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"It feels different this time..." - The new Doctor Who Thread

The more I think about Conrad's motivations in this episode, though, the less sure I am of what they actually were.
Did he or didn't he believe in aliens? We know he saw the TARDIS vanish as a child so if he doesn't belieive in them he's clearly rationalized away that incident. But then if he doesn't believe in them then his big ambush of Unit with the fake Shreek does not make sense.

If he believes aliens are fake and UNIT is staging all of them, then why did he seem to expect they would fully mobilize for the phony Shreek he made up? He couldn't have known they would, so maybe that whole thing was actually just to embarrass Ruby and he got really lucky UNIT showed up and was just good at improvising and took advantage of it?

The other alternative is that he did always believe the aliens were real and was just pulling a grift on his followers, putting on an act for their donations and ad revenue. I thought this is the take the show wanted us to come away with, initially, but this also has a problem, because if it all was just a grift to him then his storming of UNIT tower makes no sense. His grift would have made more sense if he just kept needling them from afar, but storming into the heart of their operations, if he did believe it was all real, was the stupidest thing imaginable.

Of course that brings us to the third, most likely, option. He's just a narcissistic bullshitter who doesn't believe in anything, and wears whatever mask is needed at any given moment. And like all narcissists he believes everyone else is doing the same thing, so of course even if he believed aliens were real he'd ALSO believe UNIT was taking advantage of it because that's what he would do.

Definitely made The Doctor's tearing down of him hit a bit harder, because Conrad really was just an amalgam of the Petersons, the Rogans, the Joneses, and the Limbaughs of the world.
 
Yeah, it's definitely number three

We really live in a world where people are just lying to lie and get attention until the lies don't really make sense. It gets to the point where the lies barely benefit you in any other way aside from attention. It's not just the pundits, it's Trump, who is just saying things about how great he's doing and how his enemies are both strong and weak and so forth. In the realm of fiction it would seem to make his motivations nonsensical but when held up to the real world monsters, it makes so much sense.

Which is why while I think the speech rings so true, I really didn't like the "the tide is turning back to UNIT in terms of public perception" element because the events are removed from the people who can imagine it being a big lie and Conrad being a victim, despite the fact that on the scene he's constantly waffling and switching the nature of his narrative based on his needs. Yeah, a lot of people will catch on but I think the nature of it also makes it really easy to develop more conspiracy theory narratives. I think the show just needed a quick fix and there are aren't a lot of quick fixes in the age of disinformation and people really hunkering down to protect their shitty worldviews.
 
Still a couple weeks behind on the current season but…

In my brash youth, I had thought Robot Revolution was the most Octo-ass episode of television the series has ever produced.

Now I am grown, and it is time to put away such childish notions, because it’s actually the episode immediately after that.
 
So I haven't been commenting in here on the new season but it's not because I haven't been enjoying it, I just got started a week late and then have been watching the latest episodes a day or two later with friends so most of what there is to say has been said by the time I'm ready to stop avoid spoilers and pop back in the thread.

But I just wanted to say that, while I agree it's not the strongest episode in the season (which is happily a high bar!), the latest ep was particularly memorable due to the circumstances, of watching it on a big projector screen in a friend's basement during a bad thunderstorm. The lights had already flickered a few times before we got started which made Ruby's retelling of the Screech attack strategy way too in-the-moment. And then, at almost the end of the episode, right *exactly* after the Doctor says "You want spoilers? I'll tell you your future. You die." *bam* power goes out, total darkness, show over.

So that was creepy as fuck, lol. (We went home and watched the last, like, two minutes an hour or two later. I don't think my friend's house got power back 'til early the next morning.)
 
I thought today's episode was incredible.

I don't even feel qualified to talk about so much of this episode. I'm too white. It was Black as hell and was fascinating and good and emotional. Even down to the story taking place in a barbershop, it works on so many levels.
 
Yeah, this was amazing, and it feels like one of those episodes I'm going to have to watch again to absorb everything. I'm sure the usual contingent will be screaming about Doctor Woke or whatever but it's their loss.

When RTD announced that the series would have magic and supernatural elements going forward, I was a little unsure about the whole endeavor, and continued to be unsure after The Church on Ruby Road and its goblins, as entertaining as they were. The Pantheon have been fun villains but I don't think the promise of that change had been fully realized until The Story & The Engine. If opening the doors to magic leads to rich and creative storytelling like this, then they can take the doors off their hinges as far as I'm concerned.
 
