|
Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Jul 10, 2015 4:59:02 GMT
Yes, yes! Seconded! Definitely watch from the beginning of the reboot, because they made it so that new viewers can start there...yes, including Christopher Eccleston. The story arc that stretches over all four seasons will make more sense then, because it actually covers Eccleston AND Tennant. Also, while David Tennant outshines him in certain ways, Eccleston is unique and has his own charm. That goofy adorable grin! I love David Tennant, and he will always be 'my' Doctor, but Eccleston will always by my first doctor. He's..."fantastic!" :-D You can always go back and watch the earlier ones later.
That's not to say I don't like the other Doctors. They all have their own personalities and reasons to love them. XD If only Steven Moffat wasn't a menace to society with his shoddy writing but that's a rant for another time.
Yes, Darkshines, nothing will ever be okay again. :-P The feels. THE FEELS.
But it's Doctor Who, so who knows?
OR DO I? >:-D
|
|
|
Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Sept 21, 2015 4:29:19 GMT
I just watched the first episode of Season 9.
Welp. That was...interesting. The setup was kind of slow, though. I wonder how long this arc will last...
Not amazing, but also not as bad as I feared it would be. On the whole, I liked this episode and am quite curious to see how it will play out next week. I'm quite glad they are having more two parters. 90 minutes seems to be Moffat's optimal writing length.
On another note, I don't think I feel ANYTHING about Jenna leaving. I had FEELS upon seeing all the RTD era companions go. I was even a little sad to see Amy and Rory go, to some degree. I just never got attached to Clara. I really wish her character had gotten better development. I like Clara, but I don't think her characterizatin was done justice. This isn't a spoiler, by the way. No spoilers were revealed in the making of this post.
|
|
|
Post by butterflywings on Oct 2, 2015 1:48:38 GMT
Yeah, he tends to seriously rush the ending on single part shows. I really don't like his writing, but I love Doctor Who. I'm conflicted. But I'm also a completist, so I have to see them all. I'm torn on Clara. I loved her character in the snowmen, but haven't been overly fond of her in all the rest of it. I miss Rose :/
|
|
|
Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Oct 2, 2015 6:03:11 GMT
You said it. I don't like his writing either, but I watch because I'm a fan of Doctor Who. Call it deluded hope or something, but I keep hoping that either he'll figure out how to edit one day, or that someone else will take over the writing, and that it'll get better. It's just frustrating...it's not even like he's utterly incompetent. It's just that I keep feeling that while flying by the seat of his pants is fine, he could do so much better if only he'd move past what feels like a first draft! I miss 10 and Rose and Donna.
|
|
|
Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Oct 20, 2015 4:24:22 GMT
I have to apologize in advance for the two rants. I just...I have very heated feelings about certain developments in Doctor Who. In a nutshell, I feel like too many potentially good characters have been lost to lack of development and drama over story. Doctor Who stuff in the spoiler, because apparently I'm talking about it here instead of in the proper thread. Vikings on a spaceship would break things. They would find weapons, pick fights, get freaked out by being in space, pick more fights and possibly end up taking over the ship. More to the point, if they saw Clara and Ashildr trying to open that door, I think they'd take their chances with the lightning rather than standing around tamely getting squashed. I'm getting steadily more annoyed by the senseless killing off of minor characters. It's not 'dark' or 'edgy' or any of that garbage. It's offensive and it's bad writing. Their lives should mean something even if they're only on screen for a short time. The episode I imagined where the Vikings and Clara fight their way through the spaceship while the Doctor saves everyone in the village was better. This contains spoilers for the new season. I like that idea much better, and it's really what I hoped would happen. Everything in that episode was just too easy. I'd hoped for some real struggle, and then the Doctor doing the Doctor thing...coming up with a real brilliant plan instead of just waffling around playing soldier and then electrocuting them and having Ashildr conjure up a fake dragon. She was supposed to be a great storyteller...why couldn't we see her REALLY in action, writing a real story around the space Vikings? I would have had her working hard to create a real story, which she would then have to change on the spur of the moment to accommodate the space Vikings' clever strategy...which, if I'd written the episode, they might actually have had. Thousands of years of terrorizing space, and they were routed by a madman with an electromagnet? As for the Vikings, yeah. I felt like having them prance around doing nothing but shouting 'we are Vikings! We die with honor!' kind of dehumanized them and shoved them into a