New Year, New Who
I just watched yesterday's Doctor Who special. (Since I had to work yesterday and didn't have the chance to see it then. Sigh.)
And, hey, I really enjoyed that! Really, properly enjoyed it without any real reservations or caveats, which makes it for sure my favorite of Thirteen's run so far. Interestingly enough, in fact, it turns out that the two things I might have complained just a little bit about sort of cancel each other out in the end, in a nifty sort of way.
The first of those is that the character stuff with Ryan and his dad slows the episode down, perhaps a bit too much. And while there's nothing wrong with those scenes, and while I do like getting development on Ryan's relationships (not to mention any opportunity for Bradley Walsh's heart-melting facial expressions), they really don't feel like they add a whole lot, and the things Ryan's dad has to say to him feel a bit, well... generic.
The second is that we get what seems like yet another "And then the bad guy just gets immediately defeated somehow" ending, complete with a dumb plot device. In fact, we sort of get two of them in a row, one with the dumb plot device of the microwave, one with the out-of-nowhere plot device of... whatever it was the Doctor was doing at the end there. But that scene of Ryan having to reach out to his dad, literally and metaphorically, to save him really kind of justified all of it. Oh, maybe it's a bit cheesy, maybe it's a bit obvious, but it worked for me, anyway, and that's good enough for me. So, yay!
And I was really excited to see this Doctor face off against the Daleks, and I was not disappointed. Oh, maybe it didn't give me quite everything I was hoping for. I still want to see Whittaker's Doctor let loose and get truly angry, and we still haven't had that, but all the various ways in which she played off of the Dalek were great, and I think a lot of those scenes showcase her at her most Doctorish.
I liked the Dalek, too. Its built-from-remnants-and-spare-parts casing was a nice combination of the shabby and the still-intimidating, and it felt quite properly threatening to me, too.
I also like the guest characters. Ryan's dad might have been a bit generic, but the actor did a perfectly good job with him. And the archeologists were great. Well-acted, cute, and likeable, with great chemistry between them.
There's some good moments of humor, too. The Doctor sending Graham for peanut butter was just a delightfully absurd and utterly believable detail, for instance. And I will admit that I laughed like an idiot at the reaction to how utterly monstrous the Dalek is for cutting off everybody's internet on New Year's day. Also amusing to me: the Doctor trying to remember just how long a "rel" is. But I'm kind of a sucker for those deep-cut continuity nods.
Some other random thoughts:
That rainbow scarf got a lot of love in the publicity stills. It's kind of a shame that she only wears it for such a short time at the beginning of the ep. I wonder if we'll be seeing it again?
I sort of wish I hadn't been spoiled for the Dalek by that version of the trailer that gave it away. It would have been one heck of a cool surprise. Although, on the other hand, my inability not to be excited and optimistic about seeing Thirteen deal with Daleks might have helped me go into this one with the right attitude to enjoy it thoroughly, after all the mixed feelings I've had about the just-concluded season.
That Dalek does seem awfully advanced for one of the earliest of them, though, doesn't it? And you'd think that ability to control people like that would have played a bigger part before now. Of course, it does turn out that it's some kind of special Dalek with special abilities, but the Doctor realizes it's controlling Lynn before she realizes what kind of Dalek it is, so that would seem not to account for it. Eh. It's better not to nitpick these things too much, really.
Dads are complicated, or so the Doctor's heard. A possible indication that the Doctor didn't have one? (Well, with seven grandmothers, who needs a dad, right?) Hard to say. Of course, we know the Doctor has been a dad, so you'd think she knows at least something about it.
With all my complaints about how I think the Doctor's niceness knob is turned up just a little too high these days, it's always sort of reassuring, I think, to get some on-screen confirmation that being nicer (in addition to being kind) is actually something she's very deliberately, consciously trying to do (in accordance, no doubt, with the instructions she gave herself right before regenerating). So that bit where she gives the Dalek a chance "because I'm nice" and then turns around and goes, "You all saw that, right? I tried!" pleases me. I also like that, deliberately nicer or not, she's still allowed to be a little cold and snarky to Aaron about his shitty parenting. Because, come on, he deserved it.
So, UNIT have been temporarily suspended due to lack of funding? I find that all to easy to believe these days, but it seems like an odd detail. I wonder if it's in here solely to head off possible complaints that the Doctor really should have called in UNIT, or if Chibnall maybe doesn't like having UNIT around at all and wants to write them out for a while, or what?
Is it just me, or does that scene with the Dalek building its new casing really strongly echo the one of the Doctor building the new sonic screwdriver in "The Woman Who Fell to Earth?" I find myself oddly tickled by that, somehow.
The Doctor's set up an alarm thingy now to let her know if anything weird and alien is going on on Earth. I'm rather charmed by that, too. I mean, aww, we really are her planet these days. It's sweet. But how is that thing not going off all the time?
The fact that we're in Sheffield again seems like a ridiculous coincidence,but I try to remind myself that all those times we were in London again, or even on Earth again were equally as coincidental and better not taken too much notice of.
In conclusion: Wait, just as I'm finally starting to warm up to the new era of Who, it's going to be gone from our screens for how long? SIGH.
