Honeyfuggle's Doctor Who Reviews

Doctor Who - The Revival: Series 15 Recap

2025-06-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the end of another short season of Doctor Who, and as it turns out...the end of the very short Ncuti Gatwa era. Gatwa is one of the shortest eras of the show just behind Christopher Eccleston's single season back in 2005. Paul McGann may have only been on screen for one TV movie but the man played the Doctor brilliantly on audio since 2001, and he's still going strong there. So this recap goes from just an overview of the season but also Ill think back on Gatwa's entire tenure.

First, this series. Like any season of Doctor Who it had its ups and downs. For the good, I thought "The Robot Revolution" was a good bit of retro-futuristic fun. "The Well" and "The Story & The Engine" were perfect little Doctor Who adventures. And while I will also lump them in a bit with the weaker side of this season, there is plenty to enjoy in the two-part finale.

On the flip side, we have "Lux," which is a gimmick episode that didn't really work for me. I found myself torn on "Lucky Day," which had some good ideas but also some iffy real world criticism (the villain has uses influencer tactics to try and paint UNIT as fascists, but then a few episodes later Kate says that everyone in UNIT has a microchip put into them so they can watch them at all times...so the baddy was right?). Also, while a Doctor-lite episode can produce great stuff...its really annoying that in a season of only 8 episodes we are still doing this. It brings Gatwa's screen time down even more, especially now that he is leaving. I was also not totally into the song contest episode, and felt the finale was kind of a lot of build up to nothing with the Rani and Omega...even if I do think they handled Gatwa's exit nicely.

Overall...a mixed bag...I mean when I like 50% of the episodes its not the best is it? But in the episodes I liked I think I enjoyed them more than anything last season...and since I did like the previous season that says something I suppose.

In terms of the TARDIS team this year, I preferred Belinda over last year's Ruby Sunday. Ruby does make some returns here, and I never disliked her I just don't really feel anything at all towards her. But Belinda was likable and the fact that she was something of a reluctant but helpful companion was nice. We've had too many companions who fawn over the Doctor endlessly, you need ones that are a little different now and then. Maybe you need ones like this MORE often actually.

If there were more episodes in a season we could really get to know and love this version of the Doctor. But honestly, the Fifteenth Doctor felt like he was more flash than substance to me more often than not. I like that he had such energy but I rarely felt like he had a whole lot of character under the surface. And because he has a Hollywood calling, he's ditched the role quickly. The guy never even battled a Dalek. Is he even really THE Doctor then? I guess so, but he is going to probably remain low in my rankings for a long time. I never felt truly connected to this version of the Doctor, which is a shame. He clearly gave it a ton of enthusiasm...but it never felt totally like the Doctor to me. For all the shit people gave Whitaker...she felt like The Doctor to me numerous times.

Maybe this is just the show now. It casts an actor, they get so overly scrutinized and chewed up and spit out, while the show makes less episodes a season and they quit too soon. And then in a mad attempt to try and keep fans happy, they keep casting some old face as the Doctor.

That said...RTD seems to be trying to play coy with the whole Billie Piper thing. The credits stated "Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor" then "Jodie Whitaker as The Doctor" and then...."Introducing Billie Piper". Usually this would be the credit that introduced them "as The Doctor." And they specifically didn't do that. And RTD's quote after the episode aired seems to say things like "how who and what?" about her...and so I just wonder if he is pulling some kind of gimmick and she won't really stick around.

But sometimes I do wonder if the show is just going to eat its own tail and not be worth it anymore.

NEXT TIME: I guess there is some spin-off coming?

The Tomb of Omega

2025-06-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

Story: The Reality War
Written By: Russell T Davies
Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2025

The Doctor is saved from his fall by that lady he made friends with at Christmas at the Time Hotel. He then has her open various doors from reality into UNIT HQ, this brings all of UNIT back to reality and they begin to fight these wild giant bone monsters that wander around the planet for some reason. The Doctor goes off to stop the two Ranis from unsealing Omega but they do it anyway, and Omega is not like a mutated giant skeleton and heats the younger Rani while the Mrs. Flood version fucks off as quickly as possible. The Doctor then uses the Vindicator to push Omega back into his tomb of hell. Meanwhile Ruby teleports into Conrad's weird little room and manages to get to the baby, wish Conrad a happy life and then wishes things to be normal.

During all of this crazy battle stuff at UNIT, the Doctor put Belinda and their dream child into a zero room hoping that the child would somehow survive the return to reality. And she seems too, even though the Doctor used the wish baby to ask for no more wishes. And the Doctor and Belinda plan to travel the universe with their weird child. But then the child disappears and only Ruby can remember her. She convinces the Doctor that the universe is still not right, there are other minor glitches but the only wish that seems to have survived is the one for Conrad to be happy...and if even one person is missing he needs to fix reality, and bring the dream child back.

To do this, the Doctor decides he must use up regeneration energy into the TARDIS to alter the timeline slightly...and the Thirteenth Doctor shows up to warn him about the dangers of this. What a shock to see Jodie Whitaker show up for this. Almost as shocking as what this is all leading towards: Gatwa is leaving the show already and going to regenerate. The Doctor does his goofy regeneration time altering madness and wakes up in a back yard. He then finds that Belinda is home and Poppy exists! All is well...except it turns out that Belinda had been telling him all along that she needed to be home to get back to her child, he just can't fully remember it. We get tons of flashbacks of her throughout the series talking about needing to get home in time for her child, and how the child is totally human, a product of her and her ex.

The Doctor even scans and confirms Poppy is fully human. He says his goodbyes to Belinda, who is a responsible parent who wouldn't dare risk her child's life in TARDIS adventures...and the Doctor heads back into the TARDIS to change his face yet again...and into Billie Piper!

The show is going to devour itself one day if it can't move forward. Are we going to get a face from the past in between every new Doctor now? Oh boy, it'll be interesting to see this former companion's take on the Doctor I suppose.

This episode is messy in my opinion. We have now had essentially three big finales that end with big cluttered battles at UNIT Tower. The 60th Specials concluded with the UNIT battle against the Toymaker, last season ended with the Sutekh thing at UNIT...and now we get the Two Ranis and Omega and bone monsters all shooting it out at...you guessed it...UNIT Tower. It feels pretty fucking repetitive. I miss the old days where every series had its own flavor and its own ending. Series 1 in that space station and a horde of Daleks, Series 2 in Torchwood and the Cybermen/Dalek fight, Series 3 in the Valiant against the Master...I mean They felt like distinct endings to distinct seasons. This finale just feels like treading water a bit. I hope the next season can end on something other than "the end of everything...at UNIT!"

I also think that after 20 years of fans saying "its gonna be the Rani" its kind of hilarious that RTD gave us two Ranis and ultimately made them useless and thrown out halfway through the finale. But hey what if we brought back Omega, and then made him feel almost exactly like last year's Sutekh? And then have him taken care of immediately. The villains of this episode are pretty weak. Even the lesser villain of Conrad is just wished away.

I will say the idea of the Doctor having a child was irking me until she disappeared, I thought that was pretty interesting. And the Doctor giving his life to save a daughter that turned out to have never been his at all...I thought that was all good stuff. And so ends the season...time to do a little recap!

