Doctor Who: Season 32 thread

[john]

I've really enjoyed the last two episodes, far more than my baseline level of Who enjoyment. I think that's in part because both of them have managed to show the Doctor as something more than the funny-looking do-gooder who solves the problems every week. We see a darkness and a vulnerability that adds depth to a character that can easily be one-dimensional. Looking back through the years at some of the other episodes I enjoyed more than most (The Girl in the Fireplace, Human Nature/Family of Blood, The Waters of Mars, Amy's Choice), I notice that these all fit that blueprint. Something I'll be looking out for in the future.

School Reunion, by the same writer as God Complex, was also rather intriguing in its take on the Doctor's relationship with his companions. It's a shame about the ridiculous Demon Headmaster storyline in that episode.

It's interesting how the take on Tennant's doctor was that he was lonely, missed the Time Lords and all that. With Matt Smith, apropos of this last episode, it's more that he likes to show off to people. And he's barely mentioned the Time Lords. I know the regenerations are supposed to be essentially two different people but, in any case, the latter version definitely rings more true to me.

[Leuf]

Have Amy and Rory just completely forgotten that they saw the Doctor die? How could they leave the Doctor without that coming up, at the very least between the two of them.

[williamjm]

I agree that The Doctor's room was probably himself. Or something along the lines of facing up to all his dead/fucked up companions.

I did see a suggestion elsewhere that his biggest fear would be Michael Grade, which I thought was amusing. (For those of you not familiar with 1980s BBC scheduling decisions, he was the head of BBC1 generally regarded as largely responsible for the cancellation of the original show which he said he hated).

I've really enjoyed the last two episodes, far more than my baseline level of Who enjoyment. I think that's in part because both of them have managed to show the Doctor as something more than the funny-looking do-gooder who solves the problems every week. We see a darkness and a vulnerability that adds depth to a character that can easily be one-dimensional.

I think it is important to show the Doctor's flaws at least occasionally otherwise he could end up being a simplistic character.

Regarding the search for Melody: having rewatched the last conversation between Amy, Rory and the Doctor in Lets kill Hitler with the last few episodes in mind, it really seems as if that was supposed to put an end to that particular plot thread. It's definitely way too short and Amy and Rory accept the events as inevitable way too quickly, but they definitely come to accept them.

We also don't know what River said to them at the end of A Good Man Goes To War, they presumably had a long conversation with her then.

I'm wondering a bit if the season is progressing entirely as Stephen Moffat would want it to. It's hardly unknown for TV networks to dictate some things about how seasons should be structured and there have been plenty of occasions in the past where networks have insisted on having more stand-alone episodes than arc-based episodes. That could be a potential explanation for the odd pacing of the series where the story arc gets compressed into a small number of episodes with stand-alones in between that ignore it.