September 14, 20231 yr I'm currently re watching series 1-13 can I just say so far s11 was not as bad as I had once thought although s12 is worse. Ryan really is such a terrible actor. Really was the companions that let half the Jodie era down I think. He is the most wooden actor I have ever seen!!! Completely monotone, exressionless, boring as sin and stiffer than a plank. He should never have been in the show. She'd have been okay with just Yaz. The writing let it down, the terrible companions, esp Ryan, let it down, Jodi's terrible portrayal as the Capitalist Doctor let it down, and the villains and TOO MANY CHARACTERS EVERY WPISODE!! let it down.
September 14, 20231 yr Author Another series with 12 and Bill would have been brilliant, but I really don't think Bill would have worked with 13 at all. Jodie's era definitely struggled with a number of episodes having far too large a guest cast. Not having Ryan there either really could have tightened things up and made for more impactful storytelling with both Yaz and Graham, and their relationship with the Doctor.
September 14, 20231 yr No absolutely agree with Bill not fitting in series 13 but then I also do think s13 would have been better without a companion at all as there was so many other characters to fill up the space. Even having the dog thing as a companion would have worked
September 14, 20231 yr Author No absolutely agree with Bill not fitting in series 13 but then I also do think s13 would have been better without a companion at all as there was so many other characters to fill up the space. Even having the dog thing as a companion would have worked Oh, by Bill not being a good fit for 13 I meant the 13th Doctor in general :kink:
September 14, 20231 yr Oh yes haha also agree, really happy they are going back to doctor/donna to put faith back in the show again! There's also rumours Martha and Captain Jack will be back
October 3, 20231 yr Author 11 The Woman Who Fell to Earth _kKAg0Qaiao Series 11 Written by Chris Chibnall Guest starring Sharon D Clarke, Samuel Oatley, Johnny Dixon, Amit Shah, Asha Kingsley Audience Appreciation Index score: 83 Reviews: Radio Times (3 out of 5 stars), Rotten Tomatoes (8.1 / 92%) Time to get back to this, and just missing out on a spot in the top 10 is Jodie's very first episode as the Doctor - The Woman Who Fell to Earth. This episode had a lot riding on it, and for the most part I think it lived up to expectations. It wasn't - however - completely without fault. We had a brand new Doctor to be introduced to, and not only that but the show's first ever female Doctor. We had a brand new trio of companions to be introduced to, a brand new sonic screwdriver, a brand new TARDIS interior and exterior (the former not being unveiled until The Ghost Monument, granted), a brand new showrunner with brand new monsters and villains to introduce us to. Basically, everything was brand new. And that certainly came through in the tone and style of the episode. One other thing we were eagerly anticipating was a brand new title sequence and theme tune, however neither of those were we treated to in this episode; with only a strand of the theme tune playing when Jodie's Doctor crash-landed into the train carriage. It was quite the entrance and it did work quite well here, I reckon. Anyway, to the meat of the episode. We started off with Ryan Sinclair and a YouTube video where he talks about one of the greatest women he's ever met. For the majority of the episode, we're led to believe this is going to be about the Doctor, but instead Chibnall veers away from having the first ever female Doctor being lauded as the greatest woman someone's ever met, and instead this ends up being about Ryan's grandmother Grace, who meets an untimely demise trying to save the day... literally falling to earth from a crane. Grace made for an excellent companion of sorts in this episode, and certainly made more of an impression than any of the three actual new companions did. Graham made good on being a nice sidekick to Grace (probably not alone in thinking maybe he should have been a guest character that appeared now and again having stayed at home following the events of this episode, while Grace travelled the universe with the Doctor), while Ryan and Yaz were just... there despite valiant efforts at establishing back stories for both with Yaz in the police force and Ryan valiantly and consistently trying to ride a bike x Some of the best moments in this episode came in the form of moments that we 'expected', for me. When the Doctor gets to work creating her new sonic screwdriver, being a bit of a goofball but being so amazed when it all comes together, and then of course when she rummages through everything in the charity shop to find the perfect new outfit for herself. The grand unveiling from behind the curtain when she's finally found the outfit - despite us already knowing what that outfit was going to be - was still magical. One thing that irks me somewhat about this episode is the shoddy execution of the Doctor trying to remember who she is. This is no fault of Jodie's, but absolutely the writing (I mean, when she's on the train to begin with and literally utters the words 'I'm looking for a Doctor' but still doesn't remember...?) and it's a shame that the epic showdown atop the crane where she finally wins against Tim Shaw was riddled with lapses in memory and her still not being given a moment to prove that she absolutely IS the Doctor that we're going to love and root for for years to come. Anyway, all in all this is a great first episode (although it doesn't quite challenge the likes of The Eleventh Hour or Deep Breath in the hall of fame of post-regeneration episodes) with plenty action and typically great 'Doctor Who' moments throughout.
