Sooo much better than the last season so far…
You should have seen it by now, but…
Having only seen a smattering of pre-relaunch Who, I was like “Davros… Davros… I think that’s one of his really bad guys. (Looks it up on Bing.) HOLY CRAP THE GUY WHO MADE THE DALEKS!”
What an awesome dilemma he was presented with.
REDACTED is in the finale of season 4 of New Who.
What an awesome dilemma he was presented with.
Really? Maybe I was being cynical, but
it seemed to me:
so obvious that it’s one of those Greek tragedy style plots where you make the fate you fear happen by struggling against it.
Along with the Shadow Complex + whitehaired/redeyed creepy lady. Actually tons of visual callbacks to earlier seasons in this ep, which I thought was neat.
The only thing that bothered me was
the breaking of some established show logic
They established quite some time ago that the Doctor can’t go backwards in his own timeline (and mentioned it again as recently as The End of Time episode), and that there are some places in time that simply cannot be changed (Fixed points in time, he called them)…something I think would definitely apply to the creator of one of the worst villains in history, otherwise he would’ve never been allowed to happen by any one capable of time travel…like all of Gallifrey.
But then I remembered this is Doctor Who and it’s supposed to be fun, not perfectly logical, and I went back to enjoying everything about the season 9 premiere.
ESPECIALLY Michele Gomez. Have I stressed how much I love her?
“See that couple over there? You’re the puppy.”
If it helps, consider that
timey wimey stuff
he had just left Davros to his doom when he showed back up from the other side of the hand mine field, so hyper-technically not his own timeline. Still, he’s broken that rule before, most blatantly when all the versions of himself time-locked Gallifrey before it fell.
And yeah, that was a great line.
edit - I was also happy to see that the writers didn’t hand wave the logic issue of The Doctor sending his will to someone that was supposed to be dead, and that Clara noticed that meant he’d been lying through his teeth.
I’m sure I’ll get an earful for this, but what a terrible episode.
If it had been an episode halfway through the season, or a season finale, maybe it would have been okay, but ugghh.
How many more episodes are we going to have where the doctor is going to die. Please enough is enough. No more moping doctor. It’s old. Move on. Also can we please kill Jenna Coleman off already. I thought she was so awesome when she first came on. So different from the companions as of late and someone who could go toe to toe with the doctor, but her character just gets worse and worse.
That said, I’m all for more Michelle Gomez. She is fantastic and I only wish she was able to duel with Eccleston or Tennet.
Dammit, people! I was DONE with Doctor Who! Now you’re telling me it’s getting good again?? Is there any natural place to start watching again without having to put myself through any of the crap Clara/Capaldi stuff?
Also, I don’t know how they’ve explained it in the show, but is it possible the existence of a female Master is paving the way for a female Doctor?
Your latter point was actually hinted at in a throwaway line by Missy early in the episode.
Sorry, not sorry!
And I’m pulling for Emma Watson. The good news is she’s young enough that we have several chances.
I’m pulling for Ariana Grande.
I’d strongly recommend watching the whole Clara run (including the one-off Dalek episode from S7, then starting for-reals with the Xmas ep featuring her), just so you can build up a proper appreciation for the moment when her character inevitably dies or suffers some other tragic fate ;)
Yeah, I’d second this. There are some episodes that are certainly lesser than others, but the whole run makes the most sense.
Yeah. To answer more seriously, I did a very significant post on “when/how to start watching” over, uh, here.
I’m not sure when you cut out Nightgaunt, so that may or may not be very helpful.
I watched everything up to about the third Capaldi episode, but I had been a tepid fan since halfway through Matt Smith. Just stopped being worth it.
Yeah, despite watching Doctor Who since the Jon Pertwee days, I feel like I’ve been enduring the show rather than enjoying it since maybe Tenant’s 2nd season. I just don’t understand how Moffat could have written the best stories during Davies run and yet turned out to be such a poor showrunner whose own stories are muddled and nonsensical. I don’t think the problem has been with any of the actors playing the Doctor, as all 4 have been good, and Capaldi’s definitely my favorite since Eccleston. I just prefer the less inane old Who - the show that was influenced by Quatermass and other sci-fi - rather than a show that just seems insufferably sanctimonious and absurd.
So I’d decided not to bother with this season - and now you guys are saying that it was off to a great start, so I’m reconsidering again, heh. Ah well, I’ll check out the 1st episode when it’s rebroadcast later this week anyway.
The Doctor has always been a bit loony and scatterbrained (at least after the first one). I’m not sure I understand these complaints that it’s a new development.
I enjoyed the episode. Missy is a great character and the villain is my absolute favorite.
I did notice something I have not seen since the black and white Doctor Who.
It was when the villain ordered his minions to be their most villainous (trying to avoid spoilers, if you’ve seen the episode you may know when I mean)
On the left of the screen was a type minon I hadn’t seen since black and white. In fact the minions had a distinct retro look to them.
Word is that…
episode 1 spoiler
…they pulled that particular Dalek from the props they used for [I]An Adventure in Time and Space[/I], the recent dramatization of the creation of Doctor Who.
FWIW, I enjoyed and hated this episode for all the usual reasons I’ve enjoyed and hated Moffat’s run on Who. I love Capaldi’s Doctor and his repartee with Clara and Missy, even though I hate that the season will be all about how the Doctor is the most important thing in the universe (again). I know Moffat’s setting up Big Important Plot Ideas which seem really exciting at first, but that he’s going to resolve it via his usual timey-wimey hand-waving bullshit to get the Doctor & co. out of the corner he’s painted them into. In fact, I know the more that Moffat appears to be escalating the stakes, the less likely it is that anything significant will happen, because Who lore is an ossified fossil which he will never ever truly alter. I know this season will be a mix of highs and lows that fizzles out in the end, because that’s what happens with every Moffat season.
I know all this, and yet I’m resigned to watching Who for another season and just hoping I can fixate on the bits I like and ignore the bits I don’t. Because honestly, where else am I gonna get weekly doses of quirky Brit scifi about a Scottish space wizard in a magic teleporting box?
I’m right there with you. It was pretty enjoyable until about 20 minutes in when it started to unravel with…anachronisms.
Completely lost its way from that point forward. Overstuffed with too many ideas falling over each other, none of them truly allowed to develop. I love Capaldi so much, but towards the end of the episode I wondered if he isn’t going to end up the McCoy of the new series: Good actor trapped in uniformly terrible scripts. But I guess I can’t judge until we get away from Moffat’s episodes. sigh