OH MY GIDDY AUNT!

As busy as I've been, it's taken me a whole week to finally get to it, but last week's episode, "Empress of Mars", was the best Doctor Who I've seen in a long time. It not only brings back the Ice Warriors in a big way, but is an extremely entertaining pastiche of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Steampunk and the original Who, with a major tie-in to a long-standing question about the Ice Warriors' conversion from bad guys to good guys, and includes an actor from the original storyline returning in the same role.

Overall an excellent episode. If you haven't seen it you're really missing out.

By Rassilon's Mind, indeed!
It also made me wonder, if the previous seasons were more in this way, how great would have been Peter Capaldi run in Doctor Who!
It is by far the best doctor who episode of this doctor. The previous ones, the monk trilogy, it started ok, went fine and them the final was meh...

The episode was also written by Mark Gatiss, co-creator and chief writer on Sherlock (as well as playing Mycroft Holmes), so some quality was to be expected.

Didn't knew it was by M. Gatiss. That explains a lot.
Funny, he once did a spoof sketch, with him been the doctor and at least the co-star of Matt Lucas Little Britain. Can't remember if M. Lucas was also in it.

So, what are your thoughts of the final episodes?

Overall, I liked them, though obviously not enough to report on them at the time. Liked the origin story of the original Cybermen. They gave Bill and Nardole a good sendoff, and I'm now very interested to see the Christmas Special, especially with David Bradley playing the First Doctor.

The new Doctor will be revealed in an hour or so and I'm thinking we will have our first female playing the part :yep:

And you're thinking right!
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40624288

This is going to be interesting, to say the least. :sunny:

I'm not accustomed to being wrong :smug:

:O:

Dr Who ratings have fallen in the last three years even when the BBC adds post viewing figures from iPlayer which will also plunge once the BBC prove you got a licence log in kicks in. There has been some suggestions the BBC pushed Peter out the role which at this point is pure speculation.

A female Dr Who would seem to suggest a effort to boost ratings which it will do for a short while and the fad will soon where off. I stopped watching Dr Who mainly because the story lines were to much fantasy and not enough good solid sci fi.

Since I have only seen ep 1 from this season, I'm sticking my fingers in my ears when I come into this thread.

*la la la la la la la la la *

Started watching Broadchurch last night, got 5-6 episodes in. Slow start but very good.

Was very impressed with the actress playing the mom, so I looked her up.

Very Cool.

I don't know if she'll be able to pull off The Dr, but she was good in Broadchurch. I'm not saying she can't, I just don't know till I see her in the TARDIS.

Good solid sci-fi, that's a good one, watch the Outer Limits for that kind of stuff as this programme is for kiddies and thick as a brick adults to watch. :har:
I can see the first episode of the new doctor being an explosive one as they need to grab everyone's attention from the very start.

A possible scenario could be.......
The doctor going through an episode of PMT as the price for being re-generated as a woman, just imagine 200 million stars being wiped out by her sonic screwdriver whilst cackling away like a bleeding madwoman, oh yeah, that's going to grab the viewers by the nuts innit. :D

I wonder if the BBC has the balls to go with a scenario like that?, they might as well because they haven't had an original idea for years.

I reckon those are the thoughts of a great many fans.

Sorry for the late reply. From the the last episodes, they where ok. I think the mondas cybermen was a must with the companion being turn in to was a plus. They could have gone with grit ending for her, I would prefer.
John Simm was,for me, under use. he could have been more in the series has a shadow (yes, that was already used but...) and his return could had been keep a secret until the very last moment. After that he fell like some mehhh master. Even in the end the master/misty interaction was bad.
I know that the evil trio of enemies, cybermen,daleks,master, are tiresome but the Master, for me, is always a good antagonist, since he is almost or is (depending how one sees it) a evil counter part of the Doctor. A Time Lord almost or same has the doctor,but just evil. Of course they can bring back other evil Time Lords/Ladies - Ranni, or even the war master (if they do not got with the, The War Master was previous incarnation of the Master).

For the new news, are they for real? I positive, it's the end of Doctor Who for me. If the gender change of regeneration is just for appeal the new age of PC, sorry. Not for me. Even the Master/Missy was bit stupid.
The regeneration is a science fiction thing, fine. But a male should only be regenerated in a male and female to female.
Yes, it's retrograde,but some biological science should be into to.
And they have such Time Ladies characters for the main show and/or spin-offs. Even the Doctor had to childs: the mother of Susan and the character of the episode with the same name.

Didn't some high ranking Time Lord regenerated in to a female a few seasons back was probably the tester then followed by the Master and now the Doctor. Just a rating grabber that will backfire. It's clearly a PC move as there have been other PC moves in Dr Who over the years on its return.

Last night watched the final story, nice idea too see the original cybermen back but the story was total crap. And as the BBC going to plug the iplayer loop hole soon that will be the last time for me and no doubt many many more who do not have TV licences. Only watched it as a friend missed it and as no internet, their view was a thumbs down on the storyline. And probably will not bother after the Xmas special.

BTW: They too gave the thumbs down on the new Doctor.

A great many years ago there was talk of maybe having a female Doctor in the original series. I remember then thinking how funny it would be when the Brigadier was confronted with this new incarnation.

I am, as always, withholding judgment until I've actually seen a few episodes. It might work, it might not. We'll see.

Yes, it was the security chief or general or something, from the episode where the Dr has just returned to Gallifrey after being stuck in that castle for 6 Billion years. The way it was shown, it seemed this is a not uncommon thing, regenerating as the opposite sex.

When I started watching Broadchurch, I didn't know the new doc is one of the leads, only learned that after looking her up.

At the very least, she deserves to be given a chance. Not only is there a new doctor, but a new show runner too. Both of which have had successes in the past.

I still think the first doc of the new series was the worst I've seen so far.

Also in the episode 'The Doctor's Wife' Matt Smith (11) talks about his old friend The Corsair, who regenerated as a woman "a couple of times".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PDyuGoKypk

R.I.P.! Deborah Watling - Victoria