S13E01 "The Halloween Apocalypse" BBC1 6.25pm 31st October

[Tomalak]

I thought that was pretty good. The Doctor and Yaz certainly seemed better than previously - I thought the crowded TARDIS was always a mistake, but two or three works best. Good intro for Dan too.

I've found the Jodie era quite dull at times, with long, wordy scripts and no pace. At least this wasn't boring. I'll take frenetic over slow. This was clearly part 1 of a series, introducing characters and situations, so it's not really fair to judge it in isolation.

I did have some issues with the sound mix swamping dialogue, so I may have to play with the settings on my soundbar next week. Speaking of which, I love the look of the new Sontarans.

I'm tempted to give it 10 just for the visit to Anfield and confirmation that the Doctor is a Red!

 

[Starkers]

Perhaps this is just me, but when I first saw Swarm and his changing crystal form, I immediately thought of Eldrad (especially since there were two different actors playing him). Considering The Doctor doesn't seem to recognize him, I'm guessing it's nothing to do with Eldrad but the similarities still stood out.

It really did seem like Swarm basically regenerated after he was freed. I'm wondering if he's perhaps an early example of experimentation on a Gallifreyan using the Doctor's DNA? a proto Timelord? His sister definitely seemed to be fobwatched.

Of course there's limited narrative gain to be had from an arch nemesis you didn't know you had, not that you have to have seen all the Doctor's battles with the Master to understand their relationship, but at least both sides of the equation remember it*. It reminds me of Into Darkness and Spectre where you had giant reveals about Khan/Blofeld which at that point mean nothing to Kirk/Bond.

*Unless of course Swarm is the Master

 

[DigificWriter]

there's limited narrative gain to be had from an arch nemesis you didn't know you had

I disagree.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I did have some issues with the sound mix swamping dialogue, so I may have to play with the settings on my soundbar next week.

John Bishop's voice and diction was the most distinct to me. It was actually Jodie who I had most difficulty hearing.

I'm tempted to give it 10 just for the visit to Anfield and confirmation that the Doctor is a Red!

Guest appearance by Jürgen Klopp in the offing? They could use Hugh Dennis as a lookalike if Klopp is not available.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Of course there's limited narrative gain to be had from an arch nemesis you didn't know you had, not that you have to have seen all the Doctor's battles with the Master to understand their relationship, but at least both sides of the equation remember it*. It reminds me of Into Darkness and Spectre where you had giant reveals about Khan/Blofeld which at that point mean nothing to Kirk/Bond.

They could do it like Fifth Element and have the protagonist and nemesis never even meet.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

I liked it. I miss this sort of sci-fi overall, and it's still got the essential Doctor Who vibe to it. While I've also been disappointed by this era overall, there have always been highlights that keep me coming back for more. Jodie's great, Mandip is great, them together are great, especially with Yaz challenging the Doctor on her evasiveness and the latter snapping back. John is fun and I'm looking forward to seeing the chemistry.

Dan as a character is puzzling. He's clearly TOO nice for his own good, the sort of guy who'll give a kidney to a friend of a friend on a whim. He's suffering at home but keyed in on making others feel better. I'd like to think there's something behind this sort of behavior to give him a good arc (will we have him in the final three episodes of the era?) but we'll have to see. And who knows if he'll actually be coming home at the end - have we ever seen anything that was compressed like his home UN-compressed? It's a sort of Master reference, and sort of out of place (as is the laptop gag, weird for Karvanista to do this as he doesn't seem all that familiar with Earth beyond his obligation to it), but was fun to see.

Most of this episode had the Doctor being more proactive again, which I think helps. Too often this Doctor blunders into something (which is fine, every Doctor does this) then just sort of meanders about into the assorted clues and plot points before verbalizing everything to herself and THEN pulling a solution out of it all. Here, she was after the dog in the first place, is actively tracking Karvanista down through most of the show, and creates a (hopefully) Earth-saving solution with his fleet. OTOH, she's still mostly following along to Swarm's first moves and I hope she ends up taking the offensive more in this series than just picking up clues through each episode while the Big Bad does their thing uncontested.

I like the production quality too, fiddling with the TARDIS set in some way as part of the plot. I've criticized this TARDIS set in particular as a general waste of space, having a lot of volume but keeping everyone clustered around the console for most of it. Last season they added the table and stairs to open it up a bit, but it's still three concentric circles of space in the room that are largely ignored. It LOOKS awesome, but somehow still very closed in for something that should be enormous. And now the TARDIS looks to be growing extra doors, but only to enter into, as the gang is still using the same one to leave the box.

Overall a fun hour of time, and it kept me engaged instead of confused as the Timeless Child plot has done. Looking forward to more.

Mark

 

[jaime]

Calling it now: ‘this’ universe is ending, ‘division’ is where it split off from the ‘other’ (as well as the name) and there’s a faint possibility that this isn’t the Doctors original Universe. Or Master even. That might fix things up a bit and even be fun.

