Doctor Who - Series 8 First Four Episodes Reviewed

Alright, as promised, here's reviews for the first 7 episode of Doctor Who Series 8. I'm actually going to split this up into two blogs. This blog will be episode 1-4, and the next blog will be episodes 5-7. Let's begin

Doctor Who, Series 8, Episode 1, "Deep Breath."

(Spoilers)

“I’m the Doctor. I’ve lived for over 2000 years and not all of them were good. I’ve made many mistakes and it’s about time that I did something about that.” -12th Doctor (Peter Capaldi)

“And however scared you are, Clara, the man you are with right now – the man I hope you are with – believe me, he is more scared than anything you could imagine right now. And he, he needs you.” -11th Doctor (Matt Smith)

New Doctor. New Series (Because the british say Series, not Season, for some reason.)

Let’s look back at past Doctor Introductions. “Rose,” decent enough. “Christmas Invasion,” pretty fun. “The Eleventh Hour,” an amazing introduction! Now, how does “Deep Breath,” compare? It’s no “The Eleventh Hour, but it’s good, I’d say it’s slightly below “The Christmas Invasion”.

Let’s dive right into my thoughts on this episode. I like Capaldi, but do miss Smith. I like Clara, but do miss Amy (though by episode 4 of this series, I feel like I’m starting to really dig the Capaldi/Clara team). And Vastra, Jenny, and Strax are nice, but I don’t really remember them ever being introduced, they just showed up in one episode, and having been popping up again and again. Perhaps I need to do some research on that.

Anyway, I like all the stuff I mentioned above. What I didn’t like was the setting, I just don’t like this 1800s London setting at all, and the plot was just okay for me.

I am every excited for what comes next, though. This is an overall solid start, and I’m going to give this a positive rating, although depending on how you judge numbers and stuff, you may find the score a little low, but I think it fits, at least in my opinion.

+(Positives) -(Cons)

+Peter Capaldi is great!

+Some fun dialogue and scenes

+Matt Smith Cameo, rejoice!

-Meh Setting

-Not the most interesting story

Episode Score (out of 10): 7.9/10

Doctor Who, Series 8, Episode 2, "Into the Dalek."

Can you feel the love tonight....

“Into the Dalek,” is about something many, many episodes of Doctor Who have been about. Daleks. It’s about Daleks. Daleks are Doctor Who’s most iconic villains, and they are used nearly every season, in multiple episodes. How can you keep making Dalek episodes? Hasn’t it gotten old? Well maybe, it has, maybe it hasn’t , either way this episode was a refreshing look at the Daleks, and it made for on the best Dalek stories ever.

What if there was a good dalek?

That’s the question this episode asks.

And for 45 minutes, that idea is explored in a super fun, thrilling way. The action scenes were extremely well done (Direction by: Ben Wheatley). Visually, this was one of the most stunning Doctor Who episodes I’ve ever seen. The writing was great as well (Written by Phil Ford and Co-Written by mastermind Steven Moffat). In conclusion, this was a great episode of Doctor Who, and for one to come so early in Series 8, is a great sign.

+Refreshing, new idea for a Dalek story

+The doctor’s prejudice, and how me must overcome it

+Fantastic action scenes

+Rusty

Episode Score: 9.0/10

Doctor Who, Series 8, Episode 3, "The Robots of Sherwood"

I....liked this episode. I didn’t “love” it, but there were many moments to enjoy. The banter between The Doctor

and Robin Hood was probably my favorite part of the episode.

There’s not too much to say on this episode, other then that is was a solid, fun episode. It’s not the best thing ever, but it’s serviceable.

+Robin Hood himself was a likeable character

+The Doctor’s banter with Robin Hood

+Spoon fight!

-Not super enthralling.

Episode Score: 7.7/10

Doctor Who, Series 8, Episode 4, "Listen."

Listen to this fellow Whovians, “Listen”, Doctor Who, Series 8, Episode 4, is one of the best Doctor Who episodes in a while, and it’s definitely the best of the season, thus far. There’s a lot to love about this episode. It’s written by Steven Moffat, the man in charge of all things Doctor Who right now, and it’s very clear, because it fits very well into his style of episodes, and his episodes are almost always amazing. It’s scary, and clever. It’s chilling, and emotional, as the ending shows us how important of a companion Clara is, and gives new context to “The Day of the Doctor,” another Steven Moffat episode, as the same barn in that episode, is in this episode.

And, speaking of Clara, I’m really liking the expansion of her character. In Season 7, she was basically nothing but a plot device, but now she’s actually being developed, and as I said earlier, revealing herself to quite important in the life of the Doctor.

The only complaint I had for this episode is the last few minutes or so. I don’t dislike the reveal of it never being an alien, in fact I love that, and it’s the point of the whole episode, but something about the execution of it felt less impactful to me then I wanted to be. I can’t really describe it, but I felt the ending could’ve hit harder, emotionally.

+(Pros) -(Cons)

+ Scary, effectively creepy.

+Clara developed, as well as Danny Pink, who’s becoming one of the my favorite characters.

+Peter Capaldi is really coming into his own as the doctor.

+Greater context given to “The Day of the Doctor.”

-Final moments could’ve packed a bigger punch (Not that I don’t like the fact that there never was a monster)   

Episode Score: 9.3/10