john Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 Well, that was pretty boring I thought. Downhill slope in the second half of the season (apart from that India partition ep). News now is that despite BBC’s best efforts (and because of Chibnall’s threats to leave if you believe the rumours) next series will be 2020. As far as the latest episode - Is it really morally better to put somebody in indefinite suspended animation than killing them? Also wasn’t much impressed with the Doctor’s self admitted flexible rules on use of guns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 Finale had some effective parts but it needed to be either longer or have cut some of its strands. Mark Addy was wasted, just used for exposition, the prayer-aliens were under-developed and the crystal worlds didn't get the epic presentation they deserved. Something needed to not be there to make way for the rest. Tim Shaw ended up being good, much more of an effective presence than I expected, though how he went down was... underwhelming. And yeah, the Doctor's always been kinda inconsistent about weapons and killing but bringing it up directly then never dealing with it was a bit shit. Also after feeling that, despite me not wanting it to happen, Ryan calling Graham 'Grandad' last week was handled effectively, they went and fucking ruined it with his shitty crack about waiting too long for it in this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 58 minutes ago, polishgenius said: Tim Shaw ended up being good, much more of an effective presence than I expected, though how he went down was... underwhelming. This season lacked any real story arc, but I thought Tim Shaw did a good job of tying together the opening episode and the finale. His eventual defeat was a bit easy, but perhaps not too surprising for a 3000+ year old. I don't think this will necessarily go down as one of the more memorable finales but I thought it was fairly good. Overall, I'd say this season has been a good start for the Chibnall/Whittaker era. It's been one of the more consistent seasons, I didn't think there were any particularly bad episodes, although only the Rosa Parks and Indian Partition episodes really stood out. It feels like Chibnall has learned some lessons from some of the writing flaws of the Davies and Moffat eras, there was some clunky writing at times but at least it acknowledged the basic rules of narrative logic, which is something previous seasons had sometimes struggled with. I thought Jodie Whittaker didn't waste any time in making the role her own, she almost immediately felt like The Doctor. I think Graham has been the most compelling of the companions, I didn't expect much from Bradley Walsh but I think he's put in a great performance. Yaz and Ryan are fine but maybe need to be given a bit more to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowjack Posted December 10, 2018 Share Posted December 10, 2018 It's a bit like they were so concerned on getting Jodie settled in the role that they forgot to write ACTUAL COMPELLING STORIES. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted December 10, 2018 Share Posted December 10, 2018 1 minute ago, Crowjack said: It's a bit like they were so concerned on getting Jodie settled in the role that they forgot to write ACTUAL COMPELLING STORIES. If you watched that series and thought there were no actual compelling stories, I can only say you have a different definition of the term than I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Which Tyler Posted December 10, 2018 Share Posted December 10, 2018 The season felt like a return to old-Who. Villain of the week, with no particular overlying arc. The fate of the entire universe / mutiverse was never particularly threatened; and certainly didn't need one of the companions to the specialist of all snowflakes that was ever unicorned into existence; alternating educational history with adventures in space and time; The doctor as a hypocrit who's generally more interested in witnessing history than being it's fulcrum; and no sonic sucking sunglasses! I approve of all of those things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted December 10, 2018 Share Posted December 10, 2018 It was easily the most consistent season of Doctor Who since 2005 (possibly 1983). No massively outstanding episodes but no really, unwatchably awful ones (which RTD and Moffat churned out on a fairly reliable basis). The underlying idea, of getting back to stories that made sense and adhered to basic plot logic, was a really good one. Bradley Walsh was unexpectedly excellent, but Mandip Gill was underused in most episodes, I think. On the negative side, this season felt oddly inconsistent in terms of budget. Like the CG was mostly excellent and they really milked their location filming in South Africa (they filmed three episodes there) and the new title sequence was phenomenal and the music was the best it's ever been, but then they seemed to spend an awful lot of time in disused power stations, old hotels and quarries. The "shrunk planet" props were particularly awful props, like something from a Tom Baker episode. Also, the new TARDIS set really hasn't grabbed me. The casts for each episode also felt quite small and many of the episodes felt claustrophobic. They could do with opening out the stories and maybe getting that bigger, more epic feel back (which is something that RTD did quite well). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted December 10, 2018 Share Posted December 10, 2018 This season did get rid of most of Moffat's more negative Moffatisms but looking back there were two fairly glaring instances where a moral message went skew-whiff because an idea was introduced then not resolved properly. In the Amazon episode, which people did raise, nothing ever ended up being done or even, in the end, really criticised about the shocking work conditions once the evil murder plot kicked in, and in the finale, which I don't think I've seen anyone raise yet, the Doctor and everyone else are completely overlooking that the Ux have comitted multiple genocides because they did it out of blind faith and they were following someone else's orders. Which is a pretty awful message to be sending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joey Crows Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 For me, this season was a bit disappointing. While lots of things were done well (production, companion team dynamic, cinematography) this season just didn't feel compelling. I didn't hate anything about it. I also didn't love anything about it. Every previous season since the reboot has had at least one episode that made me go "Wow that was awesome." Not so this year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 I gave up on this season after about 3 episodes.. although that is often a common theme for me with Doctor Who to be honest. I just felt that the writing was .. 'off'. I don't know how to describe it, just didn't have the zany spark it used to have. I thought Jodie did an ok job with what she was given, but I felt like this version of the Doctor wasn't quite.. 'alien' enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 3 hours ago, Heartofice said: I gave up on this season after about 3 episodes.. although that is often a common theme for me with Doctor Who to be honest. I just felt that the writing was .. 'off'. I don't know how to describe it, just didn't have the zany spark it used to have. I thought Jodie did an ok job with what she was given, but I felt like this version of the Doctor wasn't quite.. 'alien' enough. Same thing has happened with me as far back as the Matt Smith era. I've usually finished them and drunken xmas haze is probably a good time to catch up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Which Tyler Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 11 hours ago, red snow said: Same thing has happened with me as far back as the Matt Smith era. I've usually finished them and drunken xmas haze is probably a good time to catch up Same here - excepting that I was unable to finish Capaldi's seasons after the first one. This year I've only skipped the Amazon Warehouse episode - but then the only episodes I've given more than 50% attention to were the educational historical ones. If there's one thing the Big Bang Theory has taught me - it's how to get on with reading my book whilst the telly is on in the same room without being too distracted by it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 Haha. Its sad to view Dr Who as 'Background noise' But yeah, haven't really been able to get motivated to watch the show week to week since the Matt Smith / Amy Pond days. I also really wanted to like Capaldi, I thought he was a great doctor choice, but 3 episodes in and I was looking at my phone every 2 minutes. Not a good sign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Horse Named Stranger Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 Did I miss it, or hasn't there really been the obligatory Dalek appearence? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Which Tyler Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 5 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said: Did I miss it, or hasn't there really been the obligatory Dalek appearence? Still a christmas special to go - and a New Year one IIRC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 1 minute ago, A Horse Named Stranger said: Did I miss it, or hasn't there really been the obligatory Dalek appearence? Maybe the xmas one will count within the production "season". A lot of people think the title is missing "...of the daleks" 4 hours ago, Heartofice said: Haha. Its sad to view Dr Who as 'Background noise' But yeah, haven't really been able to get motivated to watch the show week to week since the Matt Smith / Amy Pond days. I also really wanted to like Capaldi, I thought he was a great doctor choice, but 3 episodes in and I was looking at my phone every 2 minutes. Not a good sign. I think it's more that my viewing tastes have changed as opposed to the show being "worse". I don't really begrudge the show for not being for me. And it is acceptable background TV. The problem at the moment is that British politics has all the twists and turns i need at the moment - it even provides end of world (UK) scenarios. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 3 minutes ago, Which Tyler said: Still a christmas special to go - and a New Year one IIRC Just the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 22 minutes ago, mormont said: Just the latter. Keep forgetting it's the "new year" special so they can claim dr who airs an episode in 2019. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 Well, despite being a pretty standard Dalek story that we've seen done before (it's basically Dalek with a bigger budget and a less angry Doctor) that was rather good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxom 1974 Posted January 3, 2019 Share Posted January 3, 2019 4 hours ago, polishgenius said: Well, despite being a pretty standard Dalek story that we've seen done before (it's basically Dalek with a bigger budget and a less angry Doctor) that was rather good. For a while, i actually thought they were going to forgo the Dalek in its armor entirely, to give it enough of a distinction from past stories... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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