 

[jaime]

I mostly enjoyed that. It was a bit fun with lots of things going on. Good, but not great. I like Dan. It's hard to judge this episode in isolation. Much of it was clearly there to set up later events.

Claire is obviously more than meets the eye. She already knew the Angel was going to be there. And taking the long way home has to refer to time travel. So, she was there to get sent back in time. I'm just not sure why she tried to resist blinking.

The season opener has my interest. Let's hope Chibnall can keep this level up for the season. I'm reminded of Skyfall part 1 and that it seemed to start a promising new season.

Claire by the Tardis is likely Claire *after* being sent back by the Angel, (using weeping angels as a device) and I suspect Dan was too, at some point in his relative future, and he’s going to die.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I thought the Weeping Angel was on Species Recall and a guardian paired to Claire. Probably not exactly what they were, but still, would have practically functioned as one had the Earth not been shielded on time, and probably not unintentionally, even perhaps on the Angel's part.

At the very least, the Weeping Angels seem far more suited to save anyone from the Flux, certainly more than the Lupari, I didn't think their fleet is actually going to shield Earth (I'm still not sure, only reason it seems it might is because the Doctor was sure of it). And the tunnels may have been built to house anyone the Angels were sending, though why tunnels escapes me right now.

I hope we get people from 1820 involved. Or that Claire is one.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

It really did seem like Swarm basically regenerated after he was freed. I'm wondering if he's perhaps an early example of experimentation on a Gallifreyan using the Doctor's DNA? a proto Timelord? His sister definitely seemed to be fobwatched.

Of course there's limited narrative gain to be had from an arch nemesis you didn't know you had, not that you have to have seen all the Doctor's battles with the Master to understand their relationship, but at least both sides of the equation remember it*. It reminds me of Into Darkness and Spectre where you had giant reveals about Khan/Blofeld which at that point mean nothing to Kirk/Bond.

*Unless of course Swarm is the Master

Yeah, I think the obvious connection is Swarm is somehow related to the Timeless Child and therefore has a connection to Time Lords and regeneration.

But part of me really wanted it to be Eldrad.

And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Swarm is The Master after all!

 

[Saul]

Good episode. At first I was thinking this was all going to be set up for some big unknown threat, like on Star Trek Discovery, but the episode kept up a nice pace and it didn't stop even at the very end of the episode. Very Doctor Whoish cliffhanger. I'm guessing people who binge watch this later on are going to get more out of it.
I like the Doctor and Yaz relationship. I thought Yaz really hit the nail on the head with this Doctor. This Doctor doesn't let anyone in. Other Doctors are the same but there's not much personal vulnerability shown of this Doctor. We see the vulnerable side of the hero not knowing how to save the day but a lot of how she actually feels about it is kept inside the character.

 

[Tomalak]

I thought the Weeping Angel was on Species Recall and a guardian paired to Claire. Probably not exactly what they were, but still, would have practically functioned as one had the Earth not been shielded on time, and probably not unintentionally, even perhaps on the Angel's part.

At the very least, the Weeping Angels seem far more suited to save anyone from the Flux, certainly more than the Lupari, I didn't think their fleet is actually going to shield Earth (I'm still not sure, only reason it seems it might is because the Doctor was sure of it). And the tunnels may have been built to house anyone the Angels were sending, though why tunnels escapes me right now.

I hope we get people from 1820 involved. Or that Claire is one.

Presumably Claire has been sent back to 1820 by the Angel? A future episode will see the Doctor, Yaz and Dan meet her there again. The first Claire we see by the TARDIS is probably later than the one we see fumbling for her keys. Timey-Wimey.

 

[Tomalak]

John Bishop's voice and diction was the most distinct to me. It was actually Jodie who I had most difficulty hearing.

Yes, it was definitely Jodie - mainly in the parts where she was shouting over the background noise, so I think the balance just wasn't quite right. Probably sounded fine in 5.1 but got a bit swamped when mixed down to stereo.

Guest appearance by Jürgen Klopp in the offing? They could use Hugh Dennis as a lookalike if Klopp is not available.

A Klopp cameo would make my decade!

 

[Mr Awe]

Most of this episode had the Doctor being more proactive again, which I think helps. Too often this Doctor blunders

I agree in general that the Doctor is more active. But, note that this story had the Doctor really mess up in thinking that dog guy was a villain! And then it was, oops, so you're not a bad guy and I've just spent who knows how long tracking you down and threatening you! So much so that dog guy almost killed Yaz and the Doctor out of self defense! Even Yaz was like, what has gotten into you?!

So, there's still a bit of a negative portrayal of the Doctor here. She's being more active but making a big mistake! But, it was definitely an enjoyable episode. A good ride at least!

And now the TARDIS looks to be growing extra doors, but only to enter into, as the gang is still using the same one to leave the box.

When they mentioned that about the doors, my immediate thought was that it has something to do with the mining tunnels that make no sense. There's some connection. I have no idea what that is. Twisty paths through space that might join up. But, that was my first thought!

