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Doctor Who Omnibus Thread


odessasteps

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I'm not blown away by the season, but the writing's been alright.  Didn't like the first three eps much, but have enjoyed the last three more.  I liked both the India episode and the Rosa parks ep, but can see why some people thought they were too politically correct, especially coming right on top of each other.

I really dig Whittaker in the role.  She's been far better than I expected.  Still hate her costume.  Just put her back in the suit she wore in the premiere.  She looked great in that.

Pretty meh about the companions.  Like Bradley Walsh's character, but that has more to do with the character being played by Bradley Walsh than anything about the character.

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My biggest problem with all of the companions is that none of them are Amy and Rory. I feel like I was so spoiled by the two of them and they're my all time favorites that everyone else is just sorta alright or worse by comparison. It also doesn't help that we went from the Ponds to Clara and I suppose maybe River could also be considered a companion at times. I don't think I liked Clara until maybe her last season on the show and I really dislike River Song. River Song and that whole twisting storyline through time was one of the most cumbersome periods of the new run. It's also when the timey wimey stuff got thrown into overdrive. 

These companions are...fine, but again, I just don't like them as much as Amy and Rory.

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Everyone has their favorites.  I am Tom Baker old school so Sarah Jane Smith and Leela are my measuring sticks for all of the later Companions.

I never really cared for any of the fairly current Companions until Rose came along and of course Amy.

Amy's chemistry with Rory raised Rory's stock just as Rose's aura shored up Mickey.  Overall, most of the Doctor's male Companions are dopey plus ones to the alpha female companion who gets the lion's share character development.

The one thing that disappoints me about the current female Doctor is that the male Companions are still just window dressing.  Yaz is clearly #1 in the pecking order followed by Graham and Ryan.

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Yaz is a cop, of course she's going to be the go-to companion.

 

Plus, if Ryan or Our Ron were portrayed as anywhere near competent angry nerds would claim they "are the main characters, and why even make The Doctor a woman?"

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4 minutes ago, Betsy Zeidler said:

Plus, if Ryan or Our Ron were portrayed as anywhere near competent angry nerds would claim they "are the main characters, and why even make The Doctor a woman?"

Those people are stupid.

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8 hours ago, J.T. said:

Everyone has their favorites.  I am Tom Baker old school so Sarah Jane Smith and Leela are my measuring sticks for all of the later Companions.

I never really cared for any of the fairly current Companions until Rose came along and of course Amy.

Amy's chemistry with Rory raised Rory's stock just as Rose's aura shored up Mickey.  Overall, most of the Doctor's male Companions are dopey plus ones to the alpha female companion who gets the lion's share character development.

The one thing that disappoints me about the current female Doctor is that the male Companions are still just window dressing.  Yaz is clearly #1 in the pecking order followed by Graham and Ryan.

I wish we had more than 1 season of Liz Shaw. 

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On 11/14/2018 at 10:24 AM, Player One said:

I'm not blown away by the season, but the writing's been alright.  Didn't like the first three eps much, but have enjoyed the last three more.  I liked both the India episode and the Rosa parks ep, but can see why some people thought they were too politically correct, especially coming right on top of each other.

Wait how are these episodes “politically correct”?

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On 11/15/2018 at 8:30 PM, Control said:

Wait how are these episodes “politically correct”?

Apparently, some fans are reacting to the Rosa Parks & India episodes in a "Oh, we don't need a social justice lecture about how we used to be bad people" kind of way.  I don't have a problem with it myself - and don't have any sympathy for the people complaining - but apparently there's a contingent out there that thinks the show is too socially/politically aware this season. Guess the giant spider ep was more their speed.

Anyone else see the report that both the showrunner and Whittaker will be leaving in 2019?  Think the website was some sort of tabloid trash-news site, so dunno if there's anything to that.

Didn't really dig the Ker-Blam episode. 

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He's given more than one explanation. The first one was he was worried about typecasting, but nobody really believed that. He later said it was basically politics, and he didn't like the way the show was being run, or he personally disliked the person (people?) running it.

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17 hours ago, Control said:

I mean this season hasn’t been my favourite, but it’s still fine. Hard to explain the preposterous IMDB ratings as anything but the work of angry reactionaries. 

It is very peculiar.  The critic reviews are very positive, but some of it sounds like they are afraid not to like it because they may be shamed as sexists or traditionalists or something.

Meanwhile, some mean spiritied audience reviews are dripping with venom as they give zero fucks about what people think of their opinions.  I chalk most of it up to trolling of the Anti-Moffat contingent, but some of the negative reviews have valid points.

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That reminds me of the criticism of the Ghostbusters reboot. Any legitimate complaints were often dismissed as trolling or straight white men being defensive over “tarnished childhood memories” or such nonsense. 

Because there’s no room for some people [on both ends of the spectrum) for nuanced criticism: you either support something or vehemently oppose it. 

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11 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

That reminds me of the criticism of the Ghostbusters reboot. Any legitimate complaints were often dismissed as trolling or straight white men being defensive over “tarnished childhood memories” or such nonsense. 

Because there’s no room for some people [on both ends of the spectrum) for nuanced criticism: you either support something or vehemently oppose it. 

Most of that yowling went down before one frame of Ghosbusters was shown in a movie theater so yeah, I dismissed the vast majority of jibber jabber as nostalgia trolling.

S11 critics at least have the common decency to watch the episodes before engaging their brains.  The rest of them are just hateful yammerers.

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There are lots of valid criticisms. Like the second episode, where the TARDIS had been stuck phasing in and out for, like, ages? (Millennium? I dunno). That was so throwaway, but could have been a really interesting point. Imagine a whole society or religion based around the weird, periodic return of this mysterious piece of technology. Instead it was just a meeting point for a space race. I mean, that's fine, but missed opportunity, I think.

But then you see the Tsurunga (sp?) episode rated the lowest of the entire series and that's just baffling. It was, at worst, entirely forgettable fluff, like a full 1/4 of the series since its reboot.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

This season of Who was neither bad nor great. There were a lot of good parts but nothing really outstanding; seems almost like they were playing it safe. I guess my biggest criticism would be the lack of fan service lore-wise. Followed by most of the season feeling like nothing really was resolved.

The new Doctor reminds me the most of Sylvester McCoy with better writing and budget.

So the Solitract is pretty much Beyonder?

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6 hours ago, turk128 said:

This season of Who was neither bad nor great. There were a lot of good parts but nothing really outstanding; seems almost like they were playing it safe. I guess my biggest criticism would be the lack of fan service lore-wise. Followed by most of the season feeling like nothing really was resolved.

The new Doctor reminds me the most of Sylvester McCoy with better writing and budget.

So the Solitract is pretty much Beyonder?

I can understand the desire to course correct after how continuity heavy the show was under Moffat. 

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