I was less impressed, as we've seen patches of this repeatedly in the past few years, fuelling the criticism that Moffat only has about 3 different ideas (not counting the ones he supposedly nicks from other people).
OTOH, Capaldi continues to be really great in the title role, and Jenna Coleman continues to channel Liz Sladen. And the new bloke might be great too, if he ever gets much chance.
Then again, the awful Keeley Hawes is up next week, so...
It suddenly makes me wonder if we are about to discover secrets about the doctor that we never knew before
(14-09-2014 09:21 )babelover48 Wrote: [ -> ]It suddenly makes me wonder if we are about to discover secrets about the doctor that we never knew before
Why is there a need to? Keep it simple and traditional. Bad guys after world domination or ruin, Doctor turns up, saves the day, disappears til next week. Simple thread throughout that worked for 40 odd of the 50 years. If there is a feeling we need romantic interludes and dark untold secrets then perhaps they should change the theme tune to that of Eastenders
It's usually ego on the part of the script-writers who feel they have to "reinvent" the Doctor to keep themselves interested and to "make their mark" on the show?
Listen was scary in moments - Whatever was under the bed clothes and opening the air lock were the stand out moments.
I thought it was a interesting ep but I just felt the story was too fragmented and disjointed.
The old favourite nightmare of the monster under the bed, but a middle aged man just walks into a children's home in the middle of the night and into a little boy's bedroom without anyone kicking up a fuss. That's like the imaginary versus the real-world horrors, and I wonder if there was any deliberate thought behind that.
The person or thing under the blanket, there was a blurred shot when it took off the blanket. I bet it will be part of a complicated explanation in the last episode of the series, and it wouldn't surprise me if it turns out to be the doctor himself, since he ordered the other two not to look at it.
Encouraged a bit more now that I've seen
Listen. Over the years I've found that the scarier (and therefore, more exciting episodes) are the kind where you see limited screen time of the Doctor himself. Instead he shows up in small segments and delivers some chilling messages or confronts an equally chilling entity, like in 'Blink'.
I thought this episode had those elements - a good old fashioned Doctor Who ghost story, the kind I'd been missing from Matt Smith's tenure - most of those seemed to be him blundering about waving the sonic screwdriver with some ridiculous, pathetic thing revealed to be the enemy that we're supposed to feel sorry for.
I think they'll be plenty of kids having sleepless nights after Listen. It was a bit overly fragmented aswell and the end of the universe segment at the end was a bit confusing, but the elements of the ghosts in the children's home was a very exciting theme. There's room for encouragement now then - so I can look forward to next week's 'Time Heist'. I hope the scary element continues - if it's there, then I find you enjoy Who more. After all, that's where the phrase hiding behind the sofa came from.
Can't actually recall a Matt Smith episode that was scary - can anyone else?