flux chapter 1. shoving a load of exposition and build up can be a good or bad thing, this works so much better and was wayyy more better coherent than timeless ngl. the final scene showing all the characters that will come into play for this series was a nice add too
I do think Jodie has found more of her doctor, she’s really closed off and secretive to a fault. She can get pretty mean at times (which I want them to dig more into) I think I’d like if they lean into to her more negative aspects and have the more 2-d happy go lucky smith-Tennant stuff as what she wants to act like but is a lot more closed off. John bishop was also nice addition to this
I usually love when the Doctor gets dark, but this time it feels forced and indecisive. So the Doctor stays needlessly secretive about Gallifrey and their past in Series 12 only to have it revealed later that a large part of her past is hidden from her. Then she decides in the same episode that who she was doesn't define who she is now, never has and never will. Okay. It renders the Timeless Child twist emotionally useless, but okay. Except now she's done a 180 and I can't tell if the hypocrisy is intentional because everything is so poorly communicated in Chibnall Who. Why does it bother her now? How does she think it will affect the present? Why is she so secretive again when she learned (I think, it's hard to tell) that it has consequences, especially when the Doctor used to confide in their companions about a literal double genocide they committed? I don't have high hope that Chibnall will address any of these questions in the 3 episodes and 3 specials he has left.
When I finished the episode I knew it was just a set up episode and it felt like it. Karvanista is a good boy, I liked Dan quite a bit and Yaz (even though yes rehashing Clara to an extent) has grown on me in one episode more than 2 series. 13 is following her series 12 version which I'm personally not a fan but idk it might grow on me this series. Overall I liked it, excited to see where it's heading. Also this cliffhanger is Top 5 best New Who cliffhanger material like holy shit.
The last (and only) five hour movie we've had was Children of Earth soooo Granted, we've got no Euros, but all the same I'm excited. Pace and structure was fucked, but I think that's inevitable in setting everything up in the first installment (which, I my opinion, was the right call). Russell is a master of structure, cutting between scenes in just the right places, and I'm not sure even he could have pulled this one off. I'm judging this episode after War of the Sontarans. If the pacing's fucked there too, this is gonna be a rough viewing experience. Like trying to swim in a stormy ocean, clutching at dog paws and Sontaran batons for buoyancy.
Oh I adored the dialogue segues between scenes. "Who else knows?" cutaway to the people who know, natural reference to Dan's girlfriend, then we cut to his girlfriend. Small, but there's loads of them and it's so tight.
Everyone else seems to be saying it's really high energy. Honestly I found it a little bit slow. Felt like there were shots of characters walking or just doing stuff that I feel could have been shaved off. All I expect from the Sontarans is a fun(ish) mashup of your average Chibnall historical and the Poison Sky. As long as I get that, I'll be fine.
Before I watched the Halloween Apocalypse, I was expecting it to be a scary, mild horror kind of Doctor Who story, since the episode is marketing itself as a Halloween special. But then I actually watched the episode and It’s really not that at all. The Halloween Apocalypse is a hectic, confusing, question inducing story. There were so many sub-plots and side character introductions, without there being much of a point. The episode took so long to get to the whole point of it. With most episodes, the audience knows what the story is about within the first five or ten minutes. When I watched this story, I honestly had no idea what it was about until two thirds of the way through. The episode introduces this woman who knows about weeping angels and other timey wimey stuff. The Doctor has never met her before and she says she knows the Doctor, like a River Song introduction in Silence In The Library. The Halloween Apocalypse introduces a character like that, without that character being a main protagonist and we don’t see much of them in the episode, and hey, that’s just great writing. (I’m being sarcastic) As Sam said, if someone who was new to the show tuned in to this episode, they would be wondering what the hell is going on. I liked that dog man character Karvanista, and Daniel Lewis was good, but apart from that it’s a mediocre story.
For myself, I've genuinely enjoyed the 13th Doctors era quite a bit. No not everything has been perfect but neither was any other era. I simply adored this episode though. Visuals (mostly) breath taking and while it is very "here is everything you'll see for the next couple weeks" I think it gives a certain amount of "oh shit"ness to it. Like not only is The Doctor trying to find the division, not only are Sontarans prepping for attack, not only is there a weeping angel loose, not only is there some discount Cenobites threating the Doc but also an anti matter cloud just zipping through the universe? Bang, bombastic stakes, just how I love it 🙂
My partner, who has never sat down to watch Doctor Who before, found it confusing and shit, and assumed there was loads of prior knowledge they were missing. I think it says a lot that the only other story they've seen is half of Ghost Light and found that made more sense.
