Thirteenth Doctor - First Season - Thoughts? (SPOILERS WELCOME)

Umbran said:

I think it wise to remember that with a new doctor, new companions, and new showrunner... it is basically a new show, creatively speaking. And it usually takes a while for a new show to find its footing. We have had 10 episodes, which is just barely long enough for them to get into the loop of writing, production, presentation, and audience feedback. They now have a break to pause and examine their work, and make adjustments.

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I haven't watched it yet but have caught up on everything else. For me something didn't click in the Capaldi seasons. He was fine as the Doctor I think it was the storytelling. Just finished Babylon 5/Expanse/Vikings/Outlander and House of Cards so need something new to binge watch and have the next week off.

I enjoyed the New Year's Day episode. The Dalek was an effective villain both as squiddy bodysnatcher and junkbot, the Doctor was suitably manic and driven in response, and the subplot with Ryan's dad worked better than it had any right to.

I'm not sure I buy the British army's timely and heavily armed response to one unidentified drone given how long it took to clear a couple out of Gatwick airspace, but I suppose they needed a Redshirts scene to show that the jury rigged Dalek could still be a menace.

First a disclaimer that I have not had a chance to watch the Thirteenth Doctor yet and do not have any back ground on the new Doctor and Companions but the New Year episode came up on TV.

Honestly I was not impressed. If the Dad had sacrificed himself at the end to kill the Dalek it may have salvaged the episode but unfortunately bad acting, bad special effects and bad plot were just too much to overcome.

I liked the special. Jodie has really grown on my as the Doctor. I enjoy her childishness at times. "They have the best balloons" I loved Graham's interaction with his stepson. Sadly Ryan and his interaction with his father didn't do much for me. I want to say I would be ok if they both went into the star, but that seems too harsh.

so that UNIT gag - was that a Brexit thing?

but having a Dalek squid back was cool, nice episode, not overly original, but it was much better than the actual last episode of the season.

oh and I am a little confused about who the Custodians on Anuta Island were...

I found the episode forced and unconvincing. Somehow, ancient humans managed to damage and pry open a Dalek casing using microwave energy that should be easily available to any of the advanced civilizations that were thwarted by Dalek durability thereafter. Oh, and dismembering a Dalek doesn't kill it because "recon Daleks are different".

Of course, the microwave energy at the end wasn't going to kill the Dalek. That was already a matter of historical record, idiots.

At least, I got the satisfaction of anticipating that the Chekov's microwave hung on the wall in Act 1 would be used in Act 3.

It was not necessary to write out Unit. (Agree, maybe a Brexit reference?) That could have been Unit soldiers making a more credible attack on the Dalek and still failing in the short run. I can believe that a few Dalek parts are warehoused in central England, but eventually the thing's conventional tank armor would have been breached by an airstrike or something.

And, finally, this 2019 season of Dr. Who seemed a bit short. Maybe that's just a timey-wimey impression of it.

Yeah, I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out how the vastly technological inferior humans from the first millennium AD on Earth managed to overcome not just a Dalek, but a "recon Dalek" - who are apparently so much more powerful than the standard model. Compare that to the 9th Doctor's episode, "Dalek," where a single Dalek completely overwhelms everything the modern military forces can throw at it.

And while I appreciate the "slapped together" look of the "trash Dalek" at the end, I still find it difficult to believe the squiddy alien was able to assemble something that sophisticated using Earth scraps in that short a time. Granted, it was able to retrieve its own original blaster weapon, but creating something that could fly, and shoot missiles, seemed a bit much. (Of course, I had the same problem with the 13th Doctor assembling her own sonic screwdriver from scratch in an Earth garage in the first episode of this season - isn't it a previously-established fact that the Doctor's sonic screwdriver uses the same software over its various incarnations, despite the fact its outer housing tends to change as the Doctor changes form?)

I didn't like the plot point of UNIT being disbanded over budget cuts. It seems to me that an organization that has been instrumental in saving the Earth from alien threats numerous times in the past wouldn't need to justify its existence. That just seemed overly silly.

It also seemed a bit of a cop-out to show the military vehicles being blown up by the Dalek only as explosions superimposed on the top-down view of the landscape. (I guess they were getting low in the budget by that point?)

In any case, I still liked the episode okay - it was one of the better of the whole last season. Although, truth be told, I think I preferred the parts when it was a Kaled mutant piggybacking on the back of a mind-controlled human riding mount. Sticking to that - and having the Doctor and her companions trying to keep them away from the recovered Dalek technology that would allow it to rebuild a fully-functional Dalek travel machine - would have been a different way to deal with a Dalek threat that hasn't been done before.

Johnathan

I liked it, though I agree that I don't really see a way how some 9th century humans could beat a Dalek. Unless perhaps the error is really that everyone tries to fight them at range, when they are ridicilous weak at short range? (At least a lone Dalek.)

Richards said:

I didn't like the plot point of UNIT being disbanded over budget cuts. It seems to me that an organization that has been instrumental in saving the Earth from alien threats numerous times in the past wouldn't need to justify its existence. That just seemed overly silly.

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Now that you say it like that, than it really must be a Brexit joke.

I liked Resolution, it was cool, funny too in that Ryan's Dad makes an appearance only to get some tentacle-y thing on his back and almost sucked out of the Tardis. Heresy? Maybe ...

Richards said:

Yeah, I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out how the vastly technological inferior humans from the first millennium AD on Earth managed to overcome not just a Dalek, but a "recon Dalek" - who are apparently so much more powerful than the standard model. Compare that to the 9th Doctor's episode, "Dalek," where a single Dalek completely overwhelms everything the modern military forces can throw at it.

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The Dalek from "Dalek" was an advanced model, from when the Daleks were at the peak of their technological prowess and directly taking on the Time Lords in the Time War. The one from this episode was suggested to be one of the first ever sent out from Skaro, old enough that it didn't even know about Skaro's destruction. The Dalek creature itself may have been particularly capable, but its outer shell was from a far older generation of technology.

And while I appreciate the "slapped together" look of the "trash Dalek" at the end, I still find it difficult to believe the squiddy alien was able to assemble something that sophisticated using Earth scraps in that short a time. Granted, it was able to retrieve its own original blaster weapon, but creating something that could fly, and shoot missiles, seemed a bit much.

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The Dalek took more than its weapon from the institute - there were several cases packed into the back of the car. It's suggested in later dialogue that it used several of it's original surviving travel-machine systems as part of the construction, not just its gun.