October 3, 20231 yr Actually still a pretty good opener and one I did come out of with positive feelings towards the new season...shame what came next :')
October 4, 20231 yr It was a good episode! But he couldn't keep it up for even one more episode after that :lol:
October 31, 20231 yr Author 10 Spyfall 0mSdk_H-JuE Series 12 Written by Chris Chibnall Guest starring Sacha Dhawan, Lenny Henry, Stephen Fry, Shobna Gulati, Sylvie Briggs, Aurora Marion, Mark Dexter Audience Appreciation Index score: 82 Reviews: Radio Times (4 and 3 out of 5 stars), Rotten Tomatoes (7.5 / 93% and 7.2 / 82%) Into the top 10 of the Chibnall era now, and even now reflecting back on a couple of these episodes I'm thinking that as we go into the top 10 some of these still aren't up there with the very best of modern Doctor Who. For the Chibnall era, yes they're masterpieces and stand head and shoulders above the rest, but when you put them against RTD and Moffat era episodes, they don't really stand up. But anyway, Spyfall is in at #10 - the first two-parter of the Chibnall era, giving us a meaty story to sink our teeth into after a 10-episode series of all standalone stories. Spyfall starts with a lot of mystery, and we have guest stars Lenny Henry and Stephen Fry giving it their best shot. Jodie is on top form in this episode with some great comedic timing and truly arriving as the Doctor after a shaky start in Series 11 where I feel we still weren't properly introduced to her incarnation of the Doctor. Obviously Spyfall gives us a lot with the cliffhanger of Part One revealing that in fact O is the Master, and Sacha Dhawan is the latest incarnation of the Doctor's long-running nemesis. I for one definitely didn't see the twist coming, despite how many people say it was obvious from the beginning. I remember watching on New Year's Day and thinking 'WHAT?!' because I don't think I was quite ready for the Master to return so soon following the demise of Missy in the series 10 finale. However, it was a great reintroduction, however what followed in Part Two did seem a bit of an anti-climax and veered into a re-do of old tropes that had already been done in the RTD era with John Simm's Master. Although Sacha Dhawan was given time to develop his Master in later episodes, his introduction here did feel like we were seeing John Simm's story repeated - what with the Time Lord heartbeat stuff popping up again. Personally I wasn't a fan of the scene the Doctor is forced to submit to the Master and call him so. But alas, we move. Chibnall's love for introducing us to lesser-known historical figures continued in this two-parter with Ada Lovelace and Noor Inayat Khan becoming integral parts of the story - and while they had plenty screen time, ultimately they did seem quite inessential to everything that was happening, and I don't think I learned a great deal about who they were and what they did in history for it to have been a worthwhile inclusion; much different to the likes of Rosa Parks and Nikola Tesla being the centrepieces of their respective episodes. Anyway, all in all Spyfall is a largely entertaining two-parter, starting off strong but taking a bit of a lull for the first and second acts of Part Two, before picking the pace back up and (re-)introducing us to some themes that would shape the rest of the Chibnall era moving forward. I could happily sit back and enjoy these episodes for what they are, but for a grand, off-the-scale two-part story to kick a series off, it's not up there with the very best of Doctor Who by any means.
October 31, 20231 yr I liked Spyfall! Think the pace falls apart in part 2 and there are some questionable moments but it's a good story, definitely top 10 worthy here.
