I'm going to try to sum up my feelings for Season 8. Spoilers incoming
It was interesting, but underwhelming and flat at times. Peter Capaldi as The Doctor was great. He's perfect for the role. He just looks like a Time Lord, and I swear I've seen him pull off several past Doctor expressions. He reminds me a bit of 4, with a mixture of 6, and a good helping of the 1st. He's not quite my favorite Doctor yet, but he's close. I certainly like him more than 9, 10, and 11. The only problem was that the writing wasn't the greatest, so I don't think we saw the full range of Peter Capaldi's acting. We get to see him act like a selfish child, a protective grandfather, an arrogant know-it-all, but we don't really get to see much of his problem solving methods this season due to the crappy deus-ex resolutions in many of the episodes. This season was enjoyable, but Moffat still does not know how to write a satisfying season long arc story which hurt my enjoyment of it a bit. Also, his attempts at character development fall a bit flat at times. Especially with Clara and Danny, which I felt became even more two-dimensional than they were previously. With the exception of Clara, who just turned into a bigger bitch.
Deep Breath was a decent opening episode, but ultimately forgettable. The Eleventh Hour serves as a better introduction to the show, but I understand that not every season opener is an introduction to the entire series. It showed some interesting regeneration trauma and how far 12 was willing to go to get shit done ("I think I'm going to have to kill you" being my favorite line in the entire season). I enjoyed the ambiguity at the end, not knowing if The Doctor pushed or the Robot jumped willingly. I'm sure we'll never get a straight answer. This episode introduced the "Promised Land/Heaven/Netherpshere" concept, which I felt was implemented weakly throughout. Why were the Clockwork Robots trying to get to the Nethersphere? I thought Missy needed living-breathing-people as hosts? Whatever. I did enjoy the throwbacks to Girl in the Fireplace, though. Nice touch.
Then we get Into The Dalek, which is one of my favorite episodes this season. Capaldi's portrayal of The Doctor really shines this episode. The Doctor lies, tricks a guy into basically committing suicide, and completely misses the point but ultimately saves the day by inserting himself into the consciousness of a Dalek (which I thought was a really great scene). Oh, and Missy takes a human into the Nethersphere. Which makes sense, good job Moffat! This is probably the best Dalek episode in New Who, in my opinion.
What followed: Robot of Sherwood, was a lighthearted romp across medieval England with Robin Hood where everyone turned out to be robits or something. Of course, these robots were also searching for the Promised Land. Which still doesn't make sense. Sherwood was not memorable at all, and the ending where Robin Hood's ladylove is brought back by The Doctor's magic just felt tacky and stupid. Definite thumbs down for this episode, although The Doctor's sword-fighting with a spoon was great.
Listen is probably my least favorite episode this season. I don't understand why people like it so much. I think it's shallow, boring, anti-climatic, and ultimately pointless. The opening scene is great, probably the best in New Who (The Doctor sitting on top of the TARDIS underwater), but other than that... gag-material. The Doctor is chasing an imaginary monster the whole episode, which turns out to be (*gasp*) Clara. Wow! So edgy and smart. We get to see a glimpse of The Doctor as a child, which was underwhelming and completely unnecessary. If I had to give this episode a ranking it would be 3/10. Future Orson Pink doesn't make sense. Considering that Danny is dead, even if Clara is pregnant she still does not have Danny's last name because they were never married... so I don't know how that happened. I felt like this might have been an important plot point in a future episode (maybe the finale), but it was never mentioned again and feels like a missed opportunity. This whole episode was a missed opportunity.
Time Heist was entertaining and smart. Pretty solid episode. The twist at the end, while predictable in hindsight, was cool at the time. The Caretaker, on the other hand, was more flat forced drama between the characters. Moffat, you suck at character development. I disliked Clara even more after this episode, but still enjoyed the episode overall. Again, more robots as villains. Which seems to be a running theme this season. The main focus was the drama between the characters, and Danny finding out about The Doctor's origins. The Doctor's undercover persona was amusing, though.
Kill The Moon, er.... why does this episode even exist? So the moon is actually a giant alien egg that gets replaced with other eggs after the creatures hatch, and this has happened in the past? And humans don't remember the last time this happened? Not to mention the shoddy science going on. The whole "kill the creature or we're doomed" scenario has been played out many times now, and this one was the worst of them all. Not only were we judged for wanting to save Earth (which, to me, was the obvious choice); the choice was ultimately made moot when the creature hatched, laid another egg, and flew off without consequence. Clara's choice was pointless and The Doctor's judgment was unnecessary. I blame this episode on bad writing.
Mummy on the Orient Express and Flatline were fun one-off episodes. I have no real issues with these episodes. They were classic Who adventures.
In the Forest of the Night had potential, but wasted it. We get some forced Clara/Danny character development. We find out Danny likes kids a lot, and that Clara might be preggers or something and has something important to tell Danny. Earth gets covered with trees that cannot be burned down. These trees were actually some sort of alien forest spirit magic defense mechanism to protect Earth from powerful solar-flares which has apparently been happening since the dawn of Earth (yet no one remembers, again). Alright. This episode felt more fantasy than sci-fi, and the ending where the little girl's sister is brought back by the forest spirits (or something) suffers the same problem as Robot of Sherwood's "she's back!" ending. It was too sudden, made no sense, and really didn't add anything to the story. Pretty bland overall.
Now we get into the finale: Dark Water and Death in Heaven. The first part was amazing. I loved it. It was creepy, dark, and mysterious. We find out the identity of Missy, which was a great reveal and took me by surprise. We find out about her master plan: turn dead people into Cybermen, and we get to see the Doctor flabbergasted. All really good. Then we get into the second part, which dips in quality significantly. Starting from the red herring intro, which I guess is supposed to make us think that Clara is the Doctor? Ended up feeling tacky. It was more of a character piece, but it was still lacking in that department. Danny in the Nethersphere didn't make much sense, especially after Missy went ahead and started the conversion process. He was given the option to erase his emotions, which he never takes... and is still made into a Cyberman. This seems like a bad idea for someone who wants to make an army of emotionless killing machines. Why didn't Missy wait until everyone had their emotions erased? Regardless, even after Danny willingly erases his emotions... he still overcomes by the power of love. Wow. Like we haven't seen that before. The season finale was resolved with the power of love, which felt like a lazy deus-ex to me... not to mention it has been done 100+ times before. I'm not even going to start on the amount of plotholes this episode introduced. Overall, pretty disappointing finale. It felt unfinished, because nothing was resolved. The bits between Missy and The Doctor were great, but I felt they didn't get enough screen time together.
Overall, I give this season a 6/10. Much better than last season and the season before it, but still not as good as RTD-era Who and Season 5. I feel like there were many missed opportunities. It focused too much on the drama between Clara, The Doctor, and Danny that it lost sight of its ultimate goal: wacky sci-fi adventures. I may seem overly critical, but my love for the show has not decreased in the slightest. I’m excited for the christmas special and season 9, but I am going to keep my expectations low from now on.