Fictitious Endeavours

have incredibly mixed feelings about this episode.

It's, well it's a hot mess really. Peak Moff. So much unauthorized timeline crossing, weird Tardis shenanigans, and all the general, huh?



Also on side note: I don't know why Clara and Pink ever date. They are pretty toxic together. Maybe if they had focused on -what I guess is supposed to be the A plot - it might have been a standout story, and it might have made Clara/Pink less of a trainwreck? Who knows.

Not gonna lie Twelve having dad skilz was kinda cute.

And now the B plot. I have FEELINGS about Clara meeting baby doctor. Though not as many as the fan boys who went basaltic over it. It was infinitely skip-able though. Just more of Moff's creepy obsession with people influencing their friends and loved ones by messing with their childhoods. EW.

Although - I just sorta think it's funny that we sat through SEASONs of the Moff's fanfic. Like he literally wrote about a bunch of his "particularly stupid theories" on the forums in the 90s * - and then he like Made Them Real. That's a special kind of .... yeah. If you ever wondered what would happen if you let a dudebro fanficcer write show for reals, wonder no more.



* ETA don't believe me: here's the original link https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.drwho/c/fNc0-Zpirpg And OMG he managed he log back in and DELETE his post years after everyone had already seen it. LOL! what a poser

ETA ETA: But not before the Wayback machine grabbed it. Enjoy!

https://web.archive.org/web/20220818003245/https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.drwho/c/fNc0-Zpirpg

Again I ignored my stats.  I honestly think the Leela era was low on unconscious!Doctor.  And Leela doesn't get traumatized; she does the traumatizing.


The Underground

Slow, boring, terrible green screen effects while walking through a cave for some reason.  No enough K9 to make this episode fun. Just another crazed, megalomaniacal computer story.




The Invasion of Time

So - I pretty much love this episode. It's chaos, the story is all over the place, it's full on TARDIS tour time - in short everything I want from a Doctor who story.  The following is just a list of everything I'm squeeing about.  Sorrynotsorry

1)  A Gallifrey story.  So the Doctor is acting very odd and alien here.

2) K9 to TARDIS:  "Where is the Doctor? Speak!" 
TARDIS: ** Lights and beeps**
K9:  "You are a very stupid machine"  ETA Clip on reddit

3)  TARDIS swimming pool in Part 1

4) Part 6 All on TARDIS.
 a) store rooms aka warehouse
b) White brick corridors with pipe overhead
c)Excellent pool/ "bathroom"
d) Workshop
e)Industrial staircase with wire grid walls
f) "Sorry the lifts are broken"
g) Sick bay
h)Garden
i) Art gallery concealing the antcillary power station

5) I'm Sorry Borusa being Borusa is peak comedy:
 a) " I wish you'd stabilize your pedestrian infrastructure, President"
 b) chilling in a lounge chair reading the daily mirror and drinking blue cocktails with a crazy straw.

6) Andred fighting Sontarons by chucking said lounge chairs at them

7) I wonder if this was a goof. Sontaron goes skipping over corner of pool, hops onto another lounge chair which promptly collapses under him. If it hadn't collapsed he totally would have done a header into a stand of potted plants.

8) The Let's all go through a bunch of different doors and end up in the same place gag.

9) The huge sick bay chase. I know let's all hide behind a bunch of curtains

10) Romance Classic Who Style-    Andred gets a tiny shoulder wound from Sontaron gun and Leela takes him elsewhere to hide out for a while.  By the next scene she's leading him around by the hand.

11) Danger plants. Sontaron gets snagged by giant grabby plant

12) Running gag- storeroom (warehouse) inception. They keep ending up in the same storeroom and corridors leading up to it. Four keeps denying it is the same one.

So yes, I really like this story.  A nice goodbye for Leela and K9 Mark I.

Migraines suck, ya'll.  Continuing with my rewatch notes:


Four and Leela


The Horror of Fang Rock
 
Considered one of the must sees, and yes it's pretty well done.  Good story, decent suspense, pretty much what you want from a Doctor Who ep.  Four and Leela are almost pals in this one. And wow is the body count high here.

