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.

[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.

[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 :)

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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...

[place-to-hide.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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?