Secretly infecting a bad guy with a virus that unravels his DNA and only telling him when he activates it.
Blowing stuff up
Electrocuting people/aliens/wierd stuff
EMP bombs and atmospheric flamethrowers
Some equally stupid BS about a Venusian martial art that I doubt will ever be used again.
Its all right for those with a hand of god screwdriver to do everythign for them...
AduroT wrote: We made living cloth that hunts you down and strangles you.
Ok that’s cool.
And it can read your mind and know your past and your fears.
Uh, ok, sure why not.
And it uses that information to flutter around and taunt you for awhile before it kills you.
Wait what? Why?
To have an 'spooky' scene of things that are legally distinct from Harry Potter Dementors that you can also stick in the season trailer.
And also drop in the keyword for the season's story arc.
Also, when the ship crashed, why did none of them think to run sideways out of the way, rather than just directly away in the direction of travel? I get that the sides were sloped, but it was was shallow incline...
It's a fairly ingrained instinct when something big and scary is coming towards you to run directly away from it...
Automatically Appended Next Post: I was a bit disappointed with this one. JW continues to shine as the Doctor, and this episode was a cool premise, but that was some godawful weak writing.
And while I have no problem at all with the Doctor being a woman, why on earth is the Tardis green...? Hoping that's just the lighting in that scene.
AegisGrimm wrote: I wonder if the Timeless Child will end up being the Doctor's daughter. I always lamented how that was too great a concept for a one-off.
Also, when the ship crashed, why did none of them think to run sideways out of the way, rather than just directly away in the direction of travel? I get that the sides were sloped, but it was was shallow incline...
It's a fairly ingrained instinct when something big and scary is coming towards you to run directly away from it...
Automatically Appended Next Post: I was a bit disappointed with this one. JW continues to shine as the Doctor, and this episode was a cool premise, but that was some godawful weak writing.
And while I have no problem at all with the Doctor being a woman, why on earth is the Tardis green...? Hoping that's just the lighting in that scene.
Think you need to adjust your set. Was most definitely Tardis Blue.
Think you need to adjust your set. Was most definitely Tardis Blue.
It's really not:
Not as green as it looked in the shot from directly outside as she looked at the doors (I think that was partially the yellowish lighting in that scene) but it's definitely not the same bright blue.
AegisGrimm wrote: I wonder if the Timeless Child will end up being the Doctor's daughter. I always lamented how that was too great a concept for a one-off.
I really, really hope not. "We have a lady Doctor now, better stick a kiddywink in there" is also something of a mixed message.
The Doctor's daughter presumably being the "clone" made of David Tennant. Georgia Moffet.
Didn't they also throw Toby Jones in there as some malevolent powerful entity (dreams, nightmares etc) and then never use him again?
To be fair, I think when it first appears it looked more blue, it was only when the Doctor was standing at the doors that it looked greenish, but it was quite striking, and that picture I linked above certainly looks more of a teal colour than blue. With the distressed wood finish, I think the colour is going to look a bit different from different angles.
Isn’t it odd that the outside would change at all? My understanding is it’s a police box because of a broken chameleon unit that leaves it stuck as the blue box.
The changing shape of the Tardis is obvious a result of different production teams, but it’s referenced in universe particularly in the new series a few times so it’s specifically happening in-universe too. In the story with the 1st and 12th Doctors meeting, they rebuilt Hartnell’s style of policebox to stand next to the current one so clearly they are acknowledging they are physically different. In Logopolis the Doctor specifically tries to reprogram the shape of the exterior to be more accurate to the dimensions of a police box. Ludicrous sounding premise to start a story but it suggests that while the chameleon circuit is broken, meaning it can’t predict entirely new forms to camouflage into new surrounding, it is flexible to small changes.
Over the years it’s been implied the Tardis is at least semi-sentient, because of its complexity and affinity for the owner, it’s not an organism as such but it’s not merely a machine. The exterior is suggested to be somewhat adaptable, but is fixed in the form of a police box.
I wouldn't obsess about the detail changes in the outside of the TARDIS.
