Doctor Who- returns for series whatever it is 11/5/24 | The Grand Moff is back!

I just watched the Arachnid episode. Hmmn. I liked the idea... and the spiders looked great... but I'm a little unsure about just how much "political" and "modern" stuff is being included in the storylines.

Stop! Don't get mad! I'm not saying that any of the stances taken are "wrong"... but it feels a bit forced and signposted; whilst simultaneously including incredibly silly aspects. As an example, I found the ending where the companions where agreeing to join the Doctor in further travels to be quite moving; until the Doctor spoke of them being her "fam". Nothing is going to age these episodes quicker than using that kind of term; it's trendy now but youngsters quickly move on with phrases, especially when "dullards" in the mainstream start bandying them around. Equally, the use of that music to attract the spiders... it was funny, but probably over the mark on silliness. As for the "Trump" stuff, the way it was presented felt like we where being hit on the head with a cricket bat; it was painfully unsubtle.

I love the cast; I love the title sequence; I love the potential... and there is room to include "new" approaches and language if they're done in the right way. But the overall feel so far has been - in my opinion - a little weak. I still have hope that things will improve once the writers have "settled in", though, and there is something there that makes me want to keep watching.

Yeah, I feel the ingredients are there for something great but the stories have been lacking so far. Bit worrying when most of it was written by the showrunner. Rosa was probably the best one for me so far and I think someone else had a hand in writing that one?

I agree with the political messages they're putting across but I can understand some being put off with the quantity and bluntness of it.

I’m not bothered by the use of “fam” or Stormzy’s music being used. The episode was set in 2018, those words and music are in common use today.

It’d be different if they do another Queen Victoria episode and Queen Vicky says “yo Doc, what’s up fam?”

That would be amazing :lol:

They should pick her up for a story where she asks to know how she is remembered. They take her to the Eastenders set.

I was fine with the music this week (for Rosa though :dread:

) it made complete sense in context. And things should age in Who. Whats the point of having a show about time travel if it doesn't reflect to times the stories are set? Ian and Babs wanted to watch the Beatles on the Time-Space Visualiser......

It was originally planned for the band to appear as themselves, but under heavy "ageing" make-up, to represent themselves in the future. However their manager, Brian Epstein, objected to them appearing on the programme. Thus, footage from the BBC chart show Top of the Pops of the group performing "Ticket to Ride" was used instead.

Imagine if the original plan had happened. :slol:

Garth wrote:Bit worrying when most of it was written by the showrunner. Rosa was probably the best one for me so far and I think someone else had a hand in writing that one?

Aye. Was written with Malorie Blackman.

Moggy wrote:I’m not bothered by the use of “fam” or Stormzy’s music being used. The episode was set in 2018, those words and music are in common use today...

The Watching Artist wrote:...I was fine with the music this week... it made complete sense in context. And things should age in Who. Whats the point of having a show about time travel if it doesn't reflect to times the stories are set?...

True enough, guys, and, yeah, I've changed my mind on that - the phrasing and music does reflect the characters and the time of the episode.

jawafour wrote:
Moggy wrote:I’m not bothered by the use of “fam” or Stormzy’s music being used. The episode was set in 2018, those words and music are in common use today...

The Watching Artist wrote:...I was fine with the music this week... it made complete sense in context. And things should age in Who. Whats the point of having a show about time travel if it doesn't reflect to times the stories are set?...

True enough, guys, and, yeah, I've changed my mind on that - the phrasing and music does reflect the characters and the time of the episode.

The fam is a bit awkward but I feel thats sort of the point. She is trying to fit in and its not going to always work. Basically....

I don't think I have ever said Fam as it sounds utterly stupid.

Pedz wrote:I don't think I have ever said Fam as it sounds utterly stupid.

Fo’ sho’ bro.

Pedz wrote:I don't think I have ever said Fam as it sounds utterly stupid.

Not part of Pedz fam confirmed :cry:

Was pretty good I thought. Nothing special. Nothing dreadful. The piloting part felt a bit dumb, nothing for the audience to really get the impression of the ship being piloted and in the end getting there early wasn't needed because they got rid of the Pting. The Pting was a bit odd. I rather liked how adorable he was but at the same time the way people talked and reacted to it gave the impression of something much scarier. It was solid.

