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goldenkamuyhunting · 5 years

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Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 205 “Cinematograph”

So, I’m back, scanlations are finally out and we can see that the new chapter, despite being still a light one, is likely preparing the ground for something big.

In fact we start with a colour cover of Tsurumi, curled up on a mountain of weapons (remember? Tsurumi wants the gold to buy more weapons and then he plans to open his own weapon factory).

Although Tsurumi is curled up, his position differs from Ogata’s almost foetal position when he was sleeping curled up while clinging to his rifle in chap 107.

The drawing is disturbing.

Tsurumi has no pupils or irises, his eyes completely white. It’s the first time we see this happening with him as far as I can remember but it usually happens when Sugimoto has completely lost it and his into berserk mode.

Although the background below the weapons is red (not a bloody red but it still makes me think of blood), no red or variations of pink are used on Tsurumi but they’re replaced by red’s complementary color, green, which us western associate to zombie representations. Tsurumi, the self defined Shinigami, comes out as an undead. It doesn’t help he’s showing his clenched teeth (another recurring symbol of the zombies’ hunger) or how the veins are very visible on his hands.

He seems a hungry undead, clinging to his weapons, pressing against them and burying himself in them (part of the weapons are above him), one arm also between his legs as if to try to grab the weapons that are there. Greed, hunger, those are the vibes I get from that picture and that reminds me of Tsukishima’s words about how Tsurumi (and Arisaka) have an addition to war (chap 94).

But now let’s move to the plot. Tsukishima and Sugimoto are plotting. Well, more than plotting they’re having a ‘secret’ meeting in which Tsukishima is reporting his and Tsurumi’s interpretation of what had happened to Asirpa. She was ‘kidnapped’ by Kiro because he hoped to awaken her memory so that she could remember the key to the code and he also wanted her her to meet with Sofia.

Tsukishima thinks that in the end Asirpa has remembered the code and this is why Ogata separated Asirpa from Kiro and why Asirpa mumbled something to Kiro that allowed him to feel relief before dying and entrust everything to her.

Long story short, Asirpa and Kiro had been careless.

Kiro had let his feelings come out when he had learnt his plan had worked, inadvertently ‘revealing’ with his body language what Asirpa has whispered to him… though I can’t really blame him much as the poor guy was dying and, in the end doesn’t fully seem to realize Asirpa can’t just leave and reach Sofia as he told her to do.

Asirpa, of course, can’t really be blamed as she’s a child but she has obviously revealed too much of what had happened (she didn’t need to say Ogata had parted her from Kiro deliberately, it was clear it would arise suspicions, she could have just told they got lost searching wood and then argued) and hadn’t been clever enough to hide behind a lie what she had told to Kiro (for example she could have said she would take care of his kids, of reporting he died fighting well, that she would do her best to remember the key even without him… whatever).

Of course, since Asirpa is a kid, it makes sense she was careless but really, I wonder how Wilk expected her to become the Ainu leader NOW.

Her actions clearly reveal she is still too naïve. She obviously didn’t tell Sugimoto the code and wants to hide she has remembered it but by partly revealing what had happened with Ogata and by not explaining what had happened with Kiro, she had given away the truth, she has remembered, Ogata knew about it which is why he has left the group with her and she has told Kiro the truth, which is why he found peace.

Tsukishima puts is sentence in shape of a question, just to check if Sugimoto knows if Asirpa has remembered or not, but his question is a retorical one. He’s sure she has, the real question is if she has told Sugimoto or not. I doubt Tsukishima trusts Sugimoto blindly, he’s studying him to see if he’ll give out he knows the code.

That’s why Tsukishima goes on and delivers the final blow, suggesting Ogata wanted to kill her because she told him about the code and therefore she became useless to him.

And this is interesting.

Of courseTsukishima is wrong in his assumption and I think he knows or getting the code would be even more urgent and he also wouldn’t have wanted Ogata to die as two people to question about which is the code are better than just one.

