Chibnall is a hit-and-miss storyteller, but I am going to give him some brownie points for not shying away from Yaz falling in love with Thirteen and vice versa. I never in a million years expected it to actually happen, so the last couple of specials were a pleasant surprise. I really liked the scene on the beach (callback to TenRose?). It felt very Broadchurch-y to me, which is a good thing.
That "coming soon" preview at the end of the episode really hit me in the feels. Perhaps I'm in the minority (but then again, my favorite Doctor/companion duo is Twelve and Clara, so maybe I'm just cursed to always have unpopular opinions when it comes to this show), but I will miss Jodie dearly. I really love her Doctor. I'm sure I'll like whoever replaces her, but I expect there will be lots of ugly crying on my part when it's time to say goodbye to her.
I will be so glad when Chibnall is no longer attached to Doctor Who
Very rarely do I give sub-5 ratings, I tend to find some positives. This is a 2 and that's generous. The only good thing in his episode is the costume design (and some of the production design - they clearly ran out of budget when it came to the Sea Devil's machinery thing, so tacky).
The editing was the biggest offender (I suppose coupled with the direction), nothing flowed right. The fight scenes were laughably bad. I don't think there was a single shot where the attacker and defender were in the same frame, it always cut from one to the other as they attacked. So bad. And then there's the plot, or lack thereof. It's weird, the episode simultaneously felt like it had parts cut out of it but also was struggling to fill its runtime. I don't know how they managed that, but trust Chibnall to find a way, I guess. But yes, the threat was hilariously nonsensical (poles swapping would cause the ice to melt and flood everything? Both of those consequences are entirely wrong).
Oh and they couldn't even get the little things right? The phone ringing despite him using it for an outgoing call at the same time? For crying out loud, does no one check the script at all?!
Well, that's an hour of my life I'm never getting back...
Having sleeping issues? No worries, just start watching this episode and you will fall asleep within 10 minute. I’ve tried watching this 3 times and I just can’t make it till the end, I give up…
wow! The basic idea is pretty good but the execution is terrible. lots of hard cuts and poor editing that breaks up the flow. The acting of the main cast is terrible as are most of the rest. Some nice sets and costumes but awful cg that kills the sense of threat.
Problems in this episode are solved in 3ways either half thought solution, exposition dump or running away. I think this is the norm for this doctor which is getting really old.
Exposition is often nonsensical and kind of amounts to a spell intended to make the audience think the characters are geniuses. they aren't and rather than showing that we are just told they are.
Plenty of action happens but is any of it memorable (apart from goofy action shots)? Doctor who has been a show where people are excited to share ideas and talk with admiration about episodes for years. This isn't one of them. Rather it's a collection of ideas that someone thought was cool, and Hail Marys to fix the current problem.
This is simply awful from start to finish. Move over Chibnal - Your writing sucks.
This will be the episode that leaves Chibnall fans feeling like the rest of us for once xD
This episode really felt disjointed, it was really jarring.
And right after a decent episode in Eve of the Daleks, we're right back to our regularly scheduled Chris Chibnall programming.
It's extremely easy to tell where the CGI budget went: the Sea Devil ship, the scene on the ocean floor, and the sea monster (which was given nothing to do). In contrast, the lightning effects from the Sea Devil swords were laughable, and I've seen better greenscreen effects in student films. I don't have any confirmation, but if the Sea Devils themselves are a mix of CGI and practical suits, then they're the best special effects in this whole episode.
Unfortunately, it doesn't end with the CGI. The story doesn't kick in until halfway through the episode (if you could call that a story), and the editing was noticeably bad. It's especially apparent in the action scenes, where they constantly cut around the action, even forgetting certain insert shots. And I thought this in the last episode as well, but I'm not sure the romantic tension between the Doctor and Yaz has been earned.
This special is about as watchable as a lot of Chris Chibnall's past episodes. It's not very engaging or well put together at all.
Others here have already addressed a lot of the issues I had with this episode, but I just wanna say:
This episode made me feel how I felt watching some classic Doctor Who episodes that were bad, but which I felt I had to get through to get to the good parts. I've never felt like this in the modern era (except perhaps a few bad episodes in Capaldi's first series), but this... The previous Chibnall series were bad, but this just takes the cake.
And can I say? I really don't care for Whittaker's Doctor. I've been watching some clips with the previous modern Doctors, and they all had that magical energy about them, like they were excited about life and wanted to take us on a grand tour of all time and space. Whittaker has nothing of this energy. The writing's largely to blame, but there is something about her performance, too, that lacks a certain depth and quality. I was hoping that, like Capaldi, she would find her footing after a season or two, but her character is actually regressing as we head out into her last appearance.
I like to think that in a few years, when RTD has steered the ship right again, I'll be thinking back to this episode as another one of the dark periods of Who fandom.
:expressionless:37% :thumbsup:14 :thumbsdown:24
:white_check_mark::white_check_mark::white_check_mark::white_check_mark:
Good choice of a historical era and setting, highlighting a largely forgotten pirate captain; love the Asian setting, as it is rare for Doctor Who to tackle.
