A few years ago, I did a series of 47 daily posts which all looked at different questions related to the revival series of Doctor Who, focusing on stuff I like about the show. I worked out a series of questions in advance and then picked one randomly for each day. I’ve decided to revisit the series to see how my opinions may or may not have changed, and to bring two of my daughters into the discussion, since they are both big fans and have recently finished watching the revival series.
Why 47? It’s my favorite number.
Why Doctor Who? It’s my favorite show.
Why the modern day Doctor Who only? Simply because I remember it better.
Why are we looking back at this now? Because we’re on a 47 day countdown to November 23, the birthday of the show.
Check out Day #42 here.
When I first did this, it was September 2016, which means we were in between the Christmas episodes The Husbands of River Song and The Return of Dr. Mysterio, and were yet to debut Peter Capaldi’s last season on the show. Jodie Whittaker was even further away. How has the passage of time, evolution of opinions, and three further seasons of the program impacted my opinions?
Today is Day #43, and our theme is…
Most Horrific Moment
Doctor Who is frequently scary, or at least kid-scary. And a lot of times with that, there are specific moments of creepiness or horror that come into it. I’m rarely scared watching Doctor Who, but I do get occasionally get a bit creeped out by certain horrific moments.
Last time, I picked that bit from The Empty Child two-parter, where the gas mask emerges from Dr. Constantine’s mouth and overwhelms his face! That was pretty nightmarish.
But today I’m going to pick something else…
PC Forrest is sucked into the floor in Flatline
Flatline, by Jamie Mathieson, and directed by Douglas Makinnon, is a strong episode and a lot of fun, and one of the stronger episodes from Season Eight (which was already a good season). One of the creepier moments of this story of an incursion into our world by malevolent two dimensional aliens is when the hapless PC Forrest, a minor but likable character, suddenly gets sucked into the ground, screaming as she is turned into a two dimensional image on the floor. Brrrr…creepy! But also a very cool visual.
What did my daughters say?
Johanna (16) chose the scene that I knew she would…in Forest of the Dead, by Steven Moffat, when Donna Noble and Miss Evangelista are talking on the playground and Donna, and the audience, suddenly realizes that all the children are the same two children, copied over and over again.
Laurelle (14) chose my one from last time, with the gas mask emerging from Dr. Constantine in The Empty Child two-parter, also by Moffat.
And then Elissa (18) spoke up. She’s watched some Doctor Who, but has not been as nearly as consistent as her sisters. She mentioned how creepy she found another Moffat story, The Eleventh Hour (which she watched when she was quite young), about the door that you can only see…in the corner of your eye.
Blue Towel Productions 