I haven't watched the show in a couple of years before catching the second half of what was comfortably the worst episode I've ever seen.
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Well I watched it right after work this morning after all. Was a bit meh. A quick recap for new viewers and very little substance. Maybe it’ll get better next week?Comment
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Space Babies
So, I broadly didn't mind the episode but I can see why it would go down poorly in multiple circles. It skews incredibly young and I was braced for that. One of the main troubles the show has suffered is that it absolutely hemorrhaged younger viewers during Capaldi's era and then Whittakers era largely killed off much of the rest of the audience too leading to the revamp we're getting now. Next year the show will have been on the air for twenty years and so given Capaldi's era started 10 years ago there's effectively an entire lost viewing generation of audience. When the show came back in 2005 it contained some cringe worthy pandering to small kids which was hard as an adult to stomach but golden for securing kids and families and so it was clear early on that the show is aiming to do the same here.
With four specials before it RTD clearly sees this as the fifth ep of the new run and so time to really bring that younger audience in but I feel it was a bit of a miscalculation as for many this will still be Ep1 of a new series for a show not on the air for five months. It would have sat better a few more eps into the run but that aside - Ncuti is clearly going to be strong in the role, he's incredibly confident and clearly wide ranged in a way Whittaker never convinced of in her entire run. I'm less convinced of Gibson, it'll take more time to see if she has the same breadth. Even though the show is pushing fairly purile levels it's easy to watch with none of the grating the prior years had, the energy is back and I can see how the road is emerging that we could end up back on a similar path to what we saw in S1 through S4.
Maestro
I'll be more careful here as this one is the ep that airs on the BBC next Saturday so we're going early here. If you struggled with this weeks episode I'm not sure next weeks will help. There are moments later on where Maestro comes across better as a villain but for too long they're allowed to play OTT too heavy handedly and so the scale of threat the Doctor warns of is never really felt. The ep plays back to a prior ep that is too recent and this is the poorer version of the two. There is internal logic to the episodes climax too but it comes off again as incredibly awkward. It's similarly light enough to breeze through but I think I just about preferred the Babies episode.
The preview for the third episode, which is Moffat's contribution to this run, looks like we will get an ep that is more in line with what I expect the standard tone to become in time and might be a good, more character focused installment.
Series 01 - 4 Strong Episodes (Total 4 for Eccleston)
Series 02 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 03 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 04 - 8 Strong Episodes (Total 15 for Tennant)
Series 05 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 06 - 5 Strong Episodes
Series 07 - 4 Strong Episodes (Total 12 for Smith)
Series 08 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 09 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 10 - 3 Strong Episodes (Total 8 for Capaldi)
Series 11 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 12 - 1 Strong Episode
Series 13 - 1 Strong Episode (Total 4 for Whittaker)
Series 14 - 0 Strong Episodes (Total 0 for Tennant II) (0 for Gatwa)Comment
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PS - I'll add as well, the more eps that pass by the more I'm now starting to think this might be the weakest Tardis interior. The scale was impressive when it was revealed in the first special but as eps continue it feels like it's really starting to show as to how the lights on the walls are trying to do all of the work. There's too little too it.Comment
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Boom
So, with this one I'm going to tentatively give it a point for the below table. For probably half of its runtime there's the obvious disadvantage in that the premise rests on the threat to the Doctor and the planet but because we know he's safe the threat is defused from the outset. There's also the suggestion that Ruby has been travelling with the Doctor for many months yet it's also her first alien world so a potentially sloppy suggestion of episode reshuffling there too. I wouldn't say there's anything original about the way the ep unfolds and the little girl lacks any intelligence at all but around halfway through they manage to dial up the urgency to an extent that it begins to tap into the same energy the show had during those earlier revival years and it's so refreshing to have that life back to the show. I'm still not 100% sold on Ruby (though next weeks eps looks like it will be her showcase) but Gatwa really gets to begin to flex in the role here and cements that over the course of his series we may have a contender for the title on our hands with the right material. After the overly light whimsy of the last two eps this was a big step to the right tone.
Series 01 - 4 Strong Episodes (Total 4 for Eccleston)
Series 02 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 03 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 04 - 8 Strong Episodes (Total 15 for Tennant)
Series 05 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 06 - 5 Strong Episodes
Series 07 - 4 Strong Episodes (Total 12 for Smith)
Series 08 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 09 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 10 - 3 Strong Episodes (Total 8 for Capaldi)
Series 11 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 12 - 1 Strong Episode
Series 13 - 1 Strong Episode (Total 4 for Whittaker)
Series 14 - 0 Strong Episodes (Total 0 for Tennant II) (1 for Gatwa)Comment
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Ep3's viewing figures are the shows lowest ever but it remained the most watched show on BBC1 highlighting how low viewership of the Beeb is now gettingComment
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73 Yards
There's a point during the episode where it feels like things are going to get derailed, it's pretty much once we start getting around 20 minutes plus into the episode and a bit of a temporary side story comes in but it holds together. The inspiration for the opening 5 minutes wears heavy at first too but once things get going the ep builds up interest fast. I can see how the ep might have played better being a little later in the run when we're more accustomed to Ruby's character but despite that it still held up. After viewing you go through a thought process, being a sci-fi show, where it all falls apart under the logic but once you remember that this series is making a point of exploring the fantastical and supernatural where the usual science fiction conventions don't apply then it works much better again. I'm really trying to skirt around specifics because it worked best going in cold but in short this was a very good episode.
Series 01 - 4 Strong Episodes (Total 4 for Eccleston)
Series 02 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 03 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 04 - 8 Strong Episodes (Total 15 for Tennant)
Series 05 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 06 - 5 Strong Episodes
Series 07 - 4 Strong Episodes (Total 12 for Smith)
Series 08 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 09 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 10 - 3 Strong Episodes (Total 8 for Capaldi)
Series 11 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 12 - 1 Strong Episode
Series 13 - 1 Strong Episode (Total 4 for Whittaker)
Series 14 - 0 Strong Episodes (Total 0 for Tennant II) (2 for Gatwa)Comment
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