Doctor Who, Three Episodes into the New Season

[bimo]

Well...

Two episodes which I profoundly enjoyed. ("Dinosaurs on a Spaceship",  "A Town Called Mercy")

One episode that almost made me quit watching, and not just this particular ep but the show as such. ("Asylum of the Daleks")

I figure that's not all that bad by DW standards ;-)

Comments

[selenak]

Not at all, but what was your beef with the Daleks? I can think of far more objectionable episodes on New Who and Old Who alike.

[bimo]

I can think of far more objectionable episodes on New Who and Old Who alike.

Oh, absolutely! One could even say that these episodes are actually part of the show's charm, at least from a certain point of view... *g*

Basically my issues come down to a case of bad timing. It wasn't so much "Asylum of the Daleks" per se which annoyed me, but rather the fact that the episode seemed to continue several trends I had already noticed and disliked during the previous season:

Bigger, grander, more epic, more arbitrary, more pointless running, a certain air of "Hey let's do this or that, just for the coolness factor"...

Maybe it's just that I'm getting older more conservative(?) traditional(?) in my viewing tastes, but to get engaged into any sort of programme I need the narrative (regardless whether it's played straight or with many turns, thrills and surprises à la Moffat or Christopher Nolan) to make sense plotwise and psychologically. And essential core parts of last season, while highly original and ambitious, struck me as somewhat rushed and not fully thought out/followed through.

Well... and then along came "Asylum of the Daleks" with its not exactly convincing premise (The Dalek prison, mind you, not the Oswyn part, Oswyn is one of the aspects I actually found intriguing). Plus the slightly too obvious plotholes, plus the contrived Rory/Amy melodrama...

See where I stand?