#something rtd is really good at is characterisation

[spoonietimelordy]

What Donna says ≠ what the doctor is

Please, i’m seeing more and more posts criticising the inconsistencies with the doctor's gender and it's not inconsistent. Donna's perception of the doctor is consistent, and the doctor perception of himself is also consistent. Those 2 things just don't match. And we’ve got 2 more episodes with them so it most likely will be brought up again.

[bnxxshthealien]

something’s wrong with UNIT

ok, something’s really bugging me about the new version of UNIT (in doctor who season 1/14)

In their first few appearances in nuwho (in rtd1) the Doctor was very clearly cautious of or completely against unit (e.g. in the sontaran stratagem, it felt like he had to fight unit more than the sontarans). Which absolutely makes sense: their military methods go completely against the Doctor’s typical behaviour.

And then Kate Lethbridge-Stewart came into it. In her first season (s7), she tried to murder a group of refugee zygons. The Doctor tried to interfere, which resulted in a kind of botched partition. This predictably collapsed in s9, and Kate addressed the situation by attempting genocide. And the Doctor was rightfully pissed.

Since then we haven’t seen much of Kate, other than Flux / Power of the Doctor, in which she has zero meaningful characterisation. (i don’t wanna hate on s13, i do like it, but there’s not really anything interesting to say here)

Then there was the Giggle, which I think did a good job: we got to see a kind of raw version of Kate, which showed a contrast between the dangerous side of her and the way she presents herself, which suggests that she has listened to the Doctor and worked on herself.

But then we have the Legend of Ruby Sunday. The Doctor just walks into unit like they never did anything wrong and fully supports everything they try to do. I mean, it’s nice, it’s fun to watch all the characters get along, but aren’t there some things you need to address??

anyway. i’m hoping this is intentional. 15 is getting a bit too carefree after the bigeneration (he keeps stepping on things etc.) and I suspect the sudden switch in attitude towards unit is RTD’s way of showing how this can be a problem. I suspect in Empire of Death, unit are going to make a bad move and the Doctor will remember why he used to be cautious of them.

[waffowo]

While Donna Noble will always be my favourite companion in NuWho, Clara will always be the most multi-faceted and complex (as of now). I think that a lot of divisiveness surrounding Clara stems from 5 common criticisms:

1. Clara’s characterisation in 7B and how Moffat treats her mostly as a mystery box first and character second.

2. The length of Clara’s tenure and how some may have been fatigued due to the many times “she should have left.”

3. The emphasis on Clara’s flaws in Series 8 and how it kind of paints her as unlikable over her Series 7B depiction as at least kind.

4. Clara’s departure in Hell Bent as something that ruins her ending in Face The Raven.

5. The belief of Clara as the most important character in the Doctors life inherently devaluing other companions.

I think while I can understand the reasons leading up to these criticisms, I also think that it does help to look back throughout the Moffat and RTD era as it does help explain a lot of these points imo.

Actually, the character Clara most prominently echoes is Rose. Rose, like Clara, helped the Doctor through a time of extreme emotional vulnerability (for 9th, Time War trauma) and developed a relationship of co-dependency with him (as 10th) which never really went away even after Doomsday. Clara had the luxury of time however, and has undergone more events with the Doctor (Impossible Girl, Trenzalore, 50th Anniversary etc) but also how 12th was undergoing an extreme identity crisis of figuring out whether he’s a good man post-Trenzalore and saving Gallifrey. Clara was the one who facilitated his character growth through the turbulence of the arc in instances like Dark Water, Death In Heaven, Mummy on The Orient Express, Kill The Moon, Last Christmas etc and would naturally result in the Doctor developing an extremely unhealthy reliance on Clara as being his “carer,” his anchor to being The Doctor (refer to her whole “Be A Doctor” spiel in the 50th Anniversary). Series 9 already heavily implied the Doctor’s willingness to engage with destructive measures by choosing to separate Clara and The Doctor almost every episode (Magicians Apprentice/Witch’s Familiar) as the stakes rose and cumulated in Face The Raven.

RTD has also once said when paying tribute to Moffat:

“And nestling at the heart of the show is Doctor Who's very own problem category, the Companion, a title inherently subordinate to the Man. Until Clara comes along!”

Imo, while poorly phrased, I think does also hit another nail on the head to explain how Clara can be so compelling to someone like me but also extremely polarising. RTD is talking less about the companion being “weaker” or “submissive” but how Clara is the NuWho companion that wishes to obliterate the boundaries between the power dynamic of companion/doctor. Series 8 for instances plays on the recurring motif of, “Do as you are told” which the Doctor firstly uses to threaten Clara to keep her safe. However, Clara actively retaliates by parroting the phrase back in an attempt to attain parity. This escalates to the events of Dark Water where she attempts to maintain control of her circumstances by forcing the Doctor to be on equal ground with her. What is so fascinating is that Clara while changing and emulating more of the Doctor’s heroism, she equally begins to absorb his flaws which intensify throughout Series 8-9. Clara becomes more deceitful, egotistical, reckless and cunning as she begins to become more and more like him. The means she lies to Danny, her ability to think more and more like him.

However, what people (fans and haters) also ignore is how nuanced the circumstances are. While Clara’s flaws become more heightened, it is also a fact that she wants to be like the Doctor because of his kindness and heroism. Episodes like Robots of Sherwood, Last Christmas or even Rings of Akhten reveal a lot about how Clara reveres the Doctor as a mythic and heroic figure. Clara’s attitudes towards the children in Forest Of The Night, Name Of The Doctor and Into The Dalek reveal that in spite of her ego and selfishness, she is someone who desires to help people. Thus, her desire to become the Doctor becomes more explainable. What a lot of people can’t really accept is that she can be both egotistical, reckless and kind at once. Her actions in Face The Raven were driven out of the fact that it came from a place of ignorance and impulsiveness (not stupidity, the Doctor would do something similar, it’s just that Clara did not have all the clues) in what she believed would be what the Doctor would do and that she was confident she could match the trickery of the Doctor, and yet it was also driven by her compassion towards Rigsby and her while impulsive, sincere desire to save her friend.

Clara is punished because of this, she forgets that she’s far too human. The Doctor is less breakable. She pays for it and as Ashildr says in Hell Bent:

“She died for who she was and who she loved. She fell where she stood. It was sad. And it was beautiful.”

She died due to her physical fragility, her ego, her ignorance, her impulsiveness/recklessness and yet she also died because she was too brave, she died like the Doctor, who she loved (literally look at how her arms were outstretched as though she was mid-regeneration and how the black smoke parallels the orange glow of regeneration). However, this leads to the fourth main criticism I prior stated, so how does one answer that in relation to her character?

The answer is what Clara does and what the Doctor says towards the end of Hell Bent. Clara after being extracted and is with the Doctor in the TARDIS, spies on him because she is instantly suspicious of his erratic behaviour. Again, Clara shows how much she has become like him, she immediately picks up that he is hiding something because she has begun to think like him. Of course, the Doctor was planning on wiping Clara’s memories similar to what he did to Donna. But what does Clara do? She immediately reverse the polarity of the device that the Doctor was going to use on her and challenges the Doctors actions. Clara states:

“Tomorrow’s promised to no one, Doctor. But I insist upon my past. I am entitled to that. It’s mine.”

Clara’s language indicates her assertiveness and also a kind of last hurrah in her game of parity. She is refusing to submit to the narrative of being reduced to merely a companion that the Doctor moves away from. But more importantly, the Doctor after pressing the device and is losing his memory, states:

“Run like hell because you always need to. Laugh at everything, because it’s always funny (…) Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends (…) Never eat pears. They’re too squishy. And they always make your chin wet. That one’s quite important. Write it down.”

I think on initial viewing when the show was airing, this wouldn’t make much sense but this really shows the crux of how Hell Bent completes Clara’s arc and the necessity of her resurrection. In Face The Raven, the Doctor tells Clara that she’s more breakable as she questions why she can’t be as reckless as him. However, now the Doctor is instead telling her what would later be repeated in Twice Upon A Time, his regeneration speech. In his eyes, Clara has succeeded in graduating from the Magicians Apprentice and into becoming the Magician herself. He’s instructing her how to properly be The Doctor. As I said, Clara was also motivated by her desire to be kind when she engaged in her reckless gambit but what is so wrong about the desire to be kind? And why should Clara be punished for it? Thus, while Clara MUST die, her final act of kindness at the end of her arc enables the Universe to allow for Clara’s final transformation into the Doctor.

Clara is still dead, it is an unchanged historical event. However, to challenge the status quo and allow for Clara’s ascension, Clara becomes a fairy tale herself. Her body is caught in a permanent form of stasis, signalling her departure from the limits of her physicality (subverting her physical fragility) but also as seen through her last words to the Doctor:

“You said memories become stories when we forget them. Maybe some of them become songs.”

Clara has successfully become what she admired, a myth, a fable. She has become a symbol in a story, a story that would go on to have an infinite number of other stories. She has become the leaf she raises to the monster in the Rings of Akhten, she sails off into narrative ambiguity but also infinity. Clara is so polarising because she challenges the definition of what it means to be The Doctor on a pure metatextual level. It’s a logical progression from the introspection of the question from the Doctor himself in Series 8. To want to resist, I argue, is natural.

