7X11 The Crimson Horror(Grading/Discussion)(SPOILERS

[Samurai8472]

When the Doctor and Clara go missing, it’s up to Vastra, Jenny and Strax to rescue them before they too fall victim to the Crimson Horror

 

[zarkon]

Great episode. Strax and the tegan reference in particular cracked me up. Not having a "love conquers all" resolution was also nice.

 

[Green Lantern]

*Sigh*. Going through a bad patch again.

This episode was just awful in so many ways. I felt there was not enough time for the story to develop properly, it felt like they just blundered in. I hate this Sontaran and Silurian duo, I can't stand it when they make villains into good guys. It never works. Plus I didn't understand the plot properly, again.

The only thing that stopped me from giving it one star is Matt Smith's performance and that cute little red parasite thing. I could imagine them making it into a soft toy like they did with the adipose.

Plus the sonic screwdriver is being used far too much. How the hell did the doctor cure himself from that corny looking crimson thingy? By shutting himself in a vault and pressing his sonic screwdriver for five seconds.

I think I was wrong when I said part 2 of series 7 was better. Although I prefer the companion, title sequence, and some of the stories (just two really), looking back on it statistacally, part one was better as I liked 4/5 of those episodes.

I hope the cyberman one next week is a gooden, otherwise I've lost all hope in Dr. Who.

 

[DalekJim]

LOVED it. Was expecting lightweight shit from last week's trailer but it was all dark and twisted too. My favourite episode of Series 7 along with Cold War. Finally Mark Gatiss starts to deliver the goods..

I hate this Sontaran and Silurian duo, I can't stand it when they make villains into good guys. It never works.

Every now and then a post just makes me want to break something. The Silurians weren't villains.

Plus I didn't understand the plot properly, again.

How is this the show's fault? If you want simplistic shit then Star Trek Into Darkness is just round the corner y'know?

I think I was wrong when I said part 2 of series 7 was better.

It is! No Chris Chibnall, no companions that leave and come back every episode, less of a blockbustery feel and every episode has tried to do something interesting.

 

[Aldo]

*Sigh*. Going through a bad patch again.

This episode was just awful in so many ways.

Awesome, now I know I'll love it

 

[ROBE]

Loved it Doctor Who meets Carry On Screaming.

 

[Green Lantern]

LOVED it. Was expecting lightweight shit from last week's trailer but it was all dark and twisted too. My favourite episode of Series 7 along with Cold War. Finally Mark Gatiss starts to deliver the goods..

I hate this Sontaran and Silurian duo, I can't stand it when they make villains into good guys. It never works.

Every now and then a post just makes me want to break something. The Silurians weren't villains.

Plus I didn't understand the plot properly, again.

How is this the show's fault? If you want simplistic shit then Star Trek Into Darkness is just round the corner y'know?

I think I was wrong when I said part 2 of series 7 was better.

It is! No Chris Chibnall, no companions that leave and come back every episode, less of a blockbustery feel and every episode has tried to do something interesting.

They certainly wern't good guys either way. Moffat has defeated the whole point of the Silurians, that they were not meant to have human faces, and now they're all green lizzard women.

In RTDs run, I never got lost. Even in the first Smith series I just about grasped it. But now it's too complicated. An I am.

We had the Rings of Akentanm or whatever. That episode alone should weigh down the entire part of the series as it's so bad.

 

[Aldo]

We had the Rings of Akentanm or whatever. That episode alone should weigh down the entire part of the series as it's so bad.

See, the thing about that is, that's an entirely subjective statement. You may say it's the worst thing ever, etc. etc. But it was actually one of my favorite episodes so far of this series (I refuse to separate series 7, it's one long series as far as I'm concerned.

 

[DalekJim]

They certainly wern't good guys either way. Moffat has defeated the whole point of the Silurians, that they were not meant to have human faces, and now they're all green lizzard women.

I prefer the original design too but the Silurians were always meant to be as diverse as humans, not villains. I think Vastra is a more interesting direction than merely repeating the same story over and over again with The Silurians, The Sea Devils, Warriors of the Deep and The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood.

In RTDs run, I never got lost.

Because Russell T. Davies made his scripts as stupid as is humanly possible to appeal to the Ant and Dec audience. The Bells of St. John, Cold War, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS and The Crimson Horror are better than damn near all of RTD's scripts.

Even in the first Smith series I just about grasped it. But now it's too complicated.

Complicated is good.

We had the Rings of Akentanm or whatever. That episode alone should weigh down the entire part of the series as it's so bad.

It didn't work entirely but it was an ambitious failure. Whereas Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and Power of Three were pretty mediocre.

