THIRTEENTH DOCTOR
The Woman Who Fell To Earth
“I know exactly who I am. I’m the Doctor. Sorting out fair play throughout the universe.” – The Doctor
Likes: Though people largely don’t like the Jodie Whitaker era, I think this episode starts it well. In terms of its cinematography, location shots, direction, and atmosphere, it’s an amazing leap forward for the program. They also put a lot into the special effects of the probe and costume for ‘Tim Shaw’. The manic parts of Whitaker’s initial performance on the train fit exactly in line with what I would want to see in a post-regeneration Doctor and I like her sudden solid speech asserting her place as the Doctor at the end. It and other instances throughout the story show a lot of clever wordplay that both acknowledge the huge change of having the Doctor be a woman and yet also don’t make too big a deal of it either. (The misdirected sleight of hand with the story title is another good example.)
Dislikes: There is something in Jodie Whitaker’s tone and performance that comes of a bit overly earnest or even silly at times which is one reason I think people are not huge fans of her Doctor. It doesn’t help that much of her dialogue is like running exposition of what is going on. Plus they insert some rather wholly unnecessary scenes that come across even worse. The whole rigamarole of her making a new sonic screwdriver is just ridiculous for example. I know there was a lot of pushback hate on her new companions simply because of their diversity but I had more problems feeling like they didn’t talk or interact like real people would, the acting and dialogue are rather stilted. (Though admittedly it does feel a bit of wishful thinking that such a happy blended family would exist.) Indeed, some aspects–like Ryan’s ‘disability’ that rarely gets referenced again—feel like ticked boxes. I was also rather angered by the ending where they try to re-assert the familiar ‘Doctor as moral authority who refuses to condone violence’ but have her chastise an innocent victim saving himself from an immediately dangerous situation that she should have been sympathetic to not condemning.
Interesting: I did not like the update theme and opening graphics at first—their quite a departure—but I’ve started to appreciate them more.
The Ghost Monument
“We’re all alone. That’s how we start and end, and it’s the natural state of all points in between.” – Epzo
Likes: The cinematography of the show continues to be strong in this story and there are definitely some amazing effects like the crash of the ship. I guess the performances by the guest actors are pretty good here too.
Dislikes: The story feels like a hodgepodge of elements thrown together—killer robots, advanced cloth technology, the alien from the previous episode (though his technology was unlike anything shown here)—and ultimately almost seems like it was an episode written around trying to get to the trick with the cigar just to show off that effects shot. The long shots that frame the killer strips of cloth (huh?) don’t work well because they simply look like burnt bits of gauze—it’s obvious their trying to foreshadow something but there’s no indication as to what. The payoff of the Doctor making it to her TARDIS (the new design of which I’m not a huge fan of) is not as exciting as they make it out to be. It would perhaps have been a bit nicer if the Doctor’s serach for it had lasted a bit longer—perhaps being more of a focus for the season.
Rosa
”Promise of tomorrow. When today isn’t working, tomorrow is what you have.” – Rosa Parks
Likes: I appreciate the heart behind this episode. It recalls a bit of the original mission of Doctor Who to be an educational program by demonstrating and explaining history. The fact that they tackle such a weighty subject in a very charged period of history is remarkable for a usually non-controversial program. The dramatic portions of the story stand up very well even compared to many movies that recreate that era of history, and I feel like they largely treat the subject matter and their representation of historical figures like Rosa Parks with much respect. It’s interesting that they treat the racism and bigotry encountered almost as an alien danger. (Though they do acknowledge modern racism experienced by Yaz and Ryan in their conversation as well.) As for the other elements of the show, I have to say the Doctor’s confrontation of the villain—defiantly smashing his time vortex manipulator and defying him as he tries to crush her throat—is by far the strongest and hardest edge we ever get to see of the Thirteenth.
Dislikes: Despite the respect show by the award-winning script, it’s still a bit uncomfortable if you think too much about it. Although the episode presents the characters as trying just to maintain established history, one could walk away from the episode feeling like it implies that Rosa Parks built her courage and received the spark to stand in defiance to the system due the questions and encouragement provided by the Doctor and friends or that the TARDIS team are the ones that created the circumstances for it to happen. That is definitely not something a fictional story wants to do for such a momentous historical event. (Thankfully, I thought I had remembered the story as being that the Doctor and crew had to pretend to be racist white passengers making Rosa leave which is not the case.) Meanwhile, the sci-fi elements of the story almost feel tacked on though I guess the TARDIS team would have nothing to struggle against if they weren’t there.
Arachnids in the UK
“What is wrong with this country? Why don’t you do what normal people do? Get a gun, shoot things, like a civilized person.” – Trump-parody Jack Robertson
Likes: It took me a second watch to appreciate any elements in this story, but, considering the history of the program, the graphics of the spiders are pretty amazing and I did literally cringe when the mass of them started coming out of the dark hallway after Graham and Ryan even though I knew it was coming. There are true horror elements such as Dan pleading for help from inside the web as he’s dragged away.
