The Governors.... previous companions maybe????

Well Ep 7 did indeed balance it out. Really enjoyed that one. Can't wait for the finale now though. Although ..

She better not kill Charlie now...

I'm sorry - you're rooting for Tory boy?

I suppose you could keep your fingers crossed for a series two when with a bit of luck the Daleks might turn up and exterminate all the untermensch exterminieren, exterminieren

For myself - I'd like to see the slavemaster get what's coming to him and a bit of justice to finish the series. Especially if we don't know about renewal yet. To have him win out and never pay the price, would just be too bitter

As a fan of the show, I think it's gone from one strength to the next - the seventh episode sitting comfortably with the sixth as the strongest overall. So different from eachother it's hard to decide which of the two was better.


I loved how this one felt genuinely well-travelled. The location work was fantastic, the alien settings were simple but well realised, and it was all directed and acted brillianty. Katherine Kelly absolutely nailed her role in this one, with enough heart behind the sassiness. The supporting cast were great as well, and the episode didn't suffer for not involving the younger actors.

The only real weaknesses are those that are a result of the format of the show for me. Eight episodes has led to some really condensed storytelling...effectively handled, but then I was imagining how much more powerful scenes like those near the end of this episode would have been had they played out over a slightly larger number of weeks. How much more the school could feel fleshed out with a few other characters if there were a bit more time for scene-setting.

All in all a stunning couple of episodes, and now a finale to look forward to - whether it manages to satisfy, or follows the parent show by falling short of most expectations at the final hurdle remains to be seen. But this is strong stuff so far. Quill's motives seem clouded - potential vengeance against Charlie, but then she did just save him from being imprisoned. The ramifications of the events of epsiode six are likely to impact the direction of the finale too, and the show has set itself up to hopefully wrap up a few ideas whilst leaving room to explore others in a second series - whilst also remaining quite unpredictable in terms of quite where its characters will go from here. Hopefully the last episode doesn't try to do too much in quick succession.

Tory boy? What?! Lol.

I just like him - he's a decent sort and the last of his kind. Plus it's good to have a gay character in a leading role.

I like Quill too. It would be a shame if she ruined her freedom for the sake of vengeance.

The Governors have studied their 'A-Z Book of Fun and Fascinating Alien Facts' and worked out what is required to free Quill of her pesky Arn. Luckily, they've got the 'Existential Realms Hopper' Gizmo Thing required; so off we go....!

That was great fun. Kelly seizes centre stage and is fantastic and it's great to see a variety of locations being utilised. I'd say this was the most enjoyable episode to date. I've got a 'thing' about eyes, can't even watch someone putting in a contact lens, so the operation scene had me wincing big time. Goriest moment by far, for me. Yarghhhh. (shudders) The beach scene with Quill and Ballon, RIP, was very well played. And I didn't see what he's left behind coming! Bit stupid of Dorothea to leg it really. Maybe what the Quill do after battle (yeaahhh, baby!) wasn't one of the fun and fascinating facts in the book? She knew what happens to Quill after giving birth....

It's a shame this enjoyable series has only got one episode to go. Hope it's a good 'un.

This show starting to hit some form now, don't expect it to get renewed though. I don't think Quill can hold this show on her own to get it renewed, the other characters are so unlikable or invisible and some very inconsistent development.

But the biggest issue is there is no world building, we haven't even met a student from the school, or another teacher. For all of Torchwood's problems the reason it was successful was excellent world building and characters people wanted to see again.

Did anyone else get a little "Planet of Evil" vibe from the first metaphysical world they visited?

I agree with that, it's just I see him as the lead villain

I loved episode 7. I would have gladly watched a whole series like this - travelling to diverse worlds in a quest for various items. The love/hate/respect/power/dependence dynamic between the characters. Fantastic stuff. Makes me feel a bit disappointed that we're back with the moody teenagers next week!

I actually got "The Thirteenth Floor" vibes from Wizards Vs Aliens which was originally the 5th unmade story for Series 5 of The Sarah Jane Adventures where Clyde and Rani would have had a baby in an alien world which looked very similar to where Quill was in episode 7.

