My huge Doctor Who episode marathon.

[Peter Capaldi Fan]

Following on from the impressive Bleming 2 parter.

The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood - The second reason I was not thrilled when Chris Chibnall was announced as showrunner. This is not a bad episode just middle of the road.

You are given an interesting quandary which is not fully developed. When you have a two parter there is more scope to explore your ideas. The writing is simplistic which does make the story drag in places.

I like the cliffhanger. And it was a good idea to separate The Doctor and Amy for the most part. The main cast are on the whole excellent. Although with the moral dilemma presented I feel Smith gives one of his weakest performances (more due to the writing). For me he comes across as too light-hearted and lacks gravitas.

Smith and Gillan both give an excellent performance when Rory is killed and I like the use of the crack in the cavern wall.

McIntosh and Syal are the best of the support characters.

I love the re-designed Silurians. I think the original worked well in their time but would look out of place in the modern era.

Overall 5/10

[Peter Capaldi Fan]

On a completely different note. I hope you enjoy Pet Sematary.  Be interested to know how it compares to the original.  But that's something for the Films Watched thread.  

[shodgson]

12 hours ago, The Friendly Dalek said:

The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood- This is one of the worst episodes of this series in my opinion. I really don't like this story.

Chris Chibnall gives us a very dull and boring story here. It drags a lot, and watching both episodes back to back was a bad idea. 

The Silurians look awful, I'm not a fan at all of their design in modern Who. This story tries to explore similar themes to the Silurian stories of classic Who, but it does them in a way that is so uninteresting and just made me wish I was watching the 70s story about them instead. 

From an acting standpoint, this story isn't too bad. The regulars are great as always. This story falters in the writing department, and the majority of the supporting characters are dull and bland. 

The sets look good and the story is well shot. The visual effects are also good, and I like how the time crack was utilised at the end of this story. 

Overall- 3/10.

Have to say I love this two parter myself. The design of the Silurians for me is great, although i'd prefer if they were not unmasked so to speak, just like the classic versions.

[The Friendly Dalek]

39 minutes ago, Peter Capaldi Fan said:

On a completely different note. I hope you enjoy Pet Sematary.  Be interested to know how it compares to the original.  But that's something for the Films Watched thread.  

I'll let you know what I think of it when I see it today. 

[The Friendly Dalek]

Vincent And The Doctor- This is my favourite episode of this series, and is one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes. This story is heartbreaking, and is one of the most beautiful that has ever come out of this show. 

The best thing about this episode is Tony Curran as Vincent Van Gogh. His performance is amazing. Smith and Gillan are excellent as well. Richard Curtis' dialogue really shines, and there are many brilliant lines and moments throughout this episode. 

The scene in the museum towards the end of this story is the best scene in the episode, and the performances from everyone involved are beautiful. 

The whole episode excels from a production standpoint as well. Everything looks gorgeous, it is so well shot. The set and costume design is great as well.

The only thing I dislike about this story is the Krafayis. An invisible monster is an idea which could be interesting if executed well (in fact previous Doctor Who stories have featured invisible creatures as well) but this story doesn't quite succeed in making an interesting monster out of that idea. However, the episode surrounding it is so close to perfect that I can't bring myself to take a point off because of it. 

Overall- 10/10.

[Peter Capaldi Fan]

Vincent and The Doctor - This is a very brave episode given the age range of viewers for Doctor Who. However it's subject matter is sensitively handled. I love this episode. Possibly the best use of an historical character. Richard Curtis'dialogue is superb. Smith and Gillan are both excellent but the stand out performance is Tony Curran. The scene in the museum is beautiful and well acted. The Krafayis are the only thing to let this down. It's a small thing but I don't think they needed to show them. Sometimes less really is more.

Overall 10/10

[Bumper8]

Van Gogh was an interesting character and I agree that Tony Curran did a fantastic job.

[The Friendly Dalek]

The Lodger- Vincent And The Doctor is my favourite episode of this series, but The Lodger is a close second. I love this one. 

Companion-lite episodes are always interesting, and I love seeing how The Doctor operates without them. The setting of this episode is perfect. The Doctor has always had an awkwardness to him, so seeing him forced to live with someone and trying to fit in leads to many hilarious moments. 

James Corden's style of comedy has always been hit-or-miss to me, but I think he was great in Doctor Who. Gareth Robert's script is fantastic. Daisy Haggard is also very likable as Sophie, and their romance is well written and portrayed in a way which isn't irritating. Romances in episodes like these tend to be more grating than interesting, which is why it is nice to see an episode which manages to do it well.

