Doctor Who - The Reality War

Paying The Piper

Doctor Who
The Reality War
UK/USA 2025
Airdate: 31st May 2025

Warning: All the spoilers.

I’m not so much as angry with The Reality War, the latest and possibly last episode of Doctor Who as I am...  disappointed with it. Primarily because what Russell T. Davies cooked up for both last season and this season, regarding the season finales, smacks of the one thing a previous showrunner (Steven Moffat) was really bad at... that is to say, setting up all these threads, teasing great things and then, well, kind of dropping the ball at the last minute. 

This one ran way over the scheduled episode length according to the Radio Times so... I’m guessing people who were relying on it to run to time, since there was no pre-iplayer version... were possibly angry they were all half an hour out on their schedules. But before I talk about the things which went wrong... and the, kinda, nice things about the episode, lets do a quick story summary. 

The Rani’s bring back Omega from the underverse of the wish world version of Earth but, yeah, it’s a quick mythical version of Omega who promptly eats the latest regeneration of the Rani... although Anita Dobson’s Mrs. Flood version of the character manages to escape to somewhere else. Perhaps it was a case of having a Rani knows moment. It’s up to The Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu’s Belinda Chandra and Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday (who still seems to be a major dangling plot thread in terms of identity, if you ask me), along with several members of UNIT and Anita from the Joy To The World Christmas special (reviewed here), played by Steph de Whalley and now working at the Time Hotel... to put a stop to things and restore the world back to reality... including saving the Doctor’s daughter (who’s not his actual daughter, it turns out) and bringing on the expected regeneration at the end. Yup... and I’ll get to who he regenerates into in a little while, because it is revealed, in what I suspect is a last ditch attempt to bring back old viewers and avoid cancellation.

Okay... so the new thing about the timelords being sterile... if this is a new thing since the latest few iterations then that’s fine but if it is supposed to be going back to the original shows then, it completely contradicts The Doctor having a granddaughter at all. 

And talking about Susan Foreman... everyone was pleased to see Carole Ann Ford coming back as a cameo in the last two episodes. People were excited to see how it would unfold in this final episode to see her finally reunited with The Doctor. Well guess what folks? It didn’t happen. She’s not in the episode and doesn’t really get much reference either. That, I think, was a bit of a mistake which I’m sure fans of the show will be grumbling about. I’m glad the teased Rogue return didn’t happen though. Also, that will probably annoy some fans, I suspect.

Meanwhile... the big bad reveal of Omega turned out to be... some kind of mythical ‘wished into existence’ version who lasts about five minutes before The Doctor vanquishes him back to the same dimension. Bit quick for a villain who once had to have three incarnations of The Doctor present to defeat him. Um... a bit rubbish too. 

I didn’t really like the Back To The Future tyre tracks that UNIT lady left with her wheelchair as a joke either. Kinda felt almost a little too throw away if you ask me.

So, as far as all that goes... an optimistic but also bitter sweet finale which, honestly, just got bogged down in a lot of exposition and really felt quite a bit draggingly dull at some points. Not to mention the terrible, retrofitting ‘flashbacks’ to conversations which Belinda had which, yeah, just reminded me of the whole ‘who is Ruby’s mother fiasco?’ at the end of the last season. It was just cheap and not terribly clever. Some might say awful (yeah, okay, that’s what I said too). 

Okay, so wouldn’t put many thumbs up or recommend this episode to anyone at all, really. The teased out promises turned out to actually be much more than the finale could bear... even with the unscheduled extra half an hour. 

Now then. There were a few nice things. Firstly, Anita Dobson’s joke about The Two Rani’s followed up with “And it’s good night from me!”... well. I loved that even as I was wondering just who, apart from the 50 plus British audience in the world, would even understand that joke. For all those people wondering, look up an old British TV comedy show called The Two Ronnies, with Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker. 

Secondly, it was really nice to see Jody Whittaker back as The Doctor. I always loved her portrayal, even though I lamented she hardly ever had any good scripts to work with. It was good to see she’s willing to return to the show if needed. Although, where the Earth bound(ish), retired David Tennant incarnation was during all this with, you know, his extra much needed TARDIS, is anybody’s guess. To quote Ellen Ripley in Aliens... did IQs suddenly drop?

Thirdly... it was also really nice seeing Anita back from the Christmas special. A lot of fans wanted that to happen. She seemed really wasted here though and didn’t have anything to do in terms of the emotional impact she had when we first met her so... yeah, good and bad at the same time.

Fourthly... and this is a kind of double edged sword... I called it when I had a conversation with some friends a few weeks back when I said that, when The Doctor inevitably regenerates at the end of the last episode... they would either end the show mid-regeneration or, if they were smart, get back a really big superstar which would pull in financial backers to bring the show back and ward off cancellation. Alas, although I loved seeing The Doctor regenerate into... Billie Piper at the end of the show (who has now played three different characters in the modern era of Doctor Who, with this iteration)... I’m not sure if she’s a big enough pull to get people back on board with another show resurrection. At least not with American audiences (which is where the big money is)... which is a shame because I’m all for it. It’s almost like the writers and producers said, we’ll bring Billie Piper back... Because We Want To. And, it has to be said... just to remind you all... this is not the first time The Doctor has regenerated into a person he’s already met and accidentally changed into their face. I might mention Colin Baker and Peter Capaldi here. Not ot mention the reappearance of David Tennant a couple of years ago. And don’t get me started on Lalla Ward’s regeneration of Romana.

I guess we’ll know soon enough whether the show gets cancelled or not. Meanwhile, next year’s apparently Doctorless UNIT VS Sea Devils spin off, The War Between The Land And The Sea, was trailered after the show and all I can say is... it looks pretty awful, to be honest. I mean... yeah... I hope the trailer truly isn’t reflective of the content but... again, time will tell I guess.

And that’s me done for a while, with The Reality War and the modern era of Doctor Who at least. There are still reviews coming, soon and less sooner, for stories starring various past Doctors from the classic series so, yeah, blog posts on these will be forthcoming, at some point soon. And with that I’ll finish this review by saying... and it’s good night from me. 

PS.  One last thing... thanks so much to the anonymous individual who has been leaving comments on my recent Doctor Who posts. Firefox won't let me reply and I just haven't got enough time right now to go through the whole rigmarol with Safari each time to have to re-log in and respond. But please know, whoever you are, that your comments are very welome and, like I said, thank you.

Doctor Who - Wish World

Oh Me Gawd

Doctor Who - Wish World
UK/USA 2025
Airdate: 24th May 2025

Warning: full disclosure, full spoilers.

Ncuti Gatwa’s The Doctor and Varada Sethu’s Belinda awake as husband and wife, living in a world where they have a daughter and the inhabitants of a much changed Earth are discouraged to doubt this version of reality. A version of reality created by Conrad from Lucky Day (reviewed here) and both the new versions of The Rani, played by Anita Dobson and Archie Panjabi. This episode also stars a fair few regulars such as Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday and Bonnie Langford as Mel Bush.

Now, Wish World isn’t a fantastic episode of Doctor Who by a long shot but it is quite a good one and some of the ideas, such as mugs slipping through tables and smashing to signify the emergence of doubt are really quite nicely done. So I find it very irritating and somewhat alarming that the writing on the show (this time by Russel T. Davies himself) is actually beginning to find its form again. Because, quite frankly, after the damage done by the over wokeness and lack of any real wow factor of last year’s series, they might even be producing some of the greatest televisual art the world has ever seen if they wanted to (they're not) but the damage has already been done and those low, low ratings aren’t likely to recover anytime soon.

We had another brief glimpse of Susan Foreman, The Doctor’s granddaughter once more, not to mention last season’s awful character Rogue but, the first of those appearances is something I hope the writing will take into account for the conclusion of this story arc next week. As far as Rogue goes... please don’t bring him back or maybe they could just kill him off. And if you do bring him back, well... since he has the same number of letters in his name, at least make him be one and the same as the promised ‘big bad’ of next week’s final episode... renegade time lord Omega, perhaps in an incarnation before he first encountered the first three Doctors in the 1973 serial The Three Doctors (reviewed by me here) and his later 1983 appearance in the fifth Doctor story Arc Of Infinity.

