lonemagpie

Fantastic teaser. Some predictable developments, and overall... Triggered again.

Well, that was... Great, actually- covered a bit too many of the usual Moffat tropes we've already seen, but still totally did it for me.

( minor spoilers and me being triggered )

So, overall, I loved it to bits even though it hurt me...

I'm honestly still not sure how I feel about this one.

The kids were annoying, as was the golden ticket stuff, and the platoon were crap (was the fat one Sam from Game Of Thrones, or not?) and the Cyberplanner's motivations wandered from the logical by quite a bit. And the "who is Clara" attempt at an arc is just increasingly annoying, doubly so as when they leave it alone she's a fucking great companion.

On the good side, the new Cybes were impressive, their abilities mostly improvements (I actually pitched fast Raston-like Cybes in 1994, for what eventually changed monsters and became the Sontaran story Lords of The Storm), though the detachable parts reminded me most of Kryten in the Terrorform episode of Red Dwarf), and Warwick Davis was good.

Somewhere in between... Matt Smith didn't fall victim to McIntee's First Law of acting, but didn't quite manage to avert it as fully as could have been hoped, and overall it really, *really* felt more like a Trek/Borg mini-movie than a Dr Who/Cybermen one. It's more like what the Assimilation comic series should have been, really... All the terminology was very W40K as well, but none of the imagery was, which is weird.

So, I want to say I loved it for the, well, upgraded, Cybermen, allusions to classic storytelling, and Warwick Davis, but can't because of the kids/golden ticket/Cyberplanner emotionality/weird anti-W40K WTFery. OTOH, I want to say I didn't like it because of the kids/golden ticket/Cyberplanner emotionality/weird anti-W40K WTFery, but can't because of the upgraded Cybermen, allusions to classic storytelling, and Warwick Davis.

So, really, I don't know what the fuck.

I gather it's been splitting fandom, with half the people going one way, and the other half the other way, but I'm feeling that split entirely in my own head - just like what was going on in the Doctor's head in it. It'd be nice to think that was a deliberate evocation, but it isn't. Argh.

(yeah, this is a couple of days late, but I was away at a wedding, as you know)- Loved it (except for a certain rubbish monster prop, and maybe the Tom Tom joke which was unbelievably obvious) - so many homages to both Dr Who (Talons, etc) and other stuff (Horror Express and Carry On Screaming especially).

It really felt like a back-door pilot, which would be good. And Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling were fucking great! Loved the grainy early film look for the flashback!

Oh, and is it just me, or was anybody else totally convinced that the Great Intelligence was gonna be behind it again?

Well, that Dr Who was.... um... I mean, it wasn't *bad*, there was nothing *wrong* with it, it had lots of Stone Tape, Xmas Ghost Story and DW references, but it was... Well, I suppose it was just sort of... nice. A bit too obviously padded with setup for the story arc for the finale, and the ending was a bit abrupt, but it was... nice.

Also, mind you, it does prove that Neil Cross, who wrote The Rings Of Akhaten, which was fucking fantastic, has a good range in DW - hopefully we'll see more of him, if his commitments to Luther allow.

Is it wrong of me - actually of both Lesley and me - that our main thought about tonight's upcoming DW isn't "ooh, Ice Warriors" or "oo, Gatiss", or even "Ooh, David Warner," but is in fact "Hey, Davos Seaworth - talk about typecasting!"

Yay, Game Of Thrones was great! Also, on Saturday Dr Who was pretty good- it worked as a good season premiere to introduce a new companion. Yay!

Also, I've been having the Roger Smith weekend - started drinking (with brandy) on Friday night about 6pm and haven't stopped yet (I'm even putting coffee in the bourbon, and yes, I know it's a bit naughty, but, you know, it's just weekend...). Normal service should be resumed tomorrow... That what it takes for me to cope with an Eastercon...

ETA- bourbon in the coffee, see what I mean?

I mean, I'm reasonably immune to the effects of alcoholo, but after 75 hours or so (yeah, like bear in mind I have half an hour's sleep Staruday/sunday night, so not a lot of downtime), I can get there...

So, it has taken a solid 75 hours but I've got the stage where I will totally losae the ability to really restrict what I say... I mean vocally, not typing. So it's just as well I'm at home.