Doctor Who - Series 10

[Aotrs Commander]

Moffat has denied that there are contractual reasons for dalek use

Well, he's not wrong. Nevermind the children, I don't like waiting too long between Dalek episodes.

Any episode is improved by the presense of Daleks in it. Daleks are just awesome.

Kill the Moon would have been improved by the presense of daleks. It probably would still have been crap, but then at least it'd have had ONE good thing in it.

[MarkRivers]

Pretty good episode I'd say. Although, I am a Doctor Who fanatic so my opinion is really biased. This is my favourite show by far. I know it has flaws but I just love it! :)

[Pex]

Personally I've had enough of the Daleks, Cybermen, and the Master/Missy. I suppose they're too iconic to go away completely, but I don't want to see them all the time. I want new and interesting villains. The Weeping Angels were superb. It's ok to have some nostalgic villains. It was nice to see the Autons, Zygons, and The Intelligence.

They should have given us The Valeyard for an episode at least. They know we are expecting him. The Dream Doctor, War Doctor, or The Intelligence could have been replaced by The Valeyard without changing the story. Almost every fan of Classic Who thought War Doctor was The Valeyard upon first introduction and were excited about it.

[Rynjin]

Quite frankly I wouldn't be bothered if I never saw a Dalek again.

This episode was okay. I like Bill, I like Capaldi, I still don't like Moffat's writing. I'm a bit salty that Capaldi's leaving with him this season because I'd love to see what he could do with a half decent writer giving him consistently solid stories. He had so much potential, mostly wasted on a lot of the same types of stories they were giving Matt Smith.

This story pretty much hit all the same beats the previous stories have recently. A lot of style, very little substance, and a shy, timid girl that can do anything with godlike power because that's Moffat's fetish and by god he's determined to make you share it before his run on this tv show is done.

An alien oil slick with dangerous properties I bought. The general idea of a shapeshifting fluid was neat. It turning into a person with their memories was iffy, but I was still on board.

This puddle being able to instantly transport itself across any distance of space and time was where my eyes got stuck rolling for a while. Who were the race that made this? Why was it capable of such feats? Why were the Time Lords such big cheeses if this mysterious race can apparently **** in a corn field and produce a better time traveler?

All the stuff surrounding the monster of the week was interesting. The Doctor as Professor Doctor What was a neat idea, and the idea of him settling down on a planet for half a century because he doesn't want to drag any more people into his world to get hurt (I...think. It's been like a year and a half since the last episode but that's what his significant glances to River seemed to imply) was nice. The fact that he chose Earth to settle on was like a recovering alcoholic renting a room above a liquor store, but that's honestly perfectly in character for our protagonist.

[dps]

Moffat has denied that there are contractual reasons for dalek use

I've always been somewhat skeptical about there being a requirement to use the Daleks every series/season, but people are constantly telling me that there is. As far as what the show-runner has to say about it goes, well, Moffat lies. A lot. I don't trust anything he says anymore.

[Rodin]

I've always been somewhat skeptical about there being a requirement to use the Daleks every series/season, but people are constantly telling me that there is. As far as what the show-runner has to say about it goes, well, Moffat lies. A lot. I don't trust anything he says anymore.

The way I was told is that there's a bit of copyright weirdness with the Daleks where they don't technically belong to the Doctor Who franchise, but instead belong to the guy that created them. The original contract stated that Doctor Who had the right to use them as long as they appeared in at least one episode per season, and if they don't appear the contract lapses and the full rights return to the owner, who could then charge them an arm and a leg for any future appearances.

How true this is I have no idea, but it's plausible enough.

[dps]

The way I was told is that there's a bit of copyright weirdness with the Daleks where they don't technically belong to the Doctor Who franchise, but instead belong to the guy that created them. The original contract stated that Doctor Who had the right to use them as long as they appeared in at least one episode per season, and if they don't appear the contract lapses and the full rights return to the owner, who could then charge them an arm and a leg for any future appearances.

How true this is I have no idea, but it's plausible enough.

