Anyone watched the new Doctor Who episode?

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You know, Deep Breath, the first one starring Peter Capaldi's 12th Doctor?

Cause I did, and I have to say, it was awesome. The Twelfth Doctor was a fantastic character throughout, with the right amount of personality to not come across as an unlikeable jerk. The villains were pretty creepy, given that they were humanoid robots using human organs to upgrade themselves and escape to the 'chosen land', the dinosaur in London was actually explained in a pretty neat way, and hey, even the Paternoster Gang were pretty cool characters in this one.

So yeah, did anyone else watch the new episode tonight? If so, what did they think of it?
 
Got better as it went on, but it was pretty shit to start. not too much of a surprise since most first episodes are like that, so it should only get better next week.
 
I can't wait for the next series, the one which Steven Moffat WON'T be writing. There were numerous plot holes/errors (spontaneous combustion IS a thing and did Clara just forget about when Matt Smith got old? Not to mention that Matt Smith thought he wasn't going to have another regeneration untill a few minutes before he did. Maybe I forgot what happened in the last episode, or maybe Steven Moffat did).
 
So yeah, there was another episode a few days ago. Personally, I thought this one was weaker than the opening episode, with much of the storyline in Into the Dalek being kind of predictable and almost utterly pointless. I mean, does it really take a genius to figure out that a designed to be evil creature that's been damaged enough to 'turn good' will become evil again if it's cured?

And to be honest, the doctor's personality in this one.. seemed a bit too unlikeable and jerk like. Giving someone a pill with an unknown purpose so you can track their corpse when they're disintegrated? That's a pretty... ethically questionable thing, and kind of out of character. Same with some of his admiration of the Daleks in the episode. Decent motives for saying this stuff (he's commenting on their design rather than their morals), but kind of cruel when you're with a group of soldiers who've lost many friends and allies to them and their base is under seige.

But what did you think of the second episode of Doctor Who season eight?
 
So, may as well bump this topic to talk about Robot of Sherwood, Listen and Time Heist.

The first was... surprisingly okay. Not great (it's a goofy Earth based episode where the Doctor teams up with Robin Hood to fight robot knights and the Sheriff of Nottingham), but it's decent enough in the same way that Vampires of Venice was... as a mostly light hearted adventure episode with a few jokes, a traditional monster of the week setup and not much being required in the way of thinking.

Listen was better, although to be honest, I don't quite like it as much as some other people online do. Oh sure, the ending was great (the fact Clara went back and met the child version of the first Doctor was one hell of a wham moment) and the atmosphere in each part of the story worked well (the orphanage was extremely creepy despite nothing of note actually happening there), but it just felt a bit too... inconsistent. Like there were three good stories that should have been three seperate episodes.

Time Heist was a fun episode. Liked the new companion type characters (like the guy with a computer chip in his head and the girl who can transform into people by touching them), and the alien Teller was really awesome as both a concept and monster design. Seriously, a creature that can read your guilt and then destroy your mind by sucking away your thoughts until you're left as... well, basically a walking vegetable? Damn creepy.

Only issue here was that of the bank somehow staying intact for so long. Okay, the security was nice enough, but human guards, flame throwers and one scary alien menace? Is that really enough to keep out the Daleks or Cybermen? Or stop a Weeping Angel from escaping the vault, if some rich moron left it inside? I doubt it, and with the bank having everything someone could potentially want all held in the vaults, how the hell did it go so long without one of the universe's resident evil armies or lone psychos deciding it was payday? Cause the Master wouldn't have much trouble here, and even something minor like a few Sontarans would make swiss cheese out of the security systems.

But what were your thoughts on the recent episodes?
 
I really enjoyed Robot of Sherwood. Lots of funny and silly moments with all the rivalry between Robin and the Doctor's grumpiness. Not a big fan of Listen I found it a little boring. Time Heist is a decent action-packed episode, the new one-off companions introduced were excellent.
 
We've watched the first three (Have them recorded) and are up to the monsters under the bed one- which I flatly refused to watch before bed else we would have seen it already. I'm enjoying the new Doctor. In my opinion, he's waaaaay better then Matt Smith, but so far at least, my favorite is still David Tennant.
 
