Original Tardis Material

[infinitemonkeys]

My icon expresses how keen I am to watch next week's installment.

It's entirely possible that I am far too easy for River Song but I loved that. Loooooved it. My inner ten-year-old is petrified every time there is some movement in my peripheral vision or a mote swimming across my eyeball. There are, as ever, caveats... but IS IT NEXT WEEK YET?

Comments

[marakara]

Hi! It is fun to read your weekly Doctor Who updates, even if I don't follow along.

Can I ask a silly American question - are they showing new episodes on Saturday or is that when you're free enough to write up your thoughts. Just wondering because TV here is an absolute wasteland on Saturdays.

Glad you're around.

Take Care
Mara

[infinitemonkeys]

Hello. Yes, a new episode every Saturday at about 6.20pm. The BBC iPlayer stream is usually up soon after that (I occasionally check stuff I misheard with the subtitles on that). There are reruns every Sunday and Friday on BBC Three.

[kirbyfest]

I just learned recently that the second season of AtA had aired, and need to track it down. Glad to hear S3 is good. (I actually wasn't an enormous fan of S1, but I'll pretty much follow Gene Hunt anywhere he goes. So.)

I am debating waiting to watch both parts of the the Who two parter all in one fell swoop. We'll see if I have that much self-control; it helps that I'm barely home this week.

[infinitemonkeys]

I didn't even watch Ashes to Ashes season two -- I'm going to go back and watch it later -- but as long as you watched season one, you're okay. They're tying everything back to Life On Mars with some nods to the fans [Alex wrote Gene/Sam on her notepad on Friday]. So far, it's treading just on the right side of the Gene Hunt-as-hero* line for me, and I am hoping that continues.

[* I know he's the most popular character and often enjoyable, but the show should acknowledge that he's a git, and sometimes it doesn't]

[kirbyfest]

but the show should acknowledge that he's a git, and sometimes it doesn't

Totally agree. Pointing that out was a purpose Sam served in LoM that I didn't get so much in AtA. (Also, the way Alex was written often made me clench my jaw. Sam did his share of boneheaded things, but Alex... oy.)

[infinitemonkeys]

Alex is written fairly smartly in the episodes I've seen so far, mentoring Shaz, keeping Chris on the straight and narrow as far as possible, almost befriending Ray and striking sparks off Gene Hunt. I like her a lot.

[hibernate]

It was my favourite episode yet of S5 for sure! I loved River in S4 and was really excited about her coming back. This was even better than I'd hoped for! So many new questions and mysteries about River. As much as I've been enjoying this series and like Amy and Eleven, this is the first time I've felt like I really need to go and read some S5 fic. :D

I actually thought the Angels were even scarier in this one than in Blink. But I still don't get why the alpha Angel killed people instead of sending them back in time.

[infinitemonkeys]

I can only imagine that the alpha Angel killed the people to take possession of their voices. It's not a retcon because the Doctor remarks on how odd it is, so it is obviously A Thing Of Significance we will find out about next week.

It's not quite my favourite episode yet (I liked The Eleventh Hour very much) but that could change with part II.

[infinitemonkeys]

You got that too? I have a new but second-hand TV, and sort of assumed that the previous owner -- a techy friend who updates his TV every year -- had switched the settings to some sort of dynamic sound nonsense that only works when you also buy expensive speakers.

It seemed fine when I watched it on iPlayer to see the subtitles. Perhaps the sound is being designed so it works well when played on those super-smart TVs with the dynamic sound settings and when compressed down on iPlayer but not for anything in between.

[cofax7]

I would second this, because the .avi file I watched had no sound problems: I was able to follow everyone just fine.

[muridae_x]

I've wondered for a while if they're making the assumption that everyone nowadays is watching on an HD ready TV with 5.1 surround sound, and are optimising the sound track accordingly.

I actually do have surround sound and it mostly sounds fine* when I'm sitting at the optimum point between the speakers, but if I don't bother to switch it on and settle for the TV's own stereo output the music completely drowns out the dialogue.

It's also fine if I watch via iPlayer on my PC with my crappy 15 year old speakers, so they likely do encode that with a different audio mix.

* Though the music generally is too loud, and really could do with being dialled back a bit in all mixes. Which is also true of a lot of other shows. Sometimes I wonder whether I should just turn on the subtitles and watch with them as a hearing aid. I understand that would also have blocked out half of Graham Norton on the BBC One transmission. Added bonus!

[infinitemonkeys]

It was very good, because it was cheeky and knowing without being irritating, and then also creepy as hell. I am utterly joyful at the thought of more next week. (Though I reckon it helps a lot to like River Song.)