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daibhidcI've said it before, and I'll probably say it again, but the Sunday slot really has done a number on my getting round to writing these. Also Flux hasn't exactly enthused me so far, although I wouldn't say it's been bad. It's just sort of ... there. Nevertheless, here's my halftime score.
The Halloween Apocalypse
Okay, first of all there is precisely zero thematic, plot, or even stylistic reason for this to be set at Halloween. It is arguably less Halloweeny than "The End of Time" is Christmassy. The title, the "trick or treat" line, and the single scene of guisers seem to be born of a vague assumption that a Doctor Who episode broadcast on a holiday is automatically a Holiday Special, and that this gives the date significance all on its own.
Setting that aside, let's look at what I liked. The Doctor and Yazz are great obviously, although I sighed deeply that the Doctor is Keeping Secrets again, and becoming moody as a result. Can we not have an angst-free Doctor just once, who doesn't spend their time not telling their companion what's going on and brooding over Gallifrey being destroyed for the third time this century?
John Bishop was good too, although his introduction was a bit "This is Dan. He's a Good Bloke. Look at Dan doing Good Bloke things."
I liked the reveal that Hacker T. Dog was actually trying to save the humans and resented it, although it seemed a bit contrived that the person the Doctor was pursuing for unrelated (and largely unstated) reasons just happened to be tied to the main plot (but maybe it wasn't a conicidence at all, see below).
And beyond that ... oh, it's a Massive Threat to the Very Nature of the Universe. Yawn. And it ties in to the Timeless Child. Double yawn. It also felt very disjointed, although I eventually realised this was because Chibnell's idea of a six part story is to write six connected stories, "Key to Time" style, and then stick the first few scenes of the latter five in the first episode. This was confirmed when it was followed by a Sontaran story that was only loosely connected to what happened here, or indeed to the cliffhanger, So...
War of the Sontarans
Quite a cliffhanger copout. How did the Doctor, Yaz and Dan get out of that one? We don't know, and neither do they. Never mind that, it's Mary Seacole!
I'm honestly impressed that Chibnall even attempted to work two celebrity historicals (the other being the recurring appearance of Joseph Williamson) into his universe-ending threat, and he seems to have gotten away with it. The idea of the Sontarans taking the Russians' role in the Crimea is bizarre, but the good, Doctor Who kind of bizarre. And it's nice to see a reminder that the Sontarans have time-tech, complete with namecheck to "The Time Warrior".
While the Doctor and Mrs Seacole deal with this, Yazz and Dan get sucked into subplots. Dan finds himself back in Liverpool, because Chibnall has suddenly remembered that modern companions need family ties. So we get his parents, who are hilarious. We also get a nice fake-out; the Sontarans are occupying present-day Earth, and the Lewises are familiar with them. Is this the continuation of the Sontarans having "always been there" in 1855? Nope, it's something that happened in the two days Dan's been away, and they're the ones sending the time-altering Sontarans back.
Yaz, meanwhile, gets the job of continuing the arc-story. Frankly, all this business about Time Itself being the enemy and the Mauri controlling it and so on, left me very much thinking "But what does any of that actually mean?" Anyway, she and Vinder try to stop the Bad Thing from happening, but have no idea how to do so, and then the Bad People show up. And, of course, the Bad People want the Bad Thing to happen, because they're Bad. I'm being sarcastic, but shorn of gobbledegook, that's basically what it came down to.
The characters are all good, even the infuriatingly opaque arc-baddies are fun characters if you just accept them as such, although the general was a bit of a one-note Melchett-type. The increasingly erratic TARDIS is effective: I don't think we've ever seen the TARDIS door just disappear before. I knew the Doctor couldn't leave, but I was expecting the door to open to reveal a police-box-sized interior, which we definitely have.
Obvious nitpick: Mrs Seacole discovers the Sontarans need to recharge regularly, but the one being held prisoner showed no sign of this.
Once, Upon Time
The cliffhanger does get resolved this time. Of course, since the threat is borderline-nonsensical bafflegab, the Doctor can only solve it by spouting more bafflegab, but at least they made an effort.
The main point of this, of course, is the flashbacks, and specifically the Doctor's flashbacks. Dan and Yaz's are mostly just character sketches, reminding us who Diane is and setting up the Weeping Angels for the cliffhanger. Vinder's are possibly going to be more significant later, but for the moment mostly serve to explain how he ended up serving at the butt-end of the end of the universe, and setting up that he has a family for the reveal of who Bel is. The Doctor's explain (to an extent) what the situation is, and her own connection to it.
Perversely, while I am resolutely disinterested in the whole Timeless Child nonsense, I really like the Fugitive Doctor, and it's always good to see more of her. An interesting twist that she was working with Hacker, which maybe explains why our Doctor was after him for information on her past (but how would she know that?) and possibly even why his people were alert to the Flux in the first place. It's almost like Chibnall's worked some of this out!
Unfortunately, the whole thing about the Mauri and Time continues to be "this is a bunch of words which are very meaningful and important because we're told they are". Ultimately, I don't really understand or, to be honest, care what the threat to the universe actually is. Time is at war with Space? Whut?
I do care about individual people suffering concrete threats, like Bel, Diane (and on a similar note, no, having the baddies dissolve a person and saying it's actually millions of people does not actually make it any more horrible), and Claire the Weeping Angel victim from episode 1. Who I assume we'll be seeing again this week...
