Just finished a re-watch of Doctor Who series 7

[frelling_tralk]

Not sure how popular an opinion this is, but I think "The Crimson Horror" was among my favourites from series 7, it's certainly one of the very few Mark Gatniss episodes that I've really loved! Ada's story was horrifyingly tragic, and I really found the reveal with the Doctor as the "monster" very effective and unnerving the first time I watched it especially, Matt Smith did a fantastic job with those jerky body movements and the way that he was screaming with his eyes. Most of the time Mark Gatniss seems to produce really ordinary and uninspired episodes (I definitely found 'Cold War' pretty dull), while "The Crimson Horror" was the first time it felt like he was stretching a bit and not just aiming for DW by numbers. The scenes between Ada and her mother got pretty dark for DW actually. And of course I loved "Asylum Of The Daleks" and "Day Of The Doctor", but those two probably go without saying *g*

I also really loved "Dinosaurs On A Spaceship", that seems to be another episode that has a middling reputation, but I just found it really fun. In fact I loved pretty much all of the first half of the year, it felt like every one of those episodes really did live up the hype of feeling more like a blockbuster film. Things mostly fell a little flat for me in the middle section, the direction for "The Rings Of Akhaten" especially was a bit flat and small-scale in comparison. It felt like they were still aiming for a big budget feel with all of the aliens and the effect, but the director really didn't bring much scope to the early corridor scenes on the planet for example, it felt so studio-based with the way that they filmed it.

I did love the direction for "Journey To The Centre Of The Tardis" though! That's an episode that I've seen criticised a LOT, and it's definitely frustrating that it doesn't live up to its potential of being an outright classic, but I still found it had some really fun ideas and looked great. The main frustration was the unnecessary B-plot with the three brothers, I wish that it could have been an episode with just Clara and The Doctor

And I enjoyed "Nightmare In Silver" more than I remembered from my last watch, but it does feel a shame that it really should be a great episode and it just doesn't quite get there. Apparently Neil Gaiman wanted to write it as a two-parter originally? I really loved "The Doctor's Wife" and this episode didn't live up to it for me at all, even though it did have a lot of interesting ideas. I guess that's one thing that stood out to me about series 7 actually, that it didn't have as many classic episodes as you found in series 5 and 6, maybe that's part of why the fandom doesn't look more favourably on it? It started and ended strongly IMO, but the middle section didn't have any really stand-out episodes like "The Girl Who Waited" or "Vincent And The Doctor". I get the feeling that "Nightmare In Silver" and "Journey To The Centre Of The Tardis" were intended to be the stand-out episodes, but unfortunately neither of them quite came together


[Poll #2044768]

Comments

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

I like those episodes too, in fact they are my favourites of the season along with Snowmen. But on the whole I feel season 7 was Smith's weakest season.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed The Snowmen too :) And I'm still not sure how I'd rank series 7 as a whole, but IMO the first half is among the strongest beginnings in DW, it's mostly the middle that lets it down. Maybe taking the filming gap in the middle was a mistake, they were going really big for the first five episodes, and they seemed to have lost momentum for those first few episodes after the Xmas special, the direction felt a bit flatter to me

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree- it came out stronger than it ended. I've noticed the same with other shows when a season have a break in the middle.

[ruuger]

For a second I was confused why I couldn't remember anything about most of the episodes that you mentioned, but then I remembered that I skipped most of the Eleven/Clara episodes because Eleven was my least favourite Doctor and Clara my least favourite companion (thought I did like her a lot in her last few episodes with Twelve). I didn't even know that Gaiman had written a second episode!

I really liked "The Angels Take Manhattan", though - it's one of my favourite episodes from the Eleven/Amy era.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Honestly it was really a bit of a let-down for me because I absolutely loved 'The Doctor's Wife' and was gearing up for something a bit special, but everything about it felt quite rushed and incoherent, and the character development was sorely lacking. It made so much sense when I heard that Gaiman had to cut it down from a planned two-parter, and that originally there was going to be a proper introduction as to why the two kids were there etc

'The Angels Take Manhatten' was another good one, although in retrospect the ending still confuses me a bit *g* Idk I think that it would have worked for me more if Rory and Amy had died when they jumped off the building, instead of bringing them into the past with the explanation that the Doctor and his time machine couldn't see them again for ~reasons~ Or even writing them out as permenant travelling companions by their own choice, that would have fit nicely with all of the episodes setting up them wanting to concentrate more on normal life and spend less time with the Doctor. That way they could have still made the occasional appearance too. I suppose I can understand why they'd rather go for the bigger ending though, and the last scene between the Doctor and Amy really was pretty devastating :(

[bm-shipper.livejournal.com]

If Season 7 was still with Amy and Amy/Rory then I didn't watch it... I'm not sure right now really... *lol* I think it was Eleven/Clara, right? God, it feels so long ago... I seriously need to do a rewatch of all the Clara episodes eventually, because even though a lot of this sounds familiar to me, I'm not sure I remember everything :D Or well... much from this season :D I kinda never liked Eleven too much unfortunately either... not Amy, not Rory, not Eleven, so I was glad when Capaldi took over :)

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Series 7 had five episodes at the beginning with Amy and Rory, then the reminder of the season was with Clara. And I loved Matt Smith's doctor, the only doctor I could never click with was actually David Tennent's Doctor, so quite an unpopular choice :P

[verdande-mi.livejournal.com]

