The Doctor Who Club v.4

[Aegon]

My mind is overloading with excitement, so please excuse—

OH MY GOD, IT'S STARTING ON 1ST SEPTEMBER!

Major yay. Asylum will be broadcast at 19:20, which is an exceptionally perfect time. That means September shall indeed be Doctor Who month, and that we've only got one more Who-less Saturday. Molto bene.

Spoiler: Richard E. Grant's character

...is apparently an antagonist. I heard this on a radio interview with Steven Moffat last week in which he offhandedly mentioned that they've started filming the Christmas episode and Grant plays a great villain in it.

Spoiler: Reply

He could still be related to her.

Speaking of Clara, her background has become apparent. For those who wish to know... (This only reveals the time period she hails from.)

[SPOIL]She's from Victorian times. How brilliant. At least two episodes set in her time are in store (the Christmas Special and the Jenny and Vastra episodes). I'm really looking forward to this change, since all of the previous New Who companions are denizens of the modern day.[/SPOIL]

Spoiler: Reply

I think the ice planet is from Asylum of the Daleks; the earlier trailer from March seems to indicate so. Dunno what the Daleks are doing there, though. It might even just be a snowy part of Earth.

Spoiler: Planet

Well, we shall be visiting a certain planet in Asylum, if you catch my drift. The icy planet could be that planet. Aaah, my mind is racing with ideas regarding episode one's story. "Save the Daleks"... The Doctor, Amy and Rory being sent to the icy planet by the Daleks... The possibility that the icy planet could be that planet... the asylum itself... Hurry up, 1st September!

Also, yay titles!

The titles will also feature logos unique to each episode, it seems. Instead of the usual title written in plain font, we'll be treated with custom... things. Like, for Dinosaurs, the title could be in a scaly font. That sort of thing.

Anyway, I just bought SFX magazine and it features an interview with Moffat. I hope there'll be something of note in there. DWM should also be out soon.

Okay... so far from recent, but did anyone else notice that in the background of "The Long Game" the newscaster announced that the Face of Boe was pregnant? Are we ever going to see his kid?

Jack sure gets around.

-The Eleventh/Rory Williams.

e:

Spoiler: Images

...namely, the one with the TARDIS mid-materialisation on Amy and Rory's street as the Pond couple watch. I'm pretty sure she's not dematerialising, because Amy and Rory are in the outfits they're in for Asylum of the Daleks, and it doesn't make sense for the Doctor to be leaving them behind at home during that episode. What this does mean is that Asylum of the Daleks doesn't follow on directly from Christmas; the Doctor must have left them there after their adorable heartwarming Christmas dinner together, and then this is him showing up again sometime later. I wonder why. By which I mean I'm really, really curious, and I always have been, about what's making him willing to put himself back in their lives despite everything that happened last series.

[SPOIL]Actually, I think they will be left back home after Asylum, due to the manner in which Dinosaurs starts. [/SPOIL]

A series of five prequels have also been announced, named Pond Life. Some fans actually used that as a title for a potential Amy and Rory spin-off series, I recall. Anyway, one prequel will be posted online everyday from Monday. They'll detail Amy and Rory's life in between their trips in the TARDIS. It's strange how the two alternate between normal life and travelling in the TARDIS at random intervals...

Which brings me onto this new trailer released by BBC America. I want to watch it a few more times before commenting properly, but...

Spoiler: Trailer

I am so bloody excited for this series. Its visuals are just fabulous. There's Amy and the Doctor discussing leaving (oh noes, he's noticed that they're contemplating going. Sad. Moffat, you better not kill either of them so the Doctor'll feel even more pain, since they were so close to being safe. ;_, River and the Doctor versus Angels (!) and a nice bit of self-reference ("Out of ten? Eleven."). I also love Karen's "I've really missed this." Don't go!

And oh my god Amelia from The Eleventh Hour. I've heard that a piece of TEH plays an important part in Amy and Rory's end. Oh, Moffat, planning so far in advance.

Ten days of agony left!

 

[elyvorg]

Exciting news! (Well, I'm excited. You all should be too. :B)

...oh, so it looks like The Eleventh mentioned it first in an edit to his post, but yes! Pond Life!

Spoiler: Really minor spoilers for its premise

Apparently it deals with Amy and Rory trying to live an ordinary domestic life while the Doctor keeps repeatedly popping in and whisking them off to space every so often. Presumably it is set after Christmas, because before then the Doctor wouldn't have been popping in regularly, and it also definitely has the Doctor actually in it rather than just as an offscreen presence because it has been said to feature Matt as well as Karen and Arthur.

Article about it, and Karen and Arthur discussing it.

Seriously. There are no words for how happy this makes me. All along in the lead-up to this series I've wanted there to be some kind of addressing of how and why Amy and Rory are still travelling with the Doctor despite everything, and this is clearly going to be an excellent source of that. I've occasionally dared to hope that these issues might have been addressed in a prequel to the first episode, a bit like the Doctor-featuring prequels we've seen before - but a five-part mini-series is just way, way more than I could ever have imagined. And recently the little short instalments such as the prequels or the DVD bonus scenes have been amazing and adorable and packing in so much fun charactery stuff for their short length that I'm completely expecting Pond Life to be no exception and for me to love it just as much as I do those other extra scenes. I can barely wait until next Monday now.

Spoiler: And back to minor premise-spoilers

And I'm also incredibly in-universe happy just at hearing how the Doctor has apparently started dealing with Amy and Rory's lives since Christmas: seeing them often enough that he doesn't get lonely, but making the trips sporadic enough and always leaving them back at home after each one to minimize the chances of putting them in danger. Thanks to Christmas, things have turned into the Doctor simply trying to make the people he loves happy by taking them on wonderful trips. That's adorable. :3 Even if Amy and Rory might be getting a certain amount of mood-whiplash due to constantly going from ordinary-everyday-life to ~wonders-of-the-universe!~ and back.

Also Arthur said in that interview that there's a slight overarching thing running through all five parts which culminates into a massive cliffhanger leading onto Asylum of the Daleks. Yay! I loves me some cliffhangers, and I wasn't really expecting any this series what with the lack of two-parters. That'll really help me get hyped for the beginning of the series proper!

Also, wow, that American trailer is pretty damn amazing. I too may be back later once I've come up with something more coherent to say about it.

