Originally Posted by
pathoftheturtle
Originally Posted by
stkmw02
All of this is technically spoilers?
Yar, I was referring to the same impression; we can of course tell that it's apt to some sort of reversal. And I know what you mean by "believe," quote/end quote: funny how dying in popular fiction doesn't feel real unless it involves completely unrealistic dramatic fanfare.
But nonetheless, I disagree that --
Originally Posted by
stkmw02
... the "to be continued" ending was rough for a first episode that audiences have been anticipating for months...
Just another part, IMO, of the more expansive tone that makes me think this might be a period of great evolution for DW. The last series was all self-contained episodic adventures except for the Danny relationship and that one big background arc leading up to the finale, which may be why I was content all through its run to just wait until the next week and turn to other shows. This time, however, I observe other fans are like myself still re-viewing the opener and reviewing back-canon here days later to puzzle out the loose ends and guess at what will come next. You do make some decent critical points, though.
Agreed a great deal. I am
so glad the multi-part stories are back, after having a distinct lack of them for series 7 and 8 (with Dark Water/Death in Heaven an exception). I grew up on the serials, and not only do I love a good cliffhanger (while it was a little bit overkill in some places, I adored the final shot of 'The Magician's Apprentice'), but frankly, I think that where many of the last couple of seasons fell flat was through having stories that were a little too rushed, at times. I'm really glad that it's slowed down and allowed us to enjoy the characters and the plot more.
Also, one more thing I enjoyed about 'The Magician's Apprentice', and how like Michael said series 9 looks to be a different beast to series 8, is that its opening scene arguably had a "cliffhanger" as big as the ending of 'Dark Water'. They were even similar in some ways, as they revealed the return of a major villain. But whereas Dark Water had built up the revelation of who Missy was over 11 weeks, 'The Magician's Apprentice' got that revelation out of the way in the first 5 minutes! I'm really glad that Moffat kicked off not just the episode but the entire season with a twist as brilliant as that.