Although the original design is based on the Metropolitan Police Box, obviously the BBC have had to make a number of shells over the decades (Dr Who started in 1963!) The effect of ageing, different batches of paint, and different TV systems over the years means there's bound to be some variation.
That said, the Matt Smith episode "The Doctor's Wife" appeared to reveal that the TARDIS's controlling machine spirit, not only is femaie, but also has as much or more control over the TARDIS as the Doctor him or herself.
The new coloration IMO can be explained by the alien planet lighting, but it could also be an indication that the TARDIS is reacting to the new persona of the Doctor.
It will be interesting to see if the show addresses the idea that the TARDIS has a female machine spirit because the Doctor is male, in a scenario where the Doctor is female.
Didn't one of the characters mention there was a green policebox in their town well before we saw the new Doctor's one in the flesh? That's either superficial foreshadowing/justification("there are green policeboxes sometimes, so it's OK when the Doctor's chooses that colour"), or an indication there will be some fairly local time travel stuff going on over the season(ie either the the box they're referring to was the new TARDIS, or the new TARDIS intuited that the Doc would need to be inconspicuous in a town with green(more teal, really) policeboxes and so changed to that colour in advance).
The AA and RAC also used to have phone boxes. The RAC ones were a paler greenish-blue.
The Police Box was invented by the Metropolitan Police, and probably was painted dark blue to match the uniforms which have been a dark blue since the force's inception in the 1820s.
All the ones I've seen were dark bllue.
It's possible that a regional force made boxes a different colour, or maybe the blue paint faded to a greener colour over time.
However, as Doctor Who is fiction there's no reason a character shouldn't say something like seeing a police box of a different colour. It might even be a little bit of in-universe in which the green box they've seen is the new greenish-blue TARDIS gone back in time.
If the new TARDIS actually is the new colour we think, that is. I still think the colour is mostly the result of the light of the alien sun.
That was a really good episode. It took us back to some of the original purpose of Dr Who, which was intended to be historically instructional.
The villain was a bit sketchy, as you say, but as a one-off villain I think we can accept he was a white supremacist from the future, and don't need a lot of background info to justify it.
What surprised me was how scary I found the whitey menace, from the cop in the motel room. It was actually more frightening than the Daleks. Perhaps humankind's worst enemy is us.
Felt the bad guy’s motivation was a little thin. But then, that’s racists for you. No real justification or merit for or to their actions.
I thought it would have been a stronger episode without him (maybe the artron energy was just a 'leak' from somewhere that was causing time to change). The tech stuff distracted from the setting and the powerful theme of the episode. It wouldn't surprise me though if the initials on the case were foreshadowing something... 'GFB'.
Well the notable example of regional police boxes are the red Glaswegian ones, dimensionally are very similar to metropolitan ones.
The episode tonight was generally good in all the historical bits and the menace of the time period done well. The language used was mostly as harsh as it could be for the Sunday night family time slot, so that was a brave choice, I wonder if there will still be complaints about using terms like ‘coloured’ and ’paki’, even in the condemnatory context they were.
The villain’s motivations were largely nonsensical. We’re expected to believe that in 5000 years (70th century I think they said) people will still be so racist towards black people that they’ll time travel back to blame Rosa Parks. Other than I doubt the whole of black rights would be derailed for millennia by this one event being subverted, it just seems unlikely that the world would be like that in 5000 years, that’s like be going back in time to prevent some minor act of rebellion in ancient Egypt, assuming I can even find the name of anyone less important than a Pharaoh.
So all the historical bits were good, anything with the villain better left out. Hell, they could have had some balls and done a straight historical like a Hartnell were they just have to ensure time occurs as expected.
If you watch episodes of Endeavour (Young Morse) on ITV Hub, they have a warning about the use of racist and sexist language of the period.
I thought the villain was time shooting his victims to the 70th century. I didn't get that he came from that era. He could have come from any era, because once time travel is invented, logically you can go into the past and pre-date it, so a time traveller can come from any era.
Anyway, my view is that it doesn't matter. The purpose of the villain is to be the opposition which allows the Doctor and team to display their virtues, not to make logical sense within a supposed future history of human social-psychology.