Episodes 6 and 7 have been much better than any of the other episodes. Something about these episodes just felt more engaging than the previous ones. I think the change of location also really helped, specifically in Episode 7. Quill really stood out in this week's episode. It's a shame the whole series wasn't like this to begin with. Probably would have liked this series more if it was the case. Hopefully, the finale episode won't disappoint and continue the good trend of the previous two episodes. I will remain cautious but hopeful.

I Agree Originally I liked Charlie but hes turned into a bit of a pr*ck now that I'm starting to see him as the Main Enemy, I don't particularly care for The Shadow Kin or find them as strong as a threat or menacing for them to be the series antagonist maybe a one off villian, I find some of Tanyas lines a bit cringeworthy if I say so myself like her constant quips about "What the white people are doing" doesn't fit, Matteusz I think is the only character I like so far, April and Ram I find are very unhinged and I don't buy their relatioship.

Quill I actually feel bad for and like too aswell as Matteusz.

I have been enjoying class. Seeing as its the only 'who' related stuff in 2016 at least its something to watch.

Ive always wondered about this 'online only' thing for BBC3 and according to Drwhonews.net:

"Barb have released their TV Player Report for the four weeks covering the release of episodes one and two of Class. The report, which is still in the beta stage, aims to give an estimation of the numbers of people who watch a given programme via a TV Player such as iPlayer. Class is only available in the UK on BBC Three, which is only available online.

The series has failed make the list of Top 50 on-demand programmes for the four weeks ending 13th November 2016, meaning that less than 185,000 viewers have accessed the first two episodes. The highest rated programme on BBC Three for the period, and the only one to make the top 50, was Sex, Drugs & Murder: Life in the Red Light Zone, which had 247,000 watching. The biggest online programme was Planet Earth II: Islands, which had 576,000 viewers.

It is expected that Class will be screened on one of the broadcast channels at some point, which will bring it to a much larger audience.
"


Is this good or bad? Its a lot less than id have thought but I do find the online release of stuff to be really hard to keep up with sometimes.

Im no fuddy-duddy but its so much easier when you set a series to record on your PVR and then its just there waiting along with everything else you are watching / following. Now I know that 'its just there' online too, but you have to remember 'oh its Saturday there must be the next episode of class to watch'.

At the moment, between Netflix, Amazon Prime, and BBC3 I am watching 5 'live' series which i have to remember to go and watch on or after the designated day of the week when the next episode is released.

Also, is it just me or has there been next to no promotion for Class? Strikes me that only the die-hards and the types of us that read these forums are the only ones who even know it exists.

I also quite like Matteusz but apart from Ep 6 has been completely invisible, it is a problem of the show that every week half the characters need to be sidelined. Also not a fan of the shadow kin who make a return on the finale. This show does have things going for it and improving scripts but i think the damage is done.

Just caught up on Episode 7 and definitely the most memorable of all the episodes so far. Katherine Kelly just takes the episode by the scruff of the neck and just runs with it. The series has finally moved into 3rd Gear.

agree with your comments about the world building or lack of. Whilst on paper the idea of having adventures out of Coal Hill School may have seemed a good one the reality is they haven't populated the school with interesting characters and it's felt very insular as a series. I hope it gets a second series just purely for Katherine Kelly.

I feel the show definitely got some potential and it has definitely shown it can write some great stories, but i wonder if the damage has already been done for the show though.

I don't understand why'd you set the show up in a school though if you intend to not use any aspects at all of a show in a school. It is pointless and detracts from the show.

Every time I think of a flaw to do with Class, it always falls back on the notion that it could have been avoided with a couple more episodes.

The show is a bit more serialised than Doctor Who - there's a specific running order to events, which bleed into episodes a lot more rather than being quite so self-contained and changeable. With only eight episodes, and more ground to establish than any previous spin-off, Class just hasn't had the time for world-building - which is the thing it most sorely lacks (not to the extent it damages the show, I still find it massively enjoyable).

