Doctor Who

[xRECKONERx]

TBH, I dug it. I think Jodie is a fantastic Doctor. It'll be really hard to top Capaldi for me, but she feels like a Tenant-like Doctor without all the overt campiness.

I also like the slightly darker tone. Capaldi was a darker Doctor but usually the context around him wasn't super dark.
But this one is so different. Jodie is a brighter, bubblier Doctor, but the surrounding story is just so brutal and dark. I liked that.

I think complaining about happenstance is silly. Yes, the Doctor fell through a train that happened to contain the right set of characters. I wouldn't want to watch a story about how the Doctor just landed somewhere else. These were the people who happened to be near her when she fell, and they're the ones who will accompany her. We could've had a story about the Doctor falling into the train and then used none of the characters? I dunno, "omg so unbelivable and coincidental" feels really silly as a complaint when we're talking about a scifi show that once explained time travel as "wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff".

The episode felt overlong, I'll give you that much. I think it introduced the characters well (maybe my favorite set of characters in a first episode ever) but then the main alien plot felt like a B-story to the character A-plot.
The hunter alien was grotesque, and I liked that. The teeth embedded in his face were so gruesome.

That cliffhanger was good, too.

[AxleGreaser]

Yes, the Doctor fell through a train that happened to contain the right set of characters.

When the Tardis became personified in the episode where they went to some other pocket universe because the doctor "got mail"

She did say she always took him where he needed to be, even though it wasn't always where he was trying to go.

I dunno, "omg so unbelivable and coincidental" feels really silly as a complaint when we're talking about a scifi show that once explained time travel as "wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff".

with the Tardis having archived 30+ control rooms, some or most from the future, simply picking a coincidental place and time to drop Jodie/Doctor seems pretty run of the mill.

I was worried I might not like a perhaps forced marriage of broad church and Dr Who. But it seems fine so far.

[Postie]

Just finished watching

The acting felt almost unwatchable levels of awful
Am I going crazy like it's not just me right?

And I think about 80-90% of the characters' dialogue could have been switched and I wouldn't have noticed

There were a couple of things I liked that might have had potential if someone had gone through the script and edited and re-edited it a couple of times over
Just overall this felt like a rushed sort-of first draft of an episode that no one put the time in to actually fully develop into something decent

[Porochaz]

Just finished watching

The acting felt almost unwatchable levels of awful
Am I going crazy like it's not just me right?

And I think about 80-90% of the characters' dialogue could have been switched and I wouldn't have noticed

There were a couple of things I liked that might have had potential if someone had gone through the script and edited and re-edited it a couple of times over
Just overall this felt like a rushed sort-of first draft of an episode that no one put the time in to actually fully develop into something decent

I don't think the acting was awful (from some actors), I thought for the material given it was good. But yeah I agree with everything else.

[Cheery Dog]

All I noticed about the plot was that other guy on the train is going to be important.
I pretty much blinked when the transport thing was moved to the garage so don't understand that. I feel like it would have been better in the long run if she just had the sonic screwdriver all along. That whole area just meant we had to skip actual developments of the plot. It would have been sonic solves everything, but I feel that's better than hey the doctor solved it but there's no real reasoning as to why or how, especially when it was sonic solves anyway. The bits that weren't shown to increase the drama at the end make sense, although the timing seems a bit off for when it was actually done.

And it's still doctor who, as we had pointless deaths happen in it. (Random guy with the salad)

[Kublai Khan]

I try not to judge the new Doctor on the first episode. It's always the "I'm regenerating and can't remember yet" annoying stuff. I'm never a fan of that. The companions are pretty decent. I think Yaz will be an early favorite.

But I agree with Poro. The writing is pretty weak with too many coincidences.

Though the line of the night was the Doctor thinking the alien's name was "Tim Shaw?"

[Vijarada]

the acting sucked. the young male one really really sucked especially. the episode looked great and all though and the characterisation was good.

[Aeronaut]

i reeeeeally disagree with the acting stuff, especially jodie. Thought they were all pretty full and brilliant characters.

