Doctor Who

[frelling_tralk]

Well firstly I should probably confess that I've never actually watched “Genesis Of The Daleks”, but I have read summaries of the older episodes and I vaguely know about the Doctor's dilemma in that one, so I was able to keep up all right *g* There were a ton of callbacks in this episode actually, not just the flashback to the Fourth Doctor, but also the media reaction to the planes felt very Russell T Davis, plus the Shadow Proclamation and The Judoon and The Ood coming back as well :D

I loved this episode, but I can't think of a whole lot to say about it at the moment, maybe because it's a two-parter and we don't have the conclusion for it yet? The cliffhanger was probably the weakest part of the episode for me actually, just because it felt so unlikely that the Doctor would actually go through with killing a child, or that the timeline with the Dalek's really will be that significantly changed. Well we'll see next week I suppose!

Were we supposed to think that Davros was confronting the Doctor for abandoning him on the battlefield though, because I've seen some reviews talk about how the episode was saying that the Doctor's moment of weakness there is what contributed to Davros becoming what he became, but that's not what I got from it? In their final confrontation Davros was trying to make the Doctor admit that compassion was a weakness, so was that not his way of trying to get the Doctor to admit that he screwed up in not killing/abandoning him as a child when he had the chance? I feel like there's going to be an obvious twist coming up with that in the second part, the fact that this episode ended on the Doctor appearing to be about to kill young Davros suggests that the second part will most likely be going in the opposite direction from that, and that the Doctor will try and save him instead?

And finally I really loved everything with Clara and Missy (although I do kind of wish that they would still refer to her as The Master now that the Missy mislead from series 8 has been revealed...), the opening was great with the hand-mines being genuinely creepy, everything about Peter Capaldi's Doctor in the Middle Ages was A+, and I loved the way that Missy and Clara actually being on the planet Skaro rather than in space was introduced. I've read some complaints about not enough happening in this episode (?), but I felt like the pacing was much better than Deep Breath from last year, I really enjoyed it!

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

Yeah, I'm not so sure what the Doctor did the first time. Obviously, Davros lived, though he could also have saved himself after the Doctor's motivational speech.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yeah I was surprised at the general assumption being that the Doctor must have left younger Davros, because I thought that the opener left it more ambiguous as to what he actually did

[liliaeth]

I don't get how anyone could possibly say that not enough happened in this episode. This was the first ep in quite a while where when it ended, I looked at the clock and was surprised how much time had passed, it all felt like it lasted way shorter than it did and every second of the ep was meaningful.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yep same, I really loved this episode, I've just seen some comments that I disagree with on there being a lot of needlessly slow pacing because of it being a two-parter

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

t was a fast paced episode indeed, but I will reserve judgement util the second part.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yeah that's the only thing about two-parters, it can be hard sometimes to think of much to say when you've only seen the first half!

[ever-neutral.livejournal.com]

In their final confrontation Davros was trying to make the Doctor admit that compassion was a weakness, so was that not his way of trying to get the Doctor to admit that he screwed up in not killing/abandoning him as a child when he had the chance?

I'm going cross-eyed thinking about this. LET'S WAIT AND SEE.

In summary, I too loved everything, ESPECIALLY THE NEWFOUND CLARA/MISSY BROMANCE. BEAUTIFUL.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I'm really loving everything with Missy at the moment :D

[poniesandphotos.livejournal.com]

Time went pretty quickly for me in the episode. It was decent. But I don't really have anything to say about it either. I guess I'll wait until next week to pass judgement.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yeah I liked it a lot, but I'm struggling to think of much to say about it *g*

[eowyn.livejournal.com]

I don't think the Doctor was going back to kill Davros, just as I don't think the Dalek extermination actually killed Missy and Clara. There's something else with the weapon, mayb e a transporter or something, idk.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if it was a mislead and the Doctor was actually about to kill whoever was threatening Davros? And yeah I wasn't worried for Missy or Clara either, that's one drawback with trying to have big moments of jeopardy in your premiere I guess, it seems unlikely that there's going to be any really big shake-up at this point. Maybe I'd be more inclined to worry for the characters if we were in the first part of the series finale, but as it is I'm fairly sure Clara's going to be fine!

[bm-shipper.livejournal.com]

I understand it that the doctor DID save Davros the first time and that was what basically "changed history", because he obviously saved a bad person who then later created the Daleks that were out to destroy the doctor and are basically one of his biggest threats. That's at least what I took away from it and in the end it rather looked like he wanted to "correct his mistake", although I'm quite sure he won't kill Davros either way... besides: There are fixed points in time - that's what was always said - and if he changes something THAT big, I am not sure what's going to happen... like if he kills Davros then there will never be Daleks and Gallifrey won't be destroyed and there won't be a time-war whatsoever, so whatever he does or whatever will happen: Davros is gonna live anyway...

Not so sure I liked the episode, especially know that I know Clara will be gone way too soon. Jenna already IS, and I have no idea how long she'll still be around... That kind of dampens the mood a bit for me as I love her, but well... it is what it is.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely really going to miss Clara, I hope they don't try and pull some surprise by leaving her leave halfway through series 9 or something, I want her to stick around until the end :(

[bm-shipper.livejournal.com]

I hope they don't try and pull some surprise by leaving her leave halfway through series 9 or something

It's rarely a surprise when that fact was already confirmed the day it came out that she'll leave. it was confirmed that she isn't filming anymore already and has already left and that it's happening in the first half of the season, so it's merely gonna come out of the blue, when that information is already out?

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Aww dammit, I didn't realise that Clara wasn't going to last for all of series 9, I read about Jenna leaving DW and landing a new role of course, but I must have missed that she finished filming earlier. Well now I'm really bummed-out :( I was looking forward to getting one more year with Jenna and Capaldi together :sighs:

[verdande-mi.livejournal.com]

I was much he same as you after seeing it, I liked it but I did not have a lot to say. I do believe it is because it is a two-parter and it all depends on what happens in that episode.

I really loved all the Missy and Clara scenes :)

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Heh yeah, judging by my flist it doesn't look like any of us can think of that much to say about it so far :P

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

In their final confrontation Davros was trying to make the Doctor admit that compassion was a weakness, so was that not his way of trying to get the Doctor to admit that he screwed up in not killing/abandoning him as a child when he had the chance? I feel like there's going to be an obvious twist coming up with that in the second part, the fact that this episode ended on the Doctor appearing to be about to kill young Davros suggests that the second part will most likely be going in the opposite direction from that, and that the Doctor will try and save him instead?

Yes, I think so too!

And yes, the Master is the Master is the Master. Missy is an alias.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yeah I thought that "Missy" was just gonna be a mislead for last series, I don't know why the other characters can't refer to her as The Master now that her identity has been revealed, you'd think that the Doctor especially would default keep calling her that?

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

you'd think that the Doctor especially would default keep calling her that?

Yes, especially the Doctor! I can see Clara continue with Missy as she didn't know her before. But Time Lords must be rather gender blind if they can change sex if they want to and I can't imagine the Doctor ever thinking of the Master other than the Master. And the Master, in turn, are perfectly happy with aliases as long as he needs them but always seemed to relish in reclaiming his name as soon as possible. So Missy ought to, IMO.