[QuickTidal]

McLovin, on 24 December 2014 - 03:15 PM, said:

Finally got a season pass off iTunes and have watched up to THE CARETAKER. I think this season is great and I like Peter Capaldi's take on The Doctor. I also like the three-way dynamic of Clara, Danny & the Doctor. I even enjoyed the obligatory Dalek episode. Great start to the Capaldi era.

Keep watching. Series 8 just continues to improve as Capaldi settles into the role and gives his Doctor facets and quirks. By the end of it I was fully sold on Capaldi.

[Gnaw]

QuickTidal, on 24 December 2014 - 03:22 PM, said:

McLovin, on 24 December 2014 - 03:15 PM, said:

Finally got a season pass off iTunes and have watched up to THE CARETAKER. I think this season is great and I like Peter Capaldi's take on The Doctor. I also like the three-way dynamic of Clara, Danny & the Doctor. I even enjoyed the obligatory Dalek episode. Great start to the Capaldi era.

Keep watching. Series 8 just continues to improve as Capaldi settles into the role and gives his Doctor facets and quirks. By the end of it I was fully sold on Capaldi.

haha. I'd give you some mild poking over that. But then I remember my rants about how bad Smith was.

[QuickTidal]

Poke away!

lol

wait...

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 25 December 2014 - 06:05 AM, said:

I've been watching all day. I've seen The Xmas Carol epi twice and I just got choked up again watching it. It's rare for me to do that honestly. That is just a great epi to me.

Indeed, that's arguaby the BEST of the Xmas specials.

As much as I don't care for MOST of the story of the following year (THE DOCTOR, THE WIDOW, AND THE WARDROBE) it DOES give us that final scene where Amy and Rory tell the Doctor that a place is ALWAYS set for him, which always chokes me up.

Anyways, super excited for tonight's new ep!

[polishgenius]

The Snowmen > The Christmas Invasion >>> Time of the Doctor > Voyage of the Damned >>> A Christmas Carol >>> The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe > The Runaway Bride >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The Next Doctor (which I completely forgot even happened until I just checked the list).



Not hugely looking forward to this, but I'll watch anyway - maybe it'll surprise me.

[Gnaw]

been looking forward to this all week.

what time does this air in Britain?


And the best christmas ep ever is Waters of Mars. Christmas Carol a close second.


edit: I googled that to be sure; it wasn't a christmas episode.

This post has been edited by Gnaw: 25 December 2014 - 05:44 PM

[polishgenius]

Well, I have to say, whatever I was expecting from that, a cross between

Spoiler

Alien and one of Grant Morrison's JLA stories was not it.

It was rather good. Also I've rather liked Natalie Gumede ever since she was on Strictly last year, so her presence was a bonus.

[Gnaw]

Well I'll be the first to say that next season's companion is going to be fantastic imo.

[QuickTidal]

Loved the ep, very much INCEPTION meets ALIEN.

Brillaint viewing, as per usual!

EDIT: Was too tired last night to comment fully. So here goes with spoilers.

Spoiler

Dreams Crabs...coolest alien invention of Moffat since the Weeping Angels. Creepy, useful, Challenging.

Glad Clara is sticking arounf actually. It seems like she REALLY became a solid companion in S8 and I look fwd to S9.

That said, if we could just go ahead and get The luscious Faye Marsay (Shona) as a regular returning compaion, I would be MORE than okay with that.

Capaldi was phenomenal in this from start to finish. I don't think I've enjoyed him this much since THE MUMMY ep. Just great delevery. I love how he's glommed onto Clara now fully, enough that she seems to now be fully allowed to trump the "no hugging" rules...his line when they held hands "I'm not doing the holding hands thing...I hold Clara's hand, but that's IT!" was hilarious. And he didn't struggle when she hugged him on the sleigh.

Speaking of, the Sleighride was pure joy when the Doctor took the reigns with a big grin.

Frost was a perfect Santa and brought enough of who he is as an actor to the role to be really amusing.

That's probaly my second fave Xmas special after A CHRISTMAS CAROL, with TIME OF THE DOCTOR in third place.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 26 December 2014 - 01:26 PM

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 25 December 2014 - 09:35 PM, said:

It was rather good. Also I've rather liked Natalie Gumede ever since she was on Strictly last year, so her presence was a bonus.

Her Corrie role made me dislike her...but yeah she was great in this!

[Gnaw]

QuickTidal, on 26 December 2014 - 04:07 AM, said:

get The luscious Faye Marsay (Shona) as a regular returning compaion, I would be MORE than okay with that.

I thought Journey Blue from Into the Dalek would make a good companion but figured it would be out of the realm because of era / location differences. But as an accessory companion the character could work.

[Gnaw]

Humble bundle is running a Doctor Who audio book bundle. 22+ books

[Inane Babble]

Briar King, on 27 December 2014 - 05:58 AM, said:

Seems I'm the only one who didn't really like it. By far my least fav of the Xmas epis. I was bored to death with it barring the sleigh ride.

Is The Magicians App another special or is that a Season theme for next yr?

You aren't the only one

Spoiler

I think Capaldi could be a better doctor than Matt Smith (who was fantastic) but he hasn't been getting the writing or stories to allow him to display it.

I honestly thought all throughout the sleigh ride that the doctor would realize he was this absurdly happy because they were still trapped in the dream and the dreamcrab were manipulating him. So they weren't actually escaping it, and that the original team was now dying. They then would have had to actually work with Santa to somehow force an escape rather than just think "There's no place like home" and wake up and kill? the parasites who control the dream in the first place.

I don't think enough was done to properly setup or deliver on the reveal where Santa is the DOCTORS view of Santa and thus part of him and not one of the actual humans. His repeated questions to Clara if she really does believe in Santa are the Doctor trying to determine whose Santa it is, but it didn't help me connect the dots during the episode at all, and was blindsided by this and it kicked the immersion out of the episode for me.

Maybe subsequent views of the episode will be better, but not sold on it from the start.

It looks like the magicians apprentice is the first episode of next season? Could be wrong.

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 27 December 2014 - 05:58 AM, said:

Is The Magicians App another special or is that a Season theme for next yr?

First ep of Series 9.

[Jakovasaurus]

Man, who doesn't enjoy a juicy tangerine around Christmas? Yummy!

[Coco with marshmallows]

"There's a film called Alien??

That's REALLY offensive, no wonder everyone keeps invading you"

- Genius bit of dialogue.

[Stalker]

What was up with the tangerine thing? Is that a UK Xmas tradition?

[Coco with marshmallows]

yeah.

Tangerine ALWAYS shows up in the stocking.

My parents still do that for me and i'm 34

Originally stems from wartime rationing (WW2) when fruit was massively difficult to get hold of.

As such a piece of fruit at Christmas was a BIG deal.

[Stalker]

Interesting, thanks! I figured it had to be something like that. I don't remember tangerines featuring so prominently, if at all, in other Christmas episodes though.

[Tsundoku]

I liked it.

Capaldi is already the best of the nuWho by a massive margin, but I do wonder what he could do with better material.
The season was very hit-or-miss for me.
Needs to ditch Clara though.