Either way, after such a good set up to the story I was, to say the least, very disappointed that this was all going to be about Omega... again. I could really have done without encountering him again, for sure. But, yeah, the episode was mostly a pretty good and intriguing one with a nice series of scenes where various characters are either just playing along or trying to break free of what they suspect is the real version of reality. It does, however, seem to be a bit of a stretch to find The Rani is just trying to locate Omega and that she’s using the supposedly all powerful pantheon of Gods to get him. Presumably to work with him for an even bigger project, one scientist to another (or two to another in this case, I suspect). It's possible Mrs. Flood may bring her down herself though, I reckon.

Hmm... as I write these words I’m actually beginning to talk myself out of whether I thought it was a good episode now, to be honest but... no, I was mostly entertained and I especially liked The Doctor and Belinda waking up in bed together (more of that please). And, hooray, the Doctor didn’t cry again for, I think, the second week running... which must be some kind of Gatwa era record, to be fair.

And there you go... a short review once again (as I said going into the reviews for this last series) but, other than to briefly make mention that The Rani has a much better and more traditional sonic screwdriver than the current incarnation of The Doctor, that’s really all I have to say about Wish World. I suspect next week’s season finale might well be the very last episode ever or, if we’re slightly luckier, just a long resting point for the show (until a company with larger purse strings wants to team up with the BBC when, I suspect, Disney will soon drop out of the equation... leaving behind some nasty worldwide rights issues, no doubt). I reckon Susan Foreman’s history might well be rewritten... or rather, retrofitted and expanded... at some point next week. We shall see what we shall see... again.

Doctor Who - The Interstellar Song Contest

Flood Damage

Doctor Who -
The Interstellar Song Contest
UK/USA 2025
Airdate: 17th May 2025

Warning: All the big, big spoilers

Hmm... dunno. As I mentioned at the end of last weeks review, the trailer made this episode look pretty unwatchable but, I’m glad to say it wasn’t and a couple of my friends thought this one was really good. As I am writing this I’m still processing some of the big story strokes this one had but, on the whole I thought that it was... an okay episode.

Okay, lets get to it... the last stopping point of The Doctor (played by Ncuti Gatwa) collecting readings from the Vindicator to get Belinda (played by Varada Sethu) home to Earth, sees them landing on a space station broadcasting a future installment of... The Interstellar Song Contest which is what the Eurovision Song Contest apparently evolved into over time, after the destruction of the Earth which, apparently, coincided with the day The Doctor and Belinda left it.  One of my least favourite TV presenters, Rylan Clarke, is released from suspended animation to compère the show and the station even has an interactive holographic version of another of my least favourite television presenters, Graham Norton.

And, of course, Mrs. Flood is also in the audience. I’ll get to her soon enough because, she comes back big time in a mid credits teaser which reveals her true identity. So stick with it.

This one appears to kill off the whole audience, including The Doctor, within the first ten minutes but Belinda and a few others are spared due to their situation and, its not long before The Doctor returns, improbably riding a confetti canon from out in deep space protected by a gravity field, which due to the whole Isaac Newton thing from the opening scene of Wild Blue Yonder (reviewed here), everyone is still referring to as mavity. 

However, the reason The Doctor revives is because of a vision he has in his head while frozen out in the void. That vision being of his grand-daughter Susan Foreman, played once again by the actress who played her in 1963, Carole Ann Ford. Now, this is kind of interesting because,The Doctor originally left Susan on Earth in the year 2164, in the 1964 story The Dalek Invasion Of Earth (reviewed here), which was also made into a movie set in a different year (reviewed here). So where and when these visions are set is... interesting. As is the fact that Susan hasn’t regenerated at all in the last 61 years.

Anyway, as usual it’s another short review for this series with, some nice sequences but with a lot of camp in it (well, it is a Eurovision themed episode so I’m trying to forgive it that) and some nice musical cues from Murray Gold (none of which are of much consequence since his stuff doesn’t seem to be getting any proper CD releases anymore). So let’s get to that mid-end credits scene then...

Mrs. Flood is a timelord, no surprises there. And her identity is not a particular surprise either since... well people have been guessing it right since her introduction a couple of years ago. But what I didn’t expect was that Anita Dobson, who plays the character, would bi-generate just as The Doctor did during his last regeneration. And she bi-generated into... dum dum dum... The Rani. Originally played by the late, great Kate O’Mara opposite the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy), she is now played by both a bizarrely subservient Anita Dobson and newcomer Archie Panjabi. 

Oh... and note to the writers. If you’re going to have somebody new bringing back an iconic character, then maybe don’t have her quoting a Fourth Doctor speech which has echoed through the series as an indication that she’s the ‘definite article’. I’m already not liking the way she plays her. I remember seeing Kate O’Mara playing The Rani on stage in a musical Doctor Who show at Wimbledon, opposite Jon Pertwee returning as the Third Doctor many years later and, all I will say is... Kate O’Mara is to The Rani what Roger Delgado was to The Master. But we shall soon see, I guess.

Two more episodes to go now before, I suspect, Doctor Who will take a long rest or, quite possibly, be cancelled and slowly forgotten. I hope neither of those things happen but, yeah, I reckon it’s on the cards for sure. What with every episode in this season so far garnering the lowest ratings in the 63 year history of the show. Again... we shall soon see.

Doctor Who - The Story And The Engine

 

ScheWhoRazade

Doctor Who -
The Story And The Engine
UK/USA 2025
Airdate: 10th May 2025

Warning: Story and cameo spoilers.

Yeah, go on then. Some films or TV shows have absolutely terrible trailers which practically warn you away from the idea of watching them but, if you do end up seeing the final product, they actually turn out pretty great... the Terry Gilliam movie The Adventures Of Baron Munchhausen would be a typical example for me (and, of course, the opposite effect can, more often be true). And this latest episode of Doctor Who, The Story And The Engine, is a good example of just this phenomenon. I watched the preview trailer last week and my heart sank. It looked absolutely dire and I finally gave up on the thing. But, since I’m guessing that this will be the show’s final season before cancellation (I sincerely hope not but the ratings are the lowest the show has ever had in its 62 year history), I soldiered on and just wanted to get through this experience as quickly as possible because... well, I’ll miss it when it’s gone.

So I’m thankful that this particular episode was actually a nice change of pace and a breath of fresh air for the continuing adventures of The Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa and Belinda, played by Varada Sethu. And it’s all set in a barber shop in Lagos. Well, not just in Lagos.... because once you enter through the door and become one of the customers in the small shop where 99% of the show takes place, you are held there indefinitely because the shop is also part of a giant mechanical spider travelling through space and powered by the stories that the customers tell, to keep it going on its journey and keep themselves alive (so, yeah, a spin on the story of Scheherazade for sure).

An it’s a talkie one which doesn’t rely at all on any action (although the special effects team powered by the Disney money certainly couldn’t resist an explosive conclusion to the tale) and instead it’s all about why the new owner of the shop is involved in all this in the first place and how he is, with the help of the daughter of a God, on a special agenda of his own making. And, okay, maybe it dragged just a little towards the end and couldn’t, perhaps, bring in a denouement quite worthy of the prolonged build up but... I have to say I was mostly intrigued by it and also pleasantly surprised that the appearance of Mrs. Flood this week (played by Anita Dobson) seemed almost coincidental to the story and less sinister (saying that, I don’t think the idea of delving into stories, is quite done with for this year’s series).

And, when the various tales were being told, we got a nice mixture of live action coupled with unfolding animations which were rendering the words of the story as each person spoke. This was nicely done and added rich texture to the episode, for sure.

Now there were some slight down beats, since the main character once again lived up for my new name for this incarnation, The Crying Doctor. But, there was also a nice surprise in the brief cameo return of Jo Martin as the incarnation known as The Fugitive Doctor. I’m thinking we may not be quite done with her yet... or at least that might have been the long term plan. It’s nice to see her in a story outside of the Jodie Whitaker era of the show and perhaps we will see her at the end of this season. It was also nice to hear and see clips from the lives of past incarnations of the Doctors once again... good stuff.