NEXT TIME: Series 15 Recap

Slips of Doubt

2025-06-03T18:48:00.000-07:00

Story: Wish World
Written By: Russell T Davies
Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2025

The Rani takes some baby that can grant wishes from the past, apparently a creation possible because the Doctor has broken down the barriers between the gods and our universe. We then flash to a world where everything is "perfect" thought it is really just the wet dream of a right wing incel, particularly Conrad from the Ruby episode. The Doctor and Belinda are living as man and wife, with the Doctor going off to work with Belinda staying home to care for their child. But Ruby shows up at their door saying they do not have a child. Doubt creeps in for everybody...but not fully at first.

Eventually The Doctor and Belinda are arrested for their doubts and brought up to the Rani's wild bone castle in the sky, and her whole plan is revealed...she used Conrad to create his creepy little world not because she wanted to trick people or keep everyone ruled under her thumb...no that is more the Master's M.O., what she wants is to sew the seeds of doubt, because doubt will slowly destroy the world. and if the Doctor doubts hard enough and remembers who he is...it will crack reality itself. Why does she want to do this? Because she wants to take a peak underneath reality. To find someone...Omega!

Of course it all seems to work, The Doctor remembers who he is and the world is crumbling, and the Doctor is falling into nothingness as the hint of the terribleness of Omega is yet to come. Oh boy...lets see where we end up!

NEXT TIME: The Underverse

Harmony Arena

2025-06-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

Story: The Interstellar Song Contest
Written By: Juno Dawson
Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2025

The TARDIS lands on Harmony Arena so the Doctor can use the Vindicator once more, and once they see it is an outer space version of Eurovision in the distant future with Rylan Clark alive and well because he's been chryogenically frozen for decades...they just have to stick around. But some alien terorists take control of the arena and shoot everyone into space. Belinda hits a ceiling and ends up sealed in the space station, while the Doctor uses a confetti canon to shoot himself back into the station. The episode moves in a pretty predictable fashion from there. The Doctor and Belinda both independently try to work their way to the control room to stop the baddies...the baddies reasoning for their terrorist behavior is revealed (the company that sponsors the event destroyed their world and then bad mouthed them around the universe for it), and the Doctor both stops the terrorism while helping to showcase the gross behavior of the sponsor. Also everyone shot into space is saved. It's typical Doctor Who even if at one point the Doctor is extra violent in a way I didn't care for.

Then as the credit begin to roll, the stop for a mid credits scene. Mrs. Flood, who was seen early on in the episode monitoring the Doctor is one of the many people rescued...only it's nearly killing her. And she bi-generates. Yes...because this needs to be a thing now. And we finally get the reveal of who Mrs. Flood. She is a Rani, while the new younger version is THE Rani. For 20 years...Doctor Who fandom has speculated, both seriously and as a joke, that every mystery female character in the show would at some point turn out to be the Rani. And it was never going to be the Rani. Because the Rani is a very lame villain from the 1980s. Well...she is okay in "Mark of the Rani" but "Time and the Rani" is awful, and she is bad in it. Also her appearance in "Dimensions in Time" is horrible but everything is horrible in that so I guess its not her fault.

But here she is. The Rani. Finally, fans can stop guessing that "she's gonna be the Rani." Or maybe they will only double down now that she has actually returned. Wonder what she's up to.

NEXT TIME: The Wish Baby

The Barber

2025-06-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

Story: The Story & the Engine
Written By: Inua Ellams
Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2025

Being that the Doctor has no real home and is currently experiencing being black for the first time, he has really come to find his home away from home Earth isn't always as kind to him as it once was. As such he has found some solace and home and happiness by visiting a barbershop in Nigeria. He makes a stop off to this barber shop only to find that while you can enter it from Earth, you cannot leave. There is a new barber holding men hostage, they must tell stories while he cuts their hair in order to power his story engine, which takes his crazy spider ship across the universe so he can get to some Gods and kill them for revenge.

It's a perfectly weird kind of story that Doctor Who does quite well. While this feels pretty original, it also just felt like the kind of story I could imagine listening to on Big Finish on a rainy day. It just works for me. I liked the previous series but this one is capturing that classic Doctor Who storytelling a bit better. And while I won't pretend Belinda is a fresh new character with a ton of depth or anything, I think I so far like her as a companion a bit more than Ruby. Neither character is (so far) topping any lists for me, but I prefer Belinda I suppose.

Anyhow, that's it. This is a simple cut and dry Doctor Who story, with a simple yet wild premise...executed exactly as it should be. I call that a win.

NEXT TIME: Die Hard Meets Eurovision

Podcaster

2025-06-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

Story: Lucky Day
Written By: Pete McTighe
Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2025

It's kind of odd how even with a production schedule that has been lightened from 13 episodes to 8, we still have a Doctor-lite episode. It made sense to give the leads a break back when they'd shoot for nearly a year to get 13 episodes and Christmas specials done...but these days it just seems odd. Still, if you are going to do a Doctor-lite episode, using it as an excuse to bring back the previous companion and focus in on what it means to be back on Earth after all those exciting adventures. I think that is a good premise.

Ruby ends up on a podcast to discuss her life with the Doctor and UNIT, or at least what she can. The podcaster and her strike up a friendship which blooms into a relationship. Only it turns out he is a piece of shit. He was only using her to expose UNIT as using tax dollars and fake special effects to trick people into thinking there are aliens that they need protecting from.

I like the "what does life mean after the Doctor" storyline, felt a little iffy on the whole podcaster bit. I think I just need Doctor Who to provide an escape from all that crap that endlessly happens with influencers and political weirdos gaining traction on social media for nonsense they barely believe in and ruining our world...and this just highlights it and kind of put me off. I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea for a story, or even that it was poorly executed...I just want a bit of escapism from the blight on humanity that is social media.

NEXT TIME: Barbershop Chronicles

Broken Mirrors

2025-06-01T19:02:00.000-07:00

Story: The Well
Written By: Russell T. Davies & Sharma Angel-Walfall
Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2025

The TARDIS lands in the middle of a space mission, and because this Doctor is all about getting drezzed for the occasion, The Doctor and Belinda are in proper space gear. They head down to some dark planet and discover everyone in the mining operation has been killed and all the mirrors are broken, They find one soul survivor, a deaf cook. As the mystery unravels, the Doctor discovers to his horror that they are actually on the planet Midnight, the same diamond planet in which the Tenth Doctor faced a mysterious foe who attached itself to someone on his tour bus and nearly got everyone killed. "Midnight" is genuinely one of my favorite all-time episodes, and ranks high amongst my favorite RTD-penned episodes. So it is fun to revisit it and get a variation on the story.

In fact, one of the things I like about this episode is that it does something different with the same mysterious monster, but still never really shows it and keeps a ton of mystery about it. I'd have hated more explanation or actually seeing whatever it is...because that would suck all of the fantastic energy out of what makes this such a great doctor Who monster.

So this is a definite win of an episode for me, and I would also say it gives us one of Gatwa's best performances as the Doctor. Can I just say though, I absolutely despise this Doctor's penchant for calling everyone "honey" or "babes"? Personally, if anyone ever calls me any cutesy nickname and they are not my wife...I genuinely despise that, so I was sort of rooting for the guy who called him out on it in this episode. What a shame that guy turned out to be such a dick and got killed for his own idiotic behavior. Apparently I am supposed to be on the Doctor's side for that awful character trait he has in this regeneration? Guess what I am not.

