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[Immortal-D]

I feel like the show has slowly but steadily been running out of ideas.  The turnover rate is such that we've had half the number of Doctors in the past decade that the original series did over 50 years.  Capaldi's last Christmas special really hit this home for me.  I loved that episode, but seemed like a very obvious 'we can't think of anything, let's pull some classic story to keep things going'.  Whittaker's first season was just one adventure after another, there was no intrigue at all.  Worse, that was effectively intentional, as the writers have confirmed they were getting rid of multi-episode stories; everything is a 1-shot.  Mind you, I'm not disparaging Whittaker.  I think she's doing the best with what she's been given.  Just unfortunate that the first lady Doctor came in at a time when the show has been noticeably losing steam.

[scriver]

Doctor who whom?

[Max™]

I dislike that there isn't a simple way to get Missy together with 13.

[Starver]

When I watched the series, I knew immediately that some people would absolutely hate it. Female Doctor, "tick-box" ethnicities, actively supporting LGBT relationships, that single line in the special that hinted at Brexit, amd of course being set 'in the North' whenever it was on Earth (except when it was in The Deep South, but including Northern India for the Lulz)...

I didn't think it was a strong series, but I absolutely loved its trolling of the kind of people who got upset about those things (not saying you're one, OP, just that I loved it more because that sort of person would have been having paroxisms and I can only imagine waves of hate reverberating around within their particularly dank and airless echo-chambers.


Plot-wise, nothing approached 'classic' and I worked out plenty of ways to navigate the plot-holes without the same blind leaps,  but there wasn't much there outside the story-variety you had under Twelve. It's too soon with just a small series and a (non-Christmas*) Special, but there were actually some good points in the variation, while I'm struggling to think of a particularly good Capaldi that wasn't part of a multi-parter, and they deliberately tried to de-arcify this series and remove that lazy element.

(Either do as Classic Who did and have Serials, or have proper Situation Of The Week. One of the Capaldi sets seemed to be double-episode after double-episode after double-episode, from memory - best just to have half the number as 'feature-lengh', IMO.)


* - I bet the Non-PC Platoon blame that on the PC Brigade, too!

[scriver]

amd of course being set 'in the North' whenever it was on Earth (except when it was in The Deep South, but including Northern India for the Lulz)

what's this about?

[Starver]

Both actor and location.

Remember the fuss about Eccleston ("every planet has a north") after five prior doctors being London/Home Counties (Tom Baker wasn't obviously Liverpudlian, McGann far from obiously so for his brief stint and McCoy had a very Anglo-refined Irish twang) and suddenly there's the unashamed kid from Salford..?

Scottish is acceptable (though they didn't let Tennant actually stray from his Estuary English outside of Tooth And Claw), though Capaldi still got some stick. But then we get the West Yorkshire accent (not even the fashionable part of Yorkshire, or Herriot-country rurals alongside Davison's Tristan Farnon character) for the Doctor, and a whole bunch of South Yorkshire accents for the companions (though thankfully not totally full-blown West Riding or Dee-Dah).



For location, the revival series was pretty much recurringly London, London, London (when on Earth) except when it was recurringly in Wales (noted as an anomoly, in its early days, you'll maybe recall), with odd visits to other places (Tooth And Claw, wherever they were in the emergency housing in Turn Left, that whole stint in the US surrounding The Impossible Astronaut, and several different visits to New York), if identifiable.

Thus the concerted refocus to modern-day Sheffield raised some recently botoxed eyebrows amongst some people that I know were dubious about the Crimson Horror location. And so a rather concerted relocalisation to "The North" (including historic Pendle) was assumed to be yet another attempt at Diversity.

None of it my opinion, nor the other 'complaints', and I mentioned it only really to follow the pattern of Arson, Murder and Jaywalking. But when some people I know started ranting (about the things I mentioned them ranting about) it was somewhere in the middle of that particular tirade.


(And the Punjab was in North India, with the TARDIS apparently giving the convention of the translated-to-English speech various North-Of-England twangs. Didn't bother morphing the later Scandinavian accents, though!)

[Folly]

There were a few episodes I didn't hate. I thought the one where she fought Stitch was pretty good. And the delivery robots...I was disappointed they didn't turn out to be cybermen, but otherwise an okay episode.

But yeah, the majority of episodes this season I had major issues with. Too many overbearing moral lessons, too many whiny mopey companions, several major plot-holes, and some really uninspired villain design.

[Immortal-D]

To clarify, I have thoroughly enjoyed the series up to this point.  Even Capaldi had a fair share of memorable moments.  Nothing against Whittaker's acting; I think that anyone who took up the role of Doctor at this point would be struggling.  There is very little the cast can do when the writers have run out of ideas.  I daresay that is the reason why they chose to have no multi-episode stories now, under the excuse of making the show more accessible to a wider audience.

