Deep Breath - 7/10
Into the Dalek - 5/10
Robot of Sherwood - 2/10
Listen - 9/10
Time Heist - 7.5/10
The Caretaker - 8/10
I very much enjoyed that, though I don't think it was as good as The Lodger, and I do have some quibbles.
Glad Capaldi's Doctor was finally called out on being rude - it's got to the point where it's just unnecessary and unfunny. Loved the interaction between Clara and Danny - though I wish the 'because I love him' had been picked up on a bit more! But they're becoming a great pairing, and hopefully Danny will actually travel in the TARDIS for a bit, as I think it would be great. The exchanges between the Doctor and Clara were great too, she's more than a match for him and at least that's a good enough foil for Capaldi's Doctor to stop him being too much of an irritant. And Jenna continues to shine despite some poor dialogue.
But the Doctor as a caretaker would have suited Tennant or Smith much better, and the Doctor didn't really seem to be trying too hard to blend in - that 'but most people call me the Doctor' line was just cringeworthy. The monster wasn't up to much (though I didn't mind much, this was a good character episode overall), and the Courtney character just seemed a bit superfluous, especially with the trip in the TARDIS at the end. And I still don't like these extra bits of the Nethersphere at the end - they don't add enough suspense and intrigue for me to actually care.
Definitely a huge improvement on Gareth Roberts' last Doctor Who episode though!
Deep Breath 9/10
Into the Dalek 8/10
Robot of Sherwood 6/10
Listen 9/10
Time Heist 10/10 The Caretaker 7/10
Interesting change of pace, but felt quite filler overall. The similarity of the invisibility watch to Apple Watch did tickle me. Not warming to the Danny character too much and his scenes with Clara are getting beyond tedious. However, I can finally say Capaldi is coming into his own as the Doctor. All in all, the preview for next week was more exciting than the entire episode.
Series 8
Deep Breath - 6/10
Into the Dalek - 7/10
Robot of Sherwood - 7/10
Listen - 8/10
Time Heist - 8/10
The Caretaker - 7/10
There is a certain reliability about a Gareth Roberts script. A reliability that even if a premise is convoluted or badly brought to the screen, there's usually enough comedy or heartwarming character work from Roberts to really make it work. Roberts himself proved reliable enough on that front as this was an episode with all of his trademarks and it was a terrific character piece. Unfortunately it falls short of being his best work, but nor was it his worst (which still isn't particularly bad) and it's definitely great to see an episode from him for the first time since Series 6 (and even then, Closing Time was definitely his weakest).
So about that premise. The story was very clearly chanelling The Lodger, whilst also utilising School Reunion for its inspiration (the scene that built up to Danny discovering the Doctor reminded me a little of how Sarah Jane rediscovered the Doctor back in Series 2 for some reason). It does this pretty well for a while and brings enough new ideas to the table to prevent it feeling like such a retread of the stories that inspired it. However that caretaker element seems to be somewhat discarded towards the end, and there's no resolution to it. Inevitably the Doctor resigns and moves on and we don't necessarily need to see that, but it highlights how The Caretaker does lack a certain heartwarming and well-rounded edge, like that of The Lodger.
There are some brilliant character moments in the episode, validating Series 8 as the undeniably most character-driven series from Moffat so far. It's been impressive for the most part, though the dialogue is still quite clunky in places, particularly wherever Danny is concerned. There were improvements made here, but the simple enjoyment of a character has not yet been achieved in him whereas I feel a RTD character would fare very differently. Perhaps that's an unfair dig, because at any rate it is wonderful to see these character-driven stories, a slowed down pace, and a reinstilled sense of wonder about time travel - Series 5, 6 and 7 each gradually blew everything so out of proportion looking for cool things to do that they forgot the simple pleasures of the time and space travel element. The Caretaker is a wonderfully simple story, with a slightly-too-simple-but-passable alien threat but Roberts manages to write it in such a way that that is its asset. I would love to see him write another alien-world story at some point - The Shakespeare Code and The Unicorn and the Wasp are both good historicals, The Lodger, Closing Time and The Caretaker have been his contemporary stories, and Planet of the Dead was a harmless occasionally fun adventure. I'd love to see something different from him in the future.
The closing scene with Missy and the Promised Land was intriguing enough, though a bit more of the same to be honest. It stood out for having some lovely new Murray Gold music in it, but was otherwise just an arc reminder really. I liked the random placing of Missy's scene in Into the Dalek - right in the middle of events. It made the arc feel more like a part of an ongoing scheme rather than a writer's afterthought. I do love a good tease, but maybe something a little less predictable in future.
All round just a decent episode, and quite good fun. It's nothing groundbreaking, but doesn't feel like it's trying to be. It was an episode very comfortable in its own skin and I'm enjoying The Doctor greatly, Clara a lot more than in Series 7, and Danny..well tonight was his best yet so that's a positive sign!
