Doctor Who 2024

[Psyren]

Doctor Who is back! Anyone else started the new season? Any UK Playgrounders miffed at the release schedule?

Quick non-spoilery thoughts: I'm loving Ncuti as the 15th Doctor - in two episodes he's already had a much better balance of lightness and gravitas than 13 managed in her entire first season, including Doctory speeches ("No one grows up wrong" and "The memory changed" in Space Babies, as well as "That's where music comes from" in the Devil's Chord) and I'm also loving Millie Gibson/Ruby Sunday as the companion. She's getting a lot more to do than be an exposition prompt, showing her companion chops very early by leaping into danger in Space Babies and exploding with rage in Devil's Chord. Their chemistry is already top-tier. And lastly, I love the new Tardis interior, they put that Disney money to very good use.

More spoilery thoughts follow:

Spoiler: E1 Space Babies

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This was... a bold choice for the series opener. I could easily see people seeing the goofy CGI babies and thinking that's just what Doctor Who is and deciding it's not for them; maybe that's why Disney felt the need to release the first two episodes instead of just one. It had some great moments in it, including doing way more with the Timeless Child reveal in a fraction of an episode than Chibnall managed in two seasons, and giving snappy recaps of Church on Ruby Road for those who missed the special. And while exposition-heavy, the opening sequence that lays out the basics for new viewers is decently paced and fairly snappy.

There are a couple of political anvils in this episode (the baby machine being illegal to turn off and the refugee planet.) I was fine with the messages but won't elaborate further on them here.

Sidenote: I hate that they've doubled down on all the other Timelords being blown up again. The Master destroying Gallifrey I can buy, but not a single other Timelord escaping? How the hell did he manage that, did he get his hands on the Moment? The whole point of the 50th was the Doctor saving all the children, but oops, guess that didn't matter. They even go out of their way to have the Doctor think Susan is dead despite not even having been there. I'm hoping they retcon at least part of this, or that the Doctor is mistaken.

Spoiler: E2 The Devil's Chord

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Loved this episode's more serious tone, even with all the camp. Jinkx Monsoon was a better villain than any we got in Chibnall's entire run. And the premise was an inventive way of getting around doing a Beatles episode without having to pay for any Beatles music.

I love that the show acknowledged its 1963 roots given that's where they went.

Regarding the action in the episode, the Doctor's silence trick with the sonic was fantastic, and I was really happy that Paul and John helped save the day here. (As with most Beatles popular fiction episodes of course, George and Ringo get done dirty here.)

Spoiler: Miscellaneous Recurring Mysteries

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- There's always a (Susan) Twist! (i.e. there's an actress named Susan Twist that has shown up in every episode since the 60th specials so far.)

- The Oldest One who hid a song in Ruby and seems to be responsible for the random snow flurries reaching across time.

- Both the Toymaker and the Maestro being connected to the 1920s in some way. (That's where the Toymaker went to sell Stooky Bill and start the Giggle, and that's also the decade Paul McCartney tells the Doctor music started going wrong.)

- Still no answers about who Mrs Flood is, but given that she recognizes a TARDIS (especially that TARDIS) the leading theory is that she's Susan, particularly given the amount of time they spend talking about her in TDC.

I am VERY much looking forward to Moffat's return this week in Boom, and early reviews are already saying it's the big shot of heavy drama that the show has needed since pre-Chibnall.

[Errorname]

Spoiler: E1 Space Babies

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Sidenote: I hate that they've doubled down on all the other Timelords being blown up again. The Master destroying Gallifrey I can buy, but not a single other Timelord escaping? How the hell did he manage that, did he get his hands on the Moment? The whole point of the 50th was the Doctor saving all the children, but oops, guess that didn't matter. They even go out of their way to have the Doctor think Susan is dead despite not even having been there. I'm hoping they retcon at least part of this, or that the Doctor is mistaken.

I think Davies was quite happy to get the Timeless Child because it fits into how he likes to write the Doctor, the sole survivor of the time lords with some serious angst hidden just beneath the surface. I've never been the biggest fan of that, although I was amused when I saw the interpretation that because the Time War was an obvious stand-in for the cancellation and dark age, using the Timeless Child to fill the same role implies that Chibnall's tenure was equally bad and traumatic for the show.

