Doctor Who: Oh, look! There's a restaurant at the end of the universe in Hell Bent Readers please note: THIS IS A POST-UK BROADCAST REVIEW – THERE WILL BE SPOILERS! Finally, the Doctor is over his mid-life crisis and his Sonic Screwdriver is back where it belongs. I was hoping that Clara (yes, I'll get to Clara) would keep the sunnies for herself after she reversed the polarity on the human-compatible neural …
As well as Adric, they also killed Katarina and Sara Kingdom. The first Doctor's reign was the bloodiest!
Kamelion also "died", and at the hands of the 5th Doctor himself! And so, with Adric, I guess that makes Peter Davison's reign... I don't know... equal to the first Doctor's perhaps, as Kamelion was an android and it was a mercy killing?
And then there was Astrid and Adelaide Brooke though I don't class them as companions due to my definition of companion, that being a character who has appeared in more than one story, and has travelled between stories by TARDIS, with Sara Kingdom and The Brigadier included due to (i) the length of the Dalek Master Plan and (ii) the Brigadier just because it's right that he should be.
Which would make 10's reign pretty gruesome too. Watch out whoever travels with 15!
You really have to follow the science fiction guide in time travel...
Her death did occur and its a fixed point in time. She is dead and will be dead. She has no heart beat and exists out of the temporal universe. She is both dead and immortal. Its this duality which is in itself a paradox. They should never had been able to pluck her out of her time stream. In doing so, they created this paradox and it will be corrected if she goes back to that moment in time.
The interesting thing is that there are now two Tardis' loose on the universe.
"The interesting thing is that there are now two Tardis' loose on the universe."
I'll think you'll find its the same Tardis, just an earlier version.......she'll take it back to Gallifrey in time to hand it over to the first doctor when he escapes.
If you remember the Doctor's Tardis didn't "like" Clara when she first signed up......that will be because the Tardis remembered that she'd abandoned the Doctor and flown off
Well that would explain why the chameleon circuit broke at the end of the show. I was wondering if that was just a design flaw in all the tardises where they were just dodgy, but if it's the same one, then at some point they give it back to the Doctor, and manage to get one more change out of it.
As a spinoff it would be rather elegant - lots of people call for a female Dr, and its been flirted with with the Missy character that gender is just a 'thing', much as Torchwood did with sexuality. It would give 'Me' a female-based doctor story without upsetting the traditionalists or cannon. And if they do, then I'd love to watch it.
Some people dislike Moffat and what he's brought to the series, but I respect him. He knows about storytelling and legend, has obvious reverence for the subject matter, but I'd playful within it, much as he is with Sherlock. You don't get to make two of the country's greatest exports without being at least a little bit good...
This is obviously using some new definition of the word "best" that I was previously unaware of.
Although I suppose - to be fair - there have been worse episodes during this shark-jumping train-wreck of a series. Like the first two or three which ensured that I didn't so much watch this rest of them as sit in the room doing something else of a Saturday evening while others watched it.
Still saw enough of what was happening to vote for putting it back on the shelf for another couple of decades though...
Shite, sack Moffat.
Nonsense. I could see saying that after the train wreck of season 8, but this season was superb. Over the past 12 weeks the show has returned to it's roots. So much of this season reminded me of the early eras I fell in love with. No, I say let Moffat keep doing what he's doing.
No, I say let Moffat keep doing what he's doing.
Personally I'm finding this series tired, predictable, too many of the sets and plot lines samey. Look at the repeated "shuffling monsters, run away, run away, in dark industrial environment, with emphatic exclamations" crap. I suppose at least the four billion year time loop doffs its cap at the concept of retreading, although I think that's an in-joke at the expense of the audience.
Capaldi is a good actor, was excellent in Musketeers, but as the doctor he's just not the man. His impressively vehement "I will hunt you through the universe" and "be afraid, very afraid" type declarations are then completely frittered by the inability of the over-arching story to allow a vengeful doctor, and that undermines the point of casting the rather grizzled Capaldi.
The rot started with the wet-lettuce of Matt Smith. Capaldi is far better, but still doesn't fit. I suggest a petition to Downing Street demanding a change in the law to force David Tennant to work as the doctor until the end of his days.
Funnily enough, of the four modern-era Doctors (five if you include John Hurt), the one that I feel was the *least* Doctor-ish was David Tennant. All creds to him as a brilliant actor, all-round good guy and for making the show huge with a new audience (well, huge-er... the first revamped season did most of the hugeness on it's own with no fanfare, to be honest), but I don't rate him as much as the others. Good. Great even. But no gold cyberman-killing star. Sacrilege, I know...
