Doctor Who 10x04 Knock Knock
May. 21st, 2017 01:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenYes, more Doctor Who.
Tropes are side-stepped, Bill gets to be clever.
Transcript is here
Question for the Brits: is "Shireen" a common name in the UK? It's just that Rose Tyler's "best friend" (whom we never see) is called Shireen, and now we have an onscreen friend of Bill's who is called Shireen.
I don't think I would have been embarrassed and wanted to say that the Doctor was my grandfather; I'd be happy to call him "a friend who's helping me with my stuff"... but then again, I'm not a twenty-something trying to make a good impression on my housemates.
I liked how the classic "haunted house" trope was side-stepped in a few ways: first, that the guys thought it was cool, and secondly, that when the creepy stuff started happening, it wasn't ectoplasmic-house or haunting, it was... extra-dimensional alien woodlice!
Bugs! Creepy, creepy bugs!
Also pretty bugs. At first. I mean, I thought the little glowy blue antennas were cute. But when they started swarming... (shudder).
Did anyone have flashbacks to "The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe" when they saw completely-made-of-wood Eliza?
Nice twist that the Creepy Landlord was actually Eliza's son, not her father -- perfectly logical, but I didn't see it coming. Again, side-stepping the tropes, because one would expect a creepy landlord to be creepily preserved, but he in fact was perfectly normal. Kudos to Bill for figuring it out.
Shades of "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances" -- there's nothing a little boy won't do to save his mother.
Mind you, one thing that was still really creepy about the Landlord, now that I think of it, was the way he had of appearing and disappearing. I suppose it could be that he was living in the tower too, and used the secret passage to it.
Note: from the "every twenty years" and the date 1997, it's clear that this is supposed to be 2017 (this year, in other words).
Forget about losing the deposit -- what about all their belongings?! I assume they got destroyed with the house.
Favourite Quotes:
BILL: Time Lord? What's that, your job?
DOCTOR: No. It's, er, my people, my species.
BILL: Doesn't sound like a species. Sounds posh, like, yes, my lord. Doff my cap.
DOCTOR: Oh, well, that's why I gave it up. Ran away.
BILL: Time Lords. That's hilarious. Do you wear robes and big hats?
DOCTOR: No. Er, big collars mostly.
"Stop it. There's no living puddles or weird robots, big fish. It's just a new house, and people you don't know. Not scary at all." -- Bill
"I take it back. You're fine. He's weird." -- Felicity to the Doctor
BILL: Paul? Oh, we should get the Doctor.
SHIREEN: Why, what's he going to do? Lecture?
(nice reminder that these are students who know him only as a lecturer at their university)
HARRY: I'm scared.
DOCTOR: Don't be.
HARRY: Why not?
DOCTOR: It doesn't help.
DOCTOR: They're not just in the wood, they're becoming the wood itself. Total infestation. Infestation of the Dryads!
HARRY: You're talking like you've seen things like this before.
DOCTOR: No, actually.
HARRY: But you said they were alien.
DOCTOR: Well, they could be native to this planet, but I've never seen them before. Have you?
HARRY: That's what they're called? Dryads?
DOCTOR: Well, that's what I'm calling them, yes.
HARRY: You've gone crazy.
DOCTOR: Well, I can't just call them lice, can I?
LANDLORD: Can you help her or not?
DOCTOR: I am helping. This is me helping.
(oh yes, how is it that so many people think that doctors (or programmers) can diagnose without data?)
BILL: Okay, now's the time for the plan.
DOCTOR; That was it, no plan. Info dump, then busk.
BILL: Well, start busking.
NARDOLE: Bill told me you went on a little adventure. You see?
DOCTOR: I see what?
NARDOLE: Well, you don't have to go to outer space to find monsters. There's plenty of things that want to kill you right here on Earth.
As for the bit at the end...
NARDOLE: A piano? You've put a piano in there? Why?
