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Six things make a podcast: "Kill the Moon" defied my attempt to do a simple, cohesive review. So here's an extended series of impressions the episode left on me. (Thanks to K and R for kibitzing.)
2MTL 358: "The Caretaker" Reviewed
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A rubbish brown coat (not the legendary Tennant overcoat, sadly, that would have been funny) is a paper-thin disguise for a Doctor who is a bit of a rubbish caretaker. While he endangers Coal Hill School to fire Jimmy Vee into space, Clara makes some rubbish attempts to keep her two worlds separate. The episode? Not at all rubbish. But it's time to talk about Clara, and how the Doctor and showrunner are treating her.
2MTL 357: "Time Heist" Reviewed
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As a bank robber, the Doctor makes a surprisingly good bank robber. And Stephen Thompson turns in a story that is no "Curse of the Black Spot." I solemnly promise not to cite "Leverage" again this season.
2MTL 356: "Listen!" Reviewed
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The latest in Steven Moffat's series of biological functionally-titled episodes, "Listen!" is entirely about hiding behind the sofa, and why we do that, and what greatness the fear that drives it might lead us to. And, to my great surprise, we get a profound look underneath the Doctor's mask.
2MTL 355: "Robot of Sherwood" Reviewed
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If Robin Hood had assaulted the Doctor with a quarterstaff, with a full-on "Ho! Ha Ha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!", I perhaps would have bought in.
2MTL 354: "Into the Dalek" Reviewed
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Spoiler: The Daleks are back.
Spoiler: The Twelfth Doctor is not especially warm and fuzzy.
Spoiler: There's a lot of pew-pew-pew and boom-boom-boom.
Spoiler: For the second week in a row, it's not the A-plot that has me so excited about Series 8.
2MTL 353: "Deep Breath" Reviewed
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Peter Capaldi delivers. Of that, there was no doubt. What else does "Deep Breath" have going for it, and does it measure up to Steven Moffat's first crack at introducing a Doctor?
2MTL 352: The Fate of the Impossible Girl
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So the tabloids think that season is Clara's swan song. I'm not ready to see her go, but…
Guess what haters – Clara is the best companion, second maybe only to Donna.
— Kyle Anderson (@FunctionalNerd) August 16, 2014
…really, Kyle Anderson of Nerdist.com? Let's not go quite that far. Yet.
2MTL 351: The Gallery of the Cleverdumb
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The Two-minute Time Lord Podcast will have no truck with the "so bad it's good" notion. Instead, we celebrate the notion of "cleverdumb" storytelling: meticulous in certain aspects, and gleefully and purposefully washing its hands of others. Exhibit A: the US series Leverage. Exhibits that follow: certain episodes of our favorite family sci-fi drama–but why are there so few "cleverdumb" Doctor Whos?
(One guess who inspired the title for this podcast.)
2MTL 350: Peter Capaldi in Wonder Woman's Armor
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A clickbait headline hurtles toward Ye Olde Compare-and-Contrast between the promised grim-'n'-gritty Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the widely inferred darkness of the Twelfth Doctor.