The (Regenerated) Doctor Who Thread: Reverse the Polarity!

[Aqizithiuda]

Really?

Yes, definitely enjoyed it more than the previous pair of episodes, though the ones on Skaro with Davros were pretty epic. Yeah, "The Witch's Familiar" probably takes the cake so far on second thought.

But I do love Vikings and am a sucker for the historical stories *shrugs*

You could have given the vikings mobiles and the story wouldn't have been any less historical.

[Cosumar]

Yes, definitely enjoyed it more than the previous pair of episodes, though the ones on Skaro with Davros were pretty epic. Yeah, "The Witch's Familiar" probably takes the cake so far on second thought.

But I do love Vikings and am a sucker for the historical stories *shrugs*

You could have given the vikings mobiles and the story wouldn't have been any less historical.

You know what I mean.

Historical stories as in the ones set in Earth's past. Not implying they're historically accurate in any way lol

[The Flutterlands]

[Conscentia]

Really?

Yes, definitely enjoyed it more than the previous pair of episodes, though the ones on Skaro with Davros were pretty epic. Yeah, "The Witch's Familiar" probably takes the cake so far on second thought.

But I do love Vikings and am a sucker for the historical stories *shrugs*

I thought The Girl Who Died was mostly dull, besides the opening. However, I liked everything about The Witch's Familiar besides...

...the Daleks being defeated by angry goo.

They could've swapped their not-actually-Vikings* for anyone sufficiently less advanced than the Mire. That the characters were described as Vikings was almost entirely irrelevant to the actual plot. Advanced civilisation that has advanced enough medical technology to achieve biological immortality can't synthesise adrenaline and testosterone so have to harvest it from humans, and they're defeated using electromagnets powered by Amazonian fish. Nowhere does that require Vikings. At least if they had picked a South American civilisation the presence of electric fish would've made sense.

*Viking is a word that referred to Norse pirates. It was not a proud ethnicity, and was not a term peasants would've have associated with.

[Apollinis]

When

the electric eels, electric eels for fuck's sake

appeared it did take a lot of willpower not to put my fist through my laptop's screen. Really, really astonishingly lazy writing.

[Osnil]

So now that I've slacked off watching Doctor Who they do an episode about Vikings! I want to murder someone now. . . maybe a Dalek. . .

[Conscentia]

So now that I've slacked off watching Doctor Who they do an episode about Vikings! I want to murder someone now. . . maybe a Dalek. . .

Don't worry about it,

they aren't even really Vikings. They're peasants. The writers just called them Vikings.

[Osnil]

So now that I've slacked off watching Doctor Who they do an episode about Vikings! I want to murder someone now. . . maybe a Dalek. . .

Don't worry about it,

they aren't even really Vikings. They're peasants. The writers just called them Vikings.

You just ruined my hurry to catch up. *goes back to slacking off*

[Conscentia]

They missed an opportunity for an ethical dilemma in the most recent episode.

The real Vikings were raiders and pirates. Had the episode's so-called Vikings been actual Vikings the Doctor would've had to choose between saving violent raiders who'd go onto kill and steal, or let the alien thugs liquefy them. Also would have mixed well with the subject of 'ripples' mentioned throughout the episode. I predict he'd have saved them anyway, but still... could've have made this episode more interesting.

[Ameriganastan]

When

the electric eels, electric eels for fuck's sake

appeared it did take a lot of willpower not to put my fist through my laptop's screen. Really, really astonishingly lazy writing.

I love how electric eels appear to be everybody's limit for suspension of disbelief...

[Conscentia]

When

the electric eels, electric eels for fuck's sake

appeared it did take a lot of willpower not to put my fist through my laptop's screen. Really, really astonishingly lazy writing.

I love how electric eels appear to be everybody's limit for suspension of disbelief...

It's because it's not just an inaccuracy. It's bad writing to make Amazonian fish the solution to saving the Norse peasants. Did they even try to think of a decent ending?

[Ameriganastan]

And while everyone else nitpicks over eels and vikings, I just sit back enjoying the episode.

[Cosumar]

Just watched the Baker episode Stones of Blood. The Megara (sentient justice orb-machines) were a super interesting concept. Anyone else remember them? Apparently they were appointed to uphold the law of a particular galactic federation, only to find the entire federation in contempt of court and destroy said galaxy It was hilarious watching the Doctor wiggle his way out of execution.

And while everyone else nitpicks over eels and vikings, I just sit back enjoying the episode.

This, really.

[The Flutterlands]

And while everyone else nitpicks over eels and vikings, I just sit back enjoying the episode.