But that’s me done with The Story And The Engine and I thought that was one of the best, if not the best, of this new series by far. And once again I’m in the position where the trailer for next weeks show, which takes place in and around a kind of Intergalactic version of the Eurovision Song Contest, looks absolutely dire and unwatchable. So who knows, perhaps it will be a good one after all.

Doctor Who - Lucky Day

Suit Pursuit

Doctor Who - Lucky Day
UK/USA 2025
Airdate: 3rd May 2025

Warning: Very light spoilers.

Well, like I said in my review of the first episode of the current series of Doctor Who... these are probably going to be no more than very short capsule reviews for this new iteration of the show from hereon out. Mostly because the miss part of the hit and miss element of any bunch of episodes of a TV show has been somewhat elevated for this show for a few years now and, certainly with this latest story, Lucky Day, while better than last week’s shenanigans (reviewed here), it kind of winds up in the miss camp once again.

This one starts off with a boy, played by the excellent Benjamin Chivers (from The Devil’s Hour, reviewed here and here), although the IMDB is not listing him as being in this episode as yet, it seems*. Anyway, he stumbles upon The Doctor and then, because of his obsession with the encounter, grows up into someone who, it turns out, is just a wrong ‘un. Unfortunately, Chivers only plays the part for a couple of minutes before being replaced by an actor playing a grown up version of him for the remainder of the episode.

Now, this one is a Doctor lite episode and so I was kinda looking forward to this one because, two of my all time favourite episodes of the modern era of Doctor Who were similarly Doctor lite. Those being the wonderful fan favourite Blink and the equally wonderful, fan reviled Love And Monsters. So I was expecting more from this one, which is yet another story of the aftermath of an old companion getting left behind... and this time it’s the turn of this Doctor’s previous companion from last year’s series, Ruby Sunday (played once again by Millie Gibson).

And I don’t think I want to give any spoilers away on this one. It’s a clever story idea up to a point, with a central twist that you’re probably going to see coming a mile off and some questionable ways in which the story is pushed forward (in terms of future continuity of the show, I reckon). One of the bits of business in this episode shows two men in suits pretending to be aliens. Alas, when I first saw the real aliens, before this minor twist, I also thought they looked like men in suits so... yeah, where did all that Disney money go in this episode? The monsters look kind of pathetic, it has to be said.

Gibson was good in her role though and had good support from Jemma Redgrave as regular UNIT chief Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and a few of the other regular UNIT members. It was almost a good episode but... yeah, it just didn’t cut it and, if you care about what happens to the Ruby Sunday character, then you’re probably not going to be happy with the direction of her story arc in this one. I can only assume that we will be seeing her again in this year’s series finale (show finale?) because there are a few elements to this one that look like writers just positioning building blocks to set up for later use... including, of course, the now regular appearance of Anita Dobson as Mrs. Flood, once again turning up in places she shouldn’t be.

And that ‘s me done. Like I said, the best I can say about Lucky Day is... it’s not as bad as last week’s episode. I just wish Doctor Who could find a credible way to recover from what the show has now become. I guess I’ll keep watching ‘til the bitter end now.

*Okay, they’ve put it up this morning? Why was it not on there months ago? It’s not a spoiler.

Doctor Who - The Well

Tennant To Midnight

Doctor Who - The Well
UK/USA 2025
Airdate: 26th April 2025

Warning. Yup... spoilers from the outset.

Oh rats! What a shame. 

The first two episodes of this latest series of Doctor Who were actually better than anything we got last year but, just when I thought it was safe to go back in the Whoniverse, we get an episode, The Well, which is... while still better than pretty much all of last year’s episodes... just a bit of a mess, to be honest.  And that’s made more irritating by the twist reveal, halfway through the episode.

Okay, so we have Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu on form as The Doctor and Belinda, at least. Although Gatwa’s performance as The Doctor is once more tempered by the bad writing, which means he is tearing up at the drop of a hat again (this has to stop at some point... surely?). And we have a good supporting cast around them when they accidentally find themselves as part of a group of marines dropping onto a planet which they don’t name right away for fear that viewers will see the twist coming a mile off. With good reason because, the twist only works as a kind of call back to the name of a former, David Tennant episode called Midnight (there’s brief footage flashing back to the 2008 episode, just in case people don’t ‘get’ the joke). I didn’t see it coming and that’s probably because...

Okay, so I was having misgivings s about the episode being shoddily written right from the start but the reveal that it’s the unnamed ‘mimic antagonist’ of Midnight actually makes things worse. For one thing, the antagonist of the original story did not have the same modus operandi as the version of it in Midnight at all. So it really is a sequel in terms of labelling only, it seems to me. Secondly, Midnight was one of the best stories of the original Russell T. Davies era of Doctor Who... so turning this into a ‘by name only’ sequel invites comparisons to that original and, honestly, this thing isn’t a patch on that one in any way, shape or form. Invoking the name almost denigrates the original episode.

The other thing about this one which was really bad was the damned costumes that The Doctor and Belinda choose to wear. When they find out the TARDIS has landed far in the future, without knowing anything about what or who they are gong to run into... they decide to dress up in future garb. And they choose these very specific matching jumpsuits which immediately had me thinking... “wait, what?” Are they going on a space expedition or something. To which the answer was immediately, yes because... well the suits they are wearing are an exact match to the uniforms being worn by the troops they go down with to the surface of the planet Midnight. Which... um... what? That’s pretty crazy. They accidentally dress in some uniforms belonging to the group of random strangers they then go on to meet? What happened to the writing on this thing? Explain this, please because, this makes no sense.

The only decent part of the episode was the surprise appearance of Anita Dobson as Mrs. Flood at the end of the story, as a character turning up in situ with other characters. So that was a novelty but, honestly, makes me start thinking of the inclusion of Susan Twist in every episode of the last story. And we all know how completely terrible and stupid that reveal turned out to be. But, it does look like she’s gathering intel on The Doctor here.

And I think that’s me done on The Well. This has got to be one of my shortest Doctor Who reviews ever but, I just don’t have much of anything positive to say about it, truth be told. This was definitely something and, I think that somethings was... just another unremarkable episode of modern Doctor Who. I won’t be revisiting this episode again any time soon.

Doctor Who - Lux

The Doctor Lux Out

Doctor Who - Lux
UK/USA 2025
Airdate: 19th April 2025

Warning. Some possible spoilers on overall arcs here.

Well colour me surprised. Yes, the latest Doctor Who story Lux is the clichéd old concept of a character, in this case a cartoon character called Mr. Ring-A-Dong and voiced by Alan Cumming, walking out of a cinema screen and coming to life to wreak havoc... but it’s also well done and, despite having a scene where the Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, is tearing up yet again... it’s a pretty great episode. So that’s two in a row good ones now, since the debacle of last year’s series. I’m so pleased this was this well put together.

And it’s a somewhat engaging story as The Doctor rigs up a Vortex Indicator, which he shortens to ‘the Vindicator’ to act as a slingshot from wherever he and his cool new companion called (for now) Belinda (played brilliantly by Varada Sethu) next land, to get her home to the date from whence she came in 2025, since the TARDIS keeps bouncing off from the spot.

And then they stumble upon a mystery of an officially locked up cinema in Miami in1952. There they encounter the latest in the long play story arc of The Harbinger in Lux, who is one of the Gods of The Pantheon, as indicated to the audience by vocalising the notes of The Giggle from the episode of the same name from 2023 (and reviewed by me here).

There was a lot of great stuff about this episode with the cartoon manifestation of Mr. Ring-A-Ding being just one of the more epic effects being squeezed into, what was actually a fairly intimate episode, I thought. I could have perhaps done without the joke where, being accused of being Scooby Doo by Belinda, The Doctor identified more with Velma but, it was certainly a fun way of referring to any sexual politics encompassed by the show in its current form, rather than shoving it down everyone’s throat like last year.

