Doctor Who Season 6 Thus Far - Two Points of Discussion and My Postition on SPOILERS

[chloris]

I have a couple of things I want to discuss about recent Doctor Who episodes but first I want to come out quite strongly on the side of SPOILERS and the freedom of fans to talk about them. I know that Moffat (and RTD before him) HATES them and thinks it's vandalism for the information to get out there before the episode. (See his recent rant about

Comments

[topaz_eyes]

Here from who_dailyRe Point 1, I think most of the controversy was generated by the Doctor's extremely blase attitude about co-opting the entire human race without its consent. I love the darkness of it, but I'm not convinced Moffat will explore the moral ramifications. "A Christmas Carol" was dark as well but played as good and right

[chloris]

Moffat doesn't seem interested in exploring moral or emotional stories so, while he may have this blow back on Eleven from a plot standpoint, I agree that we may not see any emotional consequences or exploration of the moral ramifications. I hope we will though and there will be a payoff. After all we did have to wait a fair amount of time for Ten's hubris to come and bite him in the ass.

And A Christmas Carol was very dark! He rewrote a person's entire life (and rewrote it again and again until he got the result he wanted). Talk about Timelord Victorious, but it was filmed as a light-hearted romp.

Good point about third episode! I suppose that makes sense from a series development standpoint -- episode three is early enough in the season that you can build on its themes while coming after the initial set-up of the arcs and relationships.

[asahifirsa]

Interesting. I saw it more as making a memory that people could refer to. I.e. show them the Silent on T.V. and tell them it's an enemy to be killed. Thus when people see if for a second time, they'll not be shocked/scared and do nothing but react. Kinda pre-empting the shock of the first meeting and clarifying that it's not a friendly. I did not really see it as something that people HAD to follow, but a guideline. You're right though that it's still quite morally ambiguous this way.

On the other side: how are the chances of being armed when you meet a Silent? At least in most countries that chance is rather slim. So basically what he's saying is: If you can't fight, RUN!

At least that's my interpretation.

[chloris]

It's interesting to see how differently people took that scene! It is rather nebulous what exact effect the subliminal message is going to have. If it turns out to be more of a suggestion rather than a command (or even possibly just information that they are the enemy), I will acknowledge that, while still morally dubious, it is not nearly as dark as I thought at the beginning.

[daybreak777]

I'm still upset at a BSG trailer that showed a CHARACTER DEATH. I mean really!
Yeah? Which character?

(If anyone hasn't seen BSG, don't read the answer or anything below.)

I simply never believed previews because they sometimes were deliberately misleading. Like the promo before we find out Caprica's pregnant. I just couldn't believe it! But there it was. I really didn't buy it until Cottle said it himself full out in the next episode.

[chloris]

Cally. The image of her getting blown out of the airlock was RIGHT in the trailer. We didn't believe that she would really die of course. Until SHE DID. After that we boycotted trailers of any show we didn't want massive spoilers for.

It's one thing to mislead. It's another to put in a big revelation and just make it look like you're being misleading. (And even though I'm singling out BSG here, it is far from alone in doing this. It's just that the Cally thing became a shorthand around here with Jay for spoilery trailers.)

[daybreak777]

I'd forgotten that! As I said, I just stopped believing BSG trailers. I couldn't believe that about Cally but yes, then it was true.

If I don't believe it, it's not spoilery to me. I have no idea why they'd put that in a trailer, though. Look at how they handled Dee. That was so shocking and I don' remember a word of it leaking out beforehand.

I understand boycotting spoilers, though. I'm trying to avoid spoilers for The Wire, a show that aired seven years ago. But it's so worth it sometimes to be surprised. :-)

[chloris]

I tend to go back and forth on the spoiler issue. Something I want to hear nothing (or at least very, very little) and others I want to know it all. It would be so much easier if I didn't spend time on the internet though. Jay is always completely unspoiled since he never visits any entertainment or journaling sites.