DOCTOR: Goodnight.
NARDOLE: (sighs) Oh, you don't learn, do you, sir.
(Nardole leaves. The Doctor taps on the vault door.)
DOCTOR: Hey! Do you want dinner? I've got Mexican.
(The piano music stops. The Doctor works some controls on the vault door.)
DOCTOR: Look, I know you miss it all, but I'm stuck here too, you know? We're both prisoners. So what do you say, dinner? And I've got a new story for you, too. There's a haunted house and woodlice from space. (silence) And lots of young people get eaten.
(Piano - Half a pound of tuppenny rice, half a pound of treacle. That's the way the money goes. Pop Goes The Weasel! The Doctor opens the vault.)
DOCTOR: I'm coming in.
... I think I know what being is inside the vault.
It's got to be Missy.
* The Doctor swore an oath to guard the vault.
* The safeguards on the vault are formidable.
* We learn from the previous episode that there is a being inside the vault, one which Nardole is terrified of.
* By contrast, the Doctor gives it a piano, and wants to have dinner with it.
* The clincher, for me, was the reaction to "And lots of young people get eaten." It would be just like Missy to approve of the gore, and to indicate her approval with something like "Pop Goes the Weasel".
* Plus, Nardole's remark "Oh you don't learn, do you, sir" indicates that this is not someone new, but someone that the Doctor has interacted with before.
* Even more, we know from the season-trailer that Missy is going to turn up at some point. It makes perfect sense, therefore, that she is the one in the vault.
* And this wouldn't be the first time that the Master has been imprisoned on Earth (though in the past it was UNIT who were the jailers).
Tropes are side-stepped, Bill gets to be clever.
Transcript is here
Question for the Brits: is "Shireen" a common name in the UK? It's just that Rose Tyler's "best friend" (whom we never see) is called Shireen, and now we have an onscreen friend of Bill's who is called Shireen.
I don't think I would have been embarrassed and wanted to say that the Doctor was my grandfather; I'd be happy to call him "a friend who's helping me with my stuff"... but then again, I'm not a twenty-something trying to make a good impression on my housemates.
I liked how the classic "haunted house" trope was side-stepped in a few ways: first, that the guys thought it was cool, and secondly, that when the creepy stuff started happening, it wasn't ectoplasmic-house or haunting, it was... extra-dimensional alien woodlice!
Bugs! Creepy, creepy bugs!
Also pretty bugs. At first. I mean, I thought the little glowy blue antennas were cute. But when they started swarming... (shudder).
Did anyone have flashbacks to "The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe" when they saw completely-made-of-wood Eliza?
Nice twist that the Creepy Landlord was actually Eliza's son, not her father -- perfectly logical, but I didn't see it coming. Again, side-stepping the tropes, because one would expect a creepy landlord to be creepily preserved, but he in fact was perfectly normal. Kudos to Bill for figuring it out.
Shades of "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances" -- there's nothing a little boy won't do to save his mother.
Mind you, one thing that was still really creepy about the Landlord, now that I think of it, was the way he had of appearing and disappearing. I suppose it could be that he was living in the tower too, and used the secret passage to it.
Note: from the "every twenty years" and the date 1997, it's clear that this is supposed to be 2017 (this year, in other words).
Forget about losing the deposit -- what about all their belongings?! I assume they got destroyed with the house.
Favourite Quotes:
BILL: Time Lord? What's that, your job?
DOCTOR: No. It's, er, my people, my species.
BILL: Doesn't sound like a species. Sounds posh, like, yes, my lord. Doff my cap.
DOCTOR: Oh, well, that's why I gave it up. Ran away.
BILL: Time Lords. That's hilarious. Do you wear robes and big hats?
DOCTOR: No. Er, big collars mostly.
"Stop it. There's no living puddles or weird robots, big fish. It's just a new house, and people you don't know. Not scary at all." -- Bill
"I take it back. You're fine. He's weird." -- Felicity to the Doctor
BILL: Paul? Oh, we should get the Doctor.
