O! That was fantastic. Anyone wishing for a more RTD feel will have had a field day. Great episode. Agreed, no potential spoilers til those time shifting have had a chance to watch.
And did you get the Who and Sherlock references in it ?
I thought Dracula was pretty good and i'm looking forward to part 2 tonight. I didn't catch any Who/Sherlock references (I wasn't looking for any). But I thought I saw a few nods to horror movies in there...
Nun has a detective friend in London who helped find the fiance.
The fiance made mention of an attractive barmaid who works in a pub.. said pub having the exact same name as the one where Clara from Dr Whom was working
.. I still can't quite get used to seeing Lenny Henry in serious dramatic roles , although one is aware he's done a fair few over the years now. One sometimes wonders if we have some form of psychological imprinting with celebrities
Bradley Walsh continues to impress me too, never seen him in anything other than Who AFAIK.
Bit hard to judge the story until we've seen the second part, but a BIG thumbs up to Sasha Dhawan in his new role.
So far, so good and no better nor worse than "new-who" has been since 2004. The BBC's main issue has always been trying to shoe-horn political correctness into Doctor Who, and the last season was the last straw for audiences, where we no longer came for the sci-fi but to be lectured. Spyfall pt 1 seemed to be getting on with the sci-fi this time.
Hmmmm. I would say the show was focused on being hip and with the times, than politically correct. There were stories in the 80s that were slipping it in - Happiness Patrol and Curse of Fenric comes to mind. McCoys last two seasons are at least a template for what was to come; companions having the spotlight, slight hints of homosexuality, digs at current political figures...
Nurglitch wrote: Indeed, the series was originally conceived to lecture about history, but we learn about our moral decisions from how we learn our history.
I'm so happy I live in a world where every single movie, television show, video game and novel now has to tell me how bad the world is and how evil all the people are out there. It really reinforces the point that those who make all this stuff are sad sacks with no joy left in life.
Good conclusion to the first part and it looks like Doctor Who is back on form.
No problem with a bit of PC, but last season they spent more effort on trying to make statements than writing a sci-fi time travel show. A good example was the Rosa Park episode where the villian was merely just a racist man with nothing else to his character than "oh, I'm from the future". It could have been a cracking "Back to the Future" tribute, but instead it was essentially a documentory about Rosa Parks.
Here, the BBC is celebrating women that made significant contributes to the world(one of which I share the same skill), but they are related to the mystery in the present. It was a shame they didn't actually use their skills - the Doctor practically does everything and tells them "press this button", but I suppose the thought counts.
As a bit of fun, you'll notice a few scenes were influenced by Inglorius B'stards, The Last Jedi and of course the whole Google and Facebook controversy. Bit patched together but its Doctor Who so as long as we are getting a sci-fi fix, its fine.
Sasha Dhawen is pretty good in his role and the ending was just what Jodie needed for her character.
I feel like dropping Noor Inayat Khan back in 1943 Paris with a cheerful "Bonne chance!" was kind of a gakky thing to do. The story would have worked just as well if they'd picked one of the female SOE agents who didn't end up tortured and murdered by the Nazis, IMO.
Otherwise a good episode. I wasn't sold on Sacha Dhawan's Master in part 1, but he really nailed it this time. I think he might actually end up being my favourite Master. You know, I just remembered he also played Waris Hussein in An Adventure in Space and Time. And Waris Hussein directed An Unearthly Child. Which I think technically makes him the original 'master' of Doctor Who, if you think about it...
The only one I didn’t take to, and I suspect that was more the writing and direction was John Simm. He just didn’t have the sort of job for the role, in my opinion.
I think the greatest praise I can offer Sacha Dhawan at this point is that after the wonderful Missy, he doesn’t disappoint. More back to the Machiavellian roots of the character, without entirely discarding manic energy.
Hyphen-3(?) was a fun character and the episode had shades of Terror of the Vervoids with a smidge of Paradise Towers? Well, whatever it was - I really liked it!
A few things though. It felt rushed and could have done with a second part. There were a few moments where it was confusing and there was one major "WHAT? OH SHUT UP!" moment. It had to give a statement on a certain news topic of late right at the end, but I honestly didn't mind it this time as it served as an excuse for a science fiction story - not the other way around as it was last season(which to be fair had one or two good episodes). The side-story with the security guard and the young woman felt squeezed in.
