I do Not Like the whole “bi-regeneration” concept. It smacks of someone behind the scenes going “Well, if the new guy doesn’t work out we can just revert to David Tennant again, right?” It was such a cop-out. What happened to “everything has its time and everything dies”, Russell?
(I liked many other things in the episode, loved the Doctor calling Rose his niece, loved the mention of my forever fave Amy Pond, but… I’m so disappointed by the bi-regeneration that it completely soured the rest of the episode for me really. :/)
For the past couple days the official Doctor Who social media accounts have been insisting that something HUGE!! is going to happen this week, and I kinda wrote them off (Orphan 55 was hyped up as something HUGE!! too I think) but then I saw this tweet:
One of the big things happening this week on Doctor Who is a revisit to a very familiar character…
So, uh. IS IT AMY. Amy returning to the show (with Rory in tow) would make my year. It’s probably not Amy, I’m getting my hopes up. Karen Gillan’s off in Hollywood being famous. That photo might not even be real. PLEASE BE AMY.
Okay Doctor Who was on the whole great but I still don’t understand about Bill. Or [minor spoiler reacted] for that matter. I think I get it but someone smart is gonna have to explain it to me.
No but spoiler alert, there’s literally a role in the finale named “The Woman”!!! Is it a version of the same character from The End of Time!? {x} I don’t think it’s the same actress but it appears they have a similar look. So idk
I’ve been assuming since the cast list that “the woman” is the Doctor’s mother.
How many references to past companions have we had this series? Definitely more than usual, to my delight. We got a reference to Sarah Jane in Under The Lake, a reference to Rose and Martha and Amy in Before The Flood, a flashback to Donna in The Girl Who Died, and a reference to Jack in The Woman Who Lived. (We’ve nearly got the whole set of RTD companions!)
Did I miss any? I thought I might make a gifset of them once the series is over…
We can add Harry Sullivan and the Brig to the list now…
It was tone-deaf. It was the most tone-deaf I’ve ever seen a modern-day Who be. I am hoping against all odds that next episode will reverse the problematic aspects of it (according to IMDB Jaye Griffiths is back for that one, so maybe that episode didn’t kill off the only recurring black character after all; here’s hoping) so…we’ll see, but-
The word I keep coming back to is irresponsible. In a climate where the tabloids are screaming headlines like SEND IN ARMY TO HALT MIGRANT INVASION and IMMIGRANTS BRING MORE CRIME and THE ‘SWARM’ ON OUR STREETS, it is a terrible goddamn idea to do a story where a bunch of alien ‘immigrants’ decide to take over and kill all humans. Especially since, though we’re told the Zygons on Earth are mostly peaceful and decent, we don’t actually see those ones, just the evil ISIS-imagery ones. (Not counting Osgood for now, since she’s a ‘hybrid’). Even the ones who seem good and innocent – the family members at the church who the soldiers can’t shoot – are of course evil. Which is a trope I absolutely loathe, even when it’s done in a totally obvious and rather hamfisted way like it was here.
Annnnnnd finally the Zygons who had Clara replaced, in what was probably the creepiest scene in the episode, were all played by Indian actors. A little bit of not actively indulging in unfortunate implications would have helped, show.
Eh, that’s it really. Just a ton of unfortunate implications all over the place. I know this is a fairly cursory reading of a story that isn’t even done yet, but I really am majorly disappointed at the moment.
I’m really super pissed off about Jac dying, though (assuming she really is dead I guess). I thought she was cool and would be a recurring character, but nope, cannon fodder. I get crosser and crosser the more I think about this episode, to be honest. Maybe I’ll write something up properly tomorrow…