I could explore further about her adrenaline addiction in Mummy On The Orient Express or these traits I raised explored in Flatline which I may do another day, but I hope I have provided a new perspective on Clara Oswald.

[gnougnouss]

Ya know I feel like there's a shit ton of hyprocrisy going on when people compare RTD's writing and Moffat's on dw but nothing irks me more than when they say Moffat era made the doctor too important when he was portrayed as just a guy in RTD. Like. Are you fucking kidding me. Be for real.

In the GODDAMN first episode, one of the first thing we learn about the doctor is through Clive (rip) in that scene :

The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, he's there. He brings the storm in his wake and he has one constant companion. ROSE: Who's that? CLIVE: Death.

So yeah the Doctor is a Legend. Next, in New Earth he is called "the lonely God". Very normal guy core.

It gets worse, who could forget this wonderful speech in The Family of Blood ?

LATIMER: Because it was waiting. And because I was so scared of the Doctor. JOAN: Why? LATIMER: Because I've seen him. He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. DOCTOR: Stop it. LATIMER: He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the universe. DOCTOR: Stop it! I said stop it. LATIMER: And he's wonderful.

The Next one is by Steven Moffat but crucially still during 10s era so STILL part of how the doctor was characterised. RTD approved you might say.

DOCTOR: Don't play games with me. You just killed someone I liked. That is not a safe place to stand. I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up. (There is a pause, then the shadows withdraw.) ANITA: You have one day.

I added it because I saw people act as if the Eleventh Hour's resolution with a doctor boast was completly out of character and not something he literaly did one series before.

Ok now for the real silly, that scene in Last of the Time Lords where the power of PRAYER turned 10 young and hyper powerful. For real. Yeah like a sort of Space Jesus.

Bonus: that part in Voyage of the Damned when he flied with two angels lifting him like ok lmao.

Those were just the ones I could remember out of the top of my head but "just a guy" my entire fucking ass. Go rewatch that show.

I feel like Moffat is often accused of turning the doctor into too much of an incredibly powerful figure not because he did it more than RTD but because he discussed the trope and as such put a lot of attention on it . All of those I pointed out in RTD are played incredibly straight but in Moffat's era the doctor's legend is a problem. It's the plot of the s5 finale, he became so big his ennemies allied. It's the reason he gets called out in "A good man goes to war"

RIVER: This was exactly you. All this. All of it. You make them so afraid. When you began, all those years ago, sailing off to see the universe, did you ever think you'd become this? The man who can turn an army around at the mention of his name. Doctor. The word for healer and wise man throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean? To the people of the Gamma Forests, the word Doctor means mighty warrior. How far you've come. And now they've taken a child, the child of your best friends, and they're going to turn her into a weapon just to bring you down. And all this, my love, in fear of you.

It continues in Asylum of the Daleks where Moffat tries to erase the doctor's legend and is concluded somewhat in s8 finale with the proposition that what the doctor actually is, is in fact an idiot.

DOCTOR: I really didn't know. I wasn't sure. You lose sight sometimes. Thank you! I am not a good man! I am not a bad man. I am not a hero. And I'm definitely not a president. And no, I'm not an officer. Do you know what I am? I am an idiot, with a box and a screwdriver. Just passing through, helping out, learning. I don't need an army. I never have, because I've got them. Always them. Because love, it's not an emotion. Love is a promise.

But nobody saying stuff like "Moffat made the doctor too important" ever watched Capaldi's era anyway so it's not like they would know.

[mindibindi]

Your thoughts about Wild Blue Yonder are so interesting! I also wondered whether Donna could see the memories but was choosing not to.

After watching a few (okay, many) times more, I don’t think she is. To me, the line about it being like a furnace conjured images of something bright and hot, something she couldn’t keep her eyes on, something every instinct in her tells her to look away from. (Part of me wonders if this isn’t part of the metacrisis. The doctor told the master “did you really think i would leave my best friend without a defense?” when her memories could have been triggered - is that barrier still up despite her having let go of the energy? idk)

But I love the idea that she could know, and chooses, in some ways, not to. Out of respect for his privacy, worry over what she’d find, wanting to give him the chance to tell her himself.

These specials have given us so many little details to play with and speculate about and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Yeah, I think the scene could be read both (or multiple) ways. And as the episode stated, a human brain can do/hold two (or more) possibilities at one time. So I like the idea of Donna choosing to respect the Doctor's privacy, even if it's an unconscious choice, an instinctive one, one she makes partially for her own preservation and partially for the health of their newly reinstated relationship. This is what you get when you put actors like Tennant and Tate together tho. This is what you get with good writing, good characterisation. You get texture, possibility, richness, intrigue, subtlety, mystery. Because yeah, these two are both as silly and goofy and ridiculous as each other. They're fun and funny and endlessly entertaining. But they are also sensitive, mature, thoughtful, unique actors. They can play the biggest comedy then turn around and break your heart with a single, silent look. Having them back for the specials has been SUCH. A. GIFT. Especially since returning to old ground (as is the nostalgic fashion in these bleak end times) does not always go well. But RTD has given these two some great material and then just put them on a big stage (literally, in the case of Wild Blue Yonder) and let them make their particular brand of magic. And as you say, I think we will be rewatching these specials, revisiting the funny and poignant moments they've provided and discussing them for weeks/months/years to come. If I'm honest, I don't feel like I've quite caught up with everything that has happened. You could say it's like looking into a furnace. It's been bright and fast and funny and moving and surprising and everything it needed to be. And I'm still processing so much, including (but not limited to):

They're back! (Donna & the Doctor! In the TARDIS!)

Donna remembers everything (and didn't die!!)

Donna & Rose giving regeneration realness

The LOOKS (of angst and love and more!!)

The kisses (hand! & head!!)

The hugs (they missed e/o SO much!)

"Earth Girl" (I didn't know how much I needed that until they gave it to me)

The continually incredible work of Catherine Tate's hair

They've given us so much, after such a long wait, and this weekend they're gonna give us MORE. And then they're gonna take it all away again and I'm really not ready at all.

[ryttu3k]

Some assorted thoughts on Doctor Who - The Church on Ruby Road, and speculation on the season beyond!

The tl;dr the actual goblins were a bit rubbish (although the musical act was kind of amazing) but I goddamn adore Fifteen and like Ruby so far and am fascinated to see where the next season goes.

Super digging Fifteen so far. He seems so joyeous and energetic and confident and fun but, y'know, he's the Doctor. There's a lot of fucked-up-ness in there, which just… you see those little moments. Good post on the Doctor's characterisation here.

I suspect we're going to be getting a hell of a lot more myth/fairytale influence here! Fourteen invokes superstition at the edge of the universe, and that enables the Toymaker to return. Goblins are just straight-out mythology with a fantasy flying ship. The, "He's real?" response to the Goblin King. Ruby's background as a foundling, which is probably hands down the most common origin story for fairytale characters.

On that note - the Doctor as a foundling. The Doctor saying he's only just learned he was adopted and that he was abandoned as well. Tying in with the edge of the universe thing, could this season pick up on the Timeless Child plotline? Also really digging his own complicated views on his background as an adoptee compared to Ruby's, they're going to be fascinating foils.

Fairytale influence - the goblin ship uses ropes and knots instead of wiring. Learning the new rules, the language of luck and the vocabulary of rope.

'Mavity'. It's so stupid and I love it but also like… they changed history. They changed it. It's still changed. Reality has moved one inch to the left.

I love Carla and Cherry. For the love of god someone get Cherry her tea. Very pleased to see that RTD has wasted no time in giving companions a full life. We did see a bit of this with the Fam, but this was something I felt was missing a ton from Moffat's companions.

An interesting ambiguity with Mrs Flood - the subtitles said, and Mum and I heard it as, "Never seen a TARDIS before!" (like she had heard of them but never seen one). A lot of the articles are saying she half-broke the fourth wall and asked, "Never seen a TARDIS before?" Two very different connotations there! Who is she.

Doctor. Doctor you fucked Houdini didn't you.

RIP Davina McCall. Oh nvm welcome back Davina McCall XD

In conclusion, full musical episode when?

[javic-piotr-thane]

“Like I think just personality wise, Gwen is the most capable leader “

i don’t strictly disagree, much in the same way i don’t disagree that ianto wouldn’t thrive in taking command, and ive said ab my communist theory just now haha

i think my opinion is probably tempered by how i see gwen? which is someone who will take charge & lead but often won’t make the most sensible decisions because she’s too swayed by her emotions (which isn’t necessarily bad, but i think torchwood leadership needs to be more cynical than emotional)

i know these are s2, but i’m thinking of the things that have confused me in her actions (very simplified) - in sleeper, she refuses to promise beth that they will not unfreeze her if they can’t fix her, something beth is clearly terrified about happening (given she kills herself at the end); and in meat she potentially jeopardises people because of her worry for rhys. i also would say the fairies thing too but the majority if not all of the team were upset by that (which i also don’t really understand, perhaps its my autism lol) so that one is more useless as a point here.

there absolutely are moments she excels, but i think chronologically between s1 & 2 she isn’t quite there yet. but yeah, again, odds are none of the others particularly cared to lead and so she was the best option (in that she perhaps did want to lead) but it always struck me as a little odd the newest torchwood agent became the highest ranking one

i think the fairies thing ("how can you give the child to them?!" uhh the child wants to go?? and also otherwise there would be untold revenge??) stumped a lot of people, you're definitely not alone there - i think the writers aimed for a more emotional response from viewers but that didn't quite happen in my impression :''D

and that's actually a good example for a lot of things, like Gwen the main character = the character most of the audience is supposed to relate to. but many (most?) don't.