Ten days until the Asylum, but only five days until we see the Ponds again! Aaaaaa. :3

-elyvorg/Amelia

 

[Aegon]

The BBC released a new trailer this morning for Asylum.

The trailer gives away more of the story's premise.

Spoiler: Basic plot outline

So, I guess the "sane" and pure Daleks hire the Doctor to eliminate the Daleks in the asylum, as he's their predator. I love the sounds of that. The Daleks are being truly clever.

I wonder where Amy and Rory fit into this. They can't really be considered predators of the Daleks. They're definitely sent to the asylum with the Doctor, though. We'll find out in a week!

-The Eleventh/Rory Williams

 

[elyvorg]

Yay for an Asylum trailer that tells us a lot more than the last one did!

Spoiler: New Asylum trailer

So the Daleks are seemingly trying to get rid of their "impure" versions by pointing the Doctor at them and watching chaos ensue. Heh. It is pretty interesting to see that all the explosions and Dalek-massacring that's been going on in trailers is possibly exactly what the Daleks want the Doctor to do. There's definitely going to be more to this than just "Daleks blow up, the Doctor wins".

I like how the Daleks have given the Doctor yet another melodramatically ominous title. Oh, Daleks. They pretend like they're not afraid of the Doctor, but they're clearly terrified of him. Hee.

I have to admit to having a bit of a raised eyebrow at the Doctor's claim that he's "a man with a plan". He never usually has a plan - the only times he really has done (in his Eleventh incarnation, I mean) is when he's had a long time to come up with one beforehand.

As for Amy and Rory's role in this, I'm beginning to assume that the Daleks brought them there largely as leverage over the Doctor to force him to do what they want, or something. But then again, trying to get to the Doctor through the people he loves is generally not a good idea, so maybe not.

Also, I found a brief synopsis of the episode:

Kidnapped by his oldest foe, the Doctor is forced on an impossible mission - to a place even the Daleks are too terrified to enter...

...the Daleks themselves are terrified of this asylum? Huh. That doesn't really make sense if all it contains are older models of Dalek. Hmm.

I like that the trailer uses The Majestic Tale (of a Madman in a Box) as its music. =D That piece really is meant for the Doctor's general awesomeness and not just that one scene in Day of the Moon.

Meanwhile, I've been gathering a few things about Pond Life recently...

Spoiler: More Pond Life premise ramblings

So I read some synopsisy stuff about it that said that, rather than Pond Life featuring the Doctor repeatedly dropping in on the Ponds, he's trying to visit the Ponds but part of the TARDIS has malfunctioned and caused him to pop up all over the place in time and space instead. Presumably, though, the stuff mentioned about how the Doctor's been constantly showing up and taking Amy and Rory into space in between them trying to live a normal life still has been canonically happening, just offscreen prior to Pond Life. Then maybe the Amy and Rory parts of Pond Life are them discussing his tendency to do this and wondering what's taking him so long this time, or something.

Meanwhile, shenanigans with the Doctor, involving crumpets and Sontarans. Oh, have I missed the Doctor's unique, wonderful brand of craziness. :3

I wonder if the TARDIS's malfunction has anything to do with the supposed cliffhanger there's going to be. Maybe the Daleks somehow caused it as part of their plan to reel in the Doctor?

Also, given stuff The Eleventh has been hinting about Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, I'm beginning to think that the whole deal with the Doctor repeatedly visiting the Ponds, taking them on an adventure and then dropping them off back home is going to be what is happening throughout the series proper. Each episode would be one of these trips, and in between the episodes they'd go back to their normal life for a while until he shows up again at the beginning of the next one. Except that doesn't quite add up with First Night, the DVD bonus scene in which Amy and Rory were apparently asleep on the TARDIS post-Wedding of River Song, implying that they do get back to permanently travelling at least for a bit. Eh.

Aaand some coherent (meaning: long and rambly) thoughts about the BBC America trailer.

Spoiler: American trailer rambles

"We could end this right now. We could save everyone right now."
"This is not how we roll, and you know it!"

I get the strong impression that this exchange very closely precedes the exchange in the BBC trailer about mercy. And so what I think the Doctor is advocating here is that they just kill the antagonist of the episode straight away without giving him a chance, so that he won't take any more innocent lives. Which if you look at it one way is a valid approach, but D: . Like Amy says, that is so not like the Doctor, and being on his own seems to have really changed him, even despite the fact that his solitude has apparently been interspersed with visits to the Ponds more recently. I am really looking forward to getting the full picture here.

"You're thinking of stopping, aren't you? You and Rory."
"The travelling is starting to feel like running away."

Two things:

-aaaa the Doctor has noticed this. I mean, of course he has; even last series he was often watching Amy and Rory from a distance and noticing something was up with them. At least this time he doesn't seem to be particularly struggling to bring it up. But still, D: . Of course he'd leave them be if that was really what they wanted, but it would still break his heart, and he knows that day is coming even before it's actually there and aaa. :<

-aaaa Amy still hasn't stopped running away from a normal adult life. Running away was always what the travelling was for her back when she started, but I thought she'd got over that; it's not good that she's started feeling that way again. And at the end of The God Complex the Doctor described the ordinary life waiting for her with Rory as "an even bigger, scarier adventure", but the impression at the time was that she'd grown the courage to face it. She even went and started her perfume business and everything. And yet...

This goes to show that Amy constantly getting sucked into the Doctor's world is not just the Doctor's fault. He's giving her the opportunity, sure, but it's Amy who's choosing to take it due to her own issues with struggling to grow up*. Aaa. Amy is adorable. Maybe we'll see glimpses of this in Pond Life?

(*even though the Doctor almost definitely considers it largely his fault that she even has those issues. But still.)

Amelia! It's pretty clear from my character title how much I love the part of Amy that's still that seven year old girl inside and the part of the Doctor that still sees her that way. I am very excited to see that little Amelia will seemingly be involved in Amy's departure in a big way. Maybe even in a plotty way, if it is indeed true that something in The Eleventh Hour will be relevant here, especially given the trailer's narration about beginnings, middles and ends not always happening in that order.

