Doctor Who - Spoilers!

[cmiller99]

Spoiler:

I watched the two parter... good acting in it.

Buuuut...

I'm really sick of the way this series can't find a tone and stick with it. Is this show doing serious sci-fi or is it doing absurd self parody? Because that's what all the scenes with Missy felt like to me, and the Doctor playing the guitar.

As an old series preferist, I may be a little biased when I say this, but the older stories had a more consistent tone. Everything was playful - scary at times, but it worked as light hearted entertainment. There was the rubber monsters occasionally looking fake but the whole thing was tied together with a sense of fun, a bit of horror and the occasional moralistic message thrown in. Obviously the tone changed over the course of many series with the different producers making their own mark on the show (the Phillip Hinchcliffe years being a key example of this), but each story in itself was had its own style.

I don't know what to think about the new series. There are really good episodes, and there are episodes which for me... just don't work. At all. The biggest problem with this show is that it takes itself far too seriously. The mind play between the Doctor and Davros, Clara trying to communicate from inside a Dalek, the various other uber serious moments just clash horribly with the other various comical elements. Missy seems drunk half the time. The ridiculous 'twist' with the sunglasses. The nonsensical rebuilding of the TARDIS (another example of the glorious Deus Ex Machinas this series keeps coming up with).

I just couldn't really get into this two parter because of how all the different elements of the story were smashing into each other. Nothing gelled! It's so frustrating.

IMO, series should take one of two paths:
Serious sci fi - which creates scary, tense situations and is written seriously and has some grit;
Or absurd self parody - which IMO would be more fun.

 

[Magpie 7]

Spoiler:

Davros' tricking the Doctor reminded me of the beginning of Dumb and Dumber To, it didn't pay of until Missy frantic efforts to stop Davros.

Overall this is best watched as a whole, not broken up into two episodes as the second part can't possibly hope to live up to the first.

 

[CallMeTheDoctor]

I enjoyed Missy a lot. I think it might be her accent that captures me.

Overall, I don't think I was too impressed, but my brother tells me I have pretty ****ed up standards, where I'm too high on what's good and too low for what's ******.

I enjoy some bits, but I think I'm starting to watch this for more like a chore, rather than entertainment. Some great moments though, won't deny it had me tearing up more than 5 times.


One thing I am REALLLYYYY not liking is the glasses. Especially finding out about them at the end of part 2.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Too much Missy is a bad thing.

I always love seeing Davros... always my favorite enemy.... but this 2-part episode left me a bit flat.

This may be sacrilege but I'd really like to see them update those damn Daleks into something a bit more menacing and... functional. The rolling chess piece with a plunger has seen its day I believe.

 

[Kamandi]

I enjoyed Missy a lot. I think it might be her accent that captures me.

Overall, I don't think I was too impressed, but my brother tells me I have pretty ****ed up standards, where I'm too high on what's good and too low for what's ******.

I enjoy some bits, but I think I'm starting to watch this for more like a chore, rather than entertainment. Some great moments though, won't deny it had me tearing up more than 5 times.


One thing I am REALLLYYYY not liking is the glasses. Especially finding out about them at the end of part 2.

Previous Doctors have taken a break from the screwdriver. Perwee's Doctor had it built into his cane for a while. The screwdriver's been overused and could use a rest. They wrote it out nicely by giving the Doctor a big guilt hangup over seeing it.

This may be sacrilege but I'd really like to see them update those damn Daleks into something a bit more menacing and... functional. The rolling chess piece with a plunger has seen its day I believe.

They had the Special Weapon Dalek in a few shots. The current design took it's place next to the vintage Dalek lineup making me think they might do exactly what you're suggesting next time around.

 

[cmiller99]

Previous Doctors have taken a break from the screwdriver. Perwee's Doctor had it built into his cane for a while. The screwdriver's been overused and could use a rest. They wrote it out nicely by giving the Doctor a big guilt hangup over seeing it.

Absolutely, I was getting really sick of that magic wand helping everyone out of every single situation imaginable. But I thought it was silly to replace it with magic glasses

 

[Kamandi]

10 had magic glasses and psychic paper. As long as they don't overdo it or make it weird it will be fine. Give it time.

 

[cmiller99]

The idea of the glasses being super high class technology isn't so bad for me As you said, the show has done sillier things before that I've been ok with. It just felt so forced in that context. When the it was revealed, my reaction was literally 'oh, so we're doing this now?' in a kind of begrudging, passive way.