Gwen is RTD's baby, she's the main character, of course she's in charge. she took over from Suzie who was Jack's Second, and therefore gets to be Second pretty quickly as well. apparently. also main characters have to be special and/or leader characters, that's just how it be. (something something it took Star Trek over 50 years to have a show with a main character who's not captain. only to make her captain later.)

but.... let's take a stop here maybe, because even writing this, i can feel myself slipping back into the negativity i've held for a long time regarding Gwen's... special position in Torchwood, both canon and in the bts and meta sense. and i unironically think leaving that behind was the hardest but also the best thing i've ever done in this fandom. because yeah there's gripes to be had. but i really don't want to be bitter, you feel?? i want to think about and enjoy an interpretation of Gwen (and everyone else, for that matter) that makes me happy and not angry or upset. partially born from fanon, partially born from a mix-up of all the different flavors of canon we have received over the years.

speaking of, regarding the novels; you don't have to rush to read them or anything. some are quite good, but some are something else :''D in fact i think i unintentionally spiralled into a lot of Gwen negativity (i don't like to say Gwenbashing because i like to think i never got that horrible on this blog, but if someone wants to use that term for some of my older posts ig that's fair) back when i first read those, (particularly but not only 12, 13 and 14) because holy fucking hell Gwen's characterisation there is. is not okay at times. everyone is mischaracterized at times in the books but Gwen's bits definitely had the biggest impact on me by far and in the worst way. so maybe. stay away :'D (or only read the first eight for a start, they're decent and have all the people. so double win!)

[dreamerwriternstargazer]

Yeah the characterisation of Kate was both different and kinda good but also bad

I do think RTD brings this very raw human element to characters that Moffat leaves out, Kate was Moffat’s character originally and he introduced her as this tough badass who doesn’t bat an eyelid at… anything. She was just meant to be the embodiment of UNIT also, not much of a fleshed out character. This isn’t to say she’s written without emotions or values, she actually is, she’s a bit of a control freak and though she speaks a little dismissively of her soldiers she has no qualms about using military force (and often reverts to that in dire moments). Her character values align with what she symbolises; Earth’s response to constant invasion, humanity at war. I feel like she’s the human version of Cardinal Allistra, only much more jovial with the Doctor. Chibnall continued this characterisation quite well, though not really giving Kate as much dimension as Moffat did, she’s purely a girlboss in Flux but at least it remains in character

Then we have RTD Kate. She’s still a girlboss, but she’s also a bit… pointless. She’s forgotten, not as badly as Graham or Ryan are in 13’s era, but she’s often given something to do or used for exposition, and not much else. The girlboss-ing falls flat when all she’s really used for is exposition, or to attempt to provide a fighting force against whatever villain there is. Worst of all, though the actress is putting on a great performance and we have these humanising moments where Kate seems to shown as exhausted, pained and genuinely caring to her staff, it’s jarring because it’s often just not how Kate expresses herself. I think the only moment that feels properly in character is when she’s just tired and goes “one day”, she’s just a fed up mum at that point. But glaring angrily at the Doctor because one of her soldiers died? Kate has a certain level of detachment with her crew, if it was that significant or that upsetting I would have expected something a bit more along the lines of her being impatient (much like Amy or Clara when they’re upset, especially Clara since she and Kate have that same controlling streak *cof* incredibly significant I’m realising in hindsight that it’s Kate and Bonnie facing each other off, one control freak against another because Zygons aren’t copies they’re collaborators but shhh another meta). It also feels a bit odd after some hero worship from Kate, actually that in itself feels a bit odd, Kate loves the Doctor but expressing it that way was… I mean definitely humanising, but again just a bit off and weird. The delivery perhaps, there’s something quite off about the more emotionally vulnerable moments of this episode, it feels like it’s trying too hard to be sincere and that’s at its worst point with the birds line

Moffat writing a line like that, it would be a call back to a conversation earlier in the episode, it would be a reference to something the characters saw together. He did this brilliantly with key phrases, even better because they tied into the theme of the episode. “Truth or consequences” “run you clever boy and remember me” “be a doctor”

RTD wants all the sincerity and gravitas of these figurative lines without putting in the work to create the substance behind them. Again I do think Kate showed a very interesting vulnerable side to her, I think the actress performed admirably, but Kate’s the daughter of a military man! She’s absolutely emotionally stunted, she talks about how her dad always wanted the Doctor to salute him (expresses her admiration and how she grew up hearing about him, suggests a certain approval she seeks as well), she hides secrets from the Doctor in the attempts to hold power over him (black archive, spies on his companions) the Time Window was fascinating but you’re telling me Kate gives it up like that? I know it was played for comedy but you could present it comedically in other ways, maybe have her tell a straight faced lie, try to justify it, something. Kate’s never really been played for humour through inability, the humour has always been derived from how adaptable and prepared she is and how blasé she is. “Got a vortex manipulator off of Captain Jack, don’t go telling the Doc he’ll be awfully cross”

When it comes to Kate I feel like you can see RTD’s problems on a smaller scale - an attempt to imitate the ideas and spirit of Moffat’s work without actually building the substance of it. I find it interesting, Kate here actually reminds me more of Harriet Jones, I guess due to those moments of vulnerability and comedy, and I something to be said about how RTD can’t seem to write a woman in authority without making her authority laughable in the face of the Doctor. While this is true for 12 and Kate you can at least sense his respect and her power, he’s irritable and dismissive but respectful all the same. Soldiers might be stupid but he concedes to the need occasionally.

Also, veering off of Kate for a minute, the whole resolution of mothers and memories and a memory/person having significance because of what is placed on them? Yeah that’s not just a rehash of Clara. We had that exact idea, that exact concept done with Bill, also an adopted kid. It does fall flat, not necessarily because we spent time with her mum (when 12 goes to take pictures) because we do spend far more time on Ruby’s mum and the mystery of her, but because the mechanics of how her memory stops the monks is thought out a bit more. If gaslighting was the monks super power, then a love so powerful and so truthful, linked to the reality before the monks, would override it. In Empire of Death it seems that Sutekh is just… captivated by the mystery? And even then Ruby’s mother is just a distraction, she isn’t the way they defeat them. She isn’t the core of the plot the way Moffat’s characters are, the emotional resolution once again is detached from the practical resolution. Not entirely, the death of death thing was interesting but too detached from Ruby and the Doctor’s internal conflicts to have much meaning.

RTD’s made great strides, at the very least his external storytelling has gotten stronger and much more interesting thematically, he just needs to line it up better with the characters and their internal worlds.

this feels like a very uncharitable assumption to make but that felt veryyy "rtd tries to do moffat but badly". like the emphasis on the power of memory (a pet favourite moffat theme), the whimsical/poetic dialogue with "there will be birds" (this dialogue style being moffat's MO), the collapse of the universe down to a small point (happens in multiple moffat series finales) and the bait and switch of setting ruby up to be a mystery only for her to be perfectly ordinary (an echo of the 7b impossible girl plot). only he did it all worse? he didn't really have as much to say about memory/the story wasn't very cohesive with this theme, the birds line felt kind of awkward, out of place and ooc for kate as a character, and the ruby mystery arc lacked bite bc it didn't have the conflict of the impossible girl arc. idk man it was undercooked i did not like it very much

[pochapal]

I hate doctor 11 but ive never been able to explain why in like words lmao. He feels like such a mary sue character imo and like theres something about his characterisation that was always just really ineffective (like the stuff about fishfingers and custard or whatever it was). Imo i'd love to hear you give top 5 worst things about the 11 era because i rlly just love when it gets torn apart

i hold nothing but a seething contempt and loathing for that man. every time he appeared on screen i felt ready to snap like a riled up chimpanzee in my enclosure. i am frothing at the mouth and overcome with a desire to start flinging heavy objects. this might be incoherent and inconsistent but i started this rewatch in feb 2020 and only finished this week so i got through 11′s episodes last august/september time and i refuse to revisit it to jog my memory or fact check anything i’m saying here because this man does not deserve the space in my mind for that.

