#nunuwho

[stars-and-spice]

[icewarrior2000]

Boom

(Series 14, Episode 3)

Summary: Moffat continues his obsession with religious military types as the TARDIS arrives on a planet devastated by a pointless war and the Doctor immediately steps on a landmine.  He spends the entire episode standing on it and my back was aching just watching him standing on one leg for that long.  Spoiler: he doesn’t explode.

Watch because: Ncuti Gatwa basically stood still for 45 minutes and still managed to have me spellbound.

Original Air Date: 18 May 2024.

Doctor: Ncuti Gatwa.

Companions: Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson).

Writer: Steven Moffat.

Director: Julie Anne Robinson.

Producer: Vicki Delow.Executive Producer: Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson, Julie Anne Robinson & Steven Moffat.

[gaiabicolosi]

My version of the meme

Both: I don't like watching the actual show, just hanging out in the fandom.

AND

I don't care much for the Doctor or most Companions, just Luvic, I have a pathological love for him!

[lasttree-garsennon]

Wait did she say 66 meters??

Or about 73 yards in imperial?

[what-gs-watching]

“Because  what is a coincidence but a form of accident?”

So I went home for Christmas for the first time in like four years, which was really nice. Sometimes it’s good to be surrounded by family. But try as I might, I couldn’t convince a room full of adults who have never actually seen Doctor Who to watch the new Christmas special. 

Clearly, my family is a little bit lame. 

Which means I was late to watching The Church on Ruby Road, but finally got into it the other day and y’aaaaall, that was cute. 

15 is gonna be his own whole thing, and I’m climbing aboard, for better or worse. Are we pandering to gen-z a little bit? Yes. But I think I’m okay with it. Sometimes you need to shake shit up. 

Wherein the Doctor meets Ruby Sunday, a ‘foundling’ born on Christmas Eve, that has been having a ton of weird accidents and/or coincidences. Hijinx and numerous outfit changes ensue. 

Everyone is talking about the fashion, and I love that 15 is just like ‘I’m gonna do whatever, why are we always wearing the same damn thing?’ Amazing kilt? Yes. Gorgeous leather jacket that seems like a callback to something Donna had worn with 10? Absolutely. Weird little zip up sweaters? For sure. 

Baby boy, you are gonna be SO interesting. 

Okay so, Ruby was a baby abandoned on Christmas Eve, and then adopted by her foster mother. Once again we get like a tiny baby companion, this girl is 19 because of course she is. But she’s just living her life and dropping shit and tripping over things and weird things are happening to her and she thinks it’s all good but we can see weird little hands causing all of her mishaps and the Doctor is following her a little bit because he’s got an inkling something weird is happening. 

My favorite part of his lurking is obviously when he runs into her in the club - beauty is DANCING IT OUT. I absolutely love it. He bi-generates and is like ‘yo I know what i need’ and he just tears up the dance floor. Sometimes you need to get sweaty and let your brain drift away because there’s pulsing music and people everywhere. ‘Dance it out’ is one of the best ways to get over things, to remember you’re alive. I felt that so hard. I haven’t danced it out in FOREVER. 

Anyway, we find out that she and her adopted mother are still fostering children, and on Christmas Eve, Ruby’s birthday, they get assigned another foundling baby who was ALSO just born that day, what a coincidence! All about coincidences, this episode. 

So Ruby gets left with the baby while her mother pops out for something and SURPRISE! The baby gets taken through a window. Ruby obviously follows out the window, up to the roof, and sees little weird aliens taking the baby up a rope ladder, which she immediately starts to climb. Gotta love a new companion going for it. 

The doctor sees her, and starts jumping from roof to roof to follow her, and he jumps onto the rope ladder too and they’re suspended precariously in the air. This little smartie pulls out a set of gloves - he says he invented them because he’s always hanging off of things. Each of them put one on, and they take the weight and the pressure and let the two of them dangle off the rope ladder, easy as anything. 

This dude comes out swinging with these gloves - gloves that would have let Rose hang on and not been sucked into the other reality. Righting wrongs all over the place, it’s sweet. 

So they climb up the rope and to a super weird wooden ship in the sky - we learn the creatures are goblins, and they’re immediately caught and tied up. But the Doctor can get out of that, obviously, and he’s saying that the goblins are gonna eat the baby and that coincidence is what makes the baby tasty, because that makes sense.