Dislikes: There were too many cringeworthy elements on first watch for me to enjoy the episode—the obvious Trumpian character of Jack Robinson is a bit too cartoonish, the ridiculousness of the ‘giant spiders’ trope (especially the suspect scientific explanation of them just keeping on growing), yet again getting caught up in the domestic life of companions, and the Doctor still being rather awkward in her over-explanation. None were as bad as I feared they would be but it made me feel like I was going to hate the episode from the start. They title is also rather awkward—surely it must be a play off something else but I’m not sure what?
Re-introduced: It’s not really a re-introduction but there’s no way to watch this and not have parallels with classic Who—a company dumps products down a mineshaft and it leads to horrifically large creatures. Green Death, anyone?
The Tsuranga Conundrum
“Imagine the solution and work to make it a reality. Whole worlds pivot on acts of imagination.” – The Doctor
Likes: Base under siege is usually a good venue for Doctor Who and the general premise works okay here. The character of Astos comes off pretty well in how he relates to the Doctor and his underling Mabil and we do hate to see his death.
Dislikes: No matter how good the graphics may be, the Pting is just a silly cartoon character that never builds any menace. (The whole ending with him smiling with his warm belly full undercuts any seriousness about what just happened.) And sorry but you can’t introduce something like a pregnant man in an odd and comical way and then also force emotional moments out of it—it would have been much more meaningful if Ryan had come to the same realization dealing with a dad having a child arrive in the traditional way and Graham had been comforting a distraught mother-to-be through the process. Another horrible title that is difficult to remember and only barely related to the storyline
Demons of the Punjab
“I honestly don’t know whether any of us know the real truth of our own lives, cos we’re too busy living them from the inside.” – Graham
Likes: I suppose it’s yet another ground-breaking moment for Doctor Who to portray Indian/Pakistani history (especially such a controversial one) and since it’s a lot less familiar subject matter for American viewers I did learn things from it. This one really works on the family drama level and I’m glad they had the Doctor be reluctant and then regret bringing Yaz rather than just treating it like a jolly outing. Yet again beautiful scenery and cinematography in his season as well as a lot of directorial flourishes. (The above head TARDIS fade in for example.) As for the scifi, the zippy transporter effect is actually pretty cool.
Dislikes: Like the last historical, the sci-fi element here just feel superfluous to the heart of the story. More importantly, it’s a very unsatisfying bait-and-switch to introduce characters for a minute as baddies and then say ‘surprise their actually good’. How many creatures have they introduced in the last season or two that are watching over the deaths of humanity? You’d think they’d all be running into each other at this point.
Kerblam!
“Don’t like bullies, don’t like conspiracies, don’t like people being in danger. And there’s a flavor of all three here.” – The Doctor
Likes: They do a very good job making Kiro a believably touching character through dialogue alone.
Dislikes: The Doctor sure does seem to get a lot of spam mail in the supposedly impenetrable TARDIS. This feels like one for the kids—shiny robots, OTT corporate parody, a cartoonish ride on package conveyers in a warehouse—and then turns oddly dark with some very sweet characters getting abruptly obliterated. It rings kind of false to character for Charlie to be this bloodthirsty activist after we’ve already seen his innocent puppy love side. One of them should have been tinged more by the other. Why isn’t the Doctor more upset with the Kerblam system killing Kiro to get what it wanted? Yet again, an embarrassing title.
The Witch Finders
“Together we shall save the souls of my people from Satan, even if it means killing them all.” – Becka Savage
Likes: There are some great horror elements that make this a good episode, most prominently the dead villagers re-animated by the ‘mud’. Their slow march with bloated faces is quite horrific and good practical effect—much better than any CGI monsters and such. This episode makes the most interesting use of the Doctor now being a woman by highlighting how she gets sidelined, ignored, or accused of being a witch in a way that never happened before. The running theme of fear to speak out against the crowd whipped into a frenzy was rather on everyone’s mind politically at the time as well. Though the resolution is a bit easy, it’s a fairly nice story arc overall and nice to get some old world setting for the new TARDIS crew at last. (Graham in that hat!)
Dislikes: I wasn’t a huge fan of Alan Cummings rather grand performance as King James. Though it did grow on me by the end, it seems like it would have been better suited to Louis XV or something in that regard. I also wish the shift in the character of Becka Savage–from having something suspicious, to the reveal of her infection, to her transition to the actual creature–would have been a bit more gradual.
It Takes You Away
“Shame. Made a new friend, a whole conscious universe, then I had to say goodbye.” – The Doctor
Likes: A nice way to bring back the character of Grace for a little while and give ever-affable Graham some real dilemma. (I imagine having the actress listed here and in some other remembrance scenes on the shooting schedule was a good way to keep the fact that her character does not make it past the first episode a surprise.) There’s no particular reason why the little girl had to be blind for the story to work so it’s kind of nice that they included that element and gave an actual differently-abled actress a job. The oddness of ‘conscious universe’ speaking in the shape of a frog in a chair with Grace’s voice is kind of absurdly nice. And I have to give credit for them somehow making moths scary.