the first thing is i can’t fucking STAND the quirky whimsy timey wimey bit he has going on all of the time. i can’t even say this is because this is a kids show and i was a teen and then adult when i first properly watched him but actually!! when i was eleven years old i’d sleep over at a friend’s house most weekends and it always coincided with the airing of a new season 5 episode and i remember we watched the finale with the dumb time hopping to get out of the box prison that was never explained and didn’t make sense and i thought at the time “this is really stupid”. and before that my only other doctor who exposure was watching the david tennant christmas specials with another friend and throughout childhood my only opinion on doctor who was “this is a tv show that is not for me but is one that all the boys i am friends with like so i will put up with it to maintain our friendships” but at least those episodes were both suspenseful and engaging enough to keep me watching all the way through. like who the fuck does an end of the world sci fi plot and approaches it with an “oopsy woopsy i am a funny little alien man who is going to stop you all by making you do a hecking silly” like it’s unneeded and self-parodies an already cheesy show to the point where it becomes unwatchable and makes it impossible to ever take this man seriously.

next thing that downright sucks ass so badly is the stupid fucking overwritten constantly escalating plotlines. like everything from season 5 up until his regeneration at the end of season 7 is meant to be this grand interconnected cosmic plot about how...the doctor trying to bring back his planet will end the universe or something so all the top powers across all of reality tried again and again to stop him from doing that except he doesn’t know what’s going on so he keeps thwarting these people who supposedly mean good?? i mean i sure don’t fucking know what they were trying to say!! like for some reason we never get the doctor suddenly becomes this superdemon that threatens everything so these people (whoever they are) decide to, in sequence: suck him through a time rift to erase him from existence, trap him in a prison and remake a universe without him, take his companion’s baby and turn her into a perfectly trained doctor killer, form two(!!) secret societies to hunt him throughout history that are only stopped by his companion splintering herself across his personal timeline to protect him, and repeatedly cause reality collapsing events because it’s a kinder outcome for the universe than what he will do. this grand and terrible event turns out to be...he spends a few hundred years chilling by a rift that leads to his home planet and protects a few generations of children from monsters which convinces them to give him infinite regeneration power then fuck off back to their pocket universe. and it’s like!! what is the point of anything that happens in this man’s era when everything is always “the darkest moment” or whatever the fuck!! i don’t care!! we never get a compelling reason to believe this bumbling clown of a man could ever be a universal threat!! the whole thing is so dumb i hate it!!!

thing number three i hate is how the eleventh doctor is ALSO characterised as this abrasive egotistic male supergenius to the point where he becomes genuinely indistinguishable from bbc sherlock. genuinely who enjoyed seeing this guy constantly tell people their tiny human minds can’t comprehend what he’s doing and then basically just wave his magic wand to solve whatever problem each episode is facing. 2012 is the year of human sin because this fucking shitsmear character archetype somehow became both a redditor role model AND a tumblr sexyman and it’s like!! nobody is enjoying this stop making this seem cool! him saying timey wimey thing any time he does anything is frustrating and dumb and locks the viewer out of giving a fuck about anything that is happening! smartest man in the room syndrome is a disease and the eleventh doctor is terminal with it. like remember how they established river as an accomplished scientist (when she wasn’t being a child soldier or a time paradox or whatever the fuck) and every time that came up mr doctor eleven man was like “oh this thing is obvious because i’m a genius and you didn’t realise because your brain is tiny so get out of the way and let the grownups think” or that time it turned out amy had been replaced with a slime clone for half the season and the doctor chewed rory (audience surrogate) out for somehow not realising this fact we didn’t know right from the start and like. this served no purpose other than to draw into severe question why the doctor is also this super beloved magical figure implicitly trusted by all children everywhere like. mr steven moffat is totally allergic to writing and solving mysteries in his tv show and fuck you for wanting to figure things out as you go along based on the new evidence you uncover at strategic plot intervals just let this asshole man use magical thinking to reveal he knew the answer all along and you’re a fucking idiot for not also realising this thing which had no basis or precedent anywhere else in the show.

speaking of dumb things let us not forget the absolute shitshow that was minority representation in this era. i’m not even talking about the low hanging fruit of how genuinely unironically sexist amy and clara were written where each episode moffat either seemed to loathe them or was incredibly horny over them and they had no character growth or arc or fucking anything. i’m talking about how fucking shit terrible the incidental representation was. god remember how every single fucking gay person who appeared in this era was written as one incredibly fucking stupid joke and how the women were all either sexy dominatrix, feeble girl in love, or Mother (or all three in some really terrible cases) and i’m not qualified to talk about this but also how incredibly white this era was and how on two separate occasions we had monarchs reimagined as sexy girlbosses with a gun played by black women who the doctor leched over. nothing about any of this was good ESPECIALLY coming off the back of rtd who was surprisingly forward thinking for 2005 and did a really good job of positing travel with the doctor as queer allegory. in comparison moffat gave us THE MOST heterosexual shlock i’ve ever had to endure. amy and rory could have been interesting characters were they not hemmed into this domestic bickering young straight married couple bullshit that was in no way changed or altered by traveling with the doctor except for the quasi incestuous river song reveal that was dumb and bad and stupid.

the last major mega gripe i have with the series is moffat’s fucking jingoistic boner for british military aesthetics. this carried over throughout his entire tenure as showrunner but was super terrible vomit inducing in eleven’s era. the unironic admiration for ww2 britain and winston churchill is downright wretched. are you incapable of telling a second world war story outside of churchill’s london and plucky blitz fighters. shit gives me hives so badly. and then!!! that weird church owned army that features in the future that end up being bad not for the concept of what basically amounts to an imperialistic intergalactic rendition of the fucking crusades but because they’re part of the nonsense go nowhere puzzlebox narrative that says the doctor is a not good man who will do bad things to the universe :(. remember how rtd’s doctor was a freshly traumatised man hot off the war criminal press who time and time again vehemently refuses to engage in military violence, but who tragically inadvertently turns every one of his companions into soldiers in his own personal army, and he has this moment of complete horror at the realisation and it is this which causes the downward spiral that ends in 10′s regeneration. and then how there’s this cringe line about how there’s a force of people who are “the doctor’s army, always ready to fight his battles when he’s not around” or some shit and then it turns out this is actually massive literal military operation and we’re meant to celebrate this. fuck off.

bonus round because this needs to be said but i have never hated anything like i hated that fucking human tardis episode. everything about it induced violent anger in me from the sickening overindulgence of that softgoth dark whimsy helena bonham carter tim burton aesthetic to the bafflingly terrible evil carny stereotype of those junk scavengers to the overblown sudden tragic shipbait romance of human tardis and the doctor. every word out of her mouth was trite shit and the fact that the death of her body was presented as this super emotional dramatic scene despite there being no buy in or incentive to care and the fact that every single person on tumblr in 2012 ate that shit up like it was fucking gourmet. i loathe every single thing about that episode so much.

[hypexion]

Now that I’ve “reviewed“ all the modern Doctor Who episodes, it’s clearly time to make a Top Thirteen Episodes list! Except I haven’t given the episodes any kind of score, so ranking them is Clearly Impossible.

So instead I’ll just say which stories of each series was my favourite, which is basically the same thing, right? So let’s get right into it as I try to work out which episodes deserve the top spot and/or immediately pick a specific stand out story.

Series 1: It’s got to be Dalek. There are a few stand-out episodes in Series One, but Dalek is the best of the bunch. It really digs into what the Time War means for the Doctor and how it has transformed his relationship with his oldest enemy. Along with that, it also looks into what a Dalek really is, and how a creature made of hatred will ultimately destroy itself. It’s good stuff.

Series 2: The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit together create a surprisingly deep and at times terrifying story. It’s tense, it’s engaging, and unlike a lot of two-parters, almost nothing goes to waste. And as ridiculous as the Doctor defeating Satan with the power of belief in Rose Tyler might sound, The Satan Pit makes it work. Especially since Rose kills Satan. That’s canon!

Series 3: Yeah, it’s Blink. If I was just going on single episodes, The Family of Blood might grab the prize, but I don’t like it’s first part. Blink does have the weird quality of being incredibly unlike a regular Doctor Who episode, but it uses that to its advantage. Blink is a clever, self-contained story that plays around with time travel in a way that’s still understandable. The Weeping Angels provide a unique threat, with the ability to push the tension even when they’re not on screen.

Series 4: There’s something about Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead that works. Despite being an almost perfect warning of where things will be heading, the limited scope and primal fear provided by the Vashta Nerada pull things together into something better. While future episodes might taint it a little, by its own merits this story is razor-sharp, pulls no punches, and manages an intriguing mystery or three without falling apart from its own complexity.

10th Doctor Specials: The End of Time is the big ending for the RTD era, and it’s the best of the specials. Everything comes full circle with The Return of Rassilon and the Time Lords, the resurrection of the Master, and the Tenth Doctor’s final adventure. Plus there’s bonus Wilfred Mott action, which is always a treat. Sure, the ending drags a little, but it’s not just a farewell to a Doctor, but to an entire part of the show.

Series 5: If picking The Eleventh Hour as a favourite is cheating, then cheat I will! Something about this episode just made the Eleventh Doctor click with me. It’s all go go go from the beginning, with the Doctor tearing through things, defeating the baddies and acquiring the vital bowtie. A top introduction for a top character.