Kilkrazy wrote: That was a really good episode. It took us back to some of the original purpose of Dr Who, which was intended to be historically instructional.
The villain was a bit sketchy, as you say, but as a one-off villain I think we can accept he was a white supremacist from the future, and don't need a lot of background info to justify it.
What surprised me was how scary I found the whitey menace, from the cop in the motel room. It was actually more frightening than the Daleks. Perhaps humankind's worst enemy is us.
Yup.
I feel managed skirt the edges between making a historical point, and being preachy. I particularly liked the epilogue, that Rosa struggled the rest of her life, despite her actions.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
statu wrote: I didn’t really enjoy that episode, seemed to feel more like a lecture than entertainment for late parts of it
Well, it is Black History month. And segregation can seem pretty abstract.
I do like how they just racism be the baddie. Actual baddie is a reminder that the fight still isn’t over.
A lot of the episodes with historical figures seem to have that bittersweet sting at the end where reality intrudes into the fantastical heroics. The one that always gets me is the Van Gogh episode from Matt Smiths run
There were some fun moments(Graham and Ryan ambushing the bus driver at the creek was gold), and I do agree having the baddie be just a racist bloke with some doodads was a good call...but it didn't work for me overall. It was about as subtle as a sledgehammer most of the time, even down to the slightly smug pseudo-Band of Brothers soundtrack with the "THIS IS AN IMPORTANT BIT, FEEL APPROPRIATELY REVERENTIAL THIS INSTANT" sections whenever Rosa was saying or doing anything significant.
IME kids(and lets be real, they're the real audience) tend to turn off or, worse, become contrarian when things get too preachy, so if the goal is to impart a Message you're better off with subtlety and an occasional dramatic blindsiding over the approach taken with this episode.
EDIT: Put it this way - this episode felt like the kind of thing you'd get shown in a school class on a day the teacher had marking to catch up on, being both worthy in intent and "family-friendly". I don't know a single kid who actually paid attention to those.
I thought it was a good episode, probably one of the best Doctor Who ones.
I do admit the Spielberg-ish soundtrack did feel a little bit awkward, however.
Overall though, the best episode of the season so far, and one of the best Doctor Who episodes I think. - Alongside Capaldi's solo episode and the aforementioned Van Gogh one.
Spoiler:
They could have gone a LOT darker with it though. I was envisioning a situation where Graham was going to have to end up being the busdriver, and giving his name as James Blake...
I don't think that would have been an improvement, the episode was great as it was, one of the times where the lack of a subversion or plot twist improved the episode.
And, since I can't go a post without mentioning Legends of Tomorrow, I'd say this Who episode was far stronger than the similarly themed Legends episode of Abominations. However, I'd still recommend watching it too, particularly if you liked the theme, but felt Doctor Who is lacking in Confederate zombies.
I thought it was an excellent episode. Although my wife ever the stickler for accuracy in historical dramas pointed out that although the driver accuses Rosa of breaking the law and the dr’s entourage discuss this she does not in fact break any law. The law seperated blacks and whites but did not require anyone to give up their seat if the white section was full, the enlarging of the white section was a custom adopted by the drivers. But a custom the local police were quite willing to treat as a law for some reason. Anyway a small quibble but apart from that I thought it was superb. The actress playing Parks had an uncanny likeness to the real deal.
Are the whole family going to tag along for much longer? Do you think we have seen the last of the episodes bad guy? I hope not it sounded like he had an interesting back story.
I enjoyed it. I did wonder if I'd find bits of it a bit patronising if I was a POC, but seems to be getting a positive reception across demographics and it's a worthwhile issue to cover especially for a UK show where realistically, most people are pretty unfamiliar with the US civil rights movement beyond the broadest strokes.
Villain was a pastiche but so what.
Only thing that really got me was Ryan apparently getting off free for shooting a villain (albeit through time, but still shooting someone and without much of a grasp of what he was doing). I was expecting a bit of a blasting from the Dr. I guess it's going to be a theme, him going all Call of Duty, but it feels very odd for the Dr to ever let it slide.
