Doctor Who Premiere

[Mrs. ChanandlerBong]

I liked it. (please don't throw things at me!)

I actually said to H that it was the best one I've seen in a while. I gasped when the boy said his name.

I don't disagree that Moffat needs to go, I hated last season so much.

[nsl]

I have watched Doctor Who somewhat obsessively for years, and I could not tell you what the hell I just watched

ETA: Moffat needs to go. He had a great plan for Seasons 5-6, but the show has completely gone off the rails since mid-Season 7. This is the first time I've been completely lost, though. Peter Capaldi deserves a better show runner.

[scribellesam]

DH and I can't decide whether we want to watch this season after the disappointment of last. We have to buy the season to watch it; not sure if it's worth the money anymore.

We will most likely break down after a few weeks.

[evans]

I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either. I thought Clara was pretty great in this one, stronger than she's been in the past. I always like seeing UNIT back too. However, this felt like a closer and not an opener to me.

I'm with you on Moffat though. He's a great episode writer but a shit show runner. It's like he can't follow through on his archs properly.

[nsl]

Sept 21, 2015 8:26:55 GMT -5 evans said:

I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either. I thought Clara was pretty great in this one, stronger than she's been in the past. I always like seeing UNIT back too. However, this felt like a closer and not an opener to me.

I'm with you on Moffat though. He's a great episode writer but a shit show runner. It's like he can't follow through on his archs properly.

Yes, I kept thinking that it felt more like a season finale than a premiere.  There were too many missing pieces (like, Davros survived again after Journey's End?  Since when?  Why?  How?)  and I just found myself not caring even a little bit about what was going to happen next.

My theory is that Moffat's game was really thrown off by the demands of the 50th anniversary season.  It's pretty clear that he was told to lay off his own arc that year in favor of storylines that would draw from the show's history, and then he had to cram the last third of Eleven's arc into that single Christmas special when Matt Smith decided to leave the show.  Now it's like he doesn't know how to pace an episode or a season anymore.

[knx9211]

I liked it. While there were a lot of unanswered questions, I never felt confused.

[GilliC]

The hand mines were creepy as @$%#. Moffat has disappointed me as a show runner, but he definitely has a talent for creating creating nightmarish baddies.

The episode didn't blow me away, but I didn't love it. I spent a lot of it wondering if this is how Clara ends up inside a Dalek. Did Impossible Girl ever actually get explained, btw? I kind of stopped paying attention when I stopped believing the story would ever be wrapped up.

[dr.girlfriend]

DH was very excited about Davros. I am just sick to death with Moffat killing someone for emotional impact and then doing a "just kidding! They're alive again!" It's lost all meaning at this point. It's like he doesn't know how to write something that is actually emotional without just killing someone off, but then he doesn't commit to it. He really needs to take lessons from Joss Whedon.

 

GilliC - They *kind of* explained the Impossible Girl thing.  Clara (or some version of her?) threw herself into a time stream and became all fractured up so that she would reappear in multiple time streams, all to help the Doctor when he needed it (e.g., directing him toward the TARDIS he stole).  It was the whole, "It's not the soufflé, it's the recipe" thing -- Original!Clara is the recipe, and she created multiple Clara-soufflés across time and space (e.g. Oswin Oswald, the nanny in the 1800s) to, IDEK, support the Doctor's endeavors.  Not sure how she didn't die for real that time either, but I'm sure Moffat came up with some stupid reason.

[evans]

Sept 22, 2015 8:18:27 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

DH was very excited about Davros. I am just sick to death with Moffat killing someone for emotional impact and then doing a "just kidding! They're alive again!" It's lost all meaning at this point. It's like he doesn't know how to write something that is actually emotional without just killing someone off, but then he doesn't commit to it. He really needs to take lessons from Joss Whedon.

I was going to say how crazy it was when you think about it because he's really good at writing episodes. But then I got to thinking and yeah, in most of my favorite early episodes involve character death (Girl in the Fireplace, Silence in the Library, even Blink).

I really miss RTD.

[Deleted]

I liked it. I like Capaldi in this episode more than last year. I have hope for a good season.

[Deleted]

We finally just watched the first 2 of this season last night. I've gotta say, in typical Moffat method, just so many weird holes in the plot that didn't make sense and left me a bit lost at times. I hate having to shrug and just accept it because Moffat is too lazy to attempt making things make sense. In addition to the holes, I hated the sonic sunglasses. I agree with one tweet, WHY would you cover up Capaldi's best asset? He has awesome, emotive, and intense eyes.
My other pence:
*I'm rather annoyed at how the Daleks seem to be being rewritten. I watched the original episodes with them and they came about as protection from the planet's radiation and continued some mutation from there.
*I like Missy, but I feel like Moffat decided people like her so ramped her up to camp levels for these two episodes.
*The Clara in a Dalek suit bit was interesting. I knew she stays around a bit so had to give up hope that's how she became the Souffle girl but that would have been a nice tidy thing. The hand mines were creepy, and the snake guy was an awesome original.

[knx9211]

Anyone watch Saturday?

[panicked]

Oct 5, 2015 15:00:51 GMT -5 knx9211 said:

Anyone watch Saturday?

I did! Good episode! I still hate Clara though, so I think I'll get more into it when she leaves. I am LOVING Capaldi as The Doctor. I can't wait to see the second part to this episode.

[knx9211]

Oct 5, 2015 15:07:59 GMT -5 panicked said:

Oct 5, 2015 15:00:51 GMT -5 knx9211 said:

Anyone watch Saturday?

I did! Good episode! I still hate Clara though, so I think I'll get more into it when she leaves. I am LOVING Capaldi as The Doctor. I can't wait to see the second part to this episode.

I think this was one of his best episodes yet. I don't actually dislike Clara, but I think the writers did her a HUGE disservice last season. It was almost like they thought "Well, we need to keep all the tweens on board.. and this guy's not 22... so we'll just focus on angsty Clara! That'll do it!"  Ruining her for all of the adults watching the show.

[Deleted]

Caught up last night. I agree mostly with sxia EXCEPT I *LIKE* Twelve's gruffness as its a throwback to First Doctor. I like that he's done pretending to be some half-child-man (aka Eleven) and taking responsibility more for his actions and "owning" his age and life experience. Also, while this episode was a bit similar with the other two episodes mentioned, I liked it (except for Clara, I'm tired of her) and was a nice creepy cliffhanger (even though we know the Doc will be fine). Moffat is good at making creepy episodes, he sucks as showrunner.

[GilliC]

Okay, so I have something new to add to this thread. I need to leave my boyfriend.

I got an email at work today from a guy whose signature read "Russel K. Davies" and I did a double-take. BF and I watch Doctor Who together every week, so I sent it to him. This is the ensuing conversation:

Me: [Screenshot of email signature] But it's "K" instead of "T"

Him: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_T_Davies ?

Me: Yes

What... You had to look it up?

Booooo

Him: I never read the credits...

Me: ...but!...

Would you recognize Stephen Moffat?

Him: No

Me: Get out

Stephen Moffat wrote Blink

And the Girl in the Fireplace

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Dramatic_Presentation#Short_Form

Nearly all of the Doctor Who episodes that have been nominated for Hugos were penned by either Russel T Davies or Stephen Moffat

Our relationship is clearly doomed.*


*No, I'm not really going to break up with him over his naivete. But you can be we will spend more time talking about the Hugos in future.