Series 6: The Doctor’s Wife makes the TARDIS into a character who can interact with everyone else. And it takes this one-in-a-continutiy shot and scores like a hundred points. It’s an eclectic mix of whimsy, darkness and just a pinch of horror, that comes together to make a powerful episode about a Madman and his Blue Box. Perhaps what makes The Doctor’s Wife so good is how obviously it could have gone so wrong, yet it didn’t.

Series 7: To me, A Town Called Mercy is the essential “Dark Doctor“ episode. Rather than all the pomp that episodes trying to focus on it use, A Town Called Mercy instead has a single moment of pure, unambiguous wrongness, when the Doctor throws Kahler-Jex out of the town to die. But unlike Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and The Girl Who Waited, this happens in the middle of A Town Called Mercy, meaning it actually has to be addressed. There’s a part of the Doctor who’s a killer, but in the end, that’s not who he is.

The Day of the Doctor: Hmm, somehow, The Day of the Doctor is the best episode in The Day of the Doctor. Weird. Must be a “timey-wimey“ thing!

Series 8: Oh no it’s gotta be Robot of Sherwood. “Good taste“ dicates I choose Mummy on the Orient Express or Flatline but the Doctor meeting Robin Hood and hating all of it is just too amazing. Like those other two episodes setup a lot of Twelve’s character but Robot of Sherwood has Robin Hood, robots, and Merry Men. Truly, we must embrace that Doctor Who has never been serious and pick Robot of Sherwood as a favourite.

Series 9: By process of elimination, my favourite pair here is Under the Lake and Before the Flood. This series is packed full of multi-parters, meaning the obvious contender of Heaven Sent gets dragged down by what it’s attached to. But hey, the Fisher King manages to be generally competent, and it all ties together quite nicely, unlike a lot of the time trickery type episodes. Plus they’re the only episodes that don’t feel like they’ve been mangled by the series gimmick, which helps.

Series 10: Thin Ice is a (mostly) fun little period piece, with bonus violence against a racist. It’s also got some really good characterisation for both the Doctor and Bill, with the spots of darkness in the episode spurring them on. And in the end, compassion wins, showing that even grumpy Twelve is a softy at heart.

Series 11: The Woman Who Fell to Earth is the best new Doctor episode since The Eleventh Hour, and it’s a bit above the rest of Series 11 as well. It gets right into the Doctor stuff, with Thirteen making a fighting start. Honestly the odd Doctors seem to be doing best, while the evens spend a lot of time sleeping. This episode also does a good job of juggling the three companions, which can’t hurt when the other episodes tend not to.

Series 12: It’s another wacky one with Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror. Honestly half the reason it gets the pick is that by the time it ends, everything in it is resolved. The rest of Series 12 is a mass of loose threads, which don’t all get tied off. On it’s own merits, however, it’s a punchy episode that feels very much like an RTD era adventure, with a cool mix of action and positivity. I think it stands on it’s own merits, even without the boost of the rest of the series being a bit of a mess.

Christmas: The Runaway Bride for Ten, because it’s got a nice bit of action, some fun bits and some sad bits, without being a total downer, and also Ten doesn’t spend most of the episode in a coma. For Eleven, I’m going to be weird and pick The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, mainly because Eleven’s Christmas episodes aren’t that great and this one is about the best of them. For Twelve, it’s Husbands of River Song, for being a fun time adventure that’s only marginally Christmas related, while also having some somber moments.

New Year: Thirteen would be sad to know she doesn’t get a Christmas special, but Resolution is close enough, and is actually one of the better modern Dalek episodes. Sure, it’s no Dalek, but it plays in a similar space and manages to make an unarmored Dalek a complete and total threat.

And those are my picks! Honestly it seems to be a pretty varied set of episodes, although it looks like “wacky historic“ is making a good showing. Also some episodes that are part of multi-part stories ended up suffering since they got attached to the rest of their stories. It’s not a very scientific process, so there’s probably no “favourite factor“ that could be distilled from these episodes, beyond “puts effort into making the premise work“, which seems more like a bare minimum than something special. I guess it’s notable that I didn’t pick any finales, but did pick two new Doctor episodes.

Maybe I’d have more conviction in my negative opinions?

[doctorwhoish]

Doctor Who Series 11 Opinion

I think lots of us feel that there was ‘something’ wrong with series 11, but none of us could quite put our finger on what is was. Like, we thought it was great but it was missing something. My humble opinion is that ‘something’ was tension. We never saw any real tension between the doctor and her companions, we never saw any tension in the doctor’s hypocritical philosophies (unlike the Moffat and RTD era doctors), and she was basically just too nice.

Which is disappointing, because it’s so clear why they did this. So here’s my (not so) hot take: female characters do not have to be perfect in order to be likeable. Female characters are allowed to be messy and problematic, they’re allowed to be angry and confrontational, but still be, ultimately, good. By making 13 obnoxiously ‘good’ all they’ve done is to reduce Whittaker to a cardboard cutout of the doctor that lacks the depth that characterises the character. Where can they realistically take her now? Any outbursts from this point are either going to feel uncharacteristic or make her seem unhinged rather than simply complicated. I feel that they have ruined the first female doctor in her first season.

Maybe they’ll prove me wrong. I really hope they do.

[the-desolated-quill]

The Woman Who Fell To Earth - Doctor Who blog (Change, my dear. And it seems not a moment too soon)

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Never before have I gone into a Doctor Who episode with such a mixture of excitement and dread as I did with The Woman Who Fell To Earth. On the one hand we’ve finally got a female Doctor, something most Whovians have been waiting decades for, but on the other hand she’s being written by Chris Chibnall, a writer who (and let’s be generous here) has never exactly managed to win me over in the past. His past Doctor Who episodes were often derivative, stupid and poorly written and while yes he did create Broadchurch (a show that people assure me is good, but I still have little to no interest in watching), he was also the showrunner of the god awful spinoff Torchwood, which was essentially Doctor Who’s Suicide Squad. 

So yeah, the thought of him sitting in the driver’s seat and at such a crucial moment in Doctor Who’s long history didn’t exactly get me hyped for the new series and if I’m honest, come Sunday 7th October, I was bracing myself for the worst.

Then the most pleasant of surprises. The Woman Who Fell To Earth turned out to be really, really good. I’m actually gobsmacked by how much I enjoyed this episode. I never thought I’d see the day where I’d be praising a Chibnall episode, but here we are.

I think one of the reasons why I enjoyed this episode so much is because it feels like all the aspects that annoyed me about RTD and Moffat’s respective eras have been sheared away. There’s no convoluted plots. No dangling arcs. No forced whimsy. No smart arse dialogue or pretentious speeches. In fact this had a lot more in common with a classic series story in terms of its pacing and scale. It’s not some global threat where everyone is dashing about like headless chickens on speed. The threat is contained to one town in Northern England where only a handful of people are in danger. Even the music has mercifully been restrained. While I do have a fondness for Murray Gold’s work on Doctor Who, his music often had a tendency to go too overboard, bombarding the senses and drowning the audience in slush. New composer Segun Akinola offers a much more subtle and moving score. It enhances the action and certain emotional moments without bashing you over the head and, crucially, Akinola knows when to shut up and let the actors carry the scene.

I must say it’s such a relief to see some humanity injected back into Doctor Who again. After years of convoluted, timey wimey Moffat nonsense, Chibnall has had the good sense to bring everything back to basics. It’s not about the aliens, the special effects, the exotic locations or the overly pretentious plots that require a fucking flow chart in order to make sense of them. It’s all about the characters. And what wonderful characters they are. Ensemble casts rarely work on Doctor Who, but I have to say I really like this cast. Out of all the new companions, Ryan is probably my favourite. Tosin Cole gives a really good performance and I really like how he’s written. In particular I like how the episode portrays his dyspraxia. The way New Who has handled things like disability and mental health in the past has left a lot to be desired, but here Chibnall gets it just right. He never makes a big thing out of it and the episode never comes across as patronising or condescending. It’s treated like any other character trait, which is exactly how it should be.

Mandip Gill is also good as Yasmin Khan, a police officer who feels like she’s not getting the most out of her life or career. She reminds me slightly of Rose Tyler, but unlike Rose, Yasmin is more proactive. She doesn’t sit around waiting for something to happen. She pursues new opportunities when they come up and gets frustrated when someone puts a wall in front of her. It’ll be interesting to see how she’ll adapt to time travel over the course of the series.

And then there’s Graham, played by Bradley Walsh. To all my non-British readers, let me give you a quick education on the wonders that is Mr. Walsh. He’s one of our most versatile performers. He’s been a footballer, a comedian, an actor and a gameshow host. He’s an incredibly funny man as well as a great dramatic performer. Having seen him in Law & Order UK, I knew he’d be perfect and he didn’t disappoint. There’s a weariness to him that’s incredibly charming and likeable, but then he’s able to go from comedic to emotional at the drop of a hat. The eulogy he gives at Grace’s funeral was incredibly powerful and moving, as are the moments where he tries to bond with Ryan, who’s clearly sceptical of any kind of father figure in his life due to how unreliable his dad is. Both Graham and Ryan are the ones to keep a close eye on I think. Ryan in particular will be carrying a lot of baggage as the series progresses. His determination to ride a bike shows not only the pain he feels toward losing his Nan, but also the guilt. If he hadn’t lost his temper, chucked his bike down a cliff and then pressed the weird glowing shapes, none of this would have happened. He clearly feels he’s responsible for her death and I’m looking forward to seeing not only how he grows and moves on from that, but also how Graham will step up and help him, being the grandfather Ryan needs if not necessarily the one he wants.

