Doctor Who s8e4: "Listen"; best ep of the year so far!

[Morrus]

Is that just the UK numbers or world wide?

UK. We don't care who watches it in random foreign countries. The BBC's scheduling budget is dependent on domestic audiences, not foreigners.

 

[MarkB]

Why was Clara so secretive abut Danny? He was clearly relevant to the mystery, but she pretended she didn't know of him, even to the Doctor. Why?

It was fairly apparent that she really didn't want to get into the whole timey-wimey side of her life on a first date. If she'd told the Doctor about Danny, there'd be no chance of keeping him out of things.

One thing worth mentioning is that, after last season's "Hide", this is the second recent episode to feature pioneering human time-travel experiments, and the second time that not much is made of them, save that something went awry, and the Doctor returned the chrononaut to their home time.

I'm starting to wonder whether the lack of development of these stories is deliberate - whether they're the first hints of a larger storyline we'll be seeing later.

 

[The_Silversword]

OK now this episode was a little more to my liking, didnt seem nearly as goofy as the last one, but still had its funny moments, nicely done. It was also interesting to see the Doctor checking something out cause he wanted to, seems like usually hes just dropped in the middle of robots trying to take over the earth or whatever, so it was an interesting change of pace, all in all i liked, but, as Morrus already pointed out it left a lot of unanswered questions, Like how did Orson Pink end up with the toy soldier if Clara gave it to the Doctor as a boy? Orson said it had been in his family, maybe the Doctor and Mr. Pink are related!?

 

[MarkB]

One thought. Gallifrey is currently inaccessible, even to a TARDIS. That barn therefore was not on Gallifrey, since Clara flew the TARDIS there.

I assumed the barn was on Gallifrey in the 50th anniversary episode. But clearly it's not. But that raises a other fact: the Doctor did not grow up on Gallifrey.

That's new. And interesting.

That's certainly a strong possibility, with some interesting implications.

Another possibility, with a different set of implications, is that Clara is capable of psychically piloting the TARDIS through time-locks.

OK now this episode was a little more to my liking, didnt seem nearly as goofy as the last one, but still had its funny moments, nicely done. It was also interesting to see the Doctor checking something out cause he wanted to, seems like usually hes just dropped in the middle of robots trying to take over the earth or whatever, so it was an interesting change of pace, all in all i liked, but, as Morrus already pointed out it left a lot of unanswered questions, Like how did Orson Pink end up with the toy soldier if Clara gave it to the Doctor as a boy? Orson said it had been in his family, maybe the Doctor and Mr. Pink are related!?

I believe the sequence was that Danny kept the toy and passed it on as a good-luck charm / heirloom, down through a few generations to his time-travelling descendant, who either gave it to Clara or left it in the TARDIS, and she passed it on to the Doctor.

 

[Morrus]

Another possibility, with a different set of implications, is that Clara is capable of psychically piloting the TARDIS through time-locks.

Could be. Though she knows he wants to find Gallifrey. If she found it and is now not telling him, that doesn't reflect well on her at all.

 

[MarkB]

Could be. Though she knows he wants to find Gallifrey. If she found it and is now not telling him, that doesn't reflect well on her at all.

I think the implication would be that she found a way to the Gallifrey of the past, still inside its time-lock, rather than the post-Time-of-the-Doctor Gallifrey that's locked in another universe.

And she does know how badly he wants to find Gallifrey - badly enough that he might ignore all the terrible implications of crossing his own childhood timestream, and end up doing something really unwise. It wouldn't be the first time she's acted to protect him from himself.

 

[delericho]

Yikes. Ratings are dropping. Just 4.8 million on the overnights. That's getting dangerously low. Makes me worry for the future of the show.

Yeah, that doesn't look good. Though, given past performance, the BBC might try replacing the showrunner and star before wielding the axe right away. I guess it depends on how DW-friendly the guys at the top are.

UK. We don't care who watches it in random foreign countries. The BBC's scheduling budget is dependent on domestic audiences, not foreigners.

Which is odd, given that's it's a show that they do sell worldwide (and on DVD and other formats) rather profitably. You'd think they'd at least factor that in to their calculations. Especially since they don't actually need to go chasing ratings, what with the license fee.

Could be. Though she knows he wants to find Gallifrey. If she found it and is now not telling him, that doesn't reflect well on her at all.

It's possible that ignorance is a factor - she didn't know flying through a Time Lock should be impossible, or she didn't know they were going to Gallifrey. Once the Doctor tells her, she might find she can't do it any more.

Or that might be a plot-point later in the series. Or it could be because some idiot turned the safety circuits off. Or it could, of course, be another instance with them playing fast and loose with the rules - it's not like they don't have some form on that one!

 

[The_Silversword]

Re:The Barn

As to the barn, I never got the impression that it was on Gallifrey. The Doctor, or War Doctor or whatever, made it a point to park the T.A.R.D.I.S. well away so 'she' wouldnt know what he was doing, so it kinda makes sense that he woulda picked a secluded place to frag all of Gallifrey and the Daleks, so someplace on Gallifrey just doesnt seem to fit. But, I could be wrong, I'm hoping they explore this a little more in upcoming episodes, and as to why he has a familiar face, and how he apparently regenerates into Tom Baker again.

 

[Morrus]

I think the implication would be that she found a way to the Gallifrey of the past, still inside its time-lock, rather than the post-Time-of-the-Doctor Gallifrey that's locked in another universe.

And she does know how badly he wants to find Gallifrey - badly enough that he might ignore all the terrible implications of crossing his own childhood timestream, and end up doing something really unwise. It wouldn't be the first time she's acted to protect him from himself.

I guess it's possible. It doesn't sound likely, though; especially when compared to the much simpler idea that the barn simply isn't on Gallifrey.

 

[Elven]

Absolutely loved it! It left stuff unanswered - we never did find out who was under the sheet or who opened the airlock - but it was creepy and clever.

Is Time Lord as a qualification new? I always thought it was a race. Maybe I'm forgetting stuff.

Capaldi's best performance yet. He's starting to settle in.

Why was Clara so secretive abut Danny? He was clearly relevant to the mystery, but she pretended she didn't know of him, even to the Doctor. Why?

Doctor and chalk/blackboard again. This is a thing with him.

Hey, I'm new here

A quick post,

Yes most Gallifriyans are not timelords, (they need to go through the academy (start at the age 0f 8) and have a lot of very tough training and education before being considered a timelord, most don't become timelords,)

Capaldi does look more settled in, in this story, but i thought the story was weak (you need to bear in mind this is for family viewing, and the loose structure of this EP may be confusing to the younger viewers)


Btw: Go buy a copy of The Time Traveller's Companion (for the Doctor Who AiTaS, (rpg))