It gets extremely dark, as you would expect a story starring the Master as the protagonist would.
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Doctor Who Series 11 |OT|- She’s Here, and It’s About Time
- Thread starter Dwebble
- Start date
It gets extremely dark, as you would expect a story starring the Master as the protagonist would.
there are surviving film sequences from some stories that have been rescanned in HD, new extras, the whole season fits in a smaller space than DVDs, some additional extra restoration with newer techniques, no DVD compression artefacts.
But it obviously depends on how much you want those stories. I'll be triple dipping.
But it obviously depends on how much you want those stories. I'll be triple dipping.
The Big Finish War Doctor series is good and mostly standalone (a classic character makes a School Reunion-style appearance and one of the original characters subsequently appeared in some Eighth Doctor stories and that's it off the top of my head). It is a bit of a tamer take on the Time War than the TV series would suggest and the War Doctor is depicted as a bit too Doctor-ish but these are both issues that ultimately lie in trying to flesh out this era at all instead of leaving it a mystery.
Looking at those images, man, Heaven Sent and Hell Bent are simply outstanding.
I know Hell Bent dropped the ball somewhat with the story, but I absolutely love anything to do with Gallifrey and the Time Lords and love it when their on screen.
I know Hell Bent dropped the ball somewhat with the story, but I absolutely love anything to do with Gallifrey and the Time Lords and love it when their on screen.
Hell Bent is absolutely perfect and the best finale of any Doctor Who season in my opinion. It ties all the themes of the season perfectly and is a wonderful end to Clara's story.
Yeah it really felt like they saved up the budget for them, they may be the best looking episodes of the entire series.
It also helped having Rachel Talalay as director, the best director the series has had IMO.
I have to say I didn't like it so much at first but after rematches and thinking about it I agree it's pretty much perfect. The Doctor and Clara really had the closest Doctor-companion relationship in the end, and that's the main thing Hell Bent is about. They'd basically become equals, except that one didn't have a way of escaping death. Throughout the series the Doctor had grown tired of the rules, and the conclusion of that was Hell Bent. It even served as a kind of 10th anniversary finale, with the return to Gallifrey and the RTD Doctor's theme coming back.
I just can't understand why the story didn't return to go back to Gallifrey afterwards. Really seemed like a wasted opportunity not to go back to any of that in S10.
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Yes. This. I agree with this. Hell Bent summed up the 12/Clara relationship in that it demonstrated just how bad they were for each other and how far they would go and how they both realized it and had to put an end to the relationship.
Somebody very thoughtfully compiled a list of twenty-five actors who have had roles in both Doctor Who and Game of Thrones. This won't contain many surprises for the alert, but it's nice anyway.
http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/feature/g25577/game-of-thrones-doctor-who/
http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/feature/g25577/game-of-thrones-doctor-who/
Brexit update: Teresa May has accepted the BBC's offer to hold a televised Brexit debate on the day the finale airs, presumably to be broadcast on BBC One. It is looking as though Dynasties is more likely to be moved than Doctor Who though.
Just rewatching Series 9 and wanted to post an appreciation for the cinematography. A totally different look from S8, dark with more muted colours and rich gold lighting.
Damn, I love series 9. I miss this so damn much.
I know he's been in classic Doctor Who and Torchwood. I suspect quite a few of the older actors in Game of Thrones had roles in the classic serial earlier in their career, but unless like Donald Sumpter they've also appeared in the revival they won't be mentioned in that list.
Hell Bent was disappointing on first watch, but I liked it a lot the second time. The first time, it was a combo of "Oh no, more Clara" and the disappointment that Gallifrey was pretty ho hum. In hindsight it's not "more Clara" it's a fitting and final end to her arc.
I never really got the Clara hate. Hell Bent was a funny story framed by Doctor Who singing for his supper. He famously hates endings and goodbyes so the final scene is one he finds poignant and consoling. Clara runs off with her wiggle room, it's just perfect.
Clara is unashamedly one of the reason why I enjoyed season 8 and 9 so much, and I say that as someone who didn't enjoy her that much during season 7. But she grew to become my absolute favorite companion, and probably the most complex too : she was multi-layered and the writing was not afraid to explore her flaws and making her and her relationship with the Doctor evolve so much throughout her tenure. I really don't think any Doctor-Companion relationship comes close ; Amy is a distant second.