Kazin said:
I missed amongst everything in that episode that apparently the creepy kid Belinda saw was Captain Poppy from Space Babies, played by the same actress, and credited as "Poppy" in the end credits.

So that's something.
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I would not have guessed that if you gave me one million guesses.
 
Yeah, this has probably been maybe the most consistently great season I can think of? Of course, part of that is simply it's a shorter season but also Davies is a good writer who has... interests I often don't like and I feel like everything here is much more is working to his strengths. I also think that a season that is consistently doing a meta-theming could be exhausting but thankfully somehow it has managed to hold together (though it isn't unusual for his finales to kind of fall apart a bit).

Interestingly writer Inua Ellams is a playwright and poet who also wrote a lauded play, the Barber Shop Chronicles, which is set across six different barbershops in six different cities during a hyped football (the soccer kind) game.

Bottle episodes can be tricky, especially in Doctor Who because it's a series that can be people standing around talking. And I don't have a problem with that but sometimes it feels exposition heavy when the story should play out on it's own. But the Story and the Engine manages to be gripping throughout even though it is characters talking thanks to the acting, directing and writing. The stuff that is revealed isn't just the mechanics of the story but beyond that is about character and it doesn't feel like talking in place of action. Not that the series needs to be action heavy but there are definitely times in it's weaker moments the show talks out solutions in ways that feel like a wikipedia entry rather than a story with a "aha, that means this and that and all I have to do is press this deus ex machina button that was conveniently here the entire time". It's interesting that most of the gods we meet are gods of art. Even Sutekh actually fits into this... he's the god of endings (and perfect that he was killed by the Doctor, the story that doesn't end). And the episode is about a black experience but it is also an episode ABOUT how Doctor Who (a show with a white protagonist for most of it's history) is designed to keep going. But also it's about the idea that influence of black art is often undermined by a white society who appropriates it for themselves. It's a lot to unpack and I have no doubt there are messages within that I am missing due to my own cultural ignorances.

Man, there are three more episodes not to drop the ball and it seems like the last two could be the easiest. I hope it keeps it up.
 
I like Parting of the Ways, Journey's End, and even The End of Time, flawed as they are. I actually think Empire of Death was one of his weakest, frankly.
 
Crazy coincidence related to the previous week's episode -

I was browsing around on some streaming platform, and in one of the silly "On Now" listings that have been cropping up lately evidently to placate people who miss live un-timeshiftable TV programming (??????) it had a Classic Who stream, from the Fourth Doctor era as the splash screen had Tom Baker and the Brigadier, and while it had no episode or serial title, the blurb was: Harry Sullivan is sent to infiltrate Think Tank to discover the truth.

!!!!!

I gotta be honest, I'm kinda surprised none of you Who grognards pointed out that Conrad's little movement was actually a callback (to... something, I dunno, I didn't have time to actually watch the classic episode that was already in progress).
 
Kazin said:
The End of Time
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The End of Time has problems but some of the elements are great. The farewell is so good, and I think it's my favourite Master plan. It's great because he's an attention hound for the Doctor, knows that the Doctor loves humanity, so it makes so much sense for the character to become everyone (isn't this also the plan in Shada? Anyway, it still works here specifically because of the nature of the character).
 
Dobby Doctor being turned into Magical Love Jesus Doctor through the power of Doctor Who fandom managing to not be the most self indulgent thing in a Doctor Who finale never fails to impress me.

I'd say The Stolen Earth / Journey's End are the worst of all of them. It's a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Empire of Death doesn't have the benefit of nostalgia and I think it's being judged more harshly than some of the others as a result, but I think RTD took on two of Moffat's foibles (here's a retcon and it was like this all along and also the twist you were expecting was nothing all along) and made them even more outrageous
 
Really liked the callback to The Fugitive Doctor this week. They had better actually follow up on that someday!

I was honestly expecting this week to turn into a battle against another member of the Pantheon, but it didn't and I think the episode is better for it.
 
Kirin said:
Crazy coincidence related to the previous week's episode -

I was browsing around on some streaming platform, and in one of the silly "On Now" listings that have been cropping up lately evidently to placate people who miss live un-timeshiftable TV programming (??????) it had a Classic Who stream, from the Fourth Doctor era as the splash screen had Tom Baker and the Brigadier, and while it had no episode or serial title, the blurb was: Harry Sullivan is sent to infiltrate Think Tank to discover the truth.