I chose Cold War, Journey to centre of the Tardis and The name of the Doctor, but The power of thee and The angels take Manhattan should be mentioned as well, and perhaps Hide.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Tbh I couldn't get into Cold War, I found it a real drag to get through :( I think that the base under siege episodes just aren't for me...I'm pleasantly surprised at Journey To The Centre Of The Tardis being more popular than I thought though! I seem to only ever hear it being discussed in terms of what a disappointment it was after its title promised so much, and I always figured that most fans didn't care for it, so it's nice to see it getting a few votes

[eowyn.livejournal.com]

Mine are the Power of Three, Angels Take Manhattan and Nightmare in Silver - the latter was wonderfully dark, would've loved that to be a two-episode arc. I could watch Matt arguing with himself forever.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yeah it's a real shame that there wasn't the chance to develop that episode more, it definitely had a lot of fascinating ideas

[sabotabby]

This is, over all, the weakest Nu Who season for me. But I have the unpopular opinion that "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" is the best Matt Smith episode.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Aww I loved that episode too, I'm glad that it's apparently slightly more popular than I thought it was! I was under the impression that it gets dismissed by a lot of fans as being a bit silly, but I really thought that it was great fun. And I loved the scenes with Rory and Brian <3

[sabotabby]

It kind of exemplified a lot of DW themes for me. Silly, campy fun with a dark undercurrent, humans-as-villains, the misunderstood monster, genre mashups, and so on. I honestly don't understand why people didn't like it, except that I think sometimes I don't watch DW for the same reasons other people do.

[aforestgrew.livejournal.com]

Matt Smith is my favorite Doctor but I wasn't really enthused with Series 7 as a whole. Part of that is Clara is my least favorite companion but I also think the writing just wasn't as strong. I need to do a re-watch and give it another chance, though, I'm not sure I've actually watched that season since it was on TV.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I think that's the case for most people, it seemed like fandom was only won over when she was paired with Peter Capaldi's Doctor in series 8, before then her characterisation was seen as being really vague and undefined in series 7. Jenna's performance won me over from the beginning though *g*

[ellipsisms.livejournal.com]

I think I did end up finishing this season, but I literally remember nothing about anything after Amy/Rory left. I already hadn't been enjoying DW, and once Amy/Rory left, I didn't care at all anymore, so I couldn't tell you what happened in any of the episodes after that.

I did love The Power of Three though. That one and The Angels Take Manhattan were probably my favorites.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Did you stop watching after Amy and Rory left then? And I'm surprised at how popular The Power Of Three is proving to be actually! I've always thought of it as a good solid episode, but not necessarily a stand-out, yet several people have picked it as one of their top episodes of series 7 for the poll now. (If you don't have three top episodes, you can always just vote for those two btw, I'm mostly just curious about which episodes will come out ahead in the poll as favs)

[ellipsisms.livejournal.com]

I watched a bit of Clara, but not a ton. I think I stopped after the half a season that she was in. And The Power of Three was just such a nice refreshing different episode, which is why I really liked that one!

[tasabian.livejournal.com]

Not fond of this season - I do remember liking "Crimson Horror" just for Dame Diana Rigg wearing a plastic lobster as a brooch...

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Hehe I really loved that one, I've seen some dislike for it on my flist, so I'm pleasantly surprised that it actually appears to be a bit more popular than I've been assuming

[place-to-hide.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the episodes very well. I can't vote.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

It has been quite a while since they first aired now :)

[place-to-hide.livejournal.com]

It has been. It's hard to think about what every episode was about and remembering it as clearly.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Any plans for a re-watch sometime? :)

[place-to-hide.livejournal.com]

Eventually. :P Add it onto the pile of re-watches to re-watch.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I know how that feels, my list of shows to re-watch seems to keep on growing! *g*

[place-to-hide.livejournal.com]

Haha. There's just so many shows to re-watch. I'd like to re-watch Buffy. Because I like to do that every once in a while. :)

[ever-neutral.livejournal.com]

S7 is one of those seasons where I really enjoyed most of the episodes as individual episodes, but really did not care for the overarching arc (= the Doctor's Manic Pixie Dream Girl obsession).

Anyway, The Angels Take Manhattan is my """fave""" ep because I love pain and suffering.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I agree, there were no real stinkers among the individual episodes, but series 7 could have had a better arc for Clara. They set up an intriguing mystery with Oswin's death and Victorian Clara's death, but then that whole impossible girl mystery seemed to be picked up or dropped from episodes really randomly with modern-day Clara. Apparently they were deliberately going for more stand-alones after series 6 was seen as too convoluted, but then I'm in the minority of rather liking that year :(

[giallarhorn.livejournal.com]

I can't honestly remember much about s7, only that towards the middle/end it got a lot weaker? Nightmare in Silver was interesting, but it felt truncated. Beyond that, I only remember Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS and A Town Called Mercy clearly enough, with the former being more interesting in concept vs execution and the latter being one of the stronger eps of the season?

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yeah it definitely hit a bit of a mid season slip, which is odd really because you'd think that having a break in-between would give everyone a chance to take a breather and come back to it even more energised and ready to go, but none of the later episodes felt as epic in scope as those first five episodes with the Pond's

And I thought that A Town Called Mercy was great too, it had some really strong characterisation for the Doctor, as well as raising some interesting questions with the "villain" of the story and how they should deal with him

[giallarhorn.livejournal.com]

In fairness, I think a lot of it was because it the first five were hyped up because it was the last run of the Ponds, and it did have a two parter finale. But even then, they didn't have anything that was a standalone that was terribly strong afterwards, ie A Town Called Mercy. Which I guess is in part because of the whole 'oh new companion feeling out the ropes' but even Nine had some really good moments in the first few eps.