Doctor Who season eight

[Silver]

I have not seen a thread of it yet, which is surprising. Unless, of course, I have missed it.

I am currently an episode behind, only now watching the second episode of the new season.

What are your thoughts so far?

As for me, I'm in love, love, love.

Okay......What's this "heaven" bit, though?

[Lucanus]

The third episode is a bit silly, but it's funny nonetheless. So far, I've liked all three episodes and I'm looking forward to the fourth.

I think that the heaven stuff is going to be this season's "Bad Wolf"...

[Esquilax]

I actually really hated the third episode, but having read the script to the fourth I'm particularly looking forward to it. Depending on execution, it's either gonna turn out to be one of the best, or a really cheap trick.

[Bad Wolf]

I hated the third episode too? Have the writers changed since Smith left? Or was it just written by a twelve year old?

[Cyberman]

Love the title sequence. Very original but with nods to the classic 'time tunnel'.

Hate the new music. Too much like the ill-advised and never used Delaware "Jews harp and stylophone" arrangement.

Capaldi seems to be hitting his stride as the Doctor, outstripping his predecessor by light years. The costume keeps making me expect him to channel Pertwee, in the same way that Eccleston allowed flashes of Hartnell to show through occasionally.

Kill off Strax and Vastra. Robert Holmes and Malcolm Hulke must be rotating in their graves at what happened to their creations. That said, Vastra turned in the more credible performance of the two and had some of the best lines in the first episode, particularly to the policeman at the beginning. Also that first episode dragged on far too long; the padding was painfully obvious. And that final scene with the telephone call was overindulgent, unnecesary and schmaltzy. Why should Clara have any trouble accepting this new Doctor, since she is so intimately involved throughout his timestream? Why should his new appearance surprise her in the slightest?

Yeah, that third story was by far the weakest. The problems clearly started early on, with Moff's instruction to Mark Gatiss to "write me something with Robin Hood and robots". Gatiss is a decent writer with an acknowledged passion for and knowledge of the series, but I don't think he was the strongest choice to pull it off.

[Esquilax]

Yeah, that third story was by far the weakest. The problems clearly started early on, with Moff's instruction to Mark Gatiss to "write me something with Robin Hood and robots". Gatiss is a decent writer with an acknowledged passion for and knowledge of the series, but I don't think he was the strongest choice to pull it off.

It actually feels like something that was written for Matt Smith's Doctor, and then hastily rewritten for the new season.

[Exian]

Season 8? Hasn't that show been around forever?

[Cyberman]

Technically, it's season 51. Perhaps for reasons to do with marketing the series to a new audience, the numbering was 'reset' in 2005. I think that was a mistake; it effectively cuts the series off from its roots and creates an artificial "us and them" divide among the audience.

[Aractus]

It's not really artificial - the original doctor who series was cancelled in 1989.

I'm not really impressed by the comments that the BBC makes (see here and here):

• A major justification for why Australians turn to websites such as The Pirate Bay and other copyright-infringing methods to obtain TV shows and films is because of the lack of availability of content in a timely and affordable manner. However, Doctor Who is one of the few overseas shows in Australia that is broadcast at the same time as it airs in the UK, at 4.30am AEST every Sunday morning on the ABC, before being put on ABC's catchup service iview, and rebroadcast on Sunday evening.
  
  The ABC and the BBC have done this in a move to please fans of the show, and deter customers from resorting to BitTorrent to see the show when it airs.
  
  ...
  
  "Despite the BBC dedicating considerable resources to taking down and blocking access to these Doctor Who materials, there were almost 13,000 download attempts of these materials from Australian IP addresses in the period between their unauthorised access and the expiration of the usual catch-up windows," the BBC said.

Okay, firstly - no one, and I mean no one, not even die-hard whovian's are going going to get up at 4:30 AM to watch doctor who. Secondly, TV quality in Australia is terrible. Everyone has HDTV's and there's very little HD broadcast on free to air. Delivering an inferior quality product - that is 576i when it is broadcast in the UK in HD is enough to motivate any fan to download a higher quality product.

• “ISPs should warn any alleged copyright infringers through a graduated notification system that what they are doing is illegal and, at the same time, educate them about the law, the importance of copyright to funding content and services they enjoy and where they can access the material they want legally. However. if the consumers do not abide by the notifications then more serious action may need to be taken,” the BBC note.
  