This episode also furthers the season's mystery box, with Earth being missing from history apparently. Also as with all episodes this season, Mrs. Flood keeps showing up hidden in each adventure. Hmm...who is she?

Anywho...I liked this episode quite a bit, and would love to have more of THIS version of RTD, please.

NEXT TIME: Return of Ruby

Mr. Ring-a-Ding

2025-06-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

Story: Lux
Written By: Russell T. Davies
Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2025

The Doctor plans to get Belinda home by landing sometime on Earth and using a device to pinpoint 2025 and then pull them in like a fishing line. The land in 1952 Miami, and the Doctor is immediately drawn in to a theater that is suspiciously locked up. Months ago a creature was unleashed there, a cartoon character came to life and trapped all 15 people in film. The Doctor investigates, discovers the creature is another Harbinger (like the Toymaker and the Maestro), this one being Lux, the God of Light. Like last year's "The Devil's Chord" this episode takes something I am a big fan of, then the Beatles and this time the movies, and doesn't do anything particularly interesting

I don't think I am the biggest fan of these Harbinger characters, or at least I don't really like their episodes much. Maestro was over the top and when they did a full-on musical number I began to actively dislike the episode. Also the Beatles could not have been more poorly cast. Anyhow, this episode has Mr. Ring-a-ding, a sort of old school cartoon character who is brought to life, and I think a big part of the failing of this episode for me is that Mr. Ring-a-Ding doesn't work. They try to do the Fleischer animation style but it looks too modern maybe. I dunno. Also cartoon characters from the golden age of animation rarely sung full musical numbers like this guy does. And the song feels absolutely like a last minute job to me. They were meant to have a silly song and no one in the production remembered to write it until the last minute.

When I was a kid there was an episode of the show "Are You Afraid of the Dark" in which there was. theater where a Nosferatu like monster is able to leave the screen. This has stuck with me for years even though I am sure if I watched it now it would feel more silly than scary. Anyhow my point is this wasn't as effective as that. And I am a huge fan of movies and going to the theater, so an episode where the premise is around that should be targeted towards me...but the episode is more interested in breaking the fourth wall than actually doing something clever with its premise, at least in my opinion.

NEXT TIME: Return to Midnight

Missbelindachandra One

2025-06-01T14:36:00.000-07:00

Story: The Robot Revolution
Written By: Russell T. Davies
Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2025

And we are back! And I am late! I am actually writing this review on the day the finale has been released, and so I am well behind. I finally decided to jump back into Who a couple of days ago, and so far...I just watched the series opener and then was too busy going to the movies (literally went to the theater three days in a row), so I haven't had a moment to really write down my thoughts on it. But here we go...it was fine! It's a perfectly serviceable Doctor Who episode, and that is really it. That is not even a complaint. I think this was Doctor Who doing what it does best, just a sort of wacky sci-fi story that entertains. I just don't know if I have a ton of thoughts on the story itself.

We get a new companion, taking the place of the character that as I write this I am struggling to recall the name of. I want to say Millie but perhaps that was the actress? Okay I am looking it up...

Ruby Sunday! Right. Such a truly magnificent memorable companion. One for the ages. And I was right, she was played by someone named Millie. Anyhow, she is now gone, possibly to return in a guest spot or two (can't wait since she is good and I remember her and whatever), and so the Doctor needs a new friend. This time, however, it is a reluctant companion, Belinda Chandra.

When she was younger, Belinda had a crummy boyfriend who bought her one of those certificates that says she has a star named after her. Years later she is kidnapped by robots and taken to the planet named after her, where she is meant to marry a crazy evil robot overlord and live as Queen. Luckily, the Doctor has been there for years and can help rescue her and assist the rebel uprising against the robots. And (spoilers), it turns out the evil AI overlord is really her ex boyfriend who through time hijinks was taken by the robots earlier and wants to get back to being a controlling creepy boyfriend, but with added robot parts.

Once the boyfriend is taken down and Belinda is free to return home, the Doctor does his usual bit of showing off the TARDIS and saying how his magic box is a time machine and she could go on multiple adventures and still be home in time for tea! Also she is a fun mystery box where he met a descendent or something in an episode last year (because we MUST call out anytime an actor is cast in a different role, we cannot just let it sit there). Except she has no interest in going on adventures. She was happy in her life before robots randomly showed up, and she just wants to go home. She certainly isn't pleased that the Doctor took a sample of her DNA without asking. So she demands to go home...but the TARDIS won't go there. It keeps bouncing off the correct time. And our final reveal is a bunch of floating space debris including the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.

Again, I felt this was a pretty entertaining a solid start to the season. It's a fun episode, with a decent goofy sci-fi premise with plenty of Doctor Who silliness as well. I look forward to continuing on, whenever I actually have some time.

NEXT TIME: Out of the Movies

The Time Hotel

2025-01-17T12:13:00.000-08:00

Story: Joy to the World
Written By: Steven Moffat

Length: 60 Minutes
Year: 2024

Oh boy...I'm late. It had been a while since the season ended, and I had fallen out of a Who mood, watching a lot of movies lately. I've also had a change of jobs recently, and while I've spent the last 6 years on a normal 9-5/weekends off kind of schedule, I recently was laid off and ended up quickly bouncing back in local TV, but my schedule has me back to the old dark days of working nights and weekends again. As such, I just didn't find time to watch this. Today, after taking care of work I needed to do around the house, I discovered I had about an hour to kill before the kids got off the bus, and so instead of trying to cram in a shorter movie or something, I thought "oh jeez I should finally watch the Doctor who Christmas special!

It's okay. I have never been the biggest fan of Moffat at Christmas. Its funny because my brother was recently doing rewatch of the first RTD era and then the Moffat era (he had originally stopped watching around Capaldi), and he has a different view entirely to me, he seems to really like Moff's Christmas specials. But I think this is the first time that the current showrunner hasn't written the Christmas special, as RTD decided that his original successor in the role should take the reins. And Moff does an okay job here. I think Moffat is a better writer for Doctor Who when RTD is also there to bounce off of (not to be too harsh on Moffat, as I am a fan of his era too), and so I think that helps this story a bit. But it has some of Moff's old standbys: wacky time travel hijinks and a mystery box for a villain.And for some Christmas feels thrown in, there is some emotional story stuff thrown in. Also the ending with "Bethleham" I saw coming a mile away and it actually slightly annoyed me that it was taking so long for the reveal. I said to the screen, while watching alone: WE GET IT...ITS BABY JESUS.

I liked this, but part of me wonders if I am still not in the biggest mood for Doctor Who. Or is it that the special is just perfectly fine and nothing more? It is certainly not a bad adventure, but I think it might just be a perfectly middling Doctor Who story. Good but not anything excellent.