The Halloween Apocalypse
Okay, first of all there is precisely zero thematic, plot, or even stylistic reason for this to be set at Halloween. It is arguably less Halloweeny than "The End of Time" is Christmassy. The title, the "trick or treat" line, and the single scene of guisers seem to be born of a vague assumption that a Doctor Who episode broadcast on a holiday is automatically a Holiday Special, and that this gives the date significance all on its own.
Setting that aside, let's look at what I liked. The Doctor and Yazz are great obviously, although I sighed deeply that the Doctor is Keeping Secrets again, and becoming moody as a result. Can we not have an angst-free Doctor just once, who doesn't spend their time not telling their companion what's going on and brooding over Gallifrey being destroyed for the third time this century?
John Bishop was good too, although his introduction was a bit "This is Dan. He's a Good Bloke. Look at Dan doing Good Bloke things."
I liked the reveal that Hacker T. Dog was actually trying to save the humans and resented it, although it seemed a bit contrived that the person the Doctor was pursuing for unrelated (and largely unstated) reasons just happened to be tied to the main plot (but maybe it wasn't a conicidence at all, see below).
And beyond that ... oh, it's a Massive Threat to the Very Nature of the Universe. Yawn. And it ties in to the Timeless Child. Double yawn. It also felt very disjointed, although I eventually realised this was because Chibnell's idea of a six part story is to write six connected stories, "Key to Time" style, and then stick the first few scenes of the latter five in the first episode. This was confirmed when it was followed by a Sontaran story that was only loosely connected to what happened here, or indeed to the cliffhanger, So...
War of the Sontarans
Quite a cliffhanger copout. How did the Doctor, Yaz and Dan get out of that one? We don't know, and neither do they. Never mind that, it's Mary Seacole!
I'm honestly impressed that Chibnall even attempted to work two celebrity historicals (the other being the recurring appearance of Joseph Williamson) into his universe-ending threat, and he seems to have gotten away with it. The idea of the Sontarans taking the Russians' role in the Crimea is bizarre, but the good, Doctor Who kind of bizarre. And it's nice to see a reminder that the Sontarans have time-tech, complete with namecheck to "The Time Warrior".
While the Doctor and Mrs Seacole deal with this, Yazz and Dan get sucked into subplots. Dan finds himself back in Liverpool, because Chibnall has suddenly remembered that modern companions need family ties. So we get his parents, who are hilarious. We also get a nice fake-out; the Sontarans are occupying present-day Earth, and the Lewises are familiar with them. Is this the continuation of the Sontarans having "always been there" in 1855? Nope, it's something that happened in the two days Dan's been away, and they're the ones sending the time-altering Sontarans back.
Yaz, meanwhile, gets the job of continuing the arc-story. Frankly, all this business about Time Itself being the enemy and the Mauri controlling it and so on, left me very much thinking "But what does any of that actually mean?" Anyway, she and Vinder try to stop the Bad Thing from happening, but have no idea how to do so, and then the Bad People show up. And, of course, the Bad People want the Bad Thing to happen, because they're Bad. I'm being sarcastic, but shorn of gobbledegook, that's basically what it came down to.
The characters are all good, even the infuriatingly opaque arc-baddies are fun characters if you just accept them as such, although the general was a bit of a one-note Melchett-type. The increasingly erratic TARDIS is effective: I don't think we've ever seen the TARDIS door just disappear before. I knew the Doctor couldn't leave, but I was expecting the door to open to reveal a police-box-sized interior, which we definitely have.
Obvious nitpick: Mrs Seacole discovers the Sontarans need to recharge regularly, but the one being held prisoner showed no sign of this.
Once, Upon Time
The cliffhanger does get resolved this time. Of course, since the threat is borderline-nonsensical bafflegab, the Doctor can only solve it by spouting more bafflegab, but at least they made an effort.
The main point of this, of course, is the flashbacks, and specifically the Doctor's flashbacks. Dan and Yaz's are mostly just character sketches, reminding us who Diane is and setting up the Weeping Angels for the cliffhanger. Vinder's are possibly going to be more significant later, but for the moment mostly serve to explain how he ended up serving at the butt-end of the end of the universe, and setting up that he has a family for the reveal of who Bel is. The Doctor's explain (to an extent) what the situation is, and her own connection to it.
Perversely, while I am resolutely disinterested in the whole Timeless Child nonsense, I really like the Fugitive Doctor, and it's always good to see more of her. An interesting twist that she was working with Hacker, which maybe explains why our Doctor was after him for information on her past (but how would she know that?) and possibly even why his people were alert to the Flux in the first place. It's almost like Chibnall's worked some of this out!
Unfortunately, the whole thing about the Mauri and Time continues to be "this is a bunch of words which are very meaningful and important because we're told they are". Ultimately, I don't really understand or, to be honest, care what the threat to the universe actually is. Time is at war with Space? Whut?
I do care about individual people suffering concrete threats, like Bel, Diane (and on a similar note, no, having the baddies dissolve a person and saying it's actually millions of people does not actually make it any more horrible), and Claire the Weeping Angel victim from episode 1. Who I assume we'll be seeing again this week...
no subject
Date: 2021-11-19 02:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-19 11:11 am (UTC)That's something I'd probably have remembered if I were writing these in a timely fashion.