Doctor Who returned to television last night with Peter
Capaldi driving the Tardis as the twelfth incarnation of the rogue Time Lord.
Here are my thoughts –
(Spoiler Warning)
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While Peter Capaldi turned in a good performance
in his first episode, the writers and producers have made it very tough on him.
By attempting to keep this new Doctor ‘mysterious’ they have made him hard to
get a handle on, and, dare I say it, hard to like. In fact, he was so in danger
of becoming unlikable, that they basically had to bring back Matt Smith at the
end of the episode to ask the audience to please give this new Doctor a chance! By comparison,
Peter Capaldi’s Doctor reminded me most strongly of Colin Baker’s Doctor, and
that is not a good thing. Remember, the Doctor has to remain a hero that kids can enjoy and look up to.
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The plot of the episode was a mess. It is
basically a loose collection of set pieces that had more imagination than
coherence.
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I absolutely hate the characters of Vastra and
Jenny. If the producers are trying to make a political point by shouting about their ‘marriage’ in every
episode in which they appear, they could at least present the audience with a healthy
relationship, instead of the Silurian-dominated, slightly abusive one that is
always shown. Regardless of one’s view on inter-species, same-sex marriage, these overly sexualized characters have no place in a family show.
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The episode did have some good moments. The part
where the Doctor and Clara were under the restaurant with all of the androids was
terrifically creepy, as was the bad-guy with his spinning mechanical brain.
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The evil cyborg’s escape plan was the same as that
of the Wizard of Oz?
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I’m not sure I care for the new intro. The music
especially was grating. It needs some work.
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I did like the new Tardis interior, at least
what little we saw of it.
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I’m looking forward to the next episode where we get
the Doctor off earth, fighting the Daleks, in what will hopefully be a more
straightforward adventure that gives this new Doctor a chance to shine
I do agree about the credits.. they were horrible and just screamed "We want the steampunks to like us. We're cool! Lookatallthe COGS!"
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I really liked the completely mental, slightly angry doctor. It made a nice change from the last two and firmly put him the position of an older character that doesn't need to hide his age from the world any more. Hopefully it will mean a lot less of the companions fancying him... that was getting very tiresome.
I think our favourite line of the show was “I think there should be more round things on the walls. I used to have a lot of round things. I wonder where I put them?”
I thought the Matt Smith cameo was rather forced and unnecessary... plus the ending. Just... what?
What are your thoughts on Strax?
ReplyDeleteStrax is hilarious. He so silly that he often doesn't quite seem to fit into some of the episodes he is in, but I love him.
ReplyDelete