Once again, a good episode. Might be a little too scary for the little'uns as it features creatures(wink, wink) that look like...
Spoiler:
...an army of classic Broodlords!
Sunday nights are pretty cool as E4 is also showing Star Trek: Discovery, so having the double bill is welcome. Certainly not as bad as its been made out to be, but for the love of god can they please slow the subtitles down!
Also reminiscent of The Mysterious Planet, the first segment of Trial of a Timelord.
Pacing was again fairly intense. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but I prefer dense plotting to moments of fallow. Though here, I did feel the main crew were just sort of flapping in the plot breeze.
I’m all not bothered by the inevitable lecture on modern society but the planet being what it was a bit obvious.
That said I was more disappointed by the Dregs; someone went to the trouble of conceiving a monster that can out run the truck unseen but went seen can nearly shuffle and just sort of roar at the sky. Latex Rubber must have developed since the 70’s but this was dire. Clearly they spent the budget on the dog make up or the lad from His Dark Materials.
Yeah, I agree. Even for kids TV that was unfocussed, chaotic nd lacking direction.
The Dregs also look like a rip off (and by rip off I mean carbon copy) of some other monster from another movie/show, but I can't quite place from where. That whole undead look with exposed teeth and gums but no lips rings a bell from somewhere.
But this episode is only a buffer to delay the reveals from the last story a bit, so I guess it served its purpose.
I just felt that when dealing with a time travelling show it's kinda key to say when you are.
Okay, so assume we're in the future then -- and the space squid was alright as a joke and I always dig getting a slight glance at whatever they've been doing elsewhere/elsewhen. -- given the ability of a promo device from a coffee vending machine to teleport X number of people how far -- from inside a Tardis.
Bit of luck it took all of them and they wanted to go and it didn't just teleport everyone within X feet -- some of whom might not have wanted to go or might not have been suitable for the planet or anyone one of the myriad of other reasons that make this a bad idea.
Not quite sure what the daughter's actual plan was.
Revenge is a well established motivation.. but how did she get there ?
With all the bombs.
And how was she going to get out and why didn't the incredibly hi-tech place maybe have something that might maybe have detected/sniffed etc etc the many many bombs she brought with her ?
None of it's impossible to work around but too many of the recent scripts do not feel polished enough.
Which detracts from the show as you wind up wondering, for example, that when the plan to stop the aliens who can carve through steel is to pile up plastic sun loungers you don't know if that's a joke about it being a bad plan/or a last resort or symptomatic of a character or whatever or just a bit daft.
Take the engineer and his boy :
Can accept the existence of a less than competent engineer being in charge of this... but why is he so inept ?
Why is his son so good etc etc etc.
Could easily have been due to, say, a crisis in confidence due to his divorce or feelings of parental inadequacy.. Dr or a companion gets to make THE BIG EMOTIONAL SPEECH and , whatdoyaknow! -- he comes through when they need him, resolves or improves his relationship with his son .. huzzah once again the Dr actually caring about things like people has saved the day.
There's germs of ideas or plots there but to me they're not thought through.
I'm also of the opinion that the Dr probably should've known what/where orphan 55 was as soon as she heard the name , especially given the Drs fondness for Earth.
I agree the father-son relationship needed as much fleshing out as the old unmarried couple - a short scene and a couple of lines and we had their story fleshed out.
And the bombs - well she had the technical know-how to handle the hopper virus (despite getting infected herself - but maybe that was the perfect cover) so smuggling bombs on might not have been that hard.
Irradiated russian underground, mutants everywhere, oxygen on a timer, and a psychic alien-like creature messing with peoples heads and getting them all killed (the latter being the doctor who seemed to be intent on racking up a body count this week, even closing out the episode with a diatribe rather than flicking a few levers and saving the last two survivors)
well that was a new low point in muddled boswellox, torn between sticking with it to meet my very British craving for disappointment or just ignoring it and hoping it goes away
Well I must say that tonight's episode, featuring Edison and Tesla, was good. The theme provided a solid backbone for the episode's shenanigans and the featured villians were reasonable.
Looking forward to next week's episode with the rhino aliens I forget the name of.
Jadoon......
And yes this weeks was better. Although watching these im thinking the 'companions' are a waste of space they just hang around and dont actually do or bring anything, might be due to the number of them but at the moment there mummerers and are there to fill the back ground of the scenes.
