How do you feel about Doctor Who Series 8?

[M.A.C.O.]

I've had a chance to rewatch this season recently and my feelings on it are not so good. When I was watching the show, week by week, I enjoyed it for the most part.

Standout episodes for me would be:

Mummy on the Orient Express
Flatline
Into The Dalek
Time Heist
Deep Breath

With the other 7 episodes falling flat for me. Idk, it seemed like their wasn't much direction in this series. Direction in the sense that, we have a goal we are aiming for. I don't think Moffat it hit this time.


What do you think?

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Standout episodes for me would be:

Mummy on the Orient Express
Flatline
Into The Dalek
Time Heist
Deep Breath

I agree. Those are my personal faves from the last season, too.

I'd add Dark Water, too, because it was tense and exciting most of the time. But... Death in Heaven was so unbelievably stupid.

What do you think?

Series 8 was an off year, IMO. Capaldi was fun and enthusiastic (and in a vastly different way than Smith was), and Coleman's just as great this year, but there seemed to be a huge deal of focus on Clara. Which I'd appreicate more if her romantic interest was competently acted. I'm sorry, but both the writing for the character and the actor himself fell enormously short. The "chemistry" between Clara and Danny Pink was virtually non-existent, thus the focus away from the Doctor was unwanted and distracting.

And the tone has been wildly inconsistent. Half the time, I felt I was watching a kids' show (I know, right?) but then some darkness would permeat the storylines for no reason. And the arc has been mostly weak - its a decent concept, I suppose, but the execution was fantastically flat. Crack in the Universe, this ain't.

And in comparison to the previous series... its not very good. Compare to Nine or Eleven's first seasons, its very weak. Eccleston and Smith got in with a bang (and the former even exited in such way, thus), with both a great overall arc and (mostly) great episodes. But you know, Tennant didn't start out fantastic, so who knows?

(Of course, Tennant had a Moffat classic - The Girl in the Fireplace. Last year's Moffat was Listen... and damn it, but that could've been a classic but for the silly, awful, stupid, putrid climax of that story. )

I'm giving series 8: **1/2

 

[Starkers]

I still think Listen was a classic. I need to watch Flatline again because I really wasn't that fussed when I saw it.

Hard to know which was my favourite, Mimmy on the Orient Express or Listen. I don't think it was an especially terrible season, and I think on par with a lot of previous seasons in terms of good/bad/average episodes. What it lacked was a consistant run of greatness like S3 (Human Nature/Family of Blood, Blink, Utopia) or the second half of S6 (excluding Night Terrors). More than this is lacked a certain spark that lifted even the poor episodes. I still miss Matt but I'm more than happy Capaldi is the Doctor, and I've taken to him quicker than I took to Tennant. Much like DT though I think there's a sense that he and the writers are still finding their feet with the character, unlike with Matt who really hit the ground running, just my take on it.

 

[Ithekro]

While not the best episode, I liked the Robot of Sherwood. Not because of the story, but because I like the idea of Robin Hood and the Doctor trying to one up each other and the use of banter in the episode. If you are going to go silly, go silly. The Doctor fighting (successfully) with a spoon is just one of those things. There is still a bit on the silly year Seventh Doctor in there with the Second and Third Doctors.

 

[Starkers]

The spoon bit I liked, the Doctor and Robin bickering was annoying though

 

[Worf2DS9]

I recently rewatched S8 on shomi and I enjoyed it a little more than I did when it originally aired, but it still wasn't as...fun as past seasons. I like Capaldi, but I didn't like Clara's character for a great deal of the season, and I didn't really care for Danny or his thread. My fave episodes were "Robot of Sherwood" (had a very classic-Who vibe & loved Clara here) and "Flatline". I'd say about half of the episodes were good, but the other half varied between dull, murky and somewhat disappointing.

 

[Doctorwhovian]

I felt in part that in some ways, it sort of aped season one...you've got the imprisoned Dalek that's not quite acting like a Dalek should act (Into the Dalek), a somewhat more mecurial/angrier Doctor, a temporary companion who leaves after just one adventure (Adam/Courtney), and the whole thing with the Doctor not liking the companion's boyfriend (although eventually gaining more respect as things go on), is pretty much the whole Doctor/Rose/Mickey thing all over again. Which is sort of dissiapointing considering the Doctor's relationship with the Ponds was the inverse of that, with the Doctor liking Rory almost right away.

However, I thought the season was pretty good regardless. Clara got more of a story arc and charecterization beyond the Impossible girl plotline (Although that still sort of came up in "Listen"), New Who seems to have this pattern, the best episodes are the ones in the middle of the season, in this case Listen, Mummy and Flatline.

 

[kirk55555]

I thought it was a very flawed Season. Peter Capaldi hit it out of the park as The Doctor, but he was saddled by a companion that got more unlikeable as the season went by (not to mention the black hole of charisma that was Danny Pink), and a bunch of really bad episodes. My favorite episodes were Time Heist and Deep Breath, and I thought Mummy on the Orient Express and Into the Dalek were pretty good. The rest of the episodes I either didn't really care about (like Robots of Sherwood) or hated (like Listen and In the Forest of the Night).

I liked the Mistress/Master thing, but the actual finale wasn't very good, even if it had a few good elements. A few episodes I didn't like had interesting elements (like the shrinking TARDIS), but they were used in bad episodes. I think this is possibly the worst series of NuWho, and it definitely has the worst companions/supporting characters. It sucks because I think Capaldi is awesome, he just needs a new companion fast, and maybe less Moffat.

 

[Karzak]

I was largely underwhelmed by Season 8. Capaldi did well with what he had to work with but on the whole the season felt really aimless.

