I thought that was one of the best yet - Listen still comes out on top, but this was a close second. It was good throughout, the the last five minutes or so between the Doctor and Clara were excellent.

 

This was a really good episode where some great acting made up for some poor writing, only to be let down at the end by a stupid ending.

Just like Listen.

 

Man, that seems to be the theme of this season. Great acting, but terrible writing.

What happened Moffat?

 

That was absolutely awful writing. The end especially.

 

When you say the writing was poor. Do you mean the premise about the hatching moon? Yeah its absurd but its Doctor Who, if you can't take the absurd by now then I don't know why you're still watching.

I'm really curious about what people saw as bad writing.

Loved this episode. As I've loved most of this new season. Also this episode was the most Capaldi has been like the Doctor for me so it wasn't a surprise to learn that the writer wrote that episode for Smith's Doctor originally.

 

I wouldn't say it is bad writing exactly but poor decision making. You can have an episode of Doctor Who where the moon is a giant egg about to hatch. And you can have an episode with a big emotional scene where core relationships change.

It is a mistake to have them happen in the same episode.

 

The Moon as an egg? The spiders being huge, evolved bacteria? The spider-germs being killed by disinfectant? That's amazing. I have no problem with any of that. That's the kind of thing that keeps me watching Doctor Who. It's the characters that suck.

One episode, the Doctor is a crabby old man who doesn't understand humans. Except that now he's a jealous swashbuckler who always wants to be right. But wait, now he's a pragmatic general with a sharp wit. And then during all of that, he has moments where he's a cruel, heartless bastard who insults and degrades people for no apparent reason.

And Clara... fucking Clara! She's basically a completely different character this season. It's like they forgot to tell anyone that Jenna Coleman was under contract for another season, so they started writing scripts for a new companion.

 

I see that more as them realising that they didn't really give Clara a personality until at best the 50th special, and trying to make up for that. You could argue they've gone too far the other way, but I far prefer this Clara to the flat version in series 7.

 

Decision making is writing. Shit is also shit. And this was shit.

 

Just a few of the most glaringly awful bits, and there were so so many:

1. Terrible redshirt stupidity in the side characters. Moron #1 hears horrible skittering and screeching from a dark hole on the planet's surface despite sound not being able to travel in a vacuum. What does he do? Why, he gets closer of course.
   
   
2. The one space baby life vs lives of billions of humans conflict was incredibly preachy and condescending, and instead of ending it ambiguously, allowing the viewer to decide for themselves what would have been morally acceptable, the pro-life outcome was rewarded with a brief celebration, a heartfelt 'thank you for stopping me' from the semi-antagonist, and a pat on the head from the Doctor.
   
   Was this episode written by Aaron Sorkin's evil conservative twin or something?
   
   
3. They kept taking off their fucking helmets despite the presence of these giant germ things and the knowledge that the station could fall apart at any moment if the ground were to crack open. Seriously, that's sci-fi writing amateur hour right there.
   
   
4. Usually Doctor Who at least makes an effort to explain the absurdity of the show and the logic corners it writes itself into with some sort of barmy scientific explanation. There wasn't even an attempt to do so this episode. Was literally:
   
   'Guys, this thing is a unicellular life-form in the shape of a spider!'
   
   'Woah, really?!'
   
   'Yes! You can kill it with this disinfectant we just happened to have on hand!'
   
   and
   
   'Guys, the moon is just a really big creature inside a rocky eggshell!'
   
   'Woah, really?!'
   
   'Yes! And when it hatches, the eggshell will conveniently disintegrate in an instant, and the creature will be mature enough to lay a brand new egg, hurting no one!'
   
   I mean... come on.
   
   
5. The Doctor has developed a disc that allows someone to pilot the TARDIS to his location. REALLY? With that one throw away plot point that I'm 100% positive the writers didn't think about, for the rest of the show's history, the Doctor will always have immediate access to the TARDIS so long as someone is inside that he can communicate with. Who's betting they won't remember?

 

Apparently they do remember since it's from Blink.

 

That was my central objection. The unicellular spiders and bad scifi cliches are the sort of things I expect, but the moralistic 'save us from ourselves' bullshit is actually a bit annoying.

 

Well, fuck me. Still dumb.

 

Another crap episode. Man, it's really gone down the pan.

 

I really enjoyed it. Then I read the AV Club review and enjoyed it even more.

 

Ok, so I spoke before watching this episode.

I actually loved this episode. There were little bits that didn't make sense, but that's always been an element of Doctor Who. But the acting was fantastic and I found The Doctor leaving, and Clara's reaction to that believable. Which was what mattered I guess.

Next episode should be interesting... hopefully.

 

Doctor Who is stuck in the Matt Smith era... without Matt Smith. His Doctor was supposed to be the one where you can go around the universe for adventure with the magic wizard man with the funky box and still be there for work tomorrow. In other words, completely stupid.

Amy and Rory meet up with random fuckers, go somewhere else where they see otherworldly things, and come back home in time to keep being a professional model and nurse, because fuck Rory he's still a nurse.

Clara meet up with random kids from school, go somewhere else where they see shit and come back home in time for school tomorrow. I sincerely hope that Coal Hill School is part of a plot point, because this level of earthbound-ness hasn't been seen since the Pertwee era (or depending on how you look at it, Eccleston/Smith). And his excuse there was he was exiled to Earth and the Time Lords had broken the TARDIS.

Time for new writers. Again. Or old ones.

 

How many of the episode scripts were leaked? Do we know if the whole season will be similar, or is there a possibility it'll get really good again?

 

As far as I saw, it was just the first five scripts (up to Time Heist). We're in the unknown now.