[Ionathus]

I have heard good things about both the David Tennant specials (II: Electric Boogaloo ) and now the 15th Doctor as well.

Count me among those who think Jodie Whittaker would've shone with any other showrunner giving her useful things to say and do. I'm sad her tenure had to fizzle out under Chibnall but am excited to get back into it.

Now I just need to track down a friend's Disney+ login...*grumble grumble*

[Psyren]

Count me among those who think Jodie Whittaker would've shone with any other showrunner giving her useful things to say and do. I'm sad her tenure had to fizzle out under Chibnall but am excited to get back into it.

I'm very hopeful she comes back for an episode under RTD. She got so much hate during her run when the writing wasn't her fault.

I think Davies was quite happy to get the Timeless Child because it fits into how he likes to write the Doctor, the sole survivor of the time lords with some serious angst hidden just beneath the surface. I've never been the biggest fan of that, although I was amused when I saw the interpretation that because the Time War was an obvious stand-in for the cancellation and dark age, using the Timeless Child to fill the same role implies that Chibnall's tenure was equally bad and traumatic for the show.

I'm hopeful that they use the Toymaker to continue tweaking that aspect of the canon. Last of the Timelords worked the first time around first because it was totally mysterious exactly what happened ("There was a war. We lost.") Later, when they began fleshing out the details, it turned out to be the Doctor themself that was the cause ("I watched it happen! I MADE it happen!" "Fear me; I killed all of them.") And you get to invoke all the power and scariness that comes from a sort-of-pacifist being pushed to that kind of extreme.

This time around... the Master did it offscreen (...how?...) and the Doctor had no chance to do anything about it (even with a time machine - again, how, there's no time lock this time?), which undercuts the angst considerably, and begs the question - why feel angst at all? And if we're not using it as a source of angst, well, why bother saying he's the last one all over again? I'm hoping they mix up the formula this time by saying, okay, Gallifrey is indeed gone, but a few of the other Time Lords made it off but they're all over time and space, good luck finding them. It would at least be a fresher take than reverting us to the 2005 status quo with even less justification or credibility than we had 19 years ago.

[Rynjin]

Yeah, it's a real shame how dirty Whitaker was done. I really enjoyed her acting in the one season of hers I watched but the writing for almost every episode was mediocre at best, abjectly terrible at worst.

At least Peter Capaldi, while horribly wasted in his own bad writing dark age, still got to shine in a few episodes where Moffat shook the sleep out of his eyes and decided to deliver a banger for once. I don't think Chibnall ever once delivered an episode I'd call "good", much less "great".

[Malimar]

I loved the last 4 specials, and was totally on board and looking forward to this season, and now that it has begun, I am massively, thunderously disappointed with the two episodes so far.

"Space Babies" was colosally underwhelming:

• They were probably overrelying on the audience thinking human babies are somehow cute, not nauseatingly revolting.
• Also the Doctor constantly correcting himself for no reason, "babies -- space babies", was annoying, not funny.
• And "push the button" reads like the Doctor trying way too hard to have a catchphrase.
• The bogeyman made of bogeys is just juvenile humor.
• The whole butterfly thing ineptly hangs a lampshade on something better left unacknowledged.

"The Devil's Chord" was a very good and interesting premise; shame the villain was so horrendously obnoxious. I don't have tremendously much else to say about it.

Especially not keen on how the Doctor has panicked and run away 2/2 episodes this season so far. Hope that doesn't keep up.

The one shining bright point: Ngatwa's Doctor is refreshing in that he seems to be having fun tourisming the universe, unlike every other Doctor of my lifetime except Whittaker.

[Ionathus]

At least Peter Capaldi, while horribly wasted in his own bad writing dark age, still got to shine in a few episodes where Moffat shook the sleep out of his eyes and decided to deliver a banger for once. I don't think Chibnall ever once delivered an episode I'd call "good", much less "great".

