Doctor Who Review: Time Travel Makes Bank Robbing Easy
- Thread starter harpere
- Start date
Psy doesn't just "think guilty thoughts" - he downloads a bunch of criminal records into his mind, thus giving him a huge amount of guilt (which also allowed for a few cheeky references, like a Slitheen, a Weevil and - most hilariously - Captain John Hart from Torchwood).
I thought this weeks was the weakest yet. It was trying to be those 60's caper movies but without having the necessary cool to bring it off. At the heart of the caper movie is lead actors who are just cool. Ocean's 11 (the original not the crappy remake) had Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin Sammy Davis Jr and TV's first joker, Cesar Romero. The cast was so cool they had to heat the set to avoid frostbite. Cary Grant's was in many caper films and was co cool that George Clooney makes a decent living out of stealing his act 30 years after he died. They had the corridors and camera angles of point blank but without the intense presence of Lee Marvin doing his FYT walk to complete the image. To me the story didn't work and just felt like a pale pastiche of heist movie. It just wasn't cool.
Not the best episode but still better than the stuff we have had over the last few weeks. At least it focused on the Doctor. Unfortunatly the trailer for next weeks episode looks like we are back to The Amazing Clara Show and her time traveling sidekick.
I liked it, didn't love it. it was fun, but it felt like it was playing it too safe and predictable.
The Doctor being the architect was fairly obvious, packages left for them in a place no one could get to without a Tardis and then pretty much said outright when the Doctor says only someone with from the future could have planned this.
Also it's not much guesswork to figure out that there were only two things the Doctor would risk breaking into a bank for
1) The Tardis
2) To save someone.
once number 1 was eliminated with the reveal of Psi and Saibra being alive and the location of the Tardis, it had to be number 2.
This was a competently done by the book episode, If it had thrown a loop say someone thought dead was in the vault, or say had something else like another Van Gough prediction painting, or just something to make the Doctor and audience ask questions.
The stories could do with some ambiguity, some moral quandary. in the Dalek has the Doctor ask "Am I a good man?" which should have led to this season being more introspective, The Doctor questioning himself more, doing more morally ambiguous, Rob a bank to save a species = good (with a few notable exceptions), robbing the bank for something less easily quantifiable = questioning. things but no he's carrying on like nothings changed.
Also it's not much guesswork to figure out that there were only two things the Doctor would risk breaking into a bank for
1) The Tardis
2) To save someone.
once number 1 was eliminated with the reveal of Psi and Saibra being alive and the location of the Tardis, it had to be number 2.
This was a competently done by the book episode, If it had thrown a loop say someone thought dead was in the vault, or say had something else like another Van Gough prediction painting, or just something to make the Doctor and audience ask questions.
The stories could do with some ambiguity, some moral quandary. in the Dalek has the Doctor ask "Am I a good man?" which should have led to this season being more introspective, The Doctor questioning himself more, doing more morally ambiguous, Rob a bank to save a species = good (with a few notable exceptions), robbing the bank for something less easily quantifiable = questioning. things but no he's carrying on like nothings changed.
It was definitely a good episode. Maybe not great, but certainly enjoyable and makes last week's episode look like less of a fluke. While certain twists were fairly obvious, I think it had enough genuine surprises to work.
I LOVED This episode.
The doctor is placed back into his rightful role of being a magnificent bastard, and guess what?
except the brain melt people.
But seriously, it's actually got a really nice happy ending to it. I saw the teleport thing coming, but not the guard switch and the architects identity (I was honestly expecting the master or the new missy to be the architect.)
Next episode looks... interesting. It's a companion based episode but hopefully getting it over with will add a new dynamic (Danny) to the Doctors adventures.
The doctor is placed back into his rightful role of being a magnificent bastard, and guess what?
except the brain melt people.
But seriously, it's actually got a really nice happy ending to it. I saw the teleport thing coming, but not the guard switch and the architects identity (I was honestly expecting the master or the new missy to be the architect.)
Next episode looks... interesting. It's a companion based episode but hopefully getting it over with will add a new dynamic (Danny) to the Doctors adventures.
And the clone, presumably.rosac said:
And anyone else that didn't get away before the storm destroys the entire facility, though you never see this.
Oh, and the people in the footage being incinerated. Of course, this wasn't really brought up again, they mostly used the Teller on people.
"Do you think this new outfit is a bit much? I was going for a more stripped down look, but I think I ended up with stage magician."Veldie said:Loved the ep and I loved how they took a shot at his neck wear. Bow ties are now embarrassing
I liked that part.
I think it was my favorite episode of Season 8 to date. Sure it cheated and conned us (When, in the past, has being teleported caused travelers to scream like that?) I love Capaldi as the Doctor but people need to remember that being around the doctor is supposed to be mostly fun. That fun can be interrupted by a crisis but the point is supposed to still be travel time and universe for the wonder of it all.
Otherwise, its a bad, low paying, dangerous job. One shouldn't bother.
Otherwise, its a bad, low paying, dangerous job. One shouldn't bother.
While I'd agree with this sentiment, it wasn't my biggest problem with the episode. The incredibly stiff, stilted transitions between scenes was, that and the flat-even-by-Doctor-Who-supporting-character-standards Psi and Saibra. It felt very much like a "tell, don't show" episode when it comes to the characters, which is not how one does compelling entertainment. It seemed like an episode that was a little too long and suffered some savage cutting in the edit room to make it down to size.albino boo said:
That and "the Architect" being obvious from very early on in the episode taking a lot of the mystery out of things. I wasn't wondering who the Architect was so much as wondering why the Doctor felt a need to wipe his memories to do this, which was answered as soon as they introduced the Teller's gimmick. Left the rest of the episode more than a little hollow.
Overall this one was pretty weak by my reckoning; sorta surprised the conclusion of this review is that it's the best so far this season. Last week's was flat out better, even with its unsatisfying ending.
Overall this one was pretty weak by my reckoning; sorta surprised the conclusion of this review is that it's the best so far this season. Last week's was flat out better, even with its unsatisfying ending.
Yeah it was nice to see the focus shifted back to the Doctor (The show is called "Doctor Who" after all). As much as I like Clara I'm not looking forward to an episode of the "Clara Oswald Show."Gizmo1990 said:
Unfortunately I think it is only going to get worse once the new guy starts traveling in the Tardis. I know we have not had much time with the guy yet but as boring as I find Clara, he is worse. Moffat seems to have such all consuming love for Clara that at this point it would not surprise me if her and new guy (I don't remember his name, he is not interesting enough for that) get sent back in time to Galifray, somehow become Time Lords and end up as the Doctor's Mum and Dad.canadamus_prime said:
Someone pointed out to me that the focus is on the companions because the show is for kids and kids need someone to identify with. I would argue that classic Who did this perfectly fine without making the companions front and center. I would also say that a show cannot claim to aim at children and then air at 8:30 as it will this week.
As the series is not finished yet I cannot say this is 100% but I am starting to feel like we were misled abit with this series. From the way the 50th and christmas special went as well as stuff said in interveiws, I was under the impression that we would have a series of the Doctor exploring who he really is, struggling with his past decisions and figure out if he truly is a good man while looking for Galifray. Instead he seems to have stopped all that so he can arse around with Robin Hood.