The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

[Dr Kain]

Jeez, now I'm really confused. On the bonus features back for the first disc, they said Peter's last name was pronounced as "Capaildi," but the extras I watched tonight were pronouncing it as "Capauldi," which is what I originally thought it was. Which is it? Anyway...

Face the Raven/Heaven Sent/Hellbent - Oh my god, this was hands down Capaldi's greatest story! It was nice to see Rigsy back for what ended up being an interestingly saddening finale to Clara. Or at least, it seemed that way. The scene when the Doctor goes off on Arya Stark was just brilliant. Of course, the highlight, and what is hands down the greatest Doctor Who episode since Vincent and the Doctor is without a doubt "Heaven Sent." Not only was it like watching someone play a Clock Tower video game, but Capaldi does a phenomenal job of being able to pull off the entire episode on his own. The creature in this thing was creepy as hell. It was also refreshing that was he kept mysterious without any real identity. Easily the best creature since the Silence. And then to finish it all off we have the extremely radiant Hellbent, which featured a pissed off Doctor treating the Time Lords like utter trash, and rightly so. Watching him step outside of the barn, see that the leader is not there and walking back in was superb. What even made it more powerful is how he was able to turn the guards against him without uttering a single word. Sure, bringing Clara back was a little dumbfounded, as it kind of ruined her final sacrifice, but since she is going to fix that time issue, it's not that big of a deal, especially considering how powerful Jenna's acting continued to be in the end. The only true negative I have is it seemed quite pointless to have the Sisters of Karn there as they didn't do anything. Nevertheless, this was a grandiose season finale the show has not had since the Pandorica two parter, if not Journey's End.

The Husbands of River Song - While not as dark and depressing as the finale trilogy, it still manages to pull on your heart strings knowing this is the last time the Doctor and River will ever meet. It does get a little campy in bits, especially when it comes to the emperor that sounds like the name of an off-brand cereal, but the show works for the most part. Watching the Doctor pretend to be amazed at the interior of the Tardis was hilarious and those aliens that could open their heads were intriguing.

The Return of Dr Mysterio - As I've always said, this special does Superman better than freaking Man of Steel and Justice League. How is it that BBC is able to understand what Superman is supposed to be when even the character's owners can't figure it out? It was fun, it was cheesy, and most of all, he wore a god damned costume!! That alone right there makes it better than most super hero films and TV shows. Add on top some quirkily funny dialog, especially when Not-Lois Lane is interviewing the Doctor with the squishy toy, and you have yourself a good time. What makes it even more impressive about Grant/The Ghost is that he was the dude that couldn't even act his way through Dragonball Evolution, yet, he does a fantastic job here. Nardal was weird, especially since I have no idea how the Doctor was able to re-attach his head. On the downside, I wish they had done more with the head splitting aliens as they left a lot of potential open from Husbands, but oh well.

Well that concludes Season 9 (and technically starts Season 10) and what a season this one was. Capaldi and Coleman just killed it with every episode. I know I'm repeating myself, but this season was the best season since Smith's first, and perhaps even better than that one. The multi-part stories for the majority of the season was a great idea and I wish they would have continued doing that for the next instead of returning to the redundant single story episodes. Furthermore, I loved how much horror was involved with this season as it really did feel like Moffat was channeling his inner Hinchcliffe. Then again, even Capaldi seemed to be conveying his love for Tom Baker here as he was full of the egotistical and thought provoking conversations the Fourth Doctor envoked. Moffat and his team were clearly at the top of their game for this season. My rankings are as follows:

1. Face the Raven/Heaven Sent/Hellbent
2. Under the Lake/Before the Flood
3. The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar
4. The Girl Who Lived/The Woman Who Died
5. The Last Christmas
6. The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion
7. The Husbands of River Song
8. The Return of Dr Mysterio
9. Sleep No More

[Dr Kain]

The Pilot - Not exactly the most thrilling season premier, but it does have its merits. The scenes showing the Doctor do his lectures was neat as it shows us why people love his lectures as opposed to us just having to believe Bill's words that people do. That's always nice when writers decide to show you something rather than just tell you about it. That seems to be a rarity these days since exposition is so much easier and cheaper. The plot itself had some cool bits as the water creature thing built up a frightening persona as the episode progressed. On the other hand, I'm not sure what I think about Bill still. I wasn't blown away with her the first time I watched this season and I'm still not sure right now. She asks way too many questions, and while that is something someone would realistically do, it does tend to get on the annoying side since it leads into the aforementioned exposition dumps.

