• 24th April 2010 • Blog Post by Seb Patrick •
It’s Saturday, it’s 6.20, so that must mean it’s time for a cunningly-scheduled-in-advance Reactipost to head your way! So until the lovely John Hoare turns up later in the week with his thoughts on the episode… what did you make of it?
And since I’ll be out when the episode is on, and thus not watching it until later, this is where I try and turn off email comment notification so that my phone doesn’t get bombarded with spoilers.
STEVEN MOFFAT I LOVE YOU
Animated Graham Norton can piss off though. A not-so-nice mirror of the way the show started in 2005, come to think of it…
I didn’t have the banner. BBC Wales wouldn’t allow it on their flagship show, I guess…
That was brilliant. One thing I thought – there wasn’t really the traditional cliffhanger ending.
Watched it on BBC HD so avoided Norton. After tonight’s episode I’m guessing that some of the silly hate being directed at Moffat on the likes of Galifrey Base will quieten down for a while.
Marvellous episode.
But I am LIVID about bloody Norton ruining Doctor Who again. Complain by phone if you can – 03700 100 222 – or online: https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/
Great to see that moss is reviewing this episode. It’s almost like the BBC did it on purpose just to wind him up.
BBC Scotland spared us during DW (though not during Total Wipeout, which had a Daleked IPP).
I was a bit concerned that Blink would be a one-off that would lose impact if the Angels appeared again – needn’t have worried, the video screen and don’t look into their eyes bits were great additions to their powers. Also: snapping people’s necks and hijacking their brains! So far this two-parter is living up to Moffat’s comment about how this is the Aliens to Blink’s Alien…
I was also bit concerned about this episode’s prospects when I heard that it was the first one Matt Smith filmed – needn’t have worried about that either, his performance was great, although his speech in the museum section did seem a bit strangely-paced.
Some Twitter comments about the advertising:
I did leave a complaint via the BBC website complaints form – as hard as it was to bring myself to make the form say “What programme are you complaining about? … Doctor Who”! :) So I counterbalanced it by going to the general contact form and sending a separate “appreciation” comment for the episode itself.
I hated the cartoon Norton popping up, but, as I thought the cartoon Dalek at the end of Total Wipeout was hilarious, I suppose I shouldn’t be be such a hypocrite.
An absolute stunner of an episode.
For those who missed it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GspzbY1iYO8 (the sound doesn’t sync but you get the idea)
I’d like the BBC to apologise for the graphic next Saturday. Before the show starts, obviously. Not halfway through.
Did the Dalek pop up while Richard Hammond was brilliantly delivering a superb monologue at an extremely tense moment in a superbly-constructed drama?
That’s the difference, really. It’s not that it interfered with our precious programme. It’s that it interfered with our precious programme at THE WORST POSSIBLE MOMENT.
Also, of course, Doctor Who isn’t Saturday night gaudy fluff. It’s not something that you should be taken out of in the middle of the drama, thus destroying the willing suspension of disbelief.
No, no, the Norton graphic completely ruined the tension and atmos of the ep, and I have duly complained.
I loved the new cartoon ident, as well, though.
Re the whole complaning online at https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms thing.
I technically complained about Doctor Who in the ‘other’ section on the site. But someone on the DWM Facebook site has rather sensibly pointed out:
I wish I’d done that.
>No, no, the Norton graphic completely ruined the tension and atmos of the ep, and I have duly complained.
Yeah, sorry, not having a go at you – if anything, just supporting the fact that you’re not a hypocrite for liking the idea, but hating the way it was employed!
Loved this episode. And I was spared the Norton nonsense because I happened to not watch it “live”, and caught it online late last night instead. I thought the dying Angels were really creepy – corpse eyes and all. Must have been very haunting for the kids, just before bedtime.
Again, Moffat has totally got a hang of how kids connect with scary things. So much of this episode was like a playground game – just imagine the things that aren’t moving are going to get you. It’s amazing that they managed to build so many riveting scenes around that premise.
The dust coming from Amy’s eye was, for me, one of the creepiest moments in New Who ever.
The Dalek caption on Total Wipeout is exactly as bad as Norton on Doctor Who. It’s the whole concept that’s disgusting, not just the fact it fucked with our favourite show.
I don’t think a caption on Total Wipeout is as bad. Wipeout knows it’s silly fluff and its viewers aren’t immersed in the same way as people watching a drama are. You can put a graphic over a ‘non-fiction’ show, I think, and it’s not so big a deal.
It’s not about it being ‘our favourite show’, it’s because it’s fiction.
I’m with Capps on this one – once you start accepting that it is okay SOME of the time, you’re on a very slippery slope to putting up with it ALL of the time without complaint.
If they dialled it back to “just” during TW/OtR/etc this year, then they would plonk it back on DW next year, and so on until we shut up.
> The dust coming from Amy’s eye was, for me, one of the creepiest moments in New Who ever.
Agree with this. Absolutely spellbinding episode which I’m shortly going to go and watch again. Absolutely everything that I hoped the Moffat era would bring to the table. The dynamics of the relationships between the three key leads are breath-taking.
As for the whole Norton thing, well there’s a history of comedians featuring in Who. Given that he’s twice now forced his way into a Doctor Who broadcast perhaps Moffat should just bite the bullet and write him in as a villain for Series 6?
I watched it on iplayer after getting home from the pub, so I avoided Norton and got to see it in the dark, with beer-goggles on.
The additional power of being able to break out of the image was the perfect way to bring back the Angels in a way that’s more threatening to the viewers. Full marks for that one – now make sure the security camera footage makes it onto the DVD extras, OK?
There were some diminishing returns, though. The Doctor’s own speech about how invulnerable he is is losing its impact now, and the radio-contact with recently deceased teammates was, just like when it was used in Silence/Forest, HAL-creepy while not making a whole lot of sense (though hopefully that bit will get resolved next week).
The “spoilers” catchphrase was thankfully kept to a minimum – but the show itself looks to be adjusting to cater for spoilers. The fact that the Angels were going to be in this episode was so well-established, by its title, teasers and trailers, that when the script finally tells us about them, they don’t even get a dramatic reveal. Does this abundance of previews mean that surprise returning villains are now a thing of the past?
I got Sky yesterday, and recorded the repeat on the HD channel. Think I might Sky+ the rest of the series from BBC1 Wales (or BBC HD) – I used to love recording it down there when I lived down there.
(BTW, I, like thousands of others, I imagine, received the apology in an email today. Good of them. They’re still idiots mind.)