Doctor Who Series 11 Discussion

[Taryn Tailz]

We've had a couple of Hartnell stories this series, but that was the first McCoy story we've been given. I could easily imagine 'Kerblam' appearing alongside the likes of 'Paradise Towers' and 'The Happiness Patrol', while the robots were very reminiscent of 'The Greatest Show in the Galaxy'.

Killer Bubble Wrap is pretty much the entire history of Doctor Who, so it's nice to see it actually getting acknowledged on screen. 

I really liked the fact that Yaz wanted to find the warehouse workers daughter in order to return her Father's necklace. That moment felt like a continuation of this series attempts at making life actually seem worth something (with a few exceptions, such as the security guard in the first episode). More often than not the warehouse workers death would just have been glossed over, so it's nice to see the characters acknowledging such occurrences. Doctor Who does have something of an unfortunate history in terms of disposable characters sacrificing their lives in order to save the main characters, even without any apparent motivation, so it matters that Yaz wanted to find his daughter and acknowledge his death.

All things considered though, that was another average episode. There really wasn't anything wrong with it - everything it did it did competently - but it's also very hard to imagine wanting to sit down and watch 'Kerblam' again for any reason other than a complete watch-through of the series.

[IndigoPrime]

Yeah, that was fine. Would have been nice to have had a scene with the worker's kid (show not tell). Feels like they didn't have the money to match their ambition this week. Also: abrupt, weirdly edited ending. Man, do they need better script editors.

[Andy Lambert]

I'll admit I didn't have very high expectations for this episode but it turned out better than I thought it would. Possibly the most traditional episode this series so far.

[JamesC]

I thought that was loads of fun! There were lots of funny little nuggets. Loved that The Doctor had ordered a fez. Loved the bit about hiding in alcoves. Just good, fun family telly.

[Taryn Tailz]

Also: abrupt, weirdly edited ending. Man, do they need better script editors.

Yeah, that was very strange. It felt as though we were meant to be waiting for something to happen, only it didn't; almost as though a special effect hadn't worked so the cast were just left standing for a little too long.

[Colin YNWA]

I'll admit I didn't have very high expectations for this episode but it turned out better than I thought it would. Possibly the most traditional episode this series so far.

Funnily enough I kinda agree and that exposed its biggest problem for me. Love the story, the execution was so rushed nothing felt fully formed. It had enough twists and turns and potential cliffhangers to make an old school  4 parter (or more). That way the tension would have had more time to build, the villian had a more formed motivation and all those cooridors could have well and truly been run down.

As it was great ideas ruined by being rushed...

... mind more importantly the kids LOVED it and were well and truly spooked by the robots and that's what really matters.

[IndigoPrime]

From what I hear, kids all over are back into the show in a big way, and so it's got that right. And I still adore the new theme and intro sequence.

[Dudley]

I'm still a few episodes behind, but can I just declare my love for Chibnall? No idiotic playing with time travel concepts too large to satisfactorily do in 45 minutes, no love saves the day shenanigans, no massive overarching continuity that leaves my kids puzzled and annoyed... just an odd, intellectual, kind hero with a box that means they can have an adventure at any time, and in any place. And some friends who allow for explanations of the complicated stuff. The doctor is for kids again, thank goodness.

[Robin Low]

Yeah, but would you?  I mean she's supposed to be his girlfriend, but WTF is she getting out of it?  It's either a rather disturbing view of a woman's role in a romantic relationship, or it's basically Deep Throat remade for a tween audience.  I believe the usual phrase is "poor taste", but given the circumstances, I think we'll settle for "badly judged".

(I accept the counter argument that it could be meant to show that people with physical disabilities can have meaningful sexual relationships, but the overriding comedy twang of the whole episode makes it impossible for me to agree).

Maybe they just kiss?

Despite the naff monster, I quite liked that episode. I thought it was far kinder and affectionate to Doctor Who fans than some of them deserve.

And then there's Jeff Lynne and the Electric Light Orchestra. Coz you can't beat a bit of ELO.

Regards,

Robin

[Leigh S]

Kerblam! was another decent story - again more reminiscent of 70s Who for this old codger,  But, yes, script editing aint what it used to be.

