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Hmm... I don't know. I haven't been wowed by this series (particularly the second half) but before that I was pretty satisfied with Moffat's era. Mistakes were made, to be certain. But there have been a lot of elements I liked, too. But for some reason I just feel like the show ran out of steam a bit with this season, and it's such a shame leading up to the 50th. I still think it's pretty solid for the most part, but there is a general feeling of "treading water" this season that I haven't really experienced since the show came back. It felt like the Pond's story ended about 6 episodes before we said goodbye to them. And then Clara hopped on board and I like her a lot, but she doesn't feel like a fleshed-out character so much as a mystery waiting to be revealed. But, maybe the finale will change that and propel the Doctor in a different direction. And once Clara's mystery is solved hopefully we'll get to know her a bit better as a character.
 
I wouldn't say that he destroyed them but they were different from the source material. Sure i preffered Delgado but Simm made the Master this crazy lunatic guy with the crazy schemes which was enjoyable. Kinda liek a Timelord Joker. The Cybusmen were kinda hard to get used to at first but they've grown on me.

Yup he turned the The Master into the Joker. That was the problem.
 
Yup he turned the The Master into the Joker. That was the problem.

Yeah, I found the Master to be a bit... boring because of this. I thought he was better in his last appearance. But I do long for the more Moriarty-like match for the Doctor.
 
I have a hard time reconciling the fact that the excellent show runner of Sherlock is the same guy who runs Doctor Who. There just seems to be more care and heart put into Sherlock.

His episodes in the RTD seasons were good, so it might just be that he sucks at longer running shows. :dunno
 
I enjoy RTD's character writing more than Moffat but Moffats arching and ideas more than RTDs.

RTD got caught up trying to out-epic himself constantly and its that reason i cant stand the finales to series 2 onwards until 5. (3 had such a great build up and it was brilliant up until Jesus Doctor flew in and forgave the Master)

I think this series has suffered because of the break, Clara needs the whole of the 13 episodes to be built up into what ever her character becomes, not just 6 as companion.

Moffat doesn't suck in my eyes, i think hes become a little stuck in trying to please everybody, he got complaints for it going to dark then because it was too childish, because it was too complicated and archy then because its too linear or standalone.
 
According to some rumors,
Spoiler Spoiler:


:(
 
Yupper doodle.

This episode better deliver. I don't think my expectations have ever been both higher and lower. :lol
 
I enjoy RTD's character writing more than Moffat but Moffats arching and ideas more than RTDs.

RTD got caught up trying to out-epic himself constantly and its that reason i cant stand the finales to series 2 onwards until 5. (3 had such a great build up and it was brilliant up until Jesus Doctor flew in and forgave the Master)

Moffat doesn't suck in my eyes, i think hes become a little stuck in trying to please everybody, he got complaints for it going to dark then because it was too childish, because it was too complicated and archy then because its too linear or standalone.

Heres my views on the subject.

It seems like alot of the complaints of the RTD era rested squarely on his writing. The quick fixes, deus ex machinas, inappropriately timed comedic relief, using technobable to justify magic that violates rules of the story that he previously set down, and the jesus metaphors.

RTD was brilliant at coming up with ideas for plotlines and perfecting stories written by others, but when it came down to conecting those great ideas and fleshing them out into a story, there was alot of messy dialouge to connect the dots. These mistakes repeated themselves time and time again and were frequent sources of criticsm; including from many people on this board.

But despite being a bit of a crap writer; he was a brilliant producer and art director, and he took Moffat's excellent story ideas and grounded them in sci-fi and brought them to life in a way that really made you feel the excitement and adventure. Moffat is still a great writer but his problem isn't the stories but the fact that he is really bad at telling them.

This series is such a contrast to the RTD era. Everything looks cheap and grey compared to the epic and colorful world of RTD's who. All the sets are drab and anti-cinematic. Compare the Dalek ship from "Parting of th Ways" and "Journey's End" to that of "Victory of the Daleks". The latter looks like a minorly redressed high school cafeteria.

The only exception is the Tardis interior, which went too far the other way and if anything seems to be too colorful and goofy; with a console made of old junk and wacky sound effects just for the hell of it. It looks like MC Escher designed a playground.

