Spoilers Wild Blue Yonder grade and discussion thread

[Mr Awe]

RTD really has to 'stick the landing' with The Giggle in order to justify the decision to officially make Tennant both the Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors, or there's going to unfortunately and unnecessarily be a 'pall' over Ncuti's tenure for me (at least initially).

For me, just having 14 assist with restoring Donna's memories and all of their interactions we've seen already justify it. It's been an absolute blast. With two great specials, I am not worried about RTD sticking the landing. There is no "pall."

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

So, as expected my guess on the mystery and conclusion was entirely wrong.
Move along, nothing to see.

i enjoyed it.
It was unsettling at times.
And the slow robot was cool. It was an actual robot, following a program, not a sentient AI super intelligence rattling of funny catchphrases (gadget gadget!)

I do see where people are coming from with the expectations of a big love fest for the last 60 years with callbacks and cameos (all 58 Doctors) and whatnot.
But I am fine with this story.

we got the big Tennant/Donna reunion last time and the inclusion of a decades old famous comic story last week.
We got a scary one off space adventure (what could be more Doctor Who?) and next week we are getting the return of a Hartnell villain, unit, old companions, less old companions, maybe a sneak peek at the next Doctor, possibly cameos by previous Doctors and a big end of the world adventure.
Something of everything that makes the show…

 

[Mr. Adventure]

We got a scary one off space adventure (what could be more Doctor Who?)

One featuring a very long corridor to boot.

 

[DigificWriter]

For me, just having 14 assist with restoring Donna's memories and all of their interactions we've seen already justify it. It's been an absolute blast. With two great specials, I am not worried about RTD sticking the landing. There is no "pall."

I've been vehemently (originally) to mildly (currently) upset about RTD choosing to have David Tennant play two official incarnations of The Doctor, which is why I need The Giggle to justify that decision in a manner that I find satisfactory.

Otherwise, Ncuti's tenure is going to feel diminished.

 

[thribs]

Technically three incarnations of the Doctor

 

[Mr Awe]

Otherwise, Ncuti's tenure is going to feel diminished.

Ncuti's tenure will stand or fall on its own. I'm sure he himself wouldn't want Tennant's run as 14 to determine how well people react to his run.

 

[Sketcher]

Was Tennant coming back supposed to be anything other than getting to see two popular characters with his Doctor and Donna reunited? At worst, it's, yeah, damage control from Chibnal's tenure, but still, I didn't expect it to have some resounding changes to lore. Sometimes fun is just there to be fun.

Same with this episode. Sandwiched between reestablishing and reintroducing past characters in The Star Beast, and whatever The Giggle has to offer in an epic finale ushering in Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor, Wild Blue Yonder was our only real chance of seeing the Doctor and Donna on an adventure for adventure's sake.

 

[Phily B]

I really enjoyed it.

I do dislike recasting historical characters like Isaac Newton as Indian or ethnic. It is lazy diversity for diversity's sake, instead of actually exploring the background of native or ethnic people. How about you make your stories diverse instead? World culture outside of the UK is full of rich stories and lore you could explore.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I really enjoyed it.

I do dislike recasting historical characters like Isaac Newton as Indian or ethnic. It is lazy diversity for diversity's sake, instead of actually exploring the background of native or ethnic people. How about you make your stories diverse instead? World culture outside of the UK is full of rich stories and lore you could explore.

Maybe he was the best actor for the job.

 

[thribs]

That might be Disney demanding things like that. They have to pander after all.

 

[cultcross]

Having digested a little more, it seems like the main purpose was to get a two-hander (moreso with David and Catherine than the Doctor and Donna), but that kind of became the only purpose of the episode. The situation essentially resolved itself, the Doctor and Donna were totally unnecessary and everything would've turned out fine if the TARDIS hadn't ended up there (indeed, possibly slightly better, with the Doctor being concerned that he may have accidentally conjured up interdimensional space vampires while bluffing with the salt). The TARDIS popped back on its own to save them, and the TARDIS was the one who figured out the Doctor picked the wrong Donna to save (which seemed oddly sanguine about in the end, it feels like that should've been the kind of thing she'd give him shit for). They figured out what the story of ship's captain was, which I guess is a valid mystery-structure for conveying a narrative, like in a short story, but we still never found out what the ship was, if there had been more than just the captain on it, or anything else beyond how someone else had already encountered and resolved the threat before the Doctor and Donna ever showed up. Even the Doctor's resolution, such as it was, was just to speed up what was already happening. The Doctor and Donna didn't solve any problems or come to any deductions, everything was done for them. It was just way too easy.

