Rate and Discuss 6.7: A Good Man Goes To War

[Alex]

I'll reply to you earlier post tomorrow I promise, a bit short on time right now - but on the acting front I find Smith genuinely convincing when it comes to all emotions - but I do think that his Doctor is still something an enigma in certain areas. Perhaps it's because Ecclescake and Tennant were carrying around the grief of the destruction of their race and you could see what drove them, whereas this is a Doctor who seems at least on the surface level to be relaxed and happy.

But I think he's also a man on the run, one who doesn't want to deal with certain situations, and that we'll discover more about him as the series goes on. This is obviously just an assumption though, and I could be wrong.

Also, some people see Leonardo Di Caprio acting, where I see him reading lines and trying to emote.

I'd agree, apart from in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" - I saw that at the cinema and was blown away by his performance, but he's disappointed ever since.

[FlyingBeastie]

I'd agree, apart from in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" - I saw that at the cinema and was blown away by his performance, but he's disappointed ever since.

Agreed.

But of course, I could say something mean like, "Well, that role wasn't much of a stretch for him..."

[Dino]

Far too late to be posting but I think the anger Smith shows in this episode to be far more convincing than the anger shown in The Beast Below.
At the start of the series he gave an interview saying he wanted this series to be better than last year's and I think so far it is. Hell of a lot to justify by episode 13, though!

[Rob McCow]

Far too late to be posting but I think the anger Smith shows in this episode to be far more convincing than the anger shown in The Beast Below.

Good point - plus this time he had far more to be angry about! The 'General Runaway' speech might become a defining moment for his Doctor.

[Alex]

When it comes to these sorts of things, people can only really have difference of opinions. Where one person sees calculation, the other sees dumb luck. You're the former, I'm the latter. Again, though, it comes down to opinion.

First off, my apologies for not replying sooner - I know, I know, I moan about your not replying to my points, and then do the same - so I'm sorry about that, but it's been a busy week or so.

As for whether or not Moffat's calculated this all along, I genuinely think he has. He introduced the character of River Song with the specific intention of telling her back story in future episodes, and I don't think he's come to each episode with her in it thinking, right, what can I do next - at least not the whole plotline, anyway. I guess we won't know unless we get a Moffat version of "The Writers Tale" though.

Well, there is something wrong with fun when it makes no sense in the narrative. I mean, the podrace from "Phantom Menace" was supposed to be a bit of fun, but 10 years on the effects don't hold up and its a sequence that takes away 20mins of a film wherein nothing really happens...

Again, where you see a change I still see muddle. I think The Doctor has been all too passive these past two series to really make any sort of conclusions on who he is as a character or what his motivations are. I think it's not been executed well enough that this Doctor in particular is unbalanced, because to me, it's coming across as inconsistency in the writing and performances as opposed to deliberation.

Whilst I agree he has been passive at times, I think that's part of his character though - and he certainly wishes to avoid certain things (such as why the Tardis exploded) preferring to have adventures across time and space. I get the feeling that after having gone through so much in his previous two incarnations that he needs a break from such misery - and his anger when he isn't able to control situations / this from happening is a result of that. It's a personal interpretation though, admittedly, and something I guess we won't know is true until the end of the season, or even Smith's run in the role.

We kinda know, deep inside just as we knew about who she was, who she's supposedly killed, though. And no one's gone and explained where stormcage is or the detail that's guarding it. They could be Peacekeepers for all I know.

I didn't (at least until the final two episodes, where I guessed that might be the case), and we still don't know for sure who she killed and why. So I'm willing to wait until the end of the season before complaining.

Because there's so little information given to us as to why her confinement is so liberal and there are (apparently) no stakes in her escaping from time to time, those sequences could as well be categorized as padding. There's no reason to show us at all where she's been put away or how she sneaks off. I mean, honestly, tell me that there would be no difference if we saw the sequences we saw in her escaping OR if we didn't see them at all and she just showed up. She could just say she escaped and it would evoke the same reaction from the audience.

Again, it's a difference of opinion, but I've faith in Moffat that we'll find out the answers by the end of the season. My own personal theory is that the Doctor organised it all, and she can escape so easily because of something he gave her / did, but that's again obviously just a guess.

It just came across as uber gimmicky and self-referential. I got the same heavy feeling in my stomach seeing all those alien creatures as I did when they were all throwing him in at the end of "Pandorica Opens". It's like milk duds. They're amazing if you haven't had them in a while. Heaven sent, even. But if you start having em every so often, along with M&M's and Oreo's and chocolate chip cookies you get desensitized. And diahrrea.

Seeing all those aliens together, again as someone said originally about the "Pandorica Opens", it just comes across like you're peaking into a kid's living room where he has all the aliens standing next to each other going, "Ooh! Wouldn't this be awesome!" but no. In real life it comes across just as a bit crap. But I guess it comes down to personal tastes.