I enjoyed a lot of Clara, but I found her to be somewhat insufferable by the end (or rather, the writing focusing on her). So when she died, and *then* showed up again, all this after she already had a nice exit written for her the previous Christmas, it seemed a bit much. As I said, in hindsight and contect it's fine, but at the time it felt dragged out.
That's the problem with disappointing your audience (me, in this case, and my wife) is that you don't get given the benefit of the doubt in the moment. Moffatt had burned a lot of good will with us by this point, even if he had rehabilitated somewhat by then. All IMHO of course, but there were strong feelings in our household.
That's the problem with disappointing your audience (me, in this case, and my wife) is that you don't get given the benefit of the doubt in the moment. Moffatt had burned a lot of good will with us by this point, even if he had rehabilitated somewhat by then. All IMHO of course, but there were strong feelings in our household.
I liked that episode. But again I still don't have any connection with the companions and to be completely honest I couldn't name them if you asked me right now. It's too splintered. Too many characters. She's still great as the Doctor in general but hasn't been given much to work with. Bad writing for most of the season.
I enjoyed Clara a lot, and especially when Moffat leaned heavily into the perception that she wanted to be the Doctor (i.e. the focus of the show), and wrote her like that, with all the mistakes it holds.
You can pretty much pinpoint the exact moment Clara lost her mind - in Series 8 when she tried to convince a Cyberman that she was the Doctor and it almost believed her for a second. From that point on, the rest of her story arc was her realizing "everyone I care about except the Doctor is dead, so fuck it, I can do anything!" and falling further and further into blindness of her own limitations.
The thing I didn't get about Clara was the Doctor frequently describing her as a 'control freak'; which was something I hadn't at all picked up on.
Also the supposedly endearing humour of the Doctor insulting Clara's features gets more tiresome on repeat viewing.
I've just finished a repeat viewing of Clara's run as of yesterday, so this is all fresh in my mind. Hell Bent definitely wasn't as bad as I remember peoples saying it was.
This has been part of my year-long rewatch of all of Doctor Who (including listening to a lot of Big Finish during summer).
Gee, it's been a jolly journey.
Also the supposedly endearing humour of the Doctor insulting Clara's features gets more tiresome on repeat viewing.
I've just finished a repeat viewing of Clara's run as of yesterday, so this is all fresh in my mind. Hell Bent definitely wasn't as bad as I remember peoples saying it was.
This has been part of my year-long rewatch of all of Doctor Who (including listening to a lot of Big Finish during summer).
Gee, it's been a jolly journey.
The Youtube algorithm doesn't really know how to deal with fandom, I've realized. The anti-SJW brigade is very good at making videos that get clicks by telling angry men exactly what they want to hear, and the algorithm associates those things with the fandoms they're attacking.
Doesn't matter if it's Doctor Who, Steven Universe, video games, comics, whatever - the algorithm is just not equipped to deal with hate videos.
I used to get crap like this so I used the "not interested" widget a few times and this improved the results.
As much as I like Series 9 it's a shame that Twelve and Clara don't actually spend that much time together when you think about it. They're usually separated. It could have really done with one last great adventure with the two of them before Face the Raven instead of Sleep No More, which was an absolute waste.
Yeah, I think a lot of people had the wrong expectations for the finale and that's why they were put off by it.
Another big point for her character is when she compares traveling with the Doctor to an addiction at the end of Mummy on the Orient Express. That really cements the direction she's eventually heading in in Hell Bent, and I really like that Don't Stop Me Now plays in both, which is perfect for Clara. And yeah, after Danny Pink dies she stops trying to live a double life.
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But at the same time, so much of the season is about them being separated and going to incredible lengths (and pushing each other too far) so they can save the day but most importantly each other The Witch's Familiar : the Doctor goes apeshit after Clara's "apparent death"
Before the Flood : Clara puts ppl in danger while The Doctor tries to change time
The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who lived : a reflection on how The Doctor's attempts to save people can turn out wrong and foreshadowing on Clara's departure and their codependancy
The Zygon Inversion : Clara then again acting like the Doctor to save him from his "evil" version with smart but risky interrogation tactics
I think, considering their relationship was already well established, them spending a lot of screen time on their own wasn't such a problem and, on the contrary, helped their development by showing how they act around outsiders, and also solidifying them as equal partners with their own companions for the episode.
