The official 2015 Doctor Who (with spoilers for aired episodes only) thread

[Morrus]

Missy clearly didn't die in Death in Heaven. The FX was different - it was the same FX as teleporting. And she would never expose herself like that to a bunch of Daleks without a trick up her sleeve, such as the vortex manipulators she and Clara used earlier, probably augmented with a bit of visual trickery to make the Daleks think they exterminated her.

Maybe. But given that it appears next week's episode is about the Doctor trying to rewrite time, that suggests there's something that needs rewriting.

 

[Morrus]

I did love the way the Doctor simply said "gravity" to Missy, and she just replied "I know!"

 

[MarkB]

I thought UNIT bought the whole "eight snipers" thing a little too easily. This is the Master we're talking about - there were any of a dozen ways she could've been protected against bullets. And really, given how quickly she can turn a situation around, it's insane that they weren't simply ordered "take your shot at the first sign of trouble".

 

[Bedrockgames]

Spoilers for aired episode only.

I've watched yesterday's new episode twice now. Here are my initial thoughts:

- deaths just have zero impact now. The Doctor was "due to die soon" not that long ago with the whole tomb on Trenzalore arc with Matt Smith. Missy died then just came back and pretty much told us to camera that we aren't getting it explained, and that death is just for "other people". Isn't Davros dead? Clara and Missy getting exterminated... ? Just no impact. There's not one tiny part of me that felt anything there.

I enjoyed the episode but this was something that I didn't really like. It isn't that death is meaningless, it is that 1) they've done "oh no, Doctor's gonna die" as a hook far too many times for it to be effective, and 2) they didn't even attempt an explanation for why people were not dead. With Missy, I think she never died as the beam was a totally different color when it struck her, so that wasn't such a big deal to me. Davros I was really scratching my head over (though it is possible I may be stupidly overlooking some significant alteration to the timeline from a prior episode). I will say, the episode itself struck me as very strong. I think it outweighed these flaws. But it was such a strong episode, I kind of wanted all the pieces to fit together tightly and some things kind of stuck out (for example why did they need clara and missy to lead them to the doctor if they already had a Dalek planted at the fair?).

On the whole Missy and Clara dying taking away from death. Because it is obviously the central plot point that he needs to go back in time to undo them, and it was shown moments after the deaths, I think it is okay. I am more bothered when they do stuff like bring Rory back month after he's been wiped from existence or hand wave things years down the road. If it is built into the episode itself, that's fine.

 

[Morrus]

I thought UNIT bought the whole "eight snipers" thing a little too easily. This is the Master we're talking about - there were any of a dozen ways she could've been protected against bullets. And really, given how quickly she can turn a situation around, it's insane that they weren't simply ordered "take your shot at the first sign of trouble".

What were the 8 snipers for? She mentioned two hearts.

But her leverage was the planes. That's why they didn't shoot her. Doing so might mean 4000 plane crashes. It's a Dead Man's Switch.

 

[MarkB]

What were the 8 snipers for? She mentioned two hearts.

Also brain stem and other bits - probably an effective combination to kill a Time Lord, but a single rocket launcher would do the job equally well. And honestly, if Missy had told me "You'll need 8 snipers", I'd probably send 20.

But her leverage was the planes. That's why they didn't shoot her. Doing so might mean 4000 plane crashes. It's a Dead Man's Switch.

Yeah, but by that logic, that's true no matter who she kills. They couldn't have given the kill order even if she'd vapourised Clara immediately. So the snipers are a meaningless threat - a safety blanket.

 

[Morrus]

Also brain stem and other bits - probably an effective combination to kill a Time Lord, but a single rocket launcher would do the job equally well. And honestly, if Missy had told me "You'll need 8 snipers", I'd probably send 20.



Yeah, but by that logic, that's true no matter who she kills. They couldn't have given the kill order even if she'd vapourised Clara immediately. So the snipers are a meaningless threat - a safety blanket.

Exactly. The snipers were pointless. They could even be murdered at whim with no response.

 

[Tonguez]

Exactly. The snipers were pointless. They could even be murdered at whim with no response.

to be fair they do call this out with Missy saying the snipers are there to make UNIT comfortable meeting with her rather than for an actual deterrent. Its part of Her toying with the humans.

and They really should start calling it the Missy show, since she is the only character that flows with the narrative. Clara really is just a puppy and even the Doctor's bits were a little forced. While the anachronism joke was fun the rest of the scene with the Ax fight at a renaisance arena was a bit err and colony Sarv while a nice concept had its potential wasted.

This weeks episode had awesome elements and I'm looking forward to next week in order to see how they can take the potential of this week and actually realise an awesome episode .

- on that note, WHY (this time) is the Doctor convinced he's going to die tomorrow, so that he needs to write his will? And why did he not do that last time we had the "Doctor dies soon" plot?

I'm guessing that the Will device is a chekovs gun which explains how Missy and Clara survive extermination and the Doctor gets back to Tardis despite it being destroyed.

Also how are the Daleks suppose to destroy the Tardis inside their base without the resulting explosion destroying them and their city?

 

[Morrus]

My wife has a theory that the Will is actually Missy's and that she was lying about it being the Doctor's.

 

[Ryujin]

I just rewatched Missy's 'death scene' at the hands of Lethbridge Stuart Cyberman last night. The look on the Doctor's face clearly said, "Oh no, she got away again."

Everyone is talking about a cloaked Skaro. That wasn't my take-away from the episode. I saw a bunch of projections or illusions, so that's what I figured the deaths and destruction of the TARDIS were also. I could be wrong and we could end up seeing the Doctor running around and rewriting time from his own timeline, which he isn't supposed to do (but does anyway).