As a random aside, is it just me or are there a lot of robots in this current series? Deep Breath had robots, the Daleks in Into the Dalek are sort of robotic, Robot of Sherwood is in the title, and now The Caretaker having a robotic machine as well. Even Time Heist had a guy who had'become' the computer. The one clear-out exception is Listen, which is only excused because it doesn't have a specific threat at all!
PROS AND CONS
+ Fun story with some decent laughs and remarks.
+ Character-driven.
+ Instills a sense of wonder in time travel again, which Series 5-7 failed to do.
- The villain wasn't very well realised...quite generic.
- Despite the Coal Hill setting there were little to no little references to Classic Who.
- Some clunky character writing and a sort of unresolved element to the 'caretaker' plot.
THE CARETAKER COMPARED TO OTHER EPISODE 6's
Dalek - 9/10
The Age of Steel - 7/10
The Lazarus Experiment - 6/10
The Doctor's Daughter - 6/10
The Vampires of Venice - 8/10
The Almost People - 7/10
The Bells of Saint John - 6/10 The Caretaker - 7/10
THE CARETAKER COMPARED TO OTHER GARETH ROBERTS EPISODES...
The Shakespeare Code - 7/10
The Unicorn and the Wasp - 8/10
Planet of the Dead - 7/10
The Lodger - 8/10
Closing Time - 6/10 The Caretaker - 7/10
Deep Breath 6/10
Into The Dalek 8/10
Robot Of Sherwood 6/10
Listen 8/10
Time Heist 8/10
Easiest episode to score so far this series. Whereas most of the episodes above are more complicated in nature and therefore may get better (Listen) or worse (RoS) the more you think about it, The Caretaker was a much more simple episode. It was a filler. It was a very good filler, but it was a filler. So a middle of the road score seems fair.
Deep Breath: 6/10
Into the Dalek: 8/10
Robot of Sherwood: 6/10
Listen: 7/10
Time Heist: 6/10
The Caretaker: 8/10
The highlight of The Caretaker was the humour in the episode, no episode has warmed me to the new Doctor more than this so far. Very encouraging, I had reservations about Clara and Danny's sequences during this run of episodes but it was all integral to a very neatly put together episode I thought.
Also, I am pleased the series arc has been done lightly as well, which makes it more intriguing than when done too heavily.
Deep Breath 9/10
Into the Dalek 9/10
Robot of Sherwood 8.5/10
Listen 9.5/10
Time Heist 7.5/10
The Caretaker 8/10
I really enjoyed this one, it was warm, funny and character driven. Great ending, too.
Other sixth episodes:
Dalek - 9/10
The Age of Steel - 8/10
The Lazarus Experiment - 7/10
The Doctor's Daughter - 7/10
The Vampires of Venice - 6/10
The Almost People - 6/10
The Bells of Saint John - 7/10
Deep Breath 3/10
Into the Dalek 5/10
Robot of Sherwood 4/10
Listen 4/10
Time Heist 7/10
The Caretaker 4/10
Kill The Moon 4/10
That was an odd watch for me. I didn't dislike it but I didn't really like it much either.
I found the plot very unbalanced. It did get straight into things but didn't set up the guest cast in anyway whatsoever. I've only just found out what Hermoine Norris' character name was by the end credits - I don't recall it being mentioned at all. Her character was quite bland too but I think Hermoine did the best she could with barely anything.
Peter was again distinctly average to me and the beach scene at the end just showed up my problems even more - it feels like he's an actor reciting lines, he doesn't feel like the Doctor. I can't say Jenna was great either, she seemed a bit too away from it all in a sense and Courtney didn't bring much out her either.
For Peter Harness' first episode it wasn't bad but the whole plot felt odd. The moon was an egg? I do like strange ideas but even this seemed a bit too strange for me. Directing felt a bit naff to at times and the CGI was definitely iffy with the spiders at moments.
A rewatch may be in order but it's not one of those episode where I'd care if I never saw it again. That, aside from Time Heist, sums up Series 8 for me. It's been very poor and utterly forgettable. Series 2 had been my least favourite series since the show came back, but this is now topping that list by far...
Deep Breath 9/10
Into the Dalek 8/10
Robot of Sherwood 8/10
Listen 10/10
Time Heist 8/10
The Caretaker 9/10
Kill the Moon 9/10
Really wrestling between an 8 and a 9 here. It was better than all the eps I've given 8s to but not sure its as good as Deep Breath or the Caretaker. Okay so, this episode for me was very overhyped. The spider creatures were viciously underutilized, considering how dangerous they could have been. They were good but nothing special and the opening half hour of the ep wasn't that great.
It was also entirely predictable. It was broadcast from the word go, from the synopsis, from the opening line and from every single person that had seen it that there would be a choice essentially between something living on/in the Moon and the future of human race. It was also broadcast the Doctor wouldn't help. That made the opening half hour to get to that point both predictable and a tad rushed.