Moffat LOVES subverting expectation for his second parts. The Pandorica Opens is a bombastic showstopper with all the villains teaming up, and yet most of The Big Bang takes place in a museum with 4 characters interacting. World Enough and Time teases a big Master/Missy/Doctor confrontation and yet The Doctor Falls is done with that premise after the first 5 minutes and becomes another story entirely.
Some people consider this "disappointing", but I always loved it.
This is actually a really good idea, and now I want this.
In many ways it's a more nuanced way of doing the whole Davros 'The Doctor turns his companions into weapons' thing from Stolen Earth. There's something horrifically tragic about someone losing the person they love and finding solace in this magic space man who is literally willing to go to hell for her.
I love that the 12th Doctor on the surface seems entirely unsympathetic, dig down a level and you find that he actually cares a lot, but dig down another level and you find that his emotional intelligence and ability to act on his feelings are entirely messed up. That's essentially his progression from Face the Raven > Heaven Sent > Hell Bent. He ends up inadvertently getting Bill killed too by telling her to wait, which again seems nice on the surface but ends up backfiring spectacularly.
These are the types of discussions I desperately wish we could have about literally any of the characters in S11.
I 100% believe Peter and Jenna when they say that 12 and Clara were basically married by the end of it.
Good points. And I remember a lot of people at the time complaining that the focus of the show was too much on Clara and that it was just trying to make her like the Doctor, but what it was also doing was showing how that can be a bad thing, and there are real consequences to it.
That's clearly the idea in Death in Heaven too when Clara takes the screwdriver to "delete" Danny Pink, and Danny calls him a typical officer.
It makes the timing of The Husbands of River Song kind of weird.
He had a way closer relationship with Clara than he ever did with River.
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The River relationship always seemed way more one-sided on River's end than anything else. It always felt like the Doctor humoring her because of a future relationship she made him think they had together that he never bothered to look up because "spoilers".
There was very little actual chemistry between her and Smith, whereas it did wind up more natural with her and Capaldi.
I'm a few weeks behind, but: Demons of the Punjab was the best episode of the season so far. Where Rosa felt a bit too on the nose (THAT MUSICAL CUE), this was simply heartbreaking.
The rest of the season has been distinctly, distinctly mediocre. Which is a shame because I love Jodie and I think Graham is already an upper-tier companion who brings something genuinely new to the show.
The rest of the season has been distinctly, distinctly mediocre. Which is a shame because I love Jodie and I think Graham is already an upper-tier companion who brings something genuinely new to the show.
Hell Bent is a bit like series 9 in general, in that I recall it reviewing well at the time it aired, then, at some point before series 10, it was getting panned all over the shop.
You could apply that to Capaldi's tenure as a whole, really. I never could understand where the comments about him being "a good actor suffering poor scripts" came from. I mean, Heaven Sent ffs.
You could apply that to Capaldi's tenure as a whole, really. I never could understand where the comments about him being "a good actor suffering poor scripts" came from. I mean, Heaven Sent ffs.
A reviewer on DWTV had some really good early comments about It Takes You Away, for the first time since the premiere I have high expectations. Although even if the final two episodes manage to turn it around it's still not an excuse for all the filler in a ten-episode series.
And regarding 12 and Clara, one of the things that's fantastic about Jenna Coleman is that as well as being a great actress she's genuinely a big fan and very enthusiastic about the show. She really knows her stuff and the small details, maybe more so than even Matt Smith did.
And regarding 12 and Clara, one of the things that's fantastic about Jenna Coleman is that as well as being a great actress she's genuinely a big fan and very enthusiastic about the show. She really knows her stuff and the small details, maybe more so than even Matt Smith did.
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Capaldi's first two seasons were generally considered boring at the time of airing if I remember correctly. Back on gaf, the thread for series 8 and 9 were just as negative as this one save for Heaven Sent, which I think is pretty much universally loved.
