Keep at it, guys. Starting to sound like things are still too Moffaty for me to bother with.
I really hate that they turned the Master into a woman - seems like the BBC fetishizes diversity and making the Time Lords multi-sexual is just kinda creepy - so unnecessary too since if they wanted to give a prominent role to a female Time Lord villain they already had the Rani, etc. to utilize.
That all said, Missy and the actress who plays her are the best thing to happen to the show in a long time - she really steals all her scenes, and does a great job balancing mischief and humor without diminishing her malice. She’s really great.
I finally saw the episode and while I just hate all the goofy stuff like the “hand mines” and goofy anachronistic WW1 material in a space war, it was still perhaps the strongest episode Capaldi’s been yet given. I like the Daleks better without Davros, but the call back to the Genesis of the Daleks moral dilemma and having Skaros being reborn are interesting developments.
Regarding the question that was raised earlier - I like the idea of large story arcs and enhanced continuity - I just think that Moffat has done a terrible, terrible job with his, as they never lead anywhere interesting and have largely not even been coherent. The only one that has really worked in the series was the very first one - Bad Wolf, in Eccleston’s season, which also tied into revealing the Time War and the fates of the Daleks and Time Lords.
Yeah, I have no problem with the idea of having larger story arcs and such. My issue here is that they’ve done way more damage than good in the Doctor Who universe. “So you don’t like New Who?” doesn’t cover it.
Late to the party, but wow, what a season opener! Missy is so amazing! <3
And the second episode disappoints. You just think that they could do so much more with the characters but always resort to cheesy plots. Maybe as it is fundamentally for a younger audience you can’t have too deep or dark plots with too much anxiety or despair otherwise it would need a later time slot in the UK.
Overall, I enjoyed these first two episodes and think they are two of the best of the Capaldi run. The writing was generally better than what Capaldi has been given so far (finally!), and he aced it. I liked the synergy of him riding into the Medieval arena on the battle tank, i.e. the contemporary Dalek equivalent. Missy is awesome and Davros was solid as well. The peek inside the Dalek voice translator was also great.
I like the Daleks as much as the next guy, but they have become overused like the Borg. It’s always nice to see them, but each time they get a little less special and a little less terrifying. At least we got a few new angles this time, like the voice translator.
I finally caught up.
Face me, magician!
Well stated. I don’t have much to add. I just wish they’d actually give Capaldi something worth working with. That, and I dunno, maybe have the Doctor without a companion for a while. I’m sick of Clara, that’s for sure. Not “Rose” sick, but sick.
Yeah, I’m sick of Clara. She was much better as soufflé girl (and I really hoped they were going there) and has zero chemistry with Capaldi.
The second episode was initially a major letdown for me, but I liked the last two thirds or so. My favorite part (ever a sucker for fixed timelines) was finding out the preview from the first episode was a slight of hand.
Also, I always love humor & cheesiness in Doctor Who. It’s really what makes Who Who, and there were a lot of jokes that played well here. In both episodes. I can tolerate a lot more when it’s fed to me in comedic form.
Not a fan of the two-part season opener. It felt like it was supposed to be some sort of love-letter to longtime Doctor Who fans with lots of callbacks to long ago plotlines and Doctors and lots of nudge nudge wink wink and while I’ve been a Who fan for a very long time I just wasn’t impressed. The ending in particular was ridiculous. Maybe I missed something, but the Doctor was transported directly to the control room in the first episode, where he was then led to Davros and remained there the entire time. He would have had no idea that decaying Daleks were under the city, so his brilliant plan to trick Davros was based information that Missy and Clara had but he did not.
That said, there were some great lines in this episode, especially by Missy. She both annoys and entertains, but I hope she doesn’t become a second companion for the whole season. “You’re my secret favorite, don’t tell the others!” was great, and the Doctor shooting off “your sewers are revolting” on his way out was classic.
Slainte:
It’s unclear whether or not Missy learned of the decayed Daleks during the sewer trip or just revealed knowledge she’d always had to Clara just to freak her out (she did intimate that the sewers would be dangerous before venturing into them, and indeed, knew that they existed at all, for one very peculiar reason, or something along those lines).
My understanding based on the final plot-twist was that longtime opponents of the Daleks were generally aware of the sewer systems’ usage on Dalek worlds (and/or at least their homeworld) and that thus the Doctor himself had found out about the sewers during some long-ago fight against the Daleks.
Yeah, I’m fairly sure the Doctor knew about it, Missy certainly did, she just didn’t reveal it to Clara until they were already down there. She said beforehand that the sewer was “alive” or whatever. If she knew, the Doctor certainly did as well.
It’s just another example of Moffat retconning in a new twist on Who lore and pretending it’s always been there (“What, I never mentioned Dalek sewers/graves before? How odd!”), so he can use it for his big deus ex machina finish. Or, uhh, sludge ex machina, as the case may be.
Try not to waste too many brain cells thinking about it. Forget it, Slainte - it’s Skaro.
The appearance of Dalek sludge didn’t really change the nature of the Daleks though. So I’m not sure it can be called an example of retconning on Moffat’s part. Although he is guilty of sloppy and inane stories quite often.
It’s still pretty handwavey, but since that’s a hallmark of the Moffat era I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Hopefully the rest of the season is better in the story department, though I will miss Missy’s antics if she disappears for a few episodes…
Yeah the 2nd episode was weak, I feel they are back to not really knowing what to do with Clara. :(
She was so good last season in that episode where she pretended to be the doctor.
I just can’t get behind the sunglasses.
You and me both. There are some things I consider sacred. The sonic screwdriver being one.
That’s the part that gets me too: Sometimes Moffatt has interesting ideas for fleshing out the world (on its own, the Dalek sludge thing could be a cool detail), but then he pairs it with three or four other handwavey ideas in the same episode, and you realize the only reason he set up the Dalek sludge was so that they could be defeated by the poop-Daleks at the end.
It’s like listening to someone tell an elaborate and overly-detailed joke, just so he can come up with some clever punchline at the end. “Pope John Paul II, the leader of France during the Renaissance, and the pitcher for the 1939 Yankees walk into a bar.…”
Wait, you mean the shades are the new permanent sonic screwdriver replacement?