Doctor Who - "Into the Dalek" - Review

Intro

A little bit later than usual this week due to working for most of the day and then being up all night reading Paper Towns by John Green. But here it is, my review for Doctor Who: "Into the Dalek."

SPOILER WARNING

The following review contains spoilers for Doctor Who, Series/Season 8, Episode 2, "Into the Dalek." If you have not seen it, go away. Come back after you've seen the episode. It will do you some good.

Doctor Who - "Into the Dalek" - Review

I will be the first to outright say that I really don't like Daleks. After Series/Season 2 of the new series, Daleks just got annoying and boring. That said, it's probably no surprise I wasn't looking forward to "Into the Dalek." I was sort of wrong in my assumption that it wouldn't be a good episode. In fact, I mostly enjoyed it.

I'll just throw out the bad stuff first. The space battle at the beginning. Yeah, I have a thing about space battles. Don't like them. Get bored during them. The Dalek invasion party bit was definitely a thing that happened. Much exploding and exterminating and unnecessary slow-mo dying. While it was kind of realistic from a battle standpoint, it was where I disengaged from the episode. On second watch, I think I even paused it to go get snacks at the point...

Now on to the better and good stuff of the episode. Let's start with Mr. Danny Pink. At first I thought Danny was a PE teacher. I clearly got the wrong. Not quite sure where they're going to take his character beyond being adorkable with Clara. He reminded me of Mickey Smith a few times there.

Jumping over to Ms. Journey Blue and the disposable babysitters now. Journey was interesting, I suppose. She managed to cover being both sensitive and soldier-y. I'm glad she didn't die or get to go with the Doctor. Of course, due to no casting information about adding her as a companion, we all knew that was going to happen. Also, she just didn't strike me as companion material. Disposable babysitter dude was disposable. I liked the last bit with slightly less disposable Gretchen Allison Carlyle. Not sure what her significance is to Missy, but then we know nothing about either of them so... there's that.

Rusty was alright for a Dalek. He reminded me both of Dalek Caan and the Dalek from "Dalek." Somewhat crazy but able to see the beauty in the universe. I was not at all surprised when Rusty called up The Doctor's hatred for the Daleks. Saw it coming from the moment The Doctor revealed his plan. Of course the creature who hates is going to zero in on the hatred. Not only that, but he's going to find the stuff about his race. Also, Rusty is at least the second Dalek to tell The Doctor he's be a good Dalek.

So while The Doctor is good at hating, I completely agree with Clara's assessment. The Doctor tries as hard as he can to be a good man. Whether or not he succeeds is another matter entirely and sometimes not his fault. No one is perfect.

Overall, I quite enjoyed "Into the Dalek." I've watched it twice before writing this and I have to reiterate that the commercials added in by BBC America throw off the flow of the episodes. Doctor Who wasn't built for commercial breaks. They work much better when not being constantly interrupted.

Favorite Moments

• Clara slapping The Doctor and the entire lead-up to the plan.
• Danny's recollection of his conversation with Clara. Gotta enjoy a good head-desk.
• The Doctor saving Journey in the beginning.
• The fake-out with Missy saving Gretchen.

Quotes!

"An anticlimax once in a while is good for my hearts." - The Doctor

"You asked me if you were a good man and the answer is: 'I don't know.' I think you try to be and I think that's probably the point." - Clara

"Do I pay you? I should give you a raise." - The Doctor

"I am a school teacher." - Clara

"I don't need armed babysitters." - The Doctor

"Don't be lasagna." - The Doctor

Love ya, Jessie

Doctor Who - "Into the Dalek" - Initial Reactions

Intro

First "proper" Peter Capaldi adventure. Annoying as all get-out Daleks to help welcome our new Doctor.  Not entirely looking forward to it.

SPOILER WARNING: Don't read if you haven't seen the episodes. Also don't expect to follow along... my thoughts are random.

