Never ever eat pears

Bananas are good

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #26:

Human Nature (1913)

What a fantastic episode! ‘Human Nature’ mixes so many elements and they somehow all come together to make a very cohesive story and I don’t feel that any part is sidelined, John Smith’s love story, the war commentary, the racism Martha experiences, the terror of the Family of Blood, the setting up of the premise, the character of Tim and his weird psychic powers.

It’s very clever to open with an incomplete scene to start the story and then an immediate cut to John Smith in his room explaining his dream. It’s very intriguing and gives a lot of questions but you also do get a good idea of the basic premise of the episode.

The Family of Blood are absolutely terrifying. Hats off to all of their actors but especially Harry Lloyd who played Son of Mine. There are many scary villains in Doctor but few as terrifying as any one member of that family.

I’ll discuss more of the war themes in my post for part 2, as they’re explored much more heavily there.

I love John Smith as a character. The emotional crux of the story for me revolves around humanising him as much as possible before his inevitable demise, making an absolutely fascinating show of the Doctor’s almost cruelty, as it clearly never even occurred to him that John Smith was a real and distinct person in his own right. And his romance with Joan Redfurn is so beautiful, and so tragic because you know it has to come to an end.

Also, this is one of the best episodes for showing Martha’s character, her capability, her intelligence, her resourcefulness, and sometimes her impulsiveness. My favourite scene for her in this episode has to be her clocking that her friend is not human any more and asking bizarre questions like if she wants meat in her tea.

I now want to address the racism Martha experiences here, and I do think it’s kinda handled both well and poorly? It’s handled well in the sense that given the time period it does a good job of demonstrating period-accurate racism and showing us Martha’s point of view as a victim of it. On the other hand the episode is fundamentally flawed in that the Doctor chose a time period in which to hide with absolutely no consideration of what would be comfortable for Martha. If there had been some real demonstration that they weren’t safe in the TARDIS to add proper time-urgency I’d give the episode some more leeway, but as it is it unfortunately stands as another example of the Doctor in series 3 really not being a good ally to Martha as a black person.

The final thing I wanted to mention is that cliffhanger. Absolutely gorgeous as John and Joan have that gradual realisation that the Doctor is real, right before the family come in and scare the absolute pants off us. Part 1 perfectly builds all the elements of this story up to a head. What do I think of part 2? Well, you’ll have to wait until I next post.

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #25:

Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror (1901)

Finally into the 20th century!

This episode is a bit disappointing to me. Not because it’s a bad episode, I reckon it’s quite middle of line (although one of the better episodes of series 12), but because I feel it’s only a couple of redrafts away from being superb.

The heart of the episode, the best part of it, is the wonderful portrayal of Tesla. Tesla is a fascinating historical figure, and to be fair, they do do him justice. He is perfectly cast with Goran Višnjić and written with an obviously great respect for the man. It does a good job of making him a complex character and giving him agency in the story, at presenting him as a genius but still fallible and human. The conflict between him and Edison is effectively done and really makes you dislike Edison, but also humanises him - he is not a one-dimensional bad guy. The kinship between the Doctor and Tesla as inventors and the way they talk together about the thrill of bringing ideas to life is quite beautiful and poignant, with wonderful performances from both Goran Višnjić and Jodie Whittaker. I also particularly love Tesla’s “bigger on the inside” moment.

The idea of the skithra is brilliant, having the villains of the Tesla episode be aliens who steal other people’s stuff rather than inventing anything themselves is very clever.

Unfortunately, the plot is shaky at best.

The skithra, while great in concept, are not the best in execution. To illustrate what I mean, consider the scene in which the Queen kills one of her servants for talking over her. It’s such a cliché at this point that it’s just boring, and in this case, what does it add to the story? We already know that the skithra are evil, but the episode does so much unnecessary work to hammer that home and it just feels clunky.

Another crucial example of this is when a skithra kills everyone in Edison’s factory. This plot point is entirely ridiculous. There is no reason for the skithra to do that bar to demonstrate how evil they are. The scene in which it happens is very poorly done with some hilariously clunky acting and a character nobody cares about being hunted for a bit, which is a complete waste of runtime (albeit not much). And then upon discovering this, the Doctor, Edison, and co completely underreact, and just leave the scene? They don’t think to tell anyone? And while I’m on the subject, if the skithra were coming to get Tesla, why would they go after Edison at all? It feels like a very weak contrivance to involve him in the plot.