It was stylish, and what was there was well-executed, but for a decennial anniversary, and coming off of a period where the Doctor was written as generally being uncharacteristically passive and powerless, I don't think it lives up to what it should've been. Even for implications outside the episode itself as a standalone, as has been mentioned, the real Donna knows (or is willing to say) nothing about the Flux or the Timeless Child, and the Doctor seems to be back to his worst impulses with lying to his companions and suppressing his emotions and concerns, despite the big talk about the Fourteenth Doctor being a different, more mature version of the character than the Tenth.

I could probably say more nice things about the episode, but it would all be in the context of disliking Chibnall's writing, and that would turn into preferring Moffat's, and that'd be unfair to everyone. So, just stick with the broad notes: Run the "Indiana Jones" test (apocryphal, but useful), and think about how your plot would be different if your protagonists hadn't shown up at all.

My thoughts on this episode mirror yours. These episodes of the show where they run round a haunted house equivalent and weird shit happens are generally my least favourite and one of our big specials is one of those. The passivity in this one annoyed me too - 10 and Donna just exist for a bit while events play out around them. Even the TARDIS deciding to return on her own isn't triggered by any cleverness on their part and makes little sense as the danger was hardly over.

Loved seeing Wilf, and I remain much less frustrated with the writing than at any time during Chibnall's run but this wasn't a particularly memorable or gripping episode for me. It needed something of greater mavity.

Much like Donna I can't remember what happened in the Flux despite watching it, so that bit felt very real.

One obvious example is when the tardis whizzes by and apples drop and the dude starts yelling, the music blaring out his yelling and whinging and all is definitely muted by the loud lame music

The mysterious noise they hear was so caught up in the music the first couple of times I couldn't tell what was in universe noise and what was the score.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Great to see a ZX Spectrum +2 at the start.

I really enjoyed this one.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Boy, physics formulas are going to be confusing now. F=M((M+m)/r^2)?

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Another top notch episode, great to see Cribbins again.

As for the flux thing, which i have tried to watch on various occasions but just lost interest, yet along comes RTD along with Tennent and Tate who managed to make it sound actually interesting in that small throwback to it, so just imagine what he could have done with Whittikers entire run, such a massive missed oppertunity for Whittiker, who in my view got the worst show runner for her run as the doctor.

 

[Pindar]

Why was the TARDIS playing Wild Blue Yonder?

Strange choice, I have never heard it. Seems an unlikely song for a school teacher to choose unless Mrs Bean had a relative in the US Airforce.

 

[cultcross]

Forgot to give credit for the Thunderbirds reference, nicely done

 

[Starkers]

I really enjoyed it.

I do dislike recasting historical characters like Isaac Newton as Indian or ethnic. It is lazy diversity for diversity's sake, instead of actually exploring the background of native or ethnic people. How about you make your stories diverse instead? World culture outside of the UK is full of rich stories and lore you could explore.

Someone on Twitter yesterday pointed out how many white actors have played ethnic characters on Who over the years and how many times ethnic actors have played white characters. The disparity is shocking, plus this was a respectful portrayal at least, unlike many of those "white guy" does yellowface examples.

Plus it was all of two minutes and frankly it took me most of that time to realise he even was biracial and that he was the guy out of It's a Sin.

 

[jaime]

Another thing I had noticed is the Doctor very specifically refers to the TARDIS as "it" which is an interesting pronoun given all the adventures. Was all the "sexy" stuff and all that after RTD's tenure?

The Tardis has been a She a very long time.

 

[Phily B]

Someone on Twitter yesterday pointed out how many white actors have played ethnic characters on Who over the years and how many times ethnic actors have played white characters. The disparity is shocking, plus this was a respectful portrayal at least, unlike many of those "white guy" does yellowface examples.

Plus it was all of two minutes and frankly it took me most of that time to realise he even was biracial and that he was the guy out of It's a Sin.

It's a lazy attempt at diversity that plays down how black people were treated by this country for hundreds of years - they play into this during Season 3 with the one where he has lost his memory and is being hunted with them not thinking someone like Martha could be a doctor.

If they want to do some diversity with the past, go do some episodes in Ancient Africa and explore that culture for once.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I thought the episode was brilliant, although I was slightly irked about the gravity/mavity joke. Newton did not coin the term "gravity". He spoke and wrote Latin and was well aware of the Latin word "gravitas" used by Medieval natural philosophers to translate the Aristotelian term "βάρος" (varos) that denoted the weight quality of a body. He merely shifted its meaning from being a quality to being a force. "Gravis" is a Latin adjective that means (among other things) "severe" or "weighty" and "mavis" is Latin for "you prefer". I'd prefer that RTD didn't make Newton look like a simpleton, although Newton was definitely an oddball. I don't care what skin colour he is depicted with. I've never heard the central band of the RAF play "Wild Blue Yonder", but I'm sure they could turn their hands to it.

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