Jodie Whitaker has a few good Doctor-moments acting opposite Craige Els; John Bishop is sassy as always; Crystal Yu seems to enjoy playing the pirate captain Madame Ching, which carries over to her energetic performance; the lead Sea Devil has more personality than any other previous individual of said species.
There's quite a nice swashbuckling sequence on a ship towards the end of the episode which ends up being the highlight of this adventure; there are finally some emotional moments devoted to the Doctor and Yaz, but it's difficult to say where they’re going from here with one episode left of this era.
The BBC once again excels in the costume and set decoration department, bringing a pinch of reality and magic to the visual side of the story; the Sea Devil designs are wonderfully true to the original ones from the classic series, with a slightly updated quality; Segun Akinola's score takes inspiration from the setting and supports the adventure pretty well.
:x::x::x::x:
So much of the plot makes no sense - how do you steer a ship without a crew, the Sea Devils came and went, Dan kills five Devils just like that and so on; the story does not build up to the introduction of the Sea Devils in any way, making their first meeting with the Doctor feel very anti-climactic; it's frustrating how, for the second subsequent episode, we get teases of a Thasmin thing, only for the episode to joke it off before fully committing to anything - make up your mind already! The Asian setting and characters remain mostly a backdrop that doesn't play into the plot all that much; they go the Terry Nation route of introducing a gigantic, secondary monster only to never use it properly.
Nothing is done to make the character feels alive or interesting because there’s no time for real character moments; Madame Ching ends up being mostly a celebrity cameo with no real use within the story.
I don't know whether it's down to the writing, the performances, the direction or the visuals, but this episode feels more like a fan-made spoof or fan film on YouTube than an actual episode of the show; with a very limited guest cast and no ship crew to speak of, this episode feels empty and not very lively, which immediately removes some of its charms; am I seeing attempts at some MCU-style humour? Well, it doesn't work very well and comes across as very forced; this one feels rushed almost all the time, with very little time devoted to actual plot or character development; this episode is lacking real tension and peril - things are waved around for a bit and then resolved so that we can move along to the next thing; there's not a feeling of a bigger, more though-out special - in fact, Legend of the Sea Devils feels more like a mid-season episode than anything.
Not a fan of how the Sea Devils' mouths move when they talk, this makes them look like puppets; the CGI looks very half-baked most of the time and there are some weird cuts and camera angles trying to hide the fact.
This is possibly (probably) an unpopular opinion, but I found it to be a decent episode with ebbs and flows of the usual auspicious and melancholic feelings that always come as we move closer to another regeneration. The acting is fine, story is clear, it's a lovely reintroduction of a very old Doctor Who villain, costumes are alright, set looks good... might have focused more on the regular cast and given a bit less screen time to the guests, nothing is ever flawless, but this episode fits quite nicely in the Whoniverse.
7.5/10
After watching this I want to apologise for shit talking the season 13 finale.
The ratings for this one are really harsh, but it's not nearly as bad as some episodes from Tennant's era that were utterly horrible, but rated higher. This was actually a fun watch with interesting villains. I will be sad to see Thirteen go, I feel she deserved more time on the show.
watch it on Dailymotion:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8a4f88
8 out of 10...obviously I'm a fan, and, I measure these stories against my idea of my thirteen year old sensibilities (though I'm technically sixty). I'm glad the Doctor addressed the eliphant in the room, and I'm sad if what we saw signals a coming regen.
Jodi's just as capable as any of her male counterparts, and I've been watching since Tom Baker (plus several earlier movies on, "Creature Feature," double-headers when I was nine years old -- those were from the sixties).
The nonsense exposition of this show is so bad. It's so sad this is the send off Jodie is getting. I can't wait for Chris Chibnal to stop writing these.
Pirate adventure! It’s fun when a Classic Monster comes back. Pretty self-contained story with loads of emotional baggage. Finally Yaz’s feelings towards the Doctor were properly addressed.
:heart:x5
This was not good - a story like this needs more - more of everything - but mostly more time to tell the story properly (better writing). This is when I miss the Doctor Who stories from 50 years ago.
There are so many plotholes in this one tho and worst of all there is one HUGE plothole that is simply unforgivable.
So very glad Chibnall is out of there.
How I rate:
1-3 :heart: = seriously! don't waste your time
4-6 :heart: = you may or may not enjoy this
7-8 :heart: = I expect you will like this too
9-10 :heart: = movies and TV shows I really love!
Shout by PeteHenniBlockedParent2022-04-18T16:47:48Z
Remember that scene from the Half-Blood Prince when Harry forces Dumbledore to drink that cursed liquid to get to the locket? And after every glassful Dumbledore screams "Please stop!" and "Kill me!" to which Harry keeps replying "Just one more, just one more!"?
Yeah. That's how it feels just watching each new Chibnall episode knowing Davies is on the horizon.
What a travesty.