Friday, September 05, 2014

2 Days with the Doctor





So, after two episodes of Season 8 of Doctor Who I've decided I've had time to really think on my impression so far and it's a resounding 'meh' - I'm also starting to understand people's aversion to Moffat as a Doctor Who writer.



Deep Breath:

Deep Breath (S8E1) properly introduced Peter Capaldi as 12, and it left me with the feeling that the writing tried very hard to make him the silly-yet-dark Doctor that Matt Smith was, but ultimately it just seemed like he was cutting his lines off and speaking in short, sharp bursts.

While the premise of the episode (a t-rex and robots that aren't cybermen) was shaky at best, the writing itself felt awful and extremely tryhard to be 'progressive'. Madame Vastra (green lizard detective lady) is married to Jenny Flint (cockney Black Widow with no guns) and has been since their first appearance Season 6, but for some stupid reason in this episode they had to be SO IN LOVE LOOK AT THEM FLIRT LOOK AT THEM KISS LOOK HOW FORWARD THINKING WE ARE WITH LESBIANS LOVE US! 

Mr. Moffat listen closely, I appear to be the demographic age you're aiming for with the show and guess what - WE DON'T CARE. We've seen lesbian couples in shows/movies/games before so no, you're not progressive and no, it had no shock factor to have them kiss.




Into the Dalek:

Now this episode was LIGHTYEARS better than the first. It introduces Danny Pink - a fellow teacher and love interest of Clara, who happens to be an ex-soldier, I'm interested to see how The Doctor reacts to that. 

Now the story was totally Moffat, meet characters who could be interesting but NOPE - they either die or are told to shove it by The Doctor; but I digress. It did have me wide-eyed at the announcement that Clara would be miniaturised (with Himself) and put inside a dalek - considering how she was introduced. It was also pretty great to learn about the inner workings of a Dalek, until the end that is. It gets so cheesy that it eliminates all cool ideas built up to be just a rehashed idea when you enter another's body in a movie/show. 

It also seems that Capaldi's Doctor is meant to be funny solely through insulting poor Clara - look at this adorable face and delightful smile and tell me you don't feel anything other than sorry for her when he does:








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