Yeah, Capaldi's tenure was the most inconsistent New Who has ever been for me. It felt like you could easily lurch from one of the best episodes to one of the worst with very little warning. His middle season was my favorite and overall the best consistent quality, but to be honest all of them contained zingers and duds.

The one shining bright point: Ngatwa's Doctor is refreshing in that he seems to be having fun tourisming the universe, unlike every other Doctor of my lifetime except Whittaker.

I always thought that both Nine and Ten were great at this too. Of course I could listen to David Tennant read the phonebook and I'd consider it charming, but Chris Eccleston really gave it his all in seeming to have a lot of goofy fun with the adventures (in between the heartache at least).

[Psyren]

Yeah, it's a real shame how dirty Whitaker was done. I really enjoyed her acting in the one season of hers I watched but the writing for almost every episode was mediocre at best, abjectly terrible at worst.

At least Peter Capaldi, while horribly wasted in his own bad writing dark age, still got to shine in a few episodes where Moffat shook the sleep out of his eyes and decided to deliver a banger for once. I don't think Chibnall ever once delivered an episode I'd call "good", much less "great".

I found Capaldi's quality to be much more consistently good than Smith's, especially comparing their freshman outings. For me, Matt Smith was phenomenal in the Eleventh Hour, Amy's Choice, Vincent and the Doctor, and the Pandorica Opens, and everything else in Series 5 was a slog; Series 6 was so heavily serialized around the River Song Arc with Moffat's favorite OC that for me the only great episodes were the ones that ignored it like Doctor's Wife, The Girl Who Waited and the God Complex (though Good Man Goes To War was pretty solid), and then Series 7 was just a mess until Day of the Doctor.

Yeah, Capaldi's tenure was the most inconsistent New Who has ever been for me. It felt like you could easily lurch from one of the best episodes to one of the worst with very little warning. His middle season was my favorite and overall the best consistent quality, but to be honest all of them contained zingers and duds.

I disagree completely - not only did I find Capaldi much more consistent than Smith as per above, I thought his middle season was his weakest (the Hybrid arc was way more poorly executed than Series 8's "Am I A Good Man" Arc, and Series' 10's Missy Redemption Arc, imo.)

"Space Babies" was colosally underwhelming:

• They were probably overrelying on the audience thinking human babies are somehow cute, not nauseatingly revolting.
• Also the Doctor constantly correcting himself for no reason, "babies -- space babies", was annoying, not funny.
• And "push the button" reads like the Doctor trying way too hard to have a catchphrase.
• The bogeyman made of bogeys is just juvenile humor.
• The whole butterfly thing ineptly hangs a lampshade on something better left unacknowledged.

I agree with you that Space Babies was massively held back by its uncanny valley CGI and toilet humor. I put it below Devil's Chord for those reasons. But I appreciate RTD actually doing something with the Doctor now having been revealed to be a foundling, certainly more than Chibnall did with it.

"The Devil's Chord" was a very good and interesting premise; shame the villain was so horrendously obnoxious. I don't have tremendously much else to say about it.

Being a big fan of Drag Race, I loved Jinkx Monsoon in TDC.

Especially not keen on how the Doctor has panicked and run away 2/2 episodes this season so far. Hope that doesn't keep up.

To be fair, they explained it in the narrative each time, so it's definitely not him merely being cowardly. (Though I do recall 9 saying "I'll be a coward any day.")

The next one is Boom, where he physically won't be able to run away, so.

[Psyren]

Moffat is back, and he's still got it! Best episode so far - the premise, the setting, the callbacks (Villengard!) and the acting (especially Ncuti, whose emotional range is a plot point) are all top-notch.

My one criticism is

Spoiler

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the ending, it felt a bit too neat/rushed. Not so much that it ruined the episode, it's just a blemish that for me makes it A-tier rather than S-tier.

[Anonymouswizard]

Finally got round to watching these, probably going to do about o e a day until I catch up.

Spoiler: Space Babies

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Very very meh. Ncuti was amazing, but the first few minutes felt VERY heavy on exposition that could have been spread throughout the series. Also it's nice that they used actual baby actors, but CGI babies might have actually worked better.