!!!!!

I gotta be honest, I'm kinda surprised none of you Who grognards pointed out that Conrad's little movement was actually a callback (to... something, I dunno, I didn't have time to actually watch the classic episode that was already in progress).
Click to expand...

It's a reference to Robot, Tom Baker's first serial. I'll admit, I didn't catch it, and never would have, had I not read about it elsewhere. Tom Baker's first serial is a weird holdover from the Pertwee era, and the Think Tank is just the name of the baddies' group in it. I don't really remember the details of who they are, but they never come up again (until last week, anyway).

Johnny Unusual said:
The End of Time has problems but some of the elements are great. The farewell is so good, and I think it's my favourite Master plan. It's great because he's an attention hound for the Doctor, knows that the Doctor loves humanity, so it makes so much sense for the character to become everyone (isn't this also the plan in Shada? Anyway, it still works here specifically because of the nature of the character).
Click to expand...

I'll even defend the "reward" segment - while overindulgent, it works for me, Mickey and Martha's weird relationship aside. Particularly the Human Nature/Family of Blood callback. Gets me every time.

Phantoon said:
I'd say The Stolen Earth / Journey's End are the worst of all of them. It's a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Empire of Death doesn't have the benefit of nostalgia and I think it's being judged more harshly than some of the others as a result, but I think RTD took on two of Moffat's foibles (here's a retcon and it was like this all along and also the twist you were expecting was nothing all along) and made them even more outrageous
Click to expand...

The Stolen Earth/Journey's End is super dumb pretty much from start to finish, but it is fun. It certainly has it's problems, but I will take that over literally any Chibnall finale, at the very least (damning with faint praise, I know, but I do like TSE/JE!).

SpoonyBard said:
Really liked the callback to The Fugitive Doctor this week. They had better actually follow up on that someday!

I was honestly expecting this week to turn into a battle against another member of the Pantheon, but it didn't and I think the episode is better for it.
Click to expand...

I was expecting the latter, too, and I wonder if the events of this episode are going to come up again later on given the engine we see... Seems like a decent Chekhov's Gun given all they're doing this season, but I am notoriously bad at predicting where this show will go so I'm probably wrong (to my delight, frankly. Surprise me, Doctor Who!).
 
Kazin said:
It's a reference to Robot, Tom Baker's first serial. I'll admit, I didn't catch it, and never would have, had I not read about it elsewhere. Tom Baker's first serial is a weird holdover from the Pertwee era, and the Think Tank is just the name of the baddies' group in it. I don't really remember the details of who they are, but they never come up again (until last week, anyway).
Click to expand...
I sort of remember this serial but I only really remember the robot and not the baddies. I would not be surprised if despite promising Conrad will tie into this seasons plot if Davies decided to turn this weird little obscurity and turn it into an Earthbound non-alien threat to the Doctor for following seasons, like evil UNIT.
 
The Green Death

"Oh, I nearly forgot. Your wedding present."

In this serial as the Doctor finally pays a visit to Metabelis 3, Jo Grant vows to help Professor Clifford Jones and his enviro-political activist cause where he accuses Global Chemicals of polluting the Welsh mining community they've taken over. The Brigadier is headed in the same direction; he's tasked with investigating a death near Global Chemicals as they develop a new source of fuel. The Brigadier is on the side of Global Chemicals initially but when they are clearly asking for favouritism and expect him to fall in line, he becomes quickly suspicious. Meanwhile, the Doctór's trip to Metablis 3 is nearly fatal but he returns with a blue sapphire. He then decides to help investigate the problem to get his mind off of his misadventure. Jo meets Jones at The Nuthatch, a commune of scientists and free-thinkers and has chemistry (if somewhat gently combinative) with the young professor. She also decides to investigate the mine herself and discovers not only is their some strange ailment killing people but giant mutated maggots.

