Series 11

At the end of the episode is a "coming soon" trailer listing all the guest stars...some I know, some I've no clue about, and some I have REALLY no clue about.

Zarius wrote:At the end of the episode is a "coming soon" trailer listing all the guest stars...

Wow, lowest-common-denominator, Heat magazine-style stuff.

Shit pop music, globalist 'diversity' lessons and an obsession with celebrity.

Now, I used to complain about these turds in the RTD era, but they've been transformed from annoying obstacles into the main raison d'êtres of the show.

This is looking thinner than a gravy in a gulag.

I just love it. Chibnall v Chibnall. The show has adopted everything wrong with the John Nathan-Turner era, per its detractors.
It's a pantomime, only where any semblance of fun has been replaced by antagonistic politics, malice and appeals to self-importance.

See you all in about 6 months. (That’s about when my library will get this series and I might watch it.)

Do they really count as 'guest stars' just because they're actors that have been in ... something? You may as well print the whole cast list for the season.

I figure that saying, 'somebody you've seen somewhere else is in this,' is the best advertisement they can pull at this point.

This was okay but a I cannot take Judy Whittaker seriously. However, I really loved the music on this and the new theme tune is brilliant.

The 'Coming soon' bit was redundant, but I enjoyed it overall.

Pros:
Music was cool
Companions were all likeable
Bleak atmosphere
Night scenes looked good


Cons:
Jodie's performance was out of place and actually ruined the tension at times
The villain was crap looking
Last ten minutes were a bit boring
The guest star bit at the end was pointless

I'm going to give it a 6/10. I can only imagine how great it might have been if a better actor was playing The Doctor.

Very mediocre episode overall. Not terrible, but not good either. It was very "meh".

The manner in which the Doctor survived the massive fall out of her TARDIS was just as I predicted: Stupid as hell.

You know how she survives? She crashes through the roof of a stationary train. Yeah, that's it. No explanation whatsoever as to how she managed to survive such a huge drop. We're all just supposed to blindly go along with it. Yawn.

Jodie's portrayal of the Doctor is VERY reminiscent of David Tennant. As in, constantly making all these goofy, unfunny remarks at extremely inappropriate times that completely suck the tension right of any dangerous situation she's in. Not really liking her Doctor very much so far to be honest.

There were quite a few cringy moments in there as well. Like the Doctor somehow managing to construct her new dild- I mean Sonic Screwdriver in some dingy little garage using melted spoons. Also, she somehow manages to completely format Ryan's cell phone in a matter of seconds and modify so it so that it can be used to track down alien life forms, and without using any Sonic Screwdriver trickery. How the fuck did she do that exactly?

A lot of the dialogue was pretty awful too. Most notably from that nervous guy with some kind of anxiety disorder that the alien was holding hostage at the end.

"I am valued.... I am special". CRINGE.

I have to say though, I do actually quite like the new theme song. Nice catchy drum beat with some good synthesizers. It's certainly a huge improvement over the awful noise that Capaldi's Doctor had.

All in all however, it was a fairly unremarkable, generic episode that doesn't exactly have me very hyped for the next story.

Final rating: 4/10

You know how she survives? She crashes through the roof of a stationary train. Yeah, that's it. No explanation whatsoever as to how she managed to survive such a huge drop. We're all just supposed to blindly go along with it. Yawn.

Are you serious? I'm tempted to watch now. WTF. She fell from the height of a plane! Tom Baker got killed falling onto grass

So far the general consensus seems to be, opening and closing credits were the best bits

Doesn't sound good for an opener. This is really their best shot at attracting an audience.

I haven't heard the music but I wouldn't be surprised with an improvement considering Murray Gold's low standard.

So, the fall was completely pointless then? Just a shit cliffhanger? At least they didn't make it a political statement like on the teaser.

I'd be surprised if the dialogue was above-par if Chibnall wrote it.

Bear in mind the opener will probably be their best this season, or at least ought to be: logically, aside from a good finale. Interested to see the ratings.

Are you serious? I'm tempted to watch now. WTF. She fell from the height of a plane! Tom Baker got killed falling onto grass

Yup. Chinballs simply had no coherent way of following up on the Doctor falling out of her TARDIS from such a great height, so he just chose to completely gloss over it and move on.

So far the general consensus seems to be, opening and closing credits were the best bits

The new theme song was literally the most memorable part of the entire episode. No hyperbole.

burrunjor wrote:So far the general consensus seems to be, opening and closing credits were the best bits

Segun Akinfola's score was my highlight. I might just keep watching just for the music.

Passable I'd say, but a lot of pacing issues, and I guess the sonic can be Macguyvered from anything.

burrunjor wrote:So far the general consensus seems to be, opening and closing credits were the best bits

There were no opening credits but the closing credits had the best version of the Dr Who theme since Dominic Glynn’s Trial of a Timelord version. Also as I mentioned before the incidental music was the best since the Sylvester McCoy era. Let’s hope this continues and we have heard the last from that shit bombastic farty brass band music. Segun Akinola did a very good job.

