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

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
The Tsuranga Conundrum - I was not expecting an adorable deadly gremlin, but it grew on me. A nice combination of silly and menacing. SOme nice character moments wedged in amongst the action too. Not an amazingly memorable episode, but a decent one I thought. (Much more fun than Arachnids for sure, at any rate.)

Demons of the Punjab - I remember you guys were talking about this one earlier, and yeah, it's definitely a more memorable episode. Another good historical looking at a fraught time for humanity. I was suspecting the twist that the assassins weren't actually assassins before it got there, but the alien plot was really almost incidental to the meat of the thing.
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
Demons of the Punjab - I remember you guys were talking about this one earlier, and yeah, it's definitely a more memorable episode. Another good historical looking at a fraught time for humanity. I was suspecting the twist that the assassins weren't actually assassins before it got there, but the alien plot was really almost incidental to the meat of the thing.

This remains my favorite episode of the Whittaker era so far. I've rewatched it a few times and it's just a solid episode the whole way through. Vinay Patel for next showrunner, please.
 

Phantoon

I cuss you bad
Vinay Patel for next showrunner, please.

He wrote my two favourite episodes of the Chibnall era, I wouldn't be averse to it. I wonder if Gaiman might be up for it, he's got some show running experience now and he's a huge fan (in the good sense)
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
I don't see Gaiman doing it, and frankly it should be anyone but a white guy at this point
 

Phantoon

I cuss you bad
I'll settle for somebody who knows what they're doing. I don't think Gaiman would do it as it's not one of his own things, but there's no chance the BBC will give it to Vinay Patel as as far as I can see he's never been a showrunner and it's too difficult a job for a newbie. All three of the very experienced showrunners have struggled to produce regular Doctor Who.

It does raise the question, who is qualified to do it?

Edit: now I wonder what Phoebe Waller Bridge's Doctor Who would look like
 
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Phantoon

I cuss you bad
I need to start properly watching classic Doctor Who. From what I've heard, while Robert Holmes is indeed a conservative it's the small c kind, and he's interested in the little man and mistrustful of authority. Is that right? It's a slightly odd combination.

Anyway, someone should make Pete McTighe watch it and think about what he did.
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
You can't go wrong with The Sun Makers, frankly. It looks a little cheap, especially coming off the Hinchcliffe era, but despite that blows the whole era out of the water imo. And yeah, it's the anti-Kerblam!, that's for sure.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Kerblam - Welp. Yeah, that started out interesting and ended with a wet thud. Went back and read the spoilered discussion you guys had six pages ago, and yeah, pretty much that. I mean, the twist that the shady-seeming middle-management folks actually had the human worker's interests at heart after all was potentially okay, but that sure as hell doesn't mean the system is good, actually, despite everything. Ugh. (And geez, what a bleak, unimaginative vision of the future when the best result you can think of for a society with increasing automation technology is to make sure you continue to have dreary, soul-crushing jobs available for real humans anyway because that's what people really need. God.)

The Witchfinders - Holy shit Alan Cumming was having a lot of fun here and was a delight to watch. (I'm not sure the real James was quite that batshit, though he did definitely prosecute some "witches" in his early days. Also I'm trying to remember where I've seen Cumming before as most of his filmography isn't ringing a bell; maybe it was his LGBTQ advocacy work.) Anyway, reasonably fun episode.
 

Phantoon

I cuss you bad
I recall liking The Witchfinders more than most people, so I'm glad there's now two people that like it! If you've seen X2 he's Nightcrawler. He's Boris from GoldenEye. He's been in a bunch of things.

I think Kerblam! was where I started to huge huge reservations about the whole thing
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
I need to rewatch The Witchfinders. I remember thinking it was alright at the time but I'm having trouble remembering some of the details.

Whatever issues I have with later episodes, you've gotten through the worst episode of the Chibnall era so far (Kerblam) lol
 

Teaspoon

(They)
I've never been much on Big Finish, but Tennant doing Time Lord Victorious stuff to fill in the obvious gap RTD left dangling has me contemplating buying this set.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
It Takes You Away - So my first reaction when we found out what was actually behind things in this episode (via the Doctor monologueing the explanation because no way in hell could you guess it) was that it was awfully damn arbitrary and ridiculous even by Dr Who standards, which is saying something. But by the time she was talking to a sentient universe incarnated as a poorly special-effected frog I had kinda come back around due to how damn charmingly goofy it all was. And the companion's character stuff was good.

The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos - Eh, as a season finale, it was okay but not amazing. I feel like in previous seasons the Ux might have come into play earlier, or at least been foreshadowed, to make things feel more climactic. Still not a fan of Edgelord McGenocide, and not at all clear on why the Ux decided he was their god other than moving the plot. Kind of hilarious that he was defeated by being shot in the foot though. The main characters are all still good and I'm really glad Graham finally got that fistbump.
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
It Takes You Away - So my first reaction when we found out what was actually behind things in this episode (via the Doctor monologueing the explanation because no way in hell could you guess it) was that it was awfully damn arbitrary and ridiculous even by Dr Who standards, which is saying something. But by the time she was talking to a sentient universe incarnated as a poorly special-effected frog I had kinda come back around due to how damn charmingly goofy it all was. And the companion's character stuff was good.