Also, with the resolution of the plot, the skithra ship leaves when struck by the Wardencliff tower, rather than being destroyed. That makes sense, this is Doctor Who, we try not to kill our monsters, but it really raises the question, what’s to stop them from just coming back? Or just moving a mile in one direction rather than even leaving in the first place?

These are the most glaring issues the episode faces in my opinion, but they are symptomatic of a story with a lot of heart and interesting themes, but a shoddily thrown together plot and set of villains. It’s a real shame because I really feel if the episode were written under Russell T Davies for example it could have been fantastic.

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #24:

Deep Breath (1894)

We don’t actually have a date given for this episode, but since the other episodes with the Paternoster Gang occur 120 years before their airdate, I’ve just assumed the pattern to continue to this one. In any case, since it’s definitely after ‘The Crimson Horror’ and we haven’t seen Jenny age significantly, this is definitely in the correct point in the order, even if the exact date is slightly out.

While it isn’t my absolute favourite introduction to a Doctor (I really love ‘The Christmas Invasion’ and ‘The Eleventh Hour’), I do enjoy this episode. It does a great job of diving into the emotional consequences for both the Doctor himself, and for Clara. I know some people don’t like how reluctant she is to accept the new him but I do understand how hard she finds it, especially given how drastically different his new demeanour is, and it makes for a great arc over the story.

I enjoy seeing his crisis over his new face with the homeless man, the question of who frowned the face and that kind of thing. His realisation that he’s Scottish is hilarious. I also just want to take a moment to appreciate how perfect a casting Peter Capaldi is for the Doctor and how wonderful his characterisation is in this episode, perfectly setting up the arc he goes on in the next three series of struggling over his identity and whether or not he is a good man (even if he doesn’t say those words until the following episode). It’s beautiful and heartbreaking that one of his first moments is instinctively wanting to protect a dinosaur he endangered and doing the baby rocking thing with his arms, just to watch her die, completely helpless to do anything.

It’s an interesting decision to have the Paternoster Gang in this episode. From my perspective as a lifelong fan it really works, having friendly aliens there who both the Doctor and Clara know already is a great way to contrast Clara’s non-acceptance with somebody who understands. However I do wonder if it was confusing for new viewers who came to this era fresh because it’s a new Doctor. It is a shame that this was the last time we saw the Gang and I do hope someone brings them back someday.

The Half-Face Man is an interesting villain and a good example of a callback that doesn’t alienate people who haven’t seen the original. It’s a good subversion of a trope, having a robot who has made himself more human and picked up superstitions, emotions and curiosity. And of course the gimmick of “don’t breathe” is very fun and Moffat-y.

I love the interrogation scene with Clara, where she does a fantastic job of standing her ground and tricking and coercing the Half-Face Man into revealing his information without revealing hers, despite being the one being interrogated. It’s a character trait I love in Clara that she’s able to do this, because we see the same in ‘Robot of Sherwood’, and it does a great job of showing how competent and Doctor-like she is, but she’s still clearly very scared and human and doesn’t exactly know what she’s doing.

The scene with the Doctor and the Half-Face Man in the balloon is wonderful. I love the moment where the Doctor tells him he’s changed and replaced himself so much he’s not even the same thing as he was originally, not even remembering where his face came from, and holding up a dish as a mirror. The shot of the Doctor seeing his own face in the other side is a fantastic demonstration of the parallel, as all the same things can be said of the Doctor. And it’s fantastic that Moffat leaves it as an open-ended question about whether the Doctor pushed the Half-Face Man or whether he fell intentionally.

My favourite scene of the episode is the penultimate one, back in the present day with just the Doctor and Clara. For me, having a little bonus scene with the Eleventh Doctor (who’s my personal favourite) really helped me to accept the change. But it’s a genius bit of dialogue for Clara to tell Twelve off for listening into her conversation with Eleven, just for him to say that it was HIM talking. I think there’s never been a better illustration of different Doctors being different and yet the same person, despite us having literally seen him change nine times at this point (before anyone gets pedantic, I’m not counting Troughton, McGann or Hurt’s as we only saw one side of each of those). And I love this being the moment that Clara truly internalises that this is still the same man.

Also we get our first (in canon, not in the order I’m watching) glimpse of Missy and she is absolutely incredible.

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #23:

The Crimson Horror (1893)

What a complete shitshow of an episode. Honestly one of the absolute worst in the show’s history.

Ok to give it credit it starts out alright. The concept of the crimson horror itself, especially seeing the Doctor still alive with it makes for some fantastic horror (pun unintended). And starting with an investigation by the paternoster gang instead of the Doctor and Clara is an interesting way to begin. However once the Doctor is released from his cell by Jenny the episode goes entirely off the rails.

