I also worry when other shows try to be like it, and one of the many reasons it usually fails is the writers lack creativity. Not to mention the reason Buffy worked was incredible writing and if it didn't have that, the premise of the show doesn't sound the best. And that episode was indeed terrible. But I am very curious to see what Class will do, the fact it is an older audience gives me more hope to be honest, as it gives them more ideas to explore. I don't think it'll be like Torchwood which was OTT

wasn't sure where to post this -

did you guys know tom baker is doing a voice on Star Wars Rebels season 3 ?

Just a quick question - how many episodes has Class Season 1 got?

Eight.

A belated thank you. Have a jelly baby...

Ffs
http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/2016-ch...rmed-81057.htm

What's your point?

Wow - what a surprise

I didn't realise Bazalgette was directing the Christmas special. The Woman Who Lived was one of the very few episodes of Series 9 that I wanted to like but just couldn't bring myself to and a large problem with it for me was the direction. Some of it looked worryingly amateur in places, especially compared to other episodes of Series 9. [i]The Girl Who Died[/I} was much better in my opinion but again there were aspects of it that I felt could have been done better from a direction standpoint. I didn't think the direction stood out as particularly good in either of these.

Not to condemn the upcoming special or anything. Even with zero enthusiasm for Matt Lucas being involved it could turn out okay (I wasn't looking forward to Last Christmas at all and then loved it). But I've yet to hear something I like amidst the small amount of details there are about it so far.

Hmmm, will the special pick up with the Doctor and River still on Darillium?

I wanted someone a bit better than Matt Lucas' character for the companion of the only episode of Dr Who this year

To be fair they've not said Matt Lucas will be the companion of the episode so far, just that he'll be in it.

I can't see it really. I'd think if River were in it, even for just a cameo at the start, that would be bigger news than Matt Lucas and would likely have been mentioned by now.

This series which featured Deborah Watling in one of her first tv roles will be shown on Talking Pictures (Sky 343) from next Saturday at 7pm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_In...)#Episode_list

I generally find it hard to be enthusiastic or excited about the Christmas specials. I can't see any reason why, just because they're on at Christmas, they have to involve snow and Christmas, any more than showing episodes in the autumn needs to involve brown and yellow colours and falling leaves. I find the apparent need to tie it in to Christmas in some way has made the Christmas special very predictable.

That's not to say I've hated them all. I really enjoyed The Christmas Invasion, largely because it was the new doctor's first story. I also thought The Next Doctor had an intriguing premise and was entertaining, even if it didn't fully deliver on the premise. Last Christmas was excellent and clever, and was the best Christmas special in recent years by a long wise. But otherwise, it's been pretty standard, forgettable stuff.

To be fair, last years special barely acknowledged Christmas at all after the first 5 minutes.

Also, I wouldn't say the involvement of Christmas as a theme necessarily hampers a Story, as The Christmas invasion, Last Christmas, and A Christmas Carol are three amazing episodes in my opinion, and they all have Christmas heavily woven into the plot. I also immensely enjoyed last years Husbands of River Song despite no Christmas in the plot, which is why that one element being in it or not doesn't seem to matter to me.

Christmas acknowledgement or no Christmas acknowledgement, the key to writing a good Christmas special is the same as writing any episode - just writing a good story with engaging characters.

I only really cared for A Christmas Carol and A Time of the Doctor, the rest ranging from mediocre to downright terrible. Imo, Last Christmas could have been brilliant, if it wasn't what felt like tacked on Christmas content that bogged down an otherwise serious and spooky episode.

The Husbands of River Song wasn't bad as such, I just didn't really like the cheesy and silly tone after how much I enjoyed the more serious one of Series 9.

Overall though, I tend to watch the Christmas specials for the sake ot them being Doctor Who, but rarely get much out of them. I wouldn't miss them if they went.

Interesting - I found Time Of The Doctor to be a poor send-off for the Eleventh Doctor, I didn't think the leap forward in time really worked, and it felt like a 2-3 part story compressed into 60 minutes.

To me, it's a slightly above average episode. I enjoyed it more than some than some that I would call bog standard average, and certainly far more than the one's I would class as terrible, but at the same time, it doesn't come close to my favourite Christmas episodes, or my favourite episodes in general.

My absolute biggest bugbear of the episode is why they didn't allow the full regeneration to go through on the clock tower.