Don't think there's been an outright bad episode this series at all though, and I'd rank Asylum of the Daleks, Cold War and The Crimson Horror as among New Who at its best. The most consistent New Who series yet. Compare it to Series 2 or 4 where we were getting howlers like Rise of the Cybermen and Fear Her, or The Doctor's Daughter and Journey's End!

 

[Green Lantern]

LOVED it. Was expecting lightweight shit from last week's trailer but it was all dark and twisted too. My favourite episode of Series 7 along with Cold War. Finally Mark Gatiss starts to deliver the goods..

I hate this Sontaran and Silurian duo, I can't stand it when they make villains into good guys. It never works.

Every now and then a post just makes me want to break something. The Silurians weren't villains.

Plus I didn't understand the plot properly, again.

How is this the show's fault? If you want simplistic shit then Star Trek Into Darkness is just round the corner y'know?

I think I was wrong when I said part 2 of series 7 was better.

It is! No Chris Chibnall, no companions that leave and come back every episode, less of a blockbustery feel and every episode has tried to do something interesting.

We had the Rings of Akentanm or whatever. That episode alone should weigh down the entire part of the series as it's so bad.

See, the thing about that is, that's an entirely subjective statement. You may say it's the worst thing ever, etc. etc. But it was actually one of my favorite episodes so far of this series (I refuse to separate series 7, it's one long series as far as I'm concerned.

It was a terrible episode. If that's what you like about Dr. Who, then you watch the show for completley different reasons to me.

They certainly wern't good guys either way. Moffat has defeated the whole point of the Silurians, that they were not meant to have human faces, and now they're all green lizzard women.

I prefer the original design too but the Silurians were always meant to be as diverse as humans, not villains. I think Vastra is a more interesting direction than merely repeating the same story over and over again with The Silurians, The Sea Devils, Warriors of the Deep and The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood.

In RTDs run, I never got lost.

Because Russell T. Davies made his scripts as stupid as is humanly possible to appeal to the Ant and Dec audience. The Bells of St. John, Cold War, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS and The Crimson Horror are better than damn near all of RTD's scripts.

Even in the first Smith series I just about grasped it. But now it's too complicated.

Complicated is good.

We had the Rings of Akentanm or whatever. That episode alone should weigh down the entire part of the series as it's so bad.

It didn't work entirely but it was an ambitious failure. Whereas Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and Power of Three were pretty mediocre.

Don't think there's been an outright bad episode this series at all though, and I'd rank Asylum of the Daleks, Cold War and The Crimson Horror as among New Who at its best. The most consistent New Who series yet. Compare it to Series 2 or 4 where we were getting howlers like Rise of the Cybermen and Fear Her, or The Doctor's Daughter and Journey's End!

Then just stop with Silurians completley. And why not brng back the Sea Devils? They looked cooler.

Sometimes, not being complicated and even a bit predictable is a good thing. He wrote it with more care.

Complicated is bad. It means small children get completley lost becuase they're small children, and older people are too old to understand it at all. I don't like having to work to understand a script. I just like to watch it and enjoy the ride instead of fucking wondering what the fuck's going on until the very last minite, and even then it's sometimes not explained properly.

I liked them. I thought DOASS was going to be terrible and had extremley low expectations for it, but I was pleasantly suprised although I hated parts of it like the doctors "gang". Power of Three was suprisingly good too. A nice flashback to RTD.

I did love Cold War. I was disapointed with AOTD as I had high expectations for it as the concept was golden. The daleks should have been insane instead f just a bit rusty.

Wait, you didn't like Rise of the Cybermen? There is something wrong with you. It's one of Tennant's best episodes of all time. I can give or take Fear Her. I can also give or take Doctors Daughter. I loved Journeys End. It was a piece of art. One of Tennants best too.

 

[DalekJim]

Wait, you didn't like Rise of the Cybermen? There is something wrong with you. It's one of Tennant's best episodes of all time.

Tennant's best episodes are ones like Blink, Gridlock, Silence in the Library, Midnight or Waters of Mars. Ones that like.. actually try? Thankfully the writer of the abhorrent Rise of the Cybermen redeemed himself with my favourite New Who episode to date, The Girl Who Waited.

I loved Journeys End. It was a piece of art.

...

You have the worst Doctor Who taste of all-time. You seem to hold intelligent writing in contempt and genuinely seem to desire the series to be as stupid and simplistic as possible. I'm glad you're not getting your way.

 

[Nagisa Furukawa]

Complicated is bad. It means small children get completley lost becuase they're small children, and older people are too old to understand it at all. I don't like having to work to understand a script.

