Very strong first outing today for the new Dr Who episodes.
Don’t want to spoil it – but this song is referenced by the brilliant Missy character and a dalek commands “maximum extermination”. Some other very, very cool bits too.
Doctor Who takes the Mickey
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Oh, beHAVE. It was appalling!
Oh, alright, not flat-out appalling, but really not at all good. I will enumerate its faults:
– Enormously pleased with itself
– Impenetrably self-referential.
– The jokes aren’t funny.
– Capaldi, while a wonderful actor, isn’t a good Doctor.
– THAT VILLAIN AGAIN?!
– Michelle Gomez is great, but has little to do but yell the words “flirt!” and “Scotland!” apparently at random.
– Shite sub-villain, the idea for which is nicked off Harry Potter.
I was having a chat with someone who hasn’t seen DW for decades. He watched this one, and literally couldn’t make head or tail of it.
It’s supposed to be inclusive Saturday night entertainment, but now you need a degree in fanboy to understand every third line. That can’t be right, can it?
And the electric guitar bit? Jesus, I wanted the ground to swallow me up – or, ideally, swallow Stephen Moffat up.
Oh go on, Bob – when the snakey villain announced his arrival and said “We bring harm!” are absolutely sure you didn’t respond internally “He’s a little short on…charm”? 🙂
Ha!
NO MORE RHYMING GAMES! I MEAN IT!
The hand mines, the planes freezing in the sky…
The hand mines were nicely creepy and a good start, but the planes? They didn’t – ho ho ho – go anywhere.
Agree it has all become too self-referential – I even read the recap in this morning’s Guardian but lacking a degree in Dr Whoness I’m still not sure what’s going on
My sons new teacher is a big Dr who fan, so he asked if we could watch it together. He was partly confused – he’s six, but mostly just bored.
As said above, Gomez is fab, the hand mines were creepy, capaldi seems mis-cast, Gomez is fab, Davros again zzzz and Gomez is fab.
Even the theme tune seems a bit tame.
Your son’s teacher is only six??!!
I enjoyed it. It’s DW so I would.
It didn’t feel like a series opener, though. I wanted to see the Doctor coming back all strong and Doctory after the self-doubt of Series 8. Missy was more Doctory than the Doctor in this ep. However, I am a second year undergrad in Who Studies, so that probably aided my enjoyment.
I haven’t watched the show for ages, but I recall some heated debates on the old site about how good or bad it was. I’m not one of those folk who thinks that the glory days were in the 60s and 70s. I absolutely loved the 2005 re-launch and stuck with it for a long time, but the decline started towards the end of the Russell T. Davies era.
But at least Mr Davies could tell a fucking story. Mr Moffat’s tenure has been disastrous (if you’ll concede me the exaggeration of describing someone messing up a TV show as ‘disastrous’). As Bob pointed out, Moffat has turned the show into something that is not only enormously pleased with itself, but is impenetrably self-referential.
To use another phrase: it disappeared up its own arse a long time ago.
Afterword t-shirt 1 ‘the glory days were in the 60s and 70s’
2 ‘it disappeared up it’s own arse a long time ago’
I thought Moffat’s first two series were outstanding – and his own episodes during the Russellty Davies era were some of the best Doctor Who ever broadcast – notably the Silence In The Library two-parter and, of course, Blink.
Series 6 was where he started to jump the shark for me – the Doc being universe-famous and universally feared, and at the end of that arc, it seemed that he might try to scale it back to something a bit more intimate. But it didn’t take long for the hysterical panto DW to re-emerge, and it was out in full effect last night.
At the risk of being self referential meself, this is the kind of thing I was banging on about in my I Didn’t Realise You’d Been Away/ Sorry, Do I Know? Post. So much TV has no ambition to be “inclusive Saturday night entertainment”. Show runners prefer to add new layers to their own convoluted mythos. To be fair, I thought in this case they made some effort to bring the kids up to speed on the returning characters.
I’m also inclining to the view that Capaldi is a fine actor but not a good Doctor, but compare his first dozen or so scripts with those of Ecclestone, Tennant or Smith and he has been badly served.
(Also: I thought by an large the writers identified the actors’ best qualities and wrote for them – Ecclestone was best at the serious emotion, Tennant the action hero, Smith had a gift for physical comedy).
Every episode now seems to feature some interesting ideas that don’t pay off, odd pacing, moments that make you think it’s going to take off followed by moments that make you cringe..
