Doctor Who: The Library of Carsus discussion

https://srlzd.com/r/ee454e

Maestro! How delightful! There’s that Giggle again! 🙀 The One Who Waits? Sinister! The Pantheon? Oh, so ominous! 🙀 This season is going to be a fun ride. The mock Beatles were a bit of a let down, but it was still wonderful to have them in an episode. And going back to 1963 with references to The (First) Doctor and Susan were greatly appreciated. This new series is off to a good start.

Love the setting, I'm a sucker for godlike beings with rules messing with us and love the references to Who history...

But,...

don't make a Beatles episode if you can't actually afford to include any Beatles music!!
The Abby Road sets are gorgeous, but the Beatles themselves were a massive letdown.
The weakest part of the episode.

Yep, the worst performances/impressions of Lennon & McCartney I’ve ever seen.

Rick wrote: "Yep, the worst performances/impressions of Lennon & McCartney I’ve ever seen."

Which is a shame, as the Abby Road sets are beautiful and right on the money.

Also, they make a big deal about the jukebox in the Tardis, and then it never shows up or gets used in the musical episode...?

😹

But it wasn’t a musical episode, it was an episode about music.

Even you have to see what a weak tea argument that is

Much as I love the use of pianos in this episode, if you need to bring music back, why wouldn’t you use the jukebox


Personally I wish Ncuti had taken out a recorder and mentioned how he used to be pretty good at it

A musical is a specific genre of film that includes singing and dancing as part of the structure of the narrative. Characters burst into songs about their emotions and their state of mind. There was none of that in the episode.

Travis wrote: "… Personally I wish Ncuti had taken out a recorder and mentioned how he used to be pretty good at it"

That would have been a nice touch.

Travis wrote: "Even you have to see what a weak tea argument that is ..."

The last Xmas special was actually closer to a musical episode.

You got a basket to hold all the nits you are picking?

I liked the episode but RTD is falling into his old habit of using up valuable screen time being cute rather than making sure the script is solid

Travis wrote: "You got a basket to hold all the nits you are picking? ..."

Don’t need any nits, not when I’m correct. 😸

Travis wrote: "don't make a Beatles episode if you can't actually afford to include any Beatles music!!
The Abby Road sets are gorgeous, but the Beatles themselves were a massive letdown.
The weakest part of the episode."

At the end it would have been nice if they'd been able to at least get Twist and Shout on the episode instead of a song that just didn't quite mesh with the time period.

The song was decent
But without any connecting theme, it just felt tacked on

You have that or you have the moment at the crosswalk at the end
Both felt line RTD was padding out the script

Yep, cute moments, but basically unconnected to the episode. Just character moments, and neither felt narratively diegetic. But then the episode was very meta since the Maestro was very aware of the audience. But having set that up earlier, I was fully expecting quite a bit of breaking-the-fourth-wall moments.

I really liked this episode. The Maestro is quite the character. Will we see them again?

Why not pianos? Put me in mind of the Elton John movie. Who was that music teacher and why was he so significant at the beginning (though he gets forgotten soon after)?

I thought the actors playing the Paul and John were pretty OK. After all, they weren't all that enthused by the music they were playing because, let's face it, mono-symphonic really is boring and the real band thrived on the different chords, beats, etc. which drives their music.

Can anyone ID which song that last chord was from? I recognized it, but cannot bring it up to active memory at the moment.

Can’t help there.

Lori S. wrote: "Can anyone ID which song that last chord was from? I recognized it, but cannot bring it up to active memory at the moment."

I'm wondering now if it's the first chord in A Hard Day's Night.

I just rewatched the episode. Maestro is quite the character! They're so sinister, but in an over the top and fun way.

The song and dance thing at the end just feels so out of place, but I do like the rest of the story. And this time, the clues about "the oldest of us" have taken on a more significant meaning than before.

Lori S. wrote: "Lori S. wrote: "Can anyone ID which song that last chord was from? I recognized it, but cannot bring it up to active memory at the moment."

I'm wondering now if it's the first chord in A Hard Day'..."Yes,

hopefully we don't have to wait 40 years for the Maestro to return, like we did for the Toymaker.

Biggest flaw with this episode is the music.
The lack of any Beatles music is jarring and a distraction.

I wouldn’t say jarring, I’d say disappointing.

A song at the end would've been cool, but looking at from a purely financial aspect, I wonder if the license to use a song might have killed the budget. How much are Beatles songs worth these days?

I’m sure it would have killed the budget

Rick wrote: "I’m sure it would have killed the budget"

Well, maybe if they didn't have to buy Ncuti all those different outfits, they would have had the money to license at least one Beatle song.

But they can use ANY Disney song for free 😸😹

Rick wrote: "But they can use ANY Disney song for free 😸😹"

if the Tardis lands and Ncuti checks out the new planet while singing 'Look at this stuff! Isn't it neat...!"
Then I'll stop complaining about the Beatles episode.

😼

I looked it up last night and a Beatles song can start at $10 million and go up depending on the song. A song that featured on the Top40 can start at 40k. So, I'd say the wardrobe is worth significantly less than that, esp. since a good costumer knows how to hit the thrift shops to find clothing.

40k would get him a different set of clothes for every 15 minutes of the entire run of his tenure on the series.

Really enjoyed this the second (third?) time through. Still don’t like the actors they cast for John and Paul. But I guess, growing without their music really changed them, and I’ll leave it with that.

Rick wrote: "Really enjoyed this the second (third?) time through. Still don’t like the actors they cast for John and Paul. But I guess, growing without their music really changed them, and I’ll leave it with t..."

I thought they did OK for the limited time they had in the story.

Rewatched again.

Love this episode. Even if the Beatles are seemingly cheesy and lame, Maestro makes up for the poor casting there.

Rick wrote: "Rewatched again.

Love this episode. Even if the Beatles are seemingly cheesy and lame, Maestro makes up for the poor casting there."

Yeah, to have Beatles history be so central to the plot and then not be able to use any Beatles music or cast guys that look like the Beatles really hurt it.

I love everything else.