The ninth season of the current Doctor Who run is now out, and by now you should have had time to watch the first episode. What did you think of the opener? Was it a hit, or a miss? Use the comment section to share your thoughts!
Stephen Schleicher
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
5 Comments
I absolutely loved this episode. One of the best of NewWho. Of course Clara and Missy aren’t dead but I don’t buy this as a “that is why this episode is bad”. It had a profound influence on the Doctor and that was important.
A lot of great moments here.
Clara is now a Unit Agent.
Pretty Women
“That is the only way she will talk to me”
Master is still his best friend
“HE is your arch enemy?”
“DUDE!”
Doctor with a Dalek gun yelling Exterminate
just wow.
Absolutetly loved it. Can’t wait for Saturday.
I was really happy with this one. I’m willing to bet, however, that we are getting a typically fake-out ending with the image of the Doctor about to kill the child Davros. I’m thinking that he is actually going to be shooting the “hand mines” (a brilliant concept by the way) surrounding him. He will save Davros and show him compassion in an effort to change how his life goes.
-Chad
I have no complaints, but I don’t know what can top The Doctor in medieval times playing an electric guitar while riding a tank. I know something will, I just can’t imagine what that may be yet.
I hated it, for the most part. The first scenes on Skaro were very good – picked up the mix of technology and my mind was cast back to watching Genesis of the Daleks in the 70s. The revelation of the boy’s identiy was really a ‘sit up and go gasp!’ moment that I really enjoyed.
There then ensued a dire 35 minutes of utter rubbish masquerading as a great show. This section was marked by a sequence of scenes that barely hung together (let’s riff of an RTD trope by bringing in yet another globe spanning mystery). UNIT was blink and you’ll miss it – what’s the point of having Kate Stewart and the resources of a global organisation when you can bring in an English teacher to run the show – gah!.
Then the tank scene – cripes, that was awful. I’m sure Capaldi loved riffing with the guitar, but what was the point – why waste so much time on indulgent crap like that when there’s a story urgently demanding to be told? Moffat needs to rein in these sort of excesses otherwise he’s going to run the show into the ground.
Michelle Gomez as Missy has been given a terrible role to play – a psychopathic shrew whose glibness is as annoying as the performance. The Master is bad, but not a smart talking killer – harkl back to Roger Delgado – smooth, urbane, sinister. Missy is a big miss, sadly.
The last few minutes were very good, though once again, Moffat has to (fake) kill someone to create tension, even though every man and his dog knows Clara and Missy will survive. It’s just lazy storytelling.
Seeing Davros back was great, and Bleach played him to perfection. Having Capaldi go down on his knees to beg for Clara’s life is a betrayal of the character, though, and should’ve ever have happened.
Oh, and now the Doctor is going to kill a child, who never did anyone wrong. Great. Is this still Doctor Who?
UK got 2 episodes back to back we got one. Clara shot, did not see that coming, but I understand she left the show anyway. Your girlfriends home John Snow.