As did everyone on Rotten Tomato, giving it a 100%...

[Conscentia]

And while everyone else nitpicks over eels and vikings, I just sit back enjoying the episode.

What specifically about the episode?

[Conscentia]

And while everyone else nitpicks over eels and vikings, I just sit back enjoying the episode.

As did everyone on Rotten Tomato, giving it a 100%...

*94%.

[Ameriganastan]

And while everyone else nitpicks over eels and vikings, I just sit back enjoying the episode.

What specifically about the episode?

Just found it enjoyable in general.

[Charellia]

They missed an opportunity for an ethical dilemma in the most recent episode.

The real Vikings were raiders and pirates. Had the episode's so-called Vikings been actual Vikings the Doctor would've had to choose between saving violent raiders who'd go onto kill and steal, or let the alien thugs liquefy them. Also would have mixed well with the subject of 'ripples' mentioned throughout the episode. I predict he'd have saved them anyway, but still... could've have made this episode more interesting.

That would have been so much better. This episode, as well as others this season, felt like it was lacking something and I think you've picked up on what it was. Other than the last couple minutes, the episode doesn't really require much thought.

When

the electric eels, electric eels for fuck's sake

appeared it did take a lot of willpower not to put my fist through my laptop's screen. Really, really astonishingly lazy writing.

I love how electric eels appear to be everybody's limit for suspension of disbelief...

Most of the other impossible things in Doctor Who work because exist outside the realm of human knowledge. Thus we are prepared to accept anything the writers tell us. When the show starts dealing with real, knowable things, we expect a certain level of accuracy, or at the very least an explanation.

Audiences are also a lot more sympathetic to well-written stories, which this was not.

[Chelta]

Who says Vikings didn't reach Brazil anyway?

[The Romulan Republic]

They missed an opportunity for an ethical dilemma in the most recent episode.

The real Vikings were raiders and pirates. Had the episode's so-called Vikings been actual Vikings the Doctor would've had to choose between saving violent raiders who'd go onto kill and steal, or let the alien thugs liquefy them. Also would have mixed well with the subject of 'ripples' mentioned throughout the episode. I predict he'd have saved them anyway, but still... could've have made this episode more interesting.

That would have been so much better. This episode, as well as others this season, felt like it was lacking something and I think you've picked up on what it was. Other than the last couple minutes, the episode doesn't really require much thought.

I love how electric eels appear to be everybody's limit for suspension of disbelief...

Most of the other impossible things in Doctor Who work because exist outside the realm of human knowledge. Thus we are prepared to accept anything the writers tell us. When the show starts dealing with real, knowable things, we expect a certain level of accuracy, or at the very least an explanation.

Audiences are also a lot more sympathetic to well-written stories, which this was not.

Perhaps someone caused a wibbly wobbly ball of timey wimey stuff, and it caused their to be electric eels their.

[Aqizithiuda]

Who says Vikings didn't reach Brazil anyway?

Who knows, maybe the racist, French, Nazi supporting archaeologist was right and the Vikings did visit South America.

They are extremely unlikely to have brought back live electric eels, however, due to the very limited space of their ships and the difficulty of keeping any animal alive onboard for more than a year and ten thousand odd kilometers of travel.

[Chelta]

Who says Vikings didn't reach Brazil anyway?

Who knows, maybe the racist, French, Nazi supporting archaeologist was right and the Vikings did visit South America.

They are extremely unlikely to have brought back live electric eels, however, due to the very limited space of their ships and the difficulty of keeping any animal alive onboard for more than a year and ten thousand odd kilometers of travel.

I was more suggesting they established a settlement in South America, a la Greenland and Newfoundland.

It wasn't actually stated in the episode where it was taking place, after all...

[Aqizithiuda]

Who knows, maybe the racist, French, Nazi supporting archaeologist was right and the Vikings did visit South America.

They are extremely unlikely to have brought back live electric eels, however, due to the very limited space of their ships and the difficulty of keeping any animal alive onboard for more than a year and ten thousand odd kilometers of travel.

I was more suggesting they established a settlement in South America, a la Greenland and Newfoundland.

It wasn't actually stated in the episode where it was taking place, after all...

Pretty sure the clothing wasn't Amazon appropriate and the local flora was decidedly European.

[Ameriganastan]

Oh my God, people...

[Wisconsin9]

You know, I was thinking that the whole "not actual Vikings" thing was kind of silly, and then it occurred to me that it's got the same root cause (absolute failure to get easily verifiable facts right, when it could have been done right and the story maintained) as a lot of my problems with Kill the Moon.

Carry on with your hatred, my friends.