And I loved the whole, long sequence where The Doctor and Belinda were trapped in a film, initially as cartoon versions of themselves, before they realised how to get a mindset where they become more shaded and defined before they return to their normal 3D shape and way of thinking... albeit still trapped in the film for a fair time.

Another pleasure of the episode was a scene in the same sequence where three fans of Doctor Who watching at home were, quite respectfully I thought, shown to take an active part in the proceedings, even if it turned out that they (aka we watching at home) were a fiction too. But considering the way a lot of the fan base of the show has been turning against it in recent years (especially last year), I was impressed there weren’t too many blatantly sly digs at the viewers and I especially loved that the favourite episode of all three of them was one of the show’s classics, Blink, much to the current Doctor’s chagrin.

Now I thought the segregation of black and white people in places like diners and cinemas in 1950s America was either pushed too strongly or, I dunno, maybe not pushed strongly enough... I still can’t quite make up my mind. But it might be a matter of time that it was not pursued in a more damning way, when you’ve only got 45 minutes to present a story. That's okay though...  it didn’t feel all that loosely balanced against the rest of the episode and I thought they just about got away with it.

I also loved that Mrs. Flood, once again played by Anita Dobson, turned up at the end in 1952 America (unseen by The Doctor and Belinda) and I’m guessing the importance of her character on events may be coming to the fore here. It’s interesting that she noted that the Doctor’s run would be coming to an end on May 24 this year, which is presumably the day on which this last series is due to put out its final episode. Is this hinting at my long suspected cancellation of the show? Quite possibly but I guess we’ll see in six weeks or so.

And that’s me done with Lux. The ending with the release of 15 captured presumed dead people seemed a little like the writers wanting to have their cake and eat it (a braver conclusion might have been to have their existences as trapped in celluloid burned up in the fire which occurs near the end of the episode) but overall I have to say I really enjoyed this one and am somehow looking forward to the third episode with a new sense of optimism... or at least hope. Fingers crossed the series continues in this light from hereon.

Doctor Who - The Robot Revolution

The Catch
Chandra Crossing

Doctor Who -
The Robot Revolution
UK/USA 2025
Airdate: 12th April 2025

Warning: Slight spoilers.

Okay, full transparency... I might as well own up that I am expecting this year’s new-Who reviews to be more in the form of short capsule reviews. There’s not enough gone into the stories to really sustain them for much longer at the moment and I can’t see that changing anywhere before the end of the current series (which is only scheduled to run for eight episodes this time around anyway).

Also, before I get into it... I have to say that one member of my household was dead against going back for the new season of the show after the track record it’s had over the last six years or so and, while we persuaded him to watch... yeah, he really did not like this one and was very critical of it. Which I totally get. I thought the last season was particularly dreadful (asides from the strengths of the two main lead performers) and I can totally see why the show has become anathema to him.

That being said, I thought The Robot Revolution was a terrific Doctor Who season opener. We got an introduction to the new companion Miss Belinda Chandra, played by Varada Sethu and The Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, even gives a reason, of sorts, as to why she’s the exact duplicate of a character he met last season (played by the same actress) in her far future... although I expect that explanation will be altered significantly to take on a different significance by the time of the last episode.

The story was a time twisty adventure which was all about her and the current night/six months prior/ten years prior, depending on your entry point into the story, when she was kidnapped by robots and taken to the planet... Missbelindachandra, of which she is surprised to find out she is the queen.

There are cute, barely tolerable robots, big bruiser robots, a mad controlling manifestation of AI (not really AI) of her ex-boyfriend and laser battles and tricky reveals that propel the story forward at a quite fast pace - if this was a more episodic serial show as it was from the 1960s - 1980s there would have been more time to explore the concepts... things were a little bit rushed, it seemed to me.

I liked it a lot, though and, the lead actors Ncuti and Varada are both good here (as they were last season but if the scripts don’t work as well as this one did we may still be in trouble). Yeah, I thought this one was great but I’m not naive enough just yet to expect them to be able to keep this up... since the last season was made back to back with this one the makers would not have been able to do much about audience feedback from last year’s show, for sure. So we’ll see how it goes.

I mean, Anita Dobson was back as Mrs. Flood, talking to the audience again and popping up somewhere she shouldn’t be, so that was interesting (although after last season’s so called solution to the overall arc, I’m not trusting any of this just yet). However, it wasn’t long before The Doctor was crying his eyes out again and getting way too emotional about stuff... so, yeah, I’m not fully on board yet. And since we havent even had a soundtrack CD for the last season yet, then I’m not even going to mention the music. No CD, no comment.

And that’s really all I’ve got to say about The Robot Revolution. I thought it was brilliant but, so much has been wrong with the show recently that I’m just not trusting it. We shall see what we shall see. 

Doctor Who - Joy To The World

The Joy Of Rex

Doctor Who -
Joy To The World
UK/USA 2024
Airdate: 25th December 2024

Warning: Some big spoilers here.

It’s nice having a Doctor Who Christmas Special to look forward to again. Now, admittedly, last year’s show which returned it to the Christmas Day slot was... well... a bit of a disaster and, as it turned out, kind of a harbinger of what was probably the worst series of Doctor Who in quite some time. However, it’s nice to be able to report that this year’s special, Joy To The World, was a pretty good return to form for the show. One can only hope that this signals a better season than the last one... although it was written by Steven Moffat so my expectations were that it would at least be interesting at any rate.

The plot involves an attempt to grow a star seed through various doors in a Time Hotel, which specialises in lodging its guests in different periods. So we have The Doctor and his companions visiting various places like the 1940s in London, the early 1960s on the Orient Express and they even at one point, almost get eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Of course, once the star seed is finished it will go off and burn the planet to cinders to create a new star but, hey ho, that’s what The Doctor is here to stop.

So we have Ncuti Gatwa back as the main man and the beautiful Nicola Coughlan as new companion Joy. Gatwa is given a script he can do a good job with (including a companion saving scene which, I suspect, is inspired heavily by the scene between Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen in the Fourth Doctor story Ark In Space, reviewed here) and Coughlan is pretty good as his short lived companion (yep, all I’m saying is that she ends her story in a similar way to Kylie Minogue in the 2007 Doctor Who Christmas Special Voyage Of The Damned).

Also very good in this episode is another companion who The Doctor spends a year with, named Anita, played by Stephanie de Whalley, who has really nice chemistry with the current incarnation and, all I’m saying is that they should maybe pick her up as a regular companion at some point. Some of the most moving scenes in this special involve her and The Doctor. And then there’s Joel Fry, who I really think a lot of as an actor anyway and who brings his particular comic timing to the story too.

There was some great writing involved as well. Moffat is maybe not taking things as seriously as some long term fans might want him to but, he has a lovely moment where, after a year of not cracking the password code to get Joy out of trouble, The Doctor merely remembers the code his future self told him it was, creating a nice temporal paradox. And then there’s the wonderful line from The Doctor... “Pardon my French but, what the French is going on!” Which was quite brilliant and he used the new ‘curse term’ French later on in the episode too. Along with yet another infuriating reference to Mavity. I mean, when the heck are they going to tidy up that loose end which dates back to the three David Tennant specials from last year?

My favourite moment, however, was a visual reference. Not only was there a costumer’s shop in the Time Hotel which evoked the name of Mr. Benn, but the costume in the shop was the red suit of armour which was from my favourite episode of Mr. Benn from when I was a kid. Nicely done sir.

On the negative side... because you knew I’d have some negative comments, right? Well I didn’t like it too much that the woman on the train in 1962, who turned out to be a lesbian (or must be bisexual right, since she shacks up with Sean Connery in Dr. No the same year)... was Sylvia Trench from the first two Bond films. But what's so wrong about this character appearing here is... the James Bond books and films are already established as fictional works in the WHONIVERSE... so how can she appear as a real character too?

