Doctor Who - Season 8

[Proudhuff]

Well that was...disappointing. Capaldi is a great Doctor and I'd travelled in hope that the whole 'am I a good man?' would come to something more solid that that souffle of sound bites.
The one interesting bit of the trailer turned out to be red herring and the Cybermen mere walk-ons. sigh

The Missy/Master thing was fumbled too, a great turn ruined with by the numbers TV tropes. Wouldn't it have been better if a male Master had that script including the kiss?  The Nu-Who lurve/hugs/tears conquers all tosh was really the final insult, and you know what would be nice? Actors, you know real actors not knowing 'oh look at us' comedians smirking as they remind us its all just fun will The Doctor kills people with a (space) handgun?
   

[The Legendary Shark]

Yes, I think I can broadly agree with that. The end was justified but the means were flawed.
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Another, somewhat oblique, point is that keeping her (and those like her) dead increases the impact of a story that requires a character to be "brought back - Marvel style". After all, if death is so easy to cheat it loses its potency and weakens the series' opportunities for dramatic peril.
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I'm not big on Whoology so the only other significant "true death" of a good character I can remember was Adric, although I'm sure there must be more. The point is that "true" death has become the exception rather than the rule. Now, when I see any of the Doctor's allies killed there's no shock or sadness because I know that somebody's technosorcery will bring them back soon.  Probably too soon. (Although I do think that now would be a good time to bring back Captain Jack for an episode or two because his cheesy efforvescence might make for an interesting counterpoint to the Cap's miserable, almost grudging optimism.) Bringing back too many characters also cheapens the Doctor's regeneration process - one of the chief things that sets him apart from everyone else.
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If a character gives its life to save the day and then somehow continues to exist, as a disembodied voice for example, then that character's sacrifice is diminished significantly. The only relevant contribution from a dead hero are the boots that need filling and the most poignant reply from a dead hero is utter, infinite silence.
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That said, I think there's a good episode to be written around The Last Cyberman (he exists now, despite his piffle-based origins and might as well be used to tell a story exploring mortality or medicine or something) - and I would have saved the salute for that episode. But Hell, what do I know, right? We'd all do it differently.

[JamesC]

I thought that scientist character was awful so I was quite pleased they bumped her off.

What annoys me is the human races total acceptance of and reliance on The Doctor as a saviour. We could do with a Lex Luthor style character who begrudges the Doctor's meddling (maybe this is what they were going for with Danny Pink?) and refuses to accept that he is greater than humanity.

[Dandontdare]

I thought that scientist character was awful so I was quite pleased they bumped her off.

What annoys me is the human races total acceptance of and reliance on The Doctor as a saviour. We could do with a Lex Luthor style character who begrudges the Doctor's meddling (maybe this is what they were going for with Danny Pink?) and refuses to accept that he is greater than humanity.

The Torchwood institute was originally set up to be something like that, but they then scuppered it all with the cyberman invasion and then decided to make the spin-off into something quite different.

I've enjoyed this series a lot more than most of the others. Of course there are gaping plot holes and things that don't make sense, but that has always been the case so I just suspend disbelief and enjoy it for what it is. The finale was a bit disappointing - why is it so hard to write a decent cyberman story?

I liked [spoiler]cyber-brig and Michelle Gomez as Missy, and I don't mind science-girl getting vaped, as she was quite annoying[/spoiler].

[Mabs]

I don't know what to make of that episode to be honest,  it's a right mess. The resolution to the Cybermen epidemic is very poor. So much built up about the mysterious nature of Missy throughout the season  and such a poor end. As a character, I thought Michelle Gomez's potrayal of Missy was one of the highlights of the series and indeed, the two part conclusion. Her performance was cackling with dark humour, malevolence and unpredictability. For me, her incarnation of the Master is the best one yet. And Peter Capaldi has also been a delight. The doubt I had about him as a Doctor, and whether he could pull it off, soon evaporated. In fact, I think he's the best one since Tennant (not a surprise to be honest! And I still do love Smith).

My favourite episodes from the series are Listen, Into the Dalek, Mummy on the Orient and Flatline. I wish we can explore the interdimensional world of the Boneless in future episodes.

Looking forward to the Christmas Special, Father Christmas an' all! 

[The Legendary Shark]

Yes, for all my gripes and "suggestions" I have enjoyed this series a lot. A lot of the saccharine seems to have been flushed away by Capaldi - but by no means all. (I think saccharine is like pus and it all came to a head in the finale. A head that should have been squeezed harder. Get that squirt going instead of a bloody dribble.)
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Capaldi is my favourite Doctor since, um, John Hurt who was, to be fair, my favourite since Christopher Eccleston, who was my favourite since Tom Baker... er, and so on. I'm going to keep watching, of course I am, because there's always Something in it worth enjoying - and from now on, I think the Cap's interpretation of the character is going to be it.
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Give me more!

