Doctor Who - Series 11 (Part 2)

[mothman]

I'm with Norton and Malc. I really liked this one. The Doctor felt proper Doctorish. Could maybe have done with a bit of an editing polish. Nice "man being forced into typical female role" subplot to further wind up those enraged at the Doctor's sex change. Obviously it's another wrinkle on the "Doctor on ship X with disparate cast Y facing danger Z" plotline which has been done mamny times in the past 55 years but is now no longer allowed OBVIOUSLY because it's Chibnall doing it, the cunt.

[daf]

What else? The alien was pretty cute.

P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang rescued this for me - that was great, but I am SO BORED with yet another sterile future space ship / world - they mean nothing to me! *

And in Doctor Who it's TRANSMAT not Teleport Chibnall, you Trekkie dweeb!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* (Oh . .  Vienna!)

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I'm trying to think of things I liked about this episode. Let's remain positive, right guys?!

As Kelvin said, Graham and Ryan's handling of the pregnant man's situation felt quite progressive. Yes, they were understandably perplexed at first, but they got used to it pretty quickly. Their motivation in those scenes was: "This bloke is about to give birth and we need to help him." Which was, you know, nice.

Whittaker is great, I think, despite the ropy dialogue she sometimes has to deal with. Her Doctor is assertive yet vulnerable, a very likable and engaging character. I'm looking forward to seeing what she does with another, better writer's material.

Walsh is faultless, he always manages to make his dry asides sound funnier than they are and he never overdoes the pathos. He's very good at looking quietly hurt.

The monster, as I've mentioned, was well-realised.

That's all I've got.

[Replies From View]

Obviously it's another wrinkle on the "Doctor on ship X with disparate cast Y facing danger Z" plotline which has been done mamny times in the past 55 years but is now no longer allowed OBVIOUSLY because it's Chibnall doing it, the cunt.

Come on now.  If Moffat had ever written an episode so dull in his fifth or sixth year everyone would have piled on it as evidence he was running out of steam.

Visually, from the Moffat era it probably has most in common with 'The Girl Who Waited' or 'Smile'.  The difference in appreciation here is not one of unthinking prejudice against Chibnall.

[Alberon]

Virtually no comments about Yaz which is only fair. She did less than the android clone thing. What was the point of him anyway?

[Kelvin]

Virtually no comments about Yaz which is only fair. She did less than the android clone thing. What was the point of him anyway?

I had assumed that he was going to be the real killer, and that Stitch was just a distraction or cover story for an assassination attempt, or something. Not exactly original, but it would at least have given them somewhere to go in the last act. 

[olliebean]

"Ecto-spleen".

That is now an organ the Doctor has.

Wouldn't an ecto-spleen be on the outside? Isn't that what "ecto" means?

Merchant Navy was very wooden in this; glad they got rid of him early doors.

Quite liked the eke-eke-eke-p'ting, though they didn't really do much with it. A very one-dimensional monster.

What was the point of the opening scene? Apart from getting them injured, I mean. What were they looking for? And was it deliberately reminiscent of the big pile of rubbish under the hotel last week, or is Chibnall just not thinking about how the episodes follow on from each other?

Oh, and is anyone else suspecting Chibnall writes some of the Doctor's speeches by copying facts from Wikipedia?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I'm with Norton and Malc. I really liked this one. The Doctor felt proper Doctorish. Could maybe have done with a bit of an editing polish. Nice "man being forced into typical female role" subplot to further wind up those enraged at the Doctor's sex change. Obviously it's another wrinkle on the "Doctor on ship X with disparate cast Y facing danger Z" plotline which has been done mamny times in the past 55 years but is now no longer allowed OBVIOUSLY because it's Chibnall doing it, the cunt.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with basing an episode around a tried and tested Doctor Who template, that's not the issue. It's what you do with it that counts. Tonight, Chibnall did absolutely nothing with a potentially suspenseful scenario.

Also, I don't think anyone in this thread has expressed any hatred for Chibnall's writing. The criticism has been pretty even-handed overall.

[Replies From View]

Wouldn't an ecto-spleen be on the outside? Isn't that what "ecto" means?

It only makes me think of ghost gloop.

Fuck knows what Chibnall was thinking.  There were a few times this episode where you could hear Chibnall straining to come up with mysterious names for things (eg whatever those distant places were called); maybe he just thought "ecto-spleen" sounded incredibly alien and cool.

[Replies From View]

Oh, and is anyone else suspecting Chibnall writes some of the Doctor's speeches by copying facts from Wikipedia?

Yes, and that he thinks the Lord's Prayer is a deeply moving way to end an episode.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Oh, and is anyone else suspecting Chibnall writes some of the Doctor's speeches by copying facts from Wikipedia?

Definitely, like David Brent trying to impress his young pub quiz rival.

Speaking of Gervais...

Merchant Navy was very wooden in this; glad they got rid of him early doors.

Poor Merchant Navy is destined to wander through ill-conceived television productions looking lost. A perplexed hunk of stubble, a forlorn shard of wood. I feel for him.

[greencalx]

I quite liked it, even though it was hardly a classic.

I actually also liked the music running continuously through it, although I could see how that could be grating for others. It gave me something to listen to when the dialogue was being pants.

My son was less keen - he declared at the end "That wasn't very exciting" - but I think he wants Daleks.

[AsparagusTrevor]

Did anyone else think the Robbie Rotten android bloke was gonna turn out to be a wrong-un, a la Alien?

