tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7582542117653672265.post1406156578472120431..comments2024-03-25T03:44:11.020-07:00Comments on My Shiny Toy Robots: Reviews in Time & Space: The Time of the DoctorAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11008161240137256096noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7582542117653672265.post-37847653731825622892014-01-03T21:01:11.194-08:002014-01-03T21:01:11.194-08:00I'm glad to be done with Matt Smith (He was ok...I'm glad to be done with Matt Smith (He was okay himself, but I despise so much of his era, River, Amy, all of that nonsense) that it's good to turn the page as it were.<br /><br />Unfortunately, I thought this was probably my least favorite episode ever in Doctor Who. Which is a shame as it firmly cements the 11th as my least favorite Doctor of all time. A tough title to claim, but as he edged away from it in the 5th special, he went right back in this.<br /><br />There wasn't a bit of a coherent plot here. Why did the Doctor have to save the town? Why did he care? Why now of all times, did he decide to just randomly grow old on this planet? It just reeked of trying to do something epic, without any real justification for doing so.<br /><br />The Time Lord crack on the wall bit was annoying, as was the cop out ending. I was fine with the Time Lords giving him more lives, as mundane as that is, but doing so in such a hamfisted way just was terrible. Of course, a much better story would have been dealing with the 12th knowing it's his last regeneration. <br /><br />I'm so over Moffat. His run at the helm has just been horrible, IMO. It makes me wonder if RTD didn't oversee a million bad scripts from him and only used the good ones. And now Moffat's stuff is all terrible with the occasional decent story.<br /><br />But I digress.<br /><br />Nothing like a story where the Doctor can defeat thousands of his enemies with nothing more than some trees and dirt and the occasional sonic screwdriver to really decrease the value of every enemy.<br /><br />Forget the Daleks, he buried EVERY villain. Even those annoying Weeping Angels.<br /><br />Newthttp://www.infinitehollywood.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7582542117653672265.post-69344031289639962112013-12-26T15:59:28.905-08:002013-12-26T15:59:28.905-08:00Totally agree on the Cyberman front. I thought the...Totally agree on the Cyberman front. I thought the wooden Cyberman was a fun novelty for humour's sake (made me think of Futurama as well) but unless someone can reignite what made them so scary in the first place I think they need retiring. With The Tenth Planet now out on DVD and The Moonbase following (SO hyped about that), I think I'll be better off just sticking with the classics. And while I love Strax, I'm dubious whether the Sontarans will recover any time soon :(<br /><br />I had to cut my thoughts on Clara out of this review because I was beginning to waffle, but she was great in this too and I agree she's really hitting her stride now. As for Capaldi's first words, I was trying to work out whether he was talking in his full-blown Scottish accent. He was certainly breaking into it now and again.<br /><br />I've not read anything myself yet but those theories about Tasha Lem sound interesting, and certainly plausible! Who knows if we'll ever get answers though, this very much felt like a "wiping the slate clean" episode and I'm doubtful we'll see her again...or at least not for a few years!Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11008161240137256096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7582542117653672265.post-22442532285092834562013-12-26T15:39:38.888-08:002013-12-26T15:39:38.888-08:00Great review :)
I agree with a lot of what you&#...Great review :)<br /><br />I agree with a lot of what you've said here - the episode did feel a little inconsistent and a bit like ticking all the boxes to me, to tidy everything up. I quite liked the idea of the Papal Mainframe (a church that you confide all your secrets to under coercion and then don't remember having done so - that's creepy). I quite like the idea of the Silents as priests, but I didn't like that Kovarian and co were presented as a splinter group, I'd have liked them to have been an evolution of the main church as that's the way the church went anyway. <br /><br />The Daleks did do a little better out of this one, the booming voice from the saucer at the end was great (incidentally, that opening scene with all the ships in orbit was pretty epic too). And while some people online are quite upset about weaponised regeneration, I like the concept - I just thought it was kind of poorly executed. But yeah, the Sontarans have just become a joke, I'd love to see a story where they're a credible threat again. Still, nice to see two identical Sontarans interacting for once (I just really wish they'd ditch the blue uniforms and go back to their old-school black scheme). and the Cybermen... sigh. What the hell ws the point of the wooden Cyberman anyway? They're becoming more and more like robots... they need MORE icky body horror, not less. Oh well. I have nothing much to say about the Angels because they lost their appeal back in series 5.<br /><br />Jenna Coleman as Clara was great - she's actually become a character and not just a plot device, as of Day of the Doctor, and the show's better for it. I'm liking her more and more. And Matt Smith was phenomenal, as always, you're right about his final scenes there - great stuff. The surprise cameo was kinda beautiful, and the actual regeneration, when it finally happened, was superb. I found the music made Capaldi's first words a bit hard to hear, I'm choosing to believe they were a string of f bombs. <br /><br />And lastly, Tasha Lem - there's a lot of speculation online at the moment that she IS some future version River Song, possibly downloaded from the Library, with those references to her inner psychopath, the fact that the Doctor kisses her and she wants everyone naked and 'Lem' is 'Mel' spelled backwards and so on. That would make for one weird time loop.<br /><br />Speaking of time loops, I'm still not entirely sure any of this actually makes sense. But then, that's quite in keeping with the rest of the Moffat era so far ;)liminalDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06621859737411962756noreply@blogger.com