Doctor Who Season 11 [ Spoilers ]

pixelburp · 30-10-2018 2:30pm

Axwell wrote: »

The Rosa Parks one had its point to get across and thats fine but it just overpowered the episode for me. The bad guy was popping up every now and then in the episode with his plan to change history and then was simply dealt with by Ryan blasting him into the past. Like this weeks ending it just seemed rushed to just get rid of him in the episode so they could get back to the moment of Rosa on the bus. The bad guys overall involvement just felt very throw away and he was pretty much irrelevant in the overall story of the episode and easy to forget. Too much focus on highlighting racism and not enough on the sci-fi/baddie of the week for me.

Whereas I thought there was too much deference to the requisite 'sci-fi' baddie. The plot could have worked just as well were it (say) about Ryan accidentally causing a butterfly effect, leading to Parks not being on the bus of infamy. It doesn't hurt to shake the formula up a little, and it was refreshing to see something that at least tried not to lean into a formula that's arguably beyond stale.

It reminded me a little of the Vincent VanGogh episode: while the aforementioned 'sci-fi baddie' was itself analogous to VanGogh's battles with depression, it also constantly got in the way of what was otherwise an affecting, character driven piece. It couldn't just be about a drama about Amy & VanGogh forming a tragic friendship - nope, we need whacky aliens!

Like I said, it's a show about time-travel, so it doesn't hurt to occasionally visit other times and tell a story within that period that doesn't rely on some tentacled creature of the week; praise is earned IMO for (teatime audience notwithstanding) showing prejudice and racism as ugly as it was, and how the past was as dangerous - and alien - as any trip into space could be.

Doctor Who is ostensibly the most flexible science fiction / fantasy show out there, so it shouldn't be afraid to have a few more strings in its bow.

TheValeyard · 30-10-2018 7:24pm

At least they are trying to bring some variety to the bad alien of the week.

Not simply rotating Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, etc.

Current doc reminds me a bit too much of 9th Doc. But it's early days.

Really missing Murray Gold. Soundtrack is all over the place.

Lady Spangles · 31-10-2018 4:05pm

I've loved the series so far. But 'Arachnids' just fizzled out into not much of anything at all. Now I'm imagining those spiders trapped in your man's panic room, cannibalising each other. There'll be just one huge spider left, locked in that room. Urgh!

corkie · 02-11-2018 4:31pm

No Christmas Day special, but a New Years Day episode instead.

This is why Doctor Who will NOT air on Christmas Day for first time in 13 years

pixelburp · 02-11-2018 4:43pm

Probably for the best if true: those Xmas day specials were getting really stale & were often pretty terrible, naff episodes.

Necronomicon · 03-11-2018 10:17pm

I thought Episode 4 was the weakest of the new series. The writing was really poor for my money - the plot completely fell apart at the end, it's the second episode in a row with a flat and one-dimensional baddie, and the political subtext was about as subtle as a punch to the face.

I was quite positive after the first episode, but I'm getting a touch concerned. The episodes just feel a bit bland and pedestrian to me. Moffat was divisive as hell but I don't think people in either camp would use those words to describe his writing.

CastorTroy · 04-11-2018 5:29pm

Has she had an authoritative moment yet? I don't think we've had one scene where I was thinking "Ah the bad guys are in for it now".

ebbsy · 04-11-2018 10:08pm

I thought that episode might be good.

Instead there was too many companions with nothing to do, and a monster that was totally stupid.

My problem with all this is that the likes of Capaldi and Baker (Tom) were able to deliver the goods with weaker scripts, due to their acting ability. Matt Smith died on this rock for me, and It looks like Jodie will go the same way.

Yes they have managed to tick all the various demographic boxes, both with companions and scriptwriters, but at what cost ?

Stark · 04-11-2018 10:23pm

Big yawnfest. Let's hope next week's is better.

CastorTroy · 04-11-2018 10:51pm

She needs a villain that she actually has to fight, like the Cybermen or the Daleks.
Of the 5 episodes so far, it seems the guy in the first episode was the biggest intentional threat to her. Rosa guy was more a nuisance, spiders were just there and Stitch this week was just passing through.
What are the odds that next week will involve bad guys who "Mean us no harm" and/or can just be talked down?

