I will miss Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor terribly but I liked this a lot! (Mostly) And I had a wonderful time livetweeting it along with other Who fans and watching everyone freak out in real time when the Big Cameos happened.
Some lists to summarize my thoughts, huge spoilers ahead obviously:
PROS
Sacha Dhawan is the absolute HIGHLIGHT of this episode, he deserves to go down as one of the best if not THE best Master in the show’s history.
The long LONG list of returning faces whose presence on set somehow did not leak to the media! Wow! Off the top of my head…. David Bradley, Sylvester McCoy, Peter Davidson, Colin Baker, a suspiciously un-aged Paul McGann, Katy Manning, Bonnie Langford, William Russell (I actually didn’t know he was still alive!) and Jo Martin!
What they did with the returning companions was wonderful! Better than I expected even! Both Ace and Tegan got to say goodbye to “their” Doctors, Ace got to smash up a Dalek with a baseball bat, just fabulous.
The callbacks! I never thought I’d see the day when Adric was mentioned by name in a modern-day Doctor Who episode.
Neither Dan or Kate died! Over the past few days Twitter has been insistent one of them would, but nope!
Both Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill really got to show off their acting chops here, especially in that last scene. I’m gonna miss Yaz terribly too… Unless she can return alongside the next, next Doctor maybe?
CONS
There was one very significant person absent from this episode: Ryan! He was mentioned but he should have been there, why wasn’t he?
On a similar note I feel like Freema Agyeman as Martha really ought to have been present in the final Companions scene too. I guess she’s the sole representative from her era whose character can convincingly return and who isn’t a sex offender, sigh.
I’m kind of bummed this episode didn’t even mention the Tegan/Nyssa romantic relationship that Russell T Davies established, although I suppose it didn’t de-canonise it either.
This episode definitely HAD a plot but for the life of me I couldn’t tell you exactly what it was. Still, who needs one in an episode like this?
This is my biggest complaint actually: there wasn’t a Doctor/Yaz kiss. I really, really thought there was going to be one. It would have made perfect sense. Some lovely things happened between them (see above image) but without a kiss the story just seems so unfinished somehow.
Oh wait, another Pro! Afterwards there was a trailer for the upcoming special and we finally got our first look at Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor.
An Unearthly Child // The Power of the Daleks // Spearhead from Space // Castrovalva // The Chimes of Midnight // Rose // Journey’s End // An Adventure in Space and Time // Series 13 filming // Twice Upon A Time // Deep Breath // Season 1, Series 4, 5, 12 opening titles // Heaven Sent // The Time of the Doctor // The Eleventh Hour // Twice Upon a Time // The End of Time, Pt. 1 // The Timeless Children // Fugitive of the Judoon // The TV Movie // An Unearthly Child // The Mysterious Planet // Smile // Planet of the Ood// Deep Breath// Season 1 // Eighth Doctor comic // Heaven Sent
Text from Chapter 3: Philosophical Conundrums, in The Outer Limits of Reason by Noson S. Yanofsky, 2013
Love the title, love Jodie, don’t love that the marketing team have so little time left to hype this up. Less than a month!
But look! There’s Ashad AND Vinder! I wasn’t expecting those guys! I keep hearing that some other past companions might pop up so I’m keeping my fingers extremely crossed for a Martha appearance. Or Amy. Or Rory. Or Bill! Any of my faves!
Here’s another exclusive first-look image from The Power Of The Doctor – this time showing @sophie_aldred as Ace in her iconic jacket… Read the full feature in the new issue of SFX, on sale from 5 October!
No but ya’ll “The Power of the Doctor” is calling back that conversation in Flux with Tecteun! When the Doctor asks “How much power do you imagine I have?” And Tecteun says “You inspire. Make people question and rise up. You give them hope.”
It ties together a big theme of 13’s run pretty well!
Mirra Harris, an ambassador for LGBTQ+ young people’s charity Just Like Us, writes for PinkNews about how Doctor Who changed their life as a queer kid. My parents always love to tell people the story of the night the ‘reboot’ of Doctor Who aired in 2005. I was three-years-old and sat mesmerised in front of…
