Dr Who

It was just an anti-climax, really, on many levels. Even having heard about the Christmas thing, I was still stunned when it happened.

On the plus side, I can't see John Barrowman coming back.

If you look at it quickly, just take a sideways glance, it was pretty - meh!
Look at it more critically, in more depth, and it was catastrophic shite.





The xmas special already looks like being more of the worst from this series rather than following on from some of the better bits.
An inglorious start to Capaldi's Who career. Like his predecessors he hasn't exactly been given the best material to work with, but for me at least, he hasn't worked particularly well with what he has been given either, too much frantic running around trying to look 'odd', too much use of a wide-eyed expression to convey some sort of emotion (other than constipation). That is forgivable in his first series as he finds his way into the role, but it needs to improve in the future.
I don't feel there has been any real connection between him and Clara either, they seem too much like two individuals, rather than being a pair. I certainly don't want to see a return of the 'will they won't they' love interest type of thing, but there should be a real relationship between the two leads, and for me that hasn't really happened.

I don't hold out much hope for the xmas show, being a continuation from this series, but it can only be hoped that Moffat and co. take heed of the criticisms of this series and improve things next time out, otherwise I can see this decline being terminal.

Excerpt from IGN-contains spoilers
'Considering how many cliffhangers 'Dark Water' threw into the mix, it's a miracle 'Death In Heaven' managed to deliver satisfying resolutions to them all. While that was in part down to the episode's extra running time, it's also testament to Moffat's dark, uncompromising and emotionally complex script, which managed to juggle arcs short (Danny/Clara), long (so Missy WAS the woman who gave Clara the TARDIS number), and ancient (the Doctor/Master frenemy relationship).
Speaking of which, after a whole season's worth of loony lurking around behind-the-scenes, we are deliriously happy to report that Michelle Gomez was pretty much perfect as the Master. Deliciously deranged, mad as a TARDIS full of frogs, consistently funny and at times truly, psychotically unsettling, she more than lived up to the mythos.
Most importantly of all, she had chill-inducing chemistry with Capaldi's Doctor, who also smashed it out the dramatic park with every scene. Considering their aeons-long rivalry, the Master's plan this time around went straight for the feels, as desperate for the Doctor's validation as it was intent on world domination, and leading to a dynamic that felt as fresh as the actors portraying it. Regardless of whether that really was the end of Missy (we have our doubts about her demise), it's an interplay we'd love to see more of.
Meanwhile, there was Clara. Poor, poor Clara, who was forced to watch her lover sacrifice himself for the greater good. Twice. Samuel Anderson and Jenna Coleman rose to the difficult challenge, selling every inch of the heartbreak, and torturous emotion that goes with tackling the death of a loved one. Sadness aside, at least Danny got to complete his own character arc, atoning for the greatest mistake of his life - even if it meant costing him his own happiness.
And then on top of all of that, in typical Moffat style, he sparked as many question as he answered - whatever the hell is going on with Gallifrey, we can't wait to find out.
Sure, the Cybermen were little more than the Master's henchmen, and yes, you could argue with some of the logic holes (why were Danny and the Brigadier the only two Cybermen who could override their programming? Was there any logic to the afterlife bracelet's life-giving super-powers?), but 'Death In Heaven' delivered where it counts'.

Bold print highlights the parts I seriously have to question For fucks sake this is comedy writing at its best. The writer must be Moffats bedside companion to write so much drivel

Dr Who classic, Tomb of the Cybermen is on Drama today at 4pm

I really didn't like the finale part 2. I almost switched it off after the youth by the graveyard stated the obvious more than once in quick succession - but the dumbed down narration was merely the tip of the turdy iceburg.

one positive, for me, was that the Doctor and Clara do have a complex relationship. They ended the series by hiding their emotions from one another because both thought that the other had found peace at last. The Doctor showed more signs that his breakdown is imminent, but I'm really bored of waiting for that to materialise. It could lead to some fantastic stories, but I've lost my faith that it will.

It was a terrible Sci-Fi overall, there was no feeling of threat, they piddled away any seriousness, and I just didn't buy Cyber Danny and the blub-fest. They will continue to get away with it because it's "Doctor Who" and the critics aren't doing their jobs.

It's really a shame that Peter Capaldi's had such a frustratingly poor start to his tenure as the Doctor.

I agree munch - I was thinking the same that it's easy to lambast Steven Moffat and his team for shit writing (which it has been and we're right to criticize) but the actors have to take some blame for this mess of a series too. Capaldi and Jenna Louise Coleman have produced far too many average, indifferent performances. For a show that should be one of the BBC's flagship entertainment dramas that's just not good enough.

