Did I watch the same episode?

Sometimes I wonder if I’m watching the same episode? HeroPress reviewed The Best Below, and generally didn’t seem to like it…

What are my clues?

  • Oh dear God… what has happened to Doctor Who?
  • The Beast Below was written by Steven Moffat himself, the story showed about as much subtly and finesse as an episode of the god-awful Australian K9 series, simply delivered with a higher production budget and more talented actors.
  • I really hope this is not a sign of things to come as The Beast Below made Love & Monsters and Fear Her look like high art.
  • See the Rest of the HeroPress review at Doctor Who: The Beast Below.

I just am shaking my head, because it seems like I watched a different episode… While I remember the scenes he’s discussing, I certainly didn’t feel like it was even close to Love & Monsters, nor Fear her… It was paced well, had some amount of tension, but it was more of a detective story than an Action Adventure romp.

Yes, the climax of the episode was pressing a freaking white button, but this felt more like a excellent classic series story than a “new Who” episode. Which sounds odd, but is a refreshing change…

The 11th Doctor seems to be shaping up to include some of the aspects of the Sylvester Mccoy Doctor… For example, when he uses the cup of Water to check for Engine vibrations, his answer to Amy is that “He thinks so fast sometimes, that he doesn’t remember what he was trying to do” (I’m horribly paraphrasing here). Then a few minutes later with Liz 10, he explains why he did it…. He’s keeping secrets… And distorting things like stating that they are observers only and they cannot get involved….

The eleventh Doctor is shaping up well, and I personally don’t see any problems yet with his reign…

But I must stress, it is perfectly fine that we don’t agree completely with each other regarding the episode.  We are all fans, and we all have different likes & dislikes…  For example, I really dislike quite a bit of Love & Monsters, but more because of the fact that it wasn’t a Doctor Who episode…  What it was, I don’t quite know…  Compare that with Blink, another Doctor “Lite” episode, even though the Doctor wasn’t really it in, it worked as a Doctor Who episode…

Fear Her?  While it wasn’t a “absolutely fantastic” episode, it still was pretty good… Certainly better than “Love & Monsters”.

For another viewpoint on the episode…  I submit the Blogtor Who review of The Beast Below.