Doctor Who 8x01 & 8x02 Thoughts
Sep. 6th, 2014 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iaria8x01 'Deep Breath'
I liked it well enough.
• I like Twelve. I don't love him as I immediately did the previous three but I do really like him. He is very much the Doctor while still being quite different from the previous ones.
A couple of my favourite lines of his:
"Look at the eyebrows! They’re attack eyebrows. I could take bottletops off with these. They’re cross. They’re crosser than the rest of my face. They’re independently cross. They probably want to cede from the rest of my face and set up their own independent state of eyebrows!” LOL
and then these two are just so the Doctor:
“I just do standy-up catnaps … Well, generally whenever anyone else starts talking. I like to skip ahead to my bits. Saves time."
“I hate being wrong in public. Everybody forget I said that.”
• I wasn't entirely sold on Twelve/Clara until the restaurant meeting. I loved that scene and they had a great back and forth. I enjoyed their bickering.
• Aw, Twelve isn't a hugging person now. His awkward non-hug was really endearing as was his supreme awkwardness afterwards as he tried to bond with Clara.
• I loved the scene between Clara and the head robot in his ship. She handled that whole situation as well as she could have. She was terrified but kept it together. She was smart. I love that she used the knowledge she'd gained from her first day as a teacher in dealing with him.
• I loved the Doctor's mention of Amy and the call back to Nine/Rose at the end.
• It was lovely to see Vastra, Jenny and Strax again. They're always fun. I particularly enjoyed the Strax/Clara (amusing) and Vastra/Jenny (adorable) interactions.
• The new TARDIS look - eh. I like the centre column but the whole thing feels very cold. It'll need to grow on me.
• I found Clara's reaction to the new Doctor completely inexplicable and that affected my enjoyment since it was such a huge part of the story. It was my main issue with the episode. The fact that Clara would react this way, would be this uncertain of the Doctor and for such an extended time is just... what? Of all Companions this makes the least amount of sense. Do the writers even remember that she has lived many, many lifetimes alongside the Doctor? Or did they throw out at some point that she doesn't remember those lives any more and I forgot? It didn't work for me at all.
• I also didn't like Vastra's discussions with Clara about the Doctor. Especially the stuff about how he was young and thus she had a crush on him/wanted him but now he's old and she doesn't. All the 'boyfriend' stuff was annoying.
• I loved seeing the Eleventh Doctor again but I don't know that it really worked. Granted I hate the whole Clara uncertainty about Twelve situation and her needing Eleven to tell her Twelve is the Doctor and asking her to help him is bothersome.
8x02 'Into the Dalek'
It was okay.
• I really liked the new characters in this episode. Danny, Journey, Gretchen particularly. Danny seems nice and I liked his little classroom freak out at himself. The tear on the other hand was a bit much. Journey was great and I'm sad that the Doctor refused to let her come. I thought he'd have gotten over his soldier dislike after the last two Eleven specials. Gretchen really impressed me with her sacrifice.
• "You're not my boss. You're one of my hobbies." - Clara. Great line. I kind of love that she has her own life and is just an occasional companion but at the same time I really feel like the Doctor needs a full time Companion. It'd be nice if the Doctor would get another Companion.
• It's weird to have no mention of Clara Oswin Oswald, the very first Clara we meet, who just happened to be a Dalek. So are we really going with Clara having no memories of any of her other lives? Not even a mention from Twelve.
• A couple good Doctor lines: "She cares so I don't have to." and, in response to a soldier stating he's there to kill the Doctor if needed, "That's a relief I hate babysitters.".
• Ross's death and especially the Doctor's reaction was kind of a shock. He was pretty callous about it. So, not so much an 'everybody lives' Doctor then
• I liked the Doctor trusting Clara but - "Do a clever thing." - yes, very helpful, Doctor.
• What exactly did the Doctor, and the others, expect to happen once they fixed the Dalek? It seemed pretty obvious that it would revert to back to the usual Dalek model. It made all of them, especially the Doctor, look kind of dumb.
• This episode was really reminding me of 'Dalek'. I liked Clara calling the Doctor on just accepting the Dalek is evil at it's core because that fit his own beliefs best.
