@Edent After 14 seasons of occasional references to Susan, I'm not quite as ready to take that bait -- I think Ruby's mum will turn out to be either the person trying to infiltrate the TARDIS through her or some other representative of that experiment. (I keep thinking and saying the Trickster, but that's the black cloak talking.)
We’re now seven episodes into #DoctorWho (2023) and there have been two I already consider all time classics (Wild Blue Yonder and Boom), and none of the others have been duds (although I’ve had problems with some). I like this version of the show!
@tom I want to agree, but to me it feels very much RTD doing RTD stuff and we already had that. Tennant specials felt a little different, but these four episodes don’t. I really hope it gels together for me as the season progresses.
I am happy that this seems to be a “me” thing and other people are very happy 🙂
We've seen four episodes now of the "new new" #DoctorWho and RTD's take/vision of this era and I have to say, with the exception of #Boom, I remain very much on the fence. It's too "magical" for my liking, it doesn't do a lot of sci-fi stuff or concepts. And it has the usual silliness dialed to 11 (or 12), all amplified by RTD's sledgehammer writing style. It's somewhat ok and at times interesting, even charming, but overall I still don't know if it's for me. Which is fine.
@jynersolives@peteriskrisjanis yeah, back when RTD was running Who, I didn't get on with any of his Finales completely... and now he's turning up all the things that annoyed me about his writing last time around to 11...
I will push back and say that RTD's writing "magic" in two ways - 1 "stuff that isn't SF", which is fine, but also 2) "resolutions which don't follow logically" which is not fine (and which too many poor writers of Fantasy think is part of 1) )
RTD often does that: creates tensions and obstacles to create character drama and interaction, and that's what interests him. And once that's done he just winks away the obstacles somehow because the episode needs to end.
@pdcawley@carnage4life you know what’s going to happen is that “AI safety” will go trinary—people to apply to, people to not apply to, and not person shaped. Then the MilAI people will grab those models and invert them for their shooty things.
Believe it or not, I just started watching Doctor Who for the first time in my life. I watched the first three episodes; the next one is Boom and I’ll probably get to it tomorrow or the next day.
Hoping Ncuti Gatwa can display more than his usual two expressions tonight. The serious Masters Of The Air one and the open mouthed blank Doctor Who one. Steven Moffat should give him something better to get his teeth into than Snot Babies and Doctor Glee.
So, that was Moffat’s first episode of this series of #DoctorWho… personally I thought it was better than the last two. Could tell the twist from like 3 minutes into the story, but the way they resolved the main dilemma was neat enough.
Didn’t realise the number of references to other parts of the Whoniverse til later though. Apparently these marines are from the Kovarian branch of the church? And the Doctor destroyed that company in a comic sometime ago?
I truly wish that Moffat would've written one episode for Jodie Whittaker as #DoctorWho, where she could've played to her strengths. Man, this might've made all the difference.
I can imagine Jodie Whittaker sticking pins into a wax image of Chris Chibnall for the way he ruined her tenure as the Doctor. Bet he's not on her Christmas card list.
Why I enjoyed Ncuti Gatwa's portrayal of #DoctorWho almost from the start, it was #Boom that really "clicked" him into character for me. Brilliant lines (by Steven Moffat) and fantastic line delivery, love this man.
Just was reminded about this little fact that Steven Moffat has written stories for more Doctors than any other writer in #DoctorWho history. And it's not a stretch to argue that he gave everyone of them their best episode as well.
Updated the Scoreboard with more joi-de-vivre. Kiss kiss.
Revised scores: Space babies - I was a bit harsh on it. I really don't like Babies talking like adults but that's not an episode fault per se.
The Devils Chord - Downgraded because I may have been too good to it and it's been interesting placing it in context of Boom. I still might revise it upwards to 8.5 on the strength of Jinkx's delightful performance, which would again make it the highest scorer of the season to date.
Boom, then! Stephen Moffat delivered a tightly written, 'bottle' (ish) episode via having The Doc stand on a landmine and keeping him there for nearly the entire run-time (Spoiler: he survives). The script whips us along at a fair pace and every actor does their part to inject energy and emotion into proceedings. How nice to have a Who episode dealing with serious topics again, this time pretty much in your face about War, Capitalism, Corporations (who never get a great rep on Who I WONDER WHY) and the value of human life.
Lots to love about this episode. Ncuti, as always, shines like a small star. And once again Millie Gibson is the perfect foil for him. And Scotland Represent! Not only do we have Ncuti's more natural accent but this ep we got another Scot in the cast and the wonderful Skye Boat Song!
Criticisms...I do think Who needs to move away from its very heavily over-used trope of Robot/AI systems now. A bit tired of seeing them always with faulty programming somewhere and parroting phrases. We have that NOW and this is supposed to be set in the future....
And to me the brilliant start, all that tension and drama, died away toward the end and some of the messaging became a bit confused. I think there were some tonal issues too. A beautiful sunrise does not erase the fact people have been dying needlessly for months, and some of the 'we survived!' smiles felt a bit...crass. The wee moment of Ruby's wonder at the top of the episode was perfect. Later on....diminishing returns and tonally iffy. That, and it was hard to get into the head of Splice who was grinning despite just losing her father as an actual physical being she can interact with. No grief whatsoever? Weird.
But overall I really enjoyed this episode and any worries I had about Silliness taking over the show have pretty much gone now. 'Boom' was 'Old Skool' Who, from a prior Showrunner no less, and I'm delighted to see it. Welcome back, Stephen, you've been missed.
This week’s #DoctorWho had a lot of good things to say and was gripping from start to finish. Really appreciated the anti-war, who-really-benefits message. Still the best show ever.
My schedule got away from me this week, so we'll be dealing with "The Devil's Chord" in timey-wimey fashion early NEXT week. "Boom" tomorrow. (There's always a boom tomorrow.) #DoctorWho
