Flux
It was fun. Spoilers follow.
Given I thought the New Year episode, Revolution of the Daleks, was only fine and "passes the time well enough", this was a definite step up. It was fun, exciting and reasonably well-paced albeit rushed towards the end.
All that said, I thought the two standalone episodes, War of the Sontarans and Village of the Angels were much the strongest of the series. Most of the rest of the story felt like too many ideas crammed into too small a space which may, of course, have been a result of shortening the series because of Covid. Chibnall has form in long-running story telling so, unlike some of the story's other faults, I'm more willing to ascribe this to the shortening of the story than inate flaws. But while the multiple threads kept everything moving, I think, overall, they were confusing. I mean, I've spent a lot of the past couple of weeks carefully not thinking too hard about the finale because I'm pretty sure it doesn't make much sense and has plot holes you could drive several double-decker buses through. Chibnall's mostly not too bad on the plot hole front so I suspect having to cut material is the culprit here.
Some of the story's other flaws are ones we've seen before: a tendency for people to spend a lot of time standing around telling each other things - Once, Upon Time, which I think of as the info-dump episode, particularly felt like it suffered from this; and a tendency for things to be set up as significant and then not utilised - whatever was going on with Azure before Swarm "rescued" her.
Some of the other problems its hard to call. Di seemed oddly under-utilised, the reasons for her kidnapping were obscure, and we were only told about her discoveries in the passenger we never saw her make them. Similarly it wasn't entirely clear what the Grand Serpent was about or how his activities on 20th century Earth fitted with his meeting with Vinder. For the big guest star of the season, Vinder was a lot less interesting than Bel.
Everyone seems to love Dan. I thought the first episode tried way too hard to make him likeable (really? he volunteers at a food bank, and moonlights as a tour guide to show of his enthusiasm for his home city, and has a disabled almost girlfriend he treats perfectly, and is good with children, he even has a dog (sort of)). I thought he was better after The Halloween Apocalypse but for at least the first half of that episode at least he felt more like a walking list of virtues than an actual character.
Carvanista was a triumph though - almost quintessential Doctor Who from the innate silliness of the concept through to the slightly dodgy costume.
So I liked it. I wish it had had two or three more episodes to allow the arc plot to breathe. I shall even rewatch it some time soon to see if my suspicion that most of the final episode doesn't make sense is true or not. This entry was originally posted at https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/804535.html.
Given I thought the New Year episode, Revolution of the Daleks, was only fine and "passes the time well enough", this was a definite step up. It was fun, exciting and reasonably well-paced albeit rushed towards the end.
All that said, I thought the two standalone episodes, War of the Sontarans and Village of the Angels were much the strongest of the series. Most of the rest of the story felt like too many ideas crammed into too small a space which may, of course, have been a result of shortening the series because of Covid. Chibnall has form in long-running story telling so, unlike some of the story's other faults, I'm more willing to ascribe this to the shortening of the story than inate flaws. But while the multiple threads kept everything moving, I think, overall, they were confusing. I mean, I've spent a lot of the past couple of weeks carefully not thinking too hard about the finale because I'm pretty sure it doesn't make much sense and has plot holes you could drive several double-decker buses through. Chibnall's mostly not too bad on the plot hole front so I suspect having to cut material is the culprit here.
Some of the story's other flaws are ones we've seen before: a tendency for people to spend a lot of time standing around telling each other things - Once, Upon Time, which I think of as the info-dump episode, particularly felt like it suffered from this; and a tendency for things to be set up as significant and then not utilised - whatever was going on with Azure before Swarm "rescued" her.
Some of the other problems its hard to call. Di seemed oddly under-utilised, the reasons for her kidnapping were obscure, and we were only told about her discoveries in the passenger we never saw her make them. Similarly it wasn't entirely clear what the Grand Serpent was about or how his activities on 20th century Earth fitted with his meeting with Vinder. For the big guest star of the season, Vinder was a lot less interesting than Bel.
Everyone seems to love Dan. I thought the first episode tried way too hard to make him likeable (really? he volunteers at a food bank, and moonlights as a tour guide to show of his enthusiasm for his home city, and has a disabled almost girlfriend he treats perfectly, and is good with children, he even has a dog (sort of)). I thought he was better after The Halloween Apocalypse but for at least the first half of that episode at least he felt more like a walking list of virtues than an actual character.
Carvanista was a triumph though - almost quintessential Doctor Who from the innate silliness of the concept through to the slightly dodgy costume.
So I liked it. I wish it had had two or three more episodes to allow the arc plot to breathe. I shall even rewatch it some time soon to see if my suspicion that most of the final episode doesn't make sense is true or not. This entry was originally posted at https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/804535.html.