Dr Who

Anyone else watching?

Thought the first two were a bit crap, but the following three have been getting better, and darker. Dot and Bubble was ace and the twist at the end was superb. My daughter even looked up from her phone to comment on it.

At her school they are known as The Orange People.

Way better than the last series, space babies was a bit rubbish, this one was quite good.

The one with the white woman last week was genuinely chilling – a bit like the first appearance of the weeping angels.  Not sure what it was about though and the ending was a little odd.

I thought the first two were rubbish.

’Boom’ was good and ‘73 Yards’ was very good.

’Dot and Bubble’ was ok but will go right over the heads of those it was taking a shot at (if they ever stop watching pretty white people on social media, put their phones down and watch it).

That reminded me of the pastel coloured episode of Black Mirror where social status is measured on a 1-5 rating, with added slugs.

I quite liked the first one. The baddie reminded me of Ariel, (from the Crystal Palace episode a few years ago, not the Little Mermaid!). Space babies, yeah that was a bit rubbish. Not caught up with the rest of them yet.

I stopped watching the reboot when Capaldi took over. Loved the Ecclestone and Matt Smith incarnations, tolerated the Tennant gurning years, gave up when the series vanished up its own self referential ar£e. Thought I’d try the 73 Yards episode just now out of curiosity – and it was brilliant.

I stopped watching the reboot when Capaldi took over.

I think it was mainly the writing team that knackered it for him and Jodie Whittaker, (maybe not entirely, I reckon Capaldi was the driving force behind the rockstar timelord aspect of the character, which was incredibly cringy) but that Russel T Davies has taken over as the main man again.

As above Space Babies was terrible but 73 yards was dark and clever.

I’m finding with this new series that there seems to hardly any actual Doctor in it… which is a pity because I thinks he’s the best bit. A very talented actor and will be brilliant at it, more so once he settles into it a bit.

I’m finding with this new series that there seems to hardly any actual Doctor in it… which is a pity because I thinks he’s the best bit. A very talented actor and will be brilliant at it, more so once he settles into it a bit.

The Guardian episode recaps mention something about him being a bit stuffed by prior commitments to filming Sex Education, so there are a few episodes in the series which are “Doctor lite”.

He was in Barbie at the time 73 was filmed.

[spolier]is the spoiler code broken now?[/spoiler]

Bah… can’t post what I want about 73 yards without risking ruining the viewing experience for those catching up. Shame.

[spolier]is the spoiler code broken now?[/spoiler]

Spoiler for

That’s not how you spell spoiler

🤗

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I enjoyed a greyed up Amol Rajan… and he got his posture spot on

I’m finding it all a bit meh with not-so subtle social messaging – like overtly telling a Space Baby they’re unique in this universe and can grow up to be anything they want! Its trying a bit too hard on that front while missing the adventures of Dr Who. Maybe its a generational thing, maybe the adventures over commentary will return with Nguti actually front and centre.

not-so subtle social messaging

It’s *DR WHO* … have you missed the last 60 years?!?

Maybe it’s the lack of subtlety. Or maybe it’s too subtle. I never know and am probably on the stupid side of the fence.

In 73, what was the distant woman saying to people to make them freak out? Did I miss something, does it even matter?

not-so subtle social messaging

I’d go further than that and call it social engineering – I guess whether you’re happy about that depends on whether you approve of the direction of travel.

I think it was mainly the writing team that knackered it for him and Jodie Whittaker,

Yep, I’d concur.  12 and 13 were both poorly served.  Annoying really, Capaldi was the Doctor I’d been waiting for since 2005.

[spolier]is the spoiler code broken now?[/spoiler]

Spoiler tags work fine. Spolier tags, however, do not. 😁

In 73, what was the distant woman saying to people to make them freak out? Did I miss something, does it even matter?

It was never disclosed and honestly, I never expected it to be. The hand gestures on the other hand, I was waiting for some sort of “oh, that’s what she’s doing!” denouement at the end but that never happened either.

Anyway.  Dot and Bubble I thought was mostly great, as a social commentary it was on the nose.  But there were a few points I took issue with.  Warning: major spoilers ahead if you haven’t watched the episode yet.

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1. For someone who couldn’t walk, she suddenly learned how to run just fine in the space of about 30 seconds.

2. The Dot being malevolent rendered the slug things redundant.  They could have easily killed off their owners en masse if that was their goal.

3. Dot was benign right up until the Doctor pointed out that it wasn’t.  That felt a bit deus ex machina, and his reasoning was a leap of logic.

4. Her sacrificing Golden Boy seemed wildly out of character, even for a vacuous airhead.  What we were supposed to take from that?  She went from sympathetic victim of the system to someone you wanted to get eaten in a single beat.

5. Unless I missed something, the Doctor wanting to “save them all” when they had a perfectly suitable place to go made no sense.  Also, he cries too much.

6. I was really expecting this to be an eco tale.  She makes a fuss early on about her all-natural sweater and the nearby forest is specifically mentioned in terms of nature.  I spent half the episode waiting for the big reveal to be “they’re eating those wearing man-made fibres” rather than “they’re going through the phone book.”

It was never disclosed and honestly, I never expected it to be.

The fact that one whispered sentence caused people, including her mum and the UNIT gang to completely abandon Ruby for the rest of her life feels like a significant plot point that needs a conclusion.

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Maybe not too long to wait as apparently she’s already being replaced for the next series.

On that last spoiler, I don’t believe that to be the case.  It was an unsubstantiated rumour.  To the best of my knowledge

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the next series has started filming and she’s still in it.

  (Source: SFX Magazine a couple of months back)

ION,

William Russell has died aged 99.  He played Ian Chesterton in Hartnell’s days and recently made a cameo appearance in the Companions Anonymous support group at the tail end of the last series.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/jun/04/william-russell-obituary