Franz Von Peppercorn · 04-11-2018 11:49pm

She’s also a pretty dumb Dr. It took her a long a while in this episode to work out what the aliens were after

energy

which was obvious from beginning. Jodie is almost there as dr who - she definitely has the requisite oddness, ethereal way but not that much authority.

Franz Von Peppercorn · 05-11-2018 12:00am

pixelburp wrote: »

Whereas I thought there was too much deference to the requisite 'sci-fi' baddie. The plot could have worked just as well were it (say) about Ryan accidentally causing a butterfly effect, leading to Parks not being on the bus of infamy. It doesn't hurt to shake the formula up a little, and it was refreshing to see something that at least tried not to lean into a formula that's arguably beyond stale.

They almost had that butterfly effect because it was fixing the doctors cloak that slowed her down, after the alien was zapped back to the past.

However the whole premise you mention and the premise of the story itself after the alien was removed doesn’t lend itself to the idea of a moment in time that had to happen. There’s very few of them; possibly the shooting of Franz Ferdinand (but some even argue that the war would have happened eventually).

Possibly stopping the birth of somebody or killing them before their actions (eg hitler) can alter history, but the civil rights movement in the states didn’t depend on Rosa Parks being on that bus, on that day, at that time, with that driver. She could have protested at any time the same circumstances happened, which they would. It didn’t even need Rosa Parks.

Das Kitty · 05-11-2018 11:36am

Last night’s script was truly terrible. As someone else said, you shouldn’t feel smarter than the doctor, and definitely not that much smarter. She’s being let down by these scripts, all she does is awe, technobabble and apologise. No opportunity to be authoritative or a bit unsettling, or you know, alien.

The busy work for companions subplots are fierce boring.

Every script so far had Chris Chibnall on a writing credit. I think there are a few coming up written by other people. So fingers crossed

Stark · 05-11-2018 12:05pm

Never forget Chris Chibnall gave us "Cyberwoman" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberwoman

TheValeyard · 05-11-2018 9:34pm

I really like that new Gremlin alien.

Pting

Pting-e53cd6f.jpg?quality=90&lb=620,413&background=white

CastorTroy · 05-11-2018 10:33pm

Have they ever said why the TARDIS is self repairing yet still looks like a police box? Is the chameleon circuit the only part it doesn't repair?

TheValeyard · 05-11-2018 11:53pm

CastorTroy wrote: »

Have they ever said why the TARDIS is self repairing yet still looks like a police box? Is the chameleon circuit the only part it doesn't repair?

Maybe the Tardis is dying. It is pretty ancient at this stage. And it's owner has been pretty wreck less at times.

Franz Von Peppercorn · 06-11-2018 1:26am

CastorTroy wrote: »

Have they ever said why the TARDIS is self repairing yet still looks like a police box? Is the chameleon circuit the only part it doesn't repair?

That’s never been repairable.

Angron · 06-11-2018 10:37am

Wasn't a fan of the latest episode, I kept zoning out while I was watching it.

Doctor DooM · 06-11-2018 12:18pm

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

That’s never been repairable.

Murray TheDemonic TalkingSkull wrote: »

Maybe the Tardis is dying. It is pretty ancient at this stage. And it's owner has been pretty wreck less at times.

CastorTroy wrote: »

Have they ever said why the TARDIS is self repairing yet still looks like a police box? Is the chameleon circuit the only part it doesn't repair?

Time to be an old school gate keeping dick

The fourth Doctor wanted to fix it, the Sixth succeeded.

My memory of it is very hazy (the last time I saw that episode I was a young kid) but I kinda recall the Tardis behaving like it was disguising itself reluctantly, deliberately looking out of place or the wrong size or whatever.

This might be an interesting exercise in how crap the human brain is, because the TARDIS has consistently been written as a well meaning troll to most people but the Doctor for the last few years (especially Clara). This is what I'd EXPECT it to do.