stereotype box. I know Moffat is trying to bring back the feel of classic Who, but...really, some things should just STAY in the sixties. Couldn't agree more about the killing: not only that of minor characters whom we're never made to care about, but Clara's frankly cavalier attitude towards it. I mean, what even WAS the name of the girl who died in the Under the Lake sequel? Let's also not forget Moffat's own use of killing the Doctor every other episode. It gets old fast, because you just KNOW he's got to come back, because it's not regeneration time yet! Moffat is just heaping on drama for drama's sake, with nothing concrete to knit the story to. Yes, he may have good ideas, but he's completely ignoring what makes good ideas good: a good story. I've stopped feeling anything even for the companion, let alone minor characters. Why should I feel anything when I don't know why I should care? ...Kind of a haunting parallel to the Doctor's dilemma though, where he finds out that he chose his face ostensibly to remind himself to save people now and then. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It's not like he didn't know how to save Ashildr before. Whatever his personality becomes, the Doctor ALWAYS saves people he knows he can save. Has he really changed so much that he must remind himself to be brilliant and save one person? Was it Clara's influence? Bad character development? I have no idea what to think anymore. If it was any other TV show I would have stopped watching long ago. Clara is another thing, though. I really liked her at first, but while she started off as an enigma, she never really got her own personality or story beyond 'quirky girl who lies to her nauseatingly perfect boyfriend.' Beyond her shoddy character development, whatever's left of Clara is...kind of a terrible person, honestly. I mean, did that scene in Under the Lake where Clara demanded that the Doctor not die, or that he die with someone else that was NOT her, make anyone else just want to slap her? All of the other companions knew that their death and the Doctor's death was a real risk, and none of them ever stopped caring about the other minor characters. Clara, though...ugh. I have a whole other rant about Clara though, which consists of the coming paragraphs. It's copypasta'd verbatim from the NaNo site. It's really long, so it's in a spoiler tag. TLDR version, Clara is at best a lost good character who is underdeveloped, and at worst a self-righteous entitled b***h who thinks she's better than everybody else and has become completely disconnected from the rest of humanity. I don't know what to think about her, really. I don't know whether it's just bad/inconsistent writing, or whether she really has a negative arc that's actually going somewhere. She's a potentially good character who never got her chance. ... Clara is the Gollum of Doctor Who. The Girl Who Died.
I REALLY WANT ASHILDR TO COME BACK AS A COMPANION: IF NOT NOW THEN EVEN YEARS FROM NOW WHEN SHE IS ALL GROWN UP!
Yes, shouting intentional.
As for the episode itself, I kind of liked it, but...the world's deadliest space warriors sent running just because they got zapped by an eelectromagnet* and a dragon puppet? Not that I have a problem with that, but it just seemed too easy. I would have liked to see Ashildr's storytelling play more of an active part than just 'hallucinate a dragon.'
Given the quality of the shorter one episode arcs though, this one wasn't bad.
Also, did anyone else feel just a little bit happy when the Viking snapped the sonic sunglasses? They were cool, but I like the sonic screwdriver much better.
Oh, and I quite like the idea of a negative arc for Clara. I agree with the above poster, Clara IS an ungrateful b***h! She's been annoying me with some of the things she says and does, so it would at least be a little better if it was intentional than if she just gets away with it every time because she's the good guy, such a perfect companion. /sarcasm What happened with Danny then makes a little more sense too: she deliberately chose to cut off her last remaining human connection to fuel her Doctor addiction.
She's far, FAR too dependent on the Doctor, and he upon her. In the scenes where she is on Earth, it's clear that she feels like she's just waiting for the next adventure rather than getting on with her life. The Doctor even admits that she changed him in The Girl Who Died. She acts like the Doctor is hers and hers alone.
Clara is also practically turning into him, at the cost of losing her humanity and compassion for others. She doesn't so much help The Doctor as he really just sets her loose and uses her as a second self, especially when they get separated. He DEPENDS on her to do what he would do... I mean, she was always a fast talker, but does anyone else feel like she's deliberately adopting the Doctor's tricks of manipulation and screwdrivering like she's ENTITLED to have all that power, to BE the Doctor? She doesn't REALLY get what it means, though. She's like a child playing dress up in their parents' clothes...except she doesn't have the Doctor's bloody history and the lessons it taught him about the costs involved about becoming who he is.
