Doctor Who Series Topic Discussion - May Contain Spoilers

[Dalek]

I see no robe. I see the stand that the sculpture was rested against (Picture 1) and then standing up on its own with the stand still there (Picture 2), something I'd class as a continuity error. It does look like a figure but I don't think it is, just the stand for the sculpture.

[Vortex]

Look at the very edge of the frame on that second picture, to the right. You can actually see it move if you watch that part of the screen in the episode. (Just checked. :p )

[Dalek]

I watched that section as well. Its a continuity error. The angle changes so many times of the Ponds that you can quite obviously see the way the statue has moved. A lot can happen in just angle changes.

[Vanguard]

Then why is there a cloak swishing off screen?

I mean, if they didn't need a cloak for any of that sequence, and I doubt any of the cast and crew would wear one while on that set. Why would of one got in the quite plain view of the camera lens?

Also, why would a mummy casket, perfectly capable of standing steadily independently (as seen when Amelia first enters the room, you see one of the caskets on the other side of the room standing just fine) need a stand, and why would it's stand (if it is a stand) need a head shape on it, surely if it was a stand it would just be a static rectangle or triangle?

[Dalek]

Could you give me a time frame? I'm only looking at the section before Amy realises the centurion guarding the Pandorica is Rory.

[Vanguard]

Ah, what I was thinking of, you don't see the back of it, but it isn't tilted back. It's a 5:53.

But, it appears the caskets are on the other side of the room at that point. It's confusing me.

[Dalek]

The caskets are I think again, continuity errors.

I've looked at the point you've specified on the iPlayer but I don't see any cloaks swishing around at all. Could you possibly take a picture of it midswish?

[Vanguard]

Ah no. That wasn't the cloak swish bit.


13:32 is whereabouts that is.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a320/DarthKillious/vlcsnap-15727127.png

Black bit, taking up the far right of the frame.

[Dalek]

Oh I see it now. Thats an epic fail by the production team. Considering where it was, Karen would've seen it and she would've ignored it. If you're going to put a subtle hint, you never put it as close as you can to the camera, no matter how close to the side it is.

Production is never perfect. They completely forgot to edit out the spotlights in one of the Doctor/Donna/Martha episodes when the camera was panning backwards.

[Vanguard]

Well it worked. I didn't notice it until I was looking for it...

[Dalek]

The whole purpose of subtle hints is that you don't go looking for them. They're meant to be noticed in plain sight but you don't acknowledge them. That scrap of cloth only you only noticed after looking for it for a time. Its too small and picky to be counted as a sign of whats to come. Amy was in plain sight of it. If she'd noticed just for a fleeting moment, then yes, it would count.

[limey BSc.]

The whole purpose of subtle hints is that you don't go looking for them. They're meant to be noticed in plain sight but you don't acknowledge them. That scrap of cloth only you only noticed after looking for it for a time. Its too small and picky to be counted as a sign of whats to come. Amy was in plain sight of it. If she'd noticed just for a fleeting moment, then yes, it would count.

Also, in video production, there's this things called "action safe", and it's an area of the screen that its safe to display things so they won't get cut off on older TV's.



That cloak is clearly out of the action safe area, so can almost certainly be discarded as a production error.

[Billz]

Also, in video production, there's this things called "action safe", and it's an area of the screen that its safe to display things so they won't get cut off on older TV's.



That cloak is clearly out of the action safe area, so can almost certainly be discarded as a production error.

Okay, so it maybe a production error. But if you remember, it is not the first production error in Doctor Who's entire history. There were loads in the original series.

Then again, Steven Moffat is a clever writer. He may write in a way for that "production error" to become part of a future episode. That may seem like a cop out to some, but i'd like to see how Moffat passes it off.

[Dalek]

Thats too much of a cop-out, even for the Moff. The amount of strings you'd have to pull to make that work. Most people never noticed it on the first run, they're not really going to care about it now.

[Vanguard]

To me it just seems a bit too coincidental that they would make so many blunders over a single sequence, that and there is a silhouette of a figure in a robe, then part of a black robe swishes on the screen. Just seems a bit too planned to be a production error... I guess we'll find out next series.

As for Amy not seeing. Are we not forgetting one of the most repeatedly mentioned devices in nu-who? Perception filter, which the audience can always see through?

