- Deep Breath
- Into the Dalek
- Robot of Sherwood
- Listen
- Time Heist
- The Caretaker
- Kill the Moon
- Mummy on Orient Express
- Flatline
- In the Forest of the Night
- Dark Water
- Death in Heaven
- Last Christmas
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voters
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As a Series goes, I really like it, even if I think it has some of the weakest Outings in the Capaldi Era and the revived Show in general. There are also some Aspects which I am also not too thrilled about but still a very good Series.
As for the Votes: Mummy and Flatline win it for me, both just excellent Episodes and the High Points (for me) in this Series.
5 Likes
honestly i disagree with some of ur points the only ep i find that is straight out shit is into the forest of the night,some underrated eps that deserve more love for me are robot of sherwood,time heist and caretaker.
3 Likes
MOTOE and Flatline are the highlights for me, but a series with slim pickings.
Deep Breath goes on for far too long, and sags in the middle. If it’d been cut down to 50mins, it’d be a contender for one of the best openers IMO. Listen is overrated, Time Heist is dull, Dark Water is fine but dragged down by Death in Heaven, and the rest are middling or average at best.
4 Likes
Cool,heavy disagree but ok,idk why so many people dislike Series 8
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This is one of my favourite seasons, so being limited to two options is difficult.
The Caretaker has always been one of my favourites, and then Mummy on the Orient Express is just brilliant, so those are my final votes.
Really this whole season is great, with the notable exceptions of Listen and In the Forest of the Night. Kill the Moon is solid for most of its runtime, with really only the lacklustre science and final scenes holding it back from being great.
7 Likes
Series 8 I think is quite the underappreciated season of Doctor Who. It rarely ranks highly in people’s favorites, but I think it’s great, especially in the hindsight of the Capaldi era as a whole, seeing the bigger picture.
I like the turn to a colder, very alien, sarcastic, outwardly seeming to be uncaring Doctor, like elements of 1, 3, and 6 in their early days. I like it both because I enjoy that kind of a Doctor, and as a starting point for where 12 would be in his two subsequent seasons.
I like the development of Clara Oswald as a character. Giving her more of a life back home that she had to try to balance with traveling with the Doctor worked very well. There was this interesting push and pull between her two lives, and it really highlighted her flaws and the nuance of her character. And of course we see the beginnings of her starting to try and be more and more like the Doctor, one of the core story elements of Series 9, which shows us what happens when she no longer has the main thing from her home life to balance it out.
As for the episodes, I’m with Mattie, the only truly bad one is In the Forest of the Night, with Kill the Moon just barely being saved by the 12 and Clara parts. Listen, Mummy, Flatline, Time Heist, and the finale I think are all particular highlights for me. Series 8 is a top 5 modern series season for me.
7 Likes
I like series 8. 12th Doctor is great and so is Clara. The only episode I don’t like is In The Forest of the Night like others have said.
2 Likes
Wow, I didn’t realize I’ve seen the entirety of this series except for Time Heist. I enjoyed every episode I watched with the lowest mark going to “Into the Dalek”. Everything else is 3-5 stars (I gave “ItFotN” four stars. Danny Pink was a great character).
5 Likes
Oh I think Into the Dalek is great too, forgot to mention it in listing off favorites. It does something different with a Dalek with how it’s turned its hatred toward the Daleks themselves (which is a rather different idea to Dalek, one I see it compared to often), and getting to see the inner workings was neat too. And it poses an interesting question about what a good Dalek is, or if that’s even possible. But the big thing I like is how it kind of establishes what this early 12th Doctor is. It shows how he’s not the type to waste time worrying about how people are feeling in the way he saves as many of their lives as he can. I like the way he uses deception and allows the one guy’s death to at least be useful when he’s already unable to be saved, another length he’s willing to go to. He’s a pragmatist in a much more direct way than Doctors before him, and this episode is a showcase of that. And there’s also the Dalek “looking into his soul” and seeing hatred, especially towards the Daleks, which feeds into his questioning of whether or not he’s a good man.
4 Likes
I enjoy series 8 a lot more now than when I first watched it. Originally, I wasn’t a fan of the shift towards a darker tone, but I think looking back at it with the added context of seasons 9 and 10, as well as just being more open to the change in tone, I appreciate it more. Also, Robots of Sherwood gets way too much hate. I thought it was a super fun episode.