Crazy speculation: the Doctor, from right at the end of his time with the Ponds, goes back to see Amelia shortly after he first met her and tells her something that, when she remembers it in the future, will finally convince her to move on from him and face up to being an adult. He'd also have to tell her never ever to mention this to his past self, otherwise we'd have heard about it by now. ...I don't think this is particularly likely to be right, though, because it's rather too similar to what goes on in The Big Bang and doesn't really fit with Amy having not expected him to take twelve years to come back in The Eleventh Hour. It would at least fit as the "something Karen Gillan has been told about Amy that even Matt Smith didn't know prior to series 7" that I've been wondering about for a while.

Where's everyone gone, by the way? There's a whole load of trailers and exciting stuff to discuss now, and the series is only a week away. Join in!

~a week until the Daleks, two days until the Ponds!~

-elyvorg/Amelia

 

[Becoming]

I haven't even seen this trailer (and I can't so long as I'm pretending to do homework!). But I definietly will later; I'm totally excited!

I think I've found a way that I'll watch the new series with y'all: I'll find a livestream and watch it (hopefully someone will be live streaming it). Thankfully it airs on Saturday, because with the difference in time zones I probably couldn't watch on a weekday (damned school!).

I think I'm gonna miss the overall arc-y-ness of last season. In fact, I'm gonna miss the arc-y-ness of all of Moffat's Who. Series five had the big bang, with clues throughout the series (all those cracks in time + TARDIS pieces); series six had "who are the silence" and River Song too. I hope the no-overarching plot thing is a total lie . . . but it seems the cliffhanger of this season is Amy and Rory's departure Which I’m dreading.

But this “Pond Life” is a plus!

 

[VampirateMace]

I'm excited for the new season, but no Arc? How does that work in Doctor Who? It's time travel, everything is relevant to everything else.

Anyone else find the "-blank- of Doctor Who" specials disappointing? I've watched a couple, but it's mostly people making obvious or bland comments on things we already know. No speculation or extra information, and the in the Science special they explained how forward time travel IS possible, then give time travel a 3/5 for plausablity. What? You proved it in at least one direction, can't you bother to give it a 4?

 

[elyvorg]

Tuesday before a series begins to air! This means there is a Radio Times with all its usual synopsisy goodness about all the episodes in this half-series. This one has me very, very excited. :3

Spoiler: Radio Times

Episode 1: Asylum of the Daleks
The Dalek Asylum: a planetoid filled with battle-scarred, insane Daleks that even the normal Daleks are terrified of. The Doctor always dismissed the place as a myth, but it's not. After a plea from a mysterious woman named Darla von Karlsen to rescue her daughter, it's where he, Amy and Rory are headed.

The way the synopsis describes the Asylum makes it sound like a really dangerous, terrifying place, and the Doctor's got to get himself, and the Ponds, and this woman's daughter out alive. This should be a seriously awesome episode. I also read a little more about it on the Radio Times website, which I think might have slightly spoiled me for the outcome of Pond Life, so...

Spoiler: Possible Pond Life spoilers?

Apparently, Amy and Rory's relationship is getting kind of strained, so that on top of everything else, the Doctor also has to try and rescue their marriage.

D:! Amy and Rory! What happened? I know it's been two years and a lot could have gone on in that time, but still.

Incidentally, the Paradigm Daleks have a new paint job that's darker and more metallic and in my opinion actually looks pretty cool. And apparently the episode has some kind of top-secret epic surprise just after the title sequence. Ooh.

Episode 2: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
There's a spaceship crashing to earth - one from 65 and a half million years ago and full of dinosaurs. In order to save both humanity and the last of the dinosaurs, the Doctor and the Ponds recruit big game hunter John Riddell (so that guy with the gun isn't Howard Carter after all :<), Nefertiti and Rory's dad. (Not entirely sure why the latter two would be any help with dinosaurs on a spaceship, but I'm sure we'll see.)

Episode 3: A Town Called Mercy
A town in the Old West is under siege; just leaving the town's boundaries summons a not-quite-human killer from the desert. In this conflict between the cyborg killer and an alien fugitive, it's not easy to figure out whose side to be on and who is the victim. But this time, the Doctor doesn't seem to care. Maybe the long days of travelling on his own in between seeing the Ponds have taken their toll on him, because for once, he picks up a gun...

D: My thoughts on this in one of my other spoilers this post.

Episode 4: The Power of Three
The human race wakes up one morning to find that small black cubes have appeared everywhere overnight, cubes that proceed to... do nothing much at all. Clearly, something's going on, some kind of invasion is going to happen - but how, and more importantly, when? This time, in order to save the world, the Doctor has to be patient. And in the meantime, while he's waiting, he moves in with the Ponds!

So basically this episode is half about the alien invasion and half about life for a married couple who just happen to have the Doctor living in their spare room. Hee! I absolutely loved The Lodger for similar reasons, but this promises to be ten times as adorable and hilarious as that episode. After all, it's Amy and Rory, the people he loves most in the world right now, that the Doctor's living with, and he'll seemingly be there for way, way longer. And he is the worst person at being patient. And, seriously, this episode. Ridiculously looking forward to it now!

Episode 5: The Angels Take Manhattan
"Never let him see the damage. And never, ever let him see you age. He doesn't like endings."

The Doctor has been a part of the Ponds' life for so long now. He's barely even noticed that his little Amelia has started wearing reading glasses. Surely things can stay this way forever? Surely, at last, he's found a family and the closest thing to a home he could ever hope for?

In New York, the Weeping Angels have other ideas; not even River's help can stop their plans to change destiny. And heartbreak hurts even more when you have two of them...

Mmmsghghgf. THIS. Especially coming straight on the heels of the Doctor literally living with Amy and Rory, this is going to be the adorablest, most heartbreaking thing ever. I am such a sap for how much Amy and Rory mean to the Doctor, and this episode is clearly stuffed with that kind of thing. And it sounds like the Doctor is desperately trying to convince himself that everything is fine and he's totally never going to lose them, because being with them makes him really, truly happy. And that quote! I'm thinking maybe River says it? But either way, the Ponds seem to be trying to keep up that happy illusion for as long as possible for the Doctor's sake, and d'awwww. D:

And the Weeping Angels! Back in Blink, it was said they feed off potential energy, all the "stolen moments" of a life someone could have led but didn't because the Angels intervened. Maybe this is what they're trying to do to the Doctor and the Ponds? Maybe there are other ways they can get themselves a meal that are more than just sending someone back in time?