Similarly, although it didn’t bother me too much, I suspect there might be a few noses bent out of shape with The Doctor witnessing the arrival of the three kings at Bethlehem at the end of the story. What did bother me was the fact that, even though they were the best scenes in the show, The Doctor waited around for a whole year from 2024 to 2025 to catch up to the Time Hotel again. Well, honestly, since there is now another incarnation of The Doctor on Earth at exactly the same point, why didn’t he just go and borrow David Tennant’s TARDIS for a little while? This is kind of a sloppy continuity error, methinks.

Still, I did quite enjoy Joy To The World and it’s certainly one of the best episodes Ncuti Gatwa has been in so, yeah, this was a nice treat for a Christmas evening and I am just keeping my fingers crossed that it won’t be the last Christmas special ever. I’m kinda expecting the show to get cancelled any month now unless someone comes to its rescue.

Doctor Who - Empire Of Death

Sutekh And
The Banshees

Doctor Who -
Empire Of Death
Airdate: 22nd June 2024
BBC 1

Warning: More spoilers.

Well that was... okay. Better than the set up episode and not a real clunker like a fair few in this season of Doctor Who have been. Empire of Death is the second of a two part season finale, carrying directly on from last week’s The Legend Of Ruby Sunday (reviewed here). It has a lot to do but the exposition is fairly light handed and it does have time to go off and explore other story ideas as it sets about mostly resolving questions and threads brought up in the current series. There’s also a big problem right from the outset here but I’ll get into it that in a moment.

Okay, so this episode sees The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) and former Sixth/Seventh Doctor companion Melanie Bush (Bonnie Langford) on the run from Sutekh and his gift of death. They are on their own in the universe now because almost everything is now dead worlds and dead suns (Earth and all life on it is destroyed very early on in the episode... and therein lies the problem) but they find someone who has a bit of metal they need to get their ‘get out of jail free’ gadget back, so they can regain the upper hand and set to putting things right.

Which they do... and then we finally find out who Ruby’s mum is... who turns out to be nobody of any importance (which, in Marvel comics terms, would be the equivalent of what Steve Dikto wanted to do with the reveal on the Green Goblin, as opposed to what Stan Lee actually did, causing the rift between them). Which is a bit of a let down in some ways but, I like the idea that this simple matter of identity, which is the only reason Sutekh has allowed these three fugitives from death to live, has become important because of the way certain life forms value things and people... and so that’s what they become. Which is a nice idea and, yeah, almost certainly true.

So most of the mysteries are tied up and The Doctor and Ruby Sunday part company (although I suspect she may be back to guest star in the odd UNIT episode or two at some part in the next series). If Disney don’t decide to just write off the already completed next series as a tax loss, that is. However we still have the mystery of next door neighbour Mrs. Flood and the way Anita Dobson is scripted and plays the character makes me think that I was on the right track thinking she’s an important villain from some point in the Doctor Who universe... especially when she breaks the fourth wall again at the end of the episode to tell the audience that The Doctor’s story ends in terror.

And I thought the episode played pretty well and the memory TARDIS from the, not so good I’d have to say, Tales From The TARDIS streaming show is given a practical use, of sorts, in this episode (although everybody kind of recognised the background of a memory TARDIS through the open doors in a shot in the early trailers for the series so... no real surprise there).

The big problem for me with the episode was that, most of the regular characters, UNIT or otherwise, die near the start of the episode (as does all life on Earth) so, you kind of know there’s going to be a huge ‘reset button’ of a resolution to the story, to get everybody back to life again, at some point. So The Doctor trapping Sutekh in the time vortex to bring death to death (which, by the way, would mean everybody in the universe should now be immortal... so that would be a huge problem in itself) seems a bit of a cop out ending, to be honest. Still, it got the story back to where it needed to be and although this new incarnation of The Doctor kept crying again (as he has in every bloody episode this season, I think)... it was an okay end of season finale and I totally didn’t mind it.

Not much more to say about Empire Of Death. Murray Gold’s score was great, it was nice seeing Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen in footage from The Pyramids Of Mars on the viewer as part of the story and I’m still looking forward to seeing this year’s Christmas special, I’m pleased to say. Unfortunately, I’m not expecting the producers to learn anything much from the reception of the show in the next season because, well, they’ve already shot it before the first series aired, I believe.

Here’s my ranking of the episodes in this year’s series, from worst to best, if anybody wants to know (because that’s what people seem to be doing these days, it seems... personal rankings) now that I’ve had time to reevaluate them (click on the titles for the corresponding review)...

8. Rogue
7. Space Babies
6. The Devil’s Chord
5. The Legend Of Ruby Sunday
4. Empire Of Death
3. Boom
2. 73 Yards
1. Dot And Bubble

Doctor Who - The Legend Of Ruby Sunday

 

Triad-itional Celebration

Doctor Who -
The Legend Of Ruby Sunday
Airdate: 15th June 2024
BBC 1

Warning: Spoilers aplenty.

Okay... well I have to say I am not feeling much love for this first instalment of the two part season finale of the new series of Doctor Who. I certainly didn’t hate it and it was put together well but... I dunno, I feel kind of underwhelmed, to be honest.

So the brief plot set up is that The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) visit UNIT HQ to try and figure out two things... firstly, who is the mysterious woman they keep seeing cropping up in their adventures (as played by actress Susan Twist, every week as a different character) and, also, the answer to the question... “Who is Ruby Sunday’s mum who left her on the church steps on Christmas Eve 2004?

Well, the woman is Susan Triad, about to give the world her new technology (and who has dreams about the things her characters would have seen in each episode)... not knowing she’s the victim of this week’s returning villain. Yeah, so Russel T. Davies said they wouldn’t be bringing any old villains back this series and so, what did he do? He brought an old villain back. Meanwhile, looking through a time window to recreate the night that Ruby was left on the doorstep of the church, they bring more death and the villain manifests itself in our time.

Okay... so I’ve seen many theories on what could be happening over the last month on the internet and, subsequently... as far as we are in the story by the end of this episode... they’ve all been speculated successfully so that, yeah, there are no real story surprises in this episode at all (but, not to worry, some more suprises may be coming next week, one hopes). Debut character Harriet’s second name being Arbinger, for example. So, H. Arbinger or Harbinger. People were pretty sure that would be the case and so it goes (to quote someone who once found themselves unstuck in time... I’m pitching to you, Kurt Vonnegut fans).

So we all knew that Susan Twist’s character this week, Susan Triad or S Triad, was an anagram of TARDIS (where the manifestation of an ancient God was hiding). And, yes, many people had already figured out the ‘Sue Tech’ idea as meaning it could well be an appearance of the God Sutekh from the 1975 Tom Baker era story The Pyramids Of Mars. And it is, it would seem. I think that’s what most disappointed me about the episode and, if there was any surprise for me, then it was that they’d bothered brining this enemy back in this form. I mean, really?

Two reasons for that disappointment. One, the great thing about The Pyramids Of Mars storyline was not Sutekh but his large, robot mummy henchmen, who were iconic monsters of the era (despite only appearing in that story). So I’d much rather have the cool mummies back than Sutekh, to be honest. Secondly, I guess I am a little curious as to why they decided to bring back a monster who is not going to be familiar to any modern era audiences, unless they’ve gone back to look at the classic stories. I mean... yeah, it’s  only really going to mean something to fans of old. Nothing against that personally but... maybe not the smartest move considering you’re trying to hook new viewers into the show for the Disney fatherland.

And, yeah, it was an unsatisfying cliffhanger, to be honest. I’m not really buying into it. But there are still some surprises yet, I suspect. Firstly, since they keep invoking The Doctor’s granddaughter Susan all through the episode, I’m not completely ruling out that she’ll put in an appearance at some point in next week’s episode. Maybe by way of an epilogue, The Doctor could revisit her where he left her in Earth’s far future, after the Dalek Invasion Of Earth (although how The Five Doctors fits into that, I can’t really remember).

