I'm having a lot of difficulty liking Clara. I don't have much of a sense of who she is or why she does what she does. I mostly got Rose, and liked her. I thought Martha started pathetic but eventually redeemed herself. I got Donna and though I didn't always like her brashness, sometimes I loved it. I got Amy, didn't really like her at first, but came to adore her. Clara started fantastic, in her Souflee girl and Victorian lifetimes, but quickly became unremarkable.
I see some promise in #12, but didn't enjoy very much of him in the first episode. It looks like his arc will be quite dark, which isn't really my favorite. No, that's not it. I think what I'm missing from Capaldi's doctor so far is a sense of fun. Is he interested in having fun? So far he seems desparate to find himself and to atone. Worthy goals, perhaps, but not fun. He's got a bit of slapstick and wittiness, but those, for me, are a poor replacement for glee.
I agree, I think they hit it harder this episode because of the whole "New to Who" angle they've been pushing and if they are going to be major characters this season they need to catch everyone up on the prior beatings.
They also seem to be running a parallel between Vastra and Jenny and Clara and the Doctor. We'll see where they go with it.
I was about 15% watching it - Michael enjoys it but I'm not really a fan. I have to say Clara irritates me but then Amy did too. I think they "sound" so similar at times with the way they both don't seem to have real conversations, just recite snappy little comments back and forth in a way I assume is supposed to be funny. Like they aren't even listening and responding, because it's so, glib, I guess.
They both seem to put a weird amount of unnecessary emphasis on the second syllable of "Doctor" when they shout, too. "Doc-TEH!" It just sounds strange. And irritating.
I'm not a Clara fan, wasn't an Amy fan or a Rose fan. Liked Donna and Martha Jones. But I don't like most companions, they run around and tell us how cool the doctor is. I like the Companions that have their own input and don't wait around for the doctor to do stuff.
I'm one of those weird people that actually likes Clara. I just find her a very enjoyable character and was intrigued by the plot arc that introduced her. Part of it is just that Jenna Coleman brings a fun, vibrant energy to the character that's fun to watch. I was never a huge fan of Rose. I know she's supposed to be relatable, but I never really connected with her. Her mother was a much more interesting character. The only times I found Rose interesting were in the episodes relating to her father. I got really bored with the eternal puppy love she and Tennant were in during series 2. I actually like Martha, but her potential as a character was a bit wasted. I also enjoyed Amy a lot. There are similarities between Clara and Amy but both characters expressed these traits differently. Amy was damaged and generally emotionally forceful. Clara, on the other hand, tends to get what she wants by using logic and using her words and her mind to manipulate and trap the Doctor, although it doesn't look like she'll be able to do that with Capaldi Doc.
So far, I'm liking Capaldi. He's definitely making the character his own, and I at least had fun watching him interact with the other characters.
Martha is awful, can’t stand her, she was such an incredibly badly written character, especially when she came back in the Donna episodes. Its like they wanted to make a strong capable character so put it all in backstory and then never actually showed it. Can’t think of anything redeeming her.
Although to be fair to her, her most prominent moment was in setting up the unforgivably bad tinkerbell Jesus Doctor.
Clara on the other hand is just meh, she had such an amazing introduction as the souffle girl, but when it came time to be an actual companion was nothing but a generic dull disappointment. This episode has probably been her best as a companion so far.
So I semi-watched the last episode - I was playing games on my tablet but mostly listening. And as soon as they said "good Dalek" and "let's go inside it and make it better" I was pretty sure they were going to turn it evil again.
Note to writers: if your plot is obvious enough that even a non-fan who's only partially paying attention figures it out right away, it might be too obvious.
This is true, but I liked what they ended up doing with it in the end. I would've been more annoyed if the Dalek had turned out to only be pretending to be good to lure the humans into a false sense of security.
A friend of mine pointed out that the Doctor has encountered multiple 'good' Daleks before, he helped create some as far back as The Evil of the Daleks (Second Doctor), <sarcasm>huzzah for continuity!</sarcasm>
They didn't treat it as a moral plus. The point of the episode was that even though the Doctor succeeded in getting the Dalek to fight for the human race, he hadn't really achieved his objective of turning it good. The Doctor even says this near the end of the episode before the "You are a Good Dalek" line. The humans treat the development as a moral plus simply because they're in a war, and the morality of a Dalek committing genocide on other Daleks isn't something that's bothering them.