Well. It’s not killing the victim, just bunging him through time. And he is/was a convicted murderer.
I for one actually learned something - that Hispanics were considered ok to sit in Whites Only. Never knew that before. And it serves to point out the stupidity of the segregation,
Chris Noth and massive spiders....I’m going to be itching all night. Should of stomped them. Compassion has its place but giant murdering spiders.... come on
Love how much development they’re giving the Companions. Nothing heavy handed. Nothing ‘OMG YOOR THE KEEE’ of previous seasons.
They’re just humans. And The Doctor giving the warning toward the end, just superb.
Jodie continues to absolutely nail the role. Enthusiastic. Commanding, but not overbearing. There’s a real warmth to her Doctor. The loneliness is still showing, but we’re seeing them better able to deal with it.
AduroT wrote: How dare you shoot it and give it a quick death! We were going to let it slowly suffocate under its own weight!
That, and the plan for the rest of the spiders (No, you can't kill them, that's horrible! We'll just lock them in the basement and let them die...) were my only real gripes with this episode. JW is definitely settling into the role nicely, and so far they seem to be managing to give the companions stuff to do without anyone just feeling like filler.
Given that this Doctor is much 'softer' than the previous couple, I'm really curious to see how she does when the stakes are really raised. Capaldi, Smith and Tennant all had that ability to switch into 'Super-powerful, Destroyer of Worlds' mode when the need arose, and I'm really looking forward to see if Jodie does that or if they'll handle those sorts of situations differently...
Honestly I hope they don't handle it differently. We need to get away from this idea that modes of thought and behaviour that are stereotypically masculine or feminine, or which are considered bad or good, actually have anything to do with whether you have an innie or an outie downstairs.
The Doctor behaves that way, and she's still supposed to be The Doctor. I'm hoping this perception that she's a "softer" Doctor is just down to the format and tone of the initial episodes, which have generally been chanelling the show's more upbeat and friendly aspects, not a case of "it's a lady Doctor now so she should be nicer and less aggressive".
Kilkrazy wrote: In the war against flies, spiders are our friends.
.
The spiders are not insects.
But in a war they will side with the insects
Traitors! Traitors! Spider traitors!
They'll betray us and they'll make us!
Human slaves in an insect nation!
Only just catching up, seems pretty solid, not keen on Tardis interior
Kilkrazy wrote: In the war against flies, spiders are our friends.
.
The spiders are not insects.
But in a war they will side with the insects
Traitors! Traitors! Spider traitors!
They'll betray us and they'll make us!
Human slaves in an insect nation!
Having been out of the country I missed last week's episode and watched it last night on iPlayer. This was the one on a kind of automated ambulance spaceship.
My verdict: 3/5. A decent filler episode with a fun cast of bit part characters. The monster was a bit weak, Stitch out of Lilo and Stitch, basically, with an added quirk of poisonous skin.
Regrettably I fell asleep shortly before the end, due to jet lag, and also missed this week's episode -- the one set in Pakistan in 1947.
Skinnereal wrote: Is there a "This is what Brexit will do to us all!!!" vibe to the historical ones, or is it just me?
I don't think that was the intent.
This year being the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI there has been more of an emphasis in the UK media on the rile played by folks from the commonwealth.
I think that was the intent here plus a recognition of the absolute horror that partition brought about.
If it was a warning about anything it might be addressing the problem we humans still suffer from in modern times where neighbour or family turn against each other. That usually stems more from religious differences - which is something the writers might have been poking at.
Doctor Who Christmas Special will be on News Year's Day, the BBC have announced.
It will be an hour long prog featuring an insidious evil from human history.
Sounds exciting but I hope there will also be a good dose of fun and joy. The Christmas Specials have often been criticised for being too light-hearted, but I like that for a change of pace from the normal episode.
Compel wrote: It seems they're onto 1 good one, 1 bad one...
This episode was total tripe, and I think they forgot half their own plot elements.
Spoiler:
So, why were people getting liquidised again... I see the Doctor wasn't too angry at 'the system' for murdering Kira...
