I was wrong again - Moffat didn't really tone it down for crimbo, did he? I find it bracing, to be honest, how little he seems to care about reining in his opinions and preoccupations (compare and contrast with Chibnall, who seemed to think having anything other than the safest and most obvious opinions on anything at all was out of order). And at times expresses them in ways that are beautiful and clever and make you go "ahh!", and at other times gets a bit crass, e.g. Cyber-Brig etc. And I think there was a bit of both in this one. Absolutely great to see a bit of naked politics expressed re wine fridges etc, even if there were unfortunate implications to the idea of obeying rules being for chumps, considering. And I don't think that was the point Moffat was trying to make, but I could also see how some have interpreted it that way. Assuming they're not interpreting it that way in bad faith in order to have an excuse to be Outraged on the Internet, that is. I love Gatwa's swagger and charisma in the part, and thought all the guest stars were great. The whole bit with the Doctor staying at the hotel for a year could have been an entire story, and maybe should have been. Loved the cheekiness of his bootstrapping his way out of a crisis by just telling his past self the password he remembered hearing from his future self. :D Not sure entirely how the ending worked, though - it seemed a bit too similar to the plot resolution in Boom! to be honest. Although it did give me Feelings, which I guess was the desired effect. Liked using the rope, train etc to pull the stone block out. Laughed at Sylvia Trench in the end credits. Groaned a bit at Bethlehem, though (even though I was expecting it as soon as I saw the star shining in the sky :D)
Still haven't watched The Colourful War Games myself, although have been amused/baffled by some of the angry Discourse about some of the choices it's made. Said choices being the kind of thing that makes me think of this and the Daleks one as just being particularly well-funded fan projects rather than, like, Proper. Poor creative impulse control, maybe. I will watch it, though, at some point in the near future and maybe get angry too. Or not. Angry seems like a lot of effort, to be honest.
Well, the normal format of these things is that in the end of the story, our protagonist thinks they have survived whatever supernatural menace they have brushed shoulders with...and then, as they turn around, a Wild Special Effect appears and eats them, or something. And I now realise that Gatiss was playing the long game, so that when they did adapt a story that particularly lends itself to that approach the twist would be not to go down that route. Or I could be reading too much into it. XD
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I was wrong again - Moffat didn't really tone it down for crimbo, did he? I find it bracing, to be honest, how little he seems to care about reining in his opinions and preoccupations (compare and contrast with Chibnall, who seemed to think having anything other than the safest and most obvious opinions on anything at all was out of order). And at times expresses them in ways that are beautiful and clever and make you go "ahh!", and at other times gets a bit crass, e.g. Cyber-Brig etc. And I think there was a bit of both in this one. Absolutely great to see a bit of naked politics expressed re wine fridges etc, even if there were unfortunate implications to the idea of obeying rules being for chumps, considering. And I don't think that was the point Moffat was trying to make, but I could also see how some have interpreted it that way. Assuming they're not interpreting it that way in bad faith in order to have an excuse to be Outraged on the Internet, that is. I love Gatwa's swagger and charisma in the part, and thought all the guest stars were great. The whole bit with the Doctor staying at the hotel for a year could have been an entire story, and maybe should have been. Loved the cheekiness of his bootstrapping his way out of a crisis by just telling his past self the password he remembered hearing from his future self. :D Not sure entirely how the ending worked, though - it seemed a bit too similar to the plot resolution in Boom! to be honest. Although it did give me Feelings, which I guess was the desired effect. Liked using the rope, train etc to pull the stone block out. Laughed at Sylvia Trench in the end credits. Groaned a bit at Bethlehem, though (even though I was expecting it as soon as I saw the star shining in the sky :D)
Still haven't watched The Colourful War Games myself, although have been amused/baffled by some of the angry Discourse about some of the choices it's made. Said choices being the kind of thing that makes me think of this and the Daleks one as just being particularly well-funded fan projects rather than, like, Proper. Poor creative impulse control, maybe. I will watch it, though, at some point in the near future and maybe get angry too. Or not. Angry seems like a lot of effort, to be honest.
Well, the normal format of these things is that in the end of the story, our protagonist thinks they have survived whatever supernatural menace they have brushed shoulders with...and then, as they turn around, a Wild Special Effect appears and eats them, or something. And I now realise that Gatiss was playing the long game, so that when they did adapt a story that particularly lends itself to that approach the twist would be not to go down that route. Or I could be reading too much into it. XD