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Doctor Who 2023

I was a bit underwhelmed I'm afraid. David Tennant was great as was his relationship with Catherine Tate, I thought Rose was a great character as was Donna's husband.

But I felt that some of the acting from the UNIT characters was weak and that slightly distanced me from the emotion.

So it's a 5 out of 10 for me
 
Better than usual, but nothing special.

I liked that the unit soldiers all wore the same model Atomic Suplex (mark 1,2 & 3) helmets.
I was cool with the Donna get out of jail reveal, and I liked her daughter.

I would rather the Meep kept her cute persona after being discovered as ruthless and evil. That would have been more fun and made more sense.
The tardis interior long / wide shots look terrible, but the CUs are nice.

The unit wheelchair actor was terrible, and the wheelchair weapons laughable. . . But in a nice silly way, so I didn't really mind. Fun and silly is fine.

Worst bit was evil face meep and a duff edit that made the climax (to credits) look weak.
 
Chz said:
I'm just grateful they were only saving London and not the entire fucking universe again. Ideally, they'll jist be saving their own arses in the next one.
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And this. Yes.
I guess it had to be a big enough sacrifice. . . . But could have easily have been written a bit smaller. Croydon (for Pat Mills sake) or camden?

Which reminds me, my daughter was pleased she has a photo of herself by the stairs where the tardis was parked. . . (But then millions of people all around the world will too, for Clash reasons. )
 
danny la rouge said:
Och, it was always going to be like that. I’m just glad she got to remember the Doctor and live.
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It was no surprise that there would be some illogical waving away of the whole "you're going to die" thing, but I didn't like the reason that was used for waving it away.
I am sure they could have come up with something a bit better than what essentially boils down to "you've reproduced so you're special" - yeah you and half the world mate. (And what if she'd been infertile or chosen not to have kids or not been in a suitable circumstance to have kids, she'd have died then?)
Might be just me though. I tend to dislike the whole "special woman" type theme that modern Who had going on in terms of companions, and although I like Donna and welcome her return, I hope that superhuman special companion thing isn't going to continue into Gatwa's reign. I want companions (whatever their gender identity) to be ordinary people who are courageous, not somehow cosmically special.
 
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Epona said:
It was no surprise that there would be some illogical waving away of the whole "you're going to die" thing, but I didn't like the reason that was used for waving it away.
I am sure they could have come up with something a bit better than what essentially boils down to "you've reproduced so you're special" - yeah you and half the world mate.
Might be just me though. I tend to dislike the whole "special woman" type theme that modern Who had going on in terms of companions, and although I like Donna and welcome her return, I hope that superhuman special companion thing isn't going to continue into Gatwa's reign.
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Haven't seen it yet but this super companion stuff is a bit old.

Maybe the show runners feel they have to make up for the "assistant" years when some of the companions were patronised?
 
krtek a houby said:
Haven't seen it yet but this super companion stuff is a bit old.

Maybe the show runners feel they have to make up for the "assistant" years when some of the companions were patronised?
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Well it's Donna so these episodes were always going to continue that theme, I just hope they don't do it with Gatwa's companions!
They are IMO supposed to be a relatable and human side to the Doctor's otherworldyness, a bridge between us and a foil for plot exposition - not something apart from and better than us as viewers.
 
I always really rated Donna as a companion btw, before the Donna-Doctor thing - I was extremely dubious when I heard she was going to be a companion, having only been familiar with her comedy show really before that - but she is among my all time favourite companions.
One of my other favourites was Tegan - I never liked that era of Doctor Who at the time tbh, but I think Tegan was a superb companion. She was ordinary and brave and opinionated.
Sorry if I've taken it off topic as people are still likely catching up on the new episode!
 
Also if Yasmin Finney isn't going to be a future companion (or at least a recurring character) on a more long-term basis, then I'll be a bit disappoint.
 
PTK said:
Well, that was rather bad.