Douglas Adams, one time script-editor/script-writer for Doctor Who, famously said his goal with the series was to make it complicated enough for the children to be interested but simple enough for the adults to understand. I completely see his point now...

I loved Journeys End. It was a piece of art.

Thankfully the writer of the abhorrent Rise of the Cybermen redeemed himself with my favourite New Who episode to date, The Girl Who Waited.

Eh, RotC/TAoS was heavily rewritten by RTD after MacRae's more Spare Parts-inspired drafts so I'm not surprised he could produce quality work once, y'know, his material actually reached the screen.

 

[DalekJim]

Eh, RotC/TAoS was heavily rewritten by RTD after MacRae's more Spare Parts-inspired drafts so I'm not surprised he could produce quality work once, y'know, his material actually reached the screen.

Wasn't aware of this, damn shame we missed out on a Spare Parts adaptation of some kind.

Reckon you'll enjoy tonight's episode when it airs in cowboy land. Really eccentric and interesting as opposed to the sub-Hollywood, bland shit we're discussing.

 

[Relayer1]

That was good, I enjoyed that a lot more than I expected to, as opposed to last weeks whic I enjoyed a lot less than expected...

 

[Avon]

the first 10 minutes or so were a bit of a drag, but then once the doc turned up it was really good, which i wasn't expecting from an episode with the victorian freaks.

the end with the kids was a nice way to set up the next episode too.

for me this season has been really inconsistent, the episodes have either been very good or really bad with no sort of average ones.

 

[Jax]

Average episode for me, while I do like Strax, Jenny and Vastra and there was plenty of funny moments to laugh at, the plot felt really rushed & half baked. Got to admit after season 6 more Arc based story this season more standalone style has not been as enjoyable though mostly in the 2nd half of the season. My grades in part 1 were stronger than part 2...

Asylum of the Daleks - Good
Dinosaurs On A Spaceship - Good
A Town called Mercy - Good
Power of Three - Average
The Angels take Manhattan - Excellent

The Bells of Saint John - Good
The Rings of Akhaten - Average
The Cold War - Average
Hide - Good
Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS - Good
The Crimson Horror - Average

With the finale of Who being potentially of the whole Silence & Doctor's name story arc I was hoping for some major build up but we aren't getting it.

 

[chardman]

Enjoyed the Hell out of that. Loved the Tom-Tom joke. Only complaint is that near the end, the villain-ess suddenly knew to call him "The Doctor", though he was never ever introduced to her as such. She just "knew" his name/title out of nowhere. But other than that... Wonderful.

 

[Konata Izumi]

Mad episode! The Bells of Saint John's still the best New Who. Can't find the interview right this second but Gatiss said he wants to take the Ice Warriors to their home planet at some point. He's on a roll.

We had the Rings of Akentanm or whatever. That episode alone should weigh down the entire part of the series as it's so bad.

The Rings of Akhaten's fucking sweet if terribly vague, otherwise expertly told. Hide got actually a bit sloppy.

(I refuse to separate series 7, it's one long series as far as I'm concerned.)

Why not sometimes one long series sometimes two halves?

No Chris Chibnall, no companions that leave and come back every episode, less of a blockbustery feel and every episode has tried to do something interesting.

Leaving and coming back made a poignant arc for Eleven. He tried to keep away from the Ponds.

There's something beautiful about Chibnall's text when he doesn't appear to have a malfunction in the linguistic centre of his brain. I just want to hear his dialogue more. Speaking of that Whithouse is terrible in that regard. Stiff official sounding sentences with ill-fitting stock phrases to appear more literary, instead of actual skill. Decently told stories from both if little imagination.

Who's up for a Resurrection of the Daleks remake from Chibnall? Daleks with scalpels and claws to grab people from throats while people actually get shot endlessly...

 

[ATimson]

Complicated is good.

Complicated is good, but too complicated is bad. It's a fine line to walk. And I guess if Moffat crosses over into "too complicated", well, that just increases the DVD sales. Win-win for him.

As for the episode itself: I loved it. Probably my favorite episode so far this half-season.

Spoiler: The Crimson Horror

Needed more Jenny Ninja Action, though.

EDIT: I do wish that whoever tracked the music did a better job, though. They didn't seem to understand that they were using the Doctor's theme, not just generic action music...

 

[Gov Kodos]

That was a fun episode. It was great to see Jenny get some screen time. I'm guessing her fighting outfit is also a homage to Mrs Peel and Diana Rigg. This was a fun ride. I would love a miniseries with Madam Vastra and the gang. Hopefully they will be back soon.