Doctor Who

Lying Creator.

Ha. That's a heck of a page topper.

Edited by Eagal on Feb 23rd 2020 at 9:10:14 AM

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!

Except that sidesteps the whole "everything you know is a lie" speech from The Master.

My favorite bits were the Doctor's total self loathing (and yelling how reckless she's been) and pretty murder puppy returning.

I cut up one dozen new men and you will die somewhat, again and again.

Got a real Ashes to Ashes series three vibe with the B-plot of this one

Spoilers for Ascension below!

I think I've pinpointed what I don't like about Chibnall's writing. The side characters are almost always a bit underwritten.

But for the sake of relevancy, I've decided to break that down into optional notes so you can skip it that much easier. The third note has some feedback on Ascension, but it ties into the first two notes as well.

^note This is what I mean: in an RTD era episode, there's a lot of time dedicated to character dialogue, setting up their arcs and featuring them heavily in the story. Even weaker episodes like The Idiot's Lantern (which I've been dying to bring up this entire season, for some reason) have side characters who either have a lot to do or who have some pretty decent dialogue. Gridlock had some pretty excellent side characters with some great dialogue, despite that episode's unlimited potential for schlock. Moffat could have some mediocre side characters - in fact, I think that's one of the issues that put me off of his run for a long time. It feels like the Doctor's whole "aren't I clever" schtick began to really take over, to the point that it felt like he was condescending towards the supporting cast at times. And the supporting characters just kinda had to sit there and take it.

^note But Chris Chibnall's worst aspect is when his side characters are undercooked. The arc in the Ghost Monument between the two competitors felt a little light, and the shady contest organiser barely had anything to do. I felt like a lot of their banter was kind of generic. The Tsuranga Conundrum - the pregnant bloke in that episode extrapolated about his species and the pregnancy, and he had emotional depth. He's one of the reasons I like that episode. But the pilot lady and her brother had kind of a generic arc too. Arachnids in the UK - bad Trump analogue, Yaz's mum getting more screentime than Yaz herself (which I guess makes her a big enough screen presence as a supporting character, but at the expense of a main team member), bad conclusion. That season finale - the psychic people that Tim Shaw used were an interesting concept, but they were kind of undercooked as well. Meanwhile, Demons of the Punjab and Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror - episodes not penned by Chibnall - had some of the most enjoyable, human dialogue and relationships in the Thirteenth Doctor's run so far.

^note I just noticed as I was watching The Ascension of the Cybermen. The side characters' primary quality was that they were the last humans left. They developed their own traits, but the dialogue felt so played out - you had the cranky one, the one who counters the cranky one and the leader with Graham and Yaz, and you had techy war kid on the Doctor's and Ryan's side. But outside of the techy kid's brief synopsis of his life and the leader lady having an awkward moment with Graham where she seems to be into him - did a lot of the dialogue stand out? I feel like the characters slipped into basic, even bland stereotypes after a while, and it was really distracting.

Saying that, I did enjoy Ascension of the Cyberman. The drones looked goofy as hell, but I loved them. I like the Lone Cyberman's backstory, and I feel like he's cobbled himself together like some mad, zealous fanatic rather than actually being a Cyberman himself. I'm interested in seeing how that catches up with him - I feel like he's going to be bumped off by a higher power before the next episode ends. That gatekeeper at the end? Awesome looking actor. His dialogue in the episode preview is making me like him more and more. I feel like Ryan is going to have a defining character moment next episode, and I'm looking forward to it.

This episode was shaky in places. I liked it for the most part, but I'm putting all of my stock in the next episode. That episode has to cover so much ground - Captain Jack, Ruth, the Cyberman plot, the Master, the destruction of Gallifrey and the Timeless Child. At best, it has to touch upon all of those aspects, and it has to do it without being a bloated, unbalanced mess. But this season did have Praxeus - it wasn't the best episode, but it was a decent episode of the show that came so incredibly close to being a bloated, unbalanced mess. But even with its rough spots, that episode managed to tie everything together at the end, and that is an achievement in itself. Color me cautiously optimistic.

I want next episode to be as great as Fugitive of the Judoon - I want closure, I want stakes. The Master is an excellent first step. But will it be able to end the season on a high note? With Chris Chibnall's excellent work with the Master on Spyfall part one, I'm going to hope with all my heart that it can pull it off

Edited by MrMallard on Feb 25th 2020 at 7:05:42 AM

Come sail your ships around me, and burn your bridges down.

The actor who played Ko Sharmus is Ian Mc Elhinney, who has been quite busy in recent years, he was in Game of Thrones, Krypton (a surprisingly good show that got cut tragically short), and for a lighter role, is Granda Joe in Derry Girls.

I liked the respect the Doctor gave him, and how Sharmus (like the Doctor themselves sometimes) played it off with self-effacing humbleness.

The timeless children are

Cybermen who were once timelords

Edited by Ultimatum on Feb 24th 2020 at 10:55:33 AM

New theme music also a box

• spoilers below**

The main thing that dosn't work for me in this episode is that the doctor knew what she will be facing, yet still came completely unprepared. There were significantly less cybermen than she expected, yet she couldn't handle them.

And why did she parked the tardis so far? If it was close, then everyone could have hidden inside it during the attack and nobody would have died.

This episode really would have worked better as a 'random encounter' episode.

