Series 9

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BBrooks
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Series 9

Post by BBrooks »

This has been a turbulent year for DW, the ratings have fallen, some critics have mauled it and Jenna Coleman announced her departure. For the first time since the late 80's, is DW in trouble?

It kicked off with The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar a Davros origins story (kind of), which had all the blockbusting action you'd expect from a series opener. Some critics said that this was steeped too much in Who-folklore and was for the die-hard fans only. But with 50 years worth of back-story, it's now hard for any writer to do a Davros/Dalek adventure without including it. Julian Bleach was the scene-stealer here, he's a terrific Davros and this story managed to make him scary again, I hope he comes back very soon. I loved the atmospheric & scary Under the Lake/Before the Flood, the ghost's make-up was great and I enjoyed seeing the Twelfth Doctor's guitar skills again. Like we've seen with similar stories (Waters of Mars, Cold War etc.) the claustrophobic setting just made it better and the fine supporting cast gave it 100%. One that I really liked was the deaf character Cass (Sophie Stone, who is also deaf herself), it was good that there was no big issue made of her and Cass just fitted in like everybody else, Sophie's performance was brilliant and I enjoyed watching every scene with her!
The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who Lived started off with a "Vikings vs. Robots" story, with The Doctor helping a small band of warriors defend their village Magnificent Seven-style. The latter was set centuries later and involved a Highwayman called "The Knightmare" (hmm....sounds familiar), I hope Tim Child got his cheque in the post! :-) Maisie Williams was brilliant throughout, in franchises like Highlander we see the darkside of being Immortal and Part 2 certainly kept up that tradition and it was conveyed very well on-screen. Also a nice cameo from Rufus Hound as Sam Swift the Quick, I enjoyed his gallows scene.
The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion saw the return of U.N.I.T which is always a good thing, it's always nice to see these military Earth-based adventures replicating the Pertwee era and now every season has a token U.N.I.T story, long may it continue! The Doctor's big speech at the end was quite moving, Peter Capaldi & Jenna Coleman both proved what great actor's they are, Ingrid Oliver was good as Osgood, did anyone else notice her Seventh Doctor jumper? Mark Gatiss made DW history with Sleep No More, the "first-person" camera shots gave it a Cloverfield/Blair Witch feel and (to my knowledge) it was the first episode to not have the title sequence, the credits should have been cut too, it would have kept the illusion up. The always brilliant Reece Shearsmith with his trademark dark humour was a great addition to this story, the final scene where his face slowly disintegrates was one of this seasons best special effects. Also the sets looked like they'd come straight out of an Alien movie, which gave us loads of corridor scenes, where would Doctor Who be without it's corridor scenes! :-)
The odd Face the Raven saw "Flatline's" Rigsy & the return of Me (Maisie Williams), which showed her running a monster rehab sanctuary of sorts. The idea of masking the monster's appearance to make them look human, was a neat way of saving money/time for the show's make-up department, the Diagon Alley-a-like film set looked nice too. :-) The nightmare world created in Heaven Sent was very well realised, a lot like the Matrix scenes in "The Deadly Assasin", this was The Doctor at his most vulnerable. It had a lot of twists that I didn't see coming and I take my hat off to Peter Capaldi for carrying off this solo-adventure in style.......and as for that cliffhanger, well what can I say. EPIC!!
Gallifrey has RETURNED and The Doctor is BACK in Hell Bent, the Timelords of old are gone and have become egotistical/power-mad dictator's (well Rassilon has anyway). It looked ahead to the future as much as it did the past, with new plot-lines & situations created for later episodes to explore. I was pleased to see the old TARDIS console again, I think it was re-used from the biopic "An Adventure in Time and Space" from 2013. I for one am glad that Clara didn't die after all, her death in FTR will eventually happen when she returns to Gallifrey, but I'm sure Steven Moffat will come up with a solution. I predict a "Clara & Me" spin-off series for Big Finish coming soon! :-)

No, I don't think the show's in trouble yet, but it's always in danger of becoming so. The BBC has moved this series up & down the schedules like a yo-yo, a 7pm slot is all it needs, I feel that the corporation doesn't always give the show the respect it deserves. Not all the fans will have liked this series, but I did!
Canadanne
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Re: Series 9

Post by Canadanne »

I thought it was the best since Series 5, a vast improvement on the last few years. It had some poor episodes - the opening one and that ridiculous mess by Mark Gatiss spring to mind - but overall I enjoyed it. Loved having so many two-parters instead of rushed standalone stories. Peter Capaldi is brilliant and thankfully they're doing a better job of writing for him than they did in his first series. Can't wait to see him with a fresh companion! (I reeeally want it to be Perkins, though I'm sure it won't be.)
Drassil
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Re: Doctor Who Series 9

Post by Drassil »

BBrooks wrote:The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who Lived started off with a "Vikings vs. Robots" story, with The Doctor helping a small band of warriors defend their village Magnificent Seven-style. The latter was set centuries later and involved a Highwayman called "The Knightmare" (hmm....sounds familiar), I hope Tim Child got his cheque in the post! :-)
When you've stolen another bloke's face as the Twelfth Doctor has, stealing another cult TV show's wordplay isn't much of a stretch. Is this not the very image of a plagiarist caught in the act, guilt written all over 'his' face?
Doctor Who Knightmare.jpg
Doctor Who Knightmare.jpg (47.4 KiB) Viewed 5966 times
I trust that Hugo Myatt will be making his feelings known to Peter Davison at H-Con this weekend.
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