The worry I have is it will just be like any old episode. I think the only time we've only ever had a finale with no two parters was The Name of the Doctor, and even that was the first of a trilogy of episodes. I hope tonight's episode leads into the New Years ep somehow

24 minutes left, Mark Addy :love: and i heard the doctor in a sneak preview saying ''i know that voice'' hmm a returning character :think:

**** I forgot

How much have I missed

Well, safe to say Bradley Walsh has been the best thing about this series.

Well that was a pretty abysmal series tbh

Confirmed that Series 12 will air early 2020!!

Mess that's horrible

At least it's early. Just a couple of extra months.

I quite enjoyed the finale, glad they brought Tim Shaw back

That was complete and utter ****e. It's embarrassing how bad it was and it's squarely down to the writing. Chris Chibnall is a **** writer, his writing his lazy and his dialogue drowns in cliches, I'm pretty sure I heard 'It can't be!' multiple times this episode and Tim Shaw responding to Graham telling him he killed his wife with 'Good' is just ugh.... How does this man get work?

The plot was boring, it all felt derivative of better finales and it was all flat as ****. Chibnall has to go, I'm hoping the break will be because they need to find a new showrunner because he can't stay, he's incompetent. If he stays, I won't watch another series until he is gone (or more likely, the show is cancelled before then).

Like, he doesn't understand his own characters at all, Graham is indicative of this, his 180 degree turn in his personality was just random and it didn't fit the character at all. They made him vengeful to serve the plot and that's another sign of a piss poor writer, especially considering there's no arc to his journey in this episode, he just decides 'Nah, i'm not gonna kill this person because of reasons although I was planning on doing so a second before.'

Ugh, trash writer.

It pains me that Ryan will be returning next season as well, he cannot act, it's simple as that. Listen to his lines when he is supposed to be emotiing, he sounds exactly the same whether he's meant to be scared, angry or happy. He's just.... Was he really the best option for them to cast? Like, how bad were the other candidates?!

I really hate the way the Doctor randomly remembers plot important things at random and explains them as if she was reading a Wikipedia page. Also enough of "I was there at historical event, I was even part of it maybe"

This series kinda got lucky with its good guest writers because Chibnall's stuff is... not great.

Let's hope he does a Russell T Davies and takes more of a backseat when it comes to writing in series 12.

There’s too many people to have a decent story. Tonight’s was prime example with them splitting up which effectively halted the flow of the story repeatedly. The companions seem to know more about everything than the Doctor does. It doesn’t make sense.

The writing is awful which considering how great Broadchurch was is surprising and I expected great things. Such a shame.

Looking back at episodes he has written before, they weren't terrible. 42 in my opinion is underrated and had all the components of a decent story; The Hungry Earth two-parter was quite a powerful story about human error and unity between two species; Dinosaurs was weak, sure, but it was fun; The Power of Three although fairly filler came at the perfect time and was an (almost) emotional story.

What these episodes have in common is an extremely weak sci-fi foundation. So the way I see it, he is much better at episodes that don't have such a huge focus on sci-fi elements - so you sort of wonder why he's in charge of a sci-fi show.

Did anyone care about Tim Shaw enough for him to have been the finale villain? This episode might have worked better as a mid-season one, like how RTD would revive classic monsters halfway through.

This season as a whole has been a bit naff. None of the villains will be remembered, that's for sure.

I agree with Dezzy in that I hope the gap is so the BBC can find a replacement. I've read in various places that Jodie wouldn't stay without the Chibb, but I don't care - I don't actively want her to go, nor do I really want her to stay. With Capaldi there was always a brilliant performance despite the material, but Jodie only seems to be as good as what she's given.

nice episode, Mark Addy another nice role from him after i also enjoyed him as Hercules in Atlantis (wish that would come back tbh)


also excited for the new years day special :flutter:

I wonder if it might be better the show scrapped the 'Showrunner' model? Having a more traditional set up could go a long way, helping the show be on more consistently, and not forcing the burden on just one person.

I thought they were adopting a writers room approach when it came to scripts.

I heard that too, but it never seemed to happen, it'd be a lot better for the show if it did though.

Not watched it in its entirety yet but there's a lot of people on DS talking about "Stealing planets? What a STUPID idea!!"

Erm.. The Stolen Earth from series 4 anyone?

I wouldn't be surprised if he was given the outlines for the story of those episodes that he then had to turn into a script.

The worst aspects of them are the pacing and the dialogue.

I didn't notice it as much with Broadchurch, maybe he is just completely out of his depth with sci-fi.

He seems to have the job because he was a lifelong fan of DW and he's a writer. Whether he's capable of writing sci-fi seems to be an afterthought.

I actually think a competent writer could balance out a four person team quite well but I do think, in the next series, there should be episodes where certain characters sit out in order to develop others better. Do what they did with Clara and the Ponds and have the companions have an established life outside the tardis that can give them a reason why they can't go on every adventure.

I always found his episodes to be quite middling most of the time and decent at best but his episodes this season have been utterly woeful and he hasn't been able to transfer his strengths from shows like Broachurch over to Doctor Who at all. His writing comes across like something you'd see from a Media BTEC student who's in the middle of writing their first script.

I don't know what Chibnall was thinking when it came to bringing back Tim Shaw. He was terrible the first time around and dreadful the second.

I think the season has been hit and miss, miss whenever Chibnall's written the episode and more of a hit when another writer's tackled it. I think Rosa and the Punjab episodes were very strong in particular.

I think Jodie's done well with the material she's been given and the comparison between her and Capaldi doesn't really work since, even when Moffett's heart wasn't in it anymore, he was still a cracking writer and knew how to write the doctor and non-cliched dialogue that popped. I don't think Capaldi would have fared much better with Chibnall's poor writing and limited characterisation because that's what's really held Jodie back I think.

Chibnall's characterisation of the doctor is just weak and extreme in her passiveness. She's not allowed to be as multi-faceted as other doctors who would often flip between kindness and necessary brutality when it came to their enemies and that's overly simplified the character too much and made her seem dumber than any other doctor since, painfully enough, they made the first female doctor someone who is ruled by their heart, not their head. It's just poor that they've obviously written her differently when she should have been more in line with the other doctors but have her own quirks.

I don't think we'll really see what Jodie can do until we get a new showrunner that will overhaul the character.

Rosa was great obviously, though not without it’s flaws. Punjab was excellent but for me the best episode of the series was Kerblam! I thought there were some really clever twists that all made sense come the end and the robots were creepy.