Arachnids in the UK

I'm not going to be one of those idiots who give the episode a 1, that's just ridiculous. But I really didn't like this week's episode. It felt too dull and the CGI really wasn't good. The show feels more like a generic drama than Doctor Who.

It's clear no matter how great or merely good this run of episodes are some people are hating the episodes and writing reviews before they are even finished airing.

This episode while not as good as the previous three is still above average. My main issue is it doesn't seem to have a proper ending and the story seemed incomplete. Also some of the guest characters came across as underwritten, underdeveloped, underused and forgotten. It could have been so much better.

Bring on episode 5

Huh? I'm a loyal Doctor Who fan who faithfully watched every show ever since it premiered in 2005 as New Who. (I only started watching in 2016, but believe me, through the magic of livestreaming, I've seen every New Who show and many of them twice and the best ones three times.)

This was... bad.

The hotel owner made me cringe. Some American shows have really poorly developed characters, but I never thought... this would happen on Doctor Who. Wow. Seriously.

The spiders were boring. Where's the outer space? Time travel? Science fiction? This could have easily been a poorly developed one-time show if you took out the familiar characters and presented it as an adventure show. This reminded me NOTHING of what Doctor Who is all about. Where's the exploration? The journey through the stars? No magic here.

I agree with several reviewers that Jodie uses the sonic screwdriver too dramatically. I wouldn't be surprised if newly filmed episodes after this date drastically cut back on these scenes. On top of that, Jodie doesn't FEEL like Doctor Who. Doctor Who is supposed to be over 1,000 years old. Jodie feels too fresh, too wondrous. Yes nice to see but not fitting the character. Even though Matt Smith looked very young, and often acted immature, he still managed to convey a tired wisdom at times and regret of his millennia of small defeats and losses.

I just felt... no Doctor Who magic here.

Don't get me wrong. The first episode for Jodie was okay, very contrived (climbing a crane? whoopee). The second episode was pretty good actually, more of the far out flavour of Doctor Who. The third episode really missed a lot of time travel / space themes and became a history lesson (like Timeless, which does it far better) but at least it was nice and warm in its own way.

Until this... atrocity. I really hope it improves. I'm starting to wonder if they cast the right woman. Would have loved Missy actress to be Doctor Who if she had never appeared in Doctor Who. Now there's a woman who can make a villain drop dead with a bat of her lashes!

Enjoyed the episode for what it was, but i can do without the anti Trump message this episode was trying to push. regardless of how you feel about the man, please keep your political opinions out of my sci-fi BBC

This has been the hardest episode of this new series to review. As in my title I found this a total mixed bag. I can see why people hate and quite liked it. On the plus side, I have a genuine phobia of spiders, the concept of ordinary spiders transforming into deadly monsters was great, chilling. I quite liked parts of it, I was reminded of the show's distant past, the Pertwee era, and also it felt a little like life under Russell T Davies. On the debit side, it was preachy, the whole Trump style character and dialogue I found a little unpalatable, not the place, why use Dr Who as a vessel to give us that message? we want sci fi.

The spiders were a little underused, after a powerful, dramatic opening nothing much actually happened, I wasn't hugely impressed by the CGI, although the webs looked good. If Chibnall is going to stay on i hope he seeks a slightly different flavour in future, it is all feeling a little overly pc, the show has always been a little rebellious, it's in danger of becoming a little too safe. Last week's episode had truly reinvigorated the series, this one left me wanting something more. Wasn't bad, just hoping it's the series low point.

I have to say I am loving those opening credits and music, fantastic arrangement.

5/10