Smile - Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, an interesting premise that feels kind of underwhelming in the end. I'm not sure why it doesn't work for me, as it had a lot of solid moments such as when the Doctor reveals the fertilizer to be people, but I've seen this type of plot before many times over and outside of trying to do Emoji robots, it didn't feel like it was original enough. Of course, this was a far superior Emoji Movie compared to the one that actually exists, so I guess it has that going for it despite Patrick Stewart not being present. Thankfully, the episode doesn't drag on, so I'm not going to complain about it too much.

[Dr Kain]

Thin Ice - A pretty enjoyable episode, though Bill questioning everything is starting to get tiresome. Sometimes it's funny, especially when the Doctor trolls her with things like, "Peter did step on a butterfly," other times, it's not. The giant fish monster was a decent idea. My favorite scene is when they trick the foreman dude into revealing everthing.

Knock Knock - This one starts off really great with an intriguing mystery and suspense, but it kind of gets stiff in the end. It's a little too wooden for my taste. I don't know, the ending just seems kind of generic, especially since everyone is resurrected at the end, making their "deaths" meaningless.

[Dr Kain]

And the Silurians - For being 7 episodes, it was well paced. There were only a few scenes that I felt dragged a bit, but nothing major enough where I was wishing it was only like 4 episodes long. The Silurians were a little goofy looking, but they came out feeling like true threats. I really liked the dynamic between the Doctor and Liz, especially when they were working on the cure for the virus. Speaking of which, the virus was a little lackluster because the effects made no sense. Some people dropped dead almost immediately while others seemed unaffected by it for hours, if at all. Like the government worker idiot. He manages to take a train, a taxi, and then walk around before he drops dead while other people were dead just from being next to someone.

[Benjamin Haines]

World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls - Holy hell. Now that's a wallop of a season finale! Usually the second episodes in these two-part finales don't quite measure up to the dreadful setup of the first parts but this is an absolute knockout. These are two of the best episodes of Doctor Who and one of the best stories of Peter Capaldi's run.


Overall, Series 10 is a very strong run of episodes. It shows the Doctor living in an interesting new status-quo which gets illuminated midway through the season and keeps building from there. Bill and Nardole are terrific companions and each of them has a dynamic with the Doctor that's fresh and fun to watch. Most of the episodes are standalone adventures but there's a trio (or quartet) of connected stories right in the middle. The returning writers bring some of their best work yet, the new writers offer some interesting stories and Steven Moffat is absolutely at the top of his game for his final season as showrunner.

Now we just have one more episode with Capaldi as the Doctor and we're actually going to watch this Christmas special today, on Christmas, albeit two years late!

[Dr Kain]

Oxygen - I was not all that thrilled with this one. I loved the idea that oxygen has to be purchased as it makes me think of Spaceballs, but for the most part, this episode was pretty by the book when it came to execution. I've seen this type of plot done so much better. I also hate the Doctor going blind plot as it makes his success even more ridiculous and shows how excessive his plot conveniences are.

Extremis/The Pyramid at the End of the World/The Lie of the Land - Ugh, where do I start with this one? It is easily one of the worst Capaldi stories imaginable. Extremis has some cool stuff going on in it with Missy, especially at the end when the priest dude checks the Doctor's death count, but other than that, it is way too far up its own ass for its own good. Way too convoluted than necessary. Then we have the second part, which makes even less sense. So the monks have been there since the beginning of human history waiting for a time to conquer them? Are they cousins of the Silence? In fact, why couldn't they just be the Silence? This should have been a new Silence plan not some new random group that makes no sense. I did like the Resident Evil-esque scenario in the lab with the new outbreak, but other than that, most of this episode was all over the place. Where was Kate and UNIT in all of this too? The final part was an abolute mess of a narrative with aspects that make little sense, a resolution that seemed too easy, and the Doctor having his eye sight back just renders that whole subplot irrelevant to the previous episodes. I thought this was a "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" three parter when it first aired and I still feel the same even with this viewing. Missy was cool, I guess.

Empress of Mars - Not the most original plot, especially since I was thinking of Tomb of the Cybermen during half of it, but it was still cool to see the Ice Warriors have a personality instead of just being one dimensional. The make up on the queen's mouth area was a bit awkward though. Nevertheless, it wasn't bad and Bill finally got to have a moment that didn't seem forced or face palm inducing.

