Doctor Who Series 8 (SPOILERS)

The series has already answered most of those questions, albeit a lot of them in the original run.

We know what made him The Doctor, it was his first human companions and their influence on him, the fact they originally called him Doctor was in fact a misunderstanding on their part.

 

I forget, how did that work exactly? What made Ian and Barbara call the crazy guy in the junkyard a doctor, and when did he first refer to himself that way?

 

Nope, that's been retconned. He was called Doctor on Gallifrey, and it was a name he chose for himself to cover up his real name. This was confirmed not only in the 50th anniversary special and the episode that preceded it, but previously in the rebooted show when The Master acknowledged that he called himself the Doctor on Gallifrey in reference to his desire to help people.

 

I'm not sure that any of that contradicts the idea that he chose the name after the first voyages with Ian and Barbara, especially if we assume that the Fourth Doctor, and possibly also the Second Doctor, spent some centuries off-screen, and possibly in part on Gallifrey or at least as a part of Gallifreyan society.

Talking about Gallifreyan society off-Gallifrey: Even though the barn is on a different planet, at least Listen does confirm that they can visit Gallifreyans, among them future Time Lords, on such other planets. If Ten's assertion that he telepathically rules out the presence of any other Time Lords in the universe holds true, I guess there were none in that childrens' home. Though the Doctor's relative disinterest in the more normally mortal parts of his species gives an interesting emphasis to his ties to his own class structure.

 

Well, he is British.

 

Doctor Who 08x05 "Time Heist"

Here's my one smiley review:

 

So Scottish filtered through distortion comes out surfer dude?

 

I need subtitles to understand Capaldi.

 

Oh, what a muddle...trying to do and be too many things at once, as overly frenetic as the Robin Hood one was drag-ass.

Got a kick out of the EPIC MUSIC!!11! as our man finally puts all the pieces together.

Bits of Much Too Clever (the "Teller" as in not a bank teller, but a teller of secrets?) and homage to the Minotaur and all those Greekish trappings.

But, "Basically, it's the eyebrows."

 

He's got funny vowels, but he's otherwise very crisp. James McEvoy, OTOH, mush-mouth supreme. Doesn't even sound like English.

So, really, no further comments from anyone on "Time Heist"?

 

I liked it. The architect was easy to spot, though I thought that the TARDIS would be in the vault and they were breaking it out. There's something refreshing about the Doctor openly throwing people under the bus, without getting to emotional about it. His using people this season made the perceived deaths and subsequent survival of the two accomplices more meaningful and unexpected IMO. It seems a reckoning is building with his "professional detachment" this season.

I found his accent distracting at first but after dropping surround sound for Who epsidoes I've developed an ear for him and I'm catching all the lines now.

I love Capaldi.

 

I will watch this one a second time. Took me almost to the Big Reveal to figure out the Architect, but for some reason the two deaths weren't believable...maybe because this Doctor has been struggling with the "good man" concept from the get-go, or something else. I mean, the guy they lost in that previous episode was, in his words, "already dead," but these two seemed too casual. Which made me wonder if "memory wipe" or not, the Doctor retained some details about the caper.

Also nice to see Keeley Hawes all growed up after her MI-5 days.

 

Ok, I seem to be in the minority here, but loved it. Concise, flashy, a romp, with an interesting double-reveal. That bait-and-switch was very Doctor Who, in my book: You've figured out that the Architect's the Doctor, so what? We're saving this whole species that you thought was the monster of the week, that's what's important!

 

The Minotaur - monster or victim?

 

Though this one was supposed to end up as a Dad rather than a Son.

 

I picked up on the Architect at the whole "I just realized -- I HATE HIM" thing.

Enjoyed the episode overall.

Raised and answered the question "What would it take to get the Doctor to rob a bank?" although it was a bit of a trick answer. Did not answer the question of why he didn't call upon River Song for something totally up her alley, leaving us to come up with our own answers there. (Hint: AWWWKWAARD.)

 

^this^

Also, I took it as a given the two were not, in fact, actually dead. My only tiny quibble was the idea that with all the available tech, shouldn't someone have asked the obvious question: "How do we know those are actually OUR voices?"

 

Well, they could probably BS up that the sonic screwdriver can tell an edited voiceprint from a real one, or something.

 

Well, it can blow up an archery target, so why not.