That scene in the latest episode that flashed back to the Pompeii episode with Donna...it was Donna who reminded the Doctor to care about the people again, not Clara.
She has FAR more blind trust in him than any other companion ever did. It's kind of chilling how at the end of Under the Lake everyone who is left behind is scared they're going to die, but she doesn't even associate herself with the other humans, not even when the Doctor's ghost shows up. Not even Rose was that blind! They all knew that the Doctor is no god. They all knew that they could die. It was that fear that defined them, especially in the moments of defeat. What they and the Doctor did out of love and fear helped them win, because of helped them see what mattered most. Clara...has neither.
What's really terrifying though is just how easily Clara became the Master's minion. How easily Clara was persuaded to get into the Dalek! Very nice parallel to when we met Oswin, who yet remained human to the end. Vicious indeed from the Master, but would any other companion even have gotten that far WITH The Master? Blind faith is really Clara's downfall.
Heh. Unlike Oswin though, Clara would make a very good Dalek. Maybe I'm pushing the theorizing too far, but did the Master realize this on some level, and was trying to hint this to the Doctor over and above the obvious sick prank? Like, show the Doctor a Dalek that turns out to have Clara inside, except Clara is already a Dalek inside?
*See what I did there?
|
|
|
Post by Siana Blackwood on Oct 20, 2015 5:02:48 GMT
The sooner Clara leaves, the better... except that Moffatt will probably replace her with someone even worse.
It's a big ask, but I'm pretty sure he's up for it.
|
|
|
Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Oct 20, 2015 5:56:41 GMT
Oh, that probably IS what's going to happen, as long as Moffat is around, anyway. I notice this time around that a lot of the episodes are co-written or co-directed with other people, which could account for the slightly better quality of storytelling this season.
My nightmare is that Moffat will leave and be replaced by someone even worse.
/Shudder/
Okay, does anyone else REALLY want to see Rose, Martha, Donna, and Amy show up to slap some sense into Clara?
I must say though, Maisie Williams owned acting. In all her, say, 20 minutes of screen time, she did a hell of a lot better job than many of the other DW actors who had longer parts.
Apparently she comes back as the Knightmare. Can't wait to see where it goes!
...
Does anyone else want to see a Doctor Who episode with David Tennant's Doctor and Ashildr...written by someone who isn't Moffat?
|
|
|
Post by Siana Blackwood on Nov 23, 2015 6:02:08 GMT
Spoilers for 'Face the Raven'. Warning: contains grumpiness. So... apparently that was Clara's actual death? Even though there's psychic worms, a suspicious-looking 'expert' on quantum shades, a highly untrustworthy immortal, Clara choosing not to run from the raven and a convenient stasis pod right there? All those ways to make it a lie, and apparently that was genuinely it? Really not sure I buy it. Too many ways out, and if Moffatt is stupid enough that he didn't see them, he's worse at this 'running Doctor Who' thing than I ever thought.
|
|
|
Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Dec 1, 2015 8:58:51 GMT
I FINALLY managed to get caught up on Doctor Who. The Zygon two parter: I liked it, although it was a bit confusing about the Osgood box...I assumed that the Zygons had rebelled in various different forms before, but this was the first time it got THAT serious. Not sure, though. Sleep No More: I am said to say this beats out Dinosaurs on a Spaceship for being the absolute worst episode of Doctor Who ever. It was absolutely painful to get through. It's a level of crapitude that I wouldn't even expect from Steven Moffat, even though I wouldn't be too shocked. So I'm surprised to see that Mark Gatiss wrote it. Usually he does a much better job. I don't especially object to narration style storytelling, but in this case it really was just telling. I would have liked to see real development for each of the characters and their arcs. They were just names. The thrilleresque aspects were even dead boring, and confusing. When the sandmen attacked Rasmussen, I couldn't even tell who'd been attacked, or that he was supposedly dead.
Also, is it just me, or was the dialogue painfully stilted and awkward? Like...cardboard lines.
I really like the idea of a futuristic dystopia where countries and corporations try to outdo each other in a sort of galactic cold war, and thus seek to increase productivity by depriving people of their need for sleep and rest. This is a seriously cool science fiction idea.
