THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

We enjoyed that immensely here an Gers towers. He was fantastic. Him being Scottish in no was influenced us.

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Hello, city morgue... You stab 'em, we slab 'em.

I’ll always watch Dr Who - not doing so just isn’t an option - but like watching football over the decades, just sometimes it feels like a chore and something done almost out of obligation rather than with any real enthusiasm

In recent years Doctors Ecclestone, Tennant and Smith were fantastic - perhaps like Ince the first, the very best of Robboball and the explosiveness of the Liam Manning era all in one. Hugely exciting, edge of your seat stuff that either broke new ground or raised the bar. By contrast the Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker incarnations of the Doctor felt like Tisdale levels of effectiveness, getting the job done without any style or satisfaction - forget what you have just seen but don’t forget to turn up next week - it might start to feel enjoyable

I do hope that the new series goes well, but Christmas Day felt uncomfortably like an origin story for the assistant with the bare minimum of attention for the new Doctor. Like the way the emphasis changed under Capaldi by handing too much plot time to assistant Clara Oswald and her life and trials, I get the sinking feeling the new series may become less Dr Who, and more Dr Who and Friends. All fine and nice if that’s what you want, if the CBeebies and Sarah Jane Adventures audience is truly the target then episodes like Christmas Day will become the norm and more traditional adversaries will become rarer, and more complicated multi episode plot lines a pleasant memory

From the little I’ve seen so far I have every confidence Ncuti Gatwa will make a great Doctor, stylish with a magnetic screen presence, but I worry that Russell T just won’t create the plot lines that allow him to shine as brightly like some of his predecessors

I think Capaldi 'grew into the role'.
Or perhaps the scripts just got better. I really liked his Doctor from the second series onward.

I didn't like very much of JW at all - except the Rosa Parks episode. My favourite villains (cybermen) went nowhere and the canon changing 'revelation' was too 'far out'.

Some of this Christmas episode seemed to have been cribbed not so much from 'Gremlins' as the goblins scene under the Misty Mountains in 'The Hobbit'.
Not yet convinced.

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

Watched it, thought it was total shite, apologies to all those who thought it was good


It wasn’t

I didn't think it was good. In fact I thought it was poor, but I thought he was fantastic.

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Hello, city morgue... You stab 'em, we slab 'em.

It’s a Christmas special, the first in a while so the entire point of it is pretty much campy Christmas fun. It introduced/reinforced some potentially key plot points though with the mystery around Ruby’s mother, the superstitions being dangerous and Anita Dobson’s character.

It won’t go down in history as a classic but it was a fun enough starting point.

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The greatest fools are often times more clever than the men who laugh at them.

Any evaluation of how the series went?
Very much 6/10 for me.
Devil's Chord -pretty good. 73 Yards - good/intriguing. Dot and Bubble - excellent.
Other stuff didn't quite 'cut it'
I am pleased that he isn't playing the character like an 80s Eddie Murphy - as I posted and worried about before.
Great to see the 'monster' from Pyramids of Mars back. The voice was the same as the guy who voiced the monster in Tennant's The Satan Pit.
The jury is still out for me.

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

It was fine. Some excellent moments, some poor moments. But I can see enough of the ‘Doctor’ in Ncuti to have me excited.

I think it gets let down by rushing into the best friend stage with the companion. With people like Martha for example you had a build up and it makes the endings far more powerful, but even with other ‘immediate best friend’ companions there’s an overarching mystery that keeps the Doctor almost holding back a little like with Amy and Clara, but with Ruby it just seemed immediate and I still feel like I barely know her.

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The greatest fools are often times more clever than the men who laugh at them.

Good points.
Isn't Ruby 'going'?
Her character was virtually indistinguishable from Clara Oswald? (Way she looked/spoke/reacted)

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

She'll be back in like episode 3, it’s not a permanent exit.

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The greatest fools are often times more clever than the men who laugh at them.