Doctor Who

Caliane_sl said:

eyecrud monsters. sigh.
I can definitely say, I have not actually enjoyed this show in a while. mostly just watch now, just cuz.

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I turned it off at eyecrud monsters. That's it I'm done.

I'll consider watching the finale.

I get that Doctor Who is trying to be different and ground breaking, and I love Capaldi in the role but they should've kicked Jenna Coleman off the show ages ago.

It was a fantastic League of Gentlemen episode with guest stars The Doctor and generic companion.

horrible episode, its like they are recycling old concepts in order to repackage them as new monsters,
this week we have compacted Blink with the dust from the library. jesus, i thought the gay robin hood episode from last season was bad, this topped that. cant wait for this season to be over.

They can't seem to get a good handle on what Capaldi is about. They're resorting, tonally, to cheap fan service instead of having a strong episodic series. I think they might have been trying to go back to the one offs, and I would have liked that. But for that to work the episodes have to be stronger than they have been.

I still don't hate it. But they're floundering with this season. They shouldn't be, given how the budget has increased for the show and given how long it is between their yearly series. It feels like they hired GenericDoctorWhoWriter01 - 06 and had them pump out some scripts.

I think that's really the problem. They have no idea what Capaldi is about. Smith had his fairy tale motif, Tenant had his slightly dark and edgy motif. Capaldi has... rock star glasses and a scottish accent. But Capaldi himself I actually like.

I'm not sure exactly what the problem is, but it's in the writing.

Chris_sl said:

I turned it off at eyecrud monsters. That's it I'm done.

I'll consider watching the finale.

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spoilers.


it turns out not actually eyecrud monsters, but instead just rehashing the subliminal message thing from the soul stealing words thing.

yeah, where to start with this show..
one problem I have is with the Doctor himself, as written. like, do the writers understand he is a hypocrite, and incredibly fallible? It feels like they totally gloss over that stuff, to the point, I am not sure its intentional. Like this episode had him give a diatribe about how all creatures need to sleep, even he sleeps. and "humans are greedy, trying to maximize their waking time." This coming from a dude with a fucking time machine, who is 2000+ years old at this point, and begged for and received extra lives. The Doctor has so much time, he actively avoids doing anything. It runs completely hollow having him make absurd judgments on people trying to make the most of their lives, in the time they have.
its like when they have the Doctor constantly encourage people to run headfirst into danger, and time and time again into horrible horrible deaths, or undeaths. If ANY of this actually resulted in positive results once in a while, it would be something at least.. "Try something new!!!" enter into an occupation with terrorist shapeshifters living on Earth..

Then rehashing. Sadly it goes both ways.
on one hand, holy fuck am I sick of Daleks, and the like.
But then, they do something "new", and its eyecrud monsters, rehashing the hypnotic words, AND yet again angels. iirc the "there is something in the corner of your eye" was even a line from the Angel taking over Amy.

Seriously, I would pull a Star Trek(Madoka) on the Doctor Who franchise. Have a big event. Stop the Dalek from ever being created. The entire universe is now remade with Daleks never existing. Everything is new. Species they exterminated are back. good and bad. Time lords. good and bad.

Well...there's huge spoilers out there in the synopsis for the final 2 episodes that indicate there is a major change coming to the series. Also there's that damned photo of Tennant and Davies on the set of these two episodes which leads me to believe the finale is going to be as big as the 50th Anniversary. Moffat last year tweeted it was the best episode he had ever written and no one will see it coming. We'll see...



Not joking, this will ruin the rest of the season, but it's the sauce.

Jait_sl said:

Well...there's huge spoilers out there in the synopsis for the final 2 episodes that indicate there is a major change coming to the series. Also there's that damned photo of Tennant and Davies on the set of these two episodes which leads me to believe the finale is going to be as big as the 50th Anniversary. Moffat last year tweeted it was the best episode he had ever written and no one will see it coming. We'll see...



Not joking, this will ruin the rest of the season, but it's the sauce.

Spoiler

Gallifrey returns. The Doctor revisits "the end of time itself". The Confession Dial opens and the Hybrid is revealed.

Gotta be River.

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not to be an asshole, but there is no spoiler that could ruin this season. i read what you spoilered and it gives me hope for a good ending rather than more of this piffle

Drakain_sl said:

I'd keep it spoiler. But if that's true then that will make up for eye crud.