Yes, the rights to the Daleks aren't owned by the BBC, but by their creator, Terry Nixon (or rather, his estate, as he's dead) but the BBC is allowed to use them in Doctor Who. I know that that part is true. What I'm not sure about is the "must use them once a season/series" part.

[Androgeus]

Yes, the rights to the Daleks aren't owned by the BBC, but by their creator, Terry Nixon (or rather, his estate, as he's dead) but the BBC is allowed to use them in Doctor Who. I know that that part is true. What I'm not sure about is the "must use them once a season/series" part.

Off the top of my head, I remember it being more complicated than that, with the BBC holding the rights to the looks of the Daleks and Nation's estate owns everything else. Can't actually find a good source for this though.

Ninja edit: Nick Briggs must have to give the Nation estate a load of money the amount that he uses the Daleks.

[Hopeless]

Regarding the sentient liquid the easiest way it pursued them was by simply hanging on to the TARDIS itself.
Even Captain Jack did that and he was knocked unconscious by the effort so having it need a bit of time to reassert itself before heading after Bill isn't that big a deal if you assume that was how it kept up with them.

[dehro]

Spoiler: I'm in London for a few days, and apparently now it's getting smaller on the outside

Show

[SuperPanda]

Episode 1 had some legitimately good moments mixed in with some odd camera angles and some annoying bits.

I think the one thing that annoyed me more than anything else in the season opener was that Dalek's now have storm-trooper aim. I loved the NuWho series 1 episode Dalek and even when they were getting to feel over-done in series 4's finale, the Dalek's still had some menace to them. Heck even the power ranger daleks in Matt Smith's time or the unforgivable dalek-human hybrid in Manhattan moved the threat-oh-meter a little. That Daleks in this episode felt like they could have been bested in battle by baby Adipose.

That said, I generally liked the new companion in a few ways. The more down to earth perspective and observations makes me hopeful she'll be a bit more like Donna. The Actress showed good range throughout the episode and actually had a decent chemistry with Capaldi.

Capaldi's doctor feels better here. Last season there was a bit too much scenery chewing. He seems to have settled into an excited, grumpy, caring, cynic. The TARDIS=Life lecture was groan worthy, the taking forever to get to "bigger on the inside" was hilarious. Nardol giving the doctor a high five for finally getting there nearly got a spit take from me - I was drinking tea at the time and found it legitimately funny.

Episode 2 had a stronger feel overall. Bill is doing well, Capaldi's doctor feels more natural in the scene, the twists worked well. There was still some 'off' camera work and a few forced moments but overall it felt like "who" was finally back (I don't remember feeling that through Capaldi's last season, though Doctor Mysterio did have that feeling for me).

[factotum]

I found episode 2 a bit slow to get going, to be honest--there was an awful lot of them just wandering around an empty city at the start, which might have been actually creepy if we hadn't already seen what happened (both in the pre-credits sequence and in a massive spoiler from the "next week" section last time!).

[Kato]

I thought it was pretty good, myself. It entertained me while it was on, there were no obvious plot holes that jumped at me while I was watching it, and the only thing that occurred to me thinking about it afterwards was that the Worf Effect of the Daleks proceeds apace--when they first re-appeared in the Ninth Doctor's series he said that one Dalek could easily wipe out an entire city of two million people, and the thing was taking on an entire troop of armed security without a problem; nowadays, they can be taken down by the engine oil drippings from a starship.

Yeah, this seriously bugs me... then again, Who tends to give crazy abilities to things that are... well, not mundane, but just alien. Because... I don't know. The puddle tagging along with the TARDIS was bad enough already.


Anyway, I'm still fine with the first two episodes. I'm not sure how I feel about Bill yet, apart from her one main characteristic in the first episode - being lesbian - there is little personality to her. But I prefer that kind of about all the "super special" people. She's likable in her normalness, I guess?
Number two was also okay. Nothing too special, could have been creepier without the spoilers at the beginning. It's most often detrimental to the tension if we know more than the characters...