By the way, I would have thought that RTD would have known the difference between “transgender” and “non-binary”.
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It would have been nice if they'd just been able to put a trans character in without her trans-ness becoming a plot hook. The resolution would have worked just as well without the 'non-binary' stuff.

The important thing is that trans folk exist on screen. They don't need superpowers.

This is probably a minor grumble though. It's a show for kids. That character will probably mean a lot to them.
 
I mean it's not like we've had decades of telly being full of straight cis white people or anything.

Complaints about people being seen to be trans in a tv drama smack a bit of "as long as they don't shove it down our throats"
 
Epona said:
I mean it's not like we've had decades of telly being full of straight cis white people or anything.

Complaints about people being seen to be trans in a tv drama smack a bit of "as long as they don't shove it down our throats"
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It's nice to have representation. My grumble, like some, is with the proliferation of super powered companions who come back from the dead or save existence etc...
 
I didn't know the actor was trans, (I didn't even notice) and trans wasn't mentioned. They talked about non-binary, which I personally thought came out of nowhere, were we just supposed to know? Binary numbers are not quite the same thing but hey ho. It probably wasn't necessary, I thought having a baby was enough. . . and it was enough that the doctor didn't consider that possibility / get out clause. Diluting the power. My daughter took it in her stride though and just accepted it all quite happily, so it's ok with me. When I was older than her two girls had a kiss on brookside and the whole county had a meltdown.
 
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ATOMIC SUPLEX said:
I didn't know the actor was trans, (I didn't even notice) and trans wasn't mentioned. They talked about non-binary, which I personally thought came out of nowhere, where we just supposed to know? Binary numbers are not quite the same thing but hey ho. It probably wasn't necessary, I thought having a baby was enough. . . and it was enough that the doctor didn't consider that possibility / get out clause. Diluting the power. My daughter took it in her stride though and just accepted it all quite happily, so it's ok with me. When I was older than her two girls had a kiss on brookside and the whole county had a meltdown.
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The kiss immortalised in the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, iirc
 
ATOMIC SUPLEX said:
I didn't know the actor was trans, (I didn't even notice) and trans wasn't mentioned. They talked about non-binary, which I personally thought came out of nowhere, were we just supposed to know? Binary numbers are not quite the same thing but hey ho. It probably wasn't necessary, I thought having a baby was enough. . . and it was enough that the doctor didn't consider that possibility / get out clause. Diluting the power. My daughter took it in her stride though and just accepted it all quite happily, so it's ok with me. When I was older than her two girls had a kiss on brookside and the whole county had a meltdown.
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The whole country did not have a meltdown, a few tabloids went to town over it.
 
Although the resolution was a bit weak and very RTD, I thought the way it all built on the Doctor Donna's final words 'binary binary' etc was quite clever.

My partner missed it so a rewatch is on the cards tonight which I'm looking forward to, and I don't think I'd have said that about any of the Chibnall episodes, apart from Power of the Doctor.
 
SpookyFrank said:
It would have been nice if they'd just been able to put a trans character in without her trans-ness becoming a plot hook. The resolution would have worked just as well without the 'non-binary' stuff.

The important thing is that trans folk exist on screen. They don't need superpowers.

This is probably a minor grumble though. It's a show for kids. That character will probably mean a lot to them.
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We're not yet in a world where a trans person can just be in something, sadly. In the companion BBC Three programme RTD talked about wanting a strong positive pro trans message for children and parents. Good on him. I thought the joke about the Doctor using' the ' pronouns was pretty good.
 
I've just rewatched it with OH when he got in from his night shift - and it was just as good on a second viewing.

I really think that's the best episode in a long time and will probably be noted as among one of the most popular and impactful Doctor Who stories.
 
krtek a houby said:
Just started watching it. Absolutely delighted Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons have a credit!
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I sudden realised when I saw their names alongside the title of the episode that it was based (loosely) on an old Doctor Who comics story that's in an anthology I bought for gsv, that I happened to flick through a few weeks ago!

20231126_103250.jpg

We quite liked the episode, bit of a cop out with Donna, but all very well done
 
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