The only problem I have with this story is the resolution. The set up is great, but the pay off wasn't. The episode also ends far too quickly, the resolution is too simple. Other than that though, this episode is almost perfect.

Overall- 9/10.

[Peter Capaldi Fan]

The Lodger - It's great to have a fun episode just before a finale and this one fits the bill perfectly. Smith is excellent in this. I love The Doctor's social ineptitude when dealing with humans. James Corden is great. Fortunately better use was made of him than Peter Kay in an earlier episode. The interaction between Corden and Daisy Haggard is just right.

However I do agree that the ending is sloppy and altogether far too convenient.

Overall 8/10

[The Friendly Dalek]

Sorry, but I'm missing another day of this.  I'm seeing Hellboy in 10 minutes time instead today. 

[natedammit]

17 hours ago, Peter Capaldi Fan said:

James Corden is great.

You've dropped in my estimation.

[Peter Capaldi Fan]

1 hour ago, natedammit said:

You've dropped in my estimation.

Only in this one episode of Doctor Who filmed nearly 10 years ago.

I haven't lost my sanity (yet).

[Peter Capaldi Fan]

16 hours ago, The Friendly Dalek said:

Sorry, but I'm missing another day of this.  I'm seeing Hellboy in 10 minutes time instead today. 

So going off the Doctor Who topic briefly. What did you think of Hellboy?

Admit I didn't think it was a patch on the original.  A stellar cast did their best but the writing was weak and there was an over-reliance on fake blood and gore. 

If they decide to make a sequel (which is possible given the end) I hope it's an improvement otherwise I probably won't bother to see it. 

5/10

[The Friendly Dalek]

6 minutes ago, Peter Capaldi Fan said:

So going off the Doctor Who topic briefly. What did you think of Hellboy?

Admit I didn't think it was a patch on the original.  A stellar cast did their best but the writing was weak and there was an over-reliance on fake blood and gore. 

If they decide to make a sequel (which is possible given the end) I hope it's an improvement otherwise I probably won't bother to see it. 

5/10

I love the Del Toro Hellboy movies, so I was excited to see what else could be done with the character and story, but this one doesn't hold a candle to the previous films. 

David Harbour was an excellent choice for Hellboy, and he is easily the best part of the film. The cast is excellent, but the material they were given isn't worthy of their talents. I agree that the writing was poor, and the over reliance on violence just didn't work. There were many references to the Hellboy comics which I enjoyed. I have no problem with violence in film so long as it is there for a purpose, but it feels like this film just threw stuff at the screen and hoped that it would improver the overall film, but it actually ended up dragging it down further in my opinion. The effects in general were pretty bad, which is unfortunate. If a sequel s made, I would see it to see more of David Harbour as Hellboy, but other than for him I wouldn't be at all excited for it.

Overall- 3/10.

[The Friendly Dalek]

The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang- This is the first time that Moffat crafted a storyline that was too big for its own good in my opinion. The Pandorica Opens is a good episode, but The Big Bang is very messy.

The leads are excellent, and Alex Kingston is still very good as River. The Pandorica Opens is a lot of fun, and is excellently paced. The cliffhanger is brilliant. If I was just ranking that episode I'd give it around an 8/10, because supporting characters aren't that interesting, and I'm not a fan of the storyline regarding Rory being an Auton. 

My big issues with this story come from The Big Bang. To be fair to Steven Moffat, there was probably no way of neatly tying up a story arc with a scope as large as this one, but The Big Bang does suffer due to this. The story is far too complex, and the ending is essentially just pressing a reset button, causing everything to return to normal. The script is messy and all over the place, as is the plot. I also found it to be poorly paced due to the extended run time. 

Overall- 6/10.

Overall rating for Series 5- 7/10.

Moffat started strong. Matt Smith is great throughout this series, as are Gillan and Darvill. The whole series looks and sounds more impressive than the Davies era did in my opinion. The Davies era was charmingly small scale for the most part, but this series was much grander in terms of scale. This is an interesting series, because the first third and the last third of this series consists of strong stories, but it really sags around the middle thanks to stories like The Vampires Of Venice and the Silurian two-parter. This is the first time that Moffat bit off more than he could chew, and although the time crack arc was well used during the series, the finale was far too rushed and messy and made the whole arc unsatisfying as a result, because Moffat's ideas are sometimes too grand there's just no way he could have resolved it satisfyingly. 

Edited April 12, 2019 by The Friendly Dalek

[Peter Capaldi Fan]

The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang - You can't fault Moffat for his ambition. But I agree he didn't make the whole story work.