It started badly with the Doctor's post regeneration trauma (something else sadly we've come to expect) but it was Clara aswell that went all stupid in the early episodes and inexplicably failed to gather the concept of the changes brought on by a regeneration. Her reaction was baffling considering she's the only companion who has knowledge of every single one of the Doctor's incarnations. But it took the Silurian-Human lesbian couple and the comedy sidekick Sontaran butler to fill her in on what's happened. That's just stupid and shouldn't happen. She also showed more nous than the Doctor on several occasions - when he's supposed to be the star.

I wanted to give it a chance - so I watched most of the episodes and felt some excitement with the spooky ghost story Listen and the originally scripted Flatline, but this series will sadly be remembered for crashing our hopes in to the toilet each time it showed promise. For Christ sake even the Doctor himself looked lost and crap in the finale and was upstaged by the deliciously evil Missy. This Doctor has to be a lot stronger next time - and judging by the trailer for the Christmas special by next time I mean next year's series. Nick Frost as fucking Santa FFS.

The writers and weak acting have a lot of fucked up Saturday night's entertainment to answer for over the past few months.

What utter tosh they are serving up.

Capaldi wasted on junk material.

I haven't watched the finale so can't comment specifically on it.
Indeed I haven't seen any episodes since "Flatline" - not because of that story which I though was one of the better of those I've seen this series - but just busy with other things and not enough interest to go back.
(And because Radio Times completely blew all the plot in its completely spoiler-strewn previews of the finale, which made watching it on catch-up a bit of a waste of time imo.)
From the comments I've read - I really think the writers need to get off this whole "Doctor using other people as soldiers/to fight his battles" trope.
They have been leadenly banging on this drum far too often imo since the Tennant era, and actually into the Ecclestone era as well probably (Davros goading Tennant about it being the one that comes to mind most easily but there were numerous other examples).
Imo it goes nowhere - is it supposed to make the Doctor "darker" and more dramatic ? I just feel it is a cul-de-sac, you're just gonna create an unsympathetic lead character and then where does that leave your series ? Not Dr Who I suggest, but some kind of trendy brooding U.S. style anti-hero.
It also doesn't work imo with the wild uneven lurches of tone from sitcom banter to supposed "darkness" - which all too often just looks like Capaldi sneering at silly humans and not valuing the pointless little life that's lost here and there cos that's galactic collateral damage in the big picture he's got to worry about.
OK Tom Baker might have been a bit gruff to Sarah about Professor Marcus character killing his own brother in Pyramid of Mars, but there was also a lightness of touch in previous suggestions of the Doctor's "alien-ness" in earlier incarnations that far outweighed the flashes of grumpiness / callousness; and I just don't think that balance is right in this series.
(The banter is to me too reminiscent of clever-clever, modern-day Sherlock sneering - Moffat : oh Sherlock is an emotionally stunted human with super-mental powers/oh the Doctor is an emotionally damaged alien with super-mental powers, do you see how clever I'm being with these parallels, dear audience? and it probably means I can use bits of comic dialogue interchangeably between series, just stuff in some techno-babble for Who.)
I could be completely wrong but my sense is the producers/head writer wants to make a sci-fi style comedy more than they want to make "Dr Who".
I think probably also just need to accept that this programme is for a different generation and not for me.
Maybe in 30 years time people will be looking back at this series, and if not lauding it , being more forgiving in the way that latter more comedy prone Tom Baker seasons (hated by hardcore fans at the time ?) seem to be a bit more accepted by fandom these days ?
(But who knows - maybe they will be comparing it with the grumpy/unsympathetic Colin Baker and the Ken Dodd/Bonnie Langford/Richard Briers/celebrity cameo of the week kind of stuff that sunk both the C Baker & McCoy eras of Who imo : and the verdict on Capaldi's first season will be "well that's where the seeds of the BBC's cancellation of the revived series finally germinated ?)

(08-11-2014 21:45 )*Kal-El* Wrote:  IGN gave it a 9.1 WTF

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/11/08/do...ven-review

May be because it was an exceptionally good episode the everybody, on you tube, online reviews, papers all agree on - except on here that is..

For some reason it won't let me edit.

As a side thought what is that YOU on here would do to put things right. You seem to know more about how episodes should be written than the rest of us so I'd like to know what we are all missing that all you clearly see.