Wait until you see episode 10 of Season 2, Love and Monsters, which features the single dumbest villain in the show's history, and for a show famed for it's tacky-looking monsters that's saying a lot. The villain in Love and Monsters was literally designed by a child who won a "Design a Monster for Doctor Who" competition. Anyway, last night's episode, I loved the killer graffiti, their 3D humanoid forms are one of the most impressive visual effects I've seen on the show. I really struggled to enjoy the episode though, because Clara is once again taking centre stage and being the hero, and it's her hyper-intelligent Mary-Sue problem-solving skills that ultimately save the day. The Doctor meanwhile spends the entire episode sitting in the TARDIS waiting for the Lady Goddess Almighty to rescue him. I swear at the end when Clara actually says "WHY CAN'T YOU ADMIT I WAS A GOOD DOCTOR!!??!!" I was ready to throw my TV out of the window.
Well, it was a Doctor-lite episode and in comparison with other similar episodes it was pretty good: Blink still stands as the absolute best, but it wasn't as horrid as other modern Doctor-lite episodes. Interesting how with only very short scenes they managed to suggest the Doctor was present throughout the episode giving him a presence. In that this was more succesful than for example "The Girl Who Waited", although I felt the impact/revelation about the Doctor was bigger with that one. Although Capaldi isn't my kind of Doctor, he still shines in the role. Clara...well, for a companion centric episode, I found her to be only mildly irritating. Maybe it's because in a normal episode I expect the Doctor to be the savior and then it's irritating that it's Clara who's essential, but here we knew it was going to be Clara all the way (and in that way it's surprising that in the end it's still the Doctor -- after being rescued by Clara -- who waves the magic wand and makes everything better). Lowered standards and stuff. Still, her raising the sonic and introducing herself to 'her companion' as The Doctor, I found silly in a negative way. That wasn't needed and it stands out as thé annoying moment of the episode. Nevertheless, all this did give us a nice analysis of how the Doctor normally operates in such situations. The end comment by the Doctor that Clara had managed to be the Doctor and that this wasn't a good thing -- emphasising the ongoing theme about the Doctor doubting if he's a good man, and how Clara is in a way becoming a bit like him meaning she's less of a noble person than she was -- came over a bit bland to me. It was done better last week in Mummy. Of the extra's I enjoyed the older cranky one. The one of whom even the Doctor said that perhaps the wrong people died and the wrong people survived, suggesting he found him unworthy. He was a bit of 2D character (fitting in such an episode), but still a bit refreshing. The 2D Monsters were good. Smartly filmed only in darkish surrounding when they became 3D making it look better and more scary. I also very much appreciated how the motives of the 2D creatures were never made absolute. Even in the end the Doctor comments that he isn't really sure if they're truly enemies or if it's all just a misunderstanding: they have, however, through their actions chosen a role and thus he must take his and vanguish them. (Next week: hopefully not a repeat of a bunch of children travelling in the Tardis. One Nightmare in Silver was already too much.)
If you're into annoying kids and one of Doctor Who's most iconic monsters being butchered even more than the rebooted series had already done to them, sure.
What I am into, is the Cyber-doc, and the new kickass Cybermen. Seriously, they're amazing. That voice gave me chills when I first heard it.
Oh wait..... were you serious? Mr clever was good, and so were the designs of the cybermen.... but they were based on Iron man and I like iron man.
What does Iron Man have to do with this? And yes, I'm completely serious. You're all so negative all the time, always dwelling on the things you hated instead of embracing what you liked and focusing on that.
Iron man designs were copied onto the cybermen to give an update to the not so realistic classic cybermen. this looks a lot like this iron man especially in colour this is a stolen design from this just to illustrate
That was a pretty damn good episode. First I was like: "Oh no, not another Clara-centric Episode" and then realized I was seeing The Doctor through Clara's eyes (literally).
Buddy, do you have this down as fact or are you just making a comparison and accusation? the new designs do look similar to Iron Man but I think it's easy to see how someone could be led to that outcome regardless of an influence from him.
Its just an observation made by myself and many others. Since the old cybermen didn't resemble iron man, and the iron man designs preceded the ones in Dr Who. One assumes the latter was inspired by the former.
I like Nightmare in Silver; it's not on my all-time favorites list or anything, but any episode that allows Matt Smith to cut loose and really have a lot of great moments always goes down well in my book. Also, Warwick Davis. You can never go wrong with adding more Warwick Davis to something.
Ahh right, fair enough! I wasn't calling you out or demanding proof or anything, was just interested to see if it was an intention design choice is all
Actually the first episode with the new Cybermen came out a few years before the Iron Man movie. The first episode with the new cybermen came out in 2006. The Iron Man movie didn't happen till 2008. They could have borrowed designs from the comics, but not the Iron man movie.
I'll agree Matt Smith was brilliant in it, but I expect far more than Neil Gaiman than to simply go full-circle and have the Cybermen rip off the Borg.
Marvel Iron man reborn comics had a similar design to the Eccleston/Tenant cybermen........but I was generalising I think weve done the cyber ironman facsimile to death now. Moving on.....
