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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.165.37.175
Posted on Saturday, September 03, 2011 - 08:47 pm:   

At last, a great episode. Throwing all childhood terrors into the mix plus the kitchen sink -- and the high-rise block lift. Ligottian. Aickman-like. The CGI effect sinking into the carpet was a bit unconvincing. Note Johnny Mains played the part of George's Dad.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 2.24.14.124
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 02:08 am:   

Intriguing. Which part of George's Dad?
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.25.3.116
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 08:06 am:   

SPOILERS

I caught some of this. I thought it was a mass of cliches. Giggling children. Possessed dolls. A kid controlling them all through fear of rejection. Do me a favour!
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.165.37.175
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 08:52 am:   

A part of me agrees with that, Gary. Another part of me doesn't. I think it was meant to be a culmination of night-terror cliches (cliches to us Horror Generators) - the but the 'dolls' / 'dummies' were effectively Ligottian. And I suspect there were a lot of scared children going to bed last night...
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.25.3.116
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 08:55 am:   

I don't know. Maybe very young kids. But slightly older kids see this stuff every day on computer games. My niece and nephew (10 and 12 years old) would laugh at it.

Their loss, I agree.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.25.3.116
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 08:57 am:   

There does seem to be a school of thought among folk these days that suggests not being scared by this kind of thing is a good thing. My brother thinks Pet Sematary is funny. He scoffed at Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

BUT until recently, he's been too scared to face reality without alcohol or cocaine.

What's that all about?
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.25.3.116
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 09:01 am:   

His wife's the same - thinks I'm a bit sad for liking (and probably writing) ghostly fiction. But she depends on nicotine, Prozac and excessive consumerism just to get her through each day.

I think it's as simple as that they're both in denial ("Problems? What problems?" [pops pill]). Whereas I confront my fears openly.

Sorry, I digress.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.165.37.175
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 09:05 am:   

'Night Terrrors is very scary'
http://www.emmerdale.me.uk/british-tv/s7/doctor-who/interviews/a337835/doctor-wh o-daniel-mays-interview-night-terrors-is-very-scary.html

Spoilers?
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.25.3.116
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 09:11 am:   

Tinsel terrors! Give us something really scary, Doctor!
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.25.3.116
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 09:14 am:   

Seriously, there's a great passage in Salem's Lot that kind of sums up this issue. Something about the "ossification of imagination" in adults. But now, I fear, the same process of imaginary ossification has a lower age threshold. To wit, if you can't conceptualise the monster, you're condemned to be taunted by it forever.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 92.232.199.129
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 01:05 pm:   

Not watched it yet, but think I'm going to enjoy this one. Perhaps I'm not as cynical as you, Gary? Also, this looks like it's in the same mould as classic Who, and I tend to watch these "through the eyes of a child" (my younger self?), so I'm hopeful I'm going to enjoy this one - unlike last week's.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 92.232.199.129
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 01:07 pm:   

Oh, and I looked at the BBC/Doc Who website - that actor *does* look very much like Johnny Mains!
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.176.127.208
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 02:34 pm:   

I've seen him in other things too, but couldn't say what.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.176.127.208
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 02:39 pm:   

Hmm - just looked up his stuff on imdb - not sure I've seen anything else he's done, so it must be the Johnny Mains connection! Oh, and the names are sinilar - Johnny Mains/Danny Mays!
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John Forth (John)
Username: John

Registered: 05-2008
Posted From: 82.24.1.217
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 03:12 pm:   

I just caught up with the last two episodes yesterday. The first one, I thought, suffered from the same problem that most of this series has had - too much going on for a 45 minute episode. The pace is now so frenetic (in Moffat's episodes in particular) that ideas are introduced then left behind a minute or two later, without ever being fully explored. Some of the plotting felt a bit untidy as well.

The pace of the second episode was better, although Matt Smith seems to be playing at a different speed to everyone else (45rpm to their 33 and a 3rd, if you like). There was nothing there we hadn't seen before. I tend to always have the same problem with Gatiss's stuff - it's always so arch and knowing about its references that it's hard to really let myself get carried away by the fiction.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 92.232.199.129
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 06:28 pm:   

>>Oh, and the names are similar - Johnny Mains/Danny Mays!<<

So, is it actually *our* Johnny then? Think I'm going to have to go and ask him ...
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 92.232.199.129
Posted on Monday, September 05, 2011 - 02:20 pm:   

I enjoyed this one, as I'd expected! I could really empathise with the kid. As a child, those were MY fears (of being rejected by my parents, the "cuckoo-in-the-nest"), MY obsessive-compulsive behaviour (I, too, had various rituals to "protect" myself), and MY monsters. So the grown up "me", who's now on her second childhood (which is much better than my first!), loved this story.