One side note/complaint- how did I not remember that the Rutans are glowing green goo jelly fish things? Ummm.  Just bonkers.  Even though they still talk about the Sontaran/Rutan war it's no wonder why only the Sontarans are seen these days.

The stats:

Did I mention the crazy high body count?

Four and Leela are the only ones without trauma in this story. (Unless you count finding all those dead people).



The Invisible Enemy

There is a definite Space 1999 vibe about these guys' space ship.

Lots of models used in the one, cute.

Leela using Four's scarf like a cuddle toy. Cute

Evil attack clouds. Not cute but A+ big bad.


Part 2

Four goes in to trance/coma to fight possession. Argues with the voice in his head.  Leela flies TARDIS to take Four to hospital.

K9!  I did not know that was coming. Built by a doctor at the house because he wanted a dog, makes sense.

The possession is catching. Not looking good for this Hospital.


Part 3

And now we are channeling Fantastic Voyage, and that one Gamera movie, and foreshadowing (or is that inspiring) Into the Dalek.

Leela's starting to bring out the Time Lord in Four. He's very rude and pompous.


Part 4

And I have no idea what's going on in this part. I think they just made a giant virus. Lol.


Best line -- "I only hope [K9]'s TARDIS trained."



The Stats

The Doctor:

1) Four zapped by evil cloud, knocked out possessed.

Companion Trauma:

None noted.  I guess Leela's too armed and dangerous.

So DH had never seen any Twelve stories (Somehow) although I did drag him to theater to see Twelve regenerate because that Was Not A Missable Thing. So Junior conned him into watching, but FIRST we had to do a five (FIVE) episode run-up to the regeneration ep, Junior's Rules(TM). (Because DH never saw most of Eleven's eps either. What can I say - he never got over Four. Yeeeah.)

So here are Eleven's last five eps.


Hide

Co-written by Moff and yeah, it shows. I'd forgotten how painful Moff eps could be. Junior and I meta about this a lot but basically Tennant and Capaldi can make even a Moffat ep look good, but Matt Smith just... can't. No issues with Matt Smith, give him a good script and he'll act the hell out of it. But he can't make crap into gold.

Anyway.

I was so bored for 90% of this ep. Not creepy not engaging. Only picked up when Eleven jumped through the rift and played tag with the monster. The ending was a little bit cute, not gonna lie (aside from the Doctor getting all 12 year old school boy when he realized he was talking about a "love story" with his arm around Clara. *facepalm*.)

And I so disagree we needed to watch this for Twelve.

Verdict: Watch the last 10 minutes or skip it entirely.


Stats:

The only Doctor -Companion trauma is boredom


Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

Moffat ep. Sigh.

Okay, TARDIS eps get an automatic pass from me. Sorry, not sorry.

And this ep is not.... great. EXCEPT for the TARDIS parts. Eleven *almost* goes OOC (though I guess for Eleven OOC is IC? I dunno.) Clara is Very Annoying. Side characters are douchbags. TARDIS is flawless. So Yay?

There isn't even really much story to speak of. TARDIS gets broked, timey whimy happens because TARDIS so nevermind. But exploring TARDIS is the point so forget the rest. Done.


Verdict: TARDIS Ep. Auto watch, I don't care how bad it is.

The Stats

Doctor: none
Companion Trauma: Becomes a lava monster. Sorta. But not really. yeah.


The Crimson Horror

Okay- Third Moff ep in a row (I don't care if Mark Gatiss did co-write, it still has Moff prints all over it)
I was beginning to check out. The only, ONLY reason I paid any attention was the Paternoster Gang. They are second only to the TARDIS in my "gets a pass" eps. The story was meh, the villains were so meh, it was all just MEH. But the Paternoster banter made it almost worth it so there you go.

Verdict: Watch it for the Paternosters, tune out the rest.

Stats:

Doctor: knocked out, unknown cause
Companion Trauma: "preserved" zombified? put in a trance? IDK



Nightmare in Silver

Drop everything and watch, Neil Gaiman co-wrote it.

