I'm a tad bored if the whole 'lets spend 40 minutes running from aliens and robots trying to work out how to defeat them and then solve it all in the last 5 mins by pressing a button on the sonic screwdriver' narrative they seem to rely on

4.25m for last night. Safe to say this isn't the ratings juggernaut it once was.

What is, though. Live telly is dying.

Well, Britain's Got Talent for one

(but I don't see anything to be overly worried by)

I wouldn't be too worried. The live ratings have been declining for years and the BBC don't seem to be panicking about it.



(About 2:25 in) Steven Moffat spins this somewhat to make it sound like the BBC keep Doctor Who on air because they love the show- my guess is that it's so profitable, they could lose quite a lot of viewers and it wouldn't make much difference.

Let me stop you there, what you write or what Stargate did is irrelevant.

Doctor Who is a sci-fi fantasy and rarely uses actual real scientific theories. It's also ran for 54 years and constantly broken its own rules.

But I'm sure that's just another reason it's going to be cancelled imminently. You know, they've gone to the trouble of hiring Chris Chibnall so.

Enjoyed it fine but it was very Black Mirror and Black Mirror did it better. Sorry chaps.

I did like that a basic programming error nearly caused the end of human kind, its an interesting thing to think about, with all the discussion of AI these days.

It's been done to death though... I mean, it's also the core plot device of "Age of Ultron" (programmed to defend earth, realises that humans are destroying earth, concludes humans must die) and that's hardly the first time.

The last ep was a great start but it only plummeted from there I think the up until when they discovered the pods was the down fall. Like the resulution was so abrupt and simple it really pissed me off tbh.

It didn't make a huge amount of sense either... Like "Yeah I know they killed your loved ones and also you only have my theory that they'll play nice to go on now so they might still grind you all to bits in your sleep but... Oh well... Sleep tight bye now."

Like, they were indiscriminately killing people. Some guy comes along and SAYS he's "fixed" them but are you really going to do anything other than live in terror... Hoping that they don't start randomly killing again?

Yeah like it would of been so much better if it ended up being something shady going on. Also making it so they were now living beings was just so stupid to me. Like if they stayed with the whole robots malfunctioning thing, surely it would of made more sense had the doctor just sorted out the problem and they were back to normal but with precaution put in so they can never kill people again. Rather than telling the people "oh they're now living being and will probably attack if they feel threatened" like wtf?

Also off topic but I feel like the show should of ended just before the robots killed the little boy, the show should of just ended on that cliffhanger and there be more to the story next ep.

So that episode was basically Oliver on Ice, yes?

Next week looks good

Tonight was good but not amazing. Next week looks fantastic- I can't wait to watch it with the special audio.

It also felt a bit "what if Kill the Moon but Dickensian" (plus a bit of... I don't know, what's another episode where they set a giant creature free? The Beast Below?) to me, but yeah, I enjoyed it

Yeah it was bascially the Beast Below set in the past. Still, I love the Doctor/Amy relationship in that episode (even if the ep wasn't great in other departments) and I thought the Doctor/Bill relationship shone here.

That end sequence with the creature reminded me of French and Saunders using buckets of water to simulate the Titanic sinking in that sketch. :joker:

The creature is thrashing in the Thames and the doctor and Bill looked like they'd stood too close to someone splashing in the bath. Lmao.

Am I the only one who got Pinocchio vibes from the period setting and a creature under water? Lmao. It must have been the sequence showing its eye open was reminiscent.

Pretty solid episode this week :D

Great episode, the best so far! Honestly I'm plesantly surprised from the preview I wasn't expecting much but I really did enjoy it. Next week looks pretty good.

It was cute, it felt very season 1/2, especially at the end when the kids lived happily ever after

although bye @ how unfazed Kitty was when her friend died in front of her

That was a lot better than the preview suggested. The whole racism thing was really nicely written too.

3.96m for last night though :/

I thought it was good, not memorable in the long run and far too similar to episodes like 'The Beast Below' but good. I'm really liking Bill as a character.

I spent most of that trying to work out where I knew Shireen from (turns out it was Some Girls)