Gavin WintersBloody hell though. #DoctorWho
Day Of The Doctor: right, here we go. The big one. đ
Ten years on, this still holds up as a fantastic achievement by Moffat. Season 7 was a bit iffy, so there was some slight trepidation heading into the 50th, but fair play, he pulled it off spectacularly. #DoctorWho
God, John Hurt was brilliant, wasnât he? At both the comedy of taking the piss out of the others and the melancholy, world-weary material.
Iâm a sucker for stories of redemption arcs, historical wrongs being righted etc. so the War Doctorâs story is right up my alley. #DoctorWho
To be perfectly honest, Tennant is *slightly* surplus to requirements. You could write a version of this with just 11 and War representing the Doctor from the Time War and where he is now. Ten is there because, hey, itâs an anniversary, so letâs get more Doctors in. #DoctorWho
More than once this reminds me of Back To The Future (which gets a namecheck) as that script is famously tightly-plotted with every part, every line, linking to or setting something up for later.
Kateâs plan to nuke London to save the Earth of course mirrors the War Doctorâs use of The Moment, and scanning the door with the sonic sets up the resolution of the whole story. #DoctorWho
But also how, in BTTF, after George punches Biff the last fifteen minutes or so are a series of victories, of punch-the-air moments to make the audience cheer. Same here with everything after the Doctors decide *not* to destroy Gallifrey. #DoctorWho
This final shot could probably be done better today, (maybe with actual moving footage of the faces superimposed instead of photos?) but what the hell, well done Moff. đ
Right Russell, get someone to hold your beer⌠đ #DoctorWho
The Name Of The Doctor: the most continuity-heavy Xmas special ever. Following the high of the 50th was always going to be a struggle, but this also buckles from trying to wrap up everything from 11âs era - the crack, the TARDIS explosion, the Silence, Kovarian, RiverâŚ#DoctorWho
Moffat would sometimes go down a certain path⌠then abandon or retcon that plotline when no longer convenient, i.e. the Daleks memories of the Doctor were erased, but since they need to know him for this finale theyâve regained the info from Tasha Lemâs mind. đ¤ˇđťââď¸#DoctorWho
A highlight of this episode is poor old Handles. They manage to wring a lot of emotion and sympathy out of an inanimate Cyber head. #DoctorWho
This really is uncompromising for casual viewers when compared to the usual light-hearted Christmas episodes. The point where the Silence suddenly sprout Dalek eyestalks from their foreheads must have had a lot of people going âEh? WhatâŚ?â #DoctorWho
But once all that heavy arc stuff is out of the way the last fifteen minutes or so are fantastic. The aged Doctor, too weak to pull a Christmas cracker⌠the colossal regeneration⌠Karen Gillanâs cameo⌠then BAM! A new face. #DoctorWho
I donât know why everyone thinks the regeneration happens really fast. The glowing energy, arms out, explodey part happens atop the tower, then he just holds back the actual face change until he gets back to the TARDIS. Technically itâs the longest regeneration! #DoctorWho
Deep Breath: Capaldi gives probably my favourite portrayal of a confused post-regenerative Doctor, with an extremely alien take on his thought processes - âThe other one. The not-me one, the asking questions one!â And thinking everyoneâs suddenly gone English. đ #DoctorWho
The Victorian Londoners must have forgotten all about the dinosaur in the Thames, same as the CyberKing. #DoctorWho
At this point Twelveâs abrasiveness is not too extreme, and can be forgiven as the normal intense behaviour by a Doctor just after regenerating. #DoctorWho
Thereâs some obvious padding to fill this out to movie length, noticeably Straxâs medical exam of Clara, albeit still very funny.
And the battle at the end between the Paternoster gang and the clockwork droids seems to go on a bit too long. #DoctorWho
Into The Dalek: the harsher edges of the Twelfth Doctor start to get more defined now, with his utterly callous disregard for the people who die along the way.
I donât know why anyone ever thinks this is a good idea. It didnât work with Colin and it doesnât work here. #DoctorWho
You can sort of imagine how Matt Smith would have played some of these lines. The âGet it right!â to Journey Blue wouldâve been softer, more encouraging.
Instead she practically gets Malcolm Tucker yelling âGET IT FUCKING RIGHT!â at her. đ #DoctorWho
By now itâs been two years (two!) since Clara first appeared (at least, the version in Asylum Of The Daleks) and only now, with the Impossible Girl stuff done, are they trying to flesh her out with a life and a new job and a relationship. Too little, too late. #DoctorWho
I hope the Coal Hill School Secretary in 1963 acted the same as the one we see here:
âIâm looking for the address of one of my pupils, Susan Foreman.â
âOoh, I bet you are!â
I donât know why Clara is not sure whether heâs âa good manâ after everything theyâve been through together.