Aaaaa. I cannot quite get over how much I know I'm going to absolutely adore this half-series right now. It seems like it'll have such a running theme, leading on from Christmas, of the Doctor becoming increasingly more a part of the Pond family and feeling more and more at home and happy with them, only to have that all cruelly torn away from him in the end. Oh god. Steven Moffat is an evil man and I love him for it.

An arc this half-series? I admittedly still doubt there will be much of a plotty arc, but reading the Radio Times has very much given me the impression that there's going to be a big charactery kind of arc. I for one am very, very much looking forward to such a thing.

And as part of this arc, Pond Life has been happening! It is wonderful.

Spoiler: Pond Life - April

Eeee, this had me giggling so hard. The rapping part in particular just killed me for some reason. (It's high time we saw more of the Doctor's hilarious dancing! Also, HAT.) This stands as proof that absolutely everything is instantly improved when you add the Doctor to it. x3

Aside from that, on a less never-knowingly-serious note, I find it kind of adorable how the Doctor's been leaving frequent messages - this clearly isn't the first one of its kind, judging by Amy and Rory's nonplussed reaction and the way they casually delete it - on the Ponds' answerphone detailing his recent hijinks. It's a nice contrast with the "waving out of history" he did in the 194-year gap, as well as with the prequel to TDTWTW where he was phoning Amy except very much not. He clearly still has that urge to stay in contact with Amy and Rory during his mad adventures because he misses them, but this time they're actually, definitely there and listening as opposed to him just pretending they are. Since Christmas, things have got much better than before. :3

...But this is all me extrapolating ridiculously from about ten seconds' worth of stuff. I'm sure it'll become way more readily apparent what the Pond-Doctor communications have been like in the remaining parts. Roll on the rest of the week! =D

(I presume that this one being in April means that it'll be the next month on for each of the next parts, going up to August in the final part, which then leads into the series beginning in September! Yay. Even though it's actually 2014 for the Ponds.)

(The contents of this spoiler were written on the day this part aired, when I hadn't seen the next one.)

Spoiler: Pond Life - May

This is adorable. I love the sense we're getting of Amy and Rory's "ordinary" life with their best friend the time-travelling madman constantly popping in in the wrong order. It's quite impressive what they're willing to put up with from him. The Doctor is clearly showing up/leaving messages/etc way more often than once a month, despite what we're seeing, because there's only been five months since Christmas but they're already completely used to his shenanigans. They've even laid down ground rules as to where in the house he is and isn't allowed to suddenly show up. x3

I'm kind of curious about the important dangerous thing that the Doctor was supposed to be recruiting their help with - considering that this version of the Doctor had experienced at least up to Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, I wonder if it might become apparent in the series what he needed the Ponds for here.

Also, he's blatantly lying to them about the future being totally safe. I thought he'd stopped lying to them. D:

I knew I'd love this. :3 The series itself hasn't even started yet but already this is making me so, so happy.


Meanwhile, I've been playing piece-together-a-scene-from-multiple-trailers and I've found a little bit more context for that one exchange in A Town Called Mercy.

Spoiler: Mercy and guns

In this trailer from back in March (what I like to call the "aggressive stairs" trailer), there's the Doctor throwing a guy outside the town's boundaries and pointing a gun at him. This is seemingly shortly followed by Amy saying "You've clearly been taking stupid lessons since I last saw you!" Judging by the surroundings, this is what leads into the conversation about mercy and saving everyone that we've seen in the more recent BBC and BBC America trailers. So it appears that the Doctor was literally about to just shoot this guy dead under the assumption that it would fix everything before Amy butted in and pointed out that this is not his style. D: He really has been taking stupid lessons! What's happened to him? Also note the "since I last saw you" in Amy's line - the last time she saw the Doctor before this would be Dinosaurs on a Spaceship at the earliest. Has he really changed that much that quickly? I am so, so intrigued for this episode.

Spoiler: Mentioning stuff from the Radio Times

The guy in question that the Doctor points his gun at is the guy with the strange marking on the side of his face. I'm assuming that he's the fugitive spoken of in the synopsis (whose name is seemingly Kahler Jex), and that maybe the Doctor thinks that if he just kills Kahler Jex then the cyborg Gunslinger that's (presumably) after the fugitive will leave the town alone and not hurt any more innocents.

I wonder about the marking on the guy's face. Perhaps that's what marks him out as a fugitive? I'm interested because apparently - judging from the aggressive stairs trailer - at some point in the episode the Doctor willingly gets the same marking painted on his own face. Is he trying to attract the Gunslinger's attention towards him as part of some kind of clever plan? Hmm.

Four more days. I am going to love this half-series so much.

-elyvorg/Amelia

 

[Pansy :]]

When I first heard about the pond life prequels I thought that they were going to be all boring and such, but I'm actually really enjoying them! Especially today's (June I believe?) with the ood on the loo, it was fairly stupid but I definately laughed uncontrollably for atleast a minute...

Ooh and asylum is so close I just can't even stand it! It's always those last few days that are impossible! I'm going over to my friends house and were baking a TARDIS cake so hopefully that turns out well... I'm actually fairly scared for this season though... I rewatched doomsday from season two for about the billionth time today, and definately relived some emotional trauma there... I swear every companion (besides Martha only because it was so... Casual?) leaving just makes me so much more upset then it should, and I doubt the ponds will be an exception... GAHHHHH ANGLES TAKE MANHATTEN CAN JUST STAY IN THE BBC SECRET FILES OR WHATEVER FOREVER I DON'T WANT IT TO EXIST BLEHHHH.

 

[Becoming]

Just watched Pond Life (you know, the first three episodes) and loved it. Wish it was a bit longer, but loved it. It's wacky, but it's also refreshing to see Amy and Rory again, especially considering the lack of actual-Amy and actual-Rory we say in the last three episodes (Closing Time = cameo, TWORS = alternate universe, mostly, and the christmas special = only at the end).

I'm going to try to remain spoiler free this series, but at the same time wish me luck in finding a live stream to the first episode on Saturday!