This is one of Smith's finest performances. Gillan and Darvill have some great moments between them. The production is fantastic, it almost has a cinematic feel to it. I love the cliffhanger. But it's the second episode where it starts to go wrong. I am not convinced that the lighter tone works when compared to the first episode. The solution is far too convenient. It's as though Moffat didn't really know where to take his conclusion.

Overall 7/10.

Moffat's first series as showrunner does give a good indication of his whole tenure. Sometimes complex but often imaginative. And arguably very fan centered. Smith does a good job as The Doctor. But for me his first series was his best.

[The Friendly Dalek]

A Christmas Carol- Despite this story being one of the most predictable the show has ever produced (considering it is basically the orignal story that everyone knows, just ever so slightly tweaked), this episode is still very enjoyable. 

Moffat proves he can write a good Christmas episode, as the dialogue is excellent. This is a very fun episode in my opinion, and the pacing is great. 

The cast are fantastic. Matt Smith really shines, and Michael Gambon is excellent as Kazran. Kazran is an interesting character, even if his character arc is essentially exactly the same as what happens to Scrooge in the orignal Christmas Carol story. Katherine Jenkins is good, and her singing is great. 

The production as a whole looks and sounds fantastic. The set design etc is excellent. 

The main issue I have with this episode is some over-the-top ideas which I don't think worked (the flying sharks are a great example), and the sub-plot regarding Amy and Rory. When the story is focused on The Doctor and Kazran it is really fun, but the secondary plot is dull and uninteresting, and I just wanted to return to the Kazran story whenever we cut back to Amy and Rory. 

Overall- 8/10.

[Peter Capaldi Fan]

A Christmas Carol - I really think Moffat wrote the best Christmas specials and this is definitely one of my favourites. Probably helped by the fact that this is one of my favourite Dickens novels. Second only to Great Expectations (now if Doctor Who could somehow weave that into an episode).

There is humour, drama and scares. Smith is again excellent. Gambon is brilliant as Kazran as are the two actors playing the younger version. Jenkins isn't bad - but she is definitely a better singer than actor.

Gillan and Darvill are surplus to requirements in this.

Great production and I love the ending. I can even forgive the flying sharks.

Overall - 8/10.

[The Friendly Dalek]

The Impossible Astronaut/Day Of The Moon- This is one of my favourite series openers. Moffat delivered an excellent start to this series. 

The acting is top notch from everyone. Smith, Gillan and Darvill have really settled into their roles by this point, and give very confident and impressive performances. Alex Kingston is great, as is Mark Sheppard. 

The Silence are brilliant monsters, but they suffer the same problems as the Weeping Angels in my opinion. They are frightening here, but as we learn more about them over the course of this series and the next one, they lose their impact for me. 

The visuals in this story are excellent, and the American locations look great. Most of the cgi is good as well. The pacing is excellent. The dialogue is great for the most part, and there are some very chilling moments, especially in the orphanage.

I believe that Moffat nailed the set up of this story excellently in the first part, but the second part doesn't quite provide a fully satisfying resolution. Also, the scene in which The Doctor defats the Silence is an annoying one for me. I think it is clever how the moon landing was incorporated into their defeat, but the way that River circles around shooting them all in an over the top action scene just didn't work in my eyes. 

This story also did a very good job at setting up the series' arcs. It manages to set up multiple arcs (Amy's pregnancy, the continuation of the Silence arc from series r5, the introduction of Madame Kovarian etc) whilst providing a good story in it's own right, which is certainly impressive.

Overall- 9/10.

Onw thing I noticed upon rewatching this story. A key element of this story is The Doctor being shot and killed at the start of the first part. We see that he is shot once, and then begins to regenerate. He is then show again whilst regenerating and is killed. This makes sense, because we know that killing a Time Lord during regeneration will flat out kill them and stops them from regenerating. The problem is, later stories show us that this Doctor is the 13th in this regeneration cycle, so he shouldn't have begun to regenerate because he had no regenerations left at this point. of course the real world answer to why this happens is because the War Doctor wasn't even a concept at this point, but it's an interesting thing to think about in universe with the knowledge of what is revealed in series 7.

Edited April 16, 2019 by The Friendly Dalek

[Peter Capaldi Fan]

The Impossible Astronaut/Day Of The Moon - This is a great launch to series 6 carrying on the momentum from series 5.

Smith, Gillan, Darvill and Kingston are all excellent. I agree The Silence are brilliant to start but lose their impetus the more is revealed.

The cliffhanger is shocking.

The second episode is not quite so good. It slowed down a bit in the middle.

Not quite my favourite series opener. That's still to come.

