Doctor Who - Series 8

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One more sleep

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Classic Moffat Doctor Who - a succession of gimmicks threaded together by innuendo, ridiculous characters and general strangeness. What's more, it appears that the incredibly-incompetent-not-at-all-frightening-yet-somehow-considered-to-represent-the-gold-standard-of-villainy Daleks will be making yet another appearence next time round. I mean, going back to this episode, is the programme's name 'Doctor Who' or 'Madame Vastra', because, you know, it was looking like the latter for much of it .

I completely agree. I'm appalled that he wasn't wearing a gharish costume or resorting to pop culture cliches. His assistant didn't do enough screaming and this episode was only what, 75 minutes long? I was expecting this to last at least four weeks. Not one single quarry shot either. I don't know why I pay my license fee. It's insulting.

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Classic Moffat Doctor Who - a succession of gimmicks threaded together by innuendo, ridiculous characters and general strangeness. What's more, it appears that the incredibly-incompetent-not-at-all-frightening-yet-somehow-considered-to-represent-the-gold-standard-of-villainy Daleks will be making yet another appearence next time round. I mean, going back to this episode, is the programme's name 'Doctor Who' or 'Madame Vastra', because, you know, it was looking like the latter for much of it .

I completely agree. I'm appalled that he wasn't wearing a gharish costume or resorting to pop culture cliches. His assistant didn't do enough screaming and this episode was only what, 75 minutes long? I was expecting this to last at least four weeks. Not one single quarry shot either. I don't know why I pay my license fee. It's insulting.

'Good eras of Doctor Who are all alike*, but every sh**tty era of Doctor Who is sh**tty in its own way.'

N.B. I'm pretty sure I don't agree with Cassius's reasons for being down on the Moffat era. I like Madame Vastra, and Daleks are less overused than they were under RTD.

*Obviously this isn't actually true.

EDIT: Capaldi is brilliant as always.

For me, Moffat get's sh@t on undeservedly, but so too did RTD. It seems part of the territory

I liked the pace of the episode. I think Capaldi is amazing in everything he puts his mind to and I was really pleased he was given good chunks of dialogue to work with. It means they can start writing for him, rather than for a generic doctor. I've always liked Clara but felt they didn't know what to do with her until now. Jenna Coleman was exceptional and the scene where she had to hold her breath was in itself so simple but very tense. I don't like or dislike the Paternoster Gang but they worked here. Because Doctor Who handles such things so well, I didn’t even notice the kiss. I did notice the declaration of love which is how it should be really.

Big applause in the cinema for them getting lost in Glasgow at the end. Glasgow still has lots of police boxes dotted around the city so it’s not an unusual sight. I think it’s even supposed to ‘be’ one of them on Buchanan Street.

I do wonder what Paradise/Heaven is? In keeping with the humanist slant of the show (Clara name checked Marcus Aurelius again), I wonder what they are going to do with the concept? The Doctor acts as the independent intelligent observer that we currently lack who, if he were available, could confirm or deny the reality of human perception and understanding. Obviously ‘Paradise’ is a ruse but I hope it’s approached/’rumbled’ in a somewhat philosophical way, like Rings of Akhaten.

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Looked like Queens Street in Cardiff to me

Yes it was. Not a bad stand-in

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Episode 2 was rather good. It was also quite different. Murray Gold is more electronic, less bombastic. It's less frantic too. I tend to hate Dalek episodes (2005's 'Dalek' excluded) but I enjoyed this.

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It was a very well crafted episode. For me that's four very good episodes in a row now.

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Yes. 100 times yes.

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I was actually referring to the amazing episode last week