[DanaC]

I had mixed feelings abot Capaldi's first season. I liked him - and I liked some of the themes they explored...some of the episodes were good. Some of the earlier episodes in particular were really strong. But the overall arc of the series left me cold. And the weaker episodes were really, really weak. That one with the first in London started well but evaporated into such incoherent nonsense. The Robin Hood one was also fairly weak, though at least quite funny in places. I lost patience with the golden arrow shot at the space ship.

With previous Moffatt series I've found that, despite some shaky episodes, the series arcs were strong and the whole was more than the sum of its parts. With the first Capaldi series, to me, despite some good episodes, the whole was less than the sum of its parts.

I ended last series thinking I might not even watch the next. That finale did for me. The first part was excellent and really set things up well, but the second part was almost the death of Who for me. Waaaay overboard on the sentimentality in a way that didn't feel earned. And Missy, so intriguing at first, just descended rapidly into pantomime villain.

I'm finding the current series stronger - am liking Capaldi more (he's really settled into a groove and is reminding me a lot of Tom Baker) and am liking Clara more, as well as their relationship. Also, the current season is all two-parters, which gives it more of the feel of the old serialised stories.

Beest, have you seen that season's Christmas special yet? It went a long way to rescuing it for me.