First of all, while the Doctor’s crimson-ness is horrifying, we see him like that for all of not very long as there’s a convenient machine to heal him and that’s where the horror ends pretty much. Also, maybe Matt Smith is just too expressive, but why does he move his mouth so much? It seems to me the implication is that his mouth was frozen in place by the crimson stuff, hence the inability to talk and the perpetual screaming face. But apparently it’s not perpetual and he was just doing a screaming face for shits and giggles.

And then once he’s released he kisses Jenny, as lesbian, without consent. Huh? What an awful moment. Not much more to say there, the problems are (I hope) fairly self-evident.

And then the episode hops from dumb moment to dumb moment. Why were the Doctor and Clara trying so hard to stop the rocket launch if Vastra and Jenny were just removing the poison? Was it a distraction? Was it in case they didn’t get it in time? Who can say.

What are Mrs Gillyflower’s motivations? All we get is a joke about her having the wrong hands and the Doctor saying she’s nuts, but in all seriousness, what does she gain from doing what she does? It makes no sense.

I also feel Gatiss writes the Paternoster Gang’s comedic side much less effectively than Moffat does. By and large, their comedy in Moffat’s episodes is integrated into the scenes as it’s just part of their characters (there are exceptions of course). On the other hand, Gatiss just puts the whole story on hold to tell a joke, and the jokes are usually not as funny. The Thomas Thomas scene particularly grinds my gears. It adds nothing the story or the characters, canonises Strax killing horses which just makes me dislike him, and worst of all is not remotely funny, despite that being the sole purpose of the scene.

I will say I kinda like the relationship between Ada and the Doctor, her monster. And Ada’s relationship with Mrs Gillyflower is very sad too, and is one of the few compelling aspects of the episode. It’s just a shame we don’t spend more time focusing on that, and instead get distracted by the disaster of a plot and bad comedy.

[blue-man-goop]

Everytime I have to delete something my internal monolog plays a constant loop of a cyber man saying "Delete"

[buckyball2003]

IT’S NOT JUST ME

[bisexualcreature-deactivated202]

15 and belinda's dynamic was probably intended to come off like "she doesn't trust him at first but gradually, organically, grows to trust him and like him" like the dynamics of 1 with ian & barbara or 13 with the fam but instead it's more like "she doesn't trust him at first but fawns because she's afraid of him, and he successfully manipulates her" and if that sort of storyline had been done on purpose and treated with the kind of maturity it deserves, with other characters even catching onto the manipulation and being visibly wary of the doctor and sympathetic to belinda, it could be really powerful, an exploration of the darker side of the doctor. instead the doctor babytraps his hostage and it's a happy ending. or maybe it was bad on purpose and i'm too stupid to see it, who knows.

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #22:

The Snowmen (1892)

This episode, at its best, feels like a wonderfully whimsical fairytale.

A scene I absolutely love is when Clara follows the Doctor up his ladder to his cloud and sees the TARDIS for the first time. It feels like falling down the rabbit hole, like going through the wardrobe to Narnia. ‘Doctor Who’ as a show thrives when it feels like a fairy tale and this scene is that at its best. Murray Gold’s score for this scene, ‘Clara in the TARDIS’, is a big part of what makes it feel so magical, but also Jenna Coleman’s acting and the camerawork deserve a huge amount of credit.

Similarly, the later scene where the Doctor shows Clara the inside of the TARDIS is one of my favourite TARDIS introductions. The Doctor’s line as he shows her, delivered wonderfully by Matt Smith and complimented beautifully by the score, ‘The Majestic Tale’, really drums up that feeling of excitement. Later in the same scene, the Doctor gifting Clara a TARDIS key is magical and heartwarming and exciting, and makes it all the more heartbreaking when she is pulled away by the ice woman and dragged back down to Earth, both literally as she falls off the cloud, and figuratively as she and the Doctor are brutally reminded what this life is like.

I love the aspects of this episode that revolve around Clara finding the Doctor and persuading him to help. The pre-titles scene and the one-word test stand out especially as being really fun and interesting, and do a great job at demonstrating Clara’s initiative, intelligence and curiosity. Vashtra, Jenny and Strax are great fun too. It is a shame quite how much Clara is sexualised in this story. While Smith and Coleman have good chemistry, I personally much prefer the Doctor/companion dynamic to be platonic, and it’s very clearly written from a male gaze-y perspective, where Clara is clearly meant to be sexy (she is but that’s besides the point).

