It's going to be interesting to see how history is going to view series 7. The production levels were fantastic, Doctor Who has never looked this good. The music isn't as quite as good as the heyday of 'I Am The Doctor', but it was solid. It had both the Ponds and Clara, the best companions of the new series (in my opinion of course) and Matt Smith is a good actor whose been consistently been putting in a solid performance in his incarnation and the overarcing mystery of who Clara is, is probably my favourite long-term plot of New Who. (It even has a satisfying conclusion!)
Moreover, there wasn't really one episode that was a bad idea from the start, nor one episode that didn't have a completely brilliant aspect to it, except maybe the Bells of St John. And yet the Bells of St John is probably one of the better episodes, because almost every other one had some horrible flaw that prevented it from realising it's full potential.
The most consistent problem was establishing an adequate threat and then resolving it in a satisfying manner. I'd say a full 8 episodes ended up feeling really rushed and a bit awkward in saving the day. If it were any one on it's own, it would be a forgiveable mistake and the episode might have been remembered for the parts that were great (the British humdrumness of the cubes in a Power of Three, the beautiful visuals and vocals in the Rings of Akhaten, the atmosphere of the Cold War etc). But when there wasn't a single two part episode and so there was never really a time where it felt like the threat was adequately built up and solved the effect became too much and the longing for something unflawed ruined what was there.
And the remaining episodes were also all flawed in various ways. The Ponds had an incredible emotional send-off that didn't make much sense and once again only weakened the Weeping Angels as monsters, taking it into absurdity and it was hard to take those evil snowmen seriously in the christmas special.
But then there was the finale, in this problematic series when Doctor Who has always struggled to have a good finale (Bad Wolf being the only other one) they pull off one that makes sense, is satisfying has scary interesting villains and sets up a whole lot of intrigue for the up and coming specials.
It's a strange season, not to be repeated, but maybe not irredeemably bad.
Series 7 - A bit of a strange one
It's going to be interesting to see how history is going to view series 7. The production levels were fantastic, Doctor Who has never looked this good. The music isn't as quite as good as the heyday of 'I Am The Doctor', but it was solid. It had both the Ponds and Clara, the best companions of the new series (in my opinion of course) and Matt Smith is a good actor whose been consistently been putting in a solid performance in his incarnation and the overarcing mystery of who Clara is, is probably my favourite long-term plot of New Who. (It even has a satisfying conclusion!)
Moreover, there wasn't really one episode that was a bad idea from the start, nor one episode that didn't have a completely brilliant aspect to it, except maybe the Bells of St John. And yet the Bells of St John is probably one of the better episodes, because almost every other one had some horrible flaw that prevented it from realising it's full potential.
The most consistent problem was establishing an adequate threat and then resolving it in a satisfying manner. I'd say a full 8 episodes ended up feeling really rushed and a bit awkward in saving the day. If it were any one on it's own, it would be a forgiveable mistake and the episode might have been remembered for the parts that were great (the British humdrumness of the cubes in a Power of Three, the beautiful visuals and vocals in the Rings of Akhaten, the atmosphere of the Cold War etc). But when there wasn't a single two part episode and so there was never really a time where it felt like the threat was adequately built up and solved the effect became too much and the longing for something unflawed ruined what was there.
And the remaining episodes were also all flawed in various ways. The Ponds had an incredible emotional send-off that didn't make much sense and once again only weakened the Weeping Angels as monsters, taking it into absurdity and it was hard to take those evil snowmen seriously in the christmas special.
But then there was the finale, in this problematic series when Doctor Who has always struggled to have a good finale (Bad Wolf being the only other one) they pull off one that makes sense, is satisfying has scary interesting villains and sets up a whole lot of intrigue for the up and coming specials.
It's a strange season, not to be repeated, but maybe not irredeemably bad.