I wasn't happy with this episode. There's pros and cons:
Pro: I liked it very much to see a younger and more dynamic incarnation of the Doctor after the more thoughtful and self-doubting Capaldi-Doctor (who I liked very much, too). I like the new doctor. The companions seem to be interesting, too.
Cons: The story. It had an awful lot of plot holes. Why did the alien let the doctor and her friends live after placing the DNA-bombs in their bodies? There's absolutely no point to that. How did the doctor find the ball-thing on the roof? How did they suddenly get there? Why is the doctor suddenly a magic alien who can reprogram a mobile faster than it would unlock? Without additional tech? I know, you can't take sci-fi too seriously. But there's a line. And it has been crossed more than once in this episode. Imposition-of-hands-programming really is too much. By the way, how do you survive a 80 km fall? Even as a regenerating Time Lord... nah... "You just do!" is the only answer we get. Yeah... interesting... Does every episode in this season end with a "you can't survive that!"-situation? I hope not...
I don't know how to describe it. There are stories, where different subplots connect in an interesting way. And there are stories, where just everything seems magically to fall in place, deus-ex-machina-style. This has been one of the latter-ones. The story felt to me more like "Adventure Time" than "Doctor Who". A lot of things happen and you smile once in a while. The Doctor was like that dog in Adventure Time. When a skill is needed, she suddenly has it. No thinking required. She built a frickin' sonic screwdriver with 2018 tech! In like an hour. The ONLY good thing about that was the Sheffield-Steel-joke.
I am not an author, I don't know much about writing stories. I am just a viewer. But in my opinion, this was just a bad story. There was not a single "Wow, I wouldn't have thought that!"-moment. And that's what I liked most about Doctor Who. Not to know how an episode is gonna end after the first 10 minutes.
First episodes always are a complicated thing. Getting the new companions in place, a confused Doctor... That can be an excuse for a slow story. But not for plot holes. The first Ecclestone-episode also wasn't the best episode ever to hit the screen. It got way better in episode 2. I really really hope that's the case with Whittaker, too.
What I hope episode 2 will not be like: Opening title. The doctor and her companions are suddenly in safety. The crew of a spaceship which accidentally happened to be near them beamed them in. The Ship maybe is called "USS Deus-Ex-Machina". They shake the space dust off their clothes, Ryan says: "That was close", Doctor says "That was fun", Graham has accidentally been healed from cancer. They fly to the planet where the TARDIS is. There are a lot of bad guys who get defeated with off-screen-magic.
I think I'm right with this prognosis. In the trailer, they leave some spaceship I don't recognize and get shot at a lot.
What I wish episode 2 would be like: Opening title. We've been fooled. They've not really been in danger, the doctor calculated the coordinates almost correctly. They've beamed onto a planet where mysterious sciency things go on which can be compared to Fringe events. It was just night when they landed. And gravity was a bit off.
Review by schornstephanBlockedParent2018-10-08T01:28:30Z
I wasn't happy with this episode.
There's pros and cons:
Pro:
I liked it very much to see a younger and more dynamic incarnation of the Doctor after the more thoughtful and self-doubting Capaldi-Doctor (who I liked very much, too). I like the new doctor. The companions seem to be interesting, too.
Cons:
The story. It had an awful lot of plot holes.
Why did the alien let the doctor and her friends live after placing the DNA-bombs in their bodies? There's absolutely no point to that.
How did the doctor find the ball-thing on the roof? How did they suddenly get there?
Why is the doctor suddenly a magic alien who can reprogram a mobile faster than it would unlock? Without additional tech?
I know, you can't take sci-fi too seriously. But there's a line. And it has been crossed more than once in this episode.
Imposition-of-hands-programming really is too much.
By the way, how do you survive a 80 km fall? Even as a regenerating Time Lord... nah...
"You just do!" is the only answer we get. Yeah... interesting...
Does every episode in this season end with a "you can't survive that!"-situation? I hope not...
I don't know how to describe it. There are stories, where different subplots connect in an interesting way. And there are stories, where just everything seems magically to fall in place, deus-ex-machina-style. This has been one of the latter-ones.
The story felt to me more like "Adventure Time" than "Doctor Who". A lot of things happen and you smile once in a while.
The Doctor was like that dog in Adventure Time. When a skill is needed, she suddenly has it. No thinking required.
She built a frickin' sonic screwdriver with 2018 tech! In like an hour. The ONLY good thing about that was the Sheffield-Steel-joke.
I am not an author, I don't know much about writing stories. I am just a viewer. But in my opinion, this was just a bad story. There was not a single "Wow, I wouldn't have thought that!"-moment. And that's what I liked most about Doctor Who. Not to know how an episode is gonna end after the first 10 minutes.
First episodes always are a complicated thing. Getting the new companions in place, a confused Doctor...
That can be an excuse for a slow story. But not for plot holes.
The first Ecclestone-episode also wasn't the best episode ever to hit the screen. It got way better in episode 2.
I really really hope that's the case with Whittaker, too.
What I hope episode 2 will not be like:
Opening title.
The doctor and her companions are suddenly in safety. The crew of a spaceship which accidentally happened to be near them beamed them in. The Ship maybe is called "USS Deus-Ex-Machina". They shake the space dust off their clothes, Ryan says: "That was close", Doctor says "That was fun", Graham has accidentally been healed from cancer. They fly to the planet where the TARDIS is. There are a lot of bad guys who get defeated with off-screen-magic.
I think I'm right with this prognosis. In the trailer, they leave some spaceship I don't recognize and get shot at a lot.
What I wish episode 2 would be like:
Opening title.
We've been fooled. They've not really been in danger, the doctor calculated the coordinates almost correctly. They've beamed onto a planet where mysterious sciency things go on which can be compared to Fringe events. It was just night when they landed. And gravity was a bit off.