Capaldi as the Doctor

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
Thoughts?
Strange start. He was never going to stamp his character from day 1 like Mat Smith (who I would argue just played himself). He's going to take his time to settle in to the role I think but I like him ( well he is in my fave film). The " I'm Scottish" thing was a bit weird - he seemed to take it as if it was a totally new and unexpected turn of events (despite David Tennant). Interested to see how it all evolves.
 

Btone

The Nice Chimp
i wanted to like it, and i had hoped that with capaldi we would have had a more grown up serious Dr. and they been suggesting that we have a darker Dr. in the teasers, but last night Dr. just had to much what i would call slapstick in it, and flaffing around. given last year bad bad bad writing and this one Dr. Who has now gone from "every thing must stop till i watch this" to "i'll catch it when i see it doesn't matter if i miss it"
 

Sheleph

Full Member
I liked him, a lot.

He managed to portray the Doctor differently, almost detached and dispassionately at times, despite the whole reboot the brain thing.

I don't rate Moffat as the best writer. He writes action/plot well. He writes scare/tension well. He writes characters poorly.

Take Clara. Of all the companions, she's simply "the impossible girl" because the Doctor can't immediately grasp how she's popping up in different times and places, where he is. She's not noteworthy as a companion for her skills/competencies. She's not having qualities/personal traits used/developed. She's written there to be a puzzle, almost objectified, just there . . . how curious, how odd, how impossible. Moffat doesn't do character development anything like as well as others.

But Mcintosh (as Vastra) and Capaldi can develop roles and present convincing and watchable characters despite the absence of character depth. So I was happy with last night's episode. Also hopeful for the eighth series, with Moffat doing drama/action well and Capaldi doing acting well, I've high hopes!
 

Swither

Full Member
Liked Capaldi, wished we saw a bit more of the darker side, but hints were there.

As for the episode....total crap I thought. I almost felt like Russell T Davies? was writing the scripts again.
Enough of London already I want to see sci-fi as in planets & aliens, not a totally unbelieveable victorian London. Oh look a dinosaur and robots....no reaction that was plausable from the people!
 

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
They must have run out of old quarries ;)
Agreed wasn't brilliant storyline, and I actually groaned when I saw the Dalek in the end teaser. Seriously, go watch Pertwee, Baker or Davison series and they used the buggers very sparingly, to much greater effect. One strange thing about Capaldi is that he slightly resembles Peter Cushing who played the Doc twice in two dodgy films in the '60s
 

Btone

The Nice Chimp
a bit better that last weeks, started good and wend down hill a bit, as the Dr tried to make a good one. thought S01E06 did it better, as it just had more feelings to it
 

Swither

Full Member
a bit better that last weeks, started good and wend down hill a bit, as the Dr tried to make a good one. thought S01E06 did it better, as it just had more feelings to it

Agree.

A much better episode and I liked the Dr better this week, much more what I was expecting....not so pc and a shade darker :)
 

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
Yeah, ditto, much better. I think he will end up being a a great Doctor. There have been " dark" Doctors before - The second Doctor had a shady side and this War Doctor ( John Hurt) was definitely Dark. Colin baker started a a less moral Doctor but ended up a bot of a clown in my eyes so I hope they don't do that with Capaldi. I'd like him to be a bit more shady as I think it opes up new areas for story arc.
 

Dareos

The Bastard Thats Grinding You Down
I know this is controversial, but Matt Smith took the place of Peter Davison as my favourite doctor :)

I grew up watching Davison (the five doctors etc, and more recently, The Five Doctors..ish) and loved the tardis and the stories back then, even though I cant recall them now (always wanted K9 to turn up tho). Smith for me was a maverick, a bit silly, and oh so pleased with himself when he worked out the solution. I thought Karen Gillan (and here i may be a bit biased, cos ummmm, yeah, definitely) played off it perfectly (The Doctors Wife - Did you wish really really hard? - best line ever).

Capaldi is different, I never watched The Thick of It, so have no idea what that character was like. I see him more as a throwback to the early Doctors, a bit imperious, a bit arrogant, definitely more ruthless as we saw with the dalek antibodies. Whether he grows on me enough to make it a regular watch, i dont know, only Matt Smith has managed that so far (and im scottish, so i should be biased for Tennant or Capaldi, but im not, so there!).
 

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
Yeah, Dareos, I see where you are coming from. Tom Baker is and will always be, MY Doctor, but Matt is my second choice. I didn't watch The Thick of it either, and I have always seen Capaldi as the dithery office boy from Local Hero. I just get the feeling that he is going to be really good.
 

Swither

Full Member
Tom Baker was my favourite, followed by John Pertwee.
A bit of Tom Baker trivia - he lived in the same street in London as my wife and she used to see him regularly go to the local shop for his paper, milk etc but he always dressed as the Dr.

Apparently he had been quoted as saying that he didn't want to spoil the Dr for his fans if they saw him in civvies.
 

Btone

The Nice Chimp
must say i did enjoy "listen" went into it after watching the trailer thinking it would be a pile off poo but it very much surprised me
 

Cadfiel

Not grumpy
I think this was about the best episode so far. It seems they are taking way too long to establish what this Doctor is about and i think thats the problem, they have been inconsistant so far without making that uncertainty part of what he is so guess it just seems he settled down a little in this one. it seems, hes less reactionary than previous Doctors and if they are going for a more considered approach then i can work with that idea. So far too many Doctors have been leap first and ill work it out on the fly all the time ending up with what my Uni RPG group would called a "contrived GM plot device".

Im still hopeful.

Mind you I barely remember Tom Baker so i may be thinking of him with Rose tinted glasses but i always liked him more than Peter Davison, Silvester McCoy and having checked Wikipedia Colin Baker - shows what an impression he made.

That being said, Peter Davison had my favourite companions Adric, Nyssa and Tegan.

Of the new bunch i liked David Tennant the best.
 

Sheleph

Full Member
I think this was about the best episode so far.

Same.

I liked the Robot of Sherwood episode because we saw that the Doctor absolutely didn't engage with or indulge silliness. His style really started to come through, showing what he is about but, in this episode, also what he isn't about.

This week's episode, Listen, was also in my mind the strongest. The plot, with the creepiness, had a classic Doctor Who feel to it that I really liked. I liked how The Doctor showed his style, character, qualities and approach.

I don't like Clara, at all. This is the first episode in any she's been in when she's neither irritated me nor seemed useless . . . in Listen she meaningfully contributed to the plot with compassion/humanity that was a contrasting counterpoint to how the Doctor responded.

But . . . how did she take the Tardis back to Time-locked Gallifrey??
 

Btone

The Nice Chimp
1) gallifrey isn't timelocked any more, it hid in a pocket universe
2) she went back to the barn were the Dr set off the WMD which turned out to be were the DR spend some of his time as a youth, i don't remember anyone saying it was Gallifrey we just assumed it was
 

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
Dueling with a spoon against a sword is a bit silly to be honest. Minor niggle but if they want to promote a more "serious" doctor they need to cut down the slapstick. We already had all that with DR no 2 anyway.
 
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