Spoilers The Church on Ruby Road grade and discussion thread

[Mr Awe]

I did like the reappearance of a crack that wasn't a crack, in particular. It is nice to feel like the people who are making the show have also been watching the show.

Since these specials started, I keep feeling like RTD watched Moffat's run and was inspired. Impossible girls, cracks, more timey whimey, more oddball concepts, etc.

Not that RTD hasn't put his own unique stamp on these stories but he does seem influenced by Moffat, which is totally fine.

 

[Mr Awe]

My guess who is dropping Ruby off... Ruby.

I'm pretty sure that Lister Ruby is dropping Lister Ruby off and that he she is his her own father mother, creating an unbreakable paradox so the human can never go extinct. All we're missing is the pool table!

 

[Commander Troi]

Mrs. Flood will be a slow burn

 

[The Nth Doctor]

The question is does Davies mean a slow burn over the next series or during Gatwa's entire run?

The former is to be expected for a Davies season, the latter would be another example of Davies apparently learning from Moffat.

 

[David cgc]

Since these specials started, I keep feeling like RTD watched Moffat's run and was inspired. Impossible girls, cracks, more timey whimey, more oddball concepts, etc.

Not that RTD hasn't put his own unique stamp on these stories but he does seem influenced by Moffat, which is totally fine.

I was thinking more in the Watsonian sense, having the idea of the crack in time being reflected in the physical world being an established thing that can happen (and "Journey to the Center of the TARDIS" showed it wasn't a one-time freak thing).

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I know Disney supposedly has no influence on the content, but with singing goblins, sure seems like it!

Creative control and no influence are not the same thing.
We know they have suggestions for the script and there is an entire scene in the episode because of that.
But it‘s the falling snowman/police man dialogue, which is there because Someone at Disney thought it would be better if the Doctor showed up earlier and did stuff.
As far as I know they didn’t come up with the goblin song.

 

[Starkers]

Curse Disney and their despicable romantic police officer agenda

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Curse Disney and their despicable romantic police officer agenda

Well, for all we know the note they gave RTD was as little as „Hey, the Doctor shows up kind of late. Can we have a scene sooner with him being cool?“

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I thought that was a good establishing scene for those who might be starting with "season one" with Ncuti showing how the Doctor's schtick works.

 

[Qonundrum]

The question is does Davies mean a slow burn over the next series or during Gatwa's entire run?

The former is to be expected for a Davies season, the latter would be another example of Davies apparently learning from Moffat.

Or JMS? Multi-season arcs were far newer in 1993, and someone else probably did something similar prior to then, but with all the variables involved... plus, character emphasis, though having her look at the lens with the "have you ever seen a tardis before" line... Will it pay off later?

Besides, "Flood". Right up there with "River" and "Pond". Seems a little too easy, does it not? So does "Mavity", though the new Doctor saying it as fact means one of two things...

 

[Chakoteya]

Frankly, feel free to forget everything you thought you knew about Dr Who (again. And again for some of us) because it is pretty much starting over... again.
I'm not the target audience. I don't spend my few spare pounds on, well, whatever the marketing department wants people to buy / subscribe to. My opinion doesn't matter. Carry on.

 

[Qonundrum]

Frankly, feel free to forget everything you thought you knew about Dr Who (again. And again for some of us) because it is pretty much starting over... again.
I'm not the target audience. I don't spend my few spare pounds on, well, whatever the marketing department wants people to buy / subscribe to. My opinion doesn't matter. Carry on.

Well said and should be pinned, or a new forum for the new run-onward. This soft reboot is the closest ever to a hard one...

Forgetting the original run is easier to do than overlooking character motivation or plotholes, LOL! But thankfully, all shows have those to varying degrees... Yeah, whatever mindset - new parallel universe or whatever, it'll probably make liking the new episodes easier. Not sure why a new show based on a new time traveler can't be done, it's not like "Voyagers!" from 1985 wasn't a flop, or all the other shows based on old properties but did a new spin and direction unrelated to the original... which then circles back to the lack of continuity in Doctor Who...

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I'm curious, how is this so different from what came before?

 

[Mr Awe]

Creative control and no influence are not the same thing.
We know they have suggestions for the script and there is an entire scene in the episode because of that.
But it‘s the falling snowman/police man dialogue, which is there because Someone at Disney thought it would be better if the Doctor showed up earlier and did stuff.
As far as I know they didn’t come up with the goblin song.

I get that. But you don't rub them the wrong way for too long!

I agree with Disney suggestions for more Ncuti. Early on, the story was looking like one of those too little of the Doctor stories that introduce the new Doctor (see Castrovalva and Tennant's intro). But then Ncuti showed up more in those scenes. Didn't realize they were Disney's suggestions at the time!

 

[Sketcher]

If there was another 10-15 year gap, you might be able to get away with having the Doctor being more of a mysterious figure who appears less as we follow Ruby discovering his world. But I feel like who the Doctor is happens to be so ingrained in public consciousness at this point, you might as well have him appear more than not.

 

[David cgc]

Yeah, I’ve always thought Doctor-lite premieres are terribly boring. “Rose,” “The Christmas Invasion,” and “Deep Breath” all lose a lot from orbiting around the Doctor instead of letting the Doctor be the Doctor. Contrast those with “Smith and Jones,” “Partners in Crime,” “The Eleventh Hour,” and “The Pilot,” which have a much better balance of introducing the Companion without downplaying the Doctor (I think “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” is just barely on the wrong side of the line). I know there’s a theory that starting in a more grounded mode helps attracts a wider audience who’d normally be turned off by wacky space adventures, but I’m not sure how much that happens in practice. Do a lot of people in the UK turn on Doctor Who by accident?

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I know there’s a theory that starting in a more grounded mode helps attracts a wider audience who’d normally be turned off by wacky space adventures, but I’m not sure how much that happens in practice. Do a lot of people in the UK turn on Doctor Who by accident?

I do think there are people who might have a basic idea of what the show is like but who have never really sat down and watched. Maybe they catch wind of the Doctor changing and it's someone they've liked in other productions or they're intrigued that it's a woman or a young black man or something and decide to give it a whirl.

In this case, being Christmas, I was at my sister's and my family had all retreated to napping or other things, so finding myself alone in the living room I threw on the special. My dad wondered in late after it started and was really into it and even asking what show it was which he never does.

 

[Redfern]

...so finding myself alone in the living room I threw on the special. My dad wondered in late after it started and was really into it and even asking what show it was which he never does.

Aww, that's so sweet! (I state that earnestly.) You think he might continue watching, maybe even catching some of the previous material?

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Aww, that's so sweet! (I state that earnestly.) You think he might continue watching, maybe even catching some of the previous material?

I'm not sure, he's not usually much for that kind of stuff, he might go for 9/10 but I was really bummed there wasn't more 15 yet to watch. He seemed to really enjoy the specific vibe of Ruby Road and those characters.

 

[Chakoteya]

I'm curious, how is this so different from what came before?

It is set in M-space. (Mavity, magic) My personal term, but I'm not enforcing copyright.
The Doctor is no longer a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. They are from yet another dimension or universe, apparently, and brought back by the first Time traveller. They have unlimited regenerations, and are therefore immortal, but have not succumbed to the ennui of, say, Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged. Go look it up.
The logical result of which could be an entire Universe populated by Doctors zipping back and forth through TIme. and no one else, eventually.
(The 12 regenerations and you die physically forever and your mind is put into the Matrix now only applies to Gallifrey-born Time Lords I presume.)