NEXT TIME: Belinda

Doctor Who - The Revival: Series 14 Recap

2024-06-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

Well, this new era with Russell T Davies in command behind the scenes has been...fine. I liked it, but I must admit I think it started rough. Ncuti Gatwa's debut at Christmas was an okay episode but it didn't blow my mind. Also there was a dance number in the middle for no reason, and I hate that kind of stuff. But whatever, Doctor's often don't have the best first episode, so I wasn't holding it against it. But "Space Babies" was pretty lame. I also didn't love the Beatles episode which also ended with a pointless dance number. But then another former showrunner, Steven Moffat, returned for "Boom" and that was great. And then RTD delivered "73 Yards" and "Dot and Bubble" which were both really good stories. And the two-part finale was a fun romp to cap things off. So ultimately I enjoyed the season, but I do think there are some issues.

I understand the reasoning behind the shorter seasons. Budgetary concerns are a real problem and even with Disney picking up the international distribution, the BBC is not in the best shape right now. From what I can tell few organizations that had any funding from the UK government are in great shape after over a decade of slashing from the Conservative government. Anyhow, the BBC can't afford to make a show that visually can compete with HBO or Netflix or Star Wars, certainly not for 13 episodes. So I get it, but the problem here is it was less of a chance to get to know our new Doctor or Ruby Sunday. I mean it is crazy we have two episode in a row with little Doctor action and yet in total we have only 8 episodes (9 if we count the Christmas special). It limited how much I felt I got to get into these new characters (or new versions of these characters), and as a result, I didn't really feel anything when we got to Ruby's emotional goodbye to the Doctor at the end of the season. I barely know you, so have fun in your life getting to know your birth parents I guess!

I think another issue is the lack of diversity behind the scenes. I don't mean necessarily that it is only white men writing it, because honestly I am all for diversity but I don't care who is writing Doctor Who as long as it is good stories, but I mean we literally had 4 writers for the whole season. The bulk of the episodes were penned by Davies himself, with one episode written by Moff and then the other two writers were teamed up on "Rogue." We aren't getting a wide range of styles here, and I think that is a detriment to the show, even if I like a good chunk of Davies output.

For example, lets go back to David Tennant's debut year. Including the Christmas special, Davies wrote 6 episodes. That left 8 episodes for different voices to come in and write different kinds of stories. Now this year including the Christmas special, Davies wrote 7 episodes, only one more than he did back in 2006 series...but that left only 2 slots open. Imagine if we had some other voices that could come in and maybe take up two slots, and Davies could maybe think "why don't I start the season off with something better than Space Babies?"

Like I said, ultimately I liked this series (I can't get too confused with numbering so despite them trying to pretend this is a new series 1 it is going to be 14 for me), but I just hope that Davies can bring in more writers next time. I mean fair play he isn't writing this year's Christmas special, but that duty has gone to Moffat, a showrunner who wasn't the best at Christmas specials in my opinion. I dunno if those other two writers will return but I hope if they do they can get better than "Rogue" I mean I guess it was okay but it just wasn't my favorite of this season. This show needs to find new writers who could potentially take over and take this series on when Davies decides to move on again, because ever since Moff took over way back in 2010 there really hasn't been an obvious next choice for showrunner. Chibnall obviously had a divisive time running of the show (which I maintain was overblown and it really wasn't that bad), and we may be back in familiar and mostly liked hands, but who will be the heir apparent to keep the show alive into the next decade?

NEXT TIME:A Very Moffat Christmas

Sutekh’s Revenge

2024-06-26T09:57:00.000-07:00

Story: Empire of Death
Written By: Russell T. Davies

Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2024

The main storylines of this series come to a conclusion as the Doctor must somehow defeat a monster which has already won. As we saw in last week’s cliffhanger, the Doctor has been lured into a trap by Sutekh, who has returned from his banishment to the time vortex at the end of the Fourth Doctor adventure “Pyramids of Mars.” It turns out that since his banishment, Sutekh has been building up his strength and biding his time, hanging off the TARDIS for ages. The Susan Triad figure was just part of the trap, a figure created everywhere the Doctor lands, so that when Sutekh is ready a version of her can unleash death upon the planet they are on.

Essentially…anywhere the Doctor has landed since “Pyramid of Mars” will now be laid waste. Sutekh’s plan basically means the Doctor’s fun adventures have all doomed various worlds. Sutekh kills everyone but the Doctor, Ruby, and Mel…because the God of Death couldn’t figure out who Ruby’s mom was, and it is just bugging him like crazy. Who was this mysterious woman, why can’t the god know?

Eventually they use this against him, tricking him into thinking he has won, having killed Mel and turned her into yet another minion, they come to Sutekh claiming they have the knowledge of Ruby’s mother, but they don’t and Ruby shatters the screen that allegedly had the info, and leashes Sutekh to the TARDIS. The Doctor then travels through the vortex dragging the beast behind, basically killing it, and as it dies, being death itself, the opposite happens…it brings life…restoring the universe. Yay!

The ending of the episode gives Ruby some closure finally. UNIT is able to track down her mom, and it turns out she was just a regular girl. 15 and scared when she had Ruby. And Sutekh’s obsession over the mystery was just built up in his own head. He didn’t see her, couldn’t know her in that moment, and it absolutely fucked him up. He couldn’t handle it. What a dope.

Ruby connects with her long lost mother and has this family time with her adopted mom and grandma and her real mother, and they’ve even tracked down her biological father…and so she just can’t hop around the universe with the Doctor right now. She needs this time. And so the Doctor must go on alone again.

Oh…and just who is Mrs. Flood? She is clearly some kind of mysterious being. She knows of the TARDIS as seen in her first appearance. She seemed quite sinister right before Sutekh killed everyone but then she was killed too. And at the end of tbe episode she appears all in white hinting of more dangers facing the Doctor. At the moment, my best theory is that she is the White Guardian? It seems certainly implied by the all white get-up, but who knows. Suppose that is for the next series.

I thought the finale wrapped up the season well. It wasn’t the best storyline for a series, but how can RTD ever top his finales of yesteryear, when he was bringing back one of the big three monsters each year. I mean Daleks and Cybermen and the Master…he struggled to top it in year four! But I thought Sutekh was a nice villain to bring back. He was unexpected but welcome, and it was a good ride.

NEXT TIME: Series 14 Recap

S Triad Technologies

2024-06-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

Story: The Legend of Ruby Sunday
Written By: Russell T. Davies

Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2024

So throughout this season there has been two lingering mysteries. I haven't really discussed them much, but they are as follows: Ruby's origins as a baby left on the church on Ruby Road, and often throughout the season she has actually made it snow for inexplicable reasons, but harkening back to her birthday. The other has been the image of actress Susan Twist, who has appeared in a different form in every episode so far. She has been characters, ambulances, portraits...and so the question has been "who is that woman?" Essentially she is this year's "Bad Wolf," and there has plenty of fan speculation on the matter, most of which has been that she is Susan. Or the Rani. They are always the Rani until they aren't.

This episode plays into the obvious conclusions fans could make in a terrific way, and then pulls the rug out and changes gears perfectly. The Doctor and Ruby come back to Earth and UNIT in their fancy Avengers building to try and unravel both mysteries if possible, hoping to maybe figure out if they are somehow connected as well. It seems increasingly possible that this person is Susan, as she is on Earth as "Susan Triad" who runs "S Triad Technologies" and everyone with half a brain is like "S Triad is an obvious anagram for TARDIS duh." I mean it is super obvious, but luckily when the Doctor points it out everyone else is like "yeah dude this one isn't hard. But before they can figure out her deal, they decide they need to try and figure out who Ruby's mom is.