However, in the final 15 minutes, Kill the Moon has lift off. I genuinely thought they would Kill the Moon but I'm not surprised Clara came through.
And frankly, I could go on for hours about that TARDIS scene, I can see why it's the Moff's favourite.
Series 8
Deep Breath - 6/10
Into the Dalek - 7/10
Robot of Sherwood - 7/10
Listen - 8/10
Time Heist - 8/10
The Caretaker - 7/10 Kill the Moon - 8/10
For not the first time during Series 8 I've seen an episode which delivers some absolutely brilliant stuff, with some then frustratingly mediocre stuff seemingly along for the ride as well. As the series has progressed though, the consistent high quality of that brilliant stuff has only served to make it easier and easier to forgive the shows shortcomings - of which there aren't nearly as many as there have been in recent years, but there are still some there. Kill the Moon stays true to that notion - it's an episode with some definite problems, but they're easy to forgive because again this is an episode that delivers a lot more good than bad...and those good elements are getting better and better.
To its disadvantage, Kill the Moon suffered from a lot of advance hype. It's one of the most talked about episodes of the series so far, which is a testament to how the series is going really - if all these standalone episodes are worth singling out seven out of twelve episodes in then it's definitely doing something right! Back to the point though, much of the plot of tonights episode was build-up to the final fifteen minutes. A lot of the first half hour was a tad predicatable in order to make the rest of the story a bit less predictable. It had to sift through a fair bit of exposition before it actually got going, and unfortunately it just didn't have the time to flesh out the supporting characters/spider-fodder which would probably have made that first half hour a bit more impactful. That's no fault of the writer - this is essentially what The Waters of Mars would have been without those extra fifteen minutes to properly define each of the characters. It was a matter of pacing, though in a rare move it traded a rushed ending for something of a rushed beginning.
So the supporting cast weren't particularly impressive (again at no fault of the writer, or even the actors...just time constraints) and to a certain extent that extends to Hermione Norris' character. She was redeemed enough by having enough interaction with The Doctor and Clara across the episode - but she's by no means as interesting or focused as Adelaide Brooke was. In a way I feel like Peter Harness has kind of addressed that issue by describing the astronauts as 'third hand'... he added just enough vague layers to the character to make her work for the story though there's little impression she'd ever be worth revisiting because she is genuinely a bit 'third hand' and not quite that special. On that note I feel like I should say that Norris acted brilliantly all the same, and it was the very approach from a new writer I'd hoped for so I'd love to see him back with more in future.
The focus of this story was very much Clara again. As far as some are concerned this is a major problem of Series 8, but then last year the opposite was true...you're doomed as a writer either way, frankly. The ending worked on so many levels and was the kind of character work that was missing from recent series. Both Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi acted their socks off with this one, no more so than at the end. It's a fight worth talking about between them as they both had valid points, though I personally sided with Clara in the end. She had a responsibility of care, The Doctor refused to take them home and then lumbered Clara with an impossible choice. Whilst he's right that humanity should make these decisions for itself, it wasn't right to ask it of Clara. Earth might be her home planet, but 2049 is not her world.
I still felt very sorry for The Doctor as well though, and Capaldi sold that to me brilliantly. His Doctor hides it well, but he cares a lot for Clara. She was his friend before Trenzalore, to our knowledge the only friend who saw him within those centuries (and even then for just one day) and then his friend after again...still there waiting to travel with him. The Doctor is still that scared man we saw at the end of Deep Breath, and he has just scared off his only friend. I think above all else it's a testament to the chemistry between Capaldi and Coleman, as I was quite upset at the thought of them not travelling together, or not being on good terms. A sign of brilliant character and acting work.
As far as the science goes, I'm watching a show about a flying police box with a face changing alien who fights pepper pots. It's best to not take it too seriously, and it's a decent idea in its own right. Maybe a bit bizarre, but then Harness addressed that as well with the 'Saywhut' facial expressions when The Doctor gave the egg explanation. I think people have an issue with it being something permanently in the sky that we've seen across all these series, and now whenever we see the moon we're going to be thinking of it as an egg. To be honest I doubt we'll even notice it, and for me the only issue with the whole explanation (and probably the weakest part of the episode) was the fact that a new one was laid in its place that was almost equal in size... that was a bit peculiar.
It was overhyped, it had a bit of a bizarre premise, a bizarre episode title and some character work was lacking. The spiders weren't particularly interesting or even that scary in the end but weren't particularly bad either. Location filming was utilised very well, the acting was good all round and I can't deny that for any issues this episode has, I enjoyed it. It left a positive impression and leaves the series in a rather interesting place.
PROS AND CONS
+ Decent if quirky premise
+ Invaluable character development from the leads
+ Courtney wasn't that annoying
- Pacing issues, though for once it was a rushed beginning
- Insufficiently developed guest characters
- The new egg that was laid...what's with that?!
