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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Decent historical episode for Black History Month.

Felt the bad guy’s motivation was a little thin. But then, that’s racists for you. No real justification or merit for or to their actions.

I thought it would have been a stronger episode without him (maybe the artron energy was just a 'leak' from somewhere that was causing time to change). The tech stuff distracted from the setting and the powerful theme of the episode. It wouldn't surprise me though if the initials on the case were foreshadowing something... 'GFB'.

Well the notable example of regional police boxes are the red Glaswegian ones, dimensionally are very similar to metropolitan ones.

The episode tonight was generally good in all the historical bits and the menace of the time period done well. The language used was mostly as harsh as it could be for the Sunday night family time slot, so that was a brave choice, I wonder if there will still be complaints about using terms like ‘coloured’ and ’paki’, even in the condemnatory context they were.

The villain’s motivations were largely nonsensical. We’re expected to believe that in 5000 years (70th century I think they said) people will still be so racist towards black people that they’ll time travel back to blame Rosa Parks. Other than I doubt the whole of black rights would be derailed for millennia by this one event being subverted, it just seems unlikely that the world would be like that in 5000 years, that’s like be going back in time to prevent some minor act of rebellion in ancient Egypt, assuming I can even find the name of anyone less important than a Pharaoh.

So all the historical bits were good, anything with the villain better left out. Hell, they could have had some balls and done a straight historical like a Hartnell were they just have to ensure time occurs as expected.

If you watch episodes of Endeavour (Young Morse) on ITV Hub, they have a warning about the use of racist and sexist language of the period.

I thought the villain was time shooting his victims to the 70th century. I didn't get that he came from that era. He could have come from any era, because once time travel is invented, logically you can go into the past and pre-date it, so a time traveller can come from any era.

Anyway, my view is that it doesn't matter. The purpose of the villain is to be the opposition which allows the Doctor and team to display their virtues, not to make logical sense within a supposed future history of human social-psychology.

I didn’t really enjoy that episode, seemed to feel more like a lecture than entertainment for late parts of it

Well the good thing about Dr Who is that it will be something different next week.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
That was a really good episode. It took us back to some of the original purpose of Dr Who, which was intended to be historically instructional.

The villain was a bit sketchy, as you say, but as a one-off villain I think we can accept he was a white supremacist from the future, and don't need a lot of background info to justify it.

What surprised me was how scary I found the whitey menace, from the cop in the motel room. It was actually more frightening than the Daleks. Perhaps humankind's worst enemy is us.

Yup.

I feel managed skirt the edges between making a historical point, and being preachy. I particularly liked the epilogue, that Rosa struggled the rest of her life, despite her actions.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 statu wrote:
I didn’t really enjoy that episode, seemed to feel more like a lecture than entertainment for late parts of it

Well, it is Black History month. And segregation can seem pretty abstract.

I do like how they just racism be the baddie. Actual baddie is a reminder that the fight still isn’t over.

A lot of the episodes with historical figures seem to have that bittersweet sting at the end where reality intrudes into the fantastical heroics. The one that always gets me is the Van Gogh episode from Matt Smiths run

That is a truly superb ending. Not entirely convinced by the rest of the episode though.

There were some fun moments(Graham and Ryan ambushing the bus driver at the creek was gold), and I do agree having the baddie be just a racist bloke with some doodads was a good call...but it didn't work for me overall. It was about as subtle as a sledgehammer most of the time, even down to the slightly smug pseudo-Band of Brothers soundtrack with the "THIS IS AN IMPORTANT BIT, FEEL APPROPRIATELY REVERENTIAL THIS INSTANT" sections whenever Rosa was saying or doing anything significant.

IME kids(and lets be real, they're the real audience) tend to turn off or, worse, become contrarian when things get too preachy, so if the goal is to impart a Message you're better off with subtlety and an occasional dramatic blindsiding over the approach taken with this episode.

EDIT: Put it this way - this episode felt like the kind of thing you'd get shown in a school class on a day the teacher had marking to catch up on, being both worthy in intent and "family-friendly". I don't know a single kid who actually paid attention to those.

I thought it was a good episode, probably one of the best Doctor Who ones.

I do admit the Spielberg-ish soundtrack did feel a little bit awkward, however.

Overall though, the best episode of the season so far, and one of the best Doctor Who episodes I think. - Alongside Capaldi's solo episode and the aforementioned Van Gogh one.




And, since I can't go a post without mentioning Legends of Tomorrow, I'd say this Who episode was far stronger than the similarly themed Legends episode of Abominations. However, I'd still recommend watching it too, particularly if you liked the theme, but felt Doctor Who is lacking in Confederate zombies.

I thought it was an excellent episode. Although my wife ever the stickler for accuracy in historical dramas pointed out that although the driver accuses Rosa of breaking the law and the dr’s entourage discuss this she does not in fact break any law. The law seperated blacks and whites but did not require anyone to give up their seat if the white section was full, the enlarging of the white section was a custom adopted by the drivers. But a custom the local police were quite willing to treat as a law for some reason. Anyway a small quibble but apart from that I thought it was superb. The actress playing Parks had an uncanny likeness to the real deal.
Are the whole family going to tag along for much longer? Do you think we have seen the last of the episodes bad guy? I hope not it sounded like he had an interesting back story.

