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

(and Gatwa joined the production after this ep — having still been on Sex Education previously — so I wouldn’t expect any other Doctor-lite episodes in the remaining four, no)

like when Clara’s eyes replaced Capaldi’s after she bluffed the cybermen that she was the Doctor

It could have, like, opened with the opening credits?

Not that I am miffed by their absence or anything - but I did find it a curious choice

I thought it was an effective way of throwing off the tone of the whole show to make one more unsettled as a viewer, leading into the creepiness of the apparition

I'll buy that!

As a one off in that context it's fine - I just hope it's not part of an attempt to rebrand the show as more 'prestige' or whatever.

I didn't even notice the lack of titles lol but yeah, going straight to them can have its own 'this one's intense, strap in' power.

Two fun sort-of-fake-outs for me were briefly thinking (hoping) the Herald was going to be whizzing along in parallel with the train somehow and, less amusingly, also that she might appear in the same position as Gwilliam causing them both to explode.

I just hope it's not part of an attempt to rebrand the show as more 'prestige' or whatever.

it's TWO WEEKS since an episode called "Space Babies" had talking babies with CGI mouths and a farting monster made out of snot :)

yeah i liked that one
no thoughts just vibes

Just noticed this new season is numbered as..... Season 1?

That’s a Disney+ thing

It m shows up that way on iPlayer too, which is.. weird

As I understand it, part of the Disney deal was rebranding this season as Season 1

and yet there's a lot of background-filling-in, him referencing previous adventures.

I am not defending the Season 1 nonsense, mind you

There'll now be three ways to number each future season, that's fun.

It also implies that Mad Jack will continue to launch the nukes, since she doesn’t stop him in this timeline and the Doctor still mentions it happening.

The Doctor can be quite timeline-flexible (and he's still in the old one when he says it) - in the new timeline they don't loose Mad Jack. (Also the Doctor just says that he led the world to the brink)

I hated the bit near the end which seemed to imply that Ruby put Marti in Roger’s path so she could prove he was a monster (which she already knew because the Doctor said so!), and then later had the gall to be like “sorry you were abused, I’m gonna go save the day now”. Weirdly out of character and gross.

That feels like a bit of a stretch - "I had to make sure I was right" makes more sense referring to being sure ap Gwilliam has the means motive and opportunity to launch nuclear weapons.

(Does anyone still call the last season season 40 or whatever?)

Personally don’t think they use someone good like Aneurin Barnard for roughly 10 minutes/one episode so there must be another timeline where someone else lets Mad Jack out, but not them.

finally saw this and even my jaded 15-y-o was instantly on his phone looking for theories afterwards, gotta tip your cap rtd you done did it again

There was a lot odd (tho v RTD at his polar opposite to 'lolol imagine a literal bogeyman' writing and some of the darkest tho true to life waters the show's ever ventured into) about the introduction of Marti. Why didn't Gwilliam just approach her directly? Why no interest in Ruby? I took it as him seeing the latter as 'stronger' of the two and maybe also wanting to charm Marti with knowledge of her name (tho what was up with the 'boy's name' comment?). But yeah...surely Ruby did not set that up so much as just realise after what was going on but decide she could not jeopardise herself (or Gwilliam's intended fate) by intervening.

he asked ruby about her so that we could see things through ruby's eyes imo. no interest in ruby, who knows, men are strange. I don't think ruby put her in roger's path, all she did was tell him her name. the rest was just pure sleaze. It was good to see this, so he was a proper monster privately as well as publicly, so we could really hate him. Otherwise you might get some people like 'damn right we need a strong nuclear deterrent, fuck ruby'.

still no idea what the herald eg Old Ruby, was saying to people to make them run away in horror. but i really like that i don't know! The uncanny doesn't work if it's all explained

She was saying “she thinks Drake won the beef”

ha ha

One episode not so far mentioned as comparison is Turn Left - a similar "without the Doctor" show, but with a grimmer ending (and middle).

A friend, who is more on the "Ruby threw Marti under the bus" vibe, frames it as all of the non-Doctor actors that try to fill the void (Ruby, Torchwood, UNIT) have to make decisions about how and when to hurt people - "While the Doctor might be able to find a way to solve the problem that doesn't involve hurting people, or allowing people to be hurt, the people who are trying to stand in for him are more limited, and cannot."

I’m not sure what Ruby was supposed to do there - not tell Roger Marti’s name? What would that have accomplished?

