Doctor Who S5e13 "The Big Bang" [Spoilers]

[andrewgpaul]

Now that I've seen the good Admiral's new sig banner a dozen times in this thread, I have to get this off my chest;

"fezzes", not "fezes". Two "z"s.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Now that I've seen the good Admiral's new sig banner a dozen times in this thread, I have to get this off my chest;

"fezzes", not "fezes". Two "z"s.

Fezes. They are cool. That's the Beeb's official caption, I might add.

[Srelex]

Now that I've seen the good Admiral's new sig banner a dozen times in this thread, I have to get this off my chest;

"fezzes", not "fezes". Two "z"s.

From what I've looked up, both are accepted spellings.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Well, finally saw this today. It was quite defintely amazingly brilliant.

It finaly explains all those little things here and there. The Doctor turning up unexpectedly in "Flesh and Stone" Rory's name badge in "Eleventh Hour" and so on. Proof that foreshadowing some horrible event requires a little more than just mentioning it in the background like RTD did. (Although that worked for Bad Wolf)

I am especially happy that they didnt resolve the mystery voice saying "Silence will Fall." I was looking at the time left and thinking, hmm, five minutes, they can't fix it that fast.

Oh, yes, what someone said earlier about the Time Lords being recreated because the Doctor wanted them? Probably not, given what he said about them in "End of Time," which basically said he ended the Time WAr to stop the Time Lords, rather than stopping the fighting. Bastard RTD, ruined a perfectly good Time Lord returning plot idea.

[Enigma]

Now that I've seen the good Admiral's new sig banner a dozen times in this thread, I have to get this off my chest;

"fezzes", not "fezes". Two "z"s.

From what I've looked up, both are accepted spellings.

Except I keep mistaking "fezes" with "feces".

[Themightytom]

Feces are cool...

Great episode, I wasn't thrilled that apparently a wave of the ol' sonic screwdriver can open the pandoricle.Apparently Dalek's have a shelf life of less than 2000 years. I half thought the doctor's warning to Rory not to go near fire was foreshadowing of his melting during the London Blitz.

When River promised everything would change, was she forecasting a Regeneration? If it is the Doctor's last that would certainly change things because you know... he has no more 1 ups. I doubt the BBC would consider dumping their cash cow at this point though.

Amy's dad is pretty cool..

[Straha]

The Doctor has two more regenerations. He gets to regenerate twelve times, he has done so ten times so far, two Doctors left.





As for the episode, something that struck me: One of the reasons I liked it so much was because it wasn't trying to slam you over the head with how EPIC this was. The Pandorica and Big Bang V. 2 were easily the most epic things that the new series has had to deal with so far, but instead of pulling an RTD and making sure that everyone mentioned every five seconds that this was EPIC and WORLD SHATTERING and, perhaps, WORLD SHATTERINGLY EPIC!! or, maybe just maybe, EPICALLY UNIVERSE SHATTERING! It was played low key, everyone knew it was a big deal, but they didn't dwell on it and everyone stayed in character, and it made it feel very nice.

Heck, the most epic feeling thing of the entire affair was the Doctor coming back from the nether in the middle of the wedding, which was fantastic. So, yeah. Matt Smith > Tennant and Moffat > RTD.

[atg]

[quote="Straha"]The Doctor has two more regenerations. He gets to regenerate twelve times, he has done so ten times so far, two Doctors left.quote]

And I'm pretty sure the BBC will handwave that away if the show continues to get them ratings

[Seele]

The Doctor has two more regenerations. He gets to regenerate twelve times, he has done so ten times so far, two Doctors left.quote]

And I'm pretty sure the BBC will handwave that away if the show continues to get them ratings

Didn't he use up a regeneration with that hand/clone back in Journey's End? Or was that just handwaved away. Parden the pun.

[Srelex]

Didn't he use up a regeneration with that hand/clone back in Journey's End? Or was that just handwaved away. Parden the pun.

That didn't count as a proper regeneration, IIRC.

[Lost Soal]

Feces are cool...

Great episode, I wasn't thrilled that apparently a wave of the ol' sonic screwdriver can open the pandoricle.Apparently Dalek's have a shelf life of less than 2000 years. I half thought the doctor's warning to Rory not to go near fire was foreshadowing of his melting during the London Blitz.