So why he’s suggesting this?

I wonder if Tsukishima’s speech was actually suggested by Tsurumi.

In fact by suggesting Asirpa opened her heart to Ogata and Kiro whom Sugimoto sees as bad guys, never mention he loathes Ogata, they’re likely trying to damage their bond. It would be a heavy blow for Sugimoto, who prizes himself as the person Asirpa trusts the most and views her as some sort of saviour, if Asirpa has chosen to open up with Kiro and Ogata but not with him.

By now Tsurumi had all the time to discover Sugimoto’s best friend married the woman Sugimoto loved while Sugimoto wasn’t there.

Suggesting Ogata got Asirpa’s faith while Sugimoto wasn’t there with her, and now Sugimoto can’t even win it back enough to have her open up with him too should feel similar of that situation only now the culprit wasn’t Sugimoto’s best friend but a person Sugimoto loathes and wants to kill.

It’s interesting how Sugimoto in the past scolded Koito for calling Ogata a ‘Yamaneko’, claiming it was a pathetic joke...

...but then, when asked why Ogata is searching the gold, goes and says ‘he’s just scratching around and playing’. Yes, the translation said ‘he’s just stirring up things for the fun of it’,

but the Japanese version uses ‘hikkaki mawashite asonderu’ (引っ掻き回して遊んでる “playing scratching around”, “playing clawing around”) which hints more to a cat behavior than to a human. In short he’s subtly agreeing with him being a ‘yamaneko’. It makes me think Sugimoto is trying to be a good person when criticizing the tasteless joke but, deep down, agrees to it.

I wonder why Sugimoto ALWAYS intensely disliked Ogata, right from the start.

His ‘spider sense’ is pretty bad, he couldn’t recognize Henmi or the fake Ainu as criminals and murders, nor he could realize Vasily is not Ogata so it’s not like his instinct is reliable.

Ogata isn’t the only person who left the 7th, Tanigaki did so as well yet Sugimoto harbours him no ill feelings and went along with Vasily, who shoot Shiraishi, just because Vasily is also hunting for Ogata.

Hijikata used Shiraishi to spy him, Shiraishi didn’t reveal he was also ‘working’ with Hijikata (well, he’d been blackmailed but...) Inkamart betrayed them all to Tsurumi but... Sugimoto is just obsessed with Ogata, with keeping him outside the group, putting him down, killing him. he can trust Kiro, he can trust Hijikata, he can’t trust Ogata.

I’ve always wondered if this was tied to the third feline in the story, Toraji, whose name meaning ‘next tiger’ (寅 “third sign of Chinese zodiac, which is the tiger” 次 “next”), If Ogata somehow managed to remind him of the negative sides of Toraji or of a negative experience tied to Toraji. We’ll see.

Anyway Sugimoto hurries to say there’s no way she would have told Ogata... as if Asirpa too should have loathed him, when actually Asirpa didn’t think ill of him at all.

Sugimoto’s gaze is lowered, he’s not looking at Tsukishima and his eyes are partially shadowed by his cap.

His words sound confident but his posture is not. He’s even frowning a tiny little.

He then goes on saying he’ll be the one to talk about it with Asirpa and Tsukishima doesn’t have to get in between them.

He’s still not looking at Tsukishima, who has however turned to look at him, and he’s looking glomy. I wonder if, despite his words, Sugimoto is afraid he won’t get Asirpa to open up to him.

But going back to the plot, it seems the guys believe they’re short on time as Tsurumi is about to come and, according to Sugimoto, although Asirpa hadn’t met Tsurumi yet, she wouldn’t open her heart to that type of man… implying that instead of course she would open up his heart to him.

Below the scene we see a creepy image of Tsurumi in which again his eyes are completely white and he’s showing his teeth and it seems as if, something is… well, rising out of him, like an evil energy or an aura, or maybe it’s just me.