More episodes for the sake of more episodes isn't usually a good idea, but there has literally been no breathing room for anything with Series 1. Patrick Ness has done a superb job at pacing the stories well, and working with the time frame he has. But a run of twelve, or even just ten episodes would have helped a lot. The first two episodes aired together, and whilst the second was standalone, the serial nature of Class made it feel like a pretty tightly-knit continuation of the first. The third episode then becomes the only one that truly stands alone, and by the fourth episode we're revisiting elements from the first one and it's a two-parter. The sixth and seventh episodes are each their own distinct thing, but are very closely tied and follow a more conventional two-parter, and then subsequently lead into the finale. And so by the end of it, apart from the character-building third episode, the entire series feels more like an eight-part story than a full series... lacking the coherency of a miniseries like Children of Earth, but also not possessing enough breathing room to work like a series of Doctor Who might. It's a little bit of a shame, as the content of those eight episodes I've found to be very enjoyable...Katherine Kelly is a massive asset to anything Doctor Who related and I absolutely hope that this series isn't all we see of her. The younger actors have all impressed at times, whilst their characters have strengths and flaws that just haven't had quite enough time to settle properly. I also quite like the headmistress as well and think both her and The Governors have been an intriguing recurring element of the show so far.

There really is so much I like about this, and my desire for more episodes comes from both the obvious desire for more episodes for the sake of it, but also the fact that it does need to build its world a bit more and feel a bit less insular. If the first series finishes having established its main characters as well as it has so far, hopefully a second series of any length will find more time for that.

I think 8 episodes is enough to get some world building. For instance i will just compare with Buffy, it literally took about 40 minutes for complete and perfect world building set up for the next 3 seasons. Good writing can accomplish this.

The show doesn't know what it wants to do for me, they are in a school and clearly want this group dynamic. But in 8 episodes we are yet to meet a student, a teacher or do anything you would do at a school and the surrounding area, they then all move off the school to solve the issue as well.

This disjointed and insular nature has also lead to every episode half the main people to be virtually invisible. This means things aren't progressing naturally which leads to no emotional consequences and this April and Ram thing coming from nowhere.

The ideas are there for this show, the execution is very sloppy though and it has lead to a massive drop in interest.

This is very much my point though. Buffy was able to fit in some decent world-building in those earliest of episodes because it had the breathing room of twelve episodes in its first season to do so. Had it been asked to do the same in just eight episodes I don't think the show would have been as successful.

I don't think it can be said it successfully world-built in the first couple of episodes alone, and had they alone been the template for all that followed the show wouldn't have been nearly as big a deal as it was (it took a lot longer than a few episodes to establish Sunnydale, or the fact that lots of students were missing/dead, or indeed the array of supporting student characters like Jonathan who wouldn't appear until later on). Those first few episodes establish the basics, but the season as a whole was needed to really get things going - a main character like Willow isn't the focus of a story until its eighth episode (coincidentally, that's as many episodes as Class has to work with altogether). The mysterious character of Angel remained mysterious until its seventh episode (again, that nearly sees Class through to its end). They don't really start delving into Buffy's relationship with her Dad and other emotionally-provocative plot points until the tenth and twelfth episodes (beyond the capability of Class). In addition to this, Class happens to be a spin-off at birth - regardless of how closely-tied it is to its main show, the ties are still there and time had to be made for that as well... another thing Buffy didn't have to adhere to.

When it comes to establishing your setting, and your characters, pacing is key. You can't just infodump people in quick succession or else they'll not invest. You can't drag it out or people will lose interest. It's a balancing act. Class's biggest handicap is the fact that eight episodes dictates its pace... personal opinion that the acting and writing are quite competent, they are nonetheless hindered by the fact that they have to abide by a pacing that is too quick for what's wanted - and then whether you're satisfied comes down to personal opinion too, but that all-in-all implies a divisive outcome at best.

The end of the season needs you to care about the characters regardless, and so whilst the third episode seems quite soon for an episode that tugs at the heartstrings as it did, it's also approaching the halfway point of the series and so it is forced into that position somewhat (and the decision to air episodes one and two back-to-back meant we were going down this sentimental route just a week after introducing ourselves to the show). I loved the most recent episode and felt it had some superb and powerful moments - and I can't imagine how much more powerful they'd been had we just had a bit more time to spend with Quill beforehand... but there's literally no room for her earlier on. It's not that the show incompetently neglected her character, and it's unfair to suggest the show should operate with less characters... it's just eight episodes for a Buffy-esque show is a big ask. One I think Patrick Ness has handled very well, the actors have handled very well, and one that would have much more pay-off if it had a few more episodes to work with. I'm sticking by that opinion.

