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Spoilers The Power of the Doctor grade and discussion thread

How do you rate The Power of the Doctor?


  • Total voters
    68
Outside of Time and the Rani that was the most arbitrary regeneration.

At least that one had to be made under harsh conditions with little time to properly prepare, had a story and was superficially entertaining.

That was terrible!

The good: Tegan! Janet was brilliant, none of Tegan's rough edges have been rubbed off by time.

:) It can happen

Ace. Ditto for Sophie, even though Tegan's return meant more to me it was still wonderful to see her.

I've not seen the full story yet, but is there a point to all these old characters returning? If so, does it involve the Doctor being removed from time or something? Or is this like Tennant's final episode (not the one where he's hit by a Dalek and "regenerates just enough to keep his body then tell the audience how great he is") where it's spending a lot of time going over Tennant's era only this time it's the whole of the show's run as a nostalgia fest?

Davison/Fielding and McCoy/Aldred was also just wonderful. Plus McGann and Colin Baker. Just lovely to see them all.

Aforementioned nitpick aside, it's lovely how many are returning - regardless of reason.

Especially Colin!

Jo Martin! God I hope that isn't the last time we see her!

It almost seems less cliche to say "The Master programmed the matrix and Jo was the future incarnation Doctor all along." But it would have been better. Most audiences adored Jo's portrayal, and we wanted more.

Ian! I never thought we'd see the day (also Jo and Bonnie! Fab!)

Quite a surprise indeed!

Yaz. Actually not bad, probably had more direct impact on the story than the Doctor.

Dang, is Jodie in this story at all?!! Sheesh, it's her swansong, not the show's... then again, if people now bleat "1963-2022" instead of "1963-2017" that would be something of an improvement...

Graham. I've no idea how he wound up fighting Daleks but damn the man has presence!

He can make reading the list of syphilis symptoms entertaining.

The bad: Jodie. All this time and Chibnall is still doing the same things, cutting her legs out from under her, denying her agency. He hates her so much he has Dhawan playing the Doctor (after doing that thing where Whittaker is tied up and he explains everything again!)

Interesting perspective. The only problem I can think of is, is that it's always been the scripts and not Jodie. A few select scenes show how much better Jodie can be without the Tennant Comedy Cavalcade. IMHO, YMMV, as some people do adore her and not wrongly so. I'm more bothered that the show is seemingly going full retread with Tennant's return like this.

The plot. All over the bloody place, seriously it was a mess. Daleks, Cybermen, the Master. Surprised there wasn't a kitchen sink!

That sink was the Emperor-Supreme Dalek.

Sounds like the Cybermen just stood around, again...

Dan. WTF?

Oh no...

And then we got the regeneration. I half expected a surprise but no, and I think we all knew what Tennant's first words would be :lol:

"Why did my clothes change? Oh that's right, the costume department didn't make them out of a stretchy material."

Three thoughts on the regeneration(s).

1. The degeneration maybe makes more sense now as a holdover from the Master's shenanigans and the Yaz induced degeneration?

2. Clothes regenerate now? What the fuck?

3. Tennant isn't Fourteen he's Fifteen. Surely Dhawan is fourteen :p


1. I'm waiting for how RTD can make something sophisticated out of this dumpster fire-of-lost-potential. Still thinking the show should have remained inventive and forward-thinking and bringing in somebody proper new like JMS (of Babylon 5 fame, since he said he wanted to do it.) This becomes too much a risk for-- wait, the show already did this stunt with Rose. She left, fans left, she returned, fans came back... then again, given how the use of the word "fans" became an insult and aimed, quotes and all, to those who couldn't handle a different Doctor (even if they're putting in more Tennantisms than doing something a little different), all this is going to become very interesting indeed. That xmas special with David Morrissey and Rosita also comes to mind...

2. For practical reasons of production, would they really make a larger costume to fit Tennant, especially as they needed the CGI budget instead, and not to mention that he's not a young man anymore and modern Who seems to have this thing going that only young people can play the Doctor anymore. (Davison proved the opposite with aplomb, even if he felt he was too young at the time! It's not physical age but character, anyway...)

3. I'm almost ready to give up and say "Doctor Who:" 1963-2022". Waiting on how #1 transpires, though it's easier to believe that a bowl of rice cereal will get soggy after a day and to the point where a non-astute cat won't lap it up.
 
Typical Chibnall fare. A plot with more holes than a moth eaten lace shawl and frankly barely comprehensible. Slightly over sentimental people interactions. All saved by some excellent acting (I'm going miss Jodie - I so wish she'd had better scripts).

