Doctor Who: Regeneration 02

[Neon Ignition]

Bog standard follow up ep tonight, everything panned out exactly as expected. I'm assuming the Doc's blabber mouth will come back on him down the line and we seem fully on the road the

->Open Spoiler<-

The Valeyard

now.

I don't know if

->Open Spoiler<-

Clara's situation was intentionally similar to the first time the Doctor met her or not

And Missy, for god's sake, increasingly painful to sit through.

[darkangel]

The writing was so bad it was cringe worthy. What is with Moffat's insistence on overly using over dramatic opera like music in EVERY SCENE. I just don't get it. Why oh why is the BBC letting him run this show into the ground? The BBC have even lost ratings on the show now. They need to boot him off writing and bring someone new in. I'm so annoyed because The new Doctor has so SO much potential and it's just crap. Really upsetting actually.

Edit: Missy and Clara are terrible. Getting worst with every episode. Just complete LOL.

[Neon Ignition]

http://m.uk.ign.com/articles/2015/10/01/doctor-who-spinoff-class-announced-by-bbc?utm_source=IGN%20hub%20page&utm_medium=TV&utm_content=8&utm_campaign=Blogroll

BBC has announced a new spin-off show about some teenagers at school fending off aliens. It's an 8 ep deal and has a fair whiff of Sarah Jane Adventures about it. Presumably it's for CBBC but you never know the Beebs thinking. So many possibilities but always the dull options with the beeb

[Neon Ignition]

Turns out its primarily a BBC3 thing, some rumours it might be a replacement for a full series of Who next year

[darkangel]

A great episode! Finally! Without Steven Moffat everything gets brillant again and Peter Capaldi shows his brillance as the Doctor.

Now we just have to make sure Moffat never writes any more episodes and get rid of Jenna Coleman as the assitant and maybe we can get back to the golden years of the Tennet days!

[Neon Ignition]

A moment in the new episode summed up a part of why the show doesn't feel like it's firing on full cylinders lately and possibly why audiences are dwindling a bit on it.

It was the scene where the Doctor is talking to the group having just met them and is a bit excited by what he's facing. When Clara gives him cue cards on how to behave it was a slight humorous moment but afterwards felt like an on screen recognition of one of the show's current issues. It has no heart.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling for a full on return of the schmaltz sometimes thrown at the screen during the RTD series but with Capaldi Moffat seems to have tried to make it more like the Hartnell era Doctor. The trouble is, whilst he's an older and sterner Doctor it's also one that mostly speaks to a small audience who still has a connection/recollection of that era and also a simpler one where the Doctor was a simpler character. Since regenerating the Doctor no longer seems to care about much, he tells us he cares about Clara and that's mostly it and even then it doesn't really come across. It makes it hard to care about what he's doing.

Add to that the often cold tint to the scenes, the shouty lines and Clara's storyline of continuously mirroring the Doctor (i.e a death wish with a cold and distant persona) and it's off putting. I might have ridden with it more if it felt like the idea was that Clara's storyline was leading to Capaldi's Doc rediscovering himself after his regen reset but I don't think that's the aim.

For his next companion it really is the perfect time to spend one series with River as his full time companion to bring that story arc full circle and also give Capaldi a more age appropriate and better suited screen friend to flesh his Doc out with.

There's loads of other niggles too but atm, that vibe is there that it needs some warmth so I care what happens to the characters again.

[Neon Ignition]

Mostly fluff episode this week. The hyped up appearance of Maisie from GoT did nothing but seem to confirm to me that she isn't that good, very one note but suited to the role GoT gave her. She's throw away here so it's down to next weeks episode to pick things up for her.

The whole thing is rescued by that one moment they finally address Capaldi's Doctor and seem to wrap it in a way that he should get back to normal at last, hopefully bringing Clara's development into clearer light too as we go forward.

[Neon Ignition]

Weakest ep of the season so far. Failed to deliver anything meaningful on part one, light filler and no killer.

[darkangel]

Yep. Only good part was the mention of Captain Jack Harkness Torchwood style.

It's bloody trolling from the BBC. Just bring him back in already! >_<

[Darwock]

The whole thing is rescued by that one moment they finally address Capaldi's Doctor and seem to wrap it in a way that he should get back to normal at last, hopefully bringing Clara's development into clearer light too as we go forward.

About that... I've forgotten where that flashback (about choosing his face) originally came from, but I've seen it mentioned a few times as a loose thread that needs tied up. Can anyone briefly explain when and where it happened, and what exactly the mystery is?

[Neon Ignition]

It was in Capaldi's first episode of the show in the previous series when he'd just regenerated and had no idea of who he is. There's a scene where he's staggering around an alley and see's himself reflected in a puddle and feels like he's seen his new face before.

Capaldi's been in the Whoniverse twice before so they acknowledged the reappearance by tying the Doctors current development into the first time he was in the show when the Doctor broke his own rules to save someone just as he did in this series. They seem to have opted to ignore his role in Torchwood: Children of the Earth though.

[Darwock]

So when he said that thing at the puddle, was he referring to an episode where Capaldi played a different (i.e not the Doctor) character? I'm a bit confused.

[Neon Ignition]

Yup, just passed it off as his subconscious giving him the same face as the other character to remind him of the type of man he is. Well, remind him a year and a half later when 3m viewers have left

[Mayhem]

Wouldn't be the first time though, it's been a fan theory floating around for ages, and Who finally acknowledged there might be some truth in it. That he has taken some, if not many, faces on regeneration because he has seen them before. Which is true, if you stretch things out to include such instances as the First Doctor meeting 2-5 during the Five Doctors episode, Colin Baker shooting Five during Arc of Infinity (or the Two Doctors featuring Two and Six), Ten meeting Eleven recently, Five meeting Ten during the Comic Relief episode, and so on.

About the only person not included thus would be Nine. Maybe that's why he was so surprised to see the face, and was checking it out in the mirror so much in the first episode of the new Who

[Neon Ignition]

If you work off the subconcious theory it'd be easy for them to have Tom Baker appear again like in the anniversary special and fold it back as it being an influence on the third regeneration as well as explaining his previous nonsensical cameo. Though Moffat seems reluctant to have much properly explained these days.