Doctor Who - "Into the Dalek" - Initial Reactions

• Oh joy, crashing space ship...
• Hello Dalek mothership.
• Bye bye little ship.
• Oh look, you got rescued by the best ship in the universe.
• Gotta love being held at gun-point.
• Lol. Doctor gets to remind soldier of her manners.
• How nice of you, soldiers.
• And of course we gotta deal with a Dalek... So far, though, not bad.
• Hello PE teacher.
• You're creepy and annoying, Ms. Secretary person...
• Kids are dumb. That's clearly a "yes."
• Wow, Clara. Nice.
• Awkward...
• Also, Danny's not a PE teacher.
• And now Danny's reminding me of Mickey...
• Lol, Clara.
• Lol, I thought they were going out for coffee...
• Doctor, that's so weird... and there's the explanation.
• Of course that's unhelpful.
• A Dalek who wants to destroy the other Daleks. Sounds like Dalek Khan...
• "Do I pay you? I should give you a raise." - Doctor
• "I am a school teacher." - Clara
• "I don't need armed babysitters." - Doctor
• "Don't be lasagna." - Doctor
• Honey I Shrunk The Doctor
• So trippy.
• So nice of the Daleks to build their armor with corridors.
• So now we're naming it? Okay then... Rusty.
• Yeah, don't shoot the living thing. Bad plan.
• That was pragmatic of you, Doctor. I like that, actually.
• Down the LED slide.
• EWWWW
• Daleks eat people? Well then. That's kind of cool.
• So we get some quoting from the Dalek that's been re-purposed from Trek. Well then.
• Rusty is watching you and you have no idea...
• I think you've been played there, Doctor.
• You fixed the Dalek too much.
• Slow mo was not necessary there...
• I love it when things don't go right and people freak out when they were perfectly aware they might have gone wrong.
• So now what are we doing?
• Memory banks. W00T.
• You've gone and made me tear up, Gretchen Allison Carlyle.
• Oh look, TARDIS save once again... or else Missy the insane woman. Damn.
• I am generally unaffected by the Daleks massacring people... seen it fifteen jillion times too many.
• Science!
• Yup. Of course the Dalek would focus on that.
• Goodbye, Daleks...
• You turned the Dalek into a kind of Hitler...
• And that's at least the second time a Dalek has said that to him...
• She's going to try to go with them?
• And that's where he's saying "no."
• I'm slightly disappointed for her.
• "I think you try to be and I think that's kind of the point." - Clara
• Oh geez. That dress on Clara in the preview is awesome.

Doctor Who - "Deep Breath" - Review

Intro

I don't want to do any beating around the bush this morning so I'm just going to jump into doing spoiler warnings and my review. I didn't get much sleep last night, so please excuse any mistakes or whatever.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen Doctor Who, Series 8, Episode 1: "Deep Breath", please do not spoil yourself by reading this review. It contains at least cursory discussion of plot elements and characters. If you have not seen the episode, go watch it and then come back. You'll be glad you did.

Doctor Who - "Deep Breath" - Review

My Viewing Experience

While I don't usually discuss such things, I think at least some of my thought processes and whatnot should be explained before I jump into actually reviewing the episode itself.

I spent most of yesterday immersed in Doctor Who. My best friend and I spent a good chunk of the day rewatching episodes on BBC America, starting with "Hide." She left around 4 to go to work and I watched "The Day of The Doctor" and "The Time of The Doctor" by myself. I still shed many a tear during these episodes even though I've seen both at least twice already.

Then came that blasted "pre-show" nonsense. I will commend BBC America for giving Doctor Who prime billing. However, there was next to no point in delaying the episode for 15 minutes just to have Chris Hardwick and Wil Wheaton chat a bit and feature random interviews with Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi. My Initial Reactions last night spent the first two entries being incredibly irate about the pre-show.

Finally "Deep Breath" was permitted to air. My cable had started to do that digital buffering issue thing it does probably during "Nightmare In Silver" and it did not let up during "Deep Breath." So, in addition to various commercial breaks that pretty much killed all the tension, I had to deal with choppy ridiculousness during the episode itself. I was fairly irate to say the least.

I did rewatch "Deep Breath" later in the night on my computer where I had none of these issues. My review was mostly written during and after watching it the second time.

Oh Hey, Here's The Actual Review

Alright, first and foremost, I have a gigantic problem with the way the post-regeneration was handled. But my problem does not rest with The Doctor. No, my problem is with Clara's reaction. Clara should not have had the reaction she did given her history with The Doctor. This is the Clara who knows The Doctor best. This is the Clara who jumped into The Doctor's time stream and met, or at least saw, all The Doctor's faces. This is the Clara who met two younger Doctors independent of her time stream journey. This is the Clara who, despite the repeated line "I don't know who The Doctor is anymore," should not have had such an extreme reaction to the older regeneration.

