Doctor Who season eight

[Esquilax]

Or how apparently Dalek suits have no scanners to detect things like little cracks in the hull that let in radiation. Or why the Dalek fleet would bother trying to rescue one Dalek when every other portrayal in the revived series has had them executing any Dalek that didn't live up to their ideals.

Actually, Rusty begins an assault against the crew of the Aristotle and then calls the fleet to come and help exterminate the rebels (the dalek fleet has been searching for the Aristotle, after all).

Yeah, you're right. I was thinking of the original script, where the Daleks' motivation was finding their "comrade Dalek." Really glad they changed that, actually.

However the dalek calling the doctor a "good dalek" is completely out of place.

It's pretty rich of the space-nazis to be judging the Doctor. It's happened twice now, once in "Dalek," too.

Remember the "new paradigm" daleks and how ridiculous they looked? They also spoke with a stupidly deep voice. Now they've gone back to exactly the same look as they had before the new-paradigm daleks, look AND voice (although presumably they're still "pure" daleks, free from Davros's cells)!

The paradigm models are still out there, you can see them in the Dalek Parliament (*snort*) in "Asylum," well after their ridiculous first episode. I just sort of assumed they didn't really care about the look of the suits and were using what they had. Daleks never really struck me as aesthetically minded, despite the repeated elements in their designs.

[Cyberman]

The reference to the Doctor being a good Dalek in "Dalek" actually made sense in context, as everything in that story had been building up to that moment. The Doctor had been faced with a survivor of the race which had led to the destruction of his people and countless worlds. It got loose and he was driven by rage and vengeance to finish the genocide he'd begun centuries before. That made him a good Dalek and realising it pulled him back to his senses.

In the recent story, it just came off as a blatant wink to the audience and made no sense.

[Esquilax]

I think that's the problem with a lot of the newer Doctor Who scripts actually. Even just earlier in the revived series there was some construction and thought put into these things, there was an actual narrative to be had. But for like two seasons now we've mostly been dealing with a hodgepodge of ideas with no attempt to slot them into a workable frame.

Ooh, the Doctor's a good Dalek, is he? Well, it does make sense in "Dalek," as it was the culmination of an entire episode of things happening to establish and bolster that point. In "Into the Dalek," it's the result of a single scene toward the end of the episode where we're just told outright that the Doctor hates the Daleks, and conflicts with the premise of the episode to boot, where the Doctor puts himself in harm's way on the off chance of saving just one Dalek soul and maybe finding a peaceful resolution to that problem. I buy that Eccleston's Doctor is Dalek-ey because he's been rage filled the entire episode. But Capaldi's just been kind of a dick at worst, and he is still trying here.

It's this weird combination of factors where Capaldi's Doc is less intense than at least a few of the older ones, but placed within a story that's seemingly intent on highlighting what a morally grey and ambiguously good character he is all the time.

[Aractus]

The paradigm models are still out there, you can see them in the Dalek Parliament (*snort*) in "Asylum," well after their ridiculous first episode. I just sort of assumed they didn't really care about the look of the suits and were using what they had. Daleks never really struck me as aesthetically minded, despite the repeated elements in their designs.

The paradigm models were 100% wrong. Seriously what were they thinking:




Not only does it look like a giant piece of plastic, the weapons look to be un-rotatable since it is clearly oval shaped. That part on the old dalek design was rotatable thus:




They also do not have the individual markings (below the eye).

Or why the Dalek fleet would bother trying to rescue one Dalek when every other portrayal in the revived series has had them executing any Dalek that didn't live up to their ideals.

Well, S0701 Asylum of the Daleks contradicted that - and had them dumping all the daleks they didn't like on a planet instead of terminating them (how that made any sense is beyond me).

[Bad Wolf]

They got the daleks so right the first time round, they didn't need to change them. And the cyber-men, they looked so much better at the start.

[Aractus]

I don't mind them tweaking the Cybermen, partly because they are forever "updating" and so should look a little different as they become more and more advanced.

Mind you I did notice this...



Since when do Cybermen have different sized necks?

[Esquilax]

I don't mind them tweaking the Cybermen, partly because they are forever "updating" and so should look a little different as they become more and more advanced.

Mind you I did notice this...



Since when do Cybermen have different sized necks?

Depending on the mechanism of "upgrading," (It changes episode to episode, sometimes: usually the Cybusmen just take the brain, but there were a few that apparently just encase a human body in the suit) it could just be a concession for height differences.

[Aractus]

In that episode though you see Cyber-men getting beheaded and their necks are purely mechanical.

[Esquilax]

In that episode though you see Cyber-men getting beheaded and their necks are purely mechanical.

And then in "The Pandorica Opens," you see a Cyberman helmet with a human skull in it, and in "Closing Time," they try to enclose an entire person into a cyber-shell. The actual makeup of a Cyberman is kinda inconsistent lately.

[Aractus]

S08E04 Listen ...

• The only thing more polarising than a new Doctor?
  
  The show's current showrunner de jour, longtime Whovian and perennial mega-fibber, Mr. Steven Moffat.
  
  So brace yourselves, because 'Listen' is the show's most Moffat-y episode to date (unsurprising considering he penned it), filled with as many creative masterstrokes as over-ambitious and ultimately infuriating plot quibbles.
  
  

SPOILERS FOLLOW

The one part of this episode I loved is when Doctor tells little Danny that fear is a super power - it's hard to argue that scene is anything but brilliant, especially when he says "do you think he's scared? Nah - Looser!"

Besides that the story was dull. It seems like all it exists for is some stupid Moffat meta-purpose. The sooner Moffat goes the better.