They use UNIT's Time Window, which is a rough bit of time technology which can sort of see into the past but not really travel there. The Doctor uses a VHS from Ruby's birth to try and have more info or something to get a better picture than the time window usually has. I honestly barely understood how this was meant to work or what was on the VHS but whatever, I suppose it doesn't really matter that much. They are not able to figure out who Ruby's mom is and then they see some kind of ominous monster thing and it breaks the whole time window machine. The Doctor then decides he needs to figure out who Susan Triad is quick.

It becomes clear that she isn't entirely sure how, but she has been dreaming of herself in all these various other places. And as she is giving her big televised speech she begins to have a breakdown...and back at UNIT the same swirly monster that they saw in the time window appears around the TARDIS. And this is where it gets good for me, because it turns out the anagram everyone thought meant TARDIS or her first name being Susan would mean she is somehow the Doctor's granddaughter in some form is all thrown out the window. It's a trap...the S TRIAD business is just meant to get the Doctor there...because the true trick was in the name SUsan triad TECHnologies. Because the true monster behind this episode is actually the god of death himself: Sutekh!

That was a fun cliffhanger. Honestly it would be even better if I had seen "Pyramid of Mars" recently. Unfortunately I have seen it exactly once like a decade ago, so I feel like it might be time for a rewatch. Sadly while I have been rewatching old Doctor Who episodes, I've been doing it as I collect each new blu-ray collection set, and Season 13 has yet to be released. But hey...after the Giggle they announced and released "The Celestial Toymaker" as an animation, so one can only hope that boxset is on the horizon! Though admittedly releasing two Tom Baker sets in a row is not as likely as bouncing off to another Doctor.

NEXT TIME: The Return of Sutekh

Chulders

2024-06-10T17:41:00.000-07:00

Story: Rogue
Written By: Kate Herron and Briony Redman

Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2024

Ruby and the Doctor are cosplaying in ye olde times and playing Bridgerton and a fancy ball. But as always it can't just be all fun and games, there is an alien menace about. The Doctor tries to hit on some guy and the guy turns out to be an alien bounty hunter and assumes the Doctor is the threat, and of course he isn't. The bounty hunter (the titular Rogue) also assumed there is only one threat, but it is a whole group of shapeshifters called Chulders who kill people and take their form and are basically cosplaying for the drama of it all...and they hope to cosplay into royalty and start wars and destroy the planet for fun.

I have mixed feelings about this episode. I think the aliens cosplaying for destruction and fun is an okay concept, and I think the Rogue character was nice...but I think I have an issue with the Doctor so overtly hitting on someone. I prefer the Doctor to not be sexually repressed or anything, but I just don't think it feels like the Doctor to pursue a human in any way. If Rogue was a companion who grew feelings for him and it was like a Rose situation where the Doctor maybe feels something to but finds it hard to reciprocate...that I'd be fine with. But the Doctor genuinely is hitting on this dude and it just feels...off to me. But I don't think this show has ever successfully tried to mix romance and the Doctor. It never truly worked for me with River, or Rose, or anyone really. I think it works best that the Doctor is so ancient and old and feels its weird or awkward to want a relationship with a human with a much shorter lifespan.

The episode also messes with a canon a bit, as there is a bit in Rogue's ship where previous Doctor incarnations are seen, and mixed in is not only the fugitive Doctor but also Richard E. Grant, implying that the Shalka Doctor is real...yeah that makes no sense with everything else established hooray...take that continuity nerds!

I dunno, it was not my favorite episode but also not as bad as the series first couple of episodes, so middling. Shame, as it is the one story written by anyone new. But perhaps if they return they will do better.

NEXT TIME: Who IS that Lady?

Unsolicited Request

2024-06-04T05:36:00.000-07:00

Story: Dot and Bubble

Written By: Russell T. Davies

Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2024

This is almost like a second Doctor-lite episode in a row, but it is also not. The Doctor and Ruby just mostly appear on the screen of the episode's main focus, which is a lady in a place called Finetime where everyone is glued to their social media. Unlike phones, it is genuinely a bubble surrounding their head, filled with everyone's social media presence, an endless live TikTok basically. She can't even walk without the bubble telling her which way to go. This is a planet of useless people. But there are monsters slowly devouring the population, and if they can just get out of their little bubbles they might notice how grim things are.

The Doctor and Ruby are able to try and talk to Lindy, and try and guide her to safety, and she is reluctant to even listen because they are boring, but they break through and convince her when she sees the monsters eating everyone. There have been many critiques of social media over the years, "Black Mirror" is and entire series about it, but this is a great episode on it. Especially when it comes to the ending.

The Doctor and Ruby, along with a popular singer who figured out what is going on and just has a fake video going on his social platform, help guide her to the tunnels below. It turns out the monsters are eating people in alphabetical order, and that the AI behind the Dot and Bubble thing is working with the monsters because these vapid idiots suck. And when it seems like Lindy is next on the list, and her AI turns on her, she just sacrifices the singer she was a big fan of and who was helping her by revealing his real name is not Ricky September, but Ricky Coons, and that alphabetically they need to eat him first. She then successfully gets to the tunnels with other refugees, and despite all the help she, and everyone else, refuse any help from the Doctor...because he is black. They don't explicitly say it, but it is obvious. All these vapid white people turn out to also be totally racist, and that tracks.

The Doctor is dumbfounded. Still desperate to save them from this world, but they ignore him and go off to what is likely their own doom rather than learn or grow or anything. They'd rather be eaten. And good riddance to them.

I thought this episode was great. The "Black Mirror" like premise, the monsters, the ending where this person the Doctor spent the entire episode trying to help and save turns out to be not only ungrateful but a monster herself...this was possibly the best episode of the season so far. I think I enjoyed it more than "Boom" or "73 Yards," and we are in a sweet spot of the season right now. I hope it can maintain itself to the end!

NEXT TIME: The Regency Era

Mad Jack

2024-05-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

Story: 73 Yards

Written By: Russell T. Davies

Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2024

Landing on a Welsh cliff side, the Doctor and Ruby almost immediately stumble onto some odd shrine, which the Doctor accidentally steps on. As Ruby reads some bit of paper left on the shrine, the Doctor vanishes…and a mysterious old woman appears to be gesturing to her. Ruby can’t get close to her, but no matter where she goes that woman follows.

And anyone who tries goes up to the woman just runs away. The woman follows her everywhere, out of Wales, back home, for years. Everyone flees in her life and abandons her, even her mom, even Kate Stewart! Ruby spends decades followed by the woman, eventually using her to take down a politician the Doctor had hinted would someday nearly bring about nuclear annihilation.

This is a Doctor-lite episode, a really good one for about 2/3rds of it. I think the way it builds and the creepiness of the old woman in the distance is excellent. Unfortunately it suffers in the end because the resolution to the mystery is unsatisfactory. I thought the takedown of the politician was good, but the explanation of the woman is felt both confusing and predictable, which is really weird.

Still, even with the issues of the ending, this was among the best of this new season. Honestly it was the best thing since RTD returned, and would be perfect if but for the lackluster ending.