I really enjoy the mechanic of “snow that remembers” and makes a fantastic origin story for the Great Intelligence, complete with wonderful performances from Richard E Grant and Ian McKellen, even if the mechanics do get exposited over and over ad infinitum.

I really enjoy the Doctor’s arc over this episode, from moping over Amy and Rory, to Clara helping him learn to rediscover the beauty of the world, even after she dies. I particularly enjoy the scene of him pretending to be Sherlock Holmes, mostly because it’s quite funny to watch Moffat kind of making fun of his own writing. The score, ‘Sherlock Who?’, even feels very reminiscent of the actual score of ‘Sherlock’.

The conclusion of the snow being defeated because it mirrors crying is very clever, and a classic Moffat way of using the monster’s power against them.

I have many issues with the overall series 7 arc of Clara being scattered across the Doctor’s timeline, but I don’t blame this episode for that. I’ll get to my thoughts on that on my ‘The Name of the Doctor’ post.

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #21:

Vincent and the Doctor (1890)

I’m going to sound really fucking pretentious here but you know what that’s ok. There are some Doctor Who episodes which I say are good because they’re fun and entertaining, like ‘The Next Doctor’, or because they have an interesting plot, like ‘The Pandorica Opens’, but once in a blue Moon, you get one that genuinely feels like a work of art. This is one of those episodes.

I don’t even know where to begin here. Just the authenticity and compassion of the way the episode deals with depression and suicide as themes, the way it’s stigmatised, especially back in Van Gogh’s day with it being called “madness”, but even now. The Doctor’s quote about lives being a pile of good things and bad things is incredibly poignant. As someone who has struggled with mental health, one of the most powerful things I’ve found I can do is to acknowledge the good things in my life and to feel them, but to still acknowledge they don’t necessarily soften the bad things.

I actually think that quote perfectly encapsulates the spirit of this episode. It is both happy and sad.

It’s a tragedy because Van Gogh is a very sick man, who we know from the beginning of the episode to the end is only months off taking his life, which is sad that he dies, but almost sadder is that his life was so painful that he decided death was preferable. And of course it’s a true story (obviously not the Doctor and the krafayis, but you know what I mean). While aspects of the episode are quite silly, as Doctor Who ought to be, it never shies away from its serious themes or trivialises them. Even the story of the krafayis, the ‘monster’ of the episode, is incredibly tragic. He became blind, and as a result was ostricised from his pack. He spends the rest of his days terrified and lashing out until he’s inadvertently killed by Van Gogh. It was a great choice to have Van Gogh mostly call him “he” instead of “it” as a way of both humanising him for us, but also emphasising the ways in which Van Gogh relates to him.

At the same time, the story is so inherently hopeful. The way we see Van Gogh draw hope from his art is beautiful, despite being completely unappreciated and unloved for it. The way he describes colour and the richness of the natural world. The way Curtis (the writer) imagines how Van Gogh may have talked about sunflowers and the night sky really speaks to an incredible understanding of his work. We also see him draw hope from the Doctor and Amy, who unlike everyone else in his life treat him as human, and are true friends. You really see how much they mean to him in the scene where he has a breakdown in his bed. It’s such a raw and emotional and authentic moment, that draws from the Doctor’s off-hand comment about being out his hair soon, and Van Gogh’s realisation that the only people who seem to treat him with respect will soon be gone

The most beautifully hopeful moment is of course the scene at the end when Van Gogh is brought to the museum in 2010. I honestly think this is one of the most moving moments in all of Doctor Who, with stellar performances all around, from Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Bill Nighy and most of all, from Tony Curran who plays Van Gogh. The very idea of bringing him forward in time to see how his work is remembered is genius, and the execution couldn’t be better, from the acting, the dialogue, the music (‘Chances’ by Athlete), the camera work as it pans around Van Gogh as he sees his own work admired and loved, everything. And having the museum guy explain not just that he believes Van Gogh to be the greatest artist of all time, but also exactly why, is incredible. And he’s absolutely right, using one’s own pain to capture the beauty of the world around you is a rarely done but wonderful thing. Even the fact that upon the Doctor taking him to an art gallery in the future, it doesn’t seem to even occur to him that his own work could be there. And then the Doctor and Amy’s return to find no new paintings, but the sunflower one being signed “for Amy” is inspired.

Hats off to you, Richard Curtis, creator of some of both the funniest and most heartwarming pieces of media I’ve ever seen. Thank you for turning your pen to Doctor Who.

