So... Season 8 of Doctor Who

Yeah. I gave up on talking about the show. I should of liked "Listen" and "Time Heist" but... nope. It was all downhill from there until I finally hit a blissful spot of "don't care".

I felt a little like when I started watching Stargate SG-1 because cast members from Farscape had joined it. Stargate wasn't a bad show. In fact, I had enjoyed it in the past. But it was so dry and hard compared to the emotionally-driven and messy (and canceled) Farscape. And it was also in its own steady wind-down with fleeing castmembers and ideas running out. There wasn't as much heart in it as classic Stargate and nowhere near what I came from as a Farscape fan.

And I literally almost typed "ideas" and "eyedeas". No clue why.

I can't put a finger on what is actually going wrong with Doctor Who (well, story-telling wise), just that I'm not enjoying it the way I enjoy the hell out of "Partners in Crime" every time I watch it. I like Clara and I like Capaldi... but they seem to be in different shows.

And Twelve is so fucking difficult to get a read on. I just... I think I like him as a Doctor? But I feel like I still don't have much of a clue as to who he is as the Doctor after 12 episodes. Like, I keep wanting to compare him to Gregory House- also a grumpy doctor that was an unlikable character yet the audience wanted to keep watching him. You have to give the audience something to connect to the character with or else there's no way to emotionally invest. This was also my problem with Eleven- who started off as a collection of ticks and by the end of his first series, I wasn't sure if I knew who the hell he was other than that collection of ticks and hats. By the end of Eleven's run, I finally got comfortable with the character, but it should not have taken that long.

Twelve has swept the ticks and hats out of the way, but he's also swept his relationship with his companion out of the way. He sits in the TARDIS and ponders episode concepts on his own until it's time to pull Clara out of her rom-com with Danny and into a sci-fi plot. What the hell? Couldn't he at least be in a bar or a Stars Hollow town meeting watching differing opinions interact with each other when he's pondering these concepts? Give him some business other than sitting on the TARDIS with a blackboard.

And don't get me started with Cyberman rain and poor Danny.

So... Into the Dalek?

I don't really want to put these new episodes in my Back to Who category. But it would be tidy to do so, wouldn't it?

Anyway. 

Danny: I like Danny. I don't like how we went to Coupling techniques to introduce Danny.

Other Characters Introduced Here: Nope.

Clara's trousers: I want to like them. I can't like them. No go.

Plot: I liked it better when the episode was called Dalek and featured the 9th Doctor. Also, this episode might feature the stupidest thing the Doctor has ever done.

Missy: Nope.

Sonic Screwdriver: *sigh* Remember when the sonic was described as "Doesn't kill, doesn't wound, doesn't maim"?

Final Note: When the dalek said "resistance is futile", I suddenly really got my hopes up that soon the dalek would say "Love soft as an easy chair. Love fresh as the morning air" and it would be revealed that he didn't see some star being created but he saw the 1970s version of A Star Is Born, followed by some TV shows, and THAT is what changed him.

So... Deep Breath, huh?

Yay: Capaldi. Clara's clothes. Strax. Elisabeth Sladen's widower in a cameo.

Nay: Most of what came out of Vastra's mouth. Moffat sucking the last bit of life out of one of his last good original monsters. Clara having trouble with the regeneration despite how she knows better than any companion about the whole process and that he's been an old man before and IS an old man. That stupid t-rex. That stupid ending. Well, the whole plot really.

I'm so tired of Madam Vastra at this point. I really liked her the first two times. Not so much now. Also, while lesbianism is a novelty for Victorian England, it's not a novelty now unless you're a pervy old man, Mr. Moffat. The rest of us are used to it. Stop writing the Vastra/Jenny relationship like it's the most titillating crap in the universe. It's not. Especially not with the way the Vastra treats Jenny most of the time.

I think Strax's confusion is still hilarious, however.

Also, I dig the chemistry between Capaldi and Coleman. So, there's hope for that.
Not too thrilled about next week's returning villain, however. As they also seem to get less interesting with every re-tread as well. And Moffat has never written them well at all.

I can't believe they gave Moffat an Emmy last night. Ugh.

Back To Who: The Most Adorable Anniversary Special

Peter Davison, the original fanboy-turned-Doctor, put together his own 50th Anniversary Special for Doctor Who. Unable to get Steven Moffat to return their calls, Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy hatch up a plan to make sure they end up in the special, one way or another. With a wink to The Five Doctors, inclusion of actually MORE THAN five doctors, some cameos that leave you laughing or crying, and a lot of adorable old men- there is little to not love here. I want a series based on this special, dammit.

Also, hat-tip to producer Georgia Tennant (as she is credited at the end, rather than Georgia Moffett) for producing and parodying herself while still actually very pregnant. That is commitment.

The short film is about half an hour long, so take some time and enjoy the sweetness of it all.

Hey, Look, The Round Things! The Day of the Doctor

Well played, Mr. Moffat. Well played.

Let's just ignore how poorly chosen the Eccleson and Davison stand-ins are, okay?

I don't even know what to say. I'm almost twelve hours late in seeing it, due to adult responsibilities. And I really shouldn't be trying to express anything about it so soon after watching but... well played. Very satisfying.

Yes, there were still issues.

Back To Who

From 2006 through 2011, I was obsessive about Doctor Who. I have a TARDIS minifridge. I have the minifigures. I taught myself how to torrent files so that I could watch it the day that episodes aired in the UK. I even was saving up to by a Slingbox and pay a friend in England for their TV license for better access to episodes. Obsessed. I brought my laptop with me to my family's Christmas Day party so that I could torrent the Christmas Specials safely to watch when everyone else got boring. I forced the show onto dozens of friends until they loved it.

Then... I fell out of love. The writing when Steven Moffat first took over just didn't do it for me and I was having trouble with how unlikeable the character of Amy Pond was becoming in the fifth series. I was getting bitter.

I also was finally full-time employed in 2011, which took up a lot of my time that had previously been devoted to thinking obsessively about Doctor Who.

In 2012, I sporadically caught up with series 6, but was still having issues with the writing.

And, up until last week, I had not seen the most recent 15 episodes.

I only watched them because my nostalgic brain wanted to at least attempt to enjoy the 50th Anniversary. I want to see Ten and Rose, okay? I also am intrigued to see Peter Capaldi's take on the character (and it's a bit of a trip to realize that Capaldi is the same age as William Hartnell was when the show started), as I'm thrilled that we're returning to having a more mature actor as the character and it allows for characters to react to him in a different way from the previous two Doctors. While I do think that Matt Smith is a good actor and definitely has improved over the years, Capaldi just has an amazing weight to his acting at times. If you've only see him in The Thick of It or Fires of Pompeii, you need to see his performance in Torchwood: Children of Earth. You need to drop everything and go watch it now. He completely steals the show and tops himself with each installment.

It turns out that series 7 was actually much more my speed. More plots that were along the lines of what I considered a "classic" Doctor Who episode type. The Eleventh Doctor was finally very Doctor-y. And Clara wasn't too much of a focus-stealer, while still being an interesting character and a character I could adore (and covet the wardrobe of, yowza).

So, now I have just over a week to sit on my hands about the 50th Anniversary. And the excitement is building. I've already watched the mini episode below and was thrilled with the content of it (despite the slight brain-breaking logic being implied).


I'm really having to suppress my anticipation, though. I'm just going to be disappointed if I let it continue to build. But I think I might do a few Who-related posts in the next week, just to get some thoughts out about the episodes I caught up on.