Bleh, just bleh.
Spoiler:
Aye that one was a bit...confused. I mean I kinda get what they were aiming for - technology isn't inherently bad, but can be put to bad uses - but I'm not quite sure they grasped the subtext of their own writing when you have the Doctor give a speech literally defending "the system"
I mean, you can conceivably read that episode as a defence of the employment practices and workplace policies of Amazon et al. Which, again, I get that likely wasn't the intent(or at least, hope it wasn't), but they've muddled their own messaging enough that it is a possible interpretation.
Also, if the real baddie was the maintenance worker all along and The System was trying to stop him...why was The System spoofing the missing workers' tags to make the management team think they were still alive? Hell, it sends the Doctor that message, it shows Generic Smarmy Middle Manager Bloke surveillance using some of the bots, it clearly still has some level of agency - why didn't it just inform someone that the guy mopping the floors was a radical luddite terrorist?
On the plus side, I can foresee some entertaining YouTube videos this Christmas of wee kids terrified to open their presents because of the bubble wrap, which I will(slightly guiltily) laugh at.
Defo not getting that problem in the U.K., if that helps?
Half way through Kerblam at the moment, having had to renew my TV License this morning.
I’m getting shades of a better executed Paradise Towers. Whilst the original was a bit of a mess, the story itself was actually pretty damned excellent. Would’ve been twelfty times better with Ace rather than ‘third worst, after Clara and Adric in that specific order’ Mel.
Yeah, Im watching the previous episode a out Pakistan, and to bear the voices the music is so loud I feared I'd wake the little ones in the next room over. So far this season it hadn't been a problem, but during the Peter Capaldi episodes it started to aggravate me so much I stopped watching.
I have heard of others experiencing it on BBC America, too.
It's really odd! Do the editors remix the soundtrack for the US release? And if so, why?
There have been some TV shows in the UK which people grumbled about because the voices were so mumbling they were hard to hear (Poldark, for instance) but that wasn't competition from the music, it was just bad recording or direction of the voices.
The Poldark issue is due to the rest of the world subconsciously filtering out anything said by the Cornish (even pretend fictional ones)
A bit behind on Who just finished Demons, and whilst it hits the occasional mis-step the show works way better as a kids adventure of the week show than the cack-handed sci-fi fan-spank Matt and Mr Capaldi had to wrestle with, although 3 sidekicks sometimes seems one too many
For me, Demons felt like I was trying to hear someone speaking to me while a live orchestra played in the background. The episode with Rosa Parks was perfectly fine.
Other than the opening music blaring out my speakers, I’ve not had any problems with it myself.
Otherwise kablamo was the weakest episode to date I think. It had some ideas there, but the plot was full of more holes than a sheet of bubblewrap two minutes after I’ve gotten my grubby mitts on it.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I think next week is the end of this year's run except for the Christmas Special which has been transposed to New Year.
Witchfinders was alright really. On the good side of the line, but not one of the massively memorable ones I'd say. An average-good episode, I suppose.
The Witchfinders was alright, I thought - until the monster reveal. The infected Lady Savage turning her self-hate outwards onto others was great - and then she becomes another gloating B-monster with a funny face. Alan Cumming was great though as James I.
I dunno about anyone else, but in terms of the episode I felt it very close to the McCoy era (my favourite era. Other eras are available!).
The use of the companions is also getting better. Certainly far better than when The Doctor just travelled with one. Usually one looking at him and thinking 'Oh Doctor, you're ever so dishy' - which is one thing I just cannot stand in the New Who.
This lot genuinely feel like friends, like they've bonded over their adventures. Sure, they could do more with them, but it's only their first series.
Just wish they'd find a way to bring back Bill Potts. Seriously. Her time in The Tardis should be swapped for The God Awful Clara's time in The Tardis
The big plus of the series so far has been the seeming lack of a big concept overarching story arc involving The Doctor's dishy female companion being the secret saviour of the meta-cosmos. Again.
The last one started out a lot of fun. Bradley Walsh got some excellent one-liner asides in and the King was great. They were allowed to push the boat out with the sexism angle given the time period.