Okay THAT was WILD

not every ep this season has totally landed for me but I am so happy that Doctor Who is trying to do things again

three banger episodes in a row

so weird to see posts about this show on Fri night/ Sat morning

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ee/b2/b4/eeb2b4d4e8c6493174242d37a3b79361.gif

this was the first visually well-told one, I thought ten minutes in, and looking forward to the same director next week

by thirty minutes in I was “third-best RTD ep ever?”

this guy knows what's up

V Black Mirror - felt it set up some interesting ideas but didn't really go into them enough (their jobs, the mum - although I expect that will come back) and what was going to be outside? kinda fizzled out tbh.

"oh it's in alphabetical order" was some "oh it's ~mirror writing~" davinci code nonsense lol

and

Why have the monsters if the dot could just bust through your skull anyway

Perhaps it was dot zap first, scavenging monsters second?

OK boomers.

Perhaps it was dot zap first, scavenging monsters second?

It wasn't.

The old woman who keeps popping up as different ppl is like the fourth background mystery going on now (after big boss referred to by previous villains, Ange, Ruby's origin and the snow) and tho maybe all connected it all seems lower key than usual.

that was pretty good! kooky & creepy af but also kinda funny

but also like WOW WTF

a wild ride, if you will

I’m undeniably a sucker for “RTD talks shit about humans” stories but this might be my favourite example of it yet. Its main flaw I guess is that the target audience is really just well meaning but still blinkered white privileged bozos (like me), because I think the reaction he really wants from you at the end is “ohhhh urgh they’re all racist, shit, I didn’t see that coming…shit, how did I NOT see that coming?”

And that core metaphor, he’s not stupid, he knows full well that “everyone’s in a literal bubble and can’t see the horrible stuff outside it” is a dumb and clunky metaphor for social media, and he’s happy to let us roll our eyes at him for that (and maybe even knows he can get away with it specifically because 20 years ago quite a few of his central metaphors really were that dumb and clunky) up until the point where he makes it clear that no, you tit, the bubble is YOUR whiteness and the horrible stuff YOU can’t see outside it is all those many microaggressions that were happening all the way through the episode without you picking up on them, duh.

Its main flaw I guess is that the target audience is really just well meaning but still blinkered white privileged bozos (like me), because I think the reaction he really wants from you at the end is “ohhhh urgh they’re all racist, shit, I didn’t see that coming…shit, how did I NOT see that coming?”

I'm white and privileged but this episode worked in a different way for me: I kept wondering why the hell I should care about Lindy or any of those people because they were all pretty unlikable, self-absorbed and detached to begin with. Her reluctance to even speak to Ruby or the Doctor & her inability to function without her bubble, hardly even wanting to, only made her seem worse. But I thought that was the strength & core of the Doctor: the Doctor cares. He always cares and does whatever he can to save humans in need. It would have been very interesting to see the Doctor's response if he would have found out what had happened to Ricky.

another fun one! nice to have both leads properly back and giving good doctor/companion - sorry chibnall "fam" but you were lamentable - still celebrating that the show survived that era

shaping up to be a pretty excellent SEASON or SERIES of the television show doctor who - it's a shame that Space Babies was a misfire, if that had been a banger I reckon Devil's Chord would've hit different/better too - at least for me

also lol at Richard E Grant - excellent bit of random continuity bomb-throwing

which reminds me of that random robot we saw for five seconds in UNIT HQ in one of the Tennant specials - very funny moment! HERBIE or 7-ZARK-7 vibes - would be even better if we never saw it again

Hey don't diss...*squints*...The Vlinx.

o no I intended no disrespect to the vlinx - he burned brightly in his brief screentime - just meant it would be an excellent gag if it never reappeared

I thought this one was kind of a letdown but probably anything would have felt like a letdown after Dot and Bubble

i liked this one!

I’m not at all Bridgerton-pilled but am fully Jonathan Groff-pilled and Regency-pilled so it was v enjoyable for me

loved the Kylie Minogue bit

also those bird masks were ~incredible~!

does anyone know if the writers were influenced by Bridgerton at all?

the really fun thing about REG being canonised as a former doctor is that we have no hint as to whether he's the Shalka Ninth Doctor, a Curse Of Fatal Death 8th or 9th Doctor, or a splinter of the Great Intelligence in the Doctor's timeline. #trigeneration