Eaters of the Light - This one was much better than I recall. I was dreading it and ended up thoroughly enjoying it. There's not too much to really say about it as it was nothing more than a filler episode, but it was a fun filler episode, so that was good.

[Dr Kain]

First off, I forgot to mention that one thing I loved in the Eaters of the Light episode was that Bill finally got to have a truly great moment when she deduced what the Tardis did with the languages. Too bad it was too late to mean anything.

World Enough and Time/The Fall of the Doctor - Aside from the episode previews ruining the whole plot twist with the Cybermen, this is by far the best story of the entire season. It's also the only set of episodes in this season that feels like it belongs in Capaldi's run, which was filled mostly of horror tones and themes. The speed of time changing based upon whatside of the ship they were on was pretty neat, but one of the highlights was getting to see the original Cybermen back. The second was the constant banter between Missy and the Master. I have mixed feelings on their murdering Bill. On one hand, I absolutely hate it because we just had the last few companions die. As such, it was utterly annoying and redundant. On the other hand, having her turned into a Cyberman was pretty damn dark and creative. I loved that we actually got to see a transition of how someone goes from human to Cyberman. Speaking of the Cybermen, they did an outstanding job recreating the original look. Even the biggest Classic DW purists have to give the show a hand of applause in that regard unless they are so hateful inside that they can' bring themselves to do such out of sheer spitefulness.

Twice Upon a Time - A pretty solid adventure overall that is a much better regeneration episode compared to the borefest Matt Smith had. Bradley is terrific as Hartnell's Doctor and I loved the moments when he talks about the Tardis being dusty due to Polly not being around (though, that doesn't say much about her characterization if that is all she is known for) and then the way he was responding to Fake Bill. It was also a nice callback to bring the Dalek back from Capaldi's second adventure though I don't really understand what the point was when there was no resolution to that plot point. Capaldi turns in another superb performance though, making any complaints I have about the narrative moot. His speech at the end was just perfection. Another solid moment was having it show the Christmas when both sides decided to forgo their pointless war and enjoy the day.

In the end, Capaldi started out a bit weak but came out really strong, only to drop the ball in the end. Nevertheless, it was still an improvement over Smith running a touch down for his first season only to fumble the ball the rest of the way. WHen Moffat and gang were on top of it, this era was utterly fantastic. Alternatively, the lows were often very low. Regardless, the top notch horror-filled adventures and Calpadi's wonderful personality really kept this show going. Of course, that is not to dismiss the supporting cast as once Coleman and Capaldi really found their stride, the Doctor and Clara was magnificent together. However, Missy was hands down one of the biggest highlights to Capaldi's run as Gomez was just top notch every time she appeared on screen. Of the four iterations of the Master I have seen (Saxton, Nyssa's dad, and Movie), she is easily the best. It is a shame Nardole did very little as he could have really brought in an exciting dynamic we hadn't seen this show do, but alas, he was wasted. Oh well.

My ranking of Season 10 is as follows:

1. World Enough and Time/The Fall of the Doctor
2. The Return of Dr Mysterio
3. Thin Ice
4. The Eaters of the Light
5. Twice Upon a Time
6. The Pilot
7. Empress of Mars
8. Knock Knock
9. Smile
10. Oxygen
11. Extremis/The Pyramid at the End of the World/The Lie of the Land

My top 10 for Capaldi is most likely this:

1. Face the Raven/Heaven Sent/Hellbent
2. Listen
3. World Enough and Time/The Fall of the Doctor
4. Under the Lake/Before the Flood
5. The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar
6. Mummy on the Orient Express
7. The Girl Who Lived/The Woman Who Died
8. The Last Christmas
9. The Caretaker
10. Time Heist

Let's hope my re-viewing of Whitaker's first season ends up being better than when it first aired last year.

[Benjamin Haines]

Twice Upon a Time - Peter Capaldi's final turn as the Doctor and the last episode written by Steven Moffat in his eight-year, six-season tenure as showrunner & head writer. After the Series 10 finale brought so many long-running character arcs to a crescendo, this episode seems like Moffat scratching the last few items off of his Doctor Who bucket list: having the Twelfth Doctor meet the First Doctor, getting David Bradley to actually play the First Doctor on the show proper, casting Mark Gatiss in a pivotal role, bringing back This is a solid episode that's more about the performances than the plot and it's a fitting sendoff for both Capaldi and Moffat.