I must go look it up

ixoy · 07-11-2018 1:04am

Doctor DooM wrote: »

Time to be an old school gate keeping dick

The fourth Doctor wanted to fix it, the Sixth succeeded.

Yep and just confirming that, when the fourth Doctor wanted to fix he went to Logopolis. That did not end well (final Tom Baker episode) for him.

Plenty of other shenanigans with it (http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Chameleon_circuit). The one I always recalled was the 7th Doctor New Adventures story line where he *did* fix it (well an alternative TARDIS from 'Inferno') but then deliberately broke it because he basically had grown used to the TARDIS shape. And ultimately I think that's sort of continued on - it's what the Doctor is used to and he/she has no desire to change it now.

donegal_man · 07-11-2018 5:10am

Liked this week's episode more than the last two, at least they actually disposed of the p'ting. Now to the gripes. The pregnant man story seemed to be just an excuse for another bonding moment between Graham and Ryan. What's the betting we'll see "lovable" p'ting toys in the shops before too long if they're not there already?

pixelburp · 08-11-2018 10:12pm

Fair play to the FX team, cos the P'Ting looked great; all the FX has been pretty decent this year, but for an all CGI creature it held up well.

And yeah, I daresay we'll see it again, in toy form too I suspect. Helps that it was only accidentally malevolant.

Bit of a flat episode otherwise, and once more went to the old school well with the "Base under siege" story of yesteryear.

Looking forward to the Indian episode: should make for a fresh cage from the standard UK/US focus on historical episodes.

Stark · 08-11-2018 10:25pm

I thought it looked like **** to be honest

though probably more to do with the creature design itself rather than the CGI

pixelburp · 08-11-2018 11:31pm

Stark wrote: »

I thought it looked like **** to be honest though probably more to do with the creature design itself rather than the CGI

Ah yeah I could see how the design itself wouldn't go down well - it was very intentionally designed for maximum cuteness - but the actual CGI was decent, especially compared against other computer generated monsters of the last few years.

jim-jam · 10-11-2018 1:21am

pixelburp wrote: »

especially compared against other computer generated monsters of the last few years.

The Slitheen instantly spring to mind!

Necronomicon · 11-11-2018 10:51am

We're having a hard time letting go of our Saturday evening Doctor Who tradition in our household, so running a week behind. Just caught up with Episode 5, and I find myself with much the same reaction as I did to last week's: it was...fine.

And that's sort of the problem for me. None of these episodes are bad. They're all pretty functional (apart from a couple of ropey resolutions, Chibnall's tendency towards walls of exposition, and one-dimensional antagonists). But I want more from my Doctor Who. It's not like we never had average episodes in previous eras; but this is a longer run of episodes that have left me feeling flat than I can remember in any previous series, and more worryingly they're all from the showrunner.

Moffat's episodes were a lot of things: exciting, frustrating, elating; at their worst, convoluted. But never bland. When I saw his name on the title of an episode I knew it wasn't going to be a run-of-the-mill story. I'd even say that applies to RTD, if not to the same extent. I'm starting to feel the inverse when I see Chibnall's name on the title. Maybe I'm being harsh and way premature, but I have no confidence that he could deliver something that was in the same stratosphere as Heaven Sent, for example. I'm looking forward to seeing what other writers do for the next four episodes, and then what Chibnall can give us for a finale.

TheValeyard · 11-11-2018 8:06pm

The Valeyard better make an appearance. Well overdue.

flazio · 11-11-2018 8:51pm

I'm sorry, but this just isn't entertaining me anymore.

CastorTroy · 11-11-2018 11:44pm

Yeah. There was a time when I would look forward to watching but now it's just another show to watch.

I won't deny it was a decent episode, but once again the alien problem is talked away.

And none of that episode made any sense, unless it's all predestination. If the holy man was killed, how did they get married if the Doctor wasn't there originally? And were there no other guests due to the partition? I'm not saying her memory is bad, but Yaz's gran forgot one of only 3 other women at her wedding?

Doctor Who Season 11 [** Spoilers **]

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Doctor Who Season 11 [ Spoilers ]