The Missy/ Clara face off was great although the lead up to it was daft and the scene that followed… well it tanked.
I agree with you about the quality of Moffat’s writing in those episodes, but I still think it was a mistake to give him the keys of the car.
It’s Eccleston! Eccleston! Stop getting Who wrong
Anyone who talks about Peter Davidson will be DELETED
Typical Moffatt Who – great in five minute chunks, an incoherent mess at longer length. RTD (and Tennant) stayed a series too long, and Moffat’s done more than that already. I really wouldn’t be upset if he announced this run was going to be his last.
The bit with the guitar had me cringing, I don’t understand why the Doctor thinks he’s dying or why he then went off to a medieval banquet with some really crappy sets, or why there were biplanes shooting lasers on Skaro. Clara marching into UNIT headquarters and immediately taking over and seeing things none of the scientists or military had noticed was pretty laughable. And I don’t like the way the main story appears to be heading to a retread of Genesis Of The Daleks, but part two may yet prove me wrong on that score.
But… Michelle Gomez is great, I was genuinely thrilled when the kid said “Davros” (incidentally, not sure why people are yawning at Davros’ reappearance – by my count this is only the second story that’s featured him in twenty seven years, so hardly overplayed), loved the handmines and Davros’ messenger, and my eight year old thought it was brilliant.
Last para fair enough – I liked the Davros bit too. I more meant the Daleks in general when I was talking about “that villain”.
Kids fucking adore the Daleks. When Moffat speaks to any kids and ask their favourite villain it’s always the pepperpots. So you may be cynically eye-rolling but loads of kids are gonna be exterminating the fuck out of each other in the playground tomorrow.
It’s not cynical, Dave. I just didn’t like the episode – thought it was poorly written and indifferently acted. That’s allowed, isn’t it?
Your problem was with the villain / Daleks, I’m saying that a lot of the younger audience will be cock-a-hoop they are back. I find them dull but as long as we get some Davros action then I’m happy to see em.
The ‘pleased with itself \ self reverential’ argument is one that I never get. This is bold, brash, family entertainment. It’s Saturday night, it’s saying here’s the Doctor on a tank riffing away, its the show-offy stuff we’ve seen Smith and Tennant but somehow an older man doing it is seen as embarrassing. It’d showing that despite changed appearances he’s the same man inside.
Yes there are plenty of lines that fans will go “ooh, that’s like that speech in ‘Genesis Of The Daleks'” only to be rewarded with a sound clip later. Moffat even puts the words “Ok, yes I get it, well done” in Capaldi’s mouth to try and head off the haters at the pass. BUT those are there for the nerds and do n harm for those who are unaware of that level of knowledge.
There’s nothing I can say to make you like it same as no-one could ever convince me to watch the dull sport, detective shows and baking bores that Doctor Who’s revenue helps fund.
My problem with the tank scene was the words rather than the props. While I accept that it emphasises that they’re all the same dude underneath, I think – as I ref’d above – Smith is the natural clown who could pull this scene off. And I don’t think Capaldi’s age is the problem. By far the worst modern Doctor to put in this scene would be Ecclestone who was only 40 when he was wielding the screwdriver.,
I, too, agree on the pleased-with-itself verdict.
But that first five minutes! No, I didn’t see the “Davros” punchline coming either and it sent a genuine chill through me.
Pity that what followed camped it up too much. And I also feel with a creeping dread that, yes, Capaldi is a great actor and, no, he is not a great Doctor. Plus, there is an awful lot of talking about a plot rather than being a plot.
You all realize that Doctor Who is a kids show , right?
Just for context, you’re pointing this out on a website which grown men and women in their 40s, 50s and 60s use to post passionate opinions about pop music. 😉
Women! How the blahddy hell did they get in? *puts paper over face, orders another whiskey*
It was brilliant up to the title sequence. After that, a confused, confusing mix of slapstick and horror, completely unengaging, and leaving me quietly relived when some of the main characters were exterminated. Except they’ll be back, won’t they? There’s zero jeopardy. How can you care about characters that can’t die? The music’s more intrusive than ever too.
I love Moffatt but I wish he’d go back to writing clever timey-wimey stories with jokes rather than clever-clever story-arcs without them
‘relived’ wasn’t intentional but it’s kind of appropriate
Just watched it. Really, really boring. But I must say, I find Michelle Gomez (Missy) a total joy to watch. A fascinating actress.