What are you watching on the television?

Good ol' Weeping Angels, making everyone afraid of statues. I feel the episode has held up, albeit for slightly different reasons. It's still spooky as all heck, but the way the whole storyline weaves together is a absolute treat. It's a proper time travel story, something I really like with Moffat's storylines in general.

John Simm's the Master was just as amazing as I remembered it, charming, creepy, evil, and absolutely demented, all at the right moments in the right amounts. Still gonna have to dock a point for that awful CG Doctor in the final episode though, only blemish on an otherwise perfect trilogy.

I loved the ending of that one, with the psychic satellites and the Doctor going Super Saiyan.

Series 4 really tests my patience in parts, ugh. I imagine I'm probably alone in that outside Partners in Crime and the Sontaran duo the first half of the series is blegh as all hell. Thankfully the amazing and excellent Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead restored my faith, which was wavering very badly. Speaking of that pair of episodes

Super spoilers:

I remember the one where it was a war that seemed like it had gone on for years but had actually been a week, and obviously the original River story. Other than that, I didn't get along with the Donna stories at all.

Oooh, I remember a few! I like Donna as a character, though, so I'm biased. There was the Ood one, the ones already mentioned, the one with the Daleks at the end, Midnight (which I thought was amazing telly)... other ones...

Midnight was okay, actually. I forgot it was from that season. The Dalek stuff was okay but way overdone. All about that Bernard Cribbings...

Drunkalilly wrote:

I remember the one where it was a war that seemed like it had gone on for years but had actually been a week, and obviously the original River story. Other than that, I didn't get along with the Donna stories at all.

The Doctor's Daughter?  Yeah, that was one of the episodes that tested my patience if I'm honest.  Great concept, but I wasn't a fan of the execution.  Same with Planet of the Ood.



Anyhow, all finished now, at the expense of my sleeping schedule.  Turn Left and Midnight were good (actually good is an understatement for Midnight, excellent episode), but I'd agree with Drunka, the finale was way overdone, and not in the glorious amazing way series 3's was.  There's a point where you go so over the top something stops being a huge "hell yessss!!!" moment and starts being meh, the finale went over that in my opinion.  Don't get me wrong, the finale was fun, but when compared to the previous series?  Doomsday?  Last of the Timelords?  The Parting of the Ways?  It's nothing compared to them I'm afraid.  

Honestly I think it's the problem that happens when you try to cram too much fanservice in to something on top of trying too hard.  Says a lot that the standout part of the finale was the Doctor and Wilfred at the end.  In my opinion at least.

General musings of the main series:

Well, with that done I'll watch The End of Time to cap off Ten and Russell's era then have a break before plunging in to the next era of the show.



EDIT: End of Time finished. That is how you close out a series. Second time and I still bawl my eyes out at the end.

Best episode of eleven's run by far.

Finished series 7 and the specials.  I'M SO SAD RIGHT NOW!  That whole last scene in the Tardis with the bow tie, and the hallucination, and the everything!  

You know, I knew ages back when I eventually saw the end of Eleven, my favourite Doctor, I'd tear up.  And here I am, tearing up!     Hit me in the feels even more than Ten's end!  

End of an era. Farewell madman with a box! Guess tomorrow I'll see what the twelfth Doctor has in store!

And you bet your behind this warrants a triple post.  Triple posts are cool!

Gogglebox is back and I'm watching it (right now, in fact, off the planner). The opening quarter of it was not so good but it's getting back into its stride now. Hooray and hurrah!

For the first time in a long long time I've actually got a few programs on the go at once - The Walking Dead and Better Call Saul have started back up again and I've also started watching Limitless and Lucky Man. The former are as good as ever and the latter pair whilst definitely falling into the "man with special abilities solves crimes" genre are entertaining nonetheless.

I popped onto Netflix the other night and saw BCS was back. They kept that quiet! Enjoying it again.

Best villain in NuWho?  Best villain in NuWho.

Spoiler:

Oh god series 8 was amazing, a few really big clunkers (Robots of Sherwood, can't say I'd have managed to finish that one if it wasn't with a new Doctor, Gatiss can do some great epiosdes but he seems to have a nack for also contributing my least liked ones too) but the payoff was ultimately completely and absolutely worth it when Black Water and Death in Heaven rolled round.  

Capaldi was absolutely fantastic as the Doctor, for me managing to completely carry even the clunkers with his brilliance, might be early days yet but he may just make it to my second favourite modern Doctor!  Clara finally getting a proper character arc was also very appreciated, being more a plot device than a character in series 7 I wasn't massively keen on her previously, and while she doesn't top Amy (who can though) I enjoyed her run a lot more now.  

Series 8 super spoilers:

Now to twiddle my thumbs and await the release of the series 9 set in a couple of weeks!

Wasn't it a rollicking series? For my money, Capaldi is terrific in the role and

Spoiler:

~~~

We've been watching Happy Valley which, if you knew nothing about it, would sound like a children's programme, I reckon. It is, of course, anything but. The first series was challenging and it looks like this second one will not let up. Hooray?

I love Capaldi. What did you think of Listen? For my money, that was one of the all-time great episodes.

Listen was absolutely fantastic and a series highlight for me, Moffat went back to the creepy stuff and produced another edge of your seat episode!  As usual with his best it had some great twists and turns and played around with what we find scary on a basic level, loved every second of it!

I would say the following series is better overall, but no one episode is as good as that one was. Absolutely stellar, and easily in my top three of all New Who.

I was actually re-watching the end of Heaven Sent today, and I think that might be one of my favourite episodes ever. Bloody clever, and "personally I'd say that's one hell of a ****" is a brilliant line.

Surely this should all go in the Who thread though? I don't watch much TV, so don't visit this thread a lot unless something I like is on, so as a result nearly missed this discussion.

I'm still on the strict avoidance of threads related to the series blackout until I catch up that I was on when I started my marathon of nuwho (spoilers are the dalek!) last december, and strictly speaking it is a tv series.  

If its any difference once I've seen series 9 and don't have to fear spoilers (at long last!) I'll be shifting over there for Doctor Who posts!

Ah, that's fair. Series 9's the best series of NuWho in my opinion - you're in for a treat!

*does the 'House of Cards is back' dance*

Balladeer wrote:

Ah, that's fair. Series 9's the best series of NuWho in my opinion - you're in for a treat!

I feel like I say that every season, but they're never as good once I go back to them. This was a solid series, but I didn't feel it had many stand-out episodes or a great series arc. I'd probably say the first Matt Smith series was my favourite.

ZeroJones wrote:

*does the 'House of Cards is back' dance*

*Does the 'only just finished season one' awkward shuffle*

Just discovered Derek. Love it!

I'm going to start season 4 HoC as soon as I can but I just watched all of the first season of Fear The Walking Dead which is okay.

Caroline Aherne should not have been allowed to record the narration for Gogglebox this week - she does not sound well.

In other news, we're trying to get into The Last Leg in Zero Castle. The first one we saw was ropey but last week's was ace. Best out of three in about half an hour?