KILL THE MOON COMPARED TO OTHER EPISODE 7's
The Long Game - 6/10
The Idiot's Lantern - 7/10
42 - 8/10
The Unicorn and the Wasp - 8/10
Amy's Choice - 8/10
A Good Man Goes To War - 6/10
The Rings of Akhaten - 8/10 Kill the Moon - 8/10
Deep Breath 6/10
Into The Dalek 8/10
Robot Of Sherwood 6/10
Listen 8/10
Time Heist 8/10
The Caretaker 7/10
I'm very sorry to everyone that seemed to think this was a classic episode, but I just didn't get it. It was good. But, maybe it was my fault for reading such great reviews, but the whole thing felt like an anti climax. Maybe, like Listen, it'll grow on me, but for now, I can't give it more than
Kill The Moon - 8 : A very good episode but not the classic most reviews made it out to be. Did love the 'Next Time' trailer though....hope that episode lives up to it!
Series 8
Deep Breath - 6/10
Into the Dalek - 7/10
Robot of Sherwood - 7/10
Listen - 8/10
Time Heist - 8/10
The Caretaker - 7/10 Kill the Moon - 8/10
For not the first time during Series 8 I've seen an episode which delivers some absolutely brilliant stuff, with some then frustratingly mediocre stuff seemingly along for the ride as well. As the series has progressed though, the consistent high quality of that brilliant stuff has only served to make it easier and easier to forgive the shows shortcomings - of which there aren't nearly as many as there have been in recent years, but there are still some there. Kill the Moon stays true to that notion - it's an episode with some definite problems, but they're easy to forgive because again this is an episode that delivers a lot more good than bad...and those good elements are getting better and better.
To its disadvantage, Kill the Moon suffered from a lot of advance hype. It's one of the most talked about episodes of the series so far, which is a testament to how the series is going really - if all these standalone episodes are worth singling out seven out of twelve episodes in then it's definitely doing something right! Back to the point though, much of the plot of tonights episode was build-up to the final fifteen minutes. A lot of the first half hour was a tad predicatable in order to make the rest of the story a bit less predictable. It had to sift through a fair bit of exposition before it actually got going, and unfortunately it just didn't have the time to flesh out the supporting characters/spider-fodder which would probably have made that first half hour a bit more impactful. That's no fault of the writer - this is essentially what The Waters of Mars would have been without those extra fifteen minutes to properly define each of the characters. It was a matter of pacing, though in a rare move it traded a rushed ending for something of a rushed beginning.
So the supporting cast weren't particularly impressive (again at no fault of the writer, or even the actors...just time constraints) and to a certain extent that extends to Hermione Norris' character. She was redeemed enough by having enough interaction with The Doctor and Clara across the episode - but she's by no means as interesting or focused as Adelaide Brooke was. In a way I feel like Peter Harness has kind of addressed that issue by describing the astronauts as 'third hand'... he added just enough vague layers to the character to make her work for the story though there's little impression she'd ever be worth revisiting because she is genuinely a bit 'third hand' and not quite that special. On that note I feel like I should say that Norris acted brilliantly all the same, and it was the very approach from a new writer I'd hoped for so I'd love to see him back with more in future.
The focus of this story was very much Clara again. As far as some are concerned this is a major problem of Series 8, but then last year the opposite was true...you're doomed as a writer either way, frankly. The ending worked on so many levels and was the kind of character work that was missing from recent series. Both Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi acted their socks off with this one, no more so than at the end. It's a fight worth talking about between them as they both had valid points, though I personally sided with Clara in the end. She had a responsibility of care, The Doctor refused to take them home and then lumbered Clara with an impossible choice. Whilst he's right that humanity should make these decisions for itself, it wasn't right to ask it of Clara. Earth might be her home planet, but 2049 is not her world.
I still felt very sorry for The Doctor as well though, and Capaldi sold that to me brilliantly. His Doctor hides it well, but he cares a lot for Clara. She was his friend before Trenzalore, to our knowledge the only friend who saw him within those centuries (and even then for just one day) and then his friend after again...still there waiting to travel with him. The Doctor is still that scared man we saw at the end of Deep Breath, and he has just scared off his only friend. I think above all else it's a testament to the chemistry between Capaldi and Coleman, as I was quite upset at the thought of them not travelling together, or not being on good terms. A sign of brilliant character and acting work.
As far as the science goes, I'm watching a show about a flying police box with a face changing alien who fights pepper pots. It's best to not take it too seriously, and it's a decent idea in its own right. Maybe a bit bizarre, but then Harness addressed that as well with the 'Saywhut' facial expressions when The Doctor gave the egg explanation. I think people have an issue with it being something permanently in the sky that we've seen across all these series, and now whenever we see the moon we're going to be thinking of it as an egg. To be honest I doubt we'll even notice it, and for me the only issue with the whole explanation (and probably the weakest part of the episode) was the fact that a new one was laid in its place that was almost equal in size... that was a bit peculiar.