I’m not sure if the idea is Sugimoto deep down finds Tsurumi creepy or think Asirpa would find him creepy or that Sugimoto is actually walking straight into Tsurumi’s trap.

Tsurumi is stalling them there and letting Sugimoto handle things the way he let Ogata handle his brother. Honestly I think nothing good will come out of this because Sugimoto thinks Asirpa will tell him the code and he’s not prepared for a ‘no’.

He’s aimed with good intentions as well as slightly selfish ones and he expects Asirpa to give in to his request… and doesn’t really seem to be considering Asirpa might say ‘no’, that she might decide not to give him the code.

Nor he’s really considering the Ainu cause, and how Tsurumi’s actions, should he get the gold, would reflect on them. Sugimoto is projected on the present, without really thinking at the future. He means well but lacks foreplanning. There’s no way he can win against a master at foreplanning like Tsurumi is… but the part that worries me the most is how he’ll try to get the code out of Asirpa.

Not only he doesn’t think she’ll say no but he had promised it to Tsurumi and she’s basically prisoner of the 7th. Tsukishima and Koito might play nice with her for now but wait for when Tsurumi will be there and will demand the code. What is Sugimoto going to do then?

Have her escape? Fight Tsurumi and his men? Honestly I fear we’ll end up into a very dark part of the story soon, hence that’s why the previous chapter and this one will contain such a light note.

It’s also interesting how Sugimoto is refusing to believe Asirpa might open up to Tsurumi. Evidently he doesn’t know yet how easily this guy can have a youth open up with just one sentence or two...

...and can even go so far as to present himself as a saviour...

...a best friend....

...someone who can help you shoot your mother leave the nest.

Honestly I don’t think right now Sugimoto will manage to get the code out of Asirpa but... I’m not sure if Asirpa would manage to resist Tsurumi.

I’ll say she would merely because the story has made a parallel with Tsurumi being the devil and Asirpa being Jesus and therefore she should resist temptation but I think Tsurumi, AT THE MOMENT, has way better means at his disposition to get Asirpa to talk than Sugimoto.

Anyway the story switches to the two cinematographers explaining Asirpa and the rest of the group about cinematographs, how cinematics of Japan had gotten trendy and how moving pictures work by showing them a projection FOR FREE, likely as a thank you for Asirpa’s help against the wolverine as normally they ask money for this.

They also introduce themselves as the cinematographer Girel and the director Inaba Katsutarou, showing how @osomanga guessed correctly the people on whom they were based.

Asirpa is impressed by the projection and asks if they have also filmed folk tales but she’s informed they didn’t as the machine can’t record sound.

I wish I could inform Asirpa there’s a way to record sounds as well as the gramophone existed from 1887 so she could technically record sounds as well and let them too survive, although parted from images… but well, I’m not in the GK cast.

Anyway Asirpa decides she wants to film an Ainu legends so as to leave it for future generations. Inaba is doubtful and suggests what I mentioned previously, to just use a phonograph to record the audio as Ainu don’t even have plays (he mentions he recorded a Kabuki play previously).

Asirpa thinks the meaning will get across better with a video though and that people who speak a different language would still get the meaning behind their stories if they were to see the images and I’m really sorry to tell her this but while images get across a meaning MORE than just audio, if you don’t understand the audio, part of the contest still remains very obscure unless you’re VERY GOOD at transmitting things with just the visual.

The idea she can do this with random people who aren’t professional actors is well, beyond optimistic.

Proofs are when not Japanese speaking people saw the raw of this chapter, while many could get the general gist of the story, at the same time they couldn’t really understand well what was going on in the myths she was narrating…. And how people need subs when an apisode of an anime is out to fully understand what’s going on.

Silent film still used to use silent cards as they acknowledged dialogues or explanations were necessary to understand the visual.

Long story short, silent stories exist and can be very good and deliver their message well but it’s not so easy to make them, especially if you’re narrating a story based on a different culture.

Sugimoto seems to be impressed by her determination...

...but the director isn’t really interested.

