Doctor Who Series 8

[DotCommunist]

thought danny's final speech was a bit much

 

[danny la rouge]

But they're not married

"Are they making a family show or pornography?"

 

[8115]

thought danny's final speech was a bit much

What, the shining light of Danny's spirit on the other side talking through the door?

Or Danny's "We shall fight them on the beaches" to the cybermen before they went to blow themselves up?

They both made my toes curl in a bad way.

 

[DotCommunist]

the fight on the beaches one. Eyes were rolled.

 

[CNT36]

It wasn't explained very clearly what the bracelet did except move the plot on. If they had been uploaded back into the netherspere but degrading like River Song in the library and that the bracelet was yet another way for the Master to cheat death by saving his mind while building a new body using cyber technology it would all fit with stuff done before and even with previous Moffat episodes. Not the bollocks magical spiritual shit it came across as. It would also make Danny's fate certain and that he wasn't mincing about with Angels or virgins etc and was making ab actual sacrifice rather than just sending some kid back from a non corporeal orgy or whatever to a shitty reality like in Buffy.

When the army was given to the Doctor I thought it was going to get somewhere. So much potential. The way the plot bracelet was put on his wrist almost like handcuffs I thought it would be bonded to him and that he would be trapped with the army or that if he didn't keep it on or keep them busy they would revert to standard cyber behaviour or something Perhaps have an inability to self terminate. The earlier cybersuicides could of been written off as a programming change having been made before they were handed over to the Doctor. Instead there was a quick bit of self reflection and it was handed over to Danny. Why it had to be him was also never fully explained. Squandered opportunities all around.

Last year they very nearly made these new Cybermen scary but that's been wasted as well. Flying cybermen unlike flying Daleks just look shit and completely underwhelming. Fucking Iron mans scarier. Oh look there's a Cyberman at the window struggling to smash through a few inches of metal/glass. Good job there's a Time Lass around to actually bring the plane down.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Overall though, I'd say this has been the best series of Moffat's tenure thus far.

the fight on the beaches one. Eyes were rolled.

Init. They're mindless robots slaved to the will of whoever has the magic doohickey, that was what the whole fake afterlife thing was for, so they don't need a rousing speech. Or a shit speech, which was what they got.

 

[CNT36]

Also the whole thing with Missy manipulating the Doctors and Clara's relationship seems to have come to nothing. The best three scenes from various trailers for this two parter were a repeat from The Invasion and the Doctors "you win" exchange that were drained of any impact in the epusode and clips from Clara's two blags that gave a false and much better sounding representation of the episodes content.

 

[danny la rouge]

Overall though, I'd say this has been the best series of Moffat's tenure thus far.

Absolutely.

But selfies with Cybermen is something I'll never forgive him for.

I ran away from Cybermen at a Dr Who exhibition when I was a kid. I always found them scarier than daleks.

 

[Kaka Tim]

Well that was pretty farcical. Ridiculous, non-nonsensical plot with a heavy dose of mawkish sentimentality. Missy and Capladi make it entertaining but ffs - cant moffat learn to reign it in a bit? The best who stories are the smaller scale, tightly plotted, scary ones not the over egged epics.

Overall i'v enjoyed this series probably more than any of the others since the re-boot - but - for the most part - thats down to the dialouge and the performances (esp the peerless, brilliant capaldi) - rather than the stories.

 

[ruffneck23]

I really wanted it to be good, but once again i'm disappointed by the second half of a finale, capaldi , missy and jenna were great , the story was just shit

 

[Cloo]

It was a bit pants overall... I agree Danny's big speech was toe curling, and out of character with what was otherwise a pretty good and well realised person.

The best bits were the understated ones, such as the Doctor and Clara's comforting lies to one another at the end.

I've not liked this series very much, though I have liked Capaldi and the way his role was written. I think he's had a much more challenging role than the previous few Doctors; a lot more ambiguity and subtlety there. I think the writers did at least appreciate in these series what they had in him.

 

[zoooo]

It would have been quite fun if Clara really had been the Doctor. One from the future or something, messing about in her old timeline. That would have been one hell of a reveal.

 

[CNT36]

It couldn't of been true but would been interesting. Now its been used S a bluff it will never happen unfortunately.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I liked Missy's sly reference to cybermen in Glasgow, hometown of both Capaldi and Gomez.

The cybermen themselves didn't get to do any of their traditional rampaging, they just milled about in graveyards looking morose. Contributed to a general lack of peril that didn't sit well.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Also i think his doctorate used to be said to be from the edinburgh but this time theh said glaswgow

 

[rekil]

they just milled about in graveyards looking morose.

Anyone made a CyberMorrisseys gag yet?

 

[belboid]

well, that was a confused load of old codswallop. I dont mind it not making complete sense, but that was just all over the shop. Just to pick one thing - so there's now a President of Earth, the one person who might be able to save the place. So they put him on a flight with his deadly and exteremely powerful foe? Makes no sense. And why were they even on a plane? Surely an underground bunker would make more sense.

