The Doctor Who thread

boogieman

Rabs said:

Trailer 2... Not that its helping much    The production style seems pretty different, dare I say more American..

I don’t watch Dr Who regularly, in fact I haven’t watched it consistently since the Tom Baker days. That ^ looks half decent, unlike the Capaldi era, which was pretty dire IMO. 

Fretwired

boogieman said:

Rabs said:

Trailer 2... Not that its helping much    The production style seems pretty different, dare I say more American..

I don’t watch Dr Who regularly, in fact I haven’t watched it consistently since the Tom Baker days. That ^ looks half decent, unlike the Capaldi era, which was pretty dire IMO. 

Very American but there's one disturbing feature ... I hope that's not the old deus ex machina  use of the sonic screwdriver .. seems a lot for a short trailer.

Fretwired

Images of new monsters emerge ...

Rabs

Fretwired said:

Images of new monsters emerge ...

That will get kids hiding behind the couch..   Me too 

digitalscream

So...that happened, then...

EricTheWeary

digitalscream said:

So...that happened, then...

That was quick! 

mikeyrob73

 
Havent watched it since I was a kid ( I’m 45 now) 
that was decent, quite enjoyed it 

EricTheWeary

That bit at the end of the credits seemed odd. 

I quite enjoyed the episode, well written and made. Also fairly sure there was a bit of Puzzle Wood ( where the purple turnip landed) which always pleases me. 
Dont know about the Doctor but early days. 

ICBM

That was much better than I expected.

suspiciousminds

I thought it poor tbh - vague “predator” type storyline and rushed.

digitalscream

EricTheWeary said:

That bit at the end of the credits seemed odd. 

I quite enjoyed the episode, well written and made. Also fairly sure there was a bit of Puzzle Wood ( where the purple turnip landed) which always pleases me. 
Dont know about the Doctor but early days. 

Totally the opposite for me. The writing was awful IMO, unlike most of the previous first-of-the-season episodes (and certainly not a patch on the Eccleston one). Totally generic-baddie-of-the-week (being a combination of just about every sci-fi trope going) without any kind of mystique whatsoever thanks to invoking The Speech of Exposition. The companions were almost totally anonymous and generic as well - I couldn't tell you their names, even though I've just watched it.

Pretty hard to miss the "Woman strong and brave, man weak and cowardly" element too, which was completely unnecessary.

That said, Jodie Whittaker was actually pretty good. Rather too much inspiration from David Tennant's incarnation, but way better than Matt Smith's attempt at the same thing. Still, aside from that small complaint it was a decent and mostly-believable performance.

If the writing carries on like this, though, she won't be able to save it and she'll just end up another casualty like Capaldi. And the bit at the end...seemed almost like they were saying, "Hey, we've got some people you might recognise coming up...purleeeeeease watch it next week!".

ICBM

digitalscream said:

That said, Jodie Whitaker was actually pretty good. Rather too much inspiration from David Tennant's incarnation, but aside from that it was a decent performance.

I thought that too - and a few Capaldi mannerisms thrown in. The slight surprise was that by the end I had just accepted her as the Doctor.

I didn't think much of the plot either, but at least it was better than some of the last series or two.

Snags

I quite enjoyed it, and had no problems with Jodie Whitaker at all (although I hope they write her some slightly calmer stuff in the next few, now the regeneration fritz is passed).

Having said that, I'm not an aficionado. Despite loving Capaldi the show totally lost me under Moffatt (which surprised me, I thought it would be a step up) so I hardly saw any of last season.

I can forgive the plotting stuff because, well, it's Dr Who, not post-graduate philosophy and in depth textual criticism.

darthed1981

Spoilers below DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN...

Good episode, not great but good.  Good villain, well structured.  Very much a "soft reboot" for the series, no run-through of familiar faces, or phone call from the last Doctor in this one.

Still has the air of cost and darkness to it that the later Moffat series had, but currently Jodie hasn't shown the weight and gravity of the doctor "uncloaked", that's the real test for someone in the role, man or woman, can they go from clown to near-God within a scene.  Tennant was best at it, but everyone else has been good.  No real moment like this yet, but give them time. 

The most interesting scene was the villain's "demise", and as it was slightly undercooked I'd expect a follow up, if you don't see them die, then they rarely turn out to be dead.  There was no big set up for an arc, but the new villains are such bastards they are bound to show up again.  Look a bit like Jem H'Adar though don't they?  Still, Trek owes Who for the Borg...

Looking forward to next week's episode.  The preview seems to indicate the show wants to focus on strong character work from established actors to drive things along, rather than Moffat's "look how clever all this is" style of screenwriting.

mikeyrob73

The best part was some great writing 
 “ let’s set it in The North” 
“what would a drunk Yorkshire lad do if he saw an alien”
”Why, he would throw the salad from his kebab at the alien of course” 

ourmaninthenorth

Utter bloody nonsense.

Loved it. 

thumpingrug

I enjoyed it

axisus

Well I enjoyed it. Jodie was good, story was OK, the new 'feel' (much more Netflixy) worked for me. The only thing I didn't like was the new theme music, which was terrible. The black guy and the Asian girl were pretty flat but early days, maybe they will improve. I wouldn't call them inspired casting.

Headphones

Tickover.

No spark or drive, merely in motion.

They'll have to do better than this if the family's to stay awake after a big sunday lunch.

Nothing actually wrong or poor though, and no particular issue with the new doctor (save her trousers should fit), but it'll have to wake up soon, or snooze off for good.

axisus

Actually I must add - her costume looks ridiculous. She looked much better in Capaldi's old threads. Why do they insist on clown outfits so often?