Right, now that we have the official titles and writers, does anyone have a prediction for which will become the most hated, slagged-off episode of Series 8?

My money's on Robot of Sherwood. It's a Gatiss (thus starting with a disadvantage) and in that unlucky 2 or 3 position which tends to receive most of the venom.

Robot of Sherwood or Flatline.

Though the latter could be quite fun based on what very small amount I know of it. I doubt everyone will be a fan of the idea.

So hard to tell. I think Ten might be the most divisive but likely to be either truly loved or hated in equal measure. I'm not sure why I think this. Just do. But I know so little its really hard to say. I must say there isn't one episode im not really looking forward to except perhaps Into the Dalek because well...Daleks. Yawn. I can understand peoples trepidation about Robot of Sherwood but im such a sucker for anything Robin Hood related it will have to be truly appalling to fail for me.

Should add that in most cases I tend to like the Hated Episodes, so this is not really trying to predict what will actually be bad.

Yeah probably ep 3 in general I think.

RoS or anything by Moffat (You know what some people are like... *rolls eyes* )

It was bad enough to need two series worth of hate

I'm thinking Robots of Sherwood. I'm worried it will end up being a ridiculously silly farce, but then a lot of other people don't seem to have very high expectations for this episode either so perhaps it will just be dismissed as a light hearted bit of fluff (or maybe it will actually turn out to be very good).

So, if we're talking "punchbags", I think it will be an episode which sounded great on paper but which ended up disappointing a lot of people. "Listen", "Kill the Moon" or "In the Forest of the Night" could fit this bill.
Of course, we won't be able to know for sure until the episodes air (unless you've read the script for "Listen" of course)

Then of course (as has already been mentioned), there will always be those who complain about every episode Moffat has written so I expect most of those to attract a lot of criticism from certain people.

And finally, you'll have the odd number of people who hate every single episode and blame Moffat even if he didn't write the episode at all.

I'm hoping Mummy on The Orient Express is better than it sounds.

Listen will be the season's overrated ep that gets praised to high heaven while being fairly mediocre, for sure.

I'm instinctively wary of Robot of Sherwood & Mummy on the Orient Express, simply because those sort of punning titles-especially when relating to existing pieces of fiction-always make me groan & cringe.

Sounds like a mummy on the Orient Express (in space?) - which sounds bonkers and brilliant

No matter how good Robot of Sherwood is it will struggle to beat another sci fi stalwarts interpretation :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri5S4...=youtube_gdata - Video Tube for YouTube - Android

Things getting praise generally means the people praising it don't think it's mediocre and if a lot of people are praising it then a lot of people don't think it's mediocre.

Anyway, I'll wait until I see it. It sounds interesting, but it may transpire that I too find it a bit overrated.

I think time is a good factor in these situations though. A lot of people are now coming round to the realisation that "Blink" is not worthy of the crazy praise it got at the time, the case will be similar with "Listen" IMO.

Moffat's still pissing on your cornflakes I see. You should complain to the BBC.

Strange, uncalled for dig

Or his Kellogg's Sugar Frosties, more like!

Kill the Moon.

I don't like the title, sounds uninteresting as well. I think that will get the most punches from critics.

Daleks yawn?

Can never get enough Daleks, the problem is not the Daleks themselves but often that the stories they are in are so poorly written (Destiny, Victory, Asylum, Time of the Doctor for example). Need more space opera stories like Masterplan, best Doctor Who story ever.

When Moffat writes good stories he rightly gets praise (Empty Child two parter, Girl in Fireplace, for example). When he writes poor stories, like most of his output since 2010, he gets criticism. Why do you find that so hard to understand? Roll eyes

Well yes. I agree with you for the most part. Though I love Dalek and Asylum all other New Who appearances have been mediocre or poor. There is so much potential there. But its never been realised very often. So I don't approach any episodes with them in with much excitement.

Alot of Moffata writing since he took over has been very well received by fans and critics alike. Yes hes written some drivel but some classics as well. Same as RTD.

Let's all watch the series first shall we?

Fair enough. I just always feel sorry for the punchbag episodes and wondered if there's some predictable factor or other that dooms them to that fate regardless of their intrinsic worth.