And then the last 5 minutes happened and my rating went from a 4/5 to a 2/5. Interesting Becka Savage became bland screechy 'take over the world' monster of the week. No ta. Three times now for me the historical episodes have been let down by the 'sci fi' elements that seem shoehorned in.
Interesting juxtaposition between the King's attitude towards Ryan and the repeated threats to 'fill the King' towards the end. Just me then?
MarkNorfolk wrote: The Witchfinders was alright, I thought - until the monster reveal. The infected Lady Savage turning her self-hate outwards onto others was great - and then she becomes another gloating B-monster with a funny face.
Well, yeah... it's Doctor Who.
B-monsters with funny faces are what it's all about.
Alan Cumming was great though as James I.
He certainly sank his teeth into the role, but it seemed just a little too ridiculously over-the-top, really.
Just wish they'd find a way to bring back Bill Potts. Seriously. Her time in The Tardis should be swapped for The God Awful Clara's time in The Tardis
While I don't disagree that more Bill would have been a good thing, we found Clara much less irritating on the 2nd run through.
Then again, I had the same thing with Donna - while my wife loved her, I found her excruciating on the first watch, but then she sort of grew on me the second time around. Billie Piper's constant puppy-dogging around didn't get any better, though...
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Kilkrazy wrote: The Independent review makes the point that maybe this episode was too scary for children.
It's about time Doctor Who had them hiding behind the sofa again, I say.
I've never really got the claim that Doctor Who was a kid's show. There's a lot for kids to like (I certainly did), but an awful lot of not-very-child-friendly stuff going on, on a regular basis.
Doctor Who was specifically conceived and designed as a children's programme.
The traditional transmission time was always between 5:30 and 6 on a Saturday afternoon, after the end of Grandstand (a general sports programme.) This used to be prime time for children's viewing at weekend.
Over the decades things have changed a bit. The revival with later transmission time perhaps placed it more as a teenage show, or at least a show for young children to watch with rather than without the parents.
It was never a ‘childrens’ programme, from the outset it was a ‘family’ programme and made by the drama department. It should appeal to children, but it’s not children’s programming.
Arguably most of its failures throughout the history of the show have been a result of sliding too far towards being ‘adult’ or ‘childish’ instead of offering something to all. The best parts of the show craft stories without patronising the younger viewers or insulting the intelligence of older viewers, becoming a comedy or outright nasty and frightening, being too simplistic or becoming obsessed with American style season arcs impenetrable to the casual viewer.
Howard A Treesong wrote: It was never a ‘childrens’ programme, from the outset it was a ‘family’ programme and made by the drama department. It should appeal to children, but it’s not children’s programming.
Arguably most of its failures throughout the history of the show have been a result of sliding too far towards being ‘adult’ or ‘childish’ instead of offering something to all. The best parts of the show craft stories without patronising the younger viewers or insulting the intelligence of older viewers, becoming a comedy or outright nasty and frightening, being too simplistic or becoming obsessed with American style season arcs impenetrable to the casual viewer.
the curse of fenric..... not for kids at all, scared the crap out of me when i was younger.
Due to working patterns(nights ) , I'm having to catch up on them all.
Has Yaz forgotten she's a police officer? In the spider one, she doesn't even queary an illegal firearm. It was an episode set in the here and now, rather than any obvious parallel universe, so she should have known pistols are prohibited to the public.
Loving the return to the original concept of education while entertaining. I was aware of black segregation and division of India. I hope we get more, with the emphasis on the ordinary persons view of it.
Loving the Dr too. The way I see it, at the moment she is having an identify crisis. The personality of previous incarnation are coming through, but aren't the right ones for the present body, so , the next episode we see a different personality coming to the fore. I'd expect the real 'new' doctor to be herself next series.
Just watched the Punjab episode. The DR would never go back to see one of her companions relatives in history, an accidental meeting would cause the dr to have major concerns. A deliberate meeting wouldn’t be planned. Can’t think of any occasion the dr did something like this just out of interest.
I tend to try to not overthink that too much (it being timey wimey wibbly wobbly and all that), but it is a jump between that and the whole incident with Rose's dad.
