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What The Flux?

Started by Daveycandlish, 07 November, 2021, 08:55:09 PM

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Daveycandlish

I'm surprised there's been no thread for the new series of Doctor Who. Have you all given up on it?
I'm enjoying this latest series for the 13th Doctor. The TARDIS got a little crowded last two series with three others - her Fam - having to have screen time but I enjoyed tonight's episode with the Sontarans. Last week was a little hectic but this week was a good story given time to breath. John Bishop as Dan is an enjoyable addition and I like his doggy guardian - I keep hearing Sean Bean under the fur but it can't be him, he'd have died by now if it was.
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M.I.K.

All that "time is evil" stuff has me half expecting Sapphire and Steel to turn up at any moment.

Jim_Campbell

Like I've already said elsewhere: I won't pretend tonight's episide made a whole lot of sense but I really rather enjoyed it, in a mad 'Brain of Morbius' kind of way. Arguably a very low bar, but easily the best Chibnall-era episode by some way. It actually *felt* like Doctor Who.
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von Boom

Finally forced myself to watch the first episode and both myself and Mrs. VB enjoyed it enough. Mrs. VB proclaimed it was the best one she'd seen with Whittaker (she is not a fan of the Lady Doctor). If they could dial back a little more of the awful humour and stick to the last 10 minutes of this episode they may have something for this series.

wedgeski

Haven't watched this week's yet, but I thought the first one in this series was good fun. As always, my low expectations for the new companions were rightfully exceeded. John Bishop is excellent.

IndigoPrime

I thought it was fun enough, albeit a bit too chaotic, and I'm a bit sad we still don't really know who this Doctor is (beyond a plot device and means for feeding the audience exposition). Mrs IP said: meh.

Dandontdare

I thought the first episode was a hot mess - Instead of teasing out the series-arc, they chose to start with the huge apocalyptic end-of-the-universe climax and then work backwards with excerpts from the main stpories we'll see, effectively spoilering the rest of the series.

Having said that, I did enjoy the second one quite a lot with Napoleonic Sontarans.

I think that companions are getting too smart though whilst the doctor seems less capable - Yaz is running around fixing spaceships and essentially doing solo  missions, whilst the new scouse bloke, after just one confusing adventure, takes it upon himself to break into a Sontaran base armed with a wok. I missed the days when companions were there to scream, get captured or ask exposition questions.

(PS - I too wondered why there was no thread because I didn't connect the title, thought it was just some book or show I didn't know)

Tiplodocus

I've enjoyed both episodes so far. Don't ask me to tell you WHY I enjoyed them but I did.
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Leigh S

I think it's as much of a mess as ever - if getting less things wrong without getting more things right is an improvement, then possibly it is an improvement, but thats about it

SPOILERS
[spoiler]
Karvanista is part of (the only remaining part of) The secret Timelord Organisation and a murderous not to be messed with sort for reasons unclear.

He is also part of a race that is duty bound to help humans in this one specific apocalypse that they have prepared for and have an answer to for reasons unclear

They can stop the Earth being destroyed by covering the Earth with their ship shield (which they didnt plan for, that was just the Doctor's idea!)  Not the moon though, or the Sun presumably.... but somehow we have to assume both survived given that Dan is transported back to Earth a few days after the Flux hits. The Lupari have by this point fecked off to places unclear, depste knowing the Sontarans have landed - what happened to that duty to protect humans?  Doesnt help those executed by the Sontarans.... but that's the reason we are given Karvanista turns back up to save Dan.

"How long have Sontarans been here?" asks the Doctor- TWIST!!! They are all through History in the Crimean Period - Russia is Sontar.  Next scene in 21st C "How long have Sontarans been here?" "2 days"

Sontarans all have a kip at the same time - Strategic Geniuses they may be, but they havent worked out the concept of sentries.

Doctor tells the Sontarans they need to leave now, or they wont leave alive.  Sontarans temporarily inconvenienced, say they will return... General gets shit for blowing up Sontaran ships, Dan is praised for it.[/spoiler]

And thats not even mentioning the Swarm...

Chibnall is just writing in his usual fashion - things happen to move the plot on, then something contradictory happens to move it on again.  Similar to his characterisation and the "moral" messages  - its not OK to kill Sontarans, except when you are wiping them out of existence... The Doctor has a very out of sight out of mind approach to this kind of stuff doesnt she?  Lock the threat in a sealed room or a stasis pod, or stop them ever existing - morally fine.   Actually getting your hands dirty?  perish teh thought!