  ...
  
  “Since the evolution of peer-to-peer software protocols to incorporate decentralized architectures, which has allowed users to download content from numerous host computers, the detection and prosecution of copyright violations has become a complex task. This situation is further amplified by the adoption of virtual private networks (VPNs) and proxy servers by some users, allowing them to circumvent geo-blocking technologies and further evade detection,” the BBC explain.
  
  “It is reasonable for ISPs to be placed under an obligation to identify user behavior that is ‘suspicious’ and indicative of a user engaging in conduct that infringes copyright. Such behavior may include the illegitimate use by Internet users of IP obfuscation tools in combination with high download volumes.”

1. Australia doesn't have and nor do we want to have a filtered internet.
2. ISP's do not have the power, nor should they have, to take the action that the BBC believes they should take against their customers. AFACT v iiNet has proven this in the high court. It is expected that they will lobby the government just as the MPAA did in the USA, but they have no legal power whatsoever to interfere with services provided by ISPs to their customers.
3. ISP level blocking is ineffective anyway. For this reason, ISP's in the Netherlands are no longer required to block access to TPB - "In its ruling the Court states that the Pirate Bay blockade is disproportionate and ineffective, citing TNO research and the Baywatch report of the University of Amsterdam".
4. Censoring the internet is a very serious matter. The BBC's claims are purely political in nature, just like every other example in the world of internet censorship including China, etc.

Moffat himself says just as stupid things: “Ah, 50 years. What can one say about 50 years of Doctor Who? Well, first of all, one can be pedantic. Doctor Who hasn’t been on for 50 years – owing to the outright stupidity and unforgiveable blindness of the BBC (sorry guys, it needs to be said), there was a 16-year gap.” (link) - yeah I don't think so Moffat, I agree with Grade's assessment the show was going downhill.

The show was nearly cancelld in 2009 after Tennant left, and it probably wouldn't have hurt to be honest. First, RTD was a much better lead writer and exec. producer than Moffat will ever be, and second because Matt Smith is one of the worst doctor's ever. It has to be said - he was way too much like Tennant. Moffat's meta-stories (since 2010) have all been total shit. Tennant's first episode "the Christmas Invasion" was way better than Smith's first - AND the anomalies in that episode that everyone noticed, including me, were never explained. Like Rory's hospital ID badge being dated the 30th of November 1990 - and the fact that they go to great lengths to avoid showing any reference to a possible year when Doctor Who meets little Amy. That would have meant that Amy and Rory were "out of time" ie had somehow jumped forward in time from their own time, possibly due to the cracks. Yet nothing ever came of it.

Leaving this loose end was just one of many of the problems that plagued the meta-stories by Moffat, the other being that they're all utterly ridiculous especially showing a "robot" version of the doctor begin a regeneration. By far the best season finale was Army of Ghosts/Doomsday written by RTD. That was the kind of episode you just wanted to watch again, not like any of the finale's by Moffat.

[Esquilax]

Okay, firstly - no one, and I mean no one, not even die-hard whovian's are going going to get up at 4:30 AM to watch doctor who.

I do that.

But then, I keep weird hours so I'm able to. I agree that it's kind of a ridiculous thing to say for normal people. But it is on again the day after, so I dunno if it's quite so unreasonable as it was, say, back a few years when we were getting the episodes a week behind the rest of the world.

and the fact that they go to great lengths to avoid showing any reference to a possible year when Doctor Who meets little Amy. That would have meant that Amy and Rory were "out of time" ie had somehow jumped forward in time from their own time, possibly due to the cracks. Yet nothing ever came of it.

Given how little real world context Amy and Rory were given anyway- strange for characters who were supposedly leading their own lives away from the Doctor- I'm more willing to put that down to Moffat not having the same interest in the companions' personal lives that RTD had, rather than it being a plot point that went nowhere. Moffat does good singular stories, but it's clearly evident by now that continuous, longform character arcs aren't his thing at all; the lack of background detail is just another symptom of how poor the writing can be under his tenure, to me.

Leaving this loose end was just one of many of the problems that plagued the meta-stories by Moffat, the other being that they're all utterly ridiculous especially showing a "robot" version of the doctor begin a regeneration. By far the best season finale was Army of Ghosts/Doomsday written by RTD. That was the kind of episode you just wanted to watch again, not like any of the finale's by Moffat.

Robot Doctor? When was that?