Wow, I wouldn't normally post a whine as I know a lot of people here still enjoy the show but, I'm sorry, that was comfortably the worst Doctor Who episode I have ever seen.
I actually said out loud to my family about the Doctor being a weeping angel: 'bet it's over in 5 seconds'. Sure enough, the stone crumbles away and she is back; an cliffhanger that was actually reasonably good completely undone in the first scene.
This is my issue with the show. Nothing is earned, nothing is shown. Everything is explained to us in intricate detail. If it was a book, it would be a series on bullet points, rather than an actual story. I mean, Yaz, scouse, and the professor have been SEARCHING THE WORLD for three years or something (can't remember what for) but rather than maybe have an entire episode showing the slog, the travel problems, visas, language, cultural issues, etc, we are just shown 3 scenes (a Mexican tomb, a Constantinople shop, and a Himalayan sanctuary) and the first lines out of the characters mouths are 'Wow, we've come half way around the world to find this' or 'three years we've been looking for this' or 'and here we are in the Himalayas with our last chance for finding the secret McGuffin thing'!!! The dialogue is execrable. The writers have NO INTEREST in showing us any personal ordeals, character developments, thoughtful expressions, panful silences, nuance, NOTHING. Characters exist solely to explain what is going on to the audience and move as quickly as possible to the next scene.
As for the whole arc about timeless children division, flux, etc.... So, Division poisoned the universe with the flux to stop the doctor because they were worried about the doctor exposing division???? Why not just capture the doctor in some kind of time trap or shot her / him repeatedly?!?!?! They just had her surrounded by weeping angels and they decided to bring her back to HQ (where I am sure the epically convenient Ood has been placed to help her save the day at the last minute) and talk to her about it. Just kill her. Just take the Tardis. No? No, okay, then let's just destroy one universe. But it's okay, it's not serious: we have a multiverse now, so we can just go anywhere, anytime, redo this, rewrite that...
This show bears ZERO comparison to one that brought us Listen / Heaven Sent / Blink / Father's Day, etc; far simpler stories with actual writing, subtly, character development, SHOWING the story, rather than telling it.
I'm sorry, but the end to this era can't come soon enough. Poor Jodie (great actress, terrible script and direction) is going to be unfairly burdened with the blame for this phase of the show by a lot of people when really it is 100% down to Chris Chibnall.
I actually said out loud to my family about the Doctor being a weeping angel: 'bet it's over in 5 seconds'. Sure enough, the stone crumbles away and she is back; an cliffhanger that was actually reasonably good completely undone in the first scene.
This is my issue with the show. Nothing is earned, nothing is shown. Everything is explained to us in intricate detail. If it was a book, it would be a series on bullet points, rather than an actual story. I mean, Yaz, scouse, and the professor have been SEARCHING THE WORLD for three years or something (can't remember what for) but rather than maybe have an entire episode showing the slog, the travel problems, visas, language, cultural issues, etc, we are just shown 3 scenes (a Mexican tomb, a Constantinople shop, and a Himalayan sanctuary) and the first lines out of the characters mouths are 'Wow, we've come half way around the world to find this' or 'three years we've been looking for this' or 'and here we are in the Himalayas with our last chance for finding the secret McGuffin thing'!!! The dialogue is execrable. The writers have NO INTEREST in showing us any personal ordeals, character developments, thoughtful expressions, panful silences, nuance, NOTHING. Characters exist solely to explain what is going on to the audience and move as quickly as possible to the next scene.
As for the whole arc about timeless children division, flux, etc.... So, Division poisoned the universe with the flux to stop the doctor because they were worried about the doctor exposing division???? Why not just capture the doctor in some kind of time trap or shot her / him repeatedly?!?!?! They just had her surrounded by weeping angels and they decided to bring her back to HQ (where I am sure the epically convenient Ood has been placed to help her save the day at the last minute) and talk to her about it. Just kill her. Just take the Tardis. No? No, okay, then let's just destroy one universe. But it's okay, it's not serious: we have a multiverse now, so we can just go anywhere, anytime, redo this, rewrite that...
This show bears ZERO comparison to one that brought us Listen / Heaven Sent / Blink / Father's Day, etc; far simpler stories with actual writing, subtly, character development, SHOWING the story, rather than telling it.
I'm sorry, but the end to this era can't come soon enough. Poor Jodie (great actress, terrible script and direction) is going to be unfairly burdened with the blame for this phase of the show by a lot of people when really it is 100% down to Chris Chibnall.