Doctor Who S10

[Dînadan]

Found this finale disappointing; some good bits but overall a let down.

Like others I liked the Master/Missy interplay (didn't enjoy Simms' Master under RTD, but I think this two parter shows the problem was the writing not the actor; shame we're unlikely to see him again under a better writer, although I suppose there's enough wiggle room for him to show up from points between 'The End of Time' and getting stuck on the cyber-ship), and Nardole was on top form (as he has been all season), and it was nice seeing the 'Tenth Planet' type cybermen (shame they were quickly overtaken by newer models and shame we didn't see any of the versions between that version and the Cybus version as far as I can tell).

Didn't like Bill's exit; felt like a rehash of Clara's exit and the appearance of the puddle monster felt contrived. I also didn't like how despite being at the centre of the explosion, the Doctor survived unscathed as did Bill despite her being an earlier model cyberman and the explosion taking out all the latter generation cybermen. I suppose you could handwave it as the puddle monster's doing but again, that feels contrived.

The ending where Twelve was complaining about having to regen felt like a rehash of Ten's exit initially, but fortunately it was taken in a different direction and the appearance of One leading into the Xmas special looks promising.

[Paul Walker]

This was, in my opinion, a fairly good story that struggled to keep its rules intact.

I was optimistic with the opener that I would finally get to drop my 'popular sci-fi does black holes poorly' in my planetarium talks, but sadly the second half was inconsistent with the first.

In part 1, the doctor spends several minutes discussing black holes with the others, and then goes in the lift to rescue Bill. During that time, ~10 years passes. This is also reinforced in part 2. We are also told that the ship is slowly pulling away from the black hole (in part 1) which means that the time dilation effects will slowly be reducing, not increasing.

When the suggestion is made to use the lifts to get people to the TARDIS, the Doctor dismisses it as the Cybermen would have thousands of years to stop them. Well, that's not true. That's inconsistent with the effects seen elsewhere in the show. So it would be around 10 years they'd have to wait, and that is certainly not enough time for the Cybermen to circumnavigate the laws of physics of a black hole.

[Durandal_1707]

And you know, I very much doubt this was intentional, but of the three New Who companions to get only a single season, its rather irritating that two of them were the black ones. It kind of plays to the old "black person dies first" cliche, doesn't it?

Well, one thing to mitigate that is that Martha was the only one from the modern series not to "die", even with quote marks.

It is annoying, though, especially since the companions that only got one season all ended up being the best ones, whereas Rose and Clara got to stick around for what seemed like geological ages.

[nebagram]

And you know, I very much doubt this was intentional, but of the three New Who companions to get only a single season, its rather irritating that two of them were the black ones. It kind of plays to the old "black person dies first" cliche, doesn't it?

Well, one thing to mitigate that is that Martha was the only one from the modern series not to "die", even with quote marks.

It is annoying, though, especially since the companions that only got one season all ended up being the best ones, whereas Rose and Clara got to stick around for what seemed like geological ages.

Four New Who companions who got only one season- I absolutely loved Matt Lucas this season and frankly I'm more disappointed about him going than I am about Bill (I miss Rory way more than I do Amy as well). I dunno if I'm in a minority here but I always prefer Doctor Who when there's more than one companion. The whole dynamic of 'alien and girl' gets old really quickly and having Nardole around this season really was a breath of fresh air. Would've been fresher if he'd been given more to do, too. Though on the flipside, I too got pretty sick of Rose and Clara by the end of their runs (Tooth and Claw and School Reunion in particular made me long for Rose's departure), so if Bill and Nardole had stuck around longer, they could've easily outstayed their welcome as well.

[Durandal_1707]

Others may disagree with me, but Rose and Clara underwhelmed me right from the start (well, the two one-off Clara copies were okay, but the real Clara was kinda meh). Actually warmed to both of them near the ends of their respective runs; Clara because she worked a lot better with Capaldi than with Smith, and Rose just because they kept dropping foreshadowing about her dying and I'm enough of a softie that I didn't want her to die. I just wanted her to go away.

Never did get sick of Amy and Rory. (and I'll agree with you, the three-man-band aspect did really improve that grouping)

[Robovski]

I have to agree, the one companion thing get's old; there isn't any cross-companion interplay to have. I also agree that Rose and Clara (and Donna Noble, but I kind of actually hated her) just weren't very interesting. Two is probably best, you don;t need three or four companions for the writers to lock someone in a cell half a story with like in old Who but a companion can really use having someone else to talk to who isn't The Doctor.

[Fixer]

I felt over was a good episode. I preferred the Mondas Cybermen to the newer models though. I would have loved to have seen them remain the primary threat instead of using the later Cybus style models. Knowing they were people inside the stocking-heads made them so much creepier than the full on robot Cybermen.

Needed extra time though. So many things crammed into a single episode. They could have expanded this into a special or an extra episode to give the different subplots the time they deserved.

[The Romulan Republic]

Others may disagree with me, but Rose and Clara underwhelmed me right from the start (well, the two one-off Clara copies were okay, but the real Clara was kinda meh). Actually warmed to both of them near the ends of their respective runs; Clara because she worked a lot better with Capaldi than with Smith, and Rose just because they kept dropping foreshadowing about her dying and I'm enough of a softie that I didn't want her to die. I just wanted her to go away.

Never did get sick of Amy and Rory. (and I'll agree with you, the three-man-band aspect did really improve that grouping)

God, I miss Amy and Rory. Especially His Badassness, the Last Centurion. But really, both of them.

I agree that the two-companion dynamic can work well, and I'd like to see it again, soon. Either another couple (would maybe cut down on Doctor/Companion shipping, too), or a brother-sister duo or something.

[King of the owls]

God, I miss Amy and Rory. Especially His Badassness, the Last Centurion. But really, both of them.

I agree that the two-companion dynamic can work well, and I'd like to see it again, soon. Either another couple (would maybe cut down on Doctor/Companion shipping, too), or a brother-sister duo or something.

Yeah while I was never too fond of Moffat's era, I do feel like the Amy, Rory, Eleven dynamic was one of the strengths of his run. Hopefully we'll see another two-companion dynamic in the near future. Perhaps they could do something like the Two, Jamie and Zoe dynamic . A companion from the past and one from the future?(Or just a alien world?)

If anything I just want some more companions who are interesting but not because they're destined to be with the doctor or whatever.

[Durandal_1707]

The Bill, Nardole, Twelve combo was pretty good at that, IMO. Only real problem with it is that it didn't last long enough.