My top ten Twelfth Doctor stories:

The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar
World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls
Under the Lake / Before the Flood
Last Christmas
Listen
Heaven Sent / Hell Bent
Mummy on the Orient Express
Extremis
Time Heist
The Zygon Invasion / The Zygon Inversion


Peter Capaldi is definitely my favorite Doctor. I'm sad to see him go but I'm looking forward to starting Jodie Whittaker's debut season.

[Dr Kain]

The Ambassadors of Death - More like Ambassadors of Boredom. This is by far a prime example of a story that has 2, maybe 3, episodes worth of plot and a lot of episodes of just fluff. Most of the first episode is just watching an astronaut on a video screen talk about what he is doing while the peeps at mission control are so lifeless in their concern when things go awry. Thankfully episodes 6 and 7 end the story on a high note, but boy was it sluggish to get there. Another issue I had with the tale is that UNIT looks like a bunch of inept imbeciles, even Stewart. Also, the Doctor is very ADD-esque in the first episode. He's watching a dull news broadcast of the space mission, which has Stewart on the screen, he turns the volume off, then a few minutes later he looks and sees Stewart there and acts as if it is the first time he is seeing him. Huh? He does this again later on for another scene too. There are some cool action sequences, though it would have been better if they actually had some music to go with them to make them feel energetic. The chase scene with Liz was well shot and effective in the emotions it was trying to convey. Regardless, in the long run this one did not win any points from me.

[Dr Kain]

Had a fun Doctor Who day. Well, mostly. We watched the bonus disc from the Capaldi set which was a complete disappointment. Both Tennant and Smith had this great hour long concert that encompassed the music from that Doctor's era and there people in costumes from the various aliens and creatures on the show that would go through the audience and stuff with actors showing up to tell a story or something. For the concert on this disc, not only was it only 38 minutes long, but they only played 4 tracks from the show, all of which were from Season 10 along with it being mostly a Q&A session with Moffat and Mackey. Additionally, it was in this tiny ass concert hall with a small audience, the only costumes were the Cybermen ones, and they never once did anything with the audience. They just stood at the front of the stage and raised out their hands. It was very disappointing and lame. It was the bonus feature I was looking forward to the most on the entire set and it was utter dogshit.

Moving on, we also kicked off Whittaker's first season today with the first disc. I will say, the episodes were slightly improved thanks to not having a commercial break every few minutes.

The Woman Who Fell to Earth - It was on par with Capaldi's very first story, but with a much crappier villain. The Tooth Fairy Man was not even remotely threatening and he was defeated way too easily. The build up at the beginning took a little longer than necessary to get to the Doctor's introduction, as I felt like I was watching an episode of Torchwood rather than Doctor Who. There was some good chemistry between the four companions and watching the grand mother die was actually heart breaking as she gave a fantastic first impression on the show. My favorite scene though is when the Doctor starts building a Sonic Screwdriver from scratch.

The Ghost Monument - A pretty enjoyable adventure even if it does sometimes feel like Planet of the Dead in its execution. The scene when Ryan starts shooting like crazy because he's played Call of Duty was pretty funny, especially when he runs out of ammo and starts running away. Unfortunately, nothing remotely interesting was done with the man running the race as he just got away with what he was doing scott free. I really hope the Doctor actually pays this man a visit in the next season so there can be some payoff to his whol scenario. As is, it just feels like ADD kicked in in the writer's room and they forgot to complete this plot. I'm also not sure how I feel about the Tardis' new look as it seems a bit too busy.

Rosa - Jesus, I'm not sure which is worse, the fact that someone is so racist that he decides to travel thousands of years back in time to try and keep people oppressed, or the fact that this white supermacist villain was absolutely worthless and served no purpose beyond hindering the plot of the episode. The episode was perfectly fine without him, but nope, it had to have a villain in it because reasons. And, just like in the last two episodes, there was no payoff to him being a villain. Thankfully, there is a lot of good in this episode with a great social commentary, especially in our current economy that is full of white supremacists running the goverment. The lady they got to play Rosa Parks was fantastic. Also, I've finally decided what I would do if I ever acquired a time machine. I would go back in time and shoot every racist in the knee cap with a shotgun. Serve those worthless pieces of "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" right! Anyway, the scene of the Doctor writing all over the hotel wall truly felt like something the Doctor would do.