IndigoPrime

Mm. That's one of the more distasteful aspects of how this Doctor has been written and, sadly, one of the few specific things we know about her. I'm really unhappy about the way this has all gone. Whittaker herself is great for this role. The writing has been extremely variable throughout he run. But the writing for her specific character has been abysmal.

Colin YNWA

Treading carefully here as we've only watched the first one tonight and well... there was a lot going on wasn't there. I mean I know its setting up an ongoing story line but really did so much have to be thrown at the first episode, did all the elements need to be in there.

'Cos there was so much it lacked any cohesion as a single episode and so its almost impossible to judge in and of itself and we'll see how it holds up once its all strung together.

IndigoPrime

Given that it's a Chibnall Doctor Who, I suspect anyone hoping for cohesion and coherence is on a hiding to nothing. Doctor Who, more than ever, needs a script editor to throw scripts back at writers and say: "Make this make sense, or I'll do it." RTD had this problem. Moffat was arguably worse. Chibnall is worse still. It'll be interesting to see whether RTD has someone in that role, but I doubt it.

von Boom

Big drop off in enjoyment with the second episode. A raging hot mess really that did very little to advance the overall arc, I thought. This episode could have been called War: A Comedy of Pointless Jokes.

MumboJimbo

I've only watched modern Doctor Who sporadically as I've always felt they have a hit rate (for me) of about 1 episode in 3. But I actually managed to watch the entirety of it (from Rose onwards) during lockdown, and for most of it I was much more impressed than I expected to be. It did feel though, that the last two series (11 and 12) were much less satisfying than those that had gone before it. I think Whittaker's take on the doctor was a noble experiment - a laudable attempt to strip the character of that patrician charm where he walks around the place like he owns it, to somebody a bit more relatable who can show a more vulnerable side. But for some reason, it just doesn't come off. She comes over sometimes a bit inconsequential and even gormless. Something the doctor should never be, IMO. The whole man/woman of the people thing was done a lot better by Eccleston, I think.

I always find the comments section interesting in The Guardian, as there it's considered very gauche to say nothing but positive comments about the current incarnation, and reason to me seems to be because the show has become a proxy for the wider cultural war. As a lefty kind of guy, I'd love to say it's all a cracking success, but it just ain't, to the point where I don't truly believe people who say they do enjoy it. There's just so much that isn't working about modern Who, from script to direction to performances. I don't hate it, and each season so far with Chibnall has had sparks of something good about to happen, but they seem to be few and fleeting.

One thing that has always got my goat with modern Who (and this is not just Chibnall-era) is what I call "non-peril scene of peril". This is when the protagonists are in what appears to be a highly dangerous situation, yet treat it as if it's nothing, thus undercutting any sense of danger. The cold opening of the first episode in Flux was a case in point. What's the point? I guess it's to show how "bad-ass" the Doctor and Yaz now are, but surely they'd still look cool if they'd take the situation seriously and still managed to extricate themselves? I watched it my son, who's nearly 18 and hasn't watched since the Matt Smith era, and I felt embarrassed I suggested we watch it. What an awful first impression! The rest was a lot better but mostly amounted to setting a lot of plates spinning. I'll continue to watch and continue to hope it gets a bit better.

IndigoPrime

There have been elements of undercutting right from RTD's time, though, and he also pushed hard that element of 'everything, ever, is under threat—again', along with the tiresome trope about humans repeatedly forgetting about being invaded. What he did get right was a kind of humanity at the core of Doctor Who. He also at least wrote the women of his stories fairly well, with Rose being a fairly compelling entry point and Donna Noble being surprisingly interesting and smartly written.

Moffat, by contrast, seemed to consider women puzzles to be solved or plot points to hang bits of his intertwined threads from (bar, possibly, Bill Potts), while Chibnall doesn't appear remotely interested in giving his female characters any actual character at all. It's quite something how under-developed Yasmin is at this point, but even more so how blank slate The Doctor herself is. Really, the Fugitive Doctor had more impact and stronger characterisation in two appearances than Whittaker's. That's a crying shame for Whittaker, but also for Jo Martin's Doctor who'll presumably be ret-conned into the void before or shortly after RTD returns.

Again, a lot of these problems come down to no-one having the power to make writers justify their choices and decisions. No-one is asking why or what nearly enough in this show. I can't imagine that'll change when RTD returns either.