And where has this hatred of soldiers come from all of a sudden? Poor old Brigadier. #DoctorWho
Robot Of Sherwood: this is more like it, a silly but fun episode. Nothing remarkable, but you can rely on Gatiss to give us a straight down the line regular adventure, with a Doctorish Doctor and Clara actually seeming like a normal human companion. #DoctorWho
And this episode shows exactly how to have a grumpy, irritable Doctor without alienating the viewers - just have someone else give as good as they get. The oneupmanship between him and Robin, especially in the dungeons, give us some of the funniest scenes in ages.
Too often the Twelfth Doctor, and the Sixth before him, just acts like a dick without any consequences or comeback. #DoctorWho
Ben Miller is bloody brilliant as the Sheriff of Nottingham. And you canât help but be reminded of Anthony Ainley. #DoctorWho
I like the final exchange between the Doctor and Robin about their mutual status as inspirational legends: âRemember Doctor, Iâm just as real as you.â #DoctorWho
Listen: a classic Moffat timey-wimey, non-linear, bootstrap paradox type of story, where he also gets to exercise his sitcom writing skills with the awkward date between Danny and Clara. One of the best of season 8. #DoctorWho
But itâs also got a bit of an unusual feel for a Moffat tale, as if heâd set himself a challenge to write the strongest episode he could without it being a finale or having any colossal world-ending alien threat. Itâs a quieter character piece. #DoctorWho
Orson Pink is another unfortunate example of a plot thread unceremoniously retconned by later developments, as he canât be Danny and Claraâs descendant given what happens in the finale. According to Moffat, he could be from âanother branch of Dannyâs family.â Hmm⦠𫤠#DoctorWho
I love the trip back to the young first Doctor in the barn, but Iâm less fond of the fact itâs bloody Clara again being shoehorned into every conceivable part of the Doctorâs history. Isnât he allowed to have done anything without her being involved? #DoctorWho
Time Heist: there seemed to have been a bit of a mini-craze for heist-related TV shows and movies around this time, and the influence shows a lot. Not just in the premise, but in the direction and editing. #DoctorWho
Thereâs a big logical flaw at the heart of this episode: weâre told the bank can only be broken into on one day in its history, when the solar storm disrupts the systems. But the storm will also interfere with the TARDIS, so they canât use that to materialise insideâŚ
So why not just time travel to ANY OTHER DAY IN THE BANKâS EXISTENCE, and use the TARDIS to get inside then??
I guess the Doctor just enjoyed the idea of doing a heist, even if peopleâs lives are put at risk. đ¤ˇđťââď¸ #DoctorWho
Itâs kind of obvious when theyâre re-using the same bit of corridor set over and over, just with different coloured light. #DoctorWho
I like the very funny use of pictures of bad guys from all across the #DoctorWho universe to represent the most wanted criminals.
And also how Abslom Daakâs one has to be a drawing. đ
The Caretaker: I like the premise of this one, vaguely similar to Human Nature but without the memory loss. And played for laughs.
The opening montage intercutting Claraâs two lives with Danny and the Doctor is very good too. #DoctorWho
And lol at the gag of the Doctor thinking Claraâs boyfriend is the bloke who looks like Matt Smith. đ #DoctorWho
The Doctor finds it incomprehensible that an ex-soldier would now have a job as a maths teacher.
ErâŚ
The Skovox Blitzer really is hilariously crap, isnât it? Why is it always the aliens, robots, etc, that are described as âTHE DEADLIEST IN THE UNIVERSE!â that look so rubbish? They must just have good PR people. You never see the Daleks needing to boast like that⌠#DoctorWho
Kill The Moon: this is peak âTwelfth Doctor being an unfeeling dickheadâ with the way he abandons Clara and the others mid-episode with âNothing to do with me!â. Sheâs quite justified in giving him a proper bollocking at the end. #DoctorWho
Oh god, Clara brings another kid along for a ride in the TARDIS. Grossly irresponsible for either a nanny or a teacher! Courtney can be annoying but at least she has a bit more of a personality than the previous two. #DoctorWho
Unlike many fans I donât have an issue with the basic concept of âThe moonâs an egg!â, but the wonky physics of the creature that hatches then laying a new egg⌠exactly the same size as the one it just came from⌠thatâs really pushing it. #DoctorWho
SvenWe will just pretend that episode didn't happen. Though I do like Courtney.