5 Likes
I also loved that Clara started to really get some development. She ended up being my favorite companion by the end of the season.
2 Likes
Robin Hood was great too,we need more characters like him for a new episode.
2 Likes
I love series 8 and think it’s broadly on the same level as series 9, so it’s a shame it’s generally treated as 12’s worst series. My unpopular series 8 opinion is that Deep Breath is not just the best episode from that series but also the best ever first episode for a Doctor or indeed for a series. It’s my second-favourite story from all of New Who at the moment, though this is subject to change. Some of my reasons for this are:
- the way it handles regeneration. It’s by far the most interesting post-regenerative story because of the way it is interpreted – the Doctor choosing an older face is used as a symbol for his becoming more honest about who he is, i.e. literally unmasking (and there is use of much mask imagery, like the skin mask he disguises himself with, and Vastra’s veil). The new doctor is bluntly honest, abrasive, and weird; he makes Clara feel uncomfortable, as at first she sees him as an entirely different person. For this reason the whole episode, to me, is an allegory for autism and unmasking your true self and neurodivergent traits, only to be met with disgust and a lack of understanding from neurotypicals, and the gradual acceptance that may come about. The doctor relates to a dinosaur and him not being human is something Vastra emphasises to Clara – feeling alien is something common amongst neurodivergent people and it’s a reason why a lot of us relate to the Doctor. This episode really epitomises 12 as a character to me, and his traits of honesty about himself and coming across as rude are used so well here, and are really relatable.
- it’s length makes it feel a lot less rushed than lots of other New Who stories. I love the pacing of it, how there are interludes of time passing like when Clara is staying with the Paternoster Gang after the Doctor runs off near the beginning of the story, and then again at the very end when she isn’t sure he’s going to come back for her. As well as this there are many moments when the plot moves quickly, and the shifts make these more exciting. I’ve rewatched it more times than any other doctor who tv episode, and every time it never feels much longer than a normal episode – it’s so engaging I barely notice the time passing –but the story definitely makes the most of the extra time it has.
- some of which are the excellent exchanges between characters. Here I’m thinking especially of the scene in the restaurant with 12 and Clara, when they first meet up after the newspaper trap. Their dialogue has a wonderful mixture of comedy and seriousness and fascinating character moments. Every time I watch it the reveal that no-one there is breathing gives me chills. Just such an engaging scene, as are pretty much all of them in Deep Breath.
- the half faced man is a great antagonist. The scene when the Doctor references the ship of theseus but then sees his own reflection is so good. All the best villains are ones comparable in some way to the protagonist. More superficially, I’m a big fan of the whole victorian aesthetic robots. And on top of that the 1890s setting is fun as ever, yes its overused but I feel like Deep Breath does it best
- another thing Deep Breath does best is the Paternoster Gang – I love them in all their appearances but it’s in this story that they feel most fleshed-out as characters. We get more insight into their daily life, and all three of them feel much less like just comic relief
- there’s a DINOSAUR!! It’s a really great subversion of expectations – twice. First, there’s a prehistoric creature in the 19th century, the anachronism is fun and interesting. Then, you expect it to be a big problem but in fact it’s only there to immediately become a victim of the real antagonists. Another way that this episode plays on appearances vs reality.
I want to go on but this is far too long already. Basically, Deep Breath is perfection and deserves more appreciation!
7 Likes
Series 8 is a fantastic season, though to me it’s the weakest Capaldi season. While Forest is the only episode I don’t care for there are a number of aspects of the season I didn’t like.
I wouldn’t say the Doctor’s characterisation is bad, but I don’t care for it. The Doctor has always been a socially awkward person and I enjoy that, but I think S8 pushes that a bit too far into anti-social territory. This anti-social personality is at its worse when the Doctor interacts with Danny. Their constant antagonism towards each other really drags things down for me.
(Series 8 is still good and I still love it)
3 Likes
What does everyone think of Mummy on Orient Express?
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Amazing Episode. Deserves its Praise. Love it.
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Pretty good innit.
1 Like
Amazing episode
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Fantastic episode, one of the best of S8, did not believe for a single second Clara would leave but it was nice of them to try. A great follow-up to Kill the Moon, and showed that despite the Doctor being rough and difficult to deal with, he still cares for people and still tries to save people. I also love a bit of toxic romance. Absolute peak
5 Likes