Struggling to understand Capaldi
GrannyGruntbuck
Posts: 3,638 Forum Member
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Am I the only person who is still struggling to understand anything that Peter Capaldi says?
I do understand some of what he says, but I estimate only around 40%.
I am finding it very hard to enjoy any episode with him as the doctor now.
The background music doesn't help either.
It is so difficult for me to follow the plot.
I normally have no problems understanding Scottish accents, but I do struggle with his.
Perhaps it is made worse by the fact he has a soft voice????
I do understand some of what he says, but I estimate only around 40%.
I am finding it very hard to enjoy any episode with him as the doctor now.
The background music doesn't help either.
It is so difficult for me to follow the plot.
I normally have no problems understanding Scottish accents, but I do struggle with his.
Perhaps it is made worse by the fact he has a soft voice????
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Comments
Interestingly, if you watch it via the iPlayer the sound is an awful lot better.
Yes you are right. That is interesting.
Anyway that's my 2 cents worth
I am not missing much then!
I will try iplayer to see if the sound is better, but I do think the BBC should do something about it.
I am not criticising his performance, it is his speech that I am having problems with.
This year's dialogue has been replaced by face pulling, staring at the top-left corner of the screen and pointing at things off-camera. There's very little being said beyond catch-phrases and whining.
(Best tip if you really are struggling is to use the subtitles to "supplement" what you hear - I used to have to do that with Southpark until I got used to the voices and accents)
Didn't enjoy it then? ;-)
This Doctor is very fond of telling people to shut up, true. But if Clara's ever said "Oops" I'll send you a metaphorical tenner.
I can understand Peter C fine, personally. Could be the sound mix. There's a scene in The Power of Three where Amy takes a phone call and chats away before the Doctor turns up with a big bunch of flowers and to this day I have absolutely no idea what she says!
Didn't enjoy it at all.
Absolutely no story worth mentioning - the whole thing was a set-up for Danny to jump the robot (amazingly appropriate given the meaning of "Jump the Shark")
I do find with Dr Who I always have to have the volume up higher than other shows but that has been the case for years. lf I watch it online I don't have a problem.
Also, check your TV volume setting. Ours is always on clear voice (or whatever it's called) instead of all the movie style settings.
Also I don't see all the catchphrases. At all. While its still zippy and stylised the dialogue is relatively alot mote naturalistic and has a ring of truth about it that some of the last two seasons certainly haven't. Eleven and River barely had one scene together that wasn't blighted byself aware sitcom banter. Its improved vastly this year.
I have always just used the tv speakers and have never had a problem with dialogue. Even with the programmes people have been complaining about.
When the new-fangled stuff works against you.
I've had problems with the sound in general for years, but something's even worse this series, I don't know if they've tweaked the sound to make it even worse or if it's Peter's speech (not necessarily his accent, could be how deep his voice is etc).
Anyway after thinking episode 2 was terrible on first watch because I didn't fully catch most of the dialogue, I've watched on iplayer ever since and think it's the best series so far since 5.
My Dad's been watching on TV and I think is about ready to quit completely as he says he can't understand any of the episodes anymore and so can't really enjoy them.
I am not using any new fangled stuff, just the television speaker.
All that bagpipe playing has probably ruined his vocal chords and on top of this he's probably off his face on whiskey and haggis too much to bother enunciating his lines properly, like a proper English Doctor would do with his oh i say chippiness and received pronunciation
And I bet he takes heroin.
And likes everything fried.
Including the haggis, whiskey and heroin.
Damn scotch trying to ruin our fine English traditions by taking them down from within.
It worked for McCoy who decided to act so terribly he got the series cancelled...mission accomplished.
Now Capaldi's dastardly plan is to be so incomprehensible as to cause the end of the series via people switching off in confusion.
The Rab C Nesbitt effect.