Amph Doctor Who Discussion (Russell T. Davies returns)

It was the first episode this season which felt bland to me. It also didn't hold much of a conundrum.

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None of the choices made during that episode are difficult, they only go against a set of established rules, all of which are absolutely sensible to ignore. It's also, unfortunately, the first episode which gives some credibility to the worries Chibnall's writing could turn out rather flat. And unlike 42, which halibut brought up for its similarities with The Tsuranga Conundrum, this time, we didn't even have the crutch of the season director's overarching plot being advanced.

The episode was also poor in character development, bringing only a couple of background details, and absolutely nothing for an incarnation of the Doctor we still don't really know well and hasn't faced any defining moment. It didn't have the novelty of the first two episodes, nor the rich political, historical and societal commentaries in the third and fourth. Basically, the entire episode was "just there". For me, the only takeaways were learning a bit more about Ryan's family history, and Ryan's rejections of Graham's attempts at closing the gap between them staying consistent.

 

It really was painting by numbers. It was also a bottle episode, entirely on sets. Midnight is a great example of how to do this. This wasn't. Chibnall at his worst unfortunately. However I am excited to see how the season progresses. Some good concepts coming up in the next 3 weeks.

 

The Pting was cute at least.

 

Schedule note for UK viewers - next Sunday's (Nov 18) episode starts at 6:30 PM, not 7 PM. I believe this is due to the new David Attenborough series.

Title:

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Kerblam!

 

Spoiler: Spoilers for Demons of the Punjab

Best episode of the series so far. I loved the setting, I always enjoy when Who tackles under-explored Historical Periods. The Radio broadcasts reminded me of the similar Audio story A Thousand Tiny Wings.

The 'Demons' were a fantastic Sci-Fi conceit, and I liked that there was a bit of a twist with their nature. The design was pretty good too, like Skeleton Bats.

The twist with Manish got me really hard, did not see it coming, but it made so much sense. I was almost tearing up from the wedding scene onwards, such a sense of knowing the happy time wouldn't last.

Compared to last week's ep, which I found boring and disconnected from the characters, this ep was completely centred around the characters for the better.

The Doctor's speech about faith during the wedding was one that really worked for me, perfectly outlining the Doctor's morality and philosophy.

Oh, and that variant of the theme during the credits was just amazing once I realised it was there. Wonderful stuff, a contender for the eventual soundtrack for sure. In fact all the music was pretty good this week, particularly like the cue when they first arrived in Pakistan.

Only real negative was that Ryan and Graham felt a bit extraneous. I'd prefer if this series had used certain companions in each episode, rotating them out if necessary, but it is what it is. Graham at least had a nice scene when he helped Prem get ready for the wedding.

 

Found it unusually dull myself. I like historical episodes when done with a decent amount of Whoness. This had virtually none. Least good of the series so far.

 

Just saw "Demons of the Punjab". Haven't read the other reviews.

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Some nice misdirection with the "demons", but they seem pretty reminiscent of Testimony from "Twice Upon a Time". I wasn't expecting the brothers' conflict to continue to the bitter end. And while it was generally well-made, the story seemed like a bit of a retread of "Father's Day" from back in Season One, and "City on the Edge of Forever" beyond that. You'd think the Doctor, by now, would have an ironclad rule: no family visits, period.

 

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The biggest problem is that the Doctor and crew didn't do anything. At all. Had they not been there, then nothing would have changed.

 

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Rather liked this one. Chibnall is good at simplifying and presenting historical situations from up close. Obviously, there would have been no alien observers in such a situation, but with regards to the story of the two brothers, this is pretty much a fiction of something that could have happened that way.

That story spoke to me as someone with a passion for history, but I'll readily grant that the Doctor and what normally makes the series was completely peripheral to the main plot.

Not much character development to speak of either, at least with regards to the Doctor herself and Ryan. Yaz certainly learned something (we discovered a good bit of her background story alongside her), but I'm not sure what she'll have figured out of it. Graham didn't develop either, but at least we got to learn a bit more about who he is (a good and simple man).

All in all, to me, a nice story, much better than what we got with The Tsuranga Conundrum, but one that could just as well have been a pleasant telenovella featuring no Doctor Who characters at all. For the second time this season(after Rosa), the Doctor and her companions are mostly the vehicle through which Chibnall tells a story - but this time, they, too, were spectators.

As to the perils of visiting one's family, it's been 13 years and ~120 episodes since Father's Day. Going back to that well after such a long span in a series' life isn't really a problem.

 

It was a good drama , but not much DW .

.Still not sure about Whittaker , she keeps trying to be funny , rather than just being funny .

 

Not the best, but certainly not the worst.

 

Indeed. It will take something special to beat A Town Called Mercy.

Fun fact, those two episodes were filmed less than two hours apart, locationly speaking.

 

I thought Demons of the Punjab was pretty good. I liked the demons, they kind of reminded me of the Soul Hunters from Babylon 5, only these ones seen to have wandered into Mordor at some point.

 

A Rosa Parks episode and a partition of India episode. I like where it's going with the historical episodes, even if I think the execution is kinda eh. It's good it's not ****ing Victorian era all the time.

 

Victorian England with lesbian assassin detective ninjas on the other hand....

 

Somewhat off-topic: halfway through season 11, the most active romantic pairing in fan fiction is 13 / Yaz. It's seen a powerful surge in the past three weeks; prior to that surge, there were only a few stories of platonic 13 / Graham (13 / Missy, which was well of 13 / River Song and 13 / Clara, are all pre-season pairings and don't have much momentum).

 

I'm actually really glad that the show has (so far) resisted the urge to start romantic pairings or subplots among Team TARDIS. They're all friends on a platonic adventure through time and space, and I hope the showrunners have the restraint to keep it that way.

 

After people falling for Tennant and Smith every other episode, it is weird to me that no one has made so much as a passing comment about the Doctor this time around.

 

This has been confirmed by Doctor Who Magazine. (Via io9)

 

Anyone else noticed how similar the planet from "Smile" is to Xandar from "Guardians of the Galaxy"?

 

http://doctorwholocations.org

Huge update to my blog. Quite fond of my Stonehenge pics

 

Belated Happy Birthday to...