Episode Discussion: Empire of Death

I can see what you mean. I hope Empire of Death sticks the landing for you :crossed_fingers:

Which era of Doctor Who is your go-to/favourite?

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Third Doctor, Seventh Doctor, Eleventh Doctor. Also a fondness for the First Doctor.

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I guess I’ll do my list after this season is over. But the fact that I have rarely commented on episodes is a good indicator of my feelings. But there’s plenty of Doctor Who for everyone, we all have our favourites & we can’t like it all.

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Hasn’t he said that he isn’t trying to tie it all up tonight but rather that it’s a storyline that spans the two seasons that has been commissioned so far?

I don’t think it’ll all be ties up in a bow in a single episode.

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That makes sense. I don’t pay attention to any behind the scenes stuff, so I wouldn’t be privy. But it wouldn’t make sense to wrap up Ruby’s entire arc when she’s expected for at least another season.

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All of those eras are admittedly rather different than what is on our screens nowadays :slightly_smiling_face:

(I wasn’t particularly excited when it was announced that RTD would be coming back …)

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Well I, for one, have loved most of this series and hope Fifteen can go on for more than 3 years (break the wheel!) and hope we get lots more diverse writers as well.

Looking forward to seeing this at the cinema tonight.

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Yes, really would welcome a lot more diversity in the writers chosen.

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The episodes this season have mostly been good-great for me, with a couple big misses, but something about the season as a whole has felt really lacking. I think there’s a lot factoring into that including the fact that in an 8 episode season, even having just 2 episodes that fall really flat is pretty significant.

Also as many people have said, it feels like we’ve rushed past a lot of the moments that would usually exist between Doctor and companion to really establish their dynamic, and I’m having trouble feeling like I’ve gotten a great sense of either character. Which is a real shame because Ncuti and Millie are absolutely killing it and I love every moment they get to share together, but with multiple Doctor-lites and multiple episodes that have largely split them up in some way, it feels like we haven’t gotten as much as we should.

This season has also highlighted something that was true of his first era and seems to still be true of this one, which is that while I generally enjoy his work as a showrunner, it’s very rare that the episodes he writes are my favorites. Actually just checked and while my current top 50 list has 15 stories from his eras, only 3 of them were written by him.

Definitely loving Ncuti, and really hopeful that with S2 having more diverse writers and not being forced into multiple Doctor-lites it will land a lot better. Right now I think S1 is likely going to land sorta in the middle of my ranking.

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That’s my thing. I generally stay out of threads if all I have is negative things to say. I don’t want to poop on anyone else’s enjoyment.

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As long as you don’t go for the man but the ball I’d say poop as much as you like. Does that sentence make sense to anyone but me? :thinking:

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RTD falls into a category of writer that I enjoy, but only as a writer, not a showrunner+writer. RTD, Moffat, Tarantino, Kevin Smith, are the kind of writers that work best when they have restrictions, or someone who is over there shoulder telling them to tone it down, or change direction.

My feeling is that RTD would work better as a script editor/American style Head Writer. He can lay out the overall story, but let others determine how to get there, with edits etc to help it along.

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Pope, Pop. ?

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That makes perfect sense. :slightly_smiling_face:

As a promoter of the show and laying down the overarching plotlines I think he is a solid choice. But I always find his writing a bit lacklustre. Doesn’t help that he then has chosen to write 10 out of twelve episodes (with the specials) himself, if he had given 4 or 5 more to other writers and done the script editing as you say, then I think the end result would improve massively.

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Hopefully she does return. Gwen would be great to see come back.

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Historically, Russell has managed to stick landings in a way that satisfies himself primarily, with secondary concerns for portions of the fan-base. Narrative coherence is often rather low on the list of concerns, in favor of set piece and spectacle, and I’m not really expecting much different here. If he can pull all the threads together into a knot a la The Moff, I will be pleasantly surprised.

To chime in on the S1/14 discussion, it’s been a fun ride, and ironically the RTD penned episodes are some of the strongest for me. 73 Yards and Dot And Bubble are as good as the show has been in years. The highs have served to highlight the lows in unpleasant ways though. Space Babies felt phoned in, my opinions on Rogue are well documented, and even some aspects of The Legend of Ruby Sunday have felt almost directly contemptuous of the show and its audience, or at least its ability to identify subtext. Some of the writing is so literal, like we need everything spelling out, and I’m not happy about that, because the episodes where everything isn’t spelled out are the ones that land in the most satisfying ways. They had things to say beyond “Let’s get the plot forward” in ways that Space Babies doesn’t.

It’s been very uneven. I would say it’s giving me Season 24 vibes. They’re clearly trying to reinvent, but they’re not sure which parts of the machine need replacing to make it new.

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The BBC just posted this, love it!

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Not the official page showing the Trickster :sob: why are they doing this to me… :rofl:

Also hilarious that to combat the inflatable snake, they’ve gone for a weird CG Mara. Honestly I’m not sure if it looks any better

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Of course, we know the best depiction of the Mara…

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Love it! Yes, that makes me smile.

:heart_eyes:

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