Now… I know some people will be amused by Sugimoto forcing the director to do what Asirpa asked him to do but I’m not really finding that funny.

He’s not just asking the guy to humour her because she saved his life, he grabbed the guy’s scarf and ordered him to comply with Asirpa’s request, his whole behavior threatening. Inaba and Girel aren’t touched by his words, they’re scared. You can even notice how the balloons and the font used for Sugimoto’s words in the original (and in the scanlations too)

imply this is not Sugimoto asking nicely, this is Sugimoto threatening them.

But those guys aren’t bad guys and Sugimoto isn’t asking them just five minutes of their time. Taking a film isn’t something that gets done for free, especially in those times. They had already repaid Asirpa by showing her and everyone else the movie FOR FREE. If Asirpa saved their life for a reward this would cheap Asirpa’s actions.

Long story short no, I don’t find this funny and whoever has a work and, all of sudden, is threatened by a stranger to do what he wants for free and against his will, likely will feel the same.

We can claim that Asirpa’s intentions are nice but this doesn’t mean people HAS TO humour her.

They should do it out of kindness, not out of Sugimoto threatening them and it should be their decision.

So, long story short, the guys are forced to do Asirpa’s or better Sugimoto’s bidding as they’re agreeing merely because threatened by him, not because interested in helping her.

The Karafuto expedition is also forced to help (though I think they were more willing to do it than Girel and Inaba), Vasily included, who gets to draw the scenery.

As Asirpa of course as favourites, Sugimoto gets the role of the lucky guy Pananpe, whose actions always make him rich, with Koito in the role of his ‘pretty wife’, while Shiraishi gets to do the role of the unlucky Penanpe who always ends up having his dick cut and dying a miserable death because he’s apparently scum and always fail to properly imitate Pananpe (why he’s scum is never explained and it’s not like Pananpe is a saint) while Tsukishima plays the role of Shiraishi’s ‘prosperous wife’.

Inaba hands them out the scripts he wrote according to what Asirpa told him. I wonder if he just passively wrote down what she said or also worked it so as to improve it.

Asirpa basically plays the part of the bossy movie director, wearing sunglasses, ordering people around, scolding them claiming they can be easily replaced (they can’t) and even demanding to destroy houses which are in the way.

Meanwhile Tsukishima tries again to plot with Sugimoto by reminding him that since they’ve no time (before Tsurumi will be there) they shouldn’t waste it like this... while Sugimoto insists Tsukishima shouldn’t get in his way as he’ll handle things…

...which somehow worries me as it seems he’s humouring Asirpa in this merely to further his purposes (I hope not, I love Sugimoto but I’ve been fearing the moment he would have to keep his promise to Tsurumi by a long while and I know it won’t be pleasant).

Koito misunderstands and thinks Tsukishima wants to just have more scenes for himself, because sadly Koito is still not thinking in the slightest at his mission.

As the filming goes on Asirpa realizes whose two silly stories won’t convey anything nor, likely, impress people enough to remain passed down, and torments herself.

Well, she’s not wrong, if there’s a moral in those stories, I missed it as well.

Sugimoto suggests her to try for a serious myth instead than just a silly story about dicks being used in weird ways and cut off.

Asirpa accepts, decides to do a Kamuy story and Cikapasi gets the main role of the new story… which is actually better as finally a real Ainu will portray in an Ainu story… not that anyone in Asirpa’s cast has any acting experience anyway but, theoretically Cikapasi should portray better how an Ainu is or feel as he should just act natural. Enonoka also gets a small role as the younger sister of three (the two other sisters being Koito and Tsukishima).

I’ll dig into the plot a little because this time it’s slightly relevant as Cikapasi plays the younger brother of three (the two other brothers being Tanigaki and Sugimoto... whom I guess is added to the cast only because he’s Asirpa’s favourite as he does nothing relevant... Shiraishi gets the role of the bad guy/shapechanging bear by the way). Due to a series of adventures Cikapasi gets to marry the younger sister and finally have a family of his own.

