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vivdunstanAnother two parter in this series, and it's a two-part sequel to 2013's "The Day of the Doctor". Going to discuss my thoughts with significant spoilers.
Much of the opening episode in particular feels like a very Steven Moffat episode. Masses of different locations, whizzing between different things, characters, ideas. And for me that doesn't really work well this time. It's messy, chaotic, and not the sort of more straightforward storytelling I really like. Though I gather the idea for multiple locations came from co-writer Peter Harness. But it doesn't work for me.
It also has the disadvantage of starting in the middle of a story, though I'd at least seen, enjoyed, read and very much remembered "The Day of the Doctor". But there are also two different factions of Zygons - similar to 1988's "Remembrance of the Daleks", but much less clearly defined in the storytelling - that the Doctor already knows about, and an Osgood box (or ...) and I was just "What?" constantly.
Things picked up when I noticed - on original watch as well - Clara changing subtly into what would turn to be Zygon version Bonnie. Jenna Coleman acts her socks off, and I also found the Clara inside Bonnie's mind bits effective, albeit a little too reminiscent of the recent Christmas episode with Santa Claus.
The scenes with the Zygon pods and UNIT's Jac dying were a bit of a mess in direction terms as well. And then Kate's been taken over. Ah but she hasn't! Oh good.
I haven't mentioned Osgood herself until now, who made a welcome return in this story. Ingrid Oliver did a fine job in the role, adding emotional heft. But even this felt overcrowded at times by too many other elements thrown into the story's food mixer.
The scenes in the Black Archive were reminiscent of "The Day of the Doctor", and extremely similar. Peter Capaldi's speech here was lauded back in the day, but this time I found much of it overly long and frankly boring. Get to the point Doctor! Again it felt like I was watching a padded two parter, that could perhaps have been trimmed to a tighter but perhaps lengthy single episode. And lose some of the globetrotting, that would be good.
The ending is fine, though rewatching made me sad we didn't see more Osgood on TV after this. She does appear - with Bonnie-Osgood - in a number of Big Finish audio releases. I still have some of those here waiting to listen to. But I still miss her on the telly.
So yup, a so so two parter, that I think should have been tighter, shorter and more to the point. I should perhaps also add that it took me quite a while longer than expected to get through the rewatch on this pair of episodes, finding my attention lagging too often.
Much of the opening episode in particular feels like a very Steven Moffat episode. Masses of different locations, whizzing between different things, characters, ideas. And for me that doesn't really work well this time. It's messy, chaotic, and not the sort of more straightforward storytelling I really like. Though I gather the idea for multiple locations came from co-writer Peter Harness. But it doesn't work for me.
It also has the disadvantage of starting in the middle of a story, though I'd at least seen, enjoyed, read and very much remembered "The Day of the Doctor". But there are also two different factions of Zygons - similar to 1988's "Remembrance of the Daleks", but much less clearly defined in the storytelling - that the Doctor already knows about, and an Osgood box (or ...) and I was just "What?" constantly.
Things picked up when I noticed - on original watch as well - Clara changing subtly into what would turn to be Zygon version Bonnie. Jenna Coleman acts her socks off, and I also found the Clara inside Bonnie's mind bits effective, albeit a little too reminiscent of the recent Christmas episode with Santa Claus.
The scenes with the Zygon pods and UNIT's Jac dying were a bit of a mess in direction terms as well. And then Kate's been taken over. Ah but she hasn't! Oh good.
I haven't mentioned Osgood herself until now, who made a welcome return in this story. Ingrid Oliver did a fine job in the role, adding emotional heft. But even this felt overcrowded at times by too many other elements thrown into the story's food mixer.
The scenes in the Black Archive were reminiscent of "The Day of the Doctor", and extremely similar. Peter Capaldi's speech here was lauded back in the day, but this time I found much of it overly long and frankly boring. Get to the point Doctor! Again it felt like I was watching a padded two parter, that could perhaps have been trimmed to a tighter but perhaps lengthy single episode. And lose some of the globetrotting, that would be good.
The ending is fine, though rewatching made me sad we didn't see more Osgood on TV after this. She does appear - with Bonnie-Osgood - in a number of Big Finish audio releases. I still have some of those here waiting to listen to. But I still miss her on the telly.
So yup, a so so two parter, that I think should have been tighter, shorter and more to the point. I should perhaps also add that it took me quite a while longer than expected to get through the rewatch on this pair of episodes, finding my attention lagging too often.