Dr Who season 9

I might be swimming against the tide here, but after loving every one this series, Saturday's was a real let-down. Didn't rate it at all.

 

I felt the same way. Clara is leaving at some point during the season, only having her show up for the ending irked me. Plus I find Maisie more annoying than anything else.

 

I expected a Monty Python God to appear when the rift opened.

 

Totally agree, especially about the lion stuff. Absolutely unnecessary except to provide an extraterrestrial threat.

 

That happened in Part 1...

 

Yeah. Nothing likeable about the Me character. If that was the writer's intention then they nailed it.

N'er mind, Osgood's back next week! Yea!!

 

As PC as I perceive the BBC being, I was rather pleasantly surprised they allowed a script to go where this week's did. I'm sure they'll have some more savory resolution than the Doctor pulling out Zygon nerve gas from the Tardis, but I did like part 1!

 

I didn't care for it at all. The social commentary was so awkward and forced. The acting was poor. I'm all for female empowerment, but it seemed that every top-level position, everywhere, required a female actor that appeared absolutely clueless and lacking any gravitas that the position would demand. I won't even go into the epic ineptitude of UNIT!

The directing was clunky and the dialog was like bad fan fiction. As far as the plot - allowing 20 million shape-shifting aliens (that can mimic human form) to secretly settle in the UK and run around freely and undetectably, well...what could go wrong? Terrbile.

 

Ms Jackson from the brewery was in it so I quite liked it.

 

Yeah, that all women UNIT high command would be an example of the PC I was talking about.

 

Brave move, involving social commentary in a Doc Who episode. Aliens coming in through tunnels..... The dangers from within..... Even the crack about benefits. Not sure it worked entirely. Story-wise I was most vexed at the soldiers following their supposed loved ones into the building. You'd have thought at least one of them would have had the training/balls/gumption to open fire. That would have taken the story a whole new - plausible - direction. But hey! Osgood's back!

 

After a crappy part 1, I wasn't expecting much for part 2, however I was pleasantly surprised as it was really, really good. The best episodes of Who tend to be the ones that don't rely on too many gimmicks or fast talking gobbledygook, but instead rely on solving a conundrum or an ethical dilemma, like this ep. Well done.

Best line by the Doctor: I'm two thousand years old - I'm old enough to be your Messiah!

 

My favorite Doctor Who story from Season 9 has to be The Sea Devils.



Oh, you guys are talking about Series 9...my mistake!

 

That end with the two Osgoods royally pissed me off... They got one emulating the look of the Peter Davison Doctor, and one emulating Sylvester McCoy... WHY NO LOVE FOR COLIN BAKER? They skipped his look entirely. Pshaw!



Oh and I HATE HATE HATE Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. Nicholas Courtney must be rolling in his grave over that character. No way that prat is related to Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.

 

I was going to ask how UNIT got so inept since the 80's, but I forgot my last post hating on Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. I blame her. She's such a prat she ruined the whole organization.

Or, maybe it was Brigadier Bambera.



"You know, just once I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets."
-Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart

 

ep 9 (Sleep No More) - what a load of bollocks!

 

Agreed. Absolute rubbish. Can't believe it was approved. It made very little sense and the monster-of-the-week looked like someone lurching about in a Swamp Thing costume. I wish I knew a 9 year-old to do some market research with. Anyone's kids frightened (or entertained) by this week's episode?

 

I didn't care for the gimmicky shaky-cam-found-footage aspect of it. There was a story there with the sleep deprivation angle, but the episode wasn't coherent enough to be a good story. I did like the "You don't get to name things, I'm the Doctor I get to name things" exchange with Clara.

 

Well, that was a particularly weak episode...just like last season it's a hit-and-miss-affair.

 

A pity I usually never check this part of the forum. I'm watching this new serie and so far I'm enjoying it. I'm afraid I didn't see any Classic Doctor Who yet (only bits here and there), but Capaldi so far is my favorite doctor.

So, to sum things up, I feel that this season started great, but I'm not satisfied by the last few episodes. The Dalek story at the beginning of the serie was excellent (I love Michelle Gomez), and so was the Flood one. I did not enjoy as much the ones with Ashildir, but they were still pretty good. I liked the acting and the fact that both stories were independent, in spite of being linked. The change in Maisie Williams' character was very interesting and realistic. Unfortunately, the Zygon story is where the serie started to have problems, in my opinion. It had a good synopsis and a terrible script. It was written by the same person who wrote "Kill the Moon" in the previous season (pretty much the silliest episode in the whole nine series, as far as I'm concerned). I don't necessarily mean to diss the guy, as I don't know any of his work outside of Doctor Who, but I have the feeling that Moffat was credited on part #2 because he probably had to fix some things in the script in order to make it work. The second episode was at least partly salvaged by some great acting by Capaldi and Jenna Coleman. Oh, and I thought Osgood was positively annoying.

Regarding "Sleep No More"... another letdown. I found it boring, rather than scary and I just had to laugh at the ending: it was so cliché-ridden! It was okay as a whole, there were some nice things here and there. The characters themselves weren't bad and I got a chuckle at the Doctor being annoyed by "Mr. Sandman". Also, the concept of an invention that is meant replace sleep was unnerving because it sounds like something that humanity would attempt. As a whole, however, I don't think it was a memorable episode. I must say liked it better than the Zygon story, though: at least it was not in two parts

The trailer for "Face the Raven" was intriguing. Let's see how it turns out!

 

Not bad as a death scene. Bit wordy. But will she be back next week or are the last two episodes a lead-in for a new companion? The cover of the latest Dr Who mag implies we've not seen the last of the lovely Clara yet.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/11/21/ten-thoughts-about-doctor-who-face-the-raven/

 

I hope not. Part 2 may change my mind about this ep, but I thought this one was pretty impotent. The Doctor basically stood around for 20 odd minutes like spare scenery, accepting Clara's fate. Normally he'd be manically looking for solutions, summoning every trick up his sleeve to save his friend, but here - nope. I blame the demise of the sonic screwdriver - sonic shades just don't cut it!

 

The major failing this series is the two-parters. Some of the story-lines simply haven't warranted the expenditure. Lots of filler, dialogue-wise. I know I'm a broken record here, but my belief is the average nipper doesn't have the attention span. Arrive-monster-fight-gone is basically all they need. The waffle/pontificating/deep-angst is fine within reason but once the series loses the kids, it's gone again. It's seems that every week there's doom & gloom and nothing like the witty banter we experienced between Clara & the Doctor in his first series. I miss that.

 

Well, it did have my daughter screaming (age 11). But she has a very low frustration tolerance and couldn't understand what the hell was going on. We weren't much help in explaining it, either.

Of course she cried after this week's episode (which I only heard in the background while I was baking).