The Doctor Who thread

holnrew

I don't know how I feel about it. It was a bit lame in places, but I'm glad I don't have to see Danny Pink's stupid face again.

Fretwired

Paul_C said:

I thought it was utter rubbish with some occasional laughs.

Wrong on all counts .. it was far worse than that. It was bottom squeezingly embarrassing in places .. picture of Lethbridge-Stewart on the wall of the plane, the Doctor as president of the world and then Lethbridge-Stewart saves his daughter whilst reincarnated as a Cyberman ... if I was Capaldi I'd have resigned on the spot. I can't believe I wasted an hour of my time on that pile of shite.

As for Danny Pink .. I thought Cybermen harvested brains not wrap human bodies in bacofoil. And then to top it all Father Christmas turns up .. the great failing of British TV is poor script writing. The Yanks just seem to nail it. STNG is in a different league from this drivel and it wouldn't make the top 100 US shows.

littlegreenman

A waste of licence payers money. Ecclestone delivered but it's been crap ever since and a return to the nonsense of previous incarnations.

That the BBC pay for this pap and yet cancel excellent stuff like Copper seems to me to be little more than jobs for the boys over quality programming.

Fretwired

littlegreenman said:

A waste of licence payers money. Ecclestone delivered but it's been crap ever since and a return to the nonsense of previous incarnations.

That the BBC pay for this pap and yet cancel excellent stuff like Copper seems to me to be little more than jobs for the boys over quality programming.

Agree - Doctor Who only survives as it makes money for the BBC. I realise it's a family show but we can do without the mawkishness.

thermionic

Such a shame though, as Capaldi has been the darkest, most cynical Doctor for ages.

But hey, did he reveal that he did a doctorate at Glasgow University?

darcym

the plots are kids TV shows plots, there is no real content to it at all any more.

The attention span of kids means the idea of multi-episode plots with some real story behind them can't happen, and it's basically wave a magic screwdriver around to get out of any jam.

Capaldi is a good doctor, there is depth and potential, but while it's a kids show, this will be wasted, they are aiming at kids too young in my opinion.

stickyfiddle

A very large and disappointing "Meh" to end a season of meh. 

VimFuego

looks like it was designed to be sold to the 'merican market, they like all that smaltzy, sentimental shite. meh of the highest order.

ICBM

Indeed. Massively disappointing after part one. Were they even written by the same person? It was like one of those party games where someone draws a head, then that gets covered up with just the neck showing and the next person draws a body, then that gets covered as well and someone else draws the legs, then you reveal what you've got and laugh at how they don't go together even remotely.

As usual Capaldi was great and Jenna was pretty, but even that's starting to almost wear thin when the plot is so poor.

fatherjack

It was a bit of a mix IMO. At least this part sort of explained why Missy had to be the Master. Some rather dodgy VFX (the blue light in the mouth was especially bad), but I was left with the impression that it wouldn't have taken much to make it a really good second part.

EricTheWeary

It was, in part at least, an homage to Tomb of the Cybermen with Patrick Troughton. Someone else might know the details better but there are some parallels. Not that makes it a great episode but it's nice there's some there for the die hards.

thumpingrug

I been up to London for a gig this weekend (Steve Rothery Band at Bush Hall, if anyone's interested.  It was great), so missed Dr W on Saturday .  Read some of these comments on the train on the way back and was prepared for a truly crap episode.  

Watched it tonight and it wasn't great, but it wasn't too bad either.  The stuff with Clara, Danny and the Doc at the end was a bit much but reminiscent of how all the long running companions of this era of the Doc have been dealt with at the end.  The Rose episode where she's in a parallel dimension was very mawkish. 

Its been long announced that Jenna Coleman was leaving, so an emotional exit was to be anticipated and expected.  They didn't disappoint.  As for Santa turning up.  It was a trailer for the Christmas episode.  If santa can't turn up at Christmas, then when can he (or she).  It would be more odd if it was the Easter Bunny at Christmas.  

monquixote

I thought that was a shite end to an otherwise excellent series. 

Did anyone else find it in rather bad taste that they did that episode on Remembrance weekend with all the crap about dead soldiers?

fatherjack

monquixote said:

I thought that was a shite end to an otherwise excellent series. 

Did anyone else find it in rather bad taste that they did that episode on Remembrance weekend with all the crap about dead soldiers?

I don't remember it word for word, so I'm not sure what you mean.  Was there a particular line that was inappropriate?

Fuzzdog

monquixote said:

Did anyone else find it in rather bad taste that they did that episode on Remembrance weekend with all the crap about dead soldiers?

I thought that was the whole (incredibly cringeworthy) point of it - fallen soldiers once again saving the day, etc.  Not bad taste, just bad writing.

Bit of an annoying episode, I thought - there were some bits which were really, really good, but peppered with too many bits of twaddle to save the day.  I did rather enjoy how much the Mistress enjoyed murdering people, she seemed to become rather delightfully unhinged towards the end.  Capaldi would make a superbly dark Who if they could just tone down the 'fluffy' side of the writing a little.  I know it has to appeal to kids, but sometimes I think the writers don't give children enough credit.

Plus the background music still really gets on my nerves.  I swear if they stripped most of it out, particularly the 'epic' themes, the show would be a lot more watchable.

ICBM

Fuzzdog said:

Plus the background music still really gets on my nerves.  I swear if they stripped most of it out, particularly the 'epic' themes, the show would be a lot more watchable.

I'd prefer it if they removed that excuse for the theme tune they're using now too.

axisus

I don't know why they insist on such dark endings for assistants these days. Catherine Tate's ending was brilliant (but quite sad) but the others have been terrible for what is essentially a kids show.

Moffat needs to fall on his sword if you ask me. Too much dross writing on the show and he is in charge. And why o why do they (moffat/RussT) seem to think every series needs to end on a 'massive' concept - the whole world covered in cybermen, ridiculous. As well as that, rank stupidity (brigadier cyberman), illogical stuff (metal cybermen shells growing in 5 minutes), forgetting the past (cybermen take live brains). The show is shambolic.

Dr Who has the potential to be the greatest drama series, the scope is amazing (go anywhere in history, time or space). So why do we get such poor writing all the time? I honesty think that I could produce a better series than the stuff they dish up. I would love to be head of concept for a season!

On the plus side: Capaldi brilliant, One top drawer story (Mummy), two other good ones. 

frankus

Is Pink going to stay dead? The Time Traveller who's a dead spit for Danny - their timelines are linked - probably a relative. Didn't Nick Frost say as much at the end of the episode? But yeah time for Moffat to move on... "oh Pink has been run over and Clara is sad, lets bring him back two more times for another load of maudlin goodbyes, because everyone loves sadness and suffering ... that's why Torchwood was so great -- oh the loss, oh the humanity, oh the Zappa lyrics -- broken hearts are for assholes... "

ICBM

frankus said:

Is Pink going to stay dead? The Time Traveller who's a dead spit for Danny - their timelines are linked - probably a relative.

I thought that as well, but there's a simple explanation… Clara is already pregnant.

Put that mental image away .

frankus

Also how gone is Missy going to be?