[Malimar]

"Boom" was... ok. Moffat is an abysmal showrunner, but can occasionally -- not usually, not often, but occasionally -- turn up a half-decent script. This one had a political message I happen to agree with wrt the military-industrial complex, via the traditional satirical sci-fi method of taking a thing to its logical conclusion, which is okay so far as it goes, though it was so unsubtle as to be tantamount to screaming opinions in my ear while bopping me repeatedly on the head with a wiffle bat, which is annoying even if I agree with those opinions. Threw in a somewhat confusing secondary moral about faith, which I may or may not agree with but which was jarringly out-of-place here.

"73 Yards" was merely boring. Not even particularly bothered that the mechanics of broken-fairy-gate-based time travel were unclear, nor that it was a Doctor-lite episode (those can be ok), nor that any episode of anything is liable to suck if it has a reset at the end so no characters remember the events of the episode (VOY: "Year of Hell" being the shining exception). Just bored.

C'mon, RTD, you can do better than this! I know you can! You've got half a season left to pull a 180 on this sucky season!

[Infernally Clay]

I'm hoping 73 Yards is setting up something more. As a standalone episode it was atmospheric and spooky for the first half but kinda lost it when it became about Roger ap Gwilliam and skipping years / decades at a time, but they can salvage it by further exploring the old woman and the supernatural events surrounding her or by further exploring Roger ap Gwilliam.

We don't really need explanations for what was actually going on because the whole point of this season, this Doctor, is that the supernatural is creeping into reality because the Doctor invoked superstition at the end of the universe and let them in, and nobody really knows anything about it. It's a whole new thing for everyone, even UNIT, and sometimes the supernatural is just unknowable.

[Psyren]

"Boom" was... ok. Moffat is an abysmal showrunner, but can occasionally -- not usually, not often, but occasionally -- turn up a half-decent script.

I'd say his best scripts were with RTD as showrunner - Empty Child/Doctor Dances, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, Blink... even my least favorite one from RTD1, The Girl in the Fireplace, only needed to have been set during Tennant's companion-light gap year to be excellent instead of merely good. (Well, and probably to remove more of the weirdly romantic overtones, but that's a problem I have with the 10th Doctor across nearly all his seasons.)

This one had a political message I happen to agree with wrt the military-industrial complex, via the traditional satirical sci-fi method of taking a thing to its logical conclusion, which is okay so far as it goes, though it was so unsubtle as to be tantamount to screaming opinions in my ear while bopping me repeatedly on the head with a wiffle bat, which is annoying even if I agree with those opinions. Threw in a somewhat confusing secondary moral about faith, which I may or may not agree with but which was jarringly out-of-place here.

I actually thought they did really well with the faith moral by presenting both sides of it. Avoiding religion:

Spoiler: The Bad Side of Faith

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The Doctor's (and the episode's as a whole) primary criticism of faith is that too much of it can stop people from critically examining the world around them, instead swallowing only what they're told. Choosing to revisit his templar-esque Marines from Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone rather than inventing some brand new army was a very intentional choice, because their faith-based hierarchy is exactly what prevented them from ever realizing that they were simply alone on the planet. Their superiors aren't just their military leaders, they're a spiritual authority to them, which essentially removed all potential checks and balances against their orders to throw their lives away against an imaginary foe they'd never have a hope of overcoming.

Spoiler: The Good Side of Faith

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The episode shows the capacity of faith to inspire hope in hopeless situations (The Doctor seeing the snow pulls him out of his despair, even briefly - he may not know what it means yet, but it does suggest there's some kind of entity looking out for Ruby as he saw in Devils Chord and Church on Ruby Road), as well as to allow us to better cope with senseless tragedy (as we saw with both Splice and Mundy.) Even the Doctor admits towards the end that while he is usually critical of faith, even he sometimes needs it.

"73 Yards" was merely boring. Not even particularly bothered that the mechanics of broken-fairy-gate-based time travel were unclear, nor that it was a Doctor-lite episode (those can be ok), nor that any episode of anything is liable to suck if it has a reset at the end so no characters remember the events of the episode (VOY: "Year of Hell" being the shining exception). Just bored.

C'mon, RTD, you can do better than this! I know you can! You've got half a season left to pull a 180 on this sucky season!

