other things. It didn't really hold my interest much. But I did like the way the extra regenerations were handleds.

I won't hold the slight boredom against them, as there have been episodes before I found completely meh (did I really just use that word? I do hate it) and they've been followed by episodes which blew me away, so I live in hope.

Deb

Must admit - I didn't really 'get' the behaviour of the Time Lords...

They're stuck on their planet somewhere outside of the universe, they discover a way back through a crack... This crack allows them to hear what is going on in the universe and to transmit information through it, they can also break open the crack at any time in order to return to the universe...

But instead of simply getting the tin opener out and making the crack big enough to get through, they act like a bunch of naughty kids who've been sent to their room by daddy... Asking Daddy (the Doctor) whether they're allowed out yet.

Oh, and instead of just popping back into existence unannounced, they transmit a message 'throughout the whole of space and time' announcing to all their potential enemies exactly where they're going to reappear.

And if this message has been transmitted throughout the whole of space and time how come the doctor hasn't heard it already during his 50 years of BBC programming?

I am rather looking forward to Peter Capaldi's take on The Doctor. I found Matt Smith was trying too hard to be manic and eccentric all the time.

Finally got to watch it with the folks after gran went back home as she cannot tolerate lots of whooshing and noise and daleks.

So thoughts:

lots of decent cameos but for no particular purpose Finally The Silence making some kind of sense. Sort of. Well. Anyway. What I saying - oh yes....
What were the weeping angels doing... oh nevermind. it probably doesn;t have to make sense... I am liking this theme of Daleks as rather unstoppable and the lengths others will go to to prevent the time war reigniting.


"None of this was for you, you fatuous egotist!"

I liked Handles, the PDA for the doctor.



Got a bit of a thrill from the reveal of the planets name and the tease with that place which shall not be named.
Nice tie in with the 50th shenanigans..... (but is there a reason the doctor didn't remember the resolution at the end of that?) (Timey-wimey....)

Two regeneration scenes now - well I never - and what has he been eating to go 'pop' like that? I know Tennant got a bit...explody. But this is frankly getting ridiculous.

However the hallucinatory 'other side of sane' ending monologue redeemed it all somewhat (as encores go...) . I had a tear in my eye.

Right up until Capaldi's WTF appearence. Man looked like he swallowed an entire packet of sour lemons, grimacing like that.

Not convinced.


4/5 fish fingers in custard.

RIP Kate 'The Rani' O'Mara


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I'm kinda surprised there are no comments about the new season here. Has everyone gone somewhere else to talk about it?

Deb

No-one understood it. We're all afraid to admit it.

Yep, Debs, kind of sums up the state of affairs

I saw the start (enough to see that the clockwork robots were in it - Nod didn't believe me, but I knew as soon as I saw it and I *definitely* knew when the Doctor looked under his bed). Then I had to go out. I caught a bit more in the Chinese takeaway while I was waiting to place my order (enough to be able to text Nod triumphantly) and later a bit more when we called in again on the way back from the station to pick the meal up.

I got home to find it had finished, with a 'brilliant twist' apparently, and I've not had time to watch the recording yet.

Nod also told me she felt she needed to watch Matt Smith's final season again so that this episode made sense. So I suspect 'confused' may be the general response from regular viewers. I missed all of Matt Smith's last season, though, so I feel like a total newbie. Which may mean I'm able to understand all that I *need* to, if that makes sense, rather than all that I *want* to.

Mol

I'm looking forward to the Friday Night BBC3 repeat when I can watch it without the loud snores from my father-in-law...

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