SHIREEN: Why, what's he going to do? Lecture?
(nice reminder that these are students who know him only as a lecturer at their university)
HARRY: I'm scared.
DOCTOR: Don't be.
HARRY: Why not?
DOCTOR: It doesn't help.
DOCTOR: They're not just in the wood, they're becoming the wood itself. Total infestation. Infestation of the Dryads!
HARRY: You're talking like you've seen things like this before.
DOCTOR: No, actually.
HARRY: But you said they were alien.
DOCTOR: Well, they could be native to this planet, but I've never seen them before. Have you?
HARRY: That's what they're called? Dryads?
DOCTOR: Well, that's what I'm calling them, yes.
HARRY: You've gone crazy.
DOCTOR: Well, I can't just call them lice, can I?
LANDLORD: Can you help her or not?
DOCTOR: I am helping. This is me helping.
(oh yes, how is it that so many people think that doctors (or programmers) can diagnose without data?)
BILL: Okay, now's the time for the plan.
DOCTOR; That was it, no plan. Info dump, then busk.
BILL: Well, start busking.
NARDOLE: Bill told me you went on a little adventure. You see?
DOCTOR: I see what?
NARDOLE: Well, you don't have to go to outer space to find monsters. There's plenty of things that want to kill you right here on Earth.
As for the bit at the end...
NARDOLE: A piano? You've put a piano in there? Why?
DOCTOR: Goodnight.
NARDOLE: (sighs) Oh, you don't learn, do you, sir.
(Nardole leaves. The Doctor taps on the vault door.)
DOCTOR: Hey! Do you want dinner? I've got Mexican.
(The piano music stops. The Doctor works some controls on the vault door.)
DOCTOR: Look, I know you miss it all, but I'm stuck here too, you know? We're both prisoners. So what do you say, dinner? And I've got a new story for you, too. There's a haunted house and woodlice from space. (silence) And lots of young people get eaten.
(Piano - Half a pound of tuppenny rice, half a pound of treacle. That's the way the money goes. Pop Goes The Weasel! The Doctor opens the vault.)
DOCTOR: I'm coming in.
... I think I know what being is inside the vault.
It's got to be Missy.
* The Doctor swore an oath to guard the vault.
* The safeguards on the vault are formidable.
* We learn from the previous episode that there is a being inside the vault, one which Nardole is terrified of.
* By contrast, the Doctor gives it a piano, and wants to have dinner with it.
* The clincher, for me, was the reaction to "And lots of young people get eaten." It would be just like Missy to approve of the gore, and to indicate her approval with something like "Pop Goes the Weasel".
* Plus, Nardole's remark "Oh you don't learn, do you, sir" indicates that this is not someone new, but someone that the Doctor has interacted with before.
* Even more, we know from the season-trailer that Missy is going to turn up at some point. It makes perfect sense, therefore, that she is the one in the vault.
* And this wouldn't be the first time that the Master has been imprisoned on Earth (though in the past it was UNIT who were the jailers).
no subject
Date: 2017-05-20 06:19 pm (UTC)I like your collection of favourite lines.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-21 01:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-05-20 06:22 pm (UTC)I agree, I think it's Missy in the vault, and I think there will soon be a reason why she will be let out. I loved the Pop Goes The Weasel! Wonderful touch, that.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-21 01:32 am (UTC)Yeah, you mentioned that in regard to the previous episode. You really confused yourself! I didn't see any connection between the two at all, not even a hint.
I loved the Pop Goes The Weasel! Wonderful touch, that.
Very her.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-20 10:27 pm (UTC)It's not just embarrassment, it's super inappropriate for a senior lecturer like the Doctor to hang out with an undergrad like Bill, even if he is tutoring her. It would inspire gossip that would affect both of their reputations, but especially Bill's.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-21 01:30 am (UTC)