(A sequel to Series 9 Overall Review. Not to be confused with the Series 10 Ratings Thread) Now that we've had a bit of a cooling off period from the broadcast of the series finale, but with the Christmas special still months away, I thought this would be a good time to evaluate Series 10 of revived Doctor Who before we get caught up in hype and speculation for Series 11. Shown below are the poll means for this series, using the same methodology as explained here: The Pilot, 4.19 Smile, 3.81 Thin Ice, 3.89 Knock Knock, 3.49 Oxygen, 3.95 Extremis, 3.81 Pyramid, 3.25 Lie of Land, 3.02 Empress Mars, 3.95 Eaters Light, 3.87 World Enough, 4.53 Doctor Falls, 4.18 The adjusted scores are as follows: World Enough, +0.70 The Pilot, +0.36 Doctor Falls, +0.35 Oxygen, +0.12 Empress Mars, +0.12 Thin Ice, +0.06 Eaters Light, +0.05 Smile, -0.02 Extremis, -0.02 Knock Knock, -0.34 Pyramid, -0.57 Lie of Land, -0.81 So where do you lie: Is that how life should be? Was it very nicely done? Were you engaged in the process? Was it a bit damp? Did it give you the trots? Let's get the ball rolling, and let's get me promoted to Captain!
I'll be seeing 10 again in a week or so, so I'll hold until then. But before then, I feel comfortably at saying that the Gatiss episode, and the two-part finale were easily, easly the best of the season.
It was a decent season. Weirdly enough I think it wasn't as good as series 9, although some elements were a lot better. Bill was great. I HATE Clara so having an actual good companion was really nice. But, unfortunately, the episodes let the characters down. Here's how I rank the Series 10 Episodes (including the the X-Mas special from before Series 10) Great: Smile World Enough and Time The Doctor Falls Good: The Return of Doctor Mysterio Pilot Extremis Empress of Mars Meh: Thin Ice Knock Knock Oxygen Bad: The Pyramid at the End of the World The Lie of the Land The Eaters of Light To be fair, its bad episodes were not as bad as the Zygon two parter of Series 9, and its two part finale is better then any Series 9 episode except Heaven Sent. But, series 9 manages to edge out Series 10 with only having 3 bad episodes (the Zygon two parter and Face the Raven) with the rest being good with one great (Heaven Sent, obviously), and even having a much better companion doesn't make up for the difference in good episodes. All that said Series 10 is still a lot better then Series 8 or 7B, and it had a good deal of elements I really liked. I'm also really excited for the christmas special. I think Moffat managed to end his run with a decent season. Nothing that approaches Series 5 or 6, but something respectable if flawed.
Most enjoyable since season 4! And Smith is my favourite, but consistently fun has been missing for a long while. I'd've taken a few more series like this one.
I thought it was a really strong year. Not quite as good as season 9, which only had one dud with the oddball "Sleep No More" (and what a dud!), but definitely a strong showing. It was hurt by a very saggy middle, though. The opening half was very strong, and "Extremis" was a fun episode that set up a lot of promise, "Pyramid" maintained the tension but didn't pay any off, and then "Lie" was a total misfire. "Mars" was lower-mediocre, but the season regained its footing with "Light" and closed with an excellent two-parter. I feel like the damage of having the worst episodes all coming together in the middle of the season, and failing to build on what had been the standout episode to that point, might damage the season's reputation, but on an episode by episode basis, it did a lot right.
Overall, it wasn't a bad season, though there was a bit of a lull in the middle with Knock Knock, Oxygen and the Monk trilogy being pretty bad, but otherwise it was a pretty solid year.
I thought Oxygen was really good, the monk trilogy was a trifle weak, though I can see what Moffat was trying to do, the execution just didn't live up to the idea.
