Spoilers Boom grade and discussion thread

[jaime]

Here is a decent summary of what they (Moffat and RTD) might be riffing on as a way of leading up to the (Susan) Twist at the end:
https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Patience

(including a nice point about a lady on a beach… )

 

[The Wormhole]

the dialogue at times sounding like Moffat dusted off an unfilmed Matt Smith script,

There was a lot of Capaldi sounding dialogue, particularly with the Doctor snapping at people to "shut up!" or constantly calling people idiots.

 

[kirk55555]

Not a bad episode, but not a particularly memorable one. It really didn't feel much like a Moffat story, more like a mid season filler. The girl was weird, written like a 5 year old but she should have definitely have been old enough (based on the actress they hired for the role) to understand that her Dad was dead and that the hologram wasn't him. The war stuff wasn't interesting, a basic "moral" told unsubtly but more importantly told in an uninteresting way.

6/10

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I feel like we definitely got the more nuanced Moffat. While not his best effort, the story was nonetheless wonderfully intense as we watched The Doctor's attempts to remain calm while standing on a live landmine. Not just any landmine but one that utilized its victims bodily energy on a quantum level to create the explosion (assuming I remembered what was described correctly)...which is bad for everyone on Kastarion 3 when that victim is a Time Lord. I really enjoyed each instance that The Doctor had to deal with while staying practically still (as Moffat had noted before, he removed The Doctor's ability to run...and his ability to get people to listen to him when he told them to run!).

I was fascinated by the existence of Villengard, a corporation that profited solely on the continuing existence of casualties of war to the point of fabricating a war. I didn't expect it to happen in this episode based on the brief preview focused on the landmine, but I loved how Moffat has once again taken an ordinary object and made it genuinely scary: In this case, an ambulance in the field of combat, one that decides that even if you can recover from temporary blindness, you might as well die if it's not fast enough. While not nearly as gross as the snot monster, the canisters of its victims' bodies were pretty damn creepy.

Considering we know that Susan Twist appears in more episodes, I hope this means we haven't seen the last of Villengard because I am curious to learn more about them and explore that particularly awful aspect of capitalism and greed.

As speculated, we did indeed get the return of the Church of the Papal Mainframe, but I was disappointed that we didn't get to learn more about them aside their current conflict. I still think they're a neat idea to explore and hopefully they'll also return when Villengard inevitably returns, too.

Lastly, I loved seeing Varada Sethu from Andor pop up in this episode. I knew I recognized her right away but I couldn't place her until after the episode, upon realizing that we already knew she was going to appear as the next companion...although I'm not sure if we knew was going to appear for the first time this season. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing Mundy again.

 

[Samurai8472]

Boom

That was like Moffat playing up his greatest hits. If you've seen any of the episodes he's written you know his quirks

-A child is at the center of the story(Cal, Amy etc etc etc)

-A ghost image of a deceased person who repeats a line of dialogue(Hey! Who turned off the lights!")

-Another green bar indicator( Saved or close to detonation )

-Church of the Papal Mainframe

-Fish fingers and Custard

-The nonchalance of the future( Thoughts and Prayers) I can't place my finger on it but I've seen something like that from a past episode

 

[DigificWriter]

This episode was below average and kind of Blah, if I'm being honest.

The general story has already been done - and done better - in Doctor Who before, and it takes more than Easter eggs and back references to make a repeated story trope worth exploring again.

It's hard to buy into the fake-out death of a companion when it's blatantly obvious that said fake-out is pointless and is going to be undone, which robs everything of tension.

Verada Sethu showing up also doesn't mean much unless RTD comes out and confirms that she'll be reprising her role of Mundy when she joins the TARDIS team in Series 15.

5 out of 10 (IMO).

 

[Samurai8472]

( Ruby) Sunday comes before Monday( Mundy )

It'll likely all tie back. It's very...timey-whimey as it always is.

 

[Mr Awe]

Whew! What a much needed improvement over the first two duds!! Gave it an 8!

Didn't rank it higher because the Doctor was too glib about people dying, the strange way the girl acted, and the solution was a little too convenient. Plus, the episode felt rushed somehow.

But, dang, overall, this was a nice, tense episode that had creative ideas and great character moments. Great return for Moffat!

 

[Mr Awe]

It's hard to buy into the fake-out death of a companion when it's blatantly obvious that said fake-out is pointless and is going to be undone, which robs everything of tension.

