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

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

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

[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/