The Doctor surmises Global Chemical is responsible and is trying to cover it up. But the problem goes beyond that when he realizes that much of the staff is acting strangely. He soon comes to learn they are being brainwashed and the real boss of the company is... BOSS. Biomorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor, a sentient and very insane computer who believes that profits for the company is worth any cost. Even worse, as the maggots threaten to spread across the countryside from their home in a nearby slagheap, BOSS is planning his own take over of the wills of humanity. The Doctor learns that Jones has found a cure for the green death and a way to kill the bulletproof maggots; both are vulnerable to a specific fungus Jones has in great quantities and the Doctor feeds the little monsters all the pesticidal fungus. Then the Doctor confronts the boss and manages to break his hold over his immediate human servant Stevens. Stevens sets BOSS to self-destruct, sacrificing his life to stop it. With the problems behind them, Jo reveals she is leaving UNIT to be with Jones both professionally and romantically. The Doctor says his goodbyes and is off to his next adventure.

The Green Death is a strong one. I think like most six parters it could have been trimmed a bit but even episode two, which is a bit of a cul-de-sac purely from plot momentum (the Doctor spends most of it trying to get an important tool he could have gotten in town), does some good work establishing the mystery of Global Chemicals, it's players and allowing the Doctor and the Brigadier to realize they are the enemy. For this show, the maggots are decidedly nasty, gross monsters and make for good cliffhanger fodder. It's unclear HOW deadly they are (sometimes they jump at you, sometimes they slowly crawl and you can drive around them) but their disgusting nature makes them feel like a visceral threat that you don't want to see our heroes near.

My favourite aspect, though, is BOSS. This villain feels very much out of a McCoy era story; I feel like in most cases it's the Doctor's job to be silly and the villains are the straight man, with the exception of the Master who gets catty back-and-forths and bon mots. So BOSS stands out. He's pompous yet gleeful in his villainy and stands out from previous evil computers on the show. What's more his M.O. *IS* global domination but in a more mundane approach (ruling through financial power) yet in a Saturday Morning Cartoon fashion of mind control. I also love that the giant gross monster are completely unrelated to his plan.

As heavy handed as the ecological message is, it's astute and sadly still prescient. It's sort of a reminder that this isn't "they saw the future about our concerns of AI, capitalism as self-destructive madness and environmental apocalypse" but that this problem has been pretty darn consistent since 9 years before I was born. But, yeah, in it's messaging it holds up remarkable well despite having some ridiculous (albeit brief) counter-culture hippy types doing upsidedown yoga or whatever in the background. It's not subtle but it's also very on point.

As for Jo, I feel like she eventually got her due as a mostly well-served companion but this isn't her finest hour, even if it is her last. It follows the pretty basic pattern of "wants to prove herself capable, gets in trouble, someone saves her and maybe she stumbles into actually helping like Inspector Gadget". And I guess the sudden marriage between her and Jones feels a bit contrived. I get it, you only have six episodes to establish a relationship in a story about bug monsters and evil computers but it really rings false. Despite that, the goodbye is sweet and I like the image of Pertwee riding off on his lonesome while everyone celebrates Latter Doctors would be carpe diem fellers who like a good party and mingle more but I believe Pertwee when he makes a silent exit. The Doctor has never been a long-goodbye guy. Overall, a pretty fun story.

Best Cliffhanger:

"Look out Jo, there's a maggot behind you"!

Next episode:

latest
 
Ah yeah, that had the scene with Sgt Benton tossing the maggots the fungus and clucking at them like cats being fed.
Good stuff.
 
This was alright! I do think it's probably one of the weaker episodes of this season, but then this has been a very good season so far.

Vaeran said:
Here's another shot in the dark: Mrs. "Flood" -> Rain -> Rani?
Click to expand...

CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLED IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTT

My Time Lord name shall henceforth be The Oracle.

The setting was fun, although I had never heard of Rylan before and didn't realize he was an actual celebrity until Belinda recognized him, lol. (Yes, I know Graham Norton.) I would have liked to hear the rest of My Big Feet.

That first flash of Susan made me sit bolt upright in my chair. Finally. This was kind of a random place to put her, but I don't care; whatever it takes to get Carole Ann Ford back on the screen is fine with me. I assume she'll get more of a role in the finale. As I've said before, I don't need her to regenerate or become a full-time companion again or anything like that. I just wanted some closure to her story that's been a hanging thread since 1964. If the season ends with her and the Doctor having tea on post-Dalek invasion Earth I'll be very happy indeed.

They don't come right out and say it, but I'm guessing the Hellions' awful galactic reputation is due to the Corporation spreading negative propaganda about them to reduce sympathy for the strip-mining of their planet. Interesting convergent evolution with Andor S2's treatment of Ghorman.

