Share your thoughts, delights, criticisms, and describe your face when
spoiler
the musical number kicked in.
Please honor Bill and Ted’s Law: Be excellent to each other.
So, I rarely like a doctor for the first several episodes, my brain can’t get past the last doctor. Took me forever with Smith. I always end up rewatching them later and loving them, it’s just that I can’t handle the sudden differentness well.
All that said, I really freaking enjoyed this one. I’m not fully in love with Ncuti yet, but I did really enjoy the episode, and LOVED the song. Oddly, the only Doctor I loved first off was Jodi. Ncuti is closer than most, though.
Also. That kilt. Meow.
Also loving the new sonic.
ETA
Forgot to mention, Ruby really reminds me of Clara in the best way.
The only thing about the song was I couldn’t get my head around the logic of it. I know logic is usually pretty far off in RTD’s stories, but it usually at least pretends there a reason for things that happen. Unless I missed it, there wasn’t even a word of dialogue about the singing.
I think the logic was that the goblins were singing, like, as part of their culture. Not like Musical logic, but more like how some cultures pray in song, or some cultures chant. Goblins sing big numbers as a way of worshipping/venerating the goblin king, or perhaps it’s similar to how Christians say grace before a meal. Gotta sing for your dinner. The doctor and Ruby just took advantage of that aspect of their culture and Bugs Bunny’d their way outta there.
Calling it now: Ruby’s parents are from space/the future and they die. The woman who dropped Ruby off is Ruby from the season finale.
The episode was entertaining but I’m not sure how I feel about actual magic in doctor who. Even the witches from the Shakespeare episode had technology. Genre shifting an entire show is certainly a choice.
This was definitely more of a character episode than an adventure, with the bad guys taking a backseat and then just disappearing. If unit could have shot the ship with a laser and the episode ends the same then it’s a bad resolution.
If magic is a troublesome word you can technobabble the thing instead.
Like in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds musical episode, they encounter a field of improbability.
You can “quantumify” anything that seems magical into something that sounds sciency. :)
Magic I can pass off as just weird science that we don’t have the language to explain yet, just like the Not-Things from the space beyond space. The goblins weren’t all that different from the reapers that eat paradoxes.
I thought this episode was great and so fun! The song was a surprise but I really enjoyed it, what a great tune. I’ve found the big dramatic speeches to be too much in the past. For a time with Matt Smith it felt like the Doctor never did anything - he just explained how great he is then the baddies gave up. When he started singing though it was more like he was playing the goblin’s game and buying time to find the master knot which I much preferred.
Ruby seems like a clever and kind person and a quick thinker. Brave enough to chase the baby onto the roof, didn’t miss a beat when she got thrown into the song, worked out what the Doctor is at the end of the episode. Fantastic.
The Doctor looked really great dancing in the skirt at the start and I thought him and Ruby’s band singer were nice touches for enby / gender-non-conforming representation. It felt like he’s learned from Jodie’s doctor to be more relaxed and fun.
There was a bit at the start where my family said “the Doctor’s black” and I just cringed and was glad they didn’t watch the previous episodes with Rose in. I really liked her and was thrilled to see a trans actor employed to play her. Really feels like they’re stepping up and getting all sorts of people in the Dr Who universe.
All fine points, except:
It’s not a skirt, it’s a kilt.
Those calves. Dang.
Yeah, definitely could be. It’s got a tartan pattern but there’s no sporran and the camera doesn’t really linger in it. In my head it was just the Doctor choosing optimal clothing to look great while dancing xD
Sporrans are optional. It’s just a satchel that many people wear with their kilt to carry personal items, but it’s not essential, unless it’s part of a full uniform.
Tough to say, though I imagine a sporran would likely throw off The Doctor’s groove.
Mixed feelings overall.
Fifteen minutes in I was resenting the typical RTD family ‘stuff’ and still waiting for the story to actually start. I was definitely into the ‘I don’t care about these people’ zone - often said to be the 6 words that kill any story.
Then it did get going and was fun as long as you went with the flow. I did feel that we were as close to Gaiman’s Neverwhere and the Marquis de Carabas as we were to the Doctor in this though.
That was nice! Wasn’t a huge fan of the musical number, but it was fine. Feel like I’m still struggling to get a good feel for 15’s vibe, but it seems good overall. Ruby and her family are great. Mavity is still a thing and I wonder if “Coincidence” is going to be a theme with these two.
Also, how is nobody talking about that stinger? Some character that breaks the 4th wall? That’s new. Was it her hand at the end of the last episode? I’m going over the scenes with her in my head and just have more questions XD
I’ve been incredibly entertained by this season, and I think that’s the most important thing in a Who series . Excited to see more of the Doctor!
(Not just because he’s an absolute slice 🤤)
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I really really like this fresh start. We’ve had a broken Doctor for over twenty years now. It was interesting for a time but it was getting more than tiresome over the years.
Ncuti’s Doctor is modern, caring and beautiful. The bi-generation was splendidly done and this Christmas episode was astonishingly refreshing. I’m so hyped for the new season :)
Definitely enjoyed it!
The song was a bit shocking, but fun. The Doctor singing wasn’t all that crazy, but Ruby doing it was. Hopefully they continue to show her being that quick witted in the future.
I’m not sure on the new sonic though. When I initially saw pics of it, I thought it’d be a bracelet type situation and that’s cool, but that doesn’t seem like it’s the case and it just seems big and bulky. Time will tell.
But seriously, WTF is Mrs. Flood?
I’m not going to speculate as to her precise identity, but if we take everything the episode showed us at face value:
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She knows what a TARDIS is.
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She did not recognize the Doctor’s police box as a TARDIS until he dematerialized it in front of her, and even then did not seem to know who the Doctor was.
Again, if we are to take all this at face value, I think that narrows the list of candidates significantly, and rules out most, if not all, “familiar” characters.
Could she be a former companion of a pre-Hartnell Doctor? I know the Fugitive Doctor’s TARDIS appeared as a police box to Thirteen, but it’s very possible the chameleon circuit was operational in those days.
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