 

[kirk55555]

I can't believe it...I actually like an episode of the Chibnall era. I'm expecting pigs to start flying at any time

While the episode wasn't perfect, it was still very good. It was mostly paced well, the threats are interesting, and The Doctor and Yaz were actually pretty good, and Dan was ok (although he has a pretty rough accent to understand, and I usually don't have a problem understanding UK accents). Actually I was having a bit of trouble with Yaz's accent too, during the opening action scene specifically, but I think that might have been an audio mixing issue since I understood her fine after that sequence and the show did seem to have audio mixing issues (to me, at least) a few more time during the episodes, like at the end. I still hate any "Timeless child" nonsense, but honestly its barely brought up, even this new villain could have started fighting The Doctor in the normal series of events, since The Doctor has forgotten him anyway they could have started fighting with any incarnation of The Doctor.

The Flux itself is an interesting threat, it feels like a real universe destroying disaster but I'm sure the crystal skeleton aliens (I didn't catch their names, if they gave them) are probably responsible for it. Seeing the Sontarans was great, I'm glad they'll apparently be the focus of the next episode. The dog alien didn't look great (and his motivation doesn't make that much sense), and the opening action sequence was a bit too goofy, which were probably the weakest parts of the episode.

Overall, this is literally the first Chibnall era episode that I'd actually watch again because I liked it, which is a big improvement over the last two series. Hopefully the show can keep it up for the whole Flux run.

 

[Mr Awe]

Claire by the Tardis is likely Claire *after* being sent back by the Angel, (using weeping angels as a device) and I suspect Dan was too, at some point in his relative future, and he’s going to die.

She was shown as being back at those old tunnels after the Angel sent her back. But, yet she had already taken the long route. Some sort of time loop? Maybe that's short circuiting the universe, creating the flux, and will cause it to end?

But she did seem surprised that the Doctor was there. So maybe the loop is just starting--if the start of a loop makes any sense!

 

[Mr Awe]

It really did seem like Swarm basically regenerated after he was freed. I'm wondering if he's perhaps an early example of experimentation on a Gallifreyan using the Doctor's DNA? a proto Timelord? His sister definitely seemed to be fobwatched.

Of course there's limited narrative gain to be had from an arch nemesis you didn't know you had, not that you have to have seen all the Doctor's battles with the Master to understand their relationship, but at least both sides of the equation remember it*. It reminds me of Into Darkness and Spectre where you had giant reveals about Khan/Blofeld which at that point mean nothing to Kirk/Bond.

*Unless of course Swarm is the Master

It seems like things are head that way. That Swarm was a nemesis of the Timeless Child. The TC was raised by the Division but apparently had all memories of Swarm erased from her mind after Swarm was imprisoned. Guessing, I'd say the Division wanted to erase TC's memory so that without a past, she'd be easier to control for their own ends. But, we'll see about all that!

I agree about limited narrative gain. But that seems to be one of Chibnall's hallmarks. There was limited narrative gain to introducing the TC via the Master telling it all rather than the Doctor actively discovering it. Limited narrative gain for a POC Doctor before Hartnell. In fact, the rumors about a whole regeneration cycle of women before Hartnell has a limited narrative gain because it's only on paper that they occurred before Hartnell. In the real world, they're all added later! I'm all for increased diversity going forward but retroactively adding diversity doesn't fix anything. It's not really changing history.

(Although, I realize that the "entire regeneration cycle of women before Hartnell" hasn't been shown, so perhaps that's not happening.)

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

Wow, that was certainly... something! Definitely interesting and a LOT of things going on. While I enjoyed the episode and really REALLY look forward to seeing where this takes us, I wish the episode itself had been put together just a little bit more cohesively. We set up a TON of mystery boxes and had to cover a lot of ground. It was not exactly gracefully put together. I still really enjoyed it.

I like these new characters and out of all the current new setups, I want to see Claire the most.

 

[Relayer1]

They could have made a decent fist of all that set up and built a good episode around it. They didn't.

The pre title sequence was embarrassing ly, cringeably bad. It was frenetic, breathess and annoying. Anyone involved in the production who thought that was acceptable shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a production team ever again.

The good bits like the Weeping Angels and Claire got lost in it. At least John Bishop was good - it could've gone either way. Just...badly written.

The cast deserve better than this.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

OK, so I've just watched it. Obviously being part 1 of 6, its not a complete review since the story is not complete. However, some thoughts:

The pre-title scene is easily the best one written by Chris Chibnall. The Doctor/Yaz dynamic was great, and really, that's exactly what we needed since series 11. I am literally looking forward to BF making a bunch of box-sets out of those two. The episode itself is fine, and clearly Chibnall's most entertaining episode. In fact, its his most entertaining since all the way back from series 7 (which is so sad to think about), though its never going to be a real jewel or anything.

That all being said, I will say this also: I did not like Dan in this. Maybe he's improving over the course of the story, but frankly he's annoying, and I fear his presence will detract from the appeal of the Doctor/Yaz team.