Doctor Who - Warning, Spoilers!

[Haggises]

The screwdriver's death, I feel, was foretold in Day of the Doctor when John Hurt mocked 10 and 11.

Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that! They're scientific instruments, not water pistols!

The pointing again! They’re screwdrivers! What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?

 

[AZBronco]

I agree the sonic screwdriver was becoming over-powered and a little too magical (unless wood's involved...). The glasses are OK--I'm on the fence on them right now. Capaldi is much better this season, but the Master as Missy is one of my all time favorite characters and I hope they keep her storylines going.

Can't wait for Saturday. I had to DVR last week's episode and just watched it last night--great cliff hanger!

 

[TexLaw]

I'm no fan of the sunglases gimmick,the sonic screwdriver is part of the series...hope they bring it back,maybe with more powers,but bring it back..

I want it back, but not with more powers. I'm sick and tired of that thing being a magic wand. It's a screwdriver! I remember Tom Baker using it to (gasp) unscrew a screw!

 

[Haggises]

Brain of Morbius:

(The Doctor discovers that the door is locked.)
DOCTOR: Damn! I should have stayed with him.
SARAH: Sonic screwdriver.
DOCTOR: It's in the Tardis.
SARAH: Oh.

Rest of episodes carry on regardless.
Besides having a visual interface make much more sense than whatever telepathic/brainy wainy/listeny wisteny thing he was increasingly using with the screwdriver.

 

[ben139]

What are people's thoughts on Capaldi's doctor?

 

[Haggises]

I like Capaldi on or around the same level as Tennant and a bit more than Smith. I think I may be a wee bitty biased.

Still unsure how to rate any of the modern era against Baker and Pertwee.
I suspect they're still 1 and 2 (or 2 and 1) even if my memory is rose-tinted.

 

[mikelz777]

What are people's thoughts on Capaldi's doctor?

I only jumped into this series with the reboot so I know little to nothing about the old Doctors for any kind of comparison. I only know the new ones. Eccleston was my first Doctor so I think I favor him overall followed by Tennant, Capaldi and Smith. It's kind of a hard call where to place Eccleston because he (I thought) was a great Doctor but he didn't stick around nearly long enough. He and Tennant could easily be flipped on my list. Capaldi has quite a ways to go to close the gap between him and Tennant (/Eccleston).

Now with the comparisons out of the way, I like Capaldi as the Doctor but he has taken the longest of the modern Doctors to get used to and like. His first season was almost a wash. I don't know that they really knew what to do with him or how to write for him. There were maybe a small handful of decent episodes his first season but I don't really think that it was until now that he is coming into his own. There's a part of me that thinks that I'm watching the "new" Doctor for the first time this season. I kind of feel like this is the first time we're seeing him fulfill his potential and I'm liking what I see. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season and seeing more of him.

 

[TexLaw]

I like Capaldi on or around the same level as Tennant and a bit more than Smith. I think I may be a wee bitty biased.

Still unsure how to rate any of the modern era against Baker and Pertwee.
I suspect they're still 1 and 2 (or 2 and 1) even if my memory is rose-tinted.

I was born under Pertwee and raised under Baker. As far as I knew until I was learning algebra, Tom Baker was the Doctor, and there was no other.

Then, just as I was regenerating into adolescence, so did the Doctor. I didn't like that. In fact, I was rightly pissed about it. So, Baker was my Doctor, even though I watched straight through that god-awful, Highlander-wannabe TV movie that I made my parents and little brother watch.

Then, a married, professional man with a young son hears that Doctor Who is returning! Really? No more trying to fill in the blanks with Highlander, Time Trax, Where on Earth is Carmen San Diego.

Eccleston was excellent as the new Doctor. Harsh, dark, and not looking for publicity (except for when he was). Perfect to bridge the gap and introduce the idea of the Time War. But he signed on for one series, and only one series.

And, then, Tennant. O Doctor, my Doctor. I never imagined that any Doctor could surpass Baker, but then that bloody Scot, David Tennant came along. I fell in love with another Doctor, but this time as a full adult.

So, I am excited about Capaldi and terribly disappointed with Smith.

I know how the fifth Doctor really was damned good and totally forgotten, and how the sixth was on cocaine or speed. So, it takes some doing for me to be disappointed. At least, the other Doctors had some . . . something.

Give me Tennant, any day, and Baker when Tennant needs a nap.

Smith never could have pulled off:

I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the Constellation of Kasterborous. I'm 903 years old and I'm the man who is gonna save your lives and all 6 billion people on the planet below. You got a problem with that?

Even if he got the benefit of the greatest score in Doctor Who history, titled "I am the Doctor," just like that quote established.

