Another meh episode. The threat wasn't well developed enough to hold the character development. It could have done with a little less conversation and little more action. The story had a wooden heart and just didn't work. It was always on my mind that we would see little more of missy this week and it turns out that anyplace is paradise. It looks like Mr Pink and Clara are getting towards its the now or never moment or otherwise Clara could end up in heartbreak hotel.
Dr Who: Caretaker
- Thread starter Albino Boo
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I was dissapointed to be quite honest, they needed to develop the threat A LOT more rather than just faffing around in details nobody cared about. and the doctor being overly grumpy like he was seemed kinda OOC.
This episode's teaser at the end of the last one looked so boring and trite that there really is not way it could have come out looking good.
I think I am going to stop watching for a while. People seem to still be loving the show (I don't get all the love for Listen) and I am glad people do, but I am tired of the constant focus on Clara. Once again the Doctor was 2nd to Clara and her love life and I just don't care. I find her very boring and the new guy is even worse and I am tired of siting down to watch Doctor Who every week and instead end up watching The Clara Oswald show.
I will keep reading about what happens in the show and I will probably watch the final just to find out what is going on with Missy but until we get some new companions, the series focus is consistantly back on the Doctor or Moffat steps down I am done. Which I am really annoyed about because I am really loving Capaldi as the Doctor.
But I hope the rest of you continue to enjoy it, someone should.
I will keep reading about what happens in the show and I will probably watch the final just to find out what is going on with Missy but until we get some new companions, the series focus is consistantly back on the Doctor or Moffat steps down I am done. Which I am really annoyed about because I am really loving Capaldi as the Doctor.
But I hope the rest of you continue to enjoy it, someone should.
The monster of the week was really just a reason for the Doctor to be in Clara's normal life, it was obviously not the story's focus. I don't mind if the episode occasionally puts the focus on Clara and the Doctor, they're both great actors and I like the banter between them. The problem is, Mr Pink is so dull and the actor seems like he'd rather not be there. His confrontation with the Doctor on the TARDIS was his only moment of interesting. Also, if they're going to stick the Doctor in the real world for an episode, it would be nice to see him have some proper interaction with it.albino boo said:
The brief appearance of Chris Addison was unexpected. I wonder if he'll get any screen time with Capaldi in the future. Overall, while not the best episode of the series so far, I enjoyed it.
The plot was a bit too Sarah Jane Adventures, but just generally enjoying the more adult tone of the relationships. Danny & Clara feel like a real couple to me which is probably the first time I ever said this about the show since Barbara & Ian (and they weren't supposed to be a couple).
After the disappoint that was Clara in 7B, the Clara of the first two appearances is back and I'm enjoying the feisty little woman. Especially enjoy that Moffat is continuing to work around the lives of the companion instead of having them permanently on board. It felt disjointed with Amy, but as Clara has a proper job there's at least something for the Doctor to be working around.
And don't mind the occasional bouts of it being The Clara Show. The new series started off with a lot of The Rose Show as the two main leads are treated as stars in their own right. It's not like The Doctor disappears into the background. The fun here is watching Clara trying to prevent the Doctor from disrupting her Secret Identity.
So far, this is the first series to go six for six with several episodes I thoroughly enjoyed. Even the series long arc is hitting the right note of teasing the finale and not giving us too much information. Just a great series so far and if this keeps up, it'll be the best of Nu Who by a wide margin.
After the disappoint that was Clara in 7B, the Clara of the first two appearances is back and I'm enjoying the feisty little woman. Especially enjoy that Moffat is continuing to work around the lives of the companion instead of having them permanently on board. It felt disjointed with Amy, but as Clara has a proper job there's at least something for the Doctor to be working around.
And don't mind the occasional bouts of it being The Clara Show. The new series started off with a lot of The Rose Show as the two main leads are treated as stars in their own right. It's not like The Doctor disappears into the background. The fun here is watching Clara trying to prevent the Doctor from disrupting her Secret Identity.
So far, this is the first series to go six for six with several episodes I thoroughly enjoyed. Even the series long arc is hitting the right note of teasing the finale and not giving us too much information. Just a great series so far and if this keeps up, it'll be the best of Nu Who by a wide margin.
Another episode that was ironically good. The enemy was so nonthreatening they had to directly state that it could blow up the planet... yeh sure 1 ordinary infantry unit can blow up the planet... It was a very lame episode but it didn't actually get boring. It's good that they finally did something with Mr Pink cos it was getting annoying how overwhelmingly bland he was acting all the time as if hes trying to make Clara look more interesting by comparison. Capaldi is giving us even more 'dam this guy is good' moments.
Chris Addison was a really random surprise at the end but whatever.
Chris Addison was a really random surprise at the end but whatever.
Well, at least they dealt with the "adventure overload" syndrome early on, before the companion had prematurely aged like poor Amy and Rory. Maybe Mr. Pink will add some stability to counter the Doctor's chaos. Also the teacher that looks like Matt Smith is a nice touch, sure to add some comedic moments in the future. But now one of the students is in on the secret, and she had a chemical spill in the tardis. How's this gonna work?
Next week: giant spiders, totally not xenomorphs but an auto rifle with grenades and a flamethrower could come in handy.
Next week: giant spiders, totally not xenomorphs but an auto rifle with grenades and a flamethrower could come in handy.