So... to wrap up (or, who knows, maybe bump start) this disappointingly short discussion, I will offer this run-through of the series: The Pilot This was a more promising start than I had expected, and the new companion was introduced far more efficiently than was her predecessor. That said, the Dalek segment felt forced and unnecessary. After several years of the mystery box routine I also struggled to find the Vault interesting in any way. Smile This could have very easily been a godawful, meme-baiting gimmick fest, but by and large they managed to pull off a very atmospheric and cerebral piece reminiscent of some of the Classic Series. Our two leads manage to carry the majority of the episode by themselves , just interacting with the environment. If anything the emergence of the other human characters was the weak point of this episode, as the resolution of the actual plot feels rushed and slapdash. Thin Ice This one fell a bit flat for me. The story feels like a rehash of both Meat and The Beast Below, while the human villain is such an empty caricature that it's hard to get invested in the Doctor's soapboxing at him. Sutcliffe isn't even a strawman so much as a cardboard cut-out emblazoned with a Wordle of a politics essay. On the upside the scenery was nice, the child actors were alright (by Doctor Who's admittedly patchy standards) and it was nice that for once they didn't chicken out on having kiddie characters get permanently (and gruesomely) killed. Knock, Knock Looking at the thread for this one the general consensus appears to be that it was a bit of a turkey. There's little particularly bad about it but the Haunted House idea is less than original and a lot of people found the student characters rather irritating. I also don't know why such a point was made of Suchet being the son rather than the father. At least the estate agent skit at the beginning was mildly amusing. Oxygen We seem to have a bit of a body horror theme for the first stretch of this series. Clearly going for the high concept pitch, it has an intriguing start and a lot of memorable imagery with the suit zombies. The Doctor's blindness is also handled nicely. The main problem is that it goes way over the line with its message - satire, social commentary and philosophical discussion can work if they're done tastefully, but the Doctor's unusually-explicit heralding of the death of capitalism brings this almost to the level of a party-political broadcast. Extremis Conspiracy theories, the Large Hadron Collider, the Pope, mass suicide, the Oval Office, the end of the world, mysterious documents, a holodeck, gadget glasses for the blind and a fat man going "Eek" - they really lobbed everything they could into this one! Clearly the intention was for this to be something big, something memorable, something that would get the awards rolling in. These kinds of endeavours inevitably aim to be cleverer than they actually are and wind up less than the theoretical sum of their components, but on the whole this one was executed well, even if the explanation makes no sense at all. The character interactions are very good here as well. The only significant downside is the Missy execution bit – it adds nothing to the story and just feels like a distraction. The Pyramid at the End of the World So… now we pick up in the real world and swap Pope Francis for Ban Ki Moon. In a twist on the Mad-Scientist-Destroys-The-World cliché, this time they’re just visually impaired and hungover. On the whole the episode pulls through, but some of the situations feel a little contrived and the dialogue is clunky in parts. Let’s just hope that the grand finale will bring this trilogy back on form… The Lie of the Land Oh dear. This one doesn’t work on any level. After an opening montage reminiscent of ENT’s Stormfront the first act runs like a fairly straight Doctor-Who-does-1984 romp, but then after yet another painfully-pointless fake regeneration it turns into some milling about with headphones and finally we have the showdown between villain and hero – except it’s really more extras vs stock footage because the Monks don’t get a single line in this script and the divine mother memory doesn’t even have a name. This loose three-parter (I hear they were originally three standalone episodes retroactively collated – which explains a lot.) feels very disjointed with storylines not really following from one episode to the next and a general confusion over what the message is supposed to be. It shares a lot of weaknesses with The Zygon Inversion, but that one was definitely better than this. Empress of Mars We ditch the mindscrew in favour of a fairly standard runaround with the Ice Warriors. Yes it’s rather cheesy at times, but it forms a nice breather after the lumpy Monk trilogy. The Eaters of Light Back when series followed a regular structure, this would be the time we got the forgettable low-budget episode. That tradition continues here. There are some neat ideas but mostly it feels like filler. The acting is mediocre, the plot is thin and there are some odd moments that feel out of place. It wasn’t exactly bad but it won’t go down as a classic any time soon. World Enough & Time If you look back at the next time trailers for the finales of series 8 and 9 you’ll see that they advertise episodes rather different to the ones which were actually broadcast. Here the misdirection continues into the episode itself, as for the first ten minutes we appear to be in for Missy-Does-The-Doctor’s-Role, but then that is completely tossed aside for a body horror story. The time dilation effect is nicely handled (it’s been a while since Doctor Who tried any hard science fiction) and the Cybermen are far more effective here than in Series 8, though the cringeworthy wink-wink conversation at the beginning could be chopped out with no loss to the whole. The Doctor Falls In my mind we haven’t had a good finale since The Big Bang. The rest of them have ranged from unsatisfactory to downright awful. This one exceeds expectations by being mostly competent. There are quite a lot of story elements recycled from other recent finales and specials, but at least they’re done correctly this time. The companion’s departure would ordinarily have seemed like deus ex machina, but after the insufferable golden goodbye that Clara received I’m just glad that we didn’t linger on it for more than five minutes. The only real flaw is the regeneration: Tennant’s and Smith’s departures were already far too drawn out, and many were hoping that this would be done more efficiently. Instead it looks as if we’ll devote a whole hour to the transition...