Secondly... Mrs. Flood’s return, as played by Anita Dobson. Now, okay, she could just be a manifestation of Sutekh (I hope not, that’s boring) and she’s certainly presenting as a villain. But... she’s not immediately aggressive with it and so, maybe she’s another old returning villain (such as The Rani) waiting to pitch in and help The Doctor against a common enemy. Who knows? Well, not me I can assure you but all the audiences who went to the 12.01 cinematic showing of the final two episodes this morning will already know the answer to that one. As for the likes of me (who is not near a cinema playing it), I’ll have to wait until next Saturday, alas.

I’ve not got that much else to say other than that, I think... other than well done to returning companion Mel in the form of Bonnie Langford. She did some good work here. Way too much hugging going on again in this episdoe though. The Legend Of Ruby Sunday is an excellent title for an episode but, yeah, I was seriously underwhelmed on this one, it has to be said. Keeping my fingers crossed for next week’s concluding episode, Empire Of Death. We’ll see how that goes, I guess.

Doctor Who - Rogue

Reversing
the Bipolarity

Doctor Who - Rogue
Airdate: 8th June 2024
BBC 1

Well now... I’d been primed by friends and family, who saw it before me, that the latest episode of Doctor Who, Rogue,  was a truly a terrible and uncomfortable watch. Yeah, it went places with The Doctor which I am unhappy with (although clearly not as unhappy and many other very long term Doctor Who fans I know, who I think may finally have reached their last straw with the series as to carrying on watching it)... but the mental health issue clearly on show in the episode is what it is. I have friends of a similar disposition in real life so I’m perhaps more tolerant and accepting of it than most. That’s probably as much as I’m saying about that particular ‘romantic’ aspect of the episode but, contrary to literally everyone I personaly know who has seen this one, so far... the over wokeness of the story does not make this the most terrible episode of the new series... it’s still not as bad as The Church On Ruby Road, Space Babies and The Devil’s Chord, for sure. Although nowhere near as good as the last three episodes either.

So this is the ‘Bridgerton’ episode, a show I’ve not seen and have no interest in. And, indeed, the show is referenced by name a good few times, as this one is set at a social party in 1813, where shape-shifting bird people are preparing to cosplay the human race to death. But, honestly, it’s truly not as bad an installment as people are making it out to be. I’ll come back to that in a little while though.

Asides from the almost unwatchable romance between The Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa and new character Rogue, played by Jonathan Groff, there are some interesting moments where, for example, we get to see The Doctor’s previous incarnations as holographic projections at one point... so that was a nice touch. Millie Gibson was brilliant, as usual, as Ruby Sunday... she has good chemistry with the show’s lead. Alas, I can’t help but think something bad is going to happen to her character in the next week or two and, I suspect, she may even become a villain in future seasons of the show (that could be interesting). That’s just me speculating, mind you... I guess we’ll find out sometime soon, is my guess.

Indira Varma, who’s no stranger to the Whoniverse (as a traitorous Torchwood member, if memory serves) is kinda wasted here as the leader of the owl people, I thought. But I wish her well and am looking forward to seeing her in more Hollywood movies at some point... she seems to be one of those actresses who turns up in everything.

Okay, I’m trying to find some nice things to say about the episode to counter the negativity I know a number of people I know are feeling about this one so... here’s two.

One is... I loved this week’s Susan Twist sighting... she’s just a portrait painting hanging on the wall in the mansion house. That was a nice touch.

And then there’s Murray Gold’s score, which was one of his better ones and had some good action/running music for The Doctor, slightly reminiscent of similarly functional themes for David Tennant and Matt Smith’s Doctors (he certainly puts the fun in functional).

Okay... so not too much more to say but, coming back to that big, pink elephant in the room... I am kinda unhappy about the way things are going with the show in terms of certain elements and, it seems I’m not alone in that because, from what I can tell, the ratings for the show, in general, are even more of a disaster than they were in the Jodie Whittaker seasons. I was talking to my friend Andrew in the BFI bar about this yesterday and between us we came to the conclusion that, if things go on like this with the ratings and the show runner possibly not ‘reading the room’ as it were, this time around, then it’s possible Disney may well pull the funding after the next series (which is already ‘in the can’, as far as I know). Would the BBC want to go back to the show with a very reduced budget or would that spell the end of everyone’s favourite timelord for a bit? I don’t know but I can’t help but think that the good Doctor may find him/herself having a long rest if things don’t improve.

But, as far as Rogue goes (and the character who the episode is named after... please don’t bring him back in future installments, people!) then it’s not the weakest episode of this series so far but... yeah... it’s not great.

Doctor Who - Dot And Bubble

TwitFace

Doctor Who -
Dot And Bubble
Airdate: 1st June 2024
BBC 1

Warning: Minor spoilers within.

Wow. A three in a row run of good episodes. Dot And Bubble is another above average episode of Doctor Who and my biggest question after seeing this current hat trick of pretty great shows is... what the heck were the BBC/Disney thinking by opening this season with two of the worst episodes possible? Why start off with the obvious duds?

So this one is about a society of rich kids who inhabit a planet where the one town, Finetime, is where they live and talk to each other on social media all day, including the ‘two long hours’ a day where they have to ‘work’. Their rich families pay for them to be there and many of them are incapable of even being able to walk around without the great holographic bubble of social media generated around their head, projected by the dot (aka, a flying drone) which generates the bubble. Which is a problem if, like the main and totally unsympathetic protagonist Lindy Pepper-Bean (played by Callie Cooke), all your friends are being eaten, alphabetically, by huge ‘digesting monsters’ and the only help you have are these two strangers who have infiltrated the social network, called The Doctor (played by Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (played by Millie Gibson).

Yeah, it’s tough trying to navigate streets by yourself with no arrows and instructions to show you how to move your feet. You will bump into lamp posts or you could, like many of Lindy’s friends, walk right into the giant stomach opening of various monsters walking... well, crawling... in the streets.

Now, this is proper science fiction, with a heavy dose of satire against both the generation of youth who spend all their time on various variants of social media (yeah, I’m probably guilty of that to an extent too... follow me on Twitter!) plus, basically, the dumb rich kids who are born into a privileged position in society. We’ve all met them... what’s in their wallet on any given day is way higher than their IQ. And I’ve got to hand it to Russell T. Davies, this episode was worthy and, quite in the style of, the late, great Philip K. Dick. In many ways.

And through it all, even though the episode is a pretty self contained story (and an excellent stab at ‘real’ sci-fi, for sure), they still manage to add another notch on the most blatant, so far, part of the underlying arc of the season. Namely, yep... another Susan Twist sighting. This time she’s playing the (dead but she doesn’t know it yet) mother of Lindy... but here’s the thing. Both The Doctor and Ruby react to her presence in this. The Doctor flags her as being the face and voice of the ambulances from the episode Boom (reviewed by me here) and Ruby also remembers her from somewhere else. And the hint there is, she maybe remembers her from last week’s alternate timeline and so, just like the timeline reset changed with Ruby having been to Wales three times instead of two, as originally stated at the opening of 73 Yards (reviewed here), it implies that we’re not completely done with the events of that last story yet. I hope that means we’re finally going to get some closure on just what the old lady version of Ruby was saying to terrify all those people... it’s a bit of an important and glaring omission (just as the previous David Tennant incarnation of the character not regenerating into Jodie Whittaker’s old costume hasn’t been credibly explained in the ‘in universe’ world... and it needs to be).

And, yeah, it was pretty great. The vapid and clueless losers who made up the entire (under 27) society of Finetime might just as well have had ‘conservative party’ stamped onto their foreheads. I think the current season of Doctor Who is certainly getting back on track and I think Dot And Bubble adds to the season considerably. That being said, next week’s so-called ‘Bridgerton’ episode is worrying me a bit. It’s the kind of programme I would naturally steer clear of so I hope the episode has something other than parody going for it. I guess I’ll find out in due time.

Doctor Who - 73 Yards

73 The Yard Way

Doctor Who - 73 Yards
Airdate: 25th May 2024
BBC 1

Warning: All the spoilers here.

So, Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson are back as The Doctor and Ruby Sunday in this fourth episode of the new series of Doctor Who entitled 73 Yards and, despite unpopular fan theory, this episode did not turn out to be connected to Ethel’s Sandwich Quiz on an old episode of No. 73. Instead, what we have is a bit of a dilemma for this reviewer because it’s easily one of the best (if not the best) of the current season but, when the final denouement is played out, it turns out that the main feature of the isolating element of Ruby Sunday’s character trajectory in this one makes... it has to be said... absolutely no sense whatsoever. I mean, what a load of codswallop!

But it did continue the tradition of a relatively ‘Doctor free’ episode being one of the strongest they’ve done. In fact, my two all time favourite episodes of the ‘new Who’ era, Blink and Love And Monsters, were very Doctor-lite, it has to be said.

So, basic set up and pretty much the whole of the story is (I said this was full on spoilers, right?)... The Doctor and Ruby land on a cliff in Wales and The Doctor accidentally breaks a man-made (or something-made) witchcraft style circle. With the least biggest surprise in the episode made completely predictable because of the odd way the camera holds the focus and movement on Ruby in close up for a longer than average length of time, she looks around and The Doctor has just disappeared. The TARDIS is locked and for the next 60 plus years, it doesn’t move. A strange woman who is making signs and is always standing exactly 73 Yards away from Ruby wherever she is... frightens anyone else away from Ruby with whatever she says to them. This includes her own foster mother, who locks her out and never speaks to her again and, even Kate Lethbridge-Stuart and UNIT, who goes to help Ruby, abandon her as soon as they hear what the woman says.

Then, because of something she heard The Doctor say about a prime minister bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war in 2046 (yeah, thanks for dating the show for future viewers, guys!), she manages to fix things so the woman who is always there talks to the guy before he starts a nuclear war and terrifies him away from his position of power. Another 40 years later and she dies in hospital, realises the woman is herself at her old age and then she goes back to where it all started in her past somehow, to warn her younger self, successfully this time, to not let The Doctor break the circle. The end.

And it’s great... the sense of suspense coupled with a relatively new companion both abandoned and with no way of helping herself pushes lots of the right buttons. It’s entertaining, starts off with a relatively early, extended Susan Twist sighting (oh yeah, that twist is coming at some point alright) and even has Anita Dobson’s Mrs. Flood from the Christmas special make an appearance too.

But it’s also very infuriating because, as the thing the woman, aka future Ruby, is saying is that The Doctor shouldn’t step on the circle... why the hell was everybody in the episode running away in fear? It made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Now... I’d like to hope that Russell T Davies has some kind of trick up his sleeve and that he’s going to revisit this story in some way before the series is done... to somehow make sense of that but, I dunno... I don’t trust that to happen. Rendering the whole story actually quite ineffective and, I dunno, a bit of a damp squib. It’s the kind of great build up and then complete anticlimax I would have expected from Steven Moffat as a show runner, to be honest and, yeah, I’m still not feeling that confident about this iteration of the series now, once again.

Still, with 73 Yards, getting there seems to be half the fun and, yeah, it’s entertaining and intriguing enough, for sure. I just wish it had actually gone somewhere, though, rather than just give us mind candy with no real substance, as seems to be the case here.

Doctor Who - Boom

Sunday Mundy

Doctor Who - Boom
Airdate: 18th May 2024
BBC 1

Warning: Some spoilers here sweeties.

Yay! Finally... the new series of Doctor Who has a pretty good episode... Boom... with a hidden surprise to it too, it has to be said. And, blimey! It’s written by Steven Moffat. He was a great Doctor Who writer during the Russel T. Davies era of Doctor Who but when he took over as show runner on Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi’s tenures, well it would be safe to say his writing went rapidly downhill. Now though, he provides a pretty good story  for the new show and, well, I guess Russel T must be the best editor for this writer, is what I’m thinking.

Okay so, The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and his new companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) land slap bang in the middle of a war. I think the army, who are once again a religious army, with serving ministers and bishops etc instead of modern ranking, must mean it’s the same lot as in Moffat’s second Weeping Angels story for Matt Smith’s first season. Here there is no real twist as the fact that the army is fighting no enemy and are being kept fighting and dying because of capitalism of the war machinery merchants (and the soldiers’ own gullibility) is something that is telegraphed from very early on, I thought... or at least just very obvious.

So we have mechanical ambulances killing their own soldiers in the field because it’s not financially viable to give them a few weeks to recover from their injuries and, right from the get go, The Doctor steps on a ‘smart’ landmine and stays there for most of the episode while Ruby, who is pretty much shot dead under accidental circumstances about half way through the episode, tries to figure out, with the help of a few religiously impaired military types, a way to stop The Doctor from both blowing up and, because of his timelord anatomy, taking out pretty much half the planet if he shifts his weight or blood pressure one notch more.

But there’s lot’s of things going on here for what must have been a relatively cheap episode to shoot (it’s mostly set in that one location, which I suspect is one of the new backdrop screen thingies which Disney used on The Mandalorian and which seems to be rolling out through the entertainment industry). Including two surprise actors in this one.

Well, okay, actually the first one is no real surprise... I’ve been expecting Susan Twist to appear in every episode this year, as a different character per episode and, in this one she’s the personality of the ambulances. If the final twist of this year’s show isn’t to do with The Doctor’s granddaughter Susan, I’ll be surprised (although I was fully expecting her to make an appearance about six years ago and she didn’t show then).

As for the second guest appearance... well I would have been more worried about whether Ruby Sunday was going to come back from certain death or not had I realised that Mundy Flynn was being played by Varada Sethu. Who is back as Mundy next year, I believe (or maybe this Christmas?), as a new regular companion for The Doctor (alongside Ruby, I think... I suspect the marketing machine is being pretty deceptive with the facts at the moment). I’m somewhat relieved, though, because I really liked the character here and so I’m glad she’s back at some point.

Okay, so to be fair, the supposed ‘twists’ were all forseeable... although, did anyone catch Ruby’s age when the ambulance analysed her (is she really many thousands of years old or is that just because she’s maybe that far in the future?)... but it was all done with a certain panache and I even found myself warming to Ncuti in this one (thank goodness) so, I guess the darker ones fit him better, perhaps? Or maybe just me.

Once again we have the return of the ‘Ruby snow’ through one sequence. Which is another part of the ongoing mystery of Ruby Sunday and I’m all for that underlying arc (again, something to do with either Susan Foreman or Susan Twist, perhaps?). Time will tell and, not long to wait I guess, since it’s a ridiculously short season this year... well, unless they make us wait until Christmas or beyond, I suppose.

And I’ve not much more to say about Boom, to be honest except, next week’s ‘mostly Doctorless’ (if the publicity is to believed) episode is one I’ve been looking forward to for a bit and it looks to be giving us more intriguing flashbacks to the mysteries of Ruby’s past, for sure (the ambulance in this episode was completely unable to find her next of kin when it analysed her, of course). I just hope all the other episodes of this season carry on with this kind of quality going forward (if not even better). Liked this one a lot.

Doctor Who - Space Babies and The Devil's Chord

Baby’s In Black

Doctor Who
Space Babies
and The Devil's Chord
Airdate: 11th May 2024
BBC 1

Okay so, that wasn’t terrible and... it wasn’t great either. 

The new series of Doctor Who starring Ncuti Gatwa as the ‘fifteenth’ incarnation of everyone’s favourite timelord and Millie Gibson as his new TARDIS companion Ruby Sunday gets underway with, not one but the first two episodes of... I refuse to call it Season 1 just because Disney says so, the same as I refused to call the Christopher Eccleston debut Season 1 when the show returned in 2005... let’s just call it the new series, right?

So, anyway, much as I loved most of Russell T. Davies’ run on the Eccleston and Tennant seasons, I have to say that after last year’s four episodes, I’ve lost a lot of confidence in him and, yeah, I found these two new ones a bit of a mixed bag too. Sometimes verging on brilliance but somehow also giving me a lot of miss to neutralise the hit factor.

