Interesting Links for 03-01-2019

[andrewducker]

Jeremy Corbyn says Theresa May should go back to Brussels and try again if MPs reject her Brexit deal

(tags: uk europe doom labour OhForFucksSake )

These reviews perfectly sum up my disappointment in this season of Doctor Who

(tags: writing review drwho criticism )

Comments

[skington]

The criticism of the Moffat (and RTD) eras that there were occasional terrible episodes is valid, and I think the move to have only 10 episodes rather than 13 has fixed that. The problem is that the only good episodes are the ones not written by Chris Chibnall, which is a problem if you're the show-runner.

Also, nobody knows what to do with Yaz. If anything, her characterisation has got worse as the show went on. It's almost as if nobody remembered what went wrong with Peter Davison's era with so many companions that they occasionally left one in the TARDIS because they couldn't work out what to do with her.

[heron61]

I think Kerblam! ties with Arachnids as the worst episodes of the season, and it wasn't Chibnall, and I also think that those were the only 2 episodes that were bad - I think the rest ranged from moderately good (1, 2, & 10), to quite good (3, 5, 6, 8, & 9). However, they do need to do better with Yaz.

[mtbc]

Yeah, it was a bad sign with Kerblam! that halfway through I noticed I'd gotten so bored I was checking my e-mail. I found this latest New Year's one painfully implausible, mostly just cheap jokes, lazy plotting that had to be explained to us, and technobabble that reminded me of CSI. No criticism of the actors, just the execrable script. But, maybe I'm just not representative of the target audience or something.

A few decades ago across various shows the BBC actually tried to deliver decent science fiction to younger viewers. No more, it seems. Still, I live in foolish hope. Even this latest wasn't as bad as the Power of Three.

I don't mind there being a few companions but in Davison's era they had the luxury of more minutes per story so subplots could be fit in less frantically, Adric got time to eat plenty or whatever. Admittedly my youngest child was just yesterday remarking that they tend to prefer the fewer (or no) companion stories.