Angel Village episode was alright, in the absence of any evidence I'll ascribe the non-sucky bits to Maxine Alderton. JW is still a charisma void where the core of the show should be, the scenes of her interacting with Claire made me wish that actress had been cast as the Doctor.
I haven't watched ep 4 yet, btw. and there are still plot threads from episode one that haven't been addressed yet.This isn't a 30 or 60 minute story though. it's three episodes (so far for me) so I don't think lots of expository dialogue is needed - show don't tell. Lots of screen time was wasted on swirly time stuff. They've constructed a great story, but (when the doctor is on screen) they're not telling it well
Might have something to do with the current Doctor being portrayed, IMO, as an attention challenged child on a combination of speed and sugar rush.
Angel episode was great! Not merely for the main story which managed to do something new with the angels, but also for the touching moments on the other planet in which a guest actor named Blake Harrison managed to run a gamut from optimism to despair (with several other stages tucked in there too) in only a few slim minutes with an elegance that blew me away. Every other supporting actor was solid too - this was a good cast.
Survivors of the Flux: Back to the usual Chibnall piffle, a combination of the hyperactive and the supremely dull.
So much for the weeping angel shocking cliffhanger. Quickly tossed away. I’m hoping it comes back in play in the final episode against the main baddies, who I can’t stand.
I actually didn’t mind the cliffhanger being immediately handwaved away, which seemed inevitable. Less keen on hearing the Angels speak (again), and discovering that they are generic gloaty villains. Jericho was impressive last week, but was rewritten as “semi-clueless old duffer” this week, bumbling along in the wake of Indiana Yaz. Barbara Flynn heroically delivering swathes of info-dump this week, yet I’m still none the wiser what the Division actually does. Interferes in non-Timelord societies, which is pretty much the Doctor’s raison d’etre, yet the Doc seems outraged about it?
So evidently the BBC either forgot to upload the last episode of Fluxx to Apple in the US, or Apple has failed to release it, or there may be some kind of server problem affecting the BBC’s ability to get the episode to Apple. I haven’t seen any stories about this yet. But it is 48 hours overdue now.
I have an Apple TV box and saw it on the BBC America app. I had no idea you could even watch it directly on their own app.
Awful ending. It appears time is fickle. The show is so convoluted anymore. The Weeping Angels episode was the only good one.
Clearly, as the Doctor has been battling bad guys from Line Of Duty this season, the next Doctor should be:
I was reading an old Who 'zine (The Frame either #15 or 16, I was going through those two issues) and there was an article about a general Star Wars influence, and it included criticism of how the quieter more character scenes had been mostly thrown aside. The writer said a scene centered on McCoy in Survival was an example of the kind of scene the show used to have often but no longer found the space for. The compression towards action over denouement beginning roughly for the purposes of their article after Star Wars hit (so the last few Tom Baker seasons and of course K-9 becoming a regular ala a droid). Modern Who from Eccleston onward has often had so much running around and semi-hysterical babbling... that it could definitely do with much less of. If there is a proven Doctor Who formula, while fans/former fans are needed to be a voice for continuity, you do need an accessible program hopefully with something for all ages. If things do not make sense there are scenes, quieter ones lacking visual 'excitement', that used to explain more. They started being the scenes either cut or not even filmed around when the show was up against Buck Rogers in the UK schedules. This doesn't meant something can't be deliberately left unexplained if it adds depth or mystery though, some t's and i's should be left for the viewer as participant to cross and dot. Too often 'New Who' does not pay off in ways the old ones did. It will promise much and then not deliver. The old Who did this sometimes as well, but those are not usually the stories people want to return to or that became the reference points for the show and character at it's best. Writing is the greatest strength and the greatest weakness, and very rarely the actors cast. All the great effects, and there often are, will not hold up a terminally weak story any more than just having continuity references. The papier machie dinosaurs of the early '70s were more forgivable if the story was intriguing and skillfully laid out.
I totally agree. There have been more than a few stories I had a hard time following or even understanding for a number of years. Dr. Who has been taken itself too seriously too often. I’m good with the serious but the fun has left the tardis. Plus I keep feeling sad for the fate of many companions. If the Doctor actually cares about us humans, he’d stop having companions for their own safety.
I think I first felt that with Peri (although she'd be my most disliked companion due to the writing), even though they supposedly tacked on a bit in at the end of the whole trial season that she was really alive and well and just off someplace else. I watched the one where Adric boldly goes at the time it was new and that worked well enough... but it's almost an unrepeatable effect after your first (I suppose way back people had that with Katarina in that airlock, but Adric or Peri like them or not had both been around quite awhile when they met their horrible fates). I liked the idea of Romana who was more of an equal and presumably could take care of herself unlike most of us humans and some others, but the Doctor hasn't always been able to take of him/herself (just instead of full death there is a regeneration).
I have felt the same. I thought the use of the Lady Time Lords Romana I and II worked very well and the interactions were less juvenile than what was often required of the young women human companions. Of those I thought Wendy Padbury (Zoe) worked the best because she was supposed to be someone with math and science abilities. Some of the others complained about being limited to screaming in fear over and over again.
So… err… Spoiler most of the entire universe was destroyed except for Earth? Chibnall did that to screw over the future showrunners I suppose? Terrible ending. The entire Chibnall series needs to be undone.
Also, and I’m sure this has been discussed by everyone on Reddit already, but, the Fluxx Spoiler had devoured almost the entire universe, but throwing a few thousand Daleks into it was enough to satiate it? Chibnall really blew it. He just lived that nightmare of taking your final exam without having studied. Or while being naked. Either of those.
The Fluxx that was stopped at the end was a second rebooted Fluxx that was just getting going, and it wasn’t feeding Daleks to it that stopped it, it was sending it into that creepy goth mummy dude that was basically a pocket universe like the Tardis.
It has happened before, in the old series. (Maybe not 'most' though.) Spoiler (Referring to Logopolis.) For all its faults, I appreciate the damage not being undone with a big undo button.
I guess they can always do a reboot if they can’t get it back on track. With the Daleks in the next episode, I’m assuming something gets reversed/undone in some form. My problem with this past season is they made the universe feel small and in some ways insignificant. And usually scary alien races like the Daleks are quickly turned to snack food. Hard to take the show seriously at this point.