And also wish me luck because there's no way in hell I'm gonna be able to do a physics project in one night. If only I had a TARDIS! Speaking of projects I'm using Doctor Who as one of my texts for an english report. The connection between texts I'm doing is companionship, and well the doctor's companions are actually called companions. But mostly I'm focusing on Doctor/Amy (I would do a rewatch of the last two series for it but you know haven't bought the DVDs!).

And that's all the pointless I'm gonna post

 

[elyvorg]

I know, right? Isn't Pond Life just so delightful and funny, even though it's kind of short? =D

In fact, despite that it's short, I like how it gives enough of an implication that what we're seeing is by no means all of the shenanigans that have been going on, making it fun to imagine what else might have been happening in the Ponds' life that we haven't got to see.

Spoiler: Pond Life - June

It says a lot about how welcome the Doctor now feels in Amy and Rory's house that he's perfectly happy to randomly leave various friendly aliens in awkward places. :3

Rory's reaction was priceless; I was giggling at it even before I knew what he was reacting to. And I can imagine the Doctor, soon after this (in a wibbly wobbly sense of "soon"), getting a phone call from a rather irate Amy asking why on earth there is an Ood in their bathroom and could he please take it away.

(...so I also wrote this one before seeing today's instalment. Heh.)

Spoiler: Pond Life - July

I like that the separate parts are beginning to feel more connected now! So apparently the Doctor didn't deliberately dump the Ood on them, at least. He rescued him from the "Androvax wars" - yay for a little SJA reference! Much amusement at seeing an Ood performing modern-day-Earth household chores (and Rory's awkwardness and guilt since it's basically slave labour). xP

I utterly love Amy pinching a sausage from Rory's plate when he's not looking and the faces they make at each other when he notices. Hee. Those two. They are adorable even without factoring the Doctor's madness into their relationship. :3

It's also fun to get even more of a sense of how out-of-sync the Doctor and the Ponds are thanks to the delight that is time travel. It seems that Amy (or Rory) really did phone the Doctor up to complain about the Ood, but he was busy and it went to answerphone (I wonder if he still has the same "leave a message after the tone" recording that he had in the Let's Kill Hitler prequel? 8D). And then when he got the message and phoned them back, the call happened to land in July, not June, so that in the meantime they'd had to live with the Ood for a month. Oh, the repercussions of trying to keep up with a friend whose timeline is not parallel to yours. It's actually kind of interesting to think about. The effects were harmless enough this time, but worse things could potentially happen if the TARDIS keeps failing to keep the Doctor in sync with them. I don't think this is necessarily just the wonky helmic regulator's fault, either - dear old Sexy has never been one for linearity, has she?

(Speaking of her, I hope she's okay after whatever went wrong with her at the end. Threatening to implode due to a power drain does not sound healthy. D: )

And I'm particularly looking forward to the final instalment tomorrow, because apparently there's going to be some kind of epic cliffhanger in it, so that should be fun.

I'm actually fairly scared for this season though... I rewatched doomsday from season two for about the billionth time today, and definately relived some emotional trauma there... I swear every companion (besides Martha only because it was so... Casual?) leaving just makes me so much more upset then it should, and I doubt the ponds will be an exception... GAHHHHH ANGLES TAKE MANHATTEN CAN JUST STAY IN THE BBC SECRET FILES OR WHATEVER FOREVER I DON'T WANT IT TO EXIST BLEHHHH.

Aww, but we can't not see the episode! Yes, it's going to break our hearts, but if we never saw it, then at Christmas we'd just suddenly find ourselves watching Doctor Who with the Ponds not there and the Doctor all kinds of heartbroken and we'd never know why. That would be even worse, surely? We have to be brave. *nodnod*

(Well, actually, I'm personally not scared for the Angel episode at all because I'm one of those people who genuinely likes having their heart broken by fiction, but.)

Also, a TARDIS cake sounds awesome. Good luck with that. :3

Speaking of projects I'm using Doctor Who as one of my texts for an english report. The connection between texts I'm doing is companionship, and well the doctor's companions are actually called companions. But mostly I'm focusing on Doctor/Amy (I would do a rewatch of the last two series for it but you know haven't bought the DVDs!).

That's... wow. I actually really envy you! You have a valid reason to go all overanalytical on something in Doctor Who for an English project. How I wish I ever had an opportunity like that back when I still had English classes. I'm sure you'll have fun with it! Companionship is such a good topic, too, especially focusing on the Doctor and Amy. They are adorable together and have a really fascinating relationship.

(and, you know, if you ever need someone to look up scenes from the episodes that you don't have access to, then I'd be perfectly happy to do that and maybe also ramble a bit myself to give you ideas on what to talk about. Because I totally don't just want an excuse to ramble more about the Doctor and Amy. >.> <.<)


Remember how, about a month ago, when the series anticipation was only just starting to build, they released a really awesome image for Asylum of the Daleks? Well, now they've done the same for the other four episodes. Except these are really less "images" and more "movie posters". They're awesome. Steven Moffat really wasn't kidding when he said he wanted this series to have episodes with big, mad, movie-poster concepts.

Spoiler: Rambles on a couple of those posters

I'm especially fond of the ones for The Power of Three and The Angels Take Manhattan (more zoom-in-able versions in those links), because, although I can't exactly say for sure as I haven't seen the series yet, I feel like they might be kind of symbolic for the themes and outcomes of their respective episodes. The mosaic of tiny little images in the Power of Three one consists entirely of images from past episodes with the Doctor, Amy and Rory, making it feel like this episode is going to be really heavily about these three and how close they've become throughout all the adventures they've shared, and maybe that this connection of theirs might end up relevant to resolving the plot. Meanwhile, with the Angels one, not only are Amy and Rory praying for some reason, but the way they're the same kind of grayscale as the Angels that are reaching for them, in contrast with the Doctor in full colour at the front, seems really ominous with regards to what fate might befall them. It took me a little while to spot that the TARDIS is also in the background there; since it wasn't easy to notice, I doubt it's there just because it looks nice, so I feel that might be relevant somehow, too. And then there's the question of why the Doctor is almost completely covering his face like a Weeping Angel does. The only thought I can come up with at the moment is that, well - we know that losing Amy and Rory is going to break the Doctor's hearts, and that habit of covering their faces is what gives the Angels the "Weeping" part of their name, so... D:

...I like trying to interpret things. Shush.