[Kelvin]

Did anyone else think the Robbie Rotten android bloke was gonna turn out to be a wrong-un, a la Alien?

Yes. I mentioned it in my last post.

[olliebean]

The android felt like a refugee from Humans to me. Wouldn't be surprised to learn the actor based his performance on those, in fact. Very similar cadences of speech.

[holyzombiejesus]

The creature clanking behind the shields and showing up on the monitor seemed quite promising in an Alien kind of way but then it was just dropped in favour of watching it stroll about lie it owned the place. Also, if it was just after power, why did it trick that bloke in to entering the escape pod?

[AsparagusTrevor]

Did anyone else think the Robbie Rotten android bloke was gonna turn out to be a wrong-un, a la Alien?

Yes. I mentioned it in my last post.

Yeah but reading's so much effort.

[Replies From View]

The pregnant bloke should have given birth to another p'ting thing.  It would have made the story into more of an Alien rip-off but it needed something memorable going on, and if Chibnall needs to steal to achieve this then so be it.

[AsparagusTrevor]

The pregnant bloke should have given birth to another p'ting thing.  It would have made it into more of an Alien rip-off but it would have been a bit more memorable as a result.

It already looked like an Adipose without popping out of some guy's fat stomach.

[Replies From View]

It already looked like an Adipose without popping out of some guy's fat stomach.

The story was already lost.  A last-gasp effort to not be boring wouldn't have done it any harm.

[Chairman Yang]

I don't know how telly actually works but someone has to presumably... ask for extras to be put in the show? You know, put out a casting call, get someone in to herd them into corners, hire a buffet etc.

Did they just forget to CC in the casting director this year?

[Replies From View]

I don't know how telly actually works but someone has to presumably... ask for extras to be put in the show? You know, put out a casting call, get someone in to herd them into corners, hire a buffet etc.

Did they just forget to CC in the casting director this year?

My sense is that there was an actual cast though, to be fair.  Unless you mean additional background artists to pad out the spaceship.

I think the bigger question is:  why on earth go to all this effort to film such an obviously dull script?

[Norton Canes]

Poor Merchant Navy is destined to wander through ill-conceived television productions looking lost. A perplexed hunk of stubble, a forlorn shard of wood

Sorry, no. With the greatest respect, that's crap. Like I said upthread, I've never seen Brett Goldstein through the fetid miasma of Derek or any other ill-conceived television production but I have seen him in Adult Life Skills and he was utterly brilliant.

[Mister Six]

Speaking of spoilers, I hope my weekly previews are sufficiently lacking in detail? I always provide a broad overview of my thoughts while avoiding mention of anything that actually happens in the episodes, but I appreciate that some people prefer to not know anything - even if it's just some forum dude's subjective opinion - before watching an episode, so I'll gladly stop doing them if they're causing annoyance for anyone.

Just wanted to check.

I'm very spoiler-phobic (to the point that I'm glad Biggy isn't watching any more so I don't have to put up with him repeatedly, pointedly mentioning press leaks without spoiler tags because "it's in the public domain") but I love your reviews and don't didn't them spoilers at all.

(For the record I don't think the episode titles are spoilery either - I just wanted to check we weren't spoiler-tagging then any more.)

[worldsgreatestsinner]

Sorry, no. With the greatest respect, that's crap. Like I said upthread, I've never seen Brett Goldstein through the fetid miasma of Derek or any other ill-conceived television production but I have seen him in Adult Life Skills and he was utterly brilliant.

He is good in Adult Life Skills, Uncle too. But having listened to a couple of episodes of his podcast I can confirm he is the blandest man on Earth.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Sorry, no. With the greatest respect, that's crap. Like I said upthread, I've never seen Brett Goldstein through the fetid miasma of Derek or any other ill-conceived television production but I have seen him in Adult Life Skills and he was utterly brilliant.

I've only seen him in Derek and this episode, and I have absolutely nothing against the man. I was exaggerating for whimsical comic effect, purely for the possible amusement of posters who enjoyed contributing to the 'epic' Derek thread. 'We' find it amusing to refer to him as Merchant Navy, but that's more of a comment on Gervais' one-dimensional, shoddy writing than the actor himself.

I thought he was adequate in this episode, but he didn't have much to work with.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I'm very spoiler-phobic (to the point that I'm glad Biggy isn't watching any more so I don't have to put up with him repeatedly, pointedly mentioning press leaks without spoiler tags because "it's in the public domain") but I love your reviews and don't didn't them spoilers at all.

(For the record I don't think the episode titles are spoilery either - I just wanted to check we weren't spoiler-tagging then any more.)

Okay, ta. Much appreciated, Mister S. No one has ever complained about my previews, but tonight it occurred to me that no one has ever requested them either. I shall continue, however.

[VelourSpirit]

Halfway through series 11 and there's still nothing I like about it. Even the bad Moffat and RTD episodes had some kind of panache to them.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I think the bigger question is:  why on earth go to all this effort to film such an obviously dull script?

It's very hard to imagine Jodie Whittaker and Bradley Walsh, two experienced, talented actors, going home to their loved ones at night and saying, "Chris has come up with an absolute cracker this time."

[Ja'moke]

The scene where Yaz was just asking Ryan questions was so bad. "When's the last time you seen ya dad?" "When did your mum die?" "Who found her?" "How old was you?"

She deserves better.