Most reviews I've seen (including IMDB ) actually put 73 Yards ahead of Boom. Personally I'm a sucker for bottle episodes so Boom gets the slight edge for me, but I love them both.

I'm hoping 73 Yards is setting up something more. As a standalone episode it was atmospheric and spooky for the first half but kinda lost it when it became about Roger ap Gwilliam and skipping years / decades at a time, but they can salvage it by further exploring the old woman and the supernatural events surrounding her or by further exploring Roger ap Gwilliam.

We don't really need explanations for what was actually going on because the whole point of this season, this Doctor, is that the supernatural is creeping into reality because the Doctor invoked superstition at the end of the universe and let them in, and nobody really knows anything about it. It's a whole new thing for everyone, even UNIT, and sometimes the supernatural is just unknowable.

I am hoping for a few more answers:

Spoiler: What I don't need

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- I don't need to know how the Fey Circle created a second Ruby. "It's magic" works for me there.

- I don't need to know what Fey Ruby said to make people run away - she's overtly supernatural rather than being a more sci-fi sort of time duplicate, as evidenced by her teleporting alongside the bullet train all the way from Wales to London, so she could be altering the brain chemistry of everyone who speaks to her for all we know.

- I also don't need to know if stopping Roger/Mad Jack is what she was "meant" to do. For all we know, she could have done absolutely nothing, let him start WW3, merged with her double when she died anyway then simply stopped her past self from breaking the circle, and still altered the timeline. What mattered here was what she decided to do with her... curse?... rather than what she was supposed to do with it, if anything.

Spoiler: What I wouldn't mind

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As mentioned above I don't need a how, but I wouldn't mind knowing why the Doctor disappeared, and where he went. (The Watsonian reason I mean; I know the Doylist reason, this was actually Ruby's very first episode she ever filmed and Ncuti wasn't fully available yet, so they landed on a Turn Left-style Doctor-light format.)

He has a memory of Mad Jack/Gwilliam being prime minister, so clearly he got out in the Doctor's timeline too, and his TARDIS is present in the 'doomed' timeline, so presumably he was somewhere. Did he take Mad Jack's place in the circle since he broke it? Was he unalived instantly? Was his "memory" of Gwilliam starting a war actually more Toymaker shenanigans with his history/mind? And while he doesn't remember the nuke in the "saved" timeline, he still remembers Gwilliam, so does that mean Mad Jack still gets out somehow?

All in all, I really enjoyed 73 Yards and I see why RTD was so excited about it. But I still think Boom is a little bit more up my alley; Millie Gibson was fantastic in both episodes though. Looking forward to Dot and Bubble this week.

[Ionathus]

I found Capaldi's quality to be much more consistently good than Smith's, especially comparing their freshman outings. For me, Matt Smith was phenomenal in the Eleventh Hour, Amy's Choice, Vincent and the Doctor, and the Pandorica Opens, and everything else in Series 5 was a slog; Series 6 was so heavily serialized around the River Song Arc with Moffat's favorite OC that for me the only great episodes were the ones that ignored it like Doctor's Wife, The Girl Who Waited and the God Complex (though Good Man Goes To War was pretty solid), and then Series 7 was just a mess until Day of the Doctor.

I disagree completely - not only did I find Capaldi much more consistent than Smith as per above, I thought his middle season was his weakest (the Hybrid arc was way more poorly executed than Series 8's "Am I A Good Man" Arc, and Series' 10's Missy Redemption Arc, imo.)

Okay, hang on, so are we talking series arcs, or are we talking strength of individual episodes here?

Because I've actually liked, what, maybe two of the series arcs? The Pandorica from Matt Smith era and the Torchwood arc from David Tennant? Torchwood because it was such a light, inoffensive touch in most cases and then a cool series finale. The Pandorica because it was actually good storytelling from beginning to end and paced pretty well across the season. But overall, Doctor Who series arcs are take or leave for me. I don't really find them compelling and they usually feel pretty contrived. I particularly hated the "Good Man" and Missy redemption arcs from Capaldi's season, but most of the ones from Matt Smith's tenure as well. They all felt like they built up and built up to a crescendo, then fizzled out.