The dolls were wonderfully scary monsters, and did anyone else find that the cupboard/wardrobe reminded them of the cover of Ramsey's "Dark Companions"? You know, the one with the hairy thing climbing into (or out of?) the wardrobe?
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Greg James (Greg_james)
Username: Greg_james

Registered: 04-2011
Posted From: 86.163.125.236
Posted on Wednesday, September 07, 2011 - 12:44 am:   

I really enjoyed this one and it's been a few years now since an episode really got to me. Probably the best since Blink. I thought the dolls were great. Also, finally, an episode where the bloody sonic screwdriver doesn't solve the problem. About time.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.147.136.250
Posted on Wednesday, September 07, 2011 - 01:01 am:   

Most of the last series the sonic screwdriver didn't help. This season it seems back with a vengeance
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.151.147.15
Posted on Sunday, September 11, 2011 - 09:40 pm:   

Another cracking episode - just caught it on iplayer because my video failed to record it.

Visually possibly the best episode so far. Scriptwise certainly up in the top two of the series so far. I won't spoil it for anyone who's not seen it yet.

If not, why not?
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Seanmcd (Seanmcd)
Username: Seanmcd

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.176.74.35
Posted on Sunday, September 11, 2011 - 09:49 pm:   

A great stand alone episode. Up there with 'The Doctor's Wife'.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.159.146.177
Posted on Sunday, September 11, 2011 - 10:00 pm:   

The Amy Pond actress did very well.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.152.208.249
Posted on Sunday, September 11, 2011 - 10:00 pm:   

"If not, why not?"

Because you told me not to.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.253.77
Posted on Sunday, September 11, 2011 - 10:02 pm:   

I just watched the last two episodes of Who. 'Night Terrors' was appalling - so cliched and unscary. One of the worst yet.

This week's, however, was very good indeed. Lots of ideas, an emotional core, and some strong performances by all. They still did the sonic screwdriver thing - written yourself into a corner? Sod it, just use the screwdriver! - but it didn't bug me as much. Strongest episode of the series so far, IMHO, by a long way.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.152.208.249
Posted on Sunday, September 11, 2011 - 10:05 pm:   

I haven't seen it.

It was crap.
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Pete_a (Pete_a)
Username: Pete_a

Registered: 07-2011
Posted From: 75.85.10.161
Posted on Sunday, September 11, 2011 - 11:31 pm:   

I thought it was great, too. Intriguing ideas and very moving.

Has Tom MacRae written for the series before? Because this was really good.

Good make-up job on 'old Amy' as well.

And nicely ambiguous last line: When Amy woke up at the end and said "Where is she?", I didn't know if she was talking about her alternate-self or about Melody/River.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.150.132.209
Posted on Monday, September 12, 2011 - 12:49 am:   

>>Because you told me not to.

I didn't. I merely asked why you watch the programme when every week it's on you post about how uch you loathe and despise the programme in general and everything about it in particular...

It seemed a fair question.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.150.132.209
Posted on Monday, September 12, 2011 - 12:49 am:   

much
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Mark West (Mark_west)
Username: Mark_west

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.143.80.128
Posted on Monday, September 12, 2011 - 02:08 am:   

Daniel Mays - I know, sorry, coming to this late - was in the last series of "Ashes To Ashes" and also a C4 comedy called "Plus One".
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.79.251.40
Posted on Monday, September 12, 2011 - 06:10 pm:   

Waiting for it to improve. It was a question I'd already answered for you before, which makes it rhetorical now.

Same old stuff. Repeating the people-in-different-time-streams bit that they used in the Neil Gaiman episode and the groups of things shuffling towards to get you from just a week ago. We've seen this Doctor abandoning people and making them bitter a lot at this stage.

As this Doctor might say: "Programme bad. Don't watch. Never watch."

See you next week.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.176.127.208
Posted on Monday, September 12, 2011 - 06:28 pm:   

Certainly agree with Zed re: Night Terrors - I was hoping for huge things in that episode and was very disappointed.
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SPOILER
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However, I really liked the bit where the dad remembers that the mother couldn't have children and therefore the boy wasn't their child.


This week's was a lot better, and showed a little heart (and a bit less shouting and running).
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.147.137.193
Posted on Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - 12:35 am:   

What's the point of rhetorical questions?

Don't answer that...
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.79.118.100
Posted on Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - 01:23 am:   

Spoiler
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Everyone reading this will die.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.176.127.208
Posted on Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - 01:49 am:   

Nah - s'got to be in capitals, Proto...
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.79.118.100
Posted on Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - 02:01 am:   

SPOILER
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spoiler
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.176.127.208
Posted on Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - 10:04 am:   

Well, that's ruined it for me.
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John Forth (John)
Username: John

Registered: 05-2008
Posted From: 82.24.1.217
Posted on Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - 07:31 pm:   

I would have taken a lot more joy from this episode if all of the plot beats hadn't already been done to death by the previous episodes - the whole Amy/Rory dying or growing old while the other one waits is starting to get a bit tiresome now.

They keep skipping over really neat ideas in a line or two, but coming back to this same bloody plot over and over again. It's getting boring.

A shame, as I liked the concluding moral dilemma.

They could have at least greyed Amy's hair as well...
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.143.98.239
Posted on Saturday, September 24, 2011 - 09:29 pm:   

Glad the Doctor was in Colchester this week. :-)

Slick acting.

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