Be Excellent To Each Other

Much prefer Capaldi to the last two already, but then I much preferred Ecclestone as well.

Ecclestone was my favourite, but didn't have enough time to grow into the role, unfortunately.

I thought it was a terrible story, with a waste/overuse of the required Dalek episode. Also the 'Daleks shine spotlight on the dark side of the doctor' has itself been more than overused in the past ten years.

The only episode in a long time where I've not been fully concentrating on it as I got bored, although I'm laying that at the scriptwriters feet rather than Capaldi, for now.

Maybe it wasn't even the writing. I'm not sure how the concept of 'let's do Inner Space but inside a dalek' even got past the initial planning meeting.

As soon as he saw the shrinkerator I stopped paying attention and went back to my fudge.

It was covered in the 'extra' that it came from a question to Stephen Moffat about people searching for ideas to do a Doctor Who video game and he came out with that as a concept and then told them "No , you cant have that - its going to be an episode"

Episode one was a bit "meh", Episode two was pretty decent. I like CApaldi, and CLara did someothing.

I wish they would just stop with the Daleks
just stop
please

Yes, I'm sure they'll bin the Doctor's most iconic nemeses in the programme. Seems plausible.

They clearly have no idea what to do when they do use them.

I really enjoeyd episode 2. The Doc was as cold and scary as 9 was in 'Dalek', and I'm glad it wasn't a rehash of it.

But, yes, I think letting the pepperpots rest for two or three years would be good. Last time they were truly scary was the 'Asylum of the Daleks' episode.

I absolutely loved that episode. They are very hit and miss, though. Dalek was ace, the Manhattan two-parter was execrable.

He used to be surprised when he saw one "they were all destroyed in the time war" etc. Now he's not even surprised anymore.
Last of the Timelords, but never a last of the Daleks

(yes I know - the Master - but that was just one)

yeah, there wasn't even any build up about what the enemy was - just as well really as the BBC announcer tells you prior to the show starting what is going to happen, FFS.

Well, that and the episode title.

the what now?

They did try that a few times down to the final few but then they just open up the floodgates again and they arrive again.

Also 'all destroyed in the time way' does not quite mean that same as it did before as the end of the time war has been re-written (Galifrey moved to another dimension so the Daleks shot themselves rather than locked in the time 'bubble' that was created).

The thing is they are never going to get rid of them totally but they could do so much more with them than they have done recently.

that is the other thing I don't like about it, trotting them out over and over again makes them infinitely less scary because it makes them so beatable
they are built up as this amazing enemy, a time war was fought by Timelords for bloody ages and the only way to defeat them was to kill them all (ok I know Gallifrey falls no more, but that has been the Daleks bio up till then)
But every time they bring one or more out, they have to be defeated and every time that happens the Daleks lose more street cred and so: meh

on a more positive note, next week:

I really liked 'Dalek' which carried the idea of one dalek being dangerous , however after that they decided its much better to have an enormous army of them to battle against

Classic stories often have the same issues but you did get the idea that often the victory was just escape from them , or that they had a plan and the victory was stopping that plan (rather than just use them as an enemy which will kill everything).

Some examples :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Daleks - Where the goal was to stop them changing time (I know that no-one really messes with time in 'New Who' other than the Doctor & The Master but the Daleks can time travel and is that not a better and more scarey idea that the Daleks have manipulated time to get their own way)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_to_the_Daleks - Daleks with no weapons until they swap their blasters for Uzi's :-) (goal to escape the planet / stop the energy drain)

What happened to the colourful Daleks?

Timey wimey

sold out

I thought the episode was a little weak, Capaldi made the most of what he was given though.

Liked "It's smaller on the outside"

World's oldest Dalek to be restored in Hampshire.

It looks in quite good nick.

That's what Clara said too.

Soldier Girl to return as next companion?

The soldier thing is clearly going to play out over a longer period, especially given Clara's new bloke.

I watched the first two episodes back to back last night.