Dislikes: This episode feels way to disjointed to enjoy. There’s a bit too much set up of false threats that turn out to not be the main story—particularly the run around with the supposed forest creature that turns out to be fake. Even the ‘anti-node’ ends up being a sideline to the story and it becomes nothing more than a hallway. The biggest irksome part of the story is how they make Ryan act like such a dick to the little girl just as a way to have his affection for her later seem such a triumph but it really feels out of character.
The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos
“Your words are certain, but your eyes are full of doubt.” – The Doctor
Likes: I suppose the Doctor having to deal with the aftermath of one of her battles—Tim Shaw having been banished away but actually having put him in the spot that he could flourish –is interesting and I like how she doesn’t accept that blame and lays it right back down at Tim Shaw’s feet. Graham having to struggle with not taking revenge is a nice element as well (though I don’t entirely like the execution of it). His cool and casual telling to the Doctor of his plans to shoot Tim Shaw actually make me like him more!
Dislikes: Something was off in the editing of this story that made it very confusing at first watch—I wasn’t sure what the characters in the beginning had seen or experienced and it wasn’t clear if they were supposed to figure in the story later or not. It’s also not at all clear why these powerful beings were so easily tricked by Tim Shaw into thinking he was their god—have they never seen a teleport before? Did his awful appearance not give a clue? Honestly, the whole introduction of Stenza technology feels a bit shoehorned in just to create a baddie for this season. While the struggle for Graham of what he will do when faced with Tim Shaw is a nice idea, I really hate the Doctor’s response of saying she would put Graham out of the TARDIS and accusing him of being as bad as Tim Shaw if he seeks revenge. She’s not a very sympathetic friend! I wish they would keep these moments of moral superiority in action not words because it comes across as uncaring and arrogant. Even the story has to rewrite some of the ‘rules’ that she made herself (i.e., not shooting robots) previously with lame excuses like she told her crew that because they were new and that things change. After a string of bad episode titles we finally come to one that seems purposefully difficult to pronounce and one that most of us will never remember—“The Battle of…something”.
Resolution
“Here’s a New Year message for you to send. Earth is protected by me and my mates, this year and every other.” – The Doctor
Likes: This one was a surprisingly good action story. Some great tension and car chase and general Dalek menace. The direction is well done to make it feel like a big budget film, especially the army battle sequence. I don’t usually like re-writes of established villain characteristics but this addition to Dalek capability—escaping its shell and riding on the back of a victim controlling them—has been built to gradually and doesn’t seem so beyond belief based on past history. (And like any good upgrade of such characters, it has now become a staple usage in following episodes.) I am so glad they thought about having the Dalek raid secret government warehouses where previous Dalek bits had been stored. It would have been too far-fetched if it had someone just built its own casing.
Dislikes: The worst moment of the episode is the silliness with the government operator and UNIT having been “closed” for budget reasons. I get the point they were trying to make but it just feels ‘out of character’ that Kate or anybody in charge would have allowed that to happen. (They just had the Doctor as president of the world just a few years ago and now she can’t get past a call center? Maybe we’re just to assume they went underground.) It’s a little hard to believe that the ancient warriors could have stopped the Dalek when it can take out a huge army contingent and it’s a especially a bit much to make it seem almost immortal. (They try to get around it by noting its special scout genetics but that also creates a bit of timeline issue.) The introduction of Ryan’s deadbeat dad feels like a forced story arc.
Spyfall (Part 1)
“It were just like… nothingness. Nowhere. And I was totally alone. I was so scared.” – Yaz
Likes: The opening scenes of the spy assassinations seem almost out of a feature film. Most of this story exists to get us to the final reveal of the Master being back and it is admittedly bit of a shock—especially in the performance as the actor’s face and demeanor somehow totally change like a light switch when he says ‘You got me’.
Dislikes: On the whole, this episode again feels disjointed—let’s have a bunch of spies stuff both silly and serious! Let’s have a Facebook-like corporate company menace! Let’s have aliens from another dimension! Let’s romp all over the world for no reason! And there’s something I just don’t like about the performance of the actor playing Vor. It also gets really confusing about the Doctor implying this closeness with ‘O’ and then they walk it back because she’d have to have realized who he was, right? Of course, the whole point of it so we can feel fake surprised–this character we’ve known for so long was the Master the whole time! The dialogue of Yaz’s description of the other universe and the effect it has on her don’t match what we saw on screen at all which is too bad because Mandip Gill does a great job of acting traumatized her. And the flying house TARDIS! What the heck?
Re-introduced: It’s not said but if the Master took over the life of the real ‘O’ then doesn’t that mean he had to take over his appearance/body? If so, there’s definitely precedent in his taking on the form of Tremas and the ambulance driver previously. Both those instances were when he’d seemed totally destroyed with just a shell of his body or essence remaining, so presumably something happened prior to this incarnation.
Spyfall (Part 2)
“These are the dark times. But they don’t sustain. Darkness never sustains, even though sometimes it feels like it might.” – The Doctor
Likes: I kind of like the Doctor jumping into different time periods and the Master showing up each time in a different guise. It feels very evocative of the War Lord in The War Games who was a Nazi major at one point and a Confederate captain at another. (But what was the Master supposedly doing the whole time between World War II and 2019?) His comeuppance at the end is a classic Master ending which is kind of satisfying. At this point, the mystery of what the Timeless Child is and the devastation of Gallifrey (yet again!) is intriguing.