Next Time: Finetime

Landmine

2024-05-21T16:49:00.000-07:00

Story: Boom
Written By: Steven Moffat
Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2024

This series is not only the first full series to have Russell T. Davies back as the showrunner, but his successor Moffat has returned to pen an episode, and seems to be back in the gang for good as it has been confirmed he is also writing the next Christmas Special. So those two are back, in fact it seems it is mostly these two being back, very few new writers this year. And Moff's episode is so far the best of this season. It truly is like going back to the original RTD era, where Davies writes a good chunk of episodes and then Moff comes in and writes one really brilliants one. I don't know if this is as brilliant as his earlier efforts from that era, but it is a good episode to be sure.

The episode has the TARDIS land on a crazy war-torn planet, and the Doctor rushes off to help someone screaming, only the person screaming has been killed by an AI ambulance and turned into a cylinder of skin filled with his memories or something...and now the Doctor has stepped onto his own landmine. I actually thought it was great how Moff kept the Doctor on this landmine for the entire episode, and it is all just some tension building as themes about AI and war and religion are being discussed and critiqued. Honestly, it is just want I want to see from the show: simple premise, tension, scary bits, humor, and all that. Moff can really do simple stuff well when he doesn't want to go overly plotty and complex.

I would also like to note, and this is super unimportant, but my wife and I decided to start watching Outlander, and then she went to bed and I watched this, and I was caught off guard that the song the Doctor sang to remain calm happened to also be the Outlander theme song. That was somewhat eerie. But that really has no bearing on the episode, was just interesting to me. The episode is most definitely good.

NEXT TIME: Where is the Doctor?

Maestro

2024-05-13T20:59:00.000-07:00

Story: The Devil's Chord
Written By: Russell T. Davies
Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2024

I had been somewhat skeptical of this episode going into it. I had worries it was going to be a musical episode, and for the record I hate musical episodes of shows. The only show to do it good was Buffy and then everyone thought they could do it and they've all failed. Also, I am a huge Beatles fan, like I know a lot of pointless information about that band that a lot of people do not know. This is not a brag, this info has never come in handy in my life, I just like reading about them and watching documentaries about them and such. I have seen the Beatles Anthology a LOT. So seeing their so-called Beatles and seeing poor middle aged pudgy Paul when he is supposed to be like 21...I just had this feeling I was going to find this one hard to buy. And it was not that bad Until they did a full on musical number and then it was terrible, luckily, it was saved for the end and I didn't have to sit through 45 minutes of it.

Ruby requests to see the Beatles record their first album, and they get there and find not only do the Beatles look terrible, but also they are singing garbage songs that no one wants to listen to. It turns out the entire world has been made devoid of music, due to a magical being known as the Maestro, who arrived in 1925 and stole it all. It turns out the Maestro is the offspring of the Toymaker. So both planted the seed of their plan in 1925 and both are undone by the Doctor later on. Huh. If they do not succeed the world without music descends into war and a nuclear winter. The stakes are pretty high then.

The Maestro is a very campy villain, campier than even the new version of the Toymaker had been. I expected little else when being portrayed by a drag queen. While I will maintain this is a fairly lousy version of the Beatles, at least they are not a main focus of the episode, even if they are the reason they arrive and technically it is Lennon/McCartney that saves the day...they are not on screen for long. The episode is decent. I think it was better than "Space Babies," but man I have to ding it points for the awful musical ending. I get why its there but it just doesn't work for me.

NEXT TIME: Return of Moff

Push the Button!

2024-05-13T16:43:00.000-07:00

Story: Space Babies
Written By: Russell T. Davies
Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2024

The new season of Doctor Who is here, and I was so excited I waited several days to actually watch the opening episode. Honestly, I don't know how I missed the premiere date, but I didn't know when it was coming out, I was just not paying a lot of attention. I have sort of slowed down on watching ads I suppose, but I also rarely get onto Disney+. I have it, but it is mostly for my kids to watch Disney movies...or Bluey. Anyhow, I only discovered that the new season was coming out on Friday because I hopped onto Disney+ purely to watch the newly remastered Beatles documentary "Let It Be," because I am a massive Beatles fan and have only seen that documentary in my low quality bootleg DVD. Anyhow, when I got on there it said the new season would premiere that night at 7pm. But I had plans with friends, so it would have to wait...the next night I watched a movie with my wife, and the following day was Mother's Day, so really I just was booked up.

But I had a minute, and I finally put on the opening episode. It is okay.Picking up right were the Christmas special left off, The Doctor takes Ruby on her first trip in the TARDIS. After a brief goof in the age of dinosaurs where Ruby steps on a butterfly, turns into a different being and then the Doctor revives the butterfly to put her back to normal, they end up on a space station filled with the titular Space Babies, and have to fight off a boogie man, who is literally made of boogers. It's silly, and mildly fun.

I am feeling surprisingly lukewarm to this new RTD era. I enjoyed the specials, but I dunno if anything blew me away. I want to be into Ncuti, but while he is filled with enthusiasm and seems like a fresh new take on the Doctor, I feel like the writing is merely standard Doctor Who. I like standard Doctor Who, like maybe just getting the old gang back together again behind the scenes is holding this new Doctor back a bit. There is no fresh new voice behind the scenes really. And there won't be for weeks to come. The first two episodes (which dropped at the same time) are written by Davies. The third episode will be the return of RTD's showrunning successor Steven Moffat, and then it is Davies penning 4 out of the next 5 stories, with only one episode giving new writers an opportunity on the show.

I am hopeful it will all come together. I want to believe in the second coming of RTD. His first era is my favorite era of the show. This is still the early days of this new era.

NEXT TIME: The Fab Four

Foundlings and Goblins

2023-12-27T11:52:00.000-08:00

Story: The Church on Ruby Road
Written By: Russell T. Davies
Length: 60 Minutes
Year: 2023

It's time for a brand new era of the show. Again. It happens a lot huh? After having his launch as the Fifteenth Doctor sort of undercut, in my opinion, by not changing directly from Tennant but splitting off from him...this meant we did get a little extra Ncuti right before his era truly began than you usually get for Doctors, I think it also just makes it difficult for some viewers to fully except that this is the new Doctor when the last one never left. For example, I watched this with my brother and his boyfriend, his boyfriend is new the world of Doctor Who, and they have so far together watched the revival starting with Eccleston and are part-way through Tennant's second season. They also watched the 60th Anniversary Specials. But my brother's boyfriend was finding it hard to except this new incarnation. Perhasp because most his experience is with Tennant and so he is just going through what many fans go through when it's time for a new Doctor...but he also just had this feeling that he wasn't really the Doctor because the other Doctor didn't go away. I think that is a definite issue.

But hey, he gets his first full blown adventure here, a Christmas story where he meets his new companion, Ruby Sunday, fights off some goblins, saves babies and time itself...its got plenty to enjoy. It's also merely okay. I think I found it a middling episode overall, but I did on the whole enjoy it. I am sick of big over the top specials, and want simple adventures again, so I am not going to complain too much.

I think the story felt half baked honestly, but I like Gatwa's Doctor for the most part. His energy and enthusiasm feels fresh and fun. He is maybe a little too cool for my tastes, I want the Doctor to be a bit of a weirdo or a nerd...and this just seems like the coolest guy in the world. And the Doctor shouldn't necessarily come off as the coolest guy in the world. Hopefully this incarnation will develop more as he gets a full series.