He says that the goblins went back in Ruby’s timeline and started weaving in her accidents and coincidences, entwining her and the baby, making a tapestry. He says it’s the language of luck, and it’s a new science to him, and he’s so excited by it. I always love how excited the Doctor gets when he comes face to face with something he doesn’t know. 

Ruby calls the goblins time travelers and he gets so offended, saying “They are not time travelers. Excuse me! Time travelers are great. Like, the best. Like, wow.” It’s adorable. But he doesn’t tell her he is one. He also doesn’t tell her he’s an alien, at any point in their adventure. And she doesn’t ask. Which is interesting. 

So they need to get out of the little hold they’re in to save the baby, and the Doctor realizes the ship is tied together with knots, so he has to learn that language too, and he does. They escape into some equivalent of ventilation shafts, and they stumble upon the main area of the ship where a ton of goblins are getting ready to devour a baby.

But FIRST, they’re gonna do a musical number? The lyrics of which explain what’s going on, and introduces the Goblin King? Because that’s something we’re doing now. I told you, I’m climbing aboard. So it’s hilarious when the Doctor and Ruby drop down from the rafters and the Doctor is like ‘I’m going with it’ and he joins in on the song, Ruby too. Like fuck it, this is weird and we’re DOING it. 

So they use their part of the musical number to distract everyone and get their hands on the baby, and the Doctor reverses the power of his new fancy gloves to pull them down out of the ship, and back to Ruby’s apartment. 

Nice and clean, right? Back in the house, the Doctor says he doesn’t think the ship will try to invade, that they thrive on accidents instead so they start running around the house making sure that nothing can go wrong. In the middle of it, Ruby’s mom comes home and they’re trying to explain the Doctor and reassure her that everything’s fine and the three of them are in the room with the baby and they’re talking about all the kids that Ruby’s mom has fostered, 33 including the baby. 

The Doctor says “I’m adopted”, so we really are going with the timeless child thing, but the point is it’s a coincidence and there’s a weird storm brewing outside and then there’s a loud CRACK and the roof of the apartment has a giant seam running through it and the Doctor runs through the house to make sure everything is alright, he thinks that maybe the goblins have gone and wrecked the apartment as a parting gift, but when he makes it back to the bedroom, there is only the baby and Ruby’s mom. Ruby is gone. 

And her mom has completely forgotten her. The pictures of all the foster kids she had on her refrigerator are gone, and she’s complaining about needing to  foster this random baby on Christmas Eve, she’s clearly not the woman she was, and the Doctor realizes the goblins have gone, but they’ve gone back to the night Ruby was left outside a church, and have taken her instead. 

Out to the TARDIS he goes to intercept them. And they’re there, the night Ruby was abandoned, singing again about how they’re going to eat her. So he uses his gloves again, he gets a hold of their rope ladder and he starts to PULL. Down, and down, and down. And the ship is directly over the church that’s got a nice pointy little steeple. And it gets impaled. And we see the steeple go directly through the Goblin King, and then boom, the entire ship disintegrates.

Super helpful, those gloves. Finding positivity in past trauma, and all that. 

So the Doctor grabs baby Ruby and puts her outside the church door like she’s supposed to be, and she gets scooped up exactly the way she had been meant to. And the Doctor sees her mother walking away, and Ruby had so desperately wanted to know who she was, but he doesn’t go after her. I can’t help but think that’s going to be a thing, later. That sort of situation is always a thing, later. 

Back in the present, the Doctor returns to the apartment and Ruby is fine, if a little confused. He tells her that they went back and she was gone and she doesn’t understand it but then he’s popping out again because he needs to help a woman who had gotten caught up in Ruby’s accidents and coincidences. Once that’s done, he’s  out on the street again, about to go back inside but he stops and he says “maybe I’m the bad luck” so don’t worry y’all, not all that trauma is gone. He’s still doubting Doctor a little bit underneath. 

Meanwhile, Ruby is putting it together a little bit. The stuff he had said about time travelers and how the goblins went back and how he mentioned spending a summer with Houdini and she grabs her coat and runs out to the street. And there’s the box. With its door open, just a bit ajar. And she peeks in, and then she circles it, touching the sides. She doesn’t SAY it’s bigger on the inside, but her face implies it. 