Overall 8/10

[Peter Capaldi Fan]

29 minutes ago, The Friendly Dalek said:

 

One thing I noticed upon rewatching this story. A key element of this story is The Doctor being shot and killed at the start of the first part. We see that he is shot once, and then begins to regenerate. He is then shot again whilst regenerating and is killed. This makes sense, because we know that killing a Time Lord during regeneration will flat out kill them and stops them from regenerating. The problem is, later stories show us that this Doctor is the 13th in this regeneration cycle, so he shouldn't have begun to regenerate because he had no regenerations left at this point. of course the real world answer to why this happens is because the War Doctor wasn't even a concept at this point, but it's an interesting thing to think about in universe with the knowledge of what is revealed in series 7.

I've never thought of this. Well noticed. If I have one criticism of Moffat it is that his more complex stories and arcs do tend to lead to more plot holes than RTD had. 

[The Friendly Dalek]

The Curse Of The Black Spot- I'm not a fan of this one. It's frustrating, because there is fun with to be had with this episode. I'm not bored when I watch it, but there's no reason why I would ever want to come back and watch it. 

The leads are great, and they're clearly enjoying the change of pace which this story offers compared to what they would usually have to do. Of the supporting cast, Hugh Bonneville gives a good performance, but none of the other characters are interesting at all. The visuals are excellent.

The Siren is also a very weak villain. It wasn't intimidating at all, and as a result of that I didn't feel much tension in this one because the villain wasn't threatening. However, I thought that it was visually interesting at least, and Lily Cole did a good job playing it. 

It probably doesn't help this episode that it came right after the Silence two-parter, which is a far bigger story in terms of scale and threat, so this one seems dull and lacking in comparison. 

The resolution of this episode seems too similar to the ending of The Doctor Dances to be memorable in my eyes. It's a rushed resolution with no build-up, so it just doesn't flow with the rest of the episode in my eyes. 

So overall, I can watch this episode and enjoy myself, and the central performances and visuals help make it a decent, although unfortunately not at all memorable, story. 

Overall- 4/10.

Edited April 18, 2019 by The Friendly Dalek

[Peter Capaldi Fan]

The Curse of the Black Spot - One of my least favourite episodes of series 6. Probably not helped by the fact I am not really a fan of pirates.

Smith,  Gillan and Darvill are excellent.  Bonneville is miscast in this. He doesn't really come across as ruthless enough for me. 

The Siren are weak. Lily Cole does a good job and I did like the reveal where it wasn't the villain we expected it to be (spoilers).

Good production visually. Definitely not worth multiple watches. 

Overall 3/10

[The Friendly Dalek]

The Doctor's Wife- If I was to look at episodes which suffered the most from budgetary limitations, this would definitely be an example I would point to. Neil Gaiman's concepts are so imaginative and so crazy that they would never be realised on a BBC budget. 

The dialogue is golden in this story, as are the performances from the leads. Although the focus is on Smith and Jones (see what I did there? ), Gillan and Darvill get some excellent scenes, and the plot regarding them isn't dull at all. The main plot focuses on The Doctor and Idris, and it's brilliant. Suranne Jones gives a brilliant performances, and she really is believable as being the physical manifestation of the TARDIS's soul (well, the TARDIS's matrix, but that doesn't quite roll of the tongue as simply ).

I've always thought that the title was odd. The TARDIS isn't the Doctor's wife, so I don't have a clue why the episode is called that if I'm honest. 

The main problem is the supporting characters. There is a very small cast in this story, and they all do a fine job, but the characters of Auntie, Uncle and Nephew are really bland in my opinion. House is great, but the others aren't interesting at all. This is an example of where the budget ruins a good idea. Auntie and Uncle are supposed to be made of body parts stolen from other creatures, but their appearance really doesn't give off that impression. Also, why is Nephew an Ood? The inclusion of an Ood always felt forced to me, as it adds absolutely nothing to the story, except for allowing a few references to previous stories to be made. The makeshift TARDIS console doesn't look that good either. Gaiman has this same problem in Nightmare In Silver, his concepts are often ruined in their execution. 

Overall- 8/10.

This high score is well earned by the excellent performances and Gaiman's wonderful writing. The pacing is good, as are most of the visuals. Just about everything in this episode is great except for the couple of issues I mentioned previously. 

[Peter Capaldi Fan]

The Doctor's Wife  - I love this episode.  I agree that Neil Gaiman's story has not been fully realised because of BBC budget constraints but it still works. 

Smith is excellent. And although more of a sideline, Gillan and Darvill also give strong performances. 

Doctor Who has occasionally referred to the TARDIS consciousness and Suranne Jones brings this to life with an electrifying performance.

Sheen is also excellent as House. Although his defeat does come across as all too convenient. 

The rest of the support cast are ok.

Overall 7/10