That's just a regular companion in jeopardy moment. Not a fake out. Nor did anyone think the Doctor was going be exploded either.

 

[Mr Awe]

I will say it doesn't seem as though Moffat has a handle on writing for Gatwa, as much of the Doctor's dialogue in this episode seemed more suited to Smith or Capaldi.

Interesting because I heard Eccleston much more than Smith or Capaldi. But it seemed hit or miss. Some parts were dead on for Gatwa, especially the ending, while I heard lots of Eccleston in the middle part.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

OK, who challenged Moffat that he couldn't write a story set entirely in a quarry? Disney money be damned!

I do hope we get to see the underwater lesbian gymkhana though.

Edit: oh and apparently RTD wanted this to be the season opener, so maybe the tonal shift wouldn’t have been so grating, nor the Doctor Dialogue.

That might explain this being Ruby's first alien planet despite the previous episode suggesting she had been traveling with the Doctor for a while.

 

[Rich Watson]

So I'm hoping this was just a Karen Gillan situation with Varada and not yet another super special companion mystery.

EDIT: Nope. Confirmed on Unleashed that it's not.

So will we be meeting characters called Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to go with Monday and Tuesday?

 

[Guy Gardener]

So I'm hoping this was just a Karen Gillan situation with Varada and not yet another super special companion mystery.

She has Christmas powers.

Either she is Santa's Daughter, or it's the same deal as as the Dalai Lama, and the Panchen Santa is looking for her.

Three women all called Red.

Blatantly obvious.

 

[JoeZhang]

Great episode - some thoughts:

1) music is clearly a theme

2) Ruby is a reality warper - that is why we got the dance sequence last episode.

3) Susan Twist was cast for misdirection and she is not playing Susan. She is the bad guy who is... one of the Doctor's children.

 

[Seven of Five]

I really enjoyed this one and found it more engaging than last week's double.

I'd forgotten about the announcement of the return of Moffat to the writing team, and this played more like a dark fairy tale like his earlier work than his later stuff.

What's going on with Ruby?

 

[26138]

It felt shallow to me.

 

[David cgc]

3) Susan Twist was cast for misdirection and she is not playing Susan. She is the bad guy who is... one of the Doctor's children.

Something else that struck me about the reference to the moon/President’s wife rumor; if the President’s daughter was Susan, then the President would be the Doctor’s child(-in-law). And the Doctor ended the episode predicting Splice would grow up to be President of something or other. And this episode (and the last one) drew some attention to the Doctor having had kids, and established his rapport with Vater and, by extension, analogized Splice to his own child. I’d normally chalk that up to Moffat’s interest in the idea of the Doctor as an empty-nester, but considering it came up in another episode he had nothing to do with, I have suspicions that, while the season started with the Doctor and Ruby connecting over being foundlings, it’ll end with the Doctor and Ruby’s mother connecting over being parents.

 

[Guy Gardener]

That's just a regular companion in jeopardy moment. Not a fake out. Nor did anyone think the Doctor was going be exploded either.

What if he partially contained the explosion, but became 60 feet tall for most of the rest of episode?

 

[The Wormhole]

I knew I recognized her right away but I couldn't place her until after the episode, upon realizing that we already knew she was going to appear as the next companion...although I'm not sure if we knew was going to appear for the first time this season.

No, we didn't know she'd be in this season. Threw me for a loop, I thought I recognized her at first but since I "knew" Sethu wouldn't be showing up until the second season, I dismissed my recognition until I saw online afterwards that that was indeed her.

Boom

That was like Moffat playing up his greatest hits. If you've seen any of the episodes he's written you know his quirks

-A child is at the center of the story(Cal, Amy etc etc etc)

-A ghost image of a deceased person who repeats a line of dialogue(Hey! Who turned off the lights!")

-Another green bar indicator( Saved or close to detonation )

-Church of the Papal Mainframe

-Fish fingers and Custard

-The nonchalance of the future( Thoughts and Prayers) I can't place my finger on it but I've seen something like that from a past episode

To be fair though, RTD also has his tropes and they've all been on display since this era began back in November.

That might explain this being Ruby's first alien planet despite the previous episode suggesting she had been traveling with the Doctor for a while.

It's possible Ruby could still have been with the Doctor for six or seven months and this is still her first alien planet. After all, Rose's first alien planet was New Earth, and that was in the second season.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Calling it: Mundy's coming back, and not Sethu as a different character.

The Doctor quite obviously misplaced his TARDIS key.

Mark