[Starver]

Re: Am I the only person who seriously dislikes the latest Doctor Who?

To clarify, I have thoroughly enjoyed the series up to this point.

Slightly at odds, as I read it. Maybe you should clarify one or the other.


Oh, and I forgot to mention. The "night-ghouls" on the Death*-World of abandoned Stenza weapon development world mentioned something to the Doctor that it appears is being held in reserve. Didn't really crop up since then (except for adding a key moment of doubt in her mind) or even reoccur in that every-episode-for-ages Bad Wolf way or Fate Of Gallifrey** feeling of angst.

It seemingly didn't get used up in the Special, so one imagines it's a Chekhovs peg left to hang the Chekhov's Gunsmith's coat on in the 2020 run, or similar. (Unless it's threaded very subtly, but definitely, in the episodes seen so far. Like the Pregnant Amy? scanning mystery actually sparking a seemingly random visit to an acid-processing plant, etc, though we didn't know it at the time.)

So there, maybe, is your requested intrigue? Maybe we just need to Watch This Space-Time..?



* - If you hang around long enough, go the wrong places, activate the wrong things or even slightly touch any local water.

** - I doubt it was angst connected to this old theme, since the "Ten, Eleven, War" Doctors ensured happier memories for Eleven+, even if Ten, Nine, War and Eight-on-back seemingly had to Timely-Wimely forget the good outcome and the later few would revert to remembering it as a Lesser But Still Terible Evil that War did.

[Max™]

My problem with the most recent doctors was Clara, like, I love the episodes with Missy, but she was the only thing that could make the whole "clara is this mysterious cross-temporal supergirl secret puzzle" shit bearable, like yeah, the initial bits with Clara popping up repeatedly was an interesting idea, but if she hadn't been with Vastra in the special it would have been bleh. Then she contributed to the end of 11 being a draaaaggggg, then she made the start of 12 bleehhhh until Missy showed up. Once Clara left you get Bill who was just good fun as was her interactions with Nardole, though again Missy stole the show for me, more fun but still clearly not a nice heroic person, right down to her little love note to herself. "I loved being you."

[Starver]

Given how quickly they neutralised (and kept neutralised, by having to deal with the promise of jeopardy) DoctorDonna, they really shouldn't have kept SuperClara around too long beyond the solution to PuzzleClara and her Oswin-namesakes.

But they basically Gold-Kryptonited her, at that point and reverted her to a hyper-aware (and eager, and capable) but otherwise mundane Companion, apart from the residual meddling from Missy and her Grand Plan. I think Clara holds the record for the longest (continuous) involvement with the Doctor, depending on how you count it up. It went on for a long time, and I'm not sure I remember every bit of chronology in it right now.

But I didn't really like Clara's ending(s). The Raven one onwards. It was one of the more brutal fates suffered by a Companion. Though couldn't then begrudge her and Arya Stark taking "The Long Way Round" (if it's as off-screen as ('Daughter') Jenny's further adventures, which I would perhaps have liked to have seen as a spin-off or something).

[Immortal-D]

Re: Am I the only person who seriously dislikes the latest Doctor Who?

To clarify, I have thoroughly enjoyed the series up to this point.

'This point', implied to be the most recent season.

[Loud Whispers]

I miss doctor #9 tbh. #10 was spiciest beans. #11 I stopped watching because I didn't have time. #12 Heaven Sent was too damn good. #13 I've heard has been mediocre, not quite good or bad enough to justify watching. Ptw

[Starver]

Re: Am I the only person who seriously dislikes the latest Doctor Who?

To clarify, I have thoroughly enjoyed the series up to this point.

'This point', implied to be the most recent season.

Mmmm....  No, doesn't help.  Hang on, it just clicked. This is like the "while" (until) vs "while" (during)  cross-purpose*, you meant "until/up-to-but-not-including" rather than "so far/to date".


Ok, apologies. Separated by a common language, etc, as well as opinion.


(@LW: Remember when 10 was new and still "trying on a new face" (arguably also 11, maybe less so 12, and you get the impression that 9 was still very much in that phase in Rose)? That's the vibe I'm getting from 13. Turned out well then. Otherwise, Different Doctor is Different, News At Eleven.)


* Cue stories abound about hilarity ensuing when some new foreman/teacher/etc states "You'll learn nothing while I teach you!", meaning "only during my instruction will you actually learn things" but sounding like "never during..."

[George_Chickens]

Clara was a bad character and chronically boring. I was hoping that the new series would completely divorce its self from the awful writing style of Moffat, but it has been a total, absolute flatline for me. Not terrible, but not good either.