emachine12

Yeah it is a seperate listing here too but then gets relisted under Season 1.

Timber

I love Millie Gibson/Ruby sooo much. I’m still getting a feel for the new Doctor but this is the best I’ve felt about this series in YEARS!

Josh-da-man

Ncuti is an absolute joy to watch -- it's wonderful to have a Doctor who actually feels like he enjoys being the Doctor -- but the stories have been terrible.

Davies is leaning way too far into camp in Ncuti's first three episodes. I was initially cool with the goblins and flying ship in the Christmas special, but the next two episodes have featured talking babies running a space ship and the Doctor dueling Jinx Monsoon with animated sheet music. Not to mention completely wasting a guest appearance by the Beatles.

Wild speculation time: We're leading up the return of Susan. She got name-dropped in "The Devil's Chord" that ended with a musical number about a "Twist at the end." Not to mention that the Doctor also brought up the Tardis being an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension in Space (which is what Susan named it in the first episode back in 1963.

Look at the credits and one of the actresses is named... Susan Twist.

Was Susan the mysterious woman who left Ruby at the church? Is Ruby The Doctor's great-granddaughter?

After watching "The Church on Ruby Road," I thought that maybe the woman who left baby Ruby on the church doorstep would be Ruby herself, but now I'm not sure. And there's still the matter of the woman who lives next door to Ruby who knew about the Tardis.

Jay G.

The episodes are completely RTD, but even more so. It's like he's off the leash, like whatever sensibilities during his first run that stated "you can't do that on Doctor Who" are completely gone.

That said, the next episode is a Stephen Moffat penned one, so we may get a more classical, twisty episode. That said, RTD wrote, solo, 6 out of the 8 episodes this season, so expect more RTD wackiness.


I thought the twist was that we saw Harry Arbinger (aka H. Arbinger, aka harbinger) peaking out of a room during the dance sequence, suggesting another Toymaker offspring, or maybe He Who Waits, is paying attention.

Timber

I'm not going to say all old white women look the same but Susan Twist isn't the the neighbor who knew what a Tardis was in the Christmas episode is she? I think her name was Mrs. Flood?

Josh-da-man

No, Mrs. Flood is Ruby's neighbor, who is played by Anita Dobson, who also happens to be the wife of astrophysicist Brian May. And I think her husband has a second job, too.

Susan Twist is an actress who has had bit parts in four of the episodes since RTD's return... she was Mrs. Merridew in "Wild Blue Yonder," she was the concertgoer in "Church on Ruby Road" who requested Gaudete, she was one of the people who abandoned the space station in "Space Babies," and she was the woman who sold the Doctor and Ruby tea at the EMI canteen in "The Devil's Chord." She's also, apparently, going to appear in the next episode, too.

Seems like RTD is planting another "Bad Wolf" in this season.

ben12

Ruby is Susan or Susan's daughter

dex14

Well... "Boom" was immensely better than the previous two episodes.

Jay G.

"Boom" is peak Moffat. When he's good, he's good, and he's very good at self-contained stories. A very clever and twisty story, but also with some emotional heft; you care about the guest characters, even after knowing them for only a few minutes. One minor complaint is that I think the actor for Splice was maybe a bit too old for the way that character acted. It seems like the character was written as younger, but maybe they were tired of all the age restrictions from filming Space Babies.

There's this short video where Stephen Moffat explains his inspiration for the story:

It ends up being almost a bottle episode. There's only a handful of sets, and like 90% of the episode happens on one of them. It's really interesting to see the show constrained that way.

Now a little more spoilery, this article goes into more speculation about Susan Twist, who's role in this episode is pretty prominent:
https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi...st-newsupdate/

Also, the "Easter eggs" and references in the episode explained:
https://mashable.com/article/doctor-...om-easter-eggs

And an interview with Stephen Moffat about the episode, which includes a spoiler about next season's casting that was already announced. but people may not have been paying attention:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv...al-1235903042/

Josh-da-man

Yeah, Moffat really can knock it out of the park with single stories. It's too bad he couldn't sustain that momentum when he was showrunner, though. A lot of neat ideas -- Van Gogh painting the exploding TARDIS, the Silence, the Doctor's grave -- that he never could gel into cohesive and satisfying season-long arcs.

It also featured that odd obsession Moffat seems to have with malfunctioning medical equipment. It's a quirk/kink that seems show up in a lot of his stories in one form or another.

Still probably the best episode since "Heaven Sent."

Cecile

Oh, that's good

Jay G.

So 73 yards....

It starts off compelling, I liked the fake-outs in the Welsh pub, but I think the resolution was unsatisfying. The episode creates a big mystery, actually a few, and the resolution is one of those non-answer "explanations" that doesn't actually explain anything. It reminds me a bit of the show LOST, where people get drawn in to the big mysteries, but it turns out the mysteries were so big and odd that even the writers that created them didn't have an explanation.

Also, it made Ruby seem like the dumbest companion. Like, why wouldn't you spend way more time trying to figure it out? Do research on fairy circles? The figure is obviously signing a message, why not try and interpret that. At least she came up with a clever way to weaponize the situation, although I don't even know if that use "stuck," due to the ending. Meanwhile, while other episodes where companions been left without The Doctor and have to fend for themselves, it shows them rising to the occasion and figuring out a solution, here the resolution just... happens.

Maybe, this episode will fell more satisfying once the larger mystery of Ruby and her origin is explained. But as-is, for me the resolution landed with a thud. something that resolves the problem in the episode without actually explaining anything.

Josh-da-man

I liked "73 Yards" on a visceral level, but the whole thing made little sense.

