The Pilot

I wasn't going to watch this drivel but there was sod all else on worth watching so I watched it. There was no plot and the daleks were just used as a form of eye candy and nothing else. No fuckin wonder Capaldi is leaving.

They never properly introduced Nardol as a companion. I wonder how Lucas will fare when he gets something serious to do. He will have to do some real acting at some point or he will just undermine the tension in dramatic scenes.

And what dynamic will he have with Kris Marshall?

4.6m (24.8%)

Saw The Pilot last night.
Well, I didn't hate it. It was... okay, I guess. Same with Bill, I doubt she'll ever be a favourite but unless she plunges rapidly downhill in the next few months I doubt I'm going to despise her like I did Little Miss Smugpants. The plot was fairly thin but it was an acceptable enough 'companion introduction' story very much in the vein of the RTD era, and I found Nardole rather amusing, personally. I reserve the right to loathe it on reviewings, especially if the rest of the season sucks, but so far not bad. Worst thing about it was River's photo on the Doctor's desk. Oh for fuck's sake Moffat, nobodys buying what you were selling with that joke character, so just drop it already for crying out loud!

Not having Clara around was a breath of fresh air

Absolutely agreed.

Not terrible, not great.

What I didn't like:

Moffat yet again reveals how his own 'head-canon' trumps the shows continuity by having the Doctor have access to an assortment of Sonic Screwdrivers. Firstly this ruins the sombre moment the fifth has when his sonic is destroyed and secondly it doesn't work with the 50th anniversary episode where they use the same sonic (with a different casing) between three generations to carry out the calculations necessary to escape the wooden doored prison.

Puddle monster, unexplained. Basically take the monster from 'Waters of Mars' and defeat it by 'releasing' it of its duty/actions aka 'The Mummy on the Orient Express'. Moffat showing he is out of ideas again in the very first episode.

The Doctor's complete control over the Tardis, I know this is an old gripe but its true. He can now control the thing with what appears to be pin-point accuracy, where the TARDIS goes and what time of day it arrives at.

What I liked:

The Vault and lack of explanation

Having a new companion and surprisingly I didn't mind Nardole either (human K-9 equivalent?)

Capaldi in the blue-lined coat and his rush to change into the Red-lined one before Potts turned round to see the inside of the Tardis revealed - illustrates the Doctor's love of theatrics

burrunjor wrote:
I wasn't sure if it imitated a Dalek or if it killed and possessed the Dalek's corpse before dissolving it completely?

NARDOLE: I've sealed the area. All the Daleks are quarantined. Except that one.
DOCTOR: It's okay. This isn't a Dalek. Look. Look at the eye.

Interesting to note that Nardole thinking he sealed off all the Daleks is backed up by the Doctor says it isn't a Dalek, but.....

DOCTOR: Interesting. You had a gun but you didn't use it. Why?

OK, so it isn't a Dalek but can replicate to the extent that it has Dalek weaponry? I think that is just utterly silly.

Anyway, it apparently wasn't a Dalek.

Why was the Doctor teaching at a university?
Does he get cash in hand or volunteer or does he have a bank account and national insurance number?
How did he know where the puddle was?
How did he know the woman's face wasn't symetrical? Bill only said there was something wrong with one of her eyes, she could have just been partially blind in one or anything from that vague information.
How did the Doctor know how to track Bill's mother down to take a picture? Did they become friends or did she not notice some guy in her house taking pictures of her?
What exactly was the Doctor's plan with going to the Daleks?

Terrible episode but Nardole was somewhat entertaining. As much as I hated him in the specials, I'm going to go on record and say he's going to be the saving grace of this series. And judging from how stupid the emoji robots sound, I'm going to bet that will take us all by surprise and be the best episode of the series too. I really hope I'm wrong on that one.

I wasn't going to watch this as I gave up for good three years ago and haven't looked back since, but I'm poorly today and bored. Not my cup of tea at all, but Capaldi looked great in that red coat and felt to me more acceptable as the Doctor than anyone else has in the modern series.
The new companion seems so far less hateful than that last harridan they had, if effectively an uninspired composite of her other predecessors. One moment I did quite like was the reveal of the TARDIS interior, but less so her hokey reactions to it all.
The CGI is still tacky, and the music awful, omnipresent and inappropriate, so no change there.
And I could really do without George-bleedin'-Dawes.