A great episode. Tesla was great and the aliens were well realized. I'll be honest though - when I glimpsed them in the trailers I though the Racnos were coming back.
MarkNorfolk wrote: A great episode. Tesla was great and the aliens were well realized. I'll be honest though - when I glimpsed them in the trailers I though the Racnos were coming back.
Cheers! Its been years since I've seen that episode.
I suppose its pretty cool that the new scorpion has similar make up style to the Racnoss spider empress. Both are also played with an alert style as if constantly anticipating threat and prey.
Maybe the actress drew inspiration from Sarah Parish's portrayal (who did a great job despite being trapped in an immobile costume).
While we're talking about The Runaway Bride I always thought is was great that the Racnos Queen and her human co-conspirator seemed to get on - it wasn't just evil boss and lackey.
AduroT wrote: I love how fashionable it is to hate on Edison and fawn over Tesla in sci-fi shows these days.
I think it was quite a fair and surprisingly nuanced portrayal of Edison, actually. He got to give a pretty effective (IMO) defence / apologia of his way of doing things. And he had a point, surely? Hiring a bunch of very smart people to do R&D while he went out and got funding and did what these days we'd call 'public relations' was a more effective way of 'changing the world' than Tesla's 'lone genius with no money' approach.
And the episode seemed to suggest at the end that, if Tesla had been able to swallow his pride and go back to working for Edison, it would have ended up better for everyone. Tesla, as portrayed in the episode, actually came across as a bit of a hypocrite. If you really do just want to benefit humanity, then why do you care so much about who gets the credit? Surely, if he'd been 100% honest about his own motivations, he'd have been willing to bury the hatchet and accept Edison's offer? But instead he walks away.
So I think both of them got a pretty nuanced and balanced portrayal.
Well that was great. Chibnall seems to be paying homage to Davies, and I don't think that's a bad thing.
Spoiler:
Theory A - we've had mention of alternate universes in the season opener, so is the 'Ruth' Doctor (and associated Galfreyan hunter) from a parallel existence?
Theory B - there is a fan theory that the Doctor spent some time before he regenerated into The Third Doctor working for the Celestial Intervention Agency before having his memory wiped and beginning his exile. This new Doctor could be from then. She certainly has an older 'Desktop theme'.
Ever since Jodie came on board I’ve been very ambivalent about Who; I liked her and the companions, but the plots have been mediocre. That changed last night for me, I had an absolute blast and am really looking forward to where they’re taking this!
Also MDG, I don’t know if they were the “cheap” episodes per se, but it definitely felt like they were treading water; I wonder if those were the ones that they couldn’t link into the big overarching story that they seem to have planned.
So, gathering theories. I’ll use a spoiler tag though, just in case.
Spoiler:
1. The Doctor has wound up in a parallel universe, somehow.
2. This is another hidden incarnation, in the vein of the War Doctor. Seemingly between Troughton and Pertwee, as that’s the only regeneration that happened off screen. It also explains inconsistencies in the woeful Two Doctors
3. Mindwipe on The Doctor, so she doesn’t recognise her past self (as in, Dr Ruth doesn’t recognise Dr Jodie)
4. Dr Ruth is simply lying, and does in fact recognise Dr Jodie, but is up to something, and has a purpose as yet unrevealed.
I was kind of Meh on the episode overall myself. I was down with the return of Jack, and the Jadoon, but the second Doctor was eh. It’s been done before. Also the Schrodinger’s Gallifrey they keep doing is getting old with it always being missing or timelocked or destroyed or evil or whatever.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: So, gathering theories. I’ll use a spoiler tag though, just in case.
Spoiler:
1. The Doctor has wound up in a parallel universe, somehow.
2. This is another hidden incarnation, in the vein of the War Doctor. Seemingly between Troughton and Pertwee, as that’s the only regeneration that happened off screen. It also explains inconsistencies in the woeful Two Doctors
3. Mindwipe on The Doctor, so she doesn’t recognise her past self (as in, Dr Ruth doesn’t recognise Dr Jodie)
4. Dr Ruth is simply lying, and does in fact recognise Dr Jodie, but is up to something, and has a purpose as yet unrevealed.
RE: Theories
Spoiler:
I think it's more likely that the 'Ruth' Doctor and her Gallifreyan pursuers have wound up in 'our' universe. The Master recognized Thirteen, and Ruth's ex-comrade-turned-hunter din't believe post-apocalypse Galifrey. I kind of got the feeling that that was 'our' Jack.
