It’s back - with Celia Imrie playing a baddie - Yay! I’ve been waiting 30 years for Celia to play a bad girl :).
Nice opener for the second half of the season. A little silly (why the hell didn’t anyone just run away while the robots s-l-o-w-l-y turned their heads), but a fun romp. And Moffat continues to do great fan service to the diehards with a new outfit montage and by weaving in classic villains. He would have gotten bonus points if the first part of the story had made a direct reference to the Meddling Monk.
The chemistry between the leads is nice, but here’s hoping we’ve seen the last of the flirting, even if it’s played as it was here as more lighthearted teasing than serious. Let’s have some good old fashioned Donna-esque lack of sexual interest, hm?
A repeat offender for Clara’s third go. So does that mean the Great Intelligence is somehow tied to her? And possibly to the Daleks? And when are going to see some honest-to-God Yetis?
Did anyone else catch the author of the book Clara had?
Amelia Williams.
rei
1785
yes…and the ‘best chapter was the 11th.’
Ohhhhhhh, didn’t catch that. Nice.
Fun episode with a lot of call outs to older stuff. I liked the dynamic between Clara and The Doctor. So far she seems far more action-oriented and less “stand back while The Doctor waves his sonic screwdriver”, which is nice. Looking forward to more.
Yaaay! Clara survived this time!
I was half-afraid dying every episode so the Doctor could run off to find the Next Clara Oswald would turn out to be her thing.
“Oh my God! They killed Clara!”[INDENT]“Yooooou bastards!”
[/INDENT]
That last episode (with the singing kid) was just terrible. It’s like they aren’t even trying any more. Just have the Doctor give some hand-waving deus ex machina speech at the bad guy and watch him implode. It was like watching a children’s show in how willfully nonsensical the whole thing was.
I think they’re trying, they’re just not always succeeding. The previous week’s episode, I thought, was fantastic. This latest episode was fantastic for the first 10-20 minutes and then it began to unravel.
Just to be clear, the Doctor didn’t make him implode. He failed - it was Clara who finished it off. I figured this one was kind of like a “Wesley episode” (well, except it involves Clara) where they’re trying hard to flesh out her character. It does strike me as unusual, but not too bad.
Oh, and as a goofy aside regarding their appearance on The Nerdist: none of them can do math (either that, or their particularly silly nature and inability to multiply was due to some level of inebriation … which may be more likely)
I thought Matt Smith did really well with the final monologue, tear and all. It felt very David Tennant-y, in a good way.
Terrible episode this week. The thing about Doctor Who for me, though, is that even if I hate an episode, I just wait a week and there’s probably a good one.
Yes, I didn’t think it was terrible, just not as good as the previous week’s episode. I did like parts of it, even if the ending was weak. I smiled at the Doctor’s remark ‘I came here a long time ago with my granddaughter’, which I guess was a nod to the 50th anniversary of the show.
. . . Dr. Who’s not a kids show? Man, was I misled!
Every once in a while, I feel the series is undermined by their need to have a Villain of the Week. Case in point: this week’s episode. It felt like they came up with this really nifty setup, got halfway thru the episode, then were like, “Oh bugger - we need a bad guy, don’t we?” Cue mad scramble involving waking god, threats of soul-eating, speechifying, yay deus ex save!
Fortunately for me, at this point I watch Who for the characters, not the plots; and even a throwaway monologue by Smith at a disposable villain is still solid work.
Since my son left for college I had been watching Doctor Who by myself and it just wasn’t the same but, when he was home for the holidays we watched the Christmas special and my ten-year old daughter got sucked in and now I’m loving Doctor Who again! It really is the ideal show to enjoy with your kids. The only downside is that she is a very sensitive ten-year old who has trouble sleeping if she sees something scary during the day and every episode is right on the line of what she can handle and what she can’t. (I have to watch them first and make a judgement call.)
This sounds like a much more fun way to watch Who. I think I’ll try to adopt it. :)
This last episode reminded me a bit of Amy Pond’s first trip with the Doctor, where she meets a little girl who is running away from strange men, etc, etc.
Anyway, for Clara’s first trip, I thought it had an appropriate tourist-y feel–walking in a foreign street market, witnessing a native cultural/religious ceremony, and such. I also liked the Doctor stalking her past life to see whether she is real. The space moped rental was kinda silly.
Seppey
1799
I usually watch them with my 13 yr old, but he has been away for the past two episodes. It is a very different experience without him, much more fun when he is there.
It really is. It’s how I watch the show these days. And if the plot/story is real good double bonus.
