Doctor Who Series 8 (SPOILERS)

"OK, fuckity-bye!"

Holy shit Forbin. Give it a rest.

Mom's grandfather was a Scot. Dad used to tease him with the Eliza Doolittle routine by trying to get him to say things like "How now brown cow".
We'd get something like "Hoo noo brrroon coo".

It's probably 'cause Capaldi talks so fast and slurs a bit. I've yet to see an ep where I didn't have to rewind and listen to a line twice. My wife as well, so it ain't just me.

Which is kind of how I dismiss STV: too much bourbon and beans. The camping trip, dumb as it was, was real. The rest was just a gaseous anomaly.

There's a Trek fan from Glasgow who pops up at Comic-Con every few years, and will stop in L.A.-Anaheim to do the Universal tour and Disney, and we'll meet for a drink if he's headed my way, on one condition - that he bring his American buddy along to "translate." I canna unnerstand 'im ootherwise.

And, yeah, Capaldi talks fast, but his consonants are crisp. I'll miss a word here and there but, again, I have more trouble when Clara and Pink are making kissy-face.

Yeah this last episode was also horrible again.

This show actually sucks now. It's become painful to watch. Which is sooooooooo sad since Mr. Capaldi's performance is SOOOOO GOOOOOOOD.

Hopefully, the finale can bail it out.

I do not, as of now, have very high hopes.

While I clearly enjoyed this season much more than you, I'm afraid I have to agree. Moffat keeps fucking the big story arc stuff up.

With the exception of the brilliant 50th Anniversary Special, this season has been a fuck of a lot better than the last one.

How anyone can say the show sucks when compared with most of the dreck from the last year-and-a-half of Matt Smith is mind-boggling.

I'm caught up!

Liked the Orient Express pretty well, liked Flatline pretty well. I think Nova got her "Doctor" moment there when the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and told the Boneless off.

Trees was lacking. Possibly the best part of Trees was when that one girl shut up for the last half or so of the episode.

Mystery Woman just takes up space these last few episodes. She's totally just phoning it in. If she's the conclusion of some sort of season-long arc that's been going on behind the scenes, that might just be saaaad. And I hope that she isn't supposed to be Evil Alternate Clara or something.

Kill the Moon was a symptom of bad script editing, core of a good concept, and the episode was a fairly entertaining romp but really missed out on a few things.

For starters, rejigging the dates with this and Listen and one of the consequences of Clara making the wrong decision could have been no more Orson Pink, thus giving an emotional basis for Clara's anger towards the Doctor.

They could also have tied into Flatliners too - a bit more invention with the CGI and the writing, so the entire moon is the eggshell for a higher dimensional creature, so we've a symmetry of sorts. And instead of a creature flying away, leaving a perfectly intact new moon, have something else:

after an energy burst has come from the moon, a rainbow ring can be seen around the world

Clara: It's... Beautiful.
Dr: The quantum foam around Earth still excited. Afterbirth.
Clara: Now less beautiful
Dr: It'll fade after a few years, but for those years a world of pudding heads will look up and know wonder again. Dream again. Want to explore again.
Clara: And the moon is still there...
Dr: Reusable egg. Clever. When it's absorbed enough energy, you get a new beastie.
Clara: And if I'd chosen wrong? What of humanity?
Dr: Stagnation. Until something killed you all off. An asteroid. A virus. Something.
Clara: Then what would you do for company?
Dr: Get a houseplant. I'd hardly notice the difference.
Clara: And Orson? The man we rescued from the end of time?
Dr: May never have been born. Certainly not done much with himself.
*angry Clara moment*

Even better descriptions of what is going on, no moon coming apart, but keep the increased mass.

Clara: The moon is an... egg? As in Giant Space Chicken?
Dr: Or Giant Space Platypus. Oh, can you imagine one of them now? But no, it's the eggshell, the inside is in a hyperdimension we can't perceive.
Clara: And the mass?
Dr: E equals MC squared isn't one way traffic, pump energy in, up goes the mass, and this... This has been storing mass in a higher dimension for sometime, but... elsewhere. Now it's ready to hatch, it's all flooding back here and causing havoc on Earth.

So not a bad episode per se, just not executed terribly well.

