More decisive? I’d say Capaldi is pretty decisive. And nearly all Capaldi does is crack-wise. I mean, yeah, sometimes things are shitty, but most of the time he’s being a snarky idiot.
Towards the end of Tennant’s run there were some hints of the Doctor’s darker side which raised all sorts of interesting questions and laid the seeds for some really compelling drama. And, indeed, in Moffat’s first season he also dropped a couple of more subtle hints, that actually worked really well with Smith’s take on The Doctor as someone who is very funny and full of childhood wonder on the surface but actually quite deep and profoundly sad inside. But then Moffat got heavy handed and when he did finally start exploring The Doctor’s darker side it was clumsy and worked especially poorly with Capaldi’s Doctor who is really kind of an asshole on the surface. The Calpaldi era has been best when exposing the soft, good heart under that rough exterior. Capaldi and Smith are really at opposite ends of the spectrum in this regard. (Though Smith actually had range and could handle both the good and the bad of the Doctor naturally.)
Definitely saw that in Journey’s End which I just finished watching. The half human Doctor, born in fire and battle…
Of course, it also had this scene :(
I am very much enjoying my watch through of the entire (new) series.
Interestingly, the next episode “The Next Doctor” has this guy in it:
And to think, I just canceled Prime, having run out of my freebie education period on my own account. Ah well. Got DVDs of most of the older ones if I really wanna get serious about the re-watch my gf’s been pestering me for.
Still, I think this kinda blows. Netflix has lost a lot of good stuff over the last year or so :-/
Intriguing - I know that BBC was at least initially planning their own digital service. Perhaps this means the outlook for it wasn’t as good (or that Amazon simply delivered truckloads of cash to the level that they just said “okay”).
I mean, as I understand it (I welcome Ginger Yellow or one of our other UK posters to correct me), iPlayer is pretty popular in the UK itself (to the point that I may or may not have subbed to TunnelBear during the London Olympics to watch British coverage via iPlayer rather than suffer through local drek). May have just been the issue of going global proved more troublesome than it was worth (e.g., needing local servers/CDNs in more locales, handling access restrictions more thoughtfully, and of course licensing stupidity).
There used to be a iplayer global service, it was canned though without ever being made available in the US. The suggestion was American cable operators were less than thrilled with the idea and were threatening to stop carrying BBC America.
Pearl Mackie is announced as the new companion. I’d never heard of her before, but something tells me that Whovians will have a full, multi-page biography up in little time.
Yes, time to know all the things about her!
Per Moffat, he hasn’t yet been asked to write Capaldi out at the conclusion of his own tenure this season.
Now, in fairness, Moffat’s outright lied to the fanbase to keep surprises under wraps in the past, so take that with however many grains of salt you feel appropriate, but as a gigantic Capaldi-fan, I find this news extremely encouraging!
Also, weird as it may be, I’m a little sad that the Moff’s not actually planning to do a big grandiose all-hands-on-deck goodbye episode as he concludes his time with the show, as Davies did when he left. I actually like a decent number of Moffat’s creations and wouldn’t mind one big goofy super-episode featuring all or most of them. Perhaps not least of all because I’m still woefully enamored of Karen Gillan and would love an opportunity to see her one last time on the show.
Running low on good non-book/music entertainment, fired up the show again a few days ago after a long hiatus (last episode watched was The Witch’s Familiar, Series 9 #2) and just finished watching Heaven Sent (#11).
And wow! Good example of how the show can meander into the depths of poor/average writing/scripting for a long while and then sail right on up to the top again. IMO this episode was poetry-fueled and worthy of much praise.
Other than the terrible sleep-dust episode, I thought 9 was a pretty strong season. So was 8 for that matter (other than the moon/forest episodes) People always seem to be hard on the newer series even as they wax nostalgic about the older ones.
I agree, although in line with what barstein said, I think Heaven Sent ranks among the best TV that I’ve ever watched.
Finished up the series tonight. Ho hum finale/episode, so more of the same.
And watched a bit of a preview for the new series/companion and stopped before it spoiled too much. Sheesh, we’re still stuck in the Dalek arc? I guess we always will be?
I mean, I’ll probably never stop watching the show, because it has such a special place in my heart and because they still sometimes do things right (and sometimes very right), but man, can’t they come up with something big that’s a bit more original?
Maybe I’m in a minority here, but I’m just tired of Daleks and Cybermen and the like. Don’t mind appearances here and there, but it’s just stale for me.
Arise once more! I rather really enjoyed the Christmas day episode. The young American couple were somewhat bland but very appealing. I’m going to miss Capaldi when he eventually leaves the show.
Good to see Matt Lucas sticking around for some more episodes! He was entertaining.
It was a cute episode, and the squeak toy scene was a riot.
I’m not sure about the new companion revealed in the end-of-show preview though. But then, I think I feel that way at ever companion/doctor change, so…
Really enjoyed this last episode, and so excited for the show to be back soon :-)
Nice seeing additional closure from the parting last time around, and the goofy take on superheroics was very cute.
Might be the only one here, but I think this was the weakest Christmas episode ever. The superhero thing did nothing for me, the bad guys weren’t very interesting, and its pretty sad when the squeaky toy scene is the best part of the episode.
That was pretty good, Christmas episodes were always a bit silly. Looking forward to see what the new show runner can do.
Good to see Matt Lucas. He is a member of my synagogue back in North London. I used to see him around quite often.