Doctor Who TV Show • Page 16

I did enjoy this episode whilst watching it and then immediately after I started reflecting it the holes became pretty clear. Same thing had happened with The Ghost Monument and The Orangutan Camembert so it was becoming sort of a pattern

 

Yeah, I guess I was so surprised that it felt like a Doctor Who episode of previous years that I didn't start to think through things in detail. Still think it's a decent episode overall and some of the things Ellard points out I don't think mattered as much as previous episodes in the last few weeks.

It was definitely disappointing as an overall finale.

Yes, it's hard to know - I've treated this as a finale because the next episode doesn't follow a week (or so) later. We've got half a month to go so I'm treating New Years Day as a special. I know with Capaldi they did have one or two of the Christmas specials as part of the series, but this seems more separate due to the gap.

And yeah, I guess they have their reasons and I imagine that finance plays a big part. Although, they're paying for so many big name actors/actresses across their bigger shows these days that I do question how effectively they choose to use their resources.

 

the New Year's Special is called Resolution which is slightly promising, lol. but I don't think there's going to be some amazing game-changing finale which makes the weaker moments of this season retroactively better. if anything the further this season got away from its baseline "arc" style, the better it got, with the weirdest episodes being by far the best (Kerblam and It Takes You Away)

 

What did everyone think of the NYD special? Nice to have the Daleks as a returning foe.

 

Thought it was kind of naff, with too many weak plot lines being weakened further by there not being enough time to actual explore them properly. Think it showed a lot of the problems we've seen across the series, coupled with a less interesting plot than a lot of episodes.

I'm increasingly bored by the familiar soap opera stuff which surrounds the companions. I just don't care for that in Doctor Who.

 

I actually liked this one, and it felt like a proper end to the series than the really lame Battle of Technobabble Van Whatever. the Dalek possession stuff is the first time they've been genuinely terrifying since S1 I reckon

probably Chibnall's best script, even with that atrocious wifi scene and the fairly forced happy ending between Ryan and his dad

 

I'm at the point where I watch the first episode of every season, get really excited for the rest, and just forget about it entirely.

 

Question for anyone: What's the state of play with the Dalek these days? I genuinely can't remember. Obviously they had all been destroyed when the Doctor ended the Time War. I know they've been back many times since then but at what point did they return property so that, for example in this episode, it could contact a fleet of Dalek? I couldn't remember and half of me kept wanting the Doctor to turn round and say to this old one that they were all dead... but obviously that isn't true any more? I swear I've forgotten so much of what happened in the last couple of Smith series and then all of Capaldi, despite watching them religiously.

Second thing: Was the UNIT cut due to funding disagreements a cheeky comment on Brexit? Felt like it.

I can see what you are saying. The fact that the enemy was intimidating helped me.

Yeah I loved possession concept.

 

they pretty much didn't get destroyed in the Time War. RTD used the "one Dalek/ship/fleet fell through time" so often that it seemed like most of the Daleks had fallen through time and survived the Time War, which is how we got a gigantic fleet of Daleks with the capability to literally destroy time in The Stolen Earth/Journey's End

Victory of the Daleks (in Smith's first season) pretty much established the Daleks as a fully powerful and self-replicating force again, even if it came with a wacky redesign - from that point on they've not been a "survivor of the Time War who escaped" so much as just a new breed of Daleks. in Asylum of the Daleks they a) instituted a Parliament system as opposed to having an Emperor Dalek and b) forgot who the Doctor was when Clara wiped their minds, both of which pretty much went absolutely nowhere. and as of The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar, in Capaldi's second season and their last real appearance before this episode, they rebuilt their home planet, so it's probably safe to say that they're back on their peak as far as technology and capabilities go. that's about as well as I can timeline it off the top of my head

 

Damn, I’ve forgotten so much. Thanks for that!

 

no worries. there's probably a bunch of stuff I forgot but yeah

Ellard's notes on this episode - as usual he praises the right stuff and critiques a bunch of stuff that needs to be critiqued. this one was my main problem with the episode - "We have a woman controlled by an alien, a dad insisting he knows what’s best for his son, and a Dalek without communication to its high command centuries out of its time. These three things can really reflect each other, one informing the next. But they don’t."

 

Such a good point. Reading through his tweet notes over the series have really highlighted how the themes have really been lacking or not utilised as efficiently as they should have been. Hope Chibnall reads them, haha!

 

Whoopi Goldberg asked BBC bosses to give her the lead role in Doctor Who. She's still dying to appear in it.

Can't tell if she asked them whilst they were casting Jodie Whittaker or before. I for one was hoping they'd go for a POC so this is quite interesting to me.

 

Two episodes shortlisted for an award. Two of the better episodes of the series to be honest.

 

Finally catching up on this and I feel like the sound mixing or levels are off. The music is way too loud, the talking is too low and muffled.

 

Just saw a teaser trailer on BBC... looked exciting! “Coming soon!”

 

Sir Lenny Henry and Stephen Fry have been confirmed for roles in the upcoming series too.

 

I think it got off to a shaky start, but Whitaker’s first season also pulled off the rare Doctor Who feat of ending a season better than it began. Looking forward to the next series.

how were the rating last year? I feel like there’s no real buzz around this show these days, but maybe that’s just being in the midwest or something?

 

Doctor Who TV Show on BBC America: Ratings (Canceled or Season 12?) - canceled + renewed TV shows - TV Series Finale

Here in the UK, ratings for the last season started off very high purely because of HYPE!!!! and then stabilised to a core of ~7m viewers (which is about 1.5-2m higher than the average of the previous two seasons).

 

January 1st!

 

Oh wow way quicker than I was expecting

 

First episode will be a two-parter. Title is "Spyfall".

Also, confirmed news that there will be a Christmas/New Year's special next year as well as the new series.

 

that's a truly painful title, but the two-parter idea is certainly exciting. Chibs' best episodes so far are TWWFTE and Resolution, where he had more time in the longer episode format