 

So, if those things were the last of their species - and I’m assuming that the bank lady’s ‘biggest regret’ was that they died when the bank was incinerated - why didn’t the Doctor just go back in time and get some other pair(s) of whatever they were? Why go through all the crazy machinations to rob a bank, etc? Were those particular two special in some way that I missed?

 

For the same reason Kirk couldn't go back to 1930 and smuggle Edith Keeler onto the Enterprise with him, but Gillian Taylor could invite herself along.

If you examine time travel stories too closely, you go .

 

In fact, the similarity is very specific: Kirk and crew went back to save the whales from a decade where their number was already dwindling and their best bet were two captives. At least the Doctor had already met that specific individual and might feel some responsibility for it.

 

I think part of that is the Male of the species wouldn't have put himself in enslavement if he hadn't been one of the last of his kind. So he wouldn't have been in the bank for the doctor to save if the doctor had already saved the species. Which means the doctor never met him in the first place and didn't know his species needed saving....

 

That's a good point.

 

That was a mostly fun episode. I liked the face the Doctor made when he briefly looked away after saying "stupid school". And tossing good-natured barbs at your own characters, like continuing to point out how Clara has some of the very traits she gets on the Doctor's case for? Right up my alley. Really liking Clara this series, for that matter.

 

Hmm. Looks as if we're stuck with the Promised Land as some sort of overarching theme.

And I'm wondering how long before Danny joins the crew. The Ponds already broke the mold of one Companion at a time. Will Danny hitch a ride for a while or replace Clara when Jenna Coleman leaves or am I reading too much into his almost-constant presence? Wouldn't mind...really liked his "Sir, yes, sir!" routine putting the Doctor in his place.

And the kid - "Disruptive Influence." Why is the Doctor so easily letting her in on his secrets? We haven't seen the last of her.

As for the Monster of the Week:

 

loved the banter and arguing, a lot of fresh character development there. One failing: Clara blurts out "because I love him!" and in all his navel gazing thereafter, Danny never references that revelation again? It implies they have already passed mutual profession on that point yet the audience didn't get to see it? Boo.


(OTOH, the Doctor's assumption that bow-tie boy was the boyfriend was fun)

 

I really dislike Danny in that he seems like a whiny little bitch. Not only that, but I can't see Clara falling for a guy like that. I could also really do without the forced drama of them dating but I understand how it's mainly set up for her leaving after the season.

I really miss Tennant playing the role but I do think Capaldi is doing a good job. It's just that he's hard to understand. Not so much his accent but his voice quality. It doesn't stick out from the background noise so I feel like I'm straining to hear him.

Since I'm late to the discussion..
Time Heist: Fun romp but how secure can a bank be if you can easily sneak around through ventilation shafts and no guards stationed anywhere near a vault.

The Caretaker: It felt very half-assed on the monster side of things and only seemed to be there to set up the tension between Clara, Danny and The Doctor. I was really very bored with this one.

 

Yeah, this one was a failure in almost every regard. Plotting was very loose, dialogue often sketchy, characters acting in strange ways. (That kid walks in and out of an alien landing scene several times with astounding calm and acquiescence.)

Danny's actor inserts a void into every scene he's in, somnambulantly talking over alien invasions and time travel with Clara as if he's discovered his girlfriend has a mildly embarassing hobby, and he's trying to remember what the people on Coronation Street do in cases like this. He has NO interest in finding out anything about the universe, the structure of time (he supposedly has some interest in maths, right?), alien civilisations, or even the culture and biology of the alien standing right in front of him and running off with his girlfriend, nada.

Clara, who is established as the adult in this group, stumbles along, never quite deciding to hide anything, nor to tell her boyfriend her secret, she just sort of deals with stuff in chunks of ten seconds apiece. Someone might act this way; Clara wouldn't.

It doesn't help that Clara and Danny haven't got the least bit of chemistry on-screen. If you're going to have a bland love plot, at least have us rooting for them to get together while there aren't any spaceships onscreen. But no. Watching Kirk seduce the alien of the week is more involving than this.

I sort of give the Doctor a pass since his behaviour is supposed to be unpredictable and strange, and I still love watching Capaldi, but the things he did here and his supposed stupidity were over the top for me.

Finally, the monster looked like a reject from Masters of the Universe, and nobody was at all interested in what it was and where it came from, least of all the producers, it seems.

First real disappointment since before The Name of the Doctor.

 

Not worthy of dissection for me, just a big "meh".