If Ruth is from an alternate universe it seems a crueler 'mirror' universe - one where the 'War' Doctor is the norm. Using a gun, booby trapping it (basically actively killing someone) mutilating the Judoon Captain... not really 'our' Doctor.
The mind-wipe idea has legs - especially if seen in partnership with the Master's "everything they told you is a lie" line.
The missing regeneration contravenes the fact that Eleven (who turned out to be Twelve, but really sort of Twelve-and-a-half) had to have his regenerations reset . But then again - everything is a lie!
And let's remember that the writer's can say something is a definite fact that turns out to be not the case. The Doctor was definitely dead, but then actually it was a robot copy with a miniturized Doctor driving it.
Seventh Doctor did the booby trap. Twice. First with Nemesis, where it wrecked a Cyberfleet. The with The Hand of Omega, which sent Skaro’s Sun supernova. Both instances where he could’ve happily kept it out the enemy’s hands, but instead allowed them to destroy themself.
11th’s half regen could be a rationalisation at the time.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Apologies. It was Hand of Omega, then Nemesis. My whoops!
Seventh Doctor did the booby trap. Twice. First with Nemesis, where it wrecked a Cyberfleet. The with The Hand of Omega, which sent Skaro’s Sun supernova. Both instances where he could’ve happily kept it out the enemy’s hands, but instead allowed them to destroy themself.
11th’s half regen could be a rationalisation at the time.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Apologies. It was Hand of Omega, then Nemesis. My whoops!
Well, the stories were one after the other and had an identical pitch (semi-mythical super weapon plus long-standing enemy). Very easy mistake to make. Daleks and Cybermen - special cases surely.
Spoiler:
and I can't see even the 'dark' Doctor pulling body pieces of any body.
Talking to the Daily Mirror in the UK, Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall stated that the Doctor, as portrayed by Jo Martin in this weekend’s episode Fugitive Of The Judoon, is not a parallel universe version of the Doctor, as some – including us at Bleeding Cool – had been leaning towards. She’s the Doctor – our Doctor.
So why does she not remember the sonic screwdriver? Why does the Thirteenth Doctor not remember her – or why the Fugitive Doctor does not remember the Thirteenth Doctor as part of their timeline? Plenty more questions, and now fewer answers. The Mirror reports Chibnall’s words;
“The important thing to say is – she is definitively the Doctor,” he explained. “There’s not a sort of parallel universe going on, there’s no tricks.
“Jo Martin is the Doctor, that’s why we gave her the credit at the end which all new Doctors have the first time you see them. John Hurt got that credit.”
Which she did totally get.
I was quite taken with the idea of the 2.5 Dr..
but suspect that'll be unliklely given how convoluted this'd be even for Who.
Thought at first maybe all/many/some of the Gallifreyans were perhaps hiding in a manner like this -- from the Master/whatever.
Nice to be able to add yet another lighthouse to the Who setting though :
2. This is another hidden incarnation, in the vein of the War Doctor. Seemingly between Troughton and Pertwee, as that’s the only regeneration that happened off screen. It also explains inconsistencies in the woeful Two Doctors
Ruth didn't know what a sonic screwdriver was. The sonic was introduced with Troughton.
So either they're introducing some other shenanigans to explain that the first Doctor actually wasn't, or she slots in elsewhere and there are still some missing memories.
If Ruth is from an alternate universe it seems a crueler 'mirror' universe - one where the 'War' Doctor is the norm. Using a gun, booby trapping it (basically actively killing someone) mutilating the Judoon Captain... not really 'our' Doctor.
Booby traps are nothing new for the Doctor, and she never actually used a gun, just carried one. There was even the bit where 13 said 'The Doctor doesn't use a gun!' and Ruth hissed 'I know!' back at her... She had no intention of using it, she was just bluffing.
And let's remember that the writer's can say something is a definite fact that turns out to be not the case. The Doctor was definitely dead, but then actually it was a robot copy with a miniturized Doctor driving it.
This is particularly true with something like regeration, which has had different explanations over the course of the show anyway. Original, it was just introduced as a thing the Doctor did with no limitations. They added that bit later, and IIRC the actual number has varied at times as well.
But yes, I'm really curious to see where they are taking this. And it was really cool to see an older style TARDIS again.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Limited regenerations occurred in The Deadly Assassin, to explain why the Master looked like.....
