You could possibly expand upon that by supposing that the regeneration into 10 AND then just-so-happens to land in Donna's back yard represents the TARDIS (to the extent the TARDIS is involved in regeneration which strikes me as a bit of a murky thing to imply) sensing that he's pretty much HAS to process what he's just gone through and pairing these two is the best way to expedite that. Anyway, I really enjoyed this. It felt VERY comfortable and familiar in a way that they probably really needed to do right now.
The Star Beast was a lovely return to form - the show felt fun, entertaining and well-put-together again. The last few years has, at best, managed two of those in any one storyline. It also managed to be inclusive in an organic fashion, and no point did I feel someone was box ticking or CV enhancing, which is a bit of a rarity for the BBC these days. I don't want to see someone in a wheelchair levered in to a story, I want to see a character who happens to be in a wheelchair. That's the difference between genuine inclusivity and doing it because it burnishes your creds. Only bump was the "male presenting Time Lord" bit You've got a good comedian in Tate, so if you want to play that card, do it comedically as it's the kind of thing Donna would do to tweak the Doctor. "'Course you didn't fink about it. Not got a pair of these anymore 'ave ya?" *Doctor makes exasperated face* Dr Who has always done a bit of commentary, but it's when you take a lecturing, hectoring tone, people switch off, so not only are not getting your message across, you're taking a scythe to viewing figures. But, by and large, this had everything that Whittaker should have had, and I'm not just saying that as she's a local lass, but a talent the series never really made full use of. I found Wild Blue Yonder a bit meh - wasn't just the arms that were too long, so was the dragged out plot - good ideas, but not implemented well. It was basically The Thing, but directed by Karen rather than John Carpenter, with a bit of Cube and a bit of a Lexx vibe too. And of course a dash of Bridgerton with Isaac Newton. They missed an opportunity for the Doctor to switch the terror about too, the Doctor having a dark streak has been shown a number of times, and the fact he can think very fast was shown when Missy was describing him during the Capaldi years. Trying to become the Doctor should be a very dangerous thing for anything to try. It was the filler bringing in the Toymaker though, so next week should be back to the good stuff, and I'm looking forward to Gatwa being introduced.
Eh, I felt it was a bit forced in some bits... but it was an overall great story and nice return to form for the Doctor. I think it's criminal that both Whittaker and Capaldi's talents were underused and wasted on some truly awful writing. They're both phenomenal actors and just all-around likeable people.
Suck it, haters. ‘Doctor Who’: BBC Gets Complaints Over Yasmin Finney Transgender Role – Deadline The corporation has revealed it had 144 messages from disgruntled viewers in its fortnightly report on audience complaints. Some said Heartstopper star Finney’s character was “anti-male,” while others said it was an “inappropriate inclusion of [a] transgender character.” The Star Beast special was watched by more than 7.6M people meaning the complainants make up a tiny proportion of the audience. It is not unusual for the BBC to receive complaints over transgender storylines or reporting, but the corporation will likely stand by the representation of Rose in Doctor Who. Finney features as the daughter of Shaun and Donna in the 2023 specials. Her family supports her transition, but is depicted by writer Russell T Davies as still coming to terms with her pronouns. At one point during The Star Beast, Catherine Tate’s Donna tells her mother: “You have a kid. You think, good I’ve got it, that’s mine. Then she grows up into this extraordinarily beautiful thing and you think: where the hell did she come from? How lucky am I?” During a press conference last month, Davies was unequivocal about his ambition to reflect more of society on screen.
Saw an article earlier that said that when Davies contact NPH about the role dude had NEVER HEARD OF Doctor Who. How TF does that even happen?
Well, he's American, and he was busy acting as a kid instead of farting around watching PBS on Saturday nights.
I enjoyed that, but first lets tackle that elephant dancing to the Spice Girls in the room... Story itself:
NPH basically cannot fail (although, to nipick, I wish he'd dropped the cheesy German faux accent once they were inside his maze) It seems to be an unpopular view but, as much as I love Tennant, I worry a bit about how this will play out. You know how in the comic books (and related media) there's often this question of "If this big bad is threatening the earth why didn't they just call Superman?' and his absence often has to be explained...this feels like there will be occasions where a second doctor with a second tardis would come in really handy. To say nothing of "which one will the Master decide to fuck with?" and such. Would have been better to somehow "depower" Donna's Doctor (say by not having a TARDIS!) it seems to me.