I don't think Hell Bent is great, but I never understood where people were coming with the way Capaldi's scripts were worse than all the other Doctors. Did people forget series 2 had Idiot's Lantern, Fear Her, and Love and Monsters all in one season? Or just how underwhelming series 7 is in general?
IMO Capaldi had the most consistently good, often great writing of all the Doctors, and yeah Tennant in particular got stuck with a lot of terrible scripts, much more so than Capaldi.
Heck, the most consistent series Tennant had was series 4, and that one shat itself at the finale.
At the risk of painting too general of a brush, I think the hate towards Hell Bent is because of the twist that the Doctor DGAF about Gallifrey at all and spent his short time there to find a way to get Clara back. I totally loved it as an extension of what he did in Heaven Sent but some people were upset they didn't get their annoying people in funny hats.
Me personally it is because I think having Clara stay alive at the end is unearned, and contrary to the themes of the previous two episodes. I have slowly turned around my thought on it once I realized series 8 and 9 was about the toxic relationship between Clara and the Doctor, but I still think it is not great and part of Moffat's tendency to overindulge.
Absolutely, that's what I was expecting too at the time. People just weren't expecting Clara to come back, when it made perfect sense for him to want to use Time Lord tech to try to stop her death.
I do think after Day of the Doctor with his speech about his journey heading home, it is weird to just leave it at the Doctor choosing to leave and never going back.
I actually think her death is more tragic after Hell Bent because she dies believing that the Doctor will live the rest of his life forgetting her.
It could very well be that the Doctor regrets what happened in the Time War and he felt bad for Gallifrey but once he got there he realized how much he hated Rassilon and the council and just wanted to get out. That it dovetailed with the ability for him to bring Clara back makes it all the better for him.
The added twist of the Doctor being the one to forget Clara while Clara retains all her memories made the ending all the more horrifying. Clara can go on as many adventures she wants but at the end of the day, she needs to return to Gallifrey to meet her death AND she has to live her life knowing that the Doctor can't remember her anymore.
I know its unlikely but I hope someday they can get Clara and Me back for a guest spot to meet the Doctor again even though 12 is gone.
I wouldn't say easily, when Series 8 has Kill the Moon (debatable I know, I think it's great), Mummy on the Orient Express, and Flatline, and S9 has Under the Lake, Before the Flood, The Girl Who Died, The Zygon Invasion, The Zygon Inversion, and Face the Raven. All of which I would say are better than any S11 episodes.
The guest writer-show writer quality difference is definitely different than any other season though. For Rosa I have a feeling that the best parts of the episode were by the guest writer, Malorie Blackman, and Chibnall added the time traveling racist who didn't make much sense.
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Kill the Moon is a disaster, as is the Forest one, but Mummy and Flatline do sort of balance that out. I would say this has been the best guest ep line-up since either S1 or S4.
OP
OP
Series 8 had Robot of Sherwood, Time Heist, The Caretaker and In the Forest of the Night, all of which I think are worse than any series 11 guest-written episode.
I also think the Under The Lake two-parter is pretty close to unwatchable garbage, I'm afraid- far worse than any series 11 episode, and pretty close to Modern Who's nadir.
I also think the Under The Lake two-parter is pretty close to unwatchable garbage, I'm afraid- far worse than any series 11 episode, and pretty close to Modern Who's nadir.
S4 would be a contender were it not for The Doctor's Daughter stinking the place out. No episode this series is even close to being that bad.
I'd argue that none of the guest writer episode aside from Rosa this year have been even good.
Demons of Punjab was pointless overall, Kerblam had potential but had weird messages with 13 killing a kid, and Witches also turned into a muddled mess. I disliked 13 in all of them.
I'd probably rewatch Robot of Sherwood over Ghost Monument and Arachnids in the UK.
Demons of Punjab was pointless overall, Kerblam had potential but had weird messages with 13 killing a kid, and Witches also turned into a muddled mess. I disliked 13 in all of them.
Robot of Sherwood and Forest of the Night were so bad that I've never rewatched them, but the Under the Lake story, really? Not the best episodes ever but still far more interesting than anything this series and there's nothing particularly offensive about them.
I'd probably rewatch Robot of Sherwood over Ghost Monument and Arachnids in the UK.