Today was my first "twofer". Because I have a two-week business trip planned in August, and I very much want to complete this ridiculous project before I go party in Vegas for two weeks, I needed to pick up two extra days to put me on target for completing on August 6th. So this morning I put in a full 99 minutes on the treadmill and watched two episodes back-to-back. That's the first time I have ever done that (not counting the whole classic era where the episodes were only 24-25 minutes apiece.)

So let's talk about a good one and a bad one.

Into the Dalek

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

This one was actually a pretty decent episode on balance, which is always a surprise when it's another damned Dalek episode. It's basically Fantastic Voyage meets Doctor Who, in which the Doctor and Clara are miniaturized (along with a trio of soldiers) to go inside a captured Dalek who is injured and seeking medical attention. The interesting thing is that the Dalek, whom the Doctor names Rusty, is also suffering from the Dalek equivelent of mental illness - Rusty recognizes that the Daleks are evil and must be stopped. The notion of a "good Dalek" is just enough to get the Doctor on board.

It turns out that there is a radiation leak, and the damage from that has shut down some of Rusty's emotional inhibitors. Released from that control, Rusty muses upon witnessing the birth of a star and the miracle of live throughout the universe. Unfortunately, once the Doctor repairs the radiation leak he also cures Rusty. Which, by extension, means that Rusty becomes a common PepperPot Nazi, and no longer a good Dalek.

All of which leads to the most succinct summation of the Doctor's basic strategy in most situations.

DOCTOR (Instructing Clara what to do): Do a clever thing. And then once you've done it, the Dalek will be suggestible to new ideas. It will be open again. And I will show it something that will change its mind forever.
SOLDIER: What?
DOCTOR: Not a clue.

So of course Clara does a Clever Thing (re-enables the suppressed memories in Rusty's data-banks), and then the Doctor does a Very CleverThing (pretty much mind-melds with Rusty to show him the beauty of the universe). Unfortunately, the Doctor has only very recently spent a full 900 years on Trenzalore battling the Daleks non-stop, and his visceraly hatred of the entire Dalek species is laid bare. Rusty boots up into full Dalek mode, having only redirected his hatred away from every other living thing in the universe and pointing it at the Dalek Empire instead. So, you know, kind of a mixed bag as results go. Just as the Ninth Doctor was confronted with his own pure hatred in Dalek, the Twelfth Doctor once again has his greatest enemy describe him by saying he would be a Very Good Dalek. Oops.

So that's the good of this episode, and really it is very good.

The bad, on the other hand, is the introduction of Danny Pink as Clara's romantic interest and basic plot device for the season. And let me be clear, Danny Pink is not himself a bad character; as a matter of fact I think actor Samual Anderson does a bang-up job depicting the pain and conflicted emotions of  a former soldier trying to adapt and adjust to living and working in the "real world" away from the horrors of battle. The fundamental problem here is that show runner Steven Moffat can apparently never imagine Clara as a fully-realized character in her own right, she must always exist to be the framework with which to base the season's story arc on. Now that she is done being the Impossible Girl, she has become an entirely new character who works as a school teacher and is in a (doomed) romantic relationship with her co-worker. There is no fundamental connection or continuity of character between Impossible Girl Clara and School Teacher Clara. Frankly it would have made more sense if the Clara this season was one of the splintered versions of herself, just like Oswin Oswald from Asylum of the Daleks or Victorian Clara Oswald from The Snowmen. It would have made even more sense if this season would have had an entirely new companion. Just, Clara walks away at the end of Deep Breath and then SomeNotClara joins the Doctor at the start of Into the Dalek. 

The other bad is the unfortunate decision to make this Doctor be weird and offk-putting much like the Sixth Doctor. It didn't suit the character then, and it doesn't suit the character now. Some quirks? Sure. But completely abandoning Clara in Deep Breath and cold-heartedly allowing a soldier to die in this episode, combined with his general demeanor, do not lend well to him being a heroic character. He gets there, eventually, but not soon enough unfortunately.j

Still and all, a good episode. I wish I could say as much for the next one.

Robot of Sherwood

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

I'll start out by saying something positive about this story: at one point there is a series of images shown on a screen, depicting the iconic history of Robin Hood, and one of those pictures is of Patrick Troughton playing the role in the 1953 BBC television mini-series. This was the first televised depiction of the character, and it was a joy to see my favorite Doctor back on the screen if only for a half a second.

And that's it for the positive statements.

This story is an obvious rip-off of the far superior Time Warrior, with a thin veneer of Merry Men smeared over the camera lens. It is pure pantomime of the worst kind, and it includest the indignity of the Doctor duelling with Robin Hood (except the Doctor uses a large spoon instead of a sword.) It also includes the iconic "Robin Hood splits the arrow at an archery contest" moment, followed by the Doctor splitting that arrow, Robin Hood splitting that arrow,  and then a few more split arrows after that just to drive home the awful attempt at humor.  The climax involves Robin Hood, Clara, and the Doctor all working together to fire a golden arrow at an escaping spacecraft, and somehow that tiny arrow striking the hull of the craft is enough for it to suddenly 1) energize the ship enough to get it into orbit, and then 2) blow it up.

Wha?

I mean, at least nobody thought to do something really stupid like having the moon crack open and give birth to a dragon. Yet.

This story is a peurile pantomime piece of crap. Peter Capaldi deserves much better.

The good news: Tomorrow's episode is one of the few this season that I genuinely and unreservedly enjoy. So I have that to look forward to.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Twelfth
Companion(s): Clara Oswald
Episode(s): Into the Dalek / Robot of Sherwood
Steps Walked: 12,944 today, 3,353,162 total
Distance Walked: 6.52 miles today, 1,752.53 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 0 today, 6,579 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 929 total
Weight: 248.06 lbs (five day moving average), net change -59.24 lbs