So. It could have been anything. A nightmare scenario where all the dreams that didn't get dreamed come alive and hunt them. Serious psychological effects of sleep deprivation, like everyone becoming productive, but also becoming psychopaths because the brain never gets reset, so they all turn on each other. Of all the possible angles, he chose disgusting sandmen who evolved from rheum and gained sentience whose only aim is to eat humans, and the extremely cardboard evil scientist who was brainwashed by his creations/"children" and wants to inflict a plague upon humanity? One, ew. Two, WHY?
The whole thing plays like a first draft that was never cleaned up, really. Face the Raven: Yeah, it has been spread about since the beginning of the season that Jenna is really leaving. If Moffat sticks to his tendencies, she might get one last hurrah, but either way she's still heading out. She might return as a hallucination or recording. That's happened before. However, the extended extra dramatic goodbye scene, as well as the final mention of Danny, as well as the final open acknowledgement that she's just as crazy and reckless as he [the Doctor] himself is, leads me to believe that she really did die in that episode. Given how dependent they are on each other and how close they are, I really would have thought she'd have gotten a more dramatic and final death though. I mean, she IS the Impossible Girl who hijacked the Doctor's whole life. Also, if Clara is gone for good, what are they going to do for the last two parts, and the Christmas special? Still, I quite liked this episode. Ashildr is shady as hell, but Maisie Williams acts the hell out of that part. Her facial expressions add a depth to the character's conflicting motivations that I don't think a whole lot of Who actors made use of in similar situations *cough cough Clara*, which is why I still like Ashildr even if she is a little shit.
Is it horrible that I am only happy that Clara is gone? I just...I don't know, I couldn't stand her towards the end for some reason. Maybe it's because I kept looking for some indication that there's more depth to her actions than her just being a selfish, reckless, lying know-it-all. A horrible part of me couldn't help but be glad that even if it was cheesy and stupid, she couldn't smartass her way out of this one, and she finally had to face the consequences of her arrogance. Heaven Sent: *drops dead* *Henry resurrects* *passes out* *hyperventilates* *passes out again* *Henry douses with cold water* *wakes up, and emits a high-pitched fangirl squeal for about thirty minutes* (No seriously, I would have done this out loud if it wasn't almost four in the morning.)
This is hands down one of the best Doctor Who episodes EVER. How does DW do it? One day an episode will just be a steaming turd, but the next will be so brilliant you can't blink for weeks afterward. Heaven Sent, part 2 of 3 continuing from Face the Raven, just beats the crap out of every episode in this season...and every other episode in this run...and almost every other episode in the entire new series. Then beats the crap out of it all again. This is Steven Moffat's best writing ever. It even beats Blink, although unlike Blink, this can't be viewed by someone new to the show and without context.
If you're reading this, you've probably seen Face the Raven, so you know Clara's dead and the Doctor is alone and scared. I was on the edge of my seat already, but I held my breath when I realized that the Doctor was actually visibly afraid. Oh man. Then Peter Capaldi steals the show, as he alternatively grieves Clara, yet thinks of her as he thinks his way through the various tortures that CREATURE FROM MY NIGHTMARES sets him. Seriously some epic alone acting...whatever it's called when the whole plot is entirely carried by one character. This episode rivals "I don't wanna go" for top Doctor Who dramatic feels moments. Those bits in the TARDIS as a representation of both his end goal and the chalkboard conversations he had with Clara as a metaphor for his thoughts - LOVE IT OMG BRILLIANT.
That's it. I can't be dignified anymore.
ALL THE SKULLS ARE HIS I TOTALLY CALLED IT! AND THE DOCTOR IS NOW TECHNICALLY TWO BILLION YEARS OLD, OLDER THAN THE FACE OF BOE, AND HE FREAKING BURNS HIMSELF ALIVE THOUSANDS OF TIMES AND PENETRATES A WALL OF STANTIUM BY FREAKING PUNCHING IT AND IT'S BRUTAL AND EPIC AND HE'S THE HYBRID
and the minute he stepped through into the desert I almost exploded because
GALLIFREY IS ALIVE AND HE'S ON GALLIFREY AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!
GallifreyGallifreyGallifreyGallifreyGallifrey
and this whole episode is so Dark Arcana seriously can I just steal that entire castle dang and this whole season aesthetic is so Dark Arcana can I just steal it all can I can I so basically this episode woke Dark Arcana again
I'm so excited I lost the ability to form coherent sentences BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WAS THAT GOOD.