The first story, Space Babies, where the Doctor and Millie land on a mostly abandoned but still running baby farm on a space station was actually quite intriguing and, when the lone carer of the children is pretending to be a computer and having her words ‘filtered’ by the nanny persona, the writing is quite clever and witty. But I did feel the whole thing kinda died and was let down by the last fifteen minutes or so. I had to explain to somebody who was watching with me what the ending was because it wasn’t too clear for him and I explained the babies were headed for a planet with a name half taken from a character in The Quatermass Experiment (that would be Victor Caroon).

There were, however, some nice references to the past and some nice touches in reference to the ongoing mystery of Ruby Sunday’s origins and how, after the plot points raised by the ‘timeless child’ story arc at the heart of Jodie Whitaker’s incarnation of The Doctor, there are certain parallels between Ruby and the timelord. The moment where the memory of snow on the day The Doctor sees Ruby being left in a basket by someone in her past leaks into the current adventure and manifests itself in the space station, Tarkovsky-like, was a pretty nice moment. So, yeah, not all bad but, like I said, a terrible wrap up.

Hmm... moving onto The Devil’s Chord then, where the two travellers in time and space go to see The Beatles record their first album (and Cilla Black too) and things aren’t quite the 1963 they were expecting... was also an interesting set up. Although it was pretty noticeable from the outset that neither the BBC or even Disney had stumped up any cash to buy the rights to any of The Beatles songs. I mean... really? The one lone chord from the famous song A Day In The Life they used maybe doesn’t incur a copyright fee, is my guess. However, the story brought out a nice reference when The Doctor informs Ruby that both he and his granddaughter are currently living in another part of London in that time, recalling the first ever episode of the show in 1963 (although he doesn’t mention that he is also, simultaneously there in yet another part of London, if memory serves, in his Sylvester McCoy incarnation).

But the new villain who manifests to The Doctor with a ‘giggle’, recalling The Giggle episode from last year (reviewed by me here), is really over the top and overly campy and, honestly, just not much fun, it seemed to me. And the story was more than a little contradictory in terms of the state of music in the various time zones... why have pop artists recording songs at all if there’s no love of music in the world? Oh, and The Beatles looked nothing like them (I was somehow less confused between them by others in the room) but, I thought the young George Martin looked much more authentic.

But, did anyone notice there was snow again in this episode... and some Christmas. Guess this year’s Christmas special should provide some answers to the mystery of Ruby Sunday then, I reckon.

Also, was I right, despite what the IMDB says, in thinking that actress Susan Twist played different characters in both these episodes, just like she did in last year’s stories? Hmm... there’s always a twist in the end, right? Maybe it will be a twist featuring Susan, The Doctor’s granddaughter, who we last saw in the show in 1964? Methinks Russel T is playing games with the audience again, casting an actress with that name in recurring roles.

Anyway, there was a brilliant metatextual one liner about non-diegetic music in this episode which truly was a touch of brilliance, as was the diegetic piano tune from the pre-credits sequence morphing into the full bodied non-diegetic theme for the titles and then further morphing back into diegetic music at the start of the very next scene. Good stuff.

And talking of the scoring... Murray Gold is definitely back and the music feels somehow a lot better than it has in ages, it has to be said (I believe he also featured in the episode as himself but I didn’t spot him... wasn’t looking out for him, to be honest). But, overall, I have to say that the episode just felt a bit meh, brilliance aside. It didn’t grab me the way I’d hoped but, I do still live in hope that the series will get better, for sure.

Now then, one last thing. Millie Jackson is absolutely incredible and I already love her character and the way she performs it. Ncuti Gatwa... still not sure. Still seems to be way too touchy feely for me and somehow... dunno, can’t quite put my finger on it but, it’s early days and I’m not giving up on him just yet. Don’t quite like the way he’s playing him but he’s still shaping the character, I guess. Not to mention I’m still trying to get used to him... so there’s that.

Time, or the man made illusion of duration that it represents as a metaphorical abstract concept, will tell, I guess. I’ll definitely still be tuning in for next week’s episode, which sees former show runner Steven Moffat returning to writing duties. So we’ll see how that goes soon enough.

Doctor Who - The Church On Ruby Road

 

The Paradox Children

Doctor Who -
The Church On Ruby Road
Airdate: 25th December 2023
BBC plus some evil purse strings

Well, this wasn’t bad and, it certainly wasn’t, as someone in my house said, “Bloody awful... put me off watching Doctor Who!” By the same token it wasn’t great either and, yeah, possibly not quite good. The new split off version of The Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa teams up with his new companion Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson, for an adventure which all circles around her origins as an orphan and begins a thread which will, if I’m not mistaken, run through the whole of this next season, which begins properly in May.

Okay, so the story of The Church On Ruby Road, such as it was, involved The Doctor and Ruby trying to prevent her foster mother’s new baby, the 33rd she’s adopted (which maybe a reference to LP playing speeds, given that one of the upcoming episodes features Abbey Road and The Beatles) from being eaten by goblins, itself a ploy by the goblins to, I would assume, get their hands on Ruby. Which they do after being defeated by The Doctor, by using the goblin ‘physics of coincidence’, if I’ve got that right, to fracture time and kidnap Ruby from the steps of the church she was left at as a newborn baby. The Doctor goes back and saves her and picks up his mysterious new companion once the timeline is set back, stupidly not following the mother himself because, hey, it makes dramatic sense to dangle that mystery over the audience for the rest of the year (I’m guessing). I wonder if Ruby has a pocket watch. Probably not, two hearts would definitely show up when they’re doing checks on foster kids, for sure.

Okay... so Gibson seems fine. Gatwa looks absolutely perfect as a new Doctor but, there’s still something about the way he’s playing the character which I’m not liking and, I can’t quite put my finger on what that is. Something about the voice and attitude seems a bit off, to be honest. Still willing to give him time though... unlike other members of my household, it has to be said.

And there’s the other trap that either I’ve fallen into or Russel T. Davies has accidentally sprung on himself. Doctor Who was always, as far as I remember, supposed to be a family show, rather than just a kids show. And this episode is nothing but childish malarkey from start to finish it seems to me. Now, I think one of two things could be happening here... and the thing I hope that’s happening is that he just wanted to do a  very light hearted, drama free, kid pleasing tale for Christmas. The whole episode felt like a poorly CGId version of The Dark Crystal or even The Muppets, to be fair. But, it could be just a concession to Christmas with more serious drama and peril on the way later (I mean, seriously, just eat the kid already and move on, there are no high stakes or real threats in this episode).

Or... and I suspect some newspaper reviews may well take this tack in the next morning’s papers but... is this new, child-like tone a sign of the Disneyfication of Doctor Who? Remembering that it’s Disney who are injecting finance into this thing now (although not enough to make the goblins look ‘all that’... apparently). Now, this was my first thought but, being as the preview trailer for the new series starting in May looks like that won’t necessarily be the case... I’m not going to rush to any conclusions and keep my fingers crossed that the whole Disney element and the child-like atmosphere in this episode was just a big, Christmas fuelled coincidence. I hope. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for this... I’m just not sure.

Also, I didn’t see any Daleks or Cybermen in the trailer and, as much as I hate that they keep returning with alarming frequency over the last ten years or so... if you want to establish the new guy as The Doctor, then you should get him sharing screen time with those established villains as soon as possible, would be my take on that.

Still, it was nice hearing Murray Gold return to the show with some pretty good music and I can only hope that Silva Screen will be releasing a proper CD of that soon... along with the Murray Gold season which they never got around to releasing all those years ago, preferably (or even instead of this new one because, they should be releasing these things in order anyhow).

And that’s me almost done on Doctor Who - The Church On Ruby Road other than... did someone mention Mavity. Yep, again, instead of gravity. That’s been turning up since the episode Wild Blue Yonder (reviewed here) and I can only assume that it’s going to turn around and bite the audience in the backside at some point over the next two years because, obviously, those timelines aren’t quite rightly settled yet, are they?

Anyway, I don’t think this episode was a total disaster and I’ll withhold judgement for a while. I'm ot looking forward to the new series all that much but I'm still hopeful. Time, as always, will tell.