True, but outside of enemies capable of time travel/reality-warping, there's never actually been a real reason why "our" Doctor has to be the one to show up and save the day. There's enough wiggle room in most Doctors' tenures that Three could arrive with Jo and stop the Nestenes in 2024. UNIT obviously have some sort of protocol for old Doctors popping by - see Shirley being concerned that "Ten" seemed to know his own future when talking to 14 in The Star Beast. Keep Kate out of the way, no scientific advisors met out of order, etc.
This was posted in reply to a Youtube video about the episode and at first reading it seems to me maybe the best speculation for how this can/should play out (much better than the speculation in the actual video IMO): The way I see it, the Toymaker shooting the Doctor and demanding he regenerate was him unknowingly trying to break a fixed point in time (as established, regenerations are fixed points in time) by making the 15th doctor appear earlier in the timeline than he should've. The Toymaker made the universe part of his domain, but when he tried to get the rules of play to overwrite the rules of the universe (forcing a regeneration before its time), the universe had to break causality, making 15's birth happen before 14's death in order to not break either set of rules. That way the fixed point in time is maintained (and thus not breaking the rules of the universe), and the 15th doctor is brought to the Toymaker (and thus not breaking the rules of play). some podster should bet Davies to come on for a discussion of exactly this point. It would be helpful if we were not all just speculating.
Eh, Moffat already broke the seal on that by having 12 and Nardole hang out at one UK university for decades.
Oh yeah, someone should go tell Martha that the Doctor doesn't like talking about his old companions.
Moping alone apart from occasional check-ins by the Paternosters. Not really conducive to mental health. See above. Possibly, but the siege bit kinda sours it. I'll give you this. Though he would have always been mentally counting down to the Library. Again, not really interacting with anyone until Bill came along and seeing it more as penance. Regular psychology visits with Missy have to take a mental toll as well. Again, your idea of "chilling" is quite... chilling. She was in solitary for a lot of that, REALLY not conducive to fixing mental health issues.
Well, I recall the premise of the episode is that the Doctor "never stops," but there are several examples of the Doctor in fact stopping for a whole. If the standard is "the Doctor never settled down with a surrogate family," I'd argue that both the Ponds and River should count. Of course they died in the end, but the Doctor is immortal, he's doomed to outlive everyone he knows. Even Donna, even nuRose, even Mel. Will he be less traumatized watching the Nobles die of old age in front of him than he was knowing Amy died of old age in the past? I dunno. But it's fine, I'm cool with it with it even if the mechanics don't necessarily make sense since the outcome is a happy, well-adjusted 15th Doctor, and 13th retroactively being painted in a new, more nuanced and interesting light.
Well, Donna's speech was "I just lived, day by day". Which implies some form of normality, even if boring. Just being with people. But yeah, the important bit is we get back to a fun, non-mopey Doctor. Rusty does love his angst, tho.
Eccleston is fantastic actor but he sounds like he's one hell of an asshole to work with. Check out his comments about some of the other films he's worked on (linked in the article above).
VERY happy with Ncuti as the Doctor. And if that smash cut in the credits is not: And instead who it probably is, I will hunt RTD down and force feed him sprouts.
Haven't seen the Christmas Special yet, but based on some of the reviews I've seen, I stand by my earlier comment about RTD and BBC saying to the fans, "Oh... you assholes didn't like a female doctor? Hold my beer." I really liked what little of Ncuti I saw in the final episode of the 60th anniversary special. Hoping I can get around to watching the latest episode tonight.
Just catching up. The Star Beast: Wild Blue Yonder: Not a whole lot to say about this one. Just a typical, fun sci-fi adventure, and there's nothing wrong with that. The Giggle:
@tafkats I think it's fair to post comments without the annoying spoiler tags, especially when the episodes aired more than three weeks ago. Anyway, just saw the "Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road". It's absolutely bonkers and so much fun. Don't think there was a single character that I didn't like. RTD is definitely taking the series in a much-needed different direction. EDIT: Also, there's no way he wasn't hopped out on some non-prescription drugs when he wrote that whole baby sequence.