[Dalek]

As for Amy not seeing. Are we not forgetting one of the most repeatedly mentioned devices in nu-who? Perception filter, which the audience can always see through?

*points at fish people* We didn't know they were fish yet they had perception filters until a bit later on in the episode.

And based on the location of the museum, it looked very realistic. Like with Stonehenge, they might've had very little time to record the scenes, thus meaning less chance to make everything perfect.

[Bren]

I haven't been following the discussion, and I'm not a raging Who fan, but the Matt Smith season is the first one I watched start-to-finish.

After The Big Bang (Pandorica opens was far better), I wanted to pick up some of the plot threads from the preceding seasons. Since I'm not that fond of Eccleston (I did watch most of his season before anyway), and I've little interest in watching classic Who consecutively (as consecutively as possible, at least) just yet, I started with season 2, and Tennant.

After seeing a little more of River Song in Smith's season, I suspect the impact of Silence in the Library is far deeper now, that I am richer for having watched her stories with Smith and then watched her demise. It really cut me up. When Moffat's good, he's great, especially with forward references, like the crash of the Byzantium.

I must say, I'm seeing a pattern to some of his writing.

There's the trademark phrases; "You've had cowboys in here...", complaining about being old and stupid, and the "It was a clever lie to..." lines.
Then there's the simple everyday things, turned into terrifying plot devices, like blinking or shadows, and occasionally the alteration of someone's life or memory in a tragic way - the memory core in the Library, the cracks in the universe, being instantly ripped back in time...

Maybe I'm reading into that too much, are these recognised "Moffatisms"?

Also, are there any theories (aside from artistic license...) on why River's body disappeared from the interface chair in the core of the Library?

[Vortex]

Okay, so it maybe a production error. But if you remember, it is not the first production error in Doctor Who's entire history. There were loads in the original series

Colin Baker? The Movie? :p

@Bren: I think they just didn't want to show her corpse, or couldn't afford a charred mock up, or they may have thought it would look to much like the skeltons and that it would look like the Vashta Narada got her? I always assumed that once the Doctor had somehow been freed, he just moved the corpse.

[Dalek]

I haven't been following the discussion, and I'm not a raging Who fan, but the Matt Smith season is the first one I watched start-to-finish.

After The Big Bang (Pandorica opens was far better), I wanted to pick up some of the plot threads from the preceding seasons. Since I'm not that fond of Eccleston (I did watch most of his season before anyway), and I've little interest in watching classic Who consecutively (as consecutively as possible, at least) just yet, I started with season 2, and Tennant.

After seeing a little more of River Song in Smith's season, I suspect the impact of Silence in the Library is far deeper now, that I am richer for having watched her stories with Smith and then watched her demise. It really cut me up. When Moffat's good, he's great, especially with forward references, like the crash of the Byzantium.

I must say, I'm seeing a pattern to some of his writing.

There's the trademark phrases; "You've had cowboys in here...", complaining about being old and stupid, and the "It was a clever lie to..." lines.
Then there's the simple everyday things, turned into terrifying plot devices, like blinking or shadows, and occasionally the alteration of someone's life or memory in a tragic way - the memory core in the Library, the cracks in the universe, being instantly ripped back in time...

Maybe I'm reading into that too much, are these recognised "Moffatisms"?

Also, are there any theories (aside from artistic license...) on why River's body disappeared from the interface chair in the core of the Library?

I think Bren, is that you're getting in to the spirit of things. The "Moffatisms" as you quite aptly put them are common of him, he always goes for the little things that scare us such as the blinking and things in the shadows. In an interview (and a number of DW: Confidentials) he says he thinks of Doctor Who as like a fairytale, with the monster and the hero. This series has been particularly fairytale-like such as Prisoner Zero, The Progenitor, the Byzantium (of a more Arabian nature) and finally concluding with The Pandorica. The ending of the series was probably incredibly fairyish. I mean, its the first time in nu-Who that theres actually been a happy ending with no sad Doctor.

[limey BSc.]

I mean, its the first time in nu-Who that theres actually been a happy ending with no sad Doctor.

Thats not so much the story, more the charaters/actors. Series 1 had Chris Eccleston leaving, 2 had Billie Piper leaving, 3 had Freema Agyeman leaving and 4 had both David Tennant and Catherine Tate leaving. This is the first time in nu-Who that both the Doctor and companion have signed on for a second series together.