S.
"I suggest a petition to Downing Street demanding a change in the law to force David Tennant to work as the doctor until the end of his days."
oh dear god no - it'd be the end of Who - what with all the 'ever so sincere' monologues with, clowning around and gurning.
He was dreadful - and represents everything that was wrong with Who during the RTD era.
I was too giddy that Dr Who was simply back to care at the time, but he began to grate immensely.
Oh, and your utterly wrong on every level by the way.
It wasn't shite, not at all, but I have to admit that I also didn't think it was all that great either.
The problem with these story twists is that they don't add up. They are highly entertaining, awesomely well executed (the bar scene was chilling, the unarmed take over of Gallifrey was very statisfying, and the old Tardis was also a nice touch). But if you dig deeper, like most geeks do, then you'll end up disappointed over so many loose ends.
So the Sisterhood of Karn was on Gallifrey. So they knew where it was. Why didn't they tell the doctor?
And even though I personally like seeing Clara again I also was hoping that the story would focus more on Gallifrey and the time lords instead of only centering fully around Clara Oswald again.
Shite? Go wash your mouth sir. Acting was very well executed, the emotions then layed into it was awesome. But true; it didn't leave me with the amount of satisfaction that I hoped for.
There was a comment that Gallifrey was no longer hiding by this point - either that, or the Sisterhood saw a review of it on TripAdvisor which the High Council couldn't get taken down.
I did think it was interesting to have the Doctor finally use a gun to shoot someone; he knew they wouldn't be perma-dead but still, it's ending a life. That was pretty big.
To be fair here, I wouldn't say that Moffat should be sacked. Possibly returned to the role of dedicated screenwriter (at which he has already demonstrated his ability) while someone else takes on the responsibility of running the show as a whole, but certainly not sacked.
This series has, however, largely been shite and I really don't understand how anything other than severely rose-tinted glasses (or hopeless addiction to all things Whovian) could make anyone believe otherwise. I really did have high hopes for Peter Capaldi in the role and I think he has tried very hard to make something of the rather shoddy mess that he has been given in terms of plotlines and script but this has been the first season of the "new" Dr Who where I, for one, have found the sow's ear simply too ugly, trite and frivolous to be turned into any kind of purse, much less a silk one.
Still, takes all sorts I suppose. If it rocks your boat, more power to you, but I still think I'd prefer to see it shelved again (or canned altogether) rather than watch another season like this one.
Where in addition to rating Doctors (as before), we get some demographic about the age now, when they were introduced to Doctor Who, and what Doctor they started with?
I'm getting an impression that people have fond memories of the old series and nothing that Moffat or any past, current, or future Doctor could supplant them. There's nothing wrong with nostalgia and saying the new doesn't measure up to the old. That's fine. But clearly from a commercial standpoint, Doctor Who is doing fine with Moffat at the helm, which even for the BBC is a necessary consideration (and why the original series was "suspended" for 16 years).
For the record, here goes:
I'm in my early 50s, I just about remember the last of the second Doctor's episodes, but my memory really starts with the third Doctor and the UNIT-based episodes. Continued to watch through to Sylvester McCoy but found the lack of commitment from the BBC and its impact on the show painful towards the end.
Watched the movie and was disappointed, watched the first episode of the Ninth Doctor and was instantly hooked. I have, overall, enjoyed pretty much all of the new series to date, with particular liking for David Tennent's,erm, tenancy, and now Peter Capaldi's.
Whilst certain aspects of recent series have been annoying (perhaps deliberately so in the case of the sonic sunglasses, given the end of this episode) overall I've enjoyed it. I don't think that, overall, Moffat is quite as good a helmsman as RTD, but he's no slouch either.
I joined with the third doctor, gave up shortly after Colin Baker took over, then picked up again somewhere with Tennant.
Part of the problem is that it's harder now, the Doctor has been to most of the important events in the Universe and on Earth, so the writers have to get more imaginative (although I did like the Doctor's instruction to President Nixon about recording everything...)
I think the multi-part stories were an improvement, less of the trivial and a bit more chance for character and plot development. I thought Capaldi was suffering from poor scripts when he first took over, a bit like what happened to Peter Davison, but he's shown how good he can be. I don't think Moffat is as good as Davies but he's produced some good stuff along with a sprinkling of dross.
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