Spoiler: s8 (Capaldi's 1st)

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Capaldi's first season was weighed down by Danny Pink, who was a good actor but asked to slog through a boring jealous-Doctor plot and all of the Doctor's uninspired (self-)hate for soldiers. I hated how they killed him for cheap drama, and I hated the reveal of Cyberman Heaven because it had the same narrative problems that the Silents having "ruled your Earth since the wheel and fire" had for me: if a major villain with massive resources has been orchestrating events for decades, centuries, or millennia, how can you possibly expect me to accept that their influence is contained entirely to their specific episodes? Missy has been gathering dead people since at least the 1800s, and the only impact on the story is that she finally pulls the trigger in 2014 and gives the Doctor an army he immediately throws out? I'm willing to accept "timey-wimey" explanations, but if you want a cool reveal of a centuries-spanning conspiracy, you don't get to wrap it up with no loose ends in a single two-parter. That feels lazy to me.

Spoiler: s10 (Capaldi's last)

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Missy's redemption ends on the most uninteresting, B.S. shaggy dog death imaginable. The leadup to it was fun enough, but I disliked the conclusion so intensely that it soured the rest of her arc for me. I hated the entire "cyberman skyscraper spaceship" plot anyway so that can't be helping things.

On the strength of the individual episodes, I liked most of s9 and didn't find the series arc interesting but also didn't find it grating. "Under the Lake/Before the Flood", "Heaven Sent," and "The Husbands of River Song" were especially good. Meanwhile, s8 and s10 had some of my least favorite episodes.

Spoiler: s8, s10

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"Listen" tried to do something interesting but never got there for me. "Time Heist" was pretty fun, as was "Mummy on the Orient Express." I consider "Kill the Moon" the worst episode of Doctor Who I've ever seen, bar none. "In the Forest of the Night" would be the worst, also by far, if it hadn't been completely out-shone by "the moon is an egg, isn't nature beautiful". Season 10 is better but not by much -- I especially hated the Monks, who started promising with the world-simulation episode but then quickly became a generic annoying evil oppressor. The Doctor pretending to be evil and forcing Bill to shoot him and regenerate in front of her sucked so bad and almost made me stop watching right then and there. Just dripping with pathos and then, immediately, mocking us for it. It felt cynical and jaded and like they were sick of having to care about writing Doctor Who episodes, which made me sick of caring about watching them. Pearl Mackie, like Jodie Whittaker, got cheated out of her run on Who. She was great when she had something to do, but they gave her absolute crap to work with.

[Psyren]

Okay, hang on, so are we talking series arcs, or are we talking strength of individual episodes here?

Both

Spoiler: s8 (Capaldi's 1st)

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Capaldi's first season was weighed down by Danny Pink, who was a good actor but asked to slog through a boring jealous-Doctor plot and all of the Doctor's uninspired (self-)hate for soldiers. I hated how they killed him for cheap drama, and I hated the reveal of Cyberman Heaven because it had the same narrative problems that the Silents having "ruled your Earth since the wheel and fire" had for me: if a major villain with massive resources has been orchestrating events for decades, centuries, or millennia, how can you possibly expect me to accept that their influence is contained entirely to their specific episodes? Missy has been gathering dead people since at least the 1800s, and the only impact on the story is that she finally pulls the trigger in 2014 and gives the Doctor an army he immediately throws out? I'm willing to accept "timey-wimey" explanations, but if you want a cool reveal of a centuries-spanning conspiracy, you don't get to wrap it up with no loose ends in a single two-parter. That feels lazy to me.

It worked fine for me honestly; if anyone would be capable of that kind of precision temporal trolling it would be the Master. (Never mind that they left her alone with a TARDIS (Really Kate???) which would have let her tie up any loose ends that her VM didn't cover. We now know it has a Butterfly Compensator after all )

Spoiler: s10 (Capaldi's last)

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Missy's redemption ends on the most uninteresting, B.S. shaggy dog death imaginable. The leadup to it was fun enough, but I disliked the conclusion so intensely that it soured the rest of her arc for me. I hated the entire "cyberman skyscraper spaceship" plot anyway so that can't be helping things.