I kind of missed the ending of episode 2 though Does someone care to tell me what happened after the EMP(?)?

[Hopeless]

Wasn't the doctor messing up the dalek's sensors with Nardole running around using 4's sonic screwdriver to really mess with them?

[factotum]

I kind of missed the ending of episode 2 though Does someone care to tell me what happened after the EMP(?)?

Spoiler

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Basically, the Doctor erased the memories of the robots so they forgot all about humans and thus had no reason to kill them--although that meant the newly-arrived colonists had to negotiate with the robots to get a roof over their heads. We didn't see that entire process, needless to say. The Doctor then took the TARDIS to what he thought was the corner of his office shortly after they'd left, but when they opened the door they found themselves on what the Doctor identified as the Thames, frozen solid. Again the "next week" stuff rather spoiled any mystery this might have raised in the viewer, so I won't repeat what it showed.

[Hopeless]

Wasn't that very reminiscent of a

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third

doctor story?

[Androgeus]

Wasn't that very reminiscent of a

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third

doctor story?

There's so much Doctor Who, it's rare for anything to be truely unique.

[Pex]

Wasn't that very reminiscent of a

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third

doctor story?

I was reminded of McCoy's episode of "Paradise Towers", Pex bias not intended.

[Quild]

"Smile" was good enough.

Still... The Vardies learnt how to monitor emotions and decided that unhappy ones should be removed but could not figure how destroying one unhappy makes others unhappy? While on the other hand, "Revenge" is a thing they learn automatically when confronted with grief themselves.

The humans themselves are... Humans?
When they learn that the robots killed the skeleton crew (pun intended?) they decide to take weapons to destroy the robots? Don't you go searching for an interruptor or something rather than thinking about firing at will? How do they not know that the robots are bee-sized and that there are billions of them? Revenge against a machine? Damn, it's even a worse idea than revenge against an animal.

[Spacewolf]

"Smile" was good enough.

Still... The Vardies learnt how to monitor emotions and decided that unhappy ones should be removed but could not figure how destroying one unhappy makes others unhappy? While on the other hand, "Revenge" is a thing they learn automatically when confronted with grief themselves.

The humans themselves are... Humans?
When they learn that the robots killed the skeleton crew (pun intended?) they decide to take weapons to destroy the robots? Don't you go searching for an interruptor or something rather than thinking about firing at will? How do they not know that the robots are bee-sized and that there are billions of them? Revenge against a machine? Damn, it's even a worse idea than revenge against an animal.

I did wonder why the people seemed so clueless about the robots, only reason I could think of was that when they said the best and brightest had been the skeleton crew they really meant it.

[BWR]

Bill was OK, which already puts her leagues ahead of most nuWho comps. Capaldi is still good. Smile was pretty meh, but not offensively bad, unlike the season finale we are going to get. Calling it now, it will be terrible, like all the rest. Stupid people and stupid, illogical actions are rather common in DW history, so even though it irks me a bit, it doesn't irk me greatly.

I got a "Paradise Towers"/"Happiness Patrol" vibe, so not all bad.

[Friv]

Yeah, Smile was a great episode with a garbage ending (or rather, an ending that felt like it was from a completely different episode and that meshed really poorly with the one that we were given). Overall, that makes it decent.

It really felt like it was building to "losing a robot makes the robots understand grief, which allows them to understand what they did wrong", but instead it was suddenly "or were the humans the villains the whole time??" which obviously no.

[The Extinguisher]

This episode was okay. I like Bill, I like Capaldi, I still don't like Moffat's writing. I'm a bit salty that Capaldi's leaving with him this season because I'd love to see what he could do with a half decent writer giving him consistently solid stories. He had so much potential, mostly wasted on a lot of the same types of stories they were giving Matt Smith.

This so much. Its the biggest tragedy of Moffats run. Matt Smith got like a season and a half before the show got really Moffaty. Capaldi loved the role so much its a shame he never got the chance to be in a good season.

