New Who Review for Listen
Posted By Kathleen David on September 15, 2014
Usual rules Spoiler are behind the Cut and in the comments. Thank you for your cooperation.
Maybe Moffat should stick with the senses because Listen, to me is as brilliant as Blink.
The Doctor has a problem to solve and he forgot to tell the rest of us what it is or even why he has to solve it. But we are along for the ride.
Also considering Clara’s history with the Doctor, the ending made an enormous amount of sense to me.
Loving Capaldi more and more with each episode. Jenna Coleman does great both with the humor and the horror in this one. Samuel Anderson showed why they hired him for a rather tricky role.
Overall quite happy with it.
I am grateful for episodes like this one.
I have a feeling that this one is going to be the great fan divider. I have yet to read any neutral commentary on this episode. Everyone seems to either love it or hate it.
I am in the love category. That Clara was the one to be the thing under the bed that the Doctor has been seeking his entire life makes sense considering that she has been through out his timeline helping him along anyway.
This is the first episode in a very long time to show how time travel can screw things up especially if you don’t follow the simple (complex) rules as stated by the Doctor. Or it can solve things depending on how you look at it.
This is an episode that bears re-watching just because it is so intricate. Second time around you see details that made sense by the end but, during the first viewing, were either confusing or missed.
It worked for me on so many levels and it continues to work after a couple of viewings.
This is my favorite episode so far this season.
For me, the real payoff was that scene with the War Doctor. Why that little building? Why come way out here to do it? That was a first class Wham! moment!
Only slightly confusing thing was this: We’ve always been told that the Doctor’s family was very wealthy. Heck, we were told that in the previous episode. Here they seem to be rather rural folks. Huh?
Tom,
I am figuring country estate ala the Victorian Era where you had a residence in London and one out in the country where you would retreat to when London was too hot.
Also if it’s a boarding school (or the Gallifrey equivalent, then these schools had barns and horses and the like) He could be crying because he’s homesick.
I got the impression it was off Gallifrey, as there was no attack taking place. So, REALLY out in the country, an off planet estate! We saw his mother as a member of the council, so perhaps a planetary governor, or other high official…
I loved it!!
My answer to whose my favorite Doctor will be the current one: as I lliked Tennant, who was surpassed by Matt Smith, and now Peter Capaldi…
No, CharlieE, it was definitely on Gallifrey. It was the same barn in which the War Doctor was going to set off the Moment.
I guess that’s feasible, Kathleen, but they did seem to be fairly rough-hewn people, judging by clothing and speech.
Hi Tom,
Are you sure? I got the definite impression that it was off planet. No battle going on, nice and quiet. I thought that he had just gone someplace where he could think…
I’d assumed it was on Gallifrey proper.
And put me in the “loved it” camp, too; we only just got a chance to see it last night, and despite it being pretty late when it was over (at least for those of us who get up early for teaching jobs), I was sorely tempted to watch it again right then. Excellent stuff, and Capaldi is every bit as interesting as I was hoping he’d be.
To CharlieE :
Why should there be an attack ? The events in the barn in this episode happen a long time before the Time War, during the Doctor’s childhood. Probably just after he fled from the Untempered Schism.