Deep Breath - mostly good. Always hard to get a decent story in when introducing the new Doctor, but I thought they did okay. Overall story seemed a bit rehashed (nefarious villains under London in a spaceship trying to get home or abduct/kill people).

Dalek One - a little boring at times. Everything was pretty predictable.

Capaldi - I like him. He actually does look a similar shape to Matt Smith, but obviously a lot older. I like the nascent relationship with Clara. I liked his angry rant against the homeless chap; more angry doctor please.

Death - Lots more death than usual. The dalek episode was very much not a kiddie-episode, and the first one featured the Doctor possibly killing someone.

What most struck me about the episodes was the sheer amount of stuff they have pre-loaded for later in the series!

- The equations and stuff that the Doc wrote down
- Soldier Girl and equivalent Soldier Boy
- Heaven! What the hell is that about? I like it! Who is the lady?
- Capaldi's face - he acknowledged that he was in the show before and intimated he chose that face for a reason
- I think there was more but I forget.

Anyway, not the greatest two episodes, but largely enjoyable and I think they're setting up for a good series.

The first one featured the Doctor possibly killing someone. The second one featured the Doctor lying to someone about them not being about to die (when he made the soldier guy swallow the tracker on the premise that it would save him.)

I have noticed that the layout of the garden in the Heaven scenes looks quite TARDIS-y, and in this second episode she caught someone as they were about to die, much like the Doctor did to soldier girl in his TARDIS right at the start of that episode...

the heaven looks like an early section with Amy I think, in the library, or something?

Its from "The girl who waited" which was the one with Amy where she got left behind (and then got old)

I knew you would know.

That was much better!

Didn't like Robot of Sherwood at all. Too silly.

It was a good mix of dark and silly.

Too much silly bias. I don't like it when it descends into farcical comedy. Swordfighting with a spoon. The stupid exchange in the dungeon... More crap from Gatiss.

I took that as a more subtle dig about the screwdriver than the direct piss-taking from Clara. Likewise him testing the apple.

I was annoyed by him.exploding the wicker target, but then later he said he used a homing arrow so there must have been tech in it.

Much better than last week, and best of the three.

I really enjoyed it. A fun romp throughout, and got charmingly meta at the end.

Highlight:

Thought there was too much silly, and too much clueless doctor. I prefer him when he's being more awesome; he was practically a passenger for the entire episode. Also, the arrow stuff was silly, and the 'stranded aliens harvesting stuff' trope has now been used twice in three bloody episodes.

Positives:
I still like Capaldi
More death! This must be the most death-laden series ever, linking to...
Promised Land. There's our obvious series link again.
Ben Mjller hamming it up to a ludicrous level was entertaining.

Still not great, IMO, but enjoyable enough.

Well, I loved it. I'm not precious about Dr Who so can just stand back and see them as little moments in TV that either do entertain me or don't. Acting was good, well written and funny. Thought Robin's character, both written and acted, reminded me strongly of Carey Elwes' Robin in Men In Tights.

Yeah, he was definitely channelling Elwes. I thought his look and that of the Sheriff were also a little Princess Bride too. I was trying to see if he had six fingers.

The 'beheading' scene that was cut from this weeks episode

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x25djb ... shortfilms

Ben Miller was clearly channeling Alan Rickman. Down to having a death scene that was a homage to Die Hard.

I liked it, and it was nice to have an episode we could watch with little miss 4yo
next week not by the look of it

that said, I also prefer the doctor to be the cleverest man in the room, but I quite like Clara so didn't mind so much
and it was indeed quite silly, but to me that was just the mood of this episode so I was ok with it
well except the

yeah, that was bollocks.

It served a purpose - also as a vehicle to get the Doctor to admit he'd cheated.

Unsure on the ending, but that was MUCH more like it.

Loved last week's and this week's episodes.

Really liked it this week. Plot holes galore on the ending though, but that didn't take anything away from it.

Yes good. Apart from the ending. Though even that the way it was done was fairly clever.

Just watched it. Felt almost like a good 'Twilight Zone' episode. Loved it.