Series 34 so far

We are five episodes in with Peter Capaldi as the Doctor and a lot of people have already voiced their approval or disapproval of the latest chapter in Doctor Who and so I thought that I would offer my thoughts. If you like a 100% Steven Moffat bashing then you probably wont want to read on because this wont happen, however if you want a more balanced opinion then read on.

The first episode was shown in cinemas as well as on BBC1. When the 50^th anniversary special was shown at the cinema I went along with friends and it was a fantastic experience because the screening was full of Doctor Who fans (some of whom had dressed up) and the story was great and the reaction from the audience was equally great. I could see why it was shown in a cinema and didn’t mind paying for the privilege. Fast forward ten months and I cant see the point. Yes the arrival of a new Doctor is a big deal but I refuse to pay £12 to see Capaldi’s debut.

On the subject of the story it was twenty minutes too long and is not going to be in the top 3 stories of the series because opening stories aren’t known for quality story telling. It’s all about trying to get the audience and fans to accept the new Doctor. The next story is perhaps going to be the best story of the series (or in the top 3 anyway). It’s fair to say that the Daleks’ star has fallen since the show returned in 2005. Whereas a Dalek story use to be a source of great excitement, now it doesn’t quite have the same attraction. What ‘Into the Dalek’ did was show what a great Doctor Peter Capaldi will be but also that something interest can be done with the Daleks.

Robot of Sherlock is a story that I thought I wasn’t going to like when I first saw it because it looked like it was going to be a comedy and if there is one thing that Doctor Who doesn’t do well it is a comedy and whilst I don’t think it’s the greatest story so far, it was better than I thought it was going to be. It allowed Capaldi to do a bit of comedy which if you’ve seen him in ‘The Thick of It’ is always a fun thing to witness. Sadly, the good form wasn’t going to last when we got to Listen. I was bored when I watched Listen and thought that it was just 45 minutes of interesting scene followed by interesting scene without the key thing that every story should have and that is a purpose. I watched it a couple of days later on BBC3 and whilst I liked it slightly more the second time, I was still left with a bit of disappointment because there is something that works in the episode but it gets lost. The main critiscm that seemed to be following it on twitter and from a friend is that there was too much Clara and I think that is what has been the problem with the series (more in next week’s blog).

The trailer for Time Heist which followed Listen was more entertaining than the previous 45 minutes and the full episode was a massive improvement on episode four. It felt like the show was having fun again whilst having a bit of a mystery for the viewer to try and sort out. As I write this (on a Wednesday), the next episode is the Caretaker and seems to be focusing more on Clara and the other guy. Only time will tell how the rest of the series will run but at the moment I would give the show 7/10. The good stuff includes Peter Capaldi and the Dalek episode but the bad stuff was Listen and too much Clara.

The mystery surrounding Missy is something that is intriguing me and I hope that the payoff for this isn’t going to disappoint me in the way that previous story arcs have disspointed me. I think that the decision to pit it against the ratings juggernaut that is ITV’s The X-Factor and putting it on at 8.30 is a mistake because it means that ratings are going to be lower and those that hate Steven Moffat are going to use this as a stick to beat him with. I don’t care about that because all I care about is what I see on my TV screen and have in my DVD collection.

Peter Capaldi is a brilliant Doctor and despite some reservations, Jenna Coleman is really good as Clara and all the stories (apart from Listen) have been good in different ways and those that have supposedly stopped watching the show because the Doctor is an old guy are missing some great stories and the fandom is better without. Hope your enjoying watching Dads Army on BBC2 or your David Tennant/Matt Smith DVD’s or whatever your watching when you not watching Doctor Who.

Time Heist (2014)

After being somewhat disappointed with last week’s episode. I was somewhat hoping that this episode would return back to something resembling good form. Certainly the trailer seemed to indicate this and the start of the episode seemed to start off like most episodes this series. The Doctor takes Clara away in the TARDIS and off onto their next adventure but within moments, the normality is disrupted when the Doctor and Clara are in a new room with two complete strangers. The two people that the Doctor and Clara meet are Psi and Saibra who are a augmented human and a shape shifter. There is a recording which in a nutshell sets up the story saying that they have had their memories wiped and it was all of their volition.  

 

I think I like the idea that Clara isn’t always with the Doctor in the TARDIS. I like the idea that she has a life away from the Doctor and the Doctor keeps popping in like a relative. The phone ringing is still a rare thing. I think the last time it rang was in the 2005 story ‘The Empty Child’. The whole theme of the episode (as the title suggests) is that it’s a heist adventure. The episode takes place in a bank which given the current attitude towards the banking community is perhaps the sort of area that deserves to have people of ill repute running it.  

 

The first thing that strikes me about this episode is that there is less of Clara hogging centre stage and the Doctor actually being the lead character. It’s fair to say that Jenna Coleman’s performances in recent weeks have been overshadowing Capaldi’s at a time when he should be striding away with the role. Here Capaldi shows us how good he is and there were moments of Malcolm Tucker in a few lines. Despite my growing frustration at the character of Clara, I think that Jenna Coleman’s performance was very good. I thought that it was good how Clara didn’t go gooey eyed over Psi and even their goodbye hug wasn’t a soppy send off.  

The main name that appears in this episode is Keeley Hawes who plays Ms Delphox. As much as I wanted to like her character I thought that Hawes’ performance was very similar to that of Ms Foster as played by Sarah Lancashire in the 2008 story ‘Partners in Crime’. I think that this Hawes’s character was slightly better because compared to ‘Partners in Crime’, the plot in this one was stronger. 

 

I thought that Psi and Saibra were two very good characters and Jonathan Bailey & Pippa Bennett-Warner did a good job of keeping up with Capaldi and Coleman. Normally I would have found the character of Psi to be irritating and I would instantly hate the actor playing the part but on this occasion I found the performance and the actor to be quite good. I thought that Bennett-Warner gave an understate yet engaging performance and I wanted these two characters to be alright at the end of the episode and thankfully they did.  

If I have an issue with the episode then I think that it runs away with itself in the final few minutes when its revealed that the person calling the TARDIS phone at the very beginning of the episode was Madame Karabraxos as an old woman. On a side note, I thought that the make-up was very good. Certainly better than some of the make up used to make people older that we have seen in previous episodes. The idea that she is ringing the Doctor in her dyeing days was something that clearly had Steven Moffat’s fingerprints all over it because it seemed overly complex. 

 

I’ve managed to get this far without referring to the monster which looked very good and is one of the strongest monster designs for quite sometime. The idea that it’s being forced against its will to do something isn’t terribly original but its used quite well here and the moment when its revealed that the Teller is the last of its kind was quite nice and about as soppy as it got. 

 

I definitely thought that ‘Time Heist’ was miles better than the previous episode because at least it felt like a normal Doctor Who episode. I still think that ‘Into the Dalek’ is the best episode of the series but at least this episode shows that ‘Listen’ was just a blip. Nearly halfway through the series and its been a pretty good run of episode with only one really letting it down.