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.
I think I, like…. most other fans? was watching this to see where the Thasmin relationship went rather than anything to do with the Sea Devils themselves. Sorry Sea Devils.
I really liked that the sad Yaz/Doctor conversation about how they could never really be together took place on a beach, a pretty obvious nod to that other time the Doctor and their companion stood on a beach and talked about how they could never really be together, that was a great touch. Oh hey and River got a mention! It does bug me a little that Yaz never goes, “oh, you say you can’t be with me but you had a wife before? What’s with that?” because you’d think she would.
Anyway yes! Some other things happened in this episode! I saw LOTS of people complaining about the CGI and editing and I agree with them but I also wonder if Covid restrictions played a part in that, in which case I can’t really blame anyone. And it was completely delightful to see Madame Ching as a Doctor Who historical celebrity, pirates are great and female pirates are even better.
All that being said the Next Time trailer is the only thing anyone’s talking about right now! Have a look and you’ll see why!
This is I think the only time I’ve ever seen a sapphic ship happen because the fans were gunning for it, and happen with so little drama to boot. I’m grateful but dang, mind BLOWN.
Okay, so I was left a bit jaded by Flux, I really didn’t like it at all that much in retrospect, but I DID like Eve of the Daleks A LOT MORE. Just a nice simple (by Who standards) story about the romance between two complete weirdos, complete with Daleks. Actually this might be the best use of the Daleks for ages, they were way more engaging in this story than they usually are.
And, oh my god, they made Thasmin canon?!?! And did it really well?!?!
An interesting mishmash of the RTD and Chibnall eras! I appreciated the shout-outs to Rose (man, who would have thought we’d still be getting those in the year 2021?) and to Gwen Cooper. Oh and seeing some of the old rogues gallery was fun as well. Wonder what that one Weeping Angel in particular did to get itself thrown in prison? Maybe it’s the one that turned into the Statue of Liberty.
Jack was really the highlight of this episode for me at least, I assume based on his lack of a real goodbye to the Doctor that he’ll be back? I hope so. I loved the scene between him and Yaz. Guess Thasmin (or whatever it’s called, I quite like Yazteen) might really happen after all?
Hooray, Graham didn’t die! I’ve been expecting him to do so for a very long time but he didn’t! He and Ryan left in the best way they could’ve done really. I never really thought Ryan enjoyed the space adventures that much, why would he, one of ’em killed his gran. Oooh it was good to see Grace again too, even if just for a few seconds. A nice way to bring everything round full circle.
Oh and now there’s about to be another companion on board!
I appreciate that this episode got political but I don’t think they pushed it anywhere near hard enough. The concept of government-sanctioned security Daleks killing protestors, that’s huge, enough for a whole series of its own. And what with Robinson and PM Jo representing the worst parts of the American and British political systems respectively… I dunno, I just thought there’d be more. Don’t forget, the Daleks were straight-up stand-ins for Nazis originally.