It was overhyped, it had a bit of a bizarre premise, a bizarre episode title and some character work was lacking. The spiders weren't particularly interesting or even that scary in the end but weren't particularly bad either. Location filming was utilised very well, the acting was good all round and I can't deny that for any issues this episode has, I enjoyed it. It left a positive impression and leaves the series in a rather interesting place.
PROS AND CONS
+ Decent if quirky premise
+ Invaluable character development from the leads
+ Courtney wasn't that annoying
- Pacing issues, though for once it was a rushed beginning
- Insufficiently developed guest characters
- The new egg that was laid...what's with that?!
KILL THE MOON COMPARED TO OTHER EPISODE 7's
The Long Game - 6/10
The Idiot's Lantern - 7/10
42 - 8/10
The Unicorn and the Wasp - 8/10
Amy's Choice - 8/10
A Good Man Goes To War - 6/10
The Rings of Akhaten - 8/10 Kill the Moon - 8/10
Brilliant review, pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter better and more eloquently than I could.
Deep Breath: 9.0/10.0
Into The Dalek: 8.5/10.0
Robot Of Sherwood: 8.5/10.0
Listen: 7.5/10.0
Time Heist: 8.5/10.0
The Caretaker: 9.5/10.0
Kill The Moon: 9.5/10.0
Comments
Into The Dalek: 8.5/10.0
Robot Of Sherwood: 8.5/10.0
Listen: 7.5/10.0
Time Heist: 8.5/10.0
The Caretaker: 9.5/10.0
I loved it
Into the Dalek - 5/10
Robot of Sherwood - 2/10
Listen - 9/10
Time Heist - 7.5/10
The Caretaker - 8/10
I very much enjoyed that, though I don't think it was as good as The Lodger, and I do have some quibbles.
Glad Capaldi's Doctor was finally called out on being rude - it's got to the point where it's just unnecessary and unfunny. Loved the interaction between Clara and Danny - though I wish the 'because I love him' had been picked up on a bit more! But they're becoming a great pairing, and hopefully Danny will actually travel in the TARDIS for a bit, as I think it would be great. The exchanges between the Doctor and Clara were great too, she's more than a match for him and at least that's a good enough foil for Capaldi's Doctor to stop him being too much of an irritant. And Jenna continues to shine despite some poor dialogue.
But the Doctor as a caretaker would have suited Tennant or Smith much better, and the Doctor didn't really seem to be trying too hard to blend in - that 'but most people call me the Doctor' line was just cringeworthy. The monster wasn't up to much (though I didn't mind much, this was a good character episode overall), and the Courtney character just seemed a bit superfluous, especially with the trip in the TARDIS at the end. And I still don't like these extra bits of the Nethersphere at the end - they don't add enough suspense and intrigue for me to actually care.
Definitely a huge improvement on Gareth Roberts' last Doctor Who episode though!
Into the Dalek 8/10
Robot of Sherwood 6/10
Listen 9/10
Time Heist 10/10
The Caretaker 7/10
Interesting change of pace, but felt quite filler overall. The similarity of the invisibility watch to Apple Watch did tickle me. Not warming to the Danny character too much and his scenes with Clara are getting beyond tedious. However, I can finally say Capaldi is coming into his own as the Doctor. All in all, the preview for next week was more exciting than the entire episode.
Into the Dalek 10
Robots of Sherwood 7
Listen 10
Time Heist 8
The Caretaker 9/10
Into the Dalek: 3/10
Robot of Sherwood: 1/10
Listen: 9/10
Time Heist:2/10
The Caretaker 6/10
Deep Breath - 6/10
Into the Dalek - 7/10
Robot of Sherwood - 7/10
Listen - 8/10
Time Heist - 8/10
The Caretaker - 7/10
There is a certain reliability about a Gareth Roberts script. A reliability that even if a premise is convoluted or badly brought to the screen, there's usually enough comedy or heartwarming character work from Roberts to really make it work. Roberts himself proved reliable enough on that front as this was an episode with all of his trademarks and it was a terrific character piece. Unfortunately it falls short of being his best work, but nor was it his worst (which still isn't particularly bad) and it's definitely great to see an episode from him for the first time since Series 6 (and even then, Closing Time was definitely his weakest).
So about that premise. The story was very clearly chanelling The Lodger, whilst also utilising School Reunion for its inspiration (the scene that built up to Danny discovering the Doctor reminded me a little of how Sarah Jane rediscovered the Doctor back in Series 2 for some reason). It does this pretty well for a while and brings enough new ideas to the table to prevent it feeling like such a retread of the stories that inspired it. However that caretaker element seems to be somewhat discarded towards the end, and there's no resolution to it. Inevitably the Doctor resigns and moves on and we don't necessarily need to see that, but it highlights how The Caretaker does lack a certain heartwarming and well-rounded edge, like that of The Lodger.