In the first episode of Buffy we learnt the premise of the show, all the characters, the setting of the 3 seasons, who was popular and who wasn't, how that school was like, what there was to do in the town and learn about the seasonal arc in 40 minutes. 8 episodes wouldn't have dictated that. Because what every show does is world build first, not focus on a flimsy plot.

In 8 episodes of Class it isn't even touched upon, we know nothing and the show doesn't fit the setting and that is poor writing.

Also because it is short doesn't mean you need to accelerate characters arcs forwards because now there are no coming back from these issues. Let it progress naturally and show that this show excels in character, the only thing pace should dictate is the arc not the characters development.

And stuff like this is why the shows popularity has plummeted off a cliff, there are too many fundamental problems and half the characters have been poorly utilised and developed. You mention how there are only 8 episodes, since that is the case you also don't want to sideline half the cast every episode. You wouldn't want to do that in a 20 episode season either.

Having now caught up with episodes 6 & 7 last night, it does feel like the show now knows what it wants to be, the issue is that its taken too long to get there and I've only kept watching out of a loyalty to seeing it all the way through.

I doubt anyone else would have done so, and looking at those viewing figures, not many are watching full stop. I thought it might have done better than that.

Anyway, episode 6 was an interesting concept but the fact I still don't care about the characters much made this episode feel rather flat at its core. I still don't like how not like a team there are considering where the series is at this point. It doesn't feel like a team and that's a big problem to me.

I didn't mind the threat (at least it wasn't the Shadow Kin) but then it fell rather flat to me. Probably Charlie saving the day (a character I don't like) didn't help matters. I don't like how much Matteusz has been sidelined if I'm honest. He's done far more than Tanya lately and yet the actor isn't even in the opening credits.

It all seems rather against him and for someone who is reasonably likeable, it feels unfair on him as April and Ram continue to show how forced their pairing has been.

As for episode 7, it felt good that it went elsewhere as the show could now actually breath, but the plot was rather iffy and I didn't care for Ballon at all. To be fair, I've never thought much of the actor playing him, so it wasn't too much of a surprise with how weak I found him.

I do just wish Quill could do more than spout jokes and one-liners at the moment though. She's extremely underdeveloped and in a story like this, I feel like we needed to know more about her beforehand. It just didn't quite work, but the idea of the story was in the right place.

The finale, going by the looks of the trailer, wasn't that tempting if I'm honest. The Shadow Kin are back (yay? ) and it just looks like theres no real impetus going into it. The end of episode 7 didn't particularly feel like we were now heading into a finale. It was rather flat.

I would say though if it had been a bit more like these two episodes from the start, I'd have been kinder to the show. The issue is that it wasn't and was rightfully getting criticised because of it.

It's still full of problems though. The characters feel very weakly written, still wafer thin, and the world of Class is so insular that it's getting unbelievable now. Credibility has all but gone in my opinion.

And the defence by some on here that 8 episode is not enough time to tell the story is just making excuses for the sake of it. Eight episodes is plenty of time. In UK TV, that's more than a normal series so for it to have crammed too much in and not got the best out of its eight episodes says so much about the writing.

It's been poorly thought out and poorly executed.

I am rapidly losing interesting, which I am really sad about as it started with some promise.

I will watch the final episode, but overall, I'm not terribly impressed and can't imagine it gripping anyone (still less people in its target demo) or returning for a second season).

The later episodes have been an improvement but the situation and the characters have been poorly handled.

I much prefer TSJA. Although the protagonists apart from Sarah Jane herself were kids, and it was aimed at kids, when it dealt with difficult issues it handled them in a mature way, credible way.

Indeed, I found SJA quite grown up despite what it truly was. Everything about it was so much better. It felt mature, which Class certainly never has.

Class has never known what it wants to be. Of late, to me it's been so odd. One moment its been trying to fit in Ram and the others telling people to piss off one moment or calling them a dick the next and then we've got the Shadow Kin leader wanting hugs and cuddles from the female Shadow Kin the next.

I know I like light and shade in shows, but this is so tonally all over the place that its just so wrong...