Was anyone else aware that the new Dr Who series was starting tonight??

[bizzey]

😮..I have come across it by accident.

Last year it was was well advertised.
The TARDIS flying on the BBC screen at every opportunity and so.

I do record a lot of my programmes so maybe I missed it ?

But I didn't last year 🤔.

And I really thought they said it was going to be May for the new series ?

Have I been on another planet ? 😂😂😂 !!

I enjoyed this week. But frankly I’m tired of the trail of breadcrumbs for the super fans getting in the way of just telling the damn story.
Im sure my younger self would have loved it and been obsessed. But my peri brain can’t cope with remembering years old storylines and anagrams and the rest.

I loved the Story and the Engine as an episode - much better written than average over the last season or two. I really liked the reworking of the Anansi myth and the inclusion of Jo Martin and I’m glad to see stories drawing on cultures other than white western.
I’m a bit “meh” at white reviewers raving that its generic nod to the doctor’s “blackness”. You wouldn’t describe a story based on Thor as celebrating “whiteness” (unless you were in ‘30s Germany). Its very specifically a story rooted in West African/Nigerian culture. However overall it was a great episode well written and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It will be interesting to see if Inua Elliam comes back to write again or was just there to write the “black” episode.

It did also highlight to me how Jodie Whittaker’s episodes largely ignored the Doctor’s womanhood (other than to make the Doctor more screamy) and the hierarchy of representation and inclusivity in Doctor Who. However mainly Whittaker suffered from bad writing through her tenure.

I’m not as enamoured as some by the Interstellar. Song Contest. It was great fun to see Rylan and Graham Norton in the episode and I accept there were a lot of constraints around this one - squeezing in the big names, fitting around Eurovision but it was very woolly through the middle and not fantastically written. I agree with PP who mentioned good end, good beginning, mess in the middle. Once again the lecture seemed to sit in front of the story rather than the other way around (another symptom of middling writing).

Not sure how I feel about the Rani returning, especially in bifurcated form. I wasn’t overly surprised but found I didn’t care that much. I’d assumed by this week that it would be another old return rather than something new. I’d hoped for a new enemy but let's see what they do with the Rani.

I admit I wasn’t personally excited by the Rani appearance - though I’ve been watching since the very beginning of Doctor Who.

I badly miss Steven Moffat’s story arcs. And already know I’m going to struggle to like another huge end of the world scenario crammed into two final episodes.

I agree - I started watching doctor who as a kid around the end of Tom Baker, but I’ve never rewatched pre new who episodes, so I only know of the Rani from fan speculation and I had no idea who Sutekh was last season. There have been brilliant new villains (midnight, weeping angels, the gasmasks that were trying to help, the vashtu nerada, the silence) and old villains reintroduced well (the zygons, the Autons).

I don’t feel either has happened in this arc.

To quote Moffat...

In 2012, then-executive producer and showrunner Steven Moffat said, "People always ask me, 'Do you want to bring back the Rani?' No one knows who the Rani is. They all know who the Master is, they know Daleks, they probably know who Davros is, but they don't know who the Rani is, so there's no point in bringing her back."

Ha!

It did also highlight to me how Jodie Whittaker’s episodes largely ignored the Doctor’s womanhood (other than to make the Doctor more screamy)

They tried dunking her as a witch in one of the episodes as she was female

It's a bit of a rock and a hard place for the showrunners - too much focus on sexism or racism and Dr Who is 'woke' - not enough and it's unrealistic!

This season's been a bit hit and miss for me, but if the whole series turns out to have taken place in the doctor's timelord subconscious, I shall be pissed off.

It was all a dream…

This one’s good, especially on the un-scientific techno-babble:

https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/doctor-who-interstellar-review-104918.htm#:~:text=Featuring%2520a%2520paper%252Dthin%2520plot,the%2520story%2520feels%2520%E2%80%9Csmall.%E2%80%9D

(I still enjoyed the episode, though!)

They were unable to bring her back as there was a rights issue. When the creators of her character died apparently no one knew who the rights belonged too.
She wasn’t even used in the audios after 2014.

That is interesting @Bailiwitch - could have been quite a different episode if only the Doctor and the Rani survived space and Cora sang to an empty stadium

(or indeed if he had boosted the life support bubble not the mavity field, so that 100k people could survive if returned quickly but not for long as the bubble was thin, or something)

@8misskitty8 thanks!

I would be curious to know if there was a draft of the script where many thousands did die.

An hour and half’s worth of ideas packed into 44 minutes. I’m exhausted!

Wish World brings lots to look at; lots to enjoy. But essentially setting up next week’s finale.

Wow loving this so far.

is Polly one of the space babies?

That was too short!

Had to really concentrate

Yes, Polly was a Space Baby

Nice to see Susan Triad back. I don't know how you are all observant enough to notice toddler Poppy was in space babies, I didn't even notice Triad until she was actively pointed out!

Reddit has a theory going that Poppy is the original doctor and The Rani was trying to recreate the time lords on the space babies station. Interesting to see if that plays out next week.

I’ve just caught up. I didn’t like the song contest episode. The Doctor should not torture people (even if he now has ice in his heart). He is always better than that. And then Belinda sees him torturing and still goes over and give him a massive emotional hug.

That bit has spoilt the series a bit for me, and I was enjoying the majority of it.

@JamesWebbSpaceTelescope I think what we haven’t had much with Ncuti is the darkness that other Doctors carried.

Am I a good man? from Twelve. Good men don’t need rules. Now is not the day to find out why I have so many. from Eleven. I’m the kind of man who doesn’t give second chances from Ten. Remember when Twelve punched the racist Victorian?

It was a lapse from his own “never be cruel or cowardly” code, for sure, but the Doctor is flawed.

Cruel and judgemental - yes. Needing a companion to act as a conscience.

But torture - enjoying inflicting pain on someone. That didn’t feel right at all.

I hope Jonathan Groff appearing means he gets rescued next episode! I enjoyed that even if it was a bit manic.