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Spoilers Empire of Death grade and discussion thread

How do you rate Empire of Death?


  • Total voters
    55
GcibDFQ.jpeg
 
Well, the chaffee looked really inviting...

I'm still kind of wondering what Susan's tech was that she was about to introduce to the world.

Ruby's mum being ordinary and the most extraordinary thing in the universe at the same time is about as Who as it gets I suppose. If this is some meta comment on fandom or something, sigh....

While some of the puzzles and answers were kind of lame the potboiling at the end was almost well down enough to cover it up. I thought the aforementioned chaffee woman was a lovely moment even if it didn't really make any sense at all. It was all quite pretty and atmospheric which made it easier to choked down after being frustrated with trying to connect the dots.
 
I watched the first three and the last two. And I'm done.

It had all the bombast of a RTD finale but hollow at the centre. I put it down to RTD's more... arrogant take, and Ncuti not being, IMO, a very good actor compared to previous.

And I'm going to go out on a limb. One, the Doctor has never had a need to express his sexuality... until this season, which RTD seemed to want a push an idea that, frankly, is not as commercially viable, especially in the US. The ratings have been declining this season, apparently. Someone expressing their sexuality is not a bad thing, but this is not how the Doctor has been portrayed until now. If I wanted to watch gay drama I would have watched Queer As Folk.

I've been looking at reviews on YT, which are either favourable gushes or ranty screeds of little use. I got cranky at both of them, as short on content or just shouty rubbish. I understood they both seek approval of their audiences, and they both have points. I fall almost exactly between them, The greatest disappointment to me has been, once again, the writing, that RTD's quality seems to have dropped off in the intervening time, not to Chibbers levels, but a faint shadow of its glory days, giving me pause to wonder how much the House of Mouse is interfering, as seen in many TV series.

RTD said, if you don't like it, don't watch it. OK.

And just like that, I'm done with Doctor Disney.
 
I liked it. Gatwa's quickly become my new favorite Doctor, but then there's never been a Doctor I didn't like, and I've seen them all. I love that the Fifteenth Doctor is capable of feeling a wide range of emotions and doesn't always win at times (that last bit was also the case with the Fifth Doctor). I think he's the most human Doctor to date. And the revelation of Ruby's mother was very Whovian, IMO, in that we're led to think one thing only to find out it was something quite different.

I gave it a 7. Would have scored it higher, but there were some bits that didn't make sense to me (such as the Doctor going Dune on that faraway planet) or were blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments. Still, I thought it was a good finale. I'm looking forward to next season.
 
Susan Triad's identity has the same issue to me as Clara's in S7. So, hundreds of Susan's have been existing throughout all of time and space, all over the Doctor's timeline, but he never once noticed her until, like, 2 weeks ago? That some massively heavy plot convenience there.

It worked with Clara, because the story made it implicit that ‘everything fine/everything messed with by GI/clara goes in and fixes it’ making it so that she wasn’t there until she was, basically. Even DalekClara and GovernessClara only came in as the Doctors personal timeline came closer and closer to the event itself.
It’s a bit silly but handwaveable with Susan Twist, *but* the reason is silly and makes no sense.
 
I watched the first three and the last two. And I'm done.

It had all the bombast of a RTD finale but hollow at the centre. I put it down to RTD's more... arrogant take, and Ncuti not being, IMO, a very good actor compared to previous.

And I'm going to go out on a limb. One, the Doctor has never had a need to express his sexuality... until this season, which RTD seemed to want a push an idea that, frankly, is not as commercially viable, especially in the US. The ratings have been declining this season, apparently. Someone expressing their sexuality is not a bad thing, but this is not how the Doctor has been portrayed until now. If I wanted to watch gay drama I would have watched Queer As Folk.

I've been looking at reviews on YT, which are either favourable gushes or ranty screeds of little use. I got cranky at both of them, as short on content or just shouty rubbish. I understood they both seek approval of their audiences, and they both have points. I fall almost exactly between them, The greatest disappointment to me has been, once again, the writing, that RTD's quality seems to have dropped off in the intervening time, not to Chibbers levels, but a faint shadow of its glory days, giving me pause to wonder how much the House of Mouse is interfering, as seen in many TV series.

RTD said, if you don't like it, don't watch it. OK.

And just like that, I'm done with Doctor Disney.

RTD was the one who tried to introduce the Doctor as a sexualised figure back in 2005/6 and bring in the romance angle — it never really worked, and a lot of people didn’t like it, so Moffat slowly rolled it back and recontextualised it till it went away (River Song even gave a speech putting a bow on it) for the most part.
RTD is now trying to clumsily get the whole thing up and running again, and looks like he got the Loki writers in to do a fanfic as some kind of community service for slagging them off over Loki.

There’s a couple of YouTubers roughly in the middle (review of death and Who’s Views) who do go a bit ranty/screed at times but they are at least grounded in coming from a long stretch of actual fandom, rather than bandwagon hopping.
 
Hmm...would that make Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Discovery black dramas?
:confused:

No idea, I dislike the idea of apartheid filing systems on media.
We never had a ‘Black films’ section when I worked in video stores.
But there was a Gay & Lesbian section.
I sort of hope and presume such things went away.
(Which I was coming back to edit in cos I posted in a hurry earlier cos the door went lol)
There’s no denying that this time out the gate Doctor Who is being explicitly marketed down such audience demographic lines though. Didn’t Ncuti get the cover of Attitude?