[JamesC]

Well broadly speaking I've enjoyed the series but my enjoyment is always tainted by the knowledge that the potential for this show far outweighs the reality.

[The Legendary Shark]

I agree entirely. Often the enjoyment I get from Who comes in imagining how I would have made this episode. When the answer is "just like it is, I wouldn't change a thing (Blink, Midnight)" then my enjoyment is doubled at the least.
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Imagining the Cap in an episode like "Midnight" gives me the chillies.

[M.I.K.]

Killing UNIT scientist woman was irritating to say the least. She'd have made a good companion.

I have a theory about that.

Let's hear it then, 'cos that bit thoroughly annoyed me.  She did so well against the Zygons that bumping her off so casually was almost as bad as Judge Giant/Orlok.

Well, this might be a load of guff, but...

[spoiler]MissyMaster is a compulsive liar, she acknowledges that scientisty woman is more important to her alive than dead, we've already seen people in a previous episode apparently being disintegrated when they're actually being teleported, (we know Missy has also been keeping an eye on The Doctor of late), and when it looks like The Doctor is going to kill Missy, it's her disintegratey device that's used. If she was as good at planning stuff out as she appeared to be, then she would have already guessed that would be a possible eventuality. The fact CyberBrig kills her instead with a well-aimed laserbeam might suggest that he wasn't merely 'saving The Doctor's soul', but was actually killing her before she got the chance to teleport away to her secret base full of useful scientists and soldier types with guns in hypnotic trances which make them look right dozy and ineffective when they just stand about looking thick when evil psycho timeladies are escaping.[/spoiler]

[M.I.K.]

Or something.

[Greg M.]

Or maybe it was her Zygon double. Can't say it bothered me at all (I very seldom like 'fannish' characters), but apparently that particular death has caused a tumblr meltdown.

Personally, I think the show's not bloodthirsty enough any more. When he was bringing it back in 20005, RTD said something like "If you've gone more than 15 mins of Who without killing someone off, you've made a mistake." It's no longer "Just this once everybody lives!" - instead, it's often "Yet again, everyone's fine." I'm betting part of the reason so many of us loved 'Mummy on the Orient Express' was because it felt like proper Who - nasty and with a bit of a body count. But of course, my Doctor Who era is that of Peter Davison, whose stories were frequently nihilistic and featured the Doctor failing to save people.

[IndigoPrime]

Again, it's not that someone got killed off—it's the manner in which it happened. Osgood wouldn't have been dumb enough to have been caught out quite like that, and the guards were, what, from the simpleton brigade? And it also had that whiff of fridging that I'm noticing more and more in mainstream media. (Maybe had there have at least been a modicum of a struggle and less idiocy, it would have worked. I've no idea if it was a moment of iffy writing or dreadful direction.)

As for the theory, [spoiler]someone mentioned somewhere else that there were red and blue settings on the device Missy had, respectively for death and teleportation, but that Osgood was hit with red and is therefore dead[/spoiler]. No idea if that's the case or not.

[M.I.K.]

Again, it's not that someone got killed off—it's the manner in which it happened. Osgood wouldn't have been dumb enough to have been caught out quite like that, and the guards were, what, from the simpleton brigade? And it also had that whiff of fridging that I'm noticing more and more in mainstream media. (Maybe had there have at least been a modicum of a struggle and less idiocy, it would have worked. I've no idea if it was a moment of iffy writing or dreadful direction.)

As for the theory, [spoiler]someone mentioned somewhere else that there were red and blue settings on the device Missy had, respectively for death and teleportation, but that Osgood was hit with red and is therefore dead[/spoiler]. No idea if that's the case or not.

Hadn't seen that theory, but upon googling, it seems to be based on [spoiler]the beam Missy being hit with being blue instead of red. Thing is, she wasn't hit by a beam from the device, she was hit by a cyberman lasergun. [/spoiler]

[The Legendary Shark]

I'm guessing Missy had hypnotic powers, as did her previous male incarnations, which would explain the guards and Osgood's poor judgement.
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If not hypnotic powers then at least some sciencey whiencey, magicy wagicy doohickey thing hidden in her lipstick - which may be the insane counterpart to the Doctor's screwdriver.

[Steve Green]

These would be the hypnotic powers that the Doctor (and presumably Osgood) would presumably be aware of?