It’s the characterisation that is The Woman Who Fell To Earth’s greatest strength. Not just the from the main cast, but the supporting characters too. Little moments like the old man telling his granddaughter he loves her before getting killed by the Stenza or the crane operator listening to self motivation tapes is what gives this episode more depth and soul. And then of course there’s Grace, played wonderfully by Sharon D. Clarke. I’m hard pressed to think of a single character from the Moffat era that I gave anything resembling a shit about, which is why it’s so remarkable that I’m able to care this much about Grace despite the short time we get to know her. She’s caring, supportive and energetic. She feels like the perfect companion for the Doctor and I would have loved to have seen her in the TARDIS with everyone else, which is what makes her death so heartbreaking. She’s not some random redshirt getting axed because the script requires more tension. She’s a three dimensional character we really like coming to a tragic end.

Okay. Okay. Let’s get to the main topic of conversation. How’s the new Doctor? Have the ‘feminazis’ ruined it? Is she swapping makeup tips with the Cybermen? Is she struggling to parallel park the TARDIS? Did she accidentally kill a whole species because it was her time of the month? (these are all things I’ve seriously heard butthurt fanboys say since Jodie Whittaker was cast and I think we can all agree it’s beyond pathetic). Well, quelle surprise, turns out the Doctor’s sex change didn’t jumpstart the SJW apocalypse after all. Who’d have thought women could be Doctors too? What a novel concept.

The minute she fell into the train, I was sold. Whereas Peter Capaldi took three whole series to finally come into his own (not that Capaldi is necessarily to blame for that. Blame the monkey at the fucking typewriter for that one), with Jodie Whittaker it’s instantaneous. She is the Doctor.

It helps that Chibnall largely dispenses with all the usual post-regeneration bullshit. With the fainting and gurning kept to a minimum, we can get on with actually learning about this new Doctor and I love what I’m seeing so far. She’s quick-witted, compassionate and quirky, but not to the point where it becomes annoying like Matt Smith’s often did (in my opinion. Tastes differ, obviously. I personally found Eleven to be unbearable at times). After the Twelfth Doctor, with his borderline misanthropy and his inability to even so much as blow his nose without a companion to hold his hand, Thirteen comes like a breath of fresh air. 

One thing I especially like about her is her complete lack of arrogance and boring machismo that previous New Who Doctors were sometimes guilty of. Rather than having her boast about how clever she is, like Ten or Eleven would have, she just shows us by building a new sonic screwdriver out of spoons. And she never tries to lord her moral superiority over others. Quite the opposite in fact. This is a Doctor who clearly values teamwork and can recognise strength in others. There are flashes of darkness too, like when she manipulates the Stenza into killing himself with his own DNA bombs, but she’s not driven by some inherent belief that she is right and they are wrong. She’s driven by the fact that she has gotten to know these people and doesn’t want anything to happen to them. Thirteen is quite possibly one of the most down to earth Doctors I’ve ever seen and I’m extremely excited to see more.

As I said, The Woman Who Fell To Earth is largely about its characters, which is just as well because the plot is... I wouldn’t say it’s bad, but it’s definitely the least interesting thing about the episode. I liked the look of the Stenza, with the teeth embedded in his face, and the gathering coil. I liked that it was a small scale threat and largely self contained, and I liked the way the plot slowly unfolds over the course of the story. However it is a bit derivative. The Stenza is pretty much a PG-13 version of the Predator and he is a bit one note. That being said, it doesn’t detract from the enjoyment factor of the episode. By keeping the plot simple for the most part, it allows Chibnall to fully explore the characters, who are clearly supposed to be the main focus.

In short, I’m pleased to say that I really liked Chris Chibnall’s first offering as showrunner (never thought I’d ever type this). The Woman Who Fell To Earth is without a doubt one of the most confident starts to a new Doctor I’ve ever seen and I’m very much anticipating where the series goes from here. For the first time, in a long time, I’m excited for the next Doctor Who adventure :D

(Oh, btw, all those idiots who were saying that Doctor Who’s ratings have been falling and that a female Doctor would kill the show off, so far this series the ratings have been at its highest since the show came back in 2005. Guess the reason why the ratings were low during the Moffat era wasn’t because of the World Cup, warm weather, streaming television or SJW propoganda. It was because Steven Moffat is a really shit writer. Go figure)

[shkspr]

ratkingbrady - gd i just…david just inhabits every character he...

this is also why i’m always so surprised to see him in interviews or whatever, because every character he plays is so different, and irl he has a really unique energy?? And i feel like on the podcast preview his energy was also different to watching him in an interview for good omens

(for example) - like he just has a really good sense of characterisation and genre and media 

YEAH like.... i’ve seen a LOT of his interviews and he’s just got such a presence? like i’m very big on the whole “celebrities aren’t your friends and the persona you think you know is the one they choose to present to the world” thing and that’s True even in his case but he’s still so genuine. like he’s pretty private about his personal life but he’s very open about who he is. so in an interview he’s always just david, having a conversation with someone. and when he talks about his work it’s so so clear that he cares so much about it and that he puts a lot of thought into his characters and it’s so refreshing and inspiring. and because he puts so much thought into it, every character is so different, even when they’re similar! like david and rtd have both mentioned in interviews that casanova & the tenth doctor have very similar Energies, and that comes thru in watching them, but they’re also such different personalities, and how david manages to take that frenetic energy and that fast-talking charisma and infuse it into two characters who are so wildly different from each other is beyond me. and it’s also one of the reasons why i think it’s so easy for him to bounce back and forth, i mean in the past five years he’s done rom-coms, biopics, murder thrillers, and with anyone else you could watch something like bad samaritan and then be left with a bad taste in your mouth if you tried to move immediately to something like you, me and him, but with david it’s just natural, everything he does is just natural to him and it feels natural to watch. i mean, look at the progression from hamlet to much ado to richard ii, he has such an intense and honest stage presence and he utterly becomes every character he plays, and it really comes thru in shakespeare because shakespeare’s characters are so real and so human, and he did those three plays pretty much back-to-back and it’s just wild to me how fantastically talented he is and how he can remain so grounded and humble. thank you for coming to my fucking ted talk

[theskyexists]

Revolution of the Daleks

im actually really happy with this, Yaz not being able to let go. Ryan and Graham having practice. i could wish a million things had happened with Ryan (!) and Graham before but this is as good as it’s gonna get from this point

i like the way they’re trying to imitate the Doctor explicitly

‘this is hard, innit?”

‘have you had work done?’ ‘you can talk!’ (that sounded so Nine and Jack!!! hahahaa) edit: it was litearlly Ten and Jack

reference!

DOCTOR AND JACK HUG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leo......is a very cynical representation of an amoral scientist.

How the hell is Trump-analogue the sane one here lolololol. but he’s dumb enough to leave incinerating the thing to Leo.

what an idiot - opening the casing. im not really into how the narrative is basically like: trump is right about stupid scientists! hah...

the banter between jack and the doctor is so good? imitation of the original product clearly but still GOOD

love how the Doctor instantly goes - i need to go see the fam

she was in space jail for decades (she doesn’t mention the decades)

THAT MOMENT OF MATERIALISATION WAS SO GOOD

noooooooooooooooo OUCH - ouch! YAZ!

‘im sorreh’

SHE DOESN’T MENTION HOW SHE’S BEEN LOCKED IN PRISON FOR FUCKING DECADES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my god Doctor. give them some perspective PLEASE

Jack’s ‘whoops’ is hilarious if you consider his history with teh Doctor

Ryan - god i love Ryan.

Actually didn’t like Graham’s response to Jack. narratively, homophobic

absolutely despise the orange lettering

this episode really goes to show that Chibnall thinks structurally extremely slowly. he picks threads up from ages ago. and then he does do something decent with it. does this mean that the longer he keeps on the better it will get?

i think it’s pretty fuckin hilariously sad though that the companions are once again relegated to couriers - they note that they can’t do stuff on their own (even though the season finale last time gave them ‘Doctor-like’ sequences even if they never managed to impact the story of the Doctor herself - so i guess we’ve gone backwards in this arc) and then they CAN’T do stuff on their own and the Doctor comes in

it’s not the Doctor OR the companions Chibs. and if these companions are just incapable - make that a point! that would be a wonderful contrast to Clara

Woah Jack fuckin infodump

aahahhaa

i do love Yaz’s response. this seems to build up to some final DESERVED - i need to know MORE doctor - now.

