Live Doctor Who Finale Watch Along Thread

[GeneralMusings]

Anyone staying up and fancy watching it with me?!

Meh. This series has been awful for me. I was so happy about RTD coming back... especially after the glory of It's A Sin...but this?
I haven't warmed to either of the leads and now I read that Millie Gibson has been cast as Irene in the new Forsyte Saga adaptation.What the actual fuck.

I think they are already filming the next season though, so Millie should be done with it before starting on FS.

Next season’s Doctor Who is already done and dusted according to everything I’ve read! (And poor RTD is writing a third season that might never be commissioned.)

Ms Gibson as Irene? Gosh … Interesting? Who’s producing that? I’m old enough to remember the 1960s version - it practically set the TV on fire. She wouldn’t, to me, be the most obvious choice for the character.

And poor RTD is writing a third season that might never be commissioned

Are the numbers that low?
They will be watching on iplayer and Disney, not just live TV.
Does that not skew things?
Is it up to the Beeb to say yes to another series or does it depend on Disney dollars now?

Not RTDs best writing by far. Too many holes, a very mundane ending and questions galore.

Yep, they're really that low... it's become a meme online!

With Eccleston and Tennant, you were hitting an average of maybe 8 million viewers per episode, with the specials hitting as high as around 15 million. Good solid 10s were not uncommon.
It teetered off with each doctor by about a million each until Jodie... her finally was 3.7 million.

Now with Ncuti, I'd be surprised if this finale hits above 2 million.

People can 'feel' an agenda with these... Disney has put it in most of their new stuff. If you think this is bad, you should see the Star Wars forums!

Finale (stupid autocorrect)

I think the reason was that Susan Triad was the trap/master copy, and all the extras we saw were created as the Doctor travelled (who knows, even growing as a little girl up to an older woman from when he last defeated Sutekh).

Then when the Doctor had visited enough places to plant copies of Sutekh everywhere, he could emerge at once everywhere. And attack people with the dust through bloodlines. (No idea how Ruby survived given that Sutekh wouldn't have known that he'd already killed her mother.)

It doesn't make sense to me for the God of Death to kill everyone all at once anyway. What's he going to do with himself when all living things are gone?

I can kind of see where they're going with the Doctor's character. First episode - won't kill a snot monster. Final episode - sad that he's killed a dickhead who literally killed everyone for no reason. But it wasn't drawn through the series with nearly enough clarity.

It doesn't make sense to me for the God of Death to kill everyone all at once anyway. What's he going to do with himself when all living things are gone?

Hahahaha - yep!

Filming of season 2 is already taking place. Anita Dobson has said that we will find out more about Miss Flood.

I haven't watched Pyramids of Mars - is Sutekh described as a literal god in that, or is it just what we call beings from another universe, who appear to have god-like powers over ours, and occasionally seep through?

It could be made to work. "Gods" from other universe/dimensions who can cross into ours when certain boundaries are crossed.

Wild Blue Yonder - edge of universe. Line of salt made the boundary porous to Toymaker.
73 Yards - clifftop unbound Mad Jack (the influence of another, unknown god, defeated by Ruby in a closed timeline).
Sutekh - time vortex. Managed to weaken the boundary himself by Susans.

But I shouldn't have to be working so hard to make it add up!

Oh, and I guess the stepping on things theme was that wherever the Doctor set foot, he planted more Sutekh.

(We didn't see Susan Twist with the dinosaurs...)

Well, she’s a lot closer to my idea of Irene than Gina McKee was in the 2002 version…

So they were all restored - so why were they sprinkled in dust when they ‘woke up’- presumably the dust came from them, so which part of them didn’t go back into their body?

Didn’t see that, @RustyBear - and no, Gina McKee would be no closer to the original perfect portrayal!

It astonishes me that I still remember Nyree Dawn Porter’s name, and Soame’s fury and … oh, so much.

Well, I guess Millie Gibson might transform into a siren.

@RustyBear yes, I spotted that too!

Continuing off topic, I see that the original Fleur, Susan Hampshire, has a role in the new Forsyte saga.

Back to Who, I noticed a silly continuity error: Mel appeared to have time to tie back her hair from when she and the Doctor fled from Susan Twist and got on her scooter.

I did really enjoy Bonnie Langford's performance. No more will she make me think of just Violet Elizabeth Bott.

That finale - to me - was a massive let down.

All that build up should have had an epic and satisfactory pay off at the end. Like the initial Rose/Bad Wolf, Amy, Clara, etc. story arcs.

So many references littered throughout to Classic Who had me excited for something massive, but it was just meh.

Any that mysterious, slightly sinister feeling, cloaked figure was a normal 15 year old girl all along? Do me a favour.

If I were Ncuti Gatwa I would be devastated at being given such ridiculous storylines. His doctor who has such bad reviews. I've been gutted with this season, the stories have been so weak and designed so that LGBTQ+ issues have been at the forefront rather than the adventure. The best episode was last week so I thought things were getting better then last night's was so underwhelming and unforgettable. The Beeb may need to rest it.

Bonnie Langford was great. Great character development for a classic companion.

I have no idea why Rose Noble was there at all - seemed completely perfunctory.

The whole series needed a bloody good editor to get RTD over his ego, tighten up the waffly declamations and make the plots tie up. 3&4 were good but Stephen Moffat wrote 3. It just kinda felt like a mission to LGBTQIA the Tardis which is fine - if that's not all you're doing. But it seemed to be the only idea.

It did, didn’t it. Sledgehammer to crack a nut - but the kiss was raunch.