Episode was okay. Neither amazing nor bad.

I'm a little confused. Who is captain Jack? The Doctor mentioned seeing Shielda(?) fly or something? Did I skip an episode or something?

 

@Republic. Captain Jack Harkness. Former companion to 9 and 10, main character of Torchwood. Rendered immortal by Bad Wolf!Rose. Not sure what you're referring to re: Sheilda.

 

He was talking about Captain Jack Harkness(John Barrowman).

The flying thing was him telling Ashildr spoilers about the future(humans going out into space).

 

Oh. I thought he was talking about her specifically.

 

Would've been better with Williams as a recurring character spread over episodes, instead of shoehorning like this. Not the first time either, there are times when they block stories into a single episode or two instead of properly managing it.

As a result moments such as Ashildr's change of attitude come heavy-handedly.

 

??? Is Jack immortal too?

Also, I was completely fucking creeped out when the Doctor saw Shielda on Clara's photo. Complete 'holy shit that's fucking creepy' moment.

 

Honestly, this was dumb as fuck.

The whole 'immortals don't need each other' is probably one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. If you're worried you'll lose perspective, pick up a human to come along, aka exactly what the Doctor has always done. Problem fucking solved. Beyond that, it would have been pretty easy for the Doctor to at least take Ashildr on a few trips and maybe drop her in a place slightly less shitty than the medieval era.

It was all a bunch of contrived bullshit, and frankly it would have been a lot more interesting to have the Doctor return right about the time Ashildr was starting to have her existential crisis and take her as a companion for a few episodes. What could possibly give somebody more perspective than the fucking entirety of time and space?

And I can't even process the level of stupidity it must have taken for the Doctor to just leave an immortal, ageless girl for eight hundred years and not expect her to become cynical and disillusioned.

Lastly, it's still one of the most idiotic things I've ever seen to introduce a fucking immortality pill. Yeah, okay, lets just devalue literally every single death in the series so far!

Overall, the episode was an utter clusterfuck. However, the dialogue was pretty good, even though it didn't really stand up to close examination. Capaldi is at his best when he's making impassioned speeches. As far as Maisie Williams goes... she was alright. Nothing all that special to me, but also not bad.

The rest of this season has been fairly strong(with the exception of some stupid bullshit like the glasses), so hopefully this two-parter is an outlier, and things will get back on track.

Also, I feel like it's criminal that Capaldi has been the Doctor for a year and a half now, and the only things I can think of that set him apart are the awesome speech he gave in 'Flatline' last season, the horribly forced electric guitar this season, and the godawful sunglasses. I hold out hope that the rest of this season gives me some better associations for him.

 

Man... You need to watch the Eccelston and Tennant seasons if you haven't done so. You're really missing out.

 

I've been with Doctor Who since Tennant. At this point it's not even surprising anymore. And I second Republic, there are far worthier scenes to make your hairs tingle.

 

I've watched the highlights, the ones considered the 'best' episodes. I might have missed a few in the process I suppose.

 

I don't know how you can not include the Harold Saxon arc in a highlights list. I mean... I wouldn't call it top-tier sci-fi, but Martha's conclusion 3-parter, Utopia, The Sound of Drums, and Last of the Time Lords is pretty thematically important to the RTD era.

 

Must have been because I really, really didn't like Martha.

In general, companions often decide whether I'll watch an episode or not.

 

So you haven't watched Torchwood yet?

I Recommend you watch Torchwood:Children of Earth. Its really brilliant.

 

Does anyone?

 

I used to stick up for her, on the basis that there was a lot of potential in the character, but it got squandered beneath the Doctor's wangst over Rose. Then I rewatched some of series 3 and realised that Freema Agyeman is not the greatest actress in the world. At all. (Then, anyway. She was pretty good in Sense8 recently)

Anyway, a big improvement over the last couple of episodes tonight. I thought the tension of it was sold really well, great performances all round, and quite a surprisingly intelligent take on the concept, if a little on the nose at points.

Spoiler

Did I miss something with regard to the soldiers who decided not to shoot the Zygons who looked like family members? Or was it just "They look like our loved ones, and you just never know"? Because that seemed like major idiot ball clutching. Some of the twists were kinda obvious, but they were fun - especially Clara turning out not to be Clara.

 

Jesus Christ I'm getting tired of this shit.

The Magician's Apprentice: "Oh noes, Clara's dead!"
Under the Lake: "Oh noes, the Doctor's dead!"
The Zygon Invasion: "Oh noes, everyone's dead!"

Taking bets that the 'cliffhanger' in Heaven Sent is "oh noes, the universe is dead!"