 

[The Wormhole]

Season 8 was kind of all over the place. Some weeks it was delivering masterpieces (Mummy on the Orient Express, Flatline) while others it was dropping complete turds (Kill the Moon, Forest of the Night). While everything else ranged from decent if not really special (Deep Breath, Into the Dalek) not particularly memorable (Robot of Sherwood, Time Heist) and even pretentious (Listen). The finale story is its own category which I'm not even sure how to describe.

Capaldi delivered a solid performance in his first season, and often times was what elevated otherwise forgettable scripts. I like the return of the Master as Missy, even if her only real story in the season was somewhat of a mess. Clara's constant indecision about travelling with the Doctor was annoying, and her relationship with Danny Pink was painful to watch.

Overall, I found season 8 more enjoyable than season 7 but still not one of the show's best seasons.

 

[Kelthaz]

Well, let's put it this way, I quit watching during the Robin episode and decided to wait until Moffat steps down before I pick up the show again. That's how I felt about Series 8.

 

[Lonemagpie]

As with series 6, I enjoyed the episodes individually, but don't think much to it as a season. Moffat's era seems to give DW the opposite to the Trek movies- the even numbered ones he's done are the disappointing ones, and the odd numbered the good, so far.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Series 7 wasn't that good, IMO.

Honestly, his first one and a half years were the best. The rest has been hit and miss.

 

[Kelso]

I love it.

 

[RoJoHen]

I absolutely loved Matt Smith and the Amy/Rory/River saga that was series 6 and 7. I grew to like Clara quite a bit towards the end of Smith's run as well.

Season 8 showed up, and I enjoyed the way it started. I loved Capaldi's introduction, and I think he did a great job with the role. However, the season itself seemed to completely lack focus. Danny Pink was one of the most boring characters I've ever seen, and as a result I had such a hard time believing his relationship with Clara. Clara herself became more unlikable with every passing episode. The story arc with Missy was pretty stupid, too. For one, I think 99% of us guessed she was The Master the second she stepped on screen, so that reveal wasn't much of a surprise. And instead of focusing on what they should have been focusing on -- namely, how the hell did the Master escape Gallifrey?! -- we got a weird Cyberman story that didn't really make much sense.

So yeah, I didn't like the season. I like Capaldi and Coleman, and I think there's potential there, but Moffat dropped the ball this time.

 

[The Wormhole]

And instead of focusing on what they should have been focusing on -- namely, how the hell did the Master escape Gallifrey?! -- we got a weird Cyberman story that didn't really make much sense.

Yeah, but that harkens back to the classic era, where the Master is frequently seen left for dead or even apparently actually dead, but hen he returns with no explanation of how he survived. Moffat's just sticking to form here. If anything, it was RTD who went against the grain with the Master providing a detail account of his resurrection in The Sound of Drums, and then we actually see his resurrection in The End of Time.

 

[Doctorwhovian]

I thought it was also kind of nifty that the Nethersphere/Heaven turned out to be a "Matrix slice", the computer/virtual reality Time lord technology used in pretty much every time lord story in classic Who from the Tom Baker era onward, but not really mentioned in the 2005-now series until that point (Unless you count the footage from Arc Of Infinity in Name Of The Doctor). Sure, we've had TARDIses, Time Vortex, dimensionally transcendental stuff, and even the Eye of Harmony, but this was the first time the Matrix really got explored (Well, a 'slice' anyway).

It's kind of funny that the Wachowskis used the same name for their film, which had a similar concept-well, at least the virtual reality where a mind could be 'plugged in' (Although there was that weird part in the final part of "Trial" where the Doctor and company *physically* enter it!) and experience a world where laws that would function in the real world could be 'bent'. Not saying that Doctor Who created the VR concept, but just that the names ended up very similar.

 

[Doctorwhovian]

Also regarding Missy:

Spoiler: season 9

It's possible that the season 9 opener will explain how Simm's dying Master became Missy, possibly involving the Sisterhood of Karn from Night of the Doctor and earlier, Brain of Morbius. Perhaps Simm Master escapes from Gallifrey's dimension somehow-probably taking a TARDIS with him-goes to Karn, drinks one of their potions which triggers the regeneration into Missy, and then sets in motion her plan.Somehow this might tie into season 9's story arc somehow, and perhaps Missy is even a member of the Sisterhood, who are seen as witches in Brain of Morbius at least. Hence the title, " "The Witch's familiar". Note that is all mainly speculation

 

[RoJoHen]

And instead of focusing on what they should have been focusing on -- namely, how the hell did the Master escape Gallifrey?! -- we got a weird Cyberman story that didn't really make much sense.

Yeah, but that harkens back to the classic era, where the Master is frequently seen left for dead or even apparently actually dead, but hen he returns with no explanation of how he survived. Moffat's just sticking to form here. If anything, it was RTD who went against the grain with the Master providing a detail account of his resurrection in The Sound of Drums, and then we actually see his resurrection in The End of Time.

It's not that he came back from the dead that bothers me. It's that he came back from Gallifrey, a planet that is supposedly locked in another universe. That particular plot point is too important to just glaze over.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

RTD was wise to depict the Master's return, because he had previously set up that the Time Lords are all dead but the Doctor. Moffat, on the other hand, goes for the mystery route - but its a nifty gamble, because what fans do want is to see Simm regenerate into the Mistress. And the fact she's back also doesn't mean Gallifrey's back - only that he somehow left...

That said, another thing that annoys me is how she was around for YEARS. Like she wasn't just freshly regenerated. Which means, another one of RTD's tropes thrown out of the window.

Really, Moffat's been slowly rewriting RTD's NuWho, it seems.