Stated below the fold just to be absolutely non-spoilery.
…
Leave it to Steven Moffat to make the scariest thing in the world be not remembering the scariest thing in the world.
That said — well, plenty of horror, and some very cool near-history bits. A great Nixon White House, even if I can’t imagine Nixon accepting a Negro as the head of his Secret Service detail. River Song continues to be annoying (though she also has the requisite intriguing bits). Amy and Rory are fine, if not quite yet gelled as a couple. The Doctor seemed particularly non-sequiturishly blithering.
But it was all still great fun. I just hope it comes together in the second half.
Comment to BBC America: I’d rather see the full, uncut episodes, then the “Behind the Scenes with Doctor Who” claptrap.
It’s written by The Moff, so of course it will come together. Scarily.
This isn’t some populist Yank-rubbish-remind-the-viewers-what-they-have-seen-every-5-minutes. This is the first half of 90 minutes. Lots of cinema films are shorter than that.
Did you think the alien machine thingie looked like the fake TARDIS thingie from “The Lodger”?
The black agent, why not – not as bad as a black nun in Merlin that no one seems to notice. Notice how US presidents don’t know who the Doctor is, where as he is quite pally with various British leaders.
Interesting. I’m not familiar enough with the First and Second Doctors. The Third Doctor’s affiliation with UNIT started in ’68 — which would imply that Nixon hadn’t been reading his briefings about the UN’s activities, or simply hadn’t considered it important. Or that the UN was keeping their consultant’s activities classified — perhaps at the request of the British government (which clearly has known, and had classified, the Doctor’s activities since at least Queen Victoria’s day).
I suspect it was just the Americans either discounting or ignoring their British sources on this one.
Any thouhts on alternative methods to receive these broad casts, since we no longer have BBCA on our satellite package? *yearns*
I understand there are still ways to pull the videos across the pond through less copyright-holdered means, but I’ve never pursued any.
We have BBC America, but it’s the low-def version so we’re still pulling the episodes in less-than-approved ways. Still, if BBC America is trimming the episode then all the more reason in my mind.
As for Doctor Who continuity, well, trying to figure that out was a headache inducing endeavor before the series was resurrected (as I recall, the original series has three different explanations for the destruction of Atlantis) and since the show came back it seems continuity has been second to plot convenience at best. For crying out loud, the ending to the last season should’ve played hell with continuity until Amy “wished” the Doctor back into reality when you think about it. All those Dalek and Cybermen invasions of Earth he stopped in the past being undone alone should have resulted in a very surreal awakening for Amy once Doc no longer existed. I gave up worrying about continuity ages ago.
I did think it was cool to see BBC America listed as a co-producer of the episode, though. It appears as though they really are trying to be more than just a means of broadcasting BBC stuff in America into production as well.
Yeah, I’m with Les on the whole time continuity issue at the end of last season. Earth should have been gone or enslaved by any of the myriad aliens that have tried to do so over the millennia. Best would have been to have earth enslaved by the Ainsley Master using the Xeraphen, and then having thing right themselves.
Also, loved that they used the same “set” from an episode from last season, meaning that that was a just a small part in the overall plot line.
All in all The Moff did a good job on this one and I can’t wait to see how they get out of this jam.
Think of it as a reverse Grandfather paradox – because he ended up existing the Daleks still lost as history is as we know it.
From last night’s ‘Confidential’ – Nixon DID have a black agent as Close Protection.
Interesting to know, thanks.