Dislikes: This round of ‘educational history’ with the introduction of Ada Lovelace and Noor Inayat Khan feels a bit more forced into the story. The aborted attempt to take over people through technology is too much like things that have been done multiple times in the show so it doesn’t really have much impact either.
Orphan 55
“Humans. I think you forget how powerful you are. Lives change worlds. People can save planets, or wreck them. That’s the choice.” – The Doctor
Likes: The theme of the Doctor and friends visiting a holiday get-away where there ends up being a deadly problem underneath is at least very familiar and feels on the right track for the show. And I do like the surprise that the entire vista of the sky and ocean is a perfect screen projection. Some of the character interactions are sweet—the old couple, Ryan’s awkward flirting—and it’s a rather tense story with the seemingly unstoppable creatures relentlessly killing almost everyone in minutes.
Dislikes: Ultimately, however, the whole episode collapses into a confused mess trying to be a pushy anti-climate change public service announcement by suddenly and surprisingly saying that the ‘orphan planet’ the group is on are on Earth. Not that the message itself is bad—Doctor Who has a long history of inserting political and environmental subtext in episodes. What is awful here, is the way they do it. Leaving the story we’ve been following pretty much in the middle of an unclear resolution, they have the Doctor deliver a wrap-up speech that ends with what feels like a grade school level “this could happen to you” moment. No subtlety at all. But the worst offense of it is that in order to do this they totally alter the rules of how time travel works on the show. Suddenly their visits to the future are only an ‘alternative’ and can be changed? Is this supposedly true for all things?
Interesting: Ignoring the mis-step with referring to it as an alternative future, the supposition that this is the Earth destroyed can be seen as part of an established Doctor Who mythology. In “The Sontaran Experiment”, we find a de-populated planet Earth from supposed solar flares. In “The Mysterious Planet”, the Doctor and Peri similarly realize they are on Earth upon finding a sign of an old abandoned subway station and learn that Earth has been devastated by the Time Lords. In “The Curse of Fenric” the earth is in a polluted slime that begets the Ancient One. (Here too it’s suggested the future that can be avoided but less blatantly.) Other episodes reference large groups (or even cities) having left Earth over the millennia. So I prefer to imagine all of this somehow tied together—in a far distant future after people have largely left the Earth due to its pollution, solar flares caused by the Time Lords dragging the planet across the universe distort the polluted mess of the planet killing off much of life and mutating the rest into horrid creatures like the Haemavores and Orphan 55 creatures that exist for a time until the planet is restored in its proper place and renews itself and humanity returns to re-populate and build back Earth into a galactic power and empire.
Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror
“Why would we build when all there is is ours to take?” – The Skithra Queen
Likes: A surprise historical after a string of other kinds of episodes is at least a nice switch. I guess the period costuming is also fairly nice.
Dislikes: Another needlessly awkward title. But more importantly, everything about this episode–the special effects, the direction, the editing, much of the acting—feels very sub-par. There is some quite dodgy CGI that compares very unfavorably to that we’ve seen in other episodes. There are several instances where reactions seem like the actors were waiting for a cue. It even feels like the recycled the costume of the spider-queen of the Tennant era to create a ‘cousin’ insect creature here. It just feels like the whole episode was made on the cheap. Plus it’s kind of irritating to have yet another round of established historical figures flitting about in the TARDIS. While it’s interesting for the Doctor to meet historical characters in the midst of some event, it’s another thing to have had them seen and know all about the TARDIS and aliens and the mysteries of the universe. We just assume they all could keep quite about all this and it didn’t affect their future at all?
Fugitive of the Judoon
“Gallifrey doesn’t exist. It’s gone. Forever. And if you don’t know that, you’re in my past. So, you are only serving at the glory of ash and bone.” – The Doctor
Likes: I could concentrate on this much better on the second watch since I wasn’t quite as distracted by the reformat and frustrations about the storyline. Setting aside the major change it forces to the show as a whole, the story itself is actually a pretty good episode. It really is a mystery as to what ‘fugitive’ the Judoon are actually looking for. Ruth’s unexpected and unexplained sudden hand-to-hand combat that comes out of nowhere and leaves her in charge is a well-done surprise. There’s a beautiful landscape at lighthouse and it builds a lot of tension as we slowly start to realize what seems to be happening. At this point, we’re not forced to accept the implications of the episode as clear so we can kind of imagine a variety of solutions. There was still hope at this point, for example, that it would be explained in some interesting way how Ruth seemed to be the Doctor—divergent timelines perhaps where the Doctor regenerated one way in one stream and anther way in the other?
Dislikes: I think I was irritated on first watch right from the start by how long the show seemed to spend following a random character we had never met before rather than through the eyes of the Doctor and crew. By the end reveal, it was major irritation at the audacity of some new upstart producer thinking he has the right to totally re-write the history of the program. (Of course more of that would come even worse later on.) The implication from the old style control room is of course that Ruth pre-dates the First Doctor but then it doesn’t make sine why the TARDS would already be in the shape of a police box. And here’s the problem with the show re-writes—they think they are so clever but they go on the assumption that a lot of established things (the TARDIS was a police box first under the First Doctor) are not things modern fans really know or care about.