We're really sticking with this bi-generation thing now, huh? I thought the 14th Doctor doing it was a one-in-a-trillion freak occurrence but now I guess it just happens every time. Power creep!

I'll withhold my judgment on the Rani until we get more of her story in the next two episodes, but I already have my side-eye cocked and loaded. In the classic series she was more morally grey than megalomaniacal, and just wanted to conduct her experiments without regard for who she hurt in the process. I guess time can change people, but if she just turns out to be a female version of the Master now it'll be a waste of an interesting character. I also don't know how this is supposed to explain Mrs. Flood breaking the fourth wall. I guess we'll see.

Onward, to another RTD finale... [wince]
 
Vaeran said:
This was alright! I do think it's probably one of the weaker episodes of this season, but then this has been a very good season so far.

CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLED IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTT

My Time Lord name shall henceforth be The Oracle.

The setting was fun, although I had never heard of Rylan before and didn't realize he was an actual celebrity until Belinda recognized him, lol. (Yes, I know Graham Norton.) I would have liked to hear the rest of My Big Feet.

That first flash of Susan made me sit bolt upright in my chair. Finally. This was kind of a random place to put her, but I don't care; whatever it takes to get Carole Ann Ford back on the screen is fine with me. I assume she'll get more of a role in the finale. As I've said before, I don't need her to regenerate or become a full-time companion again or anything like that. I just wanted some closure to her story that's been a hanging thread since 1964. If the season ends with her and the Doctor having tea on post-Dalek invasion Earth I'll be very happy indeed.

They don't come right out and say it, but I'm guessing the Hellions' awful galactic reputation is due to the Corporation spreading negative propaganda about them to reduce sympathy for the strip-mining of their planet. Interesting convergent evolution with Andor S2's treatment of Ghorman.

We're really sticking with this bi-generation thing now, huh? I thought the 14th Doctor doing it was a one-in-a-trillion freak occurrence but now I guess it just happens every time. Power creep!

I'll withhold my judgment on the Rani until we get more of her story in the next two episodes, but I already have my side-eye cocked and loaded. In the classic series she was more morally grey than megalomaniacal, and just wanted to conduct her experiments without regard for who she hurt in the process. I guess time can change people, but if she just turns out to be a female version of the Master now it'll be a waste of an interesting character. I also don't know how this is supposed to explain Mrs. Flood breaking the fourth wall. I guess we'll see.

Onward, to another RTD finale... [wince]
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I actually really enjoyed it! It's not as good as The Story and the Engine - not much is, I don't think - but there was a lot going on in that one. To say the least! I knew Rylan from Taskmaster, of all things, not Eurovision lol. And quite literally, me too, Vaeran - I sat up and threw my arms in the air when Susan appeared onscreen. I'm glad she's back, too, for sure - but how the hell they're going to do right by her, I have no idea. Susan has never been written great, in any medium - I listed to the 8th Doctor audios where she has a son of her own and they're okay, but still not fantastic or anything. She wasn't even written well in her original era - the closest she got was in The Sensorites, and even there she's kind of marginalized by the end. Even in her damn exit scene, they give William Hartnell a great speech and she just has to stand there and watch/listen to it, as he locks her out of the damn TARDIS and leaves her on a destroyed Earth with a human she just met. I do not know how RTD is going to do right by her, if he even can. Still, yes - I'm glad Carole Ann Ford is back and is not just a photo on the Doctor's desk or whatever.

Also didn't bi-generation canonically become what happened to every Doctor in the past, allowing for each incarnation to somehow, some way, still be out there? I'm going to have to go back and watch those David Tennant 14th Doctor specials because there's the god stuff they're playing with ever since the Toymaker reappeared, bi-generation stuff, and in this episode they even referenced "mavity" again several times. Where are they going with all that? Is "mavity" a sign that time can, in fact, be rewritten, and is RTD going to rewrite Susan's exit from the show? Am I reaching? Probably!