Ruby is also a likable new companion. Plagued by bad luck because of the Goblins, she shows initiative before the Doctor even truly enters her life, seeing the baby she is meant to watch being taken by the Goblins she chases them onto the roof and climbs up after them on their rope ladder. This is the kind of spunk we want in any companion.

The episode ends with a weird bit where the neighbor lady pushes Ruby towards the TARDIS and when it vanishes she tells some guy who saw it happen that it's all fine and looks directly into the camera to say "first time seeing a TARDIS!" Is this supposed to mean something? It felt very off to me. Like maybe it was meant to be a joke and it didn't land. Or it is setting up a villain or a new character and it made no impact for me. Also, being American, I had some weird "Doctor Who now on Disney+" teaser thrown in the middle. It was an awkward way to end this. Even the true last line, when Ruby comes into the TARDIS for the first time, and the Doctor proudly declares "I'm the Doctor" feels less exciting...because he has already said that multiple times to ruby throughout the episode...so I dunno.

Some of it works, some of it does not, but none of it was terrible. Well, maybe the musical number was terrible. But honestly, a decent start for the new era.

NEXT TIME: The Third Season 1 Begins

Doctor Who - The Revival: 60th Anniversary Specials Recap

2023-12-11T07:31:00.000-08:00

The 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who saw the return of many old familiar faces, David Tennant returned as the Doctor, marking the first time an actor has played two incarnations of the Doctor. Joining him on screen was Tennant's last companion, and my personal favorite from his time as the Tenth Doctor, Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, who gets to have her original tragic ending undone. We also get a little bit of Wilf (which was lovely) as well as all the other supporting family members of Donna, her husband and mother. Plus UNIT returns along with Kate Stewart, and even Mel Bush. Don't really care about Mel that much honestly. Behind the scenes, RTD and basically everyone who helped him produce the show during his original run also came back to the show after over a decade originally stepping down from the show. It's maybe the only way the show could keep going was to go back to those who revived it in the first place. Because during both the Moffat and Chibnall eras, no one really showed promise for being the "next big thing" to run the show. Chibnall felt almost out of left field as a choice to replace Moff, but really there was no one that made sense at all. Chibnall at least had both written for the show, been proven a successful writer and showrunner for Broadchurch, and had showrun within the world of Doctor Who by running the first two years of Torchwood.

But Chibnall's era had been hurt by ratings that went down and a critical lambasting that I personally think was over the top. His big storyline of the "Timeless Child" was absolute nonsense, sure, but if you look at individual episodes? There is still a lot of fun in there. His plan to exit after three years, and years in which COVID really threw a spanner in the works, meant that the BBC needed to find someone to replace him...and there were no obvious candidates within Chibnall's pool of writers. So when RTD had e-mailed about the possibility of returning, with both Tennant and Tate in hand, I am sure the BBC was over the moon for something as exciting as that to promote for the 60th Anniversary.

The specials themselves are all solid. Personally, my favorite was "Wild Blue Yonder," as the show has basically been in "special episode" mode since the finale to Series 12. We had that big finale, followed by a New Years special, the Flux mini-series which was basically all big episodes, then the 3 specials leading to Whitaker's exit...now 3 more specials. I am tired of the "big episodes" to be honest. I just want smaller fun and light adventures. "Wild Blue Yonder" was the one that felt the most like that to me. Both "The Star Beast" and "The Giggle" were fun too, but they were over the top fun, which you need for a "special," and personally I just look forward to the show taking things down a notch. A two hander with the Doctor and Donna on a quiet spaceship with no one but evil doppelgangers to contend with? Yes please.

As I said in my review for "The Giggle," I am not entirely on board with the Fourteenth Doctor just lingering out there waiting for a spin-off call. I am absolutely looking forward to Ncuti Gatwa taking over the TARDIS, as his Doctor so far seems light and fun and fresh, and the trailer for Christmas looks promising. These specials were fun, maybe just what the show needed to get people back on board after so many grumped and/or fled due to either the casting of (gasp) a lady, or their dislike for Chibnall's writing, having the team those grumps likely loved from the 2005-2009 back was sure to put eyes on the screen. And the ratings were good. Seemed to have worked. If Tennant could bring them back, I hope Gatwa keeps them around. He looks fun, and I really don't want there to be any nonsense that makes Tennant return again, because nostalgia is exhausting and I want new Doctors, not just the old ones over and over again. Especially as Tennant seems to be the one they always want to bring back. Don't get me wrong, he is still my favorite Doctor, but the show can't keep trudging up the past.

NEXT TIME: The Fifteenth is Here!

The Return of the Toymaker

2023-12-10T17:16:00.000-08:00

Story: The Giggle
Written By: Russell T. Davies
Length: 60 Minutes
Year: 2023

The 60th Anniversary trilogy of specials ends has a returning foe, a crazy planet ending plot to undo, and a major twist for the new Doctor. Is it all good? I dunno sort of a mixed bag for me, but I did find it mostly entertaining. But hey, this Doctor Who, things will be weird and you have to take the rough with the smooth. Overall I'd say I enjoyed this, even if personally I have reservations about one specific aspect and what it means for the show.The Doctor and Donna are back on Earth where everything is going crazy. It turns out everyone in the world now believes themselves to be totally right about everything, no matter what it is. The one responsible for all of this is the Celestial Toymaker, a villain who had only ever appeared once, back in the First Doctor era, but has come to Earth and planted a subliminal message in all screens, one that has been there since the first television test broadcast...and now the entire world is finally fully connected to the world wide web and screens and therefore the message has finally kicked off and everyone has gone nuts. UNIT gets the Doctor and they are currently fighting off the craziness with inhibitors, but it is not possible to get one on everyone in the world due to the nature of everyone being nuts and people on the news declaring those devices as mind control and whatnot. Pretty typical.

The Doctor heads back to the 20s to have his first battle with the Toymaker, a challenge in a card game. The Doctor loses but notes that he won their initial game all those many regenerations ago and therefore they need a best of three. The Toymaker agrees but in 2023. Once there the Toymaker does a little dance then shoots the Doctor with a laser, thus triggering his latest regeneration...but this Regeneration goes differently this time...and it is a bi-greneration, where instead of Ncuti Gatwa just walking off in Tennant's place...they are pulled apart and are now two bodies. This...is something. It's honestly just kind of lame.

I like the Doctor moving forward, but this just feels like an excuse for a Tennant spin-off. They try and make it seems like he is going to slow down and retire and live with Donna...but they give him his own TARDIS and he still sneaks off on adventures once in a while. I guarantee they are trying to quietly set-up this spin-off...but that would really diminish the show proper in my view. I am so tired of nostalgia casting everything, and it would be a shame for Doctor Who to now tread down this path.The show is best when it moves forward and tries new things.Plus...how many times do we need to set up another Tennant Doctor just floating around. He's off in the parallel universe with Rose, and now he is also living a quiet life with Donna and family. I dunno, I just would have found it far more bold to end the Fourteenth Doctor's run mid episode and let the Fifteenth get his moment to shine right off the bat, and defeat the Toymaker on his own. Or maybe the Tennant Doctor sacrificing himself to take the Toymaker down, thus giving this new Doctor even more to

But anyhow, the defeat him together, playing an intense game of catch which the Toymaker loses and his price for the loss is to cease existing in this plane. Oh and he at one point mentioned he had the Master trapped in his gold tooth and that tooth was picked up by someone much like the Saxon Master had his return planted in some ring. I'm sure it will all be returned to at some point.