November 7, 20231 yr Author 9 Fugitive of the Judoon SlgP3uiVCys Series 12 Written by Vinay Patel & Chris Chibnall Guest starring Jo Martin, John Barrowman, Neil Stuke, Ritu Arya, Paul Kasey, Nicholas Briggs Audience Appreciation Index score: 83 Reviews: Radio Times (5 out of 5 stars), Rotten Tomatoes (8.3 / 100%) Up next we have the turning point of the Chibnall era, where we veered from standalone episodes where nothing seemed to be happening beyond decent storytelling, right into connecting everything together and driving towards something bigger and intertwining. Fugitive of the Judoon starts off by introducing us to Ruth and Lee, two seemingly very normal people who have very normal lives in Gloucester. And then all of that blows up in their faces with the arrival of both the TARDIS team and the Judoon. Pretty much from start to finish this episode has all the makings of a classic, despite relying on one of the more tame Doctor Who monsters making a return. An inspired choice for sure, it was great to see the Judoon show up again, and become quite the players in the Chibnall era in the end alongside other monsters like the Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen, etc. Besides everything that unfolded in the second and third acts of this episode, there was also of course another major 'thing' that happened. We had the return of John Barrowman in the role of Captain Jack Harkness, who hadn't been seen on screen in the main show for quite some time. Obviously this return is very tainted now with everything that's happened with Barrowman since, but at the time this was mega and it was something we'd all been waiting for. Was it worth it, though? Absolutely not. Of all the things Fugitive of the Judoon has going for it, this is certainly not one of them. When you watch this episode back now, Jack returning is such a damp squib and ultimately pointless. The only purpose his return seemed to serve in the end was warning the Doctor of the Lone Cyberman, setting us up for that showdown in The Haunting of Villa Diodati. So yeah, this was a major wasted opportunity, but at least I still gasped at the screen when we saw him appear I guess. Getting to the actual meat of the episode... let's talk about THAT reveal. I knew as soon as the Doctor and Ruth got in the car together and headed to the lighthouse this was leading to something big, and the fact that the Doctor had been questioning who Ruth really was throughout had us on the edge of our seats waiting to find out. But nothing could have prepared me at all for the moment Ruth 'broke the glass', and the Doctor headed out and started digging to find what was buried beneath the surface. I have honestly never had my mind blown as much and screamed so loud at the TV as I have when the Doctor uncovered the TARDIS and looked on in total bewilderment, confusion and shock at what was unfolding. And then the freshly unveiled Fugitive Doctor appears behind her and we start to learn the smallest fragments of information about what's really going on here. After the reveal and when the Doctor and... the Doctor(?!) go on to deal with the Judoon, the interactions between Jodie and Jo are incredible. Their shared screen time was marvellous and they would have made an excellent pairing given more time together. All in all, this is definitely up there with the greats of the Chibnall era. Maybe sometimes relying on shock factor and one-off 'WOW' moments more than actual substance to back it up later down the line, but I can forgive Chibnall when it means we're left with an episode like this to go back to and constantly be amazed at how 1. he managed to pull off keeping a reveal as big as that such a close-guarded secret, and 2. how it was - for a change - executed so beautifully, both in terms of cinematography and delivery by the cast.
November 7, 20231 yr Fugitive... was genuinely a great episode to experience and it was so good to see a Chibnall episode that everyone can agree was decent, the lighthouse sequence when she discovers the TARDIS gradually is fantastic and one of the highlights of the whole era. Problem is it just doesn't really hold up on rewatches as so much of it is hinging on mystery and intrigue for what happens next, which we now know was extremely underwhelming. It was so close to being great, but it doesn't quite work as a standalone like the best episodes of the show do.
November 8, 20231 yr The emotions I felt during Fugitive were everything. Keeping one huge surprise a secret by throwing a different surprise out first... genius! I still really enjoy it, defo one of my favourite episodes of this era.