There are some brilliant character moments in the episode, validating Series 8 as the undeniably most character-driven series from Moffat so far. It's been impressive for the most part, though the dialogue is still quite clunky in places, particularly wherever Danny is concerned. There were improvements made here, but the simple enjoyment of a character has not yet been achieved in him whereas I feel a RTD character would fare very differently. Perhaps that's an unfair dig, because at any rate it is wonderful to see these character-driven stories, a slowed down pace, and a reinstilled sense of wonder about time travel - Series 5, 6 and 7 each gradually blew everything so out of proportion looking for cool things to do that they forgot the simple pleasures of the time and space travel element. The Caretaker is a wonderfully simple story, with a slightly-too-simple-but-passable alien threat but Roberts manages to write it in such a way that that is its asset. I would love to see him write another alien-world story at some point - The Shakespeare Code and The Unicorn and the Wasp are both good historicals, The Lodger, Closing Time and The Caretaker have been his contemporary stories, and Planet of the Dead was a harmless occasionally fun adventure. I'd love to see something different from him in the future.
The closing scene with Missy and the Promised Land was intriguing enough, though a bit more of the same to be honest. It stood out for having some lovely new Murray Gold music in it, but was otherwise just an arc reminder really. I liked the random placing of Missy's scene in Into the Dalek - right in the middle of events. It made the arc feel more like a part of an ongoing scheme rather than a writer's afterthought. I do love a good tease, but maybe something a little less predictable in future.
All round just a decent episode, and quite good fun. It's nothing groundbreaking, but doesn't feel like it's trying to be. It was an episode very comfortable in its own skin and I'm enjoying The Doctor greatly, Clara a lot more than in Series 7, and Danny..well tonight was his best yet so that's a positive sign!
As a random aside, is it just me or are there a lot of robots in this current series? Deep Breath had robots, the Daleks in Into the Dalek are sort of robotic, Robot of Sherwood is in the title, and now The Caretaker having a robotic machine as well. Even Time Heist had a guy who had'become' the computer. The one clear-out exception is Listen, which is only excused because it doesn't have a specific threat at all!
PROS AND CONS
+ Fun story with some decent laughs and remarks.
+ Character-driven.
+ Instills a sense of wonder in time travel again, which Series 5-7 failed to do.
- The villain wasn't very well realised...quite generic.
- Despite the Coal Hill setting there were little to no little references to Classic Who.
- Some clunky character writing and a sort of unresolved element to the 'caretaker' plot.
THE CARETAKER COMPARED TO OTHER EPISODE 6's
Dalek - 9/10
The Age of Steel - 7/10
The Lazarus Experiment - 6/10
The Doctor's Daughter - 6/10
The Vampires of Venice - 8/10
The Almost People - 7/10
The Bells of Saint John - 6/10
The Caretaker - 7/10
THE CARETAKER COMPARED TO OTHER GARETH ROBERTS EPISODES...
The Shakespeare Code - 7/10
The Unicorn and the Wasp - 8/10
Planet of the Dead - 7/10
The Lodger - 8/10
Closing Time - 6/10
The Caretaker - 7/10
Into The Dalek - 8/10
Robot Of Sherwood - 8.5/10
Listen - 9/10
Time Heist - 8.5/10
The Caretaker - 8/10
I liked
The 11th Doctor sub plot
The comedy throughout like "Its a play" and "hes your space dad"
The burning policeman's hand
Disliked
Some of the acting and dialogue.
Danny's silly leap over the creature and the fact it kept missing at point blank range!
Into The Dalek 8/10
Robot Of Sherwood 6/10
Listen 8/10
Time Heist 8/10
Easiest episode to score so far this series. Whereas most of the episodes above are more complicated in nature and therefore may get better (Listen) or worse (RoS) the more you think about it, The Caretaker was a much more simple episode. It was a filler. It was a very good filler, but it was a filler. So a middle of the road score seems fair.
The Caretaker 7/10
Into the Dalek - 4/10
Robot of Sherwood - 7.5/10
Listen - 9.5/10
Time Heist - 8.5/10
The Caretaker - 9.5/10
Into the Dalek: 8/10
Robot of Sherwood: 6/10
Listen: 7/10
Time Heist: 6/10
The Caretaker: 8/10
The highlight of The Caretaker was the humour in the episode, no episode has warmed me to the new Doctor more than this so far. Very encouraging, I had reservations about Clara and Danny's sequences during this run of episodes but it was all integral to a very neatly put together episode I thought.
Also, I am pleased the series arc has been done lightly as well, which makes it more intriguing than when done too heavily.
Into the Dalek 9/10
Robot of Sherwood 8.5/10
Listen 9.5/10
Time Heist 7.5/10
The Caretaker 8/10
I really enjoyed this one, it was warm, funny and character driven. Great ending, too.
