Doctor Who TV Show • Page 37

I love Rose. So. Much.

 

You're unlikely to see anything new with Wilf. Cribbins passed away in July last year.

Thought some elements of the episode were a lot of fun. Thought the trans stuff was an extremely mixed bag. That binary/non-binary line made cringe into the sofa.

As others have said, the 'let go' was complete dross. Even the take they used for it looked clumsy and awkward.

 

So damn good.

 

Cribbins was still around when this was filmed, iirc he was even seen visiting the set. it's just unclear if he filmed anything or not

 

He was even at the table read for The Star Beast. So there's a good chance he turns up in The Giggle (along with Kate who I was expecting to turn up here but never did)

 

yeah I'd love to see Tennant and Redgrave have a scene together, feels like a no brainer. 10 basically originated the no soldiers dogma and Kate is kinda a direct reaction to that

 

Ah. Fair enough. I assumed the timing would have made it unlikely he was cast at all.

 

This was a lot of fun and felt like the return of the Doctor Who I fell in love with (even though I did enjoy a lot of 13 despite some issues). While some stuff was too heavy handed, specifically the “Let it go”, it’s kind of expected with DW so I don’t care as much as I would with something else.

 

I really don't want to be hyperbolic here, and I really do think team Chibnall did their best, but it really feels like the show is back after 5 years of it just not working, and I couldn't be more excited for the future of it knowing its in such good hands.

 

Been thinking ahead a little bit and I really hope that the final problem of the specials has to be solved by Ncuti not Tennant. We get a big speech from 14 about what being the Doctor means to him and how much he loves it, but ultimately he can’t live in the past and needs to move forward. He says something like, “I’m ready to go.” And regenerates into 15 who is able to solve the problem and send us into the future. I think that would be pretty unique for the show to have more than just the last scene, really would get people hyped for his upcoming series, and give a chance to give Tennant some closure/finality with the role.

 

- fuck me this was great. RTD on his horror shit never misses

- it's so telling that one of the biggest differences between Chibnall and Russell is that the latter actually thought to write The Doctor y'know reacting to having their entire identity upheaved. the kind of character moment that Chibnall just never bothered with

- Wilf!!

 

Yeah I love how RTD makes the Timeless Child and Flux matter more and impact the Doctor more in one short scene than Chibnall did in the entire last season and a half. Great episode.

 

spoilers for the ending of special 2 attached:





sad news but lovely that we got what we got

 

The most recent special was good.

I appreciated how trippy it was. I’m excited for what’s to come.

 

been revisiting Torchwood this week, for the first time I think since it came out. absolutely wild how inconsistent this show is, you go from absolute bottom of the barrel Whoniverse to some of its best within a few episodes and then back. the edgy sex shit is so bad but when it focuses on human stuff like Random Shoes/Out of Time it can be legitimately incredible

 

Can’t say I’m a huge fan of how that played out. Would’ve liked a little more solid closure.

 

Saaaame. I really loved the first two eps, which were classic Doctor Who. This was classic Doctor Who in the bad way lol

nevertheless, excited for the future of the show.

 

For some reason I didn't realize this would be dropping weekly, I need to catch up on the last two

 

That was a lot to process but I loved it.

 

huh, i didn't expect for one of the specials to be like a bottle episode, almost feels like a waste that one of the three has such small scope, but Tennant and Tate manage to really pull it together

 

Ncuti Gatwa absolutely killed it. He's going to be a such a great doctor.

 

Yeah i think Ncuti will be really awesome. Unsure how i feel about him seemingly being a fully formed Doctor from the get (minus, y’know, pants), I’ve always liked the part of regenerations where Doctors need some time to get their bearings, but maybe that’ll be shown in the Christmas special!

 

that was maybe the most RTD thing ever broadcast lmao. the Toymaker music scene was like John Simm's dancing scene on crack and they even redid the tease of that episode in case we missed the Master parallels lol. (if he makes us sit through another fucking End of Time-style resurrection scene I'm out, sorry Russell)

on the whole though I liked it a lot. small character moments have always been his strength and I really loved that "what am I?" moment in the other dimension and the one at the end with Ncuti's Doctor hugging Tennant's. also the puppet with Tennant's face was even more nightmare fuel than longarms Tennant last week, thanks for that Russell

the bigeneration stuff was... whatever. feels like I should be counting down the days till Martha comes back and they find a way to leave a 10 clone with her family too lol, but the way it tied into 14's little arc was quite nice. echoing the comments that Ncuti already seems like he could be one of the best ever, he just instantly sells it

 

watching this again and two thoughts:

- RTD totally gave the fandom an out of the Timeless Child bollocks with NPH's "I made a jigsaw of your life" line huh? interesting that he undid that but is seemingly following up on the Flux completely, I'm not mad about it though

- the bigeneration stuff works a lot better if you read it as Fifteen being the actual next Doctor pushed back in time instead of the Doctor splitting it into two like a worm or something lol. seems to be supported in the text by Ncuti saying "I'm okay because you took the time to heal, we're doing rehab out of order" - so I guess 14 lives out a full life with his new family and eventually regenerates property into Ncuti? feels like an incredibly convoluted way to give 14 closure but I am very into the idea of Fifteen being a carefree, emotionally healthy Doctor for the first time ever lmao

 

Giggle was fun but definitely flawed. Felt like there was too much going on for it all to get a resolution, and I especially am disappointed that there's no in-text reason for Tennant's face returning after all the build-up and speculation, but I do appreciate that a lot of this episode is in the subtext.

The bi-generation fell a bit flat for me but at the same time Doctor Who is in many ways about giving fans the tools to write their own stories that happen off-screen (and some of them grow up to be Big Finish writers). And it does provide a definitive sense of closure for the 2005-2022 Doctor and allows the new creative team a "clean slate" with Ncuti rather than making The Doctor angst about the past because there's only so many times you can mine that well.

There's a funny bit in that Chibnall wrote a centenary special that feels like an anniversary story and RTD wrote a 60th special that feels like it's trying to be a centenary story (the John Logie Baird bit in specific). If one binge-watched POTD and the 60th specials you'd get the impression that there's a big musical number every few episodes haha.

It's good that we have the Christmas special in a couple of weeks. Both so there's not long to wait and so they can really capitalise on the cultural moment they've managed to grab with the show right now.