Watching the 8th episode right now and i had the exact same feeling as others here. She's overall good, i'm sure she needs more time to be the Doctor, at this point i have the feeling that she's just playing it. Even Capaldi had it, in his own terms, Jodie is having a bit of struggle. My guess is on the actual writing of the episodes: as someone said already, too much history and, subsequently, too much "not intervening to avoid contaminating history", in that way the Doctor never leaves an actual mark in the Universe, the exact opposite of what was happening all the time with basically the previous four actors.
Back to the history question: i think IMHO that's the overall main problem. If you "force" the narration mainly to past earth events, you have to be at least 100% coherent and logic, but really no one literally blinks an eye when two white people and a black guy together witn a Pakistani girl shows up in the Indian border 70 years ago, or the same team in 1600 in the English middle of nowhere. Not sure it's accurate, pretty sure it feels weird. In the past seasons, characters had to dress properly and hide themselves just to blend in everywhere, they're just going everywhere and in every point of time with the same nylon or leather jacket. Again, weird.
Closing points, really quick: - no horizontal plot for now, just free roaming through time and space (80% on earth, right), so 0 involvement for me. - really TOO MUCH political correctness! Of course i'm a fan of it, but what the hell, i'm watching a sci-fi product, i always had a sci-fi product, some tech devices and a couple of aliens is not enough, we're accustomed to great galaxy wars, eternal battles, huge alien structures, time loops. Where the hell is all that!? - A new actor means a new type of Doctor, yes, but not an entirely NEW Doctor. No one knows her, no one heard her name, it's like she has no history, no past events, Everything feels like it's a fresh start and a reebot. Maybe they want to give more attention to the newcomers, which is fair to a commercial level, but come on, there's guys like who follow this show since episode one, it's pretty disappointing. - Tech doesn't feel like tech enymore, feels much more like alien magic. Might be cool, but i'm watching a fantasy show right now and not a sci-fi show.
tl;dr political correctness is changing this show too deeply. Might change my opinion for the last two epsiodes, but i'm reeeeeally skeptical.
EDIT: the 9th episode was a bit better, it added more to the DW lore, maybe not needed but always appreciated (by the way, the last scene with the universe-frog could have been Whittaker's epic monologue as it was for Tennant's The Devil's Pit, they totally missed the chance). But the last episode, that was a HUGE one. One of the most beautiful ever made imho, really, that's what i personally have always expected from Doctor Who. Just a bit sad we had to wait for the last slice of it to have a true DW story, but my hype has spiked again a bit!
Review by Federico Di CrescenzoVIP 6BlockedParent2019-02-21T22:05:46Z— updated 2019-02-23T15:36:15Z
Watching the 8th episode right now and i had the exact same feeling as others here. She's overall good, i'm sure she needs more time to be the Doctor, at this point i have the feeling that she's just playing it. Even Capaldi had it, in his own terms, Jodie is having a bit of struggle. My guess is on the actual writing of the episodes: as someone said already, too much history and, subsequently, too much "not intervening to avoid contaminating history", in that way the Doctor never leaves an actual mark in the Universe, the exact opposite of what was happening all the time with basically the previous four actors.
Back to the history question: i think IMHO that's the overall main problem. If you "force" the narration mainly to past earth events, you have to be at least 100% coherent and logic, but really no one literally blinks an eye when two white people and a black guy together witn a Pakistani girl shows up in the Indian border 70 years ago, or the same team in 1600 in the English middle of nowhere. Not sure it's accurate, pretty sure it feels weird. In the past seasons, characters had to dress properly and hide themselves just to blend in everywhere, they're just going everywhere and in every point of time with the same nylon or leather jacket. Again, weird.
Closing points, really quick:
- no horizontal plot for now, just free roaming through time and space (80% on earth, right), so 0 involvement for me.
- really TOO MUCH political correctness! Of course i'm a fan of it, but what the hell, i'm watching a sci-fi product, i always had a sci-fi product, some tech devices and a couple of aliens is not enough, we're accustomed to great galaxy wars, eternal battles, huge alien structures, time loops. Where the hell is all that!?
- A new actor means a new type of Doctor, yes, but not an entirely NEW Doctor. No one knows her, no one heard her name, it's like she has no history, no past events, Everything feels like it's a fresh start and a reebot. Maybe they want to give more attention to the newcomers, which is fair to a commercial level, but come on, there's guys like who follow this show since episode one, it's pretty disappointing.
- Tech doesn't feel like tech enymore, feels much more like alien magic. Might be cool, but i'm watching a fantasy show right now and not a sci-fi show.
tl;dr political correctness is changing this show too deeply. Might change my opinion for the last two epsiodes, but i'm reeeeeally skeptical.
EDIT: the 9th episode was a bit better, it added more to the DW lore, maybe not needed but always appreciated (by the way, the last scene with the universe-frog could have been Whittaker's epic monologue as it was for Tennant's The Devil's Pit, they totally missed the chance). But the last episode, that was a HUGE one. One of the most beautiful ever made imho, really, that's what i personally have always expected from Doctor Who. Just a bit sad we had to wait for the last slice of it to have a true DW story, but my hype has spiked again a bit!