Other sixth episodes:
Dalek - 9/10
The Age of Steel - 8/10
The Lazarus Experiment - 7/10
The Doctor's Daughter - 7/10
The Vampires of Venice - 6/10
The Almost People - 6/10
The Bells of Saint John - 7/10
Into The Dalek. 7/10
Robots of Sherwood 3/10
Listen 9/10
Time Heist. 5/10
The Caretaker 7/8
Into the Dalek 5/10
Robot of Sherwood 4/10
Listen 4/10
Time Heist 7/10
The Caretaker 4/10
Kill The Moon 4/10
That was an odd watch for me. I didn't dislike it but I didn't really like it much either.
I found the plot very unbalanced. It did get straight into things but didn't set up the guest cast in anyway whatsoever. I've only just found out what Hermoine Norris' character name was by the end credits - I don't recall it being mentioned at all. Her character was quite bland too but I think Hermoine did the best she could with barely anything.
Peter was again distinctly average to me and the beach scene at the end just showed up my problems even more - it feels like he's an actor reciting lines, he doesn't feel like the Doctor. I can't say Jenna was great either, she seemed a bit too away from it all in a sense and Courtney didn't bring much out her either.
For Peter Harness' first episode it wasn't bad but the whole plot felt odd. The moon was an egg? I do like strange ideas but even this seemed a bit too strange for me. Directing felt a bit naff to at times and the CGI was definitely iffy with the spiders at moments.
A rewatch may be in order but it's not one of those episode where I'd care if I never saw it again. That, aside from Time Heist, sums up Series 8 for me. It's been very poor and utterly forgettable. Series 2 had been my least favourite series since the show came back, but this is now topping that list by far...
Into the Dalek 8/10
Robot of Sherwood 8/10
Listen 10/10
Time Heist 8/10
The Caretaker 9/10
Kill the Moon 9/10
Really wrestling between an 8 and a 9 here. It was better than all the eps I've given 8s to but not sure its as good as Deep Breath or the Caretaker. Okay so, this episode for me was very overhyped. The spider creatures were viciously underutilized, considering how dangerous they could have been. They were good but nothing special and the opening half hour of the ep wasn't that great.
It was also entirely predictable. It was broadcast from the word go, from the synopsis, from the opening line and from every single person that had seen it that there would be a choice essentially between something living on/in the Moon and the future of human race. It was also broadcast the Doctor wouldn't help. That made the opening half hour to get to that point both predictable and a tad rushed.
However, in the final 15 minutes, Kill the Moon has lift off. I genuinely thought they would Kill the Moon but I'm not surprised Clara came through.
And frankly, I could go on for hours about that TARDIS scene, I can see why it's the Moff's favourite.
After having rewatched both Time Heist and The Caretaker they deserve more than the 6/10 I initially gave them so will up them to 7/10
Kill the Moon
Was going to give this 8/10 but it was better than the previous two episodes I gave that mark to so it will be 8.5/10.
Into the Dalek 9/10
Robot of Sherwood 8/10
Listen 10/10
Time Heist 8/10
The Caretaker 8.5/10
Kill the Moon 9/10
Into the Dalek - 4/10
Robot of Sherwood - 7.5/10
Listen - 9.5/10
Time Heist - 8.5/10
The Caretaker - 9.5/10
Kill the Moon - 7/10
Deep Breath - 6/10
Into the Dalek - 7/10
Robot of Sherwood - 7/10
Listen - 8/10
Time Heist - 8/10
The Caretaker - 7/10
Kill the Moon - 8/10
For not the first time during Series 8 I've seen an episode which delivers some absolutely brilliant stuff, with some then frustratingly mediocre stuff seemingly along for the ride as well. As the series has progressed though, the consistent high quality of that brilliant stuff has only served to make it easier and easier to forgive the shows shortcomings - of which there aren't nearly as many as there have been in recent years, but there are still some there. Kill the Moon stays true to that notion - it's an episode with some definite problems, but they're easy to forgive because again this is an episode that delivers a lot more good than bad...and those good elements are getting better and better.
To its disadvantage, Kill the Moon suffered from a lot of advance hype. It's one of the most talked about episodes of the series so far, which is a testament to how the series is going really - if all these standalone episodes are worth singling out seven out of twelve episodes in then it's definitely doing something right! Back to the point though, much of the plot of tonights episode was build-up to the final fifteen minutes. A lot of the first half hour was a tad predicatable in order to make the rest of the story a bit less predictable. It had to sift through a fair bit of exposition before it actually got going, and unfortunately it just didn't have the time to flesh out the supporting characters/spider-fodder which would probably have made that first half hour a bit more impactful. That's no fault of the writer - this is essentially what The Waters of Mars would have been without those extra fifteen minutes to properly define each of the characters. It was a matter of pacing, though in a rare move it traded a rushed ending for something of a rushed beginning.