All in all, so far the season is much better than it was the first time, but it still drops the ball in a lot of areas, especially when it comes to the villains. They are the equivalent of wallpaper. Also, little to nothing has been done with the companions, making it hard for me to care about any of them beyond their lament for the death of Ryan's grandma. Whittaker is doing a nice job as the Doctor, but I wish they would let her have fun with the fact that he/she is now a in the form of a woman. Have her make jokes about it. Instead, she is overly serious.

Finally, we finished off the Pertwee's first season today.

Inferno - This one was really good. I still don't feel like it needed to be 7 episodes long, as it started to feel padded towards the end, but for the most part, it was fast paced and the alternate Earth's moments were great. I loved seeing Stewart with an eyepatch, though it was odd seeing him without a mustache. There were a lot of really great chase sequences and some incredible stunt work and camera work. My main complaint is that at one point in the alternate universe the Doctor and gang were trying to hold back the monsters with fire extinguishers, but they are blatantly ignoring all of the extinguers plastered along the walls and acting like trouble is brewing as the one they have is starting to run out. I kept yelling at the screen, "TURN AROUND! THERE ARE 3 FIRE EXTINGUISHERS RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!" The other issue is they never properly explained what the green slime that was mutating people was. Nevertheless, this may be my second favorite story for this very short season.

My rankings for this season are as follows:

1. Spearhead from Space
2. Inferno
3. And the Silurians
4. The Ambassadors of Death

Looking forward to starting Season 2, especially since it brings in the Master.

[Dr Kain]

Knocked out the next three episodes from Whittaker's run tonight. We might actually be done with this before the weekend is up and get to watch the first episode of the new season when it premiers then. Though, I'm not sure I really want to now due to how badly the commercials really disrupted the last season. Anyway...

Arachnids in the UK - This was a dreadfully dull episode. It is nice that we are finally getting some character development on a companion, which instantly makes Yaz the best of the trio, but the rest of the episode was so boring. The spiders aspect should have been cool, but it seemed to go for more cheap jump scares than suspense and tension. Add on top the ridiculously annoying Trump-Lite, who like every villain so far, gets way without any repercussions whatsoever. Gotta love how a rich white boomer can get away with doing anything he wants to even in the Doctor Who universe.

The Tsuranga Conundrum - OH my god, this episode might as well have been a 7 parter with how excessively slow it moves. It was just as boring as Arachnids, but instead of having Yaz's family to keep it somewhat interesting, it has a pregnant man, a dying soldier, and prejudice towards robots. Oh, and a CGI critter that eats metal. Such a joyous episode. Seriously, this episode is so god damn boring and gives Arachnids a run for its money. I'm surprised they didn't pull up some random villain at the last second to get away.

The Demons of Punjab - Oh here we go, FINALLY, the first truly outstanding episode of the season, and hey look, more development for Yaz. That's awesome! Too bad Ryan and Graham hardly do jackshit still. Nevertheless, it's really touching and has a lot of fantastic social commentary. It's a real shame that people let borders define who they are instead of what is best for everyone. The assassins that aren't really assassins were pretty cool, especially in the design department. They are without a doubt the best aliens to appear this season. I also have to praise this episode for its incrdible soundtrack.

In fact, if there is one thing I will say this season has been getting right so far, it has been its music. The new opening theme song is incredible and may be the best iteration of the opening since the one used for Colin Baker's run. Funny how my least favorite Doctors manage to have the best opening themes.

Anyway, so far my opinions of these episodes have remained the same as they were when I initially saw them last year. Arachnids and Tsuranga remained as tedious as ever while Demons was absolutely fantastic. It would be nice if we could finally get a 2 parter though because this season has been severly lacking a good multi-arc story, or even a main plot overall.

[Dr Kain]

Before heading out for our new years party earlier, we had time to squeeze in the next Pertwee adventure.

Terror of the Autons - It was a pretty good set of episodes, but it seemed a tad lackluster for being the introduction to one of the biggest villains of the franchise. Now obviously they probably didn't expect him to become as huge as he did, but I can't help feeling the story could have tightened him up as a threat. I did love the continuity with Spearhead and the overall plot was good. However, there are two more things I need to mention. First, I'm not usually one to really harp on lacking effects with the old show, but boy was the blue screen effects really bad in this one. They also seemed quite excessive. Like did they really need to blue screen the lab background the Master was in while he was making the Autons? Also, was it really neccessary to have the "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" Time Lord that showed up to warn the Doctor about the Master in front of a picture background as well? Was the outside world off limits that day? The other nitpick is that they got rid of Liz off screen. That was pretty lackluster. I hope she comes back because Jo Grant is a poor substitute. I did love it when Stewart told the Doctor he would have to tell her himself that she is unworthy of his time and then the Doctor grew a conscience over it.

