The Doctor Who Spoilers and Speculation Thread V3 - "Oh, brilliant." - Film, Television and Music

just heard a leak that there are no daleks into today's episode and it's actually the chumbleys

Well, that was definitely an episode of Doctor Who.

I enjoyed the story. It was an interesting and welcome twist on the Dalek story formula. Only down side is that I think that the cast got waaaay to big and given how much I dislike the whole TARDIS crew thing it didn't help matters and I think there was too much interpersonal stuff, as good as it is and as good as Chibnall is at it we really can't have him falling back on it time and again to add depth to the stories. Still despite that I thought it was great.

Can anyone explain to me why Chibnall described this episode as 'the blockbuster version of Doctor Who'? Does he even know what he's saying in that interview? Why would they tease a Dalek so hard when its in the case for 15ish minutes. I disagree with the above poster, it wasn't an interesting twist, it was boring and ridiculous. Chibnall even incorporated a power of love ending because there wasn't enough to hate about his era!!! Chekovs microwave stuck out like a sore thumb and I was praying Chibnall wasn't going to use a microwave to stop a Dalek, but he did! Chibnall needs to sort himself out for s12. This was such a boring special.

yikes, I thought that was pretty terrible (and you know if I'm thinking that then it's not looking good) essentially completely thematically vapid

Omfg I never thought I'd see the day freeze! I thought I was going mental for a minute.

I really hated the parts with Ryan's dad, really boring. Surprised myself checking my phone for something more interesting. And I am absolutely not ok with what happened to UNIT ! I disliked Moffat but I'm not sure what we have now is better

Totally forgot about the UNIT thing. Why shit all over 50 years of history for a fucking political joke.

Say what you want about literally any of the past series of Doctor Who, to me they were always rich and thoughtful in themes. Much like this episode, in The Magician's Apprentice we take a huge amount of time actually getting to the Daleks and that's totally fine because the stuff that's happening is actually interesting. It literally opens with the premise of essentially "should the Doctor save child Hitler". There is nothing even a sliver as interesting as that in this episode. There are some generic family themes and that's it.

I dunno, I think it was pretty neat to see a singular Dalek be a major threat again. And I really liked the look of the Earth built Dalek casing.

Was it a threat, though? It could take out three tanks easily and then struggled to hit a single shot on any of the fam in the climax - and was then stopped by them managing to tie a microwave round it's stomach.

Rewatch Dalek if you want to see the concept done well. I did like the casing.

So what is the alternative then? Just have a Dalek rolling around shooting things for forty minuets? Or a hand full of them plotting some long convoluted plan then shooting up the place? Like it or not, this is at least different to what we have had before.

Yeah, it's basically just a not done as well version of Dalek, but it was still enjoyable enough.

A good episode would have been nice.

Yeah but that's just The Doctor and her plot armour.

Remember when the Doctor was shot by a Dalek and had to regenerate. Good times, good times.

Which would constitute what? What to you is a 'blockbuster episode'?

Remember all those thousands of other times where a Dalek shot at the Doctor and missed? Like what point are you even trying to get across here.

A blockbuster episode would have been one that didn't waste half of the episode on the characters running around discovering what the audience already knows. That's terrible writing, especially for a special. I don't see how anyone was entertained by that. I was clock watching waiting for the Dalek to get in its case.

Ryan's father should've been cut entirely.

Yeah but you are comparing two different types of episodes, that was a big ass built up finale, this is just a new years/"christmas" tier episode.

A modern episode of Doctor Who where the cast doesn't run to place to place discussing a threat that had been established in the show almost sixty years prior? The Daleks haven't been a threat in the show since 05 and has been diminishing returns since. Hell, the only reason they felt like a threat then was because for a lot of people it was their first time seeing them. And prior to that you are going decades ago. So, what? What would make them a threat? What is it they could do that would make them a threat?

Did you even read my post? Watching characters discover what we already know for half an hour is boring. Really boring. Good writing makes them a threat. As I just said, they were threatening as fuck in the S4 finale. Sarah Jane crying and hugging Luke, Jack telling the Torchwood team that they're dead. Jesus. Could you imagine that in a Chibnall episode?

I feel like I'm just weird or a sycophant at this point. I thought this episode was quite safe but I legitimately enjoyed the family stuff, especially [sp]Ryan being upfront with his dad. I think he was maybe too quick to forgive him, but I mean, if your dad is possibly about to vanish into a supernova, I can't say I'd want to hold a grudge at that point[/sp]. And I'm hoping that the whole thing with [sp]UNIT being suspended and pending an investigation[/sp] is paving the way for them to be reintroduced properly in the next series, but I don't know, maybe I'm just too optimistic. I also thought [sp]the mutant being able to 'possess' humans and control them[/sp] was pretty cool. I think [sp]the Dalek ended up being a bit too variable in ability, being able to machine-gun a dozen soldiers (who really were shit at any kind of military tactics, but I guess we could be generous and say they were just shocked at seeing a weird alien thing when they were probably just reserves on a training mission) and then not being able to hit the Doctor 5 metres in front of it despite having near-instant reflexes not even a minute prior[/sp]. But I don't know, I felt like this was a step up from the lowest points of Series 11 (not that I think that last year was bad, just that it had a few ~okay~ eps). Not really much of a special though, other than the whole 'reintroducing an old enemy' thing. I just hope this is a sign that Chibnall is going to feel he can mix it up a bit more, now.

imo I like the family stuff but it also didn't have any thematic parallels or even a thru-line with the rest of the episode, which compared to literally any other dalek episode we've ever had in nu-who is a huge step down

Yeah, I could honestly. Same as I could imagine it in a Moffat story or from any other future writer. This episode was reintroducing the Daleks to the show, as was the point of this series, an entry point to the new fans who were joining for the first time. The same "Oh they were talking about stuff we already new" could be aimed at almost any story that has reintroduced any classic monster. You may have disliked how they did it, but how else are you going to do it? How else are you going to reintroduce a creature to a show without explaining what it is and showing what it can do? Or at least, what this class of Dalek can do?

by making it an interesting story like "Dalek" from series 1

No because we haven't had that buildup, nor the world building that was introduced by RTD, I.E all of the supplemental characters we care about, all of the "build up" from previous seasons, as to why we should REALLY be afraid of a return from the daleks, various showings as to why the daleks are scary and honestly? we won't get that, ever again, because, after a while it got a lot harder to really "build" the daleks up as something epic, as something to be afraid of, I personally blame overuse by Moffat and a whole bunch of bad decisions. Either way you are comparing apples to oranges here.

Why is Dalek so good then?