November 14, 20231 yr Author 8 Village of the Angels WL-3i2aiQk4 Series 13 (Flux) Written by Maxine Alderton & Chris Chibnall Guest starring Kevin McNally, Annabel Scholey, Blake Harrison, Penelope McGhie, Poppy Polivnicki Audience Appreciation Index score: 79 Reviews: Radio Times (5 out of 5 stars), Rotten Tomatoes (8.0 / 100%) It's difficult to decipher exactly where Maxine Alderton's strengths and Chibnall's weaknesses come into play in this episode - because for an episode that definitely cements itself as one of the best episodes of the era, there are flaws that you could pin on Chibnall (given he's likely to have re-written a lot of the script), but then was Maxine Alderton a one-hit-wonder with her debut script The Haunting of Villa Diodati or was she the reason that this episode was as brilliant as it was? We'll never know; and it's definitely something that causes some division among fans. But anyway, onto the episode itself because there's a lot to unpack in this one and while it wasn't the heaviest episode involved in the overarching Flux storyline, it still had a lot to do with it! Village of the Angels gives us our first insight into just how crucial a role Division end up playing in Flux. Although mentioned previously dating back to Series 12, we knew Division were going to be something big, but I don't think I was expecting quite on the scale of what followed this in Survivors of the Flux. But, in this episode, we learn that Division are hunting down a rogue Weeping Angel that is on the run, hiding in Annabel Scholey's character Claire. This episode has it all from the beginning - we have the creepy scenes with psychic experiments, the Weeping Angels closing in on a group of people in a big old-fashioned house, and Dan and Yaz being zapped back in time by the Angels so mercilessly too. Did Alderton and Chibnall nail the Weeping Angels? Absolutely not. Another possibly quite controversial opinion is that the Weeping Angels were Moffat's creation, and I don't think anybody possibly could write them in the same way he did. Of course, Moffat started bending the rules and lessening the mystery around them when we saw them move in Series 5's Flesh and Stone, but Chibnall decided to throw away the whole book and have the Weeping Angels become pawns in somebody else's game here, instead of being the 'lonely assassins'. Chibnall tackled a lot of the tropes already covered by Moffat in previous episodes with the Angels here - 'the image of an angel', etc, etc, and for the most part it worked brilliantly, but I feel like the only time I'd want to see the Angels re-appear now is in a totally haunting and chilling one-off horror episode where they work just as magically as they did in Blink. Overall, this episode has a lot of meat to it and I do love it a lot for many different reasons, and the storyline around Peggy too (fairly obvious in the end that Mrs Hayward ended up being Peggy's older self). But the whole village being taken out of time and space to capture the rogue Angel, and then THAT cliffhanger creeping up on us... so much was happening. The Doctor stood there, having thought she'd escaped and saved the day, and then stands in a graveyard full of Weeping Angels, standing there herself becoming one, and the episode ends with us seeing the Doctor turn to stone. This was the cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers - an imaginative way of using the Angels (and some decent foreshadowing earlier in the episode with Claire slowly turning into an Angel too) - however it's just a massive shame that the pay-off didn't deliver and was resolved so quickly in Survivors of the Flux.
November 21, 20231 yr The episode itself is pretty much perfect, and the cliffhanger is amazing until it's magically undone in the next episode.
November 24, 20231 yr Author 7 Revolution of the Daleks KykWHFc1yx8 Specials Written by Chris Chibnall Guest starring Chris Noth, Harriet Walter, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Nicholas Briggs, Sharon D Clarke Audience Appreciation Index score: 79 Reviews: Radio Times (4 out of 5 stars), Rotten Tomatoes (7.0 / 69.0%) Right, I need to actually try and finish this before The Star Beast airs tomorrow, so let's try and make a dent and at least make the top 5! Up next we have Revolution of the Daleks, the second of the Dalek trilogy in the Chibnall era - an episode that is so magnificent and wonderful for many reasons, but now also tainted for many viewers too because of you-know-who. It's strange to think this only aired two years ago because it feels like a lifetime ago now (albeit only 9 episodes ago). While Resolution stood on its own as an individual story, Revolution of the Daleks continued on from not only that story, but the story of other characters and other characters' appearances earlier in the show too, while having the hefty job of delivering a decent exit for both Ryan and Graham as companions, bringing back villain Jack Robertson, reinventing the Daleks AGAIN, and resolving the Series 12 cliffhanger. The opening scenes of the episode show us that following the events of Resolution, the Recon Dalek was transported to a government facility, but was intercepted en route and thus begins the events of this episode and the carnage that allows Jack Robertson to reinvent the Daleks into 'drones' that become a vital part of politician Jo Patterson's plan to become Prime Minister and use them to her advantage for national security. While the idea is certainly unique and something new to do with the Daleks, it's fairly obvious that they won't just be 'defense drones' for long and that the Dalek inside them will come out sooner or later. The scene where the defense drones are tested is a great one. With Yaz in the disguised TARDIS obsessing over the Doctor's whereabouts (some lovely foreshadowing before a conversation with Captain Jack that later proves one of the most poignant moments of the episode) we have Graham and Ryan turn up to show her that the Daleks are back. Now, the prison scenes with the Doctor, while maybe an unpopular opinion, I think are excellent. I loved seeing the Doctor in captivity and how she coped with that, and all of the numerous monster cameos... the Silence, the Pting, Weeping Angels, and more! So much to enjoy and a nice nod to previous eras. Probably what makes the prison scenes as unpopular as they are is how quickly the Doctor is broken out of jail by Captain Jack, and how easily he manages to break in and subsequently break the Doctor out with ease, but it did make for some nice action scenes and wasn't too far-fetched. For much of the rest of the episode we have a lot of good action, and for me the best parts of the episode come when we have a civil war - Daleks vs. Daleks. When the death squad Daleks arrive, that's when things really turn up a notch and the scenes on the bridge, and in the air with the Doctor stirring the pot - it's all excellent. I really can't fault much about this episode and it's definitely one of Chibnall's finest moments in Doctor Who.
