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Posted by: Calum 10th May 2024, 01:46 PM

It's almost time

The first episode of Ncuti's first series drops TONIGHT at midnight on BBC iPlayer, and airs on BBC One at 6:20pm.

Discuss the episode here!

Posted by: Rough_edges 11th May 2024, 08:38 AM

Enjoyed this episode, very cute opener. It is just so DISNEYFIED

Posted by: lewistgreen 11th May 2024, 12:07 PM

I liked the opening scenes and the ending but the actual Space Babies story was sooooo terrible I just hope that isn't setting a precedent for the rest of the series

Posted by: Dexton 11th May 2024, 12:30 PM

This was kinda cool, the babies were cute and actually had me laughing out loud a little. It’s a strange concept but it worked. I would’ve liked to actually see an ending though… the last we see is the Doctor using gas to push the space station towards a planet? Even though it’s even mentioned that the station can’t do anything to coordinate so like is the station relying on a refuge planet to rescue it?

I like Ruby she is very confident and comfortable around the Doctor, which is historically a bad thing for companions

I’m not digging how the Doctor speaks or dresses yet… call me old fashioned but it doesn’t quite hit the mark yet

Posted by: DoBelieveTheHype 11th May 2024, 01:40 PM

I'm thinking of holding of on watching any new episodes until I've caught up on my marathon (currently at the end of Classic Who' Season 5). Is there anything in this episode that anybody would say - no, no you need to see this now or can it wait?

Posted by: The Dong Contest 11th May 2024, 01:52 PM

Pting was better and somehow more mature People said Disney wouldn't affect this, but here we are, and RtD is the worst person to run with under disney!!! At his worst excesses, he is very cheesy ans has immature stories. I think it might be time to axe? This needs bringing back under bbc control 100%, and until that happens I won't watch ... mot even with Moffat and River Song. Look at Avsmgers. It's just cartoon violence, where a bad guy can get grinded up ..m suggested, not shown, and all you see is one single riny drop of bloos, which then got edited our later anyway. Doc Who is at its best when it is dark, like World Enough and Time, not when it's as cheesy as a Taylor Swift video. We'll never get another World Enough and Time under Disney. Of course, Chibnall was also very cheesy and trash, bur didn't his villains kill so many people Doctor Who was rendered useless? But he was still cheesy, but just not this level of disney cheese. Our only hope is bbc gets rhe series back 100% again, but has it PERMANENTLY sold the rights now?

Also as Dexton says, Doctor Who has NEVER dressed fashionably. Ever. Or gone clubbing. EVER. But that is the least of my worries when the plots and episodes themselves are so so so so bad. New companion is v arrogant, as we all knew she would be from rhe backstage stuff.

Posted by: Severin 11th May 2024, 04:28 PM

Went in open minded. First few minutes were ok. Hated the butterfly sequence but it's and early gag so we'll let it slide. Ruby seems ok but she's basically Clara personality-wise. Not sold on him but we'll see. He's charming but vapid so far.
Got to the space station and it looks like we're in a cheap Alien rip off but I can roll with that.

Then it really went down the toilet.
The story was paper thin with zero characterisation, an awful premise and a monster whose concept would have been more at home on Red Dwarf. The show is clearly being written for 6 year olds now

Aside from general indifference to the two lead performances, I hated everything about this. For me, it's up there with the worst episodes ever.

Still the one with The Beatles has to be better, right?

Posted by: The Dong Contest 11th May 2024, 05:59 PM

We were right. That Christmas episode wasn't a one off. This is the new Who. I'm kind of glad Jo Martin didn't get the job now, as imagine if two consecutive female doctors were around for the worst writing in Who history!! We'd just hsve men forever after that.

Posted by: Mart!n 11th May 2024, 06:01 PM

This is awful, I hope the next episode is better

Posted by: T Boy 11th May 2024, 07:15 PM

I actually didn’t mind that. There’s certainly been worse in Doctor Who. I’m enjoying Ncuti and Millie so far, I think they’re doing a great job.

Posted by: Josh! 11th May 2024, 09:50 PM

I had fun watching this but it was objectively terrible. I want Doctor Who to be back in a big way but instead it’s something I’d be embarrassed to bring up or recommend to people in real life to be honest.

Disney budget being spent on bogey monsters and fart fuelled spaceships… really???