Sometime later on when I'm back at university and being a geeky student again, I may have to see if I can find myself actual poster versions of at least one of these for my room. As beautiful as my poster of Vincent's painting "The Pandorica Opens" is, I'm kind of used to seeing it by now.

Two days! Two days.

-elyvorg/Amelia

 

[VampirateMace]

Ahh... now I got to watch Pond Life!

@Pansy :] - Yeah, Martha's leaving wasn't as tragic, it was just, 'I'm sick of this, I'm done.' But I wasn't really upset about losing Rose either... I didn't want Donna to go though, and now I don't want the Ponds to either. Maybe Craig can get a ride it the T.A.R.D.I.S. sometime? I don't really see him sticking around for a whole season, as he doesn't really like traveling, but if he's late or something.

Lol... Rory's expression on the Power of 3 poster, what is that emotion? Are there real posters of these four avalible?

 

[Becoming]

Spoiler: the movie posters and what may happen to Amy and Rory

Please, please don't let Amy and Rory . . . become Weeping Angels. I mean they've got the colouring and post (kinda) in the posters but no, this just can't happen! It would break my heart more than if they just died/got sent back through time because they essentially don't get any sort of peace or afterlife. They're angels. Forever. No dying and escaping it (like they might have).

But this just makes me think about the mechanics of them actually becoming angels. We've seen the idea that an angel can put an image of itself into someone and then make a new angel that kills them (like what would have happened to Amy) but actually turning into an angel? Well Amy could just look into the eyes of an Angel anyway and have the same thing happen, but with no time crack to cure it . . . if they did become angels though, would they still be Amy and Rory? You know, they wouldn't send people through time or kill them or do evil angel-y stuff? Or would they be Amy and Rory but angel versions, what they would be if they were evil . . . I don't wanna think about this . . .

I'm about to watch Pond Life #4 . . . and watched it and ahaha that was nice. I just like the antics of having an Ood in the house

And yes elyvorg, it's awesome to be able to do it on Doctor Who. I did the same assessment last year (well it was an easier version) and half of the texts I used were fanfics from the forums (When The Grave Calls and Lurking In The Shadows: Lisa's Ultimate Adventure). For some reason this year we're required to look into what makes successful texts successful (aka we've got to use movies, published book, etc). I'm sure it's just a plan to foil my use of fanfiction :O But no I could never accept your help because that would be cheating. And more importantly it would be wrong. Very wrong.

Only one day left asdfghjkl;

 

[KingMinun]

Ahh... now I got to watch Pond Life!

@Pansy :] - Yeah, Martha's leaving wasn't as tragic, it was just, 'I'm sick of this, I'm done.' But I wasn't really upset about losing Rose either... I didn't want Donna to go though, and now I don't want the Ponds to either. Maybe Craig can get a ride it the T.A.R.D.I.S. sometime? I don't really see him sticking around for a whole season, as he doesn't really like traveling, but if he's late or something.

Lol... Rory's expression on the Power of 3 poster, what is that emotion? Are there real posters of these four avalible?

Martha leaving wasn't really "I'm sick of this, I'm leaving" it was "My family have been through hell, and they need me, so I can't travel". And I was the most devastated with her leaving, probably because I'm a huge fan and her speech is really moving. As for Rose, I was originally devastated by it but the start of series 3 I was like "meh, moving on"

And I'm off to the convention next week with David Tennant, I'm very excited they've got such a great guest list, Clive from the episode Rose, (also plays Chalkie in Waterloo Road), Mels Pond, Jake from the Parallel universe, Pete Tyler, K-9, the american newsreporter Trinity Wells, Jamie McCrimmon from Classic Who, and Jeremy Young from Classic Who. But the one I'm most excited about is Anthony Head from School Reunion a.k.a. Rupert Giles from Buffy! Still waiting to see if they will allow me onto the press list, if they do, I'd love to have some questions from all of you guys when I interview them, that's if I get on the press list though.

And finally, just 1 more day till the new episode, unfortunately I'm working but I've got it on record ready to watch countless times on Sunday. And as for Pond Life

Spoiler: Pond Life

Now it all makes sense, we saw the crew carrying an Ood head out of the house, trying his best to hide it but we saw it. And whilst watching the filming we saw the Ood in the window flapping around with a bed sheet and wondering what on earth was it doing. Also I loved yesterday's with Rory saying "I feel so guilty" and Amy just saying "Eat your breakfast" the way Karen delivered that line was spot on.

KingMinun/Martha Jones

 

[Aegon]

Just stopping by (I'm so lazy) to say that Pond Life is brilliant. The last episode is easily the best.

Spoiler: Pond Life, ep 5

It was cool to see the Doctor working on the exterior of the TARDIS for a change. But, of course, the highlight of this was the update on Amy and Rory's relationship and the Doctor deleting his message. Gaah.. I must confess, I did know of this fallout prior to Pond Life (Stupid filming pictures and videos. She's screaming "I hate this!", by the way). However, I didn't think it would play a part until TATM. Is this how Asylum will open? When Amy returns home in this PL episode, she's wearing her DoaS clothes. This could be completely irrelevant. I want to know more! This storyline is definitely going to be very sad. ;_;

I'm now looking forward to A Town Called Mercy the most. I was slightly apprehensive (I really don't know why), but recently I've become very interested in it. From reading synopses in the RT and DWM, the plot is highly appealing.

Spoiler: Thin outline of ATCM; may have been mentioned already

So, the Doctor contemplates killing either the fugitive or the prosecutor (it probably won't be as clean-cut as that), it seems. The synopses also question who the real victim is. Exciting! I want to know how this is resolved so badly. D:

Also, the Nerdist YouTube channel will be supplying a range of Who videos, beginning today, until Sunday. The most exciting one is today's, as it will feature Matt, Karen, Arthur and the Moff (heh) playing bowling. How cool is that?

Time to take in the moment... Because Doctor Who returns tomorrow! Molto bene!!!

-The Eleventh/Rory Williams

e: Karen's on The One Show tonight at seven. Watch!

 

[elyvorg]

Prequels. Why are the prequels with the Doctor in them always heartbreaking? (I love that they keep being this way!)

Spoiler: Pond Life - August

Oh, god. Oh, Doctor. And he seemed to be making real progress since Christmas; I really thought he'd begun to feel at home with the Ponds and had realised that they actually enjoy his company and are happy to have him around.