I know that Clara was the focus of the episode but the story was weak and contrived. The writers wanted to do character development and stuck a monster in there as an afterthought. Due to the contrived nature of this story, I contrived an opening post made up of mainly Elvis Presley lyrics. I see now that this was a mistake and has only resulted in me feeling old, because no one spotted it.marscentral said:
It reminded me a bit of that episode from last season with all the cubes. I forget what it's called, but the point is that the alien threat is a barely-there background thing while the story is mainly driven by character relationships. It's a good thing to focus on, but I reckon the episode itself was merely okay. I'd give it a B-. It had a few laughs, but it really comes down to whether or not you're okay with a Doctor Who story that's light on the sci-fi adventure.
It was a bit of a cheesy romantic-comedy 'misunderstanding', but I like how the Doctor initially mistook the Matt Smith look-alike teacher for Clara's boyfriend and was flattered by it. Especially the way he and Clara ended up talking at cross purposes over when he described him as "a certain handsome time-traveller". I also like the Doctor and Pink's increasing bitchiness at each other, like how Pink started acting like a soldier to get on his nerves. Is it me, or did their relationship resemble a racist dad disapproving of his daughter's boyfriend? Every time he snarled "PE teacher", it felt like what he really meant was "you're dating a darky?"
It was a bit of a cheesy romantic-comedy 'misunderstanding', but I like how the Doctor initially mistook the Matt Smith look-alike teacher for Clara's boyfriend and was flattered by it. Especially the way he and Clara ended up talking at cross purposes over when he described him as "a certain handsome time-traveller". I also like the Doctor and Pink's increasing bitchiness at each other, like how Pink started acting like a soldier to get on his nerves. Is it me, or did their relationship resemble a racist dad disapproving of his daughter's boyfriend? Every time he snarled "PE teacher", it felt like what he really meant was "you're dating a darky?"
Kingjackl said:
There was long tradition of ex army NCOs becoming PE teachers in the UK. 3 of 6 of my senior school PE teachers were ex army in the 80s. I'm not sure what its like now but when the writers and I went to school you would have had a PE teacher who was ex army. PE teachers were the butt of jokes by the more academic teachers, like Moffat was before he became a writer.
For me, it was better than the teaser suggested it would be. It suffered from the usual failure to build enough tension (didn't feel as if the Blitzer was ever going to damage anything other than classroom chairs and 'hapless victims') and the prioritising of Clara's relationship with Danny over the Doctor himself; BUT, it did it all with a great deal of likeability and some good dialogue, and it never got boring either.
It varied from very good to very bad. At its best, it was a great episode about aliens in the school and Clara being scared for the children. The other half of the episode was like watching a bad rom com.
Overall, meh
Overall, meh
I don't like the focus on Clara in this season. Last season it worked with Matt Smith as the Doctor, because he was so energetic that when there was focus on Clara, the Doctor still had plenty of presence. Capaldi is an interesting Doctor, but he lacks that sheer 'Look at me! I'm the Doctor!' acting Smith gave us, and with less of a presence Clara springs out a bit too much. Plus, while it was already starting to get obvious in the previous season, it's just straight up in my face how much of a Mary Sue Clara is. She feels like the perfect character with the non-flaw being that she has a normal life as well.
Don't get me wrong, I still quite like Dr. Who right now. But I'm not as excited to catch the newest episode any more, simply because of bad writing of the two main characters and half the time also because of the bad/boring plot.
So far, for me this season:
Deep breath was interesting, but had a really slow start. Into the Dalek I liked. Robot of Sherwood was too Clara-focused for my liking. Listen's ending was stupid to me (cmon, really? Clara once -again- just happened to influence the Doctor's past? That's not deep imo. That's a cop-out.) And though I loved Time Heist, the trailer I've seen for The Caretaker looks 'Meh' as hell with it's Clara-focused romance plot. (haven't seen the episode just yet.)
In my opinion we need more Doctor taking charge and companion helping, and less companion gets dragged out of normal life, after which the Doctor helps the companion solve a problem.
Don't get me wrong, I still quite like Dr. Who right now. But I'm not as excited to catch the newest episode any more, simply because of bad writing of the two main characters and half the time also because of the bad/boring plot.
So far, for me this season:
Deep breath was interesting, but had a really slow start. Into the Dalek I liked. Robot of Sherwood was too Clara-focused for my liking. Listen's ending was stupid to me (cmon, really? Clara once -again- just happened to influence the Doctor's past? That's not deep imo. That's a cop-out.) And though I loved Time Heist, the trailer I've seen for The Caretaker looks 'Meh' as hell with it's Clara-focused romance plot. (haven't seen the episode just yet.)
In my opinion we need more Doctor taking charge and companion helping, and less companion gets dragged out of normal life, after which the Doctor helps the companion solve a problem.
Also going with "meh".
Doctor is unfunny, don't care about the alien at all, pointless squabbles.
(Might just be me, but when the Doctor was up the ladder talking to Clara and she's got a whiteboard marker, would have been so much better if she'd drawn on a moustache. And if the Doctor knew who her BF was, he was just messing with her)
Doctor is unfunny, don't care about the alien at all, pointless squabbles.
(Might just be me, but when the Doctor was up the ladder talking to Clara and she's got a whiteboard marker, would have been so much better if she'd drawn on a moustache. And if the Doctor knew who her BF was, he was just messing with her)