We're just a couple of days away from the premiere of the newest season of Doctor Who and I cannot be more excited for what's in store for us. I still have my worries about the return of Davies (despite my love for Years and Years) but I'm continuing to give him a fair shake since the four specials were all at least highly enjoyable. I'm less concerned about the so-called "Disney money" and "Disney influence" despite all of the hand-wringing here and beyond, but only time will tell if that's an issue at all. Either way, I'm curious about how certain plot threads from the specials will play out, including but not limited to fantasy becoming more of a realty in the Who universe, mavity and other timeline-altering fragments, the Meep's warning about their boss (who apparently isn't The Toymaker), the mysterious Mrs. Flood, and, of course, even more Melanie Bush. I'm less curious about yet another companion with a mysterious origin but I'm hoping it'll play out well.
I'm also for that! As much as I mostly loved Moffat's era, that got old pretty fast. And of course, Davies was very guilty of that the first time around. I just want adventures of a mad man with a box throughout all time and space with any and all companions.
I mean all three modern show runners have embraced the universe ending mayhem at some point, and while I'm not a huge fan it's worth noting that when Chibnall initially didn't focus on the end of teh universe a lot of people whinged. I have a lot of issues with Chinall's era but that isn't one of them. As for this I'm steeling myself for standard RTD (IE it's fab and then he just takes it a little too far, for me at least. The Giggle is a good example of this which I was loving until the bi-generation and using giant hammers to duplicate the Tardis.)
I'm guessing the universe-ending plots were there to bring casual audiences in? It was boring and dull, but thankfully the characters wore the stories and carried them. But I definitely wish for more inconsequential stories, sans the finales of course.
A mediocre story with a stupid premise, but Ncuti really carries things on his shoulders. I wish RTD could go one show without a damn fart joke, but the man has acted like a 13 year old in an adult's body since his first Doctor Who run, and I don't know why I expected that to change. There is also a "mystery box", which sucks but I guess we're cursed to never have a Doctor Who season without some over arching mystery ever again at this point. This felt like mostly a waste of an episode (seriously, who the hell wanted Doctor Who to do their own version of Baby Geniuses?) but it could have been worse and hopefully RTD has both babies and fart jokes out of his system, at least for awhile. I did like the "stepping on a butterfly" joke at the beginning of the episode. EDIT: Changed my mind on the score, lowering it to 5/10.
Space Babies... okay, that was not a solid opener for a new season. Yes, I know it's technically episode 2, but still. Ugh. I am not opposed to levity or silliness in my Doctor Who, but that was painful. I felt like I was watching a children's show, rather than the BBC's premier science-fiction flagship.
The Doctor's energy definitely carried through the episode, preventing one from thinking too deep about how little sense everything made. Loved the vibes, really didn't like the story much. Takes a major effort to just go with it. Space babies and bogey monsters aside, the bit that almost aggravated me was instance no 18326378732 of the damn airlock trope with endless amounts of air rushing out into the vaccuum of space for minutes without anyone suffocating.
I would have flipped the order and had "The Devil's Chord" as the 2nd episode with "Space Babies" as the 3rd episode. Front loading the brand new season with "Space Babies" will definitely push people away. That's TOO MUCH corny/cheesy/convuluted material to introduce people to. "Aw jeez is the show always this corny?" "An monster made of snot/boogers? C'mon!" I can see this episode joining "Fear Her" in the pile of "Better to forget" episodes
Brilliant! The fun is back with better writing. My wife, who gave up halfway through the Capaldi years even really enjoyed it. THAT is a major win! Onward!!
Gotta say, I wasn't a fan of this one, especially as a season premiere. Weird (and honestly, unnecessary) uncanny valley babies and a literal snot monster? Ugh. The pro-life and post-birth abandonment thread was a bit forced, which is a shame because that could've been a powerful theme if it had been written more maturely. Instead, it felt like "Kill the Moon" all over again. That all said, I did like the cool ability of the station manifesting memories and thoughts, an idea I would've enjoyed far more if it didn't then led straight to literal snot monsters. I do wish the episode had focused more on this element than what we got, but I guess if I want that, I'll go read Michael Crichton's Sphere yet again (which I'm way overdue to do...). Still loving Ncuti's Doctor and his dynamic and energy with Ruby is a lot of fun, but I hated the final scene with The Doctor worried and confused about the very nature of Ruby. It's exactly the same thing with Clara, right down to an episode (I forget which) ending with The Doctor running a covert scan on her in the TARDIS. I liked that moment a lot, too, and considering the look on The Doctor's face as they returned to the TARDIS, I can't help but wonder if it's part of the larger season arc's chaos of reality changing. Either way, even though I knew it was coming, it's a shame the dinosaurs were indeed just a quick scene. Alas. I had no idea they were doing two episodes, so that review thread is up now. I would say it's worse. I kind of liked "Fear Her" (from what little I remember of it and it's been years since I've watched it). And since I compared this episode to "Kill the Moon"...
To be fair, to me this was better then Fear Her, which I thought was actively horrible. This just felt pointless and a bit too stupid, I never felt actually angry to be watching it like I do with really bad episodes like Fear Her. Fear Her also loses extra points (at it was pretty much at zero) by having a very bad child actor, at least the babies in this were just decent voice acting over babies (and some CG). The kid in Fear her might be the worst kid actor in Doctor Who, even beating out the titular twins in The Twin Dilemma, at least in my opinion. Edit: That said, reading peoples opinions, and having watched the second episode, has made my opinion of this one go down a bit, so I changed my vote to 5/10.
Good, because that's exactly what Doctor Who is, has always been, and will always be. I've watched the entirety of Modern Who (and a fair chunk of Classic Who), and the episodes that this one reminded me the most of are The Happiness Patrol, Partners in Crime, and Closing Time, all of which have just the right amount of peril, silliness, and heart. I also strongly object to the idea that comparing this one to Fear Her and Kill the Moon is somehow an insult.