new-nu-Who: RTD2 (Doctor Who on telly 2023-?)

Space Babies was fun for what it was but i would probably never want to watch it again. the doctor intentionally making all the babies cry seemed out of character but also... lol

The Devil's Chord would've been fine without the musical number which was really truly awful ugh

i quite enjoyed Devil’s Chord! jinx a great villain - agree that the finale song was naff. wish they’d somehow given jinx a closing number instead.

Space Babies was pretty annoying, but at least annoying in a far more imaginative way than someone like Chris Chibnall could ever conceive of.

And yes, what blackmail material does Murray Gold have on RTD?

Reddit absolutely loves Murray Gold from what I’ve seen; it’s baffling

I don't know ilx poster Left watches Doctor Who, but I hope they appreciated the universe being saved by shipping John and Paul

I think the showmakers got their 60s styles a couple of years early at least.
But do love that Recency suit. Just think it would have had at least one pleat at back or sides. & now the Doctor invented the Afro.

i was genuinely confused for a while if the song at the end was supposed to signify that music had returned to earth or not because it didn't seem any better than the beatles' or cilla's dismal efforts earlier

I was confused by the bit where Ruby turned into a different species (even tho it was in the trailer) and babbled about something that sounded integral to her arc. Good confusion I guess, but it's probably the only bit of the episode I want to rewatch.

I only watched the first 15 mins or so of the babies one but I was struck by how GOOD everything looked - everyone’s skin, the colours… every pixel was poppin

i was genuinely confused for a while if the song at the end was supposed to signify that music had returned to earth or not because it didn't seem any better than the beatles' or cilla's dismal efforts earlier

Music has returned and it’s still shitty!

i was genuinely confused for a while if the song at the end was supposed to signify that music had returned to earth or not because it didn't seem any better than the beatles' or cilla's dismal efforts earlier

...and why is the new Sonic screwdriver not remotely screwdriver-shaped?

Just make the Doctor permanently Scottish and be done with it.

...and why is the new Sonic screwdriver not remotely screwdriver-shaped?

I think I saw something about how RTD had seen kids in playgrounds pointing toy sonics at each other as if they were weapons and he didn't like it?

Another odd thing was the reappearance of the schoolboy from the opening scene during the musical number at the end.

I thought harbinger pretty much meant Herald. So the kid was totally subordinate to the maestro. So is there a different meaning to that I'm missing. Or did they just want to be inclusive.

anyone else find it distracting how gatwa does the american R sound in his british accent? taRRRRdis

his sometimes-scottish/sometimes-not accent is v charming

anyone else find it distracting how gatwa does the american R sound in his british accent? taRRRRdis

yes! v confusing

the rs don't sound scottish to me really though i realise i am maybe not best placed to be the judge of this

That's not American, it's Scottish.

Also what is a "British accent"?

yeah, it's scottish - definitely an east coast sound

He definitely sounds Scottish. There are more Scottish accents than just Glaswegian and Gatwa absolutely sounds east of Scotland (is it Dunfermline he's from?)

Thankfully he doesn't sound too much like a Fifer.

There was a bit where he rolled his Rs that sounded to me like a McCoy homage...

Edinburgh most of his childhood, didn't move to Dunfermline until he was 15 so too late to do any real damage to his accent

xpost

Just as well as we'd have Americans saying, "Why is doing that Canadian "eh" at the end of every sentence?"

A lot of "who's Ken and why is the Doctor asking him questions all the time?" too, I'd imagine.

As an actual Fifer I can say he definitely does have a touch of Dunfermline about his accent.
I also don't get why you're making stereotypical Fife accent jokes. There was none of that type of thing about Capaldi's accent

Just joshing, treefell. I think Capaldi has what non-Scottish people think a Scottish accent sounds like, and Scottish accents are a broad church - Karen Gillan's went unremarked on as well but generally there are so many Glasgow-ish accents on telly that actual Scottish accents don't sound "Scottish" to outsiders

(I do have a mate who ends every single sentence with ken? so I base all east coast accent things on him despite knowing many east coasters who do nothing of the sort)

gatwa literally was ken in the barbie movie, doesn’t get much more fife than that

Yeah Devil's Chord was too shrill, wacky and glib for me I'm afraid. Seems so far that RTD used up all his creative juices in the specials.

I see there's only two he's not writing this season; I feel exhausted already.

Jinkx Monsoon's performance was something though.

The trouble with screen depictions of that era of the Beatles is you have to be as good looking as the Beatles to pull off that haircut without looking completely dopey.

Ncuti looked amazing with the afro, on the other hand.

Ok well that was good

Agreed, I enjoyed that a lot

like even a sliiiightly subpar Moffat effort is still a glittering masterpiece compared to most of the last 5-6 years - just so relieved to watch doctor who being good again AND being ABOUT something again

Whenever they mentioned the secret chord needed to banish Maestro, I kept thinking it had to be 'the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift' - doubt I was the only one.

la boîte diabolique...

“everywhere’s a beach, eventually” was so very Moffat/Capaldi

Of course Larkin didn't actually say "what will survivie of us is love", but thinking he did is very Moffat.

Bits I loved and bits I hated in there, Ncuti was consistently great though.

ep3 was a notable step up from the first two, big rogue trooper energy

was so much easier when Tom Baker stood on that land mine in Genesis

Does seem to be getting better. Hope it continues.

"I'm Anglican."

think this would have worked better if they shot it in a real quarry instead of a cgi quarry. The whole thing seemed predicated on building up tension but also failed to build up any tension, not sure why exactly, but I don't think Murray Gold's music was helping. I wish they'd done more with the idea of the unseen enemy that is possibly hiding in the smoke or the mud, this is an intriguingly spooky concept and would have made the eventual payoff that there is no enemy have more of an impact.

I know the whole point of this episode is them intentionally doing something more static and restricted than usual, but it felt like a drag to me after the freewheeling inventiveness of the last few episodes. The creepiness of the AI recreation of the dead soldier is weirdly undermined by the ending's suggestion that there is some spark of the 'real' solider remaining that allows him to defy his programming, at first it seemed like the reason we were supposed to find it ghastly is because it's a convincing looking/sounding imitation of someone who no longer exists, the same as how the Doctor seems to agree with the kid's belief that "he's not gone ... he's just dead"

what are the best film anticapitalist doctor who episodes? this one, oxygen, what else?

think this would have worked better if they shot it in a real quarry instead of a cgi quarry. The whole thing seemed predicated on building up tension but also failed to build up any tension, not sure why exactly, but I don't think Murray Gold's music was helping. I wish they'd done more with the idea of the unseen enemy that is possibly hiding in the smoke or the mud, this is an intriguingly spooky concept and would have made the eventual payoff that there is no enemy have more of an impact.