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There were funny moments, but it was very uneven between being serious and campy.
The only good thing was the chemistry between Clara and the Doctor was actually good for once. Shame since she's gonna be leaving soon, when either the writers finally got it right or they grew on each other.
Discussion of the plot below:
But, Moffat went back to his well of 'don't do this thing that's really hard not to do', with the 'don't think about them!' at the beginning. I can't believe he's going back to that concept so often now. Does he think he can recreate the Silence and just keeps failing at it?
The hamfisted clues that they were already in a dream early on were just annoying. I suspected it from one of the Doctor's first lines where he mutters some response to dumb girl's comment "Am I dreaming?" right after Santa saves them, he goes 'Oh, very good..'. Then, they kept dropping more and more obvious hints as if that weren't enough. Which also doesn't even make sense because he acts like he realizes this later I think (don't feel like rewatching to confirm), while in that same level of 'dream', when he tells the crew. This is before he attempts to leave and has another realization that it was always that way.
The thing I dislike about this Doctor is that while Tennant and Smith were goofy, you always had the feeling they secretly had a plan or knew more about what was going on then anyone. The goofiness was more to throw others off, like a mask. He still figures it out quicker then others, but only barely, and it's not the same. It's a shame because it's not Capaldi's fault at all, it's the writing. They decided to go a different direction in writing this Doctor, but left out the best part about him. I would love a grumpy Doctor, who is abrasive because he's tired of waiting for everyone else to figure out what he already knows.. and there are glimpses of this, but he just doesn't feel as much in control of the situations.
The aliens were straight out of an Outer Limits episode...they were bug aliens that attached themselves to humans to feed, but they made the humans think good thoughts to keep them docile as they did it (or at least thoughts that made them think they were in the real world). That Outer Limits episode also used the Dream-within-a-dream-to-keep-the-human-trapped idea, except everyone died/was perma trapped at the end lol.
They officially announced today (after the Xmas special aired in Britain) that Clara would be staying for all of Series 9. This will overtake Amy Pond as the longest running companion of Who since the restart in 2005. If she stays past series 9 then she will have been on the show longer than the 11th Doctor and be closing in on the 10th
and clara is the worst fucking one. all she is is eye candy. the other girls were eye candy cept donna, but all those broads had character and spunk. even ole horsey face herself had a gleam in her eye.
this episode wasnt terrible, it wasnt great, but it wasnt terrible. i liked the whole santa concept, but the rest fell flat. i swear they re-use that alien mask at least once a season. looks like a refurbished ood.
I liked it quite a bit actually. Was perfect for the kids. The nods to the stories being used and the twists on who each character was in real life was well done. Nick Frost is always pretty awesome.
There were funny moments, but it was very uneven between being serious and campy.
The only good thing was the chemistry between Clara and the Doctor was actually good for once. Shame since she's gonna be leaving soon, when either the writers finally got it right or they grew on each other.
Discussion of the plot below:
But, Moffat went back to his well of 'don't do this thing that's really hard not to do', with the 'don't think about them!' at the beginning. I can't believe he's going back to that concept so often now. Does he think he can recreate the Silence and just keeps failing at it?
The hamfisted clues that they were already in a dream early on were just annoying. I suspected it from one of the Doctor's first lines where he mutters some response to dumb girl's comment "Am I dreaming?" right after Santa saves them, he goes 'Oh, very good..'. Then, they kept dropping more and more obvious hints as if that weren't enough. Which also doesn't even make sense because he acts like he realizes this later I think (don't feel like rewatching to confirm), while in that same level of 'dream', when he tells the crew. This is before he attempts to leave and has another realization that it was always that way.
The thing I dislike about this Doctor is that while Tennant and Smith were goofy, you always had the feeling they secretly had a plan or knew more about what was going on then anyone. The goofiness was more to throw others off, like a mask. He still figures it out quicker then others, but only barely, and it's not the same. It's a shame because it's not Capaldi's fault at all, it's the writing. They decided to go a different direction in writing this Doctor, but left out the best part about him. I would love a grumpy Doctor, who is abrasive because he's tired of waiting for everyone else to figure out what he already knows.. and there are glimpses of this, but he just doesn't feel as much in control of the situations.
I think this was more like the weeping angels than silents. With the silents, you just forgot them when you looked away.
Anyone else feel like this was setting up the entire next season to be a dream? We still never saw the marks on their temple where the alien tongue was supposedly boring into their skulls.
It's the same concept with all of them, is the point. I wasn't even certain if Moffat wrote the Angels or not, but the point remains the same if he did. He did Angels (don't look away!) then later the opposite with the hidden creatures in Listen (don't look AT them!), he did the Silence (don't look away) which is a re-working of the Angels in a way, then he did 'don't breath' with the robots made out of humans, now he did 'Don't THINK about them!'. Soon we're gonna have 'Don't STOP thinking about them or you die!', then 'Don't touch! Or you die!' then 'Always touch! If you let go, you die!', etc.. Hell, I could write those, heh.
I mean, if he did the Angels (too lazy to double check right now), then he had two hits with the concept, so I don't fault him for trying more times. But, either he's too stressed/busy with running the show to write a decent script anymore, or his creative well has run dry. I love Moffat for his body of work, and he did a good job running the show for awhile, but I really think something needs to change. Either bring another person on to shoulder more responsibility so he can put more work into developing good scripts again, or just turn it over to someone else (Mark Gatiss maybe?).
I feel bad for Capaldi, it's so obvious he could be a great Doctor, he's just not being given good material to work with. There's no grandness to the story yet, and the very little that was built up with the Nethersphere ended up being a little lackluster. His scripts just aren't 'fun' or even very emotional, the two greatest aspects of Dr. Who. I thought maybe I'm just becoming jaded, but I've enjoyed watching re-runs of Matt Smith episodes more then half the ones in this season. Even knowing what comes, I still feel something at some of the epic moments from his episodes. Saving Amy from Demon's Run, as cheezy as Matt Smith was in it, still had an grandeur about it.
It's not Clara either, because I enjoyed her episodes with Matt Smith as well. Not as much as the Ponds, but still more then most of Capaldi's. That sounds like it means I don't enjoy Capaldi's version of the Doctor, but he's got all my favorite moments/lines of the season. It's really just the writing overall that's been 'meh'. Not horrible, but not what I expect either. Someone is clearly just going through the paces and not putting as much effort in as they used to.
God.. watching repeats of Tenant and Smith's best episodes today.. and it just makes me aggravated at how different the show is right now.
I mean, before we switched to Capaldi, they already had a 'find Gallifrey' storyline setup for The Doctor to follow.. and we've had almost nothing of that.
Give us some kind of grand storyline, give us a reason to care about the Doctor again, give us recurring characters that form a bond with him again.
I can only guess that Smith leaving threw some of their plans off the rails, and this season was a rush job to pick up the pieces. I severely hope they figure out where they are going with Capaldi for this next season. I'd really hate to see the blame placed on Capaldi by the casual fan, when it's really not his fault.
As it stands, some of the worst Smith episodes are still more 'fun' and enjoyable then most of Capaldi's.