Still a better Master than John Sims.
From Deadly... onwards we had the character arc of The Master craving a new body... from pretty much anywhere. Traken elders, San Fran ambulance drivers....
I liked Sim's Master in Sound of Drums. It suited the tone of the show at the time. Not so fussed with Super-Master but I enjoyed his return in Genesis of the Cybermen (Ahem).
But I need to go back and see episode one of this run again to see if there are 'four knocks' hiding in plain sight.
Regeneration has always been a bit vague until the later years of the original run when they tried to lock things down. It wasn't even called 'Regneration' until we went from Three to Four.
Now that Chris has put the kibosh on the 'alternate universe' Doctor she is either a past or future Doctor. (or maybe a clone?) Probably from the past with the interior design of The Ship - but maybe she just likes the retro look (but if that's the case the exterior should be smaller).
But... but.... if she is from the past then Ten would have needed the reset from the Time Lords (and since he'd just pissed them off it likely wouldn't have happened).
Oh well. Doctor Who and continuity go together like Fish Fingers and Custard.
We already know the Time Lords can dish out another batch of regenerations when they feel like it - both the Doctor and the Master have benefited from this in the new series.
and there’s billions of the Doctor’s skeletons in that castle inside the magic labyrinth he was trapped inside in Heaven Sent. How good is their regeneration technology, I wonder ...
Automatically Appended Next Post:
MarkNorfolk wrote: Oh well. Doctor Who and continuity go together like Fish Fingers and Custard.
To be fair, it’s a show about people who travel in time and change the past.
and there’s billions of the Doctor’s skeletons in that castle inside the magic labyrinth he was trapped inside in Heaven Sent. How good is their regeneration technology, I wonder ..
That was nothing to do with regeneration, though - it was a time loop, back to the instant he teleported in.
Yeah - it was okay. The moral wasn't rammed down our throats a la Orphan 55 but was still there. Liked 'two Girls Roaming' but the survivor wasn't too cut up about her partner disintegrating right in front of her.
If this was the episode 3 then I probably gone...'yeah. Fair enough'.
Also, I was rewatching pThe Five Doctors the other night, and I realised- the Time Lords offer the Master a new batch of regenerations then! Ha! Take that, people who don’t think Matt Smith should’ve regenerated! 1983 Doctor Who disagrees!
To be honest, a lot of online criticism, of the sort to make a three hour YouTube video about a 50 minute show, does seem to be from people who haven’t watched (or just ignore for da voos) much of it.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: To be honest, a lot of online criticism, of the sort to make a three hour YouTube video about a 50 minute show, does seem to be from people who haven’t watched (or just ignore for da voos) much of it.
A lot of those channels are just sad sacks who like hearing the sound of their own voice.
Tonights episode wasn't too bad, but was a lecture on mental health. It started to detract from the adventure, towards the end, but it at least tied into the characters and kind of found its feet again. I feel a little bit bad about picking up on this as I've been there myself and the TV show Ashes To Ashes helped me through a very difficult time.
Oh, tonights "villians" felt familiar, but are not characters we've seen before. But they know about certain characters that we have....the plot thickens!
Quite liked the last one.
The bad guys were beaten too easily and the whole thing wrapped up too quickly, but that's an issue the show has had for years now, so I'm not as annoyed by it as I used to be.
Much like the scorpion people from earlier, I hope these weren't "one and done" villains, I found that guy genuinely pretty darn creepy.
Definitely one of the stronger episodes this series. Nice callbacks for Old Who, and I did initially expect them to be the Black & White Guardians.
Room for improvement for sure, but only for putting the baddies back in the ziplock bag. Plot was a bit garbled there, but made up for by more companion time.
Went a little toooooo dark in one bit(for a family show), but definitely the best Jodie Whitaker episode so far and a good Who story in general.
Sits well alongside Ghostlight, Black Orchid and Horror of Fang Rock.
Oh, tis interesting because the setting for this episode was familiar to me thanks to the introduction for the D&D book Curse of Strahd. I'm glad I know a bit more about the story of the Shelleys and Lord Byron!
I love the episodes in this format with some historical figures and something weird happening which turns out to be aliens. Nice nod to the Dr having met Ada earlier in the series as well. Byron's face when she mentioned her was great.
I got last week’s episode watched finally and was thinking about how the season has overall been mediocre. I don’t know that I like Jodi? Maybe it’s just the writing? Got this week’s episode watched and it was much better I think. Not entirely sure where I sit overall.