I liked it well enough.
• I like Twelve. I don't love him as I immediately did the previous three but I do really like him. He is very much the Doctor while still being quite different from the previous ones.
A couple of my favourite lines of his:
"Look at the eyebrows! They’re attack eyebrows. I could take bottletops off with these. They’re cross. They’re crosser than the rest of my face. They’re independently cross. They probably want to cede from the rest of my face and set up their own independent state of eyebrows!” LOL
and then these two are just so the Doctor:
“I just do standy-up catnaps … Well, generally whenever anyone else starts talking. I like to skip ahead to my bits. Saves time."
“I hate being wrong in public. Everybody forget I said that.”
• I wasn't entirely sold on Twelve/Clara until the restaurant meeting. I loved that scene and they had a great back and forth. I enjoyed their bickering.
• Aw, Twelve isn't a hugging person now. His awkward non-hug was really endearing as was his supreme awkwardness afterwards as he tried to bond with Clara.
• I loved the scene between Clara and the head robot in his ship. She handled that whole situation as well as she could have. She was terrified but kept it together. She was smart. I love that she used the knowledge she'd gained from her first day as a teacher in dealing with him.
• I loved the Doctor's mention of Amy and the call back to Nine/Rose at the end.
• It was lovely to see Vastra, Jenny and Strax again. They're always fun. I particularly enjoyed the Strax/Clara (amusing) and Vastra/Jenny (adorable) interactions.
• The new TARDIS look - eh. I like the centre column but the whole thing feels very cold. It'll need to grow on me.
• I found Clara's reaction to the new Doctor completely inexplicable and that affected my enjoyment since it was such a huge part of the story. It was my main issue with the episode. The fact that Clara would react this way, would be this uncertain of the Doctor and for such an extended time is just... what? Of all Companions this makes the least amount of sense. Do the writers even remember that she has lived many, many lifetimes alongside the Doctor? Or did they throw out at some point that she doesn't remember those lives any more and I forgot? It didn't work for me at all.
• I also didn't like Vastra's discussions with Clara about the Doctor. Especially the stuff about how he was young and thus she had a crush on him/wanted him but now he's old and she doesn't. All the 'boyfriend' stuff was annoying.
• I loved seeing the Eleventh Doctor again but I don't know that it really worked. Granted I hate the whole Clara uncertainty about Twelve situation and her needing Eleven to tell her Twelve is the Doctor and asking her to help him is bothersome.
8x02 'Into the Dalek'
It was okay.
• I really liked the new characters in this episode. Danny, Journey, Gretchen particularly. Danny seems nice and I liked his little classroom freak out at himself. The tear on the other hand was a bit much. Journey was great and I'm sad that the Doctor refused to let her come. I thought he'd have gotten over his soldier dislike after the last two Eleven specials. Gretchen really impressed me with her sacrifice.
• "You're not my boss. You're one of my hobbies." - Clara. Great line. I kind of love that she has her own life and is just an occasional companion but at the same time I really feel like the Doctor needs a full time Companion. It'd be nice if the Doctor would get another Companion.
• It's weird to have no mention of Clara Oswin Oswald, the very first Clara we meet, who just happened to be a Dalek. So are we really going with Clara having no memories of any of her other lives? Not even a mention from Twelve.
• A couple good Doctor lines: "She cares so I don't have to." and, in response to a soldier stating he's there to kill the Doctor if needed, "That's a relief I hate babysitters.".
• Ross's death and especially the Doctor's reaction was kind of a shock. He was pretty callous about it. So, not so much an 'everybody lives' Doctor then
• I liked the Doctor trusting Clara but - "Do a clever thing." - yes, very helpful, Doctor.
• What exactly did the Doctor, and the others, expect to happen once they fixed the Dalek? It seemed pretty obvious that it would revert to back to the usual Dalek model. It made all of them, especially the Doctor, look kind of dumb.
• This episode was really reminding me of 'Dalek'. I liked Clara calling the Doctor on just accepting the Dalek is evil at it's core because that fit his own beliefs best.