No, the Dalek was wiped from existence when the TARDIS exploded and left behind those stone echoes, which the Pandorica partially revived.

When River promised everything would change, was she forecasting a Regeneration? If it is the Doctor's last that would certainly change things because you know... he has no more 1 ups. I doubt the BBC would consider dumping their cash cow at this point though.

Considering River will be back next season, no, it does not foreshadow a regeneration.

[Straha]

The Doctor has two more regenerations. He gets to regenerate twelve times, he has done so ten times so far, two Doctors left.quote]

And I'm pretty sure the BBC will handwave that away if the show continues to get them ratings

Didn't he use up a regeneration with that hand/clone back in Journey's End? Or was that just handwaved away. Parden the pun.

I'm sorry. When was that? I can't recall that ever happening and I think I've seen every nuWho episode except 42 and Love and Monsters.

[Crazedwraith]

Didn't he use up a regeneration with that hand/clone back in Journey's End? Or was that just handwaved away. Parden the pun.

That didn't count as a proper regeneration, IIRC.

Yes, it did. He specifically said that he triggered a regeneration, healed himself and then syphoned off all the excess energy into the hand. So he used it all up, he just didn't use it up on himself.

That said it will be interesting to see if the writer's forget about that.

It finaly explains all those little things here and there. The Doctor turning up unexpectedly in "Flesh and Stone" Rory's name badge in "Eleventh Hour" and so on.

Wait, when was that explained?

[CaptainChewbacca]

They were explained when the doctor was running back through the flashes as they closed. When the Doctor came back in 'Flesh & Stone', that wasn't the doctor from a few moments earlier, but from Big Bang.

Incidentally, the explanation I heard about the ducks was they were a clue, because 'Without ducks, the POND doesn't make any sense'.

Yeah. My mind was blown.

[Crazedwraith]

Sorry forget to bold for emphasis. When was Rory's badge mentioned and explained?

[Hillary]

Bravo, Moffat, Bravo!

The best new Who finale so far - only PotW comes close imo. Mat Smith and Karren whatsisname both put in their best performances to date. I'm extremely impressed with Smith in general.

We had pacy action, we had raw emotion, we had humour, we had drama (without the need for serious shouting about how important it all was) and we had some loose ends for next series.

I actually like River Song - her scene with the Dalek was awesome and I'm really looking forward to finding out the story behind her (there has to be one of us). I just hope Moffat writes the episode as she worked very badly with a different writer.

Can we please set up some sort of automatic punishment for anyone else who posts that the Doctor only has x number of regenerations left.

[white_rabbit]

I actually like River Song - her scene with the Dalek was awesome and I'm really looking forward to finding out the story behind her

I actually hated that scene, not because it diminished the Daleks, but I think I'm actually allergic to the style of grandstanding we get in the new Doctor Who stuff.

I like the new guy better than Tennant, but the "epic" music and direction of many episodes leaves me cold.

I loathe River Song, every time the smarmy bitch appears on screen, I'm praying for her to get tragically exterminated.

[Soontir C'boath]

I loathe River Song, every time the smarmy bitch appears on screen, I'm praying for her to get tragically exterminated.

She was pretty down to earth and straightforward in Silence in the Library (if that still happened anyway with all this gobbledygook) so something will happen in the future that will tone her down to that level. I hope we see that soon because I never thought or expected them to characterized her the way she is in this series.

I think the best word for this finale that I felt watching it was, "boredom". From the bombastic finales we had with RTD, it seemed we went straight for nothing really happening. Or at least nothing that seems to deter the Doctor. The dalek was pretty much the only threat to stopping the Doctor but he was still on his feet after getting shot. The person who really started this in the first place didn't come around to try and stop him. It all felt like padding for what was really a ten minute show.

[Dahak]

I must say I liked it very much!
Even though I somehow liked the EPIC of RTD (a guilty pleasure of sorts) this episode had some very great moments by Smith and I liked the way Moffat dealt with the time travel. Quite nifty...

And I don't mind River Song; I actually like her a lot

And it keeps you interested in what happens with all that Silence thing. Maybe I was getting used to much to the "5 minute resolutions" of previous season endings, but I would have liked at least a little glimpse to the new bad.