It sort of has a Black Mirror vibe to it, but, yeah, it's also a lot like Lost where there's all of this "weird"/"unexplained" stuff going on that only serves to drive the plot and has no in-universe explanation. Why did the Doctor vanish? Who created the fairy circle with the scrolls?

Wonder if this was a standalone episode, or if it will have larger implications down the line when we start to learn more about Ruby.

Jay G.

For me, a big question is: what the hell was the distant woman saying the caused people to run in fear and avoid Ruby, to the point of her own mother leaving, and a Prime Minister resigning?

Some speculation based on casting news:

Josh-da-man

I just assumed that it was some kind of supernatural shenanigans that were causing people to run away in fear.

The more you think about "73 Yards," the more it feels like an incomplete story. Like we only got one side of something much bigger.

As for the spoiled speculation, I could see them pulling something like that. Especially with Davies saying that the season would end on something "big" and "devastating."

Between all of the mystery... the identity of Ruby's mother or whoever left her at the church, the mystery surrounding Mrs. Flood, Susan's return being teased, the new companion being dropped in early and unceremoniously, and now Ruby's ghostly time travel ghost adventure, I'm fully expecting some kind of timey-wimey goings on.

Kdogg

I’m not sure but the reason we had a sole show so early was because Gatwa was off finishing his other show.

Jay G.

In the behind-the-scenes, they note that this was the first episode shot, before the Christmas Special. Millie started her work on the show doing the montage of her aging.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor...ies_14#Filming
https://screenrant.com/doctor-who-se...explained-rtd/

Interestingly, tonight's episode "Dot and Bubble" was the 2nd episode shot, part of "block 1" of production. I wonder if it will also be Doctor-lite.

Regarding the mystery of what the old woman tells people that freaks them out, RTD says he'll never reveal it:
https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi...ry-newsupdate/
Which leads me to conclude he doesn't know either. He's leaving it up in the air because he knows there's no satisfactory answer, especially for the range of people the woman talks to, to get them all to react that way, so quickly.

Xiroteus

"Never reveal it" will 99% translate into "I have no idea either" Or Leaving the ending open..........oh, so you didn't know how to end your own story? Got it!

Josh-da-man

Weird having two "Doctor-lite" episodes in row so early into Gatwa's run. Whatever... I guess they have their reasons, like a scheduling conflict with the stars. Though since this is a streaming series, I would think the filming schedule would be more flexible.

As for the episode itself, it was quite good. Another Black Mirror-type story, though.

And it looks like both the Doctor and Ruby have noticed that Susan Twist keeps showing up.

Cecile

Apparently Gatwa did have a scheduling conflict with Sex Education which is why there were two episodes where he was barely in them. But it isn't just a streaming show; it still airs on the BBC on Saturday night each week, although they could have changed the filming schedule I would think.
I'm still not entirely sure yet about how I feel about this over-emotional doctor.

Kdogg

It's been awhile since the person/people that the Doctor helps have turned out to be still be complete pieces of crap. At least the Meep was intentional deceitful. Even in the end this group had no redeeming value.

Jay G.

They did change the filming schedule. Last week's episode was shot first, even before the Christmas Special. This episode was shot second, and was actually the first one Ncuti shot for the season. In fact, his first scene was on the barge. In the making-of, Millie mentions that the Zoom-style shots were all done in one day.

I think maybe putting them back-to-back may have been a bit much, but the season is so short with only 8 episodes, not counting the Christmas Special. So you have 3 episodes at the beginning with The Doctor, 2 in the middle that are Doctor-lite, and 1 Doctor-heavy episode before the 2 part finale. I'm not sure where else they could be placed. I think it'd be way too early in the season if they had scooted one forward, and you also don't want your episode right before the finale to be a Doctor-lite one either.

At least with this one, with the screens, The Doctor is in it quite a bit, but mainly on the Bubble screen. So it's not as Doctor-lite as last weeks, while also not being that hard to shoot around Ncuti and let him do a lot of his part in essentially two scenes.

Timber

I've enjoyed this season far more than I thought I would. Ruby is my favorite companion in a long time. As much as I've liked Gatwa the last 2 episodes have been my favorites of the season so far.

Josh-da-man

"Rogue" was a pretty good episode.

While everyone is fixating on the Doctor being gay this time around, they also subtly dropped a canon bomb in there by seemingly canonizing Richard E. Grant's Doctor from the Wilderness Years ("Curse of the Fatal Death" and "Scream of the Shalka").

I have to wonder what the implications of Grant's inclusion here is. Presumably they would have to pay him for using his likeness, so I have to wonder if Grant will be putting in an appearance in the near future...

On the negative side, I thought that the bird people, who looked like something out of a children's program, seemed out of place in what was an otherwise weighty episode.

Jay G.

I'm guessing it's more "Scream of the Shalka" Richard E. Grant, since if they made "Curse of the Fatal Death" canon there'd be a lot more Doctors to add.

Also, Richard E. Grant has been on Doctor Who before, back in 2012, so the show may have permission to use his face/likeness for still shots and such, like they do with the other likenesses of characters.

In terms of its meaning, I think it's just RTD having fun. Chris Chibnall introduced the idea that there were previously unknown incarnations of The Doctor, and Jo Martin was also featured, so this is throwing in one more.

Regarding the "bird people," from the BTS doc, it was apparently RTD that pushed for them to look like birds, and he also delights that each is a unique design, since on previous productions they'd typically only have the budget to make one generic design for an alien species, and then apply that template to all the actors, with some slight variations.

Back to "Scream of the Shalka," the original site hosting it is pretty much useless with the retirement of Flash, but I found an Internet Archive video of it. It's also available on a pretty cheap DVD.
https://archive.org/details/dw-the-s...-shalka_202009