And then she gets in. And she asks, “who are you?” and he just smiles all debonair and he says “I’m the Doctor.” 

Basically, I’m bought in. Even if it was a little bit silly, and I never got an explanation about what the goblins really were or where they were from. Even if we’re using random gadgets now. Because each of them are their own thing, and that’s what’s so good about it. You have to let the last one go a little bit. You have let each one of them go, a little bit, and embrace whoever the Doctor is now. Which I’ve struggled with in the past, after Matt Smith I was devastated for a while and ended up just binging 12 and 13 a little begrudgingly, but I’m gonna follow 15 along his way, and it’s gonna be different and weird and good. It’s always good. 

15, let’s get it.

[angels-in-overcoats]

"No more reboots of Doctor Who. Whether they be Classic, New, or New New."

[gaia-mix-nicolosi]

The son of Nyssa's music composer, was there too. Playing the piano composer.

The Costume Designer June Hudson, Who Designed The 4th Doctor's Costume For Season 18 (1980-1981), Made A Cameo Appearance In "The Devils Chord"

[stars-and-spice]

Until further notice I am calling the upcoming era of dw NuNuWho and Noo-Noo will be it's mascot

[icewarrior2000]

The Devil's Chord

(Series 14, Episode 2)

Summary: Full disclosure here: I just don’t get the Beatles.  If I had access to a time machine, there are literally millions of other artists I would go and see live, but I think I’m in the minority here.  ANYWAY, an evil being named Maestro pops out of a piano and starts stealing music, making all songs super bland and terrible, but they can be defeated if you find the right chord.  Step up Lennon and McCartney, the greatest musical geniuses who ever lived (*sceptical sighing*) who manage to find it. Maestro is banished and, because I am a lover of big, camp musical numbers, I enjoyed the twist at the end.

Watch because: Jinkx Monsoon just eats up the scenery as Maestro.

Original Air Date: 11 May 2024.

Doctor: Ncuti Gatwa.

Companions: Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson).

Writer: Russell T Davies.

Director: Ben Chessell.

Producer: Chris May.

Executive Producer: Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins & Phil Collinson.

[clitbiter]

ruby sunday thank u for being revolutionary

[gaia-mix-nicolosi]

15Rogue is always 15Rogue is always the number plus the name

5Richard, 10Reinette, 12Grisenko, etc

Okay so we need to come to a decision bcus there's too many damn names

[lasttree-garsennon]

What the fuck is bad guy doing in fucking 1813

[adlamu]

hearing the tardis' materialisation/dematerialisation (vworp vworp) noise at the tail end of the shotgun mix of prey (recoil):

[gaia-mix-nicolosi]

And then she and rose 🥀 start talking gallifreyan too

Do you think once Fourteen parks the TARDIS in Donna’s back yard, it sort of switches off the automatic translation (because why bother, the language is english every day now anyway)

And Donna realizes that whenever the doctor gets emotional, he accidentally slips into Galifreyan again?

[butchtwelfthdoctor]

actually i think categorising bill solely as a granddaughter figure to twelve is wildly restricting their dynamic. its like the 'why are you making the found family fit a nuclear family dynamic' thing like. he is her awesome teacher who she really gets along well with and she is his thoughtful & fresh-eyed student who he enjoys spending time with like ?? is it that hard to understand. ofc she would say hes her grandfather to come up with a short & normaller answer as to why he was helping move her in but like. i also feel like people do this more bc twelve has that picture of susan on his desk in s10 & i do like that detail !! i really enjoy that !!!! but hes not going around trying to replicate everything from the past despite what nunuwho is trying so so hard to make you think

[literatemisfit]

Rewatching The Giggle and I'm astounded at how beautiful 14's send off is to 15. Everything about their interaction post-forehead kiss is an honouring of 15's future, acknowledging that he's taking 14's place.

The salute. One legacy to another.

"Where's he going?"

"Everywhere. .....Good luck."

Breaking with tradition or not, never have we had such a literal handing-the-baton moment from one doctor to another with respect, well-wishing, and real love.

It's a closing of DT's remarkable legacy, but it's also the beginning of Ncuti's as it's about to skyrocket and they know that.

You can see the love and respect and fandom between the two actors. 14 finally gets his reward and his legacy is cemented forever. And 15 flies away to NuNuWho, as he should.