The Doctor

Okay – must be careful to keep it generic because spoilers… So some random thoughts.

• First up, the “new” Doctor. Not bad. I would say “annoying accent”, but that’s been a feature of the last how many? I did expect more nods to the gender change though. I mean, it’s not everyday a guy becomes a girl, right? Maybe they wanted to keep it clean for the young/overseas audiences, but see point #5.

• The story was… okay. Not excellent, but not sprouting trees awful. The story was kind of slight to be honest, probably could have told it in half the time, but really the story is a backdrop to the characterisation. That was what this week was about, really.

• The biggest annoying point of all was the ending theme. It sounded like a mistuned synth music box and shaking a packet of cornflakes. My God, I haven’t heard such a mess since they tried giving Casualty the orchestral treatment and turned it into an Elgar piece instead of, you know, something befitting A&E.
  Some of the mood music was bizarre. There is one part (spoilers) that might make you wonder if there’s something wrong with the audio transmission. Not, it’s apparently supposed to sound like that.

• That said, the photography is pleasingly cinematic, with only one bit of dodgy CGI (spoilers). Overall, the visual feel was appealing.

• Now, is it just me or does this episode have a worryingly high death count? I get that the Big Bad is a Big Bad, but jeez…

• Nice to see the Doctor in her nth incarnation (do we count John Hurt or not?) still has a rather particular dress sense. As in “the hell?”. Still, she hasn’t found a fez. Yet.

Not bad. I would say “annoying accent”,

I’m curious, where were any of them supposed to be from? I heard people doing something but…

Am I mistaken that the Doctor’s accent was Sheffield?

That’s where our dog came from!

Am I mistaken that the Doctor’s accent was Sheffield?

Can’t say anyone in the episode sounded like any of my aunts, uncles, cousins or my mother (my accent¹ died somewhere in my university years²)

¹ Such as it was after just my first 8 years, although all the kids in Coventry said I talked funny (which is rich from a collection of people with dilute Brummie accents)

Sheffield

Hmm, wasn’t that the wasted wilderness in The Last Train ?

But did they talk like that?

Hmm, wasn’t that the wasted wilderness in The Last Train?

Didn’t recall the series, but a wikipedia check suggests that the defunct and being demolished Thorpe Marsh Power Station was the nearest location to Sheffield (and that’s nearer to Doncaster) the locations seem to be mostly on the wrong side of the Pennines.

My childhood was spent in Walkley Bank, S6, a short walk took us into the Riverlin/Loxley valley although these days that’s not as near to the city edge as it was and Bradfield is now a city district. Mind you Mosborough where most of the family live these days isn’t in Derbyshire anymore and it’s somewhat more than a village.

Some people note it switching back on when I’m in the company of other Yorkshire folk apparently.

Bane of my life, this. I’ve lived in several different parts of the UK over the years, and my accent partially switches back to Yorkshire, Hertfordshire, London, South Wales, Norn Ireland, or Scotland when I’m in those sorts of company. Partially. Enough that people think I’m taking the piss, which I’m not.

Enough that people think I’m taking the piss, which I’m not.

Most of the people concerned are long time friends, more from Barnsley and Keighley than Sheffield. Interestingly a total stranger in a London pub ID’d me as from Sheffield (he’d worked there).

Hmm. Yeah, talking to Yorkshire folk away from Yorkshire is okay, they ID me as expat Yorkshire; likewise Welsh folk in London ID me as expat Welsh. But in Yorkshire I’m not Yorkshire enough, and they think I’m trying to take the micky, likewise in other places.

Really liking the photography in this new series.

The interior of the Tardis… holy…………!

Are they trailing a new broadcast standard for Doctor Who? I tried to watch it on Sunday via Freesat, only to be presented with a blank screen. I then started recording it and tried watching it yesterday, same issue.

At the time, I flicked around BBC2/4/C4/C5 and they all worked fine, BBC1 however refused to decode so there was something odd with that broadcast. I was watching BBC1 prior to Doctor Who coming on and that was fine, I think it was Chickens on Countyfile. Doctor Who was introduced and the hideous title music came on, the sequence finished then immediately went blank as soon as the program itself started.

I have a little FTA receiver. Worked fine…?

Fine on Freesat in HD here. It looks like it may have been filmed in UHD judging by the quality of the pictures.