‘oh she’s good’ - that’s such a RTD thing to say. chibs just directly copy-pasting a lot here. this is acceptable if he can give it new meaning. inverse meaning

why even drop two people off - whats the Doctor gonna do - nothing?

i actually like the new dalek design very much. oh confront Robertsen? i still can’t get used to the explicit task division set-up - even if this time it was used for characterisation

i - adore. this talk between Jack and Yaz. because it’s Yaz accessing so much shit from the Doctor’s past suddenly. and then it becomes extra clear that Jack’s and the Doctor’s connection was kinda romantic in whatever way - and it’s directly paralleled with Yaz. that romantic tragic attachment - doomed to hurt. (i.e. my fav)

god mandip gill is yeeting this out of the park. I LOVE IT. i love these lines. ‘we’re the lucky ones yaz’ - graham also told her something like this in demons of the punjab.

‘the joy, is worth the pain’ - is it? Jack thinks so - still! my god.that’s so tragic - so beautiful. so much rtd feel here.

jezus chibnall - fuckin sonic gun even???? ‘thanks, that’s it??’ hahahahaha. ok you did good. nobody’s ever impressed at it. LOL DAMN YAZ

‘they’re growing daleks’ - this secondary reveal doesn’t matter bc no reveal would have been a genuine reveal anyway

the new prime minister givin her speech and the doctor explaining daleks should have had snappier editing - specifically the music should not have gone back to simple british empire horns or whatever- but should have had an undertone of dalek in there

really! ALIEN REFERENCES! MY GOD CHIBNALL!!! everybody was thinking it but you did it.... i guess it’s done now. sexual politics wise i’d say Robertsen might have been a much better choice.

guns and explosives will solve everything!!!!!! oh chibnall

i love this lil talk between Ryan and teh Doctor - because it goes to show that the Doctor actually really cared. it would be fitting if they all left now actually lol - that would be nice and dramatic. Jodie is doing great on the acting here - i can FEEL the warning messages in her brains going AAAAAAAAAAA im losing this one!!!!

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Ryan - oh finally - finally this is coming out. calling her out, ‘how do you feel about that’‘  - the counsellor

‘things change, all the time, and they should, cos they have to’ - oh ffffff and ryan inverts things on her. oh i would have loved that if they’d done the extensive groundwork for it. now it just feels like a final death knell - the Doctor paternalised in classic Doctor words by her pseudo-son (but not really bc we never got it for real). couldn’t chibnall have left that for a dude actor ....

i love Jodie’s acting here my GOD. the mouth, the thin lips. The Doctor’s thinking - ah ive lost him - he doesn’t need me at all. ‘always’ this is Ryan’s motif actually. Yaz said the same thing about him.

LOL and Leo reveals himself only when the bombs have been planted and the Doctor’s arrived

lol ok that’s a pretty grisly reveal chibs, BUT would have been cooler if Yaz somehow found out herself and not through villain exposition. Robertsen really is VERY good comic relief here ‘this is a pr disaster’

that was actually a GOOD use of the Doctor going hmmm what’s wrong here and Yaz going well maybe this

ok but because chibnall has such dumb and obvious twists all the time it makes the Doctor always look dumb for slowly stumbling through a self-deprecating  explanation. the least authoritative doctor ever my god.... like she could feel the shock to her system coming and that’s why she was born so un-self-assured. hate that shit. not what i wanted

the recon dalek used ultra viiolet light to teleport. lol. but then the Doctor is too late to stop it. hmm a bit uh..........idk conflicted about all the poc getting exterminated at the border...is this irony???

so how is the Dalek electrocuting Leo with nothing but a shitty slime body? also don’t like that. especially because Robertsen is getting away scot free again probably

‘no weapons’ (what about the bombs - couldn’t jack have interjected with knowledge on that shit - before the daleks teleported mysteriously????) ‘no time to think’ - Doctor i thought it was established that you could think at 3000 miles per fraction of a second.

forget it. forget it forget it forget it. chibnall and I will never agree on this. if the Doctor hits rock bottom here - then it better be a companion that picks her back up. nope, she gets back up herself. best job they’ve done so far on that i admit but then they cut immediately to a leisurely discussion as people are getting gunned the fuck down in the streets.

ah, shes inviting the original fleet to destroy these daleks which are ‘corrupted’

why..................did they explain the whole plan before it happened. WHY. OH WHY! is Chibnall so structurally BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!

this would have WORKED as a GOOD twist if he’d made it an actual fucking TWIST. please chibs....let me at the scripts....please....

the stakes are also not well-established because none of the companions said: oh shit but we could barely get rid of ONE, now there’s thousands!

‘they shouldn’t know im here’ *materialises TARDIS right in front of hundreds of Daleks*

this whole scene between the two sets of Daleks would have been great if we hadn’t been spoiled

is................Robertsen gonna pay for his arrogance - ignoring the Doctor? or is the Doctor’s ineffective ‘get back here’ going to be the last we see of this. Betraying the Doctor?

Chibs if you dont make this guy pay i will give up

Ryan stepping up to save Earth. hmmhm.

Jack: w-wait are you okay with this?

Jack she’s been sending these idiots in without supervision for no reason for ages. she just did it with Yaz?? but its a nice era-contrast - even if the meaning is muddled

So i guess Jack’s just got hundreds of bombs on him? at all times?

who the fuck doctors the script

why............did Chibnall regress Graham’s and Ryan’s relationship into awkwardness in their final episode. that’s just plain sad.

inversely, NOW would have been good to know the second plan because then we would have known why the Daleks knowing about the Doctor is bad SPECIFICALLY

‘even if we blow up the ship, theres still SAS daleks marauding through earth’s skies’ she says, like she wasn’t supposed to have a plan to stop them ??????

‘right’ she said, walked off, and then didn’t think of a plan

‘orrr.... you’re gonna have to trust me on this one Yaz’

this is such a TERRIBLE and unsubtle and stupid way to segue into discussing the Doctor’s problems with disappearing

WHY IS CHIBNALL HAVING THEM SAVE ROBERTSEN - fuck this! FUCK THIS!

wow - that’s really shit of the Doctor - just telling a TARDIS to destroy itself completely......

really chibnall.....really you’re gonna let this man get away LIKE THIS. I’m done. i’m done. im sorry but this is not something to just PLAY with. letting a Trump guy get the better of the female Doctor not once, but twice? this makes me so sad. and im done. it’s just insult after insult. he just doesn’t GET it. this is too close to my heart. this is not a GAME. this is supposed to be a  fucking POWER FANTASY - and he can’t even fucking make it that. he can’t discuss the problems with power because he can’t even FATHOM the Doctor as a power fantasy in this form. fuck. this.

‘can you believe that’ - ‘yeah i can’

thanks - thanks for this political hopelessness on top of the real shit Chibnall. that’s not what Doctor Who is about - that’s the starting point - not the fucking end state

i know it’s supposed to be related to Ryan and how it’s quite subtly about making the world a better place politically bc it’s going to hell - and Robertsen is definitely coming back because chibnall just does that shit

but

if he wanted to do that he should have had Ryan and Robertsen have a confrontation this episode

a hug. a HUG. my god. so what was the absence of hugs all about then? now im grumpy about THAT. fck

this is good acting, good lines, good normal ending to Graham’s time in the TARDIS, it ties in just a little bit with his family arc. but it’s not particularly coherent - guess that;s life ?

‘it’s ok to be sad’ - cut to black. that was good

so the conclusion is that all they needed to be like the Doctor is a little gadget. this is deeply incoherent but it appeals to me anyway. and i dont really understand how Robertsen features into protecting the planet from aliens then

what is this weird Ryan speech lol. Tosin did incredibly good on making that seem halfway organic.

ok so Grace appearing made me tear up lol

[upslapmeal]

The Doctor Falls

Sure this is dodgily formatted bc I don’t have my laptop but that’s not gonna stop this review happening