AND WHY CAN'T I HAVE THE NEXT EPISODE NOW?
AAAARGHANOTEHNHOEANUHNH!
*dies again*
|
|
|
Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Jan 7, 2016 6:40:40 GMT
Finally got around to watching The Husbands of River Song. I felt like the first half and the second half were a bit disjointed. Once I realized where this episode was going though, I kind of liked it. I think it's the only time River Song hasn't annoyed me. The ending? Feels!
|
|
|
Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Jan 23, 2016 17:37:02 GMT
Steven Moffat is leaving Doctor Who. The price is that there will be no new Doctor Who all year, except for the 2016 Christmas Special. Season 10 (Moffat's last season) will air in 2017, and Broadchurch writer Chris Chibnall is going to be taking over in 2018. He's got some very good episodes under his belt, but he also wrote the mess that was Dinosaurs On a Spaceship. We shall see what we shall see! Link
|
|
|
Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Feb 24, 2016 14:21:27 GMT
|
|
|
Post by LillianAltair on Dec 18, 2016 1:35:14 GMT
Hokay so I think I finally figured out how to express my 'favorites' in Doctor Who:
My favorite season is Season Five with the Eleventh Doctor My favorite Doctor is Nine My favorite companion(s) are Amy and Rory My favorite Doctor-and-Companion duo is Ten and Donna My favorite 'How does the Doctor grow and learn through his journey' Doctor is Twelve My favorite 'She's in love with the Doctor' companion is Rose
...and Clara can go right back where she came from XD
I never really liked Clara, for some reason. I know at the beginning it was because Amy and Rory deserve about twelve seasons of them being all Season-Five-y and Clara came after them so I was Resentful in that way people were Resentful of Martha after they kicked Rose off the show (Season 3 is the one I've least-watched (besides Twelve's seasons), so I can't figure out a reason to include her on my list even though she was super kick ass). And then they switched Doctors so I thought 'okay now maybe I'll like her now that she's not with Amy and Rory's Doctor' and uh...nope. I like her a little better, but I was still kinda like 'okay time to get someone new in for a Companion yes?' at the end of season 8 >_> I warmed up to Twelve though, he's super awesome ^_^
..you know, it's kind of funny how you can ask people 'who's your favorite doctor?' and they'll give you an answer immediately with no hesitation, but I'm just standing there in a panic because I love how Nine is deeply condescending to humans yet so excited to have Rose around and so deeply devastated by his actions that he fights so, so hard to keep everyone alive even though they all slip through his fingers ("Just this once, Rose. Just this once, everyone lives!"). But then, I also love Ten for the more usual reasons of David Tennant is intensely attractive and Ten has a more playful side to him and just wants to show Rose his universe but also has that flip side of 'I will burn this universe to the ground to get my friends back', and his rapport with Donna is, as I've mentioned, one of my favorite things on this earth XD And then there's Eleven, who loves fish fingers in pudding and whose first contact is tiny Amelia Pond and he's so joyful and happy and adores all children ("Never interfere in the affairs of other planets, unless there's children crying?") and he gets to travel around showing Amy and Rory the wonders of the Universe, and I'm just pretending that weird cynical 'I'm not happy anymore and Christmas is ruined' Season 7 stuff never happened >_> But then Twelve! Twelve who is so hesitant and confused at first but then he figures out the reason he's who he is and then he gains confidence and a touch of Scottishness that makes him (literally) rock and at that point I usually just squeak out 'David Tennant?' because picking The Hot One is better than having to go on a ten minute rant about why I can't pick just one XD
Edit: Finally got around to reading the rest of this thread and it's good to see I'm not the only one who disliked Clara XD
|
|
|
Post by Siana Blackwood on Apr 26, 2017 15:13:27 GMT
So, anyone else watching the new season of Doctor Who?
In case not or haven't had a chance yet, my only comment will be that I think the writers spent a bit of time reading Douglas Adams in their break. Also the new companion is better than Clara.
|
|
|
Post by Missy on Oct 24, 2017 20:57:43 GMT
So, 10 weeks to C-day... who's excited? (Pardon the pun) I just can't wait for Twelve to meet One - and honestly, Bradley was so. damned. good in An Adventure in Space and Time that I'm delighted to see him play the Doctor properly. Kind of wish it could be for more than one episode. And Jody. OMG.
|
|