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Chibnall has a habit of writing things that don't survive more than 5 seconds of thinking about them. If brilliantly set up story arcs that go nowhere was Moffat's biggest flaw, and 'Oh poo poo now there's a bazillion Daleks!' was RTDs, I think strange poo poo that makes no sense is going to be Chibbies. So, The Power Ranger monster has to come hunt a specific human. Ok, cool. So he....projects a big button into the middle of some woods up a random hill in Sheffield? Which the guy just randomly goes 'ok yes I'm going to push that'? Why do they need permission to come hunt a dude? That's awfully polite for a monster with teeth in his face that wants to eat a crane driver. What if whatshisface hadn't pushed the button? Who becomes leader then? Was the button aimed to appear in front of someone? If so, why him? If not, why were they just projecting it into the middle of some woods? Were they just projecting that button into random parts of the world until someone hit something? Why does this button even exist? What happens if no-one pushes it? What then? You need to come to earth to get the crane guy to become leader. Does the society of teeth monsters just, stop? Is it like a US Government Shutdown? What happens to Welfare payments? Who's paying the Tooth Monster Police in that time? Literally nothing about that loving button makes any sense. He's done this before. Remember when the Silurian kidnapped a child, stuffed him in a stasis pod, started doing experiments on him, and then was all like 'I just wanted to learn' and 11 was all 'I really rather love you' and the episode just moved on like that guy wasn't a complete loving monster and that kidnapping children for experiments was a good thing to do and that his Mum was actually the real monster here? Or the fun adventure romp that started with Matt Smith gurning into the camera about Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and riding a Triceratops and Rory's dad coming prepared with a trowel that ended with 11 suddenly straight up blowing the poo poo out of Walder Frey with torpedos? I can't get over that stupid button. As best I can tell, it's literally there because someone typed 'Doctor Strange Spell After Effects Tutorial' into Youtube. Pastamania fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Oct 8, 2018 |
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Oct 8, 2018 22:41
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 01:35 |
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I think the pacing feels off partly because of the larger cast this season. Whenever the series blows everything up and starts again, it has always started small; typically introducing the companion first and, when it's also a new Doctor, that doctor in the second episode. The story of Who is the companions, not the Doctor's - The Doctor is this crazy semi-unrelaitable genius space wizard, after all. It was Rose's story, then Martha, then Donna, then Amy's (Hell, didn't Moff actually have her actually monologue 'This is the story of Amy Pond' at the start and end of her run? Moff is not a subtle man), and so on. The Doctor isn't the main character, she's the inciting incident. Now, we're meeting four new characters but the story doesn't really 'belong' to anyone. By the end of Rose, we knew who Rose was, and had an introduction through her to her family and life, but we didn't also get Micky and Capt. Jack running around in the Tardis from day one. The smaller cast kept it simple in a show that's constantly having to introduce pretty out there characters, worlds and concepts. Without time to build the companions and their relationship with the Doctor, we don't as viewers have anybody we can particularly relate to yet. I suspect this episode will be a lot better on a re-watch, once we get to know the characters better. I enjoyed it, kinda, but in the same way I enjoyed something like The Hungry Earth. It was 45 minutes of perfectly good television I can't be arsed to ever watch again and will of completely forgotten about shortly after hitting post. It'll be interesting to see how they handle this. They could go the route something like Star Trek did to solve the same problem, and make it an ensemble show; this is the Yasmin episode, this is the Ryan episode (My title pitch; 'Snakes and Ladders'. Writes itself.), and so on. Or they could focus on making one character the main audience insert and having the other two be the Mickey/Rory/Capt Jack/Nardole of the group. Chibnall may not always be the most exciting writer around, but he knows how to craft a functional story and obviously has studied his craft, so he would of thought about this. Also, calling it, Graham will bite it from Checkov's cancer, and Ryan will call him 'Grandad' as he dies.
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Oct 16, 2018 00:18
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Orv posted:The episodes lead you by the nose from problem to problem to exposition to solution to epilogue without much in-between the lines or even between the directly related scenes. One of the common complaints, at least from tv critics during Moffats run, was that the stories got too obtuse and complicated and people struggled to follow. Moffat was guilty of leaning too much on the lore of Who (‘the gently caress is a mondasian cyber man!?’ - everyone under 50). I suspect this is an edict from on high to make the show more ‘accessible’ again. The thing is, RTDs run succeded because because he put the focus on fleshed out interesting characters, and, it was refreshingly fun, optimistic and camp at a time when 9/11 and Iraq broke a lot of writers brains. The actors are fine, but no one is anywhere near as memorable as Rose, Her Mum, Capt Jack... RTD prioritised the emotion of any given scene often at the cost of a tight plot. That’s a valid creative choice, and the wider writing team brought enough high concept sci-fi to offset it - Chibnall or someone else seems to have interpreted that lesson as ‘the audience is stupid’. Maybe they’re right. Aren’t the ratings way up this season?
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Nov 10, 2018 10:36
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That was pretty good, but as ever with Chibnall, there's a shitton of one liners and plot points that go nowhere that just leaves a bit of a weird proverbial aftertaste. Like, what was the deal with that weird company with the Dalek gun in a box? There was one fast one-liner about it being blackmarket weapons, and when she was at the computer there was a brief mention of the Black Archive so I assume it's stuff from Unit that got out, but why is the blackmarket alien weapons dealer being guarded by a dorky nervous 20 year old security guard?? Piggyback lady fights the Dalek, which accomplishes....exactly nothing, because it leaves her to go into the tank. But on the way out it.....excretes wound healing juice that stops her bleeding to death from a hole in her neck? What? Graham ran off to get peanut butter for....no reason what so ever? It's never used? I assume they wanted to have a reason for Graham and Ryan's Dad to chat, but 'Can you get some peanut butter K RIGHT GO GO GO!' is some pretty loving desperate screenwriting. 'Your dad can come along' - But doesn't everyone....y'know, hate him? That's what frustrates me about Chibnall - even in an episode with a ton of good ideas, there's so much sloppy writing that it ruins the episode for me. Moffat and RTD could do some monumentally dumb plot points at times, but they at least all went somewhere and had a reason to exist. On a purely technical level, Chibnall's writing is sloppy as hell. Ok, here's what I'd do;
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Jan 2, 2019 21:13
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