Doctor Who

Loved it. It was fun, cheesy at times, but also down to earth where it mattered. Also a big fan of RTD giving a big middle finger to everyone who complained about Jodie's era being too "woke." I find it kinda funny that RTD did more with a female doctor in one episode than Chibnal did in 3 years, and he didn't even have a female doctor.

Only complaint is the resolution to the metacrisis where they just get rid of it. Feels a bit hand-wavy and also the one thing in the episode that I felt was a bit preachy. Loved the stuff before it though, with Rose inheriting it.

I like the new intro.

RTD is back!

• news broadcasts? check
• spaceships crashing? check
• big green rubbery aliens? check
• the sonic being just completely absurd space magic? check
• companions actually having real family members instead of cardboard cutouts? check
• extreme cheesiness gives way to genuinely touching moments? check
• deus ex machina ending that also has the Doctor hitting loads of switches and buttons? check

I don't know if it's just nostalgia for old NuWho, but it was really enjoyable after the so-so slog of Chibnall's seasons.

Here's hoping one of the three episodes is something in the vein of "Midnight", RTD's best single episode IMO.

I loved it, personally! David Tennant and Catherine Tate felt like they'd been away for a month or two rather than 15 years, and it's so nice for Doctor Who to just be fun and funny again.

I know some people didn't like the "let it go" resolution, but also that's just Russell T. Davies I think. You get utterly bonkers ideas (Beep The Meep on primetime TV as a big comeback monster!) a political point of view that he's not afraid to completely smash you over the head with, and an out-of-nowhere hand-wavy resolution that fixes everything (remember when the Doctor became flying space Jesus and then they erased the human race getting genocided back in the day?)

Also I loved the conversation in the cab:

"How's Nerys?"

"She's fine."

"Since the accident?"

"She's not fine."

"It was her fault."

"She's been fined."

ALSO I really like the new TARDIS interior. Someone on another site described Tennant running around it as like a dog with the zoomies lol.

It was alright but I didn't enjoy it as much as others seem to have done. Everything was so obvious. Donna tells her daughter that she will protect her so you know this will come in play later. The coffee thing was mentioned and I immediately knew she'll spill it. The way the "why Donna didn't die" was a bit resolved in a weird way, she is a woman so she can "let go" and give birth, which is so weird that the Doctor didn't think about this (he literally was a woman just before). Ultimately it doesn't make sense, someone passes a disease to their kid it doesn't mean that the disease is now weaker. That's not how inherited illnesses work. I love that there's a trans character but everything about her is just them saying that she is trans, I wanna know more about her and not just her sexuality. It was handled good in the conversation between Donna and her mother but then it went a bit overboard for my taste.

After a second watch, I really started to like Rose's backstory especially since Time Lords can be considered non binary.

My only qualm is it felt a bit rushed, it's too bad there wasn't a way to slowly eldlude to why Rose is the way the are. It all got thrown at us in 30 seconds at the end of the episode.

As someone else wrote somewhere... RTD's back, which means the carnival's back in town. Lots of running about, flashing lights, loud music, a stunt show with exploding things and people shooting at each other, and comedy hi jinks.

I liked the small things - the time vortex having open areas with multiple paths from 13, the helping/oh-shit-nope-not-helping with the stacking, the psychic paper not keeping up, 'she's fine/she's not fine/been fine', Sylvia's "YOU!", Donna's 'WHAT THE HELL!', the 'you can't know your future conversation' up until they mentioned (again) that Donna dies if she remembers. Didn't mind the parademons, like the idea of the Sonic having a UI (but hated the shields), loved The Meep even after they got sidelined for the big ending. Console room was kinda meh still, big and bland atm.

The Sonic Screwdriver seems to have gotten an upgrade

Wife and I loved this episode, just so great. Hate that Jodie didn't have writers and stories as great as this. My wife did find a bit of a plot hole though. This story takes 15 years later right? Donna got married 15 years ago, assuming she got married not long after the meta crisis. So Rose should be 13 or 14 at the oldest. Rose clearly is in her late teens.

That console room needs furniture! It's just a bunch of ramps and catwalks that don't seem to go anywhere. Hopefully Donna can give it more of a homey touch - some nice lamps and wallhangings, maybe.

I really enjoyed the episode for what it was. It served as a decent introduction for the Disney+ crowd without being too convoluted. Which given this was a continuation of a 15 year old plot thread was handled about as well as it could be.

My biggest complaint was how integrated Rose was into the resolution to the metacrisis. I am not trans and don't pretend to know even a fraction of the struggles they face in our society. The normalisation of Rose throughout the episode and an acknowledgement of how even very well meaning family work to be inclusive felt very natural. However, I did not like how her being trans seemed to have been caused by the metacrisis. It felt like it flew in the face of the normalisation. The reading in the episode is Rose is only trans because of that timelord DNA influence. It felt wrong to reduce her character to being nothing more than a quirk of fate rather than just who she is naturally.

I'd have preferred a 'Lets all hold hands and the family shares the burden' hand waving than what we got. Rose deserved more than what we got and certainly more screen time. It was quite weird the rest of the family didn't go see Wilf. I get they were setting up episode 2, but in the context of the moment it felt really out of character for MumDonna.

To those confused about how Donna and Rose were able to 'Let it go' now rather than back then, Frozen wasn't released until 4 years later so it musn't have occurred to the Doctor... In all seriousness, I'd point to the scene from The Day of the Doctor where Clara opens the unlocked door for the 'clever' Doctors. Sometimes he'll look for the best solution without realising a simple one is in front of him.

The new TARDIS interior was gorgeous, harkens back to the Hartnell console room. I loved the first thing 13 did was start running around. So much room to practise running haha.

All in all, a solid.episode with some flaws. I really liked the new style and you could feel that new budget while still having a Dr. Who charm aliens that looked like they'd been handmade. I'd put it around a 7.5/8 out of 10. Good foundation, interested to see if it is built on. It definitely makes me excited for Ncuti's run.

Thought this was delightful. So glad to be watching again after taking the last few seasons off.