Zarius wrote:

I know Lee Mack from QI, I have no idea who the fuck any of those other people are supposed to be.

iank wrote:I know Lee Mack from QI, I have no idea who the fuck any of those other people are supposed to be.

Top two were in Corrie but overall, the upcoming stars were so unknown, it seemed like a spoof concluding with "The Postman".

burrunjor wrote:

You know how she survives? She crashes through the roof of a stationary train. Yeah, that's it. No explanation whatsoever as to how she managed to survive such a huge drop. We're all just supposed to blindly go along with it. Yawn.

Are you serious? I'm tempted to watch now. WTF. She fell from the height of a plane! Tom Baker got killed falling onto grass

Severely glossed over to the point of farce.
They didn't even fall back on the old "early hours of regeneration hand-growing back" explanation.

I broke and watched it but not in any way that would contribute to viewing figures. I thought it was a great honking, steaming pile of crap

You know what it reminded me of… The Stranger videos that Bill Baggs used to do. It was cheep, the acting was poor and it only happened because they couldn't do proper Doctor Who!

That it was pretty good, a lot of problems but by nuwho standards it was one of the better episodes. It left me feeling hopeful for the show in a way I haven't felt since the start of series 5. Most of the episode was a bit shakey but it came together for the climax and I look forward to seeing if they can keep that up.

Highlights:
- Production values are amazing this year. The visual effects, the cinematography, lighting, sound design, direction were the best this show as ever had.
- The music was great throughout. Shame we have to wait until next week to see the opening credits because the new theme sounds great and the image behind the closing credits was very 60s Who.
- I thought the climax was quite well done, as I said above, the episode really came together once they reach the building/shipping site. Some of the shots there had a lot of atmosphere and I was genuinely surprised by the set piece on top of the cranes. It's also here we see more of a new Doctor instead of a Tennant rehash.

Problems:
- The monster was weak. When the production values look so much better this year it's a shame they still can't make a suit that isn't obviously rubber. The actual make up was well done but the design was goofy and they could have done something more with the character than a bad Predator rip-off.
- Not sold on the companions yet. Bradley Walsh was fine but the other 2 leave something to be desired. The acting from them wasn't great and the characters (Yaz in particular) were a little underwritten.
- Way too much glossing over of things. For a sc-fi show it wasn't at all interested in the science.
- Showing off how many guest stars you have is never a good thing, showing them off when half of them are nobodies is a joke.

Ok, I watched it. Don't blame me, I didn't put it on. I have to say it was worse than I had expected, especially considering the vaguely positive reception I've been hearing. I was laughing through most of it.

-Jodie was appalling. I could not take her seriously, she comes across as a total airhead.

-The tone was entirely flippant, until the end. Lots of jokes, the only one that was vaguely funny also happened to abash the villain, revoking any concept of tension.

-I wasn't impressed by the directing. The production was generally good, but it felt very homogenous. It felt immature.

-The music was underwhelming considering what I've heard thus far. It fitted with the textures of the production but it was fairly repetitive and a little tasteless in places. Lift music.

-The story was pretty poor. A mixture of generic sci-fi tropes and bits and pieces of earlier stories. The turnip ship - like Human Nature; the crane scene - like Logopolis. The Doctor's regeneration was barely noted, essentially: 'Oh, I'm a woman now.' They finished with a typical Chibnall 'sad' moment, with the death of a black woman who could not act. Cheap.

-The dialogue was uniformly awful. I would have been cringing throughout if I were trying to like it.

-The companions are as predicted. No real character, just 'attributes'. Muslim girl is a strong independent police officer. Black guy has dyspraxia, which was strangely played for laughs before revealing the disorder. White guy has cancer in remission, so that's presumably going to be another classic Chibnall 'sad' arc later on. Nobody is allowed to speak with imperialistic Received Pronunciation. Performances weren't the best, especially from the support.

-The, 'I am special, I am valued,' affirmation guy feels like a authorial inject from the Chibbs. I imagine this is what he listens to whilst he gets his follicles inserted.

-The design was shite. The alien was a poor-man's Predator that looked like a Power Ranger's villain. The special effects weren't memorable.

-'...Outlawed in all civilized Galaxies.' Good Doctor, you aren't implying the existence of cultural inequality now are you?

-(Referring to the sonic screwdriver being more like a Swiss Army Knife, but without a knife) 'Only idiots carry knives.' I'm pretty sure a utility knife is not intended as a weapon. Regardless, with the Doctor's new morality, is this scene now retconned?




-There was also a monologue about 'change' - with obvious implications. Otherwise, I'm surprised: there was very little explicitly 'political' in the episode.


Overall it was very substandard, even for NuWho. Two thumbs down.

At least it's better than The Shitmas Invasion. I'm actually optimistic about the series, something I haven't been for many years. There were many positives to take away from last night's episode which was rarely the case during Capaldi's turgid tenure.