As someone who only started following the show during this year's Month long Sunday Who Marathon over on Space channel I have to say I fail to see the reasonings behind nitpicking and trying to read soooo much into this show. Sat down this morning early to finally watch some stuff off the PVR, started with a few older specials Best of the Monsters and such that ran before The Day of the Doctor back in November. And then I sat down to watch the new special. The Time of the Doctor was quite fun honestly, I just had a blast with it. Overthinking it shouldn't be the thing to do, it just ruins it... Although I have to admit I was hoping a little bit more of Capaldi would be in the episode, now I'll have to wait for who knows how long to see the next episode. Overall I'd say it was a much better special than some of the others I've caught during the marathon... That snowman one was really odd, this one was much better. Pretty straight forward and fun to watch. Maybe we can finally get off this Silence stuff and move on to something else, something different and less overarching maybe? Not that that's a bad thing, I do enjoy continuity as much as the next bloke, I'd just kind of like to see some fun stand alone episodes again that don't rely too heavily on plot points from eight seasons back or what have you. If it hadn't been for that marathon I never would have known what was going on, and I still missed most of Ecclestons run because I didn't catch on to the marathon thing until halfway through.
I stopped overthinking Dr. Who when The Doctor described time as not a straight progression from past to future, but a big... ball of... wibbly wobbly... timey wimey... stuff.
As the 8th Doctor said, "That's why I love humans, they're always seeing patterns in things that aren't there"
Just listened to the light at the end AND LOVED IT! 8 and 4 really steal the show and make for a great pair. I hope to hear them together again sometime.
I'm two serials away from watching the first regeneration of the Doctor! I'm getting exited even with knowing they are all missing episodes. And just on a whim, I made a quick sketch of an incarnation of my design.
I thought that was kinda stupid that Clara had to convince them like that, they are the time lords, it really should have gone more like: you need the doctor to bring you back, to make sure everything is safe for you, well he's dying and he's your only link to this universe, you really should do something about that. Really appealing to time lord sentimentality shouldn't work, appealing to their sense of self preservation was the way to go.
I figured it out. I've been hiding out, reading the posts since Christmas, and I didn't want to post anything until I could put into words what I was feeling. Regret. I know they plunked a ton of budget into the official 50th anniversary special, but I feel like the Christmas special was completely rushed. It deserved 30 minutes more time to fill in the blanks about a lot of things. I had the same ambivalence with the Time Of The Doctor as I had with pretty much all of this past season. If I could agree with pretty much every post on here since the 25th, I would. There was more FUN and enjoyment with the Five(ish) Doctors special than with all of Matt Smith's last season. And it's not him thats the problem. He approached it with the complete aplomb that he should have. It's that there has been no development with any other characters. Clara is paper thin. If there is one hope, it's that they make her the Zoe of the next season to Capaldi, instead of trying to write her as Sarah Jane Smith. She's been written as eye candy, not a proper foil in any of the plots. We do need a male counterpart, or a more can do female lead, or write Clara being anything but eye candy. Have her smash something for pitys sake. The other problem is, unlike the dramatic turn of Tennant turning into Smith, we knew where this was going. There was so many gaping holes to fill in, it was the poorest writing I've seen. Voice overs from Clara had to replace minutes of scene that could have been used. Perhaps thats why they had the one hour farewell special. I would bet good money that the writers had to shoehorn the whole regeneration thing in. And I don't want to get started on the 'Gallifrey Quest' being paired down to 10 minutes of trite. So yeah, too long, but all I feel is regret at having a half baked episode to introduce a new Doctor. I'll keep watching, but Moffat needs to step it up or step down. Daleks every week are not how you write science fiction. Also, I know why they picked Capaldi. He LOOKS like a dead ringer for an older Tennant, with Tom Bakers wide eyes. Here's hoping his kidneys can handle it.
I'm just hoping for more stand-alone stories in the next season and less focus on the drama of trying to tie several seasons worth of 'wibbly-wobbly' together. I have more fun with Dr. Who when it steps outside of the main story thread and has little self-contained story arcs. I'm looking forward to Capaldi but I wouldn't mind a new companion. If Clara didn't return in the next season or was replaced half way through I can't say I'd really miss her. No fault of the actress - the writing for the character stinks.