I've been watching since 2005 and kept thinking, "have I missed an episode"? All these characters who the Doctor already knows, or who know the Doctor, and I've never seen any of them before in my life. It took me until it was nearly over before I realized the guy who handcuffed 13 and Yaz at the beginning was Karvanista. Weird lack of exposition and difficult-to-see VFX really did not do it any favours.
Honestly the opening scene was so cringe I think it made it hard for me to be objective about the rest of the episode. Felt to me like there were a million characters and I don’t know who any of them are yet and don’t know why I should stick around to find out. I can’t get excited for Chibnall’s stories because I just know he’s going to fuck it up somehow.
Finally someone mentions the trick or treat line. I physically cringed when she said that. Weirdest moment in the episode and there were dog people and crystal face aliens...
I agree that people are saying the characters have personalities now, or that Dan's their favorite character, a bit too soon. It looks like they _could_ now, but they also might not. I do like that the Thirteenth Doctor was probably her least passive and engages in Doctor-y action in this one rather than just being told information and talking to herself about it.
If anyone's interested, I've just started making Dr Who reviews (ish) on a different channel: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cVg2zhHqfRU.html Sam's kindly done the intro for me, (some footage of it you can see in this video). Tho upon reflection the title maybe slightly clickbaity...
This is a fairly accurate summation actually. I know Chibs is meant to do better with serialised storytelling (Rather than rushing every ending and plot in 50 minutes) and the look of War of the Sontarans has me genuinely excited. I just hope I can continue to properly enjoy Doctor Who at a large level again. Let me finally feel comfortable and enjoyment around 13
My first thought coming out of this was that this is the concept that I would come up with if I was hired to write a Doctor Who movie or miniseries. This is not a compliment.
Must admit I was impressed by what The Halloween Apocalypse put forward. I'm not gonna have any expectations going forward but it's nice to have some stakes for a change and that cliffhanger, I just wanna know how they get out of it, I know that the Tardis might just do an emergency protocol thing and materialise somewhere in the past but even with that probable inevitable event with the Tardis acting up, she'd probably shut down anywhere she lands now.
It's ambitious and experimental which I appreciate but this first part is a mess. I am excited for the next part though. I'm hoping Chapter 1 just had growing pains. I dislike the "It's setup, what do you expect?" Attitude people take when defending it. Setup doesn't mean sloppy and unfocused. I don't think 13 and Yaz have been properly characterised but they both felt different to me. I completely agree about the Dog people, great idea and the highlight for me.
I'll be honest I don't think doctor who shouldn't do this kind of big stories with a full season once in a while and I would have been fine if the whole jodie era was like that and then they changed with the next doctor it would have given her a distinct thing going on for her era and most likely it would have worked better for chibnal but oh well this episode looked promising atleast I hope it keeps being good by the end.
The episode certainly isnt perfect, but has easily been the best 13 episode for me. I really hated S11 and 12 and obviously 13's character isn't magically well developed or coherent now, but at the very least she is likeable. From that first scene I was amazed to find myself loving 13, as she had finally gotten the mix if epic heroism with le quirky dialogue down. Naturally if Chibbers cant stick the landing this episode will go down several points, and it's a bit obvious he's trying to copy some grandiose Marvel-esque story, but I am very happy with the first episode. It feels very Classic Who-y too, which I'm sure was intentional. The cliffhanger had that perfect feel of certain doom, doctor looks at camera and says some epic line
The way that the doctor's knowledge is presented it probably should have corrupted Clara. And a retry of that would be pretty fucking awesome. I get its kind of a trope but it's a good one. Edit: and it would especially work in Chib's run given that massive emphasis is placed on how the master's new knowledge corrupted him. Again. It would be perfect to apply this to companions too.
@@SamyulDavis yeah I get it won't happen. And for it to truly be satisfying it would have to happen to a character who's already had a chance to develop. But it would be nice.
My personal thought is I have to judge Flux as a whole. At the Beeb said this is going to be essentially a 4 hour movie which is great but I can't judge it on the first part alone. It sets up a lot of stuff I feel excited for but it isn't really a story on its own
I don't really have feelings about this episode, it was alright, I don't hate it but I don't love it. I'm more interested in the bigger picture. Episode 1 felt like a super mess, overstuffed with literally everything. Anything set up in this needs to have pay off because the last time Chris set up something and then paid it off it was the destruction of Gallifrey and a mysterious incarnation of the Doctor and the pay off was... a powerpoint presentation.
