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.

[Porochaz]

Each episode I give it a score in my head. The first episode I initially gave 0.5, that eventually went up to a 1. The second episode went from a 3 to a 4. This episode is difficult to write about, let alone review. I have so many feelings (and because Im re-writing this paragraph at the end, I know just how many feeling...).

Spoiler: Long Review - Im interested in people's thoughts on this, I know it's an essay and a half, but if you have the time...

This series strength is it's acting. For the first time I felt Bradley Walsh actually pulled his weight, at least at the end. The two younger ones have done well with the material they have been given but meh they need more. I think if they were to put more faith in them, it would improve the show massively. That scene behind the bin could have been done in a much more emotionally charged way and I think it would have given us much more to the characters. Show us the injustice and the frustration! I think they could have handled it and it would have given more dimension to the show and the characters themselves, who I feel aren't as fleshed out as they should be at this stage.

Here is my issue, I think it was brave to tackle the time period but my feelings are pretty much the exact same issues that I had when the whole "dr is female" thing came about. The writing isn't good enough at the moment without making a big hash of it. I'm not bothered by the gender, but I am bothered by the "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" aspect of it, a lot of the advertising has been "look at us, being so progressive" and actually I think that is ironically very regressive of the BBC.

The writing here was actually alright though. The ideas were great and executed well (except my biggest gripe). I loved the fact it was exclusively a human villain, it's not often that happens. (I can't think of any nu-who where that is the case) For the subject matter I think it needed to be. I thought that for the most part the time period was handled well, the racial tension was portrayed in a educational and interesting way and made me feel uncomfortable. The sets were excellent, the pace was good and generally I felt the story itself was a good one.

I have almost exclusively hated "the doctor visits the past and meets someone famous" stories. They are always a bit too on the nose for me and fawning over the person just because it's that person. This had that, but it felt different. Rosa Parks meant something to these characters and it came across well in the story (except for that fucking god-awful last scene that undercut everything). The villain manipulating things to go his way also I thought was a decent story (although I'm not sure how hinging history on that one moment - regardless, of it's importance - is something I'd be using as a plot point) I think it also is inherently sad and maybe an unintended by-product that racism is still rife in the 76th century in the who-niverse. I think the actress who played Rosa was phenomenal.

But even though the writing was good, the scripting wasn't. It let down the episode again, all 3 episodes would have been pretty decent if it wasn't for really terrible dialogue. It wasn't just bad. It was fucking dreadful. Everything that was said or done had relevance in the episode, so much so it became distracting and extremely clunkily done. "Elvis has a mobile phone" of course he does. That'll of course come in useful later on...

"that a time manipulator weapon, how do I use it?" Is that really your first question? After the doctor's just told you how nasty it is? The doctors just like "twist this knob, press this button and your good to go". This nasty weapon I'm telling you about, here is how you use it, it's fine, here you go. Feel free to use that information - cause you absolutely will because we made it a plot point. I won't use a weapon but here you can! There is so many issues with this...

It's not just that though. The problem I've had is that the show delights in telling you and repeatedly bashing you over the head with what it's going to do. It's more prevalent in US shows than UK ones but here it#s probably the worst examples I've ever seen. SHOW us don't TELL us, or even worse SHOW us don't TELL us then show us. The material was strong enough to stand on it's own. As a result the show became like an educational special - once again - a really patronising one. "I don't like knives" "Never use guns" "Racism is wrong" Stop making your characters "holier than thou"! Yeah I get that your not going to make your characters racists, but at least allow them some flaws. This episode really needed to be non-preachy and unfortunately because they felt the need to have the characters say everything they were thinking it became overly so. "We're not in the habit of explaining things..." Yeah right, doctor!

This was all very much summed up in the last scene of the show. A scene so misjudged that I can't think of anything in Who that made me feel that they got it just so badly wrong. The thing is, they could have ended it perfectly with Rosa being escorted off the bus, the music had reached a crescendo (the music was on point this episode) and it would have been a bitter-sweet ending. But that needless final scene on the TARDIS, to me smacked of "white woman tells two black youngsters about Rosa Parks" even though every single member of the team (including Ryan who did need a bit of a memory jog) knows exactly who she is. Then showing the asteroid, it's ancillary to my point, but it's taken 15 attempts to get home, but they got to Rosa's asteroid first time! What significance does that have to the universe beyond naming an asteroid or was that just another bit of pithy dialogue to crowbar an ending onto what was already a better ending?

There were other minor things, find more for your background actors to do for instance, the amount of people standing in small groups not going anywhere was starting to get funny. Also "Yaz... Ryan... it's safe" Call to the police officer you only are really newly acquainted to before your grandson... it's a minor thing, but it's yet another detail that should have been thought about a second more. Have the black guy with the shortest temper go off on his own... sideline Yaz... again! Graeme's a bus driver, did you know that? How can we use that as a plot point in every episode?

I've gone on a bit too much, but this could have been one of the shows best and this recurring problem let it down and it frustrated the hell out of me. I look forward to next weeks show, I like Chris Noth and Shobna Gulati I seem to remember being in something I enjoyed in the past. I like that they might be focusing on Yaz a bit more. I also like it if they are laying down some sort of gun violence storyline for Ryan. I don't trust the writing enough to be sure that they are, but that's two episodes now where he has fired a weapon and been willing to do so, so I hope there is some collision with the doctor down the road.

As for this episode I give it a 7

Short review - Great acting, great music, great sets, good story with some pretty inspired ideas, scripting massively let it down - show, don't tell - and made it feel patronising and preachy. The last scene was needless and so poorly misjudged that it upset me greatly.

[Porochaz]

1,352 words... now why did I always find 1000 word English assignments such a struggle? (probably because I wasn't able to rant... much)

Maybe I might finally complete Nanowrimo with a 50,000 word rant on tv shows.