I've been planning to write a season-wide, ep-by-ep, report card of Doctor Who

[capri0mni]

...For weeks, now -- ever since "Forest of the Night." It feels like forever, 'cause I've been holding back until after the Finale.

But --

The only thing I've been actively doing, today, is finding ways to avoid writing it. This could be because I don't want the season to be over already. Or it could just be that writing up a detailed critique of each episode in a single round-up post feels like a lot of work. And I'm didn't sleep all that well last night, so I'm tired and headachey. It's probably both. But I'll blame tiredness, and make this a quick-n-lazy "placeholder" post, with percentage/letter grades for each episode, only -- no commentary or reasons. I'll do my commentary in another post (or several? Maybe I'll spread the squee and criticism out over the coming weeks, to tide me over 'til the Christmas Special?).

Okay, so Here Goes:

"Deep Breath" -- 93% (A)
'Into the Dalek" -- 91% (A)
'Robot of Sherwood" 86% (B+)
"Listen" -- 84% (B)
"Time Heist" -- 75% (C)
"The Caretaker" -- 75% (C)
"Kill the Moon" -- 45% (F)
"Mummy on the Orient Express" -- 95% (A+)
"Flatline' -- 95% (A+)
"In the Forest of the Night" -- 57% (F)
"Dark Water" -- 97% (A+)
"Death in Heaven" -- 97% (A+)

Plain Average for the overall season (All Episodes given equal weight, rounded up to the nearest whole point): 83% (B)

Comments

The sendoff

[dialecticdreamer]

to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart was worth every minute of the /season/ to that point.

Just saying-- they honored a character and actor who are BOTH dead, in a way that I could /believe/.

Why can't we have more than one episode of that quality a season? Am I asking too much of the writers?

Re: The sendoff

[capri0mni]

As I've told you, I /never/ give anything* a score of 100. That translates to "perfection." And for me, the Easter Bunny's more likely to be real. The highest score I'll ever give, in practice, is 98. ... I gave each part of the Finale 97. I've also never openly cried in response to fiction (that I can remember). But the corners of my eyes were getting damp, at that scene (and also at the scene of the Doctor's reaction to Gallifrey not being there).

It occurred to me, watching the Doctor and Clara walk along the walls of "dark water" tanks/tombs, that the first half of the finale was a perfect commemoration of "Day of the Dead." Danny's speech to the cybermen in the graveyard: "We are the Fallen ... The honor of the soldier..." was a perfect commemoration of Remembrance Day. I can't help but wonder if that was deliberate...

*If there's a finite list of questions with single, factual answers, then of course it's possible to answer 100% of them correctly. But for Art? Impossible...

Re: The sendoff

[dialecticdreamer]

The thing is, the Doctor COULD be this good, this wonderfully interconnected, etc.

EVERY episode.


As they only do twelve eps plus the Christmas special, they have TIME to do it right.

Re: The sendoff

[capri0mni]

Yes, but the catch is: so many different people want so many different things from the franchise that there are about six different definitions of "Doing it right," and the writers have to keep all of them in mind...

I clicked on a video of the "Christmas Special" trailer, within a few minutes of it being posted, Saturday night (before I got a chance to see "Death in Heaven), and I accidentally hit the page down key, and saw the first comment thread where people were complaining about how evil Clara was, because she deliberately killed Danny, and how boring and stupid the finale was.

I mean -- whut?!

These people are clearly not watching the same show I am. But they are out there, and they're loud, and the Beeb execs feel pressure to appease them, as well as the older fans who've known the show since Hartnell's era.

Anyway, I was moved to make a new Clara icon, from "Mummy," this afternoon, and from that, moved to make screencap art, and from that, write a review of Mummy and Flatline, which I was just about to post...

Re: The sendoff

[dialecticdreamer]

DROOLIES.

If I may ask, what programs do you use to make icons?

Re: The sendoff

[capri0mni]

Microsoft paint and my wits. ;-)

Re: The sendoff

[dialecticdreamer]

Then I am trebly impressed: MS Paint I call MS Hate, because it seems to actively HATE me, and resist doing anything I want it to. LOL