I did too. I'll admit to feeling a bit disappointed at one point of the episode but that was mostly because the opening had raised my expectations for a different kind of show. But once we settled into the meat of the story I thought it was typically strong.
And I didn't find Capaldi to be a "cranky, heartless and empty shell" of previous Doctors either. He's still finding himself but it's clear he has a moral center even if he's having trouble discovering its boundaries. But then, I don't find the previous season(s) to be an uneven mess in writing. At least no more so than most TV Series, even the great ones. There are ups and downs to Doctor Who but, for me, they are consistent with its past.
Steve
To be clear the uneven writing mess was the last season. If you go to many of the Doctor Who forums I am not alone in feeling like Steven Moffat made a mess of the last season with Matt Smith with some episodes being downright schizophrenic. That's the mess I was referring too. Many fans were not happy with Moffat last season and I was one of them. That's a hard pill to swallow and frankly I don't get it because Moffat's episodes were some of my favorites when the show was under Russell T Davies.
There was much speculation in the British Press that is one of the reasons for Matt Smith's abrupt departure from a show in which he previously stated he could play the part forever.
There have been good episodes and literally some of the worst written in the new iteration of Doctor who last season. Many of the episodes would start out with a strong premise and take a dive by episodes end. This season so far feels EXACTLY the same. That has been the biggest knock about Moffat running the show. Again, It surprises me because I was a huge fan of Moffat's penned episodes of the previous seasons.
The opener was horrible. No character development, incoherent flow of the story...abrupt wrap up at the end. Again, the episode had huge potential with the Robotic character and the premise and it ended with a thud. The second episode was slightly better but he turned a Dalek episode into a regular ho hum episode versus the event that it's been in past seasons. Also...again...massively quick wrap up at the end.
The Doctor's reaction to the soldiers death was not "Doctor" like. You would have never seen that under DT or MS run at the Doctor. There is Dark and there is downright dickishness. It was the latter. It's still early but he does seem a "shell" when comparing to the last 2 iterations. I know it's still early but it's off to a below average start for me.
I am a huge fan of the show and have seen every season available (some early episodes lost) and I get that every actor brings something different. I just don't like what I am seeing one bit so far out of Peter Capaldi or Moffat again this season. Maybe he just needs to concentrate on writing and not running the show. It's sort of like when good coaches all of the sudden can't coach because they are wearing the GM hat. It's just incredibly uneven right now but I will watch because I love Doctor Who. Capaldi might grown on me as Smith did...he is just my least favorite out of the gate so far.