I think they’ve one too many companions, it always feels like someone is being sidelined.
Now, I like all three, so not going to offer thoughts on who is the fifth wheel. Each has positives, and none are Clara.
Though mentioning Clara? These are the first companions other than Bill who haven’t simply been starry eyed in The Doc’s presence. That does being a different, and since the relaunch, new dynamic. It’s subtle enough to be noticed, but also overlooked?
Yeah, they're definitely having issues fitting all three companions (plus various hangers on) in each episode.
I wouldn't be surprised if one leaves by the end of the season, probably the younger guy as he does seem to be questioning whether this whole companion thing is a good idea at the moment.
First companions since when? Ian and Barbara? Clara lost her stars after the regeneration. Amy's (if any) was more a last fling before marriage, and her and Rory's relationship dominated their whole period. No infatuation from Donna. Jack's infatuated with everybody. So are we still talking about Rose and Martha?
Current companions - yes too many. Graham's become more likeable with his failed attempts to blend into history or get with the space jargon. Ryan has been dull from the start - his attempt at the 'needs of the many' argument the only thing of interest.
Yaz - chronically underused. At the start she was a trainee police officer, possibly a bit of a hero complex, I feel she should be doing more (and we got a taste when she went on her own in Praxeus), but she didn't contribute to the saving lives debate and seems willing to let her chance of becoming a full-time police officer slide.
Still, I feel like some or all these companions might move on at the end of the season. We've had indications they are missing their 'real' lives and that it's dawning on them that the Doctor, as much as she is a good guy, is an ancient alien being they could never possibly relate to. Plus, from a meta point of view, if Jodie does the 'standard' three years the show runners might be think of getting a 'handover' companion in.
I don't mind the current number of companions as they share their story and origin; Graham was married to Ryan's grandmother, while Yaz is a friend of sorts to that family. They live in Sheffield which is acting as the Doctor's current surrogate home as her's(The Planet Cambridge) lies in ruin. Unlike the Peter Davison era, the characters are written as a family unit in mind and bring different perspectives to each adventure; wisdom, responsabilty and...ummm...wonder. Ryan is pretty much this series companion where they have street smarts and there to ask whats going on as cue for the Doctor to then explain things. He was also in Star Wars, so shaddap!
Thats compared to Peter Davison's Adric, Nissa and Tegan who had no connection at all and were little more than a bunch of young people loitering the Tardis.
Brandon (and the Guarda and his 'dad') are Time Lords on the run from the Master's handiwork (whose jealous of the Doctor "Why can't I have some of that sweet, sweet 'Fear me, I killed all of them' stuff!"). Brandon, altered by the Chameleon Arch, is in fact the alternate Doctor ("I always wanted to be ginger!").
Is the Master going to get the Cybermen out of his system, at last? Are the Cybermen, sick of a time Lord mucking about with their timeline taking it out on Gallifrey? Is a companion going to die saving the world from the Cybermen? Tune in for next week's exciting episode of... Doctor Who!"
.. reckon the boundary/whatever that hides people might well also send them back/scattered in time, with some humans being the forefathers of the Time Lords..
.. which the Master -- who generally views humans as easy to hypnotise monkeys -- cannot stand the idea of being related to.
Not only has the last three episodes been the best of Jodie's run as the Doctor, but also that of the show since its return in 2004. Tonight was a great gamble as it takes away the mystery of the Doctor, but it finally explains why the Doctor was able to regenerate more than 12 times, and for the first time in the show's history I honestly thought it would be curtains for our beloved Time Lord.
Its easy to over-analyse these things, but deep down I feel this season has contributed something substantial to the lore of the show which I have not felt in a very, very long time.
I don’t think it’s the last we’ll see of the time lords. They’ll only be gone until they want to use them again, and then they come up with a reason to bring them back, like just getting some from the past from before they were killed.
I've been very "meh" about this season so far. I didn't hate it, but I thought it was kind of keeping it's head above water and I could take it or leave it.
That final episode though - wow. Definitely one of the best i can remember in a while and the companions finally seemed to click into place.
I might also go back and rewatch this season as it seems a lot of things were teased throughout that culminated in the big showdown, so those episodes I thought weren't offering much might actually deserve a second look.
It does feel like the first real development of The Doctor we've had in a while.
