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I am surprised that no-one had done a thread on it already but perhaps I am blind and this will get locked by a moderator.

Anyway, I thought it was really good. I didn't like the superhero idea before I saw how it all comes about. When it was played out it worked really well.



Nardole had some good lines. He would be quite a good foil for the Doctor and a new companion in a three-way set-up.

Altogether it was a great episode which managed to combine feel-good and "realistic" Doctor Who action and sets up some starting points for potential new adventures. As a bonus, absolutely no Clara! My daughter was so pleased.

I had got tired of Stephen Moffatt but he pulled one out of the bag here.

Yeah, I enjoyed it. A little silly, but the Christmas specials do tend to be a little fluffier than the normal episodes. And some awesome interplay between the Doctor and Nardole.

Is Nardole new or did he get brought back from somewhere or what was the deal with him?

He was in last year's Christmas special. He worked for River Song before:


That's what the Doctor references when he says he stitched his head back on in this Christmas special.


It's good to hear that he'll be in the upcoming season too as a companion, I really like him as a character.

I thought the gravely voiced superhero was funny. Great parody of modern Batman movies

There was one flaw with it though. A teen with x-ray vision wouldn't stare at the floor all day
Oh yes and people with Northern British accents remind me of shows about stop motion fire fighters for some reason. I couldn't stop laughing at that

I hated or. It's probably one of the worst doctor who episodes I've ever seen. The episode completely confirmed my theory that the BBC is trapped somewhere between the 70s and 80s.

A parody would have worked... This wasn't one, instead it was basically half a recast of the 1978 Superman film and half a doctor who episode. I felt genuinely embarrassed that this is the best the BBC can show to the world.

The only way it would have been worse is if they followed it up with this trailer.




Doctor Who could have been a perfect setup for some real questions. What's the difference between a superhero and a hero(the Doctor). What happens when the hard decisions need to be made?

Or they could have gone the other way. Maybe have the superhero remind the Doctor of what being a hero actually means?




Or perhaps something a little more different?




Instead what we got was something that was just facile. Oh a radioactive spider joke, like that hasn't happened a million times in the last 60 years

As a comedy superhero show with an oft-repeated baddie, it was bearable.

Nardole had the best lines, though.

 Compel wrote:
Stuff...

It's interesting that you complain about it being unoriginal, and then suggest storylines from another show that they should have used instead...

I never said unoriginal. Which it is, but that isn't necessarily the entire problem. You can take a classic idea and look at it through a new lens and you don't need to change the fundamentals of the idea.

And, actually one of them is a film and the other is a show, about 10 years apart from each other.

There was a real opportunity for this episode to say something meaningful, which is what the Brett Doctor Who's do (EG Vincent and the Doctor or "A town called Mercy.")

Instead, we have the same depth as.




Which is about what is expect from Auntie Beeb.

So maybe the problem is that you're expecting a show about a time travelling space alien and his never ending stream of plucky sidekicks zipping about the universe in a phone box fighting aliens to be deep...

Why shouldn't I? Even last years one, though it was dire for the first 2/3rds or so, really managed to pull off something quite special at the end.

Whereas, I'm still not quite sure what the moral of (after all, traditionally done superhero stories are, ultimately, morality tales), this years episode was. Aside from, "be happy and let the Doctor do everything for you."

 Compel wrote:
Why shouldn't I? Even last years one, though it was dire for the first 2/3rds or so, really managed to pull off something quite special at the end.

Whereas, I'm still not quite sure what the moral of (after all, traditionally done superhero stories are, ultimately, morality tales), this years episode was. Aside from, "be happy and let the Doctor do everything for you."

you seem to forget it's a kids show, not everything needs to have some deeper meaning. if you need a moral, the moral is "if you can see everyone naked, be polite and look at the floor" or "don't take pills from strangers, or you'll grow up to be a nanny"

it's odd that you bring up being stuck in the 70's & 80's, because that's when the show was deep and brought up some deep issues. it's the new stuff that moved away from that and moved into bill & teds territory.

overall I enjoyed it.

Do you think he was trying to rescue Rory & Amy ?

It's supposed to be a family show, not just a kids show. N of that even just being a kids show means that it shouldn't have a moral. Cause that's what traditional superhero stories are, morality tales. - "With great power, comes great responsibility." Even a Who episode based off of that one line would be something worth seeing.

There was a moral in this one.

 reds8n wrote:
Do you think he was trying to rescue Rory & Amy ?

after watching it again, it looked that way, but maybe not Amy, and possibly River. he definitely had a plan to clear up all that time distortion that was localized to new york.