The anti-matter speech. :wub:

Oh and I thought the Doctor being injured might have been something more interesting then nothing happened. Made me wonder why they bothered with that.

Another mediocre episode from the showrunner IMO. I liked the design of the ship and the alien was OK, looked pretty cute at the end there. The story wasn't particularly clever or memorable, with lots of exposition. It still feels a bit off to me. Apparently the next few episodes are credited to other writers, will see if I enjoy those ones more like I did with Rosa.

Edit: should note I had to stop watching the episode for 30 mins or so because of an ocular migraine, maybe that affected my enjoyment of it lol.

Didn't like when Ryan and Yaz stopped half way through to talk about his dead mum. Completely took me out of it.

Why couldn't they just radio ahead to the station to say 'listen we've got a problem here but don't blow us up just yet we're sorting it out'

Liked the episode overall.

Another rather nothing episode. My fears over Chibnall as showrunner haven't been abated, 4 dull to poor episodes from him so far. Moffat may have made things over the top and unnecessarily complicated at points, but at least the stories were interesting. I'd even take some of RTD's daft and stupid episodes over Chibnal's showings.

Also his determination to create new villains is nice, but so far they've all been bloody dire or daft. The one today was just laughable and all I could think of was the gremlin from the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode, just without the threat!

A shame as I like 13 and her companions, just be nice to have a decent writer for the stories.

Wasn't the alien basically Nibbler from Futurama?

Garth wrote:
Edit: should note I had to stop watching the episode for 30 mins or so because of an ocular migraine, maybe that affected my enjoyment of it lol.

o/

Didn't get one this episode, but they're strawberry floaters aren't they!

This episode was alright. Not a classic, but enjoyable enough. It's a shame nobody in the 67th century has seen the first three sessions of TNG as I'm sure that non-malevolent energy sucker plotline happens like three times or something.

Liking Ryan and Bradley Walsh developing their relationship. Yaz is still a bit lame.

for some reason i felt the episode was a little bland dont know why it just didnt work for me its happened before

i did like the bit where ryan and yaz talked about his family and graham made me laugh

Dowbocop wrote:
Garth wrote:
Edit: should note I had to stop watching the episode for 30 mins or so because of an ocular migraine, maybe that affected my enjoyment of it lol.

o/

Didn't get one this episode, but they're strawberry floaters aren't they!

\o

Yeah, the big multicoloured flashing zig zag across the screen was getting distracting and then the blurriness hit haha. I get it sometimes from temperature changes, such as coming in from the cold tonight with the heating on

Shite

Just caught up on the last three episodes and have to say I rather enjoyed all of them!

Rosa was clearly the strongest episode so far and showed an impressive level of accuracy to real life events as well which was great to see - Doctor Who should always try to educate when it had the chance!

Tonight's was a bit uneven in pacing and they didn't really manage to build the threat or sustain the level of tension that could have made it a classic, but it was a fun watch. The anti-matter speech from the Doc was great as well, again showing a desire to inform the audience and shine the light on some genuinely interesting science where it fits and doesn't detract from the scene. I don't mind a bit of timey-wimey every now and then but the Doctor is a character who is so excited by science and technology that she should be taking 30 seconds of of the middle of an alien invasion to tell her companions about this stuff so that was great to see.

Still early days for Chibnall but I expected far worse than what we've had so far.

Don't really know what to make of that.

10 characters was too much (Roman basically got nothing to do but even then) - and some really odd moments where the plot stopped so characters could talk about other issues. All the actors did fine jobs with limit material though.

Pacing's all over the place (what was up with 10 minutes on Dr's wound that went no where and the "mystery"/"reveal" it was a ship). Completely unable to maintain to keep tension though (the creature can be stunned...and then kicked in slow mo. the lols. They'll blow us up if they think we're a risk...but they'll take 3 denials for some reason. And we can fake the signal for the navigation. Not the internal sensors obviously)

It just doesn't feel well written or made. It all feels a bit childish/amateur.

Doctor Who- returns for series whatever it is 11/5/24 | The Grand Moff is back!

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