[moonglow]

"A Christmas Carol" was brilliance. A wonderful re-working and Guy Pearce  was terrific.

I haven't watched it all yet, but it's very good.  The atmosphere and the background (with the snowy streets and the carriage lights and the horses) are realistic and impressive.
Guy Pearce is definitely excellent.

[blueberryhill]

I too enjoyed Dr Who. Especially like the two hour format, much better to allow a plot line to develop. Still think 3 companions is too many. Not enough for them all to do and they charge around like a gang of rather useless appendages.
Was the bloke who plays "The Master" also in "Dracula?" And what a sexy beast the count was, a shoe in for the new James Bond, I'd say.

[amongsttheleaves]

Going to rewatch Spyfall Parts 1 and 2 together, but on a first watch I thought Part 2 was rife with problems, narratively all over the place, still way too much clutter, way too soon to start messing about with Gallifrey story arcs again (they almost always end up being crap anyway), anyone hoping there will be an eventual pay off for the binning of UNIT and Torchwood* is probably going to be disappointed, Whittaker’s performance is consistently better without the ‘Fam’ alongside her, the Doctor did something monumentally ****ed up and no one batted an eyelid, the episode gave no real sense of how significant Ada Lovelace really was to the development of computer programming, and absolutely no idea of the sacrifice Noor Inayat Khan made.

Part 1 was generally better and less messy, but I don’t think there’s ever been a more pointless ‘guest star’ character than Stephen Fry’s C.

*actually I thought Torchwood was pretty much done except in Big Finish audio dramas, but Chibnall is supposed to have a lot of respect for UNIT so I was hoping for some kind of resolution/return for UNIT after what has been an extremely contrived ditching of something that has been a key element of the show for decades.

[blueberryhill]

^ Preaching too. No need.

[amongsttheleaves]

Finally caught up with last week’s Doctor Who, mostly enjoyed it, big improvement on the week before.

Seems to be a lot of hype about a returning character in tonight’s epidsode. Hype seems to suggest it is bigger than the Spyfall Part 1 reveal.

Doctor Who Ep 4 Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror review: this sonic works on wood apparently, Silurian weapons being fired by not-Silurians, the not-Racnoss has some badass shoulder-pads, did Yaz get to do something for a minute there, is that science speak for 'bigger on the inside', guest stars actually have something proper to do, Graham sounding just like Donna Nobel for a moment*, the Doctor building things again, decent stand-off between the Doctor and this week's big bad, liking the blue crystals.

*Not A Bad Thing

Anyway, who’s all the hype about?

[amongsttheleaves]

Doctor Who Ep 5 Fugitive of the Judoon review: Fro Jo Po Mo! Oh, ok not yet... Ah it's the CEO of Holby Shitty*, there they are! Secretive Doctor, where did Graham go? [redacted for spoilers], [redacted for spoilers], Kate Stewart would never, bloody hell the body count in this episode! excellent, scenes of the Doctor without all those companions, to the lighthouse, I have no ***ing idea what is going on, to be fair neither does the Doctor, [redacted for spoilers], ha ha ha the NMD gang are going to lose their shit over this! why do the 'fam' always line up in the Tardis like that?


* I mean everyone's been in Holby Shitty, Eighth Doctor, Kate Stewart, the Brigadier etc etc  

[amongsttheleaves]

Totally did my head in, but I loved it. Loved the "Space Rhinos" aka the Judoon, loved Ruth, how feisty was she,  can take or leave you-know-who, and liked the new depth to Jodie's doctor, of course you'd be sad, you've seen so much.

I’m pretty intrigued about it. Dunno if we’ll see Ruth again this series, or if this whole arc will run through into series 13.

Like you I’m not that bothered about the return of Spoiler:

Captain Jack Harkness

. Mostly feel that character had their time, but I guess there were very few characters who made sense for those scenes. What annoyed me was that character assumed Graham was the Doctor, when that reaction doesn’t make a lot of sense in that context.

There are other characters I’d much prefer to see again. Kate Stewart obviously, feel strongly that Moffat didn’t do her justice after Chibnall introduced her in The Power of Three, and she’s a legacy character, what’s more she absolutely wouldn’t mistake Graham for the Doctor. Think Martha Jones would be interesting to bring back in this era, but unlikely given the actor is busy in a full-length US drama.

My dog loved the Judoon - everytime they spoke in Judoon he watched the TV with pricked ears, then he slept through the rest of the episode, even when I was shouting a lot at the TV!

So glad Jodie is finally being given something good to do. Giving up on the companions though, looks like Yaz and Ryan are on their way out, which is a shame for Yaz as she’s had bugger all to do. Hope we don’t get left with Graham though.