Whoâs daft decision was it to have them land back on a beach near the end⌠where you can clearly see the waves still coming in during the sequence where the moon has supposedly just disintegratedâŚ? đ¤ #DoctorWho
I might be ambivalent about Clara but Jenna is a bloody good actress. Her argument with the Doctor is one of the best pieces of acting by any companion to date.
Not sure if that scene is really right for #DoctorWho though. Theyâre kind of forgetting to be kid-friendly again.
Laserdisc Turtle (Ewan)@gavinwinters Ugh, this episode was a mess. I never thought Doctor Who would do a "pro life" episode. It's absolutely horrifying. Clara overriding the choice because she knows they made the wrong one, then Lundvik thanking her for saving her from her mistake...yikes stuff.
Mummy On The Orient Express: apparently at this point in the filming Capaldi had seen the finished versions of his first episodes, and between them he and Moffat decided to soften his portrayal a bit. So thankfully heâs not such an arse from this point on! #DoctorWho
âOnly Mummies with eeeevil in their hearts go to Maidenâs Point!â #DoctorWho
The Mummy itself is a great design, worthy of a feature film. The âmummiest mummyâ youâve ever seen.
Though once again itâs an example of âmalfunctioning techâ being responsible for the problem, even directly referred to as such in the dialogue. #DoctorWho
Frank Skinner is brilliant as Perkins, and would have been a welcome additional companion if heâd taken the Doctor up on his offer. #DoctorWho
Flatline: another decent one from Jamie Matheson. This has a strong original concept and villains, with some nice visuals of the flattened people, and a clever resolution at the end. #DoctorWho
Clara taking over the role of the Doctor grates slightly in a way it probably wouldnât with any other companion. It feels like another example of Moffat trying to elevate her status to âmost important character everâ. #DoctorWho
When Clara places the tiny TARDIS on a mantelpiece for Riggsy to see the Doctor inside, youâd think someoneâs first assumption there would be that theyâre looking through a hole in the wall to the room next door. #DoctorWho
You canât help but smile at the bizarre sight of the Doctor doing Thing from The Addams Family to drag the tiny TARDIS along. #DoctorWho
The only slightly naff bit is the Doctorâs big speech at the end concluding with âI name you⌠The Boneless!â which is a bit over the top. #DoctorWho
In The Forest Of The Night: Iâve never been that keen on this one but I was surprised to find it a lot more tolerable this time round. It kind of has a strange fairytale quality to it that would probably make it fit in more with the early Matt Smith episodes. #DoctorWho
I think that after the moon being a giant space dragonâs egg, to then have a sentient race of trees protecting the earth was probably pushing the audienceâs tolerance for out-there, wacky ideas in #DoctorWho
I suppose you could link these trees into wider #DoctorWho continuity by assuming theyâre related to the ones from The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe. Or maybe theyâre the ancestors of Jabeâs species.
Yeesh, that ending though⌠when the missing girl comes home (brought by the trees??)
âAnnabel! My Annabel!â
đŹ #DoctorWho
Dark Water / Death In Heaven: on one level this is one of the most imaginative finales by Moffat, with a movie-level scale and an excellent directorial debut from Rachel Talalay, but itâs still a bit cold and bleak, once again forgetting to have family-friendly appeal. #DoctorWho
Dan Hatton@gavinwinters Waves aren't dependent on the moon: that's tides.
@only_ohm But arenât waves part of that? Or does something else cause them?
@gavinwinters Different phenomenon altogether. Waves emerge because any random small bump on the water surface catches the wind, and the drag force from the wind pushes it into becoming a bigger bump. Once they've emerged, they then propagate across the surface under gravity (Earth's, not the moon's).
deltaandthebannermen@gavinwinters I really dislike The Caretaker and its largely to do with the incomprehensible decison to make the Doctor hate soldiers. He is horrid to Danny for absolutely no good reason and, for me, sours the whole story. Like any Doctor Who story there is good stuff in there but I rewatched this one recently and struggled to get past the Doctor/Danny dynamic. Make the Doctor alien and obtuse - but don't make him a dickhead.
@deltaandthebannermen I agree the soldiers thing is daft but it doesnât spoil the episode for me. And while the Doctor is definitely a bit of a dick here I actually think this is one of the season 8 episodes where heâs a bit more palatable. The next episode is much worse!
@gavinwinters I need to rewatch Kill the Moon but I don't remember the Doctor's behaviour in that one bothering me. My issue with the soldier thing is that it just doesn't make sense when the Doctor has always been more than happy to work alongside soldiers and even call them his friends. The obvious examples are the Brig, Yates and Benton but even more recent to this story there was Jenkins in The Sontaran Stratagem.