 

[CallMeTheDoctor]

Previous Doctors have taken a break from the screwdriver. Perwee's Doctor had it built into his cane for a while. The screwdriver's been overused and could use a rest. They wrote it out nicely by giving the Doctor a big guilt hangup over seeing it..

The way they got rid of it was an excellent writing move. I just feel the glasses are just an awkward choice. A cane isn't really that bad of an object, it's like if they did a watch, which seems a bit more practical. But to use glasses? Just feels weird.

Absolutely, I was getting really sick of that magic wand helping everyone out of every single situation imaginable. But I thought it was silly to replace it with magic glasses

I didn't mind it, only because it had rules. It wasn't like almost anything could be affected by the screwdriver.
-The glasses just seem super silly, as you say. Almost any other object would be better, IMO.

10 had magic glasses and psychic paper. As long as they don't overdo it or make it weird it will be fine. Give it time.

But weren't the 3D glasses for something else entirely? I mean the fact it's 3D glasses was probably meant to be more as a silly joke. Much like in the Van Gogh episode we got Smith with that weird front brace mirror gadget.
-Psychic paper was weird for me at first, but it did make sense at least. Some not so much, like in the episode Dark Water, you have Capaldi in a sort of hoodie and blazer; but he's made to be some government inspector? Things like that just don't seem right.


I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt; I just feel a screwdriver would have been good; or maybe I'm just rather interested to see what Capaldi's screwdriver would have looked like. It's the Star Wars fanatic in me speaking.

 

[Magpie 7]

We never see any of the other rooms in the TARDIS other than the control room now.

 

[cmiller99]

The way they got rid of it was an excellent writing move. I just feel the glasses are just an awkward choice. A cane isn't really that bad of an object, it's like if they did a watch, which seems a bit more practical. But to use glasses? Just feels weird.

I agree whole heartedly that it was the way to write out the screw driver. But the glasses felt like a cop out IMO.

I didn't mind it, only because it had rules. It wasn't like almost anything could be affected by the screwdriver.
-The glasses just seem super silly, as you say. Almost any other object would be better, IMO.

I found the screwdriver ridiculous too In the first episode with the sonic, the 2nd Doctor unscrewed a hatch with it Then Pertwee came along and started using it to open doors and set off mines - which is fine, totally believable. But now, in the new series... medical scans? Remember how the Doctor was some how using it as a lightsaber in that episode with the leaf last year, stopping electric lighting? That doesn't make any sense at all.

We never see any of the other rooms in the TARDIS other than the control room now.

That's a great shame... remember that Tom Baker story with the Sontarans where the Sontarans enter the TARDIS and chase everyone down the corridors, and then one of the Sontarans jumps on and smashes a plastic chair in the swimming pool room? Fond memories...

 

[pixletwin]

BBC says they are making a "Big Announcement" about Doctor Who today at 11 PM UK time ... These things are almost always not very big (unless you count the hype leading up to them)... but you never know....

 

[ChaserFan]

Announcing the new companion maybe? Or Doctor Who branded Wayfarers?

 

[pixletwin]

I figured maybe it is an announcement that Doctor Who will air this Saturday.

 

[pixletwin]

Yaaaaaaaaaawn.

BBC Latest News - Doctor Who - Doctor Who Spin Off: Class

BBC Three today announces Class - a new 8 x 45 minute Doctor Who spin off from the acclaimed YA author, Patrick Ness. Class is a YA series set in contemporary London. Incredible dangers are breaking through the walls of time and space, and with darkness coming, London is unprotected. With all the action, heart and adrenalin of the best YA fiction (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Hunger Games), this is Coal Hill School and Doctor Who like you’ve never seen them before.

Sarah Jane Adventures v.2?

 

[ChaserFan]

'Young adult' fiction, Coal Hill School, annoyingly bad child actors...yeah nah, I'll pass. But if it diverts all that stuff away from Doctor Who, go for it.

 

[pixletwin]

'Young adult' fiction, Coal Hill School, annoyingly bad child actors...yeah nah, I'll pass. But if it diverts all that stuff away from Doctor Who, go for it.

I do like the cut of your jib, sir!

 

[cmiller99]

Oh, not the ****ing children.

Ugh.

 

[Kamandi]

'Young adult' fiction, Coal Hill School, annoyingly bad child actors...yeah nah, I'll pass. But if it diverts all that stuff away from Doctor Who, go for it.

 

[Magpie 7]

I just don't see the attraction of this 'spin-off', will it include any current characters such as Missy or Clara? Very doubtful. Will it be basically Grange Hill with monsters? Almost certainly

Just give the people what they want to see BBC instead of what you want them to see