Oh man this big emotional moment! It sure would totally be undermined if they undid her sacrifice literally five minutes later wouldn't it?
I was planning on bringing this up as well, but on that note its frustrating to me how much the series has moved away from being, well, science fiction. As an example of this, when I first started watching the revival episode 2, The End of the World, instantly grabbed me with its bizarre look at the future of humanity. And while they weren't necessarily the best episodes, the RTD era is characterized for me by those frequent "look what humanity has become" episodes. Not just episodes ostensibly set in the future but episodes about the future, something which has almost completely evaporated. I mean, just breaking it down you have
The End of the World
The Long Game
Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways
New Earth
Impossible Planet/Satan Pit
Gridlock
42
Utopia
Planet of the Ood (arguable in focus)
Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (arguable in focus)
under Moffat the times that theme has been hit have basically been
The Beast Below
The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People
The Rings of Akhetan (arguable in focus)
Kill the Moon
in the same span of time. Its something I really miss.
You know, I kinda was thinking about it, and yes. That is exactly what the issue is.
Before Moffat took over, you had the Doctor and companion either traveling through space and time, finding new exciting places to be in, or save the companion's home from an alien threat. The relationship between the Doctor and the companion, as well as the Doctor's origins all were touched upon, but they were parts of the plots, not the central piece. The only overarcing plot points were the characters getting to know each other better, but it was mostly just adventures contained within themselves. And the drama mostly came from the situation the characters were put in.
With Smith/Capaldi now, you have the story arcs focusing entirely on the Doctor and his companions. You see a LOT of the Doctor's history, how he became what and who he is, and the companions are also heavily involved in the stories, usually tied up into the overarcing plot of the season. There's so much emphasis on how important the Doctor is, and how much he influences the flow of the universe, but also an equal emphasis of the companions' private lives, and the relationship between them and the Doctor, which is where most if not all of the drama comes from now.
Basically, Who has turned from a sci-fi show about adventures in time and space into a character drama with sci-fi theme.
Well, sure. Every Doctor is remember as the best Doctor by a decent portion of people. That's not going to change. Everyone's always going to have their favorites.
The timey wimey stuff is mechanically science fiction, but its rarely been philosophically science fiction. For every The Girl Who Waited there's The Angels Take Manhattan. This is, ironically, one of the only things Wedding of River song does right buried under a completely bungled execution. I went to the "future humanity" episodes as an example because they're the most clear possible representation of the show trying to be about humanity and its potential. There's an alienness to Smith's manic mannerisms sure, but the show never did nearly enough with that for my tastes. Capaldi is getting there, the first series is promising.I think you give undue weight to the idea that for something to be science fiction it has to be about the future, or even humanity's future. Exploring timey-wimey (which Moffat has done arguably more than any era of Who to date) or alien-human interaction (I think Moffat's Doctors have been more alien than they've been in a long time, and RTD's by comparison much more human) is just as SF without visiting the future.
And let's not forget that the point of looking at the future *is* to explore the drama of the present..
This has *got* to be the first time I've ever seen someone say the problem with Moffat's era, compared to RTD's, is that it's *too character driven*. The complaint is usually quite the opposite, that Moffat is driven too much by spectacle and clever plotting and neglects the human element, while RTD's big on showing the character impact of things.
I'm kind of amazed at how quickly into Capaldi's reign I was totally over Smith's characterization of The Doctor. It was nice at the time, but man.
Just read that Gomez herself confirmed she'll be back on the show, awwwyeeaahh! The Master obviously didn't die but I was worried they'd waste the Missy incarnation as an one off.
Will Santa bring back Danny for Clara?
Yep, I was worried he'd be back with a new regeneration next time though. Good to have confirmation that the same actress will still show up again, she was amazing in the role.Not a surprise, the Master always comes back.
Oh man I'm so excited that we're so close of ridding ourselves of Clara. Hope we get someone interesting next time round, maybe as good as Martha.
Hopefully she comes back sooner rather than later. If only because god damn it I want to know every last detail of her escape.
"You think I'd give you an entire Cyberman army without implementing a failsafe to protect myself?"
Why would we argue about best showrunner when Hinchcliffe exists
Hinchcliffe is OK, but I'd rather have Graham Williams.
The only episodes I really liked with Williams were Horror of Fang Rock, City of Death, Ribos Operation, Stones of Blood & Androids of Tara.
They're great eps but I don't think they make up for the large amount of clunkers in his time.
I'm just really fond of the Key to Time arc. Maybe it's Mary Tamm's fault.
So series 8 was pretty great, yeah? The best "weird" alien in ages with the Flatline things, a nice mixture of tones between Robots of Sherwood and Listen, and only one real stinker in the entire bunch.
So series 8 was pretty great, yeah? The best "weird" alien in ages with the Flatline things, a nice mixture of tones between Robots of Sherwood and Listen, and only one real stinker in the entire bunch.