I'd quite like to know that too. Maybe he said something in a past video but like this it just feels weird because we don't know his reasoning. I feel like the episode she wrote is where 13 felt most like the Doctor tbh
Chibnall is just copying the Moffat playbook here. Throw in lots of different stuff, some timey-wimey weirdness and the end of the universe. Except Chibnall has turned it up to 11, like he’s trying to out-Moffat Moffat. Let’s hope he can make it work!
Calling it now Chibnall is taking notes from the Leekley Bible I don't think SWARM or his female companion our the doctors parents I'm thinking that the character of Professor Jericho is the Doctors dad
For all its flaws, I found it the most enjoyable episode since series 10. I wonder if it’s a coincidence that The Swarm contains the letters m,a,s,t,e,r?
It's hard for me to critique this episode, because it didn't.... really... feel like an *episode*. It was just bunch of disparate scenes jumbled together. It didn't seem to have a plot, what it had (IMHO) was the *promise* of plot. It was establishing all its major players so that the plot can happen *later*.
when i saw it i was iffy but john i like but do hope he get something out of it the dog was so funny at first i was like "seriously our new villain" but slowly i respect the idea of the aliens tho the actor often sound a bit muffled and should have been dubbed at some points mr freeze.....love the suit but i can't take his face seriously the weeping angels......not really as i just finished the weeping angels mobile app on steam in 2 hours(and got a full refund lol) so i don't fully care for them here the lady might be interesting, tho i did say "did captain jack turn female" when she said she waited over all is a bit rushed (espelly when i didn't know what is flux as google didn't help me) but i'm willing to try but not getting my hopes up
The dialogue is soooooooo clunky and unnatural in this and the tell dont show is in full force. The chibnal era has always been awful with dialogue but has it always been quite this bad? Maybe it was but I just edited out of my memory. I do like the high stakes, aesthetics and epicness of it though, feels kinda starwarsey which I guess is a nice new vision for this particular series going forward. It was of course cluttered to all hell but that is emblamatic of the era. I hope next week offers a more focused and cohesive chapter with the sontarans. Oh and chibnal actully contributed a really cool villian in the swarm and interesting and compelling new species concept to the doctor who universe in the form of the dog poeple. Waiting on a big finish release featuring them now haha (preferably with six-y!)
@@SamyulDavis I can understand with dan and dog man, but personally not really seeing it with the rest of the episode. The first scene was by far my least favourite and emblematic of this with insane levels of exposition dumping. Another bad example that comes to mind is the weeping angel encounter when she just had to say 'dont blink or it'll move', that really wasn't necessary at all, the scene very clearly showed that. I guess I just didn't like the amount of handholding in this episode. Also probably didn't help that I happened to watch this directly after rewatching genesis of the daleks haha, watching brlliant doctor who right next to mediocre doctor who always makes the mediocre who seem ten times worse!
Anything that relies on Chinball's imagination and narrative talent is bound to crash and burn. You can throw as much CGI and Jar Jar Abrams style rushing through a story-free story as you like. Sequins on a dog turd - sparkly, but nobody should dig into it ;) :D :D
Torchwood S2 is a near one-man job of Chibnall turning the show around. He's just a madly erratic and sometime superficial writer that's let the side down recently.
To be fair, Children of Earth is the best thing RTD has ever written. I still rank Torchwood S2 higher than most Doctor Who series...and certainly better than S1!
@@SamyulDavis Well... if you'd like to check out something with a little more narrative coherence than we have recently eperienced, and characters with a modicum of interest you might like to peruse this upcoming feature - and in the traditional Doctor Who time slot no less! ;) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vbI1iRp1BHM.html
This is definitely giving off the Chibnal vibes of "Great set up, bad landing" the fact there's 5 more parts is what's giving me hope he'll have room to land with these batshit ideas. Which I'm all for at the moment, but yea not as the new norm.
Sorry Davis but you're wrong. There is no such thing as casual viewers any more. For anything. Nobody casually flips around the channels looking for something to watch. People watch shows. They watch an episode and if they like it they will watch all of it. As quickly as possible. And I think it's clear that Doctor Who's quasi anthology format is no longer a good fit for telly. It should be like this every year from now on if it is to complete with other genre shows at all. Things have to change.
