Doctor Who (2016) - Meet Bill
I skipped ahead to watch last Saturday's episode and whoa. That was some intense television - it's been ages since I'd been knocked out by a story, but that was really well done and took on some big ideas about grief, the Doctor's thought process (how much his mind accomplishes in a second), and his spirit of perseverance. That was also one of the scariest monsters the show has done in a long time.
That was a really crazy idea to give Peter Capaldi his own episode and fantastic to see how he really made it work. Perfect for his Doctor. Tom Baker had a similar story in "The Deadly Assassin" where he pretty much carried an entire episode by himself. This was a great way to shake this up for a show that desperately needed it.
Of course, this could all fall apart with next week's finale but for now, it was great to feel enthusiastic about the show again.
The week before puts the context in, and I suspect we'll need that for next week too. Clara had some strong moments in it and her death will rival Rose's for impact and for flashbacks.
They're setting up Maisie Williams in an interesting way, and last week it was almost as if she was aligning with the Master/could become Missy.
The death of Clara was not emotional for the audience, I think, but the dramatic tension was big and every character is impacted, every time zone and dimension is impacted. The impossibility of Soufflé Girl was evoked fairly well without anything much being done.
SPOILER:
The confession disk loomed large as the elephant in the room. It's the season's Big Thing.
project37 said:
Me too. This is a great writeup that sums up my (our?) feelings:
http://whatculture.com/tv/7-reasons-youre-getting-tired-of-steven-moffats-doctor-who.php
I agree with everything in this article.
In better almost-news...well, watch the video clip.
http://www.vulture.com/2015/11/peter-jackson-teases-directing-dr-who.html?om_rid=AAA8sH&om_mid=_BWXLjXB9Ikqip5
Finally, D has decided to catch up on the season. Finally!!! We've just watched the two Zygon eps together, and have that awful Morpheus space station one for this evening. I have to pretend I'm excited about it. Oh dear!!
Anyway, in discussing the Osgood boxes and checking up an answer to something, I came upon the following review. It stood out for me because it highlights the theme of the season as the Doctor's mistakes, which I'd not thought of before. Nor had I linked that so clearly with the conscience/confession disk. Often these kinds of things become clearer as I rewatching, and as we discuss them; how sad is it that it's almost Christmas, and no one really seems to care much???
I'm up to date apart from the last episode, but can't tell D. And of course we're awaiting a Christmas offering if there is one.
http://io9.com/on-doctor-who-the-doctor-is-willing-to-play-seriously-1741223256
This will be a Christmas episode, and it will feature River Song.
Max, more than that, there are interviews about this episodes with Alex Kingston, Peter Capaldi, Mark Gatiss, and one of her husbands. ( it's called The Husbands of River Song) Go to Dr Who News; Canada has already announced when they will air the episode. The US hadn't by the time I went to bed but the expectation is that it will be the same time as Canada.
http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2015/12/xmas-interviews-101215190008.html#.VmwV_nCAgJk.mailto
we've just seen the last ep of the season - what a pity about the graffiti!
Still don't know what you are talking about. Is it something I should have seen in the episode?
did we like the Christmas special?
I have to admit, I thought it was a nice touch that he seemed more comfortable than she did, and I also thought there were a lot of little 'in jokes' scattered throughout that possibly meant they were trying too hard as an ensemble.
I liked the Christmas episode more than anything I saw all season. I was particularly moved by their "farewell" scene at the end. Found a lot of familiar references to laugh at.
Is anyone else a little disturbed by too close a resemblance these days between the writing of Doctor Who and Sherlock? I think Gatiss and Moffatt need to do some work to differentiate the two programs better. I admire their wit and sense of dialogue and pacing, but really... I should not be thinking about the Doctor while watching the Abominable Bride.
Haven't caught up with Sherlock yet, but I'm finding the ubiquity of Gatiss somewhat annoying as I don't find him that wonderful in the first place. (He's acted in a few things we've watched, written odd eps of other series; it's great he has work but it's annoying too)
I like Gatiss a lot. I think his writing is very clever and funny. But I think he is teetering on the brink of excessive glibness these days. Maybe his success has gone to his head. When I start thinking about the writing and the writers instead of the characters and the plot, something is going in the wrong direction.
My kids (college age) have declared Steven Moffat the source of all evil in the world. It has ruined the Doctor for them, and now they are starting to hate on Sherlock. It does bother me that they take their popular culture so seriously. I would say more, but I have to finish my translation of Mockingjay into Klingon.
I am working from the original Elvish, so it is taking longer than I expected.
Thanks Max. Now I'm envisioning LOTR rewritten by Steven Moffat. Wormtongue would probably sound a lot like Moriaty.
you're both making me shudder. And I write this as a speaker of several everyday 'normal' languages.
For me, as a person who's watched since I was very young and it first showed in Australia in the 1960s, the current plot woes are down to Marketing taking itself too seriously and directing production and storyline development ("we need 3dalek tie-ins, and there's 2 Comicon panel appearances booked so let's have a River story and Classic series Doctor. Which one can we get? Find a thingy from his time and write that in"). Then there are the rules: are we allowing the TARDIS to change this time? Are we going to talk about regeneration? What about home? Who for - is there a companion or a bunch, do we look at them? Etc. by the time you deal with all that, nothing is new and there's no time for anything new. So they fiddle with the credits, find a new medium to exploit (twitter novels or something) and let fandom do its thing.
I don't know... I don't think Grima had the brains to sound like Moriarty. But what a creepy idea.
Thank goodness:
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35388748
Unfortunately, his replacement is the guy that thought this was a good idea:
http://i.imgur.com/8hMjs6r.jpg
And here he is being a jerk to the show's writers on national television in the 80s. Wonder if his criticism will come back to haunt him...?
https://youtu.be/irIqTPQqgvQ?t=4m37s
Wasn't this predicted a while ago? Thought I read something back before Christmas...
I thought that noise was just people on this thread complaining about his writing. 
Who will write Broadchurch? Or has that been cancelled?
This (third) season of Broadchurch will be the last, apparently.
More details of the announcements here:
I'm wondering if we might get some Torchwood creeping back in. (Better garbed, hopefully) And maybe, some people remembering that this meant to be a kids/family show, so the horror can be kept appropriate. (D was quite upset over some recent seasons that catered more for the parents than the kids)
The horrors almost always look very cartoonish to me. Which ones did you guys think were too much?
I will miss Broadchurch. Right now they could take Doctor Who off the air and I wouldn't really notice.
But we're adults. We have friends whose kids couldn't watch some storylines because it all too much. (One bright child found the weeping angels, and the crack in the wall, too scary because of the implications if he saw a statue or a crack...)
I haven't watched. Not sure I'm going to.