So, now onto The Caretaker... Decent story, nice drama between the Twelfth Doctor and Danny Pink. The way the former didn't fit in at all is also a good contrast to Matt Smith's Doctor in the Lodger and Closing Time, showing how more alien Capaldi's Doctor is by comparison.

The monster was good too, for the most part. Nice design, extremely impressive amount of firepower, even better name (Skovox Blitzer). Possibly a tad ineffective as far as in story activities go, but hey ho, this was a story in which a truly effective villain attack might have came off as a tad... over the top. A killer war robot attacking a school with a laser machine gun? Pretty scary. A killer war robot blasting high school kids to pieces with a machine gun? Maybe not the best idea before the watershed. Especially given what it did to the police officer early in the episode...

But yeah, pretty decent overall. Next episode might be better though, the promise of giant moon spiders as enemies could make for a creepy experience.
 
So... Kill the Moon and Mummy on the Orient Express. One good episode, one pretty much awful one.

Let's start with Kill the Moon, because that was the worse episode. No wait, probably the worst one in the entire season.

Because damn, the way the plot was written was just... so, so badly thought out. First off, you've apparently got the moon itself being an egg for some space dragon creature, despite being there for millions of years and being analysed by who knows how many scientific expeditions and robots. You've then got the choice about whether to kill this creature, which is treated like a really badly thought out abortion metaphor. Yeah okay, apparently it would be fair to complain than people might value their own civilisation/lives over that of a creature that's both half as big as the planet and has completely unknown motives.

And then, the ending. Where the moon not only breaks harmlessly (like an egg, despite being made of rock), but then gets replaced by another egg of the exact same as the previous moon. How the heck does that work? Conservation of mass? The fact a creature that was born five minutes ago can apparently lay an egg about as big as the one it hatched from? And Clara complains about the Doctor abandoning her to make the decision, despite the fact that for years, he's made almost every major decision in regards to the future of the planet and just wanted humanity to make one of their own choices for once.

Fortunately though, Mummy on the Orient Express (which miraculously, is by the exact same writer as the above episode) is brilliant. You had a brilliant, interesting setting (the Orient Express IN SPACE!), a creepy and well designed monster (the Foretold, a mummy which kills anyone who sees it in exactly 66 seconds and can only be seen by its current victim in the time prior to their death) and a supporting cast list you actually like. Such as the professor, who has such a... well, darkly hilarious line before he dies:

The next one? You mean, you can't save me!?

Or the Captain (Quell), who fears the Doctor is a mystery shopper. Or Perkins the train engineer, who is both potential companion material (despite turning the role down at the end of episode) and had the amusing job of starting the count down every time the Foretold attacked (for everyone else's convenience).

Other strengths of the episode were the humour (like the Doctor threatening to 'give the service a bad rating for this!' when he outed as not a mystery shopper, or talking to himself in Tom Baker's voice and mentioning jellybabies again), the logically done, well thought out mystery (everything from the suspiciously high amount of experts on the train to the Foretold itself was explained perfectly) and most importantly, the pacing.

Yes really. It's yet another Doctor Who episode (after pretty much a whole season of them) where they didn't rush the story! This is a great relief considering how many stories in seasons 6 and 7 were completely ruined by a rushed ending and a pacing best described as 'completely random'. Instead, the formula harkens back to the first five series of the revival, where things felt like they progressed in good time and got wrapped up in an interesting, entertaining way.

So all in all? Kill the Moon was terrible, Mummy on the Orient Express was amazing. Those are my thoughts on the last two Doctor Who episodes!
 
So, Flatline. Pretty cool episode this one, I liked the concept of the 2D monsters that could change the number of dimensions objects and people have, and dissect them gruesomely in the process.

Makes me wonder one thing though; would Mario theoretically be the best person to fight them? Cause in Super Paper Mario, he flips dimensions from 2D to 3D and vice versa. All he'd have to do is go 2D and beat them up in the same way as a boss in a Mario platformer...
 
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