I've heard it repeatedly called a perfect ending for the Master (i.e. shooting themself in the back before they can side with the Doctor), to the point that people were actually hoping Sacha was pre-Missy and that she'd be the final incarnation.*

*Granted, post-Missy incarnations reopened the door to the Lumia, so...

On the strength of the individual episodes, I liked most of s9 and didn't find the series arc interesting but also didn't find it grating. "Under the Lake/Before the Flood", "Heaven Sent," and "The Husbands of River Song" were especially good. Meanwhile, s8 and s10 had some of my least favorite episodes.

Spoiler: s8, s10

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"Listen" tried to do something interesting but never got there for me. "Time Heist" was pretty fun, as was "Mummy on the Orient Express." I consider "Kill the Moon" the worst episode of Doctor Who I've ever seen, bar none. "In the Forest of the Night" would be the worst, also by far, if it hadn't been completely out-shone by "the moon is an egg, isn't nature beautiful". Season 10 is better but not by much -- I especially hated the Monks, who started promising with the world-simulation episode but then quickly became a generic annoying evil oppressor. The Doctor pretending to be evil and forcing Bill to shoot him and regenerate in front of her sucked so bad and almost made me stop watching right then and there. Just dripping with pathos and then, immediately, mocking us for it. It felt cynical and jaded and like they were sick of having to care about writing Doctor Who episodes, which made me sick of caring about watching them. Pearl Mackie, like Jodie Whittaker, got cheated out of her run on Who. She was great when she had something to do, but they gave her absolute crap to work with.

Kill the Moon and Forest were awful, no question. (Though they did bookend each other well with the "You/I walk y/our earth and breathe y/our air" lines.)

I put Flatline above Mummy and Time Heist. It was a very unique approach to the Doctor-light format, and allowed Clara to shine both as a companion in general, and for her wider growing toxicity/addiction arc more specifically and showing just how comfortable she was getting with lying - to Danny, to the people she's trying to protect, and to the Doctor.

[Soepvork]

...the bullet train all the way from Wales to London...

Off topic, but this made me laugh. Clearly you have not experienced the wonderful world that is British public transport

[Infernally Clay]

I would have to echo the sentiment that Missy's death was indeed a fantastic way for the Master to go out. You can't get better than the backstabber backstabbing themself and it made perfect sense from a characterisation standpoint. Missy had finally accepted that she wanted to be the Doctor's friend again, but her previous incarnation could never let that happen.

The best part is that, thanks to the Toymaker, you can preserve the Missy arc without losing the Master forever by just saying that the Master that was dying and begged for their life with one final game was John Simm's. Missy forever remains a what if, a path the Master could have walked down but previous incarnations would rather die than do so, while the Master remains something of an antagonistic frenemy. Then it doesn't really matter when Sacha Dhawan's Master takes place because it's a different path the Master walked down, kinda like the Doctor's bi-regeneration.

[Ionathus]

The best part is that, thanks to the Toymaker, you can preserve the Missy arc without losing the Master forever by just saying that

I mean let's all be honest with ourselves. This is Doctor Who we're talking about here. The Daleks and the Master/Mistress are never, ever, ever, ever going to be permanently dead.

I'd honestly rather they just skip trying to come up with justifications. Like comic book superhero resurrections: we all know you're going to do it, so just do it, and don't waste too much of my time by trying to make it make sense. If I'm still watching after 10 seasons, I have accepted this as just another fact of this franchise.

[Psyren]

Off topic, but this made me laugh. Clearly you have not experienced the wonderful world that is British public transport

I'm (now) an American Idiot, so my knowledge of countries with actually functioning passenger rail infrastructure is minimal

I would have to echo the sentiment that Missy's death was indeed a fantastic way for the Master to go out. You can't get better than the backstabber backstabbing themself and it made perfect sense from a characterisation standpoint. Missy had finally accepted that she wanted to be the Doctor's friend again, but her previous incarnation could never let that happen.

