Doctor Who does Ocean’s 11 this week as it appears Clara and The Doctor are aboard the TARDIS having no memory of what has happened, but it seems they are going to rob a bank to find out what happened…
I don’t have any questions for this week so, is there anything you picked up on, noticed or something that appeared throwaway but could be significant later?
What hit me most was how formulaic this episode was. Maybe I’ve just seen too many episodes of Who but I feel like I had seen it all before just in a different costume. The mission, the scary monster, the new temporary companions getting killed, the confrontation and the twist that of course the Doctor is the architect and it was never about money. I just felt I could have skipped this week completely and not bothered.
Pretty much why I didn’t have any questions. It felt to me as if it should have been far more interesting than it actually was.
I did briefly toy with the idea that Keeley Hawes was Missy – the clone’s mannerisms were incredibly similar, but then I couldn’t see where that back story of Missy would really come from in that context.
I think Capaldi has been great, but there’s been too many fillers too early on once again.
Yes, had I just joined Who this season or a season a go, I think I really would have enjoyed this episode but there were too many tired tropes. The memory thing was done in ‘The Beast Below’, the Teller was like the minotaur from that one in season 6 in the hotel, the red shirts were just like every other red shirt ever, the twist was like every other twist, the monster not being so scary was just like ‘Hide’ last year. It’s like he spun a bingo machine of ideas and Frankensteined an episode.
Agreed, very much so. The quality is there, now he must figure out what to do with it.
Did you hear that Nick Frost is confirmed for the Christmas special? Cornettos at the ready then…
Awesome, if Pegg flies in as a surprise guest I’ll tinsel my turkey
It’ll be cornettos versus the sonic screwdriver :-)
I’m enjoying Capaldi’s Doctor, who seemed on the ball for once in this story (although I’m not sure the Malcolm Tucker Shut ups were entirely appropriate), but that’s about all.
This seasons stories have so far been too lite, we were promised a dark, grimmer Doctor, and seem to have that, but the stories all seem to be Matt Smith at his daftest, and the Time-Heist was trite.
How could the Doctor have set all of that up without setting off the security? If he’d used someone who didn’t know what was going to happen they may not have felt as much guilt, but we saw him doing it himself…
Totally agree that apart from the break-in itself, the whole plot seemed recycled (another last of his species? That isn’t, it might be a surprise if something was actually the last of its species once).
I just hope we don’t see Psi or Saibra again as they were uninspired central-casting Cyberpunk and X-men clones, but then I suppose them being clones works with the rest of the story…
I agree with you on the stories. The acting is great, the dynamic between Clara and The Doctor is working (finally), but it is all rehashed plots with little linking the main thread at the moment. I just made a comparison discussing it with my girlfriend that it is like buying a top of the range Porsche but putting in the engine of a Ford Fiesta.
:) I’ve said it’s like buying a sports car and then using it for the weekly shop.