Edited by nnokwoodeye on Feb 25th 2020 at 12:19:56 PM

Huh? She came totally prepared: she had all three companions set up devices that would instill the air with gold dust (which the Classic Era Cybermen were deadly allergic to), turn off the Cybermen's emotional inhibitors, causing them to go insane (which is how the Tenth Doctor stopped them at the end of Season 2), and to set up a force shield to stop any Cybermen from coming inside.

Of course, she didn't count on floating Cybermen heads destroying all three devices before they could be used.

Edited by alliterator on Feb 24th 2020 at 10:11:38 AM

Nutty : Steven Moffat planned Jack Harkness to be decapitated by the Headless Monks and become the Face of Boe. But won't he regenerate? Then I thought of something; Jack won't regenerate unless something kills him, and the head would be kept alive in a box. The body once the Headless Monk reanimation stops will die, but be a way apart from its head. What if the headless Jack regenerates a head while the head in a box Jack remains a living head, creating two Jack Harknesses? In other words Jack is and isn't the Face of Boe due to a quirk in his immortality cloning him. And the reason why the Face of Boe dies is because he has incomplete immortality so "merely" survives for 5 billion years while the more complete Jack gets the Complete Immortality and lives to the end of time?

An air raid is something you should consider when you go to a war zone. And she should have probably brought more people than just the fam. "A good man goes to war" is a good example for a well prepared doctor.

And again, if she would have parked the tardis closer, the whole episode would have been different.

Edited by nnokwoodeye on Feb 25th 2020 at 12:17:20 PM

So, any theories on Brendan? I think he's one of the Doctor's regenerations between 2 and 3, keeping in line with the Ruth theory that she's also one of those regenerations. He survived being shot and falling off that cliff because he's been given added regenerative potential - he's not just regenerating, he's starting over again from childhood each time, making him a lot more elastic than regenerating between different adult ages. It's a forced regeneration that induces the childhood condition, so that the Doctor doesn't remember their old life or can otherwise be raised as another person, given that they aren't reminded of their old life.

The "Garda" plaque, apart from that word not being the English word for "Guard" or "Police" - unless really posh police stations name themselves in Latin sometimes in Britain - is in TARDIS blue. It could be some sort of vault or storage container, with The Doctor guarding it. Either through subliminal suggestion with his dad and the police chief playing a part in each of these new lives and guiding them towards this career, or because the Doctor subconsciously remembers the TARDIS' police box design and is drawn to police work as an expression of this.

Ruth's Doctor finally works it all out, finds the TARDIS and escapes with a member or two of the village green. That, or so much time and so many regenerations pass that the scenario changes to active mercenary work. Or maybe Brendan was just a brief job in the Doctor's service, and Ruth is inducted into active warfare in her next job where she puts the pieces together.

In short - I think that Brendan is a pre-Ruth regeneration that ties into the "multiple regenerations between 2 and 3" theory, and that the end of his storyline in Ascension is him being repurposed into Ruth. I also think that after Ruth escapes from the Time Lords, they're going to catch her again and repurpose her into the 3rd Doctor, ditching him and a busted TARDIS on Earth.

Edited by MrMallard on Feb 25th 2020 at 10:18:09 PM

Come sail your ships around me, and burn your bridges down.

When Brendan started breathing again after falling from that cliff, it reminded me a lot of Jack and his many deaths. I wonder if it has something to do with jack missing two years. Maybe it some kind of symbolic dream he has as he try to work out what happened back then.

Edited by nnokwoodeye on Feb 25th 2020 at 4:40:51 AM

The Garda are actually the police of the Irish Republic.

Edited by alliterator on Feb 25th 2020 at 7:03:40 AM

Yeah, it just means 'Guards' in Irish.

This reminds me of the time someone mentioned that it was weird/kinky that Jenny called Madame Vastra 'mum', thinking she meant mom, missing that she A: called other women that also, and B: meant 'Ma'am', and not mother.

I'm still waiting for those two to show up again

New theme music also a box

...You'll probably be waiting a long time.

But they are currently in a Big Finish series of stories, with number 3 about to come out in May, I think.

I'd like to see their reaction to 13, especially since Pearl Mackie confirmed Bill would think she was hot.

I cut up one dozen new men and you will die somewhat, again and again.

Who knows? Nobody expected Jack to make a comeback, so there is always a chance.

x8

I prefer the theory I saw that he's The Master myself. I think this post makes a good case for it.

@alliterator: Ah, I see. Maybe should have googled that before going into fan theory mode, mb.

Come sail your ships around me, and burn your bridges down.

There are many questionable regenerations at this point

• 2: Forced to change his face by the Time Lords. Doesn't involve any physical trauma or damage that regeneration exists to fix
• 4: The Watcher merges with him and he regenerates. Seriously, does anyone know what the writers intended?
• 8: Straight up dies and is revived by the Sisterhood of Karn, gets a potion to regenerate. We know they have the secrets of immortality
• 10: Makes an Ass Pull with the Meta-Crisis, nobody even knows it counts until 11 says so at the end. And I bet you RTD didn't think it counts because he just wanted a cliffhanger

in the behind the scenes episode RTD actually wondered whether or not it counts, but decided that he would let future writers make that decision.

I think it's maybe better to leave it ambiguous since by that point there was a pretty good chance they were going to reach the regeneration limit and it gave them some wiggle room.

Don't expect an explanation for Missy becoming Sacha's Master this series..or any series, Steven Moffat wants the circumstances to stay secret