Posted by: JosephBoone 12th May 2024, 12:02 AM

It was a fun opener in a similar way to RTD's previous openers, I expect darker episodes will be to come so nice to have something quite light and fluffy to allow us time to get used to 15 and Ruby, who were both so captivating. Ncuti and Millie killed it! The plot was a little thin but it wasn't bad. A good opener, very watchable, very fun!

Posted by: Calum 12th May 2024, 01:33 PM

Yeah, given RTD's previous openers having such silly premises (Auton Mickey, Cassandra, a camp blood-sucking pensioner, and living blobs of fat), are people really surprised that this is the kind of light, non-serious episode we got to kick the series off?

It was by no means perfect, but I think what really carried this episode was the chemistry between Ncuti and Millie, they are a dream to watch <3 the story was very thin, but I enjoyed it and it had a perfect balance of introducing Ruby to the Doctor's world and what he gets up to, while still having something there to engage you with otherwise.

If fan theories are to be believed too, the baby farm could likely end up playing a bigger role in Ruby's arc too as a sort of experimental facility.

Posted by: Chez Wombat 12th May 2024, 07:05 PM

The start and end had real promise and a few assorted moments in between, Ncuti and Millie are good, if a bit annoying when they both scream and garble together but that may be a personal thing, just a shame about the main plot...

I know Doctor Who's had its goofier moments, but not CBBC levels of goofy. Felt like a child's competition winner and and it wasn't well done as a story either, one minute the babies were happy to set the boogeyman on fire and the next they want to save it with barely a line devoted to it...the concept wasn't completely unsalvageable, but they certainly didn't make use of it. Not painfully bad or anything, just throwaway rubbish x

Or maybe it just wasn't aimed at me, I get the sense from a lot of the lore and expositional dialogue that this was basically a pilot to introduce it to the Disney+ audience and they're showing the range of tones the show can have. That's all well and good, just hope the next one's better (post tbc x)

Posted by: Calum 13th May 2024, 08:38 AM

Apparently there was a whole scene in this episode with Push the Button playing on the jukebox that was cut, and honestly I can’t help feeling that would’ve been so iconic ugh

Posted by: ElectroBoy 13th May 2024, 08:52 AM

I would've preferred that to probably 75% of what was then to come

They could've easily cut some of the Baby/ Snot-monster stuff to accommodate it.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th May 2024, 10:24 AM

Same. Disney-fied for little kids. The concept was just inhumane and ridiculous. "Lets have talking babies that'll be fun" and show them removed from all human beings while stunted in growth and then tell them they are perfect as they are - no they're not, they are traumatised, stunted beings robbed of a childhood and forced to spend their lives in a clinical cold love-free environment.

10 minutes of exposition to bring new audience up to speed, get's his new assistant almost an ex-companion twice within the first 5 minutes, magically gifts life back to a dead crushed butterfly (thats a handy plot device going forward, no-one dies!!! But now New Who must be changing history in every single episode, logically, because all of time is history). It seems like The Doctor is high on substance-abuse hyperactive fresh from a night clubbing, he's exhausting and impulsive.

Trying to attract kids doesnt mean you have to talk down to them. I watched Doctor Who from day one and was hooked aged 5 in 1963. I didnt need talking babies to pull me in, caveman, daleks and giant ants were the dogs-bollocks to this 5/6-year-old even more than Fireball XL5 (aimed at kids) was.

And if you wanted to make your new series look ridiculous you need go no further than Giant Bogey with Teeth and magic and all sort of magic plot-devices removing all logic and believability. It's not sci-fi, it's fantasy now.

I was so annoyed by the script, I magically crossed over into an alternate dimension and happliy discovered an alternate script written before the Disney bosses got their marker pens out. The original title was called "The TARDIS forces the Doctor and his new companion to go through Health & Safety Training". I might post it at some point.....

Posted by: Calum 13th May 2024, 04:07 PM

I’m legit howling that one scene of the Doctor living life and enjoying himself in a club has triggered such a reaction from some people that he’s now suddenly a substance abuser?! What the actual f***?

Posted by: DoBelieveTheHype 18th May 2024, 07:58 PM

Just watched the first scene of Space Babies and turned off. Are we seriously keeping this rubbish about The Doctor being adopted?

At least I've got plenty of old Who to watch before it went bonkers and rubbish.

Posted by: ElectroBoy 18th May 2024, 09:50 PM

You didn’t keep It in on to watch the bogies and fart jokes; you are wise