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #20:

Empress of Mars (1881)

Probably my favourite thing about this episode is just the idea of putting Victorian soldiers on Mars. It’s silly and fun and makes for an interesting role reversal. I also think it makes a much better ice warrior episode than ‘Cold War’. Iraxxa is a fun and interesting character and I enjoy her role in the story, her change in heart in not killing humans making much more sense to me than what we got in ‘Cold War’. It’s also just interesting and fun to see this as a kind of prequel to the older ice warrior stories.

The subplot about the two leaders is interesting, though there is no real discernible reason for the one’s change in heart, he just does. I also think maybe we shouldn’t be glorifying fighting in war as something honourable - particularly when the war is just colonialism.

A scene that always confused me was when the Doctor threatens to bury everyone under ice. What’s the point in that? I can see no advantage to killing everyone instead of letting the ice warriors kill the humans, unless it was meant to imply the ice warriors would then go to Earth and kill more humans? I suppose you can interpret that it was just a bluff to stand everyone down and he wouldn’t actually go through with it.

The TARDIS disappearing is an odd part of this episode and is never explained, making it painfully obvious that it was just done to explain why they couldn’t just leave and to give Missy a reason to be allowed to pilot it. That being said, as with my post for ‘The Eaters of Light’, that final aspect of the episode is brilliant. It’s a brilliant showcase of the fact that to some extent Missy does actually want to change, seeing as she absolutely could have just flown it away and killed Nardole.

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #19:

Tooth and Claw (1879)

I honestly think this episode is wildly overrated. Sure it’s fun at points and the wolf is kinda scary but also the plot just feels like it hits a dead end after the wolf is unleashed. The whole idea of Victoria’s husband and Robert’s father engineering this trap for the wolf is one of the most contrived solutions to a plot I’ve ever seen. What do you mean the wolf can be killed by moonlight because “you’re 70% water and you can still drown”? Those things are not connected. If that much moonlight would not kill a human (which it wouldn’t) then why should it kill a werewolf? Most bullshit logic ever. I could believe it as basically just technobabble but the water analogy is terrible and I find it hard to see how Victoria’s husband and Robert’s father could have worked it out. The whole idea that they engineered this trap requires them to have had an impossible amount of foreknowledge and the chances that it would come together in the way it did, especially without them knowing the Doctor would intervene, seen pretty slim.

It’s also a shame to me that the staff cooking up mistletoe subplot doesn’t really go anywhere. It would have been much more interesting if that was actually part of the solution. I guess they slowed the wolf down a bit? And I realise they did save Rose but only because she stopped mid-run for no reason.

The scene with them looking through books for a solution also feels ridiculous. You’re trapped in a room with a deadly werewolf outside - how could they have known the answer would be in a random book that happened to be in that library?

I will concede that up to the point of getting trapped in that room, the episode works really well, my favourite moment is probably the Doctor stopping to marvel at the wolf’s beauty, but I really don’t think it pays off what it set up at all.

The very final conclusion does work well too - in that I like to see that Torchwood, the reason for the Doctor and Rose’s separation, is a consequence of their own recklessness, and it’s very interesting having Queen Victoria condemning their way of life and banishing them.

Also I like that David Tennant got a chance here to use his Scottish accent.

[buckyball2003]

What's wrong with pairs

They’re too squishy and they always make your chin wet

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #18:

The Unquiet Dead (1869)

Not a fan of this episode to be honest. My main gripe is that I think this is the worst case of the trope of evil alien refugees, because they were pretending to be good. This is a politically problematic representation of refugees, as people who pretend to be innocent victims but actually want to take over your world, but it’s also just narratively boring. Most aliens in Doctor Who are evil so having good aliens would have been a great expectation subversion, making this twist that they’re evil actually really just quite boring. The one aspect in which it does work is that it hints further at the Time War, and it makes sense that the Doctor mistakenly trusts them given his obvious guilt about his hand in the War.

The presence of Charles Dickens feels really forced to me. I enjoy his little arc and how it mirrors Scrooge, but I also find it hard to believe he just… goes along with everything? Like why is he even there? And his final conclusion about using gas to draw the gelth out feels quite contrived. I could have believed the Doctor working it out, although it would have been a little narratively unsatisfying given it doesn’t make that much sense (unless I’m missing something?), but it’s all the more unbelievable that Dickens could have worked it out. Also the joke about him not understanding the word ‘fan’ is just really not very funny to me.