At this point it turns out the brother Tanigaki was playing wasn’t a human or Cikapasi’s real brother but a Kamuy who turned into a bird and left the little brother now that he finally have a family of his own (no idea what happened to the brother Sugimoto was playing, as I said Sugimoto was irrelevant to the story).

As Asirpa, in order to get Cikapasi to make a good expression, reminds him the brother Tanigaki was playing was the one who, in the story gave him protection, took him along, fought evil and grew him and that was now leaving him forever.

Cikapasi, basically emotionally recognizing his own story in the story they were playing, cries, showing Asirpa the expression she wanted.

Note that although Tanigaki should supposedly cry, he doesn’t. I wonder if this is a hint of how Tanigaki and Cikapasi feel very different about what had happened, for Cikapasi he had been ‘adopted’ by Tanigaki, but, for Tanigaki, Cikapasi just went along for the ride and so he’s not as emotionally involved as Cikapasi when ‘leaving him’.

Meanwhile the system that was helping Tanigaki to pretend it was a bird flying away rips and Tanigaki, now dressed only in his fundoshi, crashes down comically (as he makes no attempt to protect himself from his fall and just fall spread eagle).

Asirpa is satisfied.

I’m… not particularly impressed.

Of course I can’t see the whole play, just some still images with explanations about what’s going on but still, I’m not sure such an amateur product could work to transmit the story of a foreign culture behind it so well it would remain left behind.

Asirpa has just discovered what moving images are, she has no knowledge of plays or whatever. Sure, maybe the director is helping her (we don’t see it though, all we know is he wrote down the scripts according to WHAT SHE SAID) but since he was threatened into this he likely just wants to get the work done and be done with this. Also she seems to be left in charge, which means he’s not contributing much.

So, while I was all for her using movies to leave behind Ainu culture… somehow I’ve no trust in how such an amateurish product who basically left behind two funny tales and a myth without really explaining them could accomplish what Asirpa wish. Not only we saw how Koito distorted the Meko Oyasi myth, interpreting it as a suggestion to kill it first sight, even though he heard it being narrated... but really, it’s not so easy to accomplish what Asirpa wishes with just a movie, even when done by a professional.

When the narration is unclear and poor… what will remain behind?

It’s not enough to just film a story, the message has to be clear or it’ll end up being misunderstood.

But well, for now I’ll try to delude myself Asirpa and Co secretly had an impressive talent as director and actors so their production was actually impressively clear… or at least interesting enough people would research for the real myth and the explanation behind it.

We’ll see if the next chapter will confirm they made a masterpiece or will reveal it was just not worth the effort.

On a sidenote though, it’s entirely possible the manga will just wave away the problem giving Asirpa ‘genius filmmaker ability’. In short it doesn’t matter if she’s a child who has just discovered movies, she’s the new Mozart of the film world and her work came out as perfect. Honestly I think this is very likely what’s going to happen, her movie, instead than amateurish, will look very moving and intriguing worth winning multiple Oscars and being awarded the Golden Lion… but well, this is GOLDEN Kamuy after all.

Something else worth mentioning is how the whole myth seems to raise a flag about how Cikapasi and Tanigaki might end up parting ways, with Cikapasi remaining with Enonoka. That or the whole thing was meant to be a nice what if, and things will end up rather dark.

Honestly I hope the movie is just foretelling Tanigaki and Cikapasi parting ways, as I would prefer this to the other option.

Last but not least let me go back a little to talk about Sugimoto.

When Tsukishima had accused Asirpa of having remembered and shared the truth with Ogata and Kiro… Sugimoto hadn’t tried to deny it.

He could have, he could have lied and told he heard Asirpa saying something reassuring to Kiro, not that she had remembered but that she would care about the Ainu’s interests or something like that.