I enjoyed it. I did wonder if I'd find bits of it a bit patronising if I was a POC, but seems to be getting a positive reception across demographics and it's a worthwhile issue to cover especially for a UK show where realistically, most people are pretty unfamiliar with the US civil rights movement beyond the broadest strokes.

Villain was a pastiche but so what.

Only thing that really got me was Ryan apparently getting off free for shooting a villain (albeit through time, but still shooting someone and without much of a grasp of what he was doing). I was expecting a bit of a blasting from the Dr. I guess it's going to be a theme, him going all Call of Duty, but it feels very odd for the Dr to ever let it slide.

Well. It’s not killing the victim, just bunging him through time. And he is/was a convicted murderer.

I for one actually learned something - that Hispanics were considered ok to sit in Whites Only. Never knew that before. And it serves to point out the stupidity of the segregation,

What's ruining the new Doctor for me is that she's from the North but never takes her coat off. She'll never feel the benefit that way.

Ugh spiders, why did it have to be spiders.

Chris Noth and massive spiders....I’m going to be itching all night. Should of stomped them. Compassion has its place but giant murdering spiders.... come on

Another solid episode.

Love how much development they’re giving the Companions. Nothing heavy handed. Nothing ‘OMG YOOR THE KEEE’ of previous seasons.

They’re just humans. And The Doctor giving the warning toward the end, just superb.

Jodie continues to absolutely nail the role. Enthusiastic. Commanding, but not overbearing. There’s a real warmth to her Doctor. The loneliness is still showing, but we’re seeing them better able to deal with it.

Just brilliant stuff.

In the war against flies, spiders are our friends.

Once again 4/5. A good standard Dr Who monster of the week type of episode.

It was nice to see Yaz and her family come to the fore. The "totally not Trump-alike" cameo was fun.

Huh. Forgot it was on again.
This Sunday timeslot is making it slip my mind.

How dare you shoot it and give it a quick death! We were going to let it slowly suffocate under its own weight!

 AduroT wrote:
How dare you shoot it and give it a quick death! We were going to let it slowly suffocate under its own weight!

Yeah, that was not a well thought out moment.

 AduroT wrote:
How dare you shoot it and give it a quick death! We were going to let it slowly suffocate under its own weight!

That, and the plan for the rest of the spiders (No, you can't kill them, that's horrible! We'll just lock them in the basement and let them die...) were my only real gripes with this episode. JW is definitely settling into the role nicely, and so far they seem to be managing to give the companions stuff to do without anyone just feeling like filler.


Given that this Doctor is much 'softer' than the previous couple, I'm really curious to see how she does when the stakes are really raised. Capaldi, Smith and Tennant all had that ability to switch into 'Super-powerful, Destroyer of Worlds' mode when the need arose, and I'm really looking forward to see if Jodie does that or if they'll handle those sorts of situations differently...

Honestly I hope they don't handle it differently. We need to get away from this idea that modes of thought and behaviour that are stereotypically masculine or feminine, or which are considered bad or good, actually have anything to do with whether you have an innie or an outie downstairs.

The Doctor behaves that way, and she's still supposed to be The Doctor. I'm hoping this perception that she's a "softer" Doctor is just down to the format and tone of the initial episodes, which have generally been chanelling the show's more upbeat and friendly aspects, not a case of "it's a lady Doctor now so she should be nicer and less aggressive".

 Kilkrazy wrote:
In the war against flies, spiders are our friends.
.

The spiders are not insects.
But in a war they will side with the insects
Traitors! Traitors! Spider traitors!
They'll betray us and they'll make us!
Human slaves in an insect nation!

Only just catching up, seems pretty solid, not keen on Tardis interior

Last episode was a bit.....meh.

Nothing wrong with it, but not one that’ll stick in the mind. All the ingredients for a good episode, but just didn’t quite come together.

 Turnip Jedi wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
In the war against flies, spiders are our friends.
.

The spiders are not insects.
But in a war they will side with the insects
Traitors! Traitors! Spider traitors!
They'll betray us and they'll make us!
Human slaves in an insect nation!

Ah-aaaaaah ah ah aaaaah!

Having been out of the country I missed last week's episode and watched it last night on iPlayer. This was the one on a kind of automated ambulance spaceship.

My verdict: 3/5. A decent filler episode with a fun cast of bit part characters. The monster was a bit weak, Stitch out of Lilo and Stitch, basically, with an added quirk of poisonous skin.

Regrettably I fell asleep shortly before the end, due to jet lag, and also missed this week's episode -- the one set in Pakistan in 1947.

I missed this weeks because I was in the pub!

Shall iPlayer it on my coach home.

Is there a "This is what Brexit will do to us all!!!" vibe to the historical ones, or is it just me?

Private Eye have given the series a good review in their latest issue.