[Dr Kain]

Spent the afternoon finishing up Whittaker's first season. Well, at least the main season as I have to wait until the library opens tomorrow before I can grab my requested copy of Resolution.

Kerblam! - This is such a fun episode. It may not be as deep as Demons, but I love that it mocks the joke that is Amazon and how little companies care about actual people as employees. Unfortunately, the resolution to the plot kind of falls apart when it is revealed to have been masterminded a man-child.

The Witchfinders - This one started off quite interesting, but it too dropped the ball in the end as the whole thing collapses when the Witchfinder "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" is turned into a mud monster. Alan Cummings was great as James though I highly doubt he was anywhere near remotely accurate to that dbag. I did love the Doctor complaining about how no one would be questioning her had she remained a man. Too bad we didn't get more of that throughout the entire season.

It Takes You Away - I enjoyed this one a lot more than I did the first time, as it does have some legitimate moments of suspense. I also gotta love the bit when Graham pulls out a sandwhich from his coat and explains why he now carries one around at all times. The fake universe was an enticing concept until it turned into a frog because then all I wanted to hear it say was either "Bud-wei-ser" or "This is the stairway to heaven." The father was a bum though. I get lamenting the death of your wife, but ditching your blind daughter to live in an alternate world. Such bullshit! Oh, but most importantly, why did NO ONE flinch when the Doctor mentioned there was going to be a war with sheep? I want to know more about that story.

The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos - Oh god, Tim Shaw the Tooth Fairy is back. Not only that, but this has got to be hands down the worst season finale in the entire modern run. It was just a basic run of the mill episode that had no ties to anything else that occurred throughout the rest of the season outside of the premier. It didn't feel like a finale at all. I can't say I'm surprised since Chibnall has no idea how to write an ending for jack squatt, but still, a season finale is supposed to feel epic and grandiose. I'm not saying the Earth needs to be in peril, but I should feel like the entire season mattered. However, it didn't. Why not have all of the villains who just got carted away team up? Have the dude who was funding the race from Ghost Monument gather Tim Shaw, the white supremacist dude from Rosa, the mud monsters, and a pissed off relative of the janitor from Kerblam! all to exact vengeance on the Doctor for ruining their lives/plans? That would have been way better than this piitful excuse that had no payoff for the entire season whatsoever. Of course, it also doesn't help that this finale was so rushed. It should have been a 2 parter.

Speaking of which, this season lacked that entirely. It was one of the biggest downfalls to Smith's final season, and it also effected this one. Then again, at least Smith's final season had some sort of continuously plot going on. This might as well just have been deemed The Specials Season 2 with how unrelated everything was.

And then there was the lack of character development for the companions not named Yaz. There were some moments between Graham and Ryan, but nothing remotely deep.

Fortunately, I will say I did enjoy this season a lot more than I did the first time, so that's a plus (the lack of commercials helped). Whittaker did a great job with what she had to work with and I hope they finally figure out what to do with her in the next season. There were a lot of good ideas implanted, but several of them were either poorly executed or just left underdeveloped. Some other things I want to see in the next season include Jack Harkness and Vastra returning (imagine Jenny getting jealous of the Doctor now being a woman), some competent villains that actually have a conclusion to their plots, better development for Graham and Ryan and more development for Yaz, and a finale that feels like the viewer is being rewarded for watching the entire season.

I know I haven't watched Resolution yet (does it count as S11 or S12?), but my rankings for the 10 episodes are as follows:

1. Demons of the Punjab
2. Rosa
3. Kerblam!
4. The Ghost Monument
5. It Takes You Away
6. The Witchfinders
7. The Woman Who Fell to Earth
8. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos
9. Arachnids in the UK
10. The Tsuranga Conundrum

[Dr Kain]