Other than The War Doctor, we've not really had much in that respect since the revival. And given where they were going with McCoy's incarnation, I'm interested to find out more. Including exactly where The Doctor came from....
Not as pleased with the finale as others it seems.
Spoiler:
While it makes sense that The Doctor is super special, and it's not the first time the series has hinted at it, I just preferred it when he was just a dude (or dudette) who got tired of the Time Lords being pompous ass-hats, stole a time machine and went on the lam.
I do hope this isn't the last we've seen of this particular incarnation of The Master though, I quite liked his tired, deathwishy but still determined take on the character.
Overall though, I thought it was a pretty good season despite some poor patches of writing and I'm looking forward to the Christmas Special.
Hopefully the BBC continue to let Chibnell do his thing and not panic over the supposedly poor viewing figures.
Yeah! Why can't I drink as much as I like and then go for a spin in my car?! Stupid government and their 'limits'!!
Ahem.
Well, they might have thought that a race of immortals growing in number wasn't a good idea. I mean, look at The Five Doctors.
As much as I really liked this series (bar Orphan 55) the fact there is untold incarnations roaming around opens up the idea that any guest star could turn out to be an unknown Doctor a bit, well, easy. And lame.
And how does Susan fit in? And didn't the Chameleon Circuit malfunction on trip from Foreman's Yard 1963 to 100,000 BCE? So why is Jo Martin's Doctor travelling around in a Police Box? Was The Brain of Morbius that big a deal?
These aren't criticisms mind. An inquiring fan would like to know how it all goes together, if the writer tries to fill in some blanks.
On a broad note, I think this has been quite an ambitious season.
It’s harkened back to both the Davison and McCoy era, without being overly slavish to it. It’s tried (and pretty much pulled off) a major update to the background story.
That took cajones. I mean, sure RTD introduced The Time War. But, for my tastes, took far, far too long to tell us much about it. Personal taste, but I was expecting that to be a couple of season type thing. Have to be honest though and say when it did get round to it (Gallifrey Stands!) it was a decent pay off. Possibly the only decent pay off Moffat provided, much as I liked his run.
I really thought at a couple of points Jodie’s incarnation wasn’t going to make it out. Or was going to do a Tennant and partially regenerate. Kinda glad they didn’t go down that route.
Very, very intrigued by Revolution of The Daleks. Got all my fingers, all my toes, both legs, both arms, eyes and delicate flobbilydobblies crossed that it will live up to Genesis, Destiny, Ressurection, (yes, even you) Revelation and Rememberance from the original run. Those are all stone cold classics for good reason.
They took ultimately a rather one dimensional enemy, and fleshed them out nicely. Giving us Davros (everyone’s favourite pepper pot dictator) was just a bonus. So given Revolution, to me, promises some form of similar continuation, I’ve high hopes!
and sorts out the regeneration issue, which is handy.
Enjoyed the Master's performance -- hope we we see this version again .
Couple of things :
Spoiler:
Not quite sure how.. or why .. the Master connected Gailifrey to the Boundary .... it presumably wasn't always connected.
And whilst the new Cybertimelords looked quite cool... I wasn't quite sure why they were regenerating... wouldn't the dead timelords have regenerated first and then been.. well... not dead ?
Felt the companions were a bit wasted too. It was better that the story arc was more about the Dr. than.. family issues.. but they've always felt like something of an afterthought at times this season.
I've seen theories that the current regeneration of the Master is between the last two regenerations. I'm dubious, but now wonder if the current situation explains how missy was able to use the cybermen in Darkwater and Death in Heaven.
Possible. And it's always fun to speculate but I think it's safe to stick to the default that, multi-incarnation meet-ups aside, we see the Doctor and the Master in chronological order.
Well now that we know the Time Lords are effectively bio-reverse-engineered and with the final demise (hopefully) of the Galifraian Time Lords; how long before we have a plot line of another race trying to splice the genes and set themselves up as the second race to call themselves Time Lords? The genes are out there in the Dr and their semi clone from the Doctor's Daughter...
They'll be back. If the Doctor doesn't save Gallifrey in the Christmas/New Year Special I suspect it's the sort of plotline that will be resolved at the end of Jodie's run - next year if she does the usual 3 years.
Rassilon and the High Council were exiled from Galifrey in the Capaldi episode "Hell Bent". As far as I know there was no mention of their return, so I assume they are still out there.