As for the Rani... why did Mrs. Flood like instantly become like, servile to the person announcing herself as the Rani? Is she not herself the Rani? That was all very strange. I fucking spoiled myself on the Rani returning because I was trying to look up the cast members of this episode (Iona Anderson, who plays Wynn, looked insanely familiar to me and I couldn't place her - turns out I'd never seen her before in anything and she just looks like Maya Hawke in this episode LMAO), and saw the Rani's return literally halfway through watching the episode because of the way the damn website I found listed people. I should know better than to do that, dammit, so it's my own fault. Still, I had already seen Carole Ann Ford, so that shock wasn't spoiled for me, thankfully! But yeah, who knows how they'll do the Rani. I kinda care less about her since she's literally never been in a good episode (lmao, sorry Josh Snares, but I do not like The Mark of the Rani). I mean I hope she gets to finally be in a good one now, but I'm much, much more concerned about Susan. I guess we'll see...

But yeah. Even if the finale is an utter disaster, this season is a success for me. I have been thoroughly entertained by each episode - Lucky Day being the one that fell flat for me, but even that wasn't terrible or anything, just a bit off.

Also, Juno Dawson wrote a really good episode, here, I think! That scene where seemingly, everyone in the audience is sucked up into outer space and freezes to death is actually pretty terrifying and dark - I'm glad the Doctor was able to save everyone (although, how he knew to extend the gravity mavity force field up is beyond me), but wow, what a terrifying visual.
 
Linking to Elizabeth Sandifer's review of this one, because, well, finally it's interesting enough to link here (which is to say while I've enjoyed her reviews of the rest of this season, none of them have been worth linking to here, because as much as I love her work, I do not want to make any of you feel sick of her lol). There's context in it that I was utterly unaware of going into this episode (Eurovision including Israel after they really escalated their genocide in late 2023, and, you know, being involved since then, even. Note that I know absolutely nothing about Eurovision, not even that Rylan hosted it, or that Graham Norton was involved somehow, or that there was ever any controversy over it), and a couple of funny lines at Gareth Roberts expense (the relevance of which will make sense when you read them).
 
Kazin said:
Also didn't bi-generation canonically become what happened to every Doctor in the past, allowing for each incarnation to somehow, some way, still be out there?
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RTD has indeed said that, but until we actually see it depicted onscreen I am invoking Death of the Author and declaring it non-canon. I cannot tell you how distasteful I find the idea that every single regeneration sequence we've seen (aside from 14->15) is now no longer "how it really happened." Most of them wouldn't even make sense anymore!

"The time has come for you to change your appearance, Doctor..."
"No, no, stop! You're making me giddy! You can't do this to me! No! No!"
[Pertwee suddenly pops out of Troughton and they both just stand there looking at each other anticlimactically]
"...Right, well, close enough. One of you now gets exiled to Earth for a few years and the other one is free to go on his way, I guess. We'll, uh... let you rock-paper-scissors for it."

Uggghhhhh. It's just such an absurd idea to me. I'm not trying to have a go at you here; if you do consider it canon, that's certainly your prerogative. But a retcon that effectively rewrites the entire series, for (so far) no ascertainable narrative purpose? No thanks.
 
Oh, I wasn't defending it - it's utterly stupid, I agree lmao. I just thought it was canon, whether I liked it or not. Maybe not! That would totally be fine with me haha
 
This one was fine. A lot of people seemed to like it more but it felt more like a pretty standard (albeit solid) adventure with some good ideas and a fun setting that neither overwhelms the actual story but also feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity of said setting. Still good and some pleasant surprises.


The Rani is just left of centre of my guess and... a pull. I liked it but I feel like a choice like this is more for the die hards because unlike Sutekh, the Rani is not really connected to a beloved story. I like that Davies is making these c-list pulls (more interesting than "It's the Daleks again!") because a lot of these characters have potential they never lived up to (give me The Meddling Monk! Like, a less evil Master who just wants to make a more fun timeline even if people die) but I feel like it being A REVEAL only counts for us fans of deep cuts.

My big complaint is the villain. Kid is just not that interesting and based on their final conversation, it seems like the Rani is going to bring him into her circle with manosphere dude. His CAUSE more interesting and I wish they explored that more. But I say the AV Club review headline and it mentioned a "rug pull", which I assume refers to the Rani but I was hoping it would be more like Dot and Bubble and that the Doctor in stopping Kid would inadvertently help Evil Space Corporation build an anti-Helia narrative. I think it would be more interesting to see Kid as someone who feels so deeply cornered that this FEELS like the only way to him but it really tells don't show that so he just seems like a generic terrorist villain.