The Mind of Evil - So let me get this straight, UNIT was going to dump a nuclear missile into the ocean to get rid of it? That means the Master was actually the good guy of this story for stealing the missile, saving the environment. No wonder this story is called The Mind of Evil, the good guys are taking orders from evil people. All kidding aside, I did enjoy this one quite a bit. The prison aspect was engrossing as was the embassy stuff in the first half. I adored the scene when the Doctor and Stewart meet the new Chinese ambassador and he and the Doctor chitchat while the dude refuses to give Stewart a second of his time. I'm still not sure what I think about the Master currently though as he seems to be on the same level as a James Bond villain rather than an evil Time Lord. Delgado has a charm, especially when he was smoking a cigar in one scene, but for the most part, I'm not sure I understand how he became one of the show's biggest maniacs. Although, I did love that he kind of won in the end by getting his Tardis working again. BTW, was the evil brain in the machine supposed to be a Dalek? Overall, I enjoyed this one far more than Autons, and while it was well paced, I do think it was an episode too long.

[Dr Kain]

Resolution - This one was pretty solid all around. Chris Chibnall finally wrote an entire episode of Doctor Who that never once dropped the ball. I really loved the way they did the Dalek here, especially once he got his home made armor. The story was engaging and most of all, Ryan finally got some development. I do think he just forgave his dad a little too soon, but meh, whatever. This special moved at super speed, yet, it never once felt like it was moving too quickly as everything was well executed. However, I really feel sorry for Lin because she's going to have to go to jail soon for murdering two cops and a warehouse worker. Sucks to be her. I wonder if they will ever show the Doctor getting her out of trouble. Oh, UNIT being disbanded over budgets was pretty funny, and sad at the same time. I could definitely see something like that happening though. "Oh, well there hasn't been an alien invasion in 5 whole months so that must mean we are safe and sound from now on, time to get rid of UNIT." Lastly, like with Demons, the soundtrack in this one is amazing. The Dalek theme music is so damn good.

Wow, that brings an end to everything from the newer Doctor Who series up to this point. What a journey it has been to revisit the good, the bad, and the ugly of this series. Tennant is still without a doubt my favorite of the five Doctors, with Capaldi in second. Granted, it is still too soon to judge Whittaker, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what this season has to offer on her plate. I really hope they pull a Capaldi and elevate her into her own Doctor rather than just having her re-enact previous versions. Whatever the case may be, that is all and good night. For now.

Oh, as for ranking, I would put this at #2 right under Demons of the Punjab.

[Dr Kain]

The Claws of Axos - This one was quite good. Very fast paced, the aliens were interesting because they didn't just straight up attack Earth, they looked terrifying, the Master was not the man in charge, and we got some plot progression with the Doctor learning why he has been unable to fix the Tardis. I still can't say Jo has done anything to win me over though. The only negatives I have towards the story are in regards to the music getting a little too bombastic in the last few minutes and that we never actually saw the old fart dude get fired.

[Dr Kain]

Spyfall Part 1 - Can't say much due to spoilers, but it was fantastic. A lot of fun and I can't wait for Part 2.

[Dr Kain]

Colony in Space - Ugh, there was so much good to be had in this one, but a lot of it got dragged down in the fluff and uninteresting locations. I really enjoyed the idea of a group of colonists having to fight with a corporation over a planet. I loved that the Master took on the role of being the judge between the two. I also thought having another race of inhabitants was a cool idea. Unfortunately, none of it was executed well. The ancient civilization was said to be in a vast city, yet, all it was was a bunch of caves. How is that a city? If there was a city there, they sure didn't show it to us. This story would have worked at 4 episodes, but not 6. Six was just way too much.

The Daemons - This one was absolutely fantastic. It took gothic horror and merged it perfectly together with science fiction to provide what may be the best Pertwee story to date (well, as of the end of Season 2). It was entertaining, suspensful, Delgado was at the top of his game as the Master, and I loved the demon creatures. If I have anything to complain about it is how idiotic Jo is, so much so that she is one of my least favorite companions that I've seen. Not Adric or Mel bad, but more on the same levels as Turlough, Peri, and Bill.

Overall, despite it's negatives, Season 2 was very enjoyable, but I must admit, I am ready for the Doctor to finally get his Tardis working together so he can travel around time and space even though it means losing Stewart, Benton, and Yeats. My ranking for this season are as follows:

1. The Daemons
2. The Claws of Axos
3. The Mind of Evil
4. Terror of the Autons
5. Colony in Space

[Dr Kain]

Spyfall Part 2 - Just fantastic, absolutely fantastic. I only have one minor nitpick, which I'll mention below in my spoiler part, but I really enjoyed the whole thing. I don't really know what else to add. It was also nice that there didn't seem to be as many audio dropouts as Part 1 had, so that was good.