Add in a huge dose of fanwank for the BBC centenary and the 'end of showrunner' finale and it was watchable.

The good: nice to see all the old Doctors and companions before any more of them die (sad there was no Tom Baker).

The bad: I am so f*cking tired of daleks, cybermen and the Master. Can't we have something new?
 
Clothes during regenerations have always been weird anyway. If the successor is bigger than the departing Doctor, they get a new version of that Doctor's outfit tailored to fit them, like with Davison to C Baker. But when the successor is smaller than departing Doctor, they wear the same size outfit so that it looks baggy on them.

It's best not to think about it too much.
 
At least that one had to be made under harsh conditions with little time to properly prepare, had a story and was superficially entertaining.



:) It can happen



I've not seen the full story yet, but is there a point to all these old characters returning? If so, does it involve the Doctor being removed from time or something? Or is this like Tennant's final episode (not the one where he's hit by a Dalek and "regenerates just enough to keep his body then tell the audience how great he is") where it's spending a lot of time going over Tennant's era only this time it's the whole of the show's run as a nostalgia fest?



Aforementioned nitpick aside, it's lovely how many are returning - regardless of reason.

Especially Colin!



It almost seems less cliche to say "The Master programmed the matrix and Jo was the future incarnation Doctor all along." But it would have been better. Most audiences adored Jo's portrayal, and we wanted more.



Quite a surprise indeed!



Dang, is Jodie in this story at all?!! Sheesh, it's her swansong, not the show's... then again, if people now bleat "1963-2022" instead of "1963-2017" that would be something of an improvement...



He can make reading the list of syphilis symptoms entertaining.



Interesting perspective. The only problem I can think of is, is that it's always been the scripts and not Jodie. A few select scenes show how much better Jodie can be without the Tennant Comedy Cavalcade. IMHO, YMMV, as some people do adore her and not wrongly so. I'm more bothered that the show is seemingly going full retread with Tennant's return like this.



That sink was the Emperor-Supreme Dalek.

Sounds like the Cybermen just stood around, again...



Oh no...



"Why did my clothes change? Oh that's right, the costume department didn't make them out of a stretchy material."




1. I'm waiting for how RTD can make something sophisticated out of this dumpster fire-of-lost-potential. Still thinking the show should have remained inventive and forward-thinking and bringing in somebody proper new like JMS (of Babylon 5 fame, since he said he wanted to do it.) This becomes too much a risk for-- wait, the show already did this stunt with Rose. She left, fans left, she returned, fans came back... then again, given how the use of the word "fans" became an insult and aimed, quotes and all, to those who couldn't handle a different Doctor (even if they're putting in more Tennantisms than doing something a little different), all this is going to become very interesting indeed. That xmas special with David Morrissey and Rosita also comes to mind...

2. For practical reasons of production, would they really make a larger costume to fit Tennant, especially as they needed the CGI budget instead, and not to mention that he's not a young man anymore and modern Who seems to have this thing going that only young people can play the Doctor anymore. (Davison proved the opposite with aplomb, even if he felt he was too young at the time! It's not physical age but character, anyway...)

3. I'm almost ready to give up and say "Doctor Who:" 1963-2022". Waiting on how #1 transpires, though it's easier to believe that a bowl of rice cereal will get soggy after a day and to the point where a non-astute cat won't lap it up.
It's just a support group for eople who have travelled with the Doctor and can't talk about it otherwise.
 
I still have to wait a few hours to watch the special, but I have watched the regeneration scene on YouTube. I see we've done something we haven't done since the First Doctor's regeneration with the costume changing with the regeneration.


I recall that Tom Baker's boots became shoes for Peter, but now we'll have a canonical answer that fans collectively lost millions of thousands of hours of sleep over during these last nigh-on six decades...

I just looked up the scene. Official BBC channel, no less, they're really promoting the finale... sorta...

I liked how it's not schmaltzy hyped-up hyper syrupy melodrama.

It's interesting, and rather refreshing and novel that 13 is oddly looking forward to how her life will be next. That's pretty awesome as far as characterization goes... Is it true that RTD wrote the dialogue? Because that was as unexpected as it was awesome... Regardless, it was a strong scene and if RTD did write it, then could his handling of Jodie actually have done the show some larger favors? If Chibnall wrote it, how come he wasn't on his A-game for the bulk of his handling of the show, which had some huge ideas - of which all got squandered and thrown onto the freeway to get promptly splattered. I just rewatched it again, it's a damn good scene and a genuinely sad one. Shame she didn't have more.