Main issue, [spoiler]why did the Dr set the robots to blow up the bubblewrap?  The robots weren't a risk? Surely, it would have made massively more sense that the kid had set the robots to do that, thus A: ensuring the bubble wrap detonated and B: making the robots directly to blame? 

Having the Dr get them to set it off made zero sense!  It could have been more dramatic as well - the Doctor thinks she has fixed it by setting them to deliver back to the hangar, then all the robots start opening the parcels.... [/spoiler]

[TordelBack]

Maybe they just kiss?

"We've even got a bit of a love life", says Elton, with the slab resting on his lap.
"Oh let's not go into that", says Ursula.

Hmmm.  You're a more charitable man than I, Mr. Low!

[Dandontdare]

Each episode of this series seems to start off with a good concept, but once they've got that in the bag, they haven't apparently wasted any further effort on the storytelling. Usual template is that the Dr & Co arrive, get told the plot and then watch events unfold, with a bit of running and screwdriver action along the way. Okay, maybe the old stories were a little too complicated, but I think it's doing the kids a disservice to say they can't follow any timey-wimey twists and have to have things dumbed down to this level. I thought this one was better than most, more depth to the story, less mawkish and with more agency by the principals, but still felt a little thin (but I'm not a kid, so I know I'm not the target audience. That didn't seem to matter before, but is very noticeable now).

The new music has grown on me - I love that dropped beat in the intro just before the woo-woos kick in.

[IndigoPrime]

Main issue

Yep to all of that. And it's precisely the sort of thing a good script editor should be sorting out.

[BPP]

Good bits

The theme tune
The fez
The robots
The robots 1.0
The straight up murdering that girl.

Bad bits
Ryan - possibly the most boring voice on television
The doctor being assigned cleaning duty
The waste of Lee Mack
The 'I only had one present once' thing.
The suit on the not-bad-guy-guy (could only have been less subtle if it said Wrong Un #misdirection on the back)
The oh so busy packing line that wasn't busy at all.
The belt jump (lols at 80s kids tv level effect)
The pauses to talk about feelings (every bloody week)
The random firing lasers to destroy organic matter (nobody heard of targeting?)
The doctor blowing up all the robots for no reason
The absolute waste of the sinister robots
Oh yeah...

...Hold on, the lesson of this was that the algorithm / capitalism was 'innocent' and that humans driven to protest low employment economies were evil murderers. What?

Bonus points for the company shutting for 4 weeks (yeah, right) but the workers getting 2 weeks paid holiday. Guess that's meant to be generous. Here, have 2 weeks involuntary unemployment. And then back to never seeing their families again. What?

There was a semblance of a good story here, some great design work, a potential for a great new foe and they threw it all away on more bad uninteresting Scooby gang stuff (she needs to leave them at home) and some very wonky thought out plotting.

And you know, Amazon IS evil.

[TordelBack]

It's increasingly hard to enjoy this series in isolation. YouTube, despite my efforts to massage its view of my tastes using the methods outlined upthread, keeps serving up out-and-out racists with opinions on Dr Who.  Today it was Bowlestrek,  who spent 10 minutes ranting about Whitaker being a "racist and sexist" the BBC's "category hires", and how The Tsuranga Conundrum is by far the worst Who episode ever (I'd love to see his definition of 'ever' - it's not even the worst episode this season), before dismissing Demons of the Punjab as a deliberate attempt to replace Britain's culture with a different and wholely incompatible one (whether he meant Hindu or Muslim, or maybe Indian or Pakistani,  he didn't say - probably because he doesn't see any difference: they're all brown,  aren't they? ).

I wonder if he knows the episode is set in 1947, after those 'incompatible cultures' had been exploited as the source of Britain's wealth for 200 years, had just made a huge contribution to winning two World Wars, and before they had become an integral, even definitive, part of British culture over the succeeding 70 years.

It really makes it hard to be critical of what is a flawed show, when it's pissing off the kind of people I would happily see locked up for incitement to hatred. Yes,  yes,  I'm part of the problem,  got the memo thanks.