Everyone* seems to have liked this a lot more than I did. Marmalade Sparrow, in particular, who hasn't rated Chibnall Who at all, said she thought it surprisingly decent.

It was definitely a strong underlying idea. It managed to make the story feel like an "Event" (necessary for a New Year episode), while at the same time making a virtue of a ( Read more... )

It was fun. Spoilers follow.

Given I thought the New Year episode, Revolution of the Daleks, was only fine and "passes the time well enough", this was a definite step up. It was fun, exciting and reasonably well-paced albeit rushed towards the end.

All that said, I thought the two standalone episodes, War of the Sontarans and Village of the Angels ( Read more... )

It was fine.

( More under the cut )

Tame Layman vetoed The Faceless Ones when we did the Randomiser for reasons that remain obscure to me. I had vaguely planned to revisit the question once we got to the end but by that point the animation had been announced so it seemed better to wait.

I had mentally class The Faceless Ones as a "weird early Troughton" which placed it in the same ( Read more... )

I didn't like it.

( More under the Cut )

The Haunting of Villa Diodati seems to have received a hugely positive reception in my corner of fandom which makes me feel extra curmudgeonly right now. It's not that I disliked it, but I'd rate several stories this series higher than this.

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I've felt strangely reluctant to write about Can you Hear Me? not because I particularly disliked the episode but parts of its themes seem so big, and the reaction to them online so divided and largely beyond my experience, it feels like walking into a minefield and I don't want to get hurt or, more importantly, given mental health was so central ( Read more... )

This was probably my favourite story of the series so far. Like Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror it forms a good solid mid-season story. It didn't deliver the fannish highs of Fugitive of the Judoon or Spyfall but its story had, I don't know, a better shape to it and felt more like a thing in its own right and less like a delivery mechanism for an ( Read more... )

When I reviewed Spyfall I said I had enjoyed it very much but wasn't convinced the story I enjoyed was actually the one transmitted. There was lots about Fugitive of the Judoon that I enjoyed but I'm not sure I'd even describe the scaffolding it hung off as a story - I mean yes, there was a beginning, a middle and an end but the beats didn't ( Read more... )

The Teenager really like Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror, certainly far more than any other thirteenth Doctor episode. I'm not sure I entirely share her enthusiasm. In many ways the most notable thing about the episode is that it doesn't really get anything wrong. It doesn't deliver the high of Spyfall but there's also a lot less to criticise.

( Spoilers )