I need to rewatch the christmas special. Haven't read any posts since it aired, so I don't know if anyone else felt the same, I'm gonna read some posts after posting my text. I haven't slept for a few days, when I watched the special, but still I have a feeling that this is not the only reason why I didn't quite get some parts of the story. The episode kinda puzzled me, I did not really understand why they first wanted him to release the timelords and then again they did not want him to do so. Or to say his name and then not say his name. Or did I maybe not listen carefully? This episode kind of felt strange. But when I watched the 50th anniversary special, it was similar, I haven't slept much but still got that episode and enjoyed it much more. This one felt weird. I wonder if my impression will change, when I rewatch it... and I wasn't impressed by the entrance of the new Doctor as well. I was not so happy when Tennant went and not so happy when Eccleston went, but their individual successor regenerations left at least the feeling, that there was a new doctor. Capaldi seemed just like a stranger. But maybe we have to see more episodes with him, so I won't judge him too much until I saw further material with him as the doctor. And I still feel that there should have been at least some kind of aftermath to name of the doctor? It feels like something was left out?
My thoughts of Doctor Who at this point is that even though I love the show, I love it for the actors, not the writing.
I agree with that, there have been a few great story arcs but on the whole its all special effects with little substance going into the individual episodes. yet the big plotlines that run through each season are very promising but never deliver, the speculations online are better than the actual revalations.
Not sure if there was any real point to having a planet of perpetual Christmas that only has one small town on it ;how and why springs to mind. Not to mention how do they grown food if it's only daylight for a few minutes a day. The whole place makes no sense. I would have liked some sort of explanation that made sense even if it was just this is a theme park resort that got abandoned during the time war, or the whole place was created in place as is by the timelords. and how come he only got food for himself where did the other people get their food from and why didn't he eat theirs as well or was he just getting 'treats' ? If Tasha Lem turns out to be River reformatted then those once a month visits for 300 years he had may be the closest they ever got to living as a couple. and wouldn't parking a church in orbit for 300 years get more attention than it did. if she was the centre of the religion people would be travelling back and forth all the time to visit the place (maybe the teleport). and again no explanation is offered as to why Tasha does not age. when they clearly state they had to shuffle Clara out of the way so she wouldn't have aged while he was acting as defender of Christmas, And the only way he can get the Timelords back seems to be to either reformat Trenvalore into Gallifray layer one on top of the other - or blow one up or swap them over. Though I can't see any reason why the planet can't pop out somewhere else like where the Dalek asylum world is/was. Or for that matter why not anywhere a temporal crack has appeared. Oh one other thing that annoyed me was the Doctor Taking credit for resetting the Universe when he didn't do that it was Amy partly as he was busy elsewhere and partly as her living next to a crack for years made her suitable to do it he didn't filter creation through his mind she did - he died and only existed again as she remembered him alive again. So taking credit for her task is weak it's also stupid as it would have provided a nice explanation as to why the angels wanted her/them so badly. the creator of the universe would be a rather tasty morsel. I guess they just don't like to remind people to much that most of the Docs Companions are equal or even "Superior" to him in one way or another ; Rory lived 2000 years and can remember it all if he chooses too, Amy recreated a Universe and was getting pretty good at the whole adventuring business near the end - she's very take charge in Dinosaurs on the spaceship for example , Sarah Jane did some pretty epic stuff all on her own with no Doctor, Donna "Should" be his equal but had her destiny taken from her, One of the guest side-kicks blew up a whole Galaxy, His wife lived her life backwards, Clara has dozens or maybe hundreds of temporal twins and may still be generating them for all we know as well as a neat upgrade package care of the Great Intelligence (which they seem to have forgotten about). Captain Jack is an immortal )or darn near as damn it one) & Rose was a Goddess as well as the personal personality template for the Gallifrayan ultimate weapon. Even throwaway chracters like Flesh-Doctor and the Prime Minister did quite well for themselves. So sometime you wonder why's the doc such a big deal - heck he got stuck inside a problem for 300 hundred years until he got saved by an Earth girl in a short skirt which isn't so impressive really when you think about it.
I think the point is the Doctor brings out this side of people they probably wouldn't have known was there if not for him.
Yes they made that point during the Dalek skype chat they did in 10s era. But I just notice it as they used to say during 9's era that he liked Human Potential - but now he never mentions it much and it's just about his live life or other angsty issues. On the good side no more spooky kids so yay!!! for that at least.
I think Who works best when it's not disappearing up it's own arse with the overly convoluted story arcs. The modern production teams may have enough delusions of grandeur to think they can make the series as epic and sweeping as something like the Star Wars saga but they fall flat on their faces every time they attempt it.