Several good bits, a few real surprises - I never expected Osgood to cop it - but overall, worst episode of the series (yes, I too quite liked the Robin Hood one)

 

[ginger_syn]

I liked the finale very satisfying, for me it's one of the best so far. It was sad, funny and occasionally surprising and my only quibble with it is that some of the scenes in the plane were a bit stilted. also did anyone else think that Nick frost looked a bit like Richard Attenborough

 

[DotCommunist]

Nick frost as santa is delicious because of how if you were going undercover as santa it would make a good psuedonym. St. Nicholas. Frost. eh? eh?

it'll be shit tho, christmas ones always are

 

[Dr_Herbz]

Still... rather a shit episode in a series of meh.

^^^ This.
Probably the worst series of Dr Who I've ever seen.
... but at least Danny is dead.
How the fuck anyone can compare this to Dr Who of old is beyond me...

 

[Vintage Paw]

^^^ This.
Probably the worst series of Dr Who I've ever seen.
.

Did you not watch last season?

 

[Dr_Herbz]

Did you not watch last season?

I've watched every season, with the exception of anything that contained Sylvester McCoy, because he was a non-starter.
As bad as some people might think Matt Smith was, he played a perfect role in the script. The script may not have been very good but he did suit the script, very well. Capaldi, on the other hand, is a much better actor, with, IMHO, a much worse script, and this is the bit that annoys me. I know that (given a better script), Capaldi could take Dr Who to a place it hasn't been since Pertwee... but I guess it's all a matter of opinion...

 

[danny la rouge]

And why were they even on a plane?

That's probably because they were using the Invasion as a reference point. UNIT's headquarters when the Dr first meets the force (although he'd met the Brig before his promotion) is airborne. (The Invasion was also very closely modelled by Rise of the Cybermen, the parallel universe story with Tenant. Moffat's problem here was that he had nothing left to use from the Troughton tale except St Pauls and UNIT-in-an-aeroplane).

The trouble is that the Dr does nothing at all in the plane. He gets on, then gets off. The point for him being there in plot terms is difficult to see. Missy gets to be marvellously Hannibal Lecter-ish, but the Dr himself does nothing.

In the Troughton original, the Dr spends a lot of time examining cyber technology, trying to find out what Vaughan is up to. He looks through microscopes. He designs a gadget for the UNIT people to escape "cyber control". He draws a diagram of how the cyber ships could be in static orbit behind the moon. And he has various conversations with the Brig about how they might tackle the cybermen, including going to Russia to use their missile capability. (In the event, his companion Zoe does some savant-like calculations which she runs around whispering to console operatives). It wouldn't be considered compelling TV by today's kids, but replacing it by overblown nothing-at-all doesn't work either.

That's one of Moffat's big failings: his tendency to produce overblown nothing. He did it in the Christmas-Town-on-Trenzalore episode. It's a style that reminds me of the horrible version of God Only Knows the BBC is showing atm. You drown out any subtlety by throwing all the orchestration you have at something, and hope the viewer/listener mistakes it for substance. It's X Factor TV.

It's a pity in this case, because episode 1 of the pair showed promise, and the Dr and Missy were wonderful,

 

[Dr_Herbz]

It's a pity in this case, because episode 1 of the pair showed promise, and the Dr and Missy were wonderful,

Missy was wonderful... Capaldi was wasted.

 

[Kaka Tim]

That's one of Moffat's big failings: his tendency to produce overblown nothing. He did it in the Christmas-Town-on-Trenzalore episode. It's a style that reminds me of the horrible version of God Only Knows the BBC is showing atm. You drown out any subtlety by throwing all the orchestration you have at something, and hope the viewer/listener mistakes it for substance. It's X Factor TV.

It's a pity in this case, because episode 1 of the pair showed promise, and the Dr and Missy were wonderful,

Yep - thats the nub of the problem. Although RTD was possibly even worse for that sort of shit. But both have produced some great writing in their time. Maybe the role as Dr who head honcho gives you access to an inexhaustible supply of Venusian cocaine that turns you into a mushy brained meglomaniac.

 

[redsquirrel]

That's one of Moffat's big failings: his tendency to produce overblown nothing. He did it in the Christmas-Town-on-Trenzalore episode. It's a style that reminds me of the horrible version of God Only Knows the BBC is showing atm. You drown out any subtlety by throwing all the orchestration you have at something, and hope the viewer/listener mistakes it for substance. It's X Factor TV.

Spot on, subtlety of a brick. And this one wasn't even well plotted as belboid said there's a whole bunch of things you just go 'uh?' at.

 

[mwgdrwg]

thought danny's final speech was a bit much

It was like the speech in 'Pacific Rim'!

 

[Pingu]

I really wanted it to be good, but once again i'm disappointed by the second half of a finale, capaldi , missy and jenna were great , the story was just shit

^ This.

i was quite excited by the possibilities part 1 threw up but that one left me..... meh

 

[Pingu]

I've watched every season, with the exception of anything that contained Sylvester McCoy, because he was a non-starter.
As bad as some people might think Matt Smith was, he played a perfect role in the script. The script may not have been very good but he did suit the script, very well. Capaldi, on the other hand, is a much better actor, with, IMHO, a much worse script, and this is the bit that annoys me. I know that (given a better script), Capaldi could take Dr Who to a place it hasn't been since Pertwee... but I guess it's all a matter of opinion...

^ and this... in spades

 

[SpookyFrank]

It was like the speech in 'Pacific Rim'!

That movie would have been great if they hadn't cast such a terrible actor in the lead role.