Capaldi's first series similar to Tom Baker's first season as the Doctor...
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I am very much looking forward to Peter Capaldi taking the reigns as the now not so last of the Time Lords. But, the comparison Moffat has given Capaldi's first series as being similar to Tom Baker's first season as the Doctor, does not fill me with joy.
Mainly, because apart from 'Genesis of the Daleks' and parts of 'The Sontaran Experiment' and 'Revenge of the Cybermen', I didn't enjoy Season 12 as a whole. I found it pretty slow in pace and excluding GOTD here, no amazing storylines.
I thought the season overall was just a big pile of mess that was impossible to clean up without a full reproduction of the episodes.
What are your thoughts?
Mainly, because apart from 'Genesis of the Daleks' and parts of 'The Sontaran Experiment' and 'Revenge of the Cybermen', I didn't enjoy Season 12 as a whole. I found it pretty slow in pace and excluding GOTD here, no amazing storylines.
I thought the season overall was just a big pile of mess that was impossible to clean up without a full reproduction of the episodes.
What are your thoughts?
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Honestly, though, I'm not sure what Moffat could mean by this in plot terms, unless he means that each story will just about lead into the next, or something, so I wouldn't worry.
I imagine he's just talking more about coming from an era where there are some familiar recurring faces and a "safe" atmosphere and heading off into the unknown, darker places that the narratives can take us. An abstract kinda thing, rather than being about the specific sort of stories that will be in 8.
I'm all for fewer story arcs.
Season 12 was an experimental season. New Doctor, new producer, new script editor, all trying to find what they wanted to do.
Personally, I think Season 12 was strong when you take these factors into consideration, but probably not as good as Seasons 13 and 14 when Hinchcliffe, Holmes and the partnership of Tom Baker and Lis Sladen was fully in its stride. I certainly feel it was an improvement on Jon Pertwee's good but not great final season, when there was a palpable sense that the people making it were getting tired and wanting to move on.
In ratings terms, Season 12 was a big success, so the BBC was happy enough.
If Capaldi's first season is half as good, we're in for a treat.
I kind of agree with the OP: The Sontaran Experiment isn't substantial enough to be a true classic and Revenge of the Cybermen has plenty wrong with it. As for the naff special effects that spoil Robot, are you forgetting the naff special effects that mar the otherwise superb story The Ark in Space? I'd say that's at least as troubled by bad effects as Robot.
I think you can tell with Season 12 there's quite a bit of it that was leftover from Letts and Dicks.
Love Ark in Space though, the kind of story you would happily spend ten hours with to get every last detail out of its setting, human society and atmosphere.
Pigs might...
The BBC won't be having any of that.
Back in the day, I was a reader of 'Doctor Who Bulletin' and they had an article pre-Season 22 which was predicting the same sort of thing. (Think it was largely because they knew the Cybermen, The Daleks and The Sontarans were returning and, er, the new Doctor had curly hair?)
Wibbly-Wob... ("Oh shut up!"- Hurt's Doctor)
Like Season 12. Good crew. Tom, Elisabeth and Ian blended nicely.
Season 22 was the most violent and gory season of Doctor Who since the Hinchcliffe "golden age", so they had a point.