Decent enough episode, I like the historical ones but it was silly to write in the dr deviating from a principal he has held for decades.
Is it because he is a woman now??
Knockagh wrote: Just watched the Punjab episode. The DR would never go back to see one of her companions relatives in history, an accidental meeting would cause the dr to have major concerns. A deliberate meeting wouldn’t be planned. Can’t think of any occasion the dr did something like this just out of interest.
The 9th Doctor specifically did this, and then took Rose back a second time to see her father again and nearly bump into their earlier selves!
But one of my objections to that episode was that Doctor wouldn’t have been so reckless on that occasion either.
This series has been somewhat refreshing. Whilst not perfect (Yaz needs more time in the limelight), it’s been a pleasant hark back to Classic Who. And the lack of older enemies feels much needed in hindsight. Equally pleasing was the lack of sheer scale. Just The Doctor and Co sorting one problem before moving onto the other. No universe shaking backstory. No resetting time for the umpteenth, erm, time.
It’s felt very stripped back to the core of what makes the show work, and I for one think it’s paid off.
It is very disappointing, though, that there will be no more until 2020. It gives me the feeling that the BBC are gradually withdrawing support for Dr Who.
We've had only 8 episodes this year. The excuse given is that they are a bit longer but in the old days stories were able to develop over mini-series of two to four short episodes.
The new Doctor and adventure team have started to develop nicely but it still feels like early days. It's hard to believe we won't see anything for nearly two years.
It is very disappointing, though, that there will be no more until 2020. It gives me the feeling that the BBC are gradually withdrawing support for Dr Who.
We've had only 8 episodes this year. The excuse given is that they are a bit longer but in the old days stories were able to develop over mini-series of two to four short episodes.
The new Doctor and adventure team have started to develop nicely but it still feels like early days. It's hard to believe we won't see anything for nearly two years.
Could also be due to scheduling conflicts etc. And if it means better stories, I’m all for a bit of a break.
A break might be a good thing, I'm two episodes from the end and whilst it's been fun I'm still not quite sure 13 ? (or 14 ?) has a distinct persona, as whilst Jodie is doing a fine job its a lot of channeling a jumble prior incarnations
Hopefully a bit of time will let them come up with something
Also Bradley Walsh, who'd have thunked, bestest sidekick for ages
It is very disappointing, though, that there will be no more until 2020. It gives me the feeling that the BBC are gradually withdrawing support for Dr Who.
We've had only 8 episodes this year. The excuse given is that they are a bit longer but in the old days stories were able to develop over mini-series of two to four short episodes.
The new Doctor and adventure team have started to develop nicely but it still feels like early days. It's hard to believe we won't see anything for nearly two years.
Could also be due to scheduling conflicts etc. And if it means better stories, I’m all for a bit of a break.
I wouldn't be surprised, and they really don't want the first female Doctor whizzing off after just a season like Christopher Eclestone did
Turnip Jedi wrote: A break might be a good thing, I'm two episodes from the end and whilst it's been fun I'm still not quite sure 13 ? (or 14 ?) has a distinct persona, as whilst Jodie is doing a fine job its a lot of channeling a jumble prior incarnations
Hopefully a bit of time will let them come up with something
Also Bradley Walsh, who'd have thunked, bestest sidekick for ages
He's very human, and has a distinct role as a sort of 'Dad' to the group. Not getting in the way of anyone's fun, but still looking out for them.
I can't believe I am saying this but I am enjoying Legends of Tomorrow more than Dr Who for my time travelling tv show. This season of Who just felt a bit meh, loved Jodie and her gang but it just felt like it lacked something I can't put my finger on. I don't think the shorter season helped it, while most british tv really benefits from a short number of episodes as it can tell a short story really well, Dr Who didn't have an overarching story which is the whole point of a short season.
Monster of the week episodes are great but you need a lot more of them before you can start to feel the characters grow. I feel like Graham was the only one who got fleshed out really well (particularly in the last couple of episodes), the other two didn't really make an impact on me despite doing really well in their roles.