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It's the official synopsis for the episode. Roughly. It begins an episode earlier with a game that almost sounds Celestial Toymaker like, with the reward being... that spoiler.

Here's some ACTUAL conjecture and spoilers...


I believe about 10% of that, but I have seen the on-set pictures confirming the first part.

Yea.. that spoiler is exactly what Iwantto happen. I'd like to see them start hinting at that morenow, as the overarching storyline for the season. THEN, we would be a bit more engaged with the season. This was the best parts about Tennant and Smith's runs, the larger storyline playing into the individual episodes. Callbacks and references to other episodes.

As it is, this season has been much better then the last one, but it's still quite uneven. This recent episode was close, but not quite polished enough. It feels like Moffat is writing these, but he's somehow rushing through them. They feel like a rough draft rather then a final script, tons of promise, but don't quite get there.

Example: There was a moment while the Doctor, Clara and the army lady in charge are hiding in a room from sandmen, and the Doctor is going off on a rant trying to figure everything out. He mentions helmet cams and the lady says 'we don't have helmet cams' but both he and Clara ignore it and keep talking. I immediately caught that as being odd and out of place, so it was clearly going to mean something. It's as if they were trying to slide it by but couldn't think of a clever way to do it in time. They've done this in the past, where they gave you a small clue early but you don't realize the importance until the Doctor puts it all together later, but this was like a middle school kid trying to write fan fiction in the same manner. It just didn't quite work.

I will be glad to see Clara gone as well. She's just kind of flat and boring now, she's not the 'impossible girl' anymore, she doesn't seem to really have a purpose. She's just.. there.

I said it before, but I'll say it again, I hope we get Missy as some kind of companion for a bit. But, with a way he can rein in her psychopathic and violent tendencies. Maybe she needs the Doctor for something and promises to be 'good' while he helps her? He puts an electric collar on her? idk, whatever, but I love that character and the chemistry between her and the Doctor is great.

Also, we need a 2nd companion for a bit as well. It just creates more interesting scenarios and changes the pace a bit.

Six episodes next year?

Mmm... they might as well cancel it. Those have to be 6 mindblowing episodes or else it's fork time. Just based on this season and it's lack of mindblowing (it's ranged from "ugh" to "that was ok") I'm really not sure that they -can- be.

Jait_sl said:

It was a fantastic League of Gentlemen episode with guest stars The Doctor and generic companion.

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Now you've said that I'm going to have to give it another go :/

Iannis_sl said:

Six episodes next year?

Mmm... they might as well cancel it. Those have to be 6 mindblowing episodes or else it's fork time. Just based on this season and it's lack of mindblowing (it's ranged from "ugh" to "that was ok") I'm really not sure that they -can- be.

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i would be happy with 3, if they were 3 awesome overarching episodes. i havent enjoyed a good Who episode in a while now. i still can enjoy good performances, but an entirely good episode? shit, i dont even remember when that was.

Three 90 minute to 120 minute episodes would probably be a really good thing. Just take the time to get something really fleshed out so that you can have a good clever, character driven story instead of monster of the week + gimmick + callback to previous episodes/lore in the name of fan service. And they're not allowed to use Daleks or Cybermen as props or Gallifrey or historical Britain as a setting.

Iannis_sl said:

Three 90 minute to 120 minute episodes would probably be a really good thing. Just take the time to get something really fleshed out so that you can have a good clever, character driven story instead of monster of the week + gimmick + callback to previous episodes/lore in the name of fan service. And they're not allowed to use Daleks or Cybermen as props or Gallifrey or historical Britain as a setting.

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if you think about it, they really only had 6 episodes this season. 6 2 parters which really didnt need to be 2 parters. well, the missy episode felt like a 2 parter, but maisie williams and space coffin episodes could have been wrapped up in a single hour. i still hate how they ditched the Doctor's sonic screwdriver and then they give him immortaility wafers to hand out. what the fuck was he doing with those all this time? you mean when he ditched sarah jane he could have had her as his companion forever? ditto tennant and rose tyler? but he pops into one world and just slaps down TWO because he felt sad about somebody dying?

Oh. I thought it was bunked at 6.

Well, 12 isn't too bad then. It's not "they should just cancel it" territory at least.