You can also see how much RTD's edts went towards improving the scripts. No matter how out there things got in the RTD era, they always had a way of all making sense in the end. Moffat seems to be too obsessed with this "fairytale" thing and has complely changed Who's genre from science fiction to fantasy. Many scripts contain elements that make no sense and are never explained (regular looking fish that fly in the air, an elevator that has a girl read a creepy poem before killing people,ect) simply because they seem like they match the style Moffat is going for.
 
When the Doctor fights 1000 cybermen and wins it makes them look like a joke. The story had more tension when there were only 5 or 6.

Except he didn't have to fight 1000 cybermen. He only had to fight the "Cyber Planner". The "Cyber Planner" winning the chess match and only having an army of 5 to show for it would have been pretty inconsequential.

I'm on board with most other comments.

Felt the "flash" effect for the Cybermen was not well done. It would have looked cooler if they were fast, but kind of herky jerky. A fast clunky robot is still a clunky robot. You can't change an elephant into a serpent.

The kids were awful.

While Warwick was fine, I didn't understand why the character was on that planet...with a bunch of flunkies...

I really enjoyed Matt's performance. I think the platform of the show allows for whoever is in the Doctor's role to be over the top.

Its over the top performances from characters like River Song that bother me, very rarely when its the Doctor.
 
I'm not on board with all the complaints that the show is going downhill. Weren't we just celebrating the previous 2 episodes? While its nice to critique some issues with the show, isn't it possible to do so without moving from 1 end of the spectrum to the other like we're bipolar?

As for the look and feel of the shows, I was actually just thinking to myself that "is it HD or is the visuals of the filming actually getting better?"

I think the coloring and lighting and crispness of the shots are better than ever...what I don't think has kept up is some of the SFX. The "flash" cyberman for example...Though I did think the shadow ghosts from a couple weeks ago were really well done...so I don't know...maybe its just inconsistent and that is leading to us picking it out easier when it goes wrong.

As for the theme park set, I thought it was pretty good!
 
Regardless on the rest of the series feeling a bit flat, much like series 3 for me, I still think this finale looks to be awesome.

I hope Moffat pulls something extraordinary out of his bag of tricks, I've stayed away from as many spoilers as I can for this and I am really excited.
 
According to THIS ARTICLE Matt has confirmed that he is staying for series 8. This time it has a direct quote from Matt, unlike that oft quotedTV article that was misleading and vague, to say the least.

I want to believe. Not sure if I do.
 
I'm not on board with all the complaints that the show is going downhill. Weren't we just celebrating the previous 2 episodes? While its nice to critique some issues with the show, isn't it possible to do so without moving from 1 end of the spectrum to the other like we're bipolar?

I've been kind of staying out of the discussion because this whole season has just been god-awful to me and I don't want to be *that guy* when it seems like you guys are enjoying it so much.

The Pond stuff in 7.1 was all unnecessary. There were some decent eps, but it still didn't really move any story forward except for the one to that was contrived solely to keep the Ponds on for a couple more seasons.

7.2 is virtually unwatchable to me. There is not a single interesting thing about Clara except for THE BIG MYSTERY™ which keeps getting shoved in our face. I really don't care who Clara is or why she's died almost as many times a Rory.

I did really enjoy the latest Vastra and Jenny episode until Clara showed up and took time away from them, and I enjoyed the Cybermen ep too. Other than that, the 7.2 has been pretty bad.

I think, more than anything, I'm just tired of Moffat's big season long mysteries. I just don't care anymore, i'd rather have a series of good standalone stories that maybe tie together things in the finale, the way RTD used to do.

Before somebody comments that RTD had season long mysteries as well, I'd argue his didn't take up as much time and weren't as distracting as Moffat's. Bad Wolf written in the background here or there if you're paying attention vs. conversations and scenes in every single episode about the mystery of Clara.

Anyway, I'm not gonna natter on anymore 'cause, like I said, I don't want to be *that guy*. Carry on! :duff
 
What a shame you aren't enjoying it. Maybe your expectations are too high...? I don't really know how this season can be considered unenjoyable.

I'm not saying its the best TV I've ever seen, but it at least beats most.
 
7.2 is virtually unwatchable to me. There is not a single interesting thing about Clara except for THE BIG MYSTERY™ which keeps getting shoved in our face. I really don't care who Clara is or why she's died almost as many times a Rory.

Spoiler Spoiler:
 
Real spoiler about Clara:

Spoiler Spoiler:
 
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