Asirpa might not have thought to disguise her actions as such but she’s a child, Sugimoto is a man and could cover up for her, in the same way as he could have told Tsukishima how Asirpa doesn’t know why Ogata wanted to kill her since she’s the key to the gold and wondering if he really wants it,

which are all clear hints she didn’t tell him the code and therefore Ogata’s actions aren’t tied to her having turned useless.

Sugimoto could have suggested everything else really, like how Ogata might have believed he wouldn’t have the time to get her to tell him a code she hadn’t remembered yet and therefore, instead than letting Sugimoto get her and learn the code from her, he wanted NOBODY to have the code. After all he told Asirpa he believed Ogata was in this just to play around, why not to use this with Tsukishima too?

Why Sugimoto should have done this?

Because regardless of Asirpa having remembered the code or not, it could be better for her if Tsurumi DOESN’T THINK she has remembered because Asirpa might not want to share that info with him or not truly not remembering it.

Sugimoto should remember how Tsurumi stuck sticks through his cheeks to get him to cooperate as well as he had him beaten up.

If Sugimoto doesn’t get her to talk or if Asirpa still doesn’t remember, Tsurumi might not necessarily feel he needs to be kind with her, that’s why it’s imperative Sugimoto makes sure he won’t think Asirpa has remembered. But the problem here lies in how Sugimoto is likely sure she would tell him the code, why shouldn’t she?

So there’s no reason to hide from Tsurumi she has remembered, because Sugimoto can hand to him the code on a silver plate… and maybe I’m just being pessimist but I fear this thing will backfire horribly.

I’ve been dreading the moment Sugimoto would have to keep his promise to Tsurumi from chap 139. We’re at chap 205 and that moment is coming close by the minute… and I’m honestly dreading it because I doubt it will be pretty.

We’ll see though and I won’t mind for Golden Kamuy to prove me wrong on this one.

#Golden Kamuy #Asirpa #Sugimoto Saichi #Tanigaki Genjirou #Cikapasi #Enonoka #Tsukishima Hajime #Tsurumi Tokushirou #Koito Otonoshin #Shiraishi Yoshitake #Inaba Katsutarou #Girel #Golden Kamuy Ramblings and Theories

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the-desolated-quill · 6 years

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Extremis - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

I seriously can’t make up my mind as to whether or not I actually liked this episode. Extremis is certainly very different from previous Who stories and there are some interesting concepts and ideas buried within. I could imagine a talented writer creating something really special with these ideas.

...

Take a random guess who wrote this one.

Okay. Credit where it’s due. This is not the worst thing Moffat has ever written. Hell, in terms of quality, Extremis is several leagues above shit like The Husbands Of River Song or Hell Bent. I suppose the fact that I’m not instantly dismissing this episode like I’ve done with previous Moffat stories shows that things are improving somewhat, right?

Let’s start with the obvious. Guess who’s in the Vault:

Oh yeah! Fucking called it!

Obviously this didn’t come as much of a shock. Like with all of Moffat’s series arcs, the list of suspects was pathetically small. Really, who else could it have been? I was more shocked by how blasé the reveal was. There was none of the usual melodramatic theatricality that comes with these sorts of reveals. It was basically just a ‘oh by the way, the Master is in the Vault. Just so you know.’ Makes me wonder why Moffat even bothered making it a mystery in the first place? Why not just be upfront about it from the get go if it’s not that big of a deal?

So yeah. The execution stuff. It had all the usual Moffat bollocks. The Doctor using the power of plot convenience to get out of a situation, using his reputation to scare off the opposition and thus completely removing any and all tension or excitement from the proceedings, Nardole being an unfunny killjoy, and River Song chastising the Doctor (this time from beyond the grave) for being a very bad man because he wants to kill the Master even though the chances of the Doctor actually going through with it are extremely slim and even though River Song has more blood on her hands than he does. Hypocritical much, sweetie? On the whole, I wasn’t particularly fond of any of that. But what saved it for me, surprisingly, was the Master. The annoying crazy schtick has been stripped away completely here as we see the Master at her most vulnerable, pleading for her life. Michelle Gomez knocks it out of the park completely and I did actually find myself feeling sorry for her.