November 25, 20231 yr Author 6 Rosa ufiw6jvigCk Series 11 Written by Malorie Blackman & Chris Chibnall Guest starring Vinette Robinson, Joshua Bowman, Trevor White, David Rubin, Ray Sesay Audience Appreciation Index score: 83 Reviews: Radio Times (3 out of 5 stars), Rotten Tomatoes (7.99 / 97.0%) The official Doctor Who YouTube channel doesn't appear to have many videos uploaded from Rosa, so instead of the all-important bus scene that I'd have liked to attach to this commentary, I've had to settle for the Doctor confronting... quite possibly one of the most pointless and needless villains from the show's history. Anyway, I absolutely adore this episode so it's just a testament to how strong the remaining five episodes are that this has only managed sixth place in the countdown. When Series 11 aired, this was always up there with the very best of it (granted, there is still a Series 11 episode to come in the top 5!), and Rosa is still pretty consistently one of the best offerings from the Chibnall era. Although not without fault (for very minor reasons), the debut - and likely only - episode from acclaimed Noughts and Crosses writer Malorie Blackman goes down a treat. I don't think this is an episode or a historical character that could have been written without the perspective of Malorie Blackman either (having someone like Mark Gatiss or Toby Whithouse try and put their stamp on this would have been distasteful). My only gripe though is that I wish Malorie Blackman had been given the freedom to make this a purely historical episode that explored Rosa Parks in full without the unnecessary shoe-horned in "Doctor Who"-ness with Krasko appearing as a villain, not furthering the actual storyline in any way, but only his own. But alas, that doesn't detract from the episode too much. There's quite a lot throughout this episode that really doesn't hold back on exploring racism, and what a different world it was at the time. Merely minutes into the episode and we already see Ryan being assaulted by an elderly white man, and in steps Rosa Park to diffuse the situation. It can be quite difficult to watch at times. We have more moments like this when the TARDIS team visit a bar and are clearly not welcome at all, and then the Doctor and Graham have to try their hardest to prove they're just a married white couple staying in a motel, while we have an endearing moment between Ryan and Yaz out the back where they open up about their personal struggles (Ryan as wooden as ever, but I'll let him off here). The episode is very educational, very eye-opening, and certainly not easy to watch at times given this is what happened. And like I've already said, the only thing that takes away from all of this is the presence of Krasko on his own personal mission which does nothing to further the plot and, if removed, wouldn't have made a difference to how beautiful a script Malorie Blackman delivered to the Whoniverse. Obviously there is one part of this episode that really hits hardest, and it's what we're leading up to throughout the whole episode. The moment we realise that the Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz are getting on the bus and becoming part of history that made Rosa Parks refuse to stand sent shivers down my spine, and the scene playing out with the addition of Andra Day's Rise Up - in a move that's quite uncommon for Doctor Who to have contemporary music playing (something Chibnall didn't shy away from in episodes to come, either) - it's all just glorious and absolutely stunning, yet incredibly moving and emotional at the same time. Vinette Robinson really was the star of this episode. All in all, Rosa definitely stands the test of time and I think it's testament to Malorie Blackman - and Vinette Robinson for her portrayal of Rosa Parks - and how much of her soul she must have poured into this script.
November 25, 20231 yr I think Rosa parks is my second favourite episode of series 11 behind demons of the Punjab. An absolutely amazing episode.
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