That said, despite being Neil Gaiman and Cyberman it's not high on my cyberman ep scale (and some of those include Big Finish). It was a good ep but there are better Cyberman eps out there. But I have to say - see good script rule above- Matt Smith acted the hell out of this one. That's half the reason the ep was worth watching. Clara was a bit annoying. And Serious child-minding fail. Who left her in charge of kids again?

Verdict: Gaiman and Cybers. WATCH IT.



The Name of the Doctor

The Moff at his most problematic.

AKA - if three times is a pattern does that make five times a fetish?

Where Clara gets the full Magical Girl/Magical Companion treatment. I have feelings about Clara that run from meh to *facepalm* - and I think that very much has to do with who is writing the script. (I think we can guess what writer I mean). This ep was much ado about nothing. (Though I hate using my fav Shakes play as a dis ;) ). It was very much Moff shouting through Eleven and Clara "LOOK HOW CLEVER I AM!" while delivering a not-very clever duex-ex-machina just to get himself out of the corner he painted himself into.

(Do I get a prize for most cliches in one paragraph?)

Verdict: Kinda have to watch if you want to know what The Impossible Girl thing is. Just don't expect much


Doctor: Gets his timeline broke or something, whatever
Companion Trauma: gets split into a dozen versions of duex-ex-machina, because Moff doesn't understand how meta works


The Day of the Doctor AKA The 50 Anniversary Special

So much Moff.

GAH, I have such mixed feelings about this one. Junior has so many rants about this ep and especially the one following. It centers about Moffats attempts at season-long arcs and worse - regeneration-long arcs. And this ep and the one following he does bend over backward to cram every throwaway line, reference and dangling plot thread into the story. Aaand, it's not great.

BUT- we can't argue with Ten being back, a random appearance by Four- who's not Four somehow but like Doctor Thirty Eight or something, lol. I'm not going to go into the War Doctor. I'm less mad about that than I used to be, but still not my favorite idea.

Especially when Paul McGann was RIGHT THERE and in fact DID come back for the 50th. I'd always HC'd that it WAS Eight who fought the Time War and regenerated into Nine immediately afterward, since he so clearly was "new" in Rose. I love Eight from Big Finish So on some level, I'll always be salty we got cheated out of a Full Eight Ep in the regular, actual show and not a half-assed webisode.

Back to the positives it kinda nice (kinda) Moff tries to walk back some of the darkness of Doctor as destroyer of his own people. But he arguably makes it darker first? And it's an odd choice from someone who blithely had Eleven makes humans commit genocide on the Silence. The Moment is one of better parts of the ep - but again, I almost wish Moff had the balls to make it full on Bad Wolf.

So tl;dr so many mixed feelings, lol


Verdict: Must See (PLUS the Webisode because Eight OMG) - but GAH- this ep is a mess.

Stats:

Doctor(s): Having to put up with himself
Companion Trauma: Having to put up with multiple Doctors



The Time of the Doctor

100% Moffat ep. And it was..... 100% Moffat. All his dumb Fanboy on Usenet ideas coming out to play. There's a reason we don't let rando fanboys run things. It was an... ep. Stuff happened. New regeneration cycle acquired a la the master in Five's run. Leave it to Moff to pick up the loophole the Classic Who writers set up early on and run all the way home with it. Whee.

Moff gets slight points for making the Doctor chill out and settle down (sorta) for one regen. But I have to re-deduct points for it being done in the messiest way possible.

Verdict: Regen ep. Have to watch. I guess.

Stats:

Trauma for the audience

ETA: review for The Name of Doctor The Day of the Doctor and correct review for The Time of the Doctor.

So yeah, I ended up doing this today. Kinda had a crap morning so... yeah.


We have now reached Season 14.


So.. Um... I had rewatch this rewatch because I'm bad at rewatching.

Also I got waaay carried away with the Liveblogging.



The Masque of Mandragora

So the theme of this ep is I Was Too Busy Doing X To Notice The Dangerous Thing.
A little slow and silly, but it has its moments- especially if you are feeling snarky.
Basically Red Glowy thing hitches a ride on the TARDIS to 15C Italy. Hijinks ensue.

