Live Doctor Who Finale Watch Along Thread

[GeneralMusings]

Anyone staying up and fancy watching it with me?!

Ooh is it just me?

We're all ready.

Anyone got snacks?

4.minutea to go!

Is it on iPlayer

I'll watch it so you're not alone. 🤗

Yes player!

I'm not entirely following what is happening or why yet!

Genocide by the looks of it. 😂 A bit dark.

I have no idea still 😂

That was exhausting …

I was really enjoying it until the last 10 minutes or so when they made her mum be just a random. And no reveal on Mrs.flood.

the phrase Mrs flood uses when she is holding Ruby’s Gran is rather reminiscent, though.

I enjoyed it :-)

Show can’t decide if it’s kiddy or clever, which means it’s kiddy. But not among the best kids’ content wh is both.

Bit too much schlock for me. The mummy reunion was a joke compared to what real children face. Scarier than any crepe paper monster, birth parents now.

The plus point was for the first time I think Ncuti really inhabited the role. There were also genuinely quite frightening bits.

The downside was the flick a switch resolution - but that’s always been RTD’s issue.

Oh and no resolution to the Flood mystery - the ending was just weird.

Do you mean clever boy at the end ?
‘run you clever boy and remember’ I think was the full phrase Clara said.
Clara was fragmented through time at one point so possibly Mrs flood is one of them.
Although her standing there with the umbrella at the end reminded me of Missy.

Agree that it was, perhaps, the first time that Ncuti had to be ruthless.

”Scarier than any crepe paper monster, birth parents now”

I am not sure what you mean by this?

Yes - run you clever boy and remember (me) - plus the pastel jumper and collar - and the Tardis knowledge.

Clara herself (as opposed to the Impossible Girl fragments) is going back to Trap Street “the long way round” so is out there in time and space, and the Doctor is mind locked out from remembering her.

Just got back from the cinema - took DS as a treat, which was a shame as he didn't like it. He lectured me all the way home about how 'Disney ruin everything'.

I didn't think it was that bad, but definitely rekey didn't live up to last week's promise. And I thought the end was rushed and disappointing.

That said, I really hope Mrs Flood is another version of The Master.

That was shockingly bad.

The whole 'mystery box' style of writing struggles usually anyway, but RTD was just trolling the audience. If Ruby's mum is ordinary, and not a fucking lunatic, why would she point to a sign to 'name' her child...when there is noone around. What about the snow?

And it was so boring the second it became obvious the reset button was going to be hit.

Doubt the kids will even bother to watch that again with me later and honestly...I am going to give up. I keep trying to make it a family thing, like it was with me and my parents...but that's just nostalgia talking. This isn't remotely like the classic or new who levels of entertainment and quality.

I just watched Matt Smith’s doctors take on the headless monks and an army at Demon’s Run yesterday before watching this episode today.

I’ve been broadly positive about this series but actually, I just didn’t really care. I still think the actors are great themselves. But the writing is just too light.

The relationships just aren’t fleshed out enough for me to be invested. The reasons the doctor does things aren’t there. They have the running and shouting but not the back and forth and human stuff.

Where have the internal tardifs scenes been that bookend the action (or actually are the action occasionally). They used to be spots where you’d get to know the incarnation of the doctor. His quirks and foibles. His more real relationships.

It felt like doctor lite.

although, I loved Anita Dobson at the end - I hope she’s the master too.

Eight episodes is too few. Nine and Ten both had 13 episodes in their first series.

Plus the whole Sex Education filming thing gave us Doctor-lite episodes even within the 8.

Hmm we sort of enjoyed it in the sense we enjoyed watching it but didn't love it like I was hoping to with a "stay up to midnight to watch" finale.

I preferred last weeks. I thought I had been getting into this series of dr who on its own merit but this was random.

I think...

Like pp once the dust happened you were thinking.. Well that's going to be a reset then isn't it.

That it's too short for a finale. I love Ncuti (liked sex Ed) but don't have feelings about him as a Dr yet so the big trauma of letting a creature die didn't feel real.

Have we lost her as a companion now? Seems so quick that they went straight in as knowing each other and didn't get that time to develop together.

I love it when it's "clever" but this didn't feel that just a series of set pieces and wisting for it to play out.

It was creepy when the older companion turned into the monster for a bit though that was clever.

Half the sets looked really basic/basic effects (reminiscent of Knightmare on TV I used to like) and the chopping and changing didn't seem to make sense half the time as what was going on. The woman with the dead child and the forgetting??

No, Millie is cast in the next season - but perhaps she will be more of a “visitor”

(not that we have seen her in the Tardis much!)

Thought the writing was a bit lazy TBH. As soon as it was universal genecide, it was obvious that it would be one of those episodes where we are meant to believe it's all reversed on good vibes quite easily. It's not really science fiction, just childlike fantasy. The problem is always a lack of real jeopardy and no pathos. That's why people liked David Tenant. There was a darker edge to the character that he brought ought and he wasn't always able to fix everything or bring everyone back to life. Sometimes it had to be a compromise, with some sacrificed for others, or imperfect endings for characters better than the alternatives. The problem with episodes like yesterday is that when there is no loss to balance to wins, there is no real drama.

I also felt that the resolution to Ruby’s story was also mundane and implausible. Are we actually meant to believe that a distressed 15-year old would don a mysterious hooded cloak, grow by what appeared to be a foot in height, and have the wherewithal to dramatically name her child by pointing at a road sign when challenged by a stranger?

That said, I really like Ruby as a character and it’s a shame that she doesn’t appear to be in all of the next series.

It is a bit problematic that the hooded figure clearly wasn’t a frightened 15 year old girl! And how would anyone know Ruby was called Ruby?

And - if there was nothing at all supernatural about her parentage or birth - what the feck with the snow? I’m not one to ask for answers when the writing invites me to use my imagination (73 Yards was brilliant at this) but it’s deeply unsatisfactory to watch eight weeks of effect and not be given the cause.

Why was maestro afraid of ruby, the whole song in her, the snow ? Why did her real mum not come forward during the appeal yet seemed relieved to find her, but also didn’t recognise her from the tv appeal despite also naming her.
It was just rubbish.

I don’t think RTD actually knows who Mrs flood is going to be. He’s had her speak like missy (Along with the umbrella) , use claras ‘clever boy’ saying but then dress her in an outfit associated with Romana at the end.
It’s like he’s waiting to see who the most people think she is so he can do the opposite for her reveal.