I'm curious to see if the immediate lead-in from "Fugitive of the Judoon" is anything more than incidental. I doubt we'll see The Ruth Doctor but I'm betting something from the bigger picture will connect with this episode.
Two great episodes in a row - loved this: 1) Fast paced and what a lovely looking episode - nice to see the TARDIS used to set up three locations; 2) Autons! - hah I like how the Doctor preempted the knowledgeable viewer; 3) Decent use of humour (The Doctor gets lots of decent lines) and a nice character moment between Graham and one of the guest cast actors; 4) BIRDS!!!!!; Good stuff all round as a stand-alone.
2nd preachily environmental episode of the season, but fortunately the message was attached to a decent story this time. Had hoped for part two of last week's show though...
I really loved the high-paced zany nature of this episode, combined with a strange mystery that revealed itself naturally (so to speak). Nice commentary about the human race's overuse of plastics and its global waste, both on a macro and micro level, without being preachy. Weird how The Doctor and the rest completely forgot about Aramu and didn't even notice he wasn't with them when they fled the lab. The viewers knew the birds killed him but they didn't. I'm wondering if that was a result of a bad edit and/or deleted scene. Nice to see Warren Brown show up on Doctor Who, yet another Luther alum. It's only a matter of time before Idris Elba makes an appearance. As a backpacker, I wanted to yell at Gabriela and Jamila for leaving a campfire lit overnight, especially amongst a giant heap of plastic trash! That's camping no-no on all levels.
An excellent romp and a bona fide example of the show at its best. Nice to see Yaz get a bit of agency and even a glib remark that she was disappointed at not being the discoverer of an alien world. And Whittaker was on fire, with the Doctor probably wishing that Ruth was around to see how it’s done. Nice also to see the show avoid the hackneyed “kill your gays” trope. The show has in my opinion shown a marked improvement over season 11 (I recorded Orphan 55 but accidentally deleted it before viewing). If it sticks the landing then I hope it’ll be rewarded in the ratings.
Bradley's beach scenes this week show that if they ever want to do "millennia older, wiser Jack Harkness" - he's got the profile for it. Almost surprised Grace didn't get referenced, but Chibbers seems to know we understand the characters by now - you could see on Graham's face he was thinking "why did she pick a bus driver?" when DS Can't Face My Emotions was going on about how he didn't deserve his husband.
7/10 That wasn't bad. A bit too much going on and too many characters at times, but glad the environmental message wasn't delivered with a sledgehammer this time. Companions all got something to do and Jodie was ace (no, wait, let me rephrase that...) Nice name check for the Autons, and yet again 13 spent a decent amount of time away from her companions. Also yet again she left someone completely unprepared for an extra-terrestrial attack on guard outside the building (see also Spyfall) and is more than happy for Yaz to just swan back into harm’s way! As an aside I genuinely wondered if Yaz was going to buy the farm this episode! And after all that it was a stand alone episode (as far as we can tell) outside of the references to world's being destroyed with the scientist’s planet. I did twig she was a wrong un, that was a very well prepared lab!
Too late! This is how rumors begin! Follow the clues! Sophie Aldred recently did that modern-day setting as Ace for the one of the box sets! Big Finish recently released Dark Universe with The Seventh Doctor meeting an older Ace! Aldred is coming out with a new Ace novel! It's all a big build-up to the truth! Jodie was Ace! You read it here first!
Definitely not kestrels. I'd have to watch the episode again, but I think they were starlings. Granted, I'm basing both of those claims on what I've seen in America (the starlings are actually originally European).
I gave it a seven. This series is much better than the last, but I’m finding these episodes to be a bit boring to begin, but then burst in to life toward the end and redeem themselves, The Doctor was more Doctory, and the companions are encouraged to wonder off for a change. The environmental issue, not preachy, raises awareness for those that missed it, message not intrusive Missing travel blogger forgotten about all too quickly. Don’t have time to go back for the possibly vital alien tech plot-jigsaw piece right now, we need to get inside this here time machine now. There were certainly writing issues here, but the kids cowered at the swarm of birds, so it was a solid enough episode, I suppose.
Yeah but will they want to buy that "merch" and throw it away a couple years later since nobody will buy it on ebuy?
OK, tonight's Dr Who with its environmentalist theme was... Fucking great. Everything, in fact, that that shite episode 3 was not - a fantastic globetrotting mystery with good plot, doing the environmentlism in an actual story, and lots of enjoyable scenes and moments. Graham is still the best, the turnarounds were good, and the only downside to my mind was the actress playing Suki, who was pretty but came over as a twelve year-old in a school play. Everything else, brilliant. Well, I should really just give it a 9, but I had a really boring evening out at a meal with a bunch of old gits with nobody to talk to, so I'm bumping it up.
That said, Nestenes infecting humanity via microplastics would be a fucking awesome story. But solving it would probably need the Doctor to resolve our own environmental fuckups.