That being said i remain optimistic that this one wont be awful, maybe even decent. Im predicting a very solid middle and a garbage angsty ending leading to a overall B season which is pretty good considering what weve had so far. Best case scenario 12 goes like 9 did with a big ol smile on his face.

[Aidan305]

It really felt like it was building to "losing a robot makes the robots understand grief, which allows them to understand what they did wrong", but instead it was suddenly "or were the humans the villains the whole time??" which obviously no.

The problem that I really had was "They're defending themselves! That means they want revenge! That means they're sentient!". No, it just means that they're programmed to defend themselves if attacked. We saw nothing that showed that they were acting in any other than that which they were programmed. Which made the whole thing pointless, particularly since they demonstrated that they lack any capacity to learn and adapt. I found that whole ending really irritating.

[Rynjin]

I really enjoyed this episode, the anti-climax ending notwithstanding. Bill is swiftly shaping up to be one of my favorite companions. Somebody mentioned Donna earlier, and I agree, she's a bit like Donna. Though she's got her own thing where she has these flashes of brilliant insight...combined with her being hilariously slow on the uptake on a lot of really simple things. She comes across as slow-witted but not stupid, and a bit flighty without going full on cloudcuckooolander, which is a hard balance to make. Hopefully they keep it up, and kudos so far.

The plot surrounding all the fun character interaction between Bill and the Doctor was meh. All the tension of them just strolling around the place with big grins on their faces was sucked out by the jig being given up at the start. Would have been better to have them arrive and have some red shirts around to be eaten alive on screen to show the potential danger. As-is, with only Bill and the Doctor being around for 85% of the episode, the whole episode was toothless. There was no sense of menace, these characters aren't in any danger on episode 2 of the season, not even danger of injury because these creatures insta-kill their victims.

The ending made little to no sense, but that's okay because the show didn't dwell on it long enough for me to care.

I was watching my DVR'd copy of the episode and I have to ask: What in the high holy **** was with the spoiler commercial in the MIDDLE OF THE EPISODE? The one that pops up before one of the commercial breaks and spoils a scene from 10 minutes later in the episode? Why would you DO that? It served NO purpose! "Stay tuned for more Doctor Who"? The **** you think I was going to do? Why would I be watching through the commercials otherwise? Agh.

[factotum]

You'd need to address that complaint about the advert to whoever supplied you with the DVR--the original BBC programme doesn't have adverts on it.

[dehro]

drat... I was sorta liking the idea of

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david suchet being the next Doctor

[factotum]

Another OK episode. Nothing particularly exciting, but not terrible either. Definitely liking Pearl Mackie's companion, though.

[rooster707]

Okay, so I'm an episode behind, but here are my thoughts on The Pilot:

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Eh, it's okay. The monster was interesting, I guess. I feel like they skipped around too much in the first half, that was confusing. Also, what was the point of the stuff with the rug and the photos and such? Obviously it's hinting that there's something weird about the Doctor, but we already know that, and it doesn't seem to help Bill at all, because even when she's *inside* the TARDIS it takes her forever to figure it out. Similarly, the weird tangent with the chips at the beginning - I had trouble understanding what she was saying, but as far as I could tell, the point was "Oh by the way I'm gay, HEY LOOK GAY COMPANION OVER HERE" which has nothing to do with the plot of the episode.

[Pex]

I'll accept it for this one episode for historical accuracy even though they didn't bring up the subject at all with Martha Jones or Mickey Smith, but if they do it every episode I'm done with the show until they get a new companion or maybe a new Doctor to get off the subject. I do not want to be preached to. I almost stopped watching during the Matt Smith years for the same reason. It's what turned me off from watching "Timeless". Write a good character, and I will like Bill for her own sake. Don't tell me I must like Bill or else.

As for speculation of who is in the Vault the known to the audience beings worthy: The Doctor himself, The Master, Davros, a Weeping Angel, fan service Valeyard, Rassilon

Alternatively a new threat created for the episode when he finally escapes/is let out.

Missed an opportunity to be ominous and wink at the audience by having the being knock four times instead of three.