That last episode of Dr Who

[andrewducker]

Has anyone else read "Eight O'Clock In The Morning" by Ray Nelson*?

It's the basis for the move "They Live", and it tells of an Earth where aliens walk among us, but we can't see them because we've been hypnotised not to.

And it ends when the main character manages to get into the TV studios, kill one of the newsreader aliens (who are actually giving instructions to the populace) and then stand behind the body and tell the populace to see the aliens as they really are, rise up, and destroy them, so that humanity thinks the command is coming from one of the aliens, and the fightback begins.

I wonder if Stephen Moffat has read it.

A quick google for finds several copies floating around. It's quite old-fashioned now**, but I think it still works.

*Which is also the originating story for the film "They Live".
**Insofar as the writing is really not very good, and it's the idea behind it which is worth reading it for.

Comments

[drjon.livejournal.com]

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Corner_of_the_Eye

[andrewducker]

Yup, it's something he's come back to a few times.

But the solution "One of the aliens telling them to kill all aliens" is what I'm thinking of here.

[drjon.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. It's a nice twist, and a good question.

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

the story doesn't work with a lead character that has jumped in and out of our timeline several thousand times.

[andrewducker]

Which story?

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

the Dr Who version.
So the Doctor has never spotted the Silence before?

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

Also the Doctor basically tells the humans to murder a whole race that was never proven to be harming humans.

[andrewducker]

Hardly the first time:
http://calapine.livejournal.com/661465.html

[andrewducker]

Presumably he has, and then he forgot.

The question of why he can suddenly remember them is one that remains to be answered. Possibly because this is the first time they've been captured on film (by Amy's camera). I assume that before this they've avoided cameras - but didn't recognise Amy's phone as being a camera, because it was from their future. Of course, I could be entirely wrong there.

[fenland.livejournal.com]

I am guessing that this whole issue will be resolved as the series progresses. I mean, the alternative time machine/space ship? We know know why it was derelict. But is there more to it? We don't know. Yet.

Steve Moffat seems to have a very good way of tying things up in an unorthodox way, out of sequence but still answering them, remember the question of the Angels and his jacket being off and then on. He is not a person to just give us the answers, so thereby encouraging us that we will need to watch to see.

This Doctor is Different. He is not like the previous incarnations. He has changed. We've seen it throughout the reboot. Handled in various ways and to different extents by the writers. The 1st Doctor CE who overall edge was that he was Bitter and angry at all that happened between the old and the new, and mellowing. DT again different. Companion/sans companion, what happened when he didn't have one. This could be something that The Moff will deal with.. Who knows.. we shall just have to find out, won't we? *_^

[mb2u]

I don't know the story so I didn't make the connection. I was more out of sorts over all the holes, hanging story threads and things that seemed to be there to make you say "WTF?"

At first blush, it's scary, thrilling episode. But then you start asking questions and then you realize that you spent the last two episodes watching a big setup for the rest of the season.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Never read the Ray Nelson story; in some ways They Live reminds me of the Fritz Lieber story Bazaar of the Bizarre, with the Devourers: http://palaverer.com/2011/01/18/fritz-leiber-swords-against-death/