The best part is that, thanks to the Toymaker, you can preserve the Missy arc without losing the Master forever by just saying that the Master that was dying and begged for their life with one final game was John Simm's. Missy forever remains a what if, a path the Master could have walked down but previous incarnations would rather die than do so, while the Master remains something of an antagonistic frenemy. Then it doesn't really matter when Sacha Dhawan's Master takes place because it's a different path the Master walked down, kinda like the Doctor's bi-regeneration.

Headcanon accepted!

Also - isn't there a Big Finish where ALL the Masters met up, including Jacobi and Missy?

I mean let's all be honest with ourselves. This is Doctor Who we're talking about here. The Daleks and the Master/Mistress are never, ever, ever, ever going to be permanently dead.

I'd honestly rather they just skip trying to come up with justifications. Like comic book superhero resurrections: we all know you're going to do it, so just do it, and don't waste too much of my time by trying to make it make sense. If I'm still watching after 10 seasons, I have accepted this as just another fact of this franchise.

Ah, but that leads us to another facet of Doctor Who - that knowing definitively how a character will end doesn't mean you can't cram a million stories about them in there in the meantime. (See also: River Song and Clara.)

[Manga Shoggoth]

Off topic, but this made me laugh. Clearly you have not experienced the wonderful world that is British public transport

I'm (now) an American Idiot, so my knowledge of countries with actually functioning passenger rail infrastructure is minimal

I have just spent a huge amount of time trying to get from a mainline London station to my home just outside London. I assure you that the actually functioning passenger rail infrastructure is indeed minimal.

[Infernally Clay]

I mean let's all be honest with ourselves. This is Doctor Who we're talking about here. The Daleks and the Master/Mistress are never, ever, ever, ever going to be permanently dead.

I'd honestly rather they just skip trying to come up with justifications. Like comic book superhero resurrections: we all know you're going to do it, so just do it, and don't waste too much of my time by trying to make it make sense. If I'm still watching after 10 seasons, I have accepted this as just another fact of this franchise.

When I refer to preserving the Missy arc, I mean the character growth the Master undergoes. After all the main reason people are hopeful Sacha Dhawan's Master is somehow chronologically before Missy is because they don't like how that version of the Master throws out all the character growth Missy underwent.

Essentially you would say the Toymaker sealed John Simm's Master in his golden tooth and, because of that, the Master no longer regenerates into Missy. Missy still exists thanks to wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff and the Master knows of her as a potential future regeneration and that could affect the Master in unique and interesting ways, but the Master can go back to being the villain. Just one that knows in some potential future, they and the Doctor could have been friends again.

[Psyren]

I have just spent a huge amount of time trying to get from a mainline London station to my home just outside London. I assure you that the actually functioning passenger rail infrastructure is indeed minimal.

Even without having been there I can almost guarantee you that it beats what we have, but I'll cede the point.

When I refer to preserving the Missy arc, I mean the character growth the Master undergoes. After all the main reason people are hopeful Sacha Dhawan's Master is somehow chronologically before Missy is because they don't like how that version of the Master throws out all the character growth Missy underwent.

Essentially you would say the Toymaker sealed John Simm's Master in his golden tooth and, because of that, the Master no longer regenerates into Missy. Missy still exists thanks to wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff and the Master knows of her as a potential future regeneration and that could affect the Master in unique and interesting ways, but the Master can go back to being the villain. Just one that knows in some potential future, they and the Doctor could have been friends again.

I'll add to this - yeah, I know the Master is going to be around/brought back repeatedly pretty much as long as the show exists. That doesn't mean I want them to skip coming up with justifications; the justifications are half the fun! John Simm and Tennant talking about the Time War and how the Master came back from the TV movie was fun. Missy taunting Capaldi about how she survived the End of Time is fun. Sacha and Jodie bantering about Jodrell Bank was fun. The red-fiingernailed hand saving the tooth is fun. We all know the "why" so the parts that can still be an entertaining surprise are the "when" and "how." And of course - the "Who."

[Felhammer]

I have been enjoying all of the episodes thus far. Episode 2 is my least favorite, but it is a classic Dr. Who concept. Ncuti Gatwa is an absolute star, I hope he sticks around as the Doctor for many years.