Praxeus
“Planet Earth. Seven billion lives. Separate, and connected, from the edge of the atmosphere to the depths of the ocean.” – The Doctor
Likes: This at least is a better example of weaving an environmental, anti-pollution moral into the fabric of a story compared to the previous one. The body horror of the corpse suddenly crusting over and exploding to dust makes an impression and the moment of the birds bursting in and flying the room is definitely scary. The sudden twist of the scientist we and the Doctor seem to trust implicitly suddenly being caught out as part of the alien plot is nice.
Dislikes: I hate the “TARDIS team as world-trotting investigators” format here, especially since it comes out of nowhere. Since when do they do that? Some of the variables don’t make sense like the bacteria building a shelter under the sea and how the sub got involved in the cycle.
Can You Hear Me?
“You’re wrong about humans. They’re not pathetic, they’re magnificent. They live with their fears, doubts, guilts. They face them down every day and they prevail.” – The Doctor
Likes: The short but somewhat frightening dreams of Yaz and Ryan are interesting—her out on the lonely stretch of road is a nice shot and they do a really good job with Ryan’s friend aged behind the flames. The beings using the Doctor’s innate desire to help people to trick her is nice.
Dislikes: This has got to be one of the most disjointed plots ever—jumping from scary things happening in ancient Aleppo to an alien spaceships to a dreamworlds to the past lives of companions. They could have cut out some of these and just concentrated on one aspect or the other instead of trying to fit them all together into one hodgepodge. (Actually it reminds me of everything I dislike about Dinosaurs on a Spaceship as well with a similar vibe.) The floating finger sticking in peoples ears is just stupid, stupid, stupid. And the tacked on mental health PSA is a bit too on the nose again.
Re-intorduced: A namecheck for the Eternals, the Guardians, and the Toymaker—putting them all in pretty much the same universal category as different variants of the same beings.
The Haunting of Villa Diodati
“There’s not one atom of yon Earth, but once was living man.” – Lord Byron
Likes: The classic horror elements here are very well done—the appearances of the maid and shadowy figures and all of that with each flash of lightning, especially the first one of the maid in the background of the shot with Graham going up the stairs. Very eerie—as is Graham’s sudden disconcerting re-emergence from the bottom of the stairs after going up. The figure shining out on the lake as well. I also like how they go back and explain some of the events as Shelley having been wandering out of phase throughout the house. Some surprisingly harsh stuff with the Cyberman snapping the maid’s neck and talking about slitting his children’s throats!
Dilikes: I would have liked the episode not to have been about the Cyberman in the end—it undercut some of the mystery to suddenly have a ‘familiar’ villain. Doing everything almost exactly the same but making it some other kind of alien creature (and dragging out its move from the lake) would have been more satisfying. Not sure if I like this sudden Time Lord ability to see someone’s death?
Ascension of the Cybermen
“Every empire has its time, and every empire falls. But that which is dead can live again–in the hands of a believer.” – Ashad
Likes: Not a lot actually happens in this episode (which more serves as a bridge to the finale) and yet it has a bleakness and weight to it that makes it feel more significant. Ashad and the Cybermen’s ruthlessness definitely comes through and the desperation of the band of survivors trying to stop the Cyberman feels reminiscent of the disastrous escape attempt of the Telos prisoners in Attack of the Cybermen.
Dislikes: For my whole viewing of this episode the first time, I assumed we were seeing the backstory of Ashad so it left me very confused in the end. The fact that it’s neither hinted as to what the scenes might be nor shown that they are connected to the Doctor at all undercuts the intrigue and makes them just confusing. And unfortunately, the episode starts of with some stuff that is just silly—flying Cybermen heads totally undercut the seriousness of the initial battle.
The Timeless Children
“I promise I’ll roll out the red carpet…it’s red because it’s drenched in the blood of our people.” – The Master
Likes: There’s lots of callback to the Gallifrey past here that gives the episode an interesting vibe. The ongoing desperate struggle against the Cyberman is well done—especially as sympathetic characters get cut down left and right. The murdered Time Lords being resurrected as regenerating Cybermen is a very interesting idea. And whatever you think of the Timeless Child storyline, it’s an interesting (if a little odd) device to have had the parallel memories the story before.
Dislikes: As pointed out by the Master, Ashad’s plan to kill all organic things doesn’t make sense for the Cybermen to have made so they have gloss it over by saying they are somehow moving towards being fully mechanical. (I do like how the Master does a good job of dismissing “robots” as such a boring move.) It feels like they took an idea they wanted to use and fit it in as best they could. And wasn’t it supposed to have destroyed the entire universe—even if reduced in size why does it only affect Gallifrey? Meanwihle, the other groups plan to hide in the suits and pretend to be Cybermen is kind of mundane. But most importantly, there’s the whole Timeless Child arc: it would have been okay perhaps to have learned that the entire of Time Lord society stole their regenerative properties from another race. That would have been an interesting reveal in line with the pomposity and corruption we already know. But the hubris to change the entire backstory of the Doctor–adding lots of lives we never knew about, making her ancient and the central focus of her entire species and planet, and actually an alien from another planet entirely—is just grating. Ignoring how it complicates storylines, it also utterly cuts down a basic tenet of the show having the Doctor as an underdog that through his good character stepped up and left his people and corrupt society. Suddenly, the Doctor is the central figure and key to all and really is a singular individual of enormous importance. The message that any of us can stand up and be a better person is lost.