SPOILERs for both parts:



All in all, a great start to what I hope is an excellent season. If there is anything I do have to pray for it is that there are NO Daleks in this season!

[Dr Kain]

So this was interesting. Apparently BBC America aired The Macra Terror sometime before New Years and my DVR recorded it. As such, we watched it tonight and it was... well weird. No, not that episode itself, I'll get into that in a minute. What I mean is that it was odd watching a Troughton story in color and edited as one long movie, as it were, instead of having it broken up into the four parts it is supposed to be.

The story itself was decent, but the ending was a bit lackluster. It just seemed like the way they defeated the Macra was a bit too anticlimatic as there's an explosion and then a party suddenly going on with everyone celebrating. There was no time to digest the defeat of the Macra. I did like the mind control stuff going on inside of the colony and the thing was well paced.

The animation was rough in some areas such as one when Jamie sticks a key in a key hole, but part of the key is on top of the keyhole rather than in it. Also, Polly had short hair for some reason despite her hair being long in The Moonbase. I guess she could have gotten her hair cut between stories, but I'm pretty sure The Moonbase ended with the Macra claw showing up in the Tardis window, signifying that this story takes place directly after The Moonbase, but I could be wrong. I'm sure someone who is an expect can correct me.

I am saddened that I will never get to see this episode in live action form though as I would really love to see how the Macra were done back then, especially the one that picks Polly up and the ones that chase Jamie in the mine shafts.

Anyway, it is nice to knock another Troughton story off my list.

[Dr Kain]

Taking a break from our Better Call Saul rewatch we started Pertwee's third season today.

Day of the Daleks - Initially I was all like, "Ugh, another Dalek story? And here we were doing so well without them showing up," only to end up watching an absolutely fascinating tale. This was utterly fantastic. It was well plotted, each part flew by so quick we had finished the whole thing without realizing it, and the story itself was top notch. If there is anything I have to complain about it is the Dalek voices were... lacking... A LOT. I don't know, they just sounded weird. Other than that, this might be my second favorite Pertwee story thus far. I loved how the Controller was not down right evil as he was doing what he felt was best for his people. It was a nice change of pace from your typical twirling mustache-esque villain who would have pretended he was being nice to Jo whereas this guy legitimately was concerned with her well being. The best part was the nice plot twist towards the end. Overall, this is easily Doctor Who at its finest!

[Dr Kain]

The Curse of Peladon - Well that was certainly and interesting story. It was clearly made on the cheap, and yet, it was highly entertaining outside of the voice for the penis worm thing. However, I can't believe I'm going to say this, but it needed another episode as it felt too rushed, especially towards the end. King Peladon was kind of annoying though as he is the freaking king but he can't change their traditions? What kind of monarch is he then if he can't update the rules? That seemed very asinine. Another thing I liked were the Ice Warriors not being the villains. Alpha Centari... isn't that the name of the organization that Capaldi's Doctor had pick up the Ice Warriors he encountered? I wonder if the ones featured here are from the same line. Lastly, Jo is FINALLY growing on me in these last two episodes as it feels like the writers are giving her stuff to do beyond, "What's that Doctor?" "Who's that Doctor" "Why is that happening Doctor?" "Eh, what's up doc?"

[Dr Kain]

The Sea Devils - Not bad, but very slow paced. This one most definitely did not need to be 6 episodes long. They should have cut off at least one episode and given it to Peladon. It was nice to see the Master again but my god was the warden dumb as all hell. Also, he pretty much sexually assaulted Jo every time he was around her as he was always grabbing and touching her, yet, Jo never said a word. I did like the insults the Doctor puts towards him. The navy stuff was pretty awesome too and it was pretty badass that a lot of those soldiers were actual soldiers. I'm not exactly sure how the Sea Devils are related to the Silurians as they looked nothing like them though. It was a clever idea nonetheless despite it going into some redundancy from the Silurians story. As I said though, the biggest issue was the pacing. The show could have done just fine without that scene in the fort as it didn't serve any purpose to the story at all. Still, Delgado's performance really sold this one and I loved the sword duel between him and the Doctor.

[sentaison]

Roger Delgado chewing up the scenery is one of the best things about the Pertwee years. And his Master is still my favorite (Though Missy comes in a very close second)

[Dr Kain]