[xRECKONERx]

yeah yall are wack

[Iecerint]

This was out of the best Doctor premiere episodes I have seen. I really love Jodie. My boyfriend had never seen DW before and watched it with me; he was really engaged.

I felt quite attached to the supporting characters, too. Particularly, the grandmother stole most of the scenes.

[tanstalas]

I liked it.

[Aeronaut]

It's got a 95 on RT, cool

Yeah I think that I felt like this was a very solid episode.

[Davsto]

yay that was a good episode

not exactly going on any "best of all time" lists but it was super fun to watch and for me has set me up to be dead excited for the series as it fixed a lot of the worries I had from the first episode:
- The script actually let Jodie have a good amount of emotional range
- Lost the constant joking and got a bit less light-hearted and as a result didn't suffer from the mood whiplash of the last episode...
- ...but still kept the whimsy that Doctor Who tends to feel wrong without

My only real issue is that the episode's side characters were pretty one-note. But they nailed the tone and fingers crossed that's a great sign for the series.

[Porochaz]

So my problems the same as last episode... Im watching it and the scripting... my god, the scripting...

Im at the point where "brains beats bullets" bit of the episode and like the knife bit last episode it smacks of being really patronising rather than anything else. We know the doctors stance of guns but fuck me don't beat me over the head with it.

I also am yet to believe the companions as real people... I don't feel they are acting as real people (or as other companions in who lore, I guess) would. Episode 2 and they are all still cardboard cut outs of characters. At episode 2 with Amy, Donna, the multiple versions of Clara, Bill, even Nardole, I started caring for them more than I do these guys.

There is a lot of saying rather than doing or letting the audience work things out themselves.

The other thing is I don't like this version of the Doctor. She's arrogant, patronising, judgemental, know-it-all who doesn't shut up. She doesn't have any positive attributes or flaws yet. Also the old "doctor solves things just like that" issue is in abundance again. It's shit writing. It's when you write yourself into a corner and have the doctor literally click her fingers and solve everything, "just cause". (actually at least that plot resolution was set up and didn't just come out of nowhere, if they could do that more than once an episode that would be peachy)

This was a better episode. I'll give it that. I came out of this episode not hating it but wishing it was better than it was. But man, they need to make the doctor likeable and they need to have someone better writing the episodes quickly.

[Aeronaut]

The other thing is I don't like this version of the Doctor. She's arrogant, patronising, judgemental, know-it-all who doesn't shut up.

You've just described literally every single incarnation of the doctor ever

[Porochaz]

But most of the others had likeable aspects to counteract that. I also wouldn't have called many of the others patronising either.

[xRECKONERx]

really didn't like this episode. felt like a massive step down from ep 1 for me

[xRECKONERx]

"CALL OF DUTY RAHHHHH" was so dumb

[Cheery Dog]

The ending of the race seems a bit wrong, they were expected to die most likely, and leaving them afterwards would have been the obvious option to any such villains, but I guess that episodes characters were all that episode.

[Aeronaut]

I think my issue with this episode is that the editing is like terrible. A lot of times people are talking with their back turned, and like the pacing doesn't make a lot of sense. Idk. Also Yas has almost nothing to do, and all of the companions are really interchangeable as far as demeanor and helpfulness.

However, I loved two parts: character stuff on the boat, and the ending. Ending is awesome.

[Aeronaut]

oh and the music I thought was really good?

[Kublai Khan]

I think my issue with this episode is that the editing is like terrible. A lot of times people are talking with their back turned, and like the pacing doesn't make a lot of sense. Idk. Also Yas has almost nothing to do, and all of the companions are really interchangeable as far as demeanor and helpfulness.

Yeah, that's the issue with 3 new companions and a new doctor. They all need to take turns center-staging for a moment. I'm sure there will be a Yas-centric episode coming up.

[Aeronaut]

On the bright side, I do see Jodie as The Doctor, if just not fully there yet. It definitely is an adjustment since while it's awesome she's female, it's still really different than the previous incarnations.

I think that worst case scenario, this could be an awkward bland season like series 8 kinda was, and then we could be treated to some other awesomeness after that.