Re-introduced: The Panopticon, the events of The Deadly Assassin, Borusa
Revolution of the Daleks
“All that time in a cell wondering who I am. I’m the Doctor. I’m the one who stops the Daleks.” – The Doctor
Likes: I wasn’t a huge fan of the Jack Robertson character originally so I wasn’t hugely excited to see him return but I do like how they handle some of the government back-dealing in the story. The Doctor’s banter with Captain Jack is kind of a fun return as well. The plot itself is fairly straightforward so it makes for a decent one-off episode. The attack by the Daleks in the Osaka factory feels like an alien scifi movie. And I’m glad they didn’t forget to wrap up what to do amount the spare TARDIS lying around.
Dislikes: The tone shifts a lot–the opening where they kill off the driver is surprisingly vicious but Jack Robertson involvement is often comic. It also seems odd that the Doctor, who always finds solutions to things, just sat for two decades in prison without even attempting a way to get out? (Perhaps we’re meant to think she’s too depressed.) Also, I don’t know why she lets her companions be so upset for her absence for 10 months without retorting “Why are you complaining? I was stuck in prison for NINETEEN YEARS!”) Anyway, we arrive back to the constant conundrum in this episode—do people remember all the world-changing alien invasions that have happened or not? If so, why in the world is nobody remembering the Daleks from the Canary Wharf battle which these supposed security drones resemble. And why if they are just rolling them out are they already being used as ticket takers at random places? Most irritating in this episode is the pause for Doctor and the Ryan’s heart-to-heart—huh? The TARDIS travels instantaneously, where did “four minutes to Osaka” come from?!
The Halloween Apocalypse
“A hurricane, ripping through the structure of this universe, disrupting every particle.” – Karvanista about the Flux
Likes: I was kind of happy at the idea of a season spanning story spread out across episodes in the vein of The Trial of a Time Lord. And some of the instances are a nice mystery set up—what the one man is building in Liverpool 1820, how does this lady seem to know the Doctor and Yaz though they haven’t met yet, what happened to Dan’s crush. There’s some pretty impressive graphics with the flux destroying the planets from Vinder’s outpost view as well.
Dislikes: Unfortunately, the entire Flux series kicks off with a very silly, kiddish scene with a ridiculous premise, tongue-in-cheek jokes, and entirely green screen scenery. It’s not a good start. (And I didn’t realize until second watch that this over-the-top James Bond-like execution was led by someone that we’re supposed to cheer on later as an ally. Are we supposed to decide he wasn’t so bad after all because he protected eart and never mind that he was also intent on killing the Doctor and Yaz?) The tone shifts jarringly as the various elements for later stories are introduced. In a way, it’s all a bit too much that has to be shown at once and some of it therefore loses impact–not too mention they also have to cram in introducing and building sympathy for a whole new companion. Despite all that, there’s really not much that happens plot-wise in this entire episode. The species-bonded dog people thing is a bit silly in the end—and are we to assume the Flux that was a wave that passed and now is done or not? A lot of that is unclear.
Re-introduced: Cliffhangers at the end of every story!
War of the Sontarans
“Ah. All our fears made true. All is porous. All is broken. I must retrace. There’s so much work to be done.” – Williamson
Likes: This story is quite visually striking at every step—particularly the moment of the Doctor’s fog-drenched parlay with the Sontaran and the massive battle that follows. The pathos of the commander’s battalion dying and his stern face (and guilt) are well done. His blowing of the ships despite the Doctor’s anger is actually pretty cool. I usually don’t like historical figures making random appearances in stories but the Mary Seacole one here is actually just right—not too prominent a personage to be ridiculous, sympathetically portrayed, a fairly balanced role in the situation. As for the other parts of the story, the urgency of the priests begging for repair at the Atropos temple and the eerie appearance of the Moori set up a nice tension. I really do love the brief hallway encounter Yaz has with Williamson for its brevity and totally mystery of what it will mean.
Dislikes: I wanted to root on the season-spanning story idea but this episode shows its flaws. I think the Sontaran story set in Crimea would probably have been a great one had it been entirely self-contained. Having to throw in elements of the larger story muddies the drama and arc of the main plot. But more importantly, there are many flaws with trying to make it a grand time-spanning story as well. The point of the Sontarans being in modern day Liverpool first is a bit unclear. By having seen them in the nineteenth century and then suddenly in the present, it seems we’re to assume they got established in history and have built up an empire that stretched from then to now. But then the idea is quickly undercut. Okay, they’ve just gone back in time from the present as a first test step into history. Fine. But wait, Mary Seacole and the others have never heard of Russians so that means the Sontarans had to have gone back much father and spent centuries building a Eurasian empire? But it’s also implied they just arrived and the soldiers are encountering them for the first time so it’s more they distorted memories? But wait, Sontar is printed on a map like it exists? It took me a two or three watches to realize that the spaceship crash supposedly reset whatever they were doing in time like they were never there maybe. But then the ones still in Crimea didn’t disappear? Argh.