Gatwa is, right off the bat, a fun new Doctor. I look forward to seeing him in action this Christmas. He seems like a spark the show needs right now. It was fun to see Tennant back in action and all, but I am definitely looking forward to this new era properly kicking off with a new person in the role. If only their popular Doctor back-up plan wasn't waiting in the wings...

NEXT TIME: 60th Specials Recap

Edge of Nothing

2023-12-02T21:27:00.000-08:00

Story: Wild Blue Yonder
Written By: Russell T. Davies
Length: 60 Minutes
Year: 2023

The TARDIS lands on some sort of spaceship on the edge of the universe which is empty apart from a slow moving robot, and is reconfiguring itself every now and then. The Doctor and Donna are soon trapped when the TARDIS takes off without them, likely due to a setting the TARDIS has to leave in the event of danger and only return when the danger is no more (a setting the Doctor thought he had long turned off but perhaps in it's latest reboot has been switched back on). The Doctor and Donna are soon tormented by two doppelgangers of themselves, who come from the nothingness outside the universe and wish to overtake the TARDIS team and devour the universe. This a solid episode. Whereas the opener of this 14th Doctor trilogy was big and bombastic and had a ton of characters, this is a smaller affair, one which focuses in on the Doctor and Donna. Tennant and Tate get to play both heroes and villains, and it is a story that relies entirely on their performances. Apart from the utterly goofy opening where they briefly meet Isaac Newton as he discovers gravity, the episode is basically just the two of them alone on a ship, facing sinister versions of themselves. It had splashes of episodes like "Heaven Sent" or "Midnight." I don't think it is as good as either of those stories, and I think if nothing else the Newton gag took it down a few notches for me, but the bulk of this episode is just a good creepy story, that works really well.

And right at the end, when the day is won, they get back to Earth...and good ol' Wilf is there! Oh my goodness was it lovely to see him again. Especially poignant knowing Bernard Cribbins passed after filming for this series. I look forward to anything else we get from him next week, and to have this trilogy wrap up against the Toymaker!

NEXT TIME: The End of Everything (again)

Beep the Meep

2023-11-27T06:40:00.000-08:00

Story: The Star Beast
Written By: Russell T. Davies (from a story by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons)
Length: 60 Minutes
Year: 2023

Happy 60th Anniversary everyone! The 60th is being marked by a trio of specials starring the once 10th Doctor David Tennant back in the role of the Doctor, this time as the newly regenerated 14th Doctor. Also returning behind the scenes is Russell T. Davies, who is triumphantly returning to the showrrunner role after first leaving the show in 2009. The production is also now being co-produced by Bad Wolf Productions, which is run by Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter, who had been the Executive Producers for the BBC back in the original RTD era. Also Phil Collinson, the day-to-day producer of the original RTD era, is back as an EP as well. So with Tennant and basically the whole RTD production crew back...this is quite the return.

To kick things off, the Doctor lands in London, and almost immediately nearly runs into Donna Noble. Then a spaceship crashes nearby. Concerned that the universe is trying to kill her by once again drawing them near each other with his old face and alien activity happening right near her...the Doctor has to investigate the alien happenings and hopefully not trigger Donna's memory and destroy her, or get her family killed in the process either.

Two aliens have come to Earth, the sinister looking Wrarth Warriors, and the adorable Beep the Meep. But the Doctor quickly realizes something is off, and realizes that looks are deceiving, and the Meep is actually the sinister alien, and the others are just trying to stop the Meep from causing more destruction. In the end the only way to save the day is to return all of Donna's memories killing her. Luckily, she can live because the meta-crisis was partially passed on to her daughter Rose. And the two are able to expel the meta-crisis business from the bodies.

The Doctor and Donna attempt to take a quick trip to visit Wilf, but after a lovely showcase of the brand new TARDIS set (which I love by the way, much more than the Thirteenth Doctor's awful design), Donna accidentally spills her coffee on the console, fire erupts, and they are whisked off to some new misadventure.

I quite enjoyed this. It was a fun return of the old gang, the gang which all hail from my favorite era of the show, the era which introduced me to this franchise. I was not one of the many who decried Chibnall as the anti-christ, or that Whitaker's casting was bad because she lacked male genitalia (it's funny, the Doctor's genitalia really hadn't come up before the gender swap), but I will say there is a spark to Davies writing that has been missing from the show since he left. I mean I really liked a lot of the Moffat era too...but no one is able to have big bombastic goofy plots and still balance that with smaller character moments like RTD.

A good chunk of this story is based on a comic strip of the same name from the early days of "Doctor Who Magazine." The Beep the Meep, Wrarth Warriors, and almost everything surrounding them is pretty much pulled right from the comic. The updated elements are all the stuff with the Doctor, Donna, her family, and UNIT. And it is a fun balance of all that. I have long considered the comic to be canon, and still do. The continuity of the Doctor Who universe is a mess even if you only count TV alone, so why can't the Fourth Doctor have a similar adventure and then 10 regenerations after Time Wars and universe rebootings can it happen again. I'm for it.

This is a perfect launch to the new era. Sure, the 14th Doctor is only meant to appeart in 3 television tales before regenerating into the next long term Doctor, the 15th played by Ncuti Gatwa, but I had a good time with this and look forward to the next two and seeing Ncuti take over from Christmas.

NEXT TIME: Wherever the Coffee Leads...

The Fourteenth Doctor is Here!

2023-11-17T17:23:00.000-08:00

Story: Destination: Skaro
Written By: Russell T. Davies
Length: 5 Minutes
Year: 2023

The new era of Doctor Who, the second coming of Russell T. Davies, has finally begun...if only in a small way. Just as he originally began, David Tennant's second incarnation as the Doctor is given a little tease via a short mini-episode that has aired during the Children in Need telethon. And it is a goofy but fun little twist on classic canon.

A pre-accident Davros, played again by Julian Bleach out of the heavy make-up, is showing one of his underlings his new travel machine prototype, with it's classic casing and it's very useful claw arm. When Davros is called away, the Doctor's TARDIS crashes into the room and knocks the useful arm off. After the Doctor gives the hapless assistant lots of ideas for what to call this Dalek and all that, the Doctor realizes he could be screwing up the timeline and decides to quickly run off, but he needs to replace the useful arm, and hands the assistant guy a plunger to shove in it's place. When Davros returns...he likes it!

It's a goofy short, which is to be expected for Children in Need. But hey, a taste of the return of Tennant (though who would ever think he couldn't still play the Doctor...he is still fairly youthful and has been actively working on other projects but also has been playing the Doctor on audio in recent years) and Davies, whose writing feels just as fun as it ever was. This is silly and can easily ruffle the feathers of canon fiends perhaps, but I enjoyed it for what it was: a comedy sketch that gives us the return of my favorite Who actor and writer team. Can't wait until next week!

NEXT TIME: The Comics Come to Life