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

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

There was another face in that scene I didn’t recognise, in between Davison and Troughton. Looking at it again now I guess it must just be McGann, but it looks nothing like him. Perhaps they just chucked another Morbius doctor in there instead.

Ooohh it's yer man from Mindhunter

Little too daft for me that one.

Mystery baddies in perhaps the first half of a finale next week WHOEVER COULD IT BE

Is it BOK

vlinx

B-52s

luckily my kid had watched the relevant old episode so could explain to me what that was

yeah i had wondered how that reveal would hit if you were not familiar with the 49-year-old story in question

i mean i guess it probably effectively conveys something bad is going down?

i wasn't familiar but it was the first one i looked up

also Susan Triad is supposedly Susan from series A, 1963

Only just up to Rogue, will catch up properly tomorrow. It did seem tonally odd to go from "remember, all-white societies are probably pretty racist!" To "nah, regency high society, you'll be grand!"

Also I'm pretty sure that if they'd mentioned Dungeons & Dragons in the pitch, they could have got Actual Henry Cavill.

it did sort of look like it would come down for a bowl of its favourite treats. in fact a few of the effects were charmingly old school. the acolyte masks for instance wouldn’t have looked out of place from the earlier era. and the time window control panel! looked like something out of 1975 itself! not a control touch surface to be seen.

the time window glitching ringu cctv fx as always put a chill up my spine.

lot of introductions at the beginning. it was like one of those meetings where you realise you’ve used up a third of your time just getting people to introduce themselves.

that’s an xpost obv

on rogue - it’s explicitly bridgerton cosplay not a self-designed racial purity dome so it makes sense i think.

enjoyed the new one, good old -fashioned whovian stuff! and some very RTD technobabble for good measure lol

Sutekh! nice blast from the past! figured i’d give Pyramids of Mars a rewatch this afternoon to refresh my memory, it’s been a long time since i saw it. It really is good fun!

This whole season has had pacing issues where things just dragged, and it was particularly acute in the latest episode. Maybe Rusty has lost his touch or maybe the internet has broken my brain and I just don't have the attention

commented the same last night but think it is a RTD thing. Will spend ages on one thing (anagram! it's an anagram, look!) or introducing people, oh you'll LOVE this person, then gallop past anything that might actually be pertinent (what even is "the tech" that's being released at 15.00 - are we meant to assume it's the Terminator Genisys operating system? why was she doing a big speech to an empty room?)

Time Window was a nice touch.

pretty crude means of distraction? normally practised a lot more subtly,look over here not over there, then reveal.
bad illusionist.

I very much liked that they completed the circle from showing Maestro’s devastation of the future a la Pyramids of Mars by bringing back the malevolent force from Pyramids of Mars

YANA was one thing (and it kinda works as Master mischief vmic) all those years ago but this was the Bombalurina of anagram hijinx. Excruciating. 7/10.

Maybe I'm looking at his initial run through Rose-colored glasses but Rusty kept things moving at a better pace back then than he has since the Doogie Howser special.

It's very classic-RTD to set up an anagram, explain it's an anagram, then change it to something that's NOT an anagram and say "ha ha fooled you, my anagram was too complex for you!"

If the Doc could at least say something like the TARDIS translation service can also manipulate on screen text to explain why and how it's all moving around like that.

Similarly 'sure Ruby we COULD just matarislise inside UNIT HQ but nah watch THIS'

As soon as Ruby started bonding with that one dude I was like “don’t get too attached”

Loved the giant sergeant dude's "I get busy!"

But where was Shirley Anne Bingham?

Replaced by a younger model, it’s a tale as old as time

I reckon my vague fanxiety re the reveal would have been assuaged by having 13-yo genius ask “who the hell is that?” and have the Doctor reply “the most dangerous thing in the universe… and we are now 100% fucked!!!” [cue theme]

https://i.imgur.com/zkxZSlL.jpeg

he does also say in that article that there are very obvious ones he can't say or it'll give it away...

bbc4 tonight seems to be a Pyramids of Mars revision aid ahead of the weekend

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020crw

which… if you are going for a global Disney audience here, wouldn’t you find a way to put it on YouTube?

they didn't even put it on bbc2! it went out against the football and the leader debate.

(it's on iPlayer and i guess anybody (in the uk) who cared could watch it for free that way)

Disney do not have a license for C20th Who, and dozens of other companies do, so “find a way” would likely take far more effort and expense than would justify it

especially as Disney probably don’t want their partner in a global license to actively train audiences to seek content elsewhere, nor the Beeb want to devalue it by giving it away before they have the chance to license it to Disney

heh how did I know I was about to be Who-splained in this thread

<3

you asked a question tbf

(which I took as genuine!)

hmmmm

hmmmmmmmmmmm

yeah

i liked parts of the finale but i also felt like it did ~too~ much? which i mean yes thats RTD. but it felt like it was maybe too much even for him idk

also sutekh thought ruby’s mum was special because …ruby thought she was special?? FOH
no the SHOW told US she was special and then you couldnt think of a good reason why so we got that naff answer instead

Another plus for Chibnall here lol, didn't bother so much with these big season-long mysteries that tend to disappoint or just be too nonsensical. Actually did find the reunion pretty touching though.