Once, Upon Time
“You have put yourself at risk in here, Doctor. Time is playing games with you all.” – The Mouri
Likes: I like Bel’s character. The flashes into companion’s lives with disjointed time the Doctor breaking through is interesting enough—though a bit random about how it’s portrayed each time. The dream-like time and place jumps in Dan’s timestream are definitely unsettling in a good way.
Dislikes: It’s a bit irritating to keep having so many new characters introduced in a complex story that doesn’t have a lot of clarity about where it’s going. And moreso in Bel’s case that they do so by breaking off the existing story into a cinematic style “meanwhile in another part of the galaxy” graphic. Ditto for the split screen ending of her and Vinder in Star Wars style. It’s all just not very “Doctor Who”. This whole episode is again a bit of muddle. Not much happens in terms of a storyline—it seems to go that way for every other story of this series.
Village of the Angels
“Division uses everything and everyone. Every species, every world, every moment. They are everywhere, present and unseen.” – The Angel through Claire
Likes: There’s a lot to like in this episode with the ever-encroaching Angels being given even more abilities that nonetheless seem a natural progression from previous stories and, as usual, coming off relentless and scary especially as they close in on the basement. The scene on the beach in Claire’s mind where the Angel uses her as a mouthpiece is very well done. The Doctor being taken by conversion to an Angel is quite shocking as well. There’s a lot of very good direction and visually striking scenes as well as some nice characters.
Dislikes: They kind of muck up Claire’s story a bit. They seemed to have promised something more interesting previously with her having met the Doctor and Yaz out of order but instead they make it just a psychic premonition or something, like they had painted themselves into a corner about the timing. It’s hard not to feel the whole village hanging in space thing is a bit too fanciful.
Survivors of the Flux
“Across Space and Time, its influence is unparalleled, its reach is unlimited. All from the shadows. It achieved its aim beyond our wildest dreams.” – Tecteune about the Division
Likes: There’s a little bit of an appeal to the banter between Yaz and the guys, especially when she surprises them with her matter-of-fact approach to the dead body in their cabin. Kate gets to be a badass again in her confrontation with the Grand Serpent. I’m also impressed that in so doing they actually resolve a bad storyline from before—the whole silliness with UNIT being shut down by government cutbacks is reframed as a sinister plot to get the organization out of the way .
Dislikes: Yet again, we’re back to a lot of random bits of storylines introducing more players making this episode feel again a bit disjointed. I hate the general premise that the Doctor’s companions have someone gone on bravely for years gathering clues from 1901 to 1904, travelling the world as adventurers seeking the Doctor. (Where do they get the money to do all this?) It conveniently ignores what would have been years of forging relationships and ties such that they three of them should be way closer to each other than to the Doctor and, in all likelihood, would likely have moved on with their lives in the past. That the Doctor somehow had forethought to record holographic instructions for Yaz regarding something they never could have seen coming is just a ridiculous contrivance. Moreover, I hate that they turn all their scenes into bit of comic farce. (They painted huge letters around the Great Wall of China and no one from then until 2021 saw them?) They double down on the whole Timeless Child thing here to the point that it can’t be ignored. A bit of a waste of the character of Tecteune to have her both introduced and killed so quickly. (Though we see that the Ravagers can both destroy and re-build so maybe that will be an excuse for her to return in the future.)
The Vanquishers
“Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention, I’m being trisected across disparate dimensions… It’s quite draining, and confusing, and breaks every known law of every known everything.” – The Doctor
Likes: I have to admit that the episode gives a vague bit of satisfaction in seeing certain loose ends get tied up here (even though there are also a lot that don’t as noted below). And the Doctor split up into multiple versions is handled fairly well to help us keep it in mind and even weaves into the plot in an interesting way by helping defeat the Grand Serpent. And I like the Ood—poor brave little Ood—yes he is division but there’s no doubt he’s been manipulated into it.
Dislikes: And so we arrive at the end with a few plot points cleaned up but a whole lot more just left hanging. Is half the universe destroyed? Was Earth aware it was under siege from the Sontarans or did that get erased in time yet again (because we sure don’t see the effects later)? Were all of the Daleks and Cybermen and Sontarans in the universe destroyed? Did that get reset too? Since the events of the Flux never get referenced again, it seems like it was not quite the universe ending event it seemed to be maybe?
Eve of the Daleks
“If our lives depend on my mother ringing me at a time I actually ask her to, honestly, we’re all dead.” – Sarah
Likes: The TARDIS crew does Groundhog Day in a fairly fun way. I usually hate broadly comedic episodes but dang it if Aisling Bea doesn’t hit the tone exactly right to make it quite enjoyable! I like the slight addition of moving up the re-set by a minute each time since it does presumably add the danger of having to make sure you survive the first sixty-seconds or you might not make it into the next iteration.
