Thoughts on Nightmare in Silver

[kilodalton]

Wow haven't had time to do one of these in ages!! Not that I have the time now, mind, with a final on Monday but w/e lol

Anyway .... below the cut ...
[Spoiler (click to open)]* my husband refused to watch this with me. Even though it's Neil Gaiman who he likes, he's given up

Comments

[fogsblue]

* why is what's-her-face mad at clara? Don't bite the hand that feeds you, or that let's you manipulate her into inviting you along for a trip. That little girl is seriously obnoxious.

I did not like her at the start of the episode and I didn't like her at the end. I know teenagers can be obnxious, but did they need to make her that unpleasant?

* matt smith is a really good physical actor, it's a shame he doesn't get to do that more often

If there is one thing I've really noticed in S7b, it's that Matt Smith finally seems to be getting to do some ACTUAL acting for the Doctor. This episode was pretty meh, but I really think MS is acting more now. If that makes sense.... (I haven't slept, sense might be lacking)

* i guess I still don't get why the hell Clara is interested in travelling with the Doctor.I admit to wondering this a bit since JttCotT. She doesn't seem particularly interested in the travelling, and despite all the the 11/Clara shippers out there, I don't think it's because she's romantically interested in the Doctor. I'm

[kilodalton]

... my responses to YOUR responses can basically be summed up as: "what you said!!!" =)

[giallarhorn]

Yeah, I'm not sure why but the pacing for the entire ep felt really off and weird.

Urgh, the girl was really irritating. Like, I get that it's probably in character for her being a teenager and given everything that's happened to her, but still.

I guess Clara sees it kind of like a nice once a week trip out to see parts of the world? I guess that we were supposed to assume it was her desire to travel that drew her to him, but seeing how she keeps going back off, well, conflicting reports here?

Sidelining River feels strange since we spent...an entire season revolving around her and another building her up and now she's sort of out of the picture? I guess with the Ponds gone, it'd make it more difficult to integrate her back into the storyline, so.

[kilodalton]

Yeah agreed. I think Moffat is trying to overcorrect and be like "fans miss companions having a family - let's have Clara be devoted to hers, and they even come travel!!" ... it just doesn't feel right pacing-wise. Something is missing. (Like, why she wants to risk her life - is it the adventure? The desire to make things better? Is she hot for Eleven?) She just doesn't seem to like it, and it makes her much less compelling since nothing seems to drive her or inspire her.

[develish1]

I still don't even understand why the kids were even THERE?

Yes they tried blackmailing Clara the previous week, which was totally unrealistic as no matter what they'd said to their dad he wouldn't have believed it for a second, but why did the Doctor agree to take them? I feel like we missed a scene and it annoyed me.

As for the whole emperor subplot, that seemed like it was purely there as yet another nod to the Doctors past to me. The running away from responsibility, plus the whole sledgehammer bit about having to be the one to push the button and destroy a planet.

And as for all the hype beforehand about how they were making an old enemy scary again, nope, didn't work, in fact it completely failed for me. The Cybermen from Pete's world were scarier than this.