NuWho. The closest the classic series came was the 1st Doctor episode "The Feast Of Steven" (part of a larger story - in those days each ep had its own mini-title like a chapter) where the Doc and companions (including the titular Steven) share a Christmas meal (and Hartnell breaks the fourth wall by wishing the viewers Merry Christmas as well). Originally, the idea of a Christmas special with longer running-time to introduce Tennant was RTD's pitch as it meant the episode was officially part of Series 2 and could thus feature in his budget negotiations after the positive reaction to the revival. I don't know if he intended for them to carry on, but they were such big ratings winners I doubt the BBC cared.
This was before anyone knew that FOX was entirely the wrong choice to front a show about an alien hero dedicated to peace and social justice. It's like asking Lauren Faust to write a kids show about Hitler.
The attempt to "Americanize" a quintessentially British show was their first mistake. The second was casting that bimbo as a potential Companion. McGann is a fine actor (all the McGann boys are) who got the shaft on this venture, IMO.
It gets a lot of stick for the "Americanisation" but it wasn't THAT bad. The Doctor reacting to the cop by turning a gun on himself was classic, and there were lots of other nice touches so I could dismiss the "half-human", "cloaking device" and sexual rivalry (but hey, that's back now anyway) stuff as pilot ep kinks.
The Doctor vs Nibbler is the best description yet, thanks LoneMagpie! Shades of the Pig Astronaut in Aliens of London, but it lived!
Huh. I was thinking of the alien cannibals in Galaxy Quest - deceptively cuddly (Christmas marketing, anyone?), but deadly.
Those or the Scraplets from Transformers: Prime. Anything cute but with more teeth than the Osmond family, as Rimmer might put it. Nibbler is the closest, though - right down to the excited squeaking on identifying a snack, plus the ability to ingest pretty much anything.
You are dead to me now. I will guarantee if there's an Orville plot you thought was a fresh take on TOS, Futurama did it first, but with more fart gags.
Really? There's quite a bit of crossover between Who and Futurama, and not just that episode in New New York featuring a guy named Brannigan, or the whole thing about a crack in the universe.
As a jaded asshole, I'd recommend it for the same reason I recommend Who. It's FUN. Watch a few and bounce. Go on. Futurama too.
My notion of humor is limited. Galaxy Quest made me laugh out loud. So do moments in Who...followed by moments that bring tears to my eyes. If I can say the lines before the actors do, it ain't funny. JMO.
Not fair that. Grace is a surgeon. Rose, her immediate successor, is far more a "bimbo". As for this week's episode - utter garbage. Chibnall is proving my fears - that he is the king of average scripts.
Bad casting, then. Script had its moments, but not enough to redeem it. Dammit, Whittaker's a fine actress (q.v. Broadchurch) and this doesn't do her justice. One minute The Doctor can't remember the name for "tongue," and the next minute she's nattering on about croissants and "those little fried Portuguese things"? Pulleeze. Chibnall's squeezing all the "alien" out of her to try to make her appealing, and it's having the opposite effect.
Yeah. I don't feel she's The Doctor one bit, and I lay that squarely at his feet. His pre-showrunner work on Who was dire (as, frankly, were series two and three of Broadchurch, which were like a souped up soap opera). It's possible that his general lack of talent will undermine the first female Doctor, and that might convince the Beeb to go back to a man for the foreseeable future. The next few episodes will be the test of whether or not he is the key problem as they are the ones of the season not written by him.
if they ever get around to including Jodi in a "I ran into one of my past selves" story, I think it would be fun for the McGann edition to appear with her.
Nor indeed is unfulfilled potential. I had a recently graduated Ph.D student who is the archetypal "Made in Essex" fake tan/wears pink and ugg boots type. And is whip-smart when it comes to science, to the point one of her former industrial supervisors just offered her a job with their new spinout company. Rose was a bit "everygirl" but smart enough to learn, as was Donna. Their shot in life was a blue box, rather than a university degree or medical training. And no-one points out that Amy was gonna be a strippergram until her looks failed her, if not for the Doctor.
Amy only had trouble in school because she acted out a lot, because no one believed in her "imaginary friend." Also, Mels was probably a bad influence.
Demons of the Punjab. Chibnall's era is continuing the era of the pure historical, beyond enough alien involvement to keep the Doctor and friends in place. This time, we view the partition of India and the heartache this brings. Yaz is Muslim Pakistani. Modern Brits don't question it, but there was an India where Muslims, Hindis and Sikhs lived together and fought together, only for far-off Westerners to decide their borders. We see here a love story of a Muslim girl and Hindu guy, torn apart because one family member bought into the divisive rhetoric. And how that means Yaz' history is not what she believed, because of course her grandmother would hide the pain of those events. The Doctor here gets moments of brilliance and steel, but in the end her role is what it SHOULD be - not a slayer of demons (for the demons turn out to be good) but a witness and supporter of humanity finding its own feet, even if it slips once in a while. Yaz' grandfather is ground under the wheels of history but the demons will remember and, now, so will Yaz. And his sacrifice and those of all others who die for "forbidden" love will eventually chip away the walls. We hope.
Well, yes and no. There is no doubt of the involvement of the Empire on the drawing up for what is now India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, but I think it is also worth remembering the push from within Indian at the time, particularly by Indian Muslims, for a separate Muslim state. Indeed that fight was decades long by 1947. It wasn't simply a case of whitey deciding for them as your post suggests. I think this one of those topics where it's the done thing in the West to feel guilt, but Indians who pushed for separation were just as much to blame for the destruction of many families and communities.
Very good. They didn't take the easy way out at all. The two historical episodes have been the best of the run, so far. And I really like the mourning aliens. Bit heavy-handed as allegory, especially if you've read Butler, but still. Am I the only one who thinks Whittaker's not showing as much range as she could? Several scripts have let her down, but this one was quite good, aside from the lukewarm wedding speech, and in those good moments especially, she seemed to be delivering every line as if it were pointed and she was out of breath, even if it called for more quiet and calm.
Now we're getting somewhere. Caught a glimmer of “the Man That Stops the Monsters” in her rage at the Thijarans (“It’s you who are desecrating this planet! I know who you are; I know what you do!”). Also a good history lesson for those who don’t know it. But the name dropping (Mountbatten and Einstein in the same episode? Really?) needs to be dialed back, IMO.
Kerblam! Or, the Doctor Takes On Amazon, except not. The Doctor gets a delivery from Kerblam!, a space stand-in for Amazon. It's a Fez. Yes, Jodie Whitaker looks as adorkawesome in a Fez as Matt Smith. But the back of the packing slip has "Help Me" written on it, so off go Team TARDIS to investigate. They land at Kerblam!s main distribution hub (an entire moon) and go undercover. As part of a workforce that could be fully automated but, due to workers' rights laws, are mandated to be 10% actual people. Instantly relateble and likeable workers go missing, and the Kerblam! robots seem to be behind it. It's not quite that simple. A classic "Doctor and friends escape various death traps and figure out the plot" ep which blends in social commentary. The "bad guy" here is railing against the ethics of Kerblam! but in doing so planning mass deaths to "wake" up the people, and becoming a worse threat than the company who - as the Doctor points out - have only molded themselves that way because society not only permits, but encourages, it. A bit simplistic considering our Amazon is still human-run, and Kerblam! is controlled by an AI that is genuinely seeking to fulfill its programming, but not bad. My only complaint is that this was the PERFECT ep to bring back the Nestenes. Seriously, there's a shot when the Doctor and Team TARDIS realise the nature of the threat that just screams Nestenes. But I'll go with what we got.
