Doctor Who S10

[MissKittyFantastico]

Perhaps he's subtly criticising himself - he thinks outrage is a waste of time, he's just omitting that he has wasted it a lot anyway.

I enjoyed 'Thin Ice', even if it did feel a little unambitious overall - the actual plot ended up being a bit by-the-numbers, but they hung a lot of fun elements on the familiar old framework: all the little odds and ends of the carnival, the diving sequence, punching Lord Jerkface, and not a bad handling of Bill's grappling with the collateral damage. I actually liked that the critter didn't really weigh heavily on the story - no vanguard of an alien invasion or anything - and instead, really, it was just a historical with humans acting on their own motives for good or ill.

[MadAmosMalone]

Maybe he sees his prior incarnations as in some sense different people? Ten's personality, for example, is certainly quite different from Twelve's.

I might buy that if Capaldi's Doctor didn't have a picture on his desk of his wife and grand-daughter. Otherwise it's a very sound idea. All the pi$$ing and moaning Tennant did about his "death" seems to support this.

...the actual plot ended up being a bit by-the-numbers

I think that's what I did like about it. I heard another reviewer describe it as "traditional Who." I think I like that. Seems like they're doing it right, updating some things but leaving the original "flavor" of the show if ya wanna call it that. It's a difficult balance to reach but I think this season they're pretty close to hitting it perfectly so far.

I agree that it's good not to have just every single alien visitor be an invading force. Honestly that's one of the things I never liked about the show, old or new, that Earth would be targeted for invasion sooooo often. The Brigadier even commented on it once; "Just once I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets." There was an alien, during Smith's run IIRC, that was from a species that had been invaded so often their planetary anthem had a fill-in-the-blank. Reminded me of that one guy from TNG's Allegiance episode. Seeing that episode, I couldn't help but think that guy's planet would have a hard way to go if they were invaded more often than Earth. Anyway once in a while, for dramatic purposes, would be ok to invade Earth but to do it every single week it kinda loses its impact.

[The Romulan Republic]

Hell, I'd like it if Who spent less time on Earth.

Let's see: you've got a protagonist who's supposed to be an adventurer with the capability to travel through all of time and space, and he spends half his time in contemporary Britain.

I mean, yes, that's the easiest location for the BBC to film, but seriously...

[MadAmosMalone]

Completely agree! Even though Pertwee is my favorite Doctor, his era of the show is one of my least favorite for that reason.

[Robovski]

Completely agree! Even though Pertwee is my favorite Doctor, his era of the show is one of my least favorite for that reason.

At least they had a REASON why Pertwee's Doctor spent seasons on Earth and UNIT was a useful expediency. The Vault gives a bit of a reason, but as The Doctors says in Ep 2, he can leave and be back before he left anytime.

[Fixer]

Oxygen has been my favourite of the new series so far.
A decent mystery, the doctor being smart and having rational reasons for doing questionable things. Being self sacrificing but occasionally reckless.

Billy making the logical "lets get the hell out of here" response to being on a space station of doom.

A change to the status quo with the Doctor at the end. Got me interested.

The teaser for the next episode has probably spoiled the vault mystery, by giving us the most obvious answer though.

[Durandal_1707]

I suppose the difference between the two is the emojibots are ineptly built, which is believable (especially considering how much AI is a Crapshoot through all of sci-for history), whereas the oil stain monster is part of the group of aliens that Chuck has occasionally lamented as the 'Gene Roddenberry school of space monster'.

Quite literally, I'd say; the whole "love interest gets eaten by machine—machine takes love interest's form—character wants to merge with love interest/machine" thing is straight outta Star Trek: TMP.

[MissKittyFantastico]

I really enjoyed 'Oxygen' - more classic Doctor Who, the sole survivors holed up in some remote space base under siege by insert-monster-here, and the Suits were suitably (ha) creepy and distinctive while still being just plausible enough to not have to suspend too much disbelief; I liked how the story used their 'simple AI' capability both to limit them, and to provide some nice chills whenever they solved a problem and ramped up their threat level.

'Knock Knock' was an interesting experience, and in the end not at all what I was expecting - possibly it was to do with IView offering an 'enhanced audio' option for it that made me expect an Angels-level scareathon, but it wound up being much more low-key and contemplative. (Probably just as well, since I was watching it late at night alone in an old house that, yes, the floorboards do creak, thanks.) I'm not entirely sure the Landlord would stand up to impassionate examination - looking back I felt like they maybe overplayed their sleight-of-hand in making him seem supernatural while technically staying within the bounds of what they wanted to ultimately reveal his nature to be - but David Suchet could sell anything, so I really didn't mind that. Not sure about the bugs though, they seemed a bit of a stock sci-fi reveal for what had seemed to be building up as a far more ethereal entity within the house.

[Fixer]

Regardless of any other issues the story had, trouble I had with Knock Knock was the guest stars. The actors playing the students grated on me so much that I couldn't get invested at all. Even having David Suchet as the villain of the week didn't override that.

[MadAmosMalone]

I didn't get to see Oxygen yet (will catch it later from On Demand or some place) but I think Knock Knock was the weakest of the season so far. That's not a bad thing as I think this season, overall, is better than last. Excuse me, I meant "series." I agree with Fixer, those kids were annoying as hell. The fact they came back when they "died" was no relief for me as a viewer. It seemed like a cop out. I know DW is a kids' show but people died in the old series all the time. Excuse me, I meant... what? What do the British call a series if they call a season a series? This is really confusing. Anyway I guess all the previous victims of the house were just screwed then? What makes this group so special they get a reprieve? The episode wasn't terrible but it wasn't really good either. I'm still optimistic about this series.