Then Tennant appears, complete with the stupid off-the-shelf outfit again, spouting his catchphase again, which I was expecting as it was said months ago that he would be returning, and was one of many who are wondering the state of the show as it's usually been more forward-thinking - this does have the potential to be the biggest retread of them all. Not sure what to think at this point.

It's a bit of a joke, that 13 says she wants to know and is looking forward to what newness awaits - and *pop* in comes more than just a retread of a former incarnation, but the retread. Something just seems off about that.
 
One other thing that keeps bugging me is the sheer amount of barely edited first draft hadwaving:

“I’m so glad I cloned you. This is a good plan.”
(To explain why — or at least how — Ashad is back, and that despite appearances, someone thought this was a good idea)

“Oh Kate showed me where all the secret gold bullet guns are kept, and also for no apparent reason I put my jacket with the fan-made flower child earring also in the floor, because I am now a squatter in unit”
(Paraphrase but not quote, but you know the scenes)

“Oh, you were a tour guide when I met you”
(Hand waving to explain why the otherwise excellent Chef!Doctor could be squeezed in at the end as the better-than-the-actual-doctor Holodoctor. This happens a lot to Thirteen. And shame no one thought to have it be Holo-six or eight, both of whom deserve a little more limelight.)

And on and on.

This, stretched out, is what flux should have been. And drafted more.

And whatever you do, don’t play the ‘I’ve seen/read/heard this before in Who’ drinking game, as you will need a new liver before half way through.

I did enjoy some bits, but it was with the feeling of having your fan nostalgia button mashed at like the production team are eleven years old playing Mortal Kombat for the first time.

Oh — and ‘fifteen of the worlds most expensive paintings have been nicked/seismologists missing’ maybe bloody name one? Show something happening? Not have the same line said by about four different characters over and over, and why the hell would Kate (and her newly back from the being wiped out for a Brexit gag unit) call the Doctor for that?

Terrible terrible writing, but the most polished of polished turds with the ocassional great moment — usually lifted wholesale from someone else.
 
It's just a support group for eople who have travelled with the Doctor and can't talk about it otherwise.

Dang, how many more people could they have fit in? Must be real expensive to lease the hotel room or wherever every month and what not...

It's also shades of "Love and Monsters", and without the even more lame ending, which had support groups of people aware of this mysterious traveler called 'The Doctor'. Seems more like a weird way to do an anniversary special to celebrate the show (not the whole of the BBC as this is being pitched as the centenary special, oddly)... but with one episode left, Chibnall was either being more bold and daring than before, or just threw in a greatest hits compilation before bowing out. At least it's cogent. I should have realized as there could only be so many reasons when the earlier teaser had both Tegan and Ace both whining over how long it's been since they saw him... even "The Five Doctors" did a better job of the trope with Sarah. If not a more inventive one.
 
I
It's a bit of a joke, that 13 says she wants to know and is looking forward to what newness awaits - and *pop* in comes more than just a retread of a former incarnation, but the retread. Something just seems off about that.

This 'Tennant Doctor 2.0' isn't a "retread", though; he's a new iteration of the Doctor whose physical appearance is that of the Tenth Doctor, as evidenced by RTD explicitly referring to Ncuti as playing the Fifteenth Doctor, and I think its a monumentally stupid and fanwanky decision.
 
I still have to wait a few hours to watch the special, but I have watched the regeneration scene on YouTube. I see we've done something we haven't done since the First Doctor's regeneration with the costume changing with the regeneration.
Someone on twitter said yesterday that it would soon be canon that Tennant would wear Whittaker’s underwear but in fact it turned out that
Sacha Dawan wore it instead
 
So how did she die?
So people were right about Tennant. Seems like a waste to have a new Doctor who will just be killed next year. Tennant again as well. This is the second he’s regenerated into that form.
 
So how did she die?
So people were right about Tennant. Seems like a waste to have a new Doctor who will just be killed next year. Tennant again as well. This is the second he’s regenerated into that form.
Actually, it's sort of the third time, technically. Though, the second was when we still believed the Doctor's regenerations were meant limited, and using one to keep the same form actually meant something.
 
Someone on twitter said yesterday that it would soon be canon that Tennant would wear Whittaker’s underwear but in fact it turned out that
Sacha Dawan wore it instead

Bad news all round:
She got her costume in a charity shop, and they can’t sell underwear. So she’s either still wearing Capaldi’s duds or went commando.

Thasmin fans can particularly enjoy that concept.
 
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