This entry was originally posted at https://astrogirl.dreamwidth.org/946906.html. Comment here or there, whichever you like.
And, hey, I really enjoyed that! Really, properly enjoyed it without any real reservations or caveats, which makes it for sure my favorite of Thirteen's run so far. Interestingly enough, in fact, it turns out that the two things I might have complained just a little bit about sort of cancel each other out in the end, in a nifty sort of way.
The first of those is that the character stuff with Ryan and his dad slows the episode down, perhaps a bit too much. And while there's nothing wrong with those scenes, and while I do like getting development on Ryan's relationships (not to mention any opportunity for Bradley Walsh's heart-melting facial expressions), they really don't feel like they add a whole lot, and the things Ryan's dad has to say to him feel a bit, well... generic.
The second is that we get what seems like yet another "And then the bad guy just gets immediately defeated somehow" ending, complete with a dumb plot device. In fact, we sort of get two of them in a row, one with the dumb plot device of the microwave, one with the out-of-nowhere plot device of... whatever it was the Doctor was doing at the end there. But that scene of Ryan having to reach out to his dad, literally and metaphorically, to save him really kind of justified all of it. Oh, maybe it's a bit cheesy, maybe it's a bit obvious, but it worked for me, anyway, and that's good enough for me. So, yay!
And I was really excited to see this Doctor face off against the Daleks, and I was not disappointed. Oh, maybe it didn't give me quite everything I was hoping for. I still want to see Whittaker's Doctor let loose and get truly angry, and we still haven't had that, but all the various ways in which she played off of the Dalek were great, and I think a lot of those scenes showcase her at her most Doctorish.
I liked the Dalek, too. Its built-from-remnants-and-spare-parts casing was a nice combination of the shabby and the still-intimidating, and it felt quite properly threatening to me, too.
I also like the guest characters. Ryan's dad might have been a bit generic, but the actor did a perfectly good job with him. And the archeologists were great. Well-acted, cute, and likeable, with great chemistry between them.
There's some good moments of humor, too. The Doctor sending Graham for peanut butter was just a delightfully absurd and utterly believable detail, for instance. And I will admit that I laughed like an idiot at the reaction to how utterly monstrous the Dalek is for cutting off everybody's internet on New Year's day. Also amusing to me: the Doctor trying to remember just how long a "rel" is. But I'm kind of a sucker for those deep-cut continuity nods.
Some other random thoughts:
That rainbow scarf got a lot of love in the publicity stills. It's kind of a shame that she only wears it for such a short time at the beginning of the ep. I wonder if we'll be seeing it again?
I sort of wish I hadn't been spoiled for the Dalek by that version of the trailer that gave it away. It would have been one heck of a cool surprise. Although, on the other hand, my inability not to be excited and optimistic about seeing Thirteen deal with Daleks might have helped me go into this one with the right attitude to enjoy it thoroughly, after all the mixed feelings I've had about the just-concluded season.
That Dalek does seem awfully advanced for one of the earliest of them, though, doesn't it? And you'd think that ability to control people like that would have played a bigger part before now. Of course, it does turn out that it's some kind of special Dalek with special abilities, but the Doctor realizes it's controlling Lynn before she realizes what kind of Dalek it is, so that would seem not to account for it. Eh. It's better not to nitpick these things too much, really.
Dads are complicated, or so the Doctor's heard. A possible indication that the Doctor didn't have one? (Well, with seven grandmothers, who needs a dad, right?) Hard to say. Of course, we know the Doctor has been a dad, so you'd think she knows at least something about it.
With all my complaints about how I think the Doctor's niceness knob is turned up just a little too high these days, it's always sort of reassuring, I think, to get some on-screen confirmation that being nicer (in addition to being kind) is actually something she's very deliberately, consciously trying to do (in accordance, no doubt, with the instructions she gave herself right before regenerating). So that bit where she gives the Dalek a chance "because I'm nice" and then turns around and goes, "You all saw that, right? I tried!" pleases me. I also like that, deliberately nicer or not, she's still allowed to be a little cold and snarky to Aaron about his shitty parenting. Because, come on, he deserved it.
So, UNIT have been temporarily suspended due to lack of funding? I find that all to easy to believe these days, but it seems like an odd detail. I wonder if it's in here solely to head off possible complaints that the Doctor really should have called in UNIT, or if Chibnall maybe doesn't like having UNIT around at all and wants to write them out for a while, or what?
Is it just me, or does that scene with the Dalek building its new casing really strongly echo the one of the Doctor building the new sonic screwdriver in "The Woman Who Fell to Earth?" I find myself oddly tickled by that, somehow.
The Doctor's set up an alarm thingy now to let her know if anything weird and alien is going on on Earth. I'm rather charmed by that, too. I mean, aww, we really are her planet these days. It's sweet. But how is that thing not going off all the time?
The fact that we're in Sheffield again seems like a ridiculous coincidence,but I try to remind myself that all those times we were in London again, or even on Earth again were equally as coincidental and better not taken too much notice of.
In conclusion: Wait, just as I'm finally starting to warm up to the new era of Who, it's going to be gone from our screens for how long? SIGH.
This entry was originally posted at https://astrogirl.dreamwidth.org/946906.html. Comment here or there, whichever you like.