This story is exactly the type chaotic randomness you watch Old Skool Who for. (And yes, I totally ship Juliano and Marco. *snicker*)



Liveblog:

( reaaally got carried away )




The Stats

Four unconscious X2

1) knocked out by Cult Monks with a rock (uncalled for)
2) tackled off a horse and knocked out


Companion Trauma

1) knocked out by Cult Monks
2) Kidnapped X2
3) drugged X2
4) programmed to be assassin

So I've been sitting on a pile of rewatch notes for ... ugh nevermind, I don't want to know how long. So I'd apologize for spamming, but I don't think anyone's here anymore. *shrug*


This seemed familiar but I'm not sure if I actually remember it or not, since have read fics set on Karn. And of course Eight.

Not my favorite story, but not bad either.

I wasn't particularly invested in note taking for this one.


Part 1) Four & Sarah drugged

Part 2) Sarah blinded

Part 3) knocked out by Morbious, Sarah falls down stairs

Part 4) knocked out by mind bending contest saved by Karn elixir


The Stats

Four unconscious x3
1) drugged
2) knocked out
3) loses mind bending contest, nearly dies


Companion Trauma -
1) drugged
2) blinded
3) falls down stairs
4) kidnapped repeatedly

Four - Pyramids of Mars


Didn't remember this one. Okay, this ep had a lot of Back-n-forthing. But it was pretty darn good.


The Live blog. (It's not much, I was too busy watching to commentate.)


Part 1) Four proves he can be melancholy and angst with the best of them. Sarah is adorable in trying to cheer him up.

Part 2) Word to wise - stay away from Time Tunnels

Four showing Sarah what happens to the future if they don't stop Sutek is clearly what inspired new who's direction.


Part 3) Four is very cranky in this story


Part 4) We see the famous respiratory bypass



Stats:

Four unconscious x2
1) time tunnel trap
2) strangulation

Bonus:
Mind controlled

Companion Trauma -
1) kidnapped and knocked out

Wow - how behind did I get? I have a HUGE private post of notes and randomness (make that three- I'll explain later*) that I never got around to organizing and posting. I'm blaming RL. It has a lot to answer for.




Four - Terror of the Zygons -

I sorta remembered this from my childhood. It had some good moments, but story wise it was just okay.

Live bloggy-ness

Part 1:

LOL the clothes swapping. Four shows up in a beret, Sarah wearing his fedora and Harry wearing his scarf, all acting like "this is perfectly normal what are you talking about". Then they casually swap while talking to the Brigadier. Best part of story no need to go on.

Part 2:

Oooh mystical Timelordliness. Four puts Sarah and self(?) into a trance to survive oxygen deprivation


Part 3:

Aha - The Lock Ness Monster as name-dropped in School Reunion.

Part 4:

Four electrocutes himself. Alrighty then.



The Stats:

Four unconscious x1.5
1) trance
2) electrocuted

Bonus:
Nessy caller device sealed to his hand


Companion Trauma -
1) Sarah oxygen deprivation

Four - Genesis of the Daleks


I am very familiar with this one, I have on it DVD. Even though it's considered a pivotal Dalek episode, aside from the "big scenes" - the ones everyone talks about - it's never been a particular favorite of mine. I do consider it a must see, from a fandom point of view, but if I'm picking an ep to just watch, it's low on my list.

My main complaint (ambivalence?) about Classic Who is what I call the "back-n-forthing". IE: "Oh lets go over there and check things out. Oh lets go back to where we were. Wait we need to go back and check out that place once again. Oh darn we got captured, lets escape. Yay we escaped now lets go back to the place we escaped from." I know it's the serialized storytelling at work, but sometimes it gets tedious, especially if there's not interesting character stuff going on.

This ep has a lot of back-n-forthing.


Stats:

Four unconscious x2
1) Electrocution
2) hit by Nyder
3) Gassed and sickened but not knocked out


Companion Trauma -
1) Gassed and unconscious and left behind - Sarah
2 Gassed and sick - Harry
3) knocked out, slave labor, exposed to radiation - Sarah
3) Harry is Harry and hurts his ankle