I think so, yeah. It's been a bit depressing this season when I listen to a Doctor Who podcast (The Doctor Who Podcast chief among them), and they all take turns shitting on everything every week.
They duked on Sherwood, Mummy and Flatline???
I just wish we never had series 7B Clara. It put a proverbial turd in her character punchbowl that I've had a hard time getting over. I can intellectualize that she's vastly improved, but it's hard for me to shake that first impression.
They were admittedly relatively positive about the Mathieson episodes, and Listen (which I think is rather overrated,) but the hyperbolic scorn piled on everything else just gets tiresome. The show is 'too dark'. The Doctor is 'too mean'. Missy should've been the Rani, and is 'an embarrassment'. There aren't enough monsters and adventures and too much romance and relationship stuff. Dark Water is the worst episode since Colin's era, etc, etc... It really tempts me to do a podcast of my own, if for no other reason than to get analysis that's a level above 'Gallifrey Base complainer' into the ether.
Funnily enough I'm fine with the darker bent they gave things, because its at least finally substantive darkness instead of window dressing. Capaldi is the perfect man to pull it off and I'm really hopeful that they can go interesting places with itThey were admittedly relatively positive about the Mathieson episodes, and Listen (which I think is rather overrated,) but the hyperbolic scorn piled on everything else just gets tiresome. The show is 'too dark'. The Doctor is 'too mean'. Missy should've been the Rani, and is 'an embarrassment'. There aren't enough monsters and adventures and too much romance and relationship stuff. Dark Water is the worst episode since Colin's era, etc, etc... It really tempts me to do a podcast of my own, if for no other reason than to get analysis that's a level above 'Gallifrey Base complainer' into the ether.
Funnily enough I'm fine with the darker bent they gave things, because its at least finally substantive darkness instead of window dressing. Capaldi is the perfect man to pull it off and I'm really hopeful that they can go interesting places with it
I'm calling it: Capaldi will be remembered as the best Doctor by the time he's done.
UK fans - make sure you watch Children in Need this Friday for a special, festive ‪#‎DoctorWho‬ treat, which will then be available to you all on YouTube. Well post the link here!
This just got posted on the Doctor Who facebook:
Guessing we're getting a mini-episode!
It's probably a Christmas special clip.
Bump Into the Dalek up to a 7 or so (it was decent) and you have my ratings more or less.Yeah, I mean the season for me was:
Deep Breath 4/10
Into the Dalek 5/10
Robot of Sherwood 8/10
Listen 5/10
Time Heist 6/10
The Caretaker 8/10
Kill the Moon 6/10
Mummy on the Orient Express 9/10
Flatline 9/10
In the Forest of the Night
Dark Water/Death in Heaven 5/10
I think the last time there were 4 eps in a single season I liked was RTD's last full season...
Yeah, I mean the season for me was:
Deep Breath 4/10
Into the Dalek 5/10
Robot of Sherwood 8/10
Listen 5/10
Time Heist 6/10
The Caretaker 8/10
Kill the Moon 6/10
Mummy on the Orient Express 9/10
Flatline 9/10
In the Forest of the Night 5/10
Dark Water/Death in Heaven 5/10
I think the last time there were 4 eps in a single season I liked was RTD's last full season...
T...is presented as characters talking about how awesome other characters are (namely the Doctor and Clara talking about each other), resulting in the bizarre dynamics of the climax of the finale where Clara's sacrifice doesn't feel earned in anyway because we've just been told all season about how important the Doctor is to her
Maybe if everyone forgot about Tom Baker or Peter Davison!
What I want to know is what the hell changed with Moffat? Because its not like these issues showed any sign of abating through S7, in fact the problems with Name and Time are utterly characteristic of the entire Smith run. So why the dramatic turnaround now?
Bump Into the Dalek up to a 7 or so (it was decent) and you have my ratings more or less.
And yeah its probably the best series since 4
This is more or less my rating, except I regarded the finale and into the Dalek a little higher
Absolutely. Sure RTD's era had issues but in terms of the old storytelling phrase 'show, don't tell' (in this case in relation to characters and emotions) he was far more on point.
Has the idea of The Doctor removing himself from all historical records been abandoned?
Or did it ever exist in the first place? Or only in the future timelines? Wouldn't he have had to delete any timelord/Master related records too?
I can't really remember what happened with that so could do with a reminder please.
The thing I always say, is that Doctor Who is like Magic: the Gathering. If you don't like what's it's up to at the moment, just have patience - it'll change.
In the end, for me, "Am I a good man?" was like the dark age of the law in Ace Attorney. It's just a phrase that's repeated that ultimately doesn't really change the formula of what happens.
Another thing that I think is rather relevant to showing and not telling is the whole "am I a good man?" thing. It feels like such an empty question to me because while the Moffat era Doctor can be unsympathetic or careless, he ultimately usually saves the day. As Clara learned in Flatline, it's not easy to keep everyone alive when you're being pursued by a monster.
I think the RTD era had better moral ambiguity...