That was pretty much my reaction exactly to that episode. Love that little guy lol

The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos - Eh, as a season finale, it was okay but not amazing. I feel like in previous seasons the Ux might have come into play earlier, or at least been foreshadowed, to make things feel more climactic. Still not a fan of Edgelord McGenocide, and not at all clear on why the Ux decided he was their god other than moving the plot. Kind of hilarious that he was defeated by being shot in the foot though. The main characters are all still good and I'm really glad Graham finally got that fistbump.

Eh? Do you mean The Battle of Recreational Cannabis? Never heard of whatever episode you're talking about
 

Phantoon

I cuss you bad
Eh? Do you mean The Battle of Recreational Cannabis? Never heard of whatever episode you're talking about

Nah, he means The Battle Of Rudyard of Kipling, silly

I liked It Takes You Away, it has a hadoukening Universe Frog. It also has the worst dad in a while in Doctor Who, and apparently no realisation of this, but hey ho
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Resolution - This didn't really feel particularly like a holiday episode (except for themes around family reconciliation I suppose) and I could see people watching it when it came out running into the "this is the only thing we get this year?" issue that's come up before, but as part of a binge it was a fine episode. Did a good job of making a lone Dalek actually scary again, after all the fleets and armies of the previous eras.

Only one more season 'til I'm caught up!
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
I don't mind Resolution. It's actually a better episode than The Return of Doctor Mysterio, frankly.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Spyfall - I liked it. Feels like the new era hitting its stride and finally doing some high-stakes plot, a few goofy moments aside (the motorcycle chase was just silly and not in a particularly entertaining way). For once, I wasn't spoiled and did not see this Master reveal coming, so that was fun. In the second half I just about squee'd when the Doctor landed in the past and I immediately realized she'd run into Lovelace and Babbage, I mean if you could laser-target random historical guest stars to my interests they're way up that list (and Noor Kahn is damn cool too). The only real complaint I had is that the ending is a bit abrupt and deus ex machine; I mean "I was time-traveling anyway so I arbitrarily sabotaged the invasion mechanism to fail at the crucial moment" is a solution that could apply to pretty much literally any Dr Who plot, which makes it not very interesting.

Oh, and it was kind of a double-take moment of "oh hey, here comes Stephen Fry! (and there goes Stephen Fry)." I am kind of wondering behind the scenes why they ditched UNIT as a thing for this era. Lost some actors? Felt like its current incarnation was too much Moffat's thing to keep writing? Felt kind of weird that it all just went away after being a fairly central recurring thing all the way back through the old series.

Anyway, I'd say this is definitely one of the more memorable things Chibnall has written so far, so here's hoping he can keep it up.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Orphan 55 - Eh, wasn't terrible but not really a fave. Didn't Tennant and I think Donna also have a "monsters at a spa" episode? Pretty grim body count in this one. And while I obviously agree with the general message it felt like the Doctor's wrap-up speech spelling out the message went on a bit longer than necessary.

The Dregs reminded me a bit of Ghols from MYTH (the old RTT game). (Combined with the obvious influence from Aliens of course.)
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
Apparently series 13 is coming out fall 2021, will only be 8 episodes long (due to the pandemic, no doubt, so it's hard to get mad about that).
 

sfried

Fluffy Prince
I need to rewatch The Witchfinders. I remember thinking it was alright at the time but I'm having trouble remembering some of the details.

Whatever issues I have with later episodes, you've gotten through the worst episode of the Chibnall era so far (Kerblam) lol
The Witchfinders is the one with King James.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror - This one was fun! The alien queen was some epic overacting, not that that's out of line for Who - she reminded me of the Xmas day spider queen from way back. And a Tesla/Esdison historical is always gonna be a good time. Goran Višnjić is no David Bowie but he was great.
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
The Witchfinders is the one with King James.

That much I remember, just not... anything about the plot or whatever. I know they were trying to find witches and there was like, mud monsters or something?
 

Teaspoon

(They)
The thing that slightly annoyed me about the Tesla one is that there is no way the white supremacist bastard would have given the time of day to Our Fam.

But then if you don't rewrite him from the ground up there's no story, so....I dunno, as a purely fictional character he was entertaining.
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
Here is yet another minisode of Doctor Who I'd not seen until just a few minutes ago (it takes place just before The Name of The Doctor):


They made too dang many of these, sheesh.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Oh hey, I watched Fugitive of the Judoon several days ago but didn't write it up yet.

Whoa. That was pretty sweet! Also not being spoiled on weird twists is nice. Did not see that big one coming, or have any idea how it's going to resolve. Though, for someone who's wiped a lot of memories and had their own wiped at least a few times (including by other species or their tech), it's a little weird that they don't even bring that up as a possible explanation for the apparent contradiction that neither remembers being the other.

Also awesome to see Jack again though it's a pity he didn't get to do much. Seeing as all his scenes were obviously on one sound-stage I'm assuming they didn't have much of the actor's time for this bit, and are maybe just setting up for an episode he's actually in. Suddenly feels like there's a whole lot of threads going on this season!
 
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