I think this might be partly the broken helmic regulator's fault - he's gone so long now without actually seeing Amy and Rory, only popping in when they're not around, talking to them mostly on the answerphone and very rarely in person that he's started to forget the way they feel about him. It seems like they hardly ever phoned him either - probably, judging from this, because they were busy trying to deal with their own problems, but of course the Doctor wouldn't know that. So now he's reverted back to believing that Amy and Rory are perfectly happy without him, that he shouldn't be interfering because they're living their own life and why would they ever need him? Yet it's clear from the tone of his voice in the message that he was really disappointed they weren't home and really was worrying about them; he still loves them to pieces and misses them dearly even though he's just tried to remove himself from their lives yet again. :<

This is more or less how he was back before Christmas; the way he left a message but then deleted it is reminiscent of how, on that spaceship in the Christmas prequel, he was phoning Amy and "talking to" her even though he knew she wasn't there and never intended for her to hear him. I get the feeling now, more than ever, that the "waving through history" he did in those 194 years was also just like these answerphone messages: just for his own sake because he missed them, without him ever actually expecting or wanting Amy and Rory to notice him.

Not only is this even more heartbreaking this time around because things were going so well, but it's also extra painful because this time we know that Amy and Rory aren't fine, and they do need him. D: Sadly I'd kind of accidentally spoiled myself for the fact that their marriage is in turmoil, but even so - what happened? How long have things been shaky between them? Was it going on in previous months that we saw for ourselves in the earlier parts of Pond Life, and all we saw was them trying to put a brave face on it? In my attempts to predict why after accidentally spoiling myself for this, all I could think of was that maybe the divide between them forms because of something like Rory being kind of irritated with the Doctor's constant interruptions to their life while Amy's fine with him and therefore they argued, but that's obviously not it at all seeing as Amy believes the Doctor can help fix this.

So it's going to be okay, eventually! (By which I mean tomorrow; at least things won't stay heartbreaking for too long, right?) Amy still has the Doctor's number, so she can phone him up and then he can get to fixing things. After all, he's pretty good at sorting out Amy and Rory's relationship and getting them back together - he's even done it more than once, in different versions of the universe. Even though it's definitely going to hurt for him to find out that Amy and Rory's relationship has fractured like this, since he's always believed that they should be happy together. :<

This gives us yet another reason to look forward to Asylum of the Daleks! The Doctor is seriously going to have his hands full in this one.

Did I mention that I knew I would love Pond Life? Because I knew I would love Pond Life. It's been amazing. I'm so happy that it happened. =D

Are there real posters of these four avalible?

I doubt there are quite yet, since the images were only revealed at midnight yesterday morning. I'd be very surprised if there won't be sooner or later though, since after all they'd be perfect as actual posters.

Spoiler: the movie posters and what may happen to Amy and Rory

Please, please don't let Amy and Rory . . . become Weeping Angels. I mean they've got the colouring and post (kinda) in the posters but no, this just can't happen! It would break my heart more than if they just died/got sent back through time because they essentially don't get any sort of peace or afterlife. They're angels. Forever. No dying and escaping it (like they might have).

But this just makes me think about the mechanics of them actually becoming angels. We've seen the idea that an angel can put an image of itself into someone and then make a new angel that kills them (like what would have happened to Amy) but actually turning into an angel? Well Amy could just look into the eyes of an Angel anyway and have the same thing happen, but with no time crack to cure it . . . if they did become angels though, would they still be Amy and Rory? You know, they wouldn't send people through time or kill them or do evil angel-y stuff? Or would they be Amy and Rory but angel versions, what they would be if they were evil . . . I don't wanna think about this . . .

Spoiler: Reply

Yeah, hmm. I'm not entirely sure what the eventual result of having a Weeping Angel in your eye is, since it thankfully never did quite happen to Amy. The Doctor said the Angel was coming to "switch her off", so does that mean it would have just killed her and possessed her still-human body, or would it have turned her into another Angel? *shudder* I sincerely doubt it would still have been Amy in any meaningful sense, either way. And also while we're thinking about horrible things from Flesh and Stone it occurred to me that what if the same thing happened to Amy and/or Rory that happened to Bob with an Angel stealing their voices and no no no stop thinking about this right now that is too horrible and is not going to be what happens. D: D:

Spoiler: My own thoughts on the Ponds' possible fate, mentioning vague Radio Times synopsisy info

The synopsis put quite a bit of focus on the fact that the Ponds are slowly growing older and beginning to age, making it apparent that, as much as the Doctor might want them to, they can't be a part of his life forever because humans always grow old and die while he doesn't. It made me think about how, back in Blink, the Angels tended to kill people by zapping them to the past and letting them grow old; seen from the perspective of their loved ones who aren't displaced in time, it's like their lifetime is over in an instant. So now I can't help but wonder if something along these lines might be what happens to Amy and Rory in The Angels Take Manhattan, too. The obvious problem with this theory is that the Doctor would presumably be able to just pop back in time and pick them up - but still, there could be a way the Angels could catch the Doctor out somehow and have him forced to accept that his friends are suddenly old and dying. The way I was interpreting Amy and Rory's greyness in the poster was therefore them being trapped in the past and praying for him to come and get them, or something like that.

But I don't know. This is all just my speculation, and it'll probably actually be something way more awesome than this.

But no I could never accept your help because that would be cheating. And more importantly it would be wrong. Very wrong.

Okay, fair enough. ;] But rambling back and forth about things in Doctor Who just for the sake of rambling about them would be fun and should happen more often, right? ...though that would probably be better happening in between-series downtimes when we don't already have loads to talk about.


Something that occurred to me recently: Remember Amy killing Kovarian in cold blood in the alternate universe? Remember how this was something of a hanging plot thread because she said she kind of wanted to talk to the Doctor about it? Well, I reckon that if that conversation is going to happen in any episode, it'll probably be A Town Called Mercy.