The Mummy episode was wonderful, sets up a potential new foe for the Doctor, and ties into an episode some years back where the Doctor got a phone call about an Egyptian princess on a train...

Flatliners also good, it was just a pity they didn't manage to get a brief cameo from some of the cast of Being Human, given the writer worked on that and it was based in Bristol.

The trees... Like Kill the Moon, interesting concept, not executed terribly well - the super midichlorians defending humanity could have done with fleshing out with some whys. And trees in the ocean. Burning off a solar flare. Hmmm. All the satellites survived no doubt too...

Excellent!

so...I reviewed the "Impossible Girl" episodes and I saw nothing that suggested Clara's "save the doctor" mission would have been limited to previous incarnations - might we then suppose that her impending exit would be tied into that concept (i.e. she pretty much HAS to die saving the Doctor?)

Yeesss, I called it!

Everybody called it.

And actually, that wasn't half bad!

an episode that didn't beg people to dissect plot holes instead of just enjoying the ride? Works for me!

And directed by Rachel Talalay!!
(Major Freddy Krueger junkie over here)

Well, that was certainly unique.

I do have a bad feeling about how much is resting on the resolution now. But still, that first half was intriguing.

There was one line here that I din't get, it was in the trailer as well: The Mistress says, "All the graves of planet Earth are about to get ---" what? Burned? That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

Also, did someone recognize the motifs playing when The Mistress kisses the Doctor?

^"about to give birth"

I like Missy, and Seb, but Cybermen are still boring.

*penny drops

Ah! That does make sense. Cheers.

Cybermen, and the Master. Oh, I'm gonna hate this no matter how it turns out...

We really need negrep back.

So who are you a fan of? Cybermen, the Master, or both?

These seem to be the Moffat/Gaiman Cybermen, who are so far vastly superior to the Davies Cybermen.

As for the Master, have you seen any of his Third Doctor stories?

Personally, I love the Master to bits, especially what Davies did with him.

The Cybermen I could take or leave, but they're grandfathered in under the "Main Appeal of nuWho is Nostalgia" Rule. Actually, I always felt that their original appearance was the scariest of all: The surgical intrusion into the body signified not just by metal, but by gauze strapped over the faces, and the voices coming from unmoving opened mouths -- there's a lot of body horror to be had there, if it were done right and with today's means. (Though the art decor tears are a nice touch too.)

Excellent episode, and if they manage to resolve it without flashy lights or lovey-dovey (and the prospect of a CyberDanny whiffs of that) I'll be pleased.

Not liking Missy being the Master. Could understand it if we hadn't had the End of Time, which resurrected The Master, as it would then have led on from the Flash Gordon ending of Last of the Time Lords where we saw hands like Missy's getting the Masters ring. Given we know the Doctor isn't the last of the Time Lords anymore, it's quite possible the Rani, or even the War Chief gone femme since we're having an army here, could be active. No problems bringing the Master back in some form, male or female, but just seems a little disjointed here for some reason, even though the MO fits somewhat as the Masters first introduction was him using Autons to invade Earth.

And going back to criticism of the script editing, it would've been pleasant to have seen references to media stories about alleged voices from the dead and a surge away from cremations dropped in the stories. Throwaway lines, like when when the bowtie teacher was talking to Danny earlier in the season, asking if he'd seen the stories, and Danny pooh-poohing it. Doesn't have to be as clunky as Bad Wolf was, shoehorned into everything, but breadcrumbs nevertheless.

Curious about the Cybermen too, hated Gaiman's Borgification of them. Nothing wrong with having enemies learn, or take measures to adapt, but having completely adaptive creatures leaves you screwed in the long run. Achilles could have covered his heel in steel, but remove the steel and he's vulnerable and that is what you need in otherwise unstoppable foes, that little chink of hope that they can do nothing about but what our heroes can exploit if they're smart enough to figure out how. Having him go paddle in the Styx, and now you need depower him in some manner otherwise he'll just win everytime.

The Master and Cybermen have a long, storied history in the Whoniverse. Any true fan of Doctor Who would not be so dismissive of these mortal enemies.

It would be like saying, "aw shit not another Romulan or Klingon episode!" when watching Star Trek.