S12 E7 Can You Hear Me?

[Nyder]

What did you think of it?

[ninjaconor]

It was good. I really enjoyed the first half of the episode and thought I'd be giving it a "Great" at the very least, but after building up such a powerful and scary enemy everything got resolved far too quickly and far, far too easily. Villains that powerful should be saved for at least two-parters, if not season-long story-arc. They certainly shouldn't be dispensed of within 10 minutes of being introduced.

Then the final act of the episode was all a big PSA about mental health. What is with Chris Chibnall and PSAs? I've no problem with an episode having a positive message. Plenty of RTD and Moffat stories had a moral to them, but it was done subtly and through subtext. It's like Chibnall has absolutely no confidence in the viewers to figure anything out for themselves. Everything is just hammered home so repetitively and obviously it's really becoming obnoxious.

But, like I said, the first half was really, really good.

[Eryx]

It was good but as Ninjaconor says, the best part was over way too quickly and then the mental health issue stuffed forced on you. I liked the initial story and the idea of immortal god beings and the plan to free one via nightmares was quite clever. But then, they get defeated far too easily. This was a story that needed at least two episodes to really play out to the best it could have been. The gods are defeated far too easily as well.

What was the point of the touchy-feely chats at the end? Was that necessary? Had any of that really appeared enough beforehand to warrant that ending?

I think this season is definitely better than the last but needs a good kick to be even better.

[markrand]

As usual, I'll DVR it tonight and watch it tomorrow.

[thereviewer]

Now THAT was an episode! As I voted last time, I thought last episode was good but only in the same way David Lynch’s ‘Dune’ is considered good. There’s just this random weird science that makes you want to follow just to see what happens next. Weird, but fascinating weird.

THIS episode, however... it really brought back that Stephen Moffat vibe of fears from the dark & the boogie man. Though it was much more methodical in exploring where fears come from. The nightmare scenes I felt were pretty awesome kind of like the first three Nightmare on Elm Street films before the dream sequences got outlandish with each following sequel. Speaking of which, anyone else thing of Creepshow and ‘The Crate’ segment with the monster-of-the-week? I thought the baddies were terrifically well-acted and oozed with natural evil, which was brilliantly performed in my opinion. Not to mention the sly Easter Eggs snuck in there. Plus the important moral of always living with and rising above your fears is a lesson I think we can all appreciate. At least that’s what I’d like to think.

I do think this season is a better improvement over the last. Then again, that’s always the case with the new Doctor, isn’t it? It goes from “I hate it,” to “all right,” to “amazing” and finally “I don’t want them to go.” Anyways, looking forward to seeing how it all ends!

[markrand]

It was confusing.

[Stormcrow]

The A-plot was good and well-paced... until the resolution, which was WAY too fast and easy.

The characters' emotional hangups were okay. It wasn't quite so PSA as earlier episodes this season. That they were shown is part of why the pacing was good.

The bad guys using nightmares or stealing nightmares... horribly cliche.

Mentioning the Eternals and the Guardians... nice fan service.

[thereviewer]

Feb 11, 2020 2:39:42 GMT Stormcrow said:

The A-plot was good and well-paced... until the resolution, which was WAY too fast and easy.

The characters' emotional hangups were okay. It wasn't quite so PSA as earlier episodes this season. That they were shown is part of why the pacing was good.

The bad guys using nightmares or stealing nightmares... horribly cliche.

Mentioning the Eternals and the Guardians... nice fan service.

You forgot to mention the name-drop of the Celestial Toymaker (R.I.P. Michael Gough). That was excellent to hear the first direct mention of the Celestial Toymaker on TV for the first time since his appearance way back in the Hartnell-era as far I'm aware. Unless I missed something from a later episode between then and now. 

[senko]

I'm going to need to agree with ninjaconnor. Again the problem in this season of rushing things shows up. Eternal beings of such power should be 2-season arc opponents not villain of the week. Aside from anything else they just can't make a decent impression as an enemy when its "Boo, Arghh you beat me." The PSA of the week is depression something I'm somewhat familiar with personally but they could have built Yaz's issues up more before her showing up to talk to the person who helped her when she was younger. Or better build Tiboe up over a few episodes of "My depressions getting worse mate, no I'm not going to talk to a stranger about it they'd just insert judgement here." Then we get the man in black and after he's seen all this amazing stuff we get a (much better written) line like "Tiboe I've been where you are now when I was younger. A police officer convinced me to speak to someone and while I get you may not want to talk to a stranger you aren't alone." from Yaz as we pan out on her passing on the message its ok to talk about this with others going through it to someone else.

I ramble anyway my thoughts on the episode in random list form.

1) Oh look another being who can casually breach the TARDIS defenses.
2) So the Doctor can do a short hop to rescue someone in a precise MILLISECOND but not get them back to within reasonable proximity to a time.
3) Bit preachy again with the Doctor talking about the enlightened Islamic physicians instead of you know noting all the damage around her.
4) . . . use the sonic to merge a call as opposed to you know the existing phone ability to do that? I'm starting to see why some people feel the sonic is overused.
5) More things not in the TARDIS database . . .,.
6) Downgrade of the telepathic circuits it seems we're now get a great big helmet rather than just fingers in a goo console.
7) Old man Tiboe looks good for however long he's been waiting.
8) Sigh Zalyn the god. Eternals, Guardians and the Celestial Toymaker are at least referenced but couldn't you have had Zelyn as an old god with the limits and history that go with that instead of this mysterious dimension hopping new being.
9) How . . . just how did she twist sideways to throw the screwdriver up?
10) Don't think I'm a fan of the timeless child but at another episode that drips it in rather than rushing it. Of course again in contrast we get internal episode plot rushing. They really need to slow down we've had so much this season that could have made multi-episode or even season long arcans by themselves.
11) Tiboe is probably very glad he invited Ryan to sleep on his couch.
12) Hmmm how big is the TARDIS Jacuzzi.
13) Ah that's why the mention of the Islamic phsyicians its our PSA for this episode.

[imajica]

Pacing problems. Nice opening, good revel of the bad guys, blindingly obvious plot twist. Angel did the detachable finger trick better. And then it's over and what are we going to do with the rest of the episode? Insufficient plot in the episode area.

I have to say I actually enjoyed the massively awkward conversation between the Doctor and Graham.