This is not to say that I don't understand the script/real life reasons for Clara's reaction. I completely understand that there are viewers new to Doctor Who who needed the hand-holding through the regeneration. I completely understand the confusion of The Doctor being "renewed" and yet having an older face. However, given Clara's recent history with The Doctor, she should not have completely rejected this new regeneration as she did before that phone call at the end. It just doesn't make sense from a character stand point.

On an almost complete side note, that phone call and subsequent aftermath was heart-wrenching. I loved it, despite how superfluous it felt. It made my all-day watching of Doctor Who worth the viewing issues. It also came as a surprise. That's never happened before and initially made me suspect shenanigans of some sort.

As for the rest of the plot, I was thrown by the droids. Thrown in the way The Doctor was thrown, except it didn't for a moment click on first watch until the S.S. Madame du Pompadour was mentioned. I'll admit some of that had to do with a rumor of something from "The Talons of Weng-Chaing" coming back this Season. That Chinese droid sent me down that path, to be honest. I was kicking myself on second watch for not realizing these droids were very similar to the ones in "The Girl in the Fireplace." I'm really pleased with this re-imagining of them.

I read a review by Tom Preston last night that sited a lack of horror reaction to the human-skin balloon. I only mention this because it got me thinking about my own reaction to the general gross-ness of what went on in the rest of the episode. I was honestly more grossed out and horrified by The Doctor wearing another person's face during Clara's interrogation scene than I was by the balloon. Honestly, after that, the balloon didn't come as a surprise. No one in the episode was focused on it. No one by the Paternoster Gang, Clara, or The Doctor knew what it was even made of. It was hard to tell from the ground anyway. Yes, it was gross. Yes, it was horrifying. But really, the zombie-droids were a lot worse.

On the subject of The Paternoster Gang, let's go ahead and switch gears to them for a bit. I really enjoyed seeing more of Vastra and Jenny's relationship. The way they work as a couple is so amusing and sweet. I'm not entirely sure why Vastra felt the need to test Clara... again, technically... but then I had a problem with that bit of storyline so... Strax. Strax was essentially relegated to comic relief. That's pretty much where he fits best so I don't have a problem with it. Just mentioning it for the sake of completion. I also enjoyed the brief bits we got the the inspector. He's both clueless and amusing, if superfluous.

Lastly, on the subject of Missy. I'm not entirely sure what to make of her except to say that she's clearly insane. The way she talks about The Doctor reminds me of the way some stalkers talk about their stalk-ees. I in no way think she actually has a relationship with The Doctor. She's there to shed more ambiguity on the "death" of the lead droid. Did he jump or was it The Doctor? I'm sure that will stay ambiguous for a very long time. Personally, I don't think The Doctor pushed the droid, but that's just me.

Also, just to get this out of the way: I don't believe for a second that Missy is either River or The Rani. She can't be River because A) we've said goodbye to River and B) River gave all her regenerations/regeneration energy to The Doctor in order to save him. Not to mention she never called The Doctor her boyfriend. I don't think Missy is The Rani because The Rani just doesn't strike me as the type to ever get herself involved with The Doctor unless she's using him for something. She'd also never refer to The Doctor as her boyfriend. So there's that done and dusted.

Overall, I thought "Deep Breath" did better on second watch without commercials and technical problems. The story hung together and flowed much better instead of coming across as incredibly choppy. I can't wait to see what we've go in store for the rest of the Season.

Independent Thoughts

• The Doctor wondering where he'd seen his face before was kind of cool. Acknowledging the past in at least two different ways with that. Caecilius from "Fires of Pompeii" and Commander Maxil from "Arc of Infinity" essentially referenced there.
• I'm sure The Doctor essentially forgetting "The Girl in the Fireplace" will throw many David Tennant fangirls into a tizzy. Though he never did know the name of the ship so... *shrug*

Favorite Lines

• "No dear, people are apes. Men are monkeys." - Vastra
• "I'm not sure you get a vote." - Clara
• "Still not sure you get a vote." - Clara

Love ya, Jessie