Oh, not that I’m convinced any of this will stick. I know Moffat’s bullshit all too well. All this crap about the Master wanting to turn over a new leaf I’m sure will be conveniently reversed at some point. Same goes for the Doctor’s blindness. It’s a bit hard to feel any sort of emotional investment towards the Doctor’s current condition when you can practically see Moffat’s hand hovering over the reset button at all times (and why is the Doctor trying to keep it a secret from Bill? How bloody stupid is that?).

Now let’s get into the story good and proper. There’s this book called the Veritas, which contains a terrible secret and anyone who learns this secret commits suicide immediately afterwards. Okay. As premises go, that’s a bloody good one. Already I’m intrigued. We’ve also got some genuinely creepy monsters. The Monks. They certainly look cool and the voices are chilling. It seems like they’re going to be the main recurring villains this series, and yeah I wouldn’t mind seeing them again. I’d certainly like to learn more about them. Hopefully they won’t outstay their welcome like the Silence and Weeping Angels did.

So yeah. it’s a good setup that draws you in. However it’s when the action shifts to the Vatican’s secret library where everything starts to wobble and fall apart. So the Veritas reveals the truth. That this isn’t the real world and that this is a computer simulation. Quick question. How long has this simulation been running for? If it’s in real time, how did the ancient scholars figure out they were in a computer simulation? If it’s not, why did the Monks put the Veritas into the simulation in the first place?

This then leads to further questions. Why would finding out you’re in a simulation make you want to kill yourself? Why did that priest wait four hours to kill himself after he sent the email to CERN? Why do the CERN guys think they’re saving the world by blowing themselves up? How does that work? And the most important question of all, why would the Monks create simulants smart enough and self aware enough to work out their true nature? Why put the Veritas in the simulation? Why give them access to all those portals? It doesn’t make sense. The purpose of these simulations is for the Monks to test run how they’re going to take over the Earth. How does creating a simulation where the simulants realise they’re simulants do that? How does that benefit the Monks’ plans? It doesn’t make sense.

I can see how this could have worked. Have a story where the Doctor fails to save the Earth from alien invaders and possibly even die, only to then reveal that it was all a simulation and have the real invasion take place in a future episode, where the tension would come from wondering how the real Doctor will succeed where his computer generated self failed. That could have been very gripping and genuinely original. But unfortunately Moffat trips up thanks to one of his many flaws as a writer, His desperate desire to appear clever when in reality he’s a colossal idiot.

So the Veritas contains a shadow test, where any random number you think of is the same number everyone else is thinking of. The Doctor explains that if all computer generated people are part of the same programme, then they’ll all generate the exact same string of random numbers.

Now I’m not an expert on computers by any stretch of the imagination (I did all my A Level coursework on a typewriter), but from what little I remember from my IT GCSE, I can tell that’s prime bullshit. It’s true that computers aren't perfect random number generators, but they can do a hell of a lot better than that!

Then it just gets even weirder when Moffat starts bringing video games into the equation. Why video games? This simulation has nothing in common with a video game as far as I can see. And what’s all this crap about video game characters thinking they’re real? Moffat does know video game characters aren’t actually sentient, right? And finally, how is the fake Doctor able to email the simulation to the real Doctor at the end? He claims it’s something any computer or subroutine can do. Again, I’m not an expert on computers, but even I know that’s bollocks.

So is Extremis good or bad in the end? Well... I suppose I didn’t dislike it, but there are far too many plot holes and loose ends that I simply can’t overlook. On the whole it’s conceptually interesting, but poorly thought out. Points for trying though.

#extremis #steven moffat #doctor who #twelfth doctor #peter capaldi #bill potts #pearl mackie #nardole #matt lucas #the master #michelle gomez #bbc #review #spoilers

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