- nice reversal of the doctor-dramatically-carrying-companion thing - “old school” *strokes goatee* - 10 YEARS - ugh the constant long stretches of time in Moffat eps annoy me - it could have easily been two - we didn’t see Bill change enough for it to have been WORTH ten - WHY IS THE TENTH PLANET CYBERMEN MARCHING NOISE LIKE THAT - we’re literally hearing that sound during a closeup of their feet which are like. wearing socks. - I thought the Masters’ panic and the cybermen turning on them was faked tbh - speaking of the Maters there’s some weird gender stuff going on here - “the Doctor’s dead. he told me he’s always hated you” - constant mood - (will I ever stop being annoyed Bill had to share her series with Nardole) - I half expected that girl to turn out to be young Bill or something like that tbh - that was a very Oswin Oswald moment there with the mirror - poor poor Bill though - man that girl has been through a lot - it started off as a bunch of harmless fun adventures and now we’re here - jelly baby! - Peter truly is getting to do as much classic stuff as possible isn’t he - the Tenth Planet’s cybermen’s weapons were the things they held right? - not the light on their helmet? - ah yes magic wand sonics defeating that cyberman - have I mentioned how much I dislike the flying cybermen? because I’ really do - and now they’ve done it to RTD ones and Tenth Planet ones too?? booo - now theyve got all the upgraded cybermen with the original ones though I’m trying to work out where The Tenth Planet fits into all of this - I mean. not that this show is known for its canon and continuity but still - ~if you stand for nothing Master what’ll you fall for~ - cya Nardole - seriously though Doctor why do you always insist on being the one that gets blown up - MAN I was worried for a sec they were somehow going to have Bill fall in love with the Doctor - can you believe Bill Potts decided her parting words to there Doctor would basically be remember I’m gay - I love her - the scene where the Masters both kill each other is literally the mmm whatcha say sketch - I love how the Doctor and Bill are magically the only survivors lol - what about the Master??? - Heather!! - her eye isn’t a star any more? - GET IT BILL - that’s two companions in a row now have essentially left the tardis immortal with a girlfriend - (I mean not quite but) - I’m really gonna miss Bill her run was far too short - she’s the new who companion with the shortest run now :( - I mean it was only a little bit shorter than Martha and Donna but coming after Amy and Clara it feels as though it barely got started - I really wish she’d been an overlap between showrunners and Doctors - thanks Pearl you’ve been absolutely fantastic - Bill’s phoenix tears - companions :D - he remembered clara!!! - “I DON’T WANT TO GO” - listen Twelve I don’t want you to be someone else either but it’s gonna happen - why are you being so stubborn all of a sudden let yourself regenerate! - I mean I don’t want you to but! - nice bit of hair growth while stepping out the tardis there - I knew that scene was going to be the south pole where The Tenth Planet was set - *ahem* - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA - I’M - I’M ALMOST IN TEARS - WE’RE GOING TO GET ANOTHER EPISODE WITH ONE - WE’RE GOING TO GET AN EPISODE WITH ONE AND TWLEVE TOGETHER - TWO OF MY DOCTORS - TOGETHER - OH PLEASE DON’T MESS THIS UP - PLEASE PLEASE MOFFAT DO ME A SOLID AND DON’T MESS THIS UP - PLEASE GET ONE’S CHARACTERISATION RIGHT - I’M GENUINELY ABOUT TO CRY - right. ok. the episode. - as an episode it was fine? not my fave finale but not bad - I’m so glad Bill got a good ending tbh that’s all I wanted from the ep - I really hope they do meet again - plus there was that lil but at the end I’m still screaming about. so.

SEE Y'ALL AT CHRISTMAS IT’S HAD BETTER BE ONE-DERFUL

[the-desolated-quill]

The Tsuranga Conundrum - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Ugh. I suppose it had to happen eventually. After four great episodes on the trot, it was only a matter of time before Chris Chibnall ran out of steam and returned to his usual output.

Okay. That’s not fair. The Tsuranga Conundrum isn’t that bad. It’s not like Cyberwoman or his Silurian two parter. In fact had this come out during one of Moffat’s series, I probably would have considered this episode a highlight. But Series 11 so far has been a true return to form for the show, with episodes like The Woman Who Fell To Earth and Rosa featuring some amazing moments of characterisation as well as intelligent and quite often powerful writing. Somehow Chibnall has managed to defy expectations and demonstrated just what you can do with a show like Doctor Who if you were to actually put the time and effort in. It’s for that reason why I feel like The Tsuranga Conundrum is such a spectacular dud.

It’s funny how i mentioned Moffat’s tenure as showrunner because this honestly feels like an episode from that era just as The Power Of Three felt like a throwback to RTD. All the episodes so far this series have had slow deliberate pacing, giving the audience time to truly get to know the characters and the setting. In fact the characters are clearly the main focus this series with the plot and monster (if there even is a monster at all) being secondary. This I feel is what has made this series so strong. It’s what made even a weak episode like Arachnids In The UK have an emotional kick to it. The Tsuranga Conundrum on the other hand feels like the complete opposite of this. Everyone is dashing about, spouting exposition, with the characters becoming almost an afterthought. Obviously if you’re into this kind of plot driven, fast paced Who, then more power to you. It just feels really out of place after the previous four episodes.

What also affected my enjoyment were the character inconsistencies and general stupidity. I have had nothing but praise so far for Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor, but this... I don’t know what has happened, but this is not a good episode for the Doctor. For starters the episode opens with Team TARDIS on a junk planet and coming across a sonic mine, but instead of doing something sensible like running away, the Doctor just stands there like a twit waiting for the thing to detonate. Then when she regains consciousness four days later on the Tsuranga, she tries to hijack the ship so she can get back to the TARDIS. Yeah! Fuck the other patients! It’s not like their lives matter or anything! That has got to be one of the most unDoctorly things I’ve ever seen. I’m sorry, but the Doctor would never do something like that.

But wait! A UO breaches the shields and enters the ship. The Doctor’s doctor Astos, having just ordered her to return to her bed, demands she checks the much safer port side of the ship while he takes a look around the more dangerous starboard side. It was his tone and manner that really got to me. Can you imagine him saying that to a male Doctor? And do you know what the worst bit is? She actually does what he tells her to do. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. Again, there’s no way the Doctor would do something like that. I don’t care what gender they are. The Doctor in any of their incarnations wouldn’t have submitted to someone else. They would have taken charge. And yeah, she eventually does once Astos gets killed, but that scene still irked me. When I first heard the words ‘Chris Chibnall is going to be writing the first female Doctor,’ this was the kind of thing I was afraid we would get.

I’ve got nothing against Jodie Whittaker of course. She’s still giving it her absolute all, but there’s just very little for her to work with here. Another scene that really stood out as weird was the scene where she asked Yasmin to pick a number to set the bomb timer to. Why?! That just seems like such a callous and inappropriate thing to do in that situation. Matt Smith’s Doctor I could buy doing that. That’s just the kind of dickish and plonkerish thing he would do, but Whittaker’s? It just feels like an excuse to do weird, kooky shit. And here I was hoping we’d left that behind with Peter Capaldi and the dreaded sonic sunglasses. Not to mention all the moments where the story stops dead in its tracks so that the Doctor can witter on at length about hope and anti-matter. Again, Jodie Whittaker does her best, but there’s a time and a place. It’s hard to marvel at an anti-matter drive when there’s a fucking alien eating the spaceship.

Let’s quickly discuss the Pting. I liked it. It’s a good design and a different kind of threat for Doctor Who. I’m impressed this series how Chibnall so far has managed to stay away from the usual ‘alien invaders wanting to take over the world’ schtick, finding different kinds of threats and motives for each episode. The Pting isn’t evil. It’s just hungry and looking for something to eat. That’s so innocent for a Who antagonist that’s almost charming. Unfortunately it’s undermined by yet more stupidity. The Doctor is alarmingly slow to catch on to the fact that the Pting isn’t interested in killing the crew. It just wants to eat the ship. I would have thought the computer describing it as ‘strictly non-carnivorous’ and seeing it scoffing down her sonic screwdriver would have been a bit of a giveaway, but there you go. She acts like this is a big revelation, but we knew this from the start, didn’t we? If the audience are further along than the Doctor, something has gone spectacularly wrong. And then Chibnall drops the clunker that the Pting feeds on energy. Wait... huh?! If it feeds on energy, why was it eating metal earlier? And if the Pting ate all the energy in Astos’ life pod, how did it explode?

Characters are another issue. Because the episode is zipping along at a hundred miles an hour, there’s barely any time to really get to know anyone. Lois Chimimba’s medic character I thought had potential, having to take charge of the ship after Astos’ death and maybe taking inspiration from the Doctor and following her example, but she’s too busy dealing with a comedy male pregnancy (that I didn’t much care for by the way. I didn’t think it was particularly funny and it just felt like Chibnall came up with it at the last minute to give Graham and Ryan something to do). You’ve got this famous general and her engineer brother who aren’t particularly interesting. There’s the usual sibling rivalry you’ve seen done millions of times before the eventual reconciliation where the two spout ‘I love yous’ over slushy music (this is the closest composer Segun Akinola has gotten to Murray Gold territory and I very much hope we don’t come any closer). Then the general pops her clogs due to Plot Contrivance Syndrome and the engineer ends up saving the day piloting the ship... which begs the question why didn’t he just pilot the ship in the first place if he knew how to do it? Makes the general’s death seem a bit silly really.

Whereas previous episodes managed to tug at the heartstrings with subtle, but effective moments of characterisation, The Tsuranga Conundrum goes the RTD route of bashing you over the head with gaudy sentimentality and melodrama. Nothing can be left to chance. Everything has to be spelt out so that even the idiots at the back of the class can understand the emotions on display. The Doctor’s speech about hope. Ryan talking about how his mum died and how his dad was never there for him. Ryan then using that experience to tell Yoss how to be a dad. The android giving the final eulogy about stars guiding you through bollocks (I’m paraphrasing obviously, but that was the gist of it). It all just feels incredibly forced and not in the least bit affecting. The one moment I think sparked a genuine emotion out of me was Graham and Ryan laughing about how Grace would react if she saw them delivering a baby on a spaceship.  That was a nice human moment that. I liked that.

It isn’t a bad episode. It’s certainly not the worst thing Chibnall has ever written. If I close my eyes and cover my ears during the stupid and annoying bits, I’d probably enjoy it. But compared to the previous four episodes, it’s hard not to see The Tsuranga Conundrum as a massive step backwards.