Good evening everybody! This is Aifos coming to you alive from that room where I set up all those cameras. It turns out that box I was watching was just a dumpster. Hm... But, that aside, as you may or may not know, I've been watching Doctor Who, and as of yesterday, I just finished watching the Capaldi era! I was a bit worried here, because I was told this was when the series starts to get worse, but I must say I disagree. Capaldi is definitely better than Smith, and I'd say probably on par with Tennant. I quite enjoyed it. The Doctor himself was good fun. He was a bit more no-nonsense compared to the previous ones, but I did quite enjoy that. He also felt less a bit less compassionate, while still doing his best to help people, and that was a dynamic I really enjoyed. When he started playing electric guitar and wearing sunglasses it felt kind off, like an old man trying to be "hip", and that was probably the point, but I will admit I wasn't that big of a fan of that... But it was a relatively small point, so I could overlook it. For season 1, I really enjoyed how intertwined with Clara's personal life it was. It wasn't just about spacefaring adventures, but also Clara's life as a teacher and her learning to balance that out. It was fun when the students came into play, too. I really enjoy that slice of life stuff. I did get a little annoyed at times with how Pink hated the Doctor so much, but I would say I got annoyed in a good way. It made perfect sense for his character. I do wish they reconciled a little bit by the end, but it's fine. The twist with Missy was fantastic, and caught me totally off guard, but also made perfect sense once it happened. I was a little iffy on the idea of canonizing an afterlife, but the whole twist with the episode made me absolutely love it... Spoiler warning that Dark Water/Death in Heaven will be one of my favorite episodes, so I'll talk more about it when we get to individuals. Season 2 was when I really got sucked back in. I don't think there was a single episode I disliked this season (depending on whether one is included), and it has my favorite individual pair of episodes. I think the looming idea of "the Hybrid" could've been handled better, though, I never felt particularly pressed about it. It was introduced fantastically on Skarro, but in the following episodes it kinda felt like an afterthought? And it didn't have a particularly great payoff. But, the plot besides that was really fun. The individual episodes were great, Me was a great character, and while I was iffy on the return of the Time Lords back in Smith's arc, the way they came back in Hell Bent was really fun. I really like the setup for Season 3, but its pacing feels a little weird. We get a single big antagonist for three episodes right in the middle, while the stuff before and after it feels mostly disconnected. If you can't figure it out from the title, I thought Missy's redemption was great. They did an excellent job of constantly having her teetering on the brink so you never quite knew whether it was going to turn out well or not right up until the end. Heather's reappearance at the end simultaneously made me think "That's the coolest thing ever." and "Wow, that did not have enough foreshadowing.", so there's that. It sort of felt like a deus-ex-machina, but also, I guess if I gave Bad Wolf a pass, Pilot gets a pass, too. As far as the partners are concerned, apparently it's a common thing for us 'Muricans to not really jive with Clara during Smith's era, and then grow to really like her during Capaldi, and, well... Yeah, that's me. As I said during my Smith post, I didn't dislike her, but she just sort of felt like she was "there". She didn't jump out as a particularly unique character. But then we get to see more of her personal life with her role as a teacher, and her grappling with balancing that with her adventures with the Doctor was great. The fact that she stopped valuing her life as she got closer to the end was heartbreaking, made me very sad. Bill was fun. The student/teacher dynamic she had with the Doctor made for a good twist on what we usually see, and she was a lot more willing to get angry at him than other companions were. The fact that she was into sci-fi also made for some pretty funny scenes, even if they only used it every now and then. Nardole on the other hand was a little hit or miss... When he was the cowardly comedic relief computer guy, he was fine, but every time he put on his tough guy act, I just rolled my eyes. It also kinda felt like half of the episodes didn't want him around. Felt like he was always being sidelined for one reason or another. She wasn't technically a companion, but I feel like I should give mention to Missy, too. She was really good as both a villain and an anti-hero. As a villain, everything she did was very underhanded, while also trying to strike at the Doctor personally. The Master certainly didn't [i]not[/i] try to hit the Doctor personally, but he also felt a lot more "grand evil villain with big ambitions", whereas Missy's evil schemes were all specifically trying to get under the Doctor's skin. When she started to go down her redemption arc, I really enjoyed it, too. I'm kind of a sucker for a good redemption arc in general, but it also came with a lot of great scenes. Among my favorites were the "I never even realized I knew their names.", and of course, "THIS is where we've always been headed. Shooting ourself in the back!". I genuinely couldn't tell whether they were going to go through with it or not... And, they kinda took a frustratingly neutral ground to it, where she ostensibly did change her mind, but never got the chance to actually see it through, but also it was such a great way to "kill" the Master/Mistress that I can't really hate on it. Not quite on the level of "I win." but not far behind. Of course, I put "kill" in quotes, because I'm certain they'll come back eventually. Howver, If I have one complaint about Capaldi's era, is that it introduces entities really high up on the power scale without actually properly justifying their existence. I thought Lady Me was a great character, but apparently she has immortality that outlasted the Face of Bo--you know, Captain Jack, who got his immortality [i]from the heart of the TARDIS[/i]. Yet, apparently these mass produced microchips are even better? Similarly with Heather. I think Heather herself is super cool, but this is an entity who can travel through time, emerge out of any body of water, can apparently just incorporate people into itself at will, and has the ability to restructure molecules [i]to the point of being able to reverse becoming a Cyberman[/i], and yet the reason she exists is... Space oil? Both of these characters were great, and I'm not opposed to them existing, but it's weird that they exist under such mundane means, you know? The Ghost is part of this problem, too, but I don't like him at all. He can be cut completely, thank you very much.