Dislikes: I’m sure if you analyze the timing and placement of the characters at each iteration, the logic starts to fall apart. The biggest example of this is that after confirming that you don’t want to get killed within the initial timeframe for the reiteration at risk of missing the next re-set, they seem to do so to one of the characters without incident. Also, if the re-set is localized some of the interactions with people outside the time bubble don’t quite match up. But those are more nitpicky than this one-off fun episode deserves. Also, it really wasn’t necessary that the Daleks be the villains of this story for it to work, so they are obviously just there for more brand recognition.
Legend of the Sea Devils
“We’re just a crew from a ship looking for adventure–and often finding it.” – The Doctor
Likes: There’s some exceedingly nice cinematography and period costuming in this one (village in the rain, ocean scenes) and the Pirate Queen Madame Ching is wonderfully strong. I was also very excited about the Sea Devils returning. Setting it in historical Asia also seemed to make sense—they do after all progress towards samurai-like costumes in the classic series! I really wanted to like this one…
Dislikes: But while it started off so well with the scene in the village before the Sea Devil appears we then quickly get some horrible computerized design of the Sea Devils themselves. I would so much have preferred the immobile rubber masked face of the originals to the horrible googly eyed CGI monstrosities we are given. Not only this but we have some horrible direction during the sword attack with the sword slashes and falling victims that are oh-so-clearly stitched together shots that don’t match up. Was it intentional to try to give a “old Asian kung fu cinema” appearance? Did it happen because of COVID and they couldn’t have the extras in the same room? Not sure but it’s awful either way. Then they have the Sea Devil doing flying leaps again like in a Chinese film but with the CGI it just looks silly. So disappointing. The plot is fairly straightforward and if not distracted by some of this could have coasted on style. And then it’s just irritating for me as usual for the Doctor to get on to someone for killing an enemy—in the middle of a sword fight! I hate the idea of the Doctor pursuing “a relationship” so it’s irritating it even get addressed, but I’m glad they at least shuffle it off in the end.
The Power of the Doctor
Likes: This one was just intended to be a fun romp for longtime fans and, boy, did it deliver. I knew of and was excited about Ace and Tegan being back but the appearance of other Doctors (even if as apparitions and holograms) was a great exciting surprise. So satisfying to see the Tegan/Fifth and Ace/Seventh interactions. Then on top of that, they give us a full circle of other former companions including Ian! I would probably label this as my favorite Jodie Whitaker episode though to be fair she doesn’t get that much prominence with everything else going on. Some people may have thought Dan’s exit sudden and thin, but to me it feels like a nice return to how companions were handled in the original series. Ashad and the Cybermen come off severely brutal here which serves to magnify the bravery of Kate Stewart. Vinder is an inoffensive but rather pointless inclusion but I liked the problem-solving solution by the hologram as Ruth—stealing the regeneration energy of the CyberMasters nicely solved the immediate issue and gave a satisfying closure to what could have otherwise been an annoyingly recurring set of villains that were too powerful to continue in future episodes. There’s definitely some nice effects.
Dislikes: Do I care that the plot is a bit overly convoluted and almost nonsensical? Nah, it’s a signature aspect of the Mater’s character to have those anyway! But in all honesty, it really doesn’t make sense why he is Rasputin in 1916 or what he accomplishes by having the Doctor regenerate into himself. Wouldn’t that mean it was the Doctor we know with just the Master’s face? If on the other hand, the Master was trying to become the Doctor to ruin her reputation then shouldn’t he have regenerated his own body into her form? Instead, we seem to just have the Master play-acting in the Doctor’s old clothes. It’s also a typically irritating thing about this era that they ignore what happened in previous episodes to get a moment. “It’d be neat to have Tegan receive the tiny Cyberman from the previous episodes and Asher come back. Didn’t we destroy him entirely in the last episode? Ah, the cool visual is more important so we will just cover it with some poor excuse dialogue that actually undercuts what makes it cool in the first place and people won’t really notice or care anyway.” I was a bit disappointed (and worried) when the story open on a fanciful CGI space train and we had the TARDIS team acting like police action heroes. And in order to enjoy the wonderful moments with the old companions I have to try to make myself forget that the images of the past Doctors are holograms interacting with them and that the ‘real’ Doctor has no knowledge of those resolutions. (Or I can also add an imagined scenario that the Doctor is able to download and review the saved recording by those hologram interactions later so that she does know what she does “remember” them.)
Re-introduced: Tegan! Ace! And more of course. Very worthy of a centenary celebration episode. The story is also full of other echoes of the past—the forced regeneration mentioned makes us think immediately of the Second Doctor (though there’s a sly nod to theories for the Sixth as well), the Daleks mining the core of the Earth takes us back to the First Doctor, Ace’s baseball bat and Nitro Nine, the Master’s hypnotic stare like the Delgado era, and lots more.
Interesting: The reminder that the Master ingested the Cyberium in his previous appearance was an interesting point that made me realize there is a clear possible and logical explanation of how he escaped death yet again since you could imagine that it somehow had the capacity to warp out and create a forcefield to protect himself and some of the CyberMasters.