A scarf, a robot dog, and some of the most fun ever. We discuss Tom Baker's run as The Fourth Doctor.
Terrific story arcs and eyebrows to knock your spatiotemporal socks off. We discuss Peter Capaldi’s run as The Twelfth Doctor
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That’s it. We’ve reviewed every single episode with the Twelfth Doctor, and holy moly if this doesn’t mark the end of an era in so many ways. The last of Capaldi’s Doc (at least so far), and the last of his gorgeous TARDIS, those companions, that opening theme, that show runner (!), yada yada. The list goes on, of course.
Join us for a chilled yet increasingly libatious chat about the Timelord, the myth, the legend, Peter Capaldi, and about the series that comprised his time on the show, as we ponder, among so many other things:
- The highs and lows in terms of episodes, companions, aliens and adversaries
- If and when Clara ever took responsibility for PTSD’ing the crap out of her boyfriend
- And whether you can judge the greatness of Capaldi by the length of his hair.
Farewell, Capaldi. You’ll be greatly missed.
Hey Team!
Some thoughts:
– Capaldi, obviously. What an actor. Even an inferior episode could be saved by a great performance.
– He clearly loves being the Doctor and the passion shows through in those monologues and speeches. Shivers up the spine every time.
– The second series is probably the best in new Who.
– Whilst Heaven Sent is rightly lauded – and gets better with each viewing, Hell Bent is even better. Having not remember the reveal, the shock ending was thrilling. I love this episode. Where’s the Diner Tardis spin off?!
– Story quality is very consistent with few clangers – unlike the Tennant era where for every Blink there was a Fear Her.
– Saying that the first season does contain the two worst stories in ALL of Who, Robot of Sherwood and In the Forest of the Night, the latter being just awful. In fact the whole season took a while to get going, but by the end was in its stride.
– Clara and Bill are among the best companions ever and I even liked Nardole. Me was great but Danny Pink took up far too much airtime.
– Missy! The Ying to Capaldi’s acting Yang. Easily the best Master, a good story arc; could have had her in every episode.
– Surely the best Tardis interior. It looked simply beautiful.
– In summary, having gone into the re-watch with trepidation, turns out Capaldi has only gone and become my favourite New Who Doctor and his run the pinnacle of the rebooted series. Doctor Rating: 4.7/5
Hi
So I didn’t like the Doctor’s characterisation in series 8, but he got better over Capaldi’s time on the show.
Best Story: Heaven Sent if you allow it, or World Enough And Time/The Doctor Falls
Worst story: In the Forest of the Night (technical level); Hell Bent or Twice Upon a Time (for pissing me off the most)…actually combining the two, Kill The Moon
Story that everyone likes but I strongly dislike: Zygon Invasion/Inversion
Best Companion: Bill
Worst Companion: Clara (sorry Marie)
Best Villain: Missy (I think, it’s a tricky one for this run of the show)
Worst Villain: Erm, The Monks maybe just for wasted potential
Best Alien: The Boneless from Flatline for the design
Worst Alien: The Eaters of Light (?)
Kieren
It took me a while to warm to Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, although most of my favorite episodes happened in his first season. I was unfamiliar with him as an actor, but remembered him from his role on Torchwood (series 3: Children of Earth), where his performance was outstanding. If they had had Captain Jack return, I had wondered if Jack would recognize him.
While I think Capaldi brings a certain gravitas to the role, he never really clicked with me as being the Doctor.
Of his companions, I liked Clara the most. I think she did more with the role, especially in episodes like Flatline.
I liked Bill, too; I just don’t think she developed enough. Nardole played a good Renfield to Calpaldi’s Frankenstein. (Or Exposition and Comic Relief, as Missy describes them.)
Missy is almost a companion to him in season 10, and almost a friend to him. Almost. Since she was only pitted against Twelve (so far), then this is also her retrospective. Michele Gomez is delightful whenever she is on screen, whether she is being the villain or the friend, and she makes it hard to tell which is which sometimes. The Master (in all incarnations) has long been my favorite Doctor Who foe, and I would love to see him/her get their own spinoff series or movies. If you like Michele Gomez as Missy, then catch her in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix, where she plays a similar character. (She plays Lilith, the first wife of Adam, and she starts off deliciously evil, and then tries to reform because she needs the help of Sabrina and her coven.)
My favorite Twelfth Doctor stories are:
Flatline
Mummy on the Orient Express
Time Heist
Thin Ice
World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls
My least favorites were:
Kill the Moon
Death in Heaven
Sleep No More
I had started to like him there at the end, and its really a pity we won’t get to see any more of him. Capaldi made it clear he doesn’t like the multi-Doctor stories, and he dissed both Big Finish and the BBC, so it’s unlikely he will return in any form.