I also like a good cliffhanger so having each episode neatly wrapped up was a bit of a shame, I feel like a secondary plot throughout the season might have helped even if it wasn't something major. The lack of regular villains made a nice change however, I still want to see them show up on occasion but it is nice to have some stuff that the Doctor has never encountered before as it makes the universe feel much bigger.
Interesting that they are taking a break until 2020 but I think it will be a good thing. Gives the writers more time to work on everything and come up with some good stories. I wonder if the delay is due to scheduling Jodie Wittaker and not wanting to recast the doctor again or just the BBC thinking it needed some time off the air?
Well, the preview of the New Year episode makes it look like a wrap up for this year as a whole, so I suppose we should wait and see that before our final analysis.
But going on the so far, I somewhat agree with you. While I've enjoyed all the episodes, and I've enjoyed not having the multi-verse saved from destruction in a overarching plot, I still feel there is something missing.
Maybe the larger crew required more episodes to bed them in, rather than just slightly longer episodes.
I'm not a fan of a break until 2020. There are only three main repeating TV series I look forwards to ; Strictly, Doctor Who, and Death in Paradise. They are all clustered in the autumn to winter, and I will miss Dr Who next year.
However if it comes back stronger than ever, I will be prepared to forgive the BBC.
It would be good if they could do a Christmas special for 2019.
For me, I feel the stakes could've been a wee bit higher in some of the episodes. Not all of them, it's nice to have a fallow period after all.
And a repeating theme seemed to be 'not actually evil, just completely misunderstood, except For Mankind'. That I liked, and I absolutely adored the historical episodes (more of those please).
But it needs a central baddie. Tim Shaw was a cool invention, but arguably slightly underused here. I'd like to have seen a smidge more about his species overall. Because for all it was nice not to have the Daleks or Cybermen be thwarted again, a season does need some form of central villain. Someone to consistently work against The Doctor.
Still, it serves beautifully as a palette cleanser, as did the first Moffat series (far less camp than RTDs take, which was needed after several years of it).
And for me? More of The Doctor exiting stage left with 'did I tell you about that time I did....'. Just a nice little touch, and a way to show she is educating her companions, and reminding us they are a being of action.
An amusing Doctor Who factoid; Peter Capaldi of course played Doctor Who until recently as we know and a few years ago he played the role in the film World War Z of WHO Doctor.
Finished the series. Overall a good enough series. Not my favourite but I definitely enjoyed it.
Did Jodie try a little too hard to be eccentric? My wife and I both though so. She’s a great actress and filling the dr shoes was a massive ask. I think she did well and I certainly want to see more of her. But perhaps she could tone down the franticness (not a word I know) of her acting, just a little.
I think the 2 parter format did well in the last season. I think this one would have done better if there was more to the stories, as it stands, there doesn't really feel like there was 'much' of Doctor Who in them.
I liked the companions, would have definitely have liked to see Yaz do more though, especially more stuff relating to being a police officer. - Like, they could have played with that a bit including the TARDIS' disguise. I'd also sort of like the idea of her being a good 'police role model' too, enhanced by the Doctor's instruction. But that wasn't explored.
In saying that, it's a case of too few episodes. - Ryan and Graham's character arcs were great though.
And yeah, the show needed a "The Doctor is utterly terrifying" moment that was missing. - It could have been a really awesome thing to fit into the last episode, when she confronted the villain after he threatened the Earth.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: It may actually be that. Graham and Ryan are a decent double act, but poor old Yazz hasn't got that dynamic.
And it's not the actress. When the episodes have given her space, she's shown her chops and no mistake. Demons of the Punjab was particularly good.
Just needs the air time.
Spoiler:
For instance, I felt Ryan's Dad was a bit superfluous in this episode. Why not give Yazz that screen time?
Spoiler:
Well, he was necessary to tie up Ryan's 'estranged father' plotline. Hopefully the next series can focus more on Yazz's development - maybe, just maybe linked to the rebirth of UNIT?
And I liked the parallel with the clinker-built Dalek and Thirteen's scrap-built sonic?
spiders.
