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8x08 Mummy on the Orient Express (Grading/Discussion) SPOILERS!

What do you think about the episode?


  • Total voters
    97
So Missy is in "heaven" collecting souls to fight the Doctor... the mummy is a thousand year old soldier... the Orient Express is an experiment in space on death... the Doctor hates soldiers... Danny Pink is...?
 
By now you've probably seen that the image of Jenna Coleman has been removed. It may seem extreme to have taken such a step, but due to the new stringent guidelines it had to be done. And please... dial back on the conversation about Jenna herself some. It's okay to admire beauty but that conversation is becoming more objectifying than anything else.
 
So Missy is in "heaven" collecting souls to fight the Doctor... the mummy is a thousand year old soldier... the Orient Express is an experiment in space on death... the Doctor hates soldiers... Danny Pink is...?

You are quite right, this whole season is building to a bit of a revelation about the Doctor, including the promised references to why he chose his current face, that of in both cases a doomed or potentially doomed father.

I don't think the Doctor as much hates soldiers as they make him very uncomfortable. He is to all extents and purposes a soldier, he just feels above actually picking up a gun. Maybe Missy will prove to be the villain who pushes him over the edge, maybe by hurting Clara just a bit too much.

I have a feeling Clara is being set up for real heartbreak, and poor Danny is a bit of a patsy, carrying around terrible guilt and likely on some level desperate to make amends.

Seriously, I'm expecting a really bleak finale this year.
 
Y'know the Cybermen would be awesome augmented with the technology from the mummy. They'd finally be silent and deadly again!
 
Fun idea and setting and the 66-second bit was great. But Clara the Part-Time Companion immediately annoyed me with her whining about last week. If she doesn't want to be on the TARDIS anymore, then she should leave and make room for someone who actually wants to travel with the Doctor, instead of a companion who wants to treat her travels with him as an occasional distraction from her life. Another one of the "brilliant" elements added to the show by Moffat, "the most clever man in the room."

It was nice to have a Doctor-centric show for a change but I have to admit not really being impressed with the Doctor or Capaldi until that last scene with Clara where he explains what he was doing. Thought that scene was great.

I still find Series 8 a mixed bag. I wish I didn't but I do.
 
Y'know the Cybermen would be awesome augmented with the technology from the mummy. They'd finally be silent and deadly again!

Assuming that it wasn't Cyber-tech in the first place of course. I wouldn't put is past Moffat to tie together all these different Robot technologies in the finale, so far we have had at my count...

Clockwork people
A reformed Dalek
Sherwood Forest robots.
The little thing from the Caretaker.
A mummy with a piece of technology holding it together.

Something in it maybe...?
 
My main concern with modern Doctor Who is that it becomes inaccessible for the casual viewer. I am okay with a season-long arc; however, I think leaving breadcrumbs scattered throughout is becoming for me bothersome. I don't want this season to turn into a JJ Abrams mystery box. Yet, I am beginning to feel that it is turning out that way. (Mystery boxes have a history of being by their nature Pandora's Boxes - some good, some bad, all-around divisive.)

My mother has been turned off by this Doctor and refuses to watch the show. She finds him as unpleasant as the Sixth Doctor. (Her favorite doctors are Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee, and David Tennant.) I wonder how many other people feel this way. I heard today that some people are leaving the franchise. Not good.
 
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My main concern with modern Doctor Who is that it becomes inaccessible for the casual viewer. I am okay with a season-long arc; however, I think leaving breadcrumbs scattered throughout is becoming for me bothersome. I don't want this season to turn into a JJ Abrams mystery box. Yet, I am beginning to feel that it is turning out that way. (Mystery boxes have a history of being by their nature Pandora's Boxes - some good, some bad, all-around divisive.)

My mother has been turned off by this Doctor and refuses to watch the show. She finds him as unpleasant as the Sixth Doctor. (Her favorite doctors are Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee, and David Tennant.) I wonder how many other people feel this way. I heard today that some people are leaving the franchise. Not good.
This doesn't surprise me. The only reason I started watching the current season was because my cable company gave me a free month's subscription to the channel that shows Doctor Who. Otherwise, I'd wait for Netflix, as I did with much of Smith's shows. As for Smith... there are a couple of his shows I never did see, and I don't even care.

Sad, when you consider that I've been a Whovian for over 30 years.
 
My main concern with modern Doctor Who is that it becomes inaccessible for the casual viewer. I am okay with a season-long arc; however, I think leaving breadcrumbs scattered throughout is becoming for me bothersome. I don't want this season to turn into a JJ Abrams mystery box. Yet, I am beginning to feel that it is turning out that way. (Mystery boxes have a history of being by their nature Pandora's Boxes - some good, some bad, all-around divisive.)

My mother has been turned off by this Doctor and refuses to watch the show. She finds him as unpleasant as the Sixth Doctor. (Her favorite doctors are Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee, and David Tennant.) I wonder how many other people feel this way. I heard today that some people are leaving the franchise. Not good.

First the ratings for Doctor Who worldwide seems to grow year by year and I would be surprise to learn of any dramatic drop in 2014. Also Moffat did a soft reboot, which was to allow new fans who didn't need to know that much about RTD era so its not like they are not times for new fans to jump in.
 
Doctor Who has been somewhat arc-driven since it came back. RTD's arcs might have been a little more accessible than Moffat's but I don't really see that much of a difference. The show's audience has certainly grown quite impressively during that time. It's basically more popular than it's ever been, filling cinemas in countries where it isn't even shown on free TV.
I also bolted from the show in series 6 but eventually came back (and upon rewatching found series 6 better than the first time around). As for Capaldi, well, you can't please everyone, I guess. I think he's been a fantastic Doctor and I love the post-modern approach. My favourite Doctors so far are Tennant and Pertwee.
 
I actually think this season has the best "arc" (so far, anyway) of any of the Moffat seasons. There's just enough of it to be intriguing, but it doesn't damage the stories like the "impossible girl" or Amy's pregnancy ones did.
 
I still think the Bad Wolf arc was the best. And the Stolen Earth, as illotical at it was, worked for me a great deal. And the Crack arc was great. That said, this year's arc is infinitely better than the Impossible Girl, River Goes Twilight and Doctor Jesus arcs.
 
I reckon the whole calculating the Doctor is doing all the time has something to do with it.
 
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