I loved "The Pilot", though anyone even remotely a fan of the show will quicxly know or learn that Heather and Bill are the first names of a certain couple whose surname is "Hartnell". Makes for a unique homage, if nothing else. Have read and seen bits and pieces of other episodes since, including audience reactions over what was overused or not. I'm reserving opinion until I see the stuff I've missed. I've enjoyed most of what I had seen, but it's definitely time that the show change again.
Now that would be some major body horror: Capaldi slowly morphing into Jodie over the course of the whole episode, Bixby/Ferrigno style, and still having to participate in an adventure while wracked in the pain of transformation. Only when the last wrinkles and flecks of grey hair disappear from Jodie's face at the end would we know the regeneration was complete...
Arguably, by his own account Ten took days or possibly weeks of relative time to regenerate, staving off the lightshow so he could check in on every companion he'd ever had to that point. We just didn't SEE all that much of it. Similarly, by some interpretations Five also had an extended regeneration, which they didn't dwell too much upon, so there is arguably some precedent. That said, Twelve seemed almost surprised that his regeneration (effect, anyway) stopped, just before meeting his predecessor. I'm guessing that aside from the occasional visual reminder, we won't see the fireworks until the appropriate time and concentrate on the treat of a multi-Doctor crossover Christmas finale special episode, which SHOULD be great on its own given all the descriptors I used. Mark
It started out well and then quickly fell apart into the usual Moffat-isms. The way Capaldi's regeneration goes is quite possibly the stupidest I remember seeing. My disappointment in the entire series is magnified knowing that Capaldi will be exiting the series. I really like him as the Doctor & as an actor. I hoped to see him continue with another show runner.
Having rewatched series 9 and 10 lately, I'd say that 9 was the better series, in terms of stand-alone episodes, though I noticed this time that Clara in this season is almost unhinged, like a completely different character alltogether. I really wish a new companion was introduced in that time, as I still find Clara's original fate fairly nonsensical and frankly, boring. The three-way ending starts OK and Heaven Sent is exactly that, but I still can't stand Hell Bent, which is basically a half hour pumped into a full hour by pointless padding. Needless to say, but the story arc sucked. Series 10's arc was on the other hand, maybe not great, definitely not one of the best, and way too loose to count as one even, but it was OK. It was about the Master/Missy's redemption, or attempt at one. The stand alone episodes work fine, but the Extremis three-parter is, to put it kindly, a mess. Basically, it should've been either a fast-paced single episode, or a tightly plotted two-parter. As is, its nonsense, but I didn't hate it at least. In fact, I don't think I disliked any episode, as far as I can remember. And the finale two-parter is, of course, fantastic.
Like so many people have said in the past, Clara should have ended her run in Last Christmas and then a new companion introduced in Series 9. Its a better ending then the character deserved after trying to murder the Doctor (because she's a selfish, moronic twit) but at least she would have been gone and even people that don't hate her would probably have been satisfied.