[Manus Celer Dei]

The only thing that really bugged me about this is how none of the characters seem to give much of a shit about whatever it was that cause the TARDIS to explode in the first place. I mean, does anyone even acknowledge it, beyond River's mention of something else taking control of it? Obviously they're saving it as a future villain but the fact no one even goes "Hey, what the hell was that?" is kinda odd.

The Dalek screaming for mercy was a pretty cool little sequence. I wonder if that Dalek'll stay dead or if it will've been restored during the Big Bang 2.

One thing that struck me about River this episode was at the end; she says "Everything changes", and then teleports away using a wrist device exactly like Jack's. I wonder if theres going to be a Torchwood episode next series.

[andrewgpaul]

I bow to others' superior knowledge of multiple turkish hats.

Did anyone see the BBC's Glastonbury coverage last night? Orbital did their cover of the Doctor Who theme, with Matt Smith appearing onstage (and assisting with the knob-tiddling, it appears). Pretty cool.

[NecronLord]

I am especially happy that they didnt resolve the mystery voice saying "Silence will Fall." I was looking at the time left and thinking, hmm, five minutes, they can't fix it that fast.

Yes. Thank god.

Oh, yes, what someone said earlier about the Time Lords being recreated because the Doctor wanted them? Probably not, given what he said about them in "End of Time," which basically said he ended the Time WAr to stop the Time Lords, rather than stopping the fighting. Bastard RTD, ruined a perfectly good Time Lord returning plot idea.

He wants them aright, he just doesn't want their late-war incarnation where it'd turned them evil.

Apparently Dalek's have a shelf life of less than 2000 years.

Why shouldn't they?

I half thought the doctor's warning to Rory not to go near fire was foreshadowing of his melting during the London Blitz.

That was the idea, non?

And I'm pretty sure the BBC will handwave that away if the show continues to get them ratings

They don't need to handwave it. Literally the moment the Time Lord Regeneration Limit was invented it was stated to not be unavoidable, and the Master was busily working his way around it. It was never, ever, ever, permanant. Indeed, in older material (Troughton), Time Lords were flat out perpetually renewing. It's never been an unavoidable element of series canon.

All they need to do is acknowledge it and move on.

*A sontaran kicks the Doctor's body and turns around to look at the Doctor's companions*
Sontaran General Straha: Everyone knows that Time Lords die after their thirteenth body!
*The Doctor gets up off the floor behind Straha and hits him on the probic vent*
Doctor: The High Council removed that limit during the Time War by re-weaving our genetics.

Done and dusted. Well, okay, that'd be a bit balls, but really, getting around it isn't impossible in universe, quite the opposite.

[Admiral Valdemar]

The only thing that really bugged me about this is how none of the characters seem to give much of a shit about whatever it was that cause the TARDIS to explode in the first place. I mean, does anyone even acknowledge it, beyond River's mention of something else taking control of it? Obviously they're saving it as a future villain but the fact no one even goes "Hey, what the hell was that?" is kinda odd.

The Dalek screaming for mercy was a pretty cool little sequence. I wonder if that Dalek'll stay dead or if it will've been restored during the Big Bang 2.

One thing that struck me about River this episode was at the end; she says "Everything changes", and then teleports away using a wrist device exactly like Jack's. I wonder if theres going to be a Torchwood episode next series.

On that note, we haven't had any TW for a while. It's been around a year since "Children Of Earth", and I wonder if Jack will at least make an appearance again, seeing as he's been with every Doctor since Nine. I did wonder what River meant by her parting line, though it's just too early to speculate given we have pretty much nothing to go on other than it may or may not be linked to the Silence.

Besides, I think after all that happened, the team deserves a little break from trying to figure out something they really don't have any idea about. It's not like it wasn't acknowledged that the case isn't closed, or that almost destroying all of reality isn't a big deal.

[dragon]

Didn't Jack in TW mentioned something about everything changes. Also since Tardis's were destroyed during the Time War the doctor should have curious as to what made the destruction of his Tardis so deadly.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I don't recall Jack's comment, but I imagine Eleven has an idea how the TARDIS was used to do what it did, even if he doesn't know who did it (though may have an inkling).