Doctor Who season eight

[ManMachine]

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?

It's going back to the old style episode-length stories again, although there does appear to be a series arc storyline building.

I like the humour in the new Doctor but I'm not sure if his latest foe

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Robin Hood

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was a good move.

MM

[Aractus]

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.

Yes, in that case you're probably not human.

Robot Doctor? When was that?

"The wedding of River Song".

[Esquilax]

Robot Doctor? When was that?

"The wedding of River Song".

Oh god, I think I'd actually purged that episode from my mind, it was so bad. That whole season was a total shitshow, if you try to piece together the Silence's plan chronologically. None of it makes a lick of sense.

[Cyberman]

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

I know that, I was there. I meant that by resetting the series numbering to square one, it effectively rebooted the whole thing. Not in itself a bad thing if handled properly but by wanting to eat their new cake and have the original one as well, it produced an unnecessary division. The result has been inane comments (even by Facebook standards) like "I can't believe it's been 50 years since 'Rose'."

[Aractus]

Well they're separated by a canon non-BBC episode the TV movie.

Oh god, I think I'd actually purged that episode from my mind, it was so bad. That whole season was a total shitshow, if you try to piece together the Silence's plan chronologically. None of it makes a lick of sense.

I didn't mind Song's character, but the whole meta-story especially with regards to the silence sucked. The idea that an exploding TTC is capable of destroying the whole of reality is just utterly stupid - it would mean all Timelords operating them are recklessly endangering all of existence by doing so.

Anyway, here are my complains about this Season - and it's the same complaint I had for the Christmas special. There's no goddamn character development!

In the Christmas special Doctor Who goes to Trenzalore and he just loves the locals - problem is nobody else does. We don't get to know any of them, so why should we care? The whole episode revolved around the Doc and that's just stupid. I want to get to know the characters in the episodes. RTD did this much more effectively.

SPOILERS FOR S08 FOLLOW

Episode 1. Deep Breath. NO NEW CHARACTERS, WTF??

The characters are: 1. Doctor, 2. Clara, 3. Paternoster Gang and 4. "Half-Face Man". That's it, a few more very minor characters. Why are we going back to the paternoster gang, why can't Moffat introduce new characters? At the end of the episode a character named Missy is introduced - again we don't really know shit all about her character at this point.

Episode 2. Into the Dalek.

This wasn't a bad episode, however when it got to the point that Gretchen sacrifices herself I literally stopped the episode and went back to the point where the group enter the Dalek to see if there were really 5 people that went in and not 4. I had no idea of her existence because her role is so meaningless. She doesn't play an active part in the episode and her character could have been and should have been combined with Journey's. And for that matter, there's no appreciable character development for Journey either.

Episode 3. Robot of Sherwood.

By far the worst episode so far. Robin's character is OK, however we should have got to see more of his character. His gang however plays no appreciable role in the episode and we don't get to know any of them. There's no point in introducing them if they aren't used in the story.

The Tardis Interior.

WHY?? I quite liked the previous incarnation of the interior despite it being a 2nd one for Smith, I actually thought it was a huge improvement over Smith's first one. However now it looks stupid again. The fourth doctor never had a visible tardis interior in his first season (series 12), and then went through three different ones, including this one with a very compact centre-console:





If they're going to change the interior I'd like to see the present Doc walk into one of the past console rooms and begin using it instead of inventing more just for the sake of it.

[Bad Wolf]

I do like the idea of them linking his regenerations to past events. Remember in the first episode he says 'I recognize this face from somewhere', that's cause he played a guy that the doctor saved in Pompeii....so interesting regeneration stuff going on.

[Aractus]

Yeah it was already established when Doc's companion Romana regenerates that a. a timelord can choose their appearance and b. they can take the likeness of another living person (be that other person timelord or human).

BUT, it was also established that every cell in the doctor's body dies and is replaced by new ones, and specifically I'm thinking of "Parting of the Ways" when Tennant's doctor says "hello I ca- (gulp) new teeth that's weird - so where was I..." and in the "Into the Dalek" there are a couple of shots where Capeldi's fillings are clearly visible - he should have no fillings, he hasn't been to a dentist yet for his brand new teeth!

I might add, that that shot of Tennant was terrible. It's OK looking back now, but at the time everyone thought that Eccleston's replacement looked juvenile and didn't know what to think. It was wrong to introduce him right at the end of the episode like that - either introduce him earlier in the episode or don't let him speak at all until his first episode just close with Rose looking horrified.

And also, the thing that bothered me about the "Into the Dalek" episode - the humans have ineffective weapons against the Daleks, right? But it's been well established that Dalek weapons can easily penetrate and destroy other Dalek's - so why are they not using Dalek weapons against the Daleks? They must have killed enough to accumulate some (all they have to is disconnect them from the dead daleks and connect a trigger), and yet no one is using them!!

[Esquilax]

It was wrong to introduce him right at the end of the episode like that - either introduce him earlier in the episode or don't let him speak at all until his first episode just close with Rose looking horrified.

Just once I'd like to see them break out of the stifling formula and do something new like having the Doctor regenerate at the beginning of an episode, give the new guy some time to breathe so we can just get on with it when the next season starts. I'm so tired of always having to do an episode about regeneration every time: we get it by now!

And also, the thing that bothered me about the "Into the Dalek" episode - the humans have ineffective weapons against the Daleks, right? But it's been well established that Dalek weapons can easily penetrate and destroy other Dalek's - so why are they not using Dalek weapons against the Daleks? They must have killed enough to accumulate some (all they have to is disconnect them from the dead daleks and connect a trigger), and yet no one is using them!!

There are a lot of stupid Dalek logistics things about that episode. Like how they kept Rusty in a room he could easily break out of, instead of even attempting to fortify it against Dalek weapons. 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. Or why the Daleks would be at all surprised that Rusty had gone rogue, given that in the very last episode they had been in it had been established that they were all networked together.

It's dumb.

[Aractus]

There are a lot of stupid Dalek logistics things about that episode. Like how they kept Rusty in a room he could easily break out of, instead of even attempting to fortify it against Dalek weapons.

Not to mention that they could have easily disarmed him, and re-attached his weapons later, after he was repaired.

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).

The soldiers consistently fail to shoot straight, it's reminiscent of Star War's "only imperial storm-troopers are so precise".

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

Or why the Daleks would be at all surprised that Rusty had gone rogue, given that in the very last episode they had been in it had been established that they were all networked together.

True, but daleks are not generally given individual identities.

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)!

[Bad Wolf]

Yea, I thought that whole 'the doctor would make a good dalek' stuff, was really stupid. He's like the best guy in the universe, he has saved billions of lives and planets and the universe 100 times over. How is he in any way like a dalek?