I do find it interesting that some people who are more offended by the content in Rogue (I thought it was shit, stereotypical, and if that had been written on Moffats watch people would have torn it to shreds. The same people who support it now. It was written by two women, not RTD, and it’s Yaoi Fanfic. But wasn’t that fussed by it for being Gay or Queer, or however they are deciding to frame it.) weren’t fussed by Torchwood and Jack/Ianto. Unless, of course, it’s about intended audiences… in which case they may have a point.
Romance featuring the Doctor is usually a bad idea anyway. He starts making Leonardo DiCaprio look like he has a balanced dating profile.
 
Apologies if this has already been answered, but since
Ruby’s mother was just a normal human being
, why did
it snow whenever she thought about that night
?

No idea. Who are we to ask such silly questions. Or wonder why no one else (like The Doctor) bothered to either…
 
What gay drama??? Unless you think the existence of gay people makes something a gay drama?
Eh, like Jaime, I should have used romance. Watched Torchwood, no problem. Watched Doctor/Rose and Doctor/Martha, was a bit meh about that too. Watching gay romance/meodrama doesn't interest me, but then most hetero romance/melodrama doesn't either. It gets in the way of a story that has to be fast-paced.

Me? I don't have a romantic bone in my body.
 
I liked that her mother wasn’t important for some outlandish reason but just belief (i guess that is an outlandish reason but a purely sweet one). I don’t think it was a revolutionary episode but it concluded its job, and i thought it was sweet and fun. I thought the 73 yards references were fun especially because it felt like it would be a stand alone thing to me.

I love Sian Clifford and her part in it <333

I really liked the cast so even if the plot wasn’t my favourite it was still an enjoyable conclusion (although i wish there were more episodes but i’d probably say that even if there were the normal amount). I love Ncuti, and my friend who’s never watched Dr Who watched an episode of his and loved Ncuti too and now wants to watch more which is exactly the kind of thing i thought would happen when his casting was announced so yay. I also love Millie, i think she works so well with Ncuti but I don’t know if i could see her with anyone else. Jemma Redgrave is soooo!! I also like the expansion of UNIT this season but I don’t want that to become a permanent thing.

Edit: Realising all my Dr Who reviews are positive even if I don’t love the episodes or would rewatch them, it’s not because i’m not critical it’s just i don’t want to ruin a good thing/my enjoyment of the show when there are positives.
 
I've enjoyed the majority of the episodes and really like the cast. Plus the RTD energy is a thing on it's own.

I'm saddened by the shonky (partial) resolution but Russell has a lot of previous for that. We shouldn't be surprised.

Russell, showrun the shit out of it - expand it, do spinoffs, create a shared universe, but please - lay off the writing.
 
Basically, I liked it. But, it is RTD's second weakest episode in my mind, for a couple of reasons, the lot of you, chiefly the Wormhole and Nth Doctor articulated best my likes and dislikes, but my particular like was:

The entirety of the first half, namely Sutekh and the Memory TARDIS.

The dislikes? Well, aside from not dealing a lot with Sutekh as a personality (how DID he father those dieties while he was riding the TARDIS anyway?!), my essential dislike and the best articulated way to put about it is this:
The revelation of Ruby's mother felt rather anticlimactic. I mean, yes, I get what they were going for, and I even like the idea in principle that her mother is just an ordinary person who became sort of mythologized because of the mystery surrounding her. Still, after that much build-up just to reveal Ruby's mother is just a completely ordinary person just fell a bit flat for me, IMO.
Like, for one I did not expect a resolution to it this season, but the one we got was underwhelming, Not because of the simplicity but because the rest of the season set it up an impossible-to-comprehend-even conclusion. As is, its decidedly lame, and actually a real cheat.
And just like that, I'm done with Doctor Disney.
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Not terrible, but certainly not great.

It's a RTD finale though, that's for sure, for both good and bad. If Moffat finales were dark fairytales, then RTD's would be mad fever dreams.

I can't help but wonder if the rumours about Millie Gibson were true, with her supposedly being inulting to staff, and she got sacked after one season instead of staying on for two. Hence the unsatisfying resolution regarding Ruby's mother and the unexplained phenomena of her causing it to snow.
 
I've enjoyed the majority of the episodes and really like the cast. Plus the RTD energy is a thing on it's own.

I'm saddened by the shonky (partial) resolution but Russell has a lot of previous for that. We shouldn't be surprised.

Russell, showrun the shit out of it - expand it, do spinoffs, create a shared universe, but please - lay off the writing.

He and chibbers are both like the second coming of JNT. Needs the Moff to be the Cartmel.
 
* Why is a 15 year old in 2004 wearing a hooded cape like she is in the middle ages?
How else is her face going to be covered up for purposes of hiding her so we can have the mystery of who she is? :shrug:Maybe she came straight from a Renaissance fair?

* Why set up that the woman on the planet has memories of being an opera singer if that's not the reveal later? Money run out?
More like a waste of money filming that scene. :razz:

* If Sutekh survived for hundreds of years in the time vortex while does he die this time?
Technically he was in a time tunnel last time - not the vortex.

* Why does the Doctor get so upset about killing someone he killed before with a smile?
:shrug:
 
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