So the supporting cast weren't particularly impressive (again at no fault of the writer, or even the actors...just time constraints) and to a certain extent that extends to Hermione Norris' character. She was redeemed enough by having enough interaction with The Doctor and Clara across the episode - but she's by no means as interesting or focused as Adelaide Brooke was. In a way I feel like Peter Harness has kind of addressed that issue by describing the astronauts as 'third hand'... he added just enough vague layers to the character to make her work for the story though there's little impression she'd ever be worth revisiting because she is genuinely a bit 'third hand' and not quite that special. On that note I feel like I should say that Norris acted brilliantly all the same, and it was the very approach from a new writer I'd hoped for so I'd love to see him back with more in future.
The focus of this story was very much Clara again. As far as some are concerned this is a major problem of Series 8, but then last year the opposite was true...you're doomed as a writer either way, frankly. The ending worked on so many levels and was the kind of character work that was missing from recent series. Both Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi acted their socks off with this one, no more so than at the end. It's a fight worth talking about between them as they both had valid points, though I personally sided with Clara in the end. She had a responsibility of care, The Doctor refused to take them home and then lumbered Clara with an impossible choice. Whilst he's right that humanity should make these decisions for itself, it wasn't right to ask it of Clara. Earth might be her home planet, but 2049 is not her world.
I still felt very sorry for The Doctor as well though, and Capaldi sold that to me brilliantly. His Doctor hides it well, but he cares a lot for Clara. She was his friend before Trenzalore, to our knowledge the only friend who saw him within those centuries (and even then for just one day) and then his friend after again...still there waiting to travel with him. The Doctor is still that scared man we saw at the end of Deep Breath, and he has just scared off his only friend.
I think above all else it's a testament to the chemistry between Capaldi and Coleman, as I was quite upset at the thought of them not travelling together, or not being on good terms. A sign of brilliant character and acting work.
As far as the science goes, I'm watching a show about a flying police box with a face changing alien who fights pepper pots. It's best to not take it too seriously, and it's a decent idea in its own right. Maybe a bit bizarre, but then Harness addressed that as well with the 'Saywhut' facial expressions when The Doctor gave the egg explanation. I think people have an issue with it being something permanently in the sky that we've seen across all these series, and now whenever we see the moon we're going to be thinking of it as an egg. To be honest I doubt we'll even notice it, and for me the only issue with the whole explanation (and probably the weakest part of the episode) was the fact that a new one was laid in its place that was almost equal in size... that was a bit peculiar.
It was overhyped, it had a bit of a bizarre premise, a bizarre episode title and some character work was lacking. The spiders weren't particularly interesting or even that scary in the end but weren't particularly bad either. Location filming was utilised very well, the acting was good all round and I can't deny that for any issues this episode has, I enjoyed it. It left a positive impression and leaves the series in a rather interesting place.
PROS AND CONS
+ Decent if quirky premise
+ Invaluable character development from the leads
+ Courtney wasn't that annoying
- Pacing issues, though for once it was a rushed beginning
- Insufficiently developed guest characters
- The new egg that was laid...what's with that?!
KILL THE MOON COMPARED TO OTHER EPISODE 7's
The Long Game - 6/10
The Idiot's Lantern - 7/10
42 - 8/10
The Unicorn and the Wasp - 8/10
Amy's Choice - 8/10
A Good Man Goes To War - 6/10
The Rings of Akhaten - 8/10
Kill the Moon - 8/10
Into The Dalek 8/10
Robot Of Sherwood 6/10
Listen 8/10
Time Heist 8/10
The Caretaker 7/10
I'm very sorry to everyone that seemed to think this was a classic episode, but I just didn't get it. It was good. But, maybe it was my fault for reading such great reviews, but the whole thing felt like an anti climax. Maybe, like Listen, it'll grow on me, but for now, I can't give it more than
Kill The Moon 7/10
Into the Dalek: 3/10
Robot of Sherwood: 1/10
Listen: 9/10
Time Heist:2/10
Kill The Moon 1/10
Into The Dalek - 8
Robot Of Sherwood - 6
Listen - 10
Time Heist - 5
The Caretaker -8
Kill The Moon - 8 : A very good episode but not the classic most reviews made it out to be. Did love the 'Next Time' trailer though....hope that episode lives up to it!
Into the Dalek: 7/10
Robot of Sherwood: 6/10
Listen: 8/10
Time Heist: 8/10
The Caretaker 8/10
Kill The Moon 9/10
Brilliant review, pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter better and more eloquently than I could.
Into The Dalek. 7/10
Robots of Sherwood 3/10
Listen 9/10
Time Heist. 5/10
The Caretaker 7/8
Kill The Moon. 5/10
Into The Dalek: 8.5/10.0
Robot Of Sherwood: 8.5/10.0
Listen: 7.5/10.0
Time Heist: 8.5/10.0
The Caretaker: 9.5/10.0
Kill The Moon: 9.5/10.0