We see a spectacular regeneration sequence, where he's actually destroying daleks whilst regenerating. Had they let that be the regeneration, it would have been one of the best, and would have rivaled the intensity of even the 10-11 regeneration scene. Instead though, we have Matt walking into the TARDIS claiming it was the reset, all just so that he can regenerate looking the way he normally does, in an unimpressive, blink and you miss it, spent-all-the-effects-money-on-the-reset type scene which is completely underwhelming. All for the sake of him having to look like his normal self for the regeneration, as though Moffat somehow thought the audience couldn't possibly handle the idea of him not regenerating looking the way he normally does, or that he didn't want to anger the kind of people who make doctor regeneration compilation video's to put on youtube. It seems for these kind of flimsy reasons and misjudging of the audience, he was willing to sacrifice the smoothness of the narrative, and a chance at a full on brilliant regeneration, for the sake of a disjointed, two part fumble of a change sequence.

It wasn't perfect, but for me it did a lot of things right that The End of Time didn't in my opinion and basically showed how a swansong should be done. No forceful attempts at making the story the "saddest thing ever" and ending up with a dragged out and depressing mope-fest, it said goodbye to the current Doctor while still looking forward to the new one and the general future of the show.

I completely agree. I liked the reset in the TARDIS. It allowed Karen a chance to come back, when she'd been such a massive part of his tenure. When Matt dropped that bow tie on the floor, it had more of an emotional punch for me than the drawn out sequence of 10's regeneration, and I thought he deserved much more than that quick as a flash turnaround. That was the only thing I objected to.

I didn't find either perfect or close to it really. End of Time went ridiculously OTT with the Doctor moaning for a good hour, the skeleton master him eating that chicken. And then that drawn out send off. Episode didn't work for me at all. Then Time of The Doctor I wasn't a fan of all those skips forward in time, it honestly felt like I missed the story, we really don't see much happen at all. The regeneration I didn't like how quick he changed, and felt he should of regenerated on the tower in the first place. Overall I like the latter better though.

The End of Time was a bloated mess of a story that suffered from trying to be too much. It tried upping the stakes on the previous finale, as RTD had a tendency to do - all of future earth under threat, all of contemporary earth under threat, all of the universe, all of reality, all of time... he cornered himself with high stakes but ran with it anyway. The End of Time also suffered as a result of trying to shoehorn in an accessible mainstream festive feel to it, whilst also trying to be a serious story. The tone was utterly jarring... the long awaited return of the Time Lords in some capacity was intercut with scenes of John Simm laughing like a lunatic. Other things that didn't help - Donna being brought back as only a red herring, either make her part of the story or don't. So much story potential in here wasted (The Trickster's ominous warning about the gate turned out to simply be referring to everyone becoming John Simm), so much superb actor potential wasted, the Doctor not saying Rose's 2005 was going to be "fantastic!". It just utterly disappointed, and if you also weren't a particular fan of the Tenth Doctor then there was at that point just extremely little going for the story.

The Time of the Doctor wasn't perfect either. But whilst The End of Time crammed in three-episodes-worth of minutes, it had about enough story to fill a regular Christmas special. Whilst TotD had too much story for it's regular Christmas runtime. Still, it was as a result less offensive. It forced in resolutions to plots that had sat previously unresolved.. they might have been convoluted credibility-stretching coincidences but it was better than nothing. It remembered to have fun as it went along even with the high stakes, Clara was really likeable and had shrugged off the cold-Series-7 vibe already, and I personally think the revisiting of Trenzalore earlier in its timeline was a neat thing to do. I also didn't mind the festive element - if there was ever a Doctor who was most at home at Christmas it was Matt Smith's. I would have retooled things a bit, had Amy's cameo be a bit less bombastic and a bit more poignant - have it whilst he's still in the church before Clara comes back, and then let his proper regeneration be on the clock tower. There was nothing wrong with that.

And as nobody's mentioned it The Parting of the Ways completely blows the competition out of the water, and even eleven years later remains the best finale and best regeneration episode we've had...in my factual opinion Clear and present threat, coherent story, Daleks that were menacing when it called for it, merciless killing of fodder characters, damage to Earth that sticks, bit convoluted but ultimately satisfying story arc, and best of all a regeneration that had a true sense of dignity to it. Eccleston's exit every time for me.

Well said, although I'd have to replace The Parting of the Ways with The Caves of Androzani myself. The Fifth Doctor sacrificing himself for a woman he barely knew after getting her into this message, and seeing him at his most vulnerable. I think it's simultaneously the most morally ambiguous we've seen the Doctor, and the most heroic.

Speaking of Christmas specials, it seems that this one is wrapped up as Pearl Mackie is apparently back in Cardiff, so I'm guessing read throughs for the next block have started up.