YMMV / Doctor Who S25 E2 "The Happiness Patrol"

• Anvilicious:
  • Yeah, painting the TARDIS pink was probably a bit on-the-nose...
  • The entire serial, really; Helen A as a Margaret Thatcher parody done up like a drag queen? Oodles of camp and queer imagery all over the place? Our heroes being into blues music to the point of playing it every chance they get? The repeated assertions that true happiness is nothing without the ability to feel sadness? Whichever message or possible message you look at, lord love them they were not being subtle with this one.
• Broken Base:
  • A fascinating, statement-making piece of satire, just a dumb, implausible story with a terrible monster, or so blunt and tactless in its parody that it loses all impact?
  • Speaking of the monster, the Kandyman divides fans between those who think it's a plain stupid idea executed unconvincingly, and those who think it's a genuinely frightening antagonist with an impressive costume design.
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory : This is one of the most (over)analysed stories in the history of Doctor Who. Is it a biting criticism of Thatcher? Is it about homophobia? Is it a satire of runaway commercialism smothering society? Is it just plain bollocks? Or all of the above? Just about the only thing anyone can agree with is that it features a candy robot that kills people (and even that could have been potentially contentious if they'd went with the original idea of just putting make-up on an actor to make him look like he was baked out of sugar rather than going all-in on making him a Bertie Bassett parody).
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The Seventh Doctor talks a sniper out of shooting him by daring him to "pull the trigger, [and] end my life". He would ultimately regenerate due to a botched surgery caused by a gunshot wound. The Expanded Universe turned that speech into a very dark Running Gag; anyone who quoted that speech was definitely about to get shot.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Helen A's fate wasn't far off Margaret Thatcher's eventual ouster - like Helen A, Thatcher was "betrayed" by her close male subordinate (Michael Heseltine's leadership challenge). She ultimately chose to jump rather than be pushed, and as she left Downing Street, she was also crying.
• Ho Yay: The dysfunctional relationship between Gilbert M and the Kandyman really is like a married couple turned sour, and of course Gilbert M and Joseph C run away together at the end. In the deleted scenes, Gilbert M's reaction to the Kandyman's death is "There's nothing here for me now.", at which point Joseph C makes a suggestion...
• Les Yay: Ace and Susan Q, who talks to her about being closetedly sad. In the deleted scenes package on the DVD, Susan Q tells Ace "As long as you're looking cute we've got a chance".
• Narm Charm: The Kandyman. On paper the idea of an evil robot made of candy is impossible to take seriously, but he also fits right in with Helen A's mission statement which, combined with the character's psychotic mannerisms, makes a fitting and surreal villain.
• Special Effects Failure: The notorious car chase scene. Because the story was filmed in a small studio, it was too dangerous to have the vehicles move at more than what was quite obviously less than walking pace. (There was pretty much no way around this; the show's decreased budget and episode count meant that one story per season had to be produced entirely in a studio, with no location filming whatsoever.)

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