Smith won the lottery. Tennant built the pot. Eccleston made the space for it, today. The other seven were the reason anyone cared at all today (and I know how I'm giving short shrift to them).

 

[Eeyore]

Finally a classic Doctor Who monster!

 

[mrlandpirate]

good one, cool monster, timey-wimey stuff. I liked it! the Doctor is in

look like the glasses are the new magic tool, oh well.

 

[beginish]

I think it's fair to say that Capaldi truly owns the Doctor now. What a great episode.

 

[SRNewb]

I'm still not certain about Capaldi. His mannerisms are so different, and it takes me time to adjust. I was only completely comfortable with Matt Smith in his last season, but I look back now and think he did a great job, and was sorry to see him go.
Baker IS the Doctor to me. I grew up watching him as the doctor on PBS broadcasting as a child.
But Eccelson and Tennant are just as good, to me.
When I first heard there was a new Doctor Who series coming, I almost had a fit waiting on it. Fantastic! And Eccleson did not dissappoint. IMO he was larger than life, and perfect to begin this new series. And Rose Tyler. Wow.
Then Tennant came along and just blew everything out of the water. Fantastic actor.
I think what Baker, Ecclesonn and Tennant have in common is a natural enthusiasm that just grabs me and won't let me go. Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi have both tried to portray that side of the Doctor's personality. Smith finally clicked for me in that regard. Capaldi has not done that for me, yet.

 

[Eeyore]

Meh story line, great character development of Capaldi.

 

[captp]

Nice tie-in to the Pompeii episode.

 

[imatabor]

I'm really liking this new season. Things seem to be back in order, the Doctor is the smartest man in the room and the companion makes him look good. I'm even liking Clara (talk about a turn around).
A couple of thoght:
1.I really do hope that the glasses go away.
2. Did the Doctor just create the Bride of the Face of Boe

 

[mikelz777]

I cheered a bit inside when I saw the sonic glasses snapped in half. I'm hoping that's the end of them.

I thought it was pretty cool when they flashed back to the Pompeii episode when the Doctor realizes why he chose his current face, the face of the non-Doctor character he played in that episode. They tied it into tonight's episode like it was planned out and they did it on purpose.

 

[beginish]

If these episodes continue being written with these storylines, Capaldi is going to forever be known as the dark Doctor, the one willing to put at risk and in some cases sacrifice others to achieve an end.

It's the polar opposite to Baker's "do I have the right" conscience wrestling in Genesis of the Daleks. I truly hope that the realization and steps he took at the end of The Girl Who Died marks a shift back to what I think is a traditional Doctor Who morality. Don't get me wrong, it makes for great stories and episodes, but it is less true to the spirit of fifty years of this series.

 

[Haggises]

This had all the makings of a Robots of Sherwood episode, but then it got good.
Loving this series.

 

[sskim3]

I'm still not certain about Capaldi. His mannerisms are so different, and it takes me time to adjust. I was only completely comfortable with Matt Smith in his last season, but I look back now and think he did a great job, and was sorry to see him go.
Baker IS the Doctor to me. I grew up watching him as the doctor on PBS broadcasting as a child.
But Eccelson and Tennant are just as good, to me.
When I first heard there was a new Doctor Who series coming, I almost had a fit waiting on it. Fantastic! And Eccleson did not dissappoint. IMO he was larger than life, and perfect to begin this new series. And Rose Tyler. Wow.
Then Tennant came along and just blew everything out of the water. Fantastic actor.
I think what Baker, Ecclesonn and Tennant have in common is a natural enthusiasm that just grabs me and won't let me go. Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi have both tried to portray that side of the Doctor's personality. Smith finally clicked for me in that regard. Capaldi has not done that for me, yet.

I thought Ecclesonn time has the Doctor was very short. Would have liked to see him as the Doctor for at least half a season or a full season more.

 

[TexLaw]

I am liking this more and more all the time, as well. This is a dark Doctor, but the Doctor is dark. That's part of the deal. He's not some Yoda who's settled into his inner peace over time. Far from it.

I am most happy about him becoming more cerebral. This last episode, he had no TARDIS and no sonic magic wand (or glasses), and he had to just work it out. He did (although, I admit that eels was about as much deus ex machina as any Time Lord technology ever has been).

I also got a kick out of the tongue-in-cheek treatment this episode gave to both the technology and "WAIT! I'VE GOT IT" plot devices. That was a nice wink and nod to say "yes, we know we have a formula. Just sit back and enjoy it. You know it's fun."

There definitely is a new (or, as mentioned, perhaps a renewed) morality going on. At least, there is a different way of dealing with it. Just this series, we've seen him save Davros and create a potential "tidal wave" each in the name of saving a single innocent's life.