He, Doc.... Rylan is right there. Even if he's a clone or simply was... frozen before next week (this seems like it could have been a joke to reveal he's already being frozen and thawed NOW) you can ask him a question or two before trying to head to a time on Earth you KNOW it blows up. Seems like you should go to Earth AT LEAST the day before.

Hey, it's Susan. Nice to see her. Curious what it will do with her. And I'm kind of glad she showed up mid-episode rather than a cliffhanger reveal
 
The Time Warrior

"You're serious, aren't you?"
"About what I do? Yes, not necessarily the way I do it."

In this serial, the Brigadier requests the Doctor's aid when scientists all over the world begin disappearing. The Doctor holds up in a safehouse with scientists Professor Rubeish and Sarah Jane Smith. Except Smith isn't a scientist but a reporter going undercover to get the scoop on the story. When Rubeish is abducted, the Doctor is able to trace him back in time and Sarah Jane, who was investigating the TARDIS earlier, is unintentionally taken with him. The Doctor follows Rubeish to the middle ages and learns that a bandit king named Irongron and his men have formed an alliance with Linx, a member of the warring alien race known as the Sontarans. Linx is providing Irongron with advanced weapons to expand his territories while in exchange Irongron is giving Linx resources.

Sarah mistakenly thinks The Doctor is helping Irongron and when taken to a nearby kingdom poorly defended for any attack by Irongron, Sarah convinces them to kidnap the Doctor. They do, inadvertently saving him, and the Doctor manages to clear things up. He, Sarah and the king plot against the evil alliance and manage to set a plan in motion. In particular, the Doctor wants to stop Linx from escaping, as doing so will likely kill everyone in Irongron's castle. The Doctor saves the time displaced scientists and the bandits (save for Irongron, who is killed by Linx) but the castle is destroyed after Linx's ship explodes when an archer allied with the Doctor manages to kill Linx. Everything is set right and the Doctor and Sarah Jane return to the present.

The Time Warrior is a story that proves that Doctor Who stories, particularly ones from this era, work best in four-part stories. The Time Warrior is... kind of dumb. Very straight forward, adventure tale. Heck, the sci-fi element is practically window dressing. This is a Robin Hood but with the Doctor in it (and no thievery). The depiction of the middle ages is cartoonish. But these are not problems, they are points in it's favour. Because while I like the big ideas of the series, sometimes it works purely as adventure. A bit of fun. And in that, the Time Warrior succeeds.

If anything, Robert Holmes script is servicable and breezy enough with some fun witticism and memorable characters but I feel like it's the actors who really breathe life into them. David Daker as Irongron is clearly having a blast as a villain that's so evil yet seems to be just having a great time. He's never really threatening, he's just BIG but it works. Kevin Lindsay as Linx works to. He's evil but mostly pragmatically so, except he's also too darn proud. See, the episode realizes that Linx's problem can be completely solved with ease by the Doctor in a way that removes the stakes and allows all parties to get on. But this storytelling problem is simply solved by having him be a dude who doesn't WANT help and it kind of differentiates the Sontarans from the Daleks or Cybermen. They are also evil but really the greater problem is they just want to win, which is interesting.

Sarah Jane Smith is introduced and while we begin with some 70s sexism with the Doctor asking her to make tea, quickly she's showing real agency by kidnapping the Doctor. Though her assumption is wrong, I feel like only a few female companions in the era get this kind of positioning to show that without the Doctor, they can accomplish a lot. As much as I enjoyed Jo and felt she was often well-served in chemistry with Pertwee, they would also like to make her too ditzy and while the goodbye was sweet, much of the last arc was her stumbling into trouble and all the men being like "hey, don't stumble into trouble. It's annoying." Already, Sarah Jane is off to a strong start.

Overall, The Time Warrior gets by on acting and vibes. This could be easily a Saturday morning cartoon as it is a Saturday evening family series. It's big and silly and fun. I don't think it's the show at it's best but I far prefer it to the series deciding to pad things out.

The best cliffhanger: None where too strong this time. I guess the reveal of Linx, not because it's shocking (the show makes it clear he's an alien) but because he's kind of sticking his tongue out and it's kinda cute.

Next time:

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A piece of trivia no one ever notices when watching this serial (I certainly didn't catch it the first time!) because we've all heard it a billion times since - The Time Warrior is the first time the Doctor's planet, Gallifrey, is named.

Otherwise, enjoy season 11, some of the most uneven TV the show produced in the 1970s.
 
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