Spoiler: Will reference that one exchange from the trailers

The way the Doctor appears angry at himself for all the times he's been merciful to villains in the past and is deciding not to be this time seems like it could be nicely paralleled with the time Amy could have been merciful to a villain but chose otherwise. Madame Kovarian outright said that Amy wouldn't kill her because the Doctor wouldn't have done so, and it seemed that Amy really would have been merciful if the Doctor had been there to witness it because she wouldn't have wanted to let him down. So the fact that the Doctor is suddenly not being merciful in this episode might be what spurs Amy to decide to tell him about it. The horror of realising what Amy did could even help the Doctor deal with his inner conflict and figure out how he really feels about mercy.

Seriously. I mean, I know there's no actual proof that this will come up in this particular episode, but it would fit so well. I can't believe this only occurred to me now.

(The Eleventh: Totally agree with you about this episode. Well, okay, I think I'm still looking forward to 4 or 5 even more, but still. It's sounding so damn intriguing!)


Incidentally, while I was making this post, I got distracted by the Daleks hijacking the official Doctor Who Twitter feed. Yeah. That happened. (By which I mean *snerk*.)

~tomorroooooooow!~

-elyvorg/Amelia

 

[Griff4815]

I just watched those Pond Life things. They were cute and fun... and also whetted my appetite for the new series. I found it hilariously adorable that Rory has a lunch box. xD

I'm also wondering what's going on in the last episode... Hm... (Well, I know what looks like is going on, but I don't know what it is in the context of the actual show, so...) At any rate, it looks sad. And I hope that doesn't actually happen since Rory and Amy are awesome. D:

But yeah, can't wait for tomorrowwww!

 

[The Joker.]

Joining...

Why do you like doctor who?
The concept, the sci-fi nature of it, the comedic and dramatic elements. The fantasy technology is all interesting to me aswell as the ludicrous science. The characters in it are also always well developed and you find yourself really interested in them. I just find it a mix of all my favourite elements in a televison program. I started watching doctor who in 2005 with the new series, because my dad is a massive fan of the older series. I was a little sceptical at first but then I began to love it. Since then I have watched some of the older series and am now involved with helping my brother deliver Tardis and Dalek replicas to events that want them. Ever since I started watching it in 2005, I haven't missed an episode, the writing that was done by R.T.D and is now done by Steven Moffat is just great.

Who's your favourite doctor?
David Tennant. He brought such energy and drama to the program and always gave a great perfomance. Second to him, Tom Baker. The scarf. Also can I say my favourite assistant was/is Amy Pond, she's nice and I've met her.

Anyway, today I went to see the filming of "The one show" on which Karen Gillan was a guest. I was there because me and my brother were delivering a dalek replica to the BBC and they let us watch the filming! Afterwards we got to hang out with Karen Gillan, and she was so cool and nice to the fans.

Also, one of the daleks in the upcoming asylum episode was provided for by my brother as he runs a replica Tardis and Dalek hire company thing.

 

[Becoming]

*pterodactyl noise* I went over my tumblr post limit :O So I can't post my theory on tumblr (of course I'll post it here):

Spoiler: Amy and Rory's departure

Okay, so remember in The Hungry Earth when Amy and Rory saw themselves waving to themselves? If Amy and Rory . . . you know, got killed, wouldn't that prevent that from happening? THE happened in 2020, and I assume Amy and Rory aren't like from the year 2020 when the travel with the Doctor to Manhattan . . .

Also, about Pond Life:

Spoiler: Pond Life

So that last one just broke my heart. Noooooooooo Amy and Rory can't break up. Well, considering the storming off maybe the Doctor had to trick Rory into coming onto the TARDIS with him? But I wonder how this ties into the next series

Also it looks like someone's gonna livestream Asylum of the Daleks so I'll probably be watching it with y'all

 

[VampirateMace]

Martha leaving wasn't really "I'm sick of this, I'm leaving" it was "My family have been through hell, and they need me, so I can't travel". And I was the most devastated with her leaving, probably because I'm a huge fan and her speech is really moving. As for Rose, I was originally devastated by it but the start of series 3 I was like "meh, moving on"

Well, to be fair, I was implying those details on the first part, "I'm sick of this (being in danger and my family being in danger)" but yeah, 'I can't go' fits better than 'I'm leaving you'.

Spoiler: Angel Poster

Anyways.... I doubt the Ponds will become angels. It doesn't really line up with anything they've done so far, but we don't really know how they reproduce (other than by images), so I suppose there's still a chance it could happen.

 

[elyvorg]

It's Saturday! :3

A general reminder to everyone in the club, since the series starts this evening (8D!): discussion of events in an episode that just aired needs to be kept spoilered until a week after its airdate. I don't mean to sound naggy; it's just that there were a few issues with this at the beginning of series 6 in the last club, so I'd rather be safe than sorry.


The Joker.: Eh... could you possibly add just a little bit more to your joining form before I let you join? You're almost there.

Spoiler: Amy and Rory's departure

Okay, so remember in The Hungry Earth when Amy and Rory saw themselves waving to themselves? If Amy and Rory . . . you know, got killed, wouldn't that prevent that from happening? THE happened in 2020, and I assume Amy and Rory aren't like from the year 2020 when the travel with the Doctor to Manhattan . . .

Ah, but we already know that Amy and Rory on the hill in The Hungry Earth can be rewritten. When Rory was erased in Cold Blood, suddenly there was just Amy on the hill, and there had only ever been Amy. So their presence there in 2020 in that episode tells us absolutely nothing about their future survival or possible lack thereof.

but we don't really know how [the Weeping Angels] reproduce (other than by images)

...you know, I've been thinking something along those lines recently myself. Could it be that Angels literally reproduce using images? All they'd have to do would be to get someone to draw/take a photo of them, or stand in front of a CCTV camera, or, heck, even a mirror might work. Then there'd be an image of an Angel, which would slowly grow into a new Angel. Brr. The Weeping Angels are so creepily abstract.

Then I suppose maybe this does mean that the image an Angel can leave in the vision centre of someone's mind also counts as reproduction, too. D:


When Karen appeared on The One Show last night, they showed a couple of short preview clips for Asylum of the Daleks! Which admittedly didn't really tell us anything plot-wise that we hadn't already seen in trailers, but still. One of them in particular I rather enjoyed, as it reminded me just how much the Doctor is terrified of the Daleks but is also really good at not letting it show. Oh, how I love a Dalek episode. And I get the feeling that this one in particular is going to become one of my favourite Dalek episodes. =D Not long to wait now!

~less than four hours!~

-elyvorg/Amelia