Ah, for me it was just awesome though! And I didn't mind that it was (very vaguely) similar to The Pandorica Opens. Bar that this time it opened up a whole new world of possible adventures the Doctor might have had before, rather than just bringing together old enemies. If Moffat was to keep on doing this I'd complain too, but twice (and when it's to quite a different effect) doesn't bother me at all.

As for the Silurian thing, it came across as forced, in my opinion. And also, a very heterosexual male interpretation of what a lesbian couple is. "Oh yeah! Let's throw in this overt innuendo here about her tongue!" I mean, yeah it's a joke, but it's really reducing that relationship down to being a cheap sex joke, as opposed to how other same sex couples have been presented in the past.

It was a throwaway gag though, and did no harm in my mind. And I don't think it's neccessarily a heterosexual male interpretation of a lesbian couple - I've known several, and quite a few have been happy to make jokes about their sex lives, and I don't see what's wrong with that.

YEAH. I GET IT. Lezzzzzz move on.

NEVER!! (Oh, alright then, just this once! )

For you, yes. For me, no. The weakest. My expectations were so low for the pirate episode I actually enjoyed it. It was better than the season opener AND this episode. One of the reasons is because at least the pirate episode was having fun with itself, whereas I've felt that the other episodes are trying too hard to be serious and dark. This series has become very self-conscious in that it's working a little too hard to be cool and flash and dark. And the tone never changes.

I was enjoying the Pirate episode whilst it was fun - but when they bought in the son, and trotted out another supposedly emotional section in the middle I lost interest. Partially because it's nothing new, but also because I thought the character was fairly dull and had no emotional investment in him. Whereas the rest of the season, and various supporting characters were, in my mind. And tonally I think it has changed a lot - the opener was very dark, but The Doctor's Wife certainly wasn't, and the finale was a joyous mix of both light and dark. It's when this occurs that I think the series is at it's best.

One of the reasons I enjoy RTD's era more is that at least when it was camp and cheesy, it owned it and didn't care. It wasn't trying to be something it wasn't. And at least if you didn't enjoy the cheesy episodes, you had other episodes to enjoy cos there was a variety in the tone of a series with him.

Ah, again, I think the tone has varied a lot, so can't agree there. And even if it is a "dark season" I don't mind it as a one off. Sure, if it was always like that I'd have issues, but for one year I have no problem at all. Indeed RTD's finale with Tennant being tortured so became a bit tedious for me, so I've enjoyed seeing a much happier Doctor in general...

Smith just isn't quite there yet as an actor, in my opinion. He didn't convince me. Yelling and screaming acting isn't his forte.

Whereas I just love him. But this is another subjective view, obviously.

Apart from describing the Doctor as "barmy", I really couldn't tell you more about him. Amy even less.

Rory and River are quite defined, but River at this point is a simple caricature whereas Rory I think has potential to become more complex but keeps falling back into being what we call a pendejo.

Only some of that applies for me. I think the Doctor's very complex (as I've suggested earlier) and whilst Amy has become duller this year, I'm still enjoying her as the companion. I've always liked River, who I find fascinating, and it's so great to see someone female who is an equal to the Doctor too. And I'm finally growing to like Rory as well - largely due to this Radio Times article - http://www.radiotimes.com/blogs/1340...of-the-tardis/ which made me look at him in a new light.

As mentioned before, pretty much all of the above is just my own opinion and who knows who's right and who's wrong, but I thought I owed you a reply after moaning previously!

[Zbigniev Hamson]

the opener was very dark, but The Doctor's Wife certainly wasn't

Hmm. Even though the real Idris was essentially killed rahter callously in the first few minutes, the other two were killed shortly after, having all lived this horrible life of spare part surgery in the back of beyond. The main baddie being a totally malevolent entity that's killed hundreds of timelords and kept their sould around as trinkets. Amy having to watch Rory scream at her with absolutel hatred, and then see him dead. Not to mention the whole episode being literally dark in terms of lighting

Okay it had a certain fairytale and light-hearted quality in a lot of places, but there's a definite argument for it being a rather dark episode.

[Alex]

That's very true actually. Though as a whole I felt the light parts outweighed the dark ones. Plus Auntie and Uncle were rubbish and annoying, so I was pleased to see them being killed off early on.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Thanks for not commenting on my awful typing, I appreciate it.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Hmm - didn't really enjoy this. Well I enjoyed it in a manic way, but not really raved about it.

In Parting of the Ways I loved the whole "they call me the oncoming storm" and likewise in "The Girl In The Fireplace" loved the whole "I'm the thing monsters fear", but alas this is one of those ideas that's becoming annoying with it's overuse in storylines now.

I did like the bits about resurrecting the myths of Rory and the last Centurian.