Speaking of the conclusion, I find it hard to believe how readily the Doctor accepts death here. This is the man who survived the Time War, daleks, everything, and now he’s cornered by some zombie things and he just accepts it? It just feels silly, especially given there actually was a way out (unplugging the gas pipe) if he’d just thought about it.

One aspect I do really enjoy is the conversation between Rose and Gwyneth. My favourite aspect of Rose’s character is that wherever she goes she always relates to the working class characters, and here is no different. Her connecting with Gwyneth is really nice, and Gwyneth’s little psychic moment is very spooky, in the slow buildup of the extremity of the things she says, to the bad wolf foreshadowing.

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #17:

A Town Called Mercy (1860s)

The time period of this episode is a little ambiguous. TARDIS Wiki says 1870 but I can’t work out why, I don’t believe any year is explicitly stated in-episode. The only real in-universe indicators I can think of are the Wild West setting and the Doctor’s statement that electric street lights are about ten years early. Based on these facts, I’m putting it loosely in the 1860s.

I really like this episode. Kahler-Jex is an absolutely fascinating character and it feels like every scene with him pulls back another layer. Upon first meeting, he seems like a nice guy, if a little suspicious. We later learn that he’s a seeming monster who experimented on people without consent and caused unimaginable amounts of pain and death. What’s more, we see him happy and willing to threaten Amy with a gun and later double down in his actions. We then hear the Doctor’s revelation that his ‘reformation’ is a kind of punishment he chose for himself, and we can see from his reaction that the Doctor is absolutely right. He talks about his own religious beliefs, explaining his fear of death, and showing that he does actually understand that he has wronged people. And when the Doctor pushes him over the line, to let him die, but then changes his mind, he does not come back. While he doesn’t have the guts at this point to leave of his own accord, once pushed over the line, he stays there. Even seeks forgiveness from the Gunslinger. All this hints at a much more conflicted and guilty character than the confident and self-assured exterior he projects. And of course, in the end, he chooses to face his fear and sacrifice himself for the greater good.

There’s a reason the episode opens with a direct link drawn between Jex and the Doctor. They are characters, as Jex himself says, with many similarities, but Jex embodies the idea that ends justify means, and the Doctor embodies the opposite, except of course for a moment of weakness in which he does push Jex to (almost) his death. This fundamental difference in ideology is the framework this episode is built around. Even the Gunslinger has his own point of view, in that when he’s the means, he is angry enough to hunt people across the Universe, but he is willing to go to any means to achieve his own ends. Or - he says he is. But when push comes to shove, we see that he can’t kill innocents (apart from one accident with Isaac).

My favourite scene in the episode is the one where the Doctor threatens Jex’s life. It’s less extreme than something like what we see in ‘The Waters of Mars’ or ‘Hell Bent’, but it’s a fantastic example of the Doctor going too far. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan’s acting in this scene as she has her little speech about how they need to be better ties wonderfully into this Doctor’s overall arc, particularly for series 7A. And I’m really glad the Doctor’s antics have a very tangible effect in that Isaac gets killed, which hurts.

I also want to mention that team who designed and created the prosthetics and costuming for the Gunslinger did a ridiculously good job, as did Murray Gold in composing a brilliant Western-style score.

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #16:

War of the Sontarans (1855)

This is the first episode I’ve watched where the ‘main’ time period is a bit ambiguous, but enough of the main plot occurs in 1855 (as opposed to 2021) that it made the most sense to order it like this.

It’s amazing how many plot points in this episode rely on the assumption that sontarans don’t guard their ships. Dan is able to easily board the ones in Liverpool, despite everyone else who tried having been shot as a traitor. The Doctor and Mary Seacole board while all the sontarans are away in battle, apparently they didn’t think to leave a couple behind to guard. And at the end they sneak around the shipyard again to cut off their supplies, meaning the sontarans didn’t think to stagger when they replenish their resources. I know sontarans are individually not very bright… but come on. They are still meant to be one of the greatest military forces in the history of the Universe. And they don’t guard their things? You can head canon they were just being arrogant or something but I really don’t think that tracks for such supposedly dangerous soldiers - especially once they know the Doctor is around. We also see in this episode, sontarans not being able to aim several times, sontarans hesitating unnecessarily long before shooting several times, and sontarans being easily tricked several times.

Also, what an absolute waste of Mary Seacole, an absolutely fascinating historical figure who perfectly encapsulates many of the themes of the show as a whole. She is relegated to being a side character in part of a single episode, and for a large chunk of it, just watched the sontarans so that she can tell the Doctor something she already knew. Why was she not concerned about just abandoning her patients for this? It’s worth mentioning though that while she is on screen, Sara Powell does a fantastic job at playing the character, and I love the dynamic between her and the Doctor.

Dan’s involvement here feels quite contrived. What do you mean you’ve had experience dealing with aliens? You just got abducted and rescued, that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to break into alien spaceships? And then why does the Doctor ask him to come with her to find Yaz? Why does he agree? None of it makes sense, his motivations are not at all fleshed out, and it’s clear all these decisions are being made for no reason other than that he is meant to fill to role of ‘companion’.

Despite all these problems, the episode manages to be kinda fun. The new sontaran design is fantastic, Dan and his parents are hilarious, and Jodie Whittaker really stands out with a fantastic performance as she romps around the Crimea, telling off British generals.

I must say I also enjoy the cliffhanger. Seeing Yaz and Vinder in the place of the mouri is scary and Swarm and Azure are terrifying and wonderful - more on them when I get to The Halloween Apocalypse though.

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #15:

The Next Doctor (1851)

I find this episode to be quite underrated. It may not be one of the greatest episodes of all time, but it’s such a fun romp. From the very start, despite how much we know the Doctor must be hurting from the end of ‘Journey’s End’, the first thing we see is his absolute joy and wonder in seeing a random Victorian market. And then answering a call of “DOCTOR!”, only to discover the Doctor she’s calling for is not someone he recognises, but apparently a future incarnation. It’s one of my favourite and definitely one of the funniest cold opens in the show. The whole exchange with Jackson Lake (spoilers) rattling of “sonic screwdriver”, “TARDIS” and “time lord” with the Doctor becoming increasingly baffled is wonderful.

I enjoy the mystery and reveal of the episode, I enjoy the cybershades, I enjoy the Doctor fighting cybermen with a cutlass. The Cyber Controller’s dialogue in Miss Hartigan’s conversion scene is hilarious - “That was designated a lie.” and “For the love of God have you no pity?”… “Correct.” are particularly brilliant.

The villain of Mercy Hartigan is an interesting one. She is a very interesting and complex character, and well acted by Dervla Kirwan. My main reservation is that I don’t know how I feel about making the villain of the episode quite explicitly someone who has been oppressed her whole life by men, that being seemingly what turned her evil. Admittedly I think the episode is meant to be anti-misogyny, I just am not sure how good a job it does. Also, the line “Yet another man come to assert himself against me in the night”. Is she comparing the Doctor to… rapists? Am I misunderstanding? That seems a really odd choice of line to me.

I think like most cybermen stories, this one unfortunately does not make great use of the cybermen as villains and what makes them interesting. They sort of just show up as a token main villain as they hadn’t in a while, which is a shame because when done right they’re fascinating. I especially think there are a few cases where the Cyber Controller does and says things which are really unnecessary and I can’t see why it would given the lack of emotions.

And finally, I quite like the Cyberking and really enjoy the resolution. Is it the strongest or most interesting ever? No. But it is fun, with a touch of epic, and that’s good enough for me, especially in a Christmas special. I also really enjoy Jackson successfully changing the Doctor’s mind about coming to Christmas dinner, there is something really heartwarming about it - especially in an episode where the villain’s whole thing is about having an unchangeable mind.

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #14:

The Haunting of Villa Diodati (1816)

This is unusually strong for a Chibnall-era episode, especially series 12. Tonally, it does a fantastic job at slowly ramping up the spookiness as things seem more and more wrong. The whole segment with everyone trying to navigate the house is genuinely both really spooky and interesting - and it’s a clever solution to have the way out be shown by a sleepwalker.

This gradual buildup helps to make the cyberman reveal much more effective as the terror of the cybermen layers on to what is already a fairly scary story. It helps the Ashad is incredible. The performance by Patrick O’Kane is wonderful and terrifying. The prosthetics and costuming look absolutely incredible, in my opinion the best looking cyberman we’ve had in Doctor Who - and we have had some very good ones. It’s very believable that this is a damaged and scarred cyberman. The pale skin underneath is horrifying and creates this feeling that he has been trapped inside that armour for so long. And the characterisation is phenomenal. I’ll get onto how he’s done dirty in later episodes in future posts, but here he is brilliant. One of my favourite moments is when Mary Shelley tries to dissuade him from killing, seeing that he spared her son and using that to try to relate to him. The cliché dodge of him telling us he murdered his own children and his resolve only hardening in this moment is very satisfying and is only enhanced by the stellar acting. However what fascinates me the most is that Shelley is right - he DID spare her son. There is some mercy in him. All this hints at a past we don’t see but makes him so much more interesting and I LOVE that.

I also really like all the guest characters in this episode - for single episode characters, especially given how many there are, they’re remarkably complex (which is presumably helped by them being real people). Each one has a very distinct personality and I love the humanisation of these great writers by showing them as just a group of friends who laugh and banter and have fun like the rest of us, and many of them have distinct and compelling arcs.

Jodie Whittaker also delivers an excellent performance in this episode, as she bounces off Ashad and later has her speech to the companions about the importance of these writers and about their own dynamics and about difficult choices.

Finally I want to acknowledge the Doctor’s line “I will not lose anyone else to that” when discussing what cybermen do. It’s a wonderful tie-in to ‘The Doctor Falls’ and really creates that feeling of consequence, and Jodie Whittaker really sells that terror of another companion being converted.

Please hire Maxine Alderton to write more episodes.

EDIT: Fixed number at top of post

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #13:

Thin Ice (1814)

I think one of the things I like the most about the episode is it’s very unapologetically left-wing. I feel a lot of Doctor Who can be quite centrist, even when trying to signal how progressive and down with the kids it is (looking at you RTD2). However, here we have a group of homeless children who make their living by stealing - our introduction to them is them stealing the Doctor’s sonic, and not once is it even implied that they’re wrong for that. The Doctor and Bill completely understand that they are just doing what they have to to survive. They even give them stolen pies! Conversely, the villain is an ordinary upper class businessman, and we see that he’s racist and does not care at all about anyone’s life but his own, and he dies as a direct result of his own arrogance and greed. The eventual conclusion is the Doctor and Bill helping the kids out of poverty. It’s nothing revolutionary but it’s refreshing when I feel a lot of writers would likely have in some way either avoided having to show the kids as thieves, or worse yet criticised them with the narrative for being thieves.

The other great thing here is the conflict between the Doctor and Bill. An exchange that really sticks in my mind is when Bill asks the Doctor how many people he’s seen die, he says he’s lost count and moved on, Bill asks if he’s killed anyone, and after some avoiding of the question, we discover he’s lost count and moved on. This is another great example of them both kinda being right. Bill is absolutely right to be outraged at how little the Doctor reacts to the literal child he just watched die, and to not let him tell her how to feel. The Doctor is absolutely right that his moving on is necessary and that Bill is essentially lashing out because she’s upset. Genius bit of dialogue, and Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie deliver it masterfully.

Both of these things, the genuinely left-wing stance and the Doctor and Bill’s relationship, are strengths of series 10 in general, but I think are particularly strong in this episode.

A scene I find very interesting is when the Doctor punches Lord Sutcliffe for being racist. My first and foremost feeling is just that it’s very cathartic, don’t we all want to punch people like that? But an interesting criticism I’ve heard levelled is that it feels quite “white saviour” - in that the Doctor tells Bill not to get angry and then punches the racist for her. Before I continue I’m going to disclaim that I am white and have not heard actual non-white perspectives on this scene, which ultimately are much more important than anything I say here. That being said, my hesitant opinion is that the scene is not problematic, because it does I think intentionally portray the Doctor as being a bit of a hypocrite, and somewhat in the wrong. The comical timing of almost as soon as he’s told Bill not to talk in case she loses her temper, he proceeds to lose his temper, quite blatantly shows him as being wrong for being so on his high horse with Bill. Similarly, Bill later points out that what he said earlier in the episode, that he’d never had time for the luxury of outrage, was blatantly not true. So while the Doctor does behave wrongly here, I think that’s intentional and serves as a great opportunity for Bill to call him out further.

The following scene with the Doctor’s speech about the value placed on a life is an interesting one. The speech is good but I think it’s quite funny that both Sutcliffe and Bill remark on how amazing and moving it was - which more than anything feels a bit like Sarah Dollard (the episode’s writer) patting herself on the back about how good the speech she wrote was, when really it’s good but not something to write home about, especially compared to other Capaldi speeches.

Overall, I enjoy this episode. The plot isn’t the strongest when you examine it too closely but it’s a fun watch and the themes and character are really on point.

Also the final scene with Missy in the vault (although we don’t yet know that it’s Missy) is a great reminder of the series plot and genuinely quite scary. It makes you feel kinda sorry for poor Nardole that the Doctor is taking this so unseriously.