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I have things I like on Instapaper [https://www.instapaper.com] set to create drafts on this site, which in theory, I can then post when I get to them. I have 350 of them pending. The plan is not working. This place is a wasteland. I apologise to the
Apple
General use As someone who hasn’t used a watch in at least a decade, it’s hard to ignore a nagging feeling of “what’s this for?”–despite the fact that a watch, in and of itself, is a pretty established device for a lot of people. So at
TV
Talking about part ones is a mug’s game. Too much about ‘Dark Water’ is riding on Moffat sticking the landing with 'Death in Heaven’. So, without trying to judge the whole thing, here are a few things I really liked, which are totally worth writing down a few
TV
Even more than ‘Kill the Moon’, this is Doctor Who as fairy tale. Whether it works for you depends on two things: how keen you are on that idea, and how willing you are to be led past main characters being completely stupid for the plot’s sake, without noticing
TV
There’s a lot of fresh ideas turning up this year, and I like it. Elements of ‘Into the Dalek’, 'Listen’ and 'Kill the Moon’ have all been particularly surprising, and now we get 'Flatline’, a story full of elements you’d think would have turned up
TV
I loved this story. I had forgotten what it felt like to go back and replay my favourite moments obsessively during the week. ‘Mummy’ reminded me. I was initially terrified… not of the Mummy, but that they were going to brush off the argument from last week. I was intensely
TV
This was different. There’s a lot of differences between this year’s Who and last year’s Who, but I don’t feel it’s ever been as stark as in ‘Kill the Moon’. Perhaps not since 'Midnight’ have we had a story that is so simple and
TV
At times, ‘The Caretaker’ seems to be explicitly trying to be 'the funny episode’, with that sort of 'funny’ music they play on TV when everyone’s sneaking around acting slightly out of character. I didn’t like these bits that much. Capaldi’s Doctor does an awful
TV
I’ve never been so freaked out by new-Who than when the unfortunate bank-visiting gentleman turned his bald head to reveal that it was now concave instead of convex. Yeesh. This serves to make the Teller a much scarier creature than he otherwise would be… and he would have been
TV
As the fine folks on The Incomparable’s TeeVee podcast [http://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/] pointed out, this is a story with a pretty weird structure. In a way, it’s sort of reminiscent of some of Moffat’s crazier breakneck stories in season six, like ‘The Impossible Astronaut’. Short
TV
I have a meh-hate relationship with Mark Gatiss’ Doctor Who scripts. At their best, they’re tolerably pointless. At their worst, they’re accidentally horrible, like ‘The One Where The Doctor and His Friends Shot a Crazy Old Lady and then Crushed a Defenceless Slug Creature’ [https://thegreatescapism.com/post/
TV
I knew this story was going to involve a crazy plot where the Doctor is shrunk and goes inside a Dalek. I did not expect it to be spliced with a mixed-up and brilliantly acted romantic comedy plot. This alone reminded me of the freshness in Russell T Davies’ first
TV
Nine episodes in, I’ve realised that I’m really loving Doctor Who again, for the first time since series five, if I’m honest. As a result, I now feel like I should have been saying something about it. But I haven’t been. Well, not online, anyhow. So…
Software
[I’ve dropped some updates here until I actually bother to write a better thing about it.] There’s a new paper by the folks who make the Monthly. In an impressive feat of dull naming, it’s called The Saturday Paper [http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/]. Whatever. I’m
Doctor Who
Oh, this is all spoilers, all of it. Don’t come near it if you’ve not watched ‘The Day of the Doctor’. It’s also a whole bunch of complaining. If you’d like to read something happy, read my jolly post on the same subject [https://thegreatescapism.com/
Doctor Who
It’s becoming quite clear to me that I don’t particularly care for the premises of Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who stories these days. I love how he does them, but I’m rarely very keen on what… or indeed why, when I’m able to hazard a guess