Does this count as a Doctor-less episode? Not really, although it would have been a fairly simple day for Peter Capaldi. Overall, I liked it.
We start with an interesting premise of people sucked into the walls, and of the TARDIS shrinking. (Easier prop management? Although I'm sure Jenna wasn't particularly excited about hiding in it.) And then the Doctor is trapped... which, while potential, doesn't really impact on him not being around. It's more of an opportunity to get Clara to experience what it means to be the Doctor. And yet... we don't really get a full sense of what it means to be the Doctor as Clara doesn't really have a lot of tough decisions to make.
Decent performances all around, I liked Chris Fairbank's prickliness. Good performances from our two leads as well, and we'll see where the Clara / Danny relationship goes.
Although I only just watched it, I can't say there is anything more amazing I want to talk about. High rating episode, but could easily be seen as filler. And yes, I spotted the Pixar reference. (Not sure if the other train is a reference to something.)
Next week: Oh, school trip gone wrong. That's never happened before.
[END]
Monday, 20 October 2014
DW 8.09
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LOVED this one! I even laughed at the funny bit. A definite highlight of the season.
Interesting about Clara, though. yeah, she does nothing unusual, but the Doctor's line "Good has nothing to do with it" has me scratching my head. What does he mean by that? That she could have been better? That he suspects shenanigans (I haven't seen Dark Water yet!) Just what?
Ditto on Fairbank - he's great, and in a lot more movies than I can remember seeing, I'm sure (I can recall him in The Fifth Element, but I know there's more) It does make me wonder why we haven't seen more Auf Wiedersehen, pet cast members in Who - Kevin Whatley can't be THAT busy with the Morse spin-off, and if Moffat can lure